The Long awaited Bedset has arrived

Have ya heard the saying "Things moooove real slow here in the Mountains" wellll, I ordered this bedspread set in August. It finally came in this week. Yes December. I heard every excuse under the sun and was even more discouraged when I went to Florida on my "sonogram" trip only to find when I stopped at Crackerbarrel, here was my "special order" bedspread in their gift shop.

When I took it out of the package today to press it, there was a spot. Decorative pillows will be the key to covering that spot up. I am fearful if I send it back, it will be NEXT December before I get another one to replace it. We will live with the spot! I am sure we will add a few more over the years.

Christmas Gift from Sis

We have a new addition to our family pictures. Sarah as you all know does the photography in the family. She got Dad's name this year for Secret Santa and blew up the picture she took at Helton Creek Falls here in GA at Thanksgiving, framed it and gave it to him for Christmas.

FedEx was VERY late in delivering it and he just got to open it tonight. As he sat and took off the wrapper, he began to cry. I of course welled up too. I asked him what was going through his head. He said seeing the picture made it hard to believe we were at this stage in our lives and he said he could not imagine where in the picture Robbie would be standing if he were here with us today. That just made me cry that much more.

Family photos are a VERY difficult part of our family, now that Robbie is gone. We toyed with where to hang it. Not wanting to take down the one of all 6 of us in the main living room. So we have hung the new, updated one in our front foyer. It's beautiful Sis, you have a way with the camera. Pictures are ever so precious to us and hold the memories of our hearts. If it wasn't for the pictures we have of Robbie, some of those memories would fade.

Lets show some excitement here!

Rebecca was excited about her bead making kit she got. She also was modeling her new leopard bag. She will be be the bell of the ball!

Rayah Lee and her boots

Country Girl!

This is an interesting gift!

We drew names this year instead of everyone buying for each other. We figured we all had a rough year financially and this might become a good way to not focus so much on the buying aspect of Christmas but just doing things simple.

Sarah got her dad. Now that Mom and Dad are empty nesters she thought it would be cute to give him a gift that would be appropriate for his wild sided wife he's gotten since they have moved to the mountains! Nice Sis. It's even color coordinated to match our new bedspread set!

Our yearly gift from The Ryans and The Muellers

Every year we receive a gift in loving memory of Robbie from family members. This year it was a Pinnochio. It's beautiful. As most of you know from being in our home in Florida, Nick and I collect Pinnochio's in Robbie's memory. When Robbie was little, one of his favorite movies was Pinnochio and he could never say his name so he called it "Miricowhee" For some reason, that has remained special between Nick and I and we have collected them in his memory ever since his death. When we go antiquing, we look for them. We have over 125 of them in all shapes and sizes. We will be putting up our collection in the game room like we had in our Florida home. When we see a Pinnochio, we think of Robbie and we SMILE!

CLEAR THE ROADWAY! AND DO IT NOW!

Well, there was no snow today like predicted so I went out and got on my motorcycle and practiced. Nick rode on the Harley long side of me to make sure I was gonna stay up and on it and not be kissing the pavement. I managed to put about 3 miles on it going up and down in the subdivision.

At one point I took it up the back field toward the back of the house and up the gravel driveway that leads to the main driveway, that's where Nick had to take over. He said - what were ya thinking, I can't even get the Harley up gravel like that. I just chuckled. I LOVE being FIESTY.

Anyway, we went out on the Harley to deliver a gift and when we got back in the subdivision I asked him if I could try driving THE HARLEY to the house. AND, I did it. Managed to keep it straight up all 750 lbs of metal and rubber. He said - oh wait, get the camera and post it on the blog so your friends can see it. Thats right buddy boy! I then proceeded to have an anxiety attack thinking- wow I drove all that metal. Time for a NAP and EGGNOG.

Two new pics of the Kelly girls

Emily just turned 7 on December 16th and Rowie is going to be 2 on December 31st. WOW, hard to believe it.

The Legend of the Fruit Cake

I can tell this story only now because my sisters would all laugh seeing mom is dead and gone and her infamous fruitcake will always be forever in our hearts. Christmas time is as you know, the time of year when it surfaces in every household whether it is needed or not.

