365, Week 8 Our Old House

Well, I finally reached my limit. Not my own personal limit - I reached that long ago - but I reached the limit for how many photos I could put on my blog without paying for more space! I ran into a few glitches when trying to add the space, so it put me a little behind with my blog posts.

Here are some photos I took a few weeks ago when Terry, Rebecca and I went to visit our old house that has been added onto numerous times since we sold it eleven years ago and is now on the market. This house was originally built by Terry's grandparents as a "lake house," and it remained pretty much the same from 1960-1994, when Terry and I first built an addition on the back.

You can see that it was a pretty humble house:



But what you can't see in this picture is the beautiful lake view behind the house. And after we added on, it looked like this from the lake side:




We had lots of great times in this house. It was a great house for entertaining even though it was quite small, and we had 30 or more college students meeting at our house every weekend.

Here's what the house looks like now. It's hard to appreciate the difference if you were never in the old house. The new version has an additional fireplace, an additional two bedrooms, an additional bath, etc. In fact, it is almost double the size as it was before. The kitchen had blue linoleum countertops and plaid wallpaper before. Now it's modern with granite countertops and stainless steel appliances. There certainly was no spiral staircase when we lived there, but now it's got one that goes down to a "man cave."














But the basement and the waterfront hadn't changed much.









It was a very strange feeling looking around a place that had so many memories yet was so different. Terry and I both said that we would buy it back now if we could. I'd also love to buy back those sweet years when my children were little.

365, 43-49 Main Street, USA

One of my favorite things about this area is historic Jonesborough, Tennessee. It's about a 20 minute drive from our front door to Main Street! I get to go there lots these days as Caleb is practicing for "High School Musical" at Jonesborough Repertory Theatre.




These pictures were all taken Saturday afternoon on Main Street.

First of all, the Courthouse, where I recently was sworn in as a notary public and where I go to pay for our car licenses and property taxes (and though I hate to pay property taxes, I think it's kind of interesting that our county clerk's name is Jack Daniels):



Next up, the Historic the 1797 Chester Inn, the oldest still standing inn in Tennessee, which housed presidents traveling through the Appalachian Mountains on the Great Stage Road, including Jackson, Andrew Johnson and James K. Polk.



Here is a log cabin (right on Main Street) that Andrew Jackson himself used to live in when he practiced law:



And here is the "Parson's Table" where Terry and I had our first date over 21 years ago:



And here are some more of my favorites from Main Street (including yet another "Senior Photo" shot of Rebecca):

365, 36-42 Senior Photos Part 2

Rebecca and I were in downtown Bristol this past week, so I took the opportunity to take some more photos of her. I was going to try for some urban alleyway shots ,which really doesn't fit her personality, but I wanted to give it a try. Instead the old train station caught my eye,and thought it would be a neat backdrop. I loved all the architectural elements with the big doors and the railings.

Here again, I can't really make up my mind between the black and white and the color photos. I think I like the B&W better.

365, 29-35 Tune Up Pomp and Circumstance

This week Rebecca's diploma, cap and gown arrived. It's a little early since her graduation is not until May 20th, but the days are flying fast.







I remember well the day we started homeschooling kindergarten. I have easily learned as much as she has during these past thirteen years. She told me she was going to make me my own diploma to celebrate relearning all that stuff that may not have stuck the first time around.

I have really cherished the time we have spent together. The relationship that we share has been the neatest part of our homeschool experience. I'll blog about that more about that later as I just am not ready to deal with all those emotions right now.

I've had fun doing some "Senior Portrait Sessions" with her this year. Below are my best efforts to date. I love our new pancake lens (courtesy of Panasonic) and used it for all of these. I've had a hard time choosing a favorite!














We tried some "city shots" downtown, but it was cold and windy and the late afternoon sun ruined the lighting. We'll try again when we get a sunny, spring-like day. We also have an antique dress (from my great aunt Pansy) to use for some photos - I think those would look really cool in a sepia tone.

While the World Watched

This memoir, written by a survivor of a Klan-planted bomb that went off in her church and killed four of her teenage girlfriends, both inspired and educated me. Carolyn Maull McKinstry tells of growing up in Birmingham (called "Bombingham" by many at the time) and how the tragic bombing of September 15, 1963 shaped her life for years to come. And though this tragedy occured in church, she looked to Jesus to heal her and help her forgive.

This well-written personal story contains a timeline, photos, copies of Jim Crow Laws and excerpts of speeches from Martin Luther King, Jr., John Kennedy and Governor George Wallace. It is very helpful in getting an overall picture of the segregated south and the Civil Rights Movement.

365* 22-28, Snow Shrine, Snow Whine

Snowfall is magical to me! I can never get enough of it. Now, if I lived in Wisconsin, I'm sure I'd get my fill, but here in the south there is always a special excitement when snow is in the forecast and a feeling of disappointment if the snow does not materialize (or if our neighbors in surrounding counties get more than we do). At our house, we have a tabletop display that I have jokingly referred to as our "snow shrine" (which obviously does not work well).




And though I don't really collect snowmen (really, I don't), I practiced taking close-up photos this week on some of the snowmen around the house (including one that decorates the back of a toilet, one that holds mail, and one that contains this week's Mommytography "I Spy" object).











We were predicted to get up to 3 inches of snow this past Wednesday night. Instead, we got this "dusting" which looked more like a bad case of dandruff on our deck table.






Did we whine? You bet we did! Even if we had gotten the predicted 3", we would have complained to hear that Elizabethton got 4". Here is my son Noah watching for snow and giving his famous snow pout: