Memories, The Heart Of Our Home

Have you ever had something so monumental to tell that you had to wait, until you could get it just right?

Well, I have one of those things to tell. I hope I do it justice because to me, it is very monumental.

Rumors run rampant, sometimes, in our little town. Sometimes, they take on a life of their own. There are many, many things I love about Andrews, but the spreading of rumors is the one thing that I've always hated. So before the rumors start, I would like to tell the story.

If, perhaps, you have heard rumors that Cliff and I have sold our home and are moving from Andrews, then for once.....that rumor is true.

I have lived in Andrews for 49 years and Cliff has lived there his whole life. We've gone to school there, worked there, married there, had children there. We've raised our family there and our grandchildren were born there. Our mothers and most of my siblings still live there. And through the years, we have made so many memories there. We still love Andrews. It will always be home. But, there comes a time when you get to a crossroads and have to make a decision whether to stay or to go. For Cliff and I, the decision was to go.

When Whitney and Jason moved to Denver and when Emily and the children moved to the upstate, the decision got real easy. We wanted to be closer to our grandchildren and when we found the lake house, I knew it would only be a matter of time.  We didn't know when, but we knew the move was coming.

Having said that, I was caught completely off guard when this sweet young lady texted me and said that she had heard it through the grapevine that Cliff and I might be interested in selling our home and asked if it were true. It was true to some extent, but we had not been thinking about it for some time and we definitely had not been trying to sell. But that day, just a couple of months or so ago, we began a conversation and it ended with us selling our house to this wonderful young couple. I couldn't be happier for them. I know they will be great caretakers of our house and will love it and enjoy it, just as we did. I know they will make many memories there, just as we did.

I'm not gonna lie......I get so emotionally attached to things!  Although the decision to sell was easy and even though I know it's time to move on and start this new chapter, I am having a hard time leaving. Every thing I pack and every box I stow, there is a memory. Every cabinet I empty and every corner I clean, there is a memory. I look at the rocking chair and see myself rocking our grandbabies to sleep. I look at the floors and see my grandchildren crawling on them. I look at my kitchen sink and see the times I stood there washing dishes and Cliff sneaking up behind me to scare the bejeebies out of me. I look at the stairs and remember sneaking up them to listen to Emily and her friends as they sat on her bed and had girl talk. I remember when Whitney's science project went bad and she threw up on the same stairs. I still see red paint on the telephone pole out back from where Emily backed her car into it, not long after getting her driver's license. I still see Whitney getting ready for prom and having her picture made with her granddaddy with his arms wrapped proudly around her. I still see every Christmas tree, every meal, every family event spent there. I still see Whitney and her friend, Sarah, swinging in the hammock while eating watermelon. I still see Billy, the goat, as Emily caught him and held him by the horns to teach him a lesson in who or who not to head butt. I still see Lidia running to the barn, rope in hand, because she was going to lasso the horses. I still see Sawyer lying flat of his belly in the dirt watching ants crawl around. I still see Abbie, our lab, as she ran the perimeter of the property when we returned home as if to say....."It's safe, I've made it safe for you to live here." And safe it has been.....our sanctuary, our place of calm in troubled waters, our place of joy and laughter, our heart.....our home.

We will miss our home and Andrews so much! I can't even count the times I've broken down and cried over it. But, like I've said.....it's time to move on. I will take all the memories and love for this place with me. And I will come to love and make more memories down the road.

This is our last day as residents of Andrews. Today, we close this chapter and head on down that road. We have, for years now, been enjoying our little place at the beach and will continue to do so. And we have our place at the lake, as well. We will be living between the two, until........

Laurie

Scrapbooking....

Many years ago, I was a Creative Memories Consultant. It all began after I saw a story about Creative Memories featured on the Oprah show. I asked my friend, Kathie, to go with me to a crop in Florence and I fell in love with the idea. I didn't sign on as consultant until a little later, but when I did it was so much fun teaching others how to preserve their memories in a safe way so that future generations could know and enjoy their ancestors of today. After a few years and some changes in CM, I decided to not be a consultant anymore. That's when Kathie decided to join the Creative Memories company and become a consultant. She's been at it since.

I still believe in the concept. You must safely store your photos and what better way than in an album that you can decorate and journal your life story. I love it!

In the last few years, however, I have been lax and needed something to kick start my scrapbooking, again. Kathie holds scrapbook retreats a few times a year and it just so happened that I was able to attend one this last weekend.

