Just a Simple - Yes, I'm still here.

I don't have time to post any pictures this time but just wanted to let those of you who read my blog that I'm still here and check yours.   I can't seem to get enough minutes in my day to cram anything else in......

I am on vacation this week and watching Karley and Colton.  Jennifer usually watches them but she and Scott are also on vacation and doing some special activities with their kids.  I have enjoyed this week so much.  No work..no office...no stress...just playtime with Karley and Colton and they have been a joy.  I took them out for lunch one day and they were so good.

We attended the Beaver Family Reunion (my Granny Cremeens' family) last Sunday.  Quite a day!  By attending family gatherings I get to visit with family that I never see except for the reunion each year and also local family that are as busy as I am and we just don't see one another very often.  Even though it takes time out of a busy schedule to prepare and attend these functions, I believe it is an important part of life.  So many times we let lack of time, our feelings and many other things rob us from just getting with people that are a part of us through a family line - we have friends, both casual and close, but we have ties through our heritage that good or bad they are our family.  I think we all had a good time.

That's enough for now - will try to blog again sooner rather than later... :-)

 

It's Been a While

Whew.....It's been nearly a month since I last posted.  My favorite excuse is "the tyranny of the urgent".  This is the title of a book that I read several years ago and it has stuck with me to describe my day to day existence.  I get too much on my plate and then never get anything done.

This past weekend was such a joy for the family.  Scott's ordination took place this weekend.  He is such a blessing to our family and is the "best thing that has happened to Jennifer" with the addition of those two little munchkins.  I posted a few pictures below.

We also enjoyed visiting with Greg for a few hours.  Busy schedules on both sides keep us from seeing one another very often so we appreciate those times we do get to visit.  However, we missed the rest of his family....and by the way Happy Birthday Lauren.  It's hard to believe that you are 19 years old.  Jennifer and I reminisced with Greg at lunch on Saturday about taking care of Lauren and Nathaniel when Micah was born and Lauren peeking around the corner at Jennifer saying "I don't like you" because she was mad that Jennifer was making her let Jen comb her hair which was always hard with all those curls. :-)

I will do my best not to wait so long to post.  I still read everyone else's but just don't take the time to post or respond to other's posts.  I enjoy keeping up with everyone.

Ben and Anna Kate "camped out" at Nana's on Friday night to give Daddy and Mommy a relaxing evening and night before going to the questioning on Saturday morning.  However, Nana let them stay up too late and they were so tired at the end of the weekend....but we did have a great time!!!!

This is at the beginning of the three hour questioning session on Saturday morning.  Scott did a great job.  The Lord has blessed him so much with wisdom and discernment and it was a blessing to hear him answer.

This is Scott with his Ordination Board who questioned him for three hours on Saturday morning.  His grandfather is the second from the left and his Dad is standing directly to Scott's right.  I'm sure a few of you recognize the fella second from the right.  

This is not a very good picture since it is blurred.  But...this is Scott speaking at the beginning of his ordination service on Sunday evening (9/7).

Happy Birthday Taylor and Anna Kate

It's been a while since I last posted to my blog.  I managed to check on everyone and read your blogs but could not focus on my own.  Since it's been so long, I downloaded a bunch of pictures of the birthday party for Taylor and Anna Kate on Saturday (8/9).  We combined the parties since they are so close....Taylor and Anna Kate didn't mind at all.  We had a great time - the weather was great.  We got a water slide for the kids to play on and between the water slide and the pool, the kids didn't dry off from about 11:00 a.m. until 4:30 p.m.  There was not a dry towel in the house.  After all the pool towels were soaked we started on the bath towels...I think I had one or two dry towels in the bathroom cabinet at the end of the day.

Needless to say, we enjoyed the day and of course Taylor and Anna Kate enjoyed being the center of attention and getting the presents.  I am so very thankful that we are all so close now and can make these kind of days happen easily.  I hope you enjoy the pictures...it was hard to choose because as always Gary took about 150.

Here's a few of us eating the Birthday Dinner - the cuisine was "right on" - good ole' hot dogs with the works.

Here are the Birthday Girls - its Cake and Presents Time.  Taylor is 13 and Anna Kate is 4.  Taylor had a "wolf" cake and Anna Kate had cupcakes with Tinkerbell on them.  Happy Birthday to two of my special girls.

Justin and Taylor looking like drowned rats.  They stayed that way all day.  Justin celebrated his 14th birthday last month.  I didn't get anything posted for his birthday - the family went out to dinner and had cake at his house.

