persistence

Sue needed her UT dammit doll last night during the playoffs. Watching basketball brings out the REAL Sue.  Former high school basketball coach, she often offers advice to Holly and anyone else who will listen :)

The Lady Vols were trying to get into the Elite Eight, but it looked like the season was all but over. Down by 17 points, the announcers said the seniors on this team were the last ones to play for Pat Summitt, too bad they can't pull it out for Pat. 

And. They. Did. Coming back late in the second half to tie it up, into overtime, and the win!

persistence

I made some of these dolls for Christmas gifts, and had one left which I gave to Kay earlier in the week for her birthday. Sue saw it and said, "I need one of those for watching the Lady Vols, they make me so mad!" 

Soooo... I went home and got out some scraps from Cody's quilt and made a custom one for Sue. When I took it to her on Friday she said, "I needed that yesterday when I found out my phone went through the washing machine in my jeans pocket!"  

But she really needed it last night, poor doll, hang in there the season is not over yet!

just another day in paradise

               

In between all the snow
pictures online, these shots
pop up on my
Facebook page.

HAWAII!

Just another day at the beach
for niece Leah, married to our
Marine nephew, Jesse.
Leah is passing the time while
Jesse is gone by strolling
on the beach and reading
and taking great pictures.

                      

I am sure she is doing lots 

of other things, but this is 

what comes across to us folks 

over here on the mainland 

who are busy 

getting in firewood 

and cooking hot soup 

and making quilts 

to stay warm.

Thanks Leah 

for sharing your 

day in pictures, 

wish we were there!

Speaking of making quilts, this is one I started last summer, it is kind of in limbo, not sure where it is going, Funny how the colors are similar to the Hawaii pictures above :)

Pre-cut fabric worked well, I used a jelly roll like this for this pattern called Split Decision. This is the first time using batik fabric. It is beautiful but kind of stiff. Research discovered the stiffness is from all the dye and to remove the dye you must wash it with a product called Synthrapol in the washing machine with lots of Color Catchers. I haven't tried washing it yet, fingers crossed. There is so much to learn about quilting!

Just another day in paradise, as Buddy would say (sarcastically), but I believe Leah can use that phrase literally. 

~photos by Leah, used with permission

orange rules

Annual family outing - girls only - to see the Lady Vols play at UGA

We took advantage of the family gathering so we could all sing to Carrie
on her near 30th birthday!

Pat Summit - Whether by choice or side effects of disease or medications, Pat stayed on the sidelines and let her assistant coaches pretty much run the show. We got to witness what might be the unofficial passing of the torch to assistant coach Holly Warlick, who did an awesome job of leading the ladies to victory. Even the bad calls by officials did not get Pat up out of her seat, definitely a different story from a year ago.

Good to spend time with the extended family, sisters, cousins, friends.

road trip to the SEC

here they come!

the first tip-off

good ole Rocky Top!

cheer y'all!

Smokey

a long day for old dedicated fans...

Road trip with the sisters-in-law this weekend, saw lots of great basketball, lots of orange, met lots of nice folks, ate lots of good food, heard lots of family stories. A great time was had by all. Congrats Tennessee for another SEC win!

cousins

Madison and Lisa, cousins who just met 2 years ago and only get to see each other a couple of times a year got to spend some time together at Christmas this year. They made a trip to the mall to make their own custom teddy bears at Build-A-Bear. Holidays and family and teddy bears, it doesn't get much better than that!

At Christmas, cousins are the presents under the tree. ~Karen Decourcey

games people play

Looking for some family fun? Look no further, I have just what you need.

Award winning math games developed right here in the north Georgia mountains. Add, subtract, multiply, divide - whatever it takes to get the right score - you can even take your shoes off if it will help.

Invented by our next door neighbors, teachers in a former life, hey - they are even kinfolk!

Check out the demo - is that niece Heidi? Look, y'all - Heidi is on the internet! Wow, living next door to actors and producers, Hollywood here in the country.

All kidding aside, the games are fun and educational, quality wooden products, have won multiple awards (including Mensa), and we are very proud of y'all!

Muggins Math

our Older sister

Has it really been 6 years since your big 60th birthday party? Let's see, that would make your age...

Do you remember the party your loving family gave you? Do you remember the coffin and baby pictures and rocking chair and all those friends and family who came to see how you were holding up?

Remember when...

Remember having Anthem,
and only one dog and one cat?
Remember Buddy with long hair
and always a hat?

Remember a tall dark stranger
riding up your drive?
Remember him meeting the folks -
will he survive?

Remember simpler times,
simpler ways, the PK days?
Remember vacations,
honeymoons, and chalets?

Remember our Disney World
camping trip?
Remember cookouts, hamburgers,
and potato chips?

