Sunday Sadness

We had a little drama at the Cheney homestead this weekend...so let me see if I can explain it to you. So when we got home from the Cheney reunion a couple weeks ago, Cleo was showing the girls around the place when they came upon a small bird nest with 4 little eggs in it. It was in a wooden basket that was on his "hunting porch". Grandpa explained the process of laying eggs and how the Mama Bird cares for them until they hatch and that you can't touch them and every night they would go out and check on the eggs to see if they had hatched yet. Yesterday (the 4th) we had been downtown enjoying the festivities all afternoon and when we came home the girls rested for a bit and then went outside to play. Unknown to Cleo and I, they "checked on" the birds nest all by themselves and little by little last night the details of their escapade became clear to us both. They had gone out to the porch, Launa climbed up on the milkcan while Teiha kept a look out, and then Launa reached in grabbed 3 of the eggs and proceeded to crush them in her hands. Now, I'm pretty sure they were just curious to see what the little birds looked like and didn't really mean to kill them, but nonetheless they did kill them! They then proceeded to hide the evidence behind a big tree in the woods---funny girls!!! Well it was after dark last night when all this came out so Cleo couldn't really go check on things so first thing this morning he went out and sure enough...there was only 1 little egg left. He calmly came into the house, herded the girls up, and had a really long "talk" with them about how wrong this was and how sad the Mama Bird must be to discover 3 of her babies were dead. For those of you who really know Cleo, you know how much he loves nature and all animals and he saw this is a perfect opportunity to give the girls a much needed Life Lesson. They were punished by having to sit seperately for 1/2 hour and be quiet, which wasn't easy for them. They truly seemed to be sorry for their deeds and after punishment time was over, Grandpa took them outside to give the baby birds a proper burial.
This is the lone surviving bird egg...sure hope the Mama Bird won't abandon this one

Teiha and launa covering the grave

Thie girls saying a prayer over the grave

The "headstone" that Cleo made for the grave.

I wasn't out there when the burial took place, but Cleo said it was pretty cute. Their little prayer was really sweet and they seemed very sorry to have killed them and most likely will never do this again. I just wanted to share this touching story with y'all and hope that the girls learned a valuable lesson this weekend.

Week 1....

Cleo and I have been having so much fun this past 9 days with our 2 sweet (not sure that's the appropriate adjective!) granddaughters. They keep us on our toes and keep us laughing for sure. All my instincts are still there...just the reflexes are a bit slow but I'm loving every minute of it. I think Cleo is happy to go to work during the day and then get all the attention at night. Launa is definately a Grandpas' girl and Teiha is my little shadow and follows me everywhere...literally everywhere, i.e. the bathroom, the laundry room, the kitchen, everywhere! This is Launa on the couch yesterday...she has come down with a pretty nasty cold and isn't feeling too good and about 5:00 yesterday she fell asleep on the couch...so sweet.

Teiha, Launa and Grandma drawing on the driveway with sidewalk chalk

Grandpa is drawing an outline of Launa for her to color in

This is Teihas' body outline and she's getting ready to color it in

We went to the Wild Animal Safari in Pine Mountain on Saturday. You drive thru the park in your own vehicle and feed the animals. Launa was feeding this deer...she wasn't really scared for them to lick her, but Teiha would have nothing to do with that and just threw the food out the window onto the ground. They thought it was pretty fun

Both girls looking down at a pig...they were so cute but yet so ugly and they really made the girls laugh.

This is our "Redneck Swimming Pool". We turned the hottub down so the girls could use as a swimming pool, but we made the mistake of letting them run around in the grass and then get back in and the water turned pretty nasty so we had to drain it and we still haven't filled it back up. I did take them over to my friends to swim in her pool the other day and that seemed to work out much better :)

Every evening around 8:30-9:00 the little toads make their way to our back patio and Launa is fascinated by them so she makes Grandpa take her out there so she can catch them. She is really good at it and just loves to chase them, catch them, hold them softly and then let them go free. Teiha, once again, won't have anything to do with touching them but loves to locate them and make her sister catch them.

Last night while Launa was taking a nap on the couch, Cleo took Teiha for a walk into the woods and she found some turkey feathers. When they got home they played Pocahontas...it was so cute to watch them play and she obviously thought she was hot stuff.

