Christmas Is Coming . . . .

Meet Chris, the elf. This is my one and only Christmas decoration thus far. I had planned to decorate indoors just a bit this weekend, but that did not happen.

Chris is presently female (for my two G.G.s). Next Christmas when little Mr. Rucker visits, I will rip off the skirt, un-cross his legs and Chris will become male. I realize that this might confuse ole Chris. He may begin to wonder which way his door swings. To bad, Chris. . . . . it's all for my grandchildren.

Time With My Little Girls

Here are some pictures taken during the last week.

Cady, her Uncle Mark, Brie and Andrea

Cady & Papa having a good time.

Cady likes to play at the back door.

Cady spent Sat. night with us. Mark brought Brie over Sun. morning b/c Andrea had worked Sat. night and Mark was in a golf tournament. I had both little girls by myself for about 2 hours. What fun! Mark brought Brie who was still in her "jammies". Both girls looked so cute in their PJs.

Brie's hair is growing so fast.

Cady's in the sun's shadow. She's playing with her mom's 20-yr.-old doll house.

Brie may be a locksmith when she gets older.

My G.G.s are jammied up!

Sun. after Tom & Brie were swinging together.

I have nothing particular to blog about, so hope you enjoyed the pictures!

Friday, the 13th

Happy 86th Birthday, Pappy!

I know you are celebrating with Mimi in Heaven.

Your greatgranddaughter celebrated today by walking for the first time. Way to go, Cady!!! She has your skin coloring and hair color. You'd love her. She's a mess and oh, so funny! You'd adore Brie, too. She'd have you wrapped around her little pinky. You would also be so excited for Chad & Michelle. You would have reacted like "well, it's about time!", right?

We talk about you all the time. Thanks for being a great father. I miss you.

The Verdict Is In.........................

Chad & Michelle are gonna have a BOY! In April I'll have a "grand" total of 2 G.G.s and 1 G.B. What fun.

I've been slack in blogging lately. I'm not sure what has kept me so busy, but I haven't sat down to blog in a week. Ooops.

Tomorrow night we're having a celebration over here for Chad & Michelle's baby boy announcement. I'll try to post pictures of the event.

Signing off,

Meh-Meh (Brie's pronunciation of Mimi)

"Closed" Doors Will NOT Stop Us!

Tom & I and another couple decided to drive to the mountains yesterday. We were hoping to see beautiful foliage, realizing that the peak leaf season had probably passed. We headed out at 10 a.m. to drive along the Blue Ridge Parkway. It had been several years since Tom & I drove along the Parkway and we were very excited. Our plan was to drive along the Parkway and stop at Mt. Pisgah Inn Lodge for lunch. Yummy!


Just a few miles after getting on the parkway, we saw a sign that the road was closed ahead due to a rock slide. What? I-40 had a rock slide . . . . certainly the Parkway didn't have one, too. What were the chances of that? Plus, none of us had heard one word about the Parkway being closed. We were hoping that the sign was a mistake . . . like perhaps a section of road was blocked with two lanes becoming one lane. We kept driving . . . as did others.

Gorgeous mountain scenery

Well, we soon came upon this sign:

Road blockade: Rats!

There was an information sheet available explaining alternative routes. We looked at the sheet and realized that the Parkway was blocked for about 9 miles. Just 3 miles beyond the blockade was Mt. Pisgah. So close, yet so far away! We chose an alternative route which meant we had to turn around and go back the way we came.

We rode and rode and turned on several different highways. Seemed we just went in circles. We continued on Highway 276 . . . a very winding road. But the views were tremendous.

Looking Glass Waterfall

Finally, we got back on the Blue Ridge Parkway and soon realized we were getting very close to Mt. Pisgah Inn. At this point we were all hungry. . . . we could just smell and taste some good country cooking.

We parked and walked up to the lodge. A very nice gentleman greeted us with a broad smile. Here were his words: "Hi, folks. . . sorry, we're closed for the season. Our last meal was served yesterday, until April of 2010." We missed it by less than 24 hours.

The man added: "But you are more than welcome to use our restroom facilities." My top two priorities were eating and relieving myself . . . one outta two ain't bad.

This is where we WANTED to eat lunch.

What can ya do but laugh about it? Anyway. . . laughing helped drown out the growling of our stomachs. We walked out on the deck overlooking the mountains.

From the deck at Mt. Pisgah Inn

We asked where the nearest place was to eat a meal. Of course, that meant getting off the Parkway and finding a city. Once again, we retraced our route, this time heading to Waynesville. Promptly at 2:45, we were chowing down on some grub. The question was raised, "Do we head home, or go somewhere else?" Tom came up with the ultimate idea. We decided to get back on the Parkway (that's the third time, if you are counting) and go to Cherokee and get a Blizzard. HAHAHAHAHA Cherokee was about an hour in the opposite direction of home. I loved the randomness of Tom's idea.

