Boys Will Be...Crazy

I took the kids to the J.Crew outlet on Sunday, and it tooks us an hour plus car ride to get there. Gibson slept the entire way, and I had to wake him up once we got to the store. In order to keep the peace, I gave him my iPhone so he could play games while the girls and I browsed.

After we had an armful of clothes, the four of us headed back to the dressing rooms to try everything on. Of course, the large dressing room was unavailable (it probably had all of one person in it), so we all had to squeeze into one tiny little dressing room. The girls and I were all trying things on, but I knew better than to ask Gibson to try any of the clothes on that I had grabbed for him, so he still entertained himself with my phone. At one point I looked down, and Gibson was lying on the floor, halfway in our dressing room and halfway in the hall.

He was taking pictures of the people waiting to get into dressing rooms!

Then, he jumps back into our dressing room, and said, in a really loud voice, "Mommy, I just took pictures of people I don't know!"

Great...So, not only was he being a Peeping Tom, but he also decided to announce it to the entire store. At least, to my knowledge, they don't call the police on 3-year-old Peeping Toms; we'll just have to work on that before he gets older!

It's All Over But the Packin' (and Shippin'...But Who's Counting?)

We picked our last tomato this afternoon, and this evening we packed our last box of the 2011 packing season. Thank the Good Lord! It is a bittersweet moment, but I have to say that I am ready to get out of this packing house and get on to my summer. Here are some things that have gotten me through this season of sitting at my desk in the hall day and night...and night and day:

:: These guys. Now, I have always loved the regular Werther's, but I had no idea they had ones filled with ooey-gooey caramel goodness. And now I am eating them by the handful, which I am sure was not the intent. In fact, I would probably fist-fight someone over the last one if it got down to one left in the candy basket and two of us wanting it.

:: Pandora. I know I am not telling anyone anything new, and this isn't a new discovery of mine, but I had to have my music blasting at all times -- sometimes to tune out those around me!

:: Holding Ross Baby (so named by Gibson). Ashley, my cousin's wife and mother to Ross, would come up to the packing house often to get out of the house, so those of us in the office got to fight over holding and cooing over the baby. He is a doll, and a great distraction from work.

:: Our cook, Sarah. Aside from being a fabulous cook and trying to make us all fatties this summer with her delicious cakes that she would make from scratch every day (yes, every. day.), Sarah was great for our family. She was cheerful and funny and really great for us when we lost Granddaddy. Sarah goes to our church and fits in perfectly with our family. She always knew how to be a bit of comic relief when we were getting a little stressed. Sadly, her father had a stroke last Friday night, so we have been dealing without her since Saturday, and it shows. We are all praying for her dad!

:: Pioneer Woman's iced coffee recipe. I saw it on her blog, showed it to Hunter, and we made (well, really, Hunter made) it right away. It is so good, and it is nice to just run to the fridge to pour a nice, humongous glass of iced coffee whenever the need strikes. If you like iced coffee, make this!

:: Dreaming of and planning for our next family vacation to Peter Island. (Remember this one from last year?) When Granddaddy died, Daddy decided he wanted to plan something for Nana to look forward to, and this trip is the result. This year, Nana's sister and almost her entire family are going as well, so it is going to be a wild time. Peter Island and its other vacationers are not going to know what hit it/them.

And now I have managed to survive another season! We just have to get all of the tomatoes shipped on their merry way...and, oh yeah, all of our customers to pay for them!

Swimming Lessons

Gibson is finally old enough for swimming lessons this summer, so all three of my chillens have been taking lessons this month. Ty got one week of lessons, and the younger two are finishing up their second week -- although they are a little over it at this point, so I am not sure if that was a wise decision on my part, or not.

Sanders is doing really well with her swimming. I just wanted her to brush up on everything she learned from last year...

Gibson needed the lessons the most. He has no fear when it comes to the water, and would just jump into the deep end with no consideration that he could not actually swim. Thankfully, he is doing pretty well now! He seems to have regressed a little in this second week, but I think it is in protest...

He has even gotten to where he will jump off the diving board -- but only if his goggles are on!

Tyler's focus in her lessons this summer has been to learn different strokes. She is a pretty good little swimmer.

And...she learned to dive! She is really proud of herself for this!

Not Too Shabby!

This packing season, the kids and I are staying in my Aunt Bushie and Uncle Pete's cottage, which is in between my parent's house and my other aunt and uncle's house.

