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Frans Blog

Frans Blog

Mama's 84th Birthday

I can't believe that Mama (Lelia) has turned 84. She had two birthday parties. The first was held at Georgia Belle where she lives and was a real treat for us all. Hank and Kay came up from Lakeland and we all went to hear Hank play for the residents where mother has her home. He sang right after dinner and it was so good. I forget how wonderful my brother's voice is and so much like my Dad. Kay got a cake and there were presents and everything. What more could you ask for. Harry and I were there too and we went up to Mother's apartment for cake after our concert. Hank brought music sheets so everyone could sing along. My favorite was I'll Fly Away. Mom and Daddy spent the last years of their retirement singing for nursing homes so it brought back many fond memories for us all. Thank you Brother for such a treat for us all.

The second party was today. Emily , Jason , Shawn and Lisa were there and all the children. We had a full house and tons of food. Ham, potato salad, broccoli and fordhook lima beans were on the menu with yeast rolls. We had chocolate cake and ice cream for desert. Lydia and Stephen stayed after the parents were gone and Mother sat outside in the yard for a couple of hours watching them ride bikes and play. It was a perfect afternoon. We took her home with a big plate of leftovers and a slice of cake for later. Someone asked her what was on her mind today and her reply was typical stoic Riddle/Padgett. She said - I am concentrating on living. Priceless.

Here are some picture from both days.
Love to you all!
Frances
Pumpkin Patch Day

We had quite the day today with the five Grandkids and our Children. Harry and I met them all at the Presbyterian Church where they have a great Pumpkin Patch each year. We take all the Grandkids and let them each pick out a little individual pumpkin an a large one to carve. It was a beautiful day with perfect weather. We had such a great time and each Grandchild was precious. They had a great time playing and running amuck the pumpkins. We all went to Chick Filet for lunch afterwards. It was truly a great day for the Grandparents and parents. Emily and Shawn were really good sports to help us put it all together. I will post some pictures from the day,

Next is halloween! Get Ready.
Lydia Rides Again
Here is a short video clip of Lydia - my only girl Grandchild riding her bike without her training wheels.
Aren't Grandkids fun. (video/mp4 MB )
Spring Creek Outing

We spent the day at the Coast today and the weather was GREAT! Wanted to share a few pictures from the day. Shawn had his boat so I didn't get any pictures of him. The only good fish was caught by Stephen = it was a nice red fish.
Football is Here!
I can not believe it is that time of year already. FOOTBALL MEANS HUSBAND GLUED TO THE TUBE. We watched the FSU game today and it was better than last week. Harry complains non stop about the play calling, the players and everything else but the bottom line is this -only the score gets posted in the record book. I sometimes sit and read while watching the game to keep from going nuts. We are going to two games this year out of town at Georgia Tech and Maryland. The last time we went to Maryland we almost froze to death. Talk about cold - we were so desperate we bought Maryland skull caps for our unprotected little heads. Then we left at half time and were thrilled to walk the mile and a half home. My brother and sister in law are going to the Tech game and Harry's brother and sis in law to Maryland. We will drive to Tech and fly to Baltimore. We are going out of Jacksonville to save some serious bucks. Will tell you all about it when we return. Hope FSU wins, it is a bummer when you travel and lose. Yuck.

Three of the Grandkids are back to school. Lydia is in kindergarten and could really teach the class. She has that late November birthday - born on Thanksgiving so she is very ready for the big stuff. Stephen is four and in Pre-K. He reminds me a lot of Shawn in that the teachers always would say - Mrs. Herman - we love Shawn....but..... Sitting down and being still does not come easy for boys. This is Hunter's first experience with any kind of school or outside the womb care at all. He has been kept by Grandparents so we were kind of apprehensive how he would react. He is doing GREAT! So far the teacher says he gets better every day. Noah is still home with Lisa and Jay is still tolerating the GrandMa's. I have three days a week with only Jay - Hunter comes in at lunch time and Jason' Mom keeps them Tuesdays and Thursday's most weeks. Three half days with one is great. I am helping with taking Lydia to her ballet class and planning to visit and observe Stephen's Ty Kwan Do. Life is busy and full.
I did a little decorating for Halloween. Would love to hear of some ideas everyone has for unique decorating.

