My family gathered together this past weekend to surprise and honor Grandma Vera!!! There were 50+ of us present to celebrate Mother’s Day together. It was HEAVENLY!!!! I love my family so much. My family is the most loving, fun loving, accepting, down to earth family there is. I miss you all so much! I loved just hanging out all weekend watching you and visiting with you. Thank you Aunt Kelli and Cousin Debbie for exercising your hospitality gifts this weekend. Thank you for opening your homes to us!
Click on each of these pictures to enlarge. PLEASE check out my picture gallery. My folder Mother’s Day Reunion is full of pics of the entire family. Click on the thumbnail to view the whole picture.
Grandma and her six daughters Marlis, Marilyn, Nita, Linda, Kathryn and Kelli!
Aunt Marlis painted a beautiful picture of Grandma playing her guitar. The title, Strings of Love, says it all!
Grandma and her six girls went out to eat a special meal at Cracker Barrel.
Grandma and her ornery grandkids! Wow! Our group picture has changed a lot over the years!! Now I totally know what it feels like to be attacked by camera toting paparazzi!
Grandma’s Great Grandkids!! Our babies!
The food was out of this world! Thank you Cousin Justin for the lamb!! We also feasted on grilled sirloin, pork, chicken, burgers and hot dogs. The men did a fabulous job feeding us!!! Aunt Linda’s apple pie and jello salad, Debbie’s homemade bread, Mrs. R.’s potato salad, Erin’s cookies, Kiki’s dip were all scrumptous! I know I’m leaving a lot out. My pants are tight!!!
See how loving our family is? Uncle Alex enjoys smooching Uncle Butch!
Lots of hugs! Aunt Kathryn and I.
Of course, we HAD to go garage saling!!
We love to serve one another. Aunt Kathryn delights in painting Aunt Marlis’ (Tootsie’s) toenails!
Lots of gifts were given. We were welcomed to our hotel with roses and sparkling juice and rich chocolate. Thank you Cousin Debbie and Aunt Kelli!!
Grandma loves her little dog, Lucy!
We consumed a lot of coffee and chocolate covered coffee beans!!
Aunt Marilyn!
Aunt Linda!
We are all cowgirls at heart!
Our kids wrote a song and sang it to us!
Aunt Kelli. The hostess with the mostest!
We found crawdads, snakes, minnos and poop eating butterflies!
The kids LOVED playing in the river.
Grandma sparkled all weekend!!!!!
Jessica and the girls fell in love with Cousin Erin and Cousin Alexis. Thanks girls! Your time and attention meant so much!
Mom’s gift to Grandma, a beautiful butterfly quilt.
Aunt Kathryn and Aunt Kelli’s lily ponds are beautiful.
Grandma is a sports FANATIC. She had visitors to her room to watch Nascar and baseball.
The men sought the sanctuary of the living room and the TV.
The kitchen was busy and full and I miss it. I hope to see y’all again soon! I am heartsick for each of you!
The word for the weekend was acclimated!
ac·cli·mate ( P ) Pronunciation Key (-klmt, kl-mt)
tr. & intr.v. ac·cli·mat·ed, ac·cli·mat·ing, ac·cli·mates
To accustom or become accustomed to a new environment or situation; adapt.
I challenge you to use this word several times this week!
Don’t forget to check out my gallery so you can see my Grandma, Mom and all my Aunts, Uncles and Cousins! I know I’m leaving so much out but I know we’ll cover everything in the comment section!
Julie, you got some GREAT pictures, girl. ‘course look at the great subjects you had to work with.
Look in the gallery to see how nicely all the aunties smiled for the waitress. She got a better picture of them smiling proper, but we got lots of giggles in our photos. I miss you all.
Have you acclimated (or would it be re-acclimated) to all the quiet yet?! (I bet you thought your home was noisy before being here.)
Oops I typed that before all the pictures came in–the Cracker Barrel dinner picture is above (don’t have to go to gallery to see it).
Hey, I don’t see any pictures of the chain gang–were they too blurry?
Awwww. Thanks for sharing all your pics. I loved going through your gallery. What a fun and memorable trip you guys had!! I can definitely see the family resemblance in you all. Looks like you ACCLIMATED well to the surroundings. The river looked fun for the kiddos.
Tell your Mom I can really see that she looks like her mama. Your grandma looked great!!
Great job Jules, What a wonderful time. I will never forget this weekend, ever.
Cheers to our great hostesses and the cooks. It was so wonderful. Seemed like everyone talked at once, there was just a hummmmmmmm. But I was so glad to be in the middle of it all. Mom loved it. Thanks for posting all the pic. ^j^ules, it was so fun to look back. I slept in this morn. and now I am re acclimated. It was so much fun. :rotfl :love :rotfl
We got in at 1:45am Monday night. I slept in then napped later, so I should be good to go to work for the rest of the week. I miss you all so much, it was like no time had passed since we were all together. I am glad we can have such a “comfortable” loving family relationship. Just think how we’ll all be in heaven together someday!
Yeah, the chain gang ones did not turn out. :cry
Did you know in the south they make the prisoners wear black and white stripes and work along the side of the roads! I found this fascinating, but could not get a good pic! :rotfl It reminded me of O’Brother Where Art Thou!
Tootsie, (AKA Marlis) I like your new sign on name!
Debbie, it does look like they were so much tamer in public!!!!
That was the best family reunion I have ever been to in my life!
I had a great time.
We all really enjoyed Sunday morning worship.
