It was still raining lightly in the morning. We got up to tell Terrye good-bye and told her to enjoy Chicago, even though it's supposed to be in the single digits there. Her whole medical office is going for a conference and training. In the house, Phil was playing his guitar with music in the basement, Max was blasting his own music in his room upstairs, Duke and Daisy were being rambunctious, and Boone was sleepily rubbing his eyes. We said our real good-byes and drove off in the rain at about 9:00.We ate breakfast at a Cracker Barrel restaurant down [View Full Entry]

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We got up in time to say good-bye to Terrye before she went to work, because we might be gone before she gets home. Nancy took a pile of projects into the house again. Rich and Nancy enjoyed the rush and the noise of everyone getting off to work and to school. Then Rich drove out to the camper place to see how they were doing on the propane repairs. Nancy worked on blogs, bank work, letters, and hemming Rich’s pants. Phil called at 11:30 and said it was his office's usual burger day at the Copper Kettle and that they [View Full Entry]

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We got up early and got the camper packed up for the trip to the shop. Then we went to have breakfast with Susan, one of Nancy’s high school friends. We had a great visit. Then we went back and got Nancy’s projects out of the camper and Rich went off for repairs. Nancy worked on photos on the computer to eliminate duplicates from the different files and to then back them all up to disk. Kathy called to relay the message that Jan, with laryngitis, wanted to go out to lunch for some chicken soup. The lunch and the soups [View Full Entry]

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Today, the rest of the family got back to normal. We went to the laundromat. It only took two loads this time. We went to the Post Office to mail the paperwork for our truck registration. Rich made arrangements for the propane system on our camper to be looked at tomorrow morning, since it smells sometimes and one tank doesn’t switch to the second tank like it’s supposed to. Then we went shopping for parts for the Christmas present we’re working on. When we got back to Phil’s house, we worked on the present successfully except that we found we needed [View Full Entry]

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We started the morning making Rich’s Surprise Breakfast for everyone. It started with a toasted English muffin, was topped by a heart-shaped fried egg (part of a hearty breakfast!), followed by cheese and then heated in the oven until the cheese melted. The surprise was inside, under some layers. Then, we topped the melted cheese with each person’s initials in blueberries. Everyone SAID they thought it was yummy. Some even had seconds! Don and Betty came over, Phil’s family and Sarah, and Janet and Kathy (before work), and us, made 12 for breakfast. It was a fun time! Af [View Full Entry]

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In the morning, Phil and Terry's son Andy and his family left to go home to Charlotte, North Carolina. There was a big family circle hug in the kitchen to see them off with love. A while after that, Carol and Art left for Memphis. We had another big family hug for them. For lunch, we cleared up a lot of left-overs from thanksgiving. Then, Janet, Nancy, Jodie, Terrye, Kathy, and Betty went off to go shopping! They went to look for clothes for Terrye's trip to Chicago next week, and just to look for anything because that's shopping! Martin and [View Full Entry]

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Reflections on Thanksgiving. This was the first Thanksgiving Nancy had been with her family since she was a senior in high school. The next year, she had Thanksgiving outside Memphis at a friend's home, where she met Rich. The next year, she was on a ship near Africa. After that, we've been married and out West. Hard to make it for Thanksgiving on Thursday when school is out on Wednesday at 3:00, plus being expensive. Nancy's mom's birthday is today. She would have been 87. Sometimes her birthday actually fell ON Thanksgiving. This year, the six siblings were together again! So [View Full Entry]

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Happy Thanksgiving to all of our Bloggers! There was a lot of hustle and bustle in the morning. Some were watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Others were preparing more yummy dishes. Nancy finished cleaning the trailer. Martin came over to visit and to bring the drinks for dinner. Phil and Terrye's daughter Erin and Dina arrived with lots of hugs. The three little ones found ready arms for hugging, carrying, and holding (the baby). Nancy called Jodie and Seth to see where they were just about every hour. Jodie was navigating, while Vivian tended Rowan in the back seat. The [View Full Entry]

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Janet and Terrye and Phil have the day off, so everyone is bustling. Rich went out and about doing Rich things. Janet and Nancy went shopping for clothes and for tonight's groceries. Terrye was cooking and baking for tomorrow. Nancy cleaned up the trailer. Jodie called from Manhattan. She went into town with Seth and Vivian on the subway. They went to work and she went to Central Park with a copy of the Wall Street Journal to read. She took photos of the fabulous window displays at Bergdorf-Goodman. She went to FAO Schwartz. Then she met Seth for lunch. They [View Full Entry]

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We started the day at Home Depot looking for parts to make a Christmas present. Nancy helped do a little cleaning for company. We went over to Janet's house to check the little high chair we had refinished. We decided it didn't need another coat of finish, so we took it back to Phil's. We got hungry and decided to go to lunch at O'Charley's. It was so good! Phil joined us. Rich went to the VA to have someone check his leg. At 3:00, Kathy picked up Nancy to take her to Janet's school, Webb School of Knoxville, where she [View Full Entry]

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