Granny Irene

I’m not sure how old Granny would be today. I’ve never been good about remembering birth-years. Would she be 90? Mom, am I right? I know she has been gone now for 5 years and is missed very, very much. It’s so hard to believe it’s been 5 years. I had fun ‘remembering’ Granny Lois and wanted to do the same thing for Granny Irene. Here are some things I remember, please chime in on the comments section with your own remembrances…

I remember she always had Juicy Fruit chewing gum in her purse and would only give you a half a piece at a time.

I remember she always kept peppermint in her purse too. Mom, I think you do this now too.

I remember staying with her for a week every summer. I have so many memories from those weeks with her in Dawson. That week always included shopping and a trip to Calloway Gardens.

I remember her taking me to Calloway Gardens every summer. She always let us invite one of our ‘Dawson’ friends to go with us too. She and one of her friends would sit in the rocking chairs under the pavilion while me and Alice and our friends would play in the lake and on the beach.

I remember having sleep-overs in Dawson at her house with one of our ‘Dawson’ friends either at her house or at Mrs. Mervin’s.

I remember she loved to take her 3 grandkids shopping and was always very generous. I think she was largely responsible for our new school wardrobe each year.

I remember me and Alice always slept in her King size bed with her when we visited her in Dawson. We would get so tickled lying in bed at night and laughing at different things. She would laugh at us and then Alice and I would laugh at her uncontrollable laughter, it was an endless cycle. I think we sounded more like 3 teenagers having a sleep over more so than 2 granddaughters with their grandmother.

I remember her stirring up my ice-cream to soften it and make it like fresh homemade ice cream days after it had been churned. The expression on her face, well I guess you just had to be there.

I remember walking to and from First Baptist of Dawson on weekend visits to her house.

I remember Sunday afternoons on her front porch. All the adults sitting and talking and the kids playing in the front yard and picking up pecans from the lawn.

I remember watching T.V. on Saturday nights in her den while eating homeade ice cream.

On those same Saturday nights, I remember Alice and I scheming a plan to 'sneak' up on the adults while they watched T.V. We drew a schematic of the den complete with our route planned carefully. No way they would see us crawling behind the couch and under the coffee table.

I remember she always gave me and Alice a Madame Alexander doll for Christmas. That collection is still in Mom’s attic.

I remember she is largely responsible for my jewelry collection, generously giving me birthstone jewelry and many other rings and necklaces. I treasure each piece and although I don’t wear it daily, I try to wear one piece a week and always think of her when I do.

I remember going out with her and all of her ‘buddies’ in Dawson to play cards or eat at The Varsity. She was always so busy!

I remember eggs, over-easy with fried cornbread for breakfast. I’m hungry just thinking of it. The cornbread is something no one else has been able to duplicate since she died. I think it was the fresh cornmeal that made it so difficult to duplicate.

I remember throwing table-scraps across the fence to her neighbors’ chickens after each meal at her house.

I remember pulling under her carport on Friday nights after dark and her opening the carport door in her gown and robe giving us each a hug and kiss as we walked into her home. “Hey Deezy, Hey Doodlebug, Hey T-Ron.” We each had a nick-name.

Most of all I remember how much she loved us. We were her only 3 grandkids and as an adult I can vividly remember how proud she was of us as kids and how much she loved us all. Our comfort rests in the knowledge that she is with Granddaddy experiencing the splendor of Heaven and we will one day be reunited with her again. What an awesome day that will be!

Opening Day

Unfortunately my brother-in-law, Scotty, was admitted to Emory Thursday night with heart complications. I ended up working from home on Friday so Lance could be at the hospital with his family while Scotty underwent a heart-cath procedure to diagnose the problem. The procedure brought great news – they were able to fix he problem by eliminating some scar tissue on his heart left from surgery at 5 years old. There would be no further treatment needed for now and everyone was beyond excited and thankful. Unfortunately after being discharged on Saturday, he was re-admitted on Sunday for a pulmonary embolism (blood clot in his lung) as a result of the heart-cath procedure. He will be in-patient for a few days as they resolve the clot with blood thinners. Please keep him and his family in your prayers.