Im having a great time just reading ya’lls posts, Deb I thought I had to work today but I looked when I got home last night and was plesently surprised I did’nt have to, know Im trying to acclamate myself to going to work tomorrow :puke. I’LL check back later, Draco has to have his P.M. B.M., LATER LOVEY’S
For some reason I have this overwelming desire to watch NASCAR now. I don’t know if I can bring myself to cheer for Jr though. :p
Percolations has new smileys!!!! I finally talked James into letting me have the band. He thinks it’s cheesy. I love it! :band
We also have drool :drool and tongue :p
Great pix. It sounds like you all had a great time. I have never seen a family that all look so much like each other!!! Such beautiful women.
I always loved wading in the river as a kid (still do).
Your band shows how well you ACCLIMATED to the tunes in Tennessee.
My computer has not ACLLIMATED to the new smiley’s. They are not showing up for me!
Better watch out, James. Next you’re going be driving like you’re a Nascar driver. That’s what all the good ‘ol boys do!
At first I thought James didn’t go. He finally shows up in the last few pictures :p
I am so proud of you for layering, Jules. You and your Auntie are matching girls. :cool
Smiley’s have ACCLIMATED here! (I figured there’d be a new cowgirl smiley!)
Mary, if you think we all look alike, you should HEAR us when we all get together. I’ve never heard so much BIG laughing and cacklin’! :indeed
Don’t the guys all look so macho next to the greyhound (I mean, lamb) on the spit! We got some good lookin’ guys too, don’t we?! (I’d use the little drool icon, but all these guys are related to me–I haven’t lived in the South long enough to start that! hee hee)
Can you tell I miss you all? I can’t be quiet tonite. :fish
Julie, are you gonna tell Mary the truth about your layering shirt?
Thanks Jules, I’m acclamating my name. :rolleyes
Looks like you had an awesome time! I love family reunions. I looked at all your gallery pics too. What a pretty family you have!
So glad you guys had a good time. Love the monkey with braces shirt Jules! We were thinking about you guys this weekend and hoping that the trip was everything you wanted and more. Glad you’re back safe and sound.
I found the monkey shirt at a garage sale that day! I love that monkey! Mary, the sleeves are built in so it isn’t really layered. Does the appearance of layers count?
We did have a wonderful time and so did the girls. They played and played with their cousins so I had a lot of freedom to visit with the adults. It was GREAT! The ride there took us twelve hours and 10 1/2 hours back. James bought a DVD player for the ride. I highly recommend that to all families with young children who will be traveling. There’s a pic in my gallery of it.
James THANK YOU for the smiley’s… I love them.
Julie youre HOT!
Thanks for being my taxi James.
Kandis
I had some delicious coffee and Biscotti this morning, thank you Jared. Very nice touch, brought back all of the weekend..
Oh I saw the pic mom took of biscotti and beans etc. I didn’t realize that was a gift from Jared. What a good nephew. He is soooo stinking cute too!
Thanks Karen, Mary, Amber and Carl. I am really tickled that y’all got to see me family!!!!!
Every night when we got back to our hotel, I kept catching myself talking with a southern accent!!!!!
Kandis, you’re HOT too! :cool
Jules, I will pass that on to Jared.Tootsie, I will let Jared know you liked the Biscotti, he will be pleased,he’s such a good son,and Jules I think he’s a doll too but I could be a bit prejudice,O.K. I’m gona just brag, all my boy’s are doll’s,their precious to Joe and I ,TOOT- TOOT my own horn.Ashley, Kiki,and Sarah are special too. :love .Jules , did I e-mail you the [SOUTHERN BELLE] thing? If I did’nt let me know , I love it , Maybe you could post it for all us southern gal’s.I talked to Linda last night, she was alittle better but I know things are weighing heavy on her and Butch, Please pray for them and the girls. later lovey’s :angel
Oh Jules could you possibly e-mail me some of the pics. you put on the blogg, I don’t know how to put my own on to e- mail. love ya later.
Yes, I received your e-mail. I need to sit down and do some e-mailing! I am still busy acclamating to home! I already planned on posting it!!!!! Maybe tomorrow! TOOT away. Us mom’s are our family’s cheerleaders!
I think you have really handsome boys, Kathryn. I didn’t know who the guy was with the beard at first til I saw a pic of him with his head up. I am sure I saw him and Ashlee, but never noticed the beard. I think all the other men are handsome too. I never made it around to where they were doing the cooking. It was such an exciting week-end for me, I just loved it. Toot Toot away Kathryn. :p :p
Butch, you should feel SPECIAL, I never got a smooch from Alex!!!!!!!! I bet your his favorite. :rotfl
LINDA :love YOU!!!!
Butch, are you Al’s favorite ? Linda, quit working so many trips, you need time to yourself. later lovey’s
Hi All,
I bet you all are having trouble acclimating yourself to all the quiet at home. Except for Julie and Debbie with a number of kids around. I really enjoyed the weekend too, I guess that’s why we go down so often. I’m really sorry I did’nt get around to go to church Sunday with you all. I do like Kelli’s chuch real well, I was just lazy. I’m really glad Marlis loved it, get busy and find you one like it, there are others around. Ours is very informal too, the youth pastor wears shorts most of the time, we don’t care what you look like or what you wear.
I’m feeling better, it helps to have a family like you all. This blog makes me apprciate each one of you even more.
Please pray for Heather some more. She went in today for another back treatment and they said her back is better but they want to do some more tests because there seems to be a mass or something in her side around her ribs that is very painful. I haave no idea what it is,hopefully nothing.
I have a trip all day tomorrow and tnnis trips on Friday, then a girls softball trip Sat. Mon, tues. Wed. I have trips all day too. Then I’m done for the summer. Unless I drive for summer school. Talk to you later, By
I am acclimating myself back to work and it is not fun :cry. Linda does Heather get on the internet and email? Does Tara? Alex loved the picture gallery. He never wants to type and doesn’t know how to get online. I’m so happy all is safe and sound and back on the blog!
Thank you James for Kandi’s smileys
I do love them.