Merry Christmas to All

We had a busy Christmas starting with our extended-family party at my cousin's house where Kiara got to play with lots of second cousins...


Had Christmas Eve dinner at a friend's house, which was delicious! (Didn't get any good pictures, though.) Then went home to "get ready" for the next morning. Here's how the tree looked after Santa visited late that night...


Christmas morning... Kiara changed into her new camo pj's she got as a gift and happily opened her next present - karate sparring gear.


Later that day, we had lots of visitors. My mom and Kiara's aunt and uncle came over for dinner, then some good friends of ours stopped by for an evening of fun! We just got back from hanging out with these same friends tonight. Had homemade pizza and watched "Underdog" at their house. Cute movie!

Next celebration... New Year's Eve! Hmmm... what will we do?

Happy Birthday, Scott!

Today is my brother's 38th birthday. He is a year-and-a-half younger than me, but he looks much, much older. Just kidding, Scott-- (but the hat I got you for a gift did serve a purpose... to hide your thinning hair! Ha, ha.) Hope you had a wonderful day!

All Aboard!

Yesterday we took Kiara and her friend, Caroline, to a nearby small town called Blackstone. There's a hardware store that sets up a huge train display every Christmas. We had always heard about it and finally decided to check it out for ourselves. It WAS really COOL. It looked so realistic and had a lot of special effects. There was a drive in theater with the movie Happy Feet actually playing (created by a small portable dvd player). Even the roller coaster worked! (see bottom right hand corner of picture)




My favorite was the house that would "catch on fire"... smoke and all! The alarm would sound and the firestation next door sends a fireman down the pole. A firetruck then comes out of the station with its hook-and-ladder to put out the fire. They had real water shoot out of the hose to "put out" the fire!


The girls had a great time, and so did we! Think we'll make this trip a yearly holiday tradition.

Oh, Christmas Tree

Kiara's class Christmas party was today, and her teacher asked me to come in and do an activity with the kids. I chose to have them make this adorable pinecone tree. This is Kiara's finished product:

Here are two of my friends' kids helping to decorate the tree in our house...

Happy Birthday, Dad!

My dad would've been 62 years old today. Mom and I spent the day in Richmond running errands and shopping. We are back at her house now getting ready to settle in for the evening. It was our tradition to have shrimp for dinner on his birthday, but we opted for leftovers from our lunch at Panera's. Happy birthday, Dad... I miss you!

What Happened to Winter???

It's like 75 degrees outside now! Hard to believe Christmas is only 2 weeks away! Our Christmas parade Friday night went well. Tried to take a few pics of our Roselawn float, but it was too dark out.

Well, I think I'll slab on some sunscreen and go out on the front porch to enjoy the sunshine... It is a beautiful day. Unseasonable, but beautiful.

No School Today

Kiara woke up this morning to a surprise day off of school. Apparently, the weather was bad somewhere in this rural county. I checked outside to find no snow, no ice... nothing. We even had to convince Kiara that school really was closed. She was off yesterday because of a bad cough, so this makes an extended weekend for her!

Our Keysville parade is tonight. Roselawn B&B will be in it with several of our animals. We re also involved in setting up our church "float". This parade is one of the highlights of life in the country.

Paul is working to purchase this building in town with his sister and brother-in-law as partners. The plan is to rent out the 5 offices upstairs and two 2 storefronts downstairs. The back part of the building will be a vendors' mall. So, we'll see what happens...

Roselawn in Earlier Times

Came across some old pictures we had scanned. The top one was taken in early 1900's and the bottom one in the 1950's. It's amazing to think this house has seen so much history! It was built in 1857... wow, 150 years old!

Semester Coming to an End

My first semester of teaching at the college level has been a great experience. It's a lot of work, but I really do enjoy it! My students have one more week of classes and then their exam. I'm scheduled to teach the same 4 classes during the spring semester (if we have enough register). It is unlikely that all 4 will get the minimum number enrolled, but I hope to have at least one to make. Actually, teaching more than 2 evenings a week would be challenging for our schedule since Paul works in the evenings sometimes as well.

Kiara has been working hard in school and is very proud of her successes. She knows her multiplication facts and has a good start on division. Spelling comes easy to her, and she has a natural interest in science. Her reading comprehension is improving, however, she still does not enjoy books as I hoped she would. I think that all the pressure to read for a purpose sometimes robs children of their desire to read just for fun. So much for my pedagogical banter...

Paul has been working on the house we started flipping almost 2 years ago. It's getting there, but still needs a kitchen. He's also hoping to buy a building downtown with a few partners as an investment. I admire his enthusiasm to dive into new things, but at the same time it scares me. Takes me a while to get used to a new idea, and I like to think things through a little more before making a move.