Have a happy HALLOWEEN, LETS ALL POST PICTURE OF THE KIDS IN COSTUME! Jennifer always sends the most original with her dogs all dressed up. She is very creative.

GET A BLOGGER ACCOUNT AND JOIN THE FUN!If you don't want to do that - just email me or Terry the pictures and we will post them.

Oh - one more thought - My Mother turns 84 October 24th. She loves to get mail.

LOVE,
FRANCES
LONG HOT SUMMER FOR THE HERMANN'S
Well it has been a good and bad month for our family and extended family. It still doesn?t seem real that Glen and Edwin are gone and Mother is the only one standing. She did very well through the funeral day. When we returned to her home as she was exiting my car she said ? I had a very nice day ? then she smiled that cute smile she has and said ? I guess I really shouldn?t say that. I told her at 83 if she had a good day she might as well say it. She was very happy to be with her people. You all make up her people and she loves you all very much. She has not wanted to attend any funerals since Daddy?s ? just too hard. She had a really hard time at Margaret?s (as did all of us) and that is why she didn?t make it to Uncle Reese?s.
Good news is my son Shawn and his wife had a eight day vacation in Hawaii, he changed jobs after many years at the credit union and they moved. All in one month. The really good news is Harry and I survived keeping the three little ones (with help from Lisa?s family an Emily) and we are all still on good terms. No one runs when they see Grammy and Bid Daddy. Harry was a wonderful Granddaddy ? sleeping with Stephen and totally helping with everything. We made a good team. One day we had all five Grandchildren. I usually have a teenager with me during the week to help me but she was away at her Grandparents. Emily took some time off so her two weren?t here most of the week. As soon as they returned Shawn left for San Francisco for a week, then end of week Lisa left for Texas. Lisa spent the days before her trip packing for the move. Shawn returned and he moved them. Yikes! They are starting to get things squared away and enjoy their much larger home. The neighborhood is better with nice wide streets and no through traffic. It has a great floor plan with three levels.
In the middle of all the deaths and moving and trips I got a new computer. For those who don?t realize it I love a new computer. I was very frustrated seeing the box on the floor and no time to unpack it. One day one of the Grandkids was standing on the cpu box. That did a number of me. I got a Mac and that is why I have been such a pest sending out all those emails for you to reply to. You could transfer the contact file but it really wasn?t usable. All those replies made it so easy for me to load you back into my address book.
I don?t know about anyone else but I am ready for some cooler weather and a change of pace. Come on fall. Hunter will start preschool in September three half days a week for I will get a bit of a break. Jay and I will be on our own some.
Harry and I are planning two football trips in November to Georgia Tech in Atlanta and Maryland. We will probably freeze to death at Maryland but who cares. You always need something to look forward to. They finally finished out boathouse at the coast but I haven?t seen it yet. Maybe this weekend I can take some pictures.
Hope...
Funeral Day
Forgot something very important in my earlier blog. Uncle Benny John and Terry were there today and Uncle Benny is amazing. He looks great and makes perfect sense. Not bad for someone in their 80's He still drives and takes an active part in life at Terry's house. Talk about an imspiration. Terry was to sing today but the program got screwed up. We missed a chance to hear some of his own music. Maybe he will post it to the site.
Funeral Day
Today was a day of funerals. Anne was so very generous to suggest that we have a memorial service for Glen today after her Dad's service. How can that not be the most unselfish thing ever. I really dreaded going to New Hope in some ways. I was prepared Friday to go today and take Mother and celebrate Uncle Edwin's life. He was a wonderful Uncle and lived a long and happy life. He and Carrie always seemed like a matched set in so many ways. When someone lives to be almost 90 years old it seems selfish to want more. Then we got the horrible phone call that Uncle Glen had passed away. It is one thing entirely to lose a wonderful Uncle after a long life but quite another to lose an Uncle that you had assumed would be around for many more years. That my Mother is now the flag bearer (Margaret gave me that description of Mother) seems unfathomable. She skirted at a near death experience over ten years ago and my siblings and I were prepared to face the worst. Mother is like the energizer bunny - she took a licking and kept on ticking.
I digress. As we were driving through the piney woods I thought of so many things and memories that were centered around Uncle Glen. He was always the Uncle that had an aura or mystique about him that made him larger than life in my eyes growing up. He was just above the fray of doing your chores and minding my manners. I don't think he ever scolded us in our entire lives. I guess he was the candy man so us as kids. Always fun and showing us how to have a great time. As soon as he came to our house we would break out the musical instruments and start playing the piano and singing and laughing. Margaret and I were laughing (via email) about how all the musicians in the family tune us all out when they get together. Glen was our rock star with his music. As we approached the church I was thinking - now how to get through this.

