October 2004
Sunday the 31st. We closed out
the month with a perfect eighty degree day spent outside in the country. Jackson rode
his four-wheeler all around Hama's farm. He and
I then rode Papa's four-wheeler up and down Pigg Creek (Papa had told us it
would float, so we wanted to test it). We all took
a nice walk through the leaves to the cabin. Jackson hiked to
the top of one hill with me where he found a
turtle hidden in the leaves.
I then taught him how to slide
back to the bottom under the mountain laurels. Later Jackson surprised us
with his stamina by hiking over another hill with Papa. Benjamin spent
most of his day
talking to anyone that would listen. And he had a big audience because,
besides Hama, he
saw Uncle David and Aunt Cathy, cousins Peggy and Bruce Francis, and cousin Marcus and Chastidy
Heath with their new baby Wyatt. And of course being on the farm
meant great food and lots of it. On top of Hama's stove we found greens, turnips, baked
apples, mashed potatoes, beef, meatloaf, cornbread, green beans, and sweet
potato cobbler.
Saturday
the 30th. Big, big day. While Amy worked, the boys and I spent a
couple of hours at Sci-Works. We later met up with Amy and the Eads for a
walk to Main Street for some daytime trick-or-treating, followed by a Halloween
party at the Eads. Finally we had a big night of door-to-door
trick-or-treating that we ended by making a few house-calls on our way to Claudville for
the last stop of the night at Mo
and Papa's.
Friday the 29th. Jackson went
as
Robin to his Halloween party at school.
Thursday
the 28th. This morning Jackson borrowed Amy's camera to take some pictures
around the house. He then sat down to draw a picture of the camera and
signed his name when he finished.
Wednesday the 27th. Happy
Birthday to my little sis Melanie. We all went to Claudville and
celebrated with the rest of the family at Mo and Papa's house. Benjamin also had a birthday
of sorts today, he turned seventeen months old.
Tuesday
the 26th. Soccer season ended last night with a game against the
parents, a party, and a medal ceremony. Jackson couldn't be any prouder of
his medal. He had me in the tool shed at 6am this morning looking for
nails to hang a trophy shelf to display it. He
also polished it with lemon juice this morning. Click
here to see all this season's soccer photos.
Monday
the 25th. Jackson picked out his pumpkin, scooped out the insides, and drew
the face on it all by himself this year. He is getting so big. Yesterday he
counted to 48 without making any mistakes, which I thought was big enough to add
to his list of milestones. We are very proud of him.
Benjamin helped with his pumpkin too, but mostly he contributed by beating on it
with a spoon.
Sunday
the 24th. The family pushed our way up through an
incredibly thick fog for the second day in a
row, but this
time drove high enough in the mountains to rise above it. We later heard
that a Hendrick Motorsports plane crashed in the same fog at
nearby Bull Mountain killing all ten onboard. Very, very sad. I've
been on top of Bull
Mountain before. It rises high, just to the east of Stuart and, at seven miles west of
Spencer Airport, it is the first and tallest mountain you reach when approaching
from that direction. From what I understand, they aborted their initial
approach at Blue Ridge Airport and probably just looped to far to the west at a
low altitude with no visibility and crashed into the side of the mountain.
We had lunch in Galax, Virginia at our favorite restaurant, Macado's, then went for a nice leaf-watching walk on the New River Trail. An on our way through Cana we picked out a couple of pumpkins (our first pumpkins sort of pooped out on us), then carved them just before bedtime.
Saturday the 23rd. If
you didn't know it already, I lean very hard to the political left. Well,
somehow Jackson heard about the presidential election and started asking about
it. Amy explained to him that two people were competing for the job.
He asked "who is our president now?" Amy told him it was George Bush.
So he proclaimed right then and there that he was for "George Bush!" (you
know how Jackson hates change!) He called me at the office to tell me that
he was pulling for George Bush. When I told him that I wasn't, that
I was pulling for the other guy, he actually got mad and hung the phone up
(politics!!). Then at dinner last night (and I really don't remember how
it got started), things heated up again and ended with Jackson yelling "George
Bush!!!" and me yelling back "John Kerry!!!" Jackson thinks the whole
affair is a hoot. Now wouldn't it be funny if he grows up to be the
one thing in the world we aren't open minded enough to accept, a republican! Aaaagghhhhh
Jackson,
Ben, and I fumbled our way through the fog this morning to Anita's house on the
mountain. Little Jimmy is now three months old and we really wanted to see
him. He has grown a ton, I wouldn't have recognized the big guy.
What a cutie! He even smiled at as some when we played patty-cake.
We then made a stop at Nancy's Fudge in Meadows Of Dan to pick up some delicious
chocolates.
Friday
the 22nd. Benjamin is such a character. It is like living with your
grandpa that doesn't speak any English. He tells so many stories,
but we have no idea what he is saying. He bends over and stomps his feet
and waves his arms around the entire time he is talking. It is hard to describe, but it is sort of like watching
an old Greek man telling a story, or maybe French.
Or maybe it is more like a caveman. I don't know, but
I would give anything to know what he is talking about.
