House of cards

Larry and I spent about eight hours today working on our foyer wall.  We put 857 of our sports cards on it and it turned out great!!  Larry has thousands of cards, most of them are autographed, but he picked out ones that meant something to him, Atlanta teams, the Indianapolis Colts and pretty much anybody Georgia- or Indiana-related.  There's even a Jeff Gordon card up there somewhere.  I think it looks amazing.  I love it.

It was indeed a labor of love.  Except for having some soup for lunch, a quick trip to Target for some more double-sided tape and having supper, we worked on this wall all afternoon and most of the night!

Speaking of the vegetable soup we had for lunch, we also had some of our Sunday On Monday Cake.  Triple chocolate fudge with fudge icing.  It's so rich I told Larry we were going to get it to pay our bills next month.  :)

A little update

What have we done this week?  What haven't we done is a better question.  We have been organizing closets and making more room for two in this very small house and we have done great!  Larry is amazing at arranging and organizing.  We bought some bookcases to house our huge library and Larry has worked so hard going through his massive autographed photo and baseball card collection (there are over 11,000!) and clearing out the closet where I had been storing the boxes.  He consolidated them into fewer boxes and now we have more closet space.  We bought a small chest to keep seasonal things in, too. 

We got a new computer, too, since my laptop is four years old and is starting to really slow down.  Larry has two online classes and I really didn't want him having to deal with the frustration of a slow computer AND getting used to using a computer and the internet.  We got a Samsung laptop and we love it.  It is SO fast!

Last Sunday afternoon, we went to the Big Peach (or as I call it, the Byron antique mall) and spent three hours just walking around and looking at stuff.  We found some really cool albums and I finally got that green vintage Pyrex mixing bowl I've wanted forever.  I love old Pyrex and Fire King and the Big Peach is full of that stuff! 

Tuesday, we went to the doctor to get Larry's right elbow checked out.  He's had some pain there after he played football in October.  Dr. Kinnebrew x-rayed it, said it was just tendonitis and gave him a cortisone shot.  We left there and went to Macon to drop off some donations and since we had a little time before I had to be at work, we went to the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame.  It was so much fun!  And quiet, too.  We had the place all to ourselves!  We walked around looking at the museum displays and we watched the movie in the theater and then Larry played a little bit upstairs.  He tried out all of the interactive exhibits and played basketball and football.  He's such a jock.  I watched.  And took pictures.  :)

Today after church, we had lunch at Mama Mia's.  I had spaghetti and meatballs and Larry got a pizza. It was so delicious!!  We brought all but two slices of the pizza home with us.  Their food is so good and they give you so much!!  It's authentic Italian food and the place is owned and operated by two brothers from New York. Two very large brothers.  They put their money where their mouth is!  Or vice versa.  Ha!

This afternoon, I helped Larry change the idler pulley on his truck.  First time I'd ever actually worked on a vehicle!  I held the belt in place while he changed out the part.  Teamwork makes the dream work!  :)

I've been baking a cake every weekend, too.  I call it our Sunday Cake.  I have this week's in the oven now.  A triple chocolate fudge.  Last week, it was carrot cake.  I'm late getting this one done today but it's okay since we're both off work and class tomorrow.  It's a Monday Cake this week.  :)

Little Birdie

Wednesday, Larry called me at work and told me he'd found a little bird on our patio.  He knew something was wrong with it when it let him pick it up.  We decided he must have hit the glass door and was too stunned to move.  Since it was going to be below freezing that night and since birds roost at night, Larry brought him in the house and we figured the cat carrier would be the safest place for him to spend the night.  Tabbie Hoffman was most interested in the little birdie.  :)  

When I got home, I filled a ramekin with water and we got him settled for the night.  We put him on the bathroom counter and closed the door so he'd be warm and safe and out of a certain kitty's curious reach.

I checked on him through the night and each time, he was flapping his wings, ready to GO. 

