Here Goosey, Goosey

Dwayne, Darrell & Farley spent a fair amount of time trying to shoot geese. There was some success all around. I even heard Kay tagged along on one expedition and hit her target. They may not let her go again next season, if she's going to show them up. :)

Rabid Reader

I guess you tell what this boy's favorite activity is. No wonder he has such a great vocabulary and is a stupendous speller. He won his grade level spelling bee last week, so will compete for the school title soon.

Making Music

Derrik, Simon & Bobby showing off their "babies" and they do baby them.
There is online instruction videos that the boys were watching and learning from.

Derrik's two school friends, Bobby & Simon, have guitars. They got together to let Bobby try and teach the other two a few things before they started their lessons the following week. Amazingly, the noise was not annoying or too loud.

Sweet Sixteen

We had a spaghetti dinner with family for his actual birthday. Thank goodness Derrik asked for an electric guitar instead of a car for his 16th birthday, so we were able to afford to make his wish come true.

The weekend following his birthday, we invited about a dozen teenagers to come play football and eat pizza. Everyone had a great time!

Learning Driver

Derrik is doing very well with his driving. He has even done parallel parking. Sometime soon we will venture onto the interstate and do some merging & high speed driving. He is eligible for a license in three months if he finishes & passes his online class, completes his 40 hours of driving with his parents and takes a two week driving school. We have a lot to squeeze in so he can chauffeur his Grandpa & Grandma Wright around when they come in April. Oops! Maybe I shouldn't have said that. They may read that and get frightened into canceling their trip.

Lewis Ginter Gardens

I learned a new term -- bucket list. I'm not up on movies, so wasn't familiar with it until it was discussed at work. I guess I had a bucket list, but just didn't call it that. For those of you who are as clueless as I, it's the list of things you want to do before you kick the bucket.

Visiting the Lewis Ginter Gardens was one of the things on my "bucket list" and I finally got there, though it was the dead of winter. I went with Shelly Larson, Wendy Stark and Sandra West (not pictured). We saw many beautiful things indoors and outdoors despite the time of year. I hope to return in the spring and tour my parents around the gardens.

Boys & Bikes

The boys don't get to ride their bikes as often over the winter, but whenever it warms up a bit they grab their helmets and ride. If the helmets mask the identities in these photos, the upper one is Corbin, Devin & Derrik and the lower one is Dwayne & Darrell.

Missing Carie

It's hard to believe it's been over two years since we got to see, hear or touch her. It's therapeutic for me to visit her gravesite regularly. Various ones bring new flower arrangements and wreaths; we do too.

The tears still come and the sorrow is still strong, but we're functional and moving forward.

Basement Status

The basement finishing is progressing, slow but steady. Sheetrock dust is everywhere!

New Year's

We had a small party at our house consisting of four families in addition to our own.

This photo was taken before the fourth lovely lady arrived--Peggy Spicer, Sandra West, Becky Flanagan & myself--Stacy Holladay was missing in action at that point.

Dwayne & the boys did an excellent job of cleaning up the basement in time for the New Year's Eve party. They set up the ping pong, foosball and air hockey tables.

We played quite a few goofy group games that made us all laugh hysterically. We were so involved that we almost didn't get outside in time to make our ruckus at midnight.