Thursday, December 31, 2015

2015 CHRISTMAS CARDS AND SANTA VISIT


2015 IN MY REAR VIEW

 Today started out thankfully rain free !!!  As I got ready for market I noticed the chill in the air more today than yesterday.
Market was pretty good on this New Year's eve as several folks picked up cakes for their celebrations and the 2 large orders were picked up. I got all my Christmas decorations down and put back out all the freshly laundry'd regular covers.
Hubbie brought me a Greek salad from my favorite Hotdog World and then I packed up a little early and went to Aldi to pick up a few groceries and baking supplies for Saturday.
I made it home before 3:00 and got things unloaded and put away just as Hubbie came in from getting off work early. We got a nice surprise as we came home to a nicely scraped driveway , thanks Aa !!!
I had a chance to sit with my 4-legged kids out in the sunroom and enjoy this last day of 2015 this afternoon with a hot cup of green tea in hand !!
Hubbie and I choose as usual to spend a quiet New Years eve her at home watching TV. Usually we never make it to midnight awake !!!
Josh surprised daughter with dinner at the Grove Park Inn this evening and they watched the sunset from their table.
Beautiful couple , special memories !!!!
#2 son called from the grocery store  a while ago to ask questions about what size roast to get for a dinner he and Tif are having tomorrow at their house and the other four family members are all across the road at Aa and Re's for a get together of a bunch of their friends.  I pray that everyone has a safe New Years Eve whatever you are doing.

2015 has been a good year for me and my family with more ups than downs so for that we are surely grateful to our loving Lord.
Here is a month by month look back at this past year.
January.....
The year started out cold and rainy.  Daughter was coaching basketball and I managed to attend several of her teams games. On the 15th day of the month our extended family grew by one when BB was born to Aa and Re.  Later in the month we would get the first glimpse of our new grand baby as d-in-love had her first ultrasound .

February........
To begin this month the groundhog saw his shadow and predicted 6 more weeks of winter. And right on cue we had a couple decent snows which were very fun for the kids. Valentines day was fun as I helped give g-son's second grade class a party. There was some new record low temperatures set for our area and we had the worst ice storm we have had in years. The ground was covered in an inch of solid ice making travel impossible and I crawled around to feed the animals.


March.......
The month started with helping Re house hunt, they had exhausted all other options over the last year and were settling for a double wide and Aa started the road building and grading of their property across the road. We planted an early garden in the warm temps at the beginning of the month. Hubbie and I made an early Pickens flea market trip with #2 son who had never been down there before.
We went to the Flat Rock Playhouse downtown theater to see the Wizard of Oz which g-son enjoyed immensely. During this month we celebrated 4 birthdays, #2 son on the 1st, Re on the 25, daughter on the 26th, and EL on the 31st.

April......
Spring break began this month and once again we headed south to the Pickens flea market with daughter and d-in-love. We had a wonderful Easter this year with an egg hunt for the kids. We also discover our grandbaby was going to be a girl as g-son announced it at a gender reveal party with pink inside cupcakes.  We celebrated d-in-love's birthday on the 24th of this month. #2 son traded his toyota pick-up truck for a new jeep wrangler and I began the search for a new large suv this month also. The month ended on a sad note when  a close cousin's husband passed away.

May........
We got our garden planting finished this month as we had to go between rains to get it done. The month was filled with activities for the family, another trip to the flea market with Re, d-in-love and the kids, the relay for life celebration at the high school, garden jubilee up town, and a depot street craft fair. Also d-in-love traded her toyota corolla for an older Nissan pathfinder this month and I bought a new Honda Pilot on Memorial day. We also celebrate Josh's birthday this month.

June........
Lots of rainy days this month created many rainbows in the unseasonal hot temperatures of the month. Spring Old Timey day at the Curb market started the month off. Bernie one of our 4-legged kids was diagnosed with an enlarged heart and put on a regemine of pills to reduce the size and stop his constant coughing. We celebrated Father's day and 2 birthday's this month, hubbie's and Aa's with a trip to Sierra Nevada to have lunch after church one Sunday. Aa and Re's house arrived, his well was drilled and septic put in. G-son attended Cub Scout camp for a week and enjoyed it very much.

