Ode To Saline

O.K., so it's not actually an ode. But, can I just say...I love Saline! Of course, it has it's faults, but what place doesn't, what people don't? Here is a list of what I love about Saline and also how being raised there helped me where I am now. This list is obviously not an exhaustive one...and very obviously has no order to it...you will pick up on the random-ness I'm sure. :)

1. You just can't beat the lake in Saline...AHHH! Laying on a raft for hours in that still, warm water. Going skiing almost daily. Playing tag on the spillway...almost falling in (not good...thanks for catching me Adam Kaiser). Doing flips off the top rail of the spillway (also, something that I would never do now).
2. Everyone knows everyone...and everyone mostly knows everybody's business, or they think they do. That can be good, esp. if there is no gossiping and backstabbing involved (and lots of forgiveness)...and if you are basically living the way you should you don't mind if everybody knows your stuff. So, since it can be a good thing, it is on my good list.
3. Saline Bobcat basketball games...WOW...love those...and loved playing.
4. Little league softball in the summers (which I played the whole time allowed, age 4-16)...go Readhimer!
5. The cookshack where you can hang your bill..."just hang it."
6. The general store (just like the mercantile on Little House, except they don't sell fabric) where you can "write it down" (on your running tab)...also, the employees there are all members of Carolina Baptist Church (where we attended when we lived there this last 6 months), so it was always fun to go in and say hi.
7. Family...my whole family is there and we all meet up regularly at Granny's, sometimes planned, most the time not. Fun stuff, great food, good times.
8. Cousins...alright, so cousins are family, but us cousins in Saline were all like brothers and sisters. We went to school together, church together, played together, were always at Granny's together (climbing the magnolia tree), and spent the night together. Grady and Hadley got a glimpse of that with Kiley and Skylar.
9. The woods...trees for miles and miles. We would walk through those woods when we were little (we as in me and my brother, Jared...and whoever else was there, mostly Jeffery and Ariel) alot. We had these huge gulleys in the woods in our backyard that we'd play in, build forts in. Fun stuff.
10. Walking to the top of the hill...we lived on a big hill...the plateau of part of it...but, to get to the actual top you had to go through the woods, oh I don't know, probably about half a mile at least.
11. Ditches...one of our driveways to our house was washed out really bad by a storm once. We never used it again, but it made for a great playground. There were tons of big ditches. Me and Jared would get in there and dig tunnels and all sorts of stuff.
12. Thinking stumps. :)
13. Riding bicycles...we rode hard and loved to ramp stumps (I think we called them that, but they were really roots).
14. Simple living...although we stayed busy, it was simple and easygoing. We didn't have a bunch of stuff. We knew how to play outside. Where I lived (O.K., I actually grew up in Readhimer, as seen in the one about softball; Readhimer is a suburb of Saline:) ), the electricity would go out if the wind blew hard. So, although that's only happened once in the last week since we've moved into this house, it happened at least every other day at the other house. I'd say that prepared me. Besides, a girl from Readhimer is never without her kerosene lamp. Yep, it's in the closet. :)
15. Warm people...could kind of fit in with #2, but people are just warm and friendly and there typically is no front. It's funny...when we lived in Phoenix, at one point we invited about 50 people over to our house. I think we had about 20 tops show up. And no, it's not because we aren't fun people. :) But, we laughed about how if we invited 50 people over in Saline (or East TX), you'd better allow for about 80 to show up. People just include other people. Nice stuff. Of course Brazil is like that.
16. Hunting...O.K., yes I did that. But, I think what I loved about it is just being outside...and I only really went when it was nice weather (a few times when it was butt cold, but not many...and thanks Jared, for always leading me to my stand and handing me my gun:) ). I only killed one squirrel (stop laughing, Jared), so it's not like I was a regular. But, my hunting days include squirrel, deer, and coon (I just tagged along on the coon hunt). Once when squirrel hunting, a coyote walked very close to us. It was really cool.
17. Fellowships at church...when you go to a small Southern Baptist Church, you eat alot. Mmmm! Especially the ice cream socials in the summers (home-made ice cream that is).
18. I need to wrap this up, so last, but certainly not least...the WATERMELON FESTIVAL! I will have you know that you are reading the blog of one year's watermelon seed spitting champion (and that year was just a couple of years ago). Oh yes! 36 feet. Now that's a spit. Anyway, we weren't able to make it this year (obviously), but we had to pay homage somehow. We didn't go get a watermelon...we've had several since we've been here in Brazil though. But...we were going somewhere on Saturday night, so we had to dress for the occasion.

Saline, I love you!


In the hammock, the only furniture that we actually have as of now, except our beds and the 4 kitchen chairs. :)
Can you tell Asa is teething? Her 7th little tooth just broke through today...and another one to come really soon.
This picture cracks me up. Grady is like, "Um, are we still taking pictures?" (we got him back for one more though) and Hadley is so the supermodel here, with her leg all cocked. So funny and typical and unposed.
My watermelon crew.