Where, oh where has Pat been all these months??? Well. I haven't been travelling around the world, if that's what you're thinking !! No, I have been right here at home enjoying the company of my family. As you know, Matt, Marca, and Gracie came home just before Christmas last year, having finished with their international experience for a while. Matt had some time before starting his clinical rotations and Marca was offered a job at Mt. Pisgah Academy, where they both used to teach. So guess who had daily "dates" with Gracie? Yep, me. What a wonderful time it has been to have them home.

Graice has grown so much - not just taller (although she certainly has done that) - but in her mannerisms and personality. She has such a lovely little way about her and is very polite but also very astute at the same time. And now the questions. She is beginning to ask the questions about how things work and why and what does this word mean and who are these people and how are they related to us and just exactly what is a cousin, niece, nephew, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, and what in the world is a second cousin ??? She still has some moments that, for all her maturity, she still isn't much older than a baby. She sometimes can settle for no one but her Mommy and no amount of comfort will help. But then she will turn around and comfort you if you appear down or if you don't feel good. She is charming in her little mannerisms and the way that she talks to you and she likes to have her Gramsy's attention as much as she can get it.

Hello again! Another beautiful morning in North Carolina! It is only 14 degrees outside this morning. I think it has warmed up some. Yesterday and the day before it snowed and was in the teens temp-wise and so all the schools were closed and there was hardly anyone on the road when we went out to the store. They called it a snow day but the snow looked like a powdered sugarsprinkling on a cake or something. Really heavy snow, guys! I think that I might have even been able to pick out the individual snowflakes in the yard! There was, however, heavy frost on the road and at times it was a bit slick, not too bad though. The odd thing was that even though we were out at 1:00pm, the road looked like it wasn't even affected by the cars traveling on it. I guess that I've never seen that kind of thing - no snow on the ground but the roads frozen like that. Very dry. Very white. Very cold. Very wierd!

Happy New Year! I know that we are well into this first month, but Happy New Year, anyway!

We are starting out the new year with a bang. After a few short bouts of cold weather mixed in with some warm days, we hit a new low here in the South with freezing temperatures. This morning the temp was 6 degrees out. I kid you not!!! And the wind chill was -6 degrees! Now, that's c-c-cold!!! Remember, this is the South. And so , of course, we have no water. Oh, yea. I'm so excited. Woo-hoo. Apparently, it is just our house. This really bites! Now I have been in some cold weather before and I have had pipes freeze , but I guess I didn't expect this down here. There is more to all this than just this freeze, but I refuse to elaborate more. I will not let it ruin my fairly good mood!
Gracie continues to delight and raise our spirits if they tend to flag a bit. She just came in with a plastic bowl on her head and introduced herself as "Charles". She then asked if she could watch "The Muppet Movie". Ah, childhood! You are allowed to be silly as a child and everyone thinks that you are precocious and funny! When you get older, they want to take you to the psychiatrist!
You know, I started this entry back much closer to the beginning of the year but at the time, as I was getting ready to post it, a message popped up that informed me that the sight could not publish and that I would most likely lose the entry. Imagine my surprise when I logged on tonight and found that it had been saved! Oh well! At least the weather has warmed up a bit! Today was in the 60's! How's that for change? The night before last the water froze in the pipes for the 3rd time within a week. Tonight it is 50 degrees out. I give up.