BUSY LAST DAY OF JUNE 2015 and HAPPY B-DAY Aa

Up early as g-son arrived before 8 this morning. He is still tired from his overnight stay at his friend Walker's house and spent the morning after his breakfast dozing in the recliner.
I did chores, had breakfast and tried to take a walk but a short shower drove me back inside after a short time.
I finished my July decorating, getting out all my patriotic decor.

After we had lunch ,which d-in-love joined us for, a break from her boring day at work, I did house cleaning. I kept watching the clouds as they grew darker and darker. This was the radar this afternoon but we didn't have any rain hitting the ground here even though the green shade covers our area.

We could definitely use a good soaking rain for the garden right now. We are getting plenty of squash and a few cucumbers but everything else needs rain to ripen.
My cousin, Debbie Pryor, brought a camera by that she had borrowed from daughter and we had a nice visit.
Re brought the kids by while she went to pick up pizza for a birthday supper for Aa this evening.
These 2 are getting so big I can't stand it !!

Everyone made it to wish Aa a happy birthday  36th birthday and have pizza and ice cream cake that Re made !!
We all had a wonderful visit and the ice cream cake Re made for Aa was very very good.
After everyone left we did the chores and then had our usual relaxing time out in the covered patio. While we ate this evening it came a short shower of rain, not even measuring in the gauge or wetting the ground under the trees.
On a sad note today ,one of my younger years friends passed away a couple days ago after a hard fought battle with cancer.  Rick was a very sweet guy and although I haven't seen him since my kids were in high school, I remember what a sweet guy he was and the good times "our gang" had when we were all young and fancy free !!
R.I.P.  Rick , you fought a great fight !!

As this month of June 2015 comes to an end it has been a good month around here. It has been a busy month to begin this summer. D-in-love only works 11 months out of the year so she and the other office girl at the elementary school who is also a 11 month employee work 2  ten hour days each per week. That means I only keep g-son 2 days a week this summer, on Mondays and Tuesdays.
Re has been working 1 day a week so I keep EL and BB the day after she works all night so she can sleep.
I also kept Claudia Dalton's son Nick this month on a day she didn't have anyone else to keep him, so I have been blessed with "littles" all month. I enjoy my time with all these kids and love watching them grow up.
The market has been up and down all month some days good other days really slow. We had our annual spring Old Timey Day the first Saturday and I had a really good day that day.
All the family made a trip to the new Sierra Nevada Brewery restaurant for a combination birthday / Father's day gift to hubbie who turned the big 60 on the 15th of the month. 
G-son attended his second Cub Scout summer camp and he enjoyed it very much, daughter and I went over to the closing ceremony and it was fun remembering when my boys were attending these camps.
One of my 4-legged kids, Bernie, went back to the vet for his constant coughing and was diagnosed with an enlarged heart. He was put on several meds and they have helped some but he is still coughing , we go back to the vet on Friday.
Aa and Re have worked all month getting their land ready for their new home which arrived last week. They have a beautiful place and are so looking forward to moving into their own home.
The other big news of the month was the decision by #1 son to quit his job at the DOT and go back to work for the grading company, Zach King Construction, which he used to work for before he tried to start his own business years ago.
The weather this month has been unseasonably hot for June on most days all around the country.
Lots of heat and rainfall records were broken in this month this year. A couple high temperature records fell in our state.

We are in the dry category in the drought monitor so far for this summer.

Here  is a run down of the weather in Asheville for each day this month. Usually we are a couple degrees warmer that these temps but these are measurements at the Asheville Airport which is fairly close to us..

As I did the  chores this evening I looked up at this beautiful full moon and thought it was a fitting symbol to bring this full month of activity for my family to a close.

Thanking God for all the blessings of this past month and looking forward to His plans for the future.
Good Night and God Bless.

LAUNDRY MONDAY

Set the alarm a little early this morning even through there are no kids coming this morning. G-son who is usually here on Monday's spent the night with a friend ,Walker Mains, from church last night and his mom will  to pick him up on her way home from work. They just live up the road from us.
Re who was scheduled to work last night, wasn't needed so no EL or BB today either.
After chores and breakfast hubbie and I loaded all the rugs and heavy quilts in the Honda and went out to the laundry.
Hubbie helped carry everything in and then left to go check out a sale at the World of Clothing just up the road while I took care of the laundry.
I got all the extra large machines so it didn't take long for me to get everything washed and the quilts and un-rubber backed rugs dried in the large commercial dryers.
Hubbie came back just in time to start loading things up. It usually only takes about an hour and is well worth the time to get all these washed at once.
I hung all the rubber backed rugs out on the lines when I got home to dry in this nice sunshiny day.
Daughter came by and helped hubbie groom Bernie. My back gives me fits if I sit that long holding him so hubbie helps her groom Tipper, her dog and she returns the favor with Bernie.
I got regular laundry started and also did the rest of the month ending extras. July is red,white and blue month and I got some of the re-decorating done today between 4 loads of laundry.
This is one of my spring flea market finds. Bernie seems to really like this one !!

