The new year started out cold with single digit temps. We had 4 inchs of snow and then an ice storm to begin the year.
Daughter and son-in-love treated us to the UNC / Clemson basketball game at Clemson in thanks for helping them move all their things and get them settled into an apartment.
I was elected board of control secretary for the Curb Market at the annual meeting on the last Saturday.
FEBRUARY...…
To start this month the groundhog saw his shadow and went back in his den for 6 more weeks of winter weather. And right on cue a couple days later we had an ice storm on the 4th and a flooding cold rain on the 11th.
#2 son and Tif found a house that was still under construction that they liked up on Davis Mountain on the other side of town and put some money down to hold it until the builder finished it.
MARCH...…
We celebrate 4 birthdays this month beginning on the first day with #2 son's, then Re's on the 25th and daughter's on the 26th and ending the month with EL's on the 31st.
Daylight savings time also begins in this month and makes for a hard couple weeks of getting used to springing forward for an hour.
IR and I celebrated St. Patrick's day at the Curb Market.
#2 son and Tif moved into their new house on Davis Mountain.
Daughter, Tif and I did some antique shopping at a local event and the first chicks of the season hatched.
We had high winds which are typical for March and cold weather and some late snow this year.
April started off with Easter Sunday and a beautiful day for an Easter celebration at our house with all the family .
We celebrated d-in-love's birthday on the 24th.
More chicks hatched and I bought 6 guinea chicks .
On a sad note our long time aged Havanese dog Bernie finally gave in to heart problems.
MAY.....
May was a really rough weather month as flooding rains caused devastating and deadly landslides and flooding on several occasions.
It was a busy month as we celebrated son-in-love's birthday and mother's day with family.
We also made a Picken's flea market trip, attended g-son's soccer games, the Garden Jubilee uptown and I had my annual eye exam.
We managed to get our summer garden planted between rains as we watched these two little girls grow.
RL finished her first year of pre-school and loved this teacher, Mrs. Jodi.
The rest of the family also had a busy month with a trip to Florida for #2 son and Tif , a camping trip to Cherokee for #1 son and g-son had trips to Bearwallow mountains and Carowinds with his 5th grade class to celebrate his last year in elementary school.
JUNE.....
June started out with Old Timey Day at market. Daughter was filling in as market manager until we can get a new one in place.
G-son graduated elementary school and was more than ready to head to middle school.
We visited Carl Sandburg's farm several times during this summer starting this month.
We celebrate 4 birthdays in this month starting with Tif's on the 8th, hubbie's on the 15th , IR's on the 20th and ending the month with Aa's on the 30th.
IR had a big pool party to celebrate her 1st birthday with all the family in attendance.
The apartment complex daughter lives in had a large pool so we spent many hours enjoying this with the kids.
We also spent many hours at the park letting the kids enjoy the sunshine.
G-son spent a week at Ridgecrest at a church camp and enjoyed it .
We also were busy with Father's day celebration, a Pickens flea market trip, blackberry picking and the girls all went to the Paw Patrol show.
JULY...…
Started this month out with a July 4th celebration which started early with a trip to the Columbus city festival and ended with a cookout and fireworks at Aa's house.
Rain delayed out beach vacation by one day but we had a wonderful time in Isle of Palms, SC this year which included a horse and buggy tour of part of Charleston.
Started this month out with a July 4th celebration which started early with a trip to the Columbus city festival and ended with a cookout and fireworks at Aa's house.
As soon as we got back from vacation RL got her chicken house finished she and her dad had been working on and I gave her the 6 Silkie chicks I had been raising for her. She was more than thrilled to have her own chickens.
We made more trips to the parks to play with all three grandkids.
#1 son started grading on daughter's new house site in this month.
G-son started middle school soccer try-outs and there was more pool play for the kids at daughter's pool.
Daughter and son-in-love both got new vehicles this month as son-in-love switched his rental from a Honda Accord to a CRV and daughter traded her Chevy Eqinox in for a Honda Odyssey van both for more room for carseat and baby things.
The month ended with me getting another year older on the 31st.
AUGUST...…
This month started out like so many others this year with a flooding rain.
I guess I can safely say that August was my favorite month of this year with our trip with #2 son and Tif to Montana and Yellowstone National Park on August 4th thru the 12th. Both hubbie and I were so glad we stepped out of our comfort zone and took our first airplane ride to go into what is a totally different world in the north western part of this country. It was thrilling on the plane ride out there to watch the sunset from above the clouds.
We stayed in Pray, Mt. in a newly constructed lodge called Sage Lodge. It was a beautiful place and our cabin was located directly under Emigrant Peak.
This month started out like so many others this year with a flooding rain.
I guess I can safely say that August was my favorite month of this year with our trip with #2 son and Tif to Montana and Yellowstone National Park on August 4th thru the 12th. Both hubbie and I were so glad we stepped out of our comfort zone and took our first airplane ride to go into what is a totally different world in the north western part of this country. It was thrilling on the plane ride out there to watch the sunset from above the clouds.
