thanksgiving in the mountains

evelyn and floyd drove up to the mountains on wednesday afternoon (with JH in tow, of course) for the annual tree hunt and some terrific r&r time. we enjoyed a terrific turkey day feast with neighbors from all over the cashiers-highlands area. on friday, we set out for the annual tree hunt at a christmas tree farm down the road. these pictures are actually of last year's tree... and that tree had a lot of influence over the hunt this year because the '05 tree was 17 feet tall. as you can see from the pic of floyd, evelyn, and amy in front of the bound tree once we got it in the house, the top of the tree is well out of the picture. also featured is a picture of me hacking away at the trunk so as to fit it into the tree stand. as a result, the 2006 Gibbs' family tree is 1/2 the size... a nice, manageable 8 or so feet tall. E&F will be bringing home their tree (which i hope to post soon) tomorrow and letting the season begin with a bang as we set up for our first christmas at bradley blvd. woo hoo!!

A note from Colorado!

So, while poor Floyd is back home recovering from his hand surgery, Evelyn is enjoying a few days in Colorado with the sisters and the nephews. Garrison, Daniel, and Olice are having a great time playing together... and Jack Greer is pretty happy to just sleep or eat in the background. Aunt Nancy asked Garrison yesterday, "You have a lot of Aunts, don't you?" To which he said, "Where are all the Bees?" I don't know how we resemble ANTS, but apparently, there was an interesting connection with Bees made in his little head. Pictured: Daniel and Olice in the tub, Daniel destroying the choo-choo train track that Garrison had labored so hard to make... and the three big boys posing for a picture.

Hallowent

So, Halloween came and went last night... and i just need to express my disappointment with the trick-or-treaters. We had 2. Two people! I will give kudos to those two little boys for their costumes: one was "Capt. Jack Sparrow" and the other was "Jeff Gordon". But i am still wondering, where are all the trick or treaters? Have we forsaken door-to-door altogether for church events and fall festivals? Come on! There are still some very nice people who love to give out candy... for one, me.

A very happy birthday

Evelyn & Floyd adventures this weekend: It was my birthday on Saturday, so Will let me sleep in, and then woke me up for a fabulous birthday breakfast. I opened a few surprises (gifts and cards from loved ones!) before we hit the road for the day. First we hit up the Sky Top Apple Orchard in Flat Rock, N.C. before jumping over to downtown Hendersonville to enjoy a beer and a snack at the Black Rose Pub... Jim Hargate got to come along for the fun so we grabbed a table on the sidewalk and people watched. Afterward, we drove through the mountains, enjoying the beautiful fall leaf colors and had dinner at the Gibbs!

hurting hand...

Yall please pray for Floyd. He has carpal tunnel pretty bad in his left hand/forearm. I never realized just how painful this can be until he started describing it and i started reading about it. Anyway, he can't see the hand doctor until Tuesday. We are icing, stretching, massaging, and medicating, but he has little relief. We really need your prayers as we are loosing sleep and he is in pain. It's also pretty sad because he cannot play guitar right now... thanks guys!

Marijke & Magda carrying a tune...

Thanks to Aunt Nance, i have recently acquired some family photos from her archives that i am going to frame for a wall gallery. Anyway, this one is really funny to me... Magda playing piano while mom toots on her clarinet on the bench beside her... maybe they can recall what duet they were working on... hee hee hee

What doesn't a Grants Goddess do, exactly?

Some of you people wonder what it is I do... at work that is... Well, i had to provide a presentation at our staff retreat last week. Included in my little powerpoint, was a segment dispelling several myths about my role. Drum role please... here they are:
1. I do not have an oversized federal checkbook in the trunk of my car (see Exhibit A).
2. I have yet to see flying bags of money flowing out of the chimneys of federal agencies... flying monkeys maybe... (Exhibit B)
3. I am not the money honey, but i can "show you the money."

Hopefully this clears up my job description for you guys some.

Our New Four-legged Friend

Jim Hargate, III

Jim Hargate made his debut into the Gibbs family on September 14th, 2006. Sorry it has taken me so long to blog about our dear new family member. He is awesome. Pictured above: Jim in the mountains, Jim & Maggie sleeping, Jim looking through the front door, Jim sleeping on the kitchen floor. We're glad that he's so low key!

