A visit long overdue!

It seems like I've seen this picture before...same terra-cotta silk, familiar Bernina sewing machine, same color thread...my shirt just keeps changing color *smile*  

But this time I wasn't in the same place!! (I was far away from my little sewing room at home.) This picture was taken in Virginia in the warm, cozy home of my brother and sister!  Bethany was a bridesmaid and let me say that it is practically impossible to make a dress for your sister without having her in the same room. (well, maybe not, but it worked as a pretty good excuse this time)

 I was going to be there for the whole weekend but we decided to get out 'work' done first. So Friday morning we used every bit of 2 hours for our 'work' and then...DONE! What relief, God was so good and everything went perfectly...I should do a whole post on these dresses! God proved Himself over and over again!!! He is SO faithful!
Note: When designing dresses it helps to have gorgeous (or snazzy *wink*) models to work with. They make your work look good!

Our reward; it was so worth it!

So with our work behind us we set out for some fun and adventure! 

First stop was RiteAid where Bethany worked some of her magic and we walked out of the store with 2 bags of Oreo's -- FREE! YUM! I am convinced that all she has to do is walk up, set her stuff on the counter, smile at the cashier, and then take her stuff away (oh, and she hands them a bunch of coupons; minor detail)

Our next stop was the thrift store in which we found all sorts of fun books and she got the. cutest. pair of shoes. ever.

I can't remember the name of this little shop...but it was so fun! We spent quite a while going through and admiring all the fun things. These scarves just had me captivated! I came around the corner and there was a hallway with two bars just full of bright scarves, no two alike, it was so pretty (Betsy, I totally thought of you)

The day passed by way to fast!  But it was so much fun to just talk, shop, laugh, smile, giggle, share stories and just be together! 

Bethany, thank you! Love you way too much! :)

And this post is proof again how wonderful it is when your brother marries an amazing girl! *smile*

A visit long overdue

It was such a pleasure to be able to spend an evening with my mom's cousin, Jeff, his mother (and Grandma Ann's twin) Aunt Paula, along with Robin and her daughter Seriah (sp?) I can never quite figure out how we are related to Robin...but she is such fun to be with that it doesn't really matter all that much:)

Jeff is the one that first introduced us to Settler's of Catan..or did we first show him?...as you can see I am a little bit fuzzy on the details, but I do know that Jeff loves Settlers and we love to play it with him. Anyway, Robin came into town and we had had such fun with her..I think 5 years ago...that Jeff thought we could teach her how to play Settlers and have fun at the same time. We agreed to give it a try...and I think succeeded pretty well *smile* She caught on very quickly, and there was enough chili and ice cream to go around, that it all worked out quite nicely!

It also gave Aunt Paula a chance to see Grandma.

Grandma wasn't wearing her glasses, otherwise they still look very much alike!

Seriah was a little sweetie! She played happily with puzzles by herself for a while but soon required someone else to entertain her. The only person not playing a game was Stephen, so he was elected for the job. He told me later as I was tucking him in bed "Anna, I really didn't want to play with her...but I did it anyway...because you wanted me to." I love that little kid *smile*

I do not think any of them read my blog, but if you do...Thank you for coming over!

Lake Shetek

Our family reunion this year took us to Lake Shetek in MN. Both my Grandpa and my Grandma (my fathers parents) love to camp, and much prefer the "wilderness" to a regular campsite. Lake Shetek had the perfect spot -- a large group "wilderness" campsite that fit 6 tents quite spaciously. The showers were only a short drive away and cooking water was only a short walk away (they had a real hand pump that took some work to get the water out: )

Setting up camp

This tent has been with our family for over 20 years...and after a quite severe thunder storm it retired with honor...lol The boys had to sleep in the van the rest of the night to avoid floating right out the door (which didn't zip).

Swimming in the nearby lakes gave some a nice tan and others....well, we just won't go there: )

Taking walks...

...and just enjoying being together...

The whole Beasley family

A day at the lake...

..was on of my favorite things that we did! Justin took Alicia, Anna, the other Anna and myself out on the lake for an afternoon of boating and swimming (and a little sun bathing)!

It was so good to see Alicia again!!

What could be better then finishing a day at the lake, with a trip to Applebee's in our swimsuits: )

Thank you Justin & Alicia!

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Alicia's Birthday!

One of the main reasons we went to VA, was to help celabrate Alicia's birthday!!

She got to pick the meal and two cheesecakes, and then sit back and watch us make it! It was so much fun: ) The family came over for dinner and presents!

The next day we celebrated her birthday again with a girls party with chinese food and a fun "chick flick".

Hope you had a very happy birthday!! I so enjoyed being there with you for it! Also, thank you Alicia for all the special memories that we shared that week! You are such a blessing in my life!

Off Again....

I didn't do a lot of unpacking from my last trip because here I am leaving again: )  I am off to 2 weeks of CYIA with Esther and Phillip!!  We would definitely covet your prayers while we are there, as it is a fun, but also stretching experience!  

I really wanted to get more posted about my trip before I left..but that may, or may not happen:)  But I will definitely post when I return! But if you have any extra time on your hands...you could write me a letter!!!!  I really LOVE to get mail while I am there...and packages are wonderful too!

