LOOKING BACK

2013 IN MY REAR VIEW !!!
Back at the beginning in January we had an interesting month of weather. With a couple of flooding rainfalls and other near flooding kept the mud in its glory around here. We had an ice storm and a dusting of snow then the temperatures soared to summer levels of 70+ degrees.  Nothing exciting happened as we all spent the month dodging the weather with only one market Saturday canceled. I made it to watch daughter coach some basketball games. I also lost a cousin I had never seen with the passing of my second cousin Jack Moore on January 12.

      February brought more wet weather but only one icy event during the month.  Hubbie and I made a trip to the Biltmore House on one of the really nice days with a pair of free tickets sent to us by one of my blogger friends, thanks Betsy. A long time neighbor passed away on February 10th as Lavinia Garren died at the ripe old age of 90.

      March brought the more winter feeling weather as it stayed cooler than normal and windy almost the entire month. We had a snow that closed school for a day and I kept Nicolas Dalton for the day .      #2 son put his new house that he moved into this past November back on the realestate market. He didn't like living that far from his job. We celebrated his birthday along with daughters during the month of March and celebrated the birth of little Evy Lynn Pearl who was the daughter of our renters as she came into this world on Easter morning which was the 31st day of the month.

        April was another cooler wet month as we struggled to find a time to get our early garden in the ground in between showers. G-son had an accident and wore his first cast as he dislocated one of his elbows playing on a jungle gym after one of his soccer games. We celebrated d-in-love's birthday in this month. Daughter,g-son, hubbie and I made our spring trip to the Pickens Flea Market during spring break from school. There was a national tragedy as terrorist set off a couple bombs at the Boston Marrathon.
 

 
  May brought to a close a lengthy ordeal for the sale of hubbie's old family house as we finally sold it to an extended family member.  #2 son unexpectedly discovered that his jeep Rubicon was using oil excessively and decided to trade it for a new Toyota Tacoma pick-up truck. Daughter had an unexpected career change when a teaching job opened up at the high school she coaches at and she was able to pass the business teachers test to land the job. I had a wonderful Mother's day and added another wonderful little one to my baby sitting routine as little Evy's mom returned to work part time.
Another rainy month forced our summer garden planting time to be a little late but we finally got it all planted. Our old milk cow Snowball turned 19 years old this month.

        June brought more rain and cooler than normal temperatures so the garden just kind of stood there.  G-son graduated kindergarten as his first school year came to an end.  D-in-love traded her jeep patriot which started giving all   kinds of trouble in for a new Toyota Corolla.  #2 son's house sold but the closing is at the end of July.  Little Evy had colic and was a miserable little one a lot of the time. She just melted my heart. Hubbie turned a year older this month to 58 and also had a great father's day.

         July was the rainiest of all the prior months with rain falling on all but 2 days during the month with clouds everyday. The lack of sunshine hurt the garden vegetables and we still had nothing fresh from there. Hubbie and I helped #2 son move into a friends condo out at Wolf Pen gated community the weekend before we went on our yearly weeks beach vacation. Oak Island was the destination for this year's beach fun.  Daughter came late as she had a teaching workshop in Greensboro the first part of the week. Luckily we had nice weather all week unlike the weather at home which continued to be rainy as Rebekah tended the farm for us. #2 son had to leave the beach a couple days early as some problems arose with the house he had for sale. Luckily he got them all worked out in time to make the closing on time. We came back from the beach just in time for Bible School which began the next day. Daughter and d-in-love taught this year. The month ended with me getting a year older !

 
August started with the remainder of VBS. Rains continued,keeping everything soggy.  #1 son and d-in-love decided to buy #2 son's house and were able to close quickly. We helped daughter prepare her first classroom for teaching her high school business course.  G-son went to a workshop to prepare for the beginning of first grade which started the third week of the month. It has been a strange month for me without any produce to can or preserve from all the rain we have had. I had another visit from cousin Kathleen and her sister from Ohio. Great nephew Easton turned 2 years old this month. G-son loved getting the use of the pool at #2 son's condo community.