The boys had a lot of fun tonight at Tharrington Elementary School's Fall Festival. Jackson saw lots of friends and won lots of candy, plus it gave him his first chance to be Robin in public.
Thursday
the 21st. Jackson has enjoyed playing soccer this year, but what he really
wants to do is karate when he is five.
And speaking of sports... I'm not a big baseball fan, but I know enough to not like the Yankees. So it was a lot of fun watching the Red Sox come back from being down 3 games in the ALCS to win four straight and send the Yanks home for the year. Either one of the biggest comebacks in sports history or the biggest choke, depends on how you look at it.
Wednesday
the 20th. Happy Birthday Mo! We love you!!
Jackson had the idea on Tuesday night to give Oliver a birthday party. And today, true to his word, Jackson threw Oliver a very nice Elmo party. Apparently Oliver turned one and shares a birthday with Mo. (Oliver is Amy's Cabbage Patch doll that Jackson found at Grandma Sue's and brought home a very long time ago. He sleeps with Jackson, O'Bear (his hand-made teddy bear), Leroy (Amy's teddy bear), Cubby (my little orange bear), and Teddy (my teddy bear). That's a lot of history and a lot of critters for one bed.
I've got to give Hickory Station in Hickory, NC a plug for giving me two free pieces of pie today, one sweet potato and one chocolate, and they were gooooood. Makes me sound like Hugh Neutron doesn't it? If you're in Hickory, go to Union Square and try Hickory Station, and if you're nice, maybe they'll give you free pie.
Tuesday the 19th. The boys
went to Claudville on a dark, foggy night to celebrate Mo's birthday with her.
The grandkids all took a photo together and gave it to her as a present.
Monday the 18th. Benjamin woke
up this morning at 4:15 and did not go back to sleep, so it was a long day for
mommy. I managed to sleep in a little later than that. Jackson had
his next-to-last soccer practice and was happy to have his Aunt Deana there
watching.
Sunday
the 17th. I am sure that this will be the first of many appearances by
Robin this month, in fact, you may not see
Jackson for awhile. He is pretty excited about his latest secret identity. And what about that Steelers/Dallas game. That only
took me back about 25 years. Good defense, good receivers, strong running
game, AND a decent quarterback. It's been a long, long time since
Pittsburg had that combo.
Friday
the 15th. Brooke and
Landon came to visit and play this afternoon. Landon is cuter every
time we see him.
Thursday the 14th. All of our thoughts and sympathies tonight are with the Alley family, with our brother-in-law Eric Beasley, and with his family after the sudden passing of Eric's sister Margie Alley this morning. Margie was thirty-four years old, a mother of four boys (Zachary, Alexander, Nicholas and Christopher), and, along with her husband Jeff, ran her own company, J&M Construction.
Wednesday the 13th. We are
very happy that our friend Megan is recovering well
from her surgery Monday and got to come home today.
Tuesday the 12th. Jackson told me that the Santa Claus he talks to at the mall every year is not the real Santa. I asked him why he thinks that and he said "have YOU ever seen any reindeer? Or a sleigh? It CAN'T be the real Santa."
Monday the 11th.
Jackson's Monday went school, dentist, soccer for the second straight week.
Sunday
the 10th. The family went to Main Street and joined friends Sharon McMichael
and Tonya Williams at the
Autumn Leaves Festival. We also
had our friend Hilary visiting from Richmond this weekend.
Saturday
the 9th. The Hokies won a hard fought game against a good Wake Forest
team to go 4-2, 2-1 in conference play. It was a pretty low key day around the house, as low key as
Wild Ben will
let it get anyway.
Friday
the 8th. The Autumn Leaves Festival kicked off today in Mount Airy.
Click here for more photos from the Sci-Works trip
yesterday.
Thursday the 7th. Amy, Ben,
Jack, Timmesa, and
Sam all went to Sci-Works in
Winston-Salem and had a great time. The
Richard
Scarry BusyTown exhibit was a big hit. I took advantage of the nice weather and rode
the bike to
Lovills Creek Lake in Cana,
Virginia at lunch.
Wednesday
the 6th. I hit the water in my new Dagger Element for the first
time and had a great thirteen mile paddle on
the Dan with it. Jeff and I started at
the 704 bridge around 9:30am and took out at the Dan River Company at 4:00pm.
More photos on the
paddle page.
Click here to watch the movie. (4.9MB)
Tuesday
the 5th. Amy and the boys went to Fisher River Park with the
Eads on a nice autumn
morning.
Click here to see a movie about big and little brothers. (1.4MB)
Monday
the 4th. In between school and soccer, Jackson made his second trip to
the dentist.
Sunday
the 3rd. Both the Hokies and the Steelers won, so it was a good
football weekend. Congratulations to Grandma Sue on Junior's win at
Talladega. A new word for Benjamin this week is Big Bird. He
pronounces it something like Big Bir. It was a Play-Doh weekend for
Jackson who has been playing with his old Doh-Doh Island and new
Doh-Doh Beach Buggy a lot. The most frequent creations are pet snakes and
maybe an occasional lizard.
Saturday the 2nd. We painted gourds with Megan and took the puppies for a walk around the block.
Friday the 1st. After work
and dinner at Coppola's, we went to the playground.