This is Grandpa and Teiha with their feathers in their hair. She loved having Grandpa to herself for a little bit while her Sissy slept.

This kind of sums up our first 9 days with the girls. Who knows what the next week and a half will bring...but I'll be sure to post more pics for their Mommy and Daddy to see. The girls really miss them but they are being very good and don't really seem to mind being here without them. We are excited for Cori and Brandon to come on the 12th and spend a week here with us as well.

Bates Motel???

So at the Cheney Reunion this past weekend most everyone camped but since we had to fly to get there and had no camping gear, we stayed in a hotel. First a little background info...Suzan researched the accomodations on the internet and sent me the link. There was one that was an "apartment style" that could sleep up to 8 people and so our family decided this would be perfect for us and we could all stay in the same place, save a little money and have some quality bonding time. The pictures on the internet made it look so cute and cozy even though it was a little old....yeah right!!! Sue and I went and checked in...she got her room...we got ours and she did talk them down $20 so that was good...but I'm beginning to wonder if they should've paid us to stay there! Our son in law Zach is NOT a camper at all, but after seeing the room, he said he would rather camp so that just goes to show ya exactly how bad the room was...sorry Zach!! This was the ceiling...I think they were going for a cloud scene

Electrical outlet beside our bed...pretty sure it broke a few fire codes

The main (and only) bathroom

Does this look safe to you?

Entry way....probably the nicest part of the whole deal!!

Cori, Sara and Zach outside the hotel/apartment or whatever it really is

This wheelchair was inside one of the closets and it was just really creepy. If you look close enough at the crumbling wallpaper I'm pretty sure you can see an "aura" of something...

Once again, my camera had a mind of it's own...but then again it could've been the man in the wheelchair casting his evil around (aka Uncle Brent).

We laughed so hard at this hotel/apartment and had a good time despite the conditions. Sue and Brents room was much smaller than ours, but had just as many flaws. I really think the owners should renovate or possibly condemn these rooms because the next occupants might not have such a sense of humor! But seriously Sue you did a great job for what you had to work with. We sure love you guys and wish we could've spent more time together. Hope y'all enjoy the pictures and get a good laugh from them

Cheney Reunion

This past weekend was the Cheney family reunion at Lava Hot Springs in Idaho. We had a lot of fun and the little kids enjoyed getting to know each other. They had lots of fun swimming in the pool and going on the water slides there, but I didn't get any pictures of that. My camera has a mind of its own and chooses which pictures it wants to take or which ones turn out, not me! This is our granddaughter Teiha (on the left) and her cousin Sage. Teiha really loved her and wanted to smother her with attention...too cute!

Saturday morning after breakfast the kids were playing red light, green light. There were so many little girls and hardly any little boys, but the boys hung in there with all that estrogen flowing and had fun too.

Morgan playing in the water faucet.

Grandma Cheney looking over the flock. It was kind of a short reunion this year, but it did start raining on Saturday after lunch, so I guess it's just as well that we all planned to leave early. Hope you enjoyed all the family Grandma and Grandpa Cheney. We sure love you guys.

Staying Steady!

Just got home from Cleos' 3 month dr. visit (nephrologist) and everything is staying steady...YAY!! His GFR is still 22 which is the same as it was in March so that's really good. He won't go on the active transplant list until it dips to 20. All his other labs were normal as well---even his cholesterol so we must be doing something right. The only thing that was even slightly up was his sugar...do ya think it could be the 3 snack size butterfingers he has every night after dinner??? The dr. wasn't at all concerned about it and said he looked great. His weight was down 3 pounds so guess all in all it was a great dr. visit. We feel so blessed that his health is good and when the time comes for the transplant we are ready. Still have lots of family and even some friends who are willing to be tested when that time comes, so we feel he won't have to wait long for a new kidney.

We are leaving Thursday morning and heading to SLC for the Cheney family reunion. It's at Lava Hot Springs in Idaho this year and it should be lots of fun. We are really excited to see our kids/grandkids/kids-in-law and to meet Kyles' girlfriend Mikell. We are also looking forward to catching up with all the other "Cheneys" who will be there. Such a fun family and it will be fun for all the little grandkids to play together. We will be bringing our 2 granddaughters home with us for 3 weeks and then Cori and Brandon will come out for a week...so we get to have them for 4 weeks total and are super excited for that!! Grandpa has lots of fun things planned for their visit and we will be adding a new addition or two (keep ya posted on that surprise!) while they are here.

