Mother's Day

This year for Mother's Day we did something a little different. On Friday, the kids and I went to Rocky Mount to take care of some wedding details (my sister's wedding) and Ryan went down after work to visit his mom for Mother's Day and do some things for her. Then, Saturday, we all got up and went over to my grandparent's house for a "paint the house party." My grandparents have five children (four still living) and three of the four families were represented in the efforts. My grandfather was a carpenter by trade and built this house nearly fifty years ago. Most of my extended family (aunt, uncles and cousins) are quite the tradesmen. They are electricians, cabinet makers, jack-of-all trade kinds of people. However, my mother has two teachers, one train engineer , one person who draws blood and two that sit behind a desk and four smaller versions just along for the ride! :) Anyway, we got out there and worked our behinds off. We scraped, caulked, primed, painted, whatever needed to be done. I was pleased with our family effort. My aunt, the "foreman" still had some cleaning up to do and some touch up places and my uncle still had some rotten wood to replace on some windows but for the most part, we finished. My grandfather has dementia and is not able to keep up with the house repairs as he would like to. My grandmother fixed a big 'ole lunch - ham, sweet potatoes, squash casserole, crowder peas. It was yummy. Of course, all my kids ate only the ham. They don't know what they are missing. Then, we left my grandmother's house and my brother, sister, and I, ordered out for my mom's Mother's Day supper. After showers, we all had a wonderful supper all together at nine o'clock! We got home about 11:15pm and I awoke to breakfast in bed and gifts and homemade cards. We went to church, came home and had lunch and I took a NAP! We ate homemade pizza for supper (I got a new bread machine for Mother's Day; my old one had seen better days.) and had family night. Overall, it was an Excellent Mother's Day.

This is the full view of my grandparents house and the "work crew."

This is my granddaddy (the one who built the house) "supervising" the kids painting the swing; for their first painting project - they did pretty good. They are very excited about having "painting clothes!" I wish I had gotten a picture of my grandmother too. Oh well, maybe next time...