Down For The Count

After our visit to our up North kids, we did a much slower drive “home” to South Carolina, splitting the trip into a leisurely two days.

On the ride, I began to get the sniffles, which by the second day blossomed into a full blown cough.  Not fun, I have to be very careful as I have a tendency to have colds role into pneumonia. Not to worry, I’m taking massive amounts of vitamin C and other things fed to me by Marti to kick this bug.

It’s important to be back to full health, because I’m scheduled to get my cataract surgery on Tuesday, they won’t do it if I’m still hacking.  After waiting six months to get the surgery, I don’t want to have something delay it more.  But if I’m still hacking, of course I would want the operation postponed.

Being the loving husband that I am, I have now shared the cold with my bonnie bride, so we have coughing in stereo going on in the Journey.

Just because we’re living fulltime in an RV doesn’t mean that life is perfect all the time.  You can get sick anywhere, whether it be in a house, an RV or a space ship (heaven forbid).

So we’re down for the count for a few days, but then a few days kicked back and resting is just what we need after all our running around.  :c)

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Teaching Our Granddaughters

The girls are growing up fast.  They are learning all sorts of things and spend hours in school with their mom, Amber.  That’s because Amber is their teacher, they are home schooled.

They have their own classroom set up in their house, and Taylor and Kierra have their very own desks.  They’re excelling in their schoolwork.

But Mimi and Pa have a hand in the girl’s education, too.  Along with some recreation,

we took the girls to a place that makes things that are very important to most women:

A Chocolate Factory!  Compete with a store to buy all sorts of chocolaty delights.

The store even had a little play house for kids, with some toys and books in case their grandmother took too long making up her mind what kind(s) of chocolates she wanted.

Little “Bekah” (as Rebekah’s daddy calls her) tried some other tastes.  She wasn’t too thrilled with a french fry.

Ice cream, however, is always a winner.

As is Birthday Cake.  We had a family get together for Rebekah’s first birthday, and mommy Amber made the cake.

She didn’t like the cake, she loved it and wore it well.

Some of our family was able to attend, including my Dad, who had a great conversation with Taylor, his oldest granddaughter (of eleven) great-grandchildren.  Ever the teacher, he was teaching Taylor some Hebrew words.

Anabelle and her mommy Amanda also came.  I tried to get a good picture of Anabelle, DIL Amanda, Rebekah and DIL Amber, but babies sure are squiggly.

So after a few tries, I gave up and took a picture of our two lovely daughter-in-laws.

After all the partying, we had one last party to attend with our granddaughters .  My father is retiring from his position as a pastor, after almost sixty years.  Most all my family was there at the church, as well as 300 people to wish him well.  As usual, he gave a great speech and had everyone laughing.  It was a wonderful time and meant a great deal to him.  Now he can do some serious touring in his new Mazda Miata convertible.

 

The girls were great, even with all the people around.  They have learned to be well behaved.  They also learned it is lots of fun to crawl under tables and chairs.  :c)

But the one thing we’re constantly teaching our granddaughters is that there is nothing better than the love of a grandmother.

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A Hatbox

Stick with me, I’ll try to ‘splain.  This may be new to some (many) of you.

We’re here in Pennsylvania for two reasons,   The first was to celebrate little Rebekah’s first birthday.  She did fine and got some cute presents and clothes, including a dress Mimi Marti made for her.  She had fun opening her presents once she got the idea that it is okay to rip off wrapping paper.

The other reason was to watch the girls while Ryan had a chance to finish his initiation rites into the Coast Guard’s Chief Petty Officer Corps.  It is a longstanding tradition in both the Navy and the Coast Guard to task a newly minted Chief Petty Officer (E-7) with a myriad of things to accomplish, with the goal of educating the new Chief to better prepare him (or her) to be equipped to be a knowledgeable leader.  The new Chief also has to gather from 75 or more seasoned Chiefs a written document of advice from each one that will help them in their new roles.

Of course, there is a lot of fun involved and each new Chief has to make a book to contain all the new information and words of advice as a reference.  The new Chiefs make fancy binders to hold all these documents.  It is a lot of work, hours of off duty time is spent in research of topics in Coat Guard history, regulations, national and personal history and so forth, collection of the advice and making the book to be a thing of pride.  Ryan put in hours of his nights and weekends getting in all assembled.

 

Another big task as part of the initiation rites is for each new Chief to build a hatbox to hold and display his Chief’s hat. The finished hatbox is judged by the seasoned Chiefs for workmanship, quality and pride in its design.

 

The Chief’s hat traditionally was the symbol that separated the Chief Petty Officer from junior enlisted members, who wore the traditional sailor’s hat.  Even though the Coast Guard gave up the “Dixie Cup” sailor’s hat back in 1974, the anchor on the Chief’s hat stands out.

The hatbox is to be a thing of pride.  Ryan loves to work with wood so he designed and built a box to look like a pirate’s chest.  He cut and glued different  woods together and spent countless hours constructing it. 

You can see the inlaid woods here along with brass knuckles for handles.

Because the Coast Guard is sometimes good naturedly called “Puddle Pirates” by our Navy brethren, Ryan etched into the glass top the Jolly Roger.

It also has a gear on the front to call attention to Ryan’s specialty as a Machinery Technician.

The front opens up and a shelf slides out to reveal his hat.

The finished product is a thing he’ll always be proud of.

Tonight, after all the fun of the rites of passage, there is a special, formal banquet for Ryan and our daughter-in-law Amber, along with some twenty other new Chiefs and their wives, to be welcomed into the Chief Petty Officer Corps.  It goes late, so they’ll be staying overnight in Cape May, NJ while we watch the girls.  They’ll be having a good time…and so will we!  :c)

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