Thanks again for all the prayers for Cleos' health. We sure do love y'all.

Just another beautiful weekend...

I know it seems that some of you in the blogging world are getting a little tired of blogging, I on the other hand, never seem to tire of blogging...or reading blogs...or blog stalking! It would seem to some that our life is an open book and I just hope that y'all enjoy the read.

We have had an absolutely gorgeous weekend here and we'd much rather be outside doing something in our yard than sitting in the house. We have a couple spots in our grass that aren't looking so good, so I had a brilliant idea to go to the new house up the road where they had just laid sod and pick up some of their scraps. So Cleo hooked up the wagon for me and off I went up the street.
Nothing runs like a Deere...

And off I go.....but in the end, the scraps weren't super healthy and Cleo decided we would be better off going and buying a few plugs. So into the woods the scraps went and that was the end of that idea (sounded like a good way to save a few bucks to me!). Since the wagon was already hooked up, I headed off to look for rocks for the firepit area. I found some pretty good ones that were being used in a manmade culvert to divert water on a back road...OOPS!!! I didn't take that many and I'm sure they'll never miss them, nor will it cause any flooding. I brought them home, unloaded them and Cleo put them around the firepit he had dug a while back. I think it turned out pretty nice and I will continue to "pick up" a few every once in a while to build it up a bit more.

This is what it looks like now...it will be so much fun to roast hotdogs and s'mores on when our granddaughters come to visit.

This is the whole firepit area, with some large stumps as seating. We hope to build or buy a picnic bench soon so that we can enjoy cooking around the campfire and eating in the woods. The grass that Cleo planted about a month ago is starting to really fill in the area and now you can walk around without getting muddy or walking on stumps everywhere.

We really enjoy our "country living" and know that it may sound boring to some...but, IT IS WHAT IT IS and we LOVE IT!!!

Saras' Visit

Last weekend Sara Mae came for the weekend. We had so much fun with her and it was really good to see her. She is such a cute little pregnant woman and little Miss Kenleigh is keeping her on her toes :) She flew in on Friday afternoon and I picked her up at the airport. She had requested fried chicken and fried potatoes for dinner (much to her Dads' liking!) so we just sat around and ate and visited that night. On Saturday morning her and I went and finished her baby registry at Babies R Us...which was so much fun. I just love buying for babies, especially when they're our granddaughters!!! She had a pretty good start on it already, but was unsure about some things which she might need so we were able to get that all taken care of. Thanks for letting me help you Sara. That night we went out to a Mexican Restaurant in Peachtree City and ate dinner...YUMMY!! then came home and chilled. Cleo decided to put together his new yard wagon when we got home and so Sara and I decided to take it for a spin..... "I'm a big girl now"

Cleo and Sara checking out the new wagon...we did get it together right...thanks to Sara reading the directions (something her Dad doesn't often do!).

Then on Sunday, we went up to Jarod and Lindseys' house. Lindsey had a marketing event at a really nice salon in Smyrna to promote her new business "Gracious Living" so Cleo stayed with Jarod while Sara and I went and checked that out. We treated Sara to a pedicure and I got a manicure (Mothers' Day gift from Jarod & Lindsey...thanks guys). It was a really nice event and Lindsey had a good turnout. We wish her all the best with her new business. After that was over, Jarod grilled filet mignon for us and it was TOO GOOD!! We sat around and visited for a little while then went back home as Saras' flight left at 6:30 am Monday morning and her and her Dad needed their sleep (of course I slept in..haha!)

Sara getting her pedicure...really nice salon!!

The gang at Jarod and Lindseys' house.

Thank you Sara for coming to visit us and hope the next time Zach can come with you. We love you so much and can't wait to see you in June for the reunion. You are going to be an amazing Mom and we're very excited to meet Miss Kenleigh.