Remember being pregnant
at the same time?
Remember our life-changing
year of '79?

Remember the adoption
you signed up for?
Remember hearing 'It's a girl!'
at the grocery store?

Remember watching
our babies play together?
Remember wishing
for good camping weather?

Remember the parenting
class we took?
Remember bandaids and pets
and story books?

Remember picnicking
at Fall Creek Falls?
Remember playpens,
highchairs, and overalls?

Remember hiking trips
and shopping trips?
Remember car seats
and tents that drip?

Remember Thanksgiving dinners
and Christmas Eve nights?
Remember security blankets,
sleepers, and nightlights?

Remember when I had
no sister named Kay?
I do, and I
just want to say,

I'm glad you're
my sister til the end
But just as much,
I'm glad you're my friend.

~Susan Tidwell 2002


Happy Birthday, Kay!

from your sister and friend

Love, Susan

orange prevails

Yesterday was our third annual pilgrimage to see the Lady Vols play at Georgia.

We represented a bright spot of orange in a sea of red, quickly bonding with other orange fans around us, sticking together for the good of the team.

We endured the endless playing of the Georgia fight song, the dawg cheerleaders, the dawg dancers, dawg t-shirts, all things red and Georgia.

But orange prevailed in the end, with the Lady Vols winning 72-63.

A great time was had by all, it was good to see friends and family together again. Newcomer Melissa was inducted into the fold, enjoying her day out with the girls.

The end to a great game was topped off by a stop at The Varsity for a victory Frosted Orange, a cool treat for the tired throats.

The plan for next year is for a road trip to Knoxville to see a home game, to hear 'Rocky Top' over and over, to see all things orange and Tennessee.



Candace Parker scores 30 points in her final regular season game for the Tennessee Lady Vols.


Orange fans unite!



Stacy in denial - trying to block it all out.

It's OK to let down your guard and allow your players to get to know you. They don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. ~Pat Summitt

Women in the Military

Last summer grandkids Kyle and Madison visited Washington D.C., where they went to Arlington Cemetery and the Women In Military Service For America Memorial.

There they looked up their great-grandmother (my mom), found her records, and brought back to me a nice packet including this picture, which before then I had not seen.



Her record lists:

SERVICE: Army WAC from May 29, 1944 to February 6, 1946

WAR/CONFLICTS: WWII

DECORATIONS: American Campaign Medal, Army Good Conduct Medal, World War II Victory Medal

MEMORABLE EXPERIENCES: I marched in a parade at Fort Benning, Georgia in a memorial service for former President Franklin D. Roosevelt who passed away. I was assigned as a parachute rigger and repairman.

She was a veteran of the military for a short time, but a veteran of many other things through her lifetime - a veteran of 42 years of marriage, a veteran mother of three, a veteran of hard work and hard times. Remembering all the veterans today, military or otherwise.

Women have served in the United States military for over two hundred years, often having had to disguise themselves as men. Female veterans have often been discriminated against by their male counterparts and, as such, women who have served in the armed forces have sometimes been known as "the invisible veterans". Women were not fully recognized as veterans until after WWII, and prior to this they were not eligible for VA benefits. The VA estimates that by the year 2010 women will make up 10% of the veteran population. ~from answers.com

Previous Veteran's Day thoughts here.

take me home please

"Take me home please," the cats and dogs seemed to say with their pleading eyes.

Found outside the Mountain Harvest Sale in Blue Ridge, Georgia were these animals waiting to be adopted.

The nice lady explained how she had rescued the cats from behind local grocery stores, taken them to the vet for shots and neutering. She collects aluminum cans from local plants, neighbors, and family members to help pay for the vet costs.

The moral of the story is - adopt a pet, get your pets neutered, and save aluminum cans.

So if you are looking for a pet, check out Gateway Pet Rescue here.

Now to gather up our aluminum cans for our sister-in-law, Kay (nice lady pictured above).

helping hands

Our niece Heidi stopped by this past weekend to tell us about her upcoming project, to get some building advice from Uncle Buddy, and to borrow some tools.

Heidi has worked on mission projects for many years, worked with church youth groups, and graduated last June from Candler School of Theology.

She is now working with the United Church of Christ and is in charge of a local mission project at the Twelve Stone Farm in Talking Rock, Georgia.

The owner of the farm is Chiquita Berry, who rescues horses who have been abused and mistreated, and also works with at-risk children, joining the children with the horses is therapeutic for all involved.

The project at Twelve Stone Farm includes a wall to keep the horses out of the cob chapel, and making an enclosed barn out of an existing pole structure.

The volunteers were due to arrive on Sunday and are working all this week. We are looking forward to hearing all about their progress and seeing the pictures!


