Happy Fall, everybody! I love this. I love everything about it. The pumpkin candles, the orange and red leaves, the crisp morning air, I love it!!

Each year my youngest loves to get something to decorate our yard. This year it's a little scarecrow, hay bale, a pot of mums and some pumpkins. That's the picture of it at the top of this blog post. His older brother has always tortured him about liking to get mums each fall, and for a few years there he wouldn't get any for fear of ridicule. We finally got him out of that!

Next week we are heading to the Smokies. Well, Jimmy, Mother, Seth and I are going. Layke is staying home, and so is Rachel. We love to go up each fall and see the trees in all their glory! We've got a little apartment rented and have lots of fun things planned. On the agenda are going to get my knives sharpened at the Smoky Mountain Knifeworks, visiting the Apple Barn, going to the Craft Community, taking a picnic to Cades Cove, walking the streets and window shopping, and who knows what else. Since Mother is going it's going to be a much slower pace, but that suits me fine. I want to come home rested and refreshed, not exhausted.

Our big dog Toby is going to have an "operation" while we're gone to Gatlinburg. Mwahahahahahaaha!! I hope it calms his butt down some. He's such a sweet, sweet dog but he has a tendency to be hateful to Ernie, my basset hound. He's tried growling at me a time or two but I don't put up with that crap. It's usually when he's eating and if he growls I go over and stand between him and his food bowl. Typically I'll pick it up and he just sits there and looks at me. Then I'll put it down, let him eat a few bites, then pick it up again. He is NOT going to growl at me. I'm the pack leader, as Cesar Millan would say!!

Jimmy has a few gigs he's going to play this month and next. I'm happy for him; he absolutely loves playing his bass better than anybody I've ever seen. One of the gigs is a Halloween party. That might be fun, although I don't know anybody. I really don't have any close friends that live here in town. That's sad, really. I get lonesome, but I'm not a civic club type person and we go to church in Huntsville, so...I guess I'll stay lonely. :(

Well, nothing much of interest to say, but I did want to check in here at my blog. I'm trying to do better about posting!

Good Sunday morning

It's quiet in the house. Jimmy, Seth and Layke have gone to church and I'm sitting here half drunk from the medicine I took last night. Stumbling around the house straightening up a little, I realized just how grateful I am for all my blessings. We don't live in a big new house, but I have a home, warm and secure and full of love. Our cars aren't the newest models, but they are in good mechanical shape and get us where we want to go. We all have jobs that are fairly secure in these iffy economic times. The back yard is full of my sweet baby dogs who are so happy to see me every time I step out my back door or pull up into the yard. They see my car and three sweet faces are standing at the fence and it seems like they're saying WELCOME HOME!! Every single day I get a hug from Seth. That's like being wrapped up with a big old teddy bear. Jimmy loves me and treats me good. I cannot imagine what it would be like to be one of the women who have to run to the shelter because their husband has beaten them. My mother is the cake queen. She can't cook regular food, but she's the queen of cakes. She's even taking cupcakes to church this morning. My kids are good kids and I can't believe how grown they all are. Seems like they should be babies. I remember Sunday mornings when they were little, ironing little dresses and pants, making sure Sunday shoes were found, brushing teeth, combing hair and finding their little Bibles and making a mad dash out the door. Never in a million years would I have thought those days would end so soon!


All this rambling from a half-asleep mind is just to say thank you, Lord Jesus, for all of my blessings and for all You have done for me and I don't deserve it. That's grace, folks. And mercy. And unfailing love.


Have a good Sunday. :)

Sunday at home

I love being at home. This morning I woke up later than usual, so I figured Jimmy had decided we weren't going to make the trip to Huntsville for church. I staggered up from the bed and Jimmy was cooking pancakes and bacon. Yummo!

After breakfast, I headed out to the garage. My first trip out there I opened the door, looked around, and then shut the door and locked it behind me. Oh my gosh, it is so piled up with stuff we boxed up after the tornado last year. I came in the house, paced the floors, then headed back out, determined to start chipping away at it!

