Happy Easter 2010

This weekend Terry's Dad and his wife, Ginny rolled into town from North Carolina. Ginny drove the whole way 2065 miles over about 4 days.  Pretty awesome, huh? They arrived at our house early afternoon on Saturday.

We were honored that they joined us in going to church on Easter morning. And since they were staying at our house, where the Easter Bunny might not find them, I decided to make up an Easter basket for them. It was fun shopping for a few treats that they could enjoy and take along on their trip home (if the candy lasts that long).  We discovered that Terry's dad has quite a sweet tooth, which is not so great when you're diabetic. I bought low carb chocolate especially for him. (Trader Joe's is a great place to get that if you're wondering).  Plus a few regular chocolates and some Jelly Bellies for Ginny.  Turns out Dad likes Jelly Bellies too, even though he's not supposed to have them. 

We enjoyed a great turkey dinner on the back patio in the afternoon. The weather was perfect! We had slow roasted turkey, low carb stuffing, green beans and salad. We tried to keep it manageable since we're all either watching carbs or calories to some degree or another.

Then after dinner we went for a walk with Grandpa and Ginny for a few miles or so (down to Baskin Robbins for dessert, because Cold Stone was closed).

On the way home when we were just a block or so from our house, we noticed a creature on the roof of one of the houses with a little annoying mocking bird squawking at it.  At first we thought it was a big cat sitting on the roof, then we realized it was a big OWL. It just sat there on the peak of the roof right at the edge and only a few feet from the little bird. Every once in a while the owl would turn his head and hoot.  I'm sure that he must have been perched near a nest, otherwise the mockingbird wouldn't have been so aggressive.

We stood there for several minutes watching it, then all of a sudden the owl took off and flew right toward us. Wow! His wingspan was probably close to 4 feet across. This photo is a little blurry because I had to zoom in on it, but you can clearly see the owl's features. I'm not sure I've ever seen an owl in the "wild" that close up.

And I'll leave you with this sneak peek at one of our Spring flower arrangements. I'll be doing a post about it because I think the "vase" is unique and actually kind of a fun idea, especially to use for an event. I'll tell you more about it later...

Hope you all had a Happy Easter!

We're enjoying Fall in North Carolina!

For those few people out there that check my blog but are NOT on Facebook, here's a link to some photos that I've been posting of our trip to see Terry's Dad and his wife, Ginny in Hendersonville, NC.  This is them in the photo (left).  They do a lot of walking around town.  They live less than a mile from Main Street, so have access to a bunch of fun places to visit when they're out and about.

Tomorrow  we'll drive to Great Smoky Mountain National Park.  The park is celebrating their 75th Anniversary this year.  I will be taking my National Parks passport book to get stamped and we'll try to find a poster or postcard from the park that we can include in our collection of places that we've visited that hangs in our office. 

Check out these gorgeous red leaves that were on a tree right on main street.  Aren't they amazing?

I hope you enjoy the other pics too.  I'm trying to post a few more each day, so check back again later too.

HAPPY 75TH BIRTHDAY DAD!!!

Today is Terry's dad's birthday and here are a few photos from his life!  

This first one is of him and his brother, Dick.

I love this one of him trying to do yard work with an injured foot.  What a hero!  I wonder if he actually got anything done that day.

And check out the primitive backpack that he used to carry Julie around when they were camping.  Pretty interesting, huh?

And then there's this awesome one of all the Hann boys.  Did you know that our Amy was the first Hann girl born in 3 generations?  Terry's little sister Julie was adopted.   Coincidentally, Amy is in the bottom photo with Dad, Ginny, Terry and I.  We were eating at the Mining Camp, one of the Hann family's favorite places to go.  Everything is served family style (all you can eat).  What other place would you want to go with 5 hungry boys to feed?

We are so blessed to have Terry Sr. (Theron) in our lives.  Especially for me, since my dad passed away when I was 20 years old.  Terry (Sr.) is the only grandfather that our children have ever known and they love him dearly.

He's such a sweet man, full of love, joy, compassion and kindness.  He loves to laugh, joke and have fun!

We're looking forward to celebrating his big birthday when we're back there visiting next week!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD!!!  SEE YOU SOON TO CELEBRATE YOUR BIG DAY!

(Ginny, Don't forget that you can click on each of this photos to make them cover the whole screen.)

Happy Father's Day

In honor of fathers everywhere, Happy Father's Day! I'm so thankful for the fathers that have been in my life.

I'll start with my own dad, William Charles Perkins, Sr. He was one of the oldest in a farming family with 11 children that lived to be adults. He married my mom after only knowing her for 2 weeks (true story). Crazy huh?

