buttonweeds.

photo courtesy of illinoiswildflowers.info

some of you have been wondering about my reference to buttonweeds on friday.

a buttonweed, also called velvet leaf, is a weed that grows fast and tall in the cornfields of illinois. it is characterized by large, heart-shaped leaves.

photo courtesy of prairierosesgarden.

when we were young, dad paid my sisters, brother and i to run through the six-foot-high rows of field corn and pull these pests.

in most cases, the weeds were taller than we were, but their shallow roots made it an easy, lucrative chore at a nickel a piece.

now that i think about it, i think he paid us a penny a piece.

wonder what the going rate for buttonweed-pulling is these days?

... and would the boy and his cousins be as enthusiastic about buttonweed pulling as my siblings and i were?

i wonder.

praying for dad today. not home from the hospital yet, and still not able to eat after colon surgery.

prayers, please, my lovelies, for papa.

random lovely images for friday.

rupe and twinnie. so cute.

what a treat it was that my fantastic brother-in-law rupert brought along his most amazing camera to our family vacation. he is such a dear.

and isn't beautiful photography a gift?

rupe, you're the bomb.

if you missed reading about our fantastic trip to central illinois and south florida, you can see photos here and here and here and here and here.

in the meantime, here are a few more photos from that trip that never made it to my blog. happy friday, my lovelies!

bits of my weekend vol. 58, sort of.

i was without a camera this weekend, so you'll just have to visualize our fun day at the pool with friends ...

our trip to the nashville downtown farmer's market, where we saw arnold myint in person at his new am@fm cafe (i can officially stop stalking him now) ...

and the hilarity of watching a five-and-a-half-year-old throwing around silver helium balloons at the Warhol exhibit at the frist center.

when you're done imagining that, check out this gorgeous photo shoot at tec petaja's web site. it's my beautiful cousin alisha and her husband brad. these are their engagement photos. can't wait to see the photos of their illinois farm wedding. i wasn't able to be there, but i'm sure it was a gorgeous affair.

young love. is there anything more lovely?

ps: this photo belongs to tec, so don't repost it without his permish.

back to the old house.

we four sibs went back to the old house, the home where we grew up.

it's the place where our childhood happened. where all our memories live.

but someone else lives there now. they kindly let us take pictures.

but we didn't want to go inside. better to keep the memories the way they were.

bits of my weekend, vol. 56: groveland grade school reunion edition.

i'm here in central illinois to see my folks and it worked out to go to a reunion of folks who went to our now defunct grade school. what memories.

i'm on the left, my twinnie's on the right and in the middle is our classmate sheryl who cooked the whole thing up on facebook.

what did we ever do before facebook?

this is our schoolmate christi hogue.

i remember going to her house for an awesome birthday party.

here's a bunch of us, including in the center, the fabulous cindy anderson.

here's me and my sibs on the steps inside the old grade school.

that was a long time ago.

a really, really, long time ago.

more bits to come. it's taking forever to upload the millions of photos we've taken so far.

we're on our way!

hurray! we're off to illinois! many updates to come!

disclaimer: this image is from our last trip to illinois, and posted before we left nashville. i haven't mastered posting images from 14,000 feet up. yet.

going home.

can't wait to fly home tomorrow to see my family.

there's also going to be an impromptu facebook-driven grade school reunion, as in anyone who ever went there, so that is going to be something.

then next week we're all going to my sister's in south florida for some beach time.

i can hardly believe it's finally here.

this image, by the way, comes from my 1970 yearbook, the year my twin sister and i were in the first grade.

can you tell which one's me?

i will try to post as i go, but i may be having too much fun to do daily updates. i'll do my best!

peace and love,
joan (the one on the right)

Granny Camp recap

Seems like the time flew by. But we really did a lot considering we made a concentrated effort not to overachieve or have any kind of agenda (like we Yordys are known to do). Here's the run-down: Went to the waterpark, played at the playground, got photos of the grandsons taken at Wal-Mart, made bubbles, played croquet, went to the thrift store, hit the garage sales, went to Wal-mart about ten more times, had a cupcake baking party, had a weenie roast, ordered pizzas and took them to the park for a massive picnic, survived a storm and a day of no power, went to cousin Debbie's spa, played in the sprinklers and kiddy pool, played with Dad's classic marble game, watched a slide show of family photos, went on a riverboat cruise, took a million photos (JH took the one with this post), played Chinese checkers, watched "Alvin and the Chipmunks" 72 times, and cooked Jamaican food. I think that's everything. Ashford and Drake are staying for another two weeks. I can only imagine the fun the tween edition of Granny Camp will include! Don't have too much fun without us!

