some scary things

Grandpa  participated in his first 5K(3.1 mi.) race (our stake fun run) this morning! 

He came in first in the silver fox division!
Even more scary, I participated with him (my 2nd 5K) and won first in the Women's 40+ division.

 Most scary--(more scary than a silver fox and my neck wrinkles) is how this adorable, cute little Texas nephew of mine started out like this ...

and ended up like this!

And ... just when you think you can't take any more scary things, I'll give you more -- my youngest Texas  brother-in-law Stuart as a teenager many years ago.

Now, so you won't have too many nightmares tonight, I'll end this post with a photo (some of our Texas family) that is more funny than scary. (although things might get scary for me after Donna sees this)

Hank, are you having fun yet?  Donna, better keep a good eye on your boy, Eric--and are you still enjoying life in the country? (photo taken 1981. Emily, Amber, Granny, Lauren-- on the left. Eric-- in front)

Happy Halloween!!

October in my backyard

Between our few "cold" spells, we get summer temperatures, so...

                                                    Summer flowers keep blooming.

Flowering shrubs don't know when to quit.

Our lemons and oranges will be ripening soon and showing their true fall colors of yellow and orange.

In the meantime, my fall garden is struggling not to wilt during the hot weather this week ("cold" front coming the end of this week). I've solved the problem of our pesky resident squirrel digging holes in the garden to hide all the pecans he strips from our tree.  Hanging inside the panty hose in my garden is a bar of Irish Spring deodorant soap. Squirrels don't like the smell.

                                       Meanwhile, Grandpa has fun painting the house.

But not as much fun as he had 20 years ago, when he painted our first home. (He is in front of the 2nd story window that Mark fell out of when he was 4 years old, and miraculously survived with just a tiny compression fracture of one of his verebrae in his back. He was supposed to be taking a nap. Instead he unlocked the window, opened it, and sat on the ledge to watch a swimming pool being built next door. He leaned against the screen, and out he flew.)

AAAAAHHH......

We thought we had died and gone to heaven .....

But in reality, we were in a place very close to Heaven .... hill country in Texas

This past weekend we went camping and tubing on the Frio River with 8 of our little river rats (and their parents)

Aiden loved the wildflowers.

Evan loved the river rocks.

The mommies loved cooking on the camp stove.

And Grandpa loved setting up our tent, using his Boy Scout knots (see the clothesline he put up), and using his  radio to pick up some good old timey country western stations coming out of Leakey and Hondo.

Some projects

Here's a fun project Grandpa completed at the beginning of this summer. He loves to make things out of wood.

This Adirondack chair is so comfy and pretty, painted green.

I prefer to make my projects out of softer material, like this scrappy quilt I am making (almost done)  out of some great Moda fabrics my sister-in-law Beverly gifted me with.
Another project I finally completed   -- the latest installment of family history with photos here!!!!

Little Houses

Last night, my husband said, "Come look at this little house", referring to a photo he found on Ancestry.com.

Francis Marion Cook is Carl's first cousin, 4 times removed. This little house, which was built about 1860 with their own hands, was in Henderson, Texas.  That got me thinking about little houses.

Like this one (on the left, in the late 1800's-- on the right, how it looks today with an addition to the left side).
This is the little 2 room red brick house that Heber Gunn built for his bride Effie Stonebraker Gunn.

Heber and Effie Gunn are my children's 2nd greatgrandparents.  Besides raising 7 children in that little house, the Gunns served as Hoytsville's postmaster and postmistress for 37 years (Effie serving after the death of her husband). The little postoffice was in that house (after an addition was put on). The original postboxes are preserved in the basement museum of the courthouse down the road in Coalville.

I also thought of the first house I lived in (after we stayed with my Grandmother for my first 9 months).  This was right after World War II. A lot of little houses were being built for the returning WW II vets and their new families (that's me on my father's lap in the photo). My father paid $2,000 for this house on Halsey Drive in Warwick, R.I.  All the new streets and schools in Warwick were named after WW II heros. Our street was named after Admiral William Halsey, commander of the U.S 3rd fleet during part of the Pacific War against Japan.  (I went to Warren A. Sherman Elementary School (another war hero), and graduated from Warwick Veterans Memorial Hight School.)
such a lot of history, heart and soul in little houses.

Newsflash -- Taylor Swift gets hitched!

Do you think Courtney sort of looks like Taylor Swift? Do we have a celebrity look-a-like in the family? Cast your vote here.

Milestones

This weekend was one of those times, when I asked myself, "Where has the time gone?"

These two, my first grandchild and my last child, celebrated milestone events.

On Saturday, we celebrated Elayna's first decade of life. She has grown up to be such a beautiful, intelligent, helpful, kind and loving 10 year old young lady.

The next morning, we left the house at 5:00 a.m. for the long drive (8 1/2 hours) to take our "little" Carl out to Texas Tech in Lubbock for his freshman year. We helped  move him into his dorm room, met his nice roommate, and then  attended church at his new student ward, where he was very warmly greeted by the church members. Monday afternoon, after purchasing books, and having lunch together, we said our good-byes and came home to an empty house.

We won't be seeing him very often, now that he's spread his wings and flown out of the nest. But he'll always be our baby.

P.S: Grandpa and I are now empty nesters. I recall my mother's favorite poem,  "The Open Window", by Longfellow. He speaks of standing in front of the old family home, looking up and seeing "the nursery window, wide open to the air; but the faces of the children, they were no longer there". (Thank goodness for grandchildren, who, when they visit, bring again liveliness and cheerfulness to this empty house.)

P:S: to our grown children -- no matter where you are, you are never far from our hearts.