A comedy of errors

One of the things a parent looks forward to when a son or daughter gets a driver's license is being able to send him/her to the store for a couple of items while said parent stays home to fix dinner. I got my first opportunity to do this while fixing Sunday dinner. We needed milk, a bag of ice, and bananas, so I sent Daniel to our closest grocery store, Apple Market, just a half mile from our house.

Daniel left for the store and I worked on getting dinner on the table while he was gone. After things were pretty much almost ready, the thought crossed my mind that it was taking Daniel a little longer than I expected to get three things, but I wasn't worried or concerned. He soon came in the door, handing me the milk and the bag of ice. Then the story began.

Apparently one thing that a parent needs to remember is that 1) new drivers don't always go the same route to the store as the parent might and 2) not everyone is as familiar with the location of items in the grocery store. (Now, let me stop and say that Daniel was telling this story on himself and gave me permission to blog about it.)

He said that first of all, he had chosen to take a left turn out of our street to take Brewer Drive to the store. There are three ways to get to Nolensville Road from our house, all would take him to the store, but this way he chose was probably the most difficult, requiring a left-hand turn across the four-lane road. After waiting quite a bit to make the turn, he ended up turning right, cutting through the bowling alley parking lot, and came back down Brewer, turned on the street that goes by our house and finally took the quickest route to the store.

Once inside the store, he wasn't sure about my advice to just tell the cashier that he was buying ice and decided to pick out the bag BEFORE he went looking for the milk. With the bag of ice under his arm, he walked the perimeter of the store looking for the dairy case. At one point, he was right next to it, but looking in the wrong direction, and not seeing milk, took off circling the store again.

When he finally made it home with the milk and ice (he gave up on bananas), he explained why his "quick trip" to the store had taken so long. I was putting the ice away while listening to his story, emptying some of it into the ice bin and then kept the rest in the bag to save for later. As I was putting the opened bag of ice on the freezer shelf, somehow it spilled out a big pile of ice onto the floor.

That's really things really got fun! Have you ever tried to pick up melting ice? I got the mop and we worked on corralling the ice into one pile and then scooped it up with towels to get it off the floor. That's also when the laughter began, since Daniel was telling me about his walking around the store with a bag of ice under his arm while I was scooping ice off the floor.

Good thing we both have a good sense of humor!

Shared traits

Before we get too far into June, I need to go back and tell about something that happened in May, but deserves its own post (not just get included in the recap).

One day in mid-May, Daniel texted me and told me that he had been accepted into the National Honor Society. The induction ceremony took place on May 17, in the school auditorium. Daniel was his normal, humble self about this honor, but his dad and I are very proud of him!

We also joked that the National Honor Society gene apparently skipped a generation, since neither Daniel's dad nor I were invited to join. But it is one of the things that Daniel shares with his Grandpa, as we found out when Grandma presented Daniel with some of Grandpa's pins and memorabilia at Christmas. Daniel's pin might be a little shinier than his Grandpa's but we're proud that he is following in his Grandpa's footsteps of being a diligent student.

Daniel and Grandpa also shared a love of reading and books. Grandpa had a huge collection of books, which he was in the process of giving away and selling in the years before he died. Now that he has passed away, my mom is sharing the remainder of his books with people who will appreciate them. She gave some to her son-in-law, Russell, and offered for Daniel to come browse the collection to see what he might like to have of Grandpa's books. It thrilled her that Daniel was eager to spend the time looking through the books and that he found a stack to take home (see photo below).

Celebrating Mom (a.k.a. Grandma)

Yesterday our family had a great time together celebrating our Mom/Grandma's 76th birthday (she would tell you herself how old she is). It was a perfect day in every way:  weather-wise, activity vs. rest ratio, fun memories made!

We planned an outing on Blue Heron Cruises, which is a fun activity for all ages, and also is relaxing and affordable for families. This was our second time to go as a family and this year, our friends, The Shriers, also joined us. It was hard not to think of Grandpa, since he was with us last year when we went on the pontoon boat cruise on the Cumberland River, but it was fun to have some new faces with us and to have the added celeration of Mom's special day. Here are some of the pics from the cruise:

One of the favorite activities for the kids were the bubble wands

Anna and Kate

Rachel and Jeanette

Captain Jim made lots of balloons and Erica was very interested

Sisters!

Mom and her favorite son-in-law

Phil, Daniel and Mom put the balloons to good use!

After we all had the afternoon to rest up, we headed out for dinner at Chuy's (birthday girl's choice, which none of us minded). I have to give kudos to my sister for suggesting that we go to the mid-town Nashville location instead of Cool Springs. Much easier to get seated and free valet parking! Smart, Sis!

Birthday sopapilla!

Friday Favorites: My Honda CRV

This summer will be four years since I bought my CR-V! I still love driving it and hope to get a lot more mileage out of it (we rolled over 100,000 earlier this year).

This car has definitely been my favorite car to own and drive. I like to ride up a little higher, but it's not as big as a full-size SUV, so I can still fit into tight spaces. It also gets good gas mileage, which is so important with gas prices being what they are.

The CR-V has been a great car for us with all the great cargo room to haul drums around. Daniel likes to drive it and it was the car he took his driver's test in this year.

