Eury bowling alley

This is now the end of the beginning. :-) The hall does look like it might make a mini bowling lane, huh? It feels so nice to walk on a real floor. The next floor to go down will be in the master bedroom. Some of it got done where the hall extends into the bedroom. First, the second coat of clay must be applied.



Now we are going to cook and clean in preparation for tomorrow.

The Beginning of the End

While we still have more painting to do, wherever we have completed the painting we will now lay the final finishing touch (minus baseboards) of flooring. It is wonderful to be rid of seeing and walking on at least some of the yucky looking and feeling subfloor. Lay that bamboo down Babe, lay that bamboo down!

Retired folks? We wish!

Another step toward completion of our new home. WE are working steadily in an effort to be able to just sit back and enjoy our mountain home. Each day brings more progress. In case you do not check our Flickr account we will post some of the latest happenings from time to time. Retirement is wonderful. Wonder when we can really retire...

Well,Guys,
At last we are laying on the clay in our bedroom. The bottom picture shows the east wall as it is drying. Looks funny, doesn't it? The second picture shows the weird corner of the west wall with the door to the hall shown on the right. This wall was done yesteday and is totally dry now. Interestingly, the left most part of the picture is just primed (has no clay yet) and the right most part of the picture is also just primed. They don't look alike in real life but they sure do in this picture. We love the color and Wayne is finding that clay is not as hard to deal with as he thought it would be. Mixing it is hard but spreading it on is not. We should be through with the walls before Friday and maybe, just maybe we will lay the floor in our bedroom on Friday!!

Latest member of our family

Two weeks ago as we were coming home one day just before getting to our driveway there was a little beagle standing in the middle of our road. It was very cold out and she was moving slowly toward our car as we drove up. We stopped and picked her up lest she get run over like our previous pet, Cade, had had happen back in March. We brought her home and began to inquire among neighbors if they knew of a lost beagle. She seemed so depressed and cowered so easily that we felt she had been abused and then recently dumped in our neighborhood. To make a long story short, she had no microchip for ID, no collar and tags, she was filthy dirty, had whip and hook worms, ear mites and was thin and dehydrated. We have officially adopted her and named her Windee after our property name of Windy Ridge. The vet thinks she is about 3-4 years old. Now, my question is this:

How do you house break an adult dog?

You can see more pics of Windee and of Cadie on our Flickrs photos.

Major Pet Scare

On this crisp, cold and very windy Sunday morning I let Cadie out as usual and when I went to the door to let her back in she was laying down on the back porch chewing on some morsel and really enjoying it. It turned out to be a partial chunk of rodent poison that had been pulled out of the child/pet proof box by what ever rodent had been feasting on it. We went into heart failure. We called animal emergency and were told to pour 1 tbsp per 10 pounds of body weight (she weighs 80 lbs) of hydrogen peroxide down her throat immediately to induce vomiting. We got about 2 tbsp down and waited a few minutes. She threw up twice losing all of her recently eaten breakfast along with a few of the tiny yellow pebbles of poison. Then we thawed a 10 ounce box of spinach that is high in Vitamin K (the antidote for the anti-coagulant poison, our idea as an alternative to rushing to an emergency vet clinic for a shot of Vit K) and got her to eat most of it. Now we wait. She should be alright but only time will tell.

Our current "baby"

When we first got Cadie she was only 3 months old and she weighed 29 lbs. Now she is over 10 months old and weighs 80 lbs. Cadie is a full blooded Old English Sheep dog. She is our loving companion and we enjoy her immensely. She goes everywhere with us. Interestingly, she practices herding in spite of never having seen a herd of anything. She will gently nudge us or a visiting dog or little children to make them go where she thinks they should. Problem is, they don't necessarily need to go where she is herding them. Sheep dogs they say, are stubborn. Guess they have to be to make a herd of sheep or goats go where they need to go. Her stubbornness is reflected daily with us as she tries to get us to do something we are not ready or willing to do. She is a mess. Right now her fur is greater than 6 inches in length and will continue to grow until Spring at which time we will have her clipped to about 2 inches all over. This will mostly cause a weight loss of a few pounds and, boy, will she look different. We will post a before and after pic of her in April.

Many years gone by

Now our family is all grown up and out in the world. See our 4 grown up beauties?

Each of our 4 children has 3-4 kids making for many grandchildren, whom we obviously dearly love. Actually, the littlest tyke is in the arms of her daddy, our oldest grandchild. Yes, we have a great grandchild. Her name is Lola. Please note the abundance of boys in this family (10 out of 14).

