Mothers and Family and Dogs, Oh My!

The complete Eunice Hershberger clan!

Mom (Eunice) with her four children! Back left to right:

Me (the oldest) almost 52, Tom (second oldest,

1 1/2 years younger than me), Denny (our baby,

11 years younger than me), and Jeff is in the front

(middle son, 7 years younger than me!

GG (Great Grandma) with Dartanian, son of Tom's

son, Jon!  Dartanian calls Mom GG, and they have a great

relationship if you couldn't tell from the picture!



Below: Tom!  And here with grandson, Dartanian!

Tom's oldest, Amanda with husband, Luke! Ain't they sweet!  They will be moving to Gilroy, California the end of May.  Amanda almost has her PhD in Horticulture and has been courted by and offered a job with a company called Syngenta!  Luke is a fine chef, and we know he will find a job quickly once they get to California!

Aunt Amanda & Dartanian

Amanda's good looking husband, Luke again!

Tom's son, Jon!  Dartanian's daddy!  Jon just completed his apprenticeship to be an electrician and is now a Journeyman Electrician which means he can work on his own and work for whomever he wants.  We are very proud of both Jon and Amanda!  And I love them to the moon and back!!

Jeff and his family!  Sweet wife, Julie and twin children,

Adriana & Jordan, and baby, Jarrick!

(Okay, Jarrick isn't theirs!  He's the 5 week old son of a

family friend who stopped by for a visit!) 

But...were you paying attention?  If so, email me the word Jarrick,

and I'll know you were!

It is our hope that Mom will bring Adriana and Jordan

to NC for a visit!  I love having them there and they are

both so special to me!  I know you must all be jealous

that all my nieces and nephews are so good looking and smart!

Jordan and Adriana!  They'll be 16 in August!  When did I get so old?

Below:  My baby brother Denny and his great wife, Dawn!

Thus ends the pictures of my family!  It was so great we could all be together!  I never know when we'll all be in one place again so I was happy to be able to get pictures!

Who Let The Dogs Out? Who! Who!

Every time I sat down my niece, Amanda and her husband, Luke's two little dogs would jump up on my lap!  I was in hog heaven!  Or is that dog heaven?  The little white and black dog is Gordy, and the little black dog is Jonesy (Fenworth Jones, to be exact).   I felt so loved!  

"We're leaving soon, Gordy! Do you think Aunt Dee will miss us"?

"Jonesy, settle down!  I want to get some sleep!

Being a dog is exhausting"!            

"Yes, my name is Jonesy, and I know I'm cute?!

                                              

"Aunt Dee!  Aunt Dee!  I need to hide before Jonesy tries to take my chew stick"!



Below is my brother, Tom's lab mix, Shaniqua!

"I'm just too tired to beg for food!  These humans are so boring"!

Myrtle Beach in April

Hi, friends;
I have a few things to share, but I'll be sharing a little at a time.  Carol and I went to Myrtle Beach and met our friend, Joani there.  We were there April 22-27 and here are some of the pictures I took while there!  I hope you enjoy!

Taken right outside Landry's Restaurant

Diana just Froggin' around

We went to Dolly Parton's Pirates Voyage: full of food, and entertainment with a great Pirate competition of gymnastics, water competitions, loud cannons and great animals! We had great seats! Center second row seats!  A perfect view and just far enough not to get splashed in the water competitions!

At the hotel we were on the top 21st floor with great views!

The ocean at dusk!

A view of the pool directly below us!

Dusk looking towards the huge Skywheel!

Same view of the Skywheel after dark

 And what better to do on a rainy day.....a puzzle!  Here's Joani and Carol who worked all day to complete the pictured puzzle!  Very patient ladies!

In progress!

Puzzle completed!

 So here's the end of this blog minimally highlighting our beach trip!  The next blog will detail my trip to Indiana from May 11-15!  Our whole family was together on Mother's Day so I will post pictures taken on Mother's Day, as well as my niece, Amanda's two dogs in whom I fell in love with because every time I sat down they were on my lap.  They made me feel so special!  I let you know when that next post is completed!  Hope your life is well and that you enjoy this short blog!



