Merry Christmas!

Has is really been 2 months since my last blog entry? Boy time sure does fly when one's having fun, huh? :-)
Sorry to be away for so long. Seems like just a week ago when I was sneaking into Churchill Downs! Aw....the memories! LOL!
Let's see, what's been going on in the lives of the Swindell's that anybody would be interested in?
In October John's cousins Jim and Irene came for a visit from New Hampshire. It had been about 9 years since they had been to Savannah, so they were past due for a visit! We had fun taking historic tours of downtown Savannah, sampling some Southern cooking, and rounded out the week with a ghost tour. The particular tour we took was very lame, though in the past I took an amazing ghost tour. So, if your travels land you in Savannah, you'll have to try a ghost tour, perhaps you'll luck up on a good one. :-)
November we traveled to Ohio to spend Thanksgiving with my family. My sister hosted the dinner this year, and all of the food was AWESOME! Ate too much, but don't we always eat too much around the holidays? And, I got to have some DiCarlo's pizza! Yum! One cannot visit the Ohio Valley without a trip to DiCarlos!
Then December rolled around way too fast! Christmas shopping was a nightmare! Trying to buy gifts for people who are impossible to buy for! I think for next year I am going back to making all of my gifts. It's so much easier!
I spent all day Christmas working at the hospital. We had 4 whole patients! It was just me and another nurse. And, I have never seen 12 hours crawl by so slowly in all of my life!!!! One patient was too appreciative of my care, calling me her "Angel"
:-p The other patient was totally confused, and didn't even know what day it was. Very sad! Her family didn't even come visit! The dogs! But, Santa made an appearance at the hospital, passing out fruit and stuffed animals to all of the patients, and later in the day a family came around caroling. That was very special! The patients were signing along with them. Well, everybody except my confused lady. :-(
December 26 John took his nephews to Stowe Vermont for their Christmas gift. They are up north playing in the snow. Yesterday they went snowmobiling, and today they were going to hit the mountain for some snowboarding, and Brian was going to take a ski lesson, but the winds were too high, and lifts not running, so they had to spend the day in town instead. Hopefully the weather will be better for them tomorrow. Thursday they head back home, should be home in time to celebrate the new year.
Judy and I have been hitting the stores, looking for bargains, and I have been doing some shopping.
Not much else to report. No more plans in store until our trip to Vermont at the end of February. But, the way time is flying, it will be here before I'm really ready!
I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year to everyone who reads this! May your new year be better than the last!
God Bless everyone!
Penny & John

Trip To Kentucky

Absent again. So sorry. Time keeps getting away from me!
Last week, I was invited to attend the ANCC National Magnet Conference in Louisville Kentucky. The conference is for hospitals that have gotten Magnet certification, as a chance to network, and get some CEU credits. I've never been to this conference before, and was honored to attend. I've also never been to Kentucky before, so I was looking for a chance to see some place new.
To start the trip, the secretary who made our travel arrangements goofed. She flew us into Lexington, instead of Louisville! I didn't think it was a big deal, figured the two cities were close. Well.....when the taxi cab driver asked where the hotel was, then he needed a street address, and then he enters the address into his GPS, I figured we were in trouble! The two cities are 71 miles away, and it costs $190 to take a taxi from the Lexington airport into Louisville! OOOPPSS! LOL! But, at least our driver was hospitable, and pointed out the sights as we went!
The conferences were mostly interesting. It's just very difficult to sit cooped up in a windowless room for 8 hours!
Thursday night I got to be naughty. One of our nurses was invited to a special night at Churchill Downs, the rest of our group was not. But, don't tell our boss she isn't invited somewhere! LOL! We figured the worst thing they would do is not let us in, and we'd look at the sights, then get a taxi ride back to the hotel. I am so happy our boss lady is naughty! I loved seeing Churchill Downs! So cool! But, now I want to go to the Derby next May! Anybody want to come with me? :-)
Here are some of my favorite photos from the Downs.
Enjoy

