FROM WITCHES TO ANGELS...

A quick thank you again

 to all of you

 for your very wonderful comments

 and for making it so much fun for me

 to take you

 bETWEEN tHE mOONLIGHT aND tHE mAGIC.

Kai loved

 his first time ever Halloween

 at the Cottage. 

 We had fewer trick or treaters this year,

 about 150,

 and Kai waited at the door

 for all of them 

so he could greet each one...

...and at the end of the night

 he was exhausted

 and had to be practically carried to bed!

Now,

 let's talk about angels...

how do we get from witches to angels,

 you ask?

Well, 

it all started a few long years ago

 with some very bad photography

 and a swimming pool...

When the kids were younger

 we signed them up for swimming lessons

 at the high school.

  Since I only knew how to dog-paddle,

 I decided to sign up also.

 The kids took to the water

 like little rubber duckies

 but Mama, not so much,

 and that's another story

 for another day.

Because they were turning into

 really good swimmers and,

 because all of their friends lived

 in our neighborhood,

 we decided to put in a pool.

 We were always all about 

the kids spending time at our house and,

 over the years a lot of them did, 

and a pool turned out to be

 the perfect solution for that.

Many the nights,

 we went to bed,

 with the sounds of "Marco Polo" 

going through our heads 

along with the smell

 of coconut suntan oil.

Our backyard was more long than wide

 so we couldn't have a diving board,

 but that didn't stop anyone

 from doing cannon balls

 off the edge of the pool.

 It was big enough for a lot of fun!

 At the time of the build

 there were no homes behind us

 and the owners of the empty lot

 gave their permission 

for the heavy equipment to come through.

  We took down our back fence 

and that made an easy job of it.

 It was a task 

that never could be accomplished today.

Over the years

 the pool got a lot of use,

 but time marches on

 and our kids and their friends grew up

 and went their separate ways.

  Tami and Tim got married 

and moved into the house

 when we moved to Gold Country Cottage, 

  and before long 

a new generation

 was on the way.

Jake took swimming lessons

 and his friends came to the house

 and the pool was in use once again

 but,

 as in the past,

 circumstances change.

 Kids grow up and away,

 dealing with their own lives

 and what was once an asset to the family,

 and the property values,

 was fast becoming a liability

 so the decision was made

 to demolish the pool.

  The idea was thrown around 

for many months

 but knowing how much physical work 

it would take to get the job done,

 I think that Tami and I 

were the ones

 who stuck our heads in the sand,

 pretending the idea would just go away.

One afternoon

 we got a phone call from Tim

 telling us that 

Jake and his two best buds

 decided to take the bull by the horns

 and get the job done,

 so that Tim and the Captain

 would not have to do it. 

 Also,

 they figured it would save us money.

  When we heard that,

 we just couldn't imagine

 how lucky we are

 to have these

 wonderful and caring young men

 in our lives.

They emptied out the pool,

 using the water

 to wash their cars and soak the lawns

 and Jake got his hands on a jack hammer

 and, after acquiring the legal permit,

 broke up the concrete.

 There will be a lot of

 gravel and dirt needed

 to fill it in.

  Unfortunately,

 there are houses built up all around now,

 so the boys will be carrying

 many loaded wheelbarrows full

 between the front and back yard,

 before the job is done.

Thank you guys so much. 

 We love and appreciate you

 more than you

 will ever know.

Left, Jonathon   Center, Jake   Right, Parker

Now, 

I suppose, 

the technical term

 to describe these young men

 would be heroes or even super heroes,

 but...

I'm the Grandma

 so angels it is!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I finally finished 

the painting of the Cottage.

 I am so glad that I ordered 

the detailed print

as I think it looks so realistic.

If you will notice,

 because the sun was on the roof,

 it printed out the colors

 as being very light. 

 I didn't even notice that 

when I sent the original in,

 I was just so used to the dark roof.

Original print

I didn't feel

 that it looked right 

so I went over with a darker paint.

  My skills as an artist

 are certainly lacking,

 so I wish I had original colors and numbers

 to pick from,

 but I think 

it looks pretty good.

 It actually went faster that I thought it would.

We had torrential rains yesterday

 but today it is sunny and warm again,

 but we will take all that we can get.

Have a great week...

...Judy...

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