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My desk this morning. A little insite into life at work... hopfully, you won't see anything incriminating.... ;-)

Just a brief update.  Thursday, we went to Statesboro to hang out with family and eat wonderful stuff.  Thursday night, we watched Caroline make glass beads (her new hobby).  I got a chance to play around.  I made two and only one of them cracked.  The girls, Anna, and I are now in LaGrange visiting Grandy or Great Grandy depending on who you are.  We have to head back today but we have had a very good visit!

Here are some smiles to brighten your day.

Check that face out. I think Nevi got Emma with her nose.

This weekend, we spent a little time in the country. We were invited by Mrs. Mary Olive Pinckney Keister to pick pecans. We went out about noon on Saturday. I have to say that I felt more at home out there than I have anywhere else in Beaufort County. There are still remnants of the farming community that used to be Bluffton out in Pinckney Colony. We visited the family cemetery and wondered about the very young ones who died before their time. Times definitely have changed Bluffton but down this one road, there is still a hint of simpler, more down-home times.

Overlooking the Colleton River from the Pinckney family cemetery, Pinckney Colony, Beaufort County, SC.

This was a cool picture that I took a few nights ago. It was bitterly cold. I really like the fill flash on the marsh grass.

More pictures of Kate then Emma this time. Their aunts accuse me of not posting enough Kate pictures.

Here is a pretty cute picture of Kate for ya.

I think I surprised Emma in this photo.

Emma and Kate really do like playing with each other. I think they enjoy each other more and more everyday.

Kate smiling up at Jenny. Who else could make Kate smile that big?

This picture was taken last week. Jenny was gone somewhere and I thought, Hey, I'll go take some night photos. Night photos aren't done often.

I haven't been diligent in posting as of late. I meant to post pictures of
the girls this week and I didn't get a chance.

Last weekend, we went to Yemassee for Jenny to care for a patient. The
girls and I ran up the road to call the Prater's to see whether they wanted
to do something since Beaufort was on our way home. I also got a few pretty
cool pictures in a cemetery in Yemassee. We saw the monkey farm on the way
from Yemassee to Beaufort. It was a first for me but Jenny said that she
had past it fairly frequently during her time in home health in the area.

We stopped at the Prater house and hung out for a while. We managed to talk
Jennifer and Koutsunis into taking a trip out to St. Helena's (Frogmore)
Island to shop at What's In Store. There was some type of Gullah Heritage
event going on at Penn Center (which we've never been to). I got some
really well seasoned though overcooked Frogmore Stew while we were there.
Jenny and I split that and a Philly cheese steak sandwich topped off with a
cup of wonderful homemade ice cream.

We took the Praters back home and headed home ourselves. Sunday we went to
church and then crashed at the Fenders house while they were in Brunswick
visiting family and taking part in Rev. Jim Wilkerson's installation. We
also heard through the grapevine that Grace Church in Savannah has found a
pastor! In other news, I was very pleased to hear that Marc Herrington is
getting married. Man, this is a random, random post.

Our plans for the weekend consist of picking pecans at Pinckney Colony. We may do some cleaning and possibly some light yard work. Have a good weekend.

We have a love for anything made of paper. This is what happened to the add sections of the Sunday paper. Don't worry we got the coupons out first. Can't wait to see what this looks like at christmas.

A story for all FSU alumni out there...

I had an "it's a small world" moment yesterday evening. I was told to see a patient that was to get an IV medication which means that I got to sit there for the two hours while it infused. As I got to know the 90 year old patient and his wife I shared that I had graduated from FSU to which she replied that she also had... in 1941 when FSU was still a women's college. It was great to sit there and listen to her stories of living near the high school on Highway 90 that was in the country... which would be Leon high school that is two blocks from Monroe Street -- not in the country anymore. They lived on Brevard street which she remembered being a dirt road. She said that they had a field near their house that she would walk the cow to everyday to put it in pasture... no field there now and definetly no room for a cow. We swapped stories of living in Landis Hall. A dorm that she spoke of as brand new and I remember as very old and in need of a lot of work. It was great to hear someone speak so fondly of Tallahassee and it put a large smile on my face as she spoke of areas that would be unrecognizable to her today. Needless to say the two hours went very quickly and I look forward to my upcoming evening visits to hear old Tallahassee tales.