Sara might have a different "spin" on this visit and could probably be much more humorous about some of the little details I left out...so I will leave that up to her to blog or not :~)

Cleos' "Hunting" Porch

Just wanted to share with y'all Cleos' latest project. He had decided he wanted to build a porch/deck off of the shed so that he could sit (really nap!) in the shade. Our concrete patio is in the direct sunlight all day so we really did need a shaded area to relax on. So he drew up the plans, we headed to Home Depot, got all the supplies and he had a friend come over 2 weekends ago and help him get the frame square. After that, it was just him and I to do the rest. Although he tells everyone that I helped, I mostly supervised him! but I did come up with a few good suggestions (his words, not mine) and actually did run the power drill once. We got a lot of rain the first weekend so we ended up finishing it this past Saturday. It is so much fun to do things together and we're both pretty proud of how it turned out. He still has to shingle the roof and we won't be able to paint or stain it for a year due to the fact that we got treated wood and I guess it has to "cure" for a year before it can be painted. Leveling the ground for the footings

Of course...this sneaky little snake had to show up first thing!!! I still hate snakes and am pretty scared of them, but I'm trying to deal with it and not be such a wimp.

Cleo and Randal setting the footings.

Measure twice, cut once (Dad you would be proud of him!)

Getting the roof on.

The railings going up. They are a little higher on the sides and lower in the front so you can really see into the woods.

The finished product...Isn't it just too cute??? He needs to fill in around the deck with dirt and then we're gonna put a stone walkway leading up to it with some nice plants all around it. He says I can't "cutsey" it up too much because after all it's a hunting porch...but we'll see who wins that argument. We will eventually get some outdoor furniture to put on it, but for now it's just really cozy and very relaxing to sit on.

Happy Mothers Day

"Becoming a Mom might not be so difficult, but BEING a Mom is the most important job a woman can have". This is a quote that I read in our local Newnan paper one day this week and I thought it was very profound. I have truly been blessed with the BEST Mom in the world...she taught me so much about life and love and the value of being a good Mom. I love her so much and wish I could be with her to celebrate this day, but since I can't, please know how much I love you Mom and appreciate everything you have done for me and taught me over the past 46 1/2 years. I continue to learn from you each and every day.

I also want to wish all the other "Moms" in my life a very happy Mothers' Day. I am inspired every day by you all. We can all learn lessons from strong, independent and loving Moms everywhere. Being a Mom is the greatest gift ever given to me and I don't take it lightly...I will always strive to be the best Mom to each of my kids and their spouses. I pray that our Heavenly Father will bless each of you on this very special day.

I'm such a bad person!!!!

Okay so this is kinda a funny story that I just had to share and get opinions on. Ever since we moved to the southeast 13 years ago, we've always had a "bug man" who comes every 6-8 weeks to spray the inside and outside for bugs. Now, for those of you who've never been to this area, I'm telling you that there are some pretty ominous looking critters that crawl around and I just don't want them in my house. I have ALWAYS had the BEST "bug man" and they really just love their jobs...I mean come on, you'd have to love your job to crawl around and kill bugs for a living. So anyway, my bug guy hasn't been here since the end of January and I was getting a little concerned since the weather is getting warmer and things are starting to crawl around again. I got an email saying that he would be here last Wed (8 days ago) and he never showed up. So I waited until this Monday and I called and left him a nice voicemail saying that I really needed him to come out ASAP. No response, so on Tuesday I called the office and left another voicemail, not quite as polite this time but still friendly...and still nothing. So this morning I emailed them and said that I was more than happy to find another company that would come out and within 30 minutes of sending that email someone finally called me. Now, here's the clincher, my "bug man" died yesterday morning!!! Apparently he had been in the hospital in ICU for a week and then died yesterday so the company was scrambling to find people to cover his route. I feel like such a nasty person, but seriously don't you think they could've at least sent out a group email to all his customers letting them know the circumstances and that they were doing their best to cover his route??? Long story (not so short!) they sent someone out right away and he was the nicest man and he did our bug service. He said they would do their best to find a replacement as soon as possible and there shouldn't be any further interruption in our future service.

Now my question to y'all is: Am I a bad person or could I have handled it better??? What would you have done???