One-Room School House

John's uncle Billy is visiting us from Boston, and we've been showing him the sights of Savannah, and the area.
Yesterday, we took a trip up to Statesboro Georgia (about 40 miles away) to visit our friends Glenn and Jan. Jan has a 100+ year old one-room school house on her property! The school house has been moved to her land, and filled with items from the time period. It is truly something fabulous to encounter! I feel like Laura Ingalls in Little House On The Prairie every time I enter the school!
Naturally, I got tons of pictures while there.
Included is some history of the one-room school houses, taken directly from the pamphlet that Jan hands out to everyone who comes to see her school:

Originally constructed in Tattnall County, Georgia, the Oak Grove School is an excellent example of the one-room schools that served most of Georgia's rural students from the 19th century to the mid 20th century. Few of these historic buildings have survived.

Through the vision and generosity of Georgia Southern University alumna and benefactor, Jan Anderson, the school has been fully restored to help preserve the history of one-room school education. Jan presented the Oak Grove School as a gift to Georgia Southern University during it's Centennial celebration in 2006 to recognize the University's long-standing commitment to teacher education.

In March 2008, she was awarded the NSDAR's National Historic Preservation Medal for her preservation of Oak Grove School.

In 1900, there were more than 7,000 one-room school houses in Georgia. Today, only a handful of these gems of education are preserved, and the Oak Grove School is an archetypical example of these historic structures. Through it's preservation, visitors are taken back to this unique era of Georgia's educational history.

Georgia had no public education until after the Civil War (1861-1865). The One-room school, where a single teacher taught students of all ages and abilities, was established to provide education to specific communities or families, and the schools often lasted no longer than the tenure of the teacher.

A 1916 survey of Tattnall County schools recorded the value of the Oak Grove School at $250. It featured one classroom with no cloakroom. It was well lit and "fairly well kept", but the building had no ceiling and was unpainted inside and out. The desks were homemade and the blackboards were poor. One teacher taught 32 pupils in seven grades, and classes met for five-and-a-half months of the year.

Construction of the schools varied greatly, but most were simple wooden clapboard structures approximately 15 feet wide and 30 feet long with a gable roof. There were usually one or two doors on the gable end, often covered by a porch or shed roof. The only lighting was provided by two, three, or four windows on the sides. A small chimney or stovepipe on the ridgeline of the roof was evidence of the single potbelly stove inside.

Simply furnished, most one-room schools had either homemade or patent desks. A teacher's desk and blackboards were the only other furnishings. Educational supplies might include some maps, usually state or county soil maps or a U.S. history map, and a few pictures, and perhaps a dictionary. Well-funded schools featured a globe, a small library, or occasionally an organ for music lessons.

For more information, visit http://coe.georgiasouthern.edu/oneroomschool

Moonlit Walk On The Beach

Last night, John fussed at me because I hadn't updated the blog lately. Guess he was sick of looking at the pictures of me, huh? :-( Oh well...what's a girl to do? So, just for John, I thought I'd add some pictures, so my ugly face gets moved to the bottom of the page. Happy?

Last Friday was a full moon. And, according to the weatherman, it was going to be a Harvest Moon. I thought great, a picture perfect opportunity! So, we load up the camera, and head out to Tybee to take a moonlit stroll on the beach.

It was prefect beach walking weather, not too hot, nice beach breeze, and best of all, not a lot of people! I love that! We had an incredible sunset that night! And I was able to shoot a ton of pictures!

I waited patiently for that amazing full moon rise, but we never really got that great view! Stupid clouds rolled in just in time for the moon rise! Never could get a clear shot of the moon for all of the haze, and clouds! But, it was a great night to walk, and just enjoy some one on one time with each other. I wish we had a pedometer on us, I know we HAD to have walked at least 3 miles that night! We walked to the lighthouse, and back again. I was beat when we made it to the car. Walking in that deep sand does you in! It's a great workout!

So, here are some of my favorite shots from the beach Friday night. The season is over, and I bet we can count on one hand the amount of times we made it to the beach this year! I sure miss living 5 minutes from Tybee!