AWW!

How precious! The little younguns have all growd up! Nah...for real..we have an awesome family and I love getting to spend time with you guys! Let's do this more often, okay!?!?

To Self, From Phil

Wow. Did you ever once hang around your school after hours, after the lights had gone down, and happen to wander into one of your classrooms, now empty?

Deja Vu.

I made a new friend. She showed up at the house in Bulls Gap. So I fed her.
She is the dog with no name, Shedder of Hair, Defiler of Sweaters!

The Fabulous Prize Arrived!!! Love it!

Cari is a person of her word......she promised fabulous and she delivered fabulous, especially to this Patricia Cornwell aficionado! In the mail today I received Food to Die For, a cookbook by Patricia herself. Cari had no idea, but I also have another cookbook by Patsy, Scarpetta's Winter Table, and I had planned to purchase this one as well. Thank you, thank you, thank you! I am well-pleased. You are very thoughtful to remember our conversation about my taste in mystery writers! And the pictures of the dishes in this cookbook are enough to make me gain weight just looking at them! Can't wait to try them; one that calls my name is the key lime meringue pie. Or the lasagna with artichokes, or the Jack Daniels pie....well, you see the dilemma!
Now as to whatever happened to poor Fluffy.....well, all I can say is "poor Fluffy!"
(Sorry, fold-ees, this is an inside joke concerning the (in Cari's own words) "sick" card that accompanied my fab prize!)
I am happy with my prize, and I thank you very much for the great honor bestowed upon me in being declared the winner of the contest. (Taking a deep bow)

Happy Birthday to Barney and Cynthia

Barney already celebrated his birthday on Tuesday of this week, and Cynthia's is coming up on Saturday. Our senior group at church had a cookout at our leader's house, and she made it into a birthday party for Barney with a cake, so he was well-pleased.. not to mention well-fed!

Long live the fold!

Hello All!
Hope everyone is doing well. I know this is a busy time for most everyone. But many thanks to those of you who continue to post and comment. The students have just come back en masse. As you might have gathered I made it safely home astride the big yellow pony. If I had not, receiving this post from me would be quite spooky. Everyone is fairly well at our house. Someone dropped off a puppy that we are caring for until we can find her a home. She has made a practice of shredding the morning paper before we get up. So you will find me most mornings gathering soggy newspaper scraps out of the yard. She is very lively and sweet-tempered (even though she appears to be mostly pit-bull). Right now we are calling her Priscilla (we thought a prissy name would be funny for a dog that is decidedly not). Her puppiness is annoying the other dogs, but we might end up keeping her anyway. In other doggy news, during their annual check-up Zeke was diagnosed with heart worm. The vet said we caught it very early and he has an excellent chance of making a full recovery. However it will be uncomfortable for him and will require him to be on restricted activity for 2 months. He starts treatment in about a week, so just keep him in your thoughts. I wanted Erin to know that everyone here agrees that Ella would be a great Baby Gap model. I put up the picture you gave me in my office. She is really working that jean skirt! I also wanted to announce that Sossie has won the "Name the Volvo" contest. Your "fabulous" prize is shipping in the next few days. Philip, as much as I loved your submission, unfortunately it would never fit on the air-brushed vanity plate I had in mind for the front of the car. Speaking of cars, thanks Phil for humoring me and the big yellow beast. I had a lovely time tooling around with you. We will have to do it again soon. I'm glad you are enjoying college so far. I always knew you would.
Love to you all!
B

Books and Backhoes

Yes'm, I went to my first drill weekend. Although the experience as a whole was undesirable, it wasn't as bad as I expected. Not a very complicated group, these guys. Quite...cheery. Although, it DOES trouble me that the Sgt. over all the HE operators doesn't even know where the parking brake is on a backhoe. Hmmm. As far as school is concerned, that went outstanding, and I've been beating myself in the head trying to find the reason why I didn't go there in the first place. I have two classes with friends (after a bit of tinkering, naturally, although this DID cause me to lose my Tues. and Thurs. off days), and I look forward to seeing how it's going to pan out. Never thought I'd hear myself say that, though......

Phil

All right, already! Let's get this blogspot active!

'K, peeps, it has been waaaay too long since anyone has posted ANYTHING in the Shepherd's Fold. Makes me wonder if the Fold has folded! Now, we aren't going to let that happen, so let's hear from everyone soon. We want to know how the first weekend of duty went for Phil, and how WSCC is going. We need to hear from Jenny as to her class, etc., this year. Cari, how was your trip back, and how were the four-leggeds faring? We always love pics of sweet Baby Ella when Erin has time to post, and Shep, wassup with you? Leese, wouldn't hurt you to post a line or two either. Jonathan, when you get back from the wilds, I know you will have a lot to tell us. Just in case we don't get back together before, have a smashing good Labor Day weekend, and Go, Vols!
Big huggin's to all of you from Sis/Aunt/Mama Soss.