Mountain Musings

Hosting Family Friends!

Our Labor Day cookout was a very special time spent with friends stopping by on their way from New York to Atlanta to Oklahoma to Texas and to who knows where next!

Long time readers of the blog will remember our friend Erich who worked with Jonathan at the airport for a few years, attended our home church, took mountain hikes with us, ate meals around our table, and sort of became an honorary member of the family.

See the post where his family in Texas came to visit us here in Virginia back in 2009. And then part of his family visited again earlier this summer.

Well, this was extra special because Erich visited with his wife and now seven children!

One of our excursions while they were here was stopping by Natural Chimneys close by. Here are the Chimneys from a distance! Impressive.

Tom posing with Erich. It had been at least a decade since we'd visited here:

I think the kids enjoyed exploring inside the walls of the chimneys:

Then we proceeded to our main destination, Reddish Knob, located on the border of Virginia and West Virginia state lines. Great views!

Here I am with Tom enjoying the top of the mountain at Reddish Knob:

Erich, Beth, and their newest baby:

Exploring on his own!

Playing at the top of the mountain:

After we drove down the narrow road to get back to civilization, we enjoyed a nice picnic lunch at Wildwood Park, and Jonathan was able to join us on his lunch break from work:

Afterwards Erich treated us all to Smiley's Ice Cream!

The temperatures were extremely hot in our area these days they visited, so the kids enjoyed some cooling off time on the Slip 'N Slide:

Very excited children:

Then the day arrived that they needed to continue on their journey. We sure enjoyed hosting them in our home!

Sunset the day they left:

~Deb

Happy 43rd Anniversary to Us!

Well, I promised a post about...two old people at the beach...and here we are, celebrating our 43rd wedding anniversary! Two weeks ago we were enjoying some time away walking a somewhat empty beach each day and watching the waves.

We had debated about what to do for our anniversary this year...a day trip in Virginia? A quick overnight someplace close? Or even...a trip to Michigan to visit Mackinac Island, one of the places I'd suggested as a possibility and would love to go to one day...and then afterwards we could visit Hannah and Christopher in Michigan.

Well, we ended up at North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina...a place we had vacationed once years before when Granny and Hannah were with us.

This time of year was a perfect time to go...with kids back in school and the beach deserted:

View from our room:

One of our activities was going on a dolphin watching tour. Here we are getting ready to board:

We enjoyed riding on the boat on an absolutely beautiful day:

Yes...we did see dolphins! When the tour guide asked if there were any questions, I asked, "Do you ever see them jump?"  Answer: "Rarely. Not like you always see in dolphin shows."

The captain and tour guide thought this siting below was excellent. I'm thinking they should put this picture on their brochures and website instead of jumping photos! Ha.

Another most interesting activity was taking a wildlife and nature cruise. I think it was my favorite activity of the trip.

The covered boat was perfect on a hot day, and there was a very enjoyable breeze on the river. The tour guide gave the best narration we have ever heard on a tour...interesting, knowledgeable, and humorous.

We explored the cypress-lined Waccamaw River on this wildlife river tour. The peaceful scenery was very nice! We saw osprey and their nests, heron, egrets, and many turtles sunning themselves. No alligators, although the guide was looking for one!

Other fun activities included mini-golf, eating at fun out-of-the-way places, riding the Sky Wheel, treating ourselves to ice cream, and spotting a fisherman catch a shark on the beach!

Here's Tom at River City Cafe...one of those dives that ended up having excellent food:

And here's Deb at Fenderz on the way to our destination. It was fun trying out new places:

This shark that was caught by an excited fisherman was thrown back in:

The Sky Wheel and a view from inside our gondola:

A lady on the beach volunteered to take our photo:

And Tom wrote in the sand for our anniversary as he's done in past years...a heart and Happy 43rd. Aww....:)

Blast from the past...here's Tom on our 25th anniversary writing on the beach in San Diego:

Another blast....even I got in on the act...writing in the sand "Deb loves Tom."  This was on our honeymoon 1980 in Chincoteague, Virginia:

And the honeymooners holding hands over the writing in the sand...those were the days of youth--wow, 43 years ago! Great memories looking back over those long ago photos this week:

Well, it was a very nice anniversary trip! And on the last night we were there, someone even set off a fireworks display on the beach outside our window to send us off:

~ Deb

 

Next Up:  Hosting a Family of 9

Killing 5 Birds With One Trip!

  
This idea started hatching back in the spring....

I kept thinking of a gentleman from back in my hometown of South Boston, Virginia, whom I knew had just turned 94 years old this year. I kept thinking and thinking that I really needed to go see him this summer.

Background: his family and my family growing up used to go on vacations to the Smoky Mountains together in the '60s. He and his wife lived up the street from us for years, attended our church, and has remained a very dear friend after his wife passed away.

