Owen's Quilt

I figured since he is already here I better get off my duff and finish it up. I had the whole thing finished except for the binding, just sitting there for months. So, yesterday I made myself sit down and do it. Of course, I had to go to the fabric store to buy a half yard of fabric to finish it up. I thought I had enough of a yellow or a purple to do the binding, but could not find one piece that would work.

I love the colors in this one. This picture doesn't really show the deep purples. There is a lot of family history in this--the fabric in the big yellow blocks was also used in a quilt for Spencer and one for Becky; a couple of the purples were used in a quilt for Sarah; another purple was in a quilt for Becca; a yellow plaid was used for a dress for Sarah when she was a baby; and the purple plaid was bought on a trip I took to Mexico. I am sure Owen won't care where the fabrics came from, all he will care about is that it is warm and soft.

Cooking For the Daughter-In-Law

We got up late on Tuesday morning. While we were having our coffee we were discussing whether or not to call Sarah, our daughter-in-law and ask if she wanted company, when the phone rang and it was her. She had been to her doctor appointment and wanted to tell me all about it. Our little Owen is due in about 58 days now. So, we decided to get in the truck and drive down.

On the way, we stopped at a farm market and picked up new potatoes, green beans, squash, peaches, and blackberries. Those blackberries were as big as my thumb!

When we arrived at their house, Michael was in the yard playing with his friends. As soon as he saw our truck, he raced across the yard to greet us. I heard him telling his friends "It's my grandparents!" That made me feel really good, like a real grandmother. And when Sarah saw the bags of groceries, she said to me, "As soon as I hung up the phone, I thought to myself, yeah, she's gonna cook dinner for me, yum!"

That night, I cooked dinner, except for the pork chops, which my son, Seth, did on the grill. We had green beans with new potatoes, fried yellow squash with onions, fresh creamed corn, and a peach-blackberry crisp based loosely on a recipe from Karina's Kitchen at the Gluten Free Goddess blog. Everything I cooked that night was gluten free, but I did not tell my family that it was because I did not want any bias in their opinion of the meal. They all raved about the food,most especially about the crisp, which they insisted on calling a pie. It was all good.

I used white rice flour to coat the squash before frying, which is the first time I have done that. The squash turned out very crispy and golden brown, and seemed to me to be better than when I used wheat flour for all those years of cooking it. I used rolled oats and rice flour for topping of the crisp. The only negative comment I had was that it was too chewy. Oh, well, if that is the only thing then it wasn't too bad.

We only got to stay for one night, then had to come home as we had not really planned on going down there. But we did make plans to go back in two weeks. So, that was our days off this week.

The Land Of Little Grandchildren...

Sarah and Michael at the playground at Granite Hill Campground

A few days ago I promised more about my visit with the FabGrandchildren. I know you all have been chomping at the bit to hear all about it, and I apologize for the delay. I have been either working, sleeping, or goofing off since they left, so I haven’t had time to write.

One of the things I have been doing is playing games at Fandango. My diligence and persistence at these games paid off the day before yesterday because I won two tickets to the movie of my choice for having the all time high score on a word game called Suds (but that is another story).

Ok, where was I? Oh yes, the visit with FabGranddaughther, Sarah and the FabGrandson, Michael. They are the children of my son, Seth, who is in the Air Force. Sarah lives with her mother and stepfather in Seattle, Washington. Michael lives with his dad and stepmother in Washington, D.C.

Sarah flew from Seattle to Washington with a stopover in Cincinnati, Ohio. She said the flight attendants took very good care of her. She got to visit with the pilot in the cockpit before the plane took off. She said she made friends with two grownups who were sitting in the same row with her. This I believe because I do not think she has ever met a stranger!

After a day or two visiting with her dad and brother at their house at Andrews Air Force Base, they all came up to Gettysburg to spend a few days with us.

Michael roasting weiners at the campfire.

Seth brought his tent and other camping gear, but Sarah decided she wanted to sleep inside with me. We folded down the dining table to make it into a bed for her. She was delighted to have her very own “bable” to sleep on. We did all the regular camping things, like making s’mores, roasting marshmallows and wieners on a stick, fishing, and walking around the campground.

On our days off while they were here, we took them all to The Land of Little Horses.