None of us had ever seen beauty like we saw in Yellowstone each of the 5 days that we drove to different areas of the park it was all so so beautiful.
We went in and out the northern gate closest to where we were staying but we went out the eastern gate into Cooke City Wyoming and the western gate into Idaho on different days of exploring.
We had a hard time getting home when the weather broke bad in New Jersey where we were flying into and we ended up sleeping in Newark airport and not getting home until Sunday.
While we were gone vacation Bible school went on and the kids all had a great time.
The rest of the month was pretty usual as we took care of all the grandkids and had fun at parks and pools.
#1 son's family took a last before school weekend camping trip to the lake and had lots of fun.
All the older kids started to school this month.
G-son in the 6th grade.....
AD started 2nd grade.....
CO started pre-school.....
EL started Kindergarten.....
And BB started pre-school for the first time....
August is always a busy food preserving month for me and tomatoes and green beans and other things kept me in the kitchen along with all my cake baking this month.
Another good thing that happened this month was that g-son as a 6th grader made the middle school soccer team and was really happy that he would get to continue the sport he loves as a school sport.
SEPTEMBER...….
Labor day and the Apple Festival started this month out. Hubbie and I always take our turn parking cars at market on Sunday evening and then we head up on the street when the crowds get lower. Only daughter and IR went with us this year.
On Labor day hubbie and I went with daughter, son-in-love and IR waterfall hiking on a beautiful day but it was hot.
The following Tuesday RL started her second year of pre-school at Mud creek Christain school.
This month was filled with soccer games twice a week and g-son got to play quite a bit in the games which was a surprise with him being a 6th grader.
The younger kids had fun at the games.
We celebrated RL's 3rd birthday on the 8th with cousins and friends.
And CO had a her 4th birthday on the 11th .
More flooding this time from hurricane Florence that moved through our area causing record water levels all across the state.
The month ended with Fall Old Timey day at the Curb market.
On a sad note this month was the last time AD and CO would be a part of our family as they had to go back to Ohio to live with Re's brother which was very sad and hard for everyone.
OCTOBER ……
More soccer games this month as g-son's team won the conference title.
Mark, my nephew and Brooke his long time girl friend got married on the 6th and it was a beautiful wedding that the entire family attended.
Daughter and son-in-love announced that they were expecting another baby .
On the 11th hurricane Michael hit our area causing another major flood.
We celebrated 2 birthdays this month on the same day as g-son turned 12 and #1 son turned 37 on the 16th.
October is always a month filled with fun at the local apple houses and this year we took full advantage with the girls.
We got our first frost on the 20th of the month which is about average for our area.
We also put our garden to bed when we dug our potatoes .
Hubbie and RL carved a Jack-O-Lantern which she was very proud of.
The month ended with a fun trunk or treat at church.
NOVEMBER...….
A late leaf color means this is a very pretty November this year.
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with everyone here for an evening meal.
Market had our Christmas open house on the Saturday after Thanksgiving and Santa made a surprise visit but IR was not impressed !!!
DECEMBER...…
Our church Hanging of the Greens service fell in December this year to begin the holiday month.
My decorating continued through the first week of December, that's usually how much time I allow myself to get it all done and what I don't get up doesn't get put up that year. This year I got all the inside done but the outside in the nasty weather was lacking.
On the 9th day we got 15.5 inches of a wet heavy snow that caused lots of work getting it off sagging roofs but was fun for the kids.
More fun lunch trips to Burger King for the girls.
We made it to all of g-son's wrestling matches. He is wrestling 8th grade boys and isn't winning but the experience and mat time is going to help him as he gets older.
He is also playing the saxophone in the middle school band.
G-daughter RL had a Christmas program at her pre-school and also one at church.
#2 son had a rough month of 90+ hour working weeks getting all the packages delivered.
We had 2 floods , one of the 21st and a major one at the end of the month when we received over 5 inches of rain in about 12 hours that left all our fences down and covered with debri.
We found out that daughter is having another little girl the first of June.
Our family Christmas eve celebration was lots of fun with the kids.
Christmas morning seemed to make all the kids happy.
The month ended with all three grandkids here on New Year's eve and that evening sitting in the dark when the power went off for 3 hours.
#1 son's family and Aa's family made a trip to Dollywood with over 30,000 other folks on the last Saturday of the year.
Over all this has been a wonderful year for the family and we are all very very grateful for all the blessings that the Lord saw fit to pour down on us. We are so very thankful for our health and that hubbie and I are able to enjoy all these kids and watch them grow up.
With humble hearts we await 2019 and are ready to meet the challenges of the New Year head on with God by our side.
God Bless, Good Night and Happiest of New Years.
With humble hearts we await 2019 and are ready to meet the challenges of the New Year head on with God by our side.
God Bless, Good Night and Happiest of New Years.