Last night I changed out the power booster on my truck.  All of the bolts were too long to use a normal socket with.  So, brilliant person that I am, I decided that I would use a crescent wrench.  Man, it took me forever to get the nuts off.  I finally gave up and ran to Target to buy some deep well sockets.  It took me over an hour to get the thing off and it was back on in about 10 minutes after I got back from Target.  Love the fact they are open until 10PM!!

We started eating pumpkin last week. This is a picture of Emma on the first try of it. It might appear that she is smiling... however she was more making a "Why must I eat this?" type of face. I think it will take a while until we like pumpkin.

This weekend was great. I think it was the most busy weekend that we have had in quite some time. I would say that it was the most normal that we have had since the girls were born but normalcy has changed. We went to Statesboro Saturday to see family. Aunt Pam and Uncle Craig came down to see Cousin Matthew. We showed up around noon and bummed around the house for a while. Georgia Southern played Furman and the game started at 4PM. Jenny and I left the girls with my mom and Caroline and went to the game with my dad, Anna, and Ellen. I must say it was a very good game. Jenny and I left the stadium around the end of the 3rd quarter to drive to the house to feed the girls. I was going to just drop her off but it took so long to get the car that we ended up sitting in the parking lot of the gas station across from the stadium watching the scoreboard and listening to the best quarter of the game on the radio. Thats what you get for leaving early.

Sunday, we went to church. Then, we napped at the church on the air mattress until leadership training. We got home around 9PM. Weekends, no matter how fun, are not usually restful. The rest of the week is just work.

Emma was posing this morning and I just happened to have my camera out!!

Tuesday, Jenny Prater, a newly married friend of ours visited Jenny on her way back to Beaufort from Statesboro. She brought about 4 lbs of ground venison with her. Its some good stuff. Tuesday night, Jenny fixed Onion Soup Deer Burgers. Some may say that its almost bad to do that to deer burgers but we were just trying it out. It works pretty well. They had a slightly gamey taste, just like it should. Jenny said she liked it's different taste and I tend to agree.

Last night, Jenny came back (KP is out of town so its not like she was ignoring him or anything) and we had deer spaghetti and some Still Pond Vineyard "Crimson Clover" Georgia Muscadine Wine! You actually couldn't tell that it wasn't normal spaghetti unfortunately. The wine was excellent. We had been saving it since last Christmas when my parents gave us a bottle. Wonderful stuff. I want more!

This weekend was nice. We woke up and drove to Ridgeland to visit a patient of Jenny's. That didn't take very long. We drove back to Bluffton and went to the 1st Annual Bluffton Art and Seafood Festival. We walked down Calhoun Street checking out the art from folks and smelling the food that we couldn't afford. We learned in Beaufort that when they say "seafood tasting" it means $$. I think Jenny was just using it as an excuse to show off the girls. I ran into our local FBI agent (not sure he knows who I am) who is retiring here shortly. I didn't expect to see Peter Lamb, our county councilman there turning small pieces of wood on his lathe. Didn't know he did that kind of thing since he's a retired attorney. We went to Bluffton Barbeque to pick up a pound of pulled pork. Both of the Huffman's were there so we chatted a little. Ted make the best barbeque. He bought Squat-n-gobble's old smoker and is putting it to very good use. Kudo's!!

Sunday we went to church and then went to the Phillip's house. I was taught to throw the tomahawk and was wowed with Mr. Phillip's mad, mad tomahawk skills. I must say that he is the only one that I know that can split a playing card at 14 paces! Andrew, can you do that? I told him that when I was in Boy Scouts, it was frowned upon (I'm sure it still is) to throw any kind of tool. People still did it, but not around scoutmasters. We left their house in time to be 5 minutes late to the joint PCA service at Providence PCA behind the Savannah Mall. Good service. Last song wasn't exactly what I care for but I liked the Scottish liturgy honoring Reformation Day.

Last night, we shut all the lights off and hid from the little demon's running around our neighborhood.