I don't plan to have to replace this car for a while longer, but when I do get another car, I'll definitely be looking at the CR-V again!

Monthly Recap: May 2012

I think maybe I'll try doing a monthly recap, at least with any photos. This month was a busy month for us, but we got it done! We're starting summer off right with some days to just be at home and not have to be on a schedule.

Back at the beginning of May, the Hume-Fogg Silver Jazz Band had their Spring concert. I think that concert is my favorite of the year because the band has been playing together for several months and they are more relaxed. Also, they have a tradition of reading cards that the seniors write about what they will be doing after graduation and their thank-yous. It makes the evening kind of long, but still worth it!

Here is a video of the band playing their first song of the night, "Reverend Jones." The entire song is great to listen to, but if you want to see Daniel's drum solo, you can fast-forward to 6:45 or 7:00.



The day after the concert, Hume-Fogg had a block party as part of the Centennial Celebration for the school's 100th anniversary. Daniel took his SATs that morning and stayed afterward to attend the block party. I was planning to meet him down there. While I was running an errand on my way downtown, I got a text from Daniel saying that he was getting ready to play with one of the jazz combos on the stage at the block party (not previously planned). I scurried to get down there in time and was able to hear the last song they played. These photos were taken that day.

For Mother's Day, Daniel served me breakfast in bed and we had a nice day hanging out together and with our family. We had our family dinner that evening with some barbeque sandwiches and ice cream. We had our typical chaos of trying to get some pictures and it was more challenging because we were inside due to the weather. Good thing we take pictures year-round and not just on holidays (ha!).

Erica had her preschool Spring program the next weekend, so of course, we attended that! It was fun to see her sing with her class and she was so excited to show us her art work (when we could find it hanging up). It will be fun to have many years of school programs that Erica and Mary Lane will be a part of!

Erica is the "sheep" in the middle

Finally, to wrap up the month, we got to spend some time with Uncle Bud and Aunt Vickie, who came to visit from Memphis. We had a good time just sharing some meals and hanging out together. They loved getting to see all of the kids (although I was remiss and didn't get a picture of Daniel this time). It is fun to see Erica and Mary Lane interact with Bud and Vickie and we're all looking forward to making a trip to Memphis later this summer.

I think we're ready for June!

Sister Saturday: Snow Cones

Happy 100th!

My Granddaddy, Gwyn William Blevins, Sr., was born on May 12, 1912, so he would have been 100 years old today. If he was here with us, he'd make us laugh with his stories and jokes. He'd love getting to see his great-grandchildren ("the young 'uns," he'd call them).

Granddaddy loved a celebration, so he'd be happy to blow out his candles and have us sing "Happy Birthday" to him. And if it wasn't his birthday or if it was Christmas, he could hardly wait to give us the presents he'd bought.

I was able to spend a lot of time with Granddaddy and Maw-Maw, my mom's parents, because they lived only three and a half hours from us and we could drive down to Bel Air, Maryland from New Jersey for a long weekend or holidays. Some of my favorite memories of Granddaddy are of him in his garden or mowing the lawn (his own or the church's yard) or when he would sit in his recliner and listen to the Orioles play baseball on a summer night. And he was a devoted husband to my grandmother, patiently caring for her needs, even when he had to return shoes to the store multiple times. He was the grocery-shopper in the family (since my grandmother didn't drive) and could have won big money on "The Price Is Right" if he'd been a contestant (it was his favorite show).

Oh, and he loved to go get soft-serve ice cream at the local drive-in. After supper on summer evenings, he'd get us all in the car and drive down the road to the Arctic Circle for a cone. Wherever we went in the town where my grandparents lived, we'd run into someone he knew. It was always fun for me to go to even the most ordinary places with Granddaddy because he was always so proud to introduce me to his friends.

Granddaddy and Maw-Maw were so excited when I came to Nashville to attend Belmont College in 1985. They loved to watch The Nashville Network (TNN) and when I'd call, they'd tell me that they'd been "watching Nashville" that week. They got to come to Nashville in person for my college graduation and for my wedding. Little did we know that the last trip in October 1991, was going to be one of the last family occasions when he was healthy. Soon after my wedding, Granddaddy was diagnosed with bone cancer and he passed away in early January of 1992. I'm so thankful that he got to come be a part of those two special occasions in my life and I am even more thankful for the legacy that he left and the memories I have of my Godly, strong, fun-loving Granddaddy.

By the way, there seems to be a lot of other notable 100-year anniversaries in 2012. Maybe 1912 was a banner year, I don't know. Since I keep hearing about something or other being around for 100 years, I thought I'd put together a list (cause I like lists).

Here are some that were especially interesting to me:

1. National Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, D.C.
2. Girl Scouts (I was a Brownie, Junior and Cadet)
3. Titanic (coincidentally, it's also the 10th anniversary of the movie, Titanic)
4. Hume-Fogg High School (Daniel's school)
5. New Mexico 

OK, I had to look up that last one about New Mexico, but since I've had lots of fun memories visiting that state, I thought it was worth including.

Yes, I think 1912 was a banner year, mainly because my Granddaddy was born!