The Suit

Kip has had a sport jacket before, but never a whole suit. He was invited to a girl's sweet 16 party at the country club, and the invitation said, "dress to impress!" The birthday girl asked Kip to wear a bow tie, and being the comedian he is, he wanted to find a big joke bow tie. I asked if he wouldn't rather knock them dead with how hot he could look, rather than always feeling like he had to be funny? So... After countless trips to dressing rooms in different stores, He found a suit that made me smile when he came out of the dressing room! The red shirt makes so much more of a statement than a plain white one would have, and although the red & black necktie that came with the shirt looks very nice, the white bow tie was the perfect touch. He did change his mind about the hat, though, and left it in the car at the last minute...

PS: Kip says the party was great, and girls danced with him all night. He didn't even have time to take any pictures!

Feeding the Birds

I got some cool new garden stuff for Christmas, which made me want to hang all my bird feeders out Here's a few of the visitors I had. The squirrels will eat up all the seeds if I don't open the door occasionally and let Blizzard out to chase them! I keep hanging the purple feeder farther out on the branch, but they apparently don't weigh that much more than birds, or don't care if they're hanging precariously as long as they're scoring food!

The welcome guests include chickadees, which came in full force and for some reason, remind me of childhood winters in Maine. We also have several female cardinals and a few woodpeckers. The woodpeckers are colorful against all the brown of the other birds. Looks like I'll have to buy a book to help identify the ones I'm not familiar with. Meanwhile, it's fun watching through the big breakfast nook window and trying to capture a really good photo. Birds move so quickly...

(Click on a picture for a large view)

Christmas 2010

This year we played hosts to Norma's son Dean and his friend Albert, who were on their way back to Conn. from Texas. They stayed for a few days, which made Kip very happy. Dean is like the older brother Kip never had, and still wants, ha ha. They jammed together on their guitars and played video games, and they gave Kip an XBox 360! Used, but still...

Christmas Eve, Lynne and her mom Sheree stopped by, which has become a tradition in the Prather house. We exchanged home-made gifts this year, which was fun and inexpensive! It was technically a white Christmas, since it did snow for awhile, but luckily it didn't stick here. As usual, everyone got way more presents than anyone needs, and the honeybaked ham was a simple but yummy dinner.

Catching Up

Seems that Facebook is causing the demise of the blog... I see I haven't been on here since April! It was a typical year until July, when my best friend Norma said she was moving from Texas back home to CT. Long story short, she decided to come back to Northern VA instead. I flew to San Antonio and drove back with her, in a rental car packed to the gills. She's been staying with us while she establishes an employment history here, and can't wait till she can buy a place of her own near us!

Then in October, my back started acting up; a disc was squishing a nerve again. This time I lost the use of my left foot, and the doctor practically rushed me into surgery. Five hours and a titanium screw later, I have an 8-inch scar on my lower back. My back is doing much better now, and I'm in physical therapy a couple times a week, trying to regain the use of my foot. It may or may not happen, they don't know, but every time I think "This sucks!" I see or hear of someone worse off than me. I'm on disability till February 2011, and the DMV issued me a handicap parking tag!

So that's the main highlights since April, now let's try to keep up going forward!

Whitewater Rafting

This was the most fun we've had in ages! I have to laugh because my mouth is wide open in every picture. But you have to realize that in April the water coming down from the mountains is FREEZING cold! The guide warned us that whoever sat in the front would get the wettest, but somebody had to sit there, right? So I'm either hollering at the frigid water splashing me, or screaming in anticipation of the next wave that's gonna get me, ha ha. I'm ready now for a class 4 river... once the water warms up!

Spring Break 2010

This year, we decided on the Cherokee, North Carolina area. Lon used to take the church youth group there, but neither Kip nor I had ever been. It was a long drive, over 9 hours, because of the detours due to rock slides on the major route we would have taken. So we ended up driving through Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg in Tennessee, very touristy towns. The mountains were beautiful, with awesome views around every curve. There was even snow still left on the ground in spots, though the temperature was around 70 degrees! Unfortunately, the Cherokee Indian production of "Unto These Hills" only plays from June through August, so we were disappointed to miss that. Of course we walked around the town and bought T-shirts and other souvenirs. We spent Saturday whitewater rafting, and I'll post those pictures separately. On Sunday, after a scenic tour along the Blue Ridge Parkway, we drove back through the mountains to Pigeon Forge and rode go-carts and had "old-timey" portraits taken. Monday was spent driving home, but thankfully it didn't take nearly as long as the drive down!

Killian's Haircut

One day, Kip asked me when he could get his hair cut, as he was getting tired of it. In shock, I said I could take him when I got home from work. So off we went, after a few "before" photos. Kip found a picture in a book at the barber shop, and the barber, Stephanie, did a great job in copying the style. I was sad to see all those curls cut off, a good six inches of hair hit the floor. But Kip loves it, and it really does look good. The next day, he reported that everyone at school had something positive to say about his new cutting edge (no pun intended) fashion statement!