To the Moon and Back

Happy Birthday Joey!!!!

Thirty-one years ago today I received the greatest gift ...my son.  The first time I held him, I knew that my life would never be the same.  From that moment he held my heart.  I have worried about him, prayed for him and loved him more than I think he will ever know.  I made my share of mistakes as his parent, but he survived and thrived in spite of me.  Being his mother is the one accomplishment that I am proudest of in my life.  I love him to the moon and back again, to infinity and beyond, forever and ever...as long as I'm living, my baby he will be. 

Happy birthday sweet son.

My Favorite Time of the Year

My favorite season of the year is Spring.  Everything is starting to turn green and the weather is comfortable....Not too hot and not too cold.  Back in the day, I would play in the dirt and spend a fortune at Lowes on plants and potting soil.  Because I can't handle spending days on end in the yard weeding and watering, this year all plants are on the patio or around the patio.  My mother-in-law and her good friend Mary helped get the planters ready.  My grandson cleaned up the patio and the finished project makes me want to sit out there all day.  Harley loves it too. 
This plant survived winter and this is about the 4th bloom.  I love the color.



This time of year also brings baseball season.  Baseball has always been an important part of our lives.  My husband actually spent our wedding night watching the playoffs.  Our son played baseball through college and now our grandsons are continuing the tradition.  Fisher's league has already started and he began the season with a grand slam.  He has hit another homerun since then and this is only his 4th game.  Hunter's season starts later. 

The water is down at the camp now and we have spent some time up there.  There is a really comfortable leather lounge chair there that Harley and I fight over.  I can't wait for the sandbar to make its appearance.  I miss looking out there and seeing it.  Also, when it reappears, I know the girls will be ready to come.  Of course, Hunter is game for fishing anytime.  He caught a 22 lb catfish last month.

Josie and Colbie came to see us last weekend and we took them to a wedding.  Josie was so observant, commenting on the bouquet and dress.  At the beginning of the reception, she asked when they were getting married and I told her they were married.  She replied "But they haven't danced".  I have a feeling that Josie is already planning her wedding.  Joey needs to be working on the wedding fund...


Here we are with our good friends at the wedding.  Josie was being bashful and upset that I wouldn't hold her.  She doesn't understand why I can't.

Josie and Colbie are so much fun to watch in the tub.  They play so good together and are so happy.  The only downside is that the walls, floors and whoever happens to be in there with them are sure to be soaked.  They are growing up so fast.

 

 

Life is good at our house. 

 

 

Glenn turned 60 on February 28th

Happy birthday Glenn!!!  This year, Glenn and his buddies turned 60.  We celebrated with Fearon and his family a few weeks ago and then we went to the Hard Rock this past weekend to celebrate Glenn's birthday.  David turned 60 on March 1st so it was a double celebration  The Jenne's, the Cunninghams, and the Mays joined us and we had a blast.  We had a lot of fun and ate way too much good food.

Friday night we all met up at Mikey's in Ocean Springs and had dinner.  Then we saw Travis Tritt in concert.  He put on a great show as usual.  Of course we had to play a little, but by 11 we were in our rooms for the night.  We had a big king sized bed and windows that were blocked out so we slept in late (for us) the next morning

Saturday we met up with everybody at the Schooner for lunch.  Afterwards the the guys headed to Sports Academy and the girls (with David in tow) headed to the Garden Show at the Coliseum.  We all bought a few plants and then the guys came to get David and the girls headed to the mall.  Ellen and I were dragging and so we decided to go back to the Casino to take a nap.  When the guys returned, we all hung out in the room for a while.  Of course, we had to mess with Joey so we were constantly sending him pictures.  So glad my baby boy is a good sport.  After everybody got freshened up, we headed down to the casino to play until 7, when we met up for dinner.  I think everybody enjoyed the crab legs.  We had fun till late in the night.

Sunday morning we checked out and returned to the real world.  We had boarded Harley and I was going to leave her there until we got unpacked because she is always so helpful.  I missed her so much I went ahead and got her, but I didn't have to worry.  She was so exhausted from playing with her buddies at Karen's that she slept the rest of the day and into the next.

