Last Two Days in North Carolina

Back to our Land That We Love Tour for our last full day in North Carolina and our departures on Sunday the third of October.

On Saturday the 2nd of October we enjoyed park time, lunch at the local Mexican restaurant and then some time at the Bride and Groom’s home for an open house.

Following Baba back to the cars.

After the open house the guys and Katie went on a shopping excursion the rest of the girls and Addy and JJ went back to our VRBO. What we didn’t realize was that the car that went shopping had both keys to the house and we panicked for a short time until genius Laura checked under a planter and found a spare key that the owners left. Whew! Naptime and later a quick dip in the lake and a relaxing evening.

Snuggle time before naps.

Josh was the only one of us who decided to take a leap into Lake Hickory.

The rest of us just watched from the deck.

On Sunday Dear and I left to continue our Land That We Love Tour.

Goodbye to our home away from home.

Our kids loaded up later than us and headed to Raleigh for their flight home, stopping at a Cracker Barrel for breakfast.

More park time before their flight.

We were on the road again heading through the mountains of North Carolina into Tennessee. More about our day of travel later.

Back to the present we had another dusting of fluffy snow on Monday evening. It was fun to watch it fall. Tuesday morning was above freezing and the fluff melted off quickly.

Young At Heart Hodgepodge

Our last Wednesday Hodgepodge of the Year. Thank You Joyce From This Side of the Pond for keeping this going!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Hodgepodgers!!

1. How young is young? In the past, according to various organizations who decide these things, age 60 was the ‘border age’ to old. The World Health Organization has done new research recently and divided up the categories as-0-17 (underage), 18-65 (youth or young people), 66-79 (middle-aged), 80-99 (elderly senior), 100+ (long-lived elderly). Your thoughts on this particular breakdown, and also your thoughts as to where you land?

That youth or young people section is a huge stretch and laughable!  In my opinion the WHO no longer lives up to it’s mission.

2. TIME magazine has declared Elon Musk person of the year in 2021. What say you? If you want to know more about how they choose you’ll find that info in the link here. If you were choosing, who would be your person of the year? 

He’s a very rich and very smart man, I hear. On the standards of Time Magazine I suppose he deserves it. I don’t buy Time magazine.

If I was choosing person of the year I’d choose Dr. John MacArthur, a man of God who rightly divides the Word of God. He and his church stood up to local government overreach in trying to shut their church down and take away a parking lot lease in retribution. The church won their battle in court and the city had to pay their legal fees and their parking lease was reinstated.

3. I read here ten habits of extremely likable people which include-they greet the world with a smile on their face, they ask questions, they’re consistent, they put the phone away, they remember names and use them, they keep an open mind and don’t pass judgement, they’re authentic, they’re kind and generous, accountable for their mistakes, and they send thank you notes.  

So, are you likable-lol? Which one of these habits could use some further developing in your own life? What is one habit/quality you’d add to the list? 

I’d like to send more thank you notes and be more careful in passing judgement.

4. One non-holiday related task/job/goal/dream on your to-do list that you hope/plan to make happen before the new year rolls in? 

Keep up my thirty minute a day cardio workout. I’m slipping during the holidays!!

5. Share with us some of your holiday plans. 

Church this Sunday which will include the Children’s Christmas Choir which is always fun to watch. I’m hoping for at least one nose picker. LOL.

Christmas Eve Candlelight service.

Christmas day when all our kids will gather here and we open gifts and enjoy our traditional Christmas dinner. If we knew before we bought gifts how much the Christmas Goose Prime Rib Roast was going to cost this year we would have cut down on the gifts. Yikes! But for the record we’ll enjoy it all and say thank you Lord for all you give us to enjoy.

The two days after Christmas we’ll spend more time together as a family ending our time off with a birthday party for our daughter Katie who was born on the 27th. Our westside kids will travel back home on the 28th.

10 days till Christmas!

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Christmas in the country when you own 20 acres and find your Christmas tree on those acres. This is our son’s family and his land.

The Wedding

Get ready for a photo overload. A friendly warning. Our niece’s wedding took place on Friday October 1st at the Providence Cotton Mill in Maiden, North Carolina. It was a lovely spot for a wedding.

Where’s JJ?

He followed me when I got up to take the photo of the group waiting for the wedding ceremony to begin.

Mother of the bride.

Giving the instructions that everyone will follow but one…there is always at least one in a crowd who doesn’t think the rules apply to them.

Jenna was the first to make us Uncle and Auntie.

Sisters of the bride and our nieces.

Sisters of the bride and our grand niece.

Our grand nephew and our nephew by marriage.

Christina (mother of the bride) and Terry (father of the bride). Terry is Dear’s older and only sibling. Terry and Chris were in our wedding as Dear’s best man and my matron of honor.

It was good to get photos taken before the southern humidity transported my hair to another dimension.

She is one of two of our newest grand nieces and we now have a brand new grand nephew, too.

