I’ve decided what I want for Mother’s Day.  I want one or two digital photo frames.  They are so cool, and since so many of my photos are already digital, it would be easy to set up.  I’d put one on the bookshelves beside the fireplace, and the other one in my bedroom.  Digital frames make fantastic gifts for anybody  family, friends and colleagues.  As a matter of fact, just think what an easy yet wonderful gift they’d make.  You could handle practically all your Christmas shopping for next year with just a few clicks of the computer mouse.

Just think how great a digital photo frame would be for a business, too - displaying advertising and promotions.  And Digital Frames Direct is the biggest digital frame wholesaler in the UK.  Check out Digital Frames Direct to see the wide variety of digital frames that are available.  There’s lot of information on the website, too, that’ll help you make informed choices about purchasing digital photo frames.

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We don’t get a lot of snow here in middle Tennessee.  Last night and this morning we got the biggest snow in five years.  That means we got between four and six inches of snow.  Looking at our yard, I would say that in our yard we got around 3 inches.  Here are some photos - taken from my front and back porches - of our yard.

This first photo is of RT feeding the birds in our back yard.  In the foreground is our stack of firewood - covered with snow.

Taken from our front porch.  I like the look of the snow on the wrought iron rails on the front steps.

I thought the bushes looked pretty with the snow piled on top of them.

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This is a photo taken in the 1960’s when we lived in Ellijay, Georgia.  My mother made matching robes for all the girls in the family, and she also made matching robes for all the guys in the family.  Somewhere I have the photo of all the girls.  Here’s the photo of the guys in the family: my older brother, Terrell; my father, Charles; and my younger brother, David.  My goodness, but my father was a handsome man!  And Terrell and David were both cute kids - and have, in turn, become handsome men.

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Ha!  Don’t you love that title?  I found this photo on one of my disks.  These are all photos of me as a child.  The top left photo is of my brother,Terrell, my sister Janice and me when we lived in Wilmore, Kentucky on the campus of Asbury College where my father was going to school.  The top right photo is of my mother and me in the parsonage at 333 South 9th Street in Griffin, GA.  It was taken when my father was in seminary in Atlanta and was serving a three church charge (Midway, Sunnside and Vaughn Methodist Churches) in Griffin.The bottom photo is of me and my first grade teacher, Mrs. Landrum, at Fourth Ward Elementary School in Griffin, GA.  I LOVED Mrs. Landrum.  We’d have reading groups at the round “reading” table, and she’d put a little adhesive star on our foreheads when we read well.  I remember skipping out to the playground simply giddy with delight because I was sporting my reading star.  I had Mrs. Elder for second grade, and I don’t really remember much about her except there was a cloak room adjacent to the classroom, and it was a scary place.  Mrs. Giles, my third grade teacher was wretched.  That wasn’t a very good year.  For some reason, I have totally blocked out fourth, fifth and sixth grades - the grades I completed when we lived in Ellijay, Georgia.  I don’t remember those teachers at all, although I do remember some of my adventures at school.   I love these photos.

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I came across this photo of my parents when they were young.  I’m guessing it was around 1938 - the year they were married.  Maybe it was after they were married - around 1940 or so.  I’m sure that when my mother reads this, she’ll let me know when the photo was taken.  They look so young, so in love, so happy.  Aren’t they gorgeous?  I definitely come from “good stock.”

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I was looking through the photos on my Photobucket album when I came across this photo:

The photo was taken on Saturday morning, November 29, 1986, at RT’s and my home in Tennessee.  It is a photo of my father and mother with five of their granddaughters.  When the photo was taken, we had no idea that in less than a week my father would die suddenly and we would all be gathered again  - this time in Georgia - for his funeral.  This is the last photo we have of my father.  When I see a meaningful photo such as this, I immediately start thinking not only of the events surrounding that photo, but also of all that has happened since the photo was taken.

The oldest granddaughter in the photo is my daughter.  She’s now married and has two little girls of her own.  The youngest granddaughter in the photo - the one my mother is holding (the daughter of my younger non-blogging brother, David) - just got married this past year.   She and her husband live on a farm in Alabama.  The curly-haired blonde immediately in front of my daughter is now a teacher/missionary in Kenya (and yes, with the situation in Kenya, we are all worried about her).  She’s the daughter of my non-blogging sister, Debi.  The one sitting in my father’s lap (The daughter of my sister, Beth) with her hands clasped in front of her face is now living on her own in California.  And the granddaughter standing beside the chair holding her doll is the daughter of my brother Terrell.  She is now living in New York City - working as a nanny and hoping to work in musical theater.

Over twenty-one years have passed.  Four new grandchildren have been born since my father’s death, along with lots of great-grandchildren.  My father had such a robust attitude towards life, and he loved his children and grandchildren.  I would give anything to share with him the joy I feel for my own grandgirls.  No major point here - just the observation that life goes very quickly.   

