Herculaneum & Pompeii

I went to Pompeii and Herculaneum when I visited James in Italy.  (Herculaneum is a smaller town close by Pompeii that was also destroyed when Mt. Vesuvius erupted.)  It blew my mind.  I mean,  I'm walking around in a town that is literally older than Jesus.  Did you know that they had running water?  (and sewers!) Their system of water delivery was amazing.  There were  different tiers of "necessity" where the water was concerned.  When they were in times of drought the least important tier automatically stopped running the water and focused towards the more important ones.  B.C. people!  I don't want to bore you with too many "fun facts" so I'll just say this...I'm different now.  Different for being in that place, walking on those roads, touching those walls. 

Ready for photo overload?

Beautiful mosaic tile floor.

Zoom in on this one if you can.  Especially the art across the top.

One of the drinking fountains.  The most important tier.

If you can zoom in on this one you should.  In the process of restoring.

A beautiful ceiling.

The Temple of Isis

The Great Theater
Fun Fact: This is where Pink Floyd played.

Amazing detail just on a corner of a building. 
Almost an afterthought.

A wealthy home.

The Amphitheater

Inside

The start of the Necropolis

The Necropolis

A snake on a wall in a home.  It was amazing to me that so much
of the art survived.

 

This is Apollo.  I'm toying around with the idea of having another kid
 (or just getting another dog) so I can name someone Apollo.

Would you believe me if I told you I really did narrow these down?  I really did.  If I went into detail on every picture I'd basically be writing a guide book, but if you have specific questions on any of them let me know and I will try to answer.  It was a tremendous experience and I hope I can go back one day.    

 

 

This Moment

 

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 

 

playing along with Soule Mama.

Hey guess what?

Excitement.

Anticipation.  Is it him?

Disappointment.  Not him.

Boredom.

More boredom.

Is he EVER going to get here?

Yes he is!

James came home last night!  We are very excited to have him here with us.  We don't know any details about leaving again but we'll tell you as soon as we find out.  Right now we are just enjoying the morning and our weekend custom of homemade biscuits and gravy.

Love to you all!

JKFP


p.s.  with school starting and James coming home I'm behind on showing you our summer fun.  I didn't forget.  It's coming up soon!

Life Less Ordinary

We were in NC for about a month and it was pretty much one good time after another.  You'll remember we left to get away from the smoke and heat.  Piper did really well once we got out of town and her daily meds kicked in.  I can't pretend it wasn't hot though BUT... air conditioning makes a big difference.  Anyway, we enjoyed our time tremendously and I'm so grateful to my parents for letting us crash for so long.  I even got to sneak away for a week to visit James.  (I'll cover that part of the trip in a later post.)

A few highlights... Oh!  I'll cover the 4th and Tweetsie Railroad in separate posts too.

The "man cave" is pretty much a wonderland for these kids.  I think every afternoon when Paw-Paw came home from work they ran running and screaming to greet him and then immediately started with the "Paw-Paw can we go downstairs???"

Bella's side of the basement is pretty fun too.  Beads and rocks and string....oh my!

We watered the grass...

Then the boys cut the grass.

 

They patiently waited for a furry friend to finish his dinner...



Our friend Emily's dog Huckleberry.

Or maybe not so patiently.

And we got to visit with Emily too!

There were girls days...


at the nursing home with Maw-Maw painting our fingernails.



And boys days...

they are cleaning out the radiator for our car.

There was even a little fender bender.  (I was running an errand in my mom's car and got rear ended.)

But mostly we did this...

And even more of this...

We had so much fun.  Thank you for letting us come to play!  But wait there's more....

JKFP



** note ** most of the really great pictures were taken by my dad...unless he's in them.

Sunday Morning

This morning I was having my coffee by the big window like always and the kids were outside picking apart "blinky" veggies for the chickens.  I don't know, the way the sun was shining, how nicely they were working together, it just called out for a picture.  These are my favorite moments.  The ones where they are completing a task together.  No bickering...just calm.  It's going to be a good day. 

JKFP

p.s.  Enjoy that 2/3 finished fence while you can...I think I found someone to finish it!  I'll let you know how that works out.

Problem Solver

This child is a problem solver.

What to do when your dress (which is the proper attire for making "yard soup") buttons in the back and you have short arms...

Oh how I wish you could sit here at the window with me, drinking our coffee together, watching these children play.  It's such a joyful thing to watch.

Happy Sunday

JKFP