Not completely understanding the circumstances, my boys are excited since it means their 3 cousins spent the night with us last night. A sleep over on a school night is otherwise unheard of!

Although overshadowed by my brother-in-law’s stay in the hospital, opening day 2008 was largely a success. It was a long day but we couldn’t have asked for better weather and plenty of fun. The parade was at 9am, which is what both Owen and Riley were looking forward to more than their games. Lance went with Owen and his team and I went with Riley. It’s a short parade route, maybe 1 mile if that, but they love throwing handfuls of candy at the scattered bystanders on the roadside. Owen’s game was immediately following the parade/opening day announcements at 11am. Have you ever seen 3 and 4 year olds play baseball? It is so funny! Owen is quite proud that this year he is one of the 4 year old veterans who can occasionally hit the ball without the assistance of a T. He did that during the game and made his turn around the bases. Another boy on his team had a great hit and then proceeded to run to centerfield to fetch his ball. Too funny! Even funnier was the jabs Lance made at this kid’s Dad, a former Atlanta Brave.We had a few hours after that before Riley’s 2:45 game. All the teams have fundraising booths and the local high school ROTC runs inflatable slides and bounce houses so there was plenty to do before Riley’s game. Nacho’s, Dippin’ Dots, Cokes, Cotton Candy, Hot Dogs, it was all there.

Riley’s game went well too. They lost, but still a good game. This is the first year with real strike-out’s. No T to use if you miss the pitches from the coach. It’s still coach pitch, but no T. It tried to rain on us before it was over, but nothing more than a drizzle until we got in the car after the game was over and then it rained pretty good. Owen kept complaining that it was “dripping on him.”

OB’s BBQ for dinner. I got to pick since it was my birthday. A busy, hectic day for a birthday but I got to watch my 2 guys do some of their favorite things – play, eat, play baseball – you can’t ask for much better.

This update wouldn’t be complete without confessing my ‘uh-oh’ on Friday. Lance was at the hospital with his brother (40+ miles from home) and I was taking the boys to the ball field, they both had a 6:30 practice. We headed out and as soon as the garage door closed behind me, I knew what I’d done. My keys (car and house) were on the kitchen counter behind the now locked, garage door. Oops. Lance has the only other house key. Even worse, my cell phone was also on the kitchen counter charging. Needless to say we had an opportunity to meet our nice neighbors who called their locksmith friend who was at our house in about 30 minutes. So after nearly 45 minutes and $90 later, I again had possession of my keys and off to the ball park we went. At least we made it in time to get everyone’s uniform for the Saturday morning festivities.

Our Easter in Pictures

Rather than bore you with the written details of our Easter,

I thought I'd let the pictures tell the story.

They do it much better than I could otherwise. So here you go...

All the great grandkids on Lance's side of the family with his grandparents.

Egg hunting at GG Ma's and GG Pa's

Playing with Bubbles

My handsome boys.

For every nice picture like the one above,
you get a dozen or more of the silly ones like this:

...and this:

...and this:

My handsome nephew.

Our Family.

All the grandkids on my side of the family

Hunting at Nanny and PawPaw's.

The four 'little' boys at Nanny and PawPaw's.

I hope all of you had as great a weekend as we did. As a Christian, I think Easter is the most significant celebration we have. Afterall, there could be nothing greater than the resurrection of our Lord and Savior!

Awana Grand Prix 2008

Wednesday night was the big race. It was exciting. I’m not sure how many participated, but I’m guessing there were about 20 cars. I should mention too that were were very impressed with the sophistication of the race. All the cars have to weigh-in (requirement is under 5 oz.). The track is a 40 foot aluminum track with 4 lanes and the finish and start are electronic. All lane assignments and results were all on a laptop which was projected up on the big-screen in the gym for everyone to see. All they had to do was feed in each kids name and car and the computer determined which cars raced when and in which lane until everyone was done. It also kept the running tally of everyone’s race times and speed. Like I said, very sophisticated.