Karley decided her little pool was much safer than the big pool and the slide and besides she had it all to herself or at least until Colton decided to play except he wouldn't get in he just wanted to scoop out the water.

Erin came down with a splash!  The bigger kids could make the water go everywhere.

When the bottom filled with water, the bigger kids could really make the water fly!  This is Justin.

Here's one of the Birthday Girls taking a turn on the water slide.

Erin & Justin getting ready to slide together.

Ben kept coming down the slide but he always looked like it caused him pain until he finally got to the bottom and then he would laugh.

At the end of the day, Papaw and Colton were "pooped" and decided to take a little rest

Vacation Time

The following are pictures of our trip to Washington DC.  As usual I got my introductory paragraph at the bottom so you will have to look through the pictures to get to the intro.  

Of course, you don't need me to tell you what this is but it is one of my favorite pictures that Gary took.  He took an unbelievable number of pictures so I simply choose a few of my favorites.

Marines marching off field at the end of the Marine Tatoo ceremony.

This is the Marine band which played during the Marine Tatoo.  They told us the word "Tatoo" is French and means "a call for taps at the end of the day".  They play taps and remove the flag from the top of the barracks at the end of the day on Friday of each week and during tourist season they have a big ceremony with a lot of band playing, drills, etc.

Here's the foursome.  This was taken at the Jefferson Memorial by one of the guards.  For some reason I look like I have gold in that little pack on my lap - that was my purse for the stay and it went around my waist which made me sweat even more.

This is Robert E. Lee's home.  It is so pretty at the top of this hill.  There is quite a history behind this plantation home.  The views are fantastic from the porch.

This is a picture of Washington taken from the porch of Robert E. Lee's home in Arlington Cemetery.  The views were fantastic up there on the top of the hill and it was the only cool place in Washington because of the breeze.

Gary and I went with friends, Jim and Becky Grate, to Washington, DC this past week with a few stops going and coming at Great Falls and various places in the Shenandoah Valley.  We had a great time and enjoyed Jim and Becky's company but I do believe I walked and sweated more during our stay in Washington than I have all year.  On Friday we left our hotel at 8:30 a.m., drove to the Metro station to park the van and took the Metro into Washington.  We didn't get back to the hotel until 11:00 p.m. that night.  I took a shower and literally crawled into bed--but we had a great day.  We toured a lot of Washington, ate at Union Station which was a lot of fun.  The best part of the day was the Marine Tatoo' that took place at the Marine Barracks.  When we got back on the Metro to return to the hotel, I sat down beside Gary, looked lovingly at him and said "you don't smell very good".  He grinned and said "neither do you".  It was 100 there that day and VERY HUMID!  I posted a few of the pictures above - I hope you enjoyed them.

Erin's Last Softball Game

Last Monday (6/16) was Erin's last game of the season.  They only lost one or two games this season.  About 30 minutes into the game a storm blew up and there was thunder and lightning which meant all girls had to return to the dugout.  They waited for about 30-45 minutes and then went back on the field.  They were only out there about 5 minutes and a downpour hit and soaked them before they could get back to the dugout.  They waited again and finally the clouds past, the sun came out and they finished the game.  Unfortunately, Erin's team lost by one point placing them second in the season.  The championship tournaments will start and go for a few more weeks.  Erin wants to win the tournament - this is a big deal in their league.  Below are a few pictures from the game.

                                    Erin in dugout before game started.

                                    Erin keeping an eye on the storm clouds.

                                    Erin and friend goofin' off waiting for the storm to pass.

                                    Erin in the outfield.

                                    Erin at bat!

Happy Father's Day

We celebrated Father's Day with the kids, grandkids, Marisa's parents, Jack and Millie, and Scott's parents, John and Sandi.  We had a cookout and then spent the afternoon in the backyard and in the pool.  We had a great time...it's always good to be with family on special days and the Dads that were at my house that day were the best.  I will always miss my Dad - he was special and always showed me kindness, love, acceptance and worked hard for his family. Even though he was not there physically - he will always be in my heart.

I posted several of the pool pictures of my "little pumpkins" - they are the highlight of my life.

This is me and Jennifer with Karley, Ben, Erin and Anna Kate.  This was after lunch and before all the Dads and the rest of the kids jumped in......

