Granddaughter Rory Abigail is here!

Rory Abigail Basel 3 weeks old John and me with Rory at 3 weeks old.

We arrived in North Carolina Wednesday and got to meet our new Granddaughter Rory Abigail Basel. She was born August 17 and weighed 7 pounds 9 ounces. She is so good. She slept most of the day today and we enjoyed just watching her. She slept 8 hours last night so Meredith got a lot of good rest. She looks a lot like Reagan except for darker hair and more olive skin like her Daddy. Reagan gave her many kisses today and seems to have come to terms with this little bundle of joy invading her space. Meredith and John are great parents. John and I are so very blessed to be here.

John also flew to California to visit with Ben. He had such a good time. It had been over two years since John last saw him and that is way too long. They packed a lot of things into just two days. He has the pictures to prove it. Ben continues to enjoy his job and is learning new things everyday. We are very proud of him.

I had been in Chattanooga for about six weeks. I decided while I was there to strip some wallpaper off the dining room at Mom's and work in her yard. It is my personal opinion if you really want to truly torture someone all you need to do is give them a room of wallpaper to strip or give them a good case of poison ivy. Either one should put you over the edge. It did me. The poison ivy ruined two weeks of my life. The only saving thing was Mom and I ate out ALOT. I believe every place she went she got shrimp or seafood. She loves shrimp fried, broiled, baked and skewered. We had a lot of fun.

On our travels here we got to spend time in Anderson and to see a bunch of friends. We also got to have ice cream (bad bad bad) at the Clemson Dairy. The Clemson ice cream is the reason I gained 20 pounds the first summer of our marriage. We also ate supper with Katherine and Jim in Columbia. Then we drove to Bennettsville and Betsy met us there and she and I survived 3 hours of John's stories about being raised there. John had looked forward to this for a long time. We then drove to Myrtle Beach where we walked on the beach and did some shopping. In one week John had his tootsies in the Pacific and the Atlantic Ocean. Then we were off to John's other favorite destination, Calabash, North Carolina! He had so many wonderful memories of his family driving there to eat shrimp and hushpuppies. The waitress brought a basket of hushpuppies while I was in the restroom and he consumed most of them before I returned. Needless to say, we ate too much Tuesday Night. John also spent Saturday touring the gravesite where his Grandparents are buried in Fayetteville, N.C. with Betsy & Alan and Katherine & Jim.

I am recovering from a bad case of food poisoning so I will post pictures on my blog as soon as I am up to it. Please pray that I feel better quickly as we leave on Thursday to go to the wedding in Virginia of Lindsay & Jason and I want to be chipper. Also, please pray for our friend Ed Cothran who will have heart surgery on Wednesday.