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...

All Better

Paul is getting over a severe cold, Kiara is taking antibiotics for an ear infection, and I just got through a scare which ended up being a urinary tract/intestinal infection. I am so thankful we are all finally getting back to normal!

We have had a "European week" at the B&B. A group from London stayed over one night, and now we have a couple from Ireland here for 3 weeks. Since we don't travel much anymore, it is nice to have other cultures brought to us!

We are in the process of getting our passports renewed... just in case we have an opportunity to get out of Keysville and into the civilized world!

On the note of foreign travel, our friend's husband recently served in Iraq for 8 months. While he was away we took a picture of his family depressed and bored as they awaited his return. He's home now, and I never did get around to sending it to him... here it is.

Abi, Nichole, and their mom Kim on our motorcyle --

wild and free! Kim and I have become close since

I moved here. I'd say she's my best "Keysvillian" friend.

(FYI- That's our servant's quarters in the background)

In the Beginning...

Kiara at ages 3 through 5... When we first became a family!!!

Pearls

Within the past few days, I have had 3 friends come to me with serious concerns over issues going on in their lives right now. They feel beaten down with despair... and understandably so. Ironically, I picked up a bible study book I had started 6 years ago thinking I'd finally finish it. (Talk about procrastination!!!) The first thing I came to was a section on turning "sand storms" into pearls. Was God placing it in my lap and on my heart to share this with these friends?? Just in case, I want to put it out there for them, and for you. It is actually a message for all of us who will inevitably encounter tribulations in life on this imperfect earth. The analogy is from Making Love Last Forever by Gary Smalley, 1996, Lifeway Press. (Sorry, the teacher in me just had to give credit to avoid copyright infringements!) He explains that, "a pearl found within an oyster started with an irritating piece of sand, and it takes at least 4 years of the oyster adding layer after layer of secretions to make the larger, valuable pearl." In the same way, our irritating, uncomfortable trials can be transformed into pearls that become valuable in our lives. Some good can come of any bad situation, but we need to look for it. It might take a while to find (maybe even longer than 4 years), but once we do we can actually be grateful for it. It seems impossible to think we'll ever get to a point of gratitude for the suffering we are experiencing, but we can trust God to help us endure while we grieve and suffer. After a trial we have two choices... we can "get better or get bitter". You get better by looking for the pearls. You stay bitter by focusing on that irritating grain of sand. So my prayer for my 3 friends is that you stay strong while your pearls are forming... and be ready to discover the gems buried within these tribulations.

Our "Other" Houses

This is the house we are working on now. It has been sitting there waiting for attention for almost two years now, and we are finally finding time to work on the renovations. We hope to have it ready to rent (or sell) in late fall. Since this picture was taken, we have replaced the windows and added nicer columns to the front porch. The two bedrooms and baths upstairs are almost done, but the biggest project still awaits us... the kitchen is totally gutted now and needs everything from walls to counters and new appliances.

We actually bought this house about a year after the one above but were able to get it ready much faster because it needed less work. We have been renting it to a single mom and her son since March. The plan is to hang onto it as long as we can. Our renter is great, so we hope to keep her for a long time.

The goal is to hold onto at least one of these houses to pay for Kiara's college or maybe a wedding... All of our
neices and nephews getting married now have us thinking it's not too early to make a plan. Seems like yesterday they were just kids. I blinked once and Kiara turned 8... if I blink again she'll be 18 and all grown up! My, how time flies...

Eery Moments

This is a picture of the pond in my mom's front yard. Isn't it beautiful??? I went to spend some time with her over the weekend. Saturday night a really eery storm came through. The sky would turn from totally dark to a sudden sporadic glow with heat lightning that created a silhouette of the tree line over the pond. Then the wind got stronger and stronger until it felt as though we were going to be swallowed up and carried away. It was a memory I think I'll keep with me forever. It just seemed so surreal...

Today I finished remodeling a small room upstairs that we were using for storage. My sister-in-law Joan might remember it as the laundry room (she stayed at Roselawn for a few months when we first bought it). It looked like something out of an episode of "The Munsters"... with wallpaper peeling and black paint on the beaded-board. It looks clean and quaint now- a great improvement!

Speaking of eery storms and creepy rooms... Paul told me that while I was gone we had a guest claiming to be a psychic. When he asked her how she slept she said, "Not too well... the voices kept me awake all night. They were trying to get me in the conversation." Then she mentioned the doctor talking to her. Our house was owned by the first female doctor in the county (after which we named one of the rooms). I'm not even sure if she knew the history of the house. People keep telling us this house has "spirits". My brother even said he could see a ghost in a digital image I sent him. Now this story is freaking me out just a little. Quite strange...

Hope no one's afraid to come visit us now tha I've told that story!!!

Coffee House Open!!!

We had the Grand Opening for our Coffee House last night!!! About 20 people came throughout the evening to enjoy coffee and tea. At one point, the parlor was comepletely full! We've hired a high school girl to help us out, and all of last night's profits went to pay her-- but, if nothing else, it helped with publicity and marketing. We had a few people ask us about hosting a private function for them.

The night before last, Kiara's grandma and cousin, Macie, came for an overnight visit. They had a great time pretending to be cashiers at the Coffee House during our "practice run"...

.... Then enjoyed a game of Hungry Alligator during their "break"...