If you’ve only recently started reading my blog you might not know that I have a second niece. She was born two years ago today and unfortunately only lived for 104 days.

She died when we were on the Appalachian Trail, so after we returned back to the trail from home after the funeral, cairns become something symbolic for me with her, Ashleigh. Typically cairns are used for marking a footpath or a particular place on a mountain but occasionally we’d come across great areas of them for no particular reason. The ones above, at Sunfish Pond in New Jersey, were simple and modest but they reminded me of her.

When we came across the ones at White Rock Cliffs in Vermont I made a tiny one for her. I didn’t take a photo of it at the time. But it is there among all the other cairns alongside the trail. It really is an amazing sight to round the corner and see the forest full of cairns.

And when we came to Galveston a few weekends ago and I saw the cairns lining the rocks on the Seawall near Fort Crockett, I knew I had to walk among them and make my own for her. They are a little hard to see in this pano—and it isn’t that great of one because I was not using a tripod and just a point and shoot camera.

I only met Ashleigh twice and never held her. Her parents, my brother and sister in law, of course had the privilege as did my parents, but when we left for the AT she was not in good enough health for other people to hold her just yet. And so, I had always hoped to be able to connect with her as I have my other niece and nephew but I never did in the way I thought I would. Instead now I try to remember her in these ways, building something more for myself to remind me of her, but also to leave a mark upon on the Earth for her, to let others knows whether they realize it or not, that a sweet little baby girl was here for 104 days and made a remarkable imprint on the lives of those who knew her.

Happy Birthday Ashleigh!

Our Chinese cabbage has been doing great but they are starting to bolt. We’ve been making stir fry with some of the cabbage and it has been great. Ok, *Chris* has made the stir fry. Anyway, I have been dying to make my own sauerkraut after seeing my brother make his own last year so that is on my agenda to make but I’ve also wanted to make chow chow. My grandmother used to make it a lot, well she canned most things out of her garden or from the farmers market and had a shelf full of jarred items in a small hallway in the house I visited growing up. I don’t remember eating a lot of chow chow, mostly because I thought it was a grown up thing to eat, but here I am a grown up and I wanted to make it.

I had my mom email me my grandmother’s recipe and I dug right in. Except I didn’t realize it was going to make so much! I mean, I know three cabbages, but geez, this was a lot! Her recipe also called for onion and green tomatoes, but her recipe also didn’t make nearly as much. I ended up buying one white onion and about six tomatillos because I couldn’t find any green tomatoes at the store. I should have bought about sixteen tomatillos and two more onions! But that’s ok, because in my research on chow chow, there are many different ways to make it. Some with less cabbage, some with more, some sweet, some tangy. It seems that there is no ‘right’ way to make it, which is really a lovely thought!

I nibbled a taste as I putting it into the jars and it tasted just as I remembered. I was worried as I was drowning the cabbage in apple cider vinegar that it was going to be too vinegary, but nope, pretty darn good! I’m planning on trying it out tomorrow morning with some hashbrowns and eggs for breakfast! But, I’m hoping I can expand the use of it, put it on rice and beans and other dishes that need a little kick.

Have you made chow chow?

On Christmas Eve I did not get to see these two, my niece and nephew, for very long, only a few hours in the evening. They were both sick and Zoe was dealing with a reaction to the medication she was on, so my ideas of visiting them at their house were sacked. But, I did get to see them for awhile and I got to see Grayson smile and laugh at me, and Zoe made me eat Christmas Eve dinner next to her at her kid table (me in the floor) while she watched ‘kid tv’—aka: Rio. I say ‘made’ me sit with her—but I really didn’t mind. I don’t get to see her but once every few months so I love to sit with her when I can.

And since they were both sick they both coughed in my face a few times so now I’m sipping Emergen-C in hot tea to see what I can prevent. I’m thinking that might not work so much since my brother was getting sick too…oh well.

I’ll have some photos from the chaos of presents on Christmas Eve tomorrow. I didn’t take many photos the entire weekend and instead spent it being rather lazy, reading, doing a smidge of crocheting and not being online except to find How I Met Your Mother episodes to watch while I walked on my parent’s treadmill Saturday morning. As a result of being lazy I am more than halfway through The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, because as usual I am late to the game on books and the movie is out and I want to see it.

Hope your holiday was wonderful!

As someone who loves being home, wherever I am….since we were married in 2002 we’ve lived in two different apartments, a townhouse, a 70s ghetto house, a tent, two hotels, our parent’s houses, and most recently the small place we are renting now…the abode that we spend our time always forms memories. Every time we packed up a house I would walk room to room and remember the different things that happened in the room, the little memories that were made.

This summer when my mom and I went to visit her cousin and and daughter Elizabeth we all got to talking about the old places the grandparents had lived and what happened to the places. In particular they were interested in their shared grandmother on the Kincade side of the family so I finally got mom to take me over to one of their houses that happened to be less than a mile from where my grandmother, my mom’s mom had lived in east Ft. Worth. For 18 years I was over at my grandmother’s house frequently but had never gone or been taken that extra mile over the railroad tracks to the other house. (My grandmother moved to another house when I was in college because her neighborhood had slowly become very ghetto and though her neighborhood was bad, just on the other side of the tracks was even worse.)

