A Wedding Celebration!

We had the honor of celebrating the marriage of our dear friends oldest son, Brett Hawkins, to Lauren Boyce in Cape May, New Jersey!

The Hawkins Family
Alan and Melinda with newly married Brett and Lauren, Leah, Joseph, Reid, Kristin, Preston, Allison and Melissa

The beautiful, Victorian hotel where the reception was held, The Chalfonte.

The groom's sister, Leah, made the wedding cake -- awesome job Leah!

The Bride and Groom



Sarah with Allison Hawkins and Rebecka Boyce

Christian, Eric King, Andrew, and Ben Boyce

Reid, Andrew, Brett and Christian

Melinda and I

Our Family

My handsome husband and I -- can you see how blue his eyes are in this picture?! The bride chose to use beautiful, blue hydrangeas and delphinium to decorate with, and it was absolutely stunning! The flowers complimented Tom's eyes quite nicely.

My handsome boys

Getting ready to toss the bouquet from the balcony.

Sarah was among the single ladies hoping to catch the bouquet, but it was caught by one of the bride's younger sisters.

Sarah helped pass out bubbles to the guests as the bride and groom were getting ready to depart from the reception.

Departing amidst the bubbles.

My dear daughter and I

Fredericksburg - Day 3

We bought an audio tour CD at the Chancellorsville Visitor Center, which turned out to be our favorite activity so far on the trip. The photo above shows the original foundation of a home belonging to the Chancellor family. We learned on our tour that Chancellorsville was not a town, but an intersection where the Chancellor family lived. The house was constructed in 1816 and was located on the busy Orange Turnpike, where it served as an inn for travelers on occasion. The house and its occupants were in the crossfire of the Union and Confederate armies in May, 1863, in the conflict that has become known as the Battle of Chancellorsville.

On May 3rd, 1863, the house caught on fire during the battle that ensued. The photograph above shows all that was left of the house after burning. Susan Margaret Chancellor, 16 years-old and an occupant at the house, gives her account here.

The Catherine Furnace, a landmark during the Battle at Chancellorsville.

Confederate trenches dug by General Jackson's men during the Battle at Chancellorsville.


The day was cool and rainy, so we didn't spent much time outside. After concluding our tour of Chancellorsville, we got some warm, yummy burritos from Chipotle and took them back to our trailer where we began to pack things up for heading back on the road in the morning.

A human interest photo - the kids swipe the camera and take silly pictures all the time. I've been threatening to put their silliness on the blog -- here ya go!

Fredericksburg - Day 2

We tried to see as many attractions listed on our package tour as we could. We started off the morning at the Hugh Mercer Apothecary on Charles Street. I don't have many pictures to share because we weren't permitted to take pictures inside most of the historical buildings. The only exception was the Kenmore home, which you will see further down in this post.

(A Side Note - Have you ever come across a picture that a previous generation in your family took, and you have no idea what the picture is of? As the historian in our family, it happened to me as I sorted through pictures as I was creating scrapbooks for my grandparents on both sides of my family. It made me really sad to gaze into the faces of people whom I could not give a name to because no one knew who they were, and see pictures of places I could not identify. I don't want that to happen in our family, which is why I take the time to journal about details that many might think are irrelevant. I have thought many times that I would remember the details of an event, only to go back several years later and not be able to recall them. This blog serves as the preliminary sketch for the scrapbooks I put together. I am really excited that my kids are showing interest in wanting to add to the family blog!)

From the Preservation Virginia website - "This eighteenth-century building was restored to house the Hugh Mercer Apothecary. Dr. Mercer served the citizens of Fredericksburg with medicines and treatments of the time. Leeches, lancets, snakeroot, and crab claws made up just some of the remedies. Dr. Mercer practiced medicine for fifteen years in Fredericksburg. His patients included Mary Washington. Dr. Mercer left his practice to join the Revolutionary army and died as a Brigadier General at the Battle of Princeton."

The docents at the Apothecary were dressed in period costume and spoke as if we were visiting Dr. Mercer's office back in his time, which made for a very entertaining presentation. Most fascinating to the kids were bowls of live, large, medicinal leeches, which attempted to escape several times while we were there. The docents seemed to think of them as their pets! Some interesting facts we walked away with -- they can live up to a period of 7 years, and only eat blood. Ewwwwwww . . . . . .