The most amazing thing happened as people started pouring into the church and relatives are hugging your neck and telling you how great it is to see you - even though it is for a sad reason. A kind of peace filled the church and we all took great comfort from our family. It is like a big warm feeling that can't be described. It was not a sad day at all. We celebrated Uncle Ed and his life and we took comfort from each other over losing Glen way too soon.
There were so many people there and some I had not seen in a really long time. I won't try to name them all but...Ellen and her husband Lannie were a real surprise. Also, Lynn, Janet, Ada Johnston and Kathy Hicks (both of Janet's sisters) were there. Lelia sang Amazing Grace and a fine fellow played the guitar and sang. Dan Padgett did a fine job of handing really two services in one funeral. Anne, Carl, Jennifer, Russell and their children along with David were there for Uncle Ed. Jennifer's children are beautiful. Tori has that amazing Riddle Red hair and Wes is a gorgeous Blond. Many people from the church were there too. Sue Cronkite is always such a great historian for the family and knows everyone by name. Wish I could say I did. We had a nice...
Jon and Dara's wedding pictures

I have posted new pictures from the wedding. I learn as I go and somehow deleted the first batch.

Fran

Julie's Blog

Our Family

Landing til now
Since we landed at Kadena Air Base it's been one thing after another. Our sponser was quick to make a schedule for us. We landed Friday around 8pm Okinawa time, made it through customs in about 15 minutes and then dropped the cat off at the Kennel. Our Sponser was nice enough to check us into our room before we got here. The next morning we took the boys on a walk to the BX and the Commissary and took a taxi back. That was interesting since we had the only taxi driver on base that didn't speak English and we had no clue as to what building number we were in. However we were able to tell him the Shogun Inn and guide him in the right direction. Later that day our Sponser took us to see some of the Island. Most of the buildings looked ready to colapse. They drive like complete loons around here. And there is a three second rule. That means if the light turns green wait about three seconds because at least 5 more cars will run their red lights possibly taking you...
Since the last Post...

I never know what to name my post. But since the last one we have had a little more information trickle in. We are leaving Nov. 12th and getting to Kadena, AFB, Nov. 14th. Gizmo has been cleared by a vet and started his quarantine. My luck we'll get there, he'll escape and become dinner at a local restaurant. I guess it could happen, dad said they shut down a taco stand for serving dogs while he was there. Gizmo is a cat so he has a good chance if they only like dog meat. I plan to cook a lot and eat out very little!! I like the taco bell dog but I don't want him as my dinner. Other than that things are still moving at a snails pace. I've packed a few things in storage boxes and Tommy has unpacked them. We fought over the toys. I said he only needed a few out, Tommy wanted them all. I won...for now until he finds that box. Joey's doing good in school. He only called one kid a butthead this week for telling him he likes girls. Of course it's only Wednesday...
Back Home, Okinawa news too.

