John Deere

Dear John Deere,

Thank you. Thank you for your existence. For without you we never would have found a way to trim down our snake haven, tick infested grass. As our grass has now reached to a whopping 3 feet high, I was left devastated wondering if my children would ever be able to play in the grass that surrounds us without fear that one day they might drowned in it, or be bitten by a snake or leached on by a tick.

But one day, one glorious day as Harvey was driving he spotted your magnificent workmanship. There you were laying on your previous owners property waiting for a chance to shine once again.

And you have my dear friend. You have shown brilliantly, for only a John Deere such as yourself could chop away grass such as this. As you arrived anxiously to our home your hopes of success may have dwindle once you saw the task that lay before you. For not only was the height daunting but there was a hefty distance of 3.5 acres.

But don't you worry my little engine that could. We will be patient if you will continue to work your magic across our ocean of green. Plug on, move forward, I think you can, I think you can!

Sincerely,
The family that can't wait to play outdoors once again.

(Harvey plugging away what will be many hours cutting away possibly a ton of grass)

(Just to show you how high it is, here is a pic of our trampoline that is nearly being taken over by the grass. And no, this tramp is not in the ground, it is very much above ground. A full grown deer was in this grass this morning and you could only see his ears, and he was standing up!)

He's got the look...

As you observe this look, one can only guess what emotions he must be feeling. Is it annoyance, anger, thoughtful determination, frustration, exhaustion? No one is really certain.

This look was richly spred throughout my entire childhood. With either myself being the recipient or any of my family members. At first we would walk away a bit down trodden, but as we grew to adolescence we tried to encourage this look. It became a game of sorts. My brother would steal water crafts, or was it just their engines? I would randomly stay out past curfew or perform the occasional car accident; and notoriously back talk without fear of his wrath. My sister Angie, I believe, was the master of bringing this look to the surface. Whether it was her mouthy comments, her lack of household chores, her endless social life, her booty dance, her phase of "mooning" people, or her boy crazed youth; she seemed to keep this look a constant on his face throughout most of her adolescence. I believe Michelle's attributes in bringing this look about were, well, gosh I can't think of any. I am starting to suspect she may be the favorite!

No one is entirely certain of why this look occurs, but there is one thing we do know. We are all good at bringing it about, with the exception of Michelle. My Mom just may be the champion; she just has the knack. The ability to make it rise and conquer any other emotion he may be feeling at the time. She truly has the respect of us all and to her we slowly bow.

We are all now, unbeknownst to my dad, passing on these tidbits of information onto our own children. As they annoy, little does he know we have secretly spred this ability to make this look come about. It is fun and we hope that one day our own children will pass on the secret and we will watch with proud satisfaction that not only did we create this look but are continiuing and passing the knowledge on. For our hope and desire to have this look forever remain and never leave this face. This look is Dad to us now. It is who he is and yes, we absolutely love not only this look, but the man who possesses it!

(We love you Dad, and I hope you know, it is this look that makes me now smile. Happy belated Birthday. Next year we will put a recorded rendition of Harvey's famous "Happy Birthday" melodies.)

It's Mine!

This was a conversation between Carson and Rylie that was had while driving to pick up the girls from school. I love this because it describes their relationship right now perfectly.

The song by Rascal Flatts came on, "Life is a Highway," and Carson loves this song because it is the theme music in the movie Cars by Disney. Rylie now in this adoring her big brother phase declared, "I love this song, I have this, okay Mom, I have this one!"

Carson immediately defends what he has rightfully declared for so long as his own, "No, it's not! I am having this, this is mine!"

Rylie retorted, "No, it's mine. I have this one. It's mine."

Carson, "No Rylie you can't have it, it is mine. This is my song not yours."

And so the banter continues. I love that Rylie is now just as outspoken and can speak just as well as her big brother can. Although as a result we have more arguments, but if they remain as cute as this one, bring them on!

Bittersweet

I think the hardest thing about moving around so much is the friends you have to leave behind. We always leave wondering if we will ever see them again. This last move was especially painful for this time the pain of leaving friendships behind was experienced by our children. Savannah and Madison have missed their little Griffydam Primary School friends and our sweet neighbors too. Often while in the car I will turn my head to catch Madison looking out the window and daydreaming. When I ask her what she is thinking about she answers, "All my England friends." At times I will find them crying or we will be talking and they will erupt in tears of remembrance for the good ole' days!



But having said all that, one of the best things about leaving is reuniting. We get to experience the joy of reuniting with friends from long ago. Nothing in the world feels better than to see a familiar face from your past. Although our English history isn't so, well, historical, we just recently got to enjoy the reunion of some of our old English chums. Chris and Rachael and their beautiful family just moved to North Carolina from England as well. They were in our Church over in England and that is where we became great friends. One of Madison's best friends from England is Phoebe and it was so fun to see how excited they were to see each other. It was so good for both Rachael and I to reassure our children that goodbye is never for too long.

The Girlies; Madison, Phoebe and Sav. I love the smile on Maddie's face; sheer happiness!

The men taking a gander at the property. Serious stuff from the look on Harv's face.

Rach and beautiful baby boy Oliver. She is my hero! She packed up the house when she was 9 months pregnant and moved to the US just weeks after having him! Talk about strength of the pioneers!

Ry bear and Clarkie! I love his mischievousness! You can tell in this pic that he is already planning his attack on Rylie. Such a cute pair of sweeties!

Carson has never shown affection like this for anyone but his sisters. But as soon as Annie Mae walked in the house, my little Casanova started following her around. Right before I took this pic, they were up in Carson's room with the door shut, when I went in they had dolls in cribs and Annie Mae stated that these (the dolls) were their babies. Hmmm, not sure I like that too much! Anyway I love this pic, you can tell he is just smitten with her!