It was five of us and we had so much fun. There was girl talk, massages, cropping, eating, recipe begging, scrapping, Cricut cutting and more. Whoa, back it up..... I know what you must be thinking....massages? At a scrapbook retreat? Well, yes! Kathie had a masseuse come give massages to anyone that wanted one. I did! Thank you, very much!

I have to say, that little scrapbook retreat was all it took to get me hooked, again!

I'll show you a few of the pages I worked on. I like my pages simple with just a little color and maybe a die-cut or two. The most important thing to me is telling the story....preserving that memory of the day. In my photos below, you will see the page layouts, but I decided to do my journaling later at home, when I had time to think about what I wanted to write.

If you don't scrapbook, why the heck not?  I challenge you to give it a try. Do a little research....maybe watch a youtube video or if you have questions, shoot me an email. Or, if you are local, I can put you in contact with Kathie. When choosing your supplies, just make sure your albums, paper and decorations are acid free.

If you do scrapbook, HOLLER!  Now, go take a look at mine.

 One of our scrapbookers is missing from this photo. That's the masseuse on the left.

 A trip to San Francisco.

A 10K run on a beautiful barrier island, right here in SC.

A few more pictures to complete the story....all that is needed now is my journaling. 

Think you might want to give it try? I hope so!

And then, today, I attended Award's Day at Sawyer's school. 

 This little cutie received an award for having all A's in the first nine weeks of school.

I'm a proud LaLa! 

And, I love him!

Laurie 

An October Weekend

 Sunset at Lake Greenwood

I think it's safe to say that our weather has now changed for cooler days and even cooler nights. We had a frost warning overnight at the lake. This weekend was sunny and bright, there was absolutely no humidity and the air had a cool crispness to it. From our den, we have a straight line view of some color going on in the trees across the lake. You can almost see the color changing in real time. I'll share those later.

This morning, however, I thought I would post a pictorial history of our October weekend. There were lots of different events I wanted to share....

 Hellooooooo!

This is Beulah. She was waiting on the doorstep, when I arrived to the lake on Friday.  She's new to our family and a perfect farmhouse addition.

I'm trying to find a spot for her to hang out.... I'm thinking the dining room, but only time will tell.

While I'm introducing inanimate objects that live in my home, I have to show you what Miss Bones has been up to. She caught a ride with Cliff to the lake and was a hit on the interstate. HaHa! 

She is looking forward to Halloween at the lake.

We celebrated Sawyer's 9th birthday at Gravatopia in Greenville.  Wall to wall trampolines, y'all! I caught Lidia mid jump....but Sawyer was harder to capture. He played dodge ball almost the entire time and was jumping around so much, I couldn't get a good picture.

 She's looking so much more like a young lady. I can't stand that they are growing up so fast.

 This is Sawyer and one of his good friends, Ethan.

I couldn't get a jumping photo of Sawyer, but cake and presents caused him to sit still. He had a mine craft themed birthday. See his cake?  Emily got creative. If you know anything about mine craft, then you know that this is a creeper......so says, Sawyer. HaHa!

 Cliff's mama, Ms. Wanda.....Sawyer's great-grandmother sent him some money with some gum and a sweet note. Sawyer loves gum! Hmmmm, wonder where he got that trait from? 

Ms. Wanda and I were talking about the gum and how we thought that the first thing Sawyer would do is to give Lidia a piece. He shares everything with Lidia. They are sister and brother and the best of friends. He always looks out for her. Even so, I guess there are just some things that you keep all to yourself. Both pieces of gum went straight to his pants pocket. HaHa!

 Ethan on the left, was so helpful in opening presents. He gave Sawyer a helping hand in opening all his gifts and cards. HaHa! He seemed more excited about them than Sawyer.

 Our gift to Sawyer....Boggs camouflaged rain boots. Sawyer said, "this is just what I wanted"!

HaHa!! LaLa's knows these things.....

Sawyer and Lidia had friends coming over to play after the party, so they didn't come to the lake with us this weekend. 

But no matter, a nice cool weekend didn't go to waste. We had our first fire. Yay!

I was warming my feet by the fire and noticed that my Croc looks sort of like Jason's mask from Friday the 13th. Do you sense a Halloween theme moving through here?

 We even had dinner by the fire.... Vegetables and hummus, apples and peanut butter. 

Speaking of dinner, it seems like Sunday nights are turning into Souper Sundays. Last week, it was potato soup and this week..... Clam Chowder. 

Want the recipe?

Here you go:

Clam Chowder

4 slices bacon

1 white onion, chopped

3 stalks celery, chopped

 2 cans minced clams (drain and reserve broth)

2 cans cream of potato soup

1 can stewed tomatoes, (petite)

1 can cream style corn

1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

Dash of Texas Pete or Tobasco

Salt and pepper to taste

1 tsp. sugar

2 cups milk

Saute bacon, remove from pan when done. 

