G.M., I didn't know her....only knew of her in terms of her being a relatively new firefighter with one of our county's fire departments (East Side VFD or Lake Murray VFD, I don't remember which one she had recently joined) and fighting her first house fire earlier on the day she died. You know how it is here....you may not know someone but you know people who know them, etc. House fires are few and far between, and one of our newer firefighters was also fighting his first housefire that same day, even though he's belonged to our department for many months now. I wasn't even there....I was home vacuuming and mopping floors because my sister-in-law was due to arrive from Pennsylania in just a couple of hours, although I had gone to the fire station and loaded up the firetrucks with drinks for the guys to take with them, and then spoke with several other Fire Rehab people by phone to make sure they had enough drinks, ice, coolers, etc. before I returned to my housecleaning. It was a pretty bad house fire that Sunday and they even cancelled church services at a church across the road and sent those folks home because of heavy smoke in the area and the risk of smoke inhalation. It was just a bad day. You don't give up....you pick your battles and something told you this year that it wasn't worth the fight. I understand that. With me, it is the severe drought periods that make me give up because there is just a point where you have to stop pouring water on the hard clay ground because it just runs off. I think it was luck for me this year, and being stubborn and refusing to give up, too. I do believe the fall harvest ends this weekend, because temps around 36 are now forecast for us on Mon. or Tues. night, and that's assuming Sun. night doesn't go that low. I've been watching the NWS, KXII, Weather Underground and Accu-Weather and trying to make sense of the various forecasts, and I've decided we probably are going to have our first freeze between Sunday and Tuesday. I've done the whole 'stripping the plants' of the 'final harvest' 4 or 5 different times already this fall when cool temps threatened, but I'll do it again Sat. or Sun. The coldest we've been here in our low-lying microclimate so far this fall has been 35 degrees and we had patchy frost and minor damage to the pepper and tomato plants, although the plants themselves did survive. I'm ready for it to end, though, because the holidays are almost here and I need to get busy with that. Our water bill was outrageous too during the dry spells, but here in Love County the rain rolled around just often enough to give me up and keep me going. If rain hadn't returned in September, though, I would have just quit watering because we couldn't handle another high water bill. When Tim and I drive by the long-ago-abandoned gardens in our area that haven't produced anything since roughly late July at the best, we are just amazed at the difference in our garden and those because ours still produces. It just goes to show you that if you can manage to water and get through the toughest dry spells of the summer, then you have a good chance at good fall production. I do think Love County consistently had more rain than Carter County this year, and I didn't realize how dry y'all had been until we went to Ardmore one day in August and I looked around as we were driving up I35 and realized y'all were looking really, really dry. Like you, I have plants in containers looking great for this time of year, and all the sunshine (and, LOL, attention to watering them regularly) has played a role in that. I think the cold may get them next week though. The whole breakup was so traumatic. Despite the fact that the former fiancee started dating his best friend, DS tried to be mature and remain friendly with them both (he handled the whole situation better than I would have!) but that didn't work out well either. It was VERY hard for us because Kristine was like a member of our family and we stayed in touch with her via the phone for a while, but it just was too awkward. Our new DIL is a jewel, and I hope this marriage lasts. We love her and her daughter dearly and just feel so blessed to have them as members of our family. I always tell people when unexpected things happen that "I think things work out the way they were meant to work out" even if we don't understand why at the time....so that's how I feel about this whole thing. It worked out the way God meant for it to work out. You have a wonderful weekend too! Dawn

Have a 2013 Ford Escape, Eco Boost (love it), actually love the entire vehicle. Formerly purchased a first year of the Ford Explorer model (was pregnant with DD), lived rurally and have always had labradors. Was a great SUV for loading lots of kids, dogs, luggage, etc. Good for running around town, long drives, or for vacation destinations that didn't require air travel. For OBX & other similar beach locations, 4WD is great since you can take your vehicle onto the beach. Taking small children to the beach takes alot of effort, along with many cumbersome necessities that are easier driven to the beach, than hauled over large dunes wilst walking with the little ones. I do not have the 4WD on my new Escape. Don't currently have the need for off road driving, although I considered continuing with the 4WD option for driving in the snow. Depends on your lifestyle. I've had 2 Explorers, then went with the "mini van". HATED every minute of driving that, and returned to the Escape, purchased the hybrid model which I loved, and is currently driven by my college-aged DD. When DD went off to college, I purchased the Ford Edge, Loved it, but DH hated it and never drove it because there were alot of blind spots. I adjusted to the blind spots, but not DH. It had a big (by today's standards) engine, but I liked the pick-up. I don't like 4 cylinder (the smallest?) engine vehicles since I just feel like they take too long to get from 0-60 mph. FF to January, 2013, and I am back to an Escape. Looked around from October 2012 until January, and nothing else really thrilled me among my options. So, once again I am driving the Ford Escape. I would suggest purchasing the Eco Boost if your budge allows. An absolute pleasure to drive. Haven't calculated the mileage, but I believe it is on par with the Honda CRV (DH vehicle). Seems that all of the new model vehicles offer the computer screen which I thought would be hard for me to get used to, but in reality, it took all of a week to have it down pat. I opted for leather interior (dogs) and remote start (love getting into a warm car when it's cold outside). The model is a bit smaller than the other Escapes I've owned. Less cargo space, etc., but from what I looked at over a few months before deciding on the Escape, the cargo area isn't any smaller than the back of the CRV or other manufacturers' comps. I am completely satisfied. Until I buy my BMW 7 series, I will continue to be a loyal Ford customer, lol. Happy shopping!

That's the lamp I wanted so badly but found a cheaper version at Tuesday Morning. Mine turned out to be more of a gold color rather than silver, but I really like it now. I agree with others, the table is too small; but in the photos when the lamp is lit, I think it goes great with the color of your leather furniture. You need a more substantial table and in a warmer wood. Try putting your finger on the photo and blocking out the table, the lamp looks much better. (Might add that my lamp also looks better when lit).

Until recently, we drove older vehicles. I had a 95 Chrysler Cirrus (bought in 95) and a 02 Mitsubishi Eclipse Spyder (bought in 05). The Chrysler had 107,000 miles on it when sold to 16 year old as her first car. I traded the Spyder in for a 14 Chrysler 300C. Hubby drove his 99 van until the frame rusted out and we replaced with a 12 Ram 1500 PU. My family has always driven older cars. My brother has my dad's 96 Chrysler Sebring convertible and recently ventured into the 2000s by picking up a 03 Jeep Liberty. He drives multiple cars every day (utility purposes), switching between a work van, his personal 00 Dodge van and a 73 Plymouth Gran Fury. He's got a bout 7 cars (never less; you'd understand if you knew our family). My all time favorite car to drive is now in a museum. A 27 Dodge Cabriolet that was in the family for 30+ years. I loved driving it. The heavy duty truck transmission requiring double clutching, the "grabber" brakes that required an oh so gentle touch on the pedal. I miss that car.....Here's a picture of the car being loaded up to take to the museum. The guy's head that you see is the guy who's in charge of the car. We've kept in touch and they haven't modified the car at all. Still looks like this and is driven very frequently. I've been fortunate to have driven cars from every decade starting with the 1920s and I've enjoyed the heck out of each one.