All over but the cryin'

We're glad to be home again but Jack Henry is a little bit sad because he misses his cousins. He told me his favorite part was flying on the airplane. He asked if we could ride it again tomorrow. Here he is with his cousins at the park. A rare "all five grandsons in the same shot and nobody's crying" moment. (l-r) Jackson, Drake, Jack Henry, Ashford, Isaiah.

Closing Ceremonies

Well, Granny Camp 2008 is now history. We closed things out with a weenie roast and polished off all the cupcakes. Yes, all 72 of them. Jack Henry was sad to know he was leaving behind "his friends," which is what he calls his cousins. Getting the "Chippy-Munks" movie for the flight home seems to be easing the pain a bit. See you in Nashville!

More fun with water

Jack Henry likes running through the sprinkler and helping Boppo water his flowers.

I'm a big kid now!

Jack Henry and Jackson like watching the Alvin and the Chipmunks movie. It was Jack Henry's first movie, so he thinks he is a big boy now!

Spirit of Peoria

Here's the ship we went on for the Father's Day cruise.

Prime rib, a riverboat and gospel too

Here's my sis Chardy (Charlotte) with her two boys Ashford and Drake on the Spirit of Peoria. We went on a gospel cruise down the Illinois river with my dad for Father's day. It was fun because Scott's and my friends Reggie and LaydeLove were the featured singers. Also the prime rib was really good and the boys got to drive the ship.

Waiting for cupcakes

Here's Isaiah, napping while the cupcakes cool. He's six months younger than Jack Henry, but they have become best buddies. Jack Henry runs around the house saying, "Where's my friend? Where's my friend?"

Cupcake party

You had to know we were going to have a cupcake party at some point. We made two kinds - chocolate with peanut butter buttercream icing; and lemon with pink buttercream icing.The kids had a blast decorating with various toppings, from sprinkles to neon gummy worms to peanut butter cups. Who's your favorite auntie? Auntie Joan!

Hallelujah for electricity!

After roughing it like the Amish these past 18 hours, I'm pleased to say electricity has been restored! The storm came up very quickly yesterday afternoon. There were high winds, rain and hail, knocking down power lines, uprooting trees and in general sending us all into a tizzy. My two sisters and the two older boys were with me at Wal-Mart (getting cupcake supplies, natch) when it hit. Over the loud speaker they announced that we were "going to get some rain" so people should roll up their windows. Then they quickly added, "and associates should have flashlights ready." Hmmmmm. You'd think that would have gotten us running out of the store, but no, we still had some shopping to do. A few minutes later we left, cart loaded to the brim, only to be hit by extremly high winds. Rocks and debris were pelting us and loose shopping carts were flying of their own accord across the parking lot. We literally threw our groceries into the car and piled in, but not before Ashford (12) was slammed by a careening shopping cart. By the time we got home five minutes later, trees were down everywhere and the power was out. The little boys were all still sleeping with Granny and missed the whole thing. To show you how hard the wind was blowing, later that night we were still digging sand and even little rocks out of our ears. The storm ended as quickly as it began, so we wandered the neighborhod taking pictures of the debris.

still dark

The power is still out. We put the food on ice and slept with flashlights on. Dad is working on getting a generator set up. The damage across central illinois is pretty widespread.the kids are not bothered a bit by the inconvenience. I need coffee.

big storm; small city

I am posting from my blackberry as a crazy storm just went thru. Power lines are down so we are without power. More to come!

Happy Father's Day!

Daddy, we miss you! Hurry up and finish that movie already!