Henderson-McWhorter Family Reunion

A typical southern family reunion! Hosted at a small country church that can't be found on Google Maps (though the cemetery for the church is on there!) we met many people we have never seen before. The start of this family tree were my great grandparents. My grandfather (Earl Henderson) was one of 5 children. There were 15 total children from those 5. One was my dad - the only child of Earl and Frances Henderson. Of my dad's 14 cousins, 9 are still living and most were there with their children and grandchildren. I knew 2 of my dad's cousins but was pleased to connect with a little of my heritage. Despite the fact it was >100 degrees outside and you may never keep in touch with these folks, there is something special about thinking you have a family connection to these folks. Some stories are probably better left untold, but the ones that were fun to eavesdrop on were how proud people were of their children and grandchildren. Fun to see my dad especially show off this grandchildren primarily. It also gave me pride to introduce my family and say, "Yes, I belong to Bill." Thanks for keeping us connected dad!

Jeff the Father and Professor

Happy (pause) Fadda's (pause) Day, Daddy! (can you hear the toddler voice as she repeats the words coached by Mommy?!) She adores her daddy (as do I!). Claire loves to "Tackle Daddy" before bath time, play piano with him, give him tea at tea parties, read books to and with him 20 times from the same book, "check mail, daddy!", "help daddy" when he's doing something outside, after a skinned knee? "Daddy kiss it!" What precious moments in a precious relationship that make a mommy so proud! We are also proud to inform the world that Jeff was approved for tenure at U. of Alabama to be effective August 2012. This is a huge deal for faculty representing untold hours of research, grant-writing, teaching, talks given and workshops proctored around the world, student mentoring, paper writing, collaborations on so many levels etc...Typically, you go up after 6 years but he lost a couple of years because of ME :)) and he moved to Alabama. So let me introduce to you Dr. Jeffrey C. Carver, Associate Professor! Well done, Sweetheart! And all the folks in academia take that sigh of relief and sense of pride with you and Claire and I do our Happy Dance in celebration! We are so proud of you and love you very much!

4 years!

So here we are 4 years later from our wedding day 06-07-08. My dad came over to keep Claire so we could go out for a nice dinner at La Dolce Vita in Hoover and have a overnight stay at Ross Bridge. What a treat to enjoy each bite, have full conversations and sleep in! It was a wonderful time of reflection and pondering what we hope and pray for in the next year for our family. We showed Claire our wedding album and she recognized everyone in there! We have learned a lot about each other and about doing life together and look forward to all that God has for us. HERE are pictures from that big day 4 years ago.

House Project Completed - FINALLY!

Things that you can count on to ALWAYS BE TRUE: Jesus, The Bible, Taxes, "People will be People", and house projects of any size always take longer than you think! This last one surely did but we are so thankful we did it and are thankful for how it turned out. As you see, we didn't really have a functional back yard. We decided every kid needs a back yard to play in and Claire is no exception! Before this our back yard sloped significantly and was very bumpy with much natural beauty. All we ever did to it was an occasional dose of Round-Up! So we added a retaining wall that is 6.5 feet tall to be level with the house, 25 truck loads of dirt, pure top soil with St. Augustine sod. We lack a little fencing at the foot of the driveway but it will happen before long. The grass was a good choice for this area and took very well thanks to the expertise of landscaper, George Ladd. It's already been mowed 4 times and Claire has already christened it with several laps of kicking her ball. So come one and come all to play in our new back yard!