Sarah's talent once again

Sis is so talented. We will NEVER go to a studio again to have our pics done. She does such a wonderful job. We had her do these while at the same "tree" spot.

CHRISTMAS 2007

Another Pic from the Party

Here's another Party Pic. Tim Schaffer came up from FL for it. He was our best man from our wedding and long time friend from High School.

Ride for MOM LANGDON

We have been thinking about taking the bike off the road for the winter but wanted to give Nick's mom (she'll be 79) a ride before we do. We had a day this weekend that was up in the high 60's and Nick and I dressed her up and loaded her up and he took her out. She enjoyed the ride. With a few more days of practice,she could become and experience rider. You can't be nervous and jerky on it, I told her, just go with the flow. Me, I get so relaxed, Nick has to keep asking me if I am alright, I sometimes get so oblivious back there,and in "my element" I forget where I am at. It's the next best thing to Grandkids.

When Nick said lets sell the house and just ride the bike to all over, I WAS HALF tempted to say yes! Ride Sally Ride!
P.S. He brought her back safe and sound.

TURNING 50

Our birthday bash went off without a hitch. It was very well planned thanks to my sister who is a great "supervisor". (It's a family joke)Anyway, over 70 guests came and we dressed alike. We had fancy shirts and jeans and our cowboy boots on. Shabby sheak as I put it.

We never get to see family unless it's for a funeral and this time several of our sibilings flew in for the occasion. My brother Bernie and his wife Gail and sister Melissa and husband Aaron and sister Margaret. Our neice and nephew came(they are 3 years younger than us. Our other nephew Luke and girlfriend, Ruth came. Nick's mom flew in and my daughter Natalie drove up from FL with 3 of our 9 grandchildren to celebrate. Even Tim, who was our best man at our wedding and high school friend (he had eyes for Barbie in high school) drove up from Florida to be with us.

We gathered at a clubhouse in a neighborhood that was close to Barb's house and had tons on Mexican food and a virtual DJ. Everyone seemed to enjoy their time. I also had the pleasure of seeing an old friend who showed up from Tennessee, driving 3 hours. She lived in the duplex next to us back in 1985 when we were in the Navy. We have kept in touch through the years and what a surprise to see her walk in.

It was sad to see the evening end.
I would have to say, this is the first ever big birthday party in my life. It was fun and turning 50 wasn't so bad after all.

Tyler John and Hunter Langdon

New Pics of the boys. Natalie recently watched them when James was in the hospital and Skip had to be there with him everyday. She was brave having 5 of the 6 kids on her own. They look like they could be brothers and they are only 2 days apart in age. Sure makes granny and grampa miss them!

THE GIRLS HAVING FUN

ANOTHER GREAT SHOT OF SKIP AND LIZZY

WHERE'S THE ICE CREAM

Nick asked one weekend if I would teach him how to bake an apple pie. So we headed to Mercier Orchards and got apples. We baked the pie. This weekend he wanted to do it again. This time I got out the handy dandy apple peeler,corer machine that slices, peels and cores the apples all in one fell swoop.

His job is to peel the apples and slice them while I make the crust. He was like a kid with a new toy. Once I demonstrated the first one, he went to town. We baked three pies. We are keeping one for ourselves, giving one to the Morgans and freezing another for when his mother comes to live with us in November, December and January.

I am SURE we will be baking more now that he has discovered the TOY. It is a great gadget to have. I wish I would have invented it.

Great shot of Skip and Lizzy

This is really nice. Skip got her Glamour Shots done with Lizzy. Beautiful.

Vera Bradley Feet Killing Extravaganza

For those of you who don't know what a Vera Bradley is - well, all I can say is I never want to see another one in my life. After going to the Outlet Sale in Atlanta this past weekend with my sister, I did not realize how many women were obcessed with Vera.

The journey started after parking and waiting in lines several hunreds long and then you get a pink bag to hold your "stuff" while you meandor threw the huge auditorium to buy your VERA's. Heaven forbid you put one down, you would lose it.

The sale started on a Thursday and by Saturday, they had marked stuff down and down so it was best to be there later in the sale. So everyone thought and everyone was there. The check-out lines were like the check-in lines at the Atlanta airport during 6 holidays combined. At one point they announced, if you sit down in the auditorium, you will be escorted out.