       September was the first normal weather month we have had all year but it still started out with flooding rains. We helped #1 son's family move into the house they bought from #2 son and helped Aaron and Rebekah move into #1 son's house.Daughter is coaching the JV volleyball team and assisting with the varsity at the high school she is teaching at. They are both having good seasons so far.  I went to a couple fall festivals in town this month and we had our "Fall Old Timey" day on the last Saturday of the month.

    
  October is always an exciting and busy month with the changing of the leaves and the last of the tourist trips to the mountains. The weather pretty much agreed with all the leaf peeping and other outside activities this month. We celebrated two birthdays on the sixteenth of the month as g-son turned 7 and his daddy turned 32 . Also went to great nephew Maddox's party on the 11th when he turned 3 .  Had a hard freeze as well as our first frost in the last week of the month.  Ended the month with a fun Trunk or Treat at church to celebrate Halloween.

          November was a great month for #2 son as he bought his ex-aunt's house just up the road from our farm. It is the perfect house for him.  Daughter switched from volleyball to basketball with the loss of the volleyball team in the second round of the state playoffs. My hens got a new larger lot with a new house that Hubbie and I built for them. Our family lost a beloved member as hubbie's mother's sister Christine died. Thanksgiving was good with hubbie , #2 son , daughter and me in attendance.  #1 son's family went to Tennessee for d-in-love's grandparents dinner and Aaron and Rebekah are in Ohio celebrating with her family.  We actually thought we were going to have our first "white" Thanksgiving as a surprise dusting of snow on the Wednesday before coated everything but melted quickly in the warm sunshine. The month ended with Old Timey Christmas celebration at the Curb market.

           December was a blur for me as I feel like I baked 1000 cakes this month. The first two weeks I alternated between getting my decorations up and getting a 100 cake order done. Delivering the final 40 cakes on the 11th freed me up to finish the decorations and then concentrate on Curb Market customers on Thursday and Saturday which were pretty busy all month. The month was full of activities with Christmas programs at church and school and a school surprise class party it was a fun time for me and g-son we even made it to a couple of daughter's basketball games. After enjoying Christmas gatherings with families and friends I succombed to a flu like illness on Christmas day but it wasn't serious enough that I couldn't hit some of the after Christmas sales.  The month ended on a very sad note as I lost a friend and fellow market vendor as Elaine Staton died on the 29th of a bout with a lung infection.

This has been an all around good year for my family. Weather keeping records were shattered when we got over 2 1/2 inches more rain than any other year in record keeping history. All the rains caused problems with garden vegetables along with the oak trees in the yard that we are hoping recover from a leaf spot fungus that caused the leaves to die and fall off in later summer. The year has been filled with exciting changes for #1 and #2 son and Aaron and Rebekah as they all have moved during this year and also for daughter as she made a huge career change and became a high school teacher.
Hubbie and I are humbly grateful for all the blessing we have received helping the kids as we have watched their happy faces throughout all the activities.
Looking forward to many more blessings in the upcoming 2014 year as we are all humble grateful to our Heavenly Father and recognize that none of these things that happen to us would be possible without His grace.
Good Bye 2013 !

NEW YEAR'S EVE 2013

Up at 7am to greet g-son. Hubbie is working today at least part of the day. They will probably get off early after they finish a job that needs to done today.
G-son was sad that he had no friend to play with today and shadowed me the entire day.
After morning chores, which he insisted on getting out in the cold and helping me with, and breakfast he finally got into a TV program while I started the laundry.
I got up with a purpose for today in mind. This is part of my "New Year's Resolutions" that I have a purpose for each day, even if it's just to have fun.   Today's purpose was to get started on my deep cleaning with our big bathroom.
So between laundry loads I emptied all the shelves, threw away outdated bottles, climbed to dust the high tops of cabinets,moved all the cabinets so the floors under them was cleaned, spray cleaned all the shelves, washed all the artificial flowers that decorate in there, removed all Christmas decorations, crawled into places I haven't been in since last year to clean and stooped and bent my body around all kinds of corners until the job was finally finished about 2:30.
Seems like it has taken a lot longer !!!
I took a break with a hot cup of tea and my new back massager while g-son and I had a chat. He is such a big boy now.
The weather outside is pretty cool with high's in the mid 40's under sunshiny skies.
Hubbie got off work about 3:00 and g-son was delighted to have someone new to play games with for  awhile.
After chores and after #1 son picked up g-son I had supper and then snuggled on the couch with Bernie and Dolly to watch the news.
Daughter came by to bring me three more salt lamps to go with the one she bought me for Christmas.
I had time to reflect tonight on this month as it comes to an end at midnight.

