Clarksville Half-Marathon November 7, 2009

What's Not To Love About Fall?

Cool mornings, mild afternoon and evenings, bonfires and of course www.boydspumpkinpatch.com. We have taken our granddaughters to Boyd's every year and while it's not a long visit it is always a fun experience. This year Emma was on her own at Boyd's since her cousins couldn't make it up from Hinesville, GA. Emma had a grand time finding just the right pumpkin. She ended up with a bump on her head after getting into it with one that evidently didn't want to be purchased!


We missed Hannah and Autumn so much and hope that they have something similar in their neck of the woods.






After hanging out at the pumpkin patch, Papaw and Grendy decided that some adult time was needed and what a wonderful time we had at the bonfire that our awesomely fun friend Cindy had at her mama's farm! Her sweet man, P.T. cooked some fabulous hamburgers, and then we roasted marshmallows. My friend Tina gets the prize for being the most Fashionable Marshmallow Roaster EVER!!! 


Notice the matching hat, scarf and marshmallow! How awesome her Avon lady is for coming up with such an ensemble!?

Rick's Three-Mile Adventure

88 degrees and 70% humidity, what more could could a couple ask for when headed out to spend some time together and get some much needed exercise? It started off very well, Wendy and Rick headed up a nice steep hill right off the bat.

Thankfully Rick had the forethought to bring his Camel Back filled with cold liquid that would sustain him for the next hour and nine minutes. Wendy did think she required anything since it was going to be an hour or less (wrong!)

Not sure when they were supposed to spend this time together since after the first hundred yards they were no longer walking side by side. As a matter of fact, it would be 45 minutes later before they met up again, somewhere between Trenton Road and Wilma Rudolph Blvd. Wendy was SO glad that Rick was willing to share his water that she waited several minutes before remarking on how far behind he had been. She's pretty nice like that.

Then the blister appeared on Rick's heel. This was on the way back but still a mile from home. Rick took off his shoe and walked most of the way back with only a sock on his right foot. By the time they were almost to their driveway the sock also had to come off. . .

Wendy kept her distance because of the walking stick Rick was holding as well as his disposition at this point in their quality time together.

All ended well--Rick walked a little more than three miles and is VERY excited about repeating this tomorrow! Yay Rick :-)

Happy Birthday Hannah!

We had the best time in Hinesville, GA this past weekend. Hannah celebrated her 4th birthday with a bar-b-que, swimming, cake and presents. The guest list was very distinguished: The Clarksville Davidsons; Great Grandmother, Shirley Pate; Grendy, Papaw and Bobbo. Unfortunately Tookie and Unkie were unable to attend due to previous engagements with Fort Campbell and Fort Benning respectively.

Autumn not only preferred swinging to swimming but to the crowd that invaded her home. She is the sweetest thing and it just breaks my heart that she doesn't know us very well. We will take care of that very soon.

Ahhhhhh. All the birthday activities can wear a girl out.

Love these birthdays! Emma has been practicing for her own birthday party in September and has the cake-eating part down perfectly!

Hannah was absolutely tickled with this cake but not with the singing of "Happy Birthday". It made her cry. I thought we had been transported back to 1985!

The Clarksville Davidsons were delighted to spend the weekend at the Caulfield's.

Hannah's bear

Robert's bear

Robert and Hannah spent a great deal of time with the playdough. Hannah had to direct Bobbo in the making of bears; he caught on pretty well.

Hannah prefers that nobody else sit with her Grammie, but she will tolerate her sister and cousin as long as there is also room for her. Autumn would have preferred to be with her mama or daddy anyway and that is just the way Hannah likes it :)

The Birthday Girl--obvious theme. She was SO excited and had a wonderful time. This was after her night at the hotel with Grammie where LOTS of snacks were consumed and cartoons viewed.

Autumn waited so patiently to put on her bathing suit.

Emma, Hannah and Autumn ready for some sun.

This was at the first stop we made on our trip and Emma was thrilled to hang out with her Papaw and wear his hat.

Nine Weeks

While on the internet I found a week-by-week schedule for boot camp training. If I have figured correctly, Richard is currently in Week 3. It is very interesting and nice to have somewhat of an idea of what he is doing. However, in Week 6 there is a "Defensive Live Fire Exercise". My first thought was "ARE THEY KIDDING?????!!!!! "

Then I remembered some of the "Exercises", both defensive and offensive Richard has been participating in since birth.

The two Defensive exercises that stand out are "Surviving Potentially Boiling Water Thrown In The Face" and "Dodging The Knife That Stuck In The Wall Next To The Head". These two were implemented by none other than Robert and therefore explains the Offensive exercise called "Launching Pillowcase Containing Cologne Bottle At Robert's Head"; one of the few that drew blood.

These incidents don't even begin to scratch the surface and so I am confident that Richard will be fine during the "Live Fire Exercises" down in Fort Benning. He has been training for just this type of activity his whole life.

Time is flying!

Here are our three granddaughters, Emma, Autumn and Hannah. They are absolutely the greatest joy in my life. Hannah will be four in April and she was the perfect child to introduce me to grandmotherhood. She is calm, sweet, funny and entertaining. The sweetest thing I've ever heard in my life is Hannah singing "Jesus Loves Me" and "Your Are My Sunshine".

Emma, six months old, is all of that except calm! She is ready to go and has been since she was a few weeks old. If she's awake, which is most of the time, she is eyeing things to touch, pull, push and slam. The louder, higher and faster, the better. She loves to be thrown up high, turned upside down and spun around in the swing we have in front yard. Most of Emma's smiles are followed by a yell or blown raspberry.

Autumn, who is 2 weeks younger than Emma is quite happy to be left where she is, thank you very much. She is the easiest baby to sit with and hold. She just melts into you and may even doze off. When Autumn does become unhappy however, she gives you no warning at all. She goes from content to pitifully sad in a split second. Her little puckered mouth just makes everyone in the room want to cry along with her.

Slow Start

I've had SUCH a time getting this site to cooperate (it surely wasn't anything I was doing). But now that I think it's good to go I'll be posting hopefully somewhat regularly.

It is such fun to receive updates from others and I hope you all will create and/or update your blogs for my entertainment :)

The latest news is that our son Richard has joined the National Guard and is currently in basic training at Fort Benning, GA. He will be there until late June when we'll all trek down there for his graduation. I was very tempted to send a note with him explaining to the commanding officer that he (Richard) should not do dangerous things or be treated badly. The only other person who thought this was a good idea was MY mother, his grandmother. Needless to say, he went off like a grown up and there was no note penned to his shirt.