Seth and at The Land of Little Horses

We have seen the signs for it since we got here in March, and every time I mentioned taking the grandchildren there, FabGrandpa harumphed and said, “That is so hokey! No way are they going to like doing something like that.” It costs $12 per person to get in the gate, another $2 for a pony ride, and another $1 for a cup of food to feed to the animals. What you get for your $12-$15 is wonderful! Even FabGrandpa had a good time. They have about 50 miniature horses, regular horses, a camel, llamas, an alpaca, some other exotic mammals, a full grown turkey, goats, peacocks, and I don’t know what all else. They have a show where the animals do tricks. Three horses danced, and another one could add, subtract, and multiply. A dog even played basketball. And Sarah got chosen from the audience to play basketball with him. If you ever go to Gettysburg, you really need to go there. What fun! Ever since we went there, every place we go is "The Land of Little..." whatevers.

We went to a farmers market and let the kids pick out their favorite berries. That night, Sarah helped me make strawberry shortcake for everyone. She put the little sponge cake things in the bowls, spooned on the berries, and tried to squirt the whipped cream out of the can but her little fingers just wouldn’t reach.

Another place we went was called The Round Barn. It is exactly what the name implies, a barn that is round. I have never seen a round barn before. It was a beautiful building in the heart of orchard country in southwestern Pennsylvania.

My daughter in law, Sarah, at the Round Barn

They had animals there too, which was a big hit with the kids. They got to pet a donkey, and saw a baby goat. Oh, and that bump is the mystery boy, Owen, the newest Fab Grandbaby, who will arrive sometime around the end of September.

They stayed with us for three nights and then had to go home. We had arranged to have four days off the next week, so we went down to Washington to spend that time at my son’s house. My daughter, Rebecca, was there, too. She came up from Norfolk for two days.

FabGrandpa, Michael, Sarah, and Aunt Rebecca at Seth's house.

That Monday, we had told the children we were going to take them to the National Zoo, but it was 97 dgrees outside, and they had already seen a ton of animals, so we decided to take the Metro into Washington D.C. and go to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. You know, the one with the dinosaur bones. Both kids loved that display. So did I. I have been to DC twice but had never been to that museum. They also loved the gem and mineral display. Michael collects crystals. There were some on display there that were bigger than he is. Oh, one of the things I did not realize is that all of the Smithsonian buildings and the National Zoo are free.

But out of all these things we did, the thing the kids enjoyed the most and talked about the most was riding on the Metro. It was like magic—both kids sitting perfectly still, silently looking out the window as the train rolled down the track. Every mother, and every FabGrandmother, should have a train!!

The last day I was at my son’s house, the Fabgranddaughter and I spent the afternoon making a scrapbook of all the things we did while she was here. I went to Wal-Mart and had them print out a lot of pictures, and bought some colored paper, sheet protectors, and a glue stick. I glued on tickets, brochures, and pictures, and she wrote about them on each page. It turned out to be a very nice memory book for her to treasure and remember her trip. As if she could forget ME!

p.s. I have a few more pictures I want to post, but my connection is very slow. I will add them tomorrow, I promise!

FabGrandpa's Socks

I don’t know what it is with men and their socks. Jim always seems to be needing more socks, more often than I do at least. He says they lose their “springyness” and when they do, he does not like to wear them anymore. This is long before they look worn out to me, but because I love him so, I get him some more socks whenever he starts talking about the lack of spring, WHATEVER that means.

While we were at the sock store, better known as Target, I also got some socks for our new little man, who we are calling “Owen” for the time being, until his parents name him something else. Those cute little socks were just irresistable, almost as cute as I imagine the baby himself to be.

Jim is very excited about this new baby. The child has no blood relation to Jim at all, but the prospect of being “Poppa” is appealing to him. He loves all three of “our” grandchildren as much as I do. I would say “maybe more”, but I don’t see how that is possible. He loves to spend time with Spencer, Michael, and Sarah, and absolutely loves his role of grandfather. He is the FabGrandpa, no matter what anyone else thinks.

This is one of my favorite pictures of all time, Poppa with Michael, 1997.

Poppa with Spencer in 2002.

With Sarah at the 4-D Theater at Stone Mountain Dec 23, 2005. He loves his grandsons, but this little lady has stolen his heart!

Ga 400, I-285, and I-85, OH MY!!!

