June Theme Day-Feet

The first of the month means "Theme Day" with the City Daily Photo group. This month the theme "feet" won. I caught Braden's feet in the air while he did a flip into the pool!

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Train Over Bridge

Good morning, happy Saturday! Any fun plans over the weekend? Christian has a baseball game this morning and we will actually get to play, no rain in sight! Plus he had practice last night and that went as scheduled too! It was fun getting to talk with friends again and me and a couple of other moms even got to play outfield since our team was short a few players. That was fun,lol. I'm not quite as good as I remember from my softball days, ha!

Have you seen any good movies lately? The other day Ashlyn and I rented New In Town, it's the one with Renee Zellwiger and Harry Connick Jr...that was a really cute movie. We also recently watched Bride Wars, hilarious!

Have a great day :)

SkyWatch Friday

It's been a few weeks since I've participated in Skywatch Friday, not sure why, just busy I guess! This shot was taken yesterday at the Blue Ridge Park. We were getting ready for some afternoon thunderstorms which have been happening every day this week and we've been having to postpone our baseball games and practices. In fact, Braden and Dalton were supposed to have a game tonight, but another afternoon thunderstorm rolled in and fixed that for us. It's been so frustrating! Christian is supposed to have practice tomorrow night so keep your fingers crossed that we have clear weather!

To see skies from all over the world, visit SKYLEY!


http://skyley.blogspot.com/2009/05/skywatch-friday-no-46.html

Barn and Train

I had to take a couple of movies back so I took a little side road for a few new pictures. I pulled over to the side of the road to get a picture of this barn (you probably already know what a huge fan of old barns I am) when this train happened by. Perfect timing!

A is for Adorable

Some of you might remember when I was recently telling you that we had put some tadpoles in a fish bowl to watch them grow. Well, we have two baby frogs and the photo above is one of them. Isn't that just the cutest thing? We have 3 more tadpoles that still don't look anything like this little baby frog. Look how tiny and cute he is!

Salem Red Sox

On Mother's Day, we went to the Salem Red Sox game. The Red Sox are our minor league baseball team. I love going to these minor league games. They are so much more geared towards the kids than major league. After the game was over, they let all the kids down on the field to run the bases. The boys loved that. Christian is having his baseball banquet there too.

For more information on the Salem Red Sox, just click the title.

Snappy

The other day I found this cute little baby Snapping Turtle. He was just sitting there in the dirt and I barely saw him as I was walking by. I picked him up and brought him in to show the kids. We made him a temporary home in the fishbowl so we could observe him for a couple of days before releasing him into the pond.

I was trying to do my post on Thursday when my computer just totally went out. I don't know what happened to it but I tried everything I could think of to get it back before finally having to resort to a system restore, which worked, but I lost all my info and stored pictures. Oh well. I've got to get better at getting my pictures put on disks. I also of course lost all my bookmarks and when googling my blog "Around Roanoke" discovered someone else has stolen my identity! Yes, someone just started a new website titled "Around Roanoke"...hmmmm, oh well, it looks interesting though, but really, Around Roanoke?

I also have been wanting to publicly thank Di over at Blue Ridge Gal. Last Sunday, after hearing about our sad loss of Daisy, she stopped by our house bearing 2 bouquets of flowers. One for Daisy's grave and the other to keep in the house. She is a sweet, SWEET lady! Thank you again Di, we all appreciated it, really.

And I also want to thank all of you for your kind comments about Daisy. It truly means a lot to me.

I also was tagged by Pak over at Chorzow Daily Photo a little while back and am finally getting around to playing along! Thanks Pak :)

Here's the rules:
The rules are simple: Tag and link back to the person who tagged you. List six (un) important things that make you happy. Tag six bloggers and let them know they're "it".

My list of 6 things that make me happy :)

1) A quiet house in the morning before the kids wake up :)

2) A warm spring day like today :)

3) Getting comments from my blogging buddies :)

4) Visiting my blogging buddies from all over the world, thanks to the City Daily Photo group :)

5) Watching my boys' baseball games on a nice warm evening :)

6) Having a nice, clean house (this doesn't happen often enough,lol) :)

And now I'm tagging:


1) Di from Blue Ridge Gal

2) Marley from Cheltenham Daily Photo

3) Lois from Tallahassee Daily Photo

4) Trish from Bluff Area Daily Photo

5) BrattCat from Battleboro Daily Photo

6) Nancy from San Diego Daily Photo (my hometown!)

If you have a minute, stop over and visit my friends whom I have tagged!

Have a great Memorial weekend :)

Ribbit

Just one of the millions of frogs that live around here. At night, they are so loud that when the windows are open, you can barely hear the tv. I love listening to them. The boys have caught a few tadpoles and put them in a fishbowl to watch them change into frogs. They are growing legs now!

Ssssssss

A couple of weekends ago, I was walking around the front yard showing Christian where I wanted him to weed eat when all of a sudden he started yelling. I looked down and found this snake! He said I walked right by it, kicked it and then stepped on his head,lol...

It's harmless enough, just a black rat snake, but not something I like to find in the yard. I was trying to redirect him out into the pasture away from the house, with rakes but he insisted on going right towards the house and disappeared into a hole in the siding, ack!

So a few days later, I left to drop Ashlyn off at school for an event. The boys were all in the backyard playing catch. When I drove back up to the house, I see the 3 boys out front, one with the garden hose, another with a machete (it's very dull, never been sharpened) and the third with a bow and arrow. They found the snake in the backyard then chased him to the front with the hose and cornered him and were aiming in on the poor thing. I chased the boys away, got my neighbor and she came over and caught the snake and moved him to a field away from the house...always something exciting going on here,lol

Ransone's Fountain

After the reenactment, we stepped inside of Ransone's Drug Store/Fountain which is an old timey soda fountain. We sat up at the counter and ordered hot dogs, hamburgers and cokes. It was a bit disappointing though that our cokes were just out of a can, but they hit the spot since we were so hot and thirsty. I wonder why they don't serve fountain cokes though.

