An ever changing view

Home coming...sort of

The pictures above are of my beautiful baby girl and her sweet husband and of 2 of my grand daughters. It's been over 2.5 years since we've seen any of them and they are (all but my son-in-law):( headed this way as I type this. Ashley and the girls are flying in from Washington state. It's so very far away that we don't get the chance to see them as often as we would like to.

I don't fly...period. I haven't been on a plane since 1987 or close to that. I have never liked to fly and I worked at a job at the time where I needed to do so every 3 months or so. I finally quit that job because I was weary of spending those 3 months worrying about the next flight. Not worth it.

Anyway, on a much happier note, my beautiful girl and her beautiful girls will arrive late tonight (early tomorrow morning) My Love has to work tonight so my son is going to the airport with me. I am just about beside myself with joy! I can't wait to hold my baby girl in my arms. It'll be a little harder to do than it used to be because she is 7 months pregnant with my new grandson.

I have a lot of things planned, including a trip to the zoo and a trip to Dollywood including all of my kids and grandkids! That is going to be so much fun!!!!!!!!!!!! We are praying that the expected rain heads another direction for that day. PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The reason that I say it's a "sort of" homecoming is because we used to live in WA so this is our home, but WA is their home of course. She is coming "home" because her family is here. GA was only Ashley's home for a very short time because she went back to WA shortly after we moved here. The rest, as they say, is history:)

The girls will be here for about 10 days. Not nearly long enough, but the family is thinking about moving out this way, so we are praying that it will happen sooner rather than later. We have missed them so much!!!! So, pray for a great visit for us please:) And enjoy your children and grandchildren! It's so hard when they are far away!! God bless you!!!!!!!
Leslie <><

Confessions of a Fanilow!

OK I admit it, I have been a Barry Manilow fan since I was a young girl.  If I were granted a dying wish on my death bed it would be for Barry to come and sing me to sleep with "This One's For You" What a way to go out!!!!

So my darling son calls me one day out of the blue and asks "Mom, do you like Barry Manilow?" Well, he knew the answer to that already. He's teased me about it before. So I ask "why?". And he says "they're giving away some tickets at work and I thought I might try to get some" Luckily I wasn't driving. I was in my car, but it was parked. Low and behold, he got 2 tickets. The only drawback was that he had to go with me. The tickets were for his companies box and an employee has to go. So DH wasn't going to be able to go with me. I know that he would have enjoyed just seeing my reaction to finally seeing Barry. Anyway, this was back in December. The concert date was January 19th.

On January 19th the nice weather folks predicted a big snow and ice storm in our area. I think we ended up with a dusting of snow and little else. Be that as it may, Barry was cancelled and re-scheduled for March 29th. I was just so happy that he re-scheduled. I thought that maybe I had missed my chance to see him.

We finally went to said concert. I was so nervous and excited that my son had to drive us there. When Barry came on stage I couldn't believe that was me, crying to see some star come on stage! Good Heavens. I did though and then again when he was singing his last song. It was so amazing. He is a wonderful performer and still so handsome at 60 years old!

Now it's my hope that someone, someday...I'm not saying who....will arrange it so that I can go and see Barry in Las Vegas. My 25th anniversary is next year. What a nice gift that would be!!!!! For anyone who's interested of course

So, I write the first personal post and everyone who reads it will know I'm a big blubbering Barry fan! I don't care! I am NOT ashamed!!!! What else would you like to know about me?

And, I nearly forgot to mention, my son enjoyed the show too. I don't think that he thought he would, but he did admit that Barry was really good. What a good boy he is. So well trained! Who did that? OH, that would be me;) Thank you so much son! Thanks for making one of my lifelong dreams come true. You are the best son that I have. Did I mention I have only 1 son? Well, that's beside the point isn't it? He is still the best son in the world! The above picture is of said son and yours truly on our way out the door.

As a side note, DH and I were blessed to get to go and see Steven Curtis Chapman in February and Avalon the very next month. They were also amazing! I could get used to this!

That's it for now. God's blessings!

Leslie <><

weathering the storms

OK, so living in an RV can sometimes be a little scary. We have had some serious weather these past couple of days. DH called me from work last night and told me that they were watching the storms quickly approaching. He asked me...and I know it pained him greatly....to go out and put in the manual awnings. This was after 11:00 pm. Most people in this RV park are lights out at like 9:30. I was so tired and had taken a couple of Tyleno PM to help get rid of a nagging headache that I'd battled all day. No biggie though. I went outside in my jammies, opened the storage compartment, got out the little rod that you have to have so that the awnings don't go slamming in and break something, all the while hoping that no one would wake up and come out to catch me in my braless state! Sheesh! I got it done though and we did have terrible stormy weather. Wind and rain and thunder and lightening oh my! Every single county in the greater Atlanta area was under a tornado watch. Now THAT is the scary part. We don't have a proper bathroom with a tub that we can go and hide out in. There isn't a cellar or a storm shelter. It's every RVer for themselves. If it looks like a tornado is coming we have to decide whether to head out in the RV or just to leave it behind and hope and pray for the best. I decided that since DH was working last night and watching the weather that he would call me if it looked like there was a tornado in our area. If so, I would just get my "kids" and take off in my car, hopefully in the opposite direction of the storm. I don't think I would be able to un-hook everything and maneuver this coach out of harm's way in time.  But, we stayed and DH never called. We made it through the night...why is it that these things always happen at night? It's a lot less scary in the daylight and when DH is home with me. Thank you God that nothing happened.  That's it for today my friends. I hope that all of you had a wonderful Mother's day.

Maybe tomorrow I'll figure out how to post pictures with my words. No promises though.

Leslie<><

games we play

a small point of view

A new experience

Well...This is my first ever blog. My daugter is so good at this and my DH was so impressed by her blog that he thought I should give it a try. (see, I already know the DH thing from her) :)

My husband and I are about as far removed from a 'homestead' couple as we could be. We live in a 40 foot RV. For now he still has a full time job, but it is as such that he has several days off in a row. When he has those days off we love to take the RV and go and see what we can see! The US is our back yard and what a wonderful, beautiful and ever changing back yard it is! We live in an RV park for now, in Cumming Georgia. I'm fond of saying we are "up 'n' Cumming". I really love it here and the park is so beautiful. Sort of one of those places you would never know was there unless you took a few wrong turns and found it by accident. I will post pictures as soon as I figure out how to do that.

We will find out a  lot more about our back yard as we head out for a month-long, cross country vacation in September. We will be traveling to CA and up WA to visit family and friends that we haven't seen in a very long time.

Some day we will head out for good. We are working toward retirement and spending our time going from place to place and really getting a good look at this beautiful country of ours, hopefully getting to know the people, spreading the "word" whenever we get the chance. What a ministry it could tun out to be! We are counting on our daughter to have a nice little spot for us to "hook up" when we want to come back south and visit with our children and grandchildren. It's well in future, but it's so lovely to dream!

That being said, we are very impressed with the homestead way of life, the way our daughter and her family live as well as others like them. I particularly love to go and hang out with her and her beautiful children and get a little taste of that life now and then. I grew up on a bit of a farm myself, always had a huge garden. I hated it then, having to pull the weeds and such. What I wouldn't give for some of my Dad's famous tomatoes these days!

So, as I embark on this new blogging adventure, I pray that you, whoever reads this, will be patient, give me some good ideas, keep coming back even if it bores you. Maybe I'll have something interesting for you in time. I will post about any trips that we take, the adventures of living in an RV etc. Maybe we'll roll through your town one day and give a toot on the air horn!

God bless each and every one of you!!!!!!!