What We Collect

 First, welcome to the beginning of the "BER" months!  If you love the summer you may be bummed out because in a few weeks the official start of fall will be here.  But I love fall and I'm slowly going to be doing the fall decorating.  We're having our family reunion in October so I'll be a little ahead of when I normally get into the pumpkin spice, fall wreaths, and such as I get ready to host 50 or more here at the Pines.  So in that vein, I've been cleaning out "stuff" and realized I have collected too much paperwork, photos, nick nacks, and general things that I was sure I would use one day.  Two big garbage bags later, I'm getting it down to a manageable pile. I'm really a neat, like a clean house person but I sure can put something in a drawer for "later".  You know, the "later" than never comes!  I did reread some cards that my kids gave me and Jack, some sweet messages from my late mother, some poetry from dad, some photos of people I don't even remember their names even though they are relatives! Sh

Here's the engagement announcement from our local paper when Jack and I got engaged.  Monday was our anniversary.  52yrs and counting! So it's amazing this little piece of history is still around although not in very good shape....sort of like me! Ha!

A photo of my mom and dad under the apple tree on the side of the house I grew up in.  Yes, mom and dad are both in heaven and even the tree is gone. I always enjoyed it's blossoms every spring. Miss my folks and even the silly tree.

This hand print was from #2 son when he was in first grade. Look at how huge his hands were at that age. This really made me laugh!  He's was tall for his age and hits around 6'3 now and we would joke about his arm span with those long arms.  I just never thought about his hands. Not so little! I'm glad I'm almost over going through "stuff" for now.  All the dust has my allergies kicking in.  Here's someone who really is little:

My great grandson, Gabriel, who's one month old today.  I babysat for a bit while his momma was at the dentist. He's a cutie!  Here's a little thing we did last week on Friday.  The Greek Orthodox church had it's annual Greek festival in Mansfield.  Some of Jack's classmates were meeting there for lunch so we went over and had some really yummy Greek delights.

Gyros anyone? How about some dolmades and spanakopita?  There was lamb, Greek chicken, green beans the way my Greek momma used to make them and of course all the pastries.  It was a fun afternoon and since I'd never been there before we took a quick tour of the church.

Very beautiful.  The stain glass windows were amazing and I just wish my Mom could have been able to come here for church when she visited us.  We were always busy doing other things together but I know she would have enjoyed the festival and seeing this beautiful church.  So now my focus will be finishing up projects to get the house company ready..to my standards anyway!  Today the heat and humidity have us hunkering down inside and I'm looking forward to the cool front that will eventually head this way.  Labor Day is this weekend and the Ashland county fair will be this month too.  When the fair is over I really feel summer is too.  The other night I was walking Annabelle and the sun was going down and hitting the pine trees in a way that made it look very fallish!

I clicked this pic and thought the pine trees didn't even look like pines.  A few minutes later, after the sun set some more, they were back to green. Hope you have a good first week of the "BER" months!