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Fly Away vs. Work - No Fair!!

Tammie gets to fly away on a jet plane and I get to stay home and work. There's something terribly unfair here. Oh well, I'm really glad she can get to spend time with the kids and that they enjoy having her. I miss Tammie when she is gone, so you know what I do? That's right, I tackle a "PROJECT". Do I love to work or what? I AM SICK!!
This time it was one of the last uncharted territories of our little homestead. It was a place that all MEN cherish. THE GARAGE. That's right, I gutted the old garage like stabbing a knife in a dead deer and pulling all the guts out and tossing them aside and letting out a primal scream, ARRRRRRRR. Well it was just the cabinets and they went to the dump, but you can see for yourself by the pictures. All I can say is "new and improved". I think it turned out well.
You might be asking what in the world is he gonna do next time Tammie flies that big jet plane? Stay tuned.

WE'RE LEAVING ON A JET PLANE AGAIN IN 5 DAYS!

Well, it has been an incredible two weeks in GA. I got to spend that time with Nick, Amanda and 3 of our grandchildren. Lots of fun memories were made. God has certainly blessed us with fun loving and funny grand children.
I was able to watch the kids many times as Nick and Amanda were able to enjoy some time out doing stuff that normally is harder to do with 3 kids. Of course, I enjoyed every minute I was there playing with them.
Bryson started his first soccer season games while I was there. I will have a few pictures of that. Nick is also his coach. :) Bryson is getting the hang of the game and almost made a couple goals. OH SOOOO CLOSE! Zeke enjoyed cheering for his brother also.
Zeke had his 8 hour sleep test and they determined he does not have seizures. The first doctor had been treating him for that now they do not say he is having them, possibly migraine but Nick and Amanda are just unsure about it so they are getting 2 and possibly 3rd opinions. I am glad they are pursuing this. So please pray about this as those of us as parents hate to see our children go through any medical difficulties. It is only by prayer that we have the strength to go through these trials.
AJ is running all over. Needless to say, I slept very well at bedtime. She is a very pretty lovely little princess (so her daddy calls her) that is definitely a daddy's girl. It is so sweet. She reminds me of linus. Dragging her blanket behind her and sucking her thumb. SO SWEET!
I will have pictures to follow.
I even had the chance to go to Savannah with all the family and eat at "Lady and Sons" restaurant in Savannah, GA. This is Paula Dean's restaurant. For those of you who do not know her, she has a cooking show on TV. HEY YA'LL---you should be watching her and learning to cook scrumptious food. :) FOOD WAS OF COURSE FANTASTIC. EVEN HAD MY PICTURE TAKEN WITH HER (cardboard of course.) It was a very fun and enjoyable time.
The time went to fast and is always fun being with all of them. Lots of laughs from the boys but I especially will remember that every morning between 7 and 7:30 am Bryson would crawl into bed with me and then about a half hour later little Zeke would come out and crawl into bed on the other side. Now what meme wouldn't enjoy that? I remind you that these pictures of me in the bed with the boys is in the morning--we all know what we look like in the morning, right? I will always cherish those moments and memories. One day (and it will arrive to soon) they will be to big to do this so I will take every chance of it now.
Now that I am home in 5 days (Friday, Oct. 3rd) Kevin, Cristal and I will be flying out to SD to visit Cory, Shannon and our grandson Cian for 1 1/2 weeks. Cian will be turning one year old then. WE can hardly wait to see him (and of course his mommy and daddy also).
There will also be a picture of AJ experiencing her first lemon so I have her expression of that also.
As Shannon mentioned her in blog, please leave a comment because it is always nice to know that someone is reading our updates, even if it is a Hello! :)

I'm leaving on a Jet Plane!

Tomorrow bright and early I will be flying the big bird to Rincon, GA. That is near Savannah. By noon time I will be enjoying the heat and probably more rain as in GA this is their rainy season.
A year ago at this time I was also down there to welcome our new grand daughter AJ who just turned one year old on Monday, September 8th. How times flY! (No punt intended).
I am thrilled to be going but while I am down there our grandson Zeke will be going through another longer sleep test to check on him having seizures. Please pray for him as they go through this once again. I know GOD--the great physician--can take this and have it completely gone so this is what I have been praying (if it be his will).
Also, when our sons started having our grand children we always said once they were starting in sports it would be neat to go and see them play in whatever they are in---WELL----believe it or not---that time has arrived. Can't believe it! So while I am down in GA for two weeks I will be able to take in some soccer games that Bryson is in. Cool, huh? To top it off, Nick is his coach. What a riot! I can't wait to take pictures of him playing. Unfortunately, Kevin is not able to go with me on this trip due to the fact that 4 days after I get back from GA, Kevin, Cristal and I will be flying out to SD to see Cory, Shannon and Cian for a week and a half. I can't wait for that trip either. Cian will be turning one also on October 11th. We love being grandparent but having them far away was not part of the deal. :(
So if you remember--pray for Zeke--pray for safety as I fly--and for safety for Bryson as he plays. I remember all the pains that Cory and Nick got while playing sports. EECCKK!