When we exited the Parkway, we were very close to Smokemont so we decided to drive through and enjoy our favorite camping spot one last time in 2009. On the way to Smokemont, we saw a herd of elk. Fantastic!!!!

Ten elk, out in the field, just beside the road.

Awesome to see this wildlife. Many of our church family who came to Smokemont in October saw the elk. Almost daily, the elk convene at this site in the late afternoon. I was one of the few who did not get to see the elk. So I was pumped yesterday.

We continued on to Smokemont, just a few miles away. As soon as we drove into the first section, we knew we were in for another disappointment. During the off season, only the first, small section is open to campers. We weren't able to drive to our favorite spot in the back of the campground.

There's that word again, "Closed". We could not drive to our site in section D, but we could walk there. It was an absolutely beautiful day for a good walk.

For those of you who went to Smokemont in October, these are the two huge trees that fell. Notice that the leaves have turned beautiful shades of fall.



Looking up into a gorgeous tree.

"Mutt & Jeff" are standing near the Group Site #3. The sun-lit mountains behind them look almost like they are on fire with all the bright colors.

After walking the campgrounds and digesting our very late lunch, we drove to Cherokee's Dairy Queen.

Choco Cherry . . . the best!

It was dark when we were driving home. We had a great 10-hour day in the mountains. To cap off a wonderful day, we got to enjoy a full moon on the way home. Lovely!

To the Blue Ridge Parkway: The four of us enjoyed driving over, under, around, and through your beautiful roads. Even your rock-slide-barricade did not deter us from having a blast. It did, however, detour us just a bit.

Halloween Week And The Unplanned Trick

The past week has been full of fun times with my little grandgirls. Andrea has been suffering from a dislocated hip (I thought Yoga was good for you) and I've helped out with Brie. Until Friday, Abby still was unable to drive so my car (which now has two big-girl car seats) transported she and Cady here to also spend time with Brie.

Aubrie is sharing with Cadence

My sweet G.G.s

Cady & Brie going after the books.

Aubrie with her pink socks.

While Cady took a nap, Abby & Brie play in tornado alley!

G. G. #1 is growing up so fast!

On Cady's birthday her Daddy took time from work to meet Abby & Cady for lunch at the zoo and then visit all the animals. Since Abby couldn't drive herself, Brie & I spent time with them at the zoo.

This is Joy. I take offense to sharing my name with an elephant. Why couldn't her name be Bertha or Clarice? Why Joy?

Aubrie has a blast at the zoo. She said, "Ooooooo" at every animal and told them all "Buh-Bye!"

Brie let out a scream at the monkeys. Cady is trying to figure out what's going on.

Birthday Girl Cady waved at the animals. So precious.

Abby & I looked down and saw the girls holding hands. Loved that!

The Ivester's at the giraffe exhibit. Cady is eying one of the giraffes in the distance.

Matt, Cady, Aunt "Abba" and Brie

Mimi with her girls

It's well known around our house who the real star in the family is. That would be Papa. Both girls say his name and say it quite frequently. Whenever he enters a room, they grovel at his feet til he picks them up. When they view him from afar, drool drips from their mouths. He's their rock star. One day while Abby & Cady and Brie were visiting, Tom was mowing the lawn. Ab and I took the girls and sat on the front steps. When they saw their Papa, you would have thought he was King of the world. They yelled, waved and kicked with excitement until he noticed them. Every time he passed by, the girls went nuts. Meanwhile, Tom was mowing the lawn with the silliest grin on his face. He ate it up!

King Papa gave the girls a short ride on the lawn mower.

I'd place a bet that the girls are looking for Papa........

On Halloween Tom & I went to see CadyBug who was a Lady Bug. So sweet.

Love her new facial expression.

We're standing on the porch and Cady is on the other side of the glass door.

Our church sponsored the annual Trunk or Treat. Hundreds and hundreds of children and adults passed through. Mark, Andrea and Brie came.

The cutest little duck in the world.

Andrea, Duck and Mark

By the way, one of my little girls finally calls me something. Brie says, "MehMeh" - her version of Mimi. I'll take anything. Call me Mimi, MaMa, MooMoo or DooDoo - I don't care, just call me something! Thanks, Brie. I'm still waiting on CadyBug . . . . . .

We were the ugliest queen and king in the universe!!

True story: Notice our rotten teeth? Beautiful, for sure. I kept them in as often as possible, but it was slightly difficult to talk plainly with the teeth in. I took them out one time when friends dropped by. Later I realized they were gone. I remember putting them in my left hand . . . . . . . uh-oh . . . . . I'm sure I plopped the teeth into a Halloween bag . . . . some kid got a real surprise when he/she went through their candy. What a Treat, huh? This was an unplanned Trick. Sorry, kid.