Girls' Weekend

My high school girlfriends have a very strict policy to which we adhere: annual girls weekends are not optional. So no matter what is happening, we all make an extra special effort to ensure that we are together, just the girls, at least once a year. This past weekend we all gathered in Charleston at Erin's house for some hard core relaxing, combined with some fun nights out on the town!

some of you may know that my big sister's dear friend is an amazing photographer... and if you didn't already know that, well, consider yourself informed. If you need a photographer in the DC area, she's your gal. She also photographed my little sis' wedding. You can check out her work at www.stacyrichardsonphotography.com if you need to verify that my opinion is indeed a fact. Anyway, my big sis and her two boys were in Maryland visiting her and here is a real cute picture of G-money and Heavy-D.

some of you may know that my big sister's dear friend is an amazing photographer... and if you didn't already know that, well, consider yourself informed. If you need a photographer in the DC area, she's your gal. She also photographed my little sis' wedding. You can check out her work at www.stacyrichardsonphotography.com if you need to verify that my opinion is indeed a fact. Anyway, my big sis and her two boys were in Maryland visiting her and here is a real cute picture of G-money and Heavy-D.

Sufjan Stevens at the Fabulous Fox

Evelyn & Floyd ventured down to Hotlanta last night for a stunning performance by Sufjan Stevens along with My Brightest Diamond. Not having ever experienced The Fabulous Fox was enough to take in alone... but add to that a stage full of musicians (15 to be exact) performing a full orchestration of Sufjan's musical genius. If you haven't checked him out, a couple of songs I haven't heard in a while but am thoroughly enthralled by include "The Lord God Bird" and "The Transfiguration". I know that you non-music loving freaks will think that this sounds incredibly weird, but the Bird song is about the thought-to-be extinct Ivory-billed Woodpecker that was rediscovered in Arkansas. In my job, there are federal agencies that think this warrants about 2 press releases a week for the first two years after the bird has been rediscovered, thereby increasing my knowledge of the subject more than i ever would have desired. However, it is a beautiful song, and the subject matter is obviously humorous to me.

kill those mushrooms!

I haven't posted in a few days as we were in the mountains all weekend with the Gibbs enjoying the Labor Day Weekend. Amy and I enjoyed running around the lake at Camp Merriwood, and we also threw a very successful fundraising dinner for the M.S. Society. It was lots of fun to meet all of the other members of the Cashiers-Highlands community who came out in support. Today Will and Thomas get to kick mushrooms in our yard and clean up our moss lawn. We have recently had a serious influx of mushrooms in the front yard (as in, they are taking over) so it is thrilling that Will and Thomas are winning!!!

A little Clemson Spirit...

Well, even though the mighty Gamecocks were victorious last night, i shelfed my pride and in the spirit of office unity, put on my orange this morning. We are having a pre-party at the office today to celebrate the season. Cheers to College Football!

Lake Weekend

This weekend we ventured down to Lake Murray to enjoy a weekend with friends that I went to High School with at Riverside. Here are just a few pictures of the 2nd annual lake weekend. We enjoyed Boat Rides, Water skiing, Tubing championships (during which Katie & I unseated the reigning champs from last year), eating brownies & burnt cinnamon rolls, playing "Mafia" until the wee hours of the morning, dancing to the Batts' Bose, and just hanging out. It was lots of fun!

tales from bradley blvd

Well i guess we finally jumped the bandwagon and decided to create our own blog too... it's just too much fun to resist. Besides, unless i start to document our lives, i will certainly forget all of our random activities...
This summer Evelyn & Floyd moved in to their first home... a real, live, house we own all by ourselves! No crazy greek landladies, no homeless persons defecating on our stairs, no meanie drug dealers in our basement threatening lawsuits... did we mention that Charleston was fun?
Anyway, we are glad to have a home. Life is rolling right along, and hopefully we can kiss summer goodbye in the next few weeks and welcome autumnwith open arms. We are eagerly anticipating the colorful leaves, the smell of fires burning, a new neice or nephew to make their debut, and hopefully some quiet time spent in the mountains. We'll update soon.