Jimmy came out a little later (after he finished watching his Hitler movie *rolling eyes big time*) and we got through several boxes and through some of the clothes. I boxed up some to take to the Second Chance Shop and then I started washing some sweats and things like that. We'll be needing them before long!

Unfortunately Black Widow spiders have decided that they like our garage. Last month the pest guy sprayed everything but there was a big fat one sitting on its web in the corner of the side door to the garage. Jimmy smashed it. I sure don't want to get bitten (again). Hurts like a baseball bat is slamming into you and it also makes your muscles draw and makes you feel like you're dying. It's awful.

I found a box of CDs which will come in handy. Included are Brad Paisley's Christmas album and also Lynyrd Skynyrd/38 Special's Christmas album. "Santa Claus Wants Some Lovin'" is one of my favorites. I believe I'll listen to it while I'm finishing this blog! Ahh, yeah, here we go!

That song reminds me of driving down to Biloxi with my friend Debbie one Thanksgiving weekend to see Bo Bice. Debbie gave me the CD and we blared it all the way down there! That was a fun trip.

I know it's only the end of September, but I'm ready to start celebrating the Christmas season! Oh, I'm going to decorate with fall stuff, but I think I'll listen to some Christmas music every day. It makes me smile!

Here's a link to "Santa Claus Wants Some Lovin'" on Youtube. Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62dvwe5itNg

And if you like it, you can buy it here!

http://www.amazon.com/Lynyrd-Skynyrd-38-Special-Christmas/dp/B0000657WR/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1316977349&sr=8-1

Here is a picture of me and Debbie at Bo's show in Biloxi a couple of years ago.

Ahhh, my favorite time of the year!

This is a beautiful tree in the yard of my friend, Jayne.

Cool weather (almost) is upon us and I am thrilled to death. That means that I've survived another god-awful hot-as-hell summer in the south! As much as I love being a Southern Belle, the summers are the pits!

My first adventure this "fall"- I don't think it's official yet- was a trip to the north Georgia mountains last weekend. Jimmy and I traveled there to see a concert and we traveled the scenic route. We went through Ocoee, TN and I got to see the people in rafts going down the rapids! It looks like loads of fun but I don't know if I'm brave enough to ever do it! After we saw that, we ended up in Helen, GA and Jimbo had some coffee as we passed through. There was a huge winery but we didn't have time to tour it. Maybe next time!

The concert we attended was held at a county fair. They had camel rides, pony rides, all sorts of ferris wheels and tilt-a-whirls and all that jazz. Now I gave up rides like that long ago, but we found other things to do there.

I had never seen a bird show before, you know, with falcons, and buzzards and owls and all sorts of exotic birds. The man did a wonderful job with them and they would swoop down from the tops of the buildings there so that we could see how very fast they could fly. One bird was used as a model for an aircraft that was built in Tuskegee. It was really fascinating. The owls looked sleepy, but they did their tricks. The little screech owl was 17 years old! It was so cute!

Another thing we did at the fair was cake walk. On our first try, nothing. On our second try I won a cake! It was my choice, so I decided on a Turtle Cake, and let me tell you, that thing was delicious! It had thick chocolate icing over a chocolate cake with pecans and a gooey caramel sauce. Lawzy mercy!

And as is typical for any fair, there was food. All kinds of food. Funnel cakes, pinto beans and cornbread, fish tacos, chicken on a stick- you name it. Guess what I had? A grilled cheese. Oh yeah. It was awesome.

The concert was fabulous and afterwards we headed out with some friends and stopped at Waffle House. My goofy husband put a quarter in the juke box and played the Waffle House March. I have video of him marching out the door. Those people were probably glad to see us go!

A sweet friend lived nearby and she offered her cabin (more like a chalet!) for us to stay. We all went 17 miles up a mountain to the most desolate place I've ever been. But oh, how beautiful! To get to live in that paradise would be, well, paradise! She had a screened in porch, a huge deck, and she has an outside shower! I didn't shower outside because a couple of others were taking turns, but it would have been amazing. No shelter was needed; nobody could see the back of the cabin. So you shower back there just out in the open! Freedom!