It matches with the other quilt I cover the recliner with pretty well.

 By the time I had time to take a break the clouds were growing pretty dark and threatening so I gathered the already dry rugs off the lines and put everything away.
G-son did make an appearance here today while his mom went shopping this evening. He came in the door giving me his supper order. He has switched from mac and cheese to roman noodles.

Wonder what his next favorite food will be.
After hubbie and I ate supper we worked in the garden. I pulled up all the remaining pea vines and striped all the peas from them before giving the chickens their green treat for the day. There wasn't near as many peas as last year and we have only had them for a meal once. I had this 1 small bag to go in the freezer tonight to finish off the pea crop for the season.

I carried water to all my potted plants tonight, grumbling all the way about why I plant so many flowers each year and then have to carry water to them.
Hubbie and I had a nice relaxing time after g-son's dad picked him up and then headed to bed early to begin again tomorrow.
Today at a local sandwich shop called Harry's  our congressman Mark Meadows accompanied republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. There were lots of folks crowded into the small eatery for a chance to shake hands with Mr. Huckabee.

This is Carolyn Serano, one of my fellow Curb Market vendors talking with the candidate.

He is a retired minister , I think he would be very good for our country but I also think for that very reason he has a very slim chance of getting elected. So sad !!
I am surely comforted with the knowledge that God is ultimately in control and that no matter who is president He  is still King !!!!
Good Night and God Bless.

NEWS OF THE MONTH

Oh Yesssssss !!!!   The cool temps have arrived this morning. I went outside to do the chores in my regular Sunday morning attire (my PJ's) and shivered in the cool breeze of the 57 degrees.
All the animals acted so much more energetic today.
I headed to church early to get flowers set up for the communion table and then I was a greeter this morning.
The sermon was from 1st Timothy again,this one about Godly leadership. Which our country is very lacking in right now !!
He finished up talking about the Supreme Court decision that came down Friday forcing all 50 states to allow gay marriage. This is a blow to the founding fathers of our country who based the laws on God. We passed an amendment this morning to our church by-laws protecting any minister of our church from being forced to preform a gay marriage, which the Bible says is a sin.
These five Justices voted for the amendment as it squeaked by on a 5-4 vote.

In other news of this month as it comes to an end is the 6 shark attacks off the coast of North Carolina.

The first one was at Ocean Isle, then 2 at Oak Island, 1 at Surf City, then this week there was 1 off the beach at Avon and yesterday's attack occured at Rodanthe. Two of the victims lost arms and the rest were bitten badly.  All the attacks were in waist deep or less water close to shore.

There is no real explanation for all these attacks this year. Some scientist say it is because this is the turtle hatching season that is bringing the sharks close to shore and others say it is just because there are more swimmers in the water than ever before. It is scary to think what is lurking below the oceans surface !!!
Another sad day for this month was when this young man attended a Wednesday night Bible study at an historic black church in Charleston SC, then pulled out a gun and killed nine  members of the church in a racial bout of fury.

The family members of these nine victims faced this killer with forgiving hearts to keep any revenge minded attacks from happening.

They displayed an amazing, strong Christian faith in all they have said and done since the attack. Thank God for strong Christian folks, this country needs to take note of these God loving folks.

After a lunch of roast beef, green beans, corn on the cob, new potatoes, fried cabbage, rolls and sweet tea with fruit and a peach pie/cake for dessert everyone headed off on their own activities for today.
The cooler 78 degree temperature made sitting outside a popular activity for hubbie and I this afternoon and evening.
With only a couple days left in June it looks like this month is going out on a more fall like note than the hot summer time that most of the month has brought thanks to this dip in the jet stream.

As this last Sunday of June comes to an end I have reflected on all this terrible news for this month and my heart is heavy that so many folks are turning away from our precious savior Jesus Christ and becoming slaves to their own wants and lusts in the name of equality. I pray for all us sinners everyday, may God have mercy on our souls.

Good Night and God Bless

BUSY MARKET DAY TO END JUNE and UNDATED OLD PICS

When the alarm sounded this morning I could not believe it was time to get up. Evidently I was too tired to go to sleep last night and it was close to 3am when I finally got to sleep.
I dragged myself out of bed and got ready for market.
Daughter was already there with her blackberries.
We had a good day today to end June on a positive note thankfully. She stayed and helped me all day except when she had to leave to run Tipper, her dog to the vet. It rained off and on all day to really steam the air up.  When I got in my SUV I wondered where the promised cooler temps were ??

