moving, moving, moving

I have not been able to blog much this week as we are in the midst of moving. It has been very hectic trying to get the new house ready to move in and cleaning up the rental house as we move out. I finally decided we could not do it all ourselves, so we hired a moving company ("three men and a truck") to move the furniture and boxes of stuff, etc. It took them almost 4 hours to load the truck and about 3 hours to unload. It was money well spent. I had hoped to move last week, but we discovered the new AC condenser (13 SEER) that the seller installed did not work properly. The inside cooling unit (10 SEER) and/or evaporator coil did not match. I finally was able to contact the seller and the company that was hired to replace the AC unit came out last Friday and installed a new inside unit. Praise the Lord, the new unit did not cost us a dime!

So this past weekend we "kicked it up a notch" and began packing boxes at the rental house and cleaning cabinets and floors in the new home. Even though it meant staying up to almost 3 AM on Weds morning, we were able to get most things packed in boxes. By Saturday, we will finish moving our clothes and cleaning the rental house and continue unpacking boxes. At least we are able to sleep in our new home now. Feel free to drop by and we will have an unpacking party!

Another blessing to share, a couple from our church brought us a wonderful meal Wednesday afternoon. We have enjoyed two days of this homemade dinner of roast beef, rice and gravy, green bean casserole, corn, slaw, home grown tomatoes and cucumbers, and peach cobbler and vanilla ice cream for dessert. It was so nice to sit down and eat a meal like that in the midst of our moving and unpacking when you do not have time to cook.

Arkansas travelers, vacation ends

Our vacation is coming to an end as we prepare to leave for home.

Josh and his family left on Saturday for their return flight from Little Rock to Pennsylvania. Cindy, Robbie, Rachel and Brandon decided to take Uncle David up on his offer for a boat ride on the lake. Later that day, Rhonda and Jo Ann dropped by so I could download some more photos from the 4th of July.



On Sunday morning, we attended church with Aunt Robbie and Uncle Joel. Since it was "God and Country Sunday" Joel asked Rachel to sing "God Bless America" and Brandon accompanied her on the trumpet(see video below) Uncle Joel sang "The Statue of Liberty." After a lunch we loaded the car and headed home. Since it was not much out of the way, we visited Lori and her family at their tomato farm.

Arkansas travelers, day 7

On Indepedence Day the family gathered at Aunt Robbie's for a meal of BBQ chicken, ribs, and pork with all the fixins. We counted 49 family and friends before the day ended. Before lunch some of us went to Taylor Field to see the opening game of the Senior Babe Ruth League championships. Brandon was invited by Uncle Joel to play the National Anthem on his trumpet and Joel held the flag behind home plate. We watched the first inning of the game and headed back join the rest of the family.



Those who ate lunch included the hosts, Aunt Robbie and Uncle Joel, Mike and Susan and sons: Bradley, Colby and Dustin, Morris, Daniel and Micah, Airel and Gabby, Winnie, Cindy and Tim, Brandon and Rachel, Josh, Janelle, and Brielle, Brandy and Patrick McDonald and children: Tyler, Aurora, Payton and Noah, Pastor Snow and Linda, Dolores, Uncle Les and Pam, Pam's sister Kim and her friend Bobbie, Allison and sons: Gavin and Garrett.



After lunch we enjoyed two batches of homemade ice cream. Rhonda, Denton and Layton, Uncle David and Jo Ann, Lori and Charlee Ann, Josh and Amy joined us for dessert. Later, Derek and Amy and sons: Ethan and Brendan also dropped by to see everyone. The kids enjoyed playing in the puddles left from the afternoon storm and with sparklers in the evening. Thanks to Rhonda, I was able to post a slideshow with pics from the day.



Brandon, Rachel and I drove to Little Rock to watch the LR Symphony's 4th of July "Pops on the River" concert which began at 8:30 pm with fireworks following at 9:30 pm. The fireworks show began as the orchestra finished playing Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" and lasted for about 25 minutes.

4th of July in Arkansas slideshow

family photo Sunday

While on vacation this summer, we took a family photo of four generations of Baggetts.

Brandon plays the National Anthem at Taylor Field

On the 4th of July, Brandon was invited to play the National Anthem for the opening game of the Senior Babe Ruth League tournament at Taylor Field in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. The ball field was built in 1940 by the WPA and is still in good shape today.

Arkansas travelers, day 6

After the trip to Branson and back, I opted to enjoy my vacation with some R & R - including reading "The Last Jihad" by Joel Rosenberg. It is hard to put the book down, and I usually can not read for hours at a time. (Cindy likes to remind me about how many books I start to read and never finish!)

So Thursday was my rest day while everyone else toured the "Gov. Mike Huckabee Delta Rivers Nature Center" in Pine Bluff. It was our first time to visit this nature center, and the kids really enjoyed it.

Later Rhonda and JoAnn would drop by to visit and look at "proofs" from Brandon and Rachel's wedding. For supper, all the ladies cooked tacos, including Brandy's homemade guacomole.

