Every Picture Tells A Story

As 2005 comes to a close, I thought it would be good to look back at a very eventful year. The New Year of 05 brought Surlymon to the age of 18, and a full house was on hand to help him celebrate. This was a much easier New Years Eve than the one I spent in labor with him, Surlymon waiting until 9:50 am on New Years Day to make his appearance.


March brought us a new member of the family—Sasha, born Jan 4th, and adopted from Petsmart.




Later in March I went home to Tennessee to celebrate my Mamaw’s 100th birthday. What a great old lady she is!!! We should all live to enjoy as much life as she has, and contribute half as much.




May was a busy month! Mothers Day was spent at Cool Sister's new house and




May also brought us to Surlymon’s high school graduation, 25 years after my own. What a struggle!! There were times when we thought this day would never happen. The ropes we are strangling him with are honors ropes, by the way.Hallelujah!!Fozzie spent the rest of the day slaving over the grill making his "World Famous BBQ Ribs".






The summer passed by hot, humid and rainy. August saw us signing our lives away to put Surlymon into college at the Art Institute of Charlotte. After quitting kindergarten on the very first day, Surlymon was never interested in schooling of any kind until now. He has jumped right into college with a passion and is doing very well. We also had a chance to go spend a day in Asheville with the Earthpigs and TJ, which was most excellent.




September brought Labor Day weekend and a trip to my Mom’s. While there we received most excellent news that Cool Sister is expecting a little girl in April 06.


What a big surprise! We had given up hope that she was even able to have kids.
September is also the beginning of band season, and this year Fozzie (with his brand new tuba) has joined in the fun.




October brought our long awaited cruise,




And arriving home in November brought us to crisis again as Surlymon had wracked up his 3rd speeding ticket in 6 months or so. Not ordinary speeding tickets for my boy, these were each 20 miles over the posted limits and required court appearances and fines and points, and the threat from the great state of NC that further infractions would result in license suspension. SIGH Deciding that driving one’s grown son back and forth to college was asking entirely too much, we bit the bullet and increased our college loan to put him into housing. The college has apartments nearby, and so right before Thanksgiving, Surlymon moved into Charlotte to share with 3 other Art School Geeks. Surlymon is in heaven. Fozzie and I have celebrated by running around the house nekkid at every opportunity.

Thanksgiving was spent here at the Rock Bottom Mushroom Farm and Petting Zoo, and Fozzie’s parents drove up from FL to eat turkey with us. We also had other friends join us for the day, and we all stuffed ourselves stupid with Fozzie’s fine meal. Yumm.

December brought us an icestorm that caused Fozzie and I to have to sleep on a pallet in front of the fireplace when the power went out. Not my idea of fun, as we are way too fat to sleep on the floor these days. The dogs and cats thought it was a great idea and snuggled in, on and around us thru the long cold night. SIGH.
We will close this year with family and friends, the way it should always be.