Phillip has had quite the week. He was gone three days to San Antonio for his work. Of course his flight was changed (something always goes a little awry with travels it seems) so that he ended up driving home around midnight Tuesday. He finished putting in the heating/cooling system this week. And we had lots of family time surrounding Uncle Lee's funeral.
We celebrated his birthday with Boston Cream Pie at Mimi and Papa's house on one of the coldest days of the year. We also had sewage troubles that day. Unbelievably, we found someone willing to come out and fix it for us. The guy was out all day fixing busted pipes and such in negative something-degree weather. What a blessing!
We're all waiting for cake.
Once we got a good snow, the kids wanted to run out in it barefoot and in blankets to see who could last the longest. I think they both came in pretty quickly. There was no toughing it out for them.
These little dark-eyed Juncos were scratching around the yard for food when the sewage guy was here. I am always amazed when I see little birds out in the coldest weather. They must be made for it. Although Harrison and I did find two frozen birds on the way to our dumpster after one of the coldest nights: a starling and a mourning dove.
Harrison is now the boy at home who does all the outside duties. We appreciated one of the Readings coming out to plow our driveway too.
One of the things I enjoyed about this snow is how the wind blew it into snow dunes. My parents asked how much snow we got. It was a puzzling question because you could see a lot of grass poking out in the yard, but we also had snow drifts 4 feet high.
I made a little snow man and used Phoebe's woven grass bowl as a hat. I took a picture of Harrison beside it, so I could send it to the newspaper. I figured they wanted to see a kid with a snowman and not me. He and a bunch of other snowmen families were in the newspaper. It's so fun to be part of a small town.
Instead of building snowmen, the kids wanted to dig a tunnel. Which they did. Several times.
The snow would blow into the tunnel at night or it would collapse; so they dug a tunnel about three times.
This tunnel was a half circle so that you could crawl through one side and out the other.
Finished product on the walls (the piping will be covered soon). We have four of these in the main rooms of the house, and I am currently being warmed by the one in the living room; they'll also cool us in the summer. Phillip did a great job getting them in!
After he finished putting in the h/c system, Phillip cleaned out the back porch. This was some of the back porch stuff in the kitchen.
It gets dirtier and messier before it gets better. Now it's all cleaned up and put away, and the back porch is much better.
Jonathan and two other classmates were given the opportunity to preach a sermon together at the Florida Bible Conference at Kissimmee Christian Church. They did a great job; we got to watch it livestream.
Jonathan also played the part of mascot for the church school's basketball game this week. That's a pretty nifty costume right there.
And now we get to the part about Papa's brother, Uncle Lee.
Uncle Lee passed away last Sunday. Paul got the phone call while we were eating lunch at the Chinese restaurant. Lee was almost 95 years old and was up and going, driving, visiting all the way to the end.
Paul is 8 years younger than Lee. When they were younger, their dad passed away, and their mom called up Lee and told him, "You've got to help me raise that boy. I don't want him getting into trouble."
Lee choked up when he told us this, when we first moved here and he came to visit us and the old house. So Lee did a pretty good job keeping Paul on the straight and narrow, I guess. They both turned out to be upstanding men. They farmed together 20 or so years.
I heard a lot of stories about Lee and the family this past week. So many people came to the visitation and funeral. Neighbors shared food and flowers. Spencer Creek Baptist served plenty of food for the funeral dinner. They were more than generous with their time and hospitality. This was my first time seeing a military graveside service if my memory is correct: three volley salute, taps, the ceremony of folding the flag and presenting it ~ it's very moving. Phillip was a pallbearer and read a Scripture for the service.
Today we had family over for lunch after church since several people were still in town. Just a side note: baking potatoes at 275 for 3 hours is too long. We'd had a little potato explosion when we got home from church. But there were still some survivors that were consumed. Plus, Eric brought over extra food that the Readings and others had given them, so we had quite a feast.
Beautiful Phoebe.
Collin and Harrison once again engaged in silent activity together.
Ava hung out by herself or with the ladies. She did not want to hang out with the boys.
It was also John's birthday today. Kristy made a birthday cake for him which served as our dessert. Thank you, Kristy, and Happy Birthday, John!
The Gore men represented:
Eric Wayne, Paul Ashford, Phillip Ashford, John Grayson, Collin Ashford and Harrison Lee. (I love all of their middle names.)
