1,000 Words

They say a picture is worth 1,000 words so here are 1,000 words about our recent trip to Florida...



Enuff' said.

Florida Fotos

Here are a few of my favorite photos from past trips to Florida. This time next week I hope to have several more to post. I'm starting to look forward to our trip, I know Dad is chomping at the bit and wanting to get there as soon as possible. Tell Randy to leave a few fish in the lake for us.

Christmas on Road Creek

Jeffery complains every year that there is something wrong with the photos of our Christmas gathering on Road Creek...she's not in them. Well, this year we decided to correct that. Here are some photos from our gathering this past weekend.

Here she is sampling some of Michelle and Luci's 'Splenda Snacks'...

Here she is making sure that Melissa and Shawn don't get 'Too Close' on the sofa...

And here she shares a private moment with Grandma and Michelle...

Check out these and several more photos at Clyde's Flickr Page.

Smelling The Wuv

Grandmother Phyllis has been busy all year making quilts for her family. And when I say her family, I mean all of her children, their spouses, their children and their grandchildren. She has been non-stop quilting.

We are all very grateful that Aunt Janice and Uncle Earl have been coming down during the winter months and keeping Grandmother busy. While they were here Aunt Janice and Grandmother put up a quilt. This has really meant a lot to her. She was so bored. She thought she would never be able to quilt again because of her failing eyesight. But she has learned that she can tack quilts and they are still beautiful. Especially to her family.

Well she has been making special quilts for the grandchildren. She made a very pretty Spiderman quilt for Caleb (He thinks he really is Spider man.) Amber told grandmother that they had been trying to get Caleb to sleep by himself, so she decided to give him his quilt early, hoping it would encourage him to sleep by himself.

This was a very good idea. Amber says he has been dragging this full sized quilt around the house all day long. Amber said she sat down with Caleb and asked him, "Caleb, did you know that Grandmother sewed a special ingredient into your quilt."

Caleb looked at her and shook his head no. She leaned over and whispered in his ear. "Caleb, Grandmother sewed some of her love into you quilt." His eyes got big! His mother said, "Caleb, smell your quilt."

He pulled the quilt up to his nose, took a big sniff and squealed, "Momma, I smell the wuv!"

She looked at him and said, "Caleb, rub the quilt on your face."

He quickly pulled the quilt up to his cheek and squealed, "Momma, I feel the wuv!" He was so excited to know that his grandmother had put love in this quilt.

Now his mother thought he should share some of the love and asked, "Can I smell the love, Caleb?"

He looked up at her and let her know what he thought about this suggestion, "NO!" For several minutes she begged to smell the love and finally he agreed. She pulled the quilt up to her nose and took a really big sniff. The scream that came from Caleb almost pierced her ears, "You're smelling all the wuv, Momma. STOP IT!"

He drug his quilt around all day. That night after they had all gone to bed and Amber ended up sleeping with him, he woke up around twelve and whispered, "Momma, you forgot to snuggle me."

Amber, of course, was under this quilt with him and had it pulled up to her face. As she rolled over to snuggle him she heard him mumble something under his breath. She asked, "Caleb, what did you say?"

He turned to her and said, "I said stop smelling the wuv!" He is so afraid she is going to sniff out all of Grandmother's love from his quilt.

Posted by Jeff

Thanksgiving Dinner 2005

I'm not sure whose idea it was but this year we gathered the Stalker and Looney families together at the church at the mouth of Jimmie's Creek. The church has a nice kitchen and dining area on the lower floor that was just perfect for our group.

Mom and Dad and all of their kids were there of course...

We were joined by Patty, Randy and Sandra Kay with their spouses and several of their children. Danny Looney was able to attend too.

Someone counted twenty-seven of us in all. There was more than enough food for everyone. In fact, we could have fed another twenty-seven easily.

I don't know if it was going back to the church where we all grew up, or getting together with cousins, neices and nephews that we hadn't seen in quite some time, but something about this gathering brought back special memories for many of us. None more special than our memories of Junice and Hula.

A couple of people have already said that we need to do this again next year because this was..."the best Thanksgiving ever."