Well we are back home and very tired. We went to visit mom and dad for a week in Valdosta. The boys had a ball. Joey got to build a deer feeder with dad and even though Tommy was too little to help, Joey let Tommy in on some of the pictures. Joey, Tommy and Gavin helped dad finish the pond and Gavin attempted to swim in it a few times. Or mostly leaned over far enough that he fell in more than once. The boys were so cute getting to play together. Gavin would tell everyone that he was a "Monster Buster". Mom, Kelly and I went wedding dress shopping and they showed me the reception site for Kel's wedding. I hate that I'll miss the wedding but I'm sure it will turn out beautiful. Brian and I drove around Valdosta and were surprised to see how much it had changed since January when we were last there. I imagine I won't recognize it at all when we get...
Orphan Train Riders
This week I found out something new about my husbands family history. His great grandmother was an orphan train rider. We don't know much about her because like most of the other OTR's she didn't like to talk about her past. She died in 1952 so I'm not sure how much information the family will get on her. I made a call to the New York Foundling Hospital (they adopted her out) yesterday and found out that if we can show proof that Brian is related to her and give them her date of birth they should be able to help us locate any information they have on her. I'm not sure what questions they could answer. It would be nice to know something about her. From what I understand once she was adopted she was treated pretty badly. She didn't speak about it once she married Brian's great grandfather so no one in the family knows much. I'll admit before hearing what little the family knows of her story I knew nothing of the Orphan Train Riders. What I've found out since is heart breaking. There were so...
Riverbanks Zoo and our boys.

I'm not sure how often I'll be able to post but here goes. We took the boys to the Riverbanks Zoo and Botanical Gardens during part of their spring break. They had so much fun. They were able to feed a giraffe, cow and goat. I'll try to post a few pictures if I can. The gardens I think was a little boring to them. Tommy ran around trying to smell all of the flowers. And he wanted to step on them. We're lucky they didn't kick us out. We left the gardens pretty quick and took them to see the Gorilla exhibit. One of them came over and laid down right in front of the boys. They loved that.

Sylvia's Blog

Life in the Diaper Lane

School pics!
Morgan and Coleman's school pics....enjoy! Can you believe how big they're getting? I can't...
We finally went to take our requisite annual Santa photo. As you can probably tell, Coleman was none too happy about being handed off to the jolly ole fellow in the big red suit. I had to pretend to hold him while edging over to the side out of the frame of the photo. At least he wasn't actually screaming at the moment. It was the best we were gonna get. When Santa asked Mo what she wanted she said, in her usual high-speed kind of way, "A dolly at my home". I had to explain to Santa what that meant. Her and her dolls. How many dolls does a girl need anyway??

And in case you can't tell, Coleman got his first big-boy haircut. I'm not too happy about it. It makes him look like a big boy instead of my baby boy! She just kept cutting...and cutting...and cutting. I would look over at Michael - probably with a stricken look on my face - and he just kept saying "It's hair, it'll grow back!". It better - and...
Lions and Tiggers and Mice, Oh My!
So October was an eventful month! First we went to Disney World! Wow! We were there for about two and half days but really should have been there for the full week. Going back and forth for naps midday really ate into our time. I think if we go back we may need to wait until they don't take naps anymore. But we had a good time anyway. We also went to the Tampa Aquarium to visit Auntie Shannon and her 2 little ones! Here are some of the pics....

Riding the carousel with Sissy!

Coleman in the shell @ the Aquarium

Morgan and Austin in the shell @ the Aquarium

Coleman pointing to the fish

Fireworks @ Cinderella's Castle

We had dinner in Cinderella's Castle as special guests of Cinderella!
After greeting Cinderella in the Lobby we went upstairs and had a nice dinner with a show with the Fairy Godmother and two mice.
hairy cupcakes?
So Mo is starting, after a year, to regress a little. I guess she's getting a little jealous of the attention her baby brother is getting even though we try to include her in everything. One of the ways she's regressing and demanding to be included in is nursing. I'm trying not to make a big deal out of it so I let her nurse a little, but only after I've already nursed Coleman.

A couple of nights ago, at bedtime, she was asking to be nursed, but Coleman was still nursing so I told her she had to wait. She starting whining so Michael asked her is she wanted to nurse on him. She turned to him, looked at his bare chest and adamantly shook her head "no!". Why not?

