AN ANNOUNCEMENT & A MEMORY

Yesterday we kept trying and trying to post on here, but our stooopid satellite linkup kept messing us up. We couldn't edit so finally just decided to delete the post so will try it again today.

DRUM ROLL PLEASE -- We have a huge announcement to make. Our son (Lilly and Piper) Obie found a little galpal. His Mom and Dad went to Ohio and he got to pick her out. Her name is Ebony. Please go over to their blog to welcome her. She's a real cutie and looks to be solid black just like Lilly.

Mom wants to do a tribute to her Father since yesterday would have been her Mom and Dad's 62nd Wedding Anniversary. Lilly and Java got to meet him but the rest of is didn't since he passed away on Java's birthday in 2007. He was kind of afraid of Java since Java is so large, but he loved Lilly. One of Mom's favorite memories of his last days was how he laughed when Lilly went over to visit. She would just jump up in his lap and he loved it. So now we're turning everything over to Mom.My father, Marvin Jennings, was born on a frosty December morning in 1917 in the house where I now live. He was the youngest of 12 children and we often teased him that his mother ran out of names before she got to him. His older brother, Charlie, was somewhat jealous when the new baby came along because he took his place on their Mother's lap. The summer after his birth, his sister, Martha, was assigned the task of caring for her new little brother. She thought she had a living, breathing doll. One day she decided she would sit him on the railing of the porch and run around to the other side and get him. About the time he started to tumble from the railing, their Mother started coming across the yard with a load of fire wood for the cook stove. Martha never knew what happened first - whether she got the spanking of her life or whether their Mom checked to see if her new baby bounced well and wasn't hurt.
Mom and Dad eloped to York, SC and were married on April 20, 1947. They kept their marriage a secret for a while before moving into an apartment in Pulaski, VA. Before long they built the house where I was born, but Dad still felt the call to return to the farm he loved so much. Before long he and his brother, Charlie, purchased the farm from their Mother and we moved into the farmhouse where Dad was born and where I live now.
When I was a little girl I had Dad wrapped around my little finger and to tell the truth that never changed. He was always my champion. Like most men he thought he wanted me to be a little boy, but as soon as I was born, he said, "who wanted a little boy anyway?" I think he was especially pleased when I started following him around the farm and loved the place as much as he did. Dad never spanked me but once and according to Mom we both cried.
Dad loved vacations. He worked hard all year long and we would usually have a vacation in either the summer or the coldest part of the winter. The first vacations I can remember are going to visit an uncle's cabin on Chesapeake Bay. Dad and my uncle Junior took me out fishing one day and I "caught" 23 fish. That was one of the highlights of the trip and I still talk about it to this day. One year, probably in 1960, when we had really deep snows, Dad had planned a trip to go to visit his sister (and my favorite aunt) Stacy in Florida. The snow was so deep that we couldn't get our car up the driveway (over 1/2 mile long). Dad parked our car at the main road and took us and our suitcases out on the tractor. By the time we had driven a day, it was "as warm on the outside as it was on the inside". For as long as I could remember Dad always dreamed of driving to California. I was really pleased when he and Mom came to visit us when we lived there. Dad could hardly wait to see the Pacific ocean and taking him there is one of my most cherished memories - he was as excited as a child on Christmas morning.I could go on and on about my parents and my wonderful childhood, but maybe the Arrrooo Crew will let me post again another time. Mom and I had a wonderful celebration of Dad's life yesterday - we went shopping and out to lunch. We miss him, but would never want him to be back in the condition he was before he went to his heavenly home.

Have a Terrific Tuesday,
XOXO
Lilly, Piper, Carrleigh, Java and their huMom, Lynn