July.......
To begin this month we had a fun 4th of July cookout here and invited Josh's parents and a couple of his brothers and their families.  #1 son changed jobs this month and went back to work for Zach King grading who he had worked for years ago. Hubbie, g-son and I made a couple trips to Carl Sandburg's farm where g-son fell in love with a baby goat named Cinnamon. I stayed busy with the beginning of the canning season with green beans and the many cake orders for Green River camp. The big day for daughter came when Josh proposed to her on his families beach trip to Oak Island. G-son had vacation Bible school at the end of the month. On the last day of this hot summer month I got a year older.

August..........
Our family beach trip began this month as we arrived at Oak Island on the 1st day for a week. Daughter and I were lucky enough to witness a Sea turtle hatching on the beach one evening on our daily beach walk. We had nice weather and everyone declared this one of the best vacations we have had. We came back to a baby shower for d-in-love. I continued my food preservation with more canning, especially tomatoes this month. G-son started his 3rd grade year at school and was happy with his teacher, Mrs. Thomas.  It was a dry month.

September........
Apple festival and Labor day started this month off busily for me.  We welcomed g-daughter on the 8th day about a week early but she was perfect. Our church had our annual Block Blast and the family enjoyed the Mountain State fair. I attended several of daughter's volleyball games as well as did some wedding planning with her. I continued my canning activities so no fresh produce went to waste on the farm. A scary school lock down at the high school where daughter teaches gave everyone a dose of reality that this could happen here as an ex-girlfriend of a teacher came on campus with a gun.  The month was pretty rainy so much that after postponing our Curb market Fall old timey day a couple times we just canceled it. The persimmon seed winter prediction is for an icy cold winter this year.

October.......
A major 1 in 1000 year flood started this month as devastating floods  from a hurricane named Joaquin who didn't even make land fall washed out interstates and bridges in both Carolinas.
Our church celebrated our 140 year anniversary and the rain kept the main guest, Rev, Charles Stanley, who started his career preaching in our church, from making the trip. I attended several volleyball games and made our Fall trip to the Pickens flea market. Hubbie and I attended an impromtu class reunion called for by one of our classmates who was making his first trip home from Russia since graduating. In gardening news we dug our potatoes and were eating fresh greens from our fall crops. The first freeze of the year on the 19th sent hubbie and I over to the neighbor's tomato field to gather several boxes of tomatoes for winter storage. I also continued apple butter and jelly making this month. We celebrated 2 birthdays this month on the same day as #1 son and g-son turned older, 34 and 9 on the 16th day of the month. This year brought some of the most vibrant beautiful leaf color in several years. The month ended with a fun Halloween which g-son was darth vader and EL and BB were an airplane and a pilot. We missed our trunk or treat at church as they scheduled it for November 1st and it was a very rainy day.

November...........
This month began with the annual draw down fund raiser out at the high school. No one won anything much but we all had a great time. Daughter, d-in-love, Re, Kendra (another bridesmaid) and I went wedding dress shopping in Spartanburg,SC and she found a dress she loved and brought it home with her.  I started keeping g-daughter 3 days a week as d-in-love went back to work. Sadly I lost another 1st cousin as Winnnie Moore died on the 16th. We had a scare on a rainy night as d-in-love and g-son were involved in a multi car wreck on the interstate but thankfully they were not injured and her car received minor damage.  Daughter started coaching basketball this month with only a couple days break between the end of her volleyball season. Just before Thanksgiving I spent days with #2 son in the emergency room and doctor's offices when it was discovered he had a herniated disc in his neck. We enjoyed a very nice Thanksgiving supper with everyone in attendance.
A very wet month ended with our Old Timey Christmas celebration at the Curb market and the Hanging of the Greens service at church.