Our next stop was the Rising Sun Tavern. The building was built around 1760 and served as a tavern, or hotel, for the Gentry of the society. The docent giving us our tour did a fabulous job portraying colonial life. We left the building thankful that God in His providence chose us to be citizens of earth in the 20th/21st century! (i.e. baths once a year, strangers sleeping in the same bed with as many as four other strangers, guests sharing the same plates, cups and utensils . . . .) As the docent said, "Remember, germs weren't "invented" yet!"



Our next stop was at the Mary Washington House, mother of George Washington. After looking through the pictures I took, I guess I didn't take any pictures of the outside, and we weren't allowed to photograph the inside. The photo above that I got from the Preservation Virginia website will have to suffice.

From the Preservation Virginia webiste - "In 1772, George Washington purchased a house from Michael Robinson in Fredericksburg, Virginia for his mother. Mary Ball Washington spent her last seventeen years in this comfortable home. The white frame house sits on the corner of Charles and Lewis Streets and was in walking distance to Kenmore, home of Mary's daughter Betty Fielding Lewis.

The President-to-be came to this home to receive his mother's blessing before attending his inauguration in 1789."

One note of interest we that found amusing was that Mary Washington was a loyalist to the King!

The next historical home we visited was Kenmore, home to Mary Washington's daughter, George Washington's sister, Betty Fielding Lewis. Kenmore was built in 1775 by Fielding Lewis and his wife, Betty, Washington's sister. This Georgian-style house contains some of the most elaborate decorative plasterwork to survive from Colonial times.

We couldn't believe that they let us take flash pictures inside, but were glad they did! The plasterwork throughout the house was magnificent- I had to promise Tom I wouldn't try to replicate it in our next house . . . . (I LOVE ornate designs!)

The ceiling in one of the rooms

Another view

A fine photo taken by Andrew at the Kenmore house.


We thoroughly enjoyed this beautiful day walking through the town of Fredericksburg. After several days of rain, we were thankful for blue skies and temps in the 70's. We finished this wonderful day with some yummy pizza and calzones at Castigliano's.

Fredericksburg - Day 1

In order to maximize our time and $$ while in Fredericksburg, we purchased a package that gave us access to many of the historical buildings and battlefields in the area. Some of the attractions we wouldn't have necessarily wanted to see, but since they were part of the package, we went anyway. The first stop on our tour today was one such place, the Gari Melchers Home & Studio at Belmont.



Mr. Melchers was an American impressionist artist that lived from 1860 - 1932. The house is unique as a historical home in that Corinne Melchers, Gari's wife, willed the house and all of their furnishings and belongings to the state of Virginia. The house on the inside is as they left it upon their deaths. Mr. Melcher's had a studio built on the grounds where he did his painting, which is now filled with his artwork. Although Belmont was not something we would have chosen to see, we thoroughly enjoyed the tour through the house and viewing his artwork. There was a misty rain falling all morning, so we were glad for an activity to do inside.

Before I continue on with our tour of Fredericksburg, I want to take up this space to defend my son's passion for Civil War history, particularly that of the southern states. As Christian has studied this period in our nation's history, he has examined the facts surrounding the causes of the conflict and found that he believes the cause of the South was just (as does our whole family). Since I have your undivided attention, I would like to share a little history lesson . . . . .

Just as the War for American Independence of 1776, the War for Southern Independence of 1861 was fought over "taxation without representation." The North was constantly trying to raise taxes on Southerners through high tariffs on imported goods in order to protect the inefficient big businesses in the North. These big businesses could not compete with the manufactured goods from England and France with whom the South traded cotton. The South did not have factories and had to import most finished products.

The Industrial Revolution allowed England and France to produce and ship products across the Atlantic that were cheaper than the products of Northern manufacturers. When Lincoln was elected President, he and the U.S. Congress immediately passed the Morrill Tariff (the highest import tax in U.S. history), more than doubling the import tax rate from 20% to 47%. This tax served to bankrupt many Southerners. Though the Southern states represented only about 30% of the U.S. population, they paid 80% of the tariffs collected. Oppressive taxes, denial of the states' rights to govern themselves, and an unrepresentative Federal government pushed the Southern states to LEGALLY withdraw from the Union.

