This year Mom planted some sunflowers around the yard and we by far had the best results up in the front of the house as you can see from the photo with Sam. The sunflowers in the backyard just didn’t get enough full sun (blocked by the hydrangeas) to really get big, but they were still very pretty. We will definitely do this again next year and maybe try a couple of different locations in the backyard. Mom has harvested some of the sunflower seeds and will probably take down the rest of the sunflowers later this week.
Meanwhile, Dad had a chance to visit the NC State sunflower field this year and he was able to get a couple of photos… obviously they planted a few more than we did. 😉
After an exhausting week of a vacation for Mom an Dad, which was actually a staycation involving house painting and yard work, Father’s Day arrived on Sunday. Sunday was also Sam’s belated birthday dinner so Nana came down on Saturday to help us celebrate. Dinner on Saturday, which Nana brought down with her from Waynesboro, was barbecue chicken, baked beans, couscous and brownies with ice cream. On Sunday Dad cooked Salmon on the grill while Mom opted for Old Bay steamed shrimp. Dad luckily made it in the house with the food right before the skies opened up and it started pouring as tropical storm Claudette was moving through town. We also had couscous, sliced tomatoes with birthday cake for dessert. The cake was from Harris Teeter and was unusual… something was definitely off with the icing so Mom will be taking that back and getting Sam a new cake on Monday.
For his birthday, Sam got his favorite gift of all – money! Dad meanwhile got a new pair of Nikes and a great Jayhawk – ‘Man Cave’ sign from Alex… believe it or not he actually found it at the beach in South Carolina a few weeks ago when he went down with Matt and Jeremy. The rest of the day on Sunday was mostly relaxing, Mom and Sam worked a little in the yard in the morning – trimming flowers before the rain and Dad and Sam worked a little after dinner on his new bookcases in the workshop. Alex had to work the early shift (7a-1p) so he spent the rest of the day napping and playing video games.
Sam had an ocean dive on Sunday down in Morehead City. Overall it was a good day for diving but little else as it was cloudy and sprinkling most of the day. Mom and Dad went to the beach while Sam was diving but didn’t take any photos as it was just too cloudy. Mom did however manage to pick up some more shells, even though we have quite a few jars of them scattered around the house. Sam even picked her up a couple on the ocean floor, this time with no critters inside. Sam was, unfortunately, having camera difficulties, but did manage to get off a quick video at the beginning of the dive.
Sam had his second dive a few weekends ago and while he was diving at the quarry, Mom and Dad went to the historic Yates Mill park in Raleigh (https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/north-carolina/yates-mill-pond-trail). It was a nice day, but the park would probably be very pretty in the fall when the leaves are changing, so maybe we will make a trip back then. It was however apparently snake breeding season at the lake and we saw quite a few baby snakes slithering through the creek.
Sam did get some good practice time with the underwater camera so hopefully this weekend he can get some good shots on his ocean dive. There wasn’t much to take photos of at the quarry but Sam had been having a hard time working the controls on the camera.
Sam started off the dive season last weekend going to Morehead City and diving on the Indra with Rum Runners dive shop. While Sam was diving, Mom had plenty of time to go shell hunting along the beach and it appears she hit the motherlode as the table at home was full when she laid everything out. Sam also brought back a couple of real nice shells from his dive too… unfortunately one of them was still inhabited even after Sam gave it a good shake in the sea.
This weekend he has a dive at the quarry lake in Raleigh. The quarry dives are obviously a lot easier since there is no waves to contend with and it is good time to practice on techniques. Sam is going to take the Go Pro camera and start practicing with it so that hopefully when he goes on the ocean dives he can bring back some good photos/videos. Later on in the summer he will be heading to Wilmington, NC with Rum Runners for his first dive in that area.
Sam got some new red fins and a new regulator last year, so it’s pretty easy spotting him in the photos.Cleaned and organized
Nana came down for a visit (Gung, Gung is still in the UK) this weekend and it was full of celebration. First off we celebrated Cinco de Mayo on Friday night – granted it was a couple of days late but we made the best of it with some Coronas, tacos, beans, rice and chips with lots of guacamole.
On Saturday, we celebrated two Graduations! Sam finished the last year of high school home schooled due to the pandemic – not to worry though as Mom and Dad didn’t have to do any of the teaching. Sam took all of his classes online at Pitt Community college and technically finished in December as he had all the requirements finished for high school a that time. He did go ahead and take some more welding classes in the spring and is taking a couple more welding classes over the summer as well. Sam finished his classes at JPII his Junior year with a 3.73 GPA (this was the weighted score as many of his classes were AP – Advanced Placement) and then finished his Senior year at PCCC with a 3.61 GPA and 31 credit hours of college under his belt! Sam opted out of a big party with friends, but we still had a nice small family dinner at home – burgers, hot dogs and all the fixings. The second graduation we were celebrating was for Alex as we didn’t really have a big celebration for him when he finished his Associates degree back in December of 2019. We had planned on having a nice dinner later in the spring of 2020, but the pandemic threw a wrinkle in those plans. Alex did take the last year off in 2020 as the next round of classes are going to be a little harder and he would rather take those in person than online. Alex plans on going back to get another certificate this fall and then hopefully move on to complete his 4 year degree at some point. Post pandemic his first degree/certificates aren’t quite as needed as before the pandemic – in fact, the local hospital actually disbanded that program entirely. Not to worry though as that will just give him a leg up on everyone else once he gets these new certificates.
Finally on Sunday, we celebrated Mother’s Day with a nice Salmon and shrimp dinner. Mom got some more flowers (she actually planted those on Saturday) and some garden tools while Nana got a gift card and the mother of all gifts…..vaseline lip balm. Apparently this is a ‘chick’ thing as Mom bought herself some too. Between the two of them they should now have enough to last until the next pandemic.
Cinco de Mayo, minus the beer and tacos…
For Dessert over the weekend we had lava cakes on Friday, brownies and orange cake on Sat/Sun. Yes… we know we left the Easter tablecloth on the kitchen table
Graduation dinner was outside on the deck
Graduation dessert and gifts were in the dining room
The very rare and elusive smile…
Apparently the instructions to read out load their birthday cards was not clear enough instructions.
Well Easter weekend has come and gone, but not without a visit from Nana and Gung Gung! Since everyone has had a least 1 vaccine shot, they decided to make the trip down for the weekend. Mom, Dad and Alex all had the weekend off from work, so everyone was at home for once. We had a nice Pasta dinner on Saturday night, followed by the new Godzilla movie and for the first time in a very long time, Alex and Sam joined in on the family movie night too. On Sunday we had a typical Easter dinner: roast leg of lamb, roasted potatoes, Mac & Cheese, roasted onions and some lemon peas. We tried to convince the boys to try the Peas, hoping the lemon flavor would help, but alas there were no takers on the green vegetables. The onions were also a tough sell, but will probably be eaten with grilled hamburgers later in the week. Everyone got a little treat for the holiday as well, including some dancing Peeps for Mom. It was great to see everyone, especially before David goes over to the UK for a visit. Happy Easter!
The Payne Chronicles 