Up from her house is Highlands, NC. We drove through the next morning and it looked like an upscale Gatlinburg, or kind of reminded me of the type shops that were in Bar Harbor, Maine. On down the mountain from Highlands is Dillard, Georgia. We went to the great restaurant located at this lodge called Dillard House. The food is served family style, and let me tell you what all they brought to our table! We had Waldorf salad, slaw, relishes, sliced tomatoes, fresh creamed corn, fried okra, lima beans, green beans, cabbage casserole, dressing, rice, gravy, sweet potatoes, rolls, biscuits, fried chicken, fried steak and country ham. Dessert was peach cobbler with ice cream. It was amazing, simply amazing. And if you ran out of something, they would bring more! We left very full!

On the drive home Jimmy asked if I ate any of the ham. I hadn't, and he said it was delicious. Today when I was looking at The Dillard House's website I saw that Alton Brown from Food Network named their country ham as The Best Thing I Ever Ate. Man, I was sorry I didn't eat any! I'm going to have to go back. That's all there is to it!

We're planning a weekend in Nashville in a couple of weekends. Hopefully I'll have lots of fun stuff to share with you when we get back. Ta Ta!!

Not a single blog in 2011! I'm pathetic!

What a year this has been! Jimmy had knee replacement surgery, I had rotator cuff surgery, and things have been super crazy. The year is half over and this is the first time I've been here. Mmmm. I don't quite know where to begin. Perhaps it would be better if I just skipped over the first 6+ months and started now. I'll just highlight some things, then move on.

Jimmy's daddy passed away suddenly, which was quite a blow to the family, but everyone took it well. We were so glad that he didn't suffer that it kind of overshadowed the horrible loss. And, being Christians, we all know we're going to see him again, and Ray is having a blast up there with Pat, baby Paul, his parents and siblings who got there first!

I spent a weekend in Nashville with friends seeing Bo Bice do his thing at Mercy Lounge on Friday night, The Grand Ole Opry Saturday night, and at Rockin' Through the Rain on Sunday. It was a fabulous weekend.

On the tail of that weekend, I was working late on Monday, heading home to celebrate Jimmy's birthday. When I arrived at home, I found out that Rachel's adopted dog (which she has now returned to the shelter) had murdered my little tiny chihuahua Lulu. I was heartbroken, devastated, inconsolable and I'm still not over it.

CMA week has come and gone. Six nights in Nashville, lots of great music, lots of good times with friends. The week involved everything from a celebrity fishing tournament to a parade to writer's rounds to full out concerts. Oh, and we got a private soundcheck with LoCash Cowboys totally by chance!

Our yard has grown in lush and green this year and Jimmy is so proud. It was redone last year after the tornado.

This year we experienced something we've never seen in our lifetime- April 27 and multiple devastating tornadoes. We dodged a bullet this year, but our city did get some damage, including my road north of where we live. So many lives were lost that it's hard for my mind to wrap around the enormity of the events of the day. I've never been as terrified in all of my life. After last year's tornado hit our home while we were there, I am fully aware of the mighty power of those storms and just how helpless we are. We are in the planning stages of installing a storm shelter underneath the floor of our new garage. Why we didn't think of it last year while they were building it is beyond me. All I can figure is that we were so addled that we just couldn't think straight.

The group Alabama from Ft. Payne organized a show in Birmingham to benefit the tornado victims. It was held on June 14 and I was fortunate enough to attend it. I had pretty good seats, too! The music began at 7:30 and flowed seamlessly for 5 1/2 hours. I laid my head down in bed at 3:50 the next morning and was up at 7 to go to work. Totally, completely worth the lack of sleep! Alabama, Rodney Atkins, The Commodores, Dierks Bentley, Bo Bice, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Luke Bryan, Sheryl Crow, Sara Evans, Taylor Hicks, Little Big Town, Montgomery Gentry, Martina McBride, David Nail, Jake Owen, Brad Paisley, Kellie Pickler, Darius Rucker and Ashton Sheperd- now how's that for a lineup? It was fabulous