Jeremy Herndon Blog

Every summer my parents took us all down to their summer house for fun in the sun and the river. Those were the days that were the best times for us all and I have thanked my parents a million times for giving us this wonderful opportunity back then. They still own that property, and have actually moved down there permanently, although the log cabin (which my dad always bragged to us that Davey Crockett helped him build it) is long gone and a nice modern house has been built right on the waterfront for them to enjoy all year round with plenty of bedrooms for us to use when we come down for the holidays and family functions when we can travel that far.

We spent most of our childhood summers playing in that wonderful river water, swimming, diving, boating, fishing, water skiing, tubing, crabbing and any other type of water activity that we could think of. The only problem was the darned jellyfish that would come out towards the end of July, all most every year. Getting stung was a real bummer and we would go to great lengths in order not to get stung, but it was inevitable no matter what we did. The only real way not to get stung was to go to the private pool that my folks paid the hefty membership dues for so that we could be in the nettle free water that we so enjoyed whenever possible.

Back in the real world when we were not down there by the river we would nag our parents endlessly to please buy a pool for us and our friends to use in the back yard, but they were not having anything to do with that idea. They really were not interested in finding and purchasing all of the pool supplies and all of the numerous pool accessories that go along with owning, operating and maintaining your own residential pool, besides the liability issues that kids just don’t understand. Instead of a pool in the area that would have been perfect for a pool we ended up with a garden that kept us busy with all the weeding and all the other hard labor that a good sized vegetable garden requires. At least we learned the value of a home garden full of all kinds of wonderful fruits and veggies that we enjoyed all year round thanks to my mother’s large freezer in the basement that was always over flowing with the fruits of our labor.

Guest post written by Sharlene Brooks

For once, I’m not going to have to worry about which pie I’m fixing for our huge  family gathering for Thanksgiving Day. I always wonder about that because my family is all about the pies and I like to make sure that we have no repeats. But instead of doing the normal thing for Thanksgiving this year, I’m going to take my family to see the Thanksgiving Day parade!

It’s something that I’ve thought about doing for a few years now, but I finally decided to just go ahead and do it before the kids get a little older and have other things that they need to do during the Thanksgiving break. I was online a few months ago booking our hotel and everything for it when I ran across some information on getting a hearing aid. That’s also something that I’d been thinking about for a while, so I decided to go ahead and get fitted before the big trip.

I think that we’re going to have so much fun with the parade and I just want to make sure that we’re all ready for the trip and pack everything. It’s going to be a whirlwind of a trip, but I think that it’s going to be amazing!

Several years ago my mother-in-law gave us a couple of dining room tables with matching chairs. She was in the process of moving to a smaller house and was giving away a lot of furniture. The chairs were in very sad shape, however, and the seats in about half of them needed to be replaced. We didn’t know how we were going to fix them, and so they have been gathering dust for a couple of years in the garage. My wife has been reluctant to throw them away, so I was humoring her.

Yesterday a box arrived on the doorstep – a box full of new seats for the chairs! Seems as if my resourceful wife found a website where she could buy replacement seats and she ordered them, just in time for the family gathering planned for later this week! Now all we have to do is break out a couple of screw drivers and fix them up!

When asked what my favorite home style cooking restaurant is I always have to say that it’s Cracker Barrel, they serve breakfast all day and all night, so people who like to (or get to) sleep in late can still have pancakes when they go out to eat. They also have daily specials of comfort foods, like baked chicken, meatloaf, pot roast. My favorite day for specials is Thursday – it is real roasted turkey with dressing.

I like to poke around in the gift shop – they change the merchandise out often and there are always plenty of new items to look at and and coo over. Sometimes while waiting for an empty table in the dining room we will sit out on the big front porch and rock in the wood and rattan chairs that they sell.

Contribution by Stevie Kirby

Birthdays at our house are always a big deal. My husband and I make it a point to make our kids feel very special on their birthdays because our parents did the same growing up. When I was little, my parents let me pick what I wanted for dinner on the night of my birthday and sometimes I got to go out to dinner alone with my parents, which was a treat since I have three younger siblings. My husband’s family goes out to lunch on the Sunday around each family member’s birthday. This year our son will be turning three and after trying to think of something to get him, we decided to Get WildBlue internet so we could do some online research. We found him a really cute tricycle that I think he will really like. He is pretty coordinated, so I think he will have no problems riding it. I can’t wait to see how excited he will be when he opens it. The only problem is I ordered it a week ago and his birthday is in three days and we haven’t gotten it yet. I guess I should probably call the company to make sure it shipped.