We had a great time and agreed that we will definitely do it again soon. 

Harley

Our new puppy is getting big.  She is a sweet girl but she truely looks for something to get into.  Our baby girl is a counter surfer.  At about seven months she realized that she was able to reach anything on the countertops. 

In her first counter surfing she managed to eat 4 peach fried pies.  I had been to Hattiesburg to stay with Joey and when I came home, Lavelle told me that she had cooked some fried pies.  Since I have been dieting, I glanced at them and noticed there were five pies on the plate.  I jumped in the bath and came out to notice that two pies were gone.  I left to go see my uncle, who had been ill.  Upon returning, there was only one pie left on the plate.  I asked Lavelle, who usually eats like a bird, if she had eaten 4 pies.  She replied telling me that no, that she thought I had eaten them.  I looked over at Harley, and she was avoiding eye contact.  I immediately understood that she had eaten all the pies.  I was pretty impressed that she had eaten them without detection.  She understood that what she was doing was something she needed to do behind our backs or when we were not looking.  The next day she was at it again and found a bell pepper sitting on the counter.  I walked into the kitchen to discover bell pepper seeds all over the kitchen.



Who me?  Naaaah!  That's not dip on my face.

Her next counter surfing event netted her five bananas.  She usually gets bananas for treats.  She managed to eat the bananas and leave the peelings on the floor.  She has also eaten weight watchers dill dip.  She wasn't too crazy about that, but she did leave her imprint in the bowl of dip and the evidence on her face.  She has managed to eat muffins, left over hamburger, and a whole bag of turkey jerkey. 

That girl knows she hungry!

Christmas at the River

 This is the first Christmas that we owned our river camp and decided to decorate and enjoy a Christmas at the River.  Jennifer helped me decorate and I decided to not put up a tree in Pascagoula.  Who would have ever thought that I wouldn't put up a tree in our main residence.  The truth is I just didn't want to deal with our sweet Harley tearing it down.  The kids all came up to the camp and we just enjoyed being together.

                                            

On Christmas Eve we traveled to Ocean Springs to have gumbo at mama's.  Joey, Katie and the girls left early to prepare for Santa's arrival.  Glenn and I returned to the camp and spent Christmas Day relaxing in our pajamas.  It was a wonderful Christmas and I think we will have many more celebrations on the river.

2012........What a Year!!!!!!

2012

I can not believe it has been a year since my last post.  I absolutely promise I am going to do better next year.  A lot of things have happened and a lot of things have changed in the last year....so I am going to attempt to give an overview of the last year.

Let me begin with my family.  Joey and Katie are still in Hattiesburg and they are doing great.  Joey opened a new office this year.  We are so proud of him....especially since he is helping us to make money.  Amazing how things have changed.  He used to spend our money as if it grew on trees.  Now, we go to him for financial advice.  Huh....Who would have thought that?









Josie has grown up so much.  She loves princesses, reading books, playing in the sand, and helping her mommy and daddy.  She is a very good big sister and goes to preschool 3 days a week.  She is extremely shy and doesn't like to get far away from what she considers "safe".  I went to her school program in November and did not take my camera because I really didn't think she would get up on a stage in front of so many people.  Well, I was wrong.  That girl got up on the stage, sang all the songs and did all of the motions that went with the songs.  She was amazing and I won't make that mistake again.

 

Colbie turned one this year and she is our little dancing queen. That girl likes to bust a move. For a 1 1/2 year old child, she knows how to get down and shake her bootie. She goes to preschool 2 days a week and she loves being with her big sister. She is learning about princesses, but I think wrestling with anybody who cares to get down on the floor with her more her style. Colbie is going to be our politician, because she never meets a stranger.



The birthday girl

Jennifer and Craig now live two streets away. They bought our house on Kingsberry and Jennifer has been busy decorating and improving the place. We love the fact that now the boys can walk over...Oh, and it is also nice when you are in the middle of a recipe and realize that you need a can of soup or a stick of butter. Of course, that goes both ways.

