Graduation

D.P. was presented a certificate at "Honors Day" at his elementary school. He is a great student. While his body has many challenges, his mind is smart and absorbs all the learning he's given - and he's given the same as the other students in his mainstream class! What a boy!

We love music

Music is in the blood in our family. L.A. is no exception, with the band and chorus. This is her final choral performance for middle school (what we used to call Junior High). For part of it, you can see, they were very formal. But then they changed into their '50-'60's outfits and had some rock-n-roll fun. You know Grandma Mell loved that! Actually, I loved it all, but I'm SUCH a child of the '60's... :-) BTW, be prepared, the girls do a little screaming in the rock number - you may want to adjust your volume on that one. :-)

What a swing!

He may only be 23 months old, but our D.W. can play croquet and golf! What a sport. The croquet "game" was played at Hills & Dales Estate on the day they opened the gardens for free to families with picnic baskets. We had gorgeous weather and enjoyed the picnic, flowers, the music, and, of course, the games. Oh, there was also a horse, who sneezed in the boy's face and made him cry. :-( But he quickly got over it.

The golf practice was on his dad's "practice field" in their backyard.

Fun Food

We celebrated the June birthdays and Fathers' Day in one fell swoop last night. For dessert, we had "hot dogs." The bun was made of cake, the dog out of homemade ice cream, and the condiments were red frosting (in a ketchup squeeze bottle), whipped cream (in a mayo squeeze bottle), caramel sauce (in a yellow mustard squeeze bottle), and diced peaches (tinted green to represent the pickle relish). It was quite fun. Gayle ate her's by hand, just as though it were a real hot dog; but Jenn opted to use a fork.

Note the belly on Jenn - that's our little "Boo," so nicknamed because she's due on Halloween. Yes, it's a girl!

Easter gingerbread

L.A. & D.P. came over this evening to construct a gingerbread Easter cottage. Luckily for all, it was a kit, with the house already assembled. L.A. loves to eat gingerbread, but I have yet to feel confident about making it. This way, we skipped all that.

But the kids did mix up the frosting and then put the little decorations on it. I found the kit at Wal-Mart, in case anyone else is interested in taking this shortcut.

It was easy, but part of what Payne always calls "making memories" with our grands.

Late March

Goodness! Time does fly when you're having fun. Either that or I've been so busy working that I just crash when I get home and haven't taken the time to post anything to this personal blog. But I'm finally taking a few minutes to show you something terrific:

We had a wonderful visit from TM last week. Jenn and I took her to the Explorations in Antiquity Center where she learned about life in Biblical times. It was fascinating going through the outdoor museum and sitting down to the Passover meal was fabulous. The archeologist who owns the place explained all the elements of the meal and what they represented. You can see more of their information at http://www.biblicalresources.net/museum.htm

Along those (religous) lines, we had a terrific surprise the other day. We received the new "Lutheran Study Bible," hot off the press! It has great notes highlighting Bible concepts, Lutheran perspectives (of course), and faith reflection questions. Our pastor even pointed out that it has a Bible reading plan - a gentle hint, perhaps? :-) We love it!

Back to the working aspect of life, I do update the work blog daily and invite you to visit it: http://lgtcchamber.blogspot.com/. When you see the green water in the fountain, note the darling leprechans in front of it - two of our four grands. :-)

March Snow (3/1/09)

When it snows in west central Georgia it is a BIG Deal! The Southern gentleman was thrilled, because it's so rare. The Yankee lady was thrilled because it's such a brief, beautiful experience - unlike the tons of snow that pile up in her native north.

February births & broccoli

Ken & Debbie came for dinner last night to celebrate their February birthdays with the family. Everybody loved the shrimp with pasta, but the big hit was our niece Lysh's "broccoli, parmeson, & lemon." Payne was lamenting today that there were no leftovers, so he could nibble.

Here's the recipe:

3 heads broccoli (about 3 pounds)

3 tablespoons olive oil

Salt and pepper

1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

1 lemon, juiced

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Trim 1-inch off broccoli stalks and the cut the broccoli lengthwise into spears. Arrange on a nonstick cookie sheet or jelly roll pan (a cookie sheet with sides). Drizzle oil and season with salt & pepper. Toss to coat evenly. Roast (also known as bake) in the oven for 10 minutes.

Pull the pan out and sprinkle the cheese evenly over the top of the vegetable and bake again until the cheese melts and forms a crisp shell (about 10 minutes).

Lift the broccoli onto a platter with a spatula and drizzle with fresh lemon juice.

"When the one man loves the one woman, and the one woman loves the one man, the very angels leave heaven and come and sit in that house and sing for joy." (A piece of art we have hanging in our bedroom.)




We're a blend. The lady of the house, Mellody, was born and raised in Chicago and its 'burbs (Chicago is in Illinois, but not the state capitol, for those who didn't know that). The gentleman of the house, Payne, is a farmboy from rural central eastern Wedowee, Alabama. We met in LaGrange, Georgia and married in 1985. We have a blended family of his two Southern kids and her two Yankee kids. The Southern son married a Yankee (Minnesota) girl, but our two daughters and other son all married Georgians. All the granchildren have been born in the south, but the lady of the house uses her mid-western diction to help them at every opportunity. :-)


The darling man is known as Poppa Payne to everyone, not just our four grandchildren. Their friends and ours call him that, too. We think our "grands" are a special gift to us.




The youngest grand is DW. He's 19-months and came to visit today; upon request he folded his hands to show us how he prays. To learn more about him and his family, visit their blog at http://jb2crew.blogspot.com/. His sister, TM, lives in Tennessee, but you can see her on the blog. She's beautiful! Right now she's 10.


The next youngest is DP, at 9 years, and he loves to cook with us. Last week he came to our house (from the great distance of across the street and two houses down) to make muffins. We had to pose for a photo with him so his mother could tell his teachers what he did on his day off (it was President's Day).





Oh, by the way, that's Grandma Mell in the center. DP battles cerebral palsy and is a real trooper.




Mellody fondly calls Payne "Music Man," because he loves to sing old fashioned country music (and mostly despairs over the genre the "country" radio stations are playing today).






Here's a sample below of Payne, doing his thing on stage at the Golden Saw, in Williams, Alabama on February 20, 2009.


In the photo at the right, Payne is shown with Dewey Huddleston (middle) and Leonard Brown (far right). Dewey was the leader of the band in which Payne played after high school. Dewey now entertains crowds and emcees the whole production at the Golden Saw every Friday night, in a Grand Ol' Opry style. Payne met Leonard at another venue, the WSM Pickin' House, which is open on Tuesday evenings in Claxville, AL.







Time to meet our precious granddaughters. The oldest is LA, who is 13 going on 21. She, too is a musician - first chair clarinet in her 8th grade band AND she sings in the advanced chorus at her school. TM is a soccer player and has three more siblings at her home in Tennessee. Here's a photo of the girls together in 2007.