(Are you confused yet?)

It is nice to be right in the middle of family -- especially with everything that has gone on in our family this summer, but another reason that it is nice to be in the cottage is the view:

Sure, I am at work during most daylight hours and well into the night, so I don't actually get to enjoy it all that much, but it is still nice to get a glimpse of it every morning.

Ahhhh...it makes me de-stress just to look at the picture!

Our Graduate

Waaaaayyyyy back in May, what seems like a hundred years ago, Sanders graduated from Kindergarten. Her school put on a very cute little graduation, complete with the kids acting out all of the nursery rhyme characters.

Sanders was Little Bo Peep.

And she looked all grown up in her cap and gown. It just might have made me shed a tear. Then she would smile, and I would see that tooth missing in the front, and I would remember that she is still my sweet, baby girl.

I don't know about you, but I cry whenever I hear Pomp and Circumstance, and this was no exception -- especially when my baby walked down the aisle by herself!



The actual graduation ceremony was cute, too. Each of the kids got up and told what they want to be when they grow up. There were some hilarious aspirations out there. One little boy wants to be a gator wrangler. One little boy wants to be the maintenance guy at the school. A little girl wants to be a rock star.

Sanders wants to be a cowgirl.

The kids even got to turn their tassles at the end of graduation, signaling their entrance into first grade. (How in the heck did Sanders get to be old enough to be in first grade?!?!?!)

Sanders thought the whole thing was no sweat...

A Sweet Coincidence

As I mentioned last week, my grandfather died on June 4. He was Ross Macdonald Sr, called Ross.

And, on June 8, we had a baby born in our family:

He is my cousin, Don's baby, Ross Macdonald IV. And he is called Ross.

We lost one Ross but gained another -- what a sweet blessing!

Blast from the Past

I was ordering some books from Tyler's summer reading list yesterday, and one group of books caught my eye and took my way back...The Babysitters Club!

I don't know about y'all, but I loved those books when I was about Ty's age. I would get a call from the bookstore when a new one came in, Mama would take me straight into town, and I would finish the book in the same day.

Sadly, I don't have any of my old books, but I ordered the first one for Tyler. I hope she will enjoy them. Heck, I hope she will enjoy reading as much as I did and still do. I am happy to say that I think she is getting there, and I never thought that day would come.

So, did you spend any time with Kristy, Claudia, Stacey, and Mary Anne when you were younger?

*All images via Amazon

Granddaddy

My Granddaddy died on Saturday.

He was a tomato farmer like my dad, and he had the nerve to go on the first day of packing season. Instead of worrying about getting the tomatoes out of the field and on the road, we were all blubbering over GranGran.

(That was a joke -- lame, maybe, but a joke)

Granddaddy wasn't the type of grandfather who would bounce me on his knee or take me for rides in his truck or teach me to fish (something he loved to do) when I was a little girl. He was a big, tough guy. He rode around on the farm and told my dad how to grow the tomatoes even after he retired. He always let you know what he thought about things (even one time when it made me put my head down on my desk --during packing season -- and sob for days.)

And yet he had a softer side, too. He cried when I went to Clemson. He cried when he saw me try on my wedding dress. He cried when his great-grandbabies were born. He called my grandmother his girlfriend, even after almost 60 years into marriage. He loved for his great-grandchildren to come visit him. He called me Mae.

I knew I was loved.

GranGran had not been feeling his best for almost a year now. He was on oxygen, and it was hard to see that big, strong man seem to grow old before all of our eyes. However, the end came very quickly. As of last Monday, he was home, sitting up in his chair, and the kids and I visited him. I had no idea it would be the last time that they would see him, and I am sad now that they didn't get to give him a "proper" goodbye (whatever that means). I got to go see him in the hospital on Saturday, though, to tell him goodbye. I leaned down and whispered that I loved him. And even though he was unresponsive, he got agitated, moved his arms, and all his stats changed -- the same way he reacted when any family member got close and talked to him.

He knew he was loved.

He died that evening surrounded by family, though sadly, I didn't make it back to the hospital in time.

Our minister was out at the packing house yesterday talking about the memorial service, and Mama said that he mentioned that he thought it was fitting that God called GranGran home during the harvest. I think that is really nice (and much more fitting than what I said before, huh?) -- a farmer going home during the harvest.

This was my verse of the day on Saturday, and I found it really comforting: Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all. 1 Chronicles 29:11