Coming Soon---Grand Baby #4

We are very excited about our latest “grand baby” news! Our number of grand children will soon d-o-u-b-l-e! Our youngest son Jordan and his wife Ashley are expecting a bundle of joy on or about March 21, 2011. Ashley is now about 14 weeks along and is doing great, except for an extended period of morning sickness. We are hoping this will soon subside and she will be feeling better.

Jordan and Ashley sent out invitations to family and close friends recently asking us to come one Sunday afternoon to find out what the “buzz” was all about. Hmm–could it be? Well, yes, we thought, it had to be! But, too many clues were dropped that may have lead certain members of the family to believe that perhaps it was going to be twins! They were both hush-hush but some important pieces of information were “leaked”, such as finding a book in their house on twins and triplets. We were all relieved that it is only one especially since Ashley is so petite.

We all enjoyed the afternoon get together as we shared the good news with them. God is indeed good. About the time Jordan and Ashley find out the sex of their baby, older brother Jeremy and Annie will become parents of granddaughter number 2. Stay tuned for more information on all the exciting happenings!

Pictures from the “buzz” party!

Grandparent's Day and New Tricks

Recently our community celebrated our annual Dove Festival. Every Labor Day weekend in our small town the Chamber of Commerce sponsors a festival to kick off the dove hunting season. Most of the time the weather is hot, but this year was cool and pleasant. It was a good thing, too. Taylor ran his first 1 mile Fun Run and finished up in the top third or so. Several of his classmates ran with him and it looks like we might have another cross country runner in the family! Oh, no!

This week was grandparents day at the elementary school so we asked Taylor what he wanted us to bring him for lunch. He wanted a ham and cheese sandwich (with a little mayo on it!) from Subway, regular Sun chips and ice tea! It was a fun time and we got to see tons of people our age that we don't see very often.

Presley stays with us on Fridays and her grandmother BeBe has been teaching her how to pick up marbles with her toes! Presley likes to play with these big marbles and now she can pick them up while standing. It entertained her for hours. And, it might come in handy sometime. Besides, it gave us a break from watching the Wizard of Oz!

End of Summer- Start of School

We are a little behind on our blogging as usual! Although summer isn’t officially over, school has started for many including Toby, Jennifer and Taylor. When teacher in-service started we kept the grandkids during that week and planned a little fun time for them. These days we spend a lot of time watching the “Wizard of Oz” which is Presley’s favorite movie. She is fascinated by the flying, or winged, monkeys as she calls them. Taylor would rather play games on the iPhone!

We spent time at the orchard since they love to drive the Gator. Presley loves to run out there while we follow her. Taylor seems to like to run, too, so the orchard is the perfect place to practice.

One day was designated as “Craft Day” so we brought out all of the glue, construction paper, popsicle sticks, tape, scissors, stickers, crayons and markers and they spent the morning making all kinds of projects. All you have to do is give Presley a bottle of glue and some paper and she is set for the day! Taylor usually makes more “complicated” projects and he likes you to “interact” with him (he likes you to help)!

On Friday, we told them we were going on a one day vacation! They were excited but we didn’t tell them where we were going or what we were doing. It drove Taylor crazy! He questioned us frequently until we made our first stop at McDonald’s for breakfast and time on the playground. Then it was on to Waco to the Mayborn Museum on the Baylor campus. This is a first class museum, but we were mainly taking Taylor to a Lego display. It included lots of things built with Legos such as the historic bridge in Waco, castles from all over the world and games for the kids to play. They had tables and plenty of Legos where you could build whatever you wanted. Taylor built a castle pretty quickly. They really enjoyed it.

We have always tried to take our kids to educational places on our trips and this one would qualify since the remainder of the museum is filled with all kinds of history from the Waco area and Texas. It was a great morning. Afterwards we took them to the main Baylor campus to see the bears and then it was off to Olive Garden for lunch.