December............
Decorating started this month off. I didn't get the large cake order from the lawyer's office that I have had the last couple years but that gave me more time to focus on the things I wanted to do. My market orders were large this year making for a good December sales month. Our  weather set a warmest December ever record and we had almost 10 inches of rain in the month making it one of the wettest on record also. G-son got his first acting daebu on stage at the Flat Rock Playhouse to culminate a month long class after school each Monday he had signed up for, he did great and surprised us all !! We had several church activities to attend starting with the annual Deacon's dinner at the Justice Academy where we hosted all the widows and widowers in the church. The kids put on a great play on the second Sunday and the adult choir had a program on the 3rd Sunday. The candle light Christmas eve service is always my favorite. #2 son on the advice of the spine specialist he is seeing for his herniated disc traded his new jeep for a Ford pick up truck which is much easier and comfortable to drive as his neck heals. Our family celebrates two anniversaries this month, #1 son and d-in-love on the 10th and mine and hubbie's on the 21st.  Christmas was a wonderful fun time this year with the little ones all vibrating with expectations !! 
This year has held many blessings for our little family and we all know who to give all the credit for these blessings to. As God is always in our hearts and on our minds we use this time of year to celebrate the greatest gift to mankind, our eternal Savior, Jesus Christ.
As this year comes quickly to an end this evening I am humbly grateful for the joys, the laughs, the tears and everything else that made this year another special time in the life of this family.
God's fireworks on the last day of 2015 !!!
And if you thought this month was more like spring than winter you would be right as it was one of the multiple states that sat a new record for warm Decembers.

As I sat and reflected this afternoon with my ever faithful 4-legged kids I pray that everyone out there in Blogger land has a wonderful ,safe and happy New Year's Eve.
God Bless, Good Night and See You Next year !!!!!!!!





Wednesday, December 30, 2015

A LOOK BACK AT THE 2015 TOP TEN NEWS STORIES

Woke to the sound of rain falling on the metal roof again today.  I guess Mother Nature didn't here the weathermen forecast a 30% chance of late day showers ?? !!
Mud, mud more mud everywhere this morning. At least I didn't need a wrecker to get me through the muddy morning as #1 son did.   Not a good way to start his day !!!!!

The oven repairman's time frame for arrival is 11:45-1:45 so that knocks me out of the noon basketball game I was planning to attend.
I baked cakes early so the ovens would have time to cool before he got here. I baked 1 coconut, 1 chocolate, 1 pound  and 1 blackberry wine cake for a couple orders I have for tomorrow.
The oven man came at 1:15, he couldn't think of any thing else to do to the oven to fix it even after a call to the maker so he said I should try again to get my repair money back after he wrote in his comments that it wasn't fixable.  Something tells me I have lost $437 !!!!
I made it to the 2:00 ball game. The varsity head coach is at the Orange Bowl game in Florida with her daughter who attends Clemson university so daughter was the head coach today. Sadly the girls couldn't hit their shots and lost the game to cross town rival East Henderson.



D-in-love met me at the game and g-daughter seemed to enjoy her first basketball game before she took a nap.  I don't see how she slept with all the noise but she did !!
We came home right after the game and I rested a little while before chores.
The sun peeked out just before it dropped below the horizon this evening.

Hubbie and I watched the first half of the UNC/Clemson basketball game then I went to my office to do weekly paperwork and pay bills while hubbie finished watching. UNC won their first conference  game of the season pretty handily.
I ended the night icing my cakes and getting things ready for market.
Tonight I will take a look back over this last year in the local news stories.
The #1 story of 2015 in the news was of course the Duke Energy proposed transmission line through the county.  This line ran through a large portion of our property. As residents and public officials came together to strongly oppose the line ,unbelievably Duke Energy came up with a different solution and announced in November that the line would no longer be necessary.


The #2 top news story also had personal implications for me as my sister in law Gloria (on left) was one of the whistleblowers involved in a record setting lawsuit settlement with the local hospital where she had worked for 19 years and she became an instant millionaire with the settlement.
The #3 story was about a run down trailer park in the community where the tenants were living with raw sewage running through their yards and most of the homes had no running water or electicity. These conditions were brought to the attention of officials when one of the residents pictured here had a special needs baby.

#4 was the retirement of one of the very hard working and popular public officials as Senator Tom Apodaca announced his retirement. He has gotten many things done in our area in his tenure in office and will be greatly missed.

