Start of the Holidays

We have the family float entered into the Tifton Christmas parade. The new holiday g-dad tee-shirts have been ordered. Best of all, Eileen with help from Grandaddy, Andrea and Randy, Andrea's brother got cutouts and lights put up.Once again the sled with Santa's list, Rudolf's jail,the little country church and most important of all, the manger scene grace the front lawn. I just hope our new neighbors can stand the lights for the next month.

Anyone have a homemade cookie?

As we enter week three progress is being made. These pictures were taken last week and don't show the tile on the counter top. At least we can run the dishwasher now. What amazes me is how I still manage to not lose any weight. We can't make homemade bread, cookies, pancakes, etc. without a whole lot of moving stuff around so it just isn't worth it. the first thing I will do in my new kitchen is make a huge pan of gooey cinnamon rolls. Did I mention I might have a problem kneading the dough? My new counter top is about three inches higher than the old one. I could go retro fifties and wear high heels with my apron.

Speaking of Pecans

Eileen and I both had the same dream the other night. We dreamed we were digging pecans out of the grass with our toes every time we closed our eyes. This is what happens when you spend all day looking down for the brown nuts in the brown leaf piles.
I have developed a new technique this year to accommodate my advancing years. I call it the "rake and scoot" method. I rake all the leaves/pecans into long rows. Then I sit on my bottom at the beginning of the row and with one hand rake through the leaves while picking out pecans with the other. When I finish the area in front of me I scoot on down the row until I reach the end. I have developed the twirl method for moving my bucket. I simply turn it up on the bottom rim and roll until it advances to where I want it to be. There are a couple of downfalls to my methods. First,is the occasional antpile I happen into. Then there are the bugs whose homes have been disturbed by my raking. There is also the unknown hard objects found while digging through the piles. The biggest problem this year has been Roxie, the compound dog of the moment. She takes my sitting on the ground as an open invitation to come nuzzle my face and sit in my lap. While she is not a very large dog, these actions make it impossible to sort out pecans. If I push her head away she takes that as a sign I want to play a little rougher. Thankfully, she is easily distracted if you throw a stick for her to fetch. She chases and picks up the stick like a pro but has not mastered the art of returning to the thrower. I try to keep sticks with me as I scoot along and hope she will find distraction as she runs happily away from me!

Here we go again!

Eileen asked the question the other day, "Why can't we have a simple remodling project"? The kitchen floor needed to be replaced so they tore up the old one. Lo and behold there was rotted, dampness that meant cabinets had to come out. So we have flu stricken kids and adults in a house where we are washing dishes in the bathroom sink. This was also the week David started his substitute teaching career. Throw in Jed on crutches for six weeks (thank heavens no surgery) and life truly becomes a comedy. Oh, did I mention I need to get a new battery for my camera. Anybody going to Walmart? They don't sell batteries at Lowe's or the hardware store. The ones benefitting from all the madness are the squirrels. They are glad we don't have time to pick up the pecans covering the ground.

Fall Friday

Jen, James and the girls were in town
They were waiting for the fish to be relaeased from the bag
See the goldfish? The cat does
Yeah the pump is working!
Dave gave these to G-dad. Did you ever think to see such a sight?
Perfect end to an insane week. Went to the temple in Orlando.Went to the storehouse in Jacksonville, saw old friends, visited Brenda and Jim. Came home. happy Birthday! thanks Eileen for the alfredo pasta and ice cream cake. Dentist appointments and doctor appointments. The latter for Jed who broke a bone in his ankle doing flips before wrestling practice. Picked up pecans. Cleaned poolhouse. Now lets see if I can post pictures with captions.

Planting flowers

I took a month off to recover from surgery. Exercise is a wonderful thing when you are able to do it. I have been digging holes and hauling rocks from one place to another. The great thing about the water feature we put in at the Barn is where everything came from. The old pump came from the Brookfield house. It used to stand right outside the back porch which also happens to be where Donald proposed to me. The big rocks came from Dave and Eileen's house in North GA. The smaller rocks are ones we hauled back from our Missouri vacation a few years ago. Great memories of that trip. The white mums came from Aunt Alice's and Ally planted them around that tree. Who knew they would spread out to be so pretty. Some of the other mums are from the Wall last year and were donated by Susan. Somewhere in the mix also are remnants of mums from Corey and Nikki's reception. I love it that the G-parents can sit on the porch surrounded by all the reminders of family. We were going to put fish in the little pond but don't know how they would fare with the dog, four cats and assorted wild creatures that show up on occasion.

More Family Photos

I've got to give Vickie credit for these pictures. Thanks for sending them to me so I could share on my blog!!

The Blessing

Today was Meghan's blessing and as usual was followed by a family feast. We went for a scaled down lunch and limited the menu to a variety of salads.

The Basket

Ask any of the children what I am referring to and they will know right away. When Carol and Joe moved, a basket got left behind. Once it arrived at my house it became the perfect place to put the snacks for school lunches,treats after nap, or to kill the munchies till dinner. The babies don't know what it is called but they sure can point and make a sound that clearly indicates what they are wanting. It still has Carol's name on the bottom and she can have it back anytime she comes and gets it. Till then, thanks Aunt Carol!!

Tifton Conference

The last blog is a series of photos from the weekend. I haven't figured out how to caption pics yet so good luck figuring out the people. If I repeated a photo sorry, I lost count of what I was on. Nothing captures the majesty of the day anyway.

Tifton Stake Conference

Yes, you read it right. Pres. Fussell from Douglas, counselors Fields and Sorenson.
Gary Flanders Stake Clerk, Pres. Worthington Exec. Secretary. I don't know the head count but seats were full and at least 100 were counted standing in hallways. Parking was all up and down the road for several blocks. Police gave permission for one lane to be blocked and cars were parked sidewise along that lane. Lots of reorganization to be done. We had family dinner here following. The las6t picture is at the FRONT of the building faceing 24th street, where there are no parking spaces.

Then and Now

I taught seminary three years ago. Since that time Matthew Ruberson has gone on a mission. Ben Anderson left a week or so ago. Allison is married. The others are all following their life path. I can hardly wait to see where this bunch goes. I will have to update as the year goes along because since this pic was taken I already have gained one new student. I guess I should get their permission before I start talking about them to the world.