Saturday

Well the day started with me getting out of bed at 6:45 to get the pork butt in the smoker by 7 AM so we could eat by 5:30. Actually I took it off the smoker at 5 and it was perfect for pulling the meat in clumps. I used a combination of hickory and oak wood for the smokey flavor and that combo proved to be an excellent choice. After getting the meat going I did my quiet time and then I heard little Annsley lying in her bed just singing away. Everyone was up and attum' by 8 AM and we all just did our own thing for breakfast which was cereal to grits, nothing fancy or special as we knew a big dinner was coming later in the day.

Annsley kept us entertained with Dora and her talking cars. Afterwards I did a little garden work and picked a couple Zucchini squash, cukes and a couple hand fulls of green beans, finally getting a few veggies. I'm still waiting on tomato's to turn and ripen and when they do we should have plenty to share and give away, but when!!! Grandma and Jill took Annsley on a golf cart ride and Bobby and I got to zero in our 9mm and 40 cal.'s to the tune of about 50 rounds each. It was a beautiful day with temps in the 70's and a slight breeze. The afternoon saw the humidity increase but nowhere near like Florida.

Our once Florida now Clemmon's friends the Carlson Family came for the afternoon and evening. The girls are just sweet and fun to be around and we can hardly believe they have grown up so quickly. We still remember them as these cute little curly headed girls and have lots of pictures as they have been coming to the cabin nearly as long as we have. Corrine the oldest is 17 and she was just a little thing. We managed to play a little badminton to work up an appetite before we ate that superb smoked butt, baked beans, cole slaw and pasta salad Jen made. Yumm what a meal!!! After dinner we played a couple games of Baulderdash(liars game or as Nancy calls it creative thinking) and of course she won both games with some really creative thinking. Oh well!! We had a super dessert of carrot cake with a special ingredient as both Nancy and Jill had their hands in this creation. Man was it the best cake ever. The Carlson's left just about dark for the ride back to Clemmon's. A great time was had by all.

It was a great day with super food, fun and games. Tomorrow is worship at Cornerstone. LATER

Friday

Well the day started early with little sleep as I had a restless night waiting for Bob and Family to arrive from Florida. I use to drive all night when my kids were little so they could sleep and cut down on "are we there yet"and "how much longer." Those were the days and have they quickly slipped away. Bob and Jill took turns driving and pulled in around 8 AM after a nearly 12 hour trip. Annsley slept most of the night and arrived fresh and ready to play. Bob took a small nap at first so I loaded up Annsley on the golf cart and we went visiting for about an hour. Bob was awake and was making some scrambled eggs and ham when we got back.

We played around outside with Annsley after eating and waiting for Grandma to get home from Sparta. We pulled her in the wagon, chased her around the porch and deck, read books and played cars. She is quite the live wire and a great talker. After Nancy got home we had bite of lunch and Bob and I got ready to meet Ted Smith for pickle ball at Roaring Gap. It was a beautiful day for play and each of us had a good workout until a little after 4 PM.Bob and I headed to Galax to pickup a few items he forgot and left home.

We got back to the cabin around 6:30 and Nancy was warming up the spaghetti sauce and meatballs she made yesterday along with a fresh garden salad and garlic bread topped with a homemade pesto sauce. Wow was that ever good eatin'. After dinner and clean-up Bob made a rub for the pork butt's that we are going to put on the smoker first thing in the morning. The Carlson Family who moved to Clemmon's from Florida a couple of years ago are coming after lunch for dinner and games.

I built a fire just before dark so we sat around and enjoyed it while Bob strummed on the guitar and I later burned trash until it got pitch black. After a nice hot shower I can hardly keep my eyes open and Bob just turned in as well. LATER

Thursday

Well after the great rain last night the morning air was so thick with a cool wetness it actually felt cold out when we got up this AM. Today was a special day for me as I knew my son, Bobby and family were on their way for a week long visit and that I had made it 63 years upon this earth. After my quiet time and a lite breakfast I ventured out to check on the gardens and flower beds. I did a couple domestic chores for Nancy like putting in a couple loads of laundry, burning the trash and vacuuming the basement. Great way to celebrate your birthday!!! Anyhow I love keeping busy and she never lets me be bored or idle.

