Paw-Paw

My Paw-Paw passed away a few weeks ago.  We traveled to Mississippi to be with our family and attend the funeral.

 We got there on Thursday evening and got to spend some time with my cousin's sweet baby, Caroline.

 We Skyped with Cousin Carter too!

 Caroline loved Sophie.

John Curtis loved Grandma's bathtub.

 

The funeral on Friday was nice with so many people showing their respects to my Paw-Paw.  He was born and raised in Vicksburg, raised his family there, was a coach, teacher, principal and assistant superintendent and touch so many lives.

 He was buried next to his parents

in the same cemetery as the first Mendrop who came over from Germany. 

 

While I heard so many amazing stories about my Paw-Paw,( how he had given them their first job, how he kept them in line in high school, how he greeted them each Sunday at the church door), to me he was just Paw-Paw.  He would take us fishing and to the dump (and then candy store).  He would drive 8 hours to Texas to see me play a ball game and he drove in his later years to meet both of my children.  This larger than life man loved his family and was committed to them and his church.  Besides his family, one of his biggest passions was education.  He raised 4 children, who all have at least one college degree.  He raised those children to be committed to their family and each one is still married to their first spouse.  He had 7 grandchildren and lived to see all of them graduate from high school.  All of us have either finished or are currently enrolled in college.  He got to see 3 of us married and meet 4 great grandchildren.  During the last conversation my cousin, who is a freshman  at Mississippi State, had with him, he made sure to ask her about her GPA.  He was such a special man and he left a huge legacy behind in our family.

 

This was the last time the kids and I saw my Paw-Paw last Christmas.

 

Such good memories with this wonderful man!

5th Grade Science and Leadership Camp

I know I write often about how thankful I am for my kids' school and how thankful I am to get to work there with them.  One of the strengths of our school is that we aren't afraid to get out and let the kids experience life.  We take trips around town all the time and out of town at least once a year.  A big treat for the 5th graders is that they get to go to science camp for a week at the HEB Foundation Camp in Leakey.  They spend the week exploring the science TEKS in nature with hands on experiences that will help them remember the concepts.  Since I have a 5th grader this year, I got to go, and since they needed more men, Taylor was asked to go.  We had a great week.  JC got to spend the week with Poppa back at home and they had a good week together.

 It was fun to spend the week with my girl and her sweet friends.

 They got to kayak and swim in the river,

 hike,

 go through different science stations,

 play GaGa Ball,

 and their favorite - climbing and rappelling!

What a great week!

 

House Progress:Office

Our last room to try to get done was Taylor's office.  Honestly we wanted to quit and just call it done.  In fact, I did quit.  I told him I couldn't paint another wall and I thought the off white neutral color was fine.  Thankfully Taylor persevered and when the kids and I went out of town at the end of the summer he finished the floor and painted.  We are so glad he did.  He spends a lot of time back there and finally has a place to spread out all of his books and papers other than the kitchen table.  It is the one room I had no say in - it's all Taylor!

This is where the office is located in the house - tucked off the game room to the left right when you come in the back door. Nice and secluded

 The previous owners had it set up as another bedroom.

Here is Taylor's masterpiece.  He made this collage for Facebook and then deleted the pictures so this is all I've got.  Let's be honest - I can't just go back there and snap some new pictures because at the moment it doesn't look like this. It is a room right off the back door that no one goes in so it's a perfect place to drop all our junk!

 

 

So we're done with house progress for a while.  We thought we'd do some outside work on the weekends this fall but we haven't gotten around to it yet and I'm not sure we will until the Spring.  We're still recovering from our marathon remodel, but we are enjoying our house so much!

House Progress: Guest Room

Our guest room was the first room we actually finished as far as the tile, paint, and ceiling.  Last weekend my parents brought the bed for the room and we finished putting it together.  With all of our family living out of town I really wanted to find a house with an extra bedroom.  I'm so thankful we have a comfortable place to put our company!

 

 This is the room when we bought the house.  The previous owners used it for an office.

 Now here is our sweet little guest room.

 This room is very different from the rest of our house.  The bed was my sister's when we were growing up and before that it was my aunt's.  I'm not sure where it originally came from or how long it has been in the family.  The desk in the corner was ours when we were kids as well.  It was in Sophie's old bedroom. The quilt was made for me by my grandmother.  The pictures on either side of the bed are photos I took in the Cinque Terre in 2001.  There is a great view out of the window too.

 We put Sophie's sewing and painting corner in this room.  She's been spending quite a bit of time in here working at her desk and sewing table.  Don't tell JC but since it is across the hall from her room she's treating it like an extension of her room.

 We hope it will be a nice place for our guests to stay.

Come see us sometime!

House Progress: Den

Though we've been finished with the grunt work for a few weeks, we just now finally got our den all put together and I am in love with it!  This was the room I wanted to be cozy and warm and it is everything I wanted it to be.

But first some before pictures....

 

 

 Here is the before picture of the room when we bought our home,

and another view from the kitchen.

 Then it looked like this.  Taylor is sitting next to me and says he can't even look at these pictures.  They stress him out!

 Everyone pitched in!

 For a LONG time it looked like this and the kids loved it.  They rode their scooters inside.

And now....

It looks like this!

Our Erick Sandlin original

The view into the front living room with the window again.

My sweet Carter where I can see him all the time.

 

So there it is!  We are enjoying it so much.  We still need some finishing touches on the guest room and Taylor's office, but it feels so good to be finished.



End of Summer Fun and Back to School

Summer was great this year and we were sad to see it end.  It was a different summer working on the house and not traveling as we normally do in the summer, but I cherish all of the time we had together.

 

 

 Before school started we made our 2nd annual ( I just decided to make it an annual event) kayaking trip to the South Llano river with the Barkers.  The kids love kayaking!

 The next Sunday we made an overnight trip to Abilene to do some back to school shopping.  Leia and I got a hotel room for us and the kids and then on Monday we met friends at the Abilene Zoo.

It was a great day with great friends!

 

Then it was back to school time!  We had a great first week back, but at the end of the week we had 2 very tired kiddos and 2 very tired parents!

 

Ready for a great fall!