A cousin shot with the Bride and Groom.

All the extended Bayles’ to date!

Congratulations Chris and Kacie. That’s a wrap!

I’m adding some more photos that I overlooked before to this post.

 

 

 

Pool Time in Hickory

There was a pool at the house we rented on Lake Hickory and even though it wasn’t heated to a comfortable temperature some of our crew had a crisp good time.

 

 

Fun family time on our Land That We Love Tour. Next up a photo overload from the Wedding ceremony on Friday October 1st.

Back here in Colville our temperatures are taking a cold turn with highs below 40 degrees and lows in the 20’s. In the next several days the highs will be below 30 degrees. Brrr. As I type this the temperature outside is 28 degrees. Time to pull out the warm woolen mittens!!

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things

Have a good weekend everyone!

Family Time in North Carolina

On Thursday September 30th we captured all the minutes we could being together. Four days was the longest staying put time we had on our Land That We Love Tour and it was packed.

Our niece Annie with her little girl, the newest addition to the Bayles’ extended family.

.

All the Bayles women/girls/baby together except for the bride on Thursday the 30th of September. Some of this side of our family has been together over the years, here and there, but all of us have not been together for many years.

Added this photo to get more perspective on the house we rented. This is the middle/main level of three full levels of space. Besides the family room, kitchen, 2 dining areas, and laundry, this main area was where the master suite was. There was a kitchen on the lower level of the house, too, along with 2 bedrooms, bath, and living area. The upper level had 3 bedrooms and a bath.

She’s checking to see if I’m as great as I say I am, Great Auntie E.

The guys went out and got lunch for all of us and for the most part we all got what we ordered. It was a crazy scramble. Got the right sauce for those fries?!

In the evening we enjoyed the Rehearsal Dinner and met the groom’s family and other friends at Novel Taproom in Newton, North Carolina.

Dear’s only brother, the father of the bride.

The groom and bride inviting us to eat, drink and be merry.

The Bayles’ girls with the bride included this time, cousins.

The guys who carry on the Bayles name. Rex, Verna, Roy and Nettie would be so proud.

This little guy and I sang ‘pat a cake, pat a cake, baker man’ over and over and over again. Patting it and marking it with a B!

Again Baba, Again.

It was a nice party before the wedding on the following day, Friday October 1st.

Speaking of parties, we have our annual Ladies Christmas Party at church on Friday evening. Young ladies 4th grade and up are invited to attend. Let Heaven & Nature Sing is the theme. I’m in the kitchen today baking a cheesecake to share at the party.  While the cheesecake is baking maybe I can finish the Christmas decorating at Our Country Bungalow this morning. This afternoon I’ll be decorating one of the tables in our church gym for the event.

Leftovers TDay 2021

Thank you to my sister Lana who sent me some more photos she took on Thanksgiving Day that I’m adding here as leftovers. She and Steve left our place for Idaho and enjoyed some better internet reception and sent me these.

Where’s the Turkey Platter?

Cornstarch or Flour?

“Can I sit with Baba?”

Thank you Lana for capturing these moments. Enjoy CDA Steve and Lana!

On Black Friday Lana and I shopped some small businesses in downtown Colville and supported them well.

Today I’m meeting up with our Colville crew in Chewelah for Small Business Saturday.

A Relaxed Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving we tried something new with the turkey leaving it in a 200 degree oven after a 350 degree start. This gave us the freedom to venture out on Thanksgiving before our dinner time of 5pmish. The Rotary trail still had a lot of snow on it.

We marveled at the tracks we knew were made by our DIL Jamie as she pushed our grands for a 5k Turkey run that morning in their Bob stroller.

This is Bob the stroller.

Our 2021 Thanksgiving Table setting. My sister Lana folded the napkins to resemble a turkey.

A very blurry selfie to document who was at our table this year. We missed our Coast kids and our DIL Laura’s skills at taking selfies and photos in general…sigh. You were missed, Josh, Laura, Andrew and Katie. Looking forward to seeing you in person at Christmas!

We trust you all had a good Thanksgiving day.

This morning I’ve already packed away all our Thanksgiving decor and we are pulling down the Christmas bins! A Thanksgiving elf was in the kitchen this morning (early) and emptied the dishwasher of our Thanksgiving plates, etc., and that elf washed the remaining greasy platters and roasting pan and put everything away. Woohoo!

Hope you all have a good Black Friday.

Miles Apart…

…but close in our hearts.

The month of November and part of October our families were split apart by work responsibilities and other circumstances. Auntie Lolo flew over to be with Jamie while their hubbies were in Arizona on separate assignments. Our grands love it when Auntie Lolo comes to help their mommy.

Everyone made the most of their circumstances.

It’s always better together.

We love it when Auntie Lolo comes to visit, too.

While our sons were in Arizona in different parts of the state they managed to drive the distance and get together for some much needed R & R together.

“Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity! It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes! It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion! For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forevermore.”

