By the River

More sights from Charleston

More of the City

Charleston: What we saw

Here are a couple of pictures from the Battery park (I can't remember the name of it) .

It was absolutely beautiful! Here are a couple of pictures of homes.

Charleston: Where we stayed

My sis finally sent me some pictures from Charleston, so I wanted to share some of these. I think I'll just post a few each day over the next week because she sent me several.

This is the building where we stayed. There is a stairway to the left that you can barely see. We were on the second floor in the back half of the building. Below are pictures from the inside of our "apartment."

The building that is barely visible on the left is a restaurant and the two guys hanging out in front are actually the valets for The Oak.

This is the living area. There is a small kitchen area off to the right as well as a full bath with a washer/dryer.

Here Sis and I are the door to the apartment.

This is the bedroom...and at the far end, you can see the second full bath. What you can't see is that above the bathroom area there is a loft that has exposed brick. I'm not sure that you can tell from the pictures, but the ceilings were probably 12-15 feet. The hard wood floors were beautiful and the bathrooms were lovely.

Here is a link to the website

historic charleston accommodations

It was a wonderful place for us to stay and we greatly enjoyed being right downtown where everything was happening! I post more pictures later....

Mothers and Daughters

Standing in the middle of Walgreen's shopping, my 14 year old daughter is trying to decide which type of Axe deodorant she prefers.

I notice a yellow bottle on the bottom shelf. Picking it up, I show her the Jean Nate. In my memory it is that "smelly stuff" that my mother sprayed all over herself.

I simply tell my daughter that my mother who she never knew wore this. She finds the scent pleasing and then hugs me saying, "that must bring back memories." She senses my meloncholy, but what brings tears to my eyes are not the memories from my childhood. What overwhelms me is my daughter's care for me.

Band is my LIFE

Ok...so it's not MY life--it's controlling my life though! Because it's my child's life. I was so sad to miss her very first performance at the first home football game.

But, when I did get to see the half-time show at the pep rally before the second home game, my eyes filled with tears to see my child march!

I don't think that I have ever felt so proud of something that my child has done. She has put so much time and effort into learning Trumpet and all of the marching techniques!

So, band is now OUR life as far as every Friday night game, Saturday competition, Band practices on Monday, Tues. and Thurs afternoons not to mention the Band Fundraisers including RevHub and I helping with the parking for home games! But, I couldn't be prouder of her and her commitment to doing something with excellence!

Move to France

Yeah....I wish it was me! No...it's my brother, sister-in-law and their almost 4 year old daughter! Here is a picture of where they will be living! I can't wait to visit!

He got a transfer to a plant in Grenoble, in the mountains near Italy. What an opportunity to live in a place so beautiful and to experience another culture.

I will miss them, though. It's a three to five year assignment. We hope to get over there at least two or three times, but at this point, it looks like it will be an entire year before I see them for the first time. We are taking an EO tour (4th journey of Paul) that will be a cruise starting at Athens, including Rome and ending in Nice which is about 2 hours from where they will be. So...planning to tack a few days on the trip and visit.

Alabama Constitutional Reform

In the past year, I have had the opportunity to look at some of the issues faced by those in Birmingham and Alabama who live in poverty. One of the things that I have firmly come to believe is that the situation in AL is not going to get much better until we get a new state contitution.

If you are one of my friends living in Alabama, I encourage you to go to this the Alabama Citizens for Constitutional Reform website and read. Look for opportuntities to participate and advocate. Look for ways to help make systemic change for ALL of us!

trying to post a picture

this is just my attempt to post a picture....still trying to figure this thing out!!