My mom always made Grandma Uebelhoer's recipe for fruitcake. And I have to admit, I loved my mothers fruitcake - God rest her soul. It did not ever have that Citron in it like store made fruitcake has. It was actually quite expensive to make. Mom made it every year even in lean times when the candied fruits and nuts got to be very expensive to buy. When she would mail our gifts to us (seeing we were in the military and not local) there was always a fruitcake tucked in the box. My girls loved gramma's fruitcake. Even Nick who hates nuts, loved mom's fruitcake.

Well, my twin sister hated mom's fruitcake and never had the heart to tell mom this. Each year, mom would send her the infamous fruitcake (because she did not live local as well) and Yes, Barbie would pack that fruitcake up and ship it onto me because she didn't have the heart to tell mom she HATED the fruitcake. There were times when the we would wait till we saw each other while dropping off mom to each other in Valdosta, GA and we'd sneak "THE FRUITCAKE" into the trunk of the car while mom wasn't looking to get it out of her house. With the cost of fruit and nuts, she didn't have the heart to throw it out either. It became a tradition that I GOT her fruitcake every year. And mom never knew it.

I am attaching a picture of a pillow that comes out every year and sits in memory of "the fruitcake". I have the recipe, but now that I have built this beautiful home I probably will never be able to afford the fruits and nuts to make my own fruitcake like mom did. And you can bet your bottom dollar, IF I could, I would sure as shootin, wrap one up and send it to my twin sister, just so she could flush it!

I AM GONNA BRAVE THIS ONE FOR OLD TIME SAKE!

OK, I cannot believe I dressed up like this for Wakie Takie day at OCS way back 2 years ago. And I sat at my desk, yes ALL day looking like this. These are Skippy's shoes I have on, and the dress - OH MY WORD, you wouldn't catch me near it today. AND I am about 16 lbs heavier here! WHAT was I thinking? Is that not dedication to a job or what. NOT! NEVER AGAIN. Girls at OCS (and guys) STOP LAUGHING. I think I might just wear this dress to SKippy's wedding - what a "mother of the bride" dress this would make and a fashion statement at that!

WELL ITS ABOUT TIME

I drove 9.5 hours to Florida and at 10:00 a.m. this morning standing at the sonography place on, Friday, December 15th, while on three way with Sis and Nick (Skip couldn't be there) we found out we were having grandson # 1.

At 1:00 p.m. on three way with Sis and Nick with Natalie standing there in the room we found out we are having grandson # 2! We are so excited we can't stand it! Sunday, I will get in the car and drive 9.5 hours back!

Gas - $80.00
Hotel - $106
Seeing the look on their faces, priceless

Lincoln helps set up the tree

This is Lincoln Folger. He's my other Ragdoll. He was "helping with the tree trimming. I have one ornament that makes a bell sound and I always know when the "boys" are under the tree messing around with it. Dead giveaway! BY THE WAY - I fixed the camera. So much for rechargeable batteries.

THE CLUMPING OF THE ORNAMENTS

I am so disappointed and I need help! I was all set to take pictures of the tree having ALL of it's branches on it and the lights on it and guess what? The digital camera won't work and I am mad!

Now all you tech/camera people, tell me what I am doing wrong. It's blinking when I try and turn it on and I put fresh batteries in it and it's a fine time for it to STOP! There are pictures to be made and stories to be told. Send me help - please!

Anyway. As I began putting up the tree ornaments, I thought about how Rebecca used to help with decorating last year and she would put all the ornaments in one spot - yes CLUMPING. It was so cute. I laughed at how she was so proud of her beautiful creation. When she left of course, I would un-clump them but it was so cool. Now, mind you I can hear my girls saying - my mom would never have let me put those ornaments in a clump! Girls, thats a GRANNY'S perogative! It's so different when you are a gramma! You let them get away with murder.















In all seriousness, we have the tradition of putting a new ornament on our tree every year in memory of Robbie. As I hang the ones we have picked out for him each year, it brings tears to my eyes as they were chosen special because of the different moments/memories he brought to our life. We have, sneakers, a cowboy hat, trucks, pinnochio... Wow, hard to believe this is our 18th year without him.

MAYBE IF I WATER IT, IT WILL FINISH ITSELF

OK, I am not believing I have to put up a Christmas tree along with everything else I have done this year. I went from selling a house, packing a house, moving a house, living in who knows how many homes, living in a rental, packing up a rental, moving out of a rental, moving into a house, settling a house, and NOW I have to put a tree up! Their joking right?