Now he lives with his daughter and son-in-law in the Tidewater area of Virginia. I remembered how much my mom "Granny" always wanted folks to come see her and visit. I think she would like the fact that I made this trip to see him.

Tom and I enjoyed catching up with Nathaniel...lots of memories! In fact, he drove the getaway car for us after our wedding reception!

Donna, his daughter, prepared a delicious meal for us to enjoy while there, and I brought home a new recipe--Pineapple Pretzel Salad! Here's Donna and her husband Allen:

I like to picture where folks live when I think of them and pray for them...so it was especially good to visit their home. We are saying goodbye to them here and were so thankful it worked out for us to visit!

Well, once we planned an actual date for this trip, Tom and I started brainstorming and wondered who else could we visit while on our jaunt and schedule them in.

He wanted to get together with a former co-worker in Williamsburg who is also now retired. And I wanted to get together with former neighbors who lived in our subdivision when we were there in the '90s.

Amazingly, the details for these visits came together!

Here we are with Dale (former co-worker) and his wife Kristin. It was quite an enjoyable lunch time at New York Deli! Hey guys, our place next time!

And listen to this very fun unexpected surprise!! A long time friend, whom we knew from years of homeschooling together, happened to be eating in the same restaurant and spotted us...she came over to say hello and found out about our two-day excursion to the area and invited us over to her house on our way back home after we'd visited everyone else.

She ended up being the 5th bird we killed! So to speak...LOL!

Here are our former neighbors....Harry and Anne, whom we visited next. Harry just turned 95 this year and needs some prayer for recovery from some health issues.

Harry and Anne were in our neighborhood bible study and took over leading the study when we moved away. We have kept in touch these last 22 years since we've been away from Williamsburg!

It was good to see them in person again and catch up on each other's lives.

 

Next on the docket for an impromptu meetup were our dear and long time friends, Fred and Chris. We met at Scoot's BBQ over in Gloucester and, of course, loved every minute of our time together!  Sorry no photos yet of this get together!

Okay...5th and final meetup. Christine and her husband, Darryl, whom we met at our first home school meeting in 1992 when we first moved to Williamsburg. In fact, Christine came over when we moved in and brought us a Welcome to Williamsburg cake! So very thoughtful!

On this visit she furnished snacks to tide us over for our journey back home, and of course, there was a pound cake--her specialty!

And here we are on the swing before saying goodbye and wrapping up our trip:

What a whirlwind fun time! I absolutely loved it all! Thank you to all our friends for spending time with us!

I think that was a very good idea indeed!

~ Deb

 

Next up:  Spending our 43rd Anniversary at the Beach!

Teas, Brunches, and Overnights!

I've enjoyed lots of getting together with friends this summer...celebrating a birthday, reconnecting after many years apart, and hosting missionary friends overnight.

My friend Jean celebrated a birthday last month, and I was invited to her surprise tea given by her daughter. The table looked very inviting and exquisite when I arrived:

All the ladies seemed to enjoy this special occasion. Here's a quick photo of me with Jean after the party:

My friend Adrienne and I decided it had been waaayy too long since we caught up with each other. I knew her back in 1988 and 1989 when we were in the same homeschool group together when we lived in Charlottesville.

We moved away to Williamsburg soon after....and we never kept in touch. Just recently we connected again and met up at Stella, Bella, and Lucy's for brunch.

Here I am with my friend after enjoying 3 hours of catching up! It was a good time!

Kim and Annie are friends that we knew before we got married 43 years ago!  They have been missionaries in Papua New Guinea for years, working on translating the Bible into the Tami language. They are back in the States for a few months before returning to Ukarumpa and recently stopped by for an overnight.

Kim and Annie serve with Wycliffe Bible Translators, and it's always a joy to see them again and hear an up-to-the minute update on their work there:

More adventures with friends are on the docket for later this week! Stay tuned.

~Deb

More Birdhouses by the Woodworker!

Tom had such a good time making birdhouses with the Georgia grandchildren earlier this month, that he decided to make a couple more...for our grandsons in Maryland!

So...he whipped them together in time for our trip this past weekend to visit them and to help celebrate little J's 4th birthday.

After finding out the boys' favorite colors from their dad, he started painting the roofs:

Everything's looking good, and we hope the boys will enjoy watching birdies make nests in their own special birdhouse, complete with their initial:

Presenting the birdhouse:

And here's the other grandson's birdhouse, all installed side-by-side on a tree close by a viewing window for the boys to watch the comings and goings.

It turned out to be a wonderful 4th birthday party with turtles and snakes and all sorts of interesting creatures for all the kids to touch and handle. This Granny stayed far away!