As soon as we got up, we let him go.  I held Tabbie Hoffman and Larry took the carrier out on the patio and as soon as he unzipped it, Little Birdie took off like a bullet!  I circled him in red so y'all could see him.  I commented on Facebook that his chains are gone, he's been set free.  :)

I told Larry the whole time Little Birdie was with us, I was singing "Little Birdie" from Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving.  :)

Weekend three

 

So hard to believe this is our third weekend together.  Yesterday we went shopping at the mall here, had Chick-fil-A for lunch, popped in to Bath and Body Works and Victoria's Secret but didn't stay very long at either place because they were having their semi-annual sales and were soooo busy!  We bought some really cool albums at f.y.e, Janis Joplin and Crosby Stills and Nash and I got a Michonne bobblehead!  She's my favorite Walking Dead character and I just love her bobblehead.  I think she looks awesome on our coffee table.  :)


 


Larry even rode the Garfield car!  Well, not really.  But he tried.  He could barely get his legs to fit.  :)

Last night, we went to our pastor's house for a couples night.  There was us and three other couples.  We had Mexican -- tacos, guacamole, salsa, cheese dip and chips, sliced apples and dip and just had a really, really good time.  We played games, too.  Heads Up and Battle of The Sexes, which was downright hilarious.  We laughed so much our cheeks hurt.  We played girls against boys and the girls won!  The guys cheated SO BAD that I was starting to feel sorry for them.  Ha!  It was really sad.  :)

Today we attended church at Trinity United Methodist, trying to make our rounds to all the churches who supported us and prayed with us throughout our long, long journey.  We have quite a number of churches to visit!  The one furthest away is in Canton.  We'll make that one a weekend trip, I'm sure.

Tonight, we're watching movies and having chips and salsa and cheese dip.  We didn't quite get enough at the party last night!  It's supposed to be c-c-c-c-cold here the next few days so we picked up some starter logs for the fireplace today.

Life is good.  Still SO good. 

Welcome 2014!

Things have settled down a bit for us at home.  Normal, every day life is actually pretty sweet.  Larry has been setting up his workshop and fixing stuff around the house, he's worked on the "closet from hell" full of his 10,000+ autographed pictures and some mementos from the 70's that I've just held on for him to go through and throw away if he wanted.  We bought a couple of bookcases and he put them together so we'd have more storage space.  And now I just about have that closet space back!

I think we've got Larry pretty much set to start college on Tuesday and we went out to our pastor's house today for the two of them to talk about some prospective weekend work he may have for Larry.  God has been really, really good about placing the right people in our life at the right time! 

On the way home from our pastor's house, we saw this old Army truck, Larry called it a "deuce and a half", parked on the side of the road so we stopped to check it out. 

It's almost identical to the ones Larry drove in the early 70's but he said this one was probably from World War II.  It looks like it even has the original paint, too.  Pretty cool.

Those of you who have been reading my blog a while probably know we have tons of trees in our yard.  Hickory, oak and walnut trees with all their many bazillion leaves every year.  Larry got out there and raked them and the two of us bagged them all up Monday morning!  17 huge leaf and lawn size bags!  

I took this picture after Larry had already grabbed two bags to take to the curb.  It is SO nice to see the backyard again!  We're going to sod the backyard in the spring and plant a few veggies.

We saw in the new year last night with fireworks, sparklers and sparkling white grape juice.  Wild and crazy folks we are!  And I cooked the traditional New Year's must-haves today, collard greens and black-eyed peas with ham hocks, and I roasted two Cornish hens and made wild rice to go with them for our New Year's dinner.  I baked Larry's favorite cake, German chocolate, last night and it was out of this world!!  I have never made homemade coconut pecan frosting before and I am so happy with the way it turned out!

We took our beautiful Christmas tree down today and I was a little sad about it.  But it's New Year's Day and it's time.  Time to write this new 365-page book of ours and see what happens next!  I can't wait.

Home

 


Wow!  What a week this has been!!  
Ami, Brian and I went to get Larry last Saturday afternoon and brought him home.  Finally.  We had a wonderful Christmas that was jam-packed full of activities, fun and love.  I thought I'd show some pictures from our first amazing, incredible week at home.

Ami and I tied yellow ribbons to every tree in the front yard to welcome Larry home.







We stopped off on the way home Saturday night to change clothes and saw this huge cow at a nearby Dairy Queen.  We just had to pose for a picture!

Sunday, we went to church and then out for lunch with our pastor, his wife and daughter.  Afterwards, we went and got our tree!