Don't they have tree fairies for this kinda stuff? Now I know why Erma Bombeck was a famous author and wrote hysterical stories about the silly things in life that make you crazy. I just missed out on her wealth somewhere along the line.

I started putting this tree up and realized, this house, has ceiling tall enough to accomodate ALL levels of the tree. WOW. We can put the star back on the top now. Boy and I complained about the design of this house and too many windows, little did I know that I was secretly designing tall enough ceilings to accomodate my tree all along and I didn't know it. The Lord works in mysterious ways.

Now if it would just put it's own lights on itself, I would be even happier!

ONLY THE BEGINNING

OK, here you have it. This is my new goal in life. Yes, I am going to learn to play the drums. STOP laughing, it's not polite.

Richard and Diane came over tonight and Richard says I have good potential. He's excellent at playing the drums and he is loaning me his set till I decide if this is what I want to do. I have been practicing in the car driving down the highway for weeks now and wondering why people keep staring at me. Nick says if I get good enough, he'll buy me my own set.

All I can say is, it's a good thing we live on a acre of land and we have a basement and two levels separating it from the bedroom where we sleep. MOVE OVER THREE DOG NIGHT and PINK PHLOYD!

HIS FAVORITE SPOT

This is my Renniger! He's now the oldest of our cats and he is one of my Ragdoll cats (I have 2). Nick gave him to me when he was a kitty. He is a purebred and this is his favorite spot in our new house. He sits at the top of the stairs leading to our bedroom. He is one handsome man - that's what I call him - my handsome man! He weighs about 18lbs and he's huge. But when he meows, you can hardly hear him. His nickname is Mr. Yielding!

Honey, WE DON'T NEED STUDS, WE AIN'T HANGING A DEER HEAD!

This one I had to laugh at. We went round and round on it till I thought I would spit. He did not want to hang these shelves that we had in our Florida house on this new wall because there were NO Studs where the hook gadgets were and he was determined they were NOT gonna stay up there. Well, Nick suggests these honker of huge sinker type holders that would have held six deer heads to the wall (mind you, 2 for each shelf) and I laid down the law that those anchors were NOT going into those new walls.

We discussed it some more, tossed over putting it off till he could get to Mountain Building Supply the next day (where he works) and get something that would "do the trick" and I said - HONEY, we aren't gonna put anything heavier than a picture frame on them, lets just go with a nail and put the stinking things up.

As you can see, They are now up. Yes they will fall off I am sure - as they did in the Florida house many a times. But mamma's happy and we are moving onto the next project!

BY the way, GUS, we used a high tech laser level gadget that would have made you a very happy man. He had this beam going every which way and it would have leveled the world! Thank goodness he borrowed it, didn't buy it!

It's finally starting to look like it's lived in

Everytime I turn around, there's another box. I am slowly getting things put up. With all the windows in this house, I am very limited on wall space so I am rearranging where pictures go and having to relocate all the stuff that was hung in rooms that had walls in Florida BUT they now have windows and NO walls.
Here are a few shots of rooms getting settled in.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

It is hard to believe that it will be almost one year since we put our Briarwood Court house on the market back in December 2005. We did it just prior to going to Texas for Christmas to be with Sarah and Mike and the girls to celebrate Rowan's one year birthday. NOW Rowie will be 2 the end of December, and we are finally in our new house here in GA. Alot has happened since this blog came under construction the beginning of January when Sarah helped Dad set this up so we could begin showing the process of building our home.

And to think, now we have 4 granddaughters and two more grandbabies on the way and JJ & Lizzy will become our step grandchildren next year and with Katie being our step graddaughter we will have - 9 grandchildren come 2007! Boy am I feeling old. But I am not getting my cane out yet and Grampa and I are hoping to trade up that Harley Sportster for a RoadKing some day and well then we might just look like Gramma and Grampa as we ride into their prospective towns to see all those grandbabies. Grampa says Granny still looks good in her chaps no matter how many grandbabies she has!

As of next Friday, December 15th we will happily post what the sex of those new babies will be and then Granny can begin shopping for those "hopefully" boy things (maybe - maybe not). We will keep you POSTED!