Easter Weekend 2009

So this is a picture of our beautiful Easter table. Our daughter in law, Lindsey, is really good at doing arrangements, table settings and just about anything else and she had asked if she could set the table at our house for Easter dinner. Of course I said yes...one less thing for me to do...so she started with the beautiful table cloth the Cleo bought when he was in Northern Ireland many years ago. I think I've used it less than a dozen times since we've been married, but it really is beautiful and makes a great Easter theme because of the colors in it. She then put my china on the table (which is kinda funny since we had fried chicken!) and then just went thru my buffet looking for other things to add to the table. I had decided to eat at the breakfast table instead of the dining room table since it was just the 4 of us and this way we could see the tv and keep up with the Masters Golf tournament :) It all turned out really pretty...thanks a ton Lindsey.

Cleo had requested fried chicken, baked mac-n-cheese and biscuits for Easter dinner so we totally opted for "non-traditional" this year. It was sooo yummy and totally fat & cholesterol free..hahaha!! Lindsey brought angel food cake with strawberries and whip cream for dessert and the whole day was wonderful. We all just relaxed after dinner and finished watching the Masters Tournament...I really love golf and this years' tournament was exciting.

Cleo brought home this skid steer on Friday to finish up leveling the woods behind the house.

It rained (freakin' Monsoon!) on Friday night so it was pretty wet on Saturday when he started out but the sun finally came out and the wind blew a little so it helped dry it out some. He was pretty much able to finish leveling. Now we just need to get some grass seed and straw and seed that area back there. It will really be nice when it's all done.

On Friday night, we met Jarod and Lindsey up in Atlanta and went to the Braves home opener at Turner Field. The game started at 7:30 and I was so excited because although we've been to lots of games, we've never been to a season opener. So I told Cleo we needed to leave at 6:00 (usually a 40 minute drive) so we could have at least 45 minutes to walk around and do a little shopping at the stadium...Yeah right, 2 1/2 hours later we finally pulled into the main parking lot at the stadium just in time for the rain to start and by the time we got from the car to the front gate, it was in the 3rd inning and they decided to do a rain-delay! Well, the tickets we had were awesome seats (right behind home plate) but they also allowed us to get into the 755 Club so we all went up there and sat and ate dinner and waited for the rain delay to end. You cannot even imagine the rain that fell on that field, there were parts of it that looked like they were under a foot of water and we kept thinking there's no way they can restart this game, but 2 hours after the rains started they were able to restart the game. We were totally amazed at the drainage on that field and you couldn't even tell it had rained when the game restarted. We were excited to finally see them play...the game went into extrat innings and the Braves finally won at the end of the 10th and we got home at 2:15 am!!! How exciting is that for the home opener??? Gotta love them Braves.

Well, this turned out to be much longer than I anticipated. Hope y'all had a wonderful Easter and thanks for checking in on us...

Boys & Their Toys!

Ok, so I'm guessing there aren't too many of you out there who can truly say their husband brought home this big of a toy to play with...am I right??? Cleo had been telling me that there was a piece of equipment he wanted to borrow from work to dig up the tree stumps in the woods immediately surrounding our yard, but honestly, I had no clue it would be this big!!! On Friday night after work this is what pulled into our yard---imagine the look on my face and more importantly, the look on Cleos' to have this "toy" to play with over the weekend.

So he got to work early Saturday morning and spent about 8-9 hours digging up tree stumps and then making piles of debris and then removing those piles of debris into the woods. I'm pretty sure he was in his glory all day sitting on that piece of equipment. It's a good thing he spent so much time out there yesterday as it was pretty muddy already with all the rain we've had over the last couple weeks and it's starting to rain this morning. He did get the backhoe stuck slightly a couple times yesterday but nothing too serious.

This was the first stump to come up...

This was several hours into the project...sleeves rolled up and gloves on!! Down to business now!

One of the many piles of debris...and while it looks as if he just made a mess, there was a method to his madness. He now needs to get a skid steer (not sure what that is either!) and he says he can level it all out and "dress it up" so that he can then put seed down. There will be a firepit in the middle so we can enjoy nights roasting marshmallows or making smores and while we still have lots of work to do, we are enjoying it all very much.

I am very grateful for a husband who loves to "play" with big toys and who loves doing fun things to our property. We still have many plans but a little at a time.....