      For me it has been a very busy month, starting with a huge 100 caramel cake order at the first of the month which took a couple weeks to complete. This put me behind with my decorating and with the shorter time between Thanksgiving and Christmas already it was hard to stay un-stressed.  Curb market was steadily busy on Thursdays and Saturdays, with my last market day being on Saturday the 21st. We had all voted not to open on Tuesday Christmas Eve this year and I was so glad. I hosted hubbie's family to a very nice Christmas gathering on Sunday the 22nd and after our annual shopping trip to Brevard with hubbie, daughter, g-son, Rebekah and Evy on Monday I cooked all day on Christmas Eve to get ready for our family Christmas gathering which went wonderfully. Unfortunately on Christmas Day I started feeling pretty yucky and think I might have had a mild case of the flu that is going around for the next couple days.  The month ended very sadly for me as my friend and fellow Curb Market vendor died on the 29th of  a lung infections after being in the hospital only one week.
      Hubbie  had a routine month of work and wood cutting.

      #1 son's family enjoyed this month with g-son on a trip to Dollywood and a couple other Christmas gatherings with family and friends.

      #2 son has filled out and re-filled out banking papers all month in hopes that he will get to close on his new house before the end of the month but that didn't happen. He has had to work 7 days a week with the P.O.'s new deals with some on-line businesses to guarantee gift deliveries before Christmas.

      Daughter has coached her JV basketball team to a winning season so far and has assisted with the varsity team. She broke up with a boy friend she has been dating for about 5 months, siting differences in what each had planned for their futures. He didn't want her to coach which she dearly loves to do. Also he didn't want any more kids as he already has one and daughter definitely wants some kids. Daughter is also deeply involved in church and with the youth at church and he acted like he didn't want anything to do with any of that either.

       The month's weather has been up and down with lots of rain but no snow or ice thankfully.  The rain added to what we already  had made for a record breaking 75 inch total for the year.
As the clock ticks toward 10pm hubbie and I both know we won't make it to see the ball drop at midnight as we have not done in many years so this is just another winter evening for us.
I am so grateful to God for another wonderfully blessed month to end a wonderfully blessed  year.
Good Night, God Bless and Happy New Year.

PLAY DATE DAY FOR G-SON

Up early to greet g-son at 7am as his mom and dad went back to their regular work schedules today. Hubbie is off today for his regular day off,but I was awake and got up when g-son got here as well.
Nic is coming today also as his mom has to work and since school is out he needs a baby sitter. (oops don't tell him I said baby)
He came at about 8:15. G-son was just finishing his breakfast so Nic had a waffle also. They played very well together today. Last year when Nic came for the day there would be arguing and fighting but today they were really well behaved and got along great.

Hubbie blew this boxing game up and they got a workout playing the games on it.

While they were playing Bernie and Dolly got haircuts and baths that we have been putting off for the month.

After lunch Aaron brought a roll of hay to the cattle and Rebekah and Evy walked over to get out in the fresh air since they were all feeling better from their bout with a virus or flu that has been making the rounds.
I did a couple loads of laundry and then spent some time playing with the boys which tickled them to death. They screamed so much their throats will probably be sore tomorrow !!!
They ended the day calmly playing with another of g-son's Christmas presents.

After they were both picked up I did the evening chores then had a salad supper before relaxing for the evening.
It has been a nice day with highs in the upper 40's and mostly cloudy but the air feels cold and damp tonight with temps headed well below freezing tonight. Maybe some interesting weather coming our way with an Artic blast to usher in the new year.

I read some in my first year of blogging book tonight and was reminded of the huge snow storm we had that December.  But we are going to get through this December without getting any snowflakes on the Christmas decorations.
Think I will get my January cleaning started tomorrow in my bathrooms as I begin the un-decorating.
Praising God tonight for His love and grace that He freely gives each of us and expects so little in return,just that we love Him.
Good Night and God Bless.