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 The past few mornings, RT has walked to the bottom of the hill behind our house where the West Harpeth River winds through a corner of our property.  There he has discovered a group of river otters.   He took the above picture this morning.  When we were in Alaska last year, we both enjoyed SO much watching the otters playing in the ocean.  So we’re thrilled that we have otters practically in our back yard here in Tennessee.  Saturday morning I’m going to the river with RT to see them for myself.

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All during the building of our house, RT had a favorite saying that he repeated often.  And I DO mean often.   I HAVE to put this down for posterity because I’ve heard RT say this literally hundreds, if not thousands, of times.   It became a standing joke for our entire family (except for the grandgirls - our daughter wouldn’t let him say it in front of them - and he wouldn’t have anyway).

 RT was the general contractor for our house, and thanks to his careful supervision and management, we ended up with a superbly built home.  As he would leave the house each day - or any time that he was talking to us about the various sub-contractors on the job - he would say the following:

Each sub brings to the workplace their skills, their  shortcuts, and their bullshit.

It is the job of the general contractor to sharpen their skills, eliminate their shortcuts, and outdo their bullshit.

We would always laugh, and my favorite rejoinder was: “And YOU are the man for the job!”

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School is out today - for the children.  Teachers are in meetings all day.  One good thing about teachers’ meetings is that we get an hour lunch.  I drove home quickly to let Jake (our black, British lab) out since I forgot to let him out earlier this morning when I was getting dressed.   I figured he’d have about 30 minutes to run around while I ate a quick sandwich at home.  As I drove into the driveway, this is what I saw alongside the drive - something we see almost every day:

They ARE beautiful, aren’t they?  There was another one to the left of these, but I couldn’t get him in the photograph because of bushes.  I took the photo from the car window.

Then, after I pulled up at the house, I saw the following along the back walkway.  I had been meaning to take a photo of them because, after all, how often do you see azaleas blooming in November?  Our son - the landscaper - selected these azaleas for us because they’re named “Encore” azaleas, and they bloom twice a year - in the spring and in the fall.   These have done more than bloom twice.  They’ve been in almost constant bloom since they were planted in July.  There are about seven bushes - each blooming as beautifully as this one.  Gorgeous, aren’t they?

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For those of you who have asked about new photos of our house in progress, here are some photos from the past week.  Every single day I thank God - not only for the new house but for the experience of building it.  There have been frustrations, but, for the most part, it has been an enjoyable process.  RT is THE hardest working person I have ever known.  There isn’t another MAJOR thing to be done - other than paving the driveway all the way to the road.  That will be done after we move in.  There is still at least 2-3 weeks left of painting.  And there is still another couple days left with the landscaping.  Then the plumbing has to be finished, the carpet and tile done.  The wood floors have to be sanded and two coats of finish done.  Then all the light fixtures and appliances have to be installed.  We figure probably the first of September will be the move-in date.  Maybe.  Everything takes longer than we anticipated.

The house is progressing nicely, though, and this past week saw some major work - and also a couple of touching (to me) moments.  Here are the pics:

(1) The paving crew put up the forms for the sidewalks and driveway.

(2) Our landscaper (who happens to be our son) sketched out his plan for the landscaping.  This is one of the touching photographs - because it is our son.  He owns his own landscaping company and is doing so well with it.  This past week he had ten of his employees here working on our yard.  I loved watching him design our landscaping and then implement that design.

(3) Here’s the same general area as the above photos - just three days later.  There is a crepe myrtle, a white dogwood, a tall holly and lot of lilies and daisies.  All the colors and shades of green are perfect.   The sod will be installed later.

(4) Here’s the back yard and porch.  Since it is shaded most of the day, there are azaleas in the foreground along the sidewalk, more lilies - and a green Japanese dwarf maple.  He didn’t plant a red Japanese maple because he felt it would be lost against the red brick.  Smart landscaper!

(5) One of the workers called RT to look at a place near the barn where a volunteer tomato plant was growing.  The plant was large with several blooms already on it.  No telling where it came from.  Maybe from a tomato from a sandwich that someone threw out long ago?  The worker put rocks around the plant to protect it.

(6)  This was the paving crew in the middle of paving the driveway.  Truck after truck of cement came up the long driveway and delivered its load of cement and the guys worked so hard spreading it, making sure the grade was right so water would drain correctly off the cement, and then smoothing it out.  It was fascinating to watch.  We only paved to about where the truck is parked in the picture.  The driveway is about 1/3 mile long.  So we will probably blacktop the rest of it - after the house is built.

(7) Here are our kitchen cabinets - not finished yet.  They’re waiting for some of the materials to come in.  The wood is cherry - like the floors, but darker.

(8)  This is the fireplace that RT built in the great room.  Since this picture was taken the other day, the painters have put the primer coat on the walls.  So it already looks different than this picture.

(9) This next photo is looking from the backyard towards the barn.  Our landscaper is standing in the background, watering a tree.  You have to look VERY closely to see him.  The little tree in the right foreground is a pink dogwood, and the bushes planted at the end of the parking area are forsythia - one of my favorite flowers!

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