My address will be;

Anna Beasley

c/o Wesleyan Camp

87340 481st Ave

Atkinson, NE 68713

Thank you so much!!!  I look forward to sharing with you!

 

Anna Days: )

We started off our 2 week trip by staying a few days with Anna (Enquist) Nelson!  With 3 three Anna's staying in the same house for 3 days we thought we would have a crazy time keeping each other straight, but it actually wasn't to bad!  We normally knew who the other was trying to talk to: ) 

  

Going to the beach was SO relaxing!  We laid out our towels and soaked in the suns warmth.  It was kind of a chillier day and it "didn't seem like we were getting much hot sun."  But a couple hours later Anna N. and I definitely felt the effects of the suns wonderful warmth!! 

Our couple days together were filled with lots of fun "girly" things!  One of which included makeup. (We probably should have gone to the beach after we did makeup...but "bisque" does marvelous things covering up sunburn!)

Anna N. tried something she had never done before...straightening curly hair like hers is much harder then you might think...but it was done and it gave a very different look then we were used too!  

Thank you so much Anna, for the wonderful conversation, shopping, snacks and movies that we shared together!  I had a wonderful time!!

Home!

I had an amazing trip...and can't wait to post pictures for you all to enjoy it too!

Flying out....

I fly out today...in about 2 hours to go to Virginia!!!  I am looking forward to seeing Anna Nelson (Enquist) Alicia Enquist and DAN!!!  So if my blog is silent...you'll know why: )

Keeping watching...in about 2 weeks I will try to post about the amazing trip!

A day in the country...

Ever since I can remember, going to Uncle Doug's house has been a big, fun occasion!  This year, while planning props for NCHEA Uncle Doug's full barn immediately popped into my head...plus it was a great excuse to go to his house and ride horses!!

Helping get the horses saddled up: )

Gathering things for NCHEA--what fun it was to search thru his barns and sheds for all sorts of different things!

Taking a quick break...

Riding horses!!!!  

Alatheia came out with us to give her expert advice on props!  

Thank you so much Uncle Doug and Aunt Scherry!!!  We love you both!!

Every once and a while Abby, Betsy and I get together and go shopping, out to eat..something like that.  This time however we opted to watch a movie about shopping instead of doing it ourselves!!

"The Confessions of a Shopaholic" had us laughing like crazy together!!  We had the whole theatre to ourselves so we could make as many comments as we liked!!  What fun!!  

The "short and snappy movie review" Betsy put together was excellent.  Except, she did forget to mention that, for those of you who like cool accents...this movie had a great one!!! 

Thank you Betsy and Abby for a very fun evening!!

Side note; if you are hoping that this movie will help to cure your love for shopping...pick a different movie. *smile*

Jimmy John's anyone?

Jimmy John's is the newly discovered favorite resturant, at least for Rachel and I. So when we were found with an hour and 1/2 of time to burn with a Jimmy John's in walking distance...it didn't take very long for us to make up our minds!

~Friends~

Josh had come to church with us that morning and had the afternoon free and wanted to do something, so we decided to grab a couple friends (that were still at church) take a quick trip to Cabela's and than out to a movie! Michal and Emily Hipps had stuck around so they joined the party. The selected movie didn't start for another 2 hours so Josh decided to run some errands and meet us back at the theatre. Much to our dismay he never did make it back to the theatre! (...he missed a good one). And the rest of us decided to wait it out at the near Jimmy John's! It was delicious just as we expected, and they even let us take home the leftover bread...which was sort of an inconvenience, right Rachel?

What crazy people!

Aaron and Rachel came too...providing me with a much needed ride home: )

A pleasant Luncheon

With Alatheia out of town and Amy Parsons coming in, Mrs. Larsen decided to have a little luncheon for Amy. Alatheia was greatly missed but we did manage (it was hard *smile*) to have a fun time without her.
After a delicious lunch the little Grady people went downstairs and soon came back up with a large box of hats! Mrs. Larsen have a great love for fun hats so there was plenty to go around.


Just a few fun pictures;





















After the hats were put away games were got out and a rousing game of Catch Phrase was played.

Trying to make people understand what the word is...can sometimes be difficult!

Thank you Mrs. Larsen for a lovely time!

Rotella's Bakery

Today we had the pleasure of touring Rotella's Bakery. The only one in the nation!

Once we all got our hairnets on we headed into the tour with about 20-25 other homeschoolers.
They wouldn't let us take pictures inside so I will leave that to your imagination. They had HUGE mixing bowls that held 1600 pounds of dough...you should have seen the dough hooks that thing had: ) They went through aprox. 3,000,000,000 pounds of flour in only one week!

Some fun bits of info;

- Rotella's Bakery caters and sells bread to all 50 states, Canada and they send bread to Iraq for all the troops.

-The oven that they used was 110 feet long, 25 feet wide and held about 3000 loaves of bread at one time...not to mention that they had four ovens.

-Their employee's love working there because, not only have they never "let someone go" in the history of the bakery (which started in 1921), but they also have individual air conditioners throughout the summer (it generally reaches 110˚-115˚in the summer).
The reason for that is, that it is way too expensive to air condition the whole building with all the ovens giving off continual heat.

It was a pretty amazing place!!