It's Time for the Easter Bunny

Hi, all;

While watching tv this afternoon, Carol noticed a bunny in our backyard!  I jumped up and got a picture as well as a little video!  There were actually 2 rabbits, but I wasn't able to get any footage with both of them in it!  My good buddy, Bill, gave me a tripod for my camera (which I didn't have set up) but in the future I should be able to get clearer pictures and video!  Here's what I got today!  Just in time for Easter!!

Picture

and

Video





Hello Spring

Hello, friends and family;

I can't believe it's been a month since I posted something!  I was so disappointed that the movie I spent LOTS of time on in the last post didn't work so I guess I put off the blog feeling defeated!  BUT Spring is here, and I couldn't resist taking pictures of the changes in my backyard!  Some are flowering and some are show their promises of flowering!  Many of you will be glad to see I have no wildlife pictures this time.  Don't get too excited though because I will have some in future posts.  I hope you enjoy the changes happening in my garden and will enjoy future pictures of  my plants as they continue to celebrate Spring and Summer!  I am now anxiously anticipating the arrival of robins.  Every Spring just before our Bradford Pear tree in our front yard started growing leaves again, a host of robins would sit in the tree.  Every branch was loaded with robins.  Sadly we lost our Bradford Pear tree in the tornado of April, 2011 but our home owner's association has planted Crepe Myrtles in the yards that lost their trees!  Our Crepe Myrtle is growing leaves so I look forward to it blooming though I doubt it will be this year!

The only other thing I would like to share with you is for those of you who have iPhones!  I download a cool app called iBooks!  If you like to read and don't mind reading from your iPhone, you may want to check this out.  It's a free app and many of the books you can download are free!  Of course, some books you have to pay for, but there may be enough to find to make this worth your while!  Here are the list of books I downloaded onto my iPhone that were totally free:

Charles Dickens:  Great Expectations and Three Ghost Stories
Mark Twain:  The Mysterious Stranger, The Prince and the Pauper, and A Connecticut Yankee in King
                     Arthur's Court
Lewis Carroll: Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle:  The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
And 4 books regarding Abraham Lincoln as a book of Slave Narratives and a book about the Underground
                      Railroad

ALL FREE!!!  And yes, I will be reading them.  Most of these can be downloaded free to Kindle too!  Carol got a Kindle for Christmas and so sweetly shares this with me!  Right now I'm reading Great Expectations which is also downloaded on Carol's Kindle so I go back and forth reading this from my iPhone, my iPod Touch which syncs with my iPhone, and Carol's Kindle.  Awesome!!!

May you all have a blessed Easter and enjoy the stupendous wonders that come with Spring!  And remember some bunny loves you!

The changes of Spring

One half of my garden is starting to show new life!

Just in time for Easter as we are offered new life in Christ!!

If you look close you can see a bud on my Gerbera Daisy!  There are actually two buds! 

I was so excited to see my two Irises standing at attention along with my Sweet Williams!  I look forward to sharing my plants when they bloom!

This is my Hibiscus plant near my house that has gone from barren branches to starting to show it's green leaves.  The beautiful lavender flowers should be popping out in about a month or so!

This is one of my Pansy plants!  You may notice that I made this our blog's header image!!  During fall and winter my Pansies didn't flower at all!  And then all of th sudden.....ta da!

Life's a Beach in my backyard

As some of you may already know, Carol and I love to go to the beach and try to get to Myrtle Beach twice a year.  It only seemed natural to create a beach motif in my backyard.  I hope you enjoy this!

The beach before the beach sand!

The area after sand added.  I'm going to bring more sand back from our next beach trip!

Just some close ups!  The gnome is all.ready!

It is 5 O'Clock somewhere, don't you know!  My faux rock says "Life Is Good At The Beach"!  These

were great Christmas gifts! 

Don't you just love the coconut bird feeder?  I received this from my friends, Carol and Chuck from one of their trips!  And of course, I have to give credit to God via the flag for He is the creator of it all!

This is a bird house my Grandpa Hershberger made!  I plan to remove the roof and put a hinge on it so I can clean it out if it's ever used by my birds.  It will look really beachy when I attach shells I bring back from the beach on it!