Saute onion and celery in bacon drippings. 

 Add drained clams (will add broth later). 

Simmer 2-3 minutes. 

Add cream of potato soup, clam broth, milk, tomatoes and seasonings.

Simmer about 20 minutes.

Add cream style corn, heat through for a couple of minutes...stirring to prevent corn from sticking. 

Crumble bacon over top.

It's so delish!

Happy October, y'all!

Laurie

 

Dubble Bubble

This is something my girls will appreciate....

Do y'all remember Dubble Bubble bubble gum? Well, I was cleaning out a cabinet and all the way in the back, I found a tin full of them. I gave the bubble gum to Cliff.

Oh dear Lord, what have I done?

Y'all those things are as hard as brickbats. But that didn't stop Cliff from tearing into them. He's been chewing bubble gum for two days, now.

Cliff used to buy a bag of bubble gum to carry on family road trips. He and the girls would nearly drive me crazy popping gum. They visited a cave once and had a ball popping their gum just to hear the sound echo off the cave walls.

This also made me remember what we used to do to my daddy. After church on Sundays, daddy would take the family to grandmama's for a visit. After some of us girls got older, we would want to stay at home and listen to Casey Kasem's top 40 on the radio or visit with our friends. There are six kids in my family and two or three of us would gang up and pop our gum until daddy would get so mad that he would send us to the car and take us home. HaHa!! It worked every time. And now.....the old adage, 'What goes around comes around', certainly rings true.

Cliff is popping that gum, like nobody's business. I'm almost ready to take him somewhere!

Laurie

Ocean Senses

 

Cliff and I spent a couple of hours on the beach, today.

All but one of my ocean senses were invoked.

 

Sight:

I watched pelicans dive bombing....trying to catch fish. I watched as the waves rolled in and left again. I watched the seagulls soar just above the surf.

I saw how blue everything looked and I couldn't get enough. 

 

Sound:

I listened to the waves gently crashing on shore. I listened to the sounds of the seagulls. And, I listened to nearby children romping in the waves and their mother calling them in. 

 

Touch:

I felt the cool, slightly damp sand beneath my feet. I felt the warmth of the sun and then later, the cool ocean breeze.

 

Smell:

The smell of salty air reminded me to just breathe.

 

 

 Laurie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile, back at the Lake......

It's raining, again! 

Sawyer fell in the lake.

Lidia just about laughed her head off at him.

He had to strip his clothes off in the garage.

Later, he stepped in an ant bed and had to strip his clothes off again...this time in the kitchen.

We had potato soup for dinner.

I nearly cut off my finger slicing the potatoes for the potato soup.

Whitney likes to give me a heart attack...she thinks she wants to become a pilot and work for Swiss Air.

Excuse me while I go take an aspirin and nitroglycerin pill.

***************

On a serious note.....IT IS RAINING, again! 

I don't know how much more my hometown of Andrews can take.

There is so much devastation.

Please continue to remember them in your prayers. 

Even in the wake of such devastation, it is very heartwarming to see how people of our town, state and neighboring states have come to help, however they can. 

Helicopters flying nurses with medical supplies into areas inaccessible by car. 

Donations of clothing, food, toiletry items, baby diapers, bottled water and all sorts of necessary items are being collected and distributed all over South Carolina.

Neighbor helping neighbor!

Did you hear what LSU did for the Carolina Gamecocks?

LSU was supposed to play the Gamecocks in Columbia this weekend. 

But, due to the catastrophic floods in Columbia last week, LSU welcomed the Carolina Gamecocks to play on their field, instead. It was such short notice, but that didn't stop LSU's band from learning USC's fight song to play for the Gamecocks and for the warm welcome the Gamecocks received from the good folks of Louisiana. 

And to top it off, LSU is donating the profit from their ticket sales to help the people in South Carolina.

Doesn't that give you goosebumps?

Laurie

I Feel Blind

Lake Greenwood, SC

 
Calm waters and a beautiful sunset. This is what is directly in front of me.....a far cry from what was going on just a few days ago. The waters in the upstate have started to recede. Recovery efforts are starting to take place. However, back home, they are bracing for what's coming. The first wave was the heavy rains and flash floods. The second wave is happening now. My hometown of Andrews is under secondary flood warnings. The waters from the upstate are headed for the sea by way of rivers that run through the Low Country. The already swollen rivers are at historical flood stages.

I feel blind.