Jim had an appointment with his endoctrinologist in Decatur yesterday. It is 75 miles from our camp host spot to the doctor's office, and the Dekalb Farmer's Market is just a couple miles from the doctor, so we took Gary and Faye with us and set out for our journey. Georgia 400 is a road that is very busy with traffic MOST of the time, but yesterday was a horrible mess. In addition to the normal traffic and construction going on , there was a SUV overturned on the southbound side, which backed up traffic for miles. It took us a half hour to go about 5 miles! OK, so we get through the jam on 400, and get on 285 eastbound, and find the traffic crawling there, too. There had been some kind of bad accident on I-85 north, and the state patrol had closed the ramp from I-285 east to I-85 north. Jim's appointment was for 1:30 p.m., and we left home at about 11:15 a.m., and we were still late getting there. Does anyone wonder why we like working in Urbanna, Virginia???

Dr. Singh was as pleasant as ever, and seemed happy to see us. He remembered that we were the couple who lives in an RV, and told us about his parents going in their motorhome to Tempe, Arizona to visit the Cubs training camp. He also told us about his children, who are 3 years old and 6 months old. He is just a very personable guy. He gave s a 20% discount on our office visit bill and the bloodwork, so that was a good thing. He also wrote Jim's prescription for 100 pills instead of 30 AND gave us some coupons from the manufacturer for $10 off a prescription of 100 pills. What a guy! Since he did not have the bloodwork results, he actually gave us 2 prescriptions and told us to wait until he calls us to tell us which one to get filled.

Finally, after many hours of traveling (it seemed), we got to the farmer's market. They have a cafeteria there, where they cook the items that are for sale that day at the market. Has anyone ever eaten braised fennel? Or goat stew? Well, I passed on the goat stew, but we all tried a fab soup called Corn and Poblano Pepper Soup. Wow!, that stuff wa great! Oh, if you ever go there, keep in mind that they sell the food BY THE POUND, so make your selections carefully.

After we ate, I got the ingredients for bruschetta; Mexican Seafood Soup; and Basil Pesto. Jim got a bottle of Portugese wine, some beef pastrami from the deli, and some delish Red Raspberry Jam. Oh, and we got some blueberry muffins and some rye bread. I just love that store.

After we got all our shopping done, we drove down Ponce De Leon to Peachtree Street, sort of a littel driving tour of downtown Atlanta. We passed by Becky's condo at 923 Peachtree, and drove all the way down to Phipps Plaza. Got on I-85 north, and you guessed it, sat in traffic, again. We were so glad to get back home to the mountains. I hope we don't have to go down there again any time soon.

The Dock

The main reason we came to Virginia to work this season is that my daughter the artist lives in Norfolk. She moved up here about eight years ago to go to graduate school and never left. She is pretty much a Virginian now, and probably won't leave there. She has visited us where ever we have been, but we decided to make it easy on her to come to see us. The place where we are living and working is only about 85 miles from her home. Here she is on a recent day trip to Kilmarnock in an antique store, hamming it up with a fake cake.

Like I said a few posts ago, she was an art teacher at a private school for children with learning disabilities for several years, but has decided to pursue her dream and work on marketing her own artwork. She entered her first juried art show and won Best of Show! We were very proud of that.


The second reason (well, it came in pretty close to being the first reason but I couldn't very well say to my daughter that eating crabs was more important than being close to her!!) we came to Virginia is the abundance of blue crabs, free for the taking, out of the river. All you have to do is put some chicken necks in your crab trap and go back the next morning and there they are. Steam them with some Old Bay seasoning, and you have the best dinner (or lunch or breakfast) you could ever want. And if for some reason you forgot to put the chicken necks in your trap, someone is always bringing you some already steamed. How could anyone NOT want to be near a place where they could have steamed crabs anytime they wanted them?


Finally, here is the real reason we came here:
Jim loves to fish.
Here he is "Sittin' On The Dock Of The Bay", fishing his heart out.
This campground is on Robinson's Creek, which goes into the Rapphannock River, which goes into the Chesapeake Bay. There are six or seven docks to fish from on the creek, canoes for rent for getting even closer to the fish, and a large freshwater lake on the property. He goes fishing on his lunch hour almost every day. Fishing is what keeps him happy. Oh, and I love fishing too!

Campground Worker

One of the reasons we live the way we do is so that we can go where ever we want to be and get to stay there for more than a week or two. We have been to several states in the six years we have been work campers. We spent two and a half years in south Texas, a winter season in Florida, and a couple of summers in the mountains of north Georgia. Last summer we worked at Stone Mountain Park in Stone Mountain, Georgia. I worked in the retail operations office, answering the telephones and monitoring the radios. My husband, Jim, was a maintenance worker in the campground. On weekends when we expected a lot of children to be camping there, one of his duties was to put out these "Slow Children" signs on the roads. I love this photo of him with his buddies.