LAST SUNDAY OF 2013 BEGINS HAPPILY, ENDS SADLY

Church was really special this morning. Four people were Baptized and two of them were the young man who is a cousin and friend and his wife who I have blogged about before. It  was so spiritually refreshing to see God working in these young lives. They were all Baptized by our associate Pastor Craig because he had worked so delligently with them.  May all the Glory be to God !!!

At the end of today's service this same couple dedicated their two young children to the Lord and to our Christian family.
After church we had a spaghetti lunch for everyone except Aaron and Rebekah who are still too sick to get out and didn't really want any lunch brought to them.
After we ate the entire family made a trip to Sams Club and Ingles to pick up some New Years Eve lunch supplies and check out the after Christmas items they had for sale. Everyone found something. #2 son who doesn't have a Sam's card went along to get a new cell phone as the one he has is over four years old and stopped working yesterday.
When everyone got home and went on their way it was time to do the chores. I emptied 1 3/10ths inches of rain from the gauge that fell over night and boy is everything sloppy around here. I wished I had taken a picture of all the water just standing in the bottoms.
To finish up the decade pics for this month and year this is the "unknowns" for the month.

Hoping someone out there has a clue to the identities of any of these probably made in the 1940's or 50's.
As this year comes to an end the newspaper today had the 10 top news stories for our area listed. I probably talked about some of them in earlier post.
The number one story happened in May when a man that went to school with my #1 son gunned down his wife and her mom and dad in front of his two children. He led police on a chase before shooting himself.
       The number two story was actually continued into this year. It was of the four teen boys from East Henderson High School that were accused of raping a girl they went to school with at a party at the home of one of the boys. One of the boy's parents reached out to the "Dr. Phil" show and got a broadcast where her son and the victim got a chance to air their stories to a nationwide audience.They still haven't had their trial as it just keeps getting postponed.
       Number three story was the conviction of a well known developer who defrauded millions of dollars from investors of a large development called Seven Falls.
       Number four was the arrest of a local private school principle and teacher for transporting child pornography. The shocking thing was that the young model used was the teachers own daughter.
       Number five was the miraculous recovery of a young mother and her infant son who were hit head-on by a drunk driver. The husband and father works with #1 son.
        Number six  was a sad story of a grandmother in Brevard who was having health problems and forgot her young grandson was in her car leaving the car out in the summer heat and killing the four year old boy. She wasn't charged with any crime.
         Number seven was the drowning death of a boy that was a football star at the local North Henderson High School. He was swimming with a group of friends at lake Summit when he jumped from a bridge and cramped. It was in June but the water where he drowned was so deep and cold divers and equipment had to brought in from Charlotte to help find him after a three day search.
         Number eight was a rare re-trial conviction of a man with the  killing of his girlfriend. In the first trial the jury was in a hopeless deadlock.  The second trial was a unanimous guilty verdict.
         Number nine was the break up and arrest of members of a huge meth ring in our county with the arrest of 29 people. They seized more than $42,000 in cash, 4 weapons, 2 automobiles, 32 grams of cocaine, 5.74 pounds of meth, 84 grams of marijuana.  Wow ! that sounds like a major haul to me!!
         And last of the ten was the government shut down that threw the entire country into a tailspin.
The shutdown locked down all national parks and at the peak of tourist leaf peeping season for our area.  The Blue Ridge Parkway which passes through our area had to be blocked off.

These stories might sound sleepy to a lot of big city folks but for our small town they were the big news of the year. 
Stay tuned for more year ending post !!

Received some very sad news tonight,Elaine Staton, the Curb Market manager and a good friend of mine lost her battle with pheumonia tonight.  She developed a very bad lung infection and wasn't able to breath on her own. After she was hooked to a machine and her family was called in the decision was made to not let her live on a machine. Unbelievable that this lady lost her live in such a short time, only in the hospital one week.  I pray tonight for God's comfort for her brother, son and daughters as well as her grandchildren who were the lights of her life.  I am glad to know that she is happily skipping along hand in hand with her husband Stanley who had went on ahead a couple years ago. RIP Elaine, you will be surely missed.
Praying tonight for God's grace as I stumble along this crooked pathway of life.
Good Night and God Bless.