Erin is like Lauren...the kids all want to play with her.  Karley and Anna Kate would either be on top of her or fighting over who got to swim with Erin.  Anna Kate got her to come to her house that evening and stay all night with her.  She thought she was the "deal" then.

Colton and Daddy got in the pool.  Colton liked the water but didn't last as long as the older kids.

Karley would not get near the pool last year but this year she was ready to go.  She used the waterwings and would holler "I swimmin' , I swimmin' , See me - I swimmin"  She was in the pool for a long time and was getting so tired but when we took her out she cried and wanted to swim more.

Anna Kate is learning to swim this year.  The only problem is she does not like water in her face.  This may prove to be a little problem - someone made the remark it reminded them of me....I can't help it if I can "swim" all day without getting my hair wet.

Ben will swim all day...he never wants to quit.  He is learning how with his waterwings.

Justin loves the water and he, Taylor and Erin always have a blast swimming.  The three of them can make the water go everywhere - they can really stir the water.

Erin will swim even when the water is so cool it takes your breath.  She doesn't care though - she just loves the water.

Taylor never gets tired of being in the water.  Gary always calls Taylor and Erin his little waterdogs.

Brass Band Festival

This past Saturday (June 7) was the Ashland Brass Band Festival.  There were only three bands this year but it was a nice concert.  It is held in Ashland City Park.  Central Ohio Brass Band of the Columbus area and Chapel Brass from northern Ohio were the other bands.  It was a great day but was horribly hot.  The poor musicians couldn't keep their mouthpieces in place because of so much sweat running down their upper lips.   Gary is the director for the local band, The Brass Band of the Tri-State.  The band does several concerts each year and competes in the North American Brass Band Association Championship each year.  The band has placed first in the last three years of competition.

This is the Brass Band of the Tri-State playing.

Gary on stage before the band began their portion of the program.  Randy Yohe from WSAZ-TV was the announcer and he was announcing the band.

In addition to it being band day, it was mine and Gary's 40th wedding anniversary on Saturday.  Before the Brass Band of the Tri-State played, Gary had the announcer read something he had written and presented me this bouquet of roses.  Of course, I had to go to the stage and pick up my roses -- if you know me very well, you know that I would rather walk on live hot coals than to walk in front of people but the thought was sweet and I appreciated Gary making the day special.  You can see the band playing in the top of the picture.

Ben and Mommy seemed to be having a good time!

We had a front row seat on our blankets.  The only problem with blanket seats is Nana trying to get up on her feet.  It wasn't always a pretty sight!

Anna Kate seemed to have a good time except for the occasional ant that thought it could crawl on our blanket - she only screamed two or three times and especially loud when one little "tiny" ant decided to crawl on her big toe!

After playing on the playground in the park and listening to a little music, Ben needed to take a rest and eat a few Goldfish.

Happy Birthday Mom

Today was Mom's 79th birthday.  Greg, Sharlene, Lauren and Micah came in to surprise her.  When we got home from church, they were here hiding in the house.  I left the door unlocked for them and they hid their car.  When Mom walked into the living room they were sitting at the dining room table.  The first picture is the shot Gary got when she saw them.  It was hard keeping this a secret since she lives here and goes with me when I go out to shop.  I had to suggest she stay with Ben so that Anna Kate and I could pick up her cake without her knowing it.  We had a great time.  Chris and his family and Jennifer and her family were here.  Also, Darlene, Sharlene's sister was here.  We were so glad she was able to share the day with us.  I put a few of the 300 or so pictures Gary took of everyone and everything.  I also added a couple of pictures of the most recent events that took place during May and, of course, it involved grandchildren.  

Greg had my vote for the best "adult" kid for the day.

Micah was voted "the best bubble maker" of the day.

The Duncans are finally moved.  The "truck day" was last Friday.  I will let Jennifer add more info about the move on her blog.  I'm just very thankful to have Scott, Jen, Ben & Anna Kate so close.  If I stand on my front porch and Jen stands on her front porch, we can wave and we could talk but then the whole neighborhood would hear everything we say.  
Justin's Spring Band Concert was last week.  He plays percussion and he does a good job.  The top picture is one of the music awards he received.  I believe this one was the award for having made a participated in all county band.  The picture below is of most of the group.  Justin is in the back in the percussion row.  He enjoys band and is looking forward to starting high school and the marching band.

Anna Kate was in a Mother's Day program at church.  She was a type of daisy - one of her mother's favorite flowers.  She loves to perform in front of people.