72 years and counting...Happy Birthday Dad! (Updated with new photo of Dad modeling!)

My dad, Amos, is celebrating 72 years today, July 7. Happy Birthday, Dad!

My mom snapped this photo of Dad opening one of his gifts. A man can never have too many shirts. 

Mom also took this photo of Dad modeling the new shirt we gave him. What style he has! :)

In honor of his birthday, I looked up some facts about the year 1939. Visit http://www.thepeoplehistory.com/1939.html to learn more, but below are some interesting items.

Average cost of new house: $3,800
Average wages per year: $1,730
Cost of a gallon of gas: 10 cents
A loaf of bread: 8 cents
A pound of hamburger meat: 14 cents
Average price for new car: $700

I'm sorry we can't be there to help him celebrate, but we saw him during June when we visited our Florida families for almost two weeks. It was a great visit, and I'll share more photos in a future blog post.

Three generations: My dad, brother and nephew on Father's Day in June 2011.

We love you Dad! Happy 72nd birthday!

Family celebrations

There are several days to celebrate in May for our family. There is Mother's Day, and then my birthday (May 9), which is always close to Mother's Day. Even though I wasn't with my family for these occasions, we still celebrate by sending cards and flowers!

Due to a mix-up at a local florist, I received two birthday arrangements. The first one was beautiful, but it wasn't the birthday-themed arrangement with sunflowers (my favorite) my parents had picked out, so the florist arranged to pick up this first arrangement and exchange it for the birthday one.  They both are beautiful! Thanks Mom and Dad!

The birthday flowers have sunflowers, yellow roses and lilies and smaller green and yellow flowers. The only down side is that Cash, our cat, loves to eat any type of flower, and since he is a jumper, he has no problem launching on to the mantle above the fireplace to indulge. At night, the flowers "go to bed" in the spare bedroom, so they won't be a midnight snack for him.

The birthday flowers lasted for almost two weeks. Here is a photo of them more than a week after I received them.

David bought some balloons for my birthday, and Cash enjoyed trying to eat the ribbons. I told him that I can't have anything nice for my birthday because he tries to eat my gifts! :) Here is a short video I shot of him playing with the balloons, Sammie trying to take a nap, and the flowers on the mantle.

Below are the flowers we sent to our mothers for Mother's Day. These are the ones I sent to my mom, a variety of colors and flowers in a reusable green and white bag.

My brother and his wife also celebrated their third wedding anniversary May 17. Happy anniversary Jason and Kristen! Here is a photo of them and my nephew taken on Easter. What a happy family! :)

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my mom's birthday! I can't be in Florida to help her celebrate, but here is a great photo of her and my adorable nephew with some birthday flowers. Happy Birthday, Mom! We love you!

A year with Cash

It's been a year since Cash joined our family, so we celebrated his first "birthday" with us last weekend. Since we don't know the date our rescue cats were born, their birthday becomes the day we brought them home with us. Cash's birthday is July 18, and Sammie's is November 1.

We celebrated by giving Cash and Sammie "special" canned cat food for dinner, which they absolutely love and could eat every day.

Ironically, our neighbors next door brought over two birthday cupcakes since their little girl had a birthday party. Cash and Sammie thought the icing was too sweet, so David and I enjoyed the treat.

Happy Birthday Cash!

Happy Birthday TNJN!

Wow, two birthday posts in one week! I guess Columbus Day is a popular time for celebrations.

The Tennessee Journalist, the School of Journalism and Electronic Media's official news site, celebrated its third birthday earlier this week. The site is a great way for University of Tennessee students to gain experience as writers, reporters and photographers. They upload articles about a variety of campus and Knoxville events and topics and also take photos and provide audio and video clips.

Journalism is changing and so is the way we teach journalism. We encourage our students to learn a variety of skills so they will be prepared to enter the job market. Convergence is a concept we stress since many media organizations are hiring what they call multi-media journalists.