We had so much fun decorating our tree!  I think it's the most beautiful tree I've ever seen.

Christmas Eve, Larry and I hosted a little family get-together for my mama, daddy, Ami and Brian.  Ricky, Audra and Lizzie stopped by on their way to another family party and I was so happy to see them and to finally introduce them to my Larry.

Larry got me a record player for Christmas and it was so nice to listen to Christmas albums again!

Tabbie Hoffman struggled a little getting used to Daddy being around but now he's Larry's best buddy.  He follows him around the house and swats at Larry's feet when he walks by.  It's really so sweet.  Here we are opening his present from Aunt Ami and Uncle Brian.

Ami made us a beautiful framed depiction of our journey, every town we've been in, every road we traveled to get to this day, with a red heart right on Warner Robins.  Home.  We will treasure it always.

Christmas Eve, Larry and I opened all but one of our gifts to each other.  Here he is opening a GI Joe Vietnam Combat Engineer (which is what he was over there) I bought him 12 years ago and saved for his first Christmas home.  He also got a new phone and a new stereo for his truck.  Santa was real good to him this year!! 

 Tabbie Hoffman's loot from Santa!  :)

New ornament for our tree this year

We've been out to eat several times, gone to see the new Hobbit movie in 3D, been shopping...just normal every day ordinary stuff and we LOVE it!

Friday, we went to Wild Adventures and just had the best time!!  They went all out for Christmas, with lights and decorations and activities and we got to enjoy them all!  Larry even got me on a few rides, after he dragged me on kicking and screaming.  :)

 

Here we are at the Tigers of India show.  Larry bought me that little stuffed baby giraffe after we rode the safari train.  Her name is Gigi.  :)

We saw a beautiful performance of the Miracle of Christmas that made us both cry. 

 Us at the very top of the Ferris wheel.

This picture pretty much says it all.  It was taken in my parents' front yard Christmas Day.  We are so, so happy to finally be together!  We are also so grateful for the outpouring of love, good wishes and prayers that our friends and family gave to us during this amazing week.  We love each and every one of you!

Playing Santa

Andrea and I delivered the gifts we'd collected for those children at the substance abuse facility yesterday.  What a wonderful experience that was!  This is my trunk, about half of what we collected.  We had split the loot Monday night at work and agreed to meet in Macon yesterday at noon and drive over together.

The first thing I noticed about the place was how beautiful and peaceful it was.  I guess I expected some clinical white concrete building.  I don't know.  I really don't know what I expected, never having been in a drug rehab place before.  I just know I definitely didn't expect a beautiful homelike building with river rock trim.  I didn't expect it to look so cozy inside either.  Sure, there was a reception counter where we had to sign in as visitors but there was also a huge Christmas tree in the foyer and delicious smells coming from the kitchen/dining area.  After all, though, we did get there at lunch.  They were having ham and scalloped potatoes.  Some of the girls who live there call it a prison.  Well, it's the prettiest, nicest, cleanest, most peaceful prison I've ever seen.  And, trust me, I've seen 'em.

Most of the children were either in daycare or school so we didn't get to meet them but we met all of the moms and the administrator told them who we were.  They'd already been told what we were doing.  They were all so thankful and appreciative and a few of them came up to me and personally thanked me, hugged me and one of them handed me her baby!  The one-month-old boy that I also sponsored (I ended up sponsoring three children!) and I was so happy to meet him!  :)  Now I know who's going to wear those warm teddy bear pajamas that I bought.  Andrea and I really got attached to these children the last three weeks and we were so excited to see this baby and the little two-month-old baby boy who was also there.  He stayed asleep the whole time, though, no matter how hard I tried to wake him up!  He was not at all interested in hearing about Santa Claus.  

We unloaded our cars and completely filled up their conference table.  The door to that room stays locked so our secret is safe.  Santa will be delivering our gifts on Christmas Eve, just as he should.

We left a disposable camera for Christmas morning pictures.  I sure hope they remember to take them!

Those girls are blessed to have that second, third, fourth, hundredth chance and to be able to keep their children there with them.  I've been praying for them all ever since I heard about them but now I can put faces to their names when I ask for strength and courage for them to defeat the monsters that hold them.  

I left there feeling really, really good.