The races were 4 cars in a heat. The track has 4 lanes and each car raced once in each lane, so 4 runs each. Owen started the night off in the first heat. He ran 3 heats in a row and won all three. He later raced his 4th heat and won that one too. He was *so* excited! Jumping up and down and cheering for his car. He looked at me and said, “I’m a good racer, ain’t I Mom?” He was so proud! What was even more entertaining was watching the Dad’s. They had a lot invested in this race too. At one point the director asked all the kids to move away from the track and to find a chair to sit in and then he also said, “And all the Dad’s, please move away from the cars.”

Riley raced a few heats after Owen and I think he won 2 of his 4 heats. He was excited too and they were great about cheering for each other too. Abby, Tyler, Riley and Owen were all exchanging high-five’s and cheering for each other’s cars too. After everyone had raced 4 times, they took the top 4 cars times and did one final series of 4 heats, once in each lane for the final 4. Owen, Tyler and Abby all made the final 4 along with another little girl, Hannah. Owen did well in the first 3 heats, placing 2nd or 3rd in each one. Then in the final heat, his car jumped the track and finished a full 1.5 seconds behind everybody else which threw him out of the running for the top 3 trophy spots. He was disappointed, and we all think robbed, but what can you do? They wouldn’t run the heat over again because his car crossed the finish line even though it was off the track. Tyler won 1st place and Abby 2nd place so we were excited for them.

I called a trophy shop today and ordered a 3rd place trophy for Owen. Since we really think he should have won and he was so sad and disappointed, I think this’ll make everything right in his mind. We’ll just tell him that he won a trophy after all, he’ll be so excited. If he had lost fair and square, I wouldn’t have done this since I know there is a lesson learned in loosing as well as winning. But given the circumstances, we though this was a good idea and so Owen will have a trophy to show off after all.

Awana Grand Prix 2009, watch out. We learned a few secrets this year and our cars will be even faster next year!

Chickens

I never would have predicted that Lance and I would one day be chicken farmers. OK, so maybe 'farmer' is taking it a bit too far but we do now own 8 bitty's (those are baby chickens for all you non-farmers)! They are currently residing in our basement inside an aquarium and under a heat lamp. They really are cute and so far not too much trouble. They chirp, but not annoyingly so. You can't really hear them from upstairs. Those tiny little birds can eat though. That has been the most surprising thing is how much they eat and how quickly! I'll try to get some pictures of them up a little later. I don't have any handy now.

We hung out with the chickens most of the day in the basement. Not for the sake of being with the chickens, but we were in the basement trying to sort an organize all the boxes and junk that is down there. We are far from done, but did make some progress. I think it will take a few more rainy-days to get it done. If the sun is out tomorrow it's going to be really hard to hang out in the basement all day. Lance and I agreed that we'd try to do this right, box by box. Rather than just stacking the boxes neatly, we want to put them in categories and get rid of things we don't need to keep. If it were up to me a lot more would be in the trash but my pack-rat of a husband isn't letting me get away with too much of that.

Lance spent a good bit of time with the boys today working on their pinewood derby cars. They are making these for the Awana Grand Prix at church Wednesday night. So far, Daddy has done most of the work since saws have been involved. But tomorrow the fun part will get done, painting and decorating their cars. It's been a fun project for all of us. We'll have to take a camera with us Wednesday night to get some pictures from the big race. I'm sure it'll be fun.

Please pray for all those affected by the tornado's in Georgia last night and today. Fortunately all our family and friends are safe, but many others weren't as fortunate. Also, please pray for Emily Lester. She's a teenager from Florida who is fighting for her life right now at St. Jude. I'm sure her family would appreciate all your prayers.

Coaches

Riley’s comment during Owen’s Tuesday night t-ball practice, “Mom, Owen’s coaches are really nice. They keep saying ‘good job’ and ‘nice swing’. He has great coaches. I like his coaches.” Unlike Riley’s coaches, O’s are just happy when they are looking at the ball and not playing in the dirt or looking up at an airplane (something Owen did more than once Tuesday night).

