In rememberance of Dad

My father was not a warm and fuzzy type of man. He was a stern disciplinarian to his children, or any child for that matter, and was not one to hold back his opinion, whether you wanted to hear it or not. He was a faithful husband to my mother for 54 years and he took care of his family for every one of those 54 years. He was career Army all the way, having served 2 tours of duty in his 22 years of military service. He was proud of his country and felt it was an honor to serve. He received a burial with full military honors, something I know he would appreciate. He was who he was, an authentic human being.
He drove me crazy on a regular basis. I cannot begin to count the number of times I would leave his presence and think to my self "that man is crazy" or something similar. But I loved him and I knew he loved me. I can see some of his ways in my ways, sometimes for the good (my love of photography, my staunch stubbornness that makes me complete tasks no matter how daunting, my absolute love of reading and learning) and some not so good (my "fuseless" temper, my lack of patience, my awful road rage) and I try to embrace the good and stop the not so good.
I will miss him.

Some pics of Dad




his family















with Joshua


















my all time favorite pic of me and Dad

Army

Dad and Mom engaged

in the military

I think he was about 15-16 in this one

with his parents

on his 70th birthday

in the 4th of July parade

with Xavier, a great-grandchild

at their 50th wedding celebration

Mom and Dad together

News and pics

So, it's been a while since I last posted about the happenings around the old homestead. We have both been busy with work, school and all of the other thousands of things that make up life.
School is going well. I am now in the middle of Accounting (heaven help me) and hope to be out of this soon. I am about 1/3 of the way through my 1st year. My how time flies!
Good news on the work front for Ray. He is finally getting put back to day shift!! Gone are the weeks that we would go 4 days without seeing each other! Let's hope our marriage can take the change (just kidding)! Baby, you know I love you more'n my luggage.
We have had a few days of snow lately, to the dogs joy and the chickens dismay. The new chickens don't know what to do with the white stuff yet. The other hens remember it well, and choose to stay in the coop most days.
Other than the usual day to day things have been fairly quiet around here. We did make the trek to my sister Mary's house on the 27th to celebrate Christmas with the family. Everyone had a good time and received lots of loot. Here are a few pics for your amusement and bemusement.
Enjoy!!

Our 6, count 'em, 6 Grandkids from left to right-Kiryn, age 4-Elizabeth, age 4-Xaden, age 9 months-Kaylyn, age 6-Xavier, age 2 (just turned on the 27th)-Xander, age 3-they are one of the biggest joys in my life

I wish I was here, seriously could live here for the rest of my days, no kidding, right on this beach, stay here for ever and ever

Xaden learning to crawl

Elizabeth and the chickens

this is the Ohio Theatre. Ray and I went to see the Nutcracker Ballet, it was breathtakingly beautiful

the girls love it when it snows, me, not so much

Happy Halloween!!!

I have not had the opportunity to trick-or-treat in quite a few years and I kind of missed it. I was sitting around trying to figure out how I could possibly justify romping through the local neighborhood without arousing suspicion when it hit me...I have 6 grandkids, I could borrow one for the evening, after all isn't that what they are there for!! So I promptly called up Elizabeth, who said she would love to come trick-or-treating with her Mimi..so that is just what we did last night in Mount Vernon. We had a good time and she got lots of candy and saw lots of ghouls, goblins, princesses, witches..well, you get the picture. Below are some pics from the day.

Our jack-o-lantern
a kitty cat with our creation...

digging out the goop...

and feeding the goop to the chickens...

ready to roll...

she got the hang of this really quickly...

she got right in the crowds....

to the victor go the spoils....or the sucker...

We enjoyed having her over the weekend and I think she really liked trick-or-treating. She asked me this morning if it was Halloween again today.

apple picking, pumpkins and girls

Last weekend we were visited by these two little ones, we had lots of craft time, visited their great-grandma (Maw) and went apple picking. All in all a good weekend. Here are some pics of the fun. Enjoy!



The girls enjoying some craft time...
More crafty goodness...

Elizabeth relaxing after all that craftiness...

The girls with Maw...

The great apple hunt...

Kaylyn getting a little help from Grandpa...

She found the perfect pumpkin...

The girls with their pumpkins...




A banana and a daisy, what more could a girl need??