So, over the tracks mom and I went that day. What we found was depressing.

We couldn’t determine if someone actually lived there or not, but the neighboring homes were occupied. Several homes on the street were in similar states of disrepair and it was evident people lived in those, so I am willing to bet someone lived in this house.

I wanted to fix this house up and live in it, knowing that wasn’t really feasible or possible. There are so many cute early to mid-20th century homes in this area that would be beautiful bungalows to fix up. In some areas they are nice, people take care of them, others, not so much. My grandfather, my dad’s father, lived in a neighborhood nearby up until this last year. It was a shame to let the house be sold, so much history and that there was a gigantic yard that grew lots of vegetables in year past…but that will be another story.

Here they are, Carson and Minnie in front of another house, I’m not sure whose. Perhaps it was the other house they lived in in another area of Fort Worth or maybe a friend or relative’s house. Carson died in the late 60s I believe, I should dig out my genealogy binder to check, but Minnie was alive until I was three and I have very hazy memories of her in a wheelchair at her nursing home. But that is all. I wish I had more.

I hope to continue this series over the months as I get more photos of various houses, dig a little deeper and remember my own memories of the three different houses I lived in growing up.

It’s been a busy few weekends and before that I was in PA so I really haven’t had a weekend to decompress in awhile. This weekend I had absolutely nothing planned.

My poor cats have been sick the last two weeks. First Samson came down with a cold, sneezing and all, and then I took him to the vet. I told the vet that Leo was fine. The next day Leo proved me wrong by sneezing.

He was promptly fed the same medicine Samson was getting. Though he appeared to be worse off than Sam ever was. I went to the field for work for a few days and when I returned he was all stuffy and his eyes were watering. It made my eyes want to water, I felt bad for the poor boy.

Soft treats are the way to go for tricking pets into eating their medicine. Shoving it down their throat—not so much a good idea.

Spending this weekend with them has been nice, cuddling up with them. Chris is returning from PA on Tuesday so I’m sure they will be happy to spend some time with them. My cats are more like dogs and really enjoy attention. Of course they have their moments of solitude but for the most part they like being around us.

I had to pop into the dollar store to get treats for them and found my favorite Christmas candy. It reminds me of my grandmother, my mom’s mom, and they are just plain delicious. I prefer them over regular candy canes, plus they make coffee taste so good!

I also popped into a Starbucks for my first peppermint mocha of the year. I had a love affair with it many years ago but then I kept getting poorly made ones so I switched to regular lattes and caramel macchiatos. This one turned out to be great and I’m so glad I got it. The nearest S’bucks is 20 minutes away so they are not a regular habit of mine. Probably a good idea for my waist line!

The chrysanthemums are blooming! (Just had an Anne of Green Gables moment spelling that out).

The community garden is looking beautiful with the mums out!

And the 4-o’clocks provide a heady aroma in the evenings. They have perked up from their leggy looking status this summer.

A very good weekend. Looking forward to seeing my husband this Tuesday after a month away! Having gone from living with each other day in and day out for a year and a half to not seeing each other much for six weeks—kind of strange!

Hope your weekend was relaxing!

Over the last weekend my brother and sister in law came down with my niece and nephew to visit as was seen in Monday’s post on meeting Cleetus, the neighborhood donkey.

Before they came I Googled some places to check out. Despite having lived in the Houston area during college, I was mostly in Galveston and familiar with areas around Galveston county. Now I am on the north side of Houston and everything is new to me again. I came up with Dewbery Farm since my niece loves animals and outdoor activities. It turned out to be a great experience—expect to spend some dough if you have several kids! There’s an entrance fee and while some of the activities are free there are several that require tokens, meaning dropping some more cash.

First Zoe had to hang out with Samson for awhile. Apparently he is “My best old friend” to her. I think he probably thinks otherwise, but he definitely tolerates her a lot more than Leo does. Leo gets spastic around her and doesn’t like it when she moves fast and the consequences are sharp claws being flung at her. It stinks because she really wants to get close to him but he just doesn’t want to have anything to do with it.

And then of course there was Little Brother, Grayson, who is now almost three months old. Ohhh, he is so sweet! And smells so good. I might have to use Baby Magic all the time to keep the smell around. He definitely makes one want to have babies, especially since he is a pretty mellow kid.

Every time I see a different photo of Grayson his resemblance changes. Sometimes he looks like my great-grandfather, my mom’s mother’s father (follow that?), then at times he looks like one of my parents or his own dad.

Part of the ‘free’ at Dewberry Farms is that you get a hay ride. Hay is on short order this year with the drought so we had to sit on benches, but it was still neat since we toured the Christmas tree farm area and then visited the pumpkins patch. Pumpkins were heavily discounted, it being a week after Halloween.

Zoe loved going up ‘Fort Dew Hickey’, though it was crawling with 5-12 year olds and she gets spooked by lots of kids so her dad had to take her around the fort.