We headed out about 10 AM for our mid morning hike and wow was it ever one to remember as fog shrouded most of the mountains ridges and laid in the valleys. We ran into a super nice sales lady with Mountain Dream's Realty by the name of Paula. She had a hand in the purchase of land for our church, Cornerstone Fellowship here in Sparta. She filled us in on a house on top of the mountain that has been virtually vacant since the owner died a few years ago.

We came back and had a lite lunch as we knew we were going out to eat with Helen and her brother Joe early in the evening however; Joe became ill overnight and cancelled. Keep him in your thoughts and prayers. The three us went to the Ship'sWheel and had a good dinner. We all had fish of some kind with huge baked spuds and salad bars. Very tasty and reasonable. THANKS Helen for the treat. Afterwards we had a couple of food stops at Lowe's and Hawk's market as we are getting ready for Bobby, Jill and Annsley but also the Carlson Family on Saturday for some smoked pork butt. Hmmm!!! I haven't heard from neice Kelly and her new friend if they are coming or not on Saturday.

Grand daughter Ava along with Amy and Tyler called to sing Happy Birthday to me, so that was the second time today I was serenaded; one in print(Kristen on FB) and the other live. Thanks again to all who took the time to remember me with cards, gifts and notes on Facebook. It turned cool after dinner as we sat on the back porch and visited with neighbor Jodi until nearly dark. Well we are expecting Bob and Family between 7 and 8 in the AM after an all night drive. Keep them in your prayers and thoughts as well for traveling mercies.

So if I'm a little lax in writing this next week you know the reason. LATER

Wednesday

It sure tuned out to be a beautiful day even though there were time when it looked like rain during the day and the evening did give way to a violent thunder storm with; lightning, thunder and a heavy down pour around supper time. The rain was very heavy at times and dropped the outside temps down 20 degrees.

After our morning quiet time and a light breakfast I ventured out to do some garden work before we did our mid morning hike. I slept very lightly last night as I was still keyed up about traveling back to the mountains. I was up at 6:30 but had been awake since 5:30.

Our morning hike to the top was a good one with no rest stops on the way. We ran into an old friend, John Cottle and visited with him for a few minutes. His grand daughter is visiting from California. After our hike I started weed eating and finally got all the yards mowed before the storm set in an was able to spread lime as well. The rain should help the grass to turn green with all this lime

Nancy fixed a great stir fry with chicken breast, sugar peas(home grown) and other veggies. Yumm is all I can say. The rain lasted for nearly an hour.LATER

Tuesday

Well I was awake at 4 Am when the alarm went off, actually I cut the alarm before it went off. You would think someone who on Monday morning first mowed the yard and went to pickle ball for 2 hours then replaced some termite infested fence in the hot sun at 95 degrees would have no trouble sleeping, well that surely wasn't me as I stared at the clock every hour until it was time to wake Nancy to get ready to travel. We headed out at 5:11 AM on our way to N.C. The temperature at that time was 87 degrees and so humid its hard to describe. I truly don't remember it being that hot and humid when I put that uniform.

We had an uneventful trip which are the very best, other than a slight detour where road construction caused us to take an alternate route we made super time. We would have made it in 10 1/2 hours. That would have been the best time ever. We stopped off in Elkin, N.C. and picked up some groceries as Bobby and family are arriving early Friday morning after driving all night. We will have a couple days to get the yard and gardens in shape so we can play while they are here for a week.

Well I'll close for now missing all of our loved ones and Thanking especially our neighbors Jim and Laurie for looking not only after our house but keeping the yards in such good shape. LATER

Sunday on Monday Morning

Well as you can tell I missed Sunday's happening so here I am on another hot, muggy, Monday morning. Yesterday was a super day of worship especially with Bob and the Element Family. After our quiet times and a lite breakfast we headed out to Tampa an Element. We were taken back the extraordinary sound of the band and the new songs written especially for Element in its journey of worship. Kudos to all who put this masterpiece together and all who read these ramblings can order on line. Just click on Bobby link to this blog or go to we are element.org and order a cd. The money is being used totally to fund their new building project of renting the next door warehouse space and do alterations for classrooms for the tremendous growth of the number of kids. They have grown 10 times with the number of kids from what they started out with last Oct. So jump on board with a chance to help youngsters have classrooms and who knows you maybe responsible for child to have a life changing relationship.

