HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KIAN

Yesterday was my grandson, Kian's, 8th birthday. Due to unforseen circumstances I didn't get to spend time with him on his birthday like I wanted, or get pictures like I wanted either. We have plans to do this later on. So today I'm honoring this very special boy here on my blog.

On a cold, snowy, January day, Kian came into this world. He was born a month premature with lungs that weren't developed enough and immediately taken to another hospital and put in an intensive care unit. Here he was attached to every tube and wire imaginable and the only contact we had at first was just touching his little hand. A very scary and heart wrenching time. It was about a week before I got to hold him the first time and then it was with all those tubes and wires still attached. But God had plans for this baby boy and in his short 8 years, he has blessed so many people especially his Granny.

When he was still a baby and came over for a visit, he would reach for me as soon as he saw me. When I took him in my arms, the first thing he would do was lay his little head on my shoulder and pat me gently on the back. He was saying "I love you, Granny" even then, without words. As he got older I would tell him I loved him and he would say, "Lu you too!"

This kid is a nut:



He's right out of a cartoon and makes me laugh:



He's such a cool kid:



He loves being silly with his cousin Claire:



And adores his cousin Collin:



Last year he lost his first tooth, and unlike most kids, loved to show off the gaping space:



Now he's looking so grown up..but he's still Granny's little man:



HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KIAN! GRANNY LOVES YOU VERY MUCH!

Blessings..pay them forward..

Brandy and Jennifer both chose me for this award and I am honored. Thank you both for thinking of me. Here's the idea behind this award:

The idea…it’s a game of tag with a difference, rather than looking inwardly, we look outside ourselves and bless, praise and pray for 3 blog friends. By participating in this endeavour we not only make the recipient of the blessing feel valued and appreciated, but we are having some fun too. We’re going to see how far the bloggin’ blessings can travel around the world and how many people can be blessed! Recipients of a bloggin’ blessing may upload the above image to their sidebar if they choose to. If you receive a bloggin’ blessin’ please leave a comment on this thread here so that we can rejoice in just how many blessings have been sent around the world.Now, I am to pass this Award on to 3 ladies.

I want all my Bloggy Friends to know what a blessing each of you have been to me and each of you deserve this award. But I am only suppose to pick 3 people to bless. I thought about this for a while and I chose 3 ladies who have not always had it easy, or they are still going through some trying times. But in the midst of it all, they keep their chins up and do what they have to do. They have had sickness, financial problems, or just plain heartbreak and worry, but they just trust God for their needs and perservere. Grams, Karen and Brenda..I want you all to know that you've been a blessing and encouragement to me.

Thanks again, Brandy and Jennifer. I hope my little blog corner of the world will continue to be a blessing.

A New Award and an Old Town

First of all, I have received this award from Sandra at Nora Lee's Nook. Here's what she said about me: "Hope at Second Time Around where it is always fun to stop by and see what she is up to, and also for some laughs!" I am so glad that I can bring a smile to the ones who visit here. As I told Sandra, laughter is good medicine, and I'm a firm believer in laughter! If you haven't visited her at Nora Lee's Nook, you must run on over there and check it out. Sandra has many old items which she shares passed down through generations of her family. She's also a girl after my own heart who loves junkin' and she also shares many of her great finds!! Thanks you so much, Sandra, for this honor. When you drop in on her, tell her Hope sent you! :)

Next, an old town! This past summer DH fulfilled one of my dreams by taking me on a trip from VA to Maine. It was a long, tiring trip but we saw so many interesting places along the way, as you can imagine. There's no way I could get all this into one post so I'll break it down so that you don't get "picture overload"! As I mentioned in one of the meme's I did a while back, I love the movie Baby Boom with Diane Keaton, about a devoted career woman who "inherits" a baby and leaves her city life for the country. The name of the area in the movie was Hadleyville, Vermont, but in real life, it is a very small town called Peru, Vermont. This little town consists of a town center:



an old cemetary behind the towncenter:



a post office:



a beautiful, old church:



and my favorite place, the old general store:



In the movie, Keaton's character buys a farm, sight unseen, complete with a beautiful old farmhouse and an apple orchard. With so many apples laying around going to waste, she decides to make baby food apple sauce for her newly inherited baby.
Being a sharp business woman, she also decides to try and sell some of this baby food so she takes some to the local general store. Tourists drift through this small town from a much larger, neighboring town which is a resort area. (We actually stayed in the resort town for one night. Very expensive place but nice.) This little store is the actual one from the movie.