The finishing touches on our rock garden and a well deserved fun day at Frankenmuth

The first 4 pictures show our fun day at Frankenmuth. There was a chicken shaped shrub, then Cristal on the carriage ride along with Kevin and I in the other picture pulled by horsepower named GUS. The last picture is all of us standing by Gus. The day was beautiful and very enjoyable. Of course, we ate the famous chicken dinner, shopped the shops, and walked a lot.
The last few pictures are of our mostly finished rock garden that is in our front yard. We will continue to add flowers and shrubs as time goes on. We put the wrought iron fence up along the driveway and it completed the look. We are enjoying it a lot. We bought a big bird feeder that we now have to add to it. We enjoy watching hummingbirds, finches, chickadees, cardinals, doves, titmouses, blue jays, gold finches and some that we don't know are coming. We have pesky squirrels that like to enjoy the bird food so we are finding ways of getting rid of them because they eat up the food and the bird feeders themselves. Pesky things!!

He ain't Moses but it is a burning bush :)

Kevin decided that taking this picture of him posing as Moses with his (shepherd's rod- in his hand) but he is standing in front of our new burning bush we just planted in our rock garden. We now have it completely covered where we wanted the rocks at and have started planting some of our bushes and flowers. We have some black-eyed susans planted, we will be planting a couple Hydrangea plants tonight along with some ornamental grasses and a Hyssop plan. We also have some miniature trees to plant, four of them to be exact. We will have many more to plant as we decide what we want because eventually we will have it full of beauty along with the blessings of many birds flying in and out of the 3 or 4 feeders I will have available when finished. So I will share the few more picture of our front rock garden and hopefully more in the future.

ANNIVERSARIES AND BIRTHDAY

August is a very busy month for us as both our sons were married in August. On August 7th, Nick and Amanda celebrated their 9th anniversary. Nine all ready! They were able to go to Savannah and stay in the Hilton and do some tourists stuff. They had a good time. God has blessed us with great daughter-in-laws. Amanda is a very loving and patient wife to Nick and they both have a heart to serve the Lord by working with the youth group at their church called Rincon Baptist Temple Church of Rincon, GA. They have blessed us with 3 wonderful grandchildren, Bryson, Ezekiel and AJ.
On August 25th, Cory and Shannon will be celebrating their 2nd anniversary all ready.
They live in Spearfish, SD. So far away, but I am thankful for the web cam. They are planning on taking a day trip (which I am so happy they can do). Shannon is experiencing the morning sickness stuff so her days are always uncertain, so I will be praying for a great day that they can enjoy. At the same time of celebrating their anniversary Shannon will also be celebrating her birthday that same day. Remember Cory? HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHANNON! God has been working in their lives as well as finding a good church that they enjoy. They have one now but are considering another one in a different city so we are praying for that also. Shannon is such a loving wife and cares for Cory deeply and they have blessed us also with a very funny little grandson Cian.
Dad and I wish you all many many more HAPPY ANNIVERSARIES together! (and many Happy Birhdays, too.)

A Little Fair Fun

This week has been the Midland County Fair. We go every night to have our supper and then just hang. We watched the animal auctions on Thursday which is always interesting to see how much people spend for animals plus we had some friends their with pigs and wanted to see how much they got out of auctioning their pigs.
Anyway, I took a few pictures of the highlight I thought which was three bears doing some tricks. They were fun to watch.

OUTDOOR PROJECTS UNDERWAY

These last couple of weeks Kevin and I have been working outside getting some projects started and completed. Projects that we have been wanting to do and FINALLY got up and started them due to the fact that fall weather is creeping around the corner plus in a couple months I will be having my surgery and won't be able to help out with much.
One of the first projects was to bury our downspouts under ground making the yard easier to mow plus look nicer. Kevin rented a ditch witch and dug 3 trenches. The longest in the front yard with 2 on the side of the house. They are now buried and covered. Praise the Lord!
Now------We have talked about making a rock garden in the front yard for a couple summers now so guess what? We finally started it because doing the trenches it left dirt on the yard so we thought this would be a good time to start the rock garden/yard in the front. Our plans became a larger version of a rock garden but once we lined it out with larger rocks we finally decided on what we wanted so we started up next to the house and planted some new mums and started covering the yard with stone. The layout we have will go to the edge of the driveway clear down to the edge of the street. We will have plenty of things to display in the garden like, bird baths, bird feeders, small shrubs, medium shrubs, unique type statues that have yet to be found. As we further the project we will show the pictures but I will share what we have now.