Running with Sam

I forgot to include the story of my early morning run with my nephew, Sam, in my previous post, "Loads of Company! Part 1." As I had mentioned early in that post, during an evening walk Sam had said that he would rather be running. So I had told him that we would go running while he was visiting. I forget which morning we made plans for, but I had told him we'd go at 6:30am. That morning, when 6:15 rolled around, I highly contemplated not getting up. I figured Sam probably wouldn't be up, and would balk at getting up to go running. But, I had promised and I had to at least see if he still wanted to go. Much to my surprise, when I came out to the living room, Sam was awake and sitting on the stool waiting. Barefoot. I asked him if he had his shoes for running and he said he couldn't find them. We looked all over and couldn't find his shoes. I asked if they were under the cot he was sleeping on, or in the bathroom he'd used the night before. He said "no," but went to double check. That woke up Mom and Gail who came to join in the search for his shoes. Someone asked the question of, "Are they in Little Pumpkin's room?" I couldn't see why they'd be in her room, and we continued searching all over the house. Sneaky Sam, unbeknownst to the rest of us, went into Pumpkin's room and returned with his shoes!!! I guess she had been trying to walk in them the night before and, to her credit, had "put them away." Sam found his shoes on her shoe shelf! It was quite funny though we got a bit of a late start on our run.

We took Gunther with us, and I was fully expecting Sam to start with a full-on run that I wouldn't be able to keep up with. So, I told him I

Loads of Company! Part 1

If you are one of my faithful blog readers, you have probably noticed that I haven't written anything since the end of July. Part of that is because we had loads of company in August and we were really busy! Not to mention that we had some other excitement at the beginning of August that we probably could have lived without....but more on that in another post. Let me fill you in on all of our company!

Our first batch of company was my Mom, Gail (my sister), and Bob and Sam (my nephews). They were driving out from Virginia with a jam-packed car-load of stuff for us. The bulk of it was a quarter of beef that I had ordered from my sister back in the spring. (Back when the wagon-train had thought they were coming in the spring....but life happened and the wagon-train didn't come till late summer.) They were also bringing a half-bushel of peaches off of their own peach trees, some home-grown summer squash and zucchini, a few odds and ends I had garnered from my siblings "I'm getting rid of this, does anyone want it" personal yard-sales, and just random things people sent along. (By the way, Sally, Thank You for the new kitchen towels!!) Mom's car was stuffed full with four people, coolers, blankets to insulate the coolers, and all the rest of their travel needs and such. (I never really heard how comfortable the ride out really was....)

The wagon-train, stuffed to the gills, left on Sunday afternoon, stopped for the night in Kentucky, and arrived here late-afternoon on Monday. I was at work when they arrived, but Jason let them in and, in my family's typical style, they made themselves at home by unloading everything and

I've Been to Branson...

A few years ago, I wrote this post, "I've Been to Jackson..." about a spontaneous road-trip that I did with my friends, Brittany and Shannon. This trip to Branson, Missouri that I'm sharing today wasn't a road-trip with Brittany and Shannon, but a vacation with Jason's family. In trying to come up with a clever title, however, "Branson" rhymed with "Jackson".....the Johnny Cash song came to mind......and I came up with, "I've Been to Branson...look out Branson-town!"

It was the first week of April for the family group vacation, and we left on Sunday after church. I think everyone was hoping for nice weather, but on the drive south we ran into freezing rain, snow, and just general gray, cold, overcast skies. Driving into the Big Cedar Lodge resort area where we were staying, everything just looked cold and gray. Not really the type of weather we were hoping for, especially as Jason and I had wanted to check out some of the hiking and outdoor activities that Branson is supposed to have.

Jason's family had all gotten there ahead of us and did all the check-in stuff, so we met them at Taco Bell where they were having dinner to get our room keys and such. Not much happened that first evening besides letting Little Pumpkin run around after the long car-ride, and unloading our luggage and accoutrements.

Everyone did go to Grandpa and Grandma's room for the handing out of Easter Baskets.

Recognizing Father's Day

I am very late in this Father's Day post, but better late than never, right?

Happy Father's Day to this man, Little Pumpkin's best friend and favorite person.

"Mom Photos" for Mother's Day

Yesterday was Mother's Day, and I shared this post that was sort-of related to the occasion. But, I thought I would do another post of "Mom Photos" for Mother's Day, too.

The oldest photo on my computer that had my Mom in it was this family photo. And, almost every other female in the photo, which happen to all be

Impending Motherhood Celebration

Since it is Mother's Day, I thought I would revert back to my old style of blogging and share lots of photos of an event that celebrated my impending motherhood: a baby shower. This was the baby shower that was given prior to Little Pumpkin being born. And, strangely enough, both my mother and mother-in-law were able to travel to Wyoming and attend!

The shower hosts were my good friend, Brittany....

Spring in Virginia - The Sequel

After the big festivities surrounding the yard sale on Saturday (which you can read about here), Sunday was a day of relaxation. I went to church with Sally's and Peewee's, then went to have dinner with Katie and Sherman. After a delicious dinner and visiting with Sherman's parents, we decided that some Peanut Butter Chocolate ice cream from a local ice cream shop was appropriate. Katie and Sherman rode their motorcycles, which it was a beautiful day for that.

Katie's bike is special in that it gets to sit on the walkway.

Spring in Virginia

After contemplating going to visit family in Virginia for a few weeks, I bought a plane ticket on a spur of the moment two days before I left. One of the big reasons I wanted to go this particular weekend (the second weekend in May) was because of a yard sale. I told Jason that I wanted to go because I was a little bit nosy, and wanted to see what everyone was getting rid of! I had been getting emails about several of my sisters "purging" their houses, cleaning out storage rooms, and putting it all into one big yard sale. Another good reason to go was to see two nieces that I had not seen yet. And one more good reason to go was to see everyone else on the East Coast that I hadn't seen in almost a year. So after buying a ticket (which was still really cheap) on Monday, Jason drove me to the airport to catch my flight on Thursday morning.

The night before it had rained, froze, and then snowed, so when I left, I was bundled up for the cold. The flight seemed to take extra long this time, but everything was on time. When I landed in Charlotte, NC for my flight change, I was instantly hit with extremely hot weather. I'm thinking it was probably in the 80's at least. I had to shed my coat and wished I could shed a shirt and socks as well. I didn't have a long wait until I got the short flight to Washington D.C. where Peewee was going to pick me up. By the time I had to go outside and catch my ride, it was evening and wasn't quite as hot. Peewee, Bobby, and Sam very kindly picked me up and gave me a ride to Sally's house where I was going to reside. As soon as

A Day At The Lake: Part 2

   In case you missed it, the first part of the day is here.

While everyone else was skiing, Little Miss Sylvia was busy trying to decide what she thought of the lake.

A Day At The Lake: Part 1

 

Going to the Lake has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. Most of my siblings and I all learned to water-ski there. Even though it is still a tradition for my family to go to the lake at least once each summer, I believe it has been about 5 years (or more) since I was able to go. This year, Jason and I were both able to go to the lake.

The day started out with a slow bang, it seemed. Our car-load of food and people, along with the pickup pulling the boat and hauling the paddle-