By the time we were done we were Vera-tired, Vera-hungry, Vera-grouchy, Vera-thirsty, Vera-broke, Vera-sore, Vera-over it. We laughed cause on the way home, Amanda (my niece) was sorting and adding up the savings. For the cost of a little over $240, we got $1,000 worth of Vera. Don't worry, it wasn't all for us. We shopped for the neighbors too.

YOU NEVER KNOW WHO YOU'LL MEET AT WALMART

Ok, It's a small world.
We are sitting on a bench in the lobby of Walmart cause Nick is having a sugar low and I am frantically trying to get some food into him before he hits the floor from passing out.

This husband and wife walk by with carts full of dog food and groceries and she has on a Buffalo Sabres T-Shirt. Nick, Mr. Social, says "Go Sabres, she thinks, he says "got Diapers" and she said OH NO DIAPERS, we laugh and re-explained, yada yada only to find out they are originally from "Depew" and "Tondawanda" New York. They knew where Alden (our hometown) was and the man had played on the Wendy league of little league against Nicks team when he was growing up. He knew "Bob Byers" who was the coach (lived on same street my sister lives on) and in the course of the conversation he says - he LOVED going to NEELANDS DAIRY.

Now Neelands was the famous ice cream shop in town and it was FAMOUS for its great ice cream. He then says his favorite ice cream was "Honey Dew". Oh my word, I about fell out off the bench cause that was MY FAVORITE at Neelands. You cannot find it anywhere today. NOT like Neelands.
We chatted somemore about Buffalo and such. They have 6 kids, we bragged on our grandkids and parted ways.
I immediately said to Nick in the parking lot - BLOG MOMENT DEAR.

HE'S a BUTTERBALL

Ty and Hunter are like night and day. This is Hunter. Although he started out alot heavier than baby boy Ty, he's slowed down and Ty has surpassed him in size. I love just how unique and different each one is. I will love being able to see them in a few more months and see even more changes. Pictures can't explain it.

I have this thing I do that my mom did with my babies, it's called giddy giddy. You grab their hands and lap them over their chests and tickle their necks while you do it. You tell them you are gonna get them (giddy giddy) is how it comes out. I had Hunter laughing out loud. They just lay there and look at you enamored. That is what being a gramma is all about.

TY TY

Here's the boy and he's a big one. Amazing how much this baby grew since we last held him.

NEW WEBSITE TO VISIT

Sarah started her business in photography. You must see this site.

Sis never had a hobby growing up besides loving to clean her room and keep her parents out of her hair while she was a teenager. We did find out later on that she was not as innocent as we thought - but I won't give away any family secrets.(We can only laugh now)

Just go to www.still-moments.com and surf away. She has done an awesome job and loves her new found hobby. She has done several family shots and headshots for me. Now when we are together, it's "Sis, can ya take our pics?" Pictures give us memories to embed on our hearts forever.

Enjoy.
P.S. maybe I will get commissions from this blog if you all hire her and I can finally quit my job!
And if any of my blog buddies know how to hook the link inside my text, can ya tell me.Thanks.

ADDRESS ALERT

Ok, so we told you that our house number would change in February, but given the slowness of the North GA mountains, that didn't happen (911 address change so they say).

My poor sister Joanne tried sending pics to me and yes, they came back several times to her and told her we didn't exist cause it had 46 Knox Leila on it and not still 260 Knox Leila.

Soooooo, Please continue to send any mail to the 260 Knox Leila address and forget the other one for now.

We have this awesome new sign with 46 on it that Nick's work gave us for a house warming gift after much research so it is stored away till it really happens or we sell the house and move again.

MILK CARTONS

I was going to cut and paste the pictures of Hunter and Tyler on a milk carton and send a pic to their parents saying "have you seen recent pictures of these babies" and sign it Gramma and Grampa are looking desperately for them - but low and behold, Natalie finally updated her pics of Hunter at least, now Skippy will NEED to get on board (hint hint). Here is one of such a sweet boy. He is my Nanny to the T! Looks like her as a baby. Unreal. Told Gramps, it's time to get on the bike and go to FL!
Need to squeeze, smell, hug, and hold those grandkids. I miss them sooooo much.

EMILY STORY

This was one pic Miss Francis took of us when Em was here. I was reminded today of the one thing that Emily did in the car when we were taking her back to her mom and dad.