After we left market I went to Sav Mor , Aldi and the Farm Outlet on my way home. I ran through some very hard rain but as I drove closer to my house the pavement dried up and we only got a slight sprinkle.
After hubbie helped me unload and get things put away I sat on the front porch and watched as this storm passed by.

We both are pretty worn out from a busy , hot  week so tonight was a resting time for us.
To finish up the decade series for June these are the old undated photos of my cousins from Valdese,NC. Geneva was my dad's sister, Hattie Beddingfield's daughter and these were some of her boys.

This is a picture of Hattie's husband, Curt 's grave. They had three daughters,Ollie, Ula and Geneva and a son who died in a swimming accident when he was young.

Thankful tonight for a blessed day with good sales at market and a restful, relaxing evening. Going to bed early to recoup last night's lost sleep.
Good Night and God Bless.

HOME ARRIVING, CUB SCOUT CEREMONY, CAKE BAKING, OLD MEMORIES KIND OF FRIDAY

Whew !! as I get up this morning to another humid, hot day I know it is going to be a busy one.
After chores and breakfast I got a text from Re, their doublewide was on its way. Yay, they have waited so patiently, I am happy this day is finally here.
And here it comes as they slowly make the turn into their drive. It is 32 feet wide so each half is 16 feet, I don't know how they pull that on these narrow roads.Aa waits with the man that owns the moving company at the gate.

Everyone made it to see the first half put into place.  Aa, Re and the kids, daughter and d-in-love were all here  to supervise the progress.
After this half was set the haulers left to get the other half .  I came home to bake cakes, daughter went to pick blackberries and d-in-love went home.
I baked 12 caramel,2 coconut, 2 chocolate and a special lemon cake order.
Just finishing this in time to head over to Glen Marlowe elementary school for the Cub Scout day camp conclusion ceremony. Hubbie had went over to take g-son lunch and eat with him under the shade trees picnic style. G-son had asked for a grilled cheese w/ bacon and fries from Sonic. He was happy to see his Pawpaw and ate all his lunch.
Daughter got there at the same time I did and I was very glad because I didn't know where they were having the ceremony. They were in the lunchroom, thankfully with the air conditioning on.
It was a very nice program ,there was 103 cub scouts attending the day camp for the largest number of boys at a camp in this area.

Each Den had a little skit they presented during the program, this is g-son's den mates and he was very entertaining as they presented their parts.

G-son gets his turn to tell his astronaut joke.

Reciting their den moto !

 Summer camp friends are the best !!!

This lady, Wendy Henderson, is a neighbor and good friend of mine. Her son, John, and my #2 son  were buddies all through school and were in Cub Scouts together when they were young. Hubbie and I were leaders back then and Wendy worked more with the Boy Scouts, but now she is the district representative for the Echota Cub Scouts. She does a wonderful energetic job as always in her "when pigs fly" costume.

D-in-love and her mom were there also so daughter and I skipped out a little early to beat the traffic.
As I came home I stopped and made a picture of Aa and Re's new home up on the hill.

These guys were working quickly to get the roof finished before the storms get here.

I am so happy to see this place cleaned up and looking this good like it did when my dad owned it years and years ago when I was a little girl.

 This is me fishing off this same pond dam back in August of 1958, I was four years old .

This is the dam now all cleaned up and widened .

This is another picture of me fishing off the "catwalk" that dad built out into the pond.

These post tops are all that's left now of that "catwalk".

Unfortunately the lady who my dad sold the property to, Margaret Thomas, sold parts of it and now 3 different people own parts of this small pond.

Thankfully Aa now owns the majority of it and the dam.

When I got home the storms were started so I sat on the front porch and watched the rain come across the mountains until the wind kicked up and blew the cool rain in on me .
Hubbie came in from work and we watched the news and had a light supper then did chores in a break between rain showers. Thankfully for another day the severe storms missed our area and we only got light wind , 4/10ths inch of rain and heard distant thunder.
Our area is in the "dry" section on this map for now , but we need a good slow soaking rain.

We all went over to check out the new house now that it is together. It is a really nice doublewide, almost 2500 sq. ft. of living space.
Back home I baked 2 chocolate pound cakes, 1 for an order and 1 to give a lady who's husband just passed away last night. I also made a blackberry wine cake while I iced all the other cakes.
It was a long busy night , I fell into bed too tired to sleep after 1am.  I have to rethink these late nights !!!
Grateful for the strength God blessed me with continually and praising His name continually.
God Bless.