The father of six children, (3 boys, 3 girls) me being the fifth of six. The photo here is my dad holding my brother, Pat. I don't think there are any pics of him holding me. I was the FIFTH after all and there aren't very many pics of me as a child anyway. My mom was too busy taking care of kids to be taking pictures.

My dad was a good provider and diligent iron worker. He was an extremely intelligent man who skipped several grades in school. He never graduated from high school or went to college, but was always a leader at work, as a construction foreman or superintendent. He was highly respected by his peers.

As a child I remember him being a man of very few words. When he talked, we listened. He didn't spend much time with us kids, but when my mom got tired of trying to get us to settle down after bedtime, she would have dad come to the bottom of the stairs. He just had to say one word in that booming low voice of his and we'd be quiet right away. He was a bit intimidating when potential dates came around in our teen years too.

I remember him being a fun grandpa to my sister's boys, in the 70's, but he passed away from lung cancer the year after I was married, just as I was beginning to know him as an adult. It makes me sad that Amy & Kevin never had a chance to be around him. He would have LOVED them and vice versa.

This family photo is from 1963, so I would have been 5 years old and the youngest in the family at that time. My younger brother, Michael didn't come along for another 2 years.

Next on the list is Terry's dad, Theron (or Terry to those who know him well). If he wasn't around, my precious husband would have never been born and wouldn't have turned out to be such a sweet guy. I'm so thankful that they moved to Arizona way back when.

I've heard many stories about the Hann family camping trips, vacations, and other escapades. I know that Terry (Sr.) was also an excellent provider and great dad. He has a dry sense of humor which most of his boys and grandkids have inherited (thanks Dad!). He loves to tease and is one of the sweetest guys I know.

This picture above is Terry standing by his (then) wife Carole who is holding their firstborn, (my) Terry. The other 2 are friends of the family.

This next pic is Terry, Carole with the 5 boys, Terry, Tom, Tim, Ted & Tod. Julie came along later. I can't quite imagine having that many boys under one roof. They have all become responsible, caring adults so they must have done something right.

And now, let's talk about the father of my children. What a gift he's been to me and our kids. He's always been a great example of a caring, responsible, patient, loving, helpful, encouraging dad. I remember before Amy was born he was so nervous about holding babies. After she was born he was a pro and helped with everything that needed to be done.

When the kids were a little older we shared responsibilities around the house. For a long time on weekdays after work, I cooked dinner and Terry took care of cleaning up the kitchen afterward, including loading the dishwasher. There came a point when we wanted Amy & Kevin to take turns loading the dishwasher, but Amy would have none of it. She said, "I'm not doing that. It's MAN's work!!!" We laughed so hard knowing just how bizarre that would sound in so many households. He was always a great help around the house even though he had a long commute and work schedule every day.

Terry was also a huge fan of Amy & Kevin, spending many hours at school & church performances, sporting events, plays and concerts. He passed along his love of reading to both of the kids and now they borrow books from each other. He also passed on his love of playing music to Kevin to the point where he was his backup bass player at church when Terry couldn't play.

I'm so thankful that he has been a consistent, positive, loving influence to them (and to me) in a time when so many dads are either physically or emotionally absent from the home.

Thanks God for the gift of our earthly fathers!

My Dad the Iron Worker
My dad passed away when I was 20 years old, but I came across these photos a couple of days ago that reminded me of him. He was an iron worker, or structural steel worker. He was the one that built steel high rises, bridges and more. He didn't wear any kind of safety harness and walked 10 or 20 stories above the ground on steel I-beams that weren't more than a few inches wide.

Can you imagine that? There's no way I could even think of doing that, even when I was young and irresponsible. My mom said she saw him working on a high rise once and never went to see him at work again because it made her so nervous to see him up so high.

He tried to quit construction work at one point when his brother was killed on a construction site, but work was hard to come by and the money was great, so he went back to it. He was often the foreman or superintendent on the jobs he worked. We've heard many accounts of what a great, responsible, caring boss he was.

These photos really make me appreciate the risks he took to provide for his family.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD & GINNY!!!!

We hope you have an awesome celebration this week for both of your birthdays. We wish we lived closer so we could celebrate with you.

Have an extra special day and year!

I am so sad...I just spent an hour working on a blog post, then somehow accidentally deleted the whole thing while I was on the phone with my mom. Now I have places to go so I can't recreate it. I'll go ahead and post the pics and maybe add some text later.

Some of my favorites from Terry's dad's visit and the flowers from Catalyst (see note in previous post).
Click the links to get news on our family. It's amazing what you can find on the web these day:

Amy Schubert
Daniel Hann
Jeremiah Hann
Matthew Hann
Nick Sheffield

Terry & Ginny Hann - Great article about them being hospice volunteers