If you would like to read more about "The Fountain" just click on the title and it will direct you to the website.

R.I.P. Sweet Daisy

Yesterday was a very sad day around our house. Our dogs, Daisy and Crockett got out and sadly Daisy was hit and killed by a car. (Daisy is the lab in the corner)

Braden and Dalton were leaving for their baseball game, a mom from our team came by to take them since I had to take Christian to get a physical for football. We noticed Crockett sitting on the front porch alone and I figured Daisy was nearby since she never leaves Crockett's side.

Christian and I were getting ready to go out and look for her when my phone rang and it was my neighbor asking me if we were looking for Daisy and I told her we were and asked if she was over there. She then told me that she had been hit out on the main road and was dead. I still can't believe it. She was such a sweet and good dog. My neighbor was a huge lifesaver to me, she went and picked Daisy up and wrapped her in a tarp for me so I wouldn't have to do it. Daisy is sitting in her barn, waiting for us to bury her today.

This has been so hard on the kids, Ashlyn especially as Daisy was her dog. Little Daisy was too young, almost 2. She will be greatly missed.

Battle Of Buchanan VI

Ashlyn gets a "hands on" lesson while Christian listens. They were both surprised at how heavy that gun is!

Battle Of Buchanan V

Sorry I missed yesterday's post. We were busy most of the day getting the pool ready for summer. It's been sitting for 2 years and needed ALOT of work! We're almost there though, hopefully we'll be swimming by the end of the month :)

Have a great weekend!

Battle Of Buchanan IV

Back at camp. We spoke with one of the reenactors and he told us that the younger participants camp out all weekend, in character, cooking food from the time period, over a camp fire, etc... The man we spoke with was older and admitted to going to a hotel with a comfy bed lol.

For information on upcoming reenactments, visit
24thVA

Battle Of Buchanan III

During the Civil War Buchanan served as an important Confederate supply depot for shipment of agricultural produce and pig iron to Richmond via the James River and Kanawha Canal. Federal General David Hunter marched through Pattonsburg and Buchanan on June 13, 1864 on his ill-fated raid of Lynchburg. After the Civil War commerce and manufacturing declined in Buchanan and Pattonsburg.

Battle of Buchanan II

During the Civil War Buchanan served as an important Confederate supply depot for shipment of agricultural produce and pig iron to Richmond via the James River and Kanawha Canal. Federal General David Hunter marched through Pattonsburg and Buchanan on June 13, 1864 on his ill-fated raid of Lynchburg. After the Civil War commerce and manufacturing declined in Buchanan and Pattonsburg.

(scroll down to Saturday's photo for the first in the series)

Happy Mother's Day!

Aren't these flowers gorgeous?!! They are Native Rhododendron. My neighbor says her grandmother clipped them from out in the woods and planted this here years ago. It's thriving and taller than I am!

Hope all you moms are having a wonderful Mother's Day! :)

Battle Of Buchanan I

My first in the Battle of Buchanan photo series.

During the Civil War Buchanan served as an important Confederate supply depot for shipment of agricultural produce and pig iron to Richmond via the James River and Kanawha Canal. Federal General David Hunter marched through Pattonsburg and Buchanan on June 13, 1864 on his ill-fated raid of Lynchburg. After the Civil War commerce and manufacturing declined in Buchanan and Pattonsburg.

We had a great time, it was hotter than heck and when I would think of how hot it was, I would think about the real soldiers who actually had to endure the heat and freezing cold during the war, then that put me back in my place,lol.

The location of the reenactment is the exact location of the original battle.

Nick has several ancestors who fought in the Civil War. He had 2 great, great grandfathers who did, one was a Federal Soldier and the other a Confederate, and their children married. One of them (the Union Soldier, Watson Clark Breese) was shot in the neck with a musket ball and survived but always spoke in a whisper after. We have pictures of them in their uniforms.

For another glimpse of the reenactment, visit Erin at The Good Life in Virginia
She was also there and I love the tones she used in her photos, makes them look so authentic!

Tomorrow is Mother's Day, don't forget to call your moms!

New Friends

I know, I know, I told you all I was going to continue with the Buchanan Civil War series then I up and disappear. I've been slammed trying to play catch up after having the family here with us and a bit uninspired as well.

Yesterday though I met with some great local blogging ladies who pulled me out of blogging hibernation. We met for lunch at a local pizza place called Bellacinos.

I had a great visit with these ladies and had fun sharing and listening about local stories/folk lore. I can't wait to do it again, SOON :)

Listed in the photo, left to right are:
Cathy Benson from the Botetourt View
Diane aka The Blue Ridge Gal
Becky Mushko from Peevish Pen
Ginger from the
Land Of Milk N Honey and her little girl Rose (I love that name!).
And last but certainly not least, Anita aka Country Dew from Blue Country Magic

Thanks Anita and Diane for planning this and it was so nice to meet you all!

And now, back to my regularly scheduled photo a day series on the Buchanan Civil War Days will continue tomorrow...really!

May Theme Day-Shadows

(click on photo to enlarge to read)

Today is Theme Day for the City Daily Photo group and the theme is shadows. I could have found a more interesting shadow but was wanting to start my series on the Battle of Buchanan, a Civil War reinactment we went to over the weekend. I'll share more photos for you of the event over the next week :)


Buchanan

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