We love you, Papa

Dearest Papa,

You're home now. You're with your lovely wife of 60-plus years. You're with your Heavenly Father. I can only imagine how peaceful it must be for you now. Your pain, frustration and confusion must surely be gone now.

I'm thankful we were able to see you last week. I'm thankful that you were able to meet your great grandson and spend most of a year getting to know him. I know he won't remember getting to know you, but we'll tell him all about you and his great grandmother. We'll make sure he knows what special people you both were.

I'm so thankful to have so many special memories of you. Some that I am able to touch on a daily basis, like my cedar hope chest. I wonder if you've already begun to craft benches, shelves, tables and such in your new home. Thanks for sharing your beautiful craftmanship with your family and friends.

I have to admit, we're shedding tears here for you. We can't help but think of how much we'll miss you, but I am comforted knowing that any tears you may shed will be ones of happiness.

We love you, Papa.



*John Blakely Giles, Sr. died Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Catching up from the weekend

What a great Labor Day weekend it has been. It's drawing to a close as I type this and I'm actually missing some college football to do this, but it's just UT v. UCLA. Anyway, our weekend began on Friday as we hurried down to Athens to take in the Habersham Central football game at Cedar Shoals. My mom met us there and enjoyed spending time with Jack. My dad does the play-by-play radio broadcast for the small high school I graduated from. (So small they didn't even have football when I went there). So, you'll notice mom listening to their game while she watched a different one!

Since the visitor's stands were packed we ventured onto enemy territory. Luckily, we happened upon Bo, Madeline, Derek & Tate. Jack enjoyed playing with two familiar faces. It was a pretty hot and humid evening and the night quickly turned unfortunate for the Raiders as they fell to Cedar 23 - 14. Jack was very well behaved for his first game, which is good news since we have season tickets to the home Raider games.

Saturday was the official start of college football for us because it was Georgia's home opener. The dawgs took on Georgia Southern. My mom happily watched Jack while Josh, Dad and I headed to the game. It was a pretty hot day. The temperatures hovered around 89, but it felt much hotter. We stuck it out and stayed for every snap. Next week kicks off at 3:30, so maybe we'll get a little bit of relief from the sun.

Saturday's game also signaled the introduction of UGA VII, the newest english bulldog to grace the sidelines at Sanford Staduim. He's a cute little guy, although I'm still partial to VI, who was a perfect looking bulldog. This photo of him on ice is pretty cute. Sometime in the second half they showed him on the big screen asleep in his dawg house. I guess he knew we had the Eagles under control.

After the game we joined my mom and Jack to visit my Papa, (Jack's great grandfather) who has just moved into assisted living. It was good to visit with him, but he's quite confused and pretty sad. Next time you say a prayer lift one up for him as well. My parents and uncle are working very hard to ease the transition, but it's just not that easy.

The five of us grabbed a quick dinner before Josh, Jack and I headed home. We got home in time to see most of Bama's derailing of Clemson. The ACC is not looking so strong this year. Oh, and we watched it in High Definition. Yes, I broke down and ordered the premium content. We've had a HD television for several months, but I just didn't think it was worth it to pay extra for HD channels. This summer I agreed to order it in time for football season, and not a moment too soon...they hooked it up on Friday afternoon!

Our Sunday was pretty normal. We had the nursery, so I managed to snap a few pictures of Jack in his class, which was neat. We just had 2 kids...our Jack and another Jack. Go figure...we picked the new most popular name for a boy! After church and a fun lunch at the japanese place, we all took a nap! Josh had to work, so then Jack and I headed to evening church. I subbed for KidzLife, so I missed our great discipleship class we've been participating in, Boundaries w/ Kids.

Monday was a pretty lazy day for us. Josh caught up on the sleep he missed while working all night in the ER. Jack and I just played as quietly as possible. Later Josh joined us to hang out. I was cleaning up after dinner, when I heard a lot of rustling in the living room. I found Josh reading the paper, and Jack in the floor destroying the sections he had already been through. Needless to say, he was covered in newsprint!

Happy Birthday, Uncle John...pass the Spumoni

So, Sunday was my big brother's birthday. Happy Birthday, John! Even though Josh had to work, Jack and I had the opportunity to drive down to Provino's and have dinner with John and his wife Lisa. Her parents and my parents and grandfather also joined the party. Jack was very interested in John's Spumoni or maybe it was the candle.

He was also very entertained by dad's camera or at least the screen on the back of the camera. Here's dad trying to show him me on the screen. I still get a kick out of all the kids that ask to see their photo after you take their picture. The only time we were able to do that when we were kids is when someone took a polaroid and even then we had to wait an agonizing 90 seconds or so! Anyway, I'm sure glad to have a digital. I consider myself somewhat frugal and love that I don't have to waste rolls of film and developing costs to get that perfect shot! On the other hand, some people may get sick of seeing all these pictures of our little guy.