That was our Saturday! We don't get to see these boys often, so it was a treat to visit even for a few hours!

~ Deb

Spring and Early Summer Happenings ~ Part 3

Part 3 ~ Summer Visits!

Long years ago we visited friends in Tennessee who welcomed us to their home with a hand-written chalkboard on their porch, "Welcome Girotti Family."  I'll always remember that thoughtful touch.

That is now our practice...it says "Welcome Bet and Sonia."

My sister is now retired and can travel to see me any time. On this visit she and her teacher friend, Sonia, traveled to spend a few days with us here in Virginia. So fun! Sonia was last here in 2011. I had no clue it had been 12 years!

I planned some outings for us in downtown Staunton because I knew they would enjoy walking a small town street and browsing some shops:

It was definitely a fun morning as some of us found treasures at The Sparrow's Nest:

Tom joined us for lunch at The Pampered Palate, but we failed to take pictures inside. It was delish as always!

The next day was spent antiquing at one of the largest antique malls in America located only 10 minutes from us (at least they advertise that it's the largest!)...Factory Antique Mall in Verona.

This is one of the signs I saw and really loved! It's a 2-sided Amish Grass Clippings Sign.

Mainly I liked it because I collect grass clippings for the garden. Plus love the color! I would have mounted it down by the compost bin near the garden:

 However, on further inspection of the price tag...$15 maybe, $69 nope.

And since I love geraniums, I loved this geranium sign!  Same deal....price prohibitive at $75!

But it was a productive morning! We all came home with a little something in our bags!

That evening Jonathan had invited us down to his house for a meal and a tour! Jonathan, always hard at work:

I think Bet and Sonia enjoyed seeing his house, and definitely we all enjoyed the meal. Here's his menu:

All too soon it was time for our guests to travel back to their homes in South Carolina. Come again y'all!!

A few days later, long time friends from Texas arrived! They had been visiting family members in New York and had wanted to stop by here on their way back home:

It was just a quick overnight and breakfast the next morning, but we so enjoyed their visit and getting to see them again. They traveled here for Hannah's wedding in September...but, it's hard to truly catch up with everyone at a wedding:

Thanks E family for the visit! Y'all come back!

Now we're gearing up for missionary friends from Papua New Guinea to arrive next weekend! Will post when that happens.

~Deb

Spring and Early Summer Happenings ~ Part 1

Hello everyone! If you happened to stop by the blog recently and read the post just before this one, you'll see there's a new way to sign up for email notifications whenever there's been a new post. Hopefully if you did just that, you were notified that this new post is now up and live! Would you be so kind as to let me know it worked?
June found us on the busy roads headed to Massachusetts to visit friends for the first time in their new home. We have enjoyed many visits with T & D here in Virginia over the years, so we were looking forward to traveling to a new place to visit them.

While we were in the area, they took us to Plymouth...and we saw the Mayflower 2 in the harbor. It was a beautiful day, as you can see:

Here are our friends, T & D, with the Plymouth Rock structural canopy in the background:

This next photo shows what's under that canopy...Plymouth Rock, where the Pilgrims first landed!

It actually doesn't look very impressive, does it?  Have you ever been to see the Rock?  You can read more about the story here:

Our friends took us on a very informative historical tour of the area, and we enjoyed it all! I could post so many more pictures!

We also loved spending time at their home and seeing T's flower gardens and being with D. in her kitchen. She planned some great meals while we were there! Thank you both so much for the wonderful visit!

We also were in Massachusetts for the wedding of our nephew...so after leaving T & D's we headed to the weekend wedding festivities. Our son Micah flew in to attend, so that was a treat to see him there:

The happy couple...

I'll post just one reception photo which shows Tom with both of his sisters and brother-in-law enjoying the table conversation after the wedding. Always a fun time seeing family members:

While we were away, the garden was growing! And we came home to some wonderful veggies!

We've had a bumper crop of cucumbers and yellow zucchini, and the tomatoes are just coming in. Yay for gardens!

I've also been harvesting and drying rosemary, oregano, and basil and jarring it for using and/or gifting. I'm trying my best to do the exact same things that Hannah would do if she were still here managing the garden. :)

Who wouldn't enjoy cooking with a jar of fresh aromatic oregano?! My kitchen is smelling like an Italian restaurant!

Here's a treat for you....if you've made it this far reading our blog...leave me a comment telling me where you're reading from and share something encouraging or an answered prayer request that will make my day.  I'll draw a commenter's name on August 1st and send you a jar of oregano or rosemary (your choice) from the Mountain Musings 2023 garden!

(And if you grow your own and have no need for oregano or rosemary, still comment and let me know you're out there and share a story.)