Well, Little Miss Kiara is still not asleep and it's 10:20 p.m., so I guess I better help her close her eyes...

Goodnight, all.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here's a picture of "Reverend Paul" marrying his first couple at Roselawn.

Since then, we've been busy running around between our part time jobs, Kiara's karate classes, school, church activities, and turning rooms over at the B&B. We just got another long-term student in today. He will be here for 4 weeks. The other two rooms are booked for Thanksgiving-- but I'm not cooking a turkey! Thought it would be too much with doing the breakfasts for guests and freshening rooms up later that day. Mom is coming over and we are going out for "the big dinner". I hope everyone remembers to thank God for their many blessings. It's so easy to take things for granted, and sometimes we need a reminder to be thankful. So here's your reminder...

Reverend Paul

We went to New Jersey over the weekend for our niece's wedding. Paul had the honor of marrying them. It was his first time, and he really did a great job! (For those of you who didn't know, Paul got his license to marry people over the internet. It took a whole 44 dollars and a few signatures at the courthouse, and now he can legally officiate weddings!... He's doing one this weekend at Roselawn!!!)

The wedding at Princeton was absolutely beautiful, and the photographer was very creative in his technique. I'm not sure if copyright regs will allowed me to post his pictures on my blog, so go to his website to see a few of his shots. http://www.sparepixels.net The first 4 on his site are from Diane and Damian's wedding.

Here for your immediate viewing pleasure (but with much less professional quality) are a few shots from our own camera:


The bride, groom and bride's family.


Pose set up by the photographer.



Dancin' with Daddy at the reception.

It's Been a Year

This past Saturday marked the one year anniversary of my father's passing. I made a slideshow to give just a tiny glimpse of a guy who meant the world to me. Here's to you, Dad. I miss you so much.

Kiara's 9th birthday

Kiara's birthday was last Monday. I have been so busy all week that I haven't had a chance to blog. Here's a slideshow of the highlights. We held her party at the Keysville playground and were blessed with great weather!

Over-bellied

Just had to share one of Kiara's quotes...

Yesterday she said, "Daddy, you are over-bellied." That was her nice way of suggesting that maybe he loose a little weight!

Camping Pictures

Catching minnows.


Evening canoe trip with owl calling after dark.


We walked about 20 feet of the Appalachian Trail.
(Looks like that was about all Paul could handle!!)


Went to a store that had these cute little child-sized shopping carts. What a neat idea, huh?


Mid October and 90+ degrees outside... so we
played in the water before leaving for home.

Blood Drive

We were looking in the paper recently for something to do. Well, there's not a whole lot out here in the country, but Kiara found one that sounded excitingly gruesome... "Hey, how 'bout this... a BLOOD DRIVE!"

Although we didn't make it to the blood drive, we did go away for a few nights of camping in a nearby state park. I have pictures to share, but am having trouble uploading them. There seems to be a problem with Blogger, so I'll try again later...

Karate Kid

Kiara started taking karate this fall. She loves it! Here are pics of her showing off her gee (uniform) and at class.

What the...?

We picked Kiara up from Farmville Sunday evening and by the time we got home it was dark. She still had no idea we adopted a piglet, so Paul and I were anxious to see her reaction. As usual, Kiara got right out of the truck and went straight to the pen to play with the goats. (That's her back-at-home ritual). Little piglet was standing in the door of the barn just staring out with her big ears protruding and snout up in the air... much like the picture above. Well, what would you think if you weren't expecting that greeting??? Kiara caught a glance of the creature standing there in the dark not knowing what the heck it was. She scuttled back to us for protection, trying not to startle the unknown being. Once she saw that we were laughing, she turned around for a better look-- and, boy, was she delighted to have another animal on "Kiara's Farm"!!!

Pet or Bacon???

In addition to managing the B&B, running the Coffeehouse and instructing at the college, I have also started teaching an 8th grader on homebound. (We could use the extra money to pay our electric bill which came to over $400 last month!!!) Needless to say, it has been a little harder to keep up with this blog, so I will probably be posting a little less.

We have 2 of our 3 rooms full this weekend. One of the couples here now has been back at least 3 times, and we have become pretty good friends. Kiara is spending the night at her grandma's and getting her weekly dose of spoiling! She doesn't know this yet, but we got a PIGLET today! This is kinda what our new addition looks like.

So tiny and cute now... but she'll grow to be over 200 pounds in 4 months!

Paul plans to add her to the plate for B&B breakfasts, but I can't bear the thought of that. We'll see.

18th Anniversary!

