A Big Boy's Day At Still Waters

It seems that ............one day Hannan was a baby just beginning to crawl around on the floor and two weeks later, after turning one year old, he's walking all around, pulling open the drawer.......................



in the kitchen where we keep the big boy cooking supplies. This week he just opened the cabinet

and started pulling out all of the necessary utensils for preparing ................

a nice fruit tray. First you need to cut the fruit into pieces.

If you don't have a knife, a wooden fork will do. Be sure to plate the fruit for a nice presentation.



While Hannan is not walking much yet without holding on, he constantly pulls up..........


and walks around anything that will just give him even an illusion of support. Around a chair....

........................................down the walls.......................

...................................along the windows..................................


........................pretty much all of the windows. They seem to be just right. Support with a view!

Suddenly Hannan remembered another great place to look. Off to .....

................... open the toy cabinet.


"I may need a little help with this drawer."

What first....well of course a ball, then maybe that guitar.




Hannan also learned to push the little cars backward and release them to go forward.

The best part is when one comes back to you.


A little lunch with entertainment. Juju singing about a Big Big World for Hannan Allen ( with a lot of motions).

Hannan is a great audience. He gives big smiles and claps after my hand clapping routine. I have great rhythm so it is quite a show.


Hannan eased over to the iron squirrel which is always a favorite with the little ones.

"Oh don't mind me I'm looking in the other direction and you should too."

Slipping those little fingers over the tail, that opens the mouth...........

................... and pinches the fingers....................

A better place for the iron squirrel nut cracker when little one year old fingers are in the house.

Happy Birthday Hannan!!

Hannan's Birthday April 18


Han-man celebrated his first birthday today with a big family Puppy Dog Picnic.

It was a great day filled with many first for Hannan.


Hannan enjoyed his first walk while trying to hold balloons............


...........................until those puppy dog balloons wrapped around his feet.


He had his first opportunity to enjoy ..............................

reaching into a tub for an ice cold coke.
He did not however have the opportunity to enjoy drinking his first ice cold coke.


The tub of ice was also a big hit with Bennett.

Of course there were many gifts for Hannan's first birthday.

He loved his books, guitar, and toys. His mom seems pleased with all the clothes.

Bennett showed him how to work some of his new toys.

Look what a big birthday boy. He looks too grown in this picture at his new table and chairs.



But his favorite may have been his first wagon, with fold down seats.............Hannan was ready to ride.


Later he really relaxed and had Grayson to come on board for a ride.


Of course Hannan had his first cake. Just a little taste to check it out.



.....................Yum.....that's pretty good.

Okay....................another little bite.....................


Now that is some good stuff.

Fun day!

Bennett Has Something To Say!

Bennett loves cake. He has learned a lot about cake from attending pre-school. They seem to have cake about once a week for someone's birthday. ....After all, it is the 18-26 month class. It's the class of 2nd birthdays....."More cake! More cake!" is apparently their class motto. Here Bennett is enjoying Laurie's birthday cake.


All afternoon he kept singing, Happy birthday to yooouuuuuuuuuu!

Happy birthday to yoooouuuuuuu! Happy birthday DeeeeeEAR! Happy birthday to you!

Until the camera was on, then he said,




....."Writing."

But he does have a secret to share with you.

"I'm going to be a brother!"

Leslie's Mediterranean Grouper

For Laurie's Birthday celebration Leslie prepared her Mediterranean Grouper. Here are the ingreds: Grouper, pesto, green olives, capers, butter, feta cheese, and olive oil.


Dredge fish in flour then brown in butter and olive oil. Remove fish to plate.


Add pesto, sliced olives, and capers to pan (same pan, Les used two pans since she was cooking for all of us) After a couple of minutes add halved cherry tomatoes.

Return fish to pan, nestle into the sauce, put some on top of fish, then top with feta cheese. Cover pan to allow cheese to melt a little.

Sorry about this poor photo of the great fish.

Served with Ree's Crushed Potatoes, my salad, and garlic bread. Yum!!! Would be great with pasta.

Special Visitors at The Farm

All throughout our childhood, my siblings and I looked forward to an event that occurred not annually as Christmas or family vacations , but every few years. That was a visit from Aunt Frances, Uncle Larry and their daughters.

We were always so excited to hear that they would be visiting us or that we would be meeting them at our Grandparents' house (where the cabin is located at what we call Rogers farms). Aunt Frances and Uncle Larry both told the most intriguing stories.

