“July is hot afternoons and sultry nights and mornings when it's joy just to be alive.” ~Hal Borland

July 1

Never fear. Owlette is here to save the day.

July 2

“Grandpa, will you play with me?”

Independence Day 2022

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Jerry, Kerry, and Terry

This is Will’s first Independence Day

Ella thinks he’s pretty cute

Kelly, Sarah, and Cynthia

Ladies first. They might leave some for the guys.

Shelby, Sarah, Julia, Cynthia, Holly, and Ann

Everyone loves Holly’s deviled eggs

Holly, Shelby, and Kelly

Ready for ribs

Kiara, Elijah, moi, and Ken

It’s nice when the young folks don’t mind eating with the old folks

Knox, Sarah, Ella, Julia, and Shelby

Jane, Kelly, Cynthia, Ann, Alex, Laura, and Don

Jerry, Holly, and Kerry

Freedom Peeps

Ella, Shelby, Will, Julia, Sarah, Knox, Kiara, and Elijah

Cousin Peeps

Ella, Shelby, Elijah, Julia, Sarah, and Knox

Just the girls

Family Peeps

Traditions are important

Will is chanting, “USA! USA! USA!"

Ready for the fireworks

Kaboom! Our little city knows how to celebrate freedom.

Happy Birthday, America!

July 9

Oh, she’s going places!

July 13

Knox ~ off the high dive into the deep 

July 13

My niece Sarah celebrated her 27th with her mom’s homemade pineapple upside down cake

July 15

Ella’s first catch ever

She’d caught three before anyone else caught one

Knox has done this before

I think they caught ten fish then released them to swim another day

July 16

Kelly and Ella painting Barbie and friends

Art is good for the soul

July 18

Our first grandchild celebrated her 21st birthday

21! 21! 21!

If I say it enough, maybe it will finally sink in.

"Can I still turn 21 if a 3 yr old blew out my candles??" ~Shelby’s quote from her Instagram post

That face you make when your 3 year old cousin is blowing out your birthday candles

before you have the chance. After about three seconds of stunned silence, we had a good laugh,

relit the candles, sang the last line of the Birthday Song, and Shelby blew out her candles.

21! 21! 21!

Kelly had some fun with the Play-dough

Taco, chips and salsa, and a drink of course

July 20

Neil and Knox went to see the new Thor movie and had the place to themselves

for a little while anyway before others drifted in

July 22

Neil and Shelby went to the shooting range for some target practice

She tried out her new Glock she got for her birthday

Good shootin' there, Shelby

Neil was happy with his bull’s eye. Said it took him about a hundred rounds to finally nail it.

July 24

When the carefully cultivated grass in the front yard died yet again, Neil started digging

and discovered just below the surface this tree root. Six feet wide. Hard to tell it in the picture.

Spent most of a day digging it all up and cutting it into smaller pieces. He thinks this may

be the reason grass won’t establish deep roots for the long haul. 

July 29

In yo face

She plopped herself on my lap and got in my face

So I took her picture

July 31

Fourth time’s the charm?

Green sprouts already pushing up through that blanket of straw

1 Corinthians 3:7-8

7 So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. 

8 Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor.

So whether you’re sowing Kingdom seeds or grass seeds,

it is God who makes things grow

“There is a time in late September when the leaves are still green, and the days are still warm, but somehow you know that it is all about to end, as if summer was holding its breath, and when it let it out again, it would be autumn.” ― Sharyn McCrumb, King's Mountain

September 1

Round and round Ella goes and where she stops nobody knows

It’s her thing lately in our backyard, and she’s fast

Steak ’n Shake supper with Holly and Elijah

September 2

Ready to help pack 1500 food boxes at Churches of Christ Disaster Relief

Crackers are just one of many many food items going into the boxes

Fall Ball is in full swing as Knox waits his turn at bat

September 3

No such thing as too many hair clips

Runs with sticks

September 5

Shelby came home from college to visit this weekend

Ella was happy to see her cousin

September 6

A Walmart parking lot sunset

September 9

The beautiful view from the high school pick-up line

September 10

As a 4th grader at his elementary school, this is Knox’s last Cougar Run,

the school’s only fundraiser for the year

“Go, Knox, go!”

Her brother’s cheerleader

September 11

20 years

September 14

Ella celebrated her 3rd birthday today

She’s deeply into the Disney movie ’Tangled’ right now (my personal fave)

so of course this was her birthday party theme

That face you make when everyone is singing to you and, let’s face it,

it’s so embarrassing that you don’t know what to do with yourself

(Am I right? Nod your head.) 

That face you make when it’s time to blow out the candle

Through the magic of technology, Shelby was able to be at the party too

She would’ve loved to wish Ella a happy birthday in person,

but Face Time is the next best option when you’re away at college

Best part of the party is ripping off that gift wrapping and

discovering what’s inside

She got a princess Rapunzel dress

a crown and a scepter (or wand as Ella called it)

Ella enjoyed a very happy 3rd birthday

'Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!'

Her mom and dad gave her this wig, and she had a great time

throwing all that hair over her shoulder

September 17

Heading north off the town square

This sunset was all over the map

September 20

Elijah started his first job working at Sky High Sports, a local trampoline park,

although they have arcade games and laser tag and all sorts of fun stuff to do

(I borrowed Kelly’s Snapchat picture of Kerry visiting Elijah at the counter)

September 21

The floodgates were wide open at J. Percy Priest Dam off I-40

as we passed by on our way to Nashville to pack food boxes

We’ve endured days and days of steady flooding rain the past couple of weeks

Boxes we pack today could ship to recent survivors of flooding in Tennessee, 

Hurricane Ida, or wildfire survivors in California

September 21

Kelly snapped this awesome photo of Ella and Knox checking

out the Harvest Moon

The Harvest Moon means just that, time to harvest the crops before frosts and cold weather set in. This full moon is very bright and even allowed farmers to harvest at night. The full moon closest to the Autumnal Equinox is named the Harvest Moon, according 

to a source on the Web 

September 22

Autumnal Equinox 2021

We could call this the Parking Lot Harvest Sun(set)

September 23

“I want to watch something!”

It’s a mystery why watching Peppa Pig on a tiny iPhone or iPad screen

is way better than watching it on a giant screen TV

Little Bunny Foo Foo came hopping up on our front porch, had a look around,

realized he was blocked in by the railing, made a U turn, and went hopping on his way

He froze long enough for me to snap his pic

September 24

We took Ella to the children’s library, which she loves, and paid a visit to

Norbert, the Iguana in residence

Norbert was in no mood for socializing

Knox at bat in the team’s last game of regular season

Tournament starts next Monday

September 25

Chick fil A shakes always make us smile

I was surprised to find the peach shake was still available

Can’t say no to the peach shake

Neil can. He got a cookies and cream shake. Also worthy of smiles.

September 30

Beautiful night for a baseball tournament game

Sometimes those great practice swings ….

…. don’t translate to the batter’s box

Knox’s team lost 4-2 and ended up in 4th place

The team played hard this season and were rewarded for their efforts

Life is like the baseball season, where even the best team loses at least a third of its games, and even the worst team has its days of brilliance. The goal is not to win every game but to win more than you lose, and if you do that often enough, in the end you may find you have won it all.

~Harold S. Kushner

“Sweet September Blessings!
I am eternally grateful!!!” 
~Charmaine J. Forde