But after last year especially, I really like Riley’s coaches too. His coaches don’t yell, unlike last year. I’ve never seen them yank their kid off the field for a ‘whippin’, unlike last year. They are just a little rougher around the edges than Owen’s but given the age they are coaching, that is probably reasonable.. Here are some comments heard this year from Riley’s coaches:
“Where were you looking? Not at the ball!”
“If you let another ball go by you without getting in front of the ball, you’re running a lap.” (This was said from coach to coach’s son)
“If that ball ever touches the fence, then you outfielders aren’t doing your job.”

But that is all balanced out by lots of these:
“Nice play.”
“Great throw!”
“Good snag.”

You get the idea. So although Riley noticed right away that Owen’s coaches are “really nice.” His are pretty good too. I’m looking forward to a good season for both of them. Another perk this year is that both teams have great sponsors. That means us parents won’t have to come out of pocket for uniforms, trophies, end of year parties or anything else. It also means this team Mom doesn’t have to worry about running a fundraising booth on opening day.

The season is shaping up to be a busy one. We have practice with one or the other (or both) every day this week except for Wednesday and Saturday. I don’t know how families who have more than one kid participating in more than one activity at time do it. I’ve met plenty who have that sort of schedule. Two at a time in the same sport is as busy as I care to be!

Welcome Alexander!

There was a new arrival in the Helton family Thursday evening in Texas. Congratulations Todd, Stephanie and big-brother Joshua on Alexander Taylor Helton. What a beautiful baby boy! With his parents’ permission, here is a picture of the sweet Alexander:

Happy Birthday to Alice today too! I hope you have a great day despite the dreary weather! And just for old time’s sake, here are a couple of pictures of the birthday girl. Who else thinks this looks like Jacob with blonde hair and a dress??

Thursday I worked in McDonough at our training center which is only about 10 miles from home. I was done about lunch time and met Lance, Owen and Kaylee at Burger King for them to play and eat. It was nice to get home early. I managed to get the last couple of hours of work done at home and then we played outside for a while. Gorgeous day yesterday! Trampoline time, bicycles, sidewalk chalk and when Tyler and Abby arrived to pick up Kaylee a game of hide-and-seek and freeze-tag ensued.

Earlier this week I stopped at the bait store on my way home and picked up some worms for fishing. The boys were more excited about getting the worms out of the can and putting them on the hook than they were the actual fishing, but we had fun. At one point as I was helping Owen reel his line in, I looked over and Riley had laid his pole on the ground and was in the top of a cedar tree. He said he could see better up there (maybe he should have gotten the family name Zaccheus) to know when his float went under. I guess he didn’t think through the fact that his pole would be drug into the water before he could get out of that tree, if he should get a bite. Unfortunately nobody got a bite that night. As you can see, Lance was behind the camera while we fished but I think he managed to cast a few times too.

I almost forgot to mention another momentous event in our house last night. About the time Alexander was entering the world for the first time, Riley was taking his very first shower. That’s right, a big event indeed. He’d been bugging me about it for a while since installing a new shower head in his bathroom Nanny and PawPaw had give him and Owen at Christmas (one with a hose so you can take down and spray). I peaked in a few times to make sure he was washing and not playing. He washed his hair 4 times! After he got out he told me he had bathed 4 times and said, “..that oughta last me 3 weeks, right Mom?” Funny how something so little made him feel so grown up. After he got this pajama’s on he wanted to know what else he could do to be a big-boy. He proceeded to empty out all the bathroom trashcans for us and then he wanted to dip his own ice-cream (although he conceded that after realizing how hard the ice-cream was) and pour his own milk. He is growing up so fast! It made me feel better when Owen wanted me to “hold him like a baby and carry him to bed” later that night. That’s my boy!

I’m running a 10K race in the morning, not sure what else the weekend will hold. Riley was going to go with me and do the 1-Mile fun run, but since the weather forecast consists of a 30% chance of rain and 20-something-degrees, I’ve managed to talk him out of tagging along. If I didn’t need to race to qualify for the Peachtree in July, I would skip it myself. Great weather AND I get to wake up at 5am on a Saturday! Can you tell I’m excited about it??

I hope everyone has a great weekend! Once I warm up and dry-out after Saturday’s race, I intend to enjoy the rest of the weekend!