Day Trip to Athens (again)

It seems like I'm always writing about day trips to Athens on my blog, but we really don't go that often. When we do, however, we try to call as many family and friends and see as many folks as possible! Last Tuesday Josh had an appointment at the Travel Clinic at UGA Health Center in preparation for his upcoming trip to Honduras. So, while he was getting shots and prescriptions, Jack and I had planned to waste time at the bookstore. As if campus hasn't changed enough since I graduated and moved, but summer is when all things crazy occur. Due to a (long overdue) student center expansion, there was no easy parking for a woman with a baby. Thankfully, my pal Stacie called in time to rescue me with an alternative idea...we met in five points to catch up.

I suggested Five Points Deli...to which Stacie was agreeable (what a great friend!) While waiting for her to arrive I ordered a few of my absolute favorite cookies in the world...Heath Bar Crunch cookies. They are fantastic. If you have any doubt about how much I like these...ask Josh! I always beg to swing by there and pick up not one, but a dozen!! On Tuesday, I held back and only ordered six. They were gone by lunch the next day. Stacie had fun with Jack and we ran into another old friend, Russell Ashe.

After picking up Josh we went by my parents house for a bit. Jack really enjoyed playing peek-a-boo with Emily. She kept trying to sneak up on him, but he would just lunge for her and grab her with both hands and basically slobber all over her face, but like any sweet aunt, she put up with it because it made him happy!

Later, we all went to dinner at one of our favorites, Loco's Deli, where Jack enjoyed some sweet tea courtesy of Grandpa. The day before we had learned that my grandfather was in the hospital having some tests run, so we had the opportunity to stop by and visit him after dinner. He's having a rough time and has some difficult decisions ahead (along with my dad and uncle). Although he was still quite a bit loopy from being put to sleep, it is always good to see family.

Day Trip to Athens

On Saturday, we spent the day in Athens with family and friends. The day kicked off with a visit at Papa's house (Jack's great grandfather) where we were able to catch up with Aunt Elizabeth and Uncle Bill after their trip to Fripp Island. They filled us in on all the great seafood they ate and how nice the beach was. I look forward to taking Jack to the beach soon. Jack was once again fascinated by Aunt Elizabeth. Maybe it's her funny glasses or the way she talks, but he spent a long time studying her and getting to know her better.

For lunch, we picked up some pork, ribs and stew from our favorite barbeque place, Fresh Air. It was delicious! We took the meat and all the fixings to my parents house to share. Jack played with Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Emily and Jonathan. Later my friends Stacie and Terri arrived to play with Jack. We all watched the UGA baseball game. Stacie and Terri enjoyed entertaining Jack with his dancing and singing duck, an Easter gift from his grandparents. It is quite a comical little toy.

Later, Stacie put Jack's hair into a pony tail. Although, I think he looked more like Pebbles from the Flinstones because it just stuck straight up. He was a pretty good sport about it. Hopefully, he'll laugh at this picture one day rather than hate us for it! (By the way, we're on naptime # 2 for today and this one is not going so well!) If I had nothing to do but take a nap at 2:30 everyday, I'd love it. For some reason, Jack doesn't feel the same way despite the fact that he is so tired he can't see straight or behave pleasantly.

Saturday night, everyone gathered at my grandparent's house to celebrate Grandaddy's birthday with a fish fry. It was a typical large crowd minus a few main members. Jack enjoyed sitting with his grandad, who did all sorts of typical grandad stuff like letting him drink from is sweet tea. He seemed to really like it...no surprise there!

Jack also had a chance to be entertained by his many cousins. He enjoyed getting to know "Jon Jon" (or Jonathan). They enjoyed the swing together. Jack's last stop of the evening before we packed up and headed home was a rest on Mimi's lap (his great grandmother). Mimi has so much preparation to host so many people at her house that she rarely gets to relax and enjoy much of it. Thanks for all you do and did to make it a great birthday party for Grandaddy. Happy 88th Birthday, Grandaddy!

Smack!

What a fun week this has been. Not only did Jack start vegetables (see previous post), but he also has taken to giving kisses, which is both cute and hilarious. We noticed a few days ago that after he had received kisses from us, he would put his mouth on our face. Then, on Sunday we headed down to Athens to have dinner with the family and he really showed off at Grandaddy & Mimi's house. He literally grabs your face with his hands and puts his mouth on your face and rubs it back and forth. Here's my mom getting a Jack smack!

While we were in Winterville, we also stopped and visited with Papa (Jack's great grandfather). Jack was so interested in watching him talk and was content to just sit next to him and observe. It was pretty neat to see the two of them together. I was able to get a great photo. Jack is getting so close to sitting up, which makes picture taking so much easier.

My Uncle Bill and Aunt Elizabeth who live in New Mexico are also visiting for a few weeks, so we were able to spend some time with them. They had not seen Jack since early January when he was just over a month old. So, needless to say he had changed a great deal and was a little bit heavier since the last time they were here. Jack loved the colorful print on Elizabeth's shirt and was fascinated by her eyeglasses.