I am still at the lake and can only imagine what my hometown is going through. I see a few pictures of the flood and homes that have succumbed to the rising waters and I hear the stories, but it's all so surreal. I want to be at home to see what's going on in my neighborhood.  But with all the road closures, it would be like traveling through a maze to get there. For safety's sake, it's better that I stay put for now.

 Johnson Swamp at Highway 521, Andrews, SC

Black River is still rising and spilling into the swamps and low lying areas around it. The water is expected to crest by tomorrow. A friend posted this on Facebook, today. This flooded road is only a mile or so from my home, which is still safe. As I've said, it's on higher ground.

My heart goes out to all those affected by the floods. I just wish I could be there.

Laurie

Update: Historical 1000 Year Flood of SC

This is the dam at Lake Greenwood. If you look just above it and to the left,
you can see our lake home. We are on high ground and our property is safe.
This picture was taken Sunday, Oct. 4, 2015.

This is Sawyer, Cliff and Lidia looking on as 4 gates are open to release water from the swollen lake. And you can see the water spilling over the sides of the Saluda River.

I took this picture of the dam, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2015. You can see that 2 of the gates have been closed and the water level in the river has receded some.

This is being called a Historical 1000 Year Flood event in South Carolina.

At the time of this post, we are still flooded in South Carolina. The water is down in some areas and still causing problems in others. I woke up to news that there has been another evacuation ordered in Columbia because of a possible dam breach. The rivers downstream are still rising.

At the time of this post, there are nearly 300 roads and 166 bridges closed. There have been 18 dams breached. We are urged to stay off the roads. Rescue workers are still helping survivors and working to recover victims. To date there has been 16 deaths attributed to this historical flood event. There are people that have lost everything.

Cliff and I are still at the lake because our way home is through Columbia, the city that Interstate 26 runs through. Columbia has so many road closures, it would be difficult to find a way through. I-26 has had portions of it closed due to flooding and compromised bridges. Hwy 378, Garners Ferry Road, also our route home, was devastated.

I see the news reports and the pictures and videos, but since I can't see it with my own eyes, it doesn't feel real. I want to get home so badly. I want to see what is going on in my own community.

The pictures I'm posting below are not my own. They are pictures I've copied from Facebook or News Sites. I feel like it's important for us to remember such a historical water event....to remember the power of water and mother nature. Not only to remember this devastating event, but to remember God's grace and mercy. It could have been so much worse.

I leave you now with the pictures from around of state of South Carolina: 

 This is Lakewood. Our beach home is here...about 5 streets over. 

Again, our home is on higher ground and we are okay.

 This is Front St., Georgetown. I ran my first 5K and my first half-marathon on this very street. You can see the town clock near the upper right-hand side of the photo.

 

Columbia, SC

I believe this is from Charleston, SC. A few coffins have been rising up out of the ground.

I can't tell if this is I-26 or parts of Hwy 378, but you can see standing water causing road closures.

 Not only are roads washed out and flooded, but trees have fallen across roads.

 

 Railroads have been affected.

 Columbia.

So many people have been affected. It's not over yet. I just heard from my sister in Andrews, our home town, that the river is still rising and friends are being evacuated by boat. The area across the river is cut off from town and people are running out of food. 

Once again, please pray for SC.

Thank you!

Laurie

Rain Locked

We're basically stuck in the upstate. The rain that we've been experiencing is wreaking havoc on our state of South Carolina. There are areas at Myrtle Beach that's flooded. Georgetown, the town next door to our town of Andrews, is flooded. Areas of Andrews is flooded. The mid-state is flooded. Friend's homes are flooding. Highways are closed. There was one building in Columbia that collapsed, that I know of. Lawn furniture, garbage cans and other debris is floating down roads. There are downed power lines and snakes to watch out for. We are being told to stay indoors. Don't drive. You will be putting yourself in harms way. And for heavens sake, don't drive through flooded neighborhoods...it causes waves and pushes more water inside homes.

For now, we really are stuck at the lake. There are portions of the interstate that is closed and back roads, too. So we may be here for a couple more days until the water recedes.

At the lake, the water which normally stands pretty much still, is tumultuous.  It's rushing toward the dam. They are releasing water from the dam, as well, and just on the opposite side of the dam from us looks like a waterfall.

To see a little of what's going on here, I've attached this video.

http://www.wltx.com/videos/news/local/2015/10/04/building-collapses-cars-submerged/73328598/

( I hope this video works...our internet is down, so I'm posting from my phone.)

We are safe and so is our property, but we have friends affected by all this water. Please remember our state, our communities and friends in your prayers.

Thank you!
Laurie