After worship we headed home and had a lite lunch before heading out with neighbor Dan to help with a small worship service at the Freedom Square nursing home. We noticed several whom we had come to know were not there. One in particular passed away in June and it was she who was such an inspiration to us. Hopefully we will be reunited some day. After the nursing home we headed back home to watch the Ray's lose a game they should have won, Oh well!!!

WE took off for a dinner at grandma's(G/G's) house. She had roast chicken, mashed potato's, stuffing, salad and gravy. Everyone bought a dish and it was as usual, superb. We or I ate to much and by the time we got home I was in no mood to write so I laid around and watched the History Channel. I think I dozed a couple times and before I knew it 11 PM had arrived.

Well we are getting ready to head out early in the morning back to the mountains of North Carolina. Jodie, our mountain neighbor was at our place last evening and said the garden's looked good and that I had a Zucchini squash baseball bat in size. We are thankful for all the rain. So I will be away from these ramblings for a day or so. We got to visit yesterday with both grand girls and they are the delight of our hearts. LATER

Friday and Saturday

Friday started out with the usual lite breakfast after our quiet times. We headed out to the Rec. for a workout. I took it kind of easy as Thursday was a rather strenuous 2 hour pickle ball time. I did 30 minutes on the elliptical and Nancy did her 30 minutes on the treadmill. I sure miss that mountain hike for a workout. Anyhow after leaving the Rec. we headed to K-Mart to pick up a big wheel for Annsley for her birthday in October. It's one of Bob's favorite character's for Annsley, Dora. Oh well she will enjoy it.

We came home and had a lite lunch with Amy and Ava and played with her until it was time for her afternoon nap(actually it was time for my nap as well). We just chilled until it was time to get ready to head to Tampa around 5 PM for Josh and Laura's wedding being held at the garden club on Davis Island. That's a right ritzy neighborhood and the garden club occupies some fine real estate on the island next to Tampa General Hospital.

The clouds had opened up with rain earlier in the day and most of the afternoon but stopped just before the wedding. The ceremony was held outside under some trees with the bay in the background. The flowers and gardens were lush and green. There were probably close to 200 in attendance. The food was excellent with your choice of a chicken breast, steak or pork loin with smashed spuds, Caesar salad, rice and fresh sauteed squash and bread. The food was prepared on the premises by friends and served buffet style. Everyone had a grand time and especially little Annsley who served as Laura's flower girl. She loved the dancing and activities but by 9 she was wering down so Nancy and I took her to her home, bathed her and got her to bed by 10:30. We never heard a peep from her the rest of the evening. Bob and Jill got in a little after midnight after helping to clean the facility with several friends and family members.

We met Josh's family for the first time and they seemed very nice. The kids are off to Colorado for their honeymoon. What a change that will be as neither have ever been there. We wish them the best. We got home round 1 AM and slept in to about 8 AM until Tom turkey decided to start gobbling.

Saturday was a real laid back day with a lite breakfast after our quiet times. I mowed the front yard and did some Facebook up-dates and down loading of wedding pics. We decided to hook up with Amy, Tyler and Ava at the Rec. pool for about an hour or less as thunderstorms were in the area. After getting back from the pool we just read and watched the Ray's beat up on the Kansas City Royals. Ava came for dinner as Amy and Tyler had a date night.

Well we're getting ready to give Ava a bath and put her to bed at her house. Both she and Annsley are such a joy to watch and have made this week plus visit a pure joy. Tomorrow is worship at Element so we will get to visit with her; however she and her parents are coming next week to the cabin for a week. LATER. Check out Facebook for wedding pictures.