HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD!!!!!

Happy Birthday to Yoooooouuuuu....... Can we get a giant 'WOO-HOO' for the patriarch???? Happy 78th, Dad. I talked to mom last night and she told me everything was going "swimmingly", if you will. (Except for the phone fiasco, but I'll let you tell about that one....;) ) Here's a "birthday photo" of dad. It doesn't matter that it's actually MY birthday....just notice it's "birthday" and "dad" in the same photo!!


Not much going on here. We drove to Atlanta last weekend to build a ramp for Steve's dad to use to get into and out of the house. He's back in his wheelchair full time. He was having difficulty trying to go up / down two steps with a walker to get in and out of the house. So we drove down on Friday evening and spent the day Saturday building the ramp from the kitchen doorway into the garage. He has enough room to drive his chair down the ramp and turn to get to the car without having to go outside. Steve did a GREAT job with the ramp. It took all day for him as the main work and me as the "gofer" and "balancer"..... Luckily it wasn't too hot on Saturday. Of course, if you know Steve, you know he was able to "sweat up a storm" anyway, but I was relatively comfortable for the most part.

We got home on Sunday afternoon and Steve pretty much slept through the NASCAR race and the rest of the afternoon. He deserved the snooze, though.

Last week I went shopping for the furniture we wanted to complete our family room / den. We got a new recliner, a coffee table and end table. It was delivered on Tuesday and I'm very happy with it. The room feels so much smaller now, since it's so full, but we have everything we need. My next thing to actually complete the room is deciding what to hang on the walls. At this point the house is really close to being FINISHED. We still want a new bedroom suite, but haven't found one that we both love. I'm not in a hurry because I know whatever we get we'll have for a long time to come.

I want to take a minute to welcome Bryan home. I know he's been home for over a week now, but I haven't officially said "I'm glad you're back, safe and sound, with KT and baby Maddy".... Thank you for all you do for us. We love you!!

OK, so from "not much going on" to a page full of stuff........I seem to do this often!! I hope everyone is having a great week and I'll check back in soon.

Love to all.......

Happy Father's Day!!!

Happy Father's Day, Dad, and to my brothers as well. I hope you all have a nice relaxing day and are able to do whatever makes you happy. Steve decided to play golf today, so he's having a happy day. Bryan, a special Father's Day wish comes to you, as you are just about to begin this chapter of your life. It's a crazy ride, but well worth the effort, I promise you!! :)

Thank you to everyone who came by to visit me on my "impromptu" visit to the homestead this past week. It was a really nice change of pace for me. I'm not usually a very spontaneous person, but I'm trying to become a bit more spontaneous, since there's no reason for me to sit here alone when Steve's out of town. We'll see if it "took" after this trip. Tom, I haven't talked to Chris yet, since he's been out of town this weekend, but I promise this week I'll pass on your message to him. (That should get his curiosity up enough to give me a call....;) )

Bill did a great job of finishing up the story of our Alaska cruise with the visit to the glaciers. He had some really great pictures of all the glorious beauty up there. The one shot he didn't get, but Steve did, was a really nice shot of the Dallas Porpoise. As Bill said, they look like a smaller version of an Orca. Here's what Steve got:

We're not sure how deep this one was, but Steve was on the top deck of the ship shooting down into the water. The water was very clear, but definitely different from the water in the Caribbean.

In this picture, the porpoise was just coming back up to the
surface for a breath of air.

One of the beauties of digital photography is that you can just keep shooting until you finally get the shot you were trying for. This time it paid off big time!!

I am so excited for Katie and Bryan. Things are moving along very nicely on the Maddy front and Bryan will be home to experience it VERY soon. YAY and WOO HOO to them!!

I guess that's it for the time being. I hope everyone has a great weekend and let's all try to keep in touch over the next week. I love you all and HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to one and all!!!!

*S*U*R*P*R*I*S*E*

Hey....quick post....Since Steve will be going out of town this week....AGAIN..... I decided (last minute) to take a quick trip to Atlanta (Stone Mountain) and see mom and dad. I have to be back home in SC for a meeting at 7:00 on Thursday evening, so I'll only be there for a short time. I'll leave some time tomorrow morning and be there in time for dinner, then stay for Tuesday and Wednesday and be home in time to pick Dixie up at the kennel before my meeting at 7:00.

I hope I get the chance to see all of my brothers for a short time during my short visit. Of course all of this hinges on the kennel, but I don't expect to have a problem getting Dixie in this week. If I can't get a spot for her I'll let you all know right away. Otherwise expect to find me nestled in Stone Mountain for the next couple of days. This is one of the main reasons I decided not to go back to work when we moved here. I'm still getting used to the fact that I'm free to come and go at my pleasure.....but I'm working on it.

Hope to see everyone soon.

Love ya!!

Thanks, Bryan.....see you soon!!!! :)

Just a quick note.....

I'm working on another project and I just found some information I had stored in the computer on the book I made for Bill. If you want to look at Bill's book, just go to this address:

http://preview.picaboo.com/Webview/CoverPage.aspx?user=0000000000021F06E3&album=0000000000021ED19E

When you get to the website, you can click on the arrows at the bottom of the page to turn the pages in the book. You can also click on each page to enlarge it for easier viewing, and then just click on it again and it will go back to original size.

Also, as an aside.....I mentioned in a previous blog that I was working on two projects that were to be surprises and I would reveal them at a later date. Well, of course, this is one of them. The other was a scrap book for Katie. She left me a boxful of "items" from her engagement year (almost a year) and asked me if I would make her a scrap book with all the stuff. I finished it shortly before the cruise and gave it to her when she was here last week. I don't have any electronic references for that one, but I hope you all enjoy Bill's book. I put one picture of "Bill" into his book and later decided it wasn't him. Maybe you can figure out which picture it is and who is actually in that picture!!

Love to all!!!

THANK YOU BRYAN!!!