Our Aunt Frances and her husband Uncle Larry were missioners in Korea. Uncle Larry was captured the very first morning that the Korean War began and was a prisoner of war throughout that war. I could not even began to tell of his experiences but our experience was that we adored him and would listen spellbound any time he would tell us of his experiences. When we were young he always told us interesting stories without including too much of the harsh reality of being a prisoner of war on a death march. We discovered the harsh details in the book he wrote years later. He was such a kind and generous man and we were always so proud of him and loved to just be with him. One of my own favorite stories was of him teaching a young man geometry during the years that they were prisoners. The young man later became a well known (I think) physicist.

Aunt Frances always told the best stories about life on the farm with her brothers, parents, cousins, and aunts. And she still does. I know because she told us many stories when she visited the Rogers siblings recently at the farm. Where we entertained her at her old home place and she entertained us with the history of that old home place.

Our cousin Brenda and her husband Dave also came and we fell in love with Brenda all over again and Dave for the very first time.

We expect Brenda and Dave to come often and enjoy the farm with us now that we have become reacquainted.

We were able to ask questions of Aunt Frances and the family baby, Uncle Tolly, that we have discussed and wondered about when gathered at the farm. Trying to name our grandparent's siblings and their parents or trying to remember when certain events took place. Aunt Frances answered many questions and explained how the old farm house began life as my great grandparent's log cabin but was enlarged and grew with the family. The log cabin was later moved and the newer addition then was enlarged several times until it became my grandparents' house that I remember from my childhood. Brenda and I both remember spending the night in the living room of that old house after our grandparents moved into their new house. I think we had a flashlight under the sheets and something, maybe a Luna moth, kept attacking us until we ran for protection to the new house.

Jimmy and I were especially happy to have Aunt Frances and Uncle Tolly come to our house a couple of nights later. We enjoyed as many tales as we could work into the time we had. It is such a great reminder of daddy, being able to spend time with his family.

Happy April 1st

This April first has been a very rainy day in South Georgia. After 10 inches of rain last Saturday and at least 4 additional inches last night and today.......


the ponds are running over and the poor baby fish are being swept away with the water.


This river is running down our south damn.


These rapids are running over our back damn..........................................

and these rapids are running over our drive.


This lake has covered our pond.

After the bad weather passes we will need to hire a backhoe to come and dig our yard off the bottom of the pond and spread it back over the area surrounding our house.

School was canceled today and even ABAC has canceled classes tonight for the first time since I started teaching there. ( I just received an email stating that school is also canceled tomorrow.)

I am always rather cautious when told that school has been canceled. I want to check out that information and make sure it is a fact and that I really should not make my way to school. I have a learned fear of being tricked, especially on April 1st.

It was a rainy April first when I was in first grade with Mrs. Lester at Morven Elementary School. We had a cloak room, which was a room the same width as the classroom with doors on each end where we each had an open locker with hooks where we hung our coats and placed our rain boots. We all had to use those cubbies that rainy morning after we removed our rain coats and sat on the little bench to remove our rain boots. (I also recall that the side opposite our lockers with the bench was lined with book cases where the extra readers were stored while we read our way through various books that year.)

Mrs. Lester called the class to attention just as we had finally settled into our chairs around our little tables that morning after storing all of our rain gear. She announced that, surprise!, it was a holiday and we would be returning home. She told us to get ready and line up at the door. Girls on the right. Boys on the left.

We were so excited! I remember very clearly going into the cloak room to put on my rain boots and little rain slicker while thinking, "Mama is going to be so excited when the bus pulls up in front of our house and David and I come home."

After thirty first graders were dressed and ready, we lined up at the door as always with girls on the right and boys on the left, waiting with great anticipation for Mrs. Lester to march us down the hall to the front door where the buses would be ready to return us to our thrilled mothers.

After a few minutes Mrs. Lester threw her hands up, threw her head back and exclaimed "April Fools!!!" I thought, " Okay, any holiday is fine with me. Let's go to the bus so I can go home and surprise Mama." We all just stood and looked at Mrs. Lester, suddenly very confused as she continued to laugh. Not one child seemed to understand as we stood in line, girls on the right, boys on the left. Everyone dressed for the rain that poured outside.

I can still remember feeling confused and really dismayed as Mrs. Lester tried to explain that it was all a joke and that we were not going home after all. She had to tell us to return to the cloak room, take off our boots, place them in our cubby, remove our raincoats, hang them on the hooks and return to our seat.

Maybe Mrs. Lester had taught just a couple of years too long.

I may sign up for Facebook just to see if anyone from my first grade is on and will be my friend. I could see if they remember that April Fool's day or if they blocked out that memory but have always had a really hard time trusting anyone in authority and never knew why. There could be a lot of healing for my first grade classmates.