Since the Southerners had escaped the tax by withdrawing from the Union, the only way the North could collect this oppressive tax was to invade the Confederate States and force them at gunpoint back into the Union.

It was to collect this import tax to satisfy his Northern industrialist supporters that Abraham Lincoln invaded the South. Slavery was not the issue. The War for Southern Independence was not fought over slavery or racism. The Emancipation Proclamation consists of two executive orders -- the first issued on September 22, 1862, declared the freedom of all slaves in any state of the Confederate States of America that did not return to Union control by January 1, 1863. The second order, issued January 1, 1863, listed the ten states which the first executive order applied to. Now, if Lincoln were truly concerned with freeing slaves, then why did he only free slaves in the states which he had no control over? Why not free the slaves in the north as well? His only motivation in issuing the Emancipation Proclamation was to cripple the Southern producers of cotton who relied on their slaves for their livelihood.

Our family believes in freedom of all people, regardless of their skin color. There is one race, the human race. Skin color is irrelevant. We believe in a government that is limited, and that states have a constitutional right to govern themselves. We grieve the loss of over 600,000 lives, regardless of which side they fought on, between the years of 1861 and 1865. We believe that our Southern brothers in 1861 fought against a government that was far less oppressive than our own . . . . .

And that concludes our little history lesson!

Our next stop was at the Fredericksburg Visitor Center, which is located a few hundred feet from the Stone Wall and the Sunken Road. Here is Tom and the kids in front of what remains of the original wall. Christian had read much of the battle that was fought here, and was thrilled (and sobered) to be standing here.

The original Stone Wall/Sunken Road with the Innis House in the background.

The Innis House

As we walked to the end of the Sunken Road, we came to The National Cemetery.

Some of the graves are marked with individuals stones engraved with the name of a soldier. Many are like this one, only identified by a grave number on top, and the number of soldiers buried here underneath.

The kids sitting at the top of a ridge overlooking the town of Fredericksburg. Stretched out below them (but unseen in the picture) are the graves of thousands of soldiers.

Andrew asked for the camera while we were at the cemetery -- here are some of his shots -

Vacation Time!

The Thomas' are out on the road with the trailer on another adventure! When we started out, we didn't have a definite itinerary, but a loose one has evolved as we have gotten a couple of days worth of travel logged.

Our plans were to arrive in Fredericksburg, Virginia in the late morning and sightsee the rest of the day. However, we encountered this shortly after our departure from Emporia, Virginia --

A couple of cars pulled up alongside of us alerting us to a problem in back -- we didn't have a clue as to what it might be. In God's providence, we were just coming upon a closed weigh station, so Tom was able to immediately exit the freeway and pull in there. We were shocked to find that we had a tire that was not only flat, but the rubber and treads had shredded away. There was no variation in how the trailer handled, even with a flat tire.

Tom and the boys got the spare put on and we were on our way again. We were thankful for an overcast day in the mid-70's to change the tire, rather than a blistering, hot or rainy day. A spare tire is something you don't ever want to be without, so this mishap reshaped our plans for the day. Instead of sightseeing, we spent the rest of the day getting the spare tire replaced. We finished out our day with Chicago-style pizza at UNO. We are very thankful to the Lord for His hand of protection on us!

So far, Molly has been a good, little traveler!

An Announcement!

Our neighbors across the street were dog-sitting for their friends who had a German shepherd mix that had just had six puppies. The kids had a ball visiting the puppies and I was glad that they were across the street and not at my house! They were sooooooo cute and cuddly!





As the week went on, I noticed that there was one female that was spending more and more time under our roof than the roof across the street. (You know where I'm going with this, don't ya?)



By the time the owners returned from their trip, my husband had authorized the acquisition of a new canine model. (!!!!!!!!!)



I would like to introduce you to our newest fur baby, Molly. In this photo, she was just 5 weeks old. Her father is a purebred chocolate lab, her mother is a German shepherd/chow mix, and little Molly looks like a black lab pup. A puppy was not on my radar (I've got enough to manage already) so she is Sarah's charge. It's been a few weeks, and Molly already seems to understand that she is Sarah's dog.

Tom would like to be congratulated for owning a REAL dog (as opposed to sissy ones like our bichons).

Creatures of Our God and King!