The day concluded with an afternoon movie. We went to see Toy Story 3 and it was wonderful. Beverly never thought she would laugh or cry so much over an animated movie! We topped it off with ice cream on the way home and then took them back home by dark! It was a fun day.

Lots of other things have been going on, too. Stay tuned for the news about “what the buzz” was all about with Jordan and Ashley! Our next post will give all the details!!

Joel Lindsey- A Musical Talent

This summer we took my parents to a family reunion in Oklahoma. The clan was honoring my dad, or "Uncle Johnny" as he is known to the Oklahoma relatives, and my Aunt Billee this year. They are the last remaining siblings and this was a good chance for all of us to get together and celebrate their birthdays.

While we were there, we got to spend some time with one of my second cousins, Joel Lindsey. Joel's mother Reba was one of the sweetest, kindest, and most thoughtful persons you could ever imagine. Her dad and my dad were brothers. She passed away a few years ago and she is dearly missed.

Joel is an amazing person and one of the most talented guys I know. He is a songwriter and currently lives in Santa Barbara, California but also spends a good deal of time back in Nashville where he is also in the music publishing business. He has written over 1,000 songs, mostly gospel and has won several Dove Awards, the gospel equivalent of a Grammy. Several of his songs have gone Number 1, been song of the year or album of the year. And, he is a cancer survivor!

One evening we had the pleasure to hear him play on the old family piano. Years ago, he wrote a song especially for the family entitled "Hefton Hill" and it relates to his grandparents and their old home on the hill, the same hill that we met on during the reunion. It is a touching and moving song about his childhood days and the pleasures of summers on Hefton Hill. We all have so many memories there.

One of our favorite songs that he has written is "Calvary Answers For Me". The words are so powerful and truly make you think about what Christ has done for us. You can hear the song performed by the Perrys in this clip from YouTube. Hope you enjoy it.

Note: You will probably have to pause our play list (on the right side of the blog) before viewing the video.

Coming Soon---Grand Baby #3

This time last week we were in Denver, Colorado for a visit with our middle son Jeremy and his wife Annie, and our “coming soon” grand baby which is due November 1! We are so excited! One of the first questions we asked them was “Does this mean you are moving back to Texas?” All we got was a little laugh, which probably means we will be making lots of trips to Colorado. But, we don’t mind because we love Colorado.

It was a short trip but we had a great time, visiting, seeing a few new sights and helping them with a couple of projects around the house. This is the first time we have been to their new home and we really like the house, especially the view of the foot hills to the west, downtown Denver to the east and Pikes Peak in the distant south. Real estate there is pricey but they were able to find a great home in the southwest part of Denver. They worship at a church in Littleton which is just south of them.

While we were there we went out to Red Rocks Amphitheater where many musicians have performed. Jeremy and Annie saw Bob Dylan there a year or two ago. We also went to Golden (home of Coors beer and Colorado Schools of Mines) and to Lookout Mountain, the grave site of Buffalo Bill Cody. Mostly we just enjoyed getting to visit and driving around and seeing some of the scenery in and around Denver. Beverly’s highlight was when Jeremy took her to a little place in Denver called Happy Cakes. It is a cupcake shop, not just your regular run of the mill ones, but those with fancy names. It will become a tradition to go there each time we visit. They were yummy!

Thanks for everything Jeremy and Annie and we hope to see you again in a couple of months.

How Does Your Garden Grow

This year we expanded our garden area a little so we could have more sun. We planted onions (they haven't done too well), broccoli, potatoes, tomatoes, jalapeno peppers, sweet peppers, squash, zucchini, corn and beans. We are about to plant our okra and black-eyed peas. The squash have little ones on them already so we are excited about having squash before long. We are about to put a privacy fence behind the garden and plant some shrubs along the front of it. We have been putting in the posts and it dug surprisingly easy, except when we hit big tree roots that had to be sawed out. Sawing in the dirt is hard on a chain saw! So, we are hoping that the rains will continue and we won't be watering all summer long. But, if it means some fresh vegetables, we will just have to do it.