We were on the motorcycle today and Nick could sense that I was "bored". I get figity and I kept shifting and putting my leg up on his and he leaned back and said "are you bored" I said, why? can you tell? He said, you could always burp your ABC's. Now this is what Emily did, in the car the last hour of our trip, she literally burped her ABC's. Nick and I were laughing so hard, full well knowing she had to have been so bored out of her little mind in the back seat to come up with burping her ABC's. I might add, she didn't miss a beat and then announced her belly hurt. Nick was laughing so hard, he was crying. That's what keeps us young, our grandkids. Some folks would be aghast, not us, why sweat the small stuff, we figured, mom and dad could retrain her when she got home.

Sis is doing well in her photography AGAIN!

These are some great new ones of Emily.

THE VIEW FROM THE PORCH

Nick walked out on the back porch when he got home from work this week and this is what he found. Not more than 500 yards from the deck - right near the fence line. We have been watching these two from a distance in the pasture graze for several weeks. This is the closest they have ever come to the house. Pretty cool.

IF YOU BUILD IT - THEY WILL COME

Check this out. We took Emily to see this rocking chair, it's huge, I am talking HUGE. We drove and drove to find it-down the mountain, up the mountain (as I was throwing up my lunch in a Walmart bag) due to the winding roads.

I told Nick, get lots of angles cause I want one for my backyard. My theory (or stolen one) if you build it, they will come! LOTS OF GRANDKIDS!

Ty Ty and Hunter Boy

This of course is Tyler with Skip



This one was on Natalie's blog and made his granny want to cry.

THE DRIVE TO DELIVER EMILY SAFELY TO MOM

I believe that the Lord makes Grandparents nerves out of steel. He gives us our children first and then our grandchildren to spoil but somehow gives us the grace and patience we never had with our own children.

We drove Emily safely back to her mom and dad and we weren't an hour down the road and she announced from the backseat "Emily Kelly is now bored". Nick and I looked at each other and said, it's gonna be a long trip! We only wished we had started counting how many times she asked "when we would be there, how much longer it was gonna be, how many hours till we arrive..... We had to remember what we said the last report because she is sharp as a tack and she remembered if we told her wrong.

I think though that the highlight of the trip was when she took the straw out of her drink and wadded up pieces of paper towel from the back seat and shot them at us. There was a time when she asked if she could try it with water from her glass and I promptly put that idea to rest with an instant NO. When she was safely delivered and we were back in the car and on the road, we looked down at the floorboards and there had to have been 60 spitwads on the console and floor. We chuckled. It kept her occupied for about 40 minutes, didn't hurt a thing and I think at some point during the sharp shooting I dozed so she no doubt hit me a few times and I never knew it.

She is a trip to say the least.

The Crops are coming in

Pics of the garden. We are eating squash everyday and everyday and everyday. When we get home, Emily and I run to the garden and check out the harvest. It's been incredible everyday to see how they change. Today was the first day we got beans - that would be pole beans - Patti.

VISIT TO DENTIST

We have had dental insurance for over a year and "finally" (Nick hates that word) got a call to get appointments and they had one for me today as a cancellation so I opted to go and took Emily with me. OH BOY. She was totally bored. We had our little talk before we went in. She filled in the Highlights order forms in the magazines in the waiting room and then asked a million and one questions in the dental asst. area.

At one point she said, why are you getting blood from my Grannies teeth? I quickly chimmed in, because your Granny doesn't floss like she should. Right away, she said, well Grampa flosses AND he brushes his teeth with an electric toothbrush!!!

I had to laugh to myself. The dental hygenist was no doubt snickering behind that mask that Emily asked WHY WAS SHE WEARING IT - and then Emily told her it was so she wouldn't spit on her Granny.

I was so very thankful to have my teeth cleaned today. She will remember our visit to the dentist and no doubt will tell her classmates, her Granny bled at the dentist cause she don't floss like she should. Oh well, maybe after Granny stops working 2 jobs and going to school, she MIGHT find time to floss.

Side note, I did see some guy driving down the four-lane flossing the other day. That was safe. Multi-tasking at it's best! Floss away buddy boy! Your next visit to the dentist will be rewarding - if you get there!

IF HE ISN'T HIS MOTHER!

Hunter looks just like Natalie when she was a baby! Uncanny.

RAYAH LEE IS THREE

HARD TO BELIEVE SHE TURNED 3! "I A PRINCESS" AS SHE PUTS IT!

HUNTER & TYLER

THE TWO BOYS!

