We're Building!

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We're building a house!!!  I haven't blogged in years, but I thought it would be fun to record a little bit of this building journey so that we could look back on it later.  What a slow ride it has been!  We put our house on the market at the beginning of the summer 2015.  It sold in September but we had not found a house, so we moved into a rental house.  We have been looking in a specific area of town and the choices are limited.  We finally found 2 acres of land on a quiet street, so we decided to build.  I am really excited about getting a house with a front porch!!  <3 p="">

Clayton's Birthday

Abigail (my niece), my Mom, and Carrington

It has been 6 months since we said goodbye to my Mom.  She went to Heaven on May 5.  Our family misses her very much.  Since it is November and we have Thanksgiving coming up, I thought that I would list some things that I am thankful for about my precious Mom.

1.  I am thankful that she loved her family passionately, and taught my sisters and I to cherish our families  and to be "workers at home".

2.  I am thankful that she was a Christian, taught us about the Lord, and took us to church every Sunday.

3.  I am thankful that she made every holiday so fun and special, for her children and then for her grandchildren.

4.  I am thankful that she told us so many stories of growing up in the South in the 50's.  She had an awesome childhood!  :)

5.  I am thankful that she was a great cook and taught us that you NEVER take store-bought food to a pot-luck.

6.  I am thankful for all of the beautiful things she made for my children, from costumes, to dolls, to a small quilt.  They are special treasures.

7.  I am thankful that she was always interested in what was going on in our lives.  About 4 days before she died, she saw Clayton doing some karate moves in her hospital room, and she had a big smile on her face watching him.

8.  I am thankful that whenever my daughter was lonely, she could pick up the phone and call Grandma.

9.  I'm thankful that she saved babies from abortion through her work at a crisis pregnancy center for almost 20 years.

10.  I'm thankful that she was so much fun to be with and talk to.


I love you Mom!

Random Pictures With My Dad

My Uncle Herman and my Dad

My Dad with my Aunt Louise, his sister-in-law.

My Aunt Thelma's old house.  Lots of memories here.  :)

Me being a dork and posing on the train tracks behind my Aunt Thelma's old house.

This post is for my 2 sisters.  I recently took my Dad to see his brother, and then I took him to the town where he grew up.  The picture of Carrington and my Dad is in front of the church where my Dad went when he was a little boy.  He was baptized while attending that church, but in a nearby lake and not inside the church.  He was about 9 years old.
The bottom picture is of a house that my Dad lived in as a little boy.  I had a picture of another house on here, but I accidentally deleted it!
The second to the last picture of the trees is the location of a childhood prank my Dad has told us about numerous times.  There used to be a sidewalk there, and it was across the street from a big Victorian house that my Dad lived in.  He and his brother Herman, and a cousin, set up a dummy that they had dressed up and put it on the sidewalk to scare people.
The third picture from the bottom is of my cousin David with my Dad.  They are standing in front of a ball field that my Dad used to play at as a teenager.  He has told us stories of his brother-in-law E.W.  who also played baseball there and could have been a great ball player if he hadn't been killed in WW II.

Picnic at the Park

The Beach