Anyone who knows the Thomas' knows that we love God's creatures -- furry, feathered and otherwise -- and there's usually a collection of something residing with us at any given time. It seems that Sarah has inherited her mother's gene for "creature rescuing." I was always finding something that needed rescuing -- caterpillars, birds, toads, chipmunks, hairless cats, etc. (Yeah, that hairless cat thing wasn't too fun. I ended up getting rabies shots.)

About a month ago, Sarah was stomping around in the woods behind our house after we had received several days of rain. She discovered some puddles in which the tree frogs had laid their eggs, and now there were little tadpoles swimming around in them. Being that they were shrinking puddles, she realized that within 24 hours, the water would be gone, so she scooped up as many little tadpoles as she could to save them from impending doom. We've now had them for several weeks, and it has been great fun watching them grow. At the end of last week, they had all sprouted their back legs, so we found a pond and released them back into their habitat. We are thankful for the opportunity to observe God's creation close up!

Some of Sarah's tadpoles

Sarah, proud to have saved a few!

This is Jackson (General Jackson, that is) who is Sarah's charge until we figure out where he needs to go. We often joke that there is an animal underground in which word has gotten out that the Thomas' give out free food, free vet care and unlimited affection if you just show up! One day last week, I was sitting outside weeding in my landscape, when I heard sniffing sounds from behind me. I turned around and saw this sweet, little dog. I briefly pet him, but didn't give him any attention other than that in hopes that he would go home. Wherever home was, he wasn't interested in returning there. He wandered around outside of our house all day, looking in the doors, running up for affection if anyone went outside for anything, and finally taking up residence on our patio beneath a lounge chair. It was hot as blazes outside, and he was panting pretty hard, so the decision was made to let him come in for a little bit. Well, a little bit has turned into almost two weeks. We have made phone calls, searched the lost and found on the Internet, and diligently looked for flyers advertising a lost dog, but have come up empty-handed. In the next day or two, we will be posting flyers in hopes of finding his family. He is a very, very sweet, docile, and obedient dog! If anyone reading this is interested in adopting little Jackson, give us a holler!

We had some strong storms move through here a few days ago. That evening, the kids were taking the dogs out when they discovered this little fella on our sidewalk. We were wondering why the mockingbirds were attacking us whenever we went out the front door! We scooped him up knowing that there are 6 cats who visit our house each night, and we didn't want him to become kitty fodder. He snuggled up in the nest we made for him and didn't make a peep until the sun came up the next morning, at which time he let us know he was hungry and NOW! We fed him a diet of worms and berries which kept him satisfied until I was able to run to PetSmart to get some baby bird food. While we were nursing this little guy, the kids found his sibling on the sidewalk the next day.

Birdie #2

Both birdies were very content to snuggle together. Sarah and I fed them a highly nutritious powder that you mix with water until it's thin enough that you can suck it up with a pipette. They were very vocal about letting us know when they were hungry, and they eagerly gulped the mixture down.

I did some research on the Internet and learned that the old saying about birds rejecting their young if humans touch them is a myth. That being the case, we decided that we would try to get them back up into their nest. The momma and poppa were still hanging around the nest and attacking us, so it was definitely worth a try.

An inspection of the nest revealed that it had been damaged in the storm, which could be why they were on the ground. We made them a makeshift nest out of a Cool-Whip bowl, and tied it up in the tree by the original nest. Here is Tom placing the birdies in the "nest" after he had secured it to the trunk of the tree.

Within the hour of placing them back up in the tree, the parents were feeding them proving that they will take care of them, even if they've been touched by humans.

The next day, the babies were down on the ground again! We let them be and observed them marching around, spreading their wings wide, and then running for cover under a bush. The parents were aware of where they were at all times and were still feeding them, so we're letting nature be. I read that they are learning to find food on the ground for themselves, and they should be airborne within a few days. We hope so, because the cats are permanent fixtures around here! We are doing our part to help momma and poppa mockingbird by keeping all of the cats well fed. Above, you can see Smokey in the left of the picture. She's a feral cat that lies around on our deck as long as there is shade, and sits right in front of our French doors when she wants to be fed. She looks like our family pet, but we can't get near her. (We know she's a female because we trapped her and got her fixed after we saw her with a litter of kittens. She was nasty while we held her captive! Hissy! Hissy! We fixed her kitties too and adopted them all out.)

Stay tuned for the next critter adventure!