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!