Granny's

 

As I've mentioned before, our sweet feisty Granny

moved into a nursing home, to meet her needs that come with

worsening symptoms of Alzheimer's disease.

 

It's been a bumpy road, there has been good days and bad.

Especially difficult for my Mom, and her siblings.

As if that wasn't hard enough, there was still her house to take care of.

 

This house is my favorite place on earth.

It's my sister's favorite place on earth.

Probably safe to say it's one of my brother's favorite places on earth.

This gorgeous home, tucked away in a beautiful neighborhood in Leitchfield, Kentucky

has held so many of my most precious childhood memories.

 

Including my siblings, we have all spent so many summer, fall, winter and spring days here visiting.

Although it's forever summer at Granny's in my mind.

 

The last few months, Mom and Dad have been working very hard,

(along with a family friend that also helped clean Granny's house)

to start the long process of cleaning out and organizing everything that was left

after Granny's move to the nursing home.

Amy and I made a few quick trips to bring furniture home that meant something to us,

along with odds and ends that we wanted to fill our homes with.

Things to remind us of Granny, and her home that we cherished so much.

 

Meanwhile, between cleaning, and distributing pieces of furniture between the family,

the house was on the market.

Turns out, a neighbor behind Granny's house (past the woods)

and a family member of one of Granny's long time neighbors...

who happens to be in construction, and wants to remodel... 

and who happened to always love Granny's house...

and who happens to want to keep Granny's little dog Fidgit...

bought the house.

 

A true God send.

A literal answer to prayers.

We all couldn't believe how that worked out so well.

How much easier it was to hand the house over to someone

who will take such good care of it, and love it as much as we do.

Apparently even with the open invitation for us to visit,

"any time we wanted."

 

That was one of the things that hurt the most,

knowing that we might not ever be able to step foot back in to the house.

To have those memories of playing on the stairs,

playing by the creek,

playing baseball in the front yard,

staying up way too late, and drinking too many beers with our cousins,

come flooding back to us.

We will though, with family still in Leitchfield, and an open invitation,

it will be feasible to still visit every once and a while,

and for that I am so very thankful.

 

 

So one last time.

One final visit before the keys were handed over.

The little boys and I packed up, picked up my niece Avery,

and headed down to spend a couple of days and one last night with Mom & Dad

in the almost empty house.

 

I needed to soak up every ounce of this house, & everything that I love about it.

 

The swing inside the open garage.

 

 

The back deck.

 



The endless gravel driveway.

 



 



The barn.

 



  

How the sprinkler always finds the backyard in the summer.

 

 

 

Baseball in the front yard.

 

 

 An abundance of memories, spent with family.

That I know we will all remember, and cherish for as long as we live.

Thankful for a few new ones made on our last visit.

 

I have to admit, I had a melt down while cleaning up the toys left in the front yard,

the day we were leaving.

I just can't believe that this huge part of our lives has come to an end.

Can't believe it came time for our beautiful Granny to need to be in a nursing home.

Can't believe her beloved house, that she and all of us love so much

will be handed off to the next family to enjoy it.

Just can't believe it is that time.

That's how life goes though,

all things must come to an end.

 

We will miss it, so much.



 



End of the Spring Season, Go Indians!

 We have had SO much fun this Spring/Summer in 4 yr old t-ball.

This was the first season Case got a "real" uniform,

and man, was he eating it up.

 

Matt assisted Coach Chris this season, we were blessed to have such a wonderful coach,

 and meeting more awesome baseball families this Spring.

 

 

I helped out with a few of the Team Mom duties,

it was wonderful being involved, and getting to know all of the sweet kids on Case's team.

 

One of my favorites was the night there was a worm in the dugout...

 

 

So stinkin' cute!

 

Even little Rhetter man got into a lot of the action,

he was a welcomed guest into the dug out every practice and game,

and he definitely thought he was part of the team. ;)

 

 

 

Although, he spent most of the games exploring the creek, woods and practice fields behind the t-ball field, followed closely behind by our neighbor and his buddy Joe. ;)

 

We were so sad to see the season come to and end,

we had an awesome team, and loved our weekly practices and games.

We all truly looked forward to each one.

 

 

We never have to drag him out of the house if we mention the word, "baseball."

 

The boy got 2 game balls this season,

you cannot even begin to put a price on the smile after each one.

Absolutely priceless.

 

 

 

Come on, fall ball!



Daddy's Day

We woke up early, before church and made a big breakfast,

then it was present time!

 

Boys couldn't wait to watch Daddy open his presents,

nothing big, a collage of the boys,

and some special crafts Case and Rhett helped with.

I think those are the ones that we always
remember, and cherish the most though.

 

 

Wishing our amazing Daddy a WONDERFUL Father's Day, on his day,

and every single day.



Slow Progress

Last night, we heard, "I neetogo pee pee!" 

He's Mr. Independent, so we usually check on him 

after he's been in there for a few seconds, you know 

to get himself situated. 

("I do it myself! I do it! I try it!)

Then I walked in to see this, such a silly little stinker! 

Hey, I don't care how he goes, as long as he's going! ;)

So here's the update. 

This kid knows how to go on the potty. 

It's totally up to him now. 

If you have met the Rhetter man, 

you know he marches to the beat of his own drum. 

He'd rather be exploring the rock wall of escape, 

than playing with the 12 kids on the playground. 

He'd rather be running around full speed, 

hands in fists, and sprinting than sitting down. Ever. 

He'd rather climb the kitchen drawers...

or completely disassemble the childproof door covers...

or figure out how to unlock every single lock in the house...

or explore every corner of the ball park than watch Case play t-ball...

or wake up in the middle of the night, put on his baseball hat, 

put every toy he can fit into his Halloween bucket 

(don't ask, we don't know) and wake us up to say "Hi!" 

That's our Rhetter man. 

I'm going to have SO many stories for his future wife. 

So here's the thing, 

he goes when he wants to go. 

The first couple of days, he had lots of accidents, 

but slowly through the week started to have a few more 

successful trips.  

Just this past week, he has been telling me, 

even when we are out. 

I haven't changed a pull up, or cleaned up an accident 

in the mornings in a while now! 

Little man usually gives up after nap time,

but we are getting there. 

We have good days and bad days, 

some days he just doesn't ever tell me, all day long. Nothing. 

Then the next day, he uses it 5-7 times! 

 He's getting there though, 

it's funny how different our boys have learned how to use the potty. 

Rhett is muuuch more relaxed about this whole thing. ;) 

Proud of our cute little crazie. 

He's getting so big.