This past July, Beth and Matt and Jerry and I went home to Tennessee to surprise dad for his birthday. When we arrived, we went directly to Paul and Cindy's house so that dad wouldn't know we were there before the family gathering that Friday evening. We caught him completely off guard- it was so much fun!

On Saturday the whole family went to The Homeplace, a museum type place where they have old log cabins and barns fixed up like they used to live longer ago. They have people there dressed like they did longer ago. They have men actually working out in the fields, women sewing and cooking, and animals that need to be fed. It is pretty neat to see.

Dad's arriving at Pauls for his birthday party.

Matt, Jenna and Dawson on Paul's walk way out to their pond.

Pauls and all their dirt bikes! They have one for each of their boys.

Pauls have a baby deer and Jenna fed him with a bottle.

Picnic at The Homeplace museum. .

The Homplace

One of the women at the Homeplace cleaning their lunch dishes.

Paul, Jerry, Jenna and matt

Lyndon observing this man's work.

Jenna and Dawson peeping into a chicken pen.

Family pic

Paul's boys and Jerry and Jenna

Sitting around a fire at dad's that evening. Thank God for family!

Jerry and I had plans to fly to Tennessee until the evening before we left. I had already bought plane tickets for Jerry and myself, so the evening before our flight I went online to check in. I thought Jenna could fly for free, because she wasn't 3 years old yet. Low and behold, when I was online I noticed that the age limit for flying free was 2, not 3 as I had thought! My heart sank to my toes. I called the airline, and they did not cut me any slack. They would have charged us what both of our tickets COMBINED cost us for a seat for Jenna! So I told her to cancel our flight, that we'd just drive. After I got off the phone, we immediately started packing and left an hour later!

The airline did give us a credit to use our tickets for up to a year, so that was nice of her. I guess Jerry and I will just have to go on vacation sometime before next July. :) That's not such a bad deal.    

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Jerry, Jenna and I.

We had a wonderful holiday season this year. We haven't really started any Christmas traditions yet, but I suspect that we will probably be making opening Christmas presents on Christmas eve a tradition. That's what we did this time and it was great. Jenna is just now grasping the concept of presents and it was so much fun to watch her tearing into her presents. Jerry bought a digital photo frame for me. I haven't had a whole lot of time playing around with it yet, but I'm excited to get it up and running.

We went to Tennessee for Christmas this time again. We had my family get together on the 27nth. All of us were there except for Arlene, who lives out in Kansas. We are quite scattered anymore, with me living in Ohio, Beth in South Carolina, Arlene in Kansas and Joann in MO it's a little tough sometimes to all get together. Cristine, Glenn, Cindy and Dad still live in Tenessee. My step mom's 3 children and their families were there again this year, so we had a big crowd. With everyone there, we rented a Fellowship Hall to have the gathering.

The men cooked a hearty brunch of pancakes, biscuits and gravy, eggs and corn mush for us.

Relaxing and talking after the brunch.

Glenn, Tina, Michelle and Lanae. They are leaving for Ukraine for a 2 year term on the 13nth of this month. It was a tearful good bye for me with Glenns when the time came for us to travel back here to Ohio.   

The afternoon was filled with playing games, opening gifts and relaxing. Jerry, Matt, Jeff and Rosetta played rook for hours with Dad looking on.

Cindy and her youngest daughter, Carolyn, playing Boggle with a group of others.

My buff nephew, Jeff, having a conversation with Jerry.

Glenn and Dad laughing at a text. I love this picture!

Dad, Daniel, Paul and Glenn handing out Christmas presents.

Jenna peeking into her present.

Joann made some taffy in the afternoon and Elaine and Rosetta pulled it until it was soft enough to eat.

Ummm Ummm good!

Beth's little Vincent being goofy and eating taffy.

The big meal.

Washing dishes and cleaning up.

Some of us went back to Dad's pond to do some fishing one evening. Here is a picture of some of the grandkids that went along. Dawson, Jenna, Vincent and Chaney. (Chaney is a step cousin)

I always love going back home again and regret when the time comes to leave. Family is just so important and it's comforting to know that they will always be there for you when the need arises.

Happy New Year, Everyone!

I just read a blog that one of my friends posted about abortion. (Thanks, Suz!) It is eye opening. Recently I have been made aware just how horrible abortion is, and it has been on my mind the past few days. I watched a short video on abortion a few days ago, and cried through the whole clip. It is so awful, but it is real. After the video was done, I went in to my little girl's crib where she was sleeping, picked her up, and held her for the remainder of her nap. It had a profound effect on me. She could have been somebody else's child.... someone who could have chosen to abort her at full term. I do not understand how a women can carry a child to full term and then choose to abort it. Abortion at any stage in pregnancy is wrong, but why does anyone have to wait until the baby is full term until they decide they don't want the baby? Why ????? Animals are more protected than babies are. It makes me angry. You can watch this clip at www.durarealidad.com 

We cannot just choose to ignore this. It is real and it is happening right now. So sad.