Watching Brielle in the playhouse

As I was recording Brielle playing, I was oblivious to everything going on around me. Now that I listen to the video, I notice that Cindy is talking to cousin Clint about the good old days when they were kids. And then, Brandon announces the fire in the kitchen, and I should have followed him and continued recording, sorry. It seems Janelle was warming up something in a party bowl which caught on fire inside the microwave. At least the gas leak was under control by then! But that's another story for another time! :)

Branson, MO, day 5

By Monday night, Brandy had arrived from Texas with her four kids in tow. On Tuesday, we all enjoyed the swimming pool at Cousin Peggy's house. I posted a slideshow of photos taken by myself and Rhonda. For supper, we ate the Western Sizzlin and Les and Pam drove over from Sheridan to join us.

On Weds, my family decided to make the long trek over to Branson, MO, about 4 hours from Pine Bluff. It was a long day's journey there and back, but it was well worth it. We visited the new Sight and Sound Theatre for "Noah the Musical." It was well done and even though the play was fictionalized, the events and facts as presented were all biblical regarding the Ark and the flood. The most amazing thing was to find ourselves inside the Ark after the intermission, surrounded on three sides by animals, both live and animatronic.

Swimming Fun at Cousin Peggy's, day 4

Arkansas travelers, day 3

On our third day of vacation, we headed to downtown Pine Bluff for lunch and a visit to the band museum. We had to to find a place to eat lunch and sadly there's not much left of the downtown area. A few blocks from the main street, we found a little diner called the Sno-White Grill. After eating sandwiches, we walked back to the band museum to check out the collection of "exotic" band instruments. We also enjoyed the ice cream sodas at the shop in the back of the museum - the first original soda shop in Pine Bluff.

family photo Sunday

The "5th generation" of Baggetts enjoyed the week together: Noah, Aurora, Brielle, Tyler and Payton on the front porch swing, a favorite place to play at Grandma's house. I have two photos this week as I could not decide which one to post, the silly one below is really cute!

Arkansas travelers, day 2

On Sunday we were able to provide some of the special music at Grandma Baggett's church, Victory Baptist in Pine Bluff. The church was having a special 5th Sunday service with lots of music, "dinner on the grounds" and preaching. Pastor Snow had asked that we help with the music that day and we were glad to do it! Josh, Brandon and I would sing "Sweet Beulah Land" accapella and then Rachel and Janelle joined with us to sing "The Old Account Was Settled Long Ago." Rachel is in a ladies group ("Adoration") that had recorded their first CD last year, so she used the recorded music to sing her solo "In All Things God Works for our Good" and Janelle sang with her in a duet on "Bow the Knee." Brandon also played a trumpet solo, "Amazing Grace" and Rachel played a flute solo, "Turn your Eyes Upon Jesus." Pastor Snow even joined with us for a men's quartet in the afternoon service, "I Must Tell Jesus." Uncle Joel Blackstock sang a couple songs in the afternoon service, "Beyond the Clouds" and "Thanks to Calvary." Joshua was asked to preach the sermon for the afternoon service. We really enjoyed the fellowship with the church members at Victory and we were glad that we could be used of the Lord, even on vacation, to minister in music and preaching.

Arkansas travelers, day 1

One thing about living in GA, we are now about 6 hours closer to the relatives. We drove to Arkansas in less than 10 hours for the first time in over 30 years. It was nice to have help driving this time, as I drove the first leg of the journey and Brandon drove the 2nd. We arrived around 4:45pm Saturday and we had just finished unpacking when Carl and Sharon arrived. Coincidentally, his job sent him to Arkansas for a few days, so they were able to join us for the beginning of the vacation week. Josh, Janelle and Brielle had arrived earlier on Thursday.

We headed to Red Lobster to eat supper and celebrate Janelle's birthday. I enjoyed the "winning recipe" which was featured from The Next Food Network Star TV show - Macdamia Tilapia with White Chocolate Beurre Blanc (made by Kelsey Nixon.) She was given two main ingredients, tilapia and white chocolate, and had to create a meal from these two items. This main course was fresh tilapia topped with toasted macadamia nuts and coconut over a buttery sauce with a hint of sweet white chocolate (and delicious!)

all about the tomato farm

baby girl Charlee Ann surrounded by tomatoes

On the way home from vacation in Pine Bluff, we stopped to visit cousin Lori and husband Craig at their tomato farm in AR. It is a very interesting farm operation. I did not realize that all the tomato plants are grown from seeds in greenhouses and then planted by hand in the fields, as well as picked by hand during harvest season. That's a lot of tomatoes! For example, one variety on the farm are grape tomatoes and they grow 15 acres of that one type. KATV from Little Rock posted this video Sunday night about the farm operation and history.

Bradley County Tomatoes

family photo Sunday

I was reminded of this old photo as we watched all the children playing this week in Arkansas.

Cindy and Leslie (photo from the mid-1950's)

America The Beautiful

Glassmen play "America the Beautiful"
Happy 4th of July!

JULY birthdays slideshow