an unexpected day

I don't drive very much these days since i get to work from home. My Jeep's been broken down for a while so on the rare occasion i have to go somewhere i just grab another one of our vehicles.

With the music man out of town and Monkey busy with work and school i found myself needing to rent a car so i could drive down south the other day. The work i do requires us to pass federally mandated testing per state and renewed annually and it was my time to get it done. Monkey was going to drop me off at the rental place after her work when don't ya know it on her way home to get me her car broke down.

Now that her car was down and out for the rest of the day she decided to spend the afternoon with me. We finally made it to the rental car place thanks to there pick up option and drove south. After i took my test we drove over here,



walked the neighborhood and

had lunch at trattoria fantastica and enjoyed the best Caprese salad, the cheese was crazy good.

Before we left we stopped in here and grabbed some fresh raviolis and of course the that yummy cheese to share with the music man at home.

I'm thankful for life's little unexpected turns because this time and like most times it works into an adventure otherwise not taken.

Yes i passed my test, whoohoo!

Gratitude and a new scarf

Hem your blessings with thankfulness so they don't unravel. ~Author Unknown

I swore several years ago i would slow down, keep my priorities and give thanks everyday for my many blessing and for the most part i do pretty good until the last couple of month that is. This summer my work became very busy and i found myself falling into a place i swore I'd never go back to. Thankfully having a crummy back does have its advantages i guess in that it doesn't allow me to spend to much time there.

You know the place where you spend all of your time at work. The place where you find you have no time for anything and when you do find a few minutes of your own your to dang tired and unmotivated to anything. Yep that place. I don't know about you but i find when i lose focus and stop appreciating the little things in my "every days" i tend to see things more negativly. Seeing this quote today was a great reminder and just what i needed. My life is so good and i really have no complaints.

The air is changing and the warm days here have given way to cool nights. I am really enjoying this time as we transition from summer to fall. The creative juices are starting to flow and since i have backed down my working hours a bit i have had time to knit again at the end of the day.

Here are the three way scarf pics i promised a few weeks ago and the out takes.

Love the pattern and it was easy peasy to knit up


not sure waht happened, its not easy taking a pic of yourself haha


Well hello there


I mostly have been wearing it this way and love it, so soft.


and finally... Ta Da

Wishing you a wonderful day!
Hugs
Jen

Harvest 2011

We awoke early last Saturday morning to find a couple big trucks, lots of containers and a few men from Weins Winery at our place ready to harvest this year batch of grapes.

Over the last couple of weeks the grapes have turned dark purple and we've learned about Brix testing. This measures the sugar content and tells the wineries when the grapes are ready to be picked.


They sure knew there stuff and worked like a well oiled machine. The grapes were picked and put into buckets then the man on the quad transported them up to the trucks containers. I got a kick out of the water strapped to the front of the quad with cups. Oh and the other big truck had port a potties on it, this was a totally self contained operation hahaaaaa.






Our property owner is very generous and told us we could have the grapes that were not going to be picked. As you can see the music man is very excited and anxious to start his batch of wine.


Even Monkey stuck around and watched, it was very fascinating. We learned alot and made mental notes for someday in the future when we own our own winery.

We are so thankful to be able to spend our days here in this place. Everyday is amazing, life is SO good!