Cob chapel - cob is a form of construction using clay, straw, and rocks. The horses were eating the straw out of the walls, hence the wall is being built to save the chapel.

Read about Chiquita Berry's story of the Twelve Stone Farm here.

Sunday outing

I was invited again this year to see the #4 ranked University of Tennessee Lady Vols play at Georgia. My sisters-in-law (Kay and Sue) are BIG fans (Sue is a former basketball player and coach). There were eight of us in all, including niece Heidi and 4 of her close friends and college buddies. We stopped at a nearby Cracker Barrel before the game, and were very conspicuous in our bright orange amidst a sea of red Georgia fans. The traffic around the game site was thick and parking hard to come by, but we got to our seats just as the players were being announced and right before the opening jump.

Tennessee made the first basket and never looked back, being ahead of Georgia the entire game. Tennessee was not quite up to their best game, a lot of missed shots, and no dunks today. The highlight was when the Georgia coach was called on a technical, throwing his stat sheet into the air. The final score was Tennessee 52, Georgia 41.

Heidi just had a wisdom tooth extracted on Friday, and was our chauffeur. The trip was made more exciting by a couple of near misses in traffic, Sue's and Kay's hilarious inability to work the seat belts or windows, a sudden stop to rescue an injured dog, and Kay's funny story she was sent via e-mail. After the latter, Heidi was laughing so hard that she had to put on the ice pack for her recent tooth surgery. A great time was had by all!

PK greetings

Here is our PK Christmas Card.

'PK' comes from my sister-in-law, Kay, who would say 'remember the good ol days when we used have time to go camping and hiking - PK (pre-kids)? Now we are back to just the two of us again, so we have added a new meaning to PK - post-kids.

Happy Anniversary to Kay and Kennon - 33 years since that fateful day - enjoy your PK years!

tumblin falls

We gathered at the old home place on Turkey Creek on Sunday afternoon for the family tradition of sliding down the waterfalls.

For several of the third generation it was the first time to take the plunge or initiation - Kyle, Madison, and Little Jack.

All the kids had a great time, and most of the second generation folks had to try it just one more time, even getting Keith to test the waters for the first time to see what all the fuss was about.

All of us oldies from the first generation stood on the sidelines taking pictures and reminiscing:

'The water was colder back when we started this tradition!'

'Remember that tree that fell across the falls and we had to duck our heads under it?'

'Remember when we would bring a truckload of church youth up here from Atlanta to slide down the falls?'

'What about that time Papaw slid down all the way from the top, by accident!'

Looking forward to initiating the newest family members - Cecilia, Natasha, and Lisa - the next time they are down this way in the summertime.

Yes, another generation has been doused in the cold waters of Turkey Creek!

More photos here: (click picture)

meet the folks

The anticipation has been running high in the family these past few weeks. Nephew Ethan was coming home from Germany with his new bride and daughters. His parents have been frantically cleaning and preparing for their visit.

Kay (Ethan's mom) was especially frazzled, I don't believe I have ever seen her so. She was anxious to see her newly-married son, and meet her new daughter-in-law and granddaughters, but worried what they would think, would they like her, what would she say to the kids, since they spoke little English, what would they think of all her animals? As she heard the car arrive late that evening, she tried to quiet her stomach butterflies and swallow the lump in her throat, but all worries flew out the door when the kids came running in and went straight to the family pets, a menagerie of dogs and cats who live there. Nothing can bridge a language barrier like little wagging tails and doggy kisses.

The call had gone out the week before to plan a family gathering, and of course we all rallied as we always do - food, fun, fellowship! Friends and family gathered on Friday night to welcome the new folks. We are all delighted with Cecilia, Natasha, and Lisa.

Especially our granddaughters, Sarah and Madison, who were excited all week, looking forward to meeting their new cousins (girls!). They all got along great, playing together.


Kay put into words what we had all noticed, she had never seen Ethan happier. Good luck and best wishes for the new family, who are already back in DC to start their new life together.


A family is a patchwork quilt
A lifetime being sewn
Each piece is an original
With beauty of its own

The brightest patches may be new
And get the most attention
But the pieces that are loved and worn
Help give our quilt dimension

Threads of humor, faith and love
Will keep our quilt together
To last in love throughout the years
And wrap us close forever

~poem from 'ceramic plate celebrates the common threads in every family' American Diabetes Association - Gift of Hope catalog

Wedding in Germany

Cecilia and Ethan
July 26, 2006
Frankfurt, Germany






We didn't lose a nephew,
we gained 3 more girls in the family!

We all wish we could have been there to help you celebrate. We are looking forward to meeting everyone in a few weeks. We might even find an old photo or two to share with your new family.

Welcome to the family to Cecilia, Natasha, and Lisa!