Random happiness. And a pictureful post. Is "pictureful" a word?

I am totally and completely enjoying this autumn season.  Our days are full..... full of places to be and things to do..... but also full of happiness.  It just so happens that I have PICTURES of things that are making me happy lately.  Some of these are totally random and are in no particular order...... but happy they make me.

So, I present to you:  HAPPINESS.

Mary Powell is going to be Minnie Mouse for the Halloween.  Can you even stand it?  We still gotta get our ears together, but OHMYWORD...... HAPPINESS.....

 We play outside A LOT.  And we LOVE it when the boys get home from school and play outside with us.  USUALLY, they are being the usual pesky big brothers and play "monkey in the middle" with the frisbee.  Guess who the "monkey" is...... Yep.  But she loves it!  On this day, they sat down long enough for Mom to snap a few pictures!  HAPPINESS......

What do you do when the boys get out of school at 11:30 and that is also your lunchtime?  Have a picnic in the back of the car, of course!  HAPPINESS......

Jack Powell continues to do great things on the violin.  He's even preparing for a WEDDING... a first for him!  What makes us most proud, I think, is that Jack so enjoys using his talent to lead in worship.  Recently, the orchestra did a mini-concert...... awesome music!  HAPPINESS......

For my birthday, my people gave me a PICNIC TABLE!  I totally love it!  Mary and I spend MUCH  time outside at our new favorite spot.  In the first picture, she's fussing at Buddy for trying to eat her goldfish.  In the second picture, she's doing her paperwork while I clip coupons.

Mary and I do very important things during the day while the boys are at school and Joe is at work.  This week, our adventures took us to the DOLLAR TREE.  We had a mission:  we are prepping some total cuteness for her upcoming birthday party and had to pick up a few things.  Well, when we came OUT of the Dollar Tree, we noticed a little pumpkin patch across the street.  Since Mary and I do all our running around VERY early in the morning and it didn't open until 10, we didn't actually GO to the pumpkin patch..... but that sure didn't stop us from getting a few cute pictures with the setup they had on the outside!  HAPPINESS......

Max Powell and his Rock Quarry Jaguar football team are having a FANTASTIC season.  This group of boys is SO sweet and are great friends.  See the one on the end of the back row on this side?  #73?  He's a keeper.  We only have a couple more weeks of football left..... I will miss the excitement of the games....but I WILL NOT miss washing those darn white pants.  It really has turned out to be a fun season.  HAPPINESS......

 Seeing Mary's dolls lined up in a row on the bottom bleacher..... HAPPINESS......

Jack reading during the games..... HAPPINESS.....

 A little love from Daddy..... HAPPINESS.....

Halloween gummies when the game gets long.... HAPPINESS.....

 We haven't carved our jack-o-lanterns in Powellville yet, but we got this bad boy out to show Mary what one looked like.   She just stands there and points at it and SQUEALS with delight.  HAPPINESS.....

Max and I have decided that THIS is one of our favorite things about Fall.  The Pumpkin Spice candle.  And when I use my 40% off coupon at the Hobby Lobby to get one, it's HAPPINESS.......

Speaking of coupons...... one of the things I wanted to accomplish this year while I'm not busy teaching school all day is "GET GOOD AT COUPONING"..... Like, I want to be one of those people who gets stuff for NOTHING.  I want the cash register person to say, "Wow!  How did you do that?"  I want to work the deals and WIN.  Well, today was a good day....... see this stuff below?  I got it all for 98 cents.  That's not even a whole DOLLAR.  Nevermind that we don't actually USE any of these products.  Brand loyalty?  Out the window, people.  Cause I got TWO PENNIES back when I handed the woman a ONE DOLLAR BILL for all this stuff.  She didn't mention it, but I think she was impressed.  Working on my CVS deals right after I finish this blog post....  HAPPINESS......

 And, lastly, for now...... SOMEBODY got her OFFICIAL paperwork that she is a United States Citizen!  Mary's Certificate of Citizenship came in the mail today!  Welcome to the country, baby girl..... a country where, even through government shutdowns and bad politics and uncertain futures, we have it WAY better than most folks around the world.  God bless America and its newest paperwork-holding citizen.  HAPPINESS........