North Carolina, The Delta, and a birthday

On Saturday, March 10th, (yes, I realize that I am doing some major back tracking here) I headed to Cleveland all by my lonesome. [ Casey was on a trip with a group of his guy friends for the entire weekend, and had a really busy week of work ahead.  Therefore, this was a good time for me to go somewhere without him - I mean that in the best way possible, of course. ]  Mom had decided to take advantage of her Spring break and make a trip up to North Carolina to visit her parents/my grandparents.  When she told me what she was doing, I asked if I could come along for the ride.  So, a riding we went on Sunday, March 11th. 

We made a few stops along the way.

By the time we got to Atlanta traffic was pretty jammed.

Thankfully, we didn't encounter any other problems besides traffic. 

There's the big peach.  We are always so glad to see it because it means we are about 45 minutes away from their house. 

Before long, Gastonia, North Carolina welcomed us.  This is were my mom was born and raised, so it holds a special place in her heart.

Ahhh....we made it.

Each morning we headed downstairs for breakfast and talked about what the day might hold.

We did some spring cleaning and some yard work.  Actually, we didn't do some yard work, I cleaned on the inside and Mom worked outside with Granddaddy and Grandma. 

While cleaning, I played around with my camera and took pictures of these jars.  Can you tell I have a new camera?  I have so much to learn about it, so hang in there while I'm on this learning curve. 

One morning we woke up to heavy fog.

Please feel free to play "I spy the cat" in these next few shots.

This picture proves that I really was on the trip.

One day the turkeys paid us a visit.

And because I don't know how to really use my camera at this point, I didn't get the best picutres of them.  Plus, I don't have a macro lense. 

And the closer I got, the farther they moved away.

In fact, they moved so quickly that before I knew it, it was just me and the barn.

Spring kicked into high gear while we were there, and it made excited about Spring clothes, Spring flowers, Spring weather - the list goes on.

We took a walk...

and saw a Cherry tree...

a bird's home...

pretty yards...

and lots of new growth.

On Friday we headed back into Mississippi.

A good ole Delta sunset greeted us. 

 That night we celebrated Stephen's birthday (early) with a Strawberry Crumb Cake.

We pulled him away from his homework - it wasn't that hard to do.

My parents told him that this was as close as it gets as far as him getting a dog from them.

I think he's good with a pottery dog for right now. 

That's it for this long-winded recap - have a great rest of the week!

Jingle Bell Jog

The above title is the name of the 5k Casey, Mom, Dad, and I all ran on Saturday.  It's purpose: fundraiser for Blair Batson Children's Hospital in the Jackson area. 

It's other purpose: to make us stay in shape during the Holiday season and beyond.  We have been working too hard to let it all slip away simply because we are "holidaying."  

It was a fun race, because many of the runners dressed up in Christmas themed attire, and the people who cheered for us rang jingle bells. 

It was a challenging race, because you either ran uphill OR downhill the entire 3.1 miles.  There really was no in-between.

There is just no way to prepare for that if you live in the Delta like my parents, and as for me and Casey...we have some hills but sometimes we prefer the flat track in town. 

Here we are after the race.  We were feeling so good about ourselves, we decided we needed to go to Cracker Barrel for a re-energizing breakfast.  ha!

Every time I step outside to walk or run, I take a moment to reflect and praise God that I can do both!  What a blessing.  Exercising is something I can easily take for granted, and it is easy to grumble about.

Mom and Dad, we had a blast hangin' out over the weekend. 

 Next year, we'll all have a time to beat!

The end of an era

Hi folks,

I am back to do another weekend re-cap.  I feel like I am always doing a post about the weekends, but that seems to be when most of the action occurs in our life.  We headed up north to the Delta for a couple of reasons.

Number one - spend time with family & number two - to support Aaron in his final swim meet.   That's right, this past Saturday ended a 15 year era of swim meets for the Leininger family.  We all experienced nostalgia.    


Dad, Stephen, and I took Casey on a tour of the "old pool" at Delta State where we spent many hours swimming.  It is old, run down, and still used. 

This is the lane I used to practice in - talk about experiencing a wave of nostalgia. 

The High School State meet was held at DSU's "new pool."  You can imagine our excitement when it opened for business.  Stark contrast.

Warm-ups.

Aaron is the last one of us to graduate from CHS; it's hard to believe.

Aaron's relay team talking after their 400 free relay race. 

This picture looks like it was taken by paparazzi - Casey had to zoom in from the gallery. 

Me sitting with Aaron, offering support and prompting right before race time.  Mom took the morning shift, and I did the evening one. 

I just wanted a regular ole picture with my dad...

Take two.  I like it.

*Aaron we had a great time watching you swim, and we are very proud of you!

*******************************************

The next day, on Sunday afternoon, a tree felling occured.  We had plans for this to take place on Saturday, but the meet took longer than expected. 

A big storm/tornado hit Cleveland a few weeks back and lightening struck the one and only tree in my parents front year.  Therefore, it needed to come down.

The Forester at work.

A little help was needed from a couple of tow ropes. 

Aaron stood guard - wouldn't want any oncoming traffic to be suprised. 

Sibling love.

*photo by Mom

Happy November!