Georgia Thanksgiving

December 28 is a little late to be writing a blog about Thanksgiving, but it works for me. Facing a December 30 retirement date meant that I had vacation to use or lose, so for the first time ever, I had a full week off at Thanksgiving. We left town on Tuesday afternoon and headed to Georgia. John and I are not famous for speedy traveling so bedtime arrived and we were slightly west of the Georgia stateline. We were pulling a U-haul in the rain and decided to call it a night. We planned our departure from the hotel to miss morning rush-hour in Atlanta and made it safely to my daughter's house. First order of the day was to empty and return the U-haul. That accomplished, we headed into Athens to visit Jenn. We did some shopping with her in Athens before heading to her home to fix Indian Tacos for supper. They were wonderful and are the subject of her January 2, 2011 blog at http://mysceniclife.blogspot.com/ That is a recipe that I can't wait to try.

We did lots of cooking for Thanksgiving. My daughter and son-in-law are amazing cooks and I really need to take lessons from them. Dinner was amazing - even the brussels sprouts and that's a stretch for me. The dessert pictures were the best ones to share. The Pumpkin Pie and Pecan Pie were made with my Mom's recipes, enhanced by Jenn's special touch. The dutch oven Apple-Cranberry Crisp was adapted for the dutch oven from Carol's recipe.

Everything was wonderful and we had a great time in the kitchen. Thanksgiving day also meant Cinnamon Rolls, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, lots of talking and laughing and a new thing for me - a four-wheeler ride with Michael.

Riding was a lot of fun and I laughingly suggested to John that we needed a four-wheeler but he didn't get too excited about that thought.

The rest of our weekend was spent talking, watching movies and hanging out. We ended the trip by heading north to visit John's sister, brother-in-law, and niece and then it was back home on Sunday.

Thanksgiving beat all of my anticipation!

Anticipating Thanksgiving

Always much anticipated and always passing too quickly - I wish I could extend the week of Thanksgiving just a little longer - especially this year. I have taken the week off and we are going to Georgia. John has to work on Monday and I'll spending Monday gathering stuff up. We are going to rent a U-Haul and take the kids the things they didn't have room for in the initial move last August. With a loaded U-Haul, we are heading out on Tuesday morning. Winder, Georgia is a full-day's drive away and I'll be anxious to arrive. Jenn has to work on Wednesday, so we'll mess around town on Wednesday and then the cooking will start in earnest when Jenn gets home. She has 2 non-Thanksgiving recipes that we are anxious to try on Wednesday and Friday and then of course we have the big Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday. I am so excited that Michael gets all of Thanksgiving off so that will be a great day complete with Pillsbury cinnamon rolls, Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, and a great dinner. The weekend will be spent talking and laughing and watching Arkansas (hopefully) beat LSU and decorating for Christmas. It is so hard to wait until time to go. We are ending the weekend with a trip north to Nashville on Saturday afternoon to visit Dora Ann and Don. We'll head home on Sunday after a week that will have flown by far too quickly.

Gardening

My yard used to be beautiful. For years, I spent a lot of time caring for my yard - thinking and planning and planting. Over the last 6 years, I pretty much did nothing. At first it was hard to be motivated to work in the yard alone. Then in July of 2008, John and I starting riding our bikes together, which led to falling in love and getting married. All the while, the yard was becoming a jungle - a tangled mess of grass, weeds, and plants that managed to survive in spite of me. A couple of times, Daddy took the weed-eater to all of the gardens, cutting everything down to the ground. Last spring I made a half-hearted attempt to bring them back to life. It didn't last long. This spring I decided the time had come.

John has encouraged me and helped when his help was needed. Gardening is not really his thing, but he likes the results and loves me, so he helps. John bought a great little cultivator and between that and a shovel, he has been beating back the weeds. So far we have brought the herb garden back to life and have started a new butterfly/hummingbird garden at the end of the patio. On Monday evening, we planted the bed under the Japanese Red Maple for the first time in 6 years with pink, white, and red bronze begonias and planted the 2 windows boxes that hang in the front. It's looking good so far.

Working in the Shop

The shop had reached the point that clutter didn't come close to describing it. A couple of years ago, my Daddy decided that I didn't need off-site storage so he emptied my two FULL 5x15 climate controlled storage buildings into my not climate controlled 20x30 shop. Then he added much of the contents of his storage building, which included many of my mother's things that had never been "gone through" since her death in 1993. After discussing it with John, I decided this was the weekend to start the project. Start mind you - not finish because I was far too tired from weeks and weeks of hard days. My sister came down and we hit the boxes of our mother's things. Many boxes had been untouched since 1982. The newest boxes were packed 10 or so years ago. We opened and sorted - hers, mine, donate, sell, and trash. Box after box until all were opened. So now - my sister's things are ready to pack, the trash is boxed and bagged at the street, donations are packed and loaded in the car, and my things are shelved waiting to be inventoried and boxed. That left a trunk, 3 old chairs, a dresser, and 2 tables that needed a home. We started carrying them to the street hoping that someone would "rescue" them using the "free to good home" concept. Almost immediately our new neighbors approached us. Recently married, they had almost no furniture. They were a great couple and were so completely thrilled when we gave them all of it. It is pretty amazing that we made them so happy while making us happy to clear out the space. Great day!

My Favorite Part of the Year

For me - the time from late September through December is my very part of the year and it always passes so quickly. Each year, it is so eagerly anticipated and somehow it just passes. 2010 was no different.