Ready?

Ready?

Wait for it....

"Because it has hair on it!"

LMAO! Ok I guess it might have been a "had to be there" moment - but we laughed a good five minutes over it.

In the mayhem of her birthday party, I failed to take any pictures of her cupcake tower which...
Mo Turned 3!
Here are some pics from Mo's birthday weekend! We had the party after-hours at the children's museum - the kids had a BLAST! I was lucky if I could get 2 minutes to greet each guest as they came in - the kids would pause for as long is it took them to decide what direction they wanted to go and off they went! Unfortunately we didn't take pictures of the lovely cupcake tower that we had - it was Alice in Wonderland themed - but I'm lucky I got any pictures at all - pretty much all the pics were taken by thoughtful friends who grabbed my camera to make sure I had *some* pictures.

Morgan wearing her new princess nightgown - she insisted on wearing this to school Monday morning.

Thank you Auntie Heather, Auntie DJ and Sissy Danielle for coming all the way from LA, Sacramento and Florida to come visit me!
Rodeos, Festivals and Birthdays!

Here are some pics of what we've been up to for the last couple months! Coleman turned 1!! He's only got his two bottom teeth still (Mo had at least 4) but he's up and practically walking - taking up to 4-5 steps now! And he is getting into EVERYTHING. Much more so that Morgan did.

Here's Coleman's birthday cake. We didn't teach him how to blow like we did with Morgan - his birthday kind of snuck up on me.. :(

Loot!! See the picture of him standing all by himself? He's getting so big! *sniffle*

We figured fair is fair - since we had the petting zoo and pony for Morgan's first birthday we should do the same for Coleman. He wasn't too sure about riding that pony though -...
Happy Belated 4th of July!
Mo and Coleman went to their first fireworks show! We were a little worried that they would be bothered by the loud noises (it was a symphony/fireworks) and we would need to run out of there with two screaming/crying kids, but they actually enjoyed it. Well, ok, Mo enjoyed it. Coleman watched it with interest for a few minutes and then, it being way past his bedtime, promptly fell asleep halfway through.

Coleman, who has been crawling like a champ for the last couple of months has just started being able to let go for a second or two at a time when he's standing. I predict he'll be standing/walking pretty quickly cuz he sure is motivated to get around quickly! On Friday he actually had a low fever for most of the day and we were debating on whether to take him to the show, but Saturday morning we found out what it probably was - he's starting (finally!) to get some teeth! I ran for the camera to get his "before" pictures, and once his teeth come out more, I'll take the "after" shots.

I also added some links to...
turning 40 is a day at the beach?
Cole is getting pretty good at the "army crawl" and just in this past week have started to pull himself upright on objects. He only started being able to sit himself up from a lying down position it seems a few weeks ago! My baby's growing up *sniffle*! He'll be a "toddler" before I know it.

This weekend my friend turned 40 (better her than me - although I guess I'm next...grrr). She had a nice intimate party for a few families and rented a bus to take us all to lunch and then a quick visit to the beach. Mo loved the beach - and insisted on wading in up to her knees. Every time the wave would come up she would start screaming "it's a big one it's a big one!" and then give an ear-piercing scream (of joy, not of terror)! Brrr it was cold too! I didn't bring an extra change of clothing but baba let her wear his extra sweater. Enjoy the pics!
happy belated mother's day!
Mo's class had a mother's day party yesterday. Its moments like these that make mommyhood so awesome! :)

Plus i think the sugar from all that pineapple she ate before i got there helped... lol! No, really. She's the one on the food rush....don't ask me why I'm the one that looks a little psycho... :-/
The World has opened up for me!
Well. Taking the kiddos to the amusement park has been a breakthrough. I took them both to Costco by myself this past weekend! Granted that this time Mo was contained in the cart. And lucky for me I was able to ply her with enough food through all the tasting stations to keep her in the cart through the whole store. Yay for eating our way through Coscto!

So where shall we go, what shall we do next?? I'm going to Disneyland! Ok, maybe not....

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