The air pillows were loads of fun until one bounce resulted in a bit lip that sprouted a bit of blood.

Stephanie was trying to hide behind Grayson as I took a photo! Sneaky, sneaky!!

Me taking a photo of my brother…

And his photo of me!

The best part was Zoe riding on two ponies! She *LOVES* horses and got one of those ‘life sized’ mechanical, stuffed ponies you can ride for her birthday. His name is Butterscotch. I think these ponies topped the day off!

Our local garden center put out a bale of hay and made it into a turkey so I thought it was perfect to stop and get a photo of Zoe in front of it. She’d about had it by then, though!

I can’t wait until they come again! Next time hopefully Uncle Chris isn’t in PA working and can enjoy hanging out with everyone.

Living in the country, we have a donkey and a few horses in our neighborhood. I’ve been talking up this donkey, Cleetus, to my niece Zoe for awhile. He’s a friendly fella and loves carrots!

My brother and sister in law came down to visit this last weekend and so Zoe kept waiting to be able to go see Cleetus. He happened to be in his barn most of the time until yesterday. Then we ventured around the block to go see him.

He sniffed out the bag of carrots pretty quickly and I know he would have scarfed them all down if we’d let him.

Zoe loves animals and especially loves to get near them, though Cleetus freaked her out a bit when she fed him a carrot because his lips touched her hand causing her to think he might eat her hand too.

But I think she was glad to meet him finally, despite her throwing a few tantrums saying she didn’t want to see him and then changing her mind minutes later. Crazy kid!

He had one little tear in his eyes—maybe he has the allergies I have!

As we walked away he let out a big “eeeee aww” and got a bit upset that we were leaving him! Now that it will be light out in the mornings, I will have to go for my morning run’s again and see him!

I’ll have more photos from the weekend in a few days. It was definitely adventurous, especially for Zoe who got ride to her first ponies!

Went to DFW on Sunday and Monday to finish getting the rest of our stuff and to see the family. Here’s a small snapshot..

Zoe showing off her purse sent from Elizabeth’s mom.

Really excited about the animal inside the purse, too!

Goofing off with my dad, PawPaw, during his lunch break.

Grayson tucked away in his sleeper, cozied up in the blanket I made him.

He smells so good!

Pumpkin vines are taking over the side yard at my parent’s house!

Grayson and my brother scoping the pumpkins out.

Oh, we found a little pumpkin! He definitely didn’t like that and was swooped out quickly.

There’s the real pumpkin!

I finally got around to finishing the processing of the rest of the photos from our trip to DFW to see our new nephew.

“What is going on here?”

Chris with my parent’s dogs, Isabelle on the left and Daisy on the right giving that goofy face.

Zoe looks like she’s got a brand new dolly to take care of!

Blissed out with her new charge…

Love the one eye open thing he’s got going!

Zoe was enjoying a pear with caramel sauce and gave me a great face!

Everyone had been trying to determine which chin Grayson had so that did a side by side comparison with my brother.

Father and son….

Can’t wait to see how big he is when I get up there in a few weeks!

My nephew was born on Thursday making me an aunt for the third time. Chris and I drove back to DFW for the weekend to spend time with the family and meet the latest member of the clan. He is *so* sweet! I was glad that Chris got to see him as an infant since he did not meet Zoe, our niece, until she was a year and a half. I took a zillion photos but I pulled these out quickly to post. I’ll be going through more of them this week.

Low light conditions for the most part kept me at ISO 800 or 1600, though I was able to utilize my faster 50mm lens for some good shots. Hoping I can get some more photos of everyone in better light before we head back home.

Curt, Grayson’s dad, giving him a bottle.

Uncle Chris with Grayson

Chris with Grayson

Dad and son (*love* this one)

Pulling a Whitlock self portrait…(Whitlock is my maiden name)

Mimi (my mom) and Uncle Chris loving over the kid in the bassinet. Chris had just said “He’s so cute!” and my mom had a fit about it! heheh!

Chris took this one for me…he got a bunch of shots on his camera but will process this later this week. Excited to see what he got with the macro lens.

Big sis talking about stinky diapers

Zoe having a fit with PawPaw, my dad. I wanted to get a photo of them together but she wasn’t having it.

I took a bunch of these two together but didn’t look closely at the best ones, just wanted to show a few of them together.

Was trying to capture Zoe making her face and get the whole thing in shot but I ended up focusing on the hands instead—that’s what happens when kids are moving so fast! I’ll have to pick through and see if any other came out, but I liked the set up of this one.

Poppy, my sister in law’s dad, and Zoe.

Dressed for home—his pants are too big for him and they are preemie sized! He’s an itty bitty thing!

*love* this little kid! I can’t wait to get to know him and see how Zoe interacts with him. Glad I live only four hours away instead of an airplane ride away so I can see him grow up more often!

This week I’m going to look for some of the photos I took of Zoe four days after she was born and compare them to Grayson and see how much they look alike! He also looks like his other sister Ashleigh. It would’ve been fun to have two sisters in the room today with their brother…