BLOCK BLAST SATURDAY

Up early and getting ready for market. The cooler morning sent hubbie back into the bedroom to change the shorts he had put on to long jeans before I got out of bed so I changed my choice of capris to long jeans also.
If the sun had been shining I think it wouldn't have felt so cool but with clouds and humidity the rule of the morning the long pants and loner sleeves felt good.
Market wasn't as good as I had hoped but I am thankful for what I did sell. After lunch it seemed as if everyone had done all their shopping of the day and the aisles of market became empty.
Daughter came by after her morning run and showed me a couple antique things she had bought for house. I 'll have to visit the little shop she has found.
After her visit she headed off to her house to do some yard work.
I got loaded a little early with the absence of customers so I could get a head start on my busy afternoon.
After I left market I went by Ingles and Aldi for groceries and baking supplies for next week.
I came home , unloaded and put things away then headed up to church for our annual Block Blast.
For those new to this blog , our church has had this celebration of our Saviors life for many years. Everything is free, including the meal, there are several neighboring churches that help with putting this on and the entire community is always invited. We usually feed close to 1000 folks who attend this event.
A group from a neighboring church, Mt. Moriah was singing when I got there and they were very good. Hubbie works with one of the members of their group.

There was a pretty good crowd but not as many as in some years past. The weather forecast was a little iffy but even with the dark clouds moving over head the entire day there was no rain to dampen the spirit of those who attended. Five lives were dedicated to the Lord today so all the work that went into this was well worth it.

 Hubbie went up at noon today to park cars and patrol the parking areas. After he had spent all day yesterday helping with the cooking he was ready to sit down and enjoy some BBQ with our group.

In the orange shirt is the associate pastor's littlest son with his mom, then hubbie behind her, sis-in-law Sandy's sister,Debbie, was there and sat with us to listen to the music. I'm eating a really good smoked chicken leg while baby BB eats his fingers. Little EL relaxes in her mom, RE's lap as Sawyer and Tatum hang out with us also.  Sawyers dad and brother also joined us .

This is always a nice family event and a place for the community to come together to enjoy old acquaintances and make new friends.
#1 son and d-in-love brought new g-daughter to her first Block Blast. She slept through even the loud music.

The kids loved the playground after we ate.

A very good time was had by all and the food was delicious.
Hubbie and I stayed behind and helped clean up and take down the stage before we headed home at 7:00.
The animals were all waiting for their evening feed time.
Hubbie and I both are wore out tonight so the couch and the recliner have been occupied most of the evening.
Praising God tonight for the wonderful day He provided for the block blast and all the glory goes to Him for the 5 lives that were given to Him on this day.
Good Night and God Bless.

14 YEARS AND THE MEMORY IS STILL VIVID

Up to get this Friday started with all the victims of this day 14 years ago on my mind. After chores I had breakfast , which I enjoyed out in the sun room on this nice cool 66 degree cloudy morning.
I need to refill my bird feeders and start attracting my feathered friends back into my yard. I haven't put any seed out for a while to try to discourage a barrage of grey squirrels that made my yard their home last time I filled the feeders.
I called my beautician friend for a hair cut hoping for a morning appointment but the earliest she had was 1:30. I started baking cakes instead of taking my morning walk so I could finish before 1:30.
Hubbie came in from work as he took 1/2 day off to help our neighbor Scott ( the dad of the daughter I talked about last night), cook 300 lbs of Boston butts for our church's block blast tomorrow. We usually feed close to 1000 people.
They had to go pick up the meat and pick up another cooker from another church member to fit it all in as Scott only has one cooker. They worked all day at getting these cooked just right.
I baked 12 caramel, 2 chocolate, 4 pound cakes and 2 blackberry wine cakes.
I got my hair cut and had a nice visit with Markeeta my long time friend / beautician. She had redone her waiting room in her shop since I had been there and it was so pretty.
I came back home and had to refire the ovens for a couple more pound cakes to finish the baking for the day.
D-in -love sent me these pics of grand daughter ,she has such chubby cheeks she is so cute !!

 Son's boss told him to take the rest of the week off so he is getting to enjoy his daughter.

Sunshine has been scarce today and the clouds really looked mean this evening as I finished chores and tried to sit outside but the cool wind and blowing rain ran me inside.

The distant thunder and lightening sounded pretty intense and canceled the foot ball game in town between North Henderson and Hendersonville after lightening forced the evacuation of the stadium twice. Daughter and Josh were there and she said it was really bad and close lightening. We were lucky here and just managed to get 2/10ths inch of rain out of the entire line of storms that passed through between 7 and 8 o-clock tonight.
Another cold front that is bringing our first taste of real Fall temps could bring more rain tomorrow. Hopefully the rain will not dampen the Block Blast at church but the cooler temps will be really nice.