Paul and I celebrated our 18th anniversary over the weekend! We went to Appomattox for one night and stayed at, of all places, a B&B! (We are going to write it off as a business expense... we did talk to the innkeeper a lot and got some good ideas.) The trip was much like our honeymoon in a lot of ways, too... and we didn't even plan that! The similarities were:

• We left from my mom's house after dropping Kiara off, which was down the road from where our reception was held, and headed in the same direction- towards the mountains


• We stayed at an inn/lodge that served breakfast the next morning


• We packed a whole lot of activities in one day (0ur honeymoon was only one night, too--because I had to come back and student-teach.)


• The feel of the cool, crisp air was the same


• Paul drove down a one way street the wrong way-- but at least he didn't get pulled over by a cop like on our honeymoon!!!


• We almost ran out of gas on the way home! (Yes, that almost happened on our honeymoon, too)


• There may have been one more similarity, but I won't mention it because my mom reads this blog--LOL !

After our mini getaway, we met my mom and Kiara at a Mexican restaurant. Here's a picture of us as we were leaving. The best gift we have ever received in our 18 years of marriage is right there next to us! (No, not the truck!)

Then, on the way home we saw the strangest thing... a completely white deer standing in the road!! I guess it must've been an albino, which I had never seen before. We turned around to get a better look and it went into the woods a bit, but I managed to get a picture (how lucky of me to have a camera available!)

Some Things Don't Change (Much)

The modern picture only shows the top portion of the row of buildings (farthest away). The right half of the old picture with the drug store and "Geo. O Pettus" is still there, and it looks the same. (The newer picture just doesn't show the whole street.) Keysville isn't quite the bustling town it used to be.

New Garb from Grandma

My mom ordered some new clothes for Kiara from Land's End. This girl is hard to buy for, especially dress clothes, because she is picky about specific things... like shirts can't have elastic sleeves, no "itch" lace or tights (winters are tough keeping legs warm!), dress shoes must be high and "make noise" when she walks, and the list goes on. This skort is perfect because it's comfortable, has her favorite animal on it, and was ordered with matching long socks for the winter-- instead of tights. It also has an adjustable waist that will let her wear it longer. Her grandma also bought another skort, more long socks, several pairs of shoes, and lots of shirts (with no elastic!). Kiara likes being the only granddaughter, and she certainly is spoiled by my mom. But that's okay... my mom waited long enough to have her grandchild. She's allowed to catch up on lost years. I only wish my dad had more time with her. He loved his little "Kari". I am thankful for the 5 years he did have, and his inspiration lives on as I am a mom to my growing girl. Even though he's gone, I still have the desire to make him proud.

Sweet Dreams, Zak

Saturday evening...

Our friends brought their new puppy over to visit us this evening. Zak is so cute! He's much calmer than most puppies, and he slept through about 25 pictures without the flash waking him up once! Here's some of the best pics of the bunch...





^
(Kiara covered him up to
keep it G-rated!)

How Many Cats?

All of our felines decided to take a rest on Kiara's bed. I did a double-take when walking by because we only have three cats... then I realized the fuzzy black one on the right was one of her toys. (When I showed this picture to Kiara, she said that actually there were 5 cats on her bed... because a LION is a cat, too!)

"Squeaky Clean"

I went to check on our Irish guests today, and the wife said everything was fine... except they had a "wee visitor" in their jacuzzi bathtub this morning. Apparently, a mouse had been walking along the edge and fell in (that's the only way we can figure it got down there). She said it looked as though it couldn't get back out, but she wasn't sure if the wee critter was still there because she didn't see it after her shower. Soooo, I moved them to another room and checked the tub. Nothing there. I went downstairs to get Melissa, a teenage girl we hired to help at the B&B. I figured this would be a good time to show her how to clean that tub around the jets and filter, etc. before she left for the evening. I actually have to get in the tub to clean the other side because it's so big. (You can see a picture of it on our website.)

As I'm about to step in, what do I see hanging out of one of the jets but a MOUSE'S TAIL! It had gotten up on the side of a jet to hide. Well, of course I start screaming and hop right up on the toilet seat! After our shrieking, we tried to make a plan. Wouldn't you know?... Paul wasn't home. We tried Kiara-- she's brave. Well, I think our exaggerated fear made her think this must've been some sort of mutant attack mouse, so she opted to just watch. Finally, our brave employee managed to trap it in a plastic container. It was actually kinda cute, once it was contained. Still, I triple-checked the lid to make sure it was on good. Then Kiara then saw that this was a regular ole' harmless mouse and agreed to release it in the woods. I then checked all of the jets to make sure it didn't have any friends and proceeded to show Melissa how to clean the tub. Later I remembered the little trinket I had in THAT bathroom. Funny how we have 5 bathrooms and that one happens to be where I decided it should go. How ironic is this?... I took a picture of it to go with this post...