SAD DAY

I took Lincoln to the vet after school today. Emily went with me because she had to, I had no where to leave her. The news was grim. Lincoln was so sick, he was needing to be hospitalized or put down. He could hardly walk anymore due to his lack of eating. The vet and I had several discussions, made a few phone calls and decided I had to have him put to sleep. They said he might not even make it through the hospitalization and that it would cost over $1000.

Emily had not ever experienced this sort of thing. We sent her to the waiting room to pick a toy for him to be buried with (her idea) and the vet didn't want her to be in there. She came back and when it was over, we put him in a box, she carried him to the car to bring home to bury in the backyard.

It is ironic that just the night before in the car, we had a discussion on graves/memorial sites we see along roadsides where people have died from auto accidents. She wanted to take the flowers from one and we explained to her that the person that put them there would be hurt if she did that, because it is a special memorial for them. We recommended that she put flowers at one of those sites someday because that would make someone happy. We related the story to where Robbie is buried and how he has a gravestone and flowers. Nick and I were amazed that she rationalized all this from seeing a bouquet on the motorcycle trip previously with her grampa.

Her and I came out to go home (Lincoln in box in her hands) and the battery of the car was dead. So I drove to the auto parts store and she said she was NOT going in WITHOUT Lincoln. So into the auto parts store we went, box in hand with Lincoln, to have the man come out and test the battery so I could buy a new one. She walks in, and gently puts the box up on the counter. Announces she has to go pee and tells the man Lincoln is in the box.

As I stood outside telling the auto repair guy the story, he chuckled, apologized, by then I was chuckling because to see this 7 year old in the back seat, holding this box with a dead cat in it, it was priceless.

Now one last thing, she did tell me, and one day I will tell her this as she walks down the isle to be married, she said granny - you have lost your mind to have chosen to have Lincoln put down and not hospitalized. Someday, I will have to explain it better to her. Right now, I just wipe the tears, hold her close, continue to tell her NO we cannot take one of those black kitties home from the vets lobby they are giving away and hope she will forgive me for making the choice I had to.
It was a tough day! BUT I HAVE HAD WORSE! P.S. Emily was the one who helped me get his middle name of Folger.

LESLIE MADE ME DO IT

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Mingle² - Online Dating

SHE IS LIKE A FISH

We went to Meeks Park - which is right up the road from our house and has a pool. You can pay to go in on a daily basis or buy a pass. We went for a couple hours today. As Grampa and I sat on the edge of the pool, she about wore the hair off her grampa's legs hanging on to him. She has goggles and swims like no other 7 year old I have ever seen. She is a fish. She even wanted to take a bath tonight after all the water today.

She especially liked swimming UNDER the ladies floating on rafts. Talk about making them mad! That would be Emily.

THIS WAS BREAKFAST FROM OUR HOUSE GUEST TODAY

Emily is visiting. She asked in the car on the way home from MS if she could make breakfast for us in the morning. She promised to NOT use the microwave or the oven. Soooo, this is what I found when I came down this morning! Eggs Emily! Now this is Selmonila waiting to happen. I smiled and said, oh honey, this is good. I had to chuckle.

She didn't burn down the house!

A CHRISTMAS PIC

Miss Francis took this pic at the "company" Christmas party. Nick brought it home today from work. We won a ham that night as a prize. OK, stop laughing, it was a GOOD ham! We ate quite a few meals from that ham too!

WE DIDN'T LET THE RAIN STOP US

Even though we went out on the cycle yesterday, I told Nick, we HAD to go today. I was NOT wanting to post school work and it was so pretty outside. The minute we got on the bike, we heard thunder in the distance. As we headed down the "4 lane" sure enough. Nick asked if I wanted him to stop to put the rain gear on - we did and just in time. It opened up and it was like a FL shower, you go a few feet and it's dry. So we kept on going to Helen and it was beautiful.

We had packed a picnic lunch and a blanket and I took my school books. We went to a State Park near Helen. It was so relaxing. Finally had to give it up. My back can only take so much of the hard ground and I knew I needed to get home and post my research paper.

We hit some major curving highways today. We took a turn around spot at the end of a street and hit a pothole, I quickly jumped off cause I knew it might go down. Fortunately Nick was able to keep it up and we didn't dump it. We weren't doing but 3 mph but it was enough to scare the pants off me.

Tyler John

Never wake a sleeping baby. Only gramma's are allowed to pinch them and wake them up to hear them cry.

Had to Haul these ones off Sissy's Blog

Wow, they are growing up!

He's looking blonde headed like his mom