More pictures from our trip

Grace's baptism, Halloween and the Biltmore

I have to post more pictures later. The computer keeps stopping me.

























So I have been horrible at keeping up with my blog. We went down to South Carolina at the end of October for Grace's baptism. We stopped in DC on the way down and did baptisms at the DC temple. Grace's baptism was beautiful and we were happy that we were able to be there. We decided to stay for Halloween and we even dressed up. It has been a long time since we have been able to go trick or treating so that was a blast. We were able to stop at the Biltmore house in North Carolina on the way home. Keith has been wanting to go there for a long time. They use this house in the movie Private Eyes with Tim Conway and Don Knots. The house is huge and beautiful. We were able to go up on the roof. I am afraid of heights so I was always close to a wall. We had a wonderful time and can't wait to visit Jessica and Lance again.

Scary night at the Murphy home

Friday, September 23 was Kiley's 19th birthday. Before we went out for dinner we went looking for a new cae because this 1995 blazer was ready to go to car heaven. We were home by 10:15pm and all of us in bed by 11pm. Around 2am I heard a noise that sounded like a bear knocking over my garbage can, (I always think the noises in the night are bears) and I saw a flickering light. Well I just wanted to go to sleep so a little later I hear it again and luckily Keith heard the noise and saw the light. He looked out our blinds and jumped out of bed saying that the car was on fire. He goes outside and moves his truck which is parked right next to our flaming car and gets the hose and is trying to put out the fire. I call 911 and by this time the kids our up. You know how on TV 911 stays on the phone with you until help arrives, well this guy didn't, maybe it's only if there is a life threatening problem. Oh well. The fire company arrives, most of them miss our driveway because well, we live in the woods. The first responder and Keith get the fire out. It takes 3 people to hold a fire hose. This all ends around 3:15 am on
Saturday morning. Kiley's birthday went out with a bang! I just have to say that I was amazed that Keith could get out of bed so fast from a dead sleep. Trust me I don't think that will ever happen again, he cherishes his sleep. I am so grateful that it had been raining out earlier in the day and that it started to rain again. The trees above our car have black leaves. It also gave me peace of mind to know that the fire would not start back up again. Earlier in the night we had gone to the mall and I was tired so I was sitting in our car and texting Keith that we should call the dealer in the morning and stop the process of getting another car and just fix this one up. When the fire was out he was joking around saying that he didn't think I would go that far to get a new car. HaHa Well now there is no choice, we had to get a new car. Everyone is asking how the fire started. I don't know if we will ever know but some of our mechanic friends think it was in the wiring or maybe an animal chewed the wires. We are grateful we weren't in the car when it happened because 2 of our doors wouldn't open. Keith's trombone was in the back of the car and so was my serger. The trombone made it, only the case was melted. My serger wasn't so lucky, it melted and is stuck to the car. We feel very blessed that we are safe and that it did not spread to the house or the surrounding woods.

Plan B

I have not been able to get to my weight watchers meetings so I cancelled my membership. I wasn't following the plan anyway. I am planning on making better food choices and exercising more. Of course the big bowl of homemade carmel corn is not helping with my food choices. I love to walk but the bears that are in my neighborhood make me wary of leaving my yard. So I finally purchased a wii fit. I LOVE it! You do not realize how hard you are working because of the fun games you are playing. I have to admit I really like the hula hoop game. I am sure that I look very silly wiggling my hips but Danny has the higher score so now the competition is on. I am hoping to also get a curves membership but for now this will help a lot more than what I was doing which was just thinking about exercising.

Guess who came to dinner?

So I was talking to my friend Ann on Monday evening. I happen to glance out my downstairs door window and I see a big black thing carrying a big white thing. For a moment I think that it is carrying a goat but there are not any around here then I think that it might be our white cat, but the white thing was too big for that and then I realize that it was our garbage bag. Now this is all flashing through my mind really quick and the next thing I do is shut the door all the way because the kids(including the husband) never shut it all the way and I am thinking if this bear even comes close to the door and leans on it, he will be in the house. Next I scramble to find my camera and snap some pictures through dirty windows. I might have to clean them so I can get better pictures. I was a little shaky because I am afraid of bears when they are this close. I do think he is pretty and I didn't mind using the zoom when he was out back and I was on the deck close to my open door. Anyway, the kids were not thrilled with how much he ate. I think he tore through about 6 bags of garbage. By the time I saw him he had already eaten a ton. I did make the kids some cookies for cleaning up the mess. He did come back around 1am this morning looking for more but lucky for us garbage pick up was Tuesday afternoon. I am going to have to spray some ammonia on the garbage I hear that keeps them away. Enjoy the pictures.