It took me back in time for a while. The lady who now owns the store was very friendly and told us all about the excitement that went on during the making of the movie. I was amazed at all the goodies sold in this one small place. Fresh muffins and coffee in the morning, cheeses, pizza and of course, Vermont Maple Syrup. It even had the old wood stove still used for heat where the old men use to sit around, swapping stores and spitting tobacco juice in the spittoon!



Notice the original old wood floor around the stove. The original wood counters are still in use too, along with the old cash register. (Oh yeah, they also sell night crawlers and worms!)





A sign is still displayed over a doorway showing the original owner.




When Keaton's character was driving to her new home in the film, this is the beautiful tree-lined road she was on:



The store owner told us that the house used in the film was just a few miles down the road but was too far back to be seen from the road. We left this town by way of the tree-lined road on to our next destination. I was amazed at all the dirt roads in this area which are main routes! We use to have a lot of these in our county that have now been paved.

I hope you've enjoyed your little tour today. I want to show more of the places we visited at a later date. I also hope my pictures aren't chopped up a lot. The only thing I could do was resize them but then when I loaded them to Flickr they were bigger. :( The only other way I could find to change my template and make it wider was with HTML and I know nothing about that! Oh well, maybe sooner or later a more computer literate person will be able to help me!

New/Old Treasures

I want to share a couple of Dave's new finds. First is this old wooden sled which we are told was used to haul supplies, etc. DH wanted me to tell you that he decorated it! :) Please disregard the ugly film on the mirror. This is what happens when you are a blogaholic!! That's my story (excuse) anyway and I'm stickin' to it!! I took one picture and realized that my scary reflection was in the mirror! I know I've already showed you some frightening pictures of me but this one was bad....bed-head and all!! So I took another picture and this time ducked down behind the greenery!! :) The mirror, by the way, was one we found in Vermont for 2 bucks!




Next is this cool, old wooden tray. It appears to be homemade but is really nice. It has black, wrought iron handles and the rooster and chicken picture is what appears to be a piece of border. You can also see part of my collection of crocks and crock bowls in this picture.



Every day is like Christmas here with Dave finding new treasures. The hard part is finding room for them all. I love finding new uses for old things, you know, the Second Time Around!

Edited to add:

Blogger keeps cutting off my picture on the right side. I have so much room on either side of the page but everything is crammed in the center. When I do my post and preview it everything looks good. Then I go to my blog page and it's all cut off! If anyone knows how to fix this I would appreciate any advice!

I always choose the medium sized pics to post here and now have done the small. There is a big difference in the size but it does show the whole picture! Maybe I just need to resize the pics beforehand!! Thanks to all who tried to help!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is a picture test:

Thankful...

O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. Psalms 136:1

(I've been asked about this picture. It was taken by Dave from the train he was on. He took it with his cell phone! This area is near Natural Tunnel, VA)

Another one....

I got another one!!!! I'm so excited. That's two of them just today. I didn't get as many as Grams got (pout!) but I'll be okay :( I'm just kidding!! Grams chose to give me this award and since she hasn't been doing too well lately, I'm so happy that I sent some cheer her way cause she's a very special lady in my book! And I Love Lucy, seriously! I'm certainly not the entertainer she was but I'm so happy to be her runner-up!! LOL Thank you so much, Grams. I'll proudly display this on my sidebar!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well it looks like Grams either felt sorry for me or got tired of looking at my pouty face because she gave me another award!! LOL Actually she had already given it to me, I just didn't see it before!! Thank you so much Grams!! I already have this one on my sidebar so I'll add your name with Lib's. I am honored that I am one of the people who make your day!

An Award!!

I received this award today from Rhonda at FarmHouse Style. Now most of you know me by now and you have to know there's a funny story here!! Let me explain:

I woke up (not really awake yet) this morning (well, almost afternoon) and made coffee, stumbled to my computer, still half asleep, and checked my email. There was a comment from Rhonda telling me that she had a little something for me at her blog and to stop by. So I go (stumbling) over there to see, still in my morning stupor and what's the first thing I see?? A big plate of food!! Meatloaf!! What I thought was, "Oh she has taken a picture of her wonderful meal and wanted to tempt me with it!" You may remember my post about my country supper and how I was craving me some meatloaf?? Well, she had found a new recipe that she shared and I have to try!

