Bethany picnic

Justin on the pony ride. Though he much prefers cars/trucks he was able to get near the animals w/o too much stress. The Bethany picnic is a yearly event put on by our adoption agency.

Presley Reunion, Aug., 2008

This reunion has been happening every year for the past 22 years. ( I remember b/c I was VERY pregnant with Abbey; Bob and I did not attend that 1st. year.) It is the reunion of the children born to Ollie and Glen Presley. My grandmother, Ollie Presley attended many of these first reunions, but has since past away. There were 10 original children, my mom is #9 of the 10. There are 30+ grandchildren (or the cousins), the cousins have a bunch of kids (the great-grandkids), we're beginning to have a run on cousins becoming grandparents so these are the great-great grandchildren; there are great-great grandchildren that are adults, so maybe there are even great-great-great grandchildren to Ollie and Glen, but there are so many of us, I just don't know.

The above pictures are of the original siblings. I didn't manage to get one with all of them together, so I had to paste one together. Picture of the 3 girls, Aunt Wanda, Aunt Geneva and my mom (Verna). To the right my Uncle Carroll, he is one of the twins.
Uncle Bill sitting, he lives in MB, SC by my mom and dad. Uncle Joe bottom right.

My mom and my cousin Larry



My Aunt Naomi, started and helped organize this reunion, but she was unable to attend this year because of health reasons, Naomi is the first born of Ollie and Glen. My Aunt Naomi always kept a book, made sure everyone signed in and then made a recap of the year and of the reunion. So I'll try to do so here... There was a good number of attendees for the reunion, I think 50 or 60 relatives and spouses. We met at the fire house in Dawson, WV. Sherral and crew (Kevin on the grills outside) did almost all the cooking this year. Great as always. The oldest attendee was my Uncle Joe, the 3rd born of the original children. The youngest was Carson, who was just a couple months old, plus he was a preemie, so he was a peanut. Carson is Audrey's, daughter Amanda's 2nd child. My cousin Wayne and his wife had not been to the reunion since the early 90's (their children Kevin and Kelly had attended in later years). The oldest cousin attending was Audrey or Sandy (not sure which one is older-I may get myself in trouble, I'm fairly sure they are close in age.) The oldest great-grandchild...I'm not sure maybe Brad or Amanda. Kevin (Brenda's husband) had a trailer with a huge grill and then other smaller grills, we feasted. All the food was great. We ate, visited, talked, teased (lots of teasing going on, it is a Presley thing), played games, ate some more, talked some more, told some more tales. It was a wonderful afternoon.



Recap of the year: Many gathered in NC, just a couple weeks prior to the reunion to mourn the passing of my Uncle Mark, my Aunt Wanda's husband. He is remembered fondly by all of us and was a loving and amazing man. Weddings: our Abbey was married Feb., 2008. Babies: Robin's Heather had her 2nd baby. Sherral and Brenda both had new baby grand-daughters born to their sons. Sandy's son Randy adopted 3 children last August. I know there were graduations and probably more babies born, but I'm remiss. I'll need to add to this as I can remember occurrences or as people remind me. Let me know what I've missed.

Cousins....

We were hoping our distant cousin Elvis would show up...seems he was last seen at the White House (haha) Anyway lots of cousins. This is Audrey, I have the exact same picture of her last year.


Robin and grandson


Wayne, with his wife Valerie and son Kevin along with his mom, my Aunt Wanda.


Sandy with her husband and Larry with his wife.

Family

Aunt Geneva with her great-grandson Carson, Aunt Wanda and Mary


Uncle Carroll with his wife Judy and greatgranddaughter


Sherral and Wayne sneaking bites


Dane, Scott and Brad

Family pic

Robin and Brittany with Heather's Danny. My Uncle Harold and his family had traveled to NC earlier in the month, plus the rest of Robin's crew would be arriving the next day so that they could go white water rafting. We missed everyone that couldn't make and look forward to seeing everyone next year.

We had a family picture taken, but our camera was having battery troubles at that moment so the pictures did not even take. I'm hoping someone got a picture of our family. If you did, please send it to me!! Anyway, my mom's family was nearly complete. My brother, his wife and his 3 boys attended, along with we Hill's.

Lots of fun

Jacob, my dad and mom, Bob




Ballengee crew

Games

David and Kyle

More

Grandma Sherral with her new little princess

More reunion

Bill Presley family






The reunion was great. Now about my posts...please forgive me if I've mispelled names or

One year ago today....

One year ago today Freddy and Julie were married.
Happy Anniversery. (Julie is my brother's step-daughter.)

Also, one year ago today, both the Hill and Erber families "rushed" home from attending two different weddings (though on the same day and at the same time.) We actually rushed over to the Erber house so that Abbey and Josh could take a walk together. There is actually a cute picture of the two of them walking down the driveway; one of the many siblings watching (though trying not to really watch) clicked a grainy picture of the event. Anyway, from that moment on, we pretty well knew it was only a matter of time...

More lunch with Crist's

Thanks Ben and Anna for playing with Justin, he had a great time.


When I see these two beautiful, smiling girls I can't help but think of so many things....beads, tea cups and monkeys; giant bathtubs and baby dolls; Sam and Frodo; knives, skirts and a sling-shot; our artsy, curly heads... much more, but they always make me smile especially when they are together.

Lunch with the Crist's

So fun to see and hear these two giggling and talking.

A grown up picture of our birthday girl

Wedding day, Feb., 2008

Olivia

For the past week, I guess I have done a lot of pacing and watching the Internet for any updates, etc. (Actually for the past 2 months, there was a very slim chance that we would have been included for a referral.) Finally today the referrals came out for August. The official information is that referrals were placed up to and through 1-31-2006. The strange thing is the CCAA office was closed and did not take any dossiers from 1-28-2006 up to and including 2-5-2006. This means the very next day that China has to work with is our day.

This would mean WE ARE NEXT!! Our LID is 2-6-2006.

China has always taken complete days, so it looks like we will be matched next month with our daughter. This usually happens anywhere from about the 3rd or 4th of the month till about the 9th or 10th. So I'll definately will be pacing and working through the labor, just after Labor Day.

We've started a Blog for Olivia, to keep everyone up to date about what is going on. Plus we'll post pictures of her when we get them. Also, it will be our travel blog when we head to China to pick her up. Traveling might be by Bob's birthday 10/10 or by the end of October, 2008.

Pre and post Presley Reunion

In order to access the slide show, click on the title above. This will take you to our Google page, then click on the slide show. Back click so that you can return back to this page. That should work, hopefully you don't need to start all over.
Yes, you will need to log onto our blog again, sorry. I'll try to fix it so you can get back easier.

Some pictures from our times at the hotel with some of the Presley clan the day before the reunion and then after the reunion. Plus some travel photos getting to the reunion.
The photos are from my Uncle Bill's family which included Sherri and Scott and their 2 children Kyle and Sydney, plus Sydney's friend Olivia; my mom and dad. Then my brother, his wife (Rich and Elena)and their 3 boys (Sean, Ryan and Jacob). Along with we Hill's.