The Beach

Ray and I have been married 10 years this year....crazy, no?
So in celebration of our 10 years of wedded bliss we decided to have a proper honeymoon, at long last. We headed out to Myrtle Beach for a few days of sun, sand, surf and serenity. We had a great time, the weather was good for the time of year, some clouds but no rain. We did have 1 day of sunny all day weather. We even had a chance to catch part of the AT, for a few miles anyway. Here are some pics of the week.



1st day on the beach, we didn't arrive until about 4:30 that afternoon so not much swimming, but a nice walk on the beach was good.

The beach did not get crowded until Saturday, nice for long walks. In our room, I finally got Ray to relax a bit, not the easiest of tasks.

I will always be able to find the AT, we crossed this section in Virginia on the way in.

Obligatory kissy picture, Ray loves and hates these, in equal measure I think.

garden updates and 1st day of school

Our garden is starting to slow down now, so much so that I don't really have anything to sell at the farmers market. This is alright with me since we are going on vacation next week and I am getting burnt out on the market Friday and Saturday schedule plus schoolwork is getting more plentiful lately. All in all we had a good run but it is now time to move on. Of course the chickens are still going strong and I have a very steady stream of customers from my workplace to keep those girls busy. Keeps them from becoming delinquents and reeking havoc on the neighborhood.
Today I travelled to Newark for a most momentous of occasions, the 1st day of kindergarten for our 1st grandchild...yes, our very own Kaylyn Rose started school today!! She was so ready to go, already having met the teacher and taken all the necessary tests. she had her backpack on and her lunch money in hand. She is so excited and has already made friends with the some of the other kids. Her college graduation cannot be far off, right???
What follows are the obligatory pics, enjoy!!



the pied-piper of chickens something taller than Ray

Kaylyn at school

On her way to greater things

latest happenings

July and August have been crazy around here. We are super busy with the garden and I am still plugging away at school plus I have added another farmers market to peddle my veg so, yeah, very busy summer so far. I hear this is good for me ("put hair on your chest" according to my old grandpa but that is not really what I am going for) but I have found myself looking forward to rainy days just for downtime. As exhausted as I feel sometimes, I really wouldn't have it any other way.
So, back to the latest happenings around here, beans are the order of business lately. We have harvested, snapped, froze and eaten bunches, not to mention the amount we have sold. While not our best seller, they have certainly paid for themselves. Way to go beans, you've made me proud.
On to the pictures, we have a selection of recent activities that for some reason blogger has chosen to place in an order chronologically backward from the actual events so, please bear with us while we sort through:

1st up we have our own Elizabeth Anne, who is now 4 years old. I met up with the birthday girl on her birthday 08-05, and had a nice lunch plus treated her to a birthday cone. She is a master ice cream eater and barely dripped at all. On Saturday her parents had a nice lunch for her at Max&Erma's where loads of adoring Elizabeth Ann fans (her great-grandma's, aunts, great-aunts, second cousins, 3rd cousins and various in-law type relations and of course her #1 fan, yours truly) gathered to wish her well on the start of her 4th year among the living. She took it all in her usual easy going style and received very nice gifts of toys and clothing. Some pics from the birthday celebrations:



playing with her 3rd cousins
with great-grandma

with her Mimi

celebratory ice cream

the face of 4

Congrats baby girl, "you know I love you more'n my luggage"

We had Bev and Paul down for a few days at the end of July. We had nice visits, good summertime fare (delicious sweet corn, yummy blueberry waffles) and a stop at the Knox County fair. We enjoy this fair, it has lots of old-timey displays and tons of different farm animals. We cruised around the fair grounds for a bit and enjoyed the good summer weather. I then promptly put them to work snapping beans since we are overrun and all.

Bev and Paul relaxing at the fair

view from our parking spot

hard at work snapping beans (yes that is a big bottle of wine on the counter and yes, it is essential to have for successful bean snapping :)

view of summertime

Hope all are enjoying this most pleasant season of the year. Much as I like the birth of Spring, the colors of Fall and yes, even the quietude of Winter, Summer will remain in my heart as my most beloved of all seasons. Enjoy!!

P.S. Is it obvious that I am in the midst of an English course? Yes, I'm thinking it is.