Then I read on down her post and realized she was giving me an award instead of meatloaf!! Ok, so finally I get it! I was thrilled to get this award. Then I started to wonder why Rhonda thought I had integrity! You know how sometimes when you stare at a word a long time it looks odd to you and you start to wonder if you really know what it means? Well, maybe YOU don't but I tend to be a little anal sometimes! I've always had a fairly good vocabulary even though I don't use these big words much, being a Hillbilly and all. Anyway I decided to look this word up and see exactly what the definition was.

The first definition was:
1 : firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values
Ok, I'm pretty firm about my morals...artistic..I'm not so sure.

Next was:
2 : an unimpaired condition
I'd say that definitely leaves me out! I am SO impaired, especially in the morning. (Now that I look at the word impaired I wonder exactly what it means! hummm)

Then:
3 : the quality or state of being complete or undivided
I'm not sure...depends on what time of day it is! :)

Finally:
synonyms see honesty
Now that I can relate to! Even though I have in the past told some whopping stories, I now try to always be honest. Besides, I was being honest when I confessed to you that I wasn't always honest!! See how much that word applies to me! And..see how strange that word honest looks after you look at it a long time? I have to stop this!! It's driving me nuts!

I want to thank you, Rhonda, for giving me this award and I'm so sorry for analizing it to death! (HONESTLY, I needed something to blog about today!) I really do appreciate it and am humbled that you think I have integrity! I so want to have it!!

If you haven't visited Rhonda, you must! She is a wonderful, good ole, country girl! I found her one day on somebody's blog (can't remember), and her blog name, FarmHouse Style, caught my eye. I found we had a lot in common, namely old farmhouses,children and now meatloaf!! She also drives a truck named Ole Bessie that makes me green with envy!! Go on over and say "Howdy". You'll be so happy you did!!

I know so many ladies in Blogland who have integrity and the more I get to know you all the more I see your good qualities. I had the pleasure last night of talking to Betty, from Betty's This and That, personally on the phone. We had a great conversation and got to know each other a little better. She is genuine, real! I like that. And such a sweet, soft voice too! A true southern lady! AND she has integrity!! I want to pass this award on to her! Please take time to visit Betty and get to know her and you'll see what I mean!

Tag..I'm IT

I have been tagged again by Brandy. This one is different. It is sets of 4 things I know you're just dying to know about me. I gave you a little intermission so you should be ready for another tag game by now after the hat fashion show. The only thing these tags prove to me is what a very boring person I am!! So here's another very boring list for you:

4 jobs I have had:
1. Hair dresser
2. Went to work for the government at age 19..FCC secretary
3. Typist for Geico..typed policies and endorsements
4. Sewing job with Buster Brown..not the little Dutch boy with the bobbed hair but the company! (Yuck and double Yuck!)

4 movies watched over and over:
1. Gone With the Wind
2. The Color Purple
3. John Q
4. Baby Boom

4 places I have lived:
1. Clinchport, VA (Big town of about 200 people)
2. Washington, DC
3. Rockville, MD
4. Back to VA (Another small town of less than 2500 people)

4 shows I watch:
1. Lifetime movies
2. Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?
3. Reba reruns
4. Golden Girls reruns

Are you yawning yet? If you're still awake, keep going!

4 places I have been:
1. Florida
2. Bahamas
3. Peru, Vermont (where Baby Boom was filmed)
3. Old Orchard Beach, Maine

4 people who email me regularly:
1. Betty.
2. Brandy
3. Jennifer
4. Lib

4 favorite things to eat: (Only 4??)
1. Soupbeans
2. Cornbread
3. Fried cabbage
4. Biscuits and Gravy

I know, I know...even the foods I love are boring to most people, but I get excited over soupbeans and cornbread!

4 places I would rather be:
1. There's no place like home...
2. But if I have to be away from home..Lancaster, PA
3. Home
4. Home

4 things I look forward to this year:
1. Finishing our stairway
2. Taking a very short vacation!
3. Spending time with the grandbabies and my family
4. Getting to know my Bloggy Friends better

4 people to tag:
1. Betty
2. Lib
3. Brenda
4. Peggy

Please humor me girls and play along! Betty, don't make me break out my "Magic Mirror"!!