Our Family's Menagerie

As you can see, between us we have quite the menagerie of animals. (Steph also has a cat, but I don't have a picture of Outlander.) All are sweet in their own ways, loved and well cared for. What did we do without these guys in our lives?

Angie's other girl, Tiny Cat.

One of Angie's cat, Nugget.

Jen and Tim's boys, Otto and Gus.

Our first dog. Our beautiful and sweet girl, Precious.

Our lovey girl, Lovey.

Our little weinie girl, Gracie.

Stephy's little girl, Kylie.

Grace Hope Poole, Precious Valentine Poole, and Lovey Dottie Poole

2006

Lovey and Precious

2004

Embellishments and more

It was back to the Purple Lotus today for touch ups on my dream catcher to make the amethyst stones more purple and the feather fuller. It was a breeze and I will post an updated picture in a few days.

Ron went to get his first tattoo today - a beautiful Celtic cross. It turned out just magnificently. He has said for a while that when he retired he would get a tattoo, shave his head and pierce his ears. At 62 (almost 63), he's retired and 1 of 3 have occurred. Shavon does awesome work! He's very excited and it was fun being there when he got his tattoo.

The Blizzard of '09

Tuesday dawned dark and gloomy with flurries in the air. Predictions of a couple of inches of snow had already either closed or delayed openings for schools and businesses alike (to include city and state government offices). Although some areas north of us, like Rock Hill and Charlotte, got hit with 4 inches or so, we got nothing more than flurries here. By the about 1:30 that afternoon, the blizzard was officially over!

This fall, I found out that one of the women that Ray and I work with made teddy bears from clothes that belonged to folks' loved ones that had passed away. I brought in several of Big Ray's shirts; she made 5 bears for me - one for Ray, one for Sandy and one for each of the girls. I gave Ray his bear on the 2nd anniversary of Big Ray's death on November 29th; Sandy and girls received theirs for Christmas.

My tattoo. The beads at the top represent Ray and I. The beads within the top circle represent Grandpa Resler, Aunt Dorothy and Jeff. The beads within the bottom circle are Big Ray and Dottie. The 3 beads at the bottom (before the feather) represent the girls.

Ray's tattoo. The beads at the top represent Ray and I. The beads within the top circle are the girls. The star of David is in honor of Mackie, and the beads in the bottom circle represent Big Ray and Dottie. Of course, the scottie medallian is Precious.

OK. Prepare yourselves for Ray's and my unveiling... We are healed enough to present our tattoo pictures!

Angela's tattoo. The red, white and blue beads at the top signify Angela, Jennifer, and Stephanie. The white and red beads are Ray and I. The beads within the dream catcher are Big Ray and Grandma Dottie.

Stephanie's tattoo. The beads within the dream catcher represent Big Ray, Grandma Dottie and 2 friends that she has lost.

Jennifer's tattoo. The medallion is that of the Blue Devils 88th Infantry, of which Big Ray was a member.

Dream Catchers all around

Two years ago, a couple of months after we lost Big Ray, Ray turned to me one day and said that he would like to get a tattoo. At first, I thought he was kidding around since it was something that seemed quite out of character for him. He was very serious, however, and I was to learn that he would like to have a dream catcher tattoo in honor of Big Ray. I was on board with that. We talked about it for some time and thought that the girls would be totally shocked by our decision to get tattoos. (They all had at least one at that point.) Unknown to us, they were also planning on getting tattoos to honor Big Ray, and (you guessed it) were talking about dream catchers! How uncanny! The tattoos did not happen as quickly as that, but by the end of October 2008, all 3 girls had gotten their dream catchers tattooed. Ray and I were present for the tattoo sessions and were so proud of the girls for wanting to honor their family in this way. All were original creations designed by them and drawn up by Shavon from the Purple Lotus. On January 2, 2009, Ray and I got our tattoos. Again, the tattoos were designed by us and drawn by Shavon. What an amazing family experience!

Angela's graduation from Winthrop in May 2008 with her Master's degree in Social Work.

Jennifer and Tim' wedding - the groom's side (Hicks).

Jennifer and Tim's wedding - the groom's side (Rosenfeld).

Jennifer and Tim's wedding - the bride's side.

Tim blowing water through the pool "floatie" tube. Immature? I wouldn't say so as his father-in-law, Ray, (a 50-something) and Ron (a 60-something) were in on the game! Boy will be boys!