Hunter, our oldest grandson, is a teenager.  He is on the debate team at Colmer and is an avid fisherman.  He loves the water and if you want to get him to spend time with you....then you better plan to go to the beach or the river.  This year he was on the Pascagoula Baseball Allstar team and played in the state tournament.  He has grown up so much and is so handsome, but the things I love most about Hunter is his heart.

Fisher is our big man.  He is a Yankee's fan and likes spending time on the water too.  He goes to school at Trent Lott and is on the football team.  I am not that good with the football rules and regulations, but I can tell that he is a pretty good football player.   He made the Football AllStar team and was a standout. 

This year I quit working. I loved teaching, but the stress and wear on my body was taking it's toll.  I miss being with the kids, but I do not miss all the paperwork, the meetings, and the lesson plans.   I think I realized it was time for me to hang it up when I backed my car into the garage door and didn't even remember putting it in reverse.  It was like I had a fog over me.  I am so blessed that my husband is so understanding.

This past fall, Glenn took me on a vacation to the Smokey Mountains.  It was our first vacation in 30 years that was just us two.  We stayed in a cabin between Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg.  Glenn is not into going to shows or shopping, but he took me wildlife hunting every day.  We saw a deer, a bear, squirrelsl, rabbits, a bobcat and shared our back porch with a little thief who tried his best to take off with Glenn's swimming trunks.  We had just come home for the night and I went to change clothes and found a raccoon on the porch, trying his best to take the swimming trunks that Glenn had left out there to dry.  After getting a few pictures, he got away, but without the swimming trunks.  He came back later that night a left us a cute little turd on our front porch.  Guess he wasn't too happy about being busted.   







The bandit

Glenn also got to go ziplining, something he has always wanted to do.

We also have a new addition to our family.  While we were on our trip, I got puppy fever.  Glenn and Jennifer found some puppies and I got my pick.  Harley Marie is now 6 months old and she has brightened our house up.  Even Sonja has to play now.

6 months old and still a lap dog



Harley's first days as a Rivers pup

We decided to start looking for our vacation/retirement home this year.  We considered a condo or a large piece of property where the kids could hunt.  We finally decided to look for something on the water away from the coast.  We had a contract on a house in D'Iberville and I was very disappointed when the home inspection came back with some problems.  The owners would not meet us in the middle, so we decided to keep looking.  Well, we found our dream camp in Lucedale....totally by accident.  We were driving up to look at a camp in Greene County that Glenn had already gone and looked at, but wasn't really that sold on.  We decided to drive through Plum Bluff in Lucedale and found a house for sale by owner.  We called the owner and she agreed to meet us.  While we were waiting for her to come, we were driving around and saw another camp for sale by owner.  I fell in love with it and asked Glenn about it.  He told me that one wasn't in our budget. 

 I insisted that we go look at it to compare with the one we were about to look at and after talking to the owners we decided that it was something we could manage.  Thanks to new federal requirements and Fema regulations, it wasn't an easy task.....but, we are now the proud owners of Riverboat Landing. 

This place is absolutely our dream.  All of the kids and grandchildren enjoy it.  I can't believe I am saying this, but I have told Glenn that when he retires again, I may just move up there for good.  It is a small slice of heaven.

2012 was an amazing year and I am sure that 2013 is going to be even better....and I won't wait till the end to document.

Christmas Cookies

IT IS FINALLY HERE!!!! CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS!!!!

Today was the first day of our Christmas break and we drove to meet Joey and Katie to pick up the girls for a few days and give their mommy, daddy, mawmaw and pawpaw a few days off while we get lots of baby loving on the coast. The boys called about the minute we walked in the door and biked over to our house. This is really going to be an advantage when they move into the Kingsberry house.

We decided to decorate the cookies that Meme made today. For some reason, my red icing turned out pink, but that is okay, because it is Josie's favorite color. Now we are just kicking back, eating cookies and playing with the girls. The boys went home but Jennifer is here now. Seems like we keep a pretty full house when the girls come.

Tomorrow we are going to attempt to take both girls to mass and make a gingerbread house. Will let you know how that turns out. I love this no-stress feeling and think this next two weeks is going to fly by way too fast.