3-26-12

::Sunday afternoon with Aud and Miles::

::The three girls in the skirts that Mom says match their personalities.::

:: ...Something Shan put together...Isn't that the coolest cup? It looks exactly like a camera lens. Some lovely friends sent it for her birthday.::

:: I get the feeling that this was very posed.::


:: Mia, Aud and Shan (and Brady, who insisted on getting in on one of the pictures.) ::

Trevor turns 3!!!

::1. Trev LOVES cows. Very much a farmer.::

::2. He loves listening to Celtic Thunder on YouTube. ('All God's Creatures Have a Place in the Choir' is his favorite.)

::3.He has adorable blonde curls.

Brrrr!!!

What happened to the lovely spring weather we just had???? I sure hope this "cold snap" isn't doing away with the fruit tree blossoms or we are all in for some pretty hefty fruit prices this summer/fall!

I woke, as usual, to the roar of our neighbor Andrew's tractor going out their lane and down the road. Andrew learned to drive from his dad Aaron: throttle wide open and as fast as their tractors will go.

They and their family have been our neighbors for as long as I can remember, and for as long as Paul can remember, and as long as Paul's mom can remember. Andrew's parents used to milk cows before Andrew's dad lost his fingers in a corn chopper one terrible day some years ago. Now they grow acres upon acres of produce. (We are standing in their sunflower field in the picture above). Sometimes you'll see them out there in the field with their mules, sometimes with their tractors. They are Amish, but they are the kind that allows for a little more variety in what they drive through their fields. As for road use: it's mostly tractors for them.

Andrew is in his twenties; he works for Blake. He is affectionately dubbed "Gabby" by all of them at the shop because he is.....ummm, very conversant (that, and it differentiates him from the other couple of Andrews who have worked there!). He is normally somewhat quiet when I am there, so I think it's kind of funny that they say he talks up a storm when I'm not around.

I'll be hearing the school bell ringing across the fields from the little school house at the back of the farm soon. Paul's mom used to go there when she was a child before the district consolidated and did away with all these little one room school houses that still dot the countryside here. I must say, I like driving down our roads and seeing these little buildings still being used (the Amish took them over). I can get a glimpse that perhaps the whole rest of the world used to live in a simpler era when I see thirty or so children of all different ages stream out of these buildings with their teacher to play a game of ball out on the diamond during lunch time.

I need to go get breakfast together. Soon, Brady and Brock will be walking in our lane after helping another of the neighbors out with morning chores. That's another of those neighbors who have been there as long we and Paul's mom can remember as well. Before all of us lived here, all of our farms belonged to different branches of a family who is no longer in the area.

Today is little Trevor's 3rd birthday. YAY.....but.....sniff, sniff....I wish I could freeze time. None of my children understand this!! They don't understand how much I enjoy all of them exactly where they are RIGHT NOW.

I'm feeling nostalgic today, I guess. I often wish I could turn the dial back on time!!

Oh, I will tell Trevor happy birthday to his little face and not here because he can't read.....however.....A VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TODAY TO YOU, DANIEL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We sure do miss you and all the fun times we had while you were growing up here!

~Colleen