Psalm 133

These two with their work responsibilities keeping us apart are with us in spirit. Here they are at a marathon Lord of the Rings viewing party playing the part with their hair and attire.

Did I ever mention our daughter knows and writes Elvish. It’s a skill that will take her far in life be fun to pull out at the right times in life like a Lord of the Rings party or at the grave of J.R.R. Tolkien in 2004…Katie would not let us leave Oxford till we found Tolkien’s grave. This was no small feat! Here we are at Wolvercote Cemetery in North Oxford at the graveside where he and his wife are buried. His son is buried here, also.  Katie left a note in Elvish, (yes, she learned to write and speak Tolkien’s Elvish).

EDITH MARY TOLKIEN
LUTHIEN
1889 – 1971
JOHN RONALD
REUEL TOLKIEN
BEREN
1892 – 1973

This Thanksgiving our Westside kids will stay on the westside. Our eastside kids will be at our house for Thanksgiving along with my sister and her hubby and Jamie’s mom, also known as Granny to our Grands. Nine at the table giving thanks for all that we have been given and all the love we share.

Speaking of Painting Hodgepodge

It’s time for Wednesday Hodgepodge where Jo From This Side of the Pond asks the questions for all to answer.

This week there are questions about paint/painting so the photo above shows our storage room where we have to store any good paint we plan to use so it doesn’t freeze in our garage or shop. Dear recently painted this storage room and we reorganized it. Our storage room is 10 x 11 with an upper deep shelf of storage space that we utilize, too. This room is right off our Master Suite and was originally planned to be a sitting area but because we don’t have a basement or attic for storage we are using it as a storage area.

1. It’s often said we should be grateful for small blessings. What is one small blessing you are feeling especially grateful for today?

Our electricity stayed on through the windy storm event we had on Monday! I’m always grateful if our power stays on!

2. How do you feel about leftovers, not just on Thanksgiving but after any meal? Favorite thing to make/eat using your Thanksgiving leftovers? 

I find leftovers enjoyable and convenient. My favorite thing to have with Thanksgiving leftovers are turkey sliders using the leftover rolls, turkey and stuffing with a little cranberry sauce.

3. Sherwin Williams unveiled it’s 2022 Color of the Year-Evergreen Fog.

Are you a fan? Yes, it’s a decent color I could live with.

Would I find this mid-tone gray green shade anywhere in your house?

No, the interior of our home has all been recently painted and we went with a medium brown tone everywhere except for our Master bathroom and laundry room. Those rooms have a pewter tone. The whole house has white ceilings and white accents against the brown.

Does your house need painting? Inside or out?

Outside needs painting which we plan to do next summer and Evergreen Fog could work nicely but time will tell what we pick. Dear recently painted our front and back door in Dress Blue. Whatever we choose for the whole of the exterior will be complimentary to the Dress Blue doors.

What one space is most in need of a paint job?

Our exterior is most in need of a paint job. This past few weeks Dear has finished all the spare rooms of our house with fresh paint including all the closets except for the Master bedroom. We are going to install new doors on our closets so he will finish them up after the new doors are installed.

Are you a do-it-yourselfer or do you hire a professional? 

Dear is a professional painter, taught by his father who was a professional painter in Los Angeles County area in California. It was his job into the first years of our marriage before he worked in the mining/quarry industry running a front end loader and then in his mid 30’s he went back to school to become a Pharmacist. He is now a retired Pharmacist who is my resident painter. Woohoo!

I’ll do a little name dropping about Dear’s Father’s painting business. He was featured in an L.A. magazine as a recommended painting contractor. Here’s the name dropping…he painted many homes in Beverly Hills, Brentwood and Belair, including Peter Falk’s home (Columbo). Dear and his brother worked with their dad at these homes. They also painted at L.A. Baptist College which is now the Master’s University.

4. What is one aspect of the way you were parented that you are grateful for today? 

I am grateful to my parents who modeled repentance in seeking after God and walking with God. This was a priority with them. They knew that was the most important heritage to model for their children and grandchildren.

5. Write an acrostic for the word-thankful

Trusting
Him
Always
Not wavering
Knowing that
Father God faithfully
Upholds His own with
Loving kindness that endures forever.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Had to throw in a photo of my resident professional personal painter. I am a fortunate gal.

Veterans Day 2021

Every year, on 11 November at 11 am – the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month – we pause to remember those men and women who have died or suffered in all wars, conflicts and peace operations.

Thankful for all our Veterans.

My new pin to wear on Veteran’s Day from our Laura, also known as Auntie Lolo.

10556234_10204401701630899_6178563336099564642_n

Here I am in 2014 with the Marine Corps Band at a Seattle Sounders Game. Wonder where all these young Marines are now and how many are Veterans already.

Hope we all get a chance to thank a Veteran today! The closest Veteran to us is our Son-in-law Andrew. Thank you Andrew for your years of service. We appreciate your sacrifice and are aware of the toll it took on your body. You are loved and appreciated.