The #5 most read story was about the millions of dollars in school rebuilding projects facing the county to replace the aging buildings that now house students.
#6 was the introduction of a new Publix grocery store that is moving into the downtown area.
#7 was the vote that stopped a firing range in the Green River community as some local land owners wanted to open up a range to host shooting competitions .

#8 was the opening of the Sierra Nevada brewery's taproom and restaurant.

#9 was the good year that the Flat Rock Playhouse had and under this lady's new management for the first time in several years ended up out of the red for the season.

The last and 10th top story was the approval of a huge apartment complex for moderate income folks.

These 10 stories are pretty tame this year but that is a very good thing as our little country town goes through another year with no major bad things going on.Tomorrow I will review my personal year as it has been a good year for the family.
Thankful tonight for all the blessings the Lord saw fit to send my way this day and forever grateful for his goodness, love and grace.
God Bless, Good Night and Happy New Year


Tuesday, December 29, 2015

GRANDKIDS ARE THE GREATEST BLESSINGS

Wow !! After last night I didn't know what to expect this morning ?? After I went to bed last night the rain began to pour down and the winds were whipping more than they had all day. As I lay in bed and listened to the rain beat against the window over my head board the scanner lit up with downed tree calls and power lines down all across the county. I figured by the sound of things outside my window we would certainly be next. This morning there was a total of 890 power outages in the county from the storm.
Finally about 1am things quieted down and sleep won the battle for me.
I woke this morning to the power still on and a surprising only 1 1/2inch of rain in the gauge. The wind must have made things sound much worse than they were. There were limbs and sticks blown all around the yard but nothing else damaged thankfully.
The animals all seemed to relish the sunshine this morning and the cattle and horse were glad to get back down in the bottom pastures even if they were mostly filled with water.
I had breakfast and devotions and then called d-in-love to check with g-son who is coming to spend the afternoon with me to see if he wanted to go to Walmart with me or if he wanted me to go on this morning before he got here. He said he wanted to go so I spent the morning doing housework.
He came just before lunch, he wanted to stay with me while his mom went back to her old work place to show them g-daughter and to meet her mom to do some shopping .
After we had lunch we headed to Walmart to get some groceries and do some Clearance Christmas item shopping. G-son is always fun to shop with ........


We stopped at Ingles on the way home to pick up the Collard greens for our New Year's Day lunch.
G-son said we better get two bunches so we could have lots of money, haha !!!
Back home he helped me carry everything inside then I helped him put together a 3-D model car puzzle he bought at Walmart.  D-in-love came in and took this pic as he and I worked together, I need a haircut !!!!
She fed g-daughter and then left her here while she did her grocery shopping.  G-daughter watched g-son play a game on his I-pod.
Then she took a nap on the couch.
I came back in the living room and found this !!!!!   He loves her so much and she was so out of it he didn't wake her up with his snuggles.
I tried out my selfie stick tonight.

After d-in-love came to pick them up hubbie and I did the chores and had a light supper.
Hubbie is tired tonight after his first day back to work after his week off and spent the evening in the recliner. I caught up my blog book reading and then worked some on a re-cap post for this year.
I bought this little musical sea horse for g-daughter at Christmas and she is talking to it tonight.
She is growing up way too fast !!!!!
The air tonight definitely has a different feel to it than it has in a long time as a chill can be felt.
Although we have more rain forecast for tomorrow with still above normal temps the new year is bringing in colder dried weather.
The cold front line can definitely be found on any weather map. This is the snow cover map for today. Yes that is snow all the way down in Mexico !!!

I'm sure our turn for snow will come. One of the weatherman said last night that the last time we had an abnormally warm December which was also an El Nino year there was 27 inches of snow in the first three months of the new year, I think he said 1977.
Daughter has been at the gym all day as her teams sponsored a Christmas tournament for 4 area teams. Her varsity team lost their game today to Brevard HS and will play tomorrow in the loser bracket. She is the coach sitting down at the end of the bench .

I am very thankful to God tonight for His sparing us the brunt of the storm last night and for His everlasting care of all His children.
God Bless, Good Night and Happy New Year.