Last but not least

In 1971 I told my sweetie that if he wanted us to try one last time to have a son, I was willing. This was to be the last child regardless. I figured I would have another beautiful daughter like my previous three. Surprise, surprise! On July 20, 1972, God gave us a son. This made our family complete. He is about 6 months old in this picture. Cute little fellow, huh? Because his name is the same as his dad's and because he was our little tag along when we went on girl scouting ventures, he was nicknamed "Tag" and that has stuck with him to this day.

Youngest Daughter Baby Pic

This is Mary at one year of age. Photographers finally got with it and began to use color photos. That's all of the baby pictures for today.

Catch Up on Baby Pics

This picture of Bonnie is so adorable I couldn't help but include it, especialy since the first one of her was so little. She is only 5 1/2 months and no one is holding her up. See, she has been strong even as an infant.

Family Album Found!

I will now be able to show you some more cuties. Here is a picture of Lynn at one year of age.


There's more to come. Stay tuned.

Big change in our life

Our little growing family of five moved into a bigger house in 1970 and life was good. Then one day life got even better. We were introduced to and began research on a new Faith. Both of us were raised as Christians and we belonged to a Christian church. My sister, however, had discovered a young religion called Baha'i in 1969 and she had embraced it. Followers of Baha'u'llah are known as Baha'is. Wayne and I read many books on this new Faith until we finally felt it to truly be the latest word of God to man and we therefore must embrace it also. On June 13, 1970 we officially enrolled into the Baha'i Faith. Now we believe every day is the sabbath day, not just Sunday. We pray every day and have the bounty of having prayers revealed by Baha'u'llah Himself to use as well as His son Abdul-Baha for spiritual guidance and sustenance. Based on Baha'i writings, we believe that work when done in a spirit of service is literally worshipping God. Such a good feeling. Three major tenets in the Baha'i Faith are that God is one, humankind is one, and all religions are one. We feel so fortunate to have found this new Faith.

Time to get educated

I needed fulfillment professionally in my life so I was accepted in a nursing school in Charlotte where we lived. I completed my diploma in nursing and passed boards to become a registered nurse in 1966. I began work immediately at the hospital where I trained (now Carolina Regional). I worked for two years and on October 28, 1968 a carefully planned third child was born. Another beautiful daughter! I wish I could find a baby picture of her but alas, it is not to be today. We still have much unpacking to do (more on that later). Anyway, here she is today:

Yet another beautiful surprise

Wayne was honorably discharged (earlier than we had expected) in August, 1962. We headed back home to his old job along with our now 9 month old sweetie. I had morning sickness. Yes, as the saying goes, I was knocked up again and our 2nd lovely daughter was born on February 21, 1963. She had gobs of black hair (like her mom had at birth) and we were ecstatic. Two beautiful daughters in less than 2 years.
I found a picture of her at one year of age. Isn't she adorable?

And then there were three

Well, we coasted along for almost a year after marriage. Wayne (my spouse's middle name and what he actually goes by) finished his 6 months of reserve training and came home in January. At that time God said to me that it was more important to start our family than go to nursing school so eight and one half months after our first anniversary our beautiful daughter Lynn was born. While I was still in the hospital, my dear husband got surprising Army orders (we thought he was done with active duty). He was to report on December 7 to Fort Benning, Georgia (500 miles away) for at least one year of active duty because of war conditions abroad. Our baby would be 2 weeks old. We were both crushed.
Here she is as she looks today. She will probably be upset with me but I think it is a nice picture.

The beginning

Well, I guess we need to jump on the bandwagon of this family and update our life to all who care to read about it.  I don't know how to make this blog look like my son's and I like his format but I will learn how  so help me and that is that.  

I am not sure where to start.  48 years ago (1959) I was in nursing school in Charlotte, NC.  I was 19 years old and very much in love with my college sweetheart.  Since his first name is Francis and my first name is Frances we decide to start our blog as Fran & Fran.  He had gone back to the college where we met to retake a course he had failed to pass so that he would be through with Lees-McRae Junior College.  I was due to be in nursing school for three years and then we would get married, or so we thought.  Before I finished my freshman year we decided we could not wait for the nursing school's permission to marry.  Even then there were troubled war times that made me wonder if we would still have a world by the summer of 1961 (when the school would give permission for us to marry, and not before).  We decided to elope and keep it a secret. He joined the Army Reserve the day after we were married (April 1, 1960) in order to fulfill an acceptable military service required by our government.  Neither of us were happy about being involved in a war or the military.  He left for basic training in August and I stayed in school.