I spent the evening icing my cakes and getting things ready for market.

Praying tonight for the families of the 3000 victims of the attack that changed America forever.

I am grateful for another day of undeserved blessings from our loving Lord .
Good Night and God Bless.

GRAND DAUGHTER COMES HOME

My little protector alarms went off this morning a bit before the 7am alarm clock went off. Bernie and Dolly (the protector alarms) were barking at daughter as she was bringing her baked goods and some bank business she needed me to do for her today while I'm at the bank by on her way to school.
G-son popped out of bed and got himself ready for school as we got her things in the racks.
He ate breakfast and worked some on his Lego project while waiting for other g-ma to pick him up to take him to school. She had to make an early morning run to Sam's Club for her restaurant and picked him up on her way back to Lake Lure as the school he goes to is on her way.
I got ready to go to market and made it a little early today but there was on one there except a few sellers to notice my effort.
I did have a pretty good day surprisingly for the Thursday after a holiday. There were several folks who were headed out of town who stopped by for cakes to take home with them. I am as always thankful for all that I did sell.
D-in-love sent this pic to show how this little sweetie who I am going to refer to on this blog as g-daughter  was looking so wide eyed after getting her heel stuck to check for jaundice.

D-in-love was discharged this morning but they had to wait until later in the afternoon before little RL was discharged.
I left market, ran my regular bank and p.o. errands and made stops at Sav Mor, Aldi, Walmart and Grand Dad's Apple house for another bag of apples and a cabbage. They had sold out of my favorite apple, Honey Crisp, so I settled for Jonagolds and Fugis.
I made it home around 4:30 and unloaded by myself before hubbie got in from work. We took a break and watched the news. It's nice to be back on a regular routine around here and I'm sure #1 son's family is looking forward to getting home and settled into a "new" regular routine !!!
They got home around 5:00 today. G-son has some company in the back seat now !!!

As we finished chores and sat down in the covered patio it started to mist rain and got really cool. Sure feels like Fall this evening.
We are really going to get a taste of Fall later this week end. These are some of the temps for areas around us. We are closest to the AVL airport in temperature usually.

High's Sunday are only predicted to get into the upper 60's, that's really going to feel like Fall is already here !!
In other weather news the last tropical storm named Grace fell apart far out in the Atlantic and now the "H" storm , Henri is going to make a sharp turn away from land into the cooler northern Atlantic waters and dissapear.

Last but not least in today's news is this special young lady, Sally Groce, she is the daughter of our good friend and neighbor Scott. She is a senior at the high school daughter teaches at and she is organizing a fund raiser for wounded veterans out at the school's tennis courts. She wants to be a prosthetics engineer when she gets to NC State next year. I wish her all the success she wishes for in her very worthy endeavers.

Daughter called and said both her volleyball teams won their games tonight at Tuscola HS in Waynesville,NC.
This has been another blessed day for me and my family and we are as always so grateful to our loving Lord.
Good Night and God Bless.

DAY 2 WITH BIG BROTHER !!

We all enjoyed some extra sleep this morning as hubbie and I got up and left g-son still snoring.
We heard a strange sound and realized it was raining. Wow we haven't heard this in so long it took a minute to figure out what the sound of the rain on the metal roof was !!!
I did chores after the rain slacked off and when I checked the gauge there was 1/2 inch in it,thank you Lord for the quenching drink for the parched earth around here.
G-son was ready to go to school and show off pictures of his little sister today.

Hubbie took him to school on his way to work.
I took a nice relaxing walk this morning after the rains passed and the sun came out for a little while.
Things look so refreshed this morning.

The flower blooms are more vibrant today with the lingering raindrops.

This wild onion even smelled more fragrant.

My little Fall garden produce is coming up very nicely.

 My ever watchful companion patiently waits for me to complete my walk down to #1 son's house and back. She knows she isn't supposed to come through that gate.

I came back inside and baked 6 caramel, 3 chocolate, 4 pound and 1 blackberry wine cake before having a late lunch.
Talked to #1 son and he said they had a good night with the baby. They had to wake her up to nurse so she is a good sleeper already.
The rain started back after lunch and I caught another picture of my guard dog making the best of a rainy day, but still vigilantly guarding the front porch !!!!

I did some of the chores early again today so when hubbie gets in from work we can run over to the hospital for an early visit before everyone gets off work and they have more visitors.
Other g-ma picked g-son up from school and they were over there when we arrived.
#2 son also came by to check out his new niece. He held her while d-in-love ate her supper . It looks like she is also checking him out !!!   All the kids just love this tall sweet mannered guy.

She was ready to eat and was sucking everything she could reach and then found her own fingers.

We all left and headed home to finish chores. I needed to get weekly paperwork done and the bills paid before icing my icing duties for the night start.
The sky over the hospital looked really threatening as we walked to our cars.

We prayerfully hoping all goes well tonight and tomorrow and this will be the last evening at the hospital.

 G-son was supposed to spend the night at his house with his other g-ma but when she brought him by to pick up his suitcase he had changed his mind and wanted to stay here another night.
He ate supper and then worked on a lego project until bedtime.
He was a happy little boy as he got into our bed and said he was happy that his family would all together and  home tomorrow night with him at his house.
I hope he has sweet dreams of this super sweet little sister.

Thankful tonight for all the blessings God gives each day and feel so humbled most of the time at all the undeserved love He sends my way.
Good Night and God Bless

GRAND DAUGHTER ARRIVES

I got a rude awakening after a pretty sleepless night as racing sirens sounded like they were coming from all directions just after 6am this morning.
I later learned that a young woman who was riding her bicycle to work was hit by two vehicles and killed just out on 64 highway. There were no charges filed as at 6:20 it was pitch dark and she had no reflective gear, lights or helmet and was riding in the oncoming traffic lane.  My prayers go out to this young woman's family as well as the two drivers who hit her. Such a sad situation for all involved.
Back to my sleeplessness, my sinus clogged up and I could hardly breathe, probably caused by inhaling the campfire smoke last evening, coupled with an extra person in our bed.
Fortunately g-son slept pretty good all night and was ready for his wake up call to get ready for school this morning without any trouble. He had waffles for breakfast and watched cartoons. He said this brought back memories!!
He is ready to be a "big brother" !!

An overnight sprinkle brought out the "pea soup" fog this morning as I drove home from dropping him at school. This is my cousin's old dairy farm hidden in the fog.

The cattle in our pasture are ghostly in the thick fog.

The fog is always thicker in these creek bottoms.

The sun was beginning to burn the for off along the mountains.

It's beginning to look Fallish around here !!!

After chores and breakfast I headed over to the hospital to check on son and d-in-love. She had already had her epidural and was resting peacefully when I arrived. Unfortunately she was only dilated to a 4 and was in a holding pattern since the epidural was administered. Son was settled in for a long day.

Her mom and dad were there for support so I stayed until the doctor came in and said this was going to be a long labor.  He said I could beat him back to the hospital when things got moving as my house is closer than his office so I should go home and they would  keep me updated. He went back to his office in Asheville and I came home.
I did some housework and caught up on my blog book reading while waiting to go pick up g-son from school.
He was in a funk when I picked him up because he wanted his sister to be already born. His mom is only at a 5 now so it will be probably a long night !!!!
We got all his homework done but he didn't want to go over and see his mom until the baby was born.
After we hung out outside and played ball ( by his rules) his dad called and said mom had finally made it to an 8 .
Hubbie came home from work about this time so I did the evening chores a bit early again today and headed back over to the hospital. I recall with g-son's birth after she got to an eight things went pretty fast.
I arrived and she was out of the pain she had been in a while before when they let the epidural meds needed to be increased. Anyway that got things moving pretty quickly and they called the doctor who said he would be on his way.
Dr. Cuellar arrived about 6:15 and talked her through the pushing moves before they began. She started pushing at about 6:30 and after about 4 pushes they made her stop as the doctor had left the room on his phone and he had to be summoned as the baby's head was ready to pop right out.
At 6:51 a beautiful little girl entered this world. She weighs 7 lbs, 10 oz and is 21 inches long.

She made no noise at all, not one little whimper but her lungs were clear and that was all that mattered.
She finally cried some when they gave her a shot.
We all got to take our turns welcoming her into the world over the next little while.

Daughter who coached her teams to victories today over cross county rival East Henderson even made it over to get a quick love on her new little niece.

This is a pic taken by a local photographer earlier this evening as she coached her JV team.

And this little guy, well it is an understatement to say he was thrilled to have his baby sister finally here.

G-son is spending another night with us and he is a very tired little boy tonight.  He couldn't wait to get into bed tonight and was promptly asleep. We will probably all sleep in a little in the morning as mom gave him the okay to be late for school.
Thanking the Lord tonight for this precious little miracle He brought into our family's life today.
Good night and God Bless