~ Deb

Next up: Spring and Early Summer Happenings ~ Part 2 ~ Grandchildren, Birthdays, and Birdhouses

Attending The Chief End of Man Conference ~ Ridgecrest, NC

We left Georgia last week reluctantly, knowing that it would be awhile before seeing the grandchildren again.

But we weren't headed home! More adventures ahead!

We traveled to Asheville where the annual family bible conference is held that we attend. This year's theme was The Chief End of Man.

Here's a view of the main meeting room where all the keynotes and singing took place. This photo was taken during one of the breaks between sessions (credit: C F). The attendance this year was almost double that of last year's, and there were lots of first-time attendees: 
One major highlight of the conference was getting to see our daughter, Hannah! She and her husband Christopher traveled to the conference from their home in Michigan. It was wonderful to catch up! So this momma was able to see both daughters in the same week!

Here's Hannah reuniting with two ladies from our church who were at the conference:

In the dining room there are lots of chances to connect with other folks attending--you can take your chances on who you'll sit with or make a date to meet them there.

Here are friends from SC whom we always see at the conference. It was great to eat with them and enjoy their company!

The Michigan contingent below:

We met this newly married couple for the first time and thoroughly enjoyed the conversation! We invited them to come visit us in Virginia this summer...won't that be fun if they can come?!

This Oklahoma couple has been coming a few years, and we usually see them each conference...we enjoyed a brief hello with them between sessions and loved seeing their granddaughters' pictures on their phone (we Grannies always have time for that!):

Another dining room shot...the meal we were able to grab with Hannah and Christopher!

Hymn sing in the amphitheater one evening (photo credit G F):

Our Spring 100 (family/extended family) walking group met for a short walk and a photo while we were all together at the conference (photo credit S S):

Hannah wanted a photo of "just us" while we were there also:

The conference was an excellent time for Hannah to see her friends from church here in Virginia. Here, she's enjoying some time spent with these three sisters:

Next year's conference will be held the end of April, 2024, with a theme of Making Disciples. Will we see you there?

(Credit: G F)

~ Deb

Visiting Georgia Grandchildren and Strawberry Picking!

Last week we took a jaunt down south to visit our newest 6-week-old grandson. What a special blessing to hold him for the first time!

Can you say Grandparent Heaven? It was great!

Grampa gets his turn holding the new addition to the family:

Everyone knows that Uncle Jonathan is always a favorite with all the kids!

He loves it!

The weather in Georgia was perfect for taking the kids to pick strawberries, and the fields were almost empty on a week day.

Sarah had been wanting to go....so this was the perfect opportunity to venture out with family in town! Looking at this crew...and knowing this crew...haha...I think the extra help came in handy.

This is a precious picture to me! Andrew just turned 7 years old, and he is doing great after a rough start in life!

I went down memory lane this morning and was looking at some baby pictures of him. Here's an old post of our visit to see him when he first came home from the hospital.

Andrew's life is a testimony of how the Lord works through prayers of believers...many of you had a part in that. Thank you!

 

The strawberry farm had several activities for the kids. Here's the popular strawberry photo display:

And, of course, strawberry ice cream!

It was a super visit, and we enjoyed our time with the grandchildren. It had been a long time since our Thanksgiving visit! Y'all come to see us here in Virginia, kiddies!

 

Next post:  Leaving Georgia, headed for the Church and Family Life Conference (formerly NCFIC) in Asheville, NC.

 

~Deb

Relaxing Times Ahead!

Last week Tom and I traveled to South Carolina to visit my sister, Betty, and we attended her Retirement Dinner.

She has been at Bob Jones University since she went there as a student in 1974...and then employed there for 44 years! At the end of this school year in May, she will be officially retired!

We met at The Peddler Steak House for a delicious meal, speeches, gifts, and much honoring of Betty by her fellow teachers. It was a great evening!

Sisters Deb and Bet....everyone always asks, and yes, I'm 4 years older.

It was especially good to reconnect with some long time friends who attended...whom our kids, throughout their growing up years, affectionately called Uncle Jess and Aunt Rhonda:

Betty's main gift from her fellow teachers was an art piece done by the calligraphy teacher who taught her how to letter and get started many, many years ago. I know she will treasure this scripture lettering as a remembrance of this special evening and of her years at BJU:

Well, the dinner only filled an evening of our time while we were visiting. We also shopped and helped her pick out a new living room rug and brainstormed on how to completely transform her living room. Switch-a-roo! It was exactly what she had envisioned.

Tom treated us to a well-deserved lunch outing after Bet's rug purchase success. I always enjoy trying new places!

And, of course, we visited with Oliver...her miniature schnauzer:

Home again! It was a great trip! We enjoyed it a lot and look forward to going back and visiting again...now that my sister is retired with all the free time in the world! :)

~Deb