Eli's coming! and he is here

Eli arrived Monday night around 9:30 and that would be about 8 weeks early. He is breathing on his own but he did need to have an operation to remove to obstructions from his small intestine. He has an IV for nutrition and hydration as he has not been taking anything by mouth yet. He could be in the NICU at the Kosair Children's Hospital in Louisville for another 4 weeks. Keep him and his parents in your prayers. The doctor said he should be able to live a normal life.

Be sure to check out Ben and Sarah's blog too: http://benandsarahwoodward.blogspot.com/

Ben and Sarah are at the Hospital

We do have a grandson now!!! Ben left a message around 7ish and said Sarah is in labor! We now have a grandson, whe weighs 4 pounds 13 ounces, and was born around 9:30 PM. He is breathing on his own. More details later.

Record Breakers

Check out this toy set that we had for the boys when they were young. Its called Record Breakers, and they move pretty fast. I am glad that I could get them to work well enough to shoot this bit of video.

Maters 101

Well, let's see how much you guys know about maters. One of these is a German Johnson and the other is a beefsteak. Who can tell the difference? Pat seems to prefer the beefsteak. How 'bout y'all?

Cicadas

I don't know why I am fascinated by cicadas, especially the sound they make as the hold on to the bark of the trees. (Its part of the mating ritual, you know.) I understand that just one cicada can make such a racket that it sounds like the woods is full of them.

Meeting at Old Salem

Yesterday I had the privilege of meeting my cousins at Old Salem briefly. In the top pic, we have David, Sarah, me, Mary Lilah and Pat. In the next pic, my cousin Bill is added and Pat is taking the pic. The next two pics show the rose garden on campus that is dedicated to our cousin Anne who served at Salem College as the head of the PE Dept. for a number of years. The last two pics are of the Single Brothers House and the Administration Building. It was lovely weather and good to see everyone.

Anyone know what this is?

This appears to be some form of evergreen, but I don't think I have ever seen these pink blossoms before. Don't we have any experts out there who can shed some light?

Our Last Day

Our last day at the beach turned out to be rainy with a few spots of sunshine. Here is a shot up and down the beach toward the end of the day.

Kenan in the Water

I really wanted to get a pic of Kenan sitting in the water puddle in the road, but got up to this squatting position before I could get there with the camera. He really entertained himself for a while there.

Alphabet Pancakes

One of our last days at the beach, Jennifer made pancakes in a most unusual way. You can see that she was able to make letters and even spell our names. The K is for Kenan of course, and then she decided to go ahead and spell a few full names. Only Jennifer would take the time for this.

Sheri

Sheri wore this shirt at the beach and I thought it was cute.

Patrick's Hair

Patrick decided to have his hair highlighted while we were at the beach. (The top shot is before, and the bottom is after.) You can tell how much happier Patrick is in the after shot.

Cicada

This cicada seemed to like being on one of my shirts while it dried on th line while we were at the beach.

A Nice Harvest

We had a nice day's harvest from Pat's garden. (The cuke didn't come from our garden, but from a friend's at church.) John, did you say you were coming by to pick up some maters?

The House

Here is the house we stayed in while we were at Holden Beach. It seemed to work our rather well. Pat and I had a room on the first floor, (right above the garage) so we could hang our wet suits ou there on the line right outside our door.

Holden Beach Bridge

Here is an interesting shot of the Holden Beach bridge as seen from the front of the fish market. My brother-in-law can explain why it had to be so curvy. He used to work for the DOT.

Some "Borrowed" Pics

These pics are "borrowed" from the Pinho files, that is, they are from Patrick and Jennifer's camera. Just a few from the first of three disks... In that first shot you see Zachary leading the way to the beach on that first day. Then we see a very excited Dawson running up to the photographer, and then in a more pensive mood. The next one shows Zachary and his dad behind their sand castle. And last, but certainly not least, a couple shots of Kenan, one with his mom giving him a kiss.

We felt bad for Brett...

We felt bad for Brett in that he didn't get in the family photo on the beach, ('cause he didn't get to the beach except for early AM and later PM) so I took this shot of him in the house hoping that someone could help me Photshop him into that shot on the beach, or someone could just do that for me. Anybody wanna help me out?

Trip to Raleigh

Well, we just had to make one more trip to Raleigh to see Jennifer, Patrick and Zachary before they take off half way around the world again early Saturday morning. As Jennifer was talking very excitedly to Zachary about having his picture taken with me, and he let me hold him, he said, "I just love John and Patricia!!" I told him that we just love him too. We will miss them while they are gone to Korea, but we will Skype with him, and talk to him often.