This Joy’s Life

Chad, Clara and I are in Georgia visiting my family for just a week. It is flying by, so tonight we had my mom’s side of the family over so we could be sure to see them all – Karen, Joanne, Hugh, Connie, Mike, Sheryl, Mark, Hammy, Emmie, Kristin, Scott, the twins – Parker and Preston – the whole gang that lives around these parts. Since I haven’t posted in a while here are a few pictures from our family gathering this evening.

Hamilton and his Tennis Mortar:
The men of the family supervising the experiment:
Setup of the dart air stomper thingy:
Execution:
Mark and Sheryl:
Uncle Mike:
Not sure who this guy is:
“The Hammy”:
Parker observing the antics:
Preston tinkling the ivories:
Cousins Clara, Parker, Emmie Ruth, and Preston.
All done.

It’s been a big weekend in The ATL for Clara and I. We went to the Aquarium and the World of Coke (actually the grass lawn between the two), drove to Marietta to see the burnt up shell of the house I grew up in, visited with my very first BFF Susan and her family, then, today, had a big playdate at The Pietro’s house which included some bounce house fun and a lot of catching up with old friends.

Here we are at The World Of Coca-Cola – sort of:






That was fun. Saturday, I drove up to Marietta to see some old friends and just had to stop by the house I grew up in. I knew that no one had been living in it, but about two years after my parents sold it, it burned down. I wanted to see it one last time, morbid as it was. It was emotional seeing it, as you can understand, especially if you read the blog post I did on it a while back. If you’d ever visited me there, you’ll be interested in seeing these pix.

All that still stands of the house is the carport and the front two rooms – the kitchen and dining room. Everything from the chimney on is gone (that would have been the living room, den and bedrooms):
View from the carport looking through the kitchen door (This was the way most people entered the house):
View from the back. Hello, wide, gaping hole!
It was evident by the debris – empty and broken beer bottles, fast food cups, forks, turned over garbage cans and the like, that more than one group of “hoodlums” and “riff-raff” had had their fun on the turf I used to roam, leaving me a bit nervous in my old stomping grounds and not at all willing to stick around this garden until midnight:
So, off to visit Susan, her husband Matt and her parents for a birthday celebration down the street. I met Susan in pre-school. Her’s was the second phone number I ever learned, so I wanted her to see how much Clara has grown, as it had been about two years since we them last!

Susan and Matt:
Clara, Susan and I – BFF’s always!
Today it was time for more playdate fun at “Monkey Pietro’s”, the house of Nicole and Dan (great friends from high school). It was my first opportunity to meet their second child Lucas, whose only 9 weeks old!

Bounce House Fun for Clara and Sophia Pietro. They were born on the same day about 20 minutes and 3,000 miles apart!:
Dan The (Sausage) Man:
(Seriously, that’s a great little shop in the town of Burien where I live.)

Dan The Girly Man?
Ouch. Dan is a loyal reader so this is so unfair of me. But, he really is THE MAN, so I know he can take it

Lucas and I. He’s such a sweet boy (just like his daddy
Big Sis’ Sophia is keeping an eye on him. She loves her baby bro:
Also at the playdate was Nancy with her son Jed, now about 16 months, and her newborn cutie-patootie, Meredith:

Meredith looking like a beautiful porcelain doll:
And, of course, the hostess with the mostess, Nicole, playing in the grass with Brayden. Thanks again for letting me stay with you this weekend, girl!
Clara and Sophia hot and sweaty from playing at Monkey Pietro’s:
Dan was kind enough to give the little girls soccer lessons so the big girls could talk for a while. Under his tutelage, the both came away with some mad skillz!
All done!

This morning we had a little playdate with my cousin Kristin, her husband Scott and “TwinsParker” (or “TwinsPreston”, whichever of their two names Clara says first). I thought Brayden was a mover, but these boys are doulbe the trouble when it comes to capturing them on film!

Parker:

Preston:
Say “cheese!”
Coon hats:

I did manage to have a little photo shoot with Preston for a few minutes when Parker and Clara were off playing Luke Skywalker:

By the end, he was ready to take on the role of photographer. May I present Preston’s first self-portrait. We’ll call it Portrait of a Photographer as a Toddler:

This is how Clara finds Poppa every morning, though usually he’s asleep when she wakes up. She runs into the media room and says, “Poppa sleepin!”

The other day, she was in there watching one of her shows. Poppa wasn’t at home at the time. I hear my mom calling me to, “come here!” As I’m following her to the media room she says to me, “Did you set her up like that?”:

I did not. I guess someone just loves her Poppa and wants to be just like him. Not that you need more proof, but:

She’s a fan of those grandpa types. You should see her with Chad’s dad (“grandpa”). It’s his birthday today, I think we’ll have to give him a call this evening.

But, yes, Clara does like those boys. Here she is with Billy Joe, a grandfather to 10, so his lap is well worn in. Clara likes to find it when he comes over:

And she’s got them all wrapped around her little curls.

This morning, Clara, my mother and I drove to Warm Springs, home of Roosevelt’s Little White House (Remember Roosevelt? You might have seen FDR on TV if you are old enough to remember it – oh wait, no, the TV hadn’t quite been invented yet).

Anyway, we just walked around the little downtown (all of one street) and ate a lunch of traditional Southern fare at The Bullock House. Here is a little of what we saw:

A cute, quaint little town. But did you get an errie feeling looking at those pix that it was a little TOO cute and a little TOO quaint. I mean, I feel like I’ve seen a lamp like that somewhere before:

Amityville Horror anyone? You can’t tell me that clown and his self portrait weren’t scary. Suzanne, you KNOW what I’m talkin’ about. And that giant green rabbit? My guess is he hasn’t finished that carrot because his belly is full of wee little infants. Halloween is coming, so maybe I’m just in the mood to get spooked. Warm Springs really is “too cute -LOL!” but I won’t be going there at night any time soon, let’s put it that way.

Just a couple more family pictures today. The first is my brother with Clara. He took her to a build-a-bear type of place to make herself something to love. She chose a dolphin which we named Sea Squirt after one of her favorite Backyardagains TV shows:

This is my uncle Hugh, husband of my mom’s sister Joanne:

This is Sable, my brother’s dog:

My brother went back to Alabama tonight and took Sable with him. Clara doesn’t quite yet understand what this means for tomorrow morning when she goes looking for Sable outside the kitchen window. They made the most of their time together though.

Went to a block party in my cousin Sheryl’s neighborhood tonight. It was split between the GA fans and the Alabama folks. Here are some pictures of my family at the event:

My padre:
My Mater:
My frère:
Uncle Ross and Sheryl (his daughter):
Deloris (it was her birthday!):
Clara in a self-inflicted timeout:

Took dinner to Granny (one of Clara’s great-grandmothers) tonight. It was a surprise, so Granny was happy to see us. The sunset was a beautiful Southern one and we even got to see the new kittens of the strays that Granny feeds at dinner time. And, as one would hope of any true southern household, guests pop in at any given minute and we were visited by Sam and Janice on their way home.