Dr. Jim Stovall, the faculty adviser to TNJN, has some great resources at jprof.com about many topics related to journalism and journalism education.

As part of the site, TNJN Radio has weekly shows and newscasts that students produce. Using talkshoe.com, the shows are archived so anyone can listen live but also listen to previous shows if they miss any. A list of weekly shows is updated on Mondays, and one of the student producers, Mark McNabb, had a live show during the birthday celebration and interviewed editor Ben Moser, Dr. Stovall and me.

Grandma's 80th Birthday Celebration

We traveled to Florida for a quick visit this past weekend to celebrate David's Grandma's 80th birthday. It was a surprise party, and all of her children and grandchildren were able to be there.

We waited as a group until Grandma arrived.

Aunt Sue said, "You have something on your shirt Uncle Rick," and we all had a good laugh!

Grandma has six children, five girls and one boy and 16 grandchildren ranging in age from 18 to 31.

Her birthday is actually Sept. 27, but our party was the day before, and she thought she was going shopping and to dinner with a couple of her children and grandchildren. She had no idea what was about to happen.

We're all hiding outside in the backyard waiting for her to make her way to the back door.

She's starting to notice all of us as we're saying, "Surprise!"

She had no idea we were all there waiting to wish her a Happy Birthday!

David and his Grandma Jo (Josephine)

We had some delicious food, including yummy appetizers, ribs, beef brisket, homemade potato salad, baked beans, coleslaw, macaroni and cheese, and collard greens.

Before we left, Cash was curious about our suitcase.

We had two smooth flights, only one hour and ten minutes each. It was a great Florida visit, but we're happy to be home with our highs in the 70s (not the 90s) and lows in the 40s later this week.

Happy 80th Birthday Grandma! We love you!

Happy Belated Birthday!

This past weekend, we journeyed to Florida to celebrate my dad's 70th birthday. However, he had no idea what we were up to on Saturday. His actual birthday was July 7, and as usual, he went to Outback Steakhouse with my mom, brother and sister-in-law. We mailed his gift in a card, and another birthday was celebrated...or so he thought!

We've been planning his surprise party for months now. It was my brother's idea, and it was a great one! We celebrated at the Brooker Community Center with a BBQ lunch, catered my my mom's cousin Mike. Very yummy food!






And what's a birthday party without a birthday cake from Publix?!?!?!?! It was sooooooo good! Dad even blew out all his candles on the first try. We didn't put 70 on though. There are fire regulations at the center we had to follow. :)





Below is my parent's adopted granddaughter, Caidence. She is the granddaughter of my mom's hair stylist, but they've grown quite attached to her. She even spends the day with my parents from time to time. She sometimes calls my dad "my Amos!" She is a cutie!




It was a great day with family and friends, and we're so glad no one spoiled the surprise. It was hard on my mom since she knew what was happening and had to be careful about what she said around my dad. After the party, my dad said he was glad the next day was Sunday—everyone should go to church and ask for forgiveness for lying so much the past few months. Happy Birthday Dad!

A Spring Wedding

I had the wonderful opportunity to attend the wedding of my dear friend Katerina and her husband Iso on April 2 at the Knox County Courthouse. It was also Katerina's birthday.



The man who married them was a true Southern gentleman and so excited to perform the ceremony. I asked him how many weddings he has performed over the years, and he said he's lost count.



Katerina and Iso's son Aljosha joined them and was a little shy at first, hiding between his parent's legs.



We had a post-wedding celebration at Calhoun's on the River. Katerina loves the BBQ ribs.



Instead of feeding each other wedding cake, they celebrated with a wedding ice cream sundae.



Congratulations to the happy couple!

A couple of weeks later, we celebrated their daughter Sara's fourth birthday with a dinner and cake. I brought them some markers that can only be used on special paper, so my hands and their walls were safe.





Aljosha loved wearing my sunglasses!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my mom's birthday! Happy Birthday Mom! Wish we could be there to help you celebrate at Outback tonight. Enjoy your steak! We love you!