October brought the early arrival of my great-nephew - Benton - the son of my nephew, Steven, and his wife, Ally. Benton's first few days were spent in NICU and things were pretty scary. It turned out that the hospital messed up and he had received a massive amount of a drug that made it appear that he had a serious clotting disorder. Things turned out fine and he is precious. My sister, Marcia, got to be there for a week when he was born and then got to go back for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Lena and the kids visited in early November and we took them to Old Washington State Park for the Civil War weekend. Caitlin took several hundred pictures and I thought we were going to have to literally pry Brandon away from the reenactment. He was fascinated by it all. It is a good thing that the kids enjoyed themselves because John really struggled with his knee and my achilles tendon made walking so painful.

One of my favorite things about the fall is the color. This year it appeared that there would be no color at all. September and October flew by and the trees went from green to brown. I was certain there was no hope. However, late fall rains changed that and November and early December were amazing.

John and I made a trip to Petit Jean to see the color and eat at Mather Lodge. We were very fortunate to have picked the time we did because we learned that Mather Lodge was getting ready to close for 18 months for renovation. We had a great time - enjoyed our dinner - did some hiking - got some great pictures and - saw a Bald Eagle as we were coming off the mountain.

John got some good shots at one of the overlooks on the far side of the park.

Thanksgiving was spent in Columbia with Jennifer and Michael. Chris went with us and we had a great time. Thanksgiving dinner was traditional fare and we had way too much food. I had a hard time with cooking because I felt like I needed to measure up to a "King Thanksgiving" and I am not Memaw. I don't know what they thought about the dinner, but I did the best I could without shedding too many tears. Jennifer and Chris talked for hours and I swear they could really be brother and sister. We did some shopping and had a little down time so Jenn could study for her upcoming board exams.

December was crazy as always. Marcia visited us in Hope and we were finally able to go to Christmas at Old Washington State Park. John and I spent time checking out Christmas lights around the state - Little River County Courthouse, Saline County Courthouse, and the State Capitol. We decorated 2 houses for Christmas - Sherwood Manor and Hope Manor. We spent the Christmas holidays in Hope with Chris, Lena, and the grandkids. Wow - it was a different Christmas for me. Christmas in my family has always been fairly quiet because there just aren't that many people. This year everything just happened on a much larger scale. For example - 1 roll of sugar cookie dough vs 3 rolls of sugar cookie dough or a turkey AND a ham. Christmas dinner included Chuck, LeAnn, and Berniece so we had a total of 11 people. We fit at the table and there was an abundance of food and life was good.

We ended the year with a trip to Rogers to visit Marcia and attend the Razorback basketball game on New Year's Eve. We had great fun with Marcia and at the game. We did some antique shopping, hit the quilt shop and did some sewing while watching football. It was a great end to a great year.

Disappointment

It is Saturday, September 25 - the day of the Big Dam Bridge 100 bicycle ride - and we didn't. After a good start at riding in 2008 and a great year of riding in 2009, 2010 has been hard. Two years ago we rode 32 miles in the Tour de Possum in Texarkana, the Big Dam Bridge in Little Rock and the Mission to Mission Tour in San Antonio. In 2009, we rode 30-40 in Ride with the Eagles in Mt. Pleasant, TX, 55 miles in the BDB, and 62 in the Tour da' Delta in Helena. In January, John had stent surgery and started a beta-blocker. But it was January and we weren't worried. Then came dealing with the frozen pipes, termites, work issues, unexpected changes in weekend routines, issues with John's knee, a change in my beta-blocker, and then the crowning blow - my Achilles Tendon. After taking it easy, ice, and a round of meds, it was time to move forward. A trip to an ankle specialist last week yielded the good news that surgery was not appropriate yet but the treatment is ice, rest, stretching, Advil, and SLOW/FLAT riding. I was already concerned that I wasn't prepared to ride even 32 miles, but I just knew that somehow I could pull it off. But that was - without the Achilles Tendon. That ended all chances. My dear husband refused to ride without me because we do rides together and that helped greatly. But it is still a hard day.....

Where has the summer gone?

I know that the date is only August 11 and officially there are many days left in the summer - BUT - in a school district, summers end when the teachers return. Teachers report tomorrow for the first day of Professional Development and kids start next Thursday. I had great plans for this summer. I just knew that - this year - everything from the previous year would be properly filed and new files would be ready for the coming year. Nothing would be left undone. I would be rested and ready for the new year. Well - NOT - on all of it.

So - to reflect on the summer. John retired in June and moved to Sherwood so we could actually be husband and wife in the same house. Great idea and we are loving it. We attended a great conference in Denver the last week in June and then followed it with a wonderful vacation in northern New Mexico the first week in July. We got in lots of good bicycle riding, saw incredible mountains, art, fireworks, plus much more and had a wonderful time. I was off for 2 consecutive weeks for the first time since around 1992. Betty and I moved offices and I threw away a LOT of stuff (so I have less that is not filed.) Much work has been done on our home in Hope. Our children are going through hard times to varying degrees, but we have gotten to see more of them than usual and that is very good. My niece, Teresa, had major cancer surgery and my sister-in-law had foot surgery. My niece, Amy, got her first teaching job. I finally got to visit Pawhuska, OK, which is the original home of my mother's family. John and I visited Jenn in Pawhuska while she was doing a 2 week internship with a local vet. Work is far crazier than I can ever remember and I am exhausted and that is all I will say on that subject.

It has been a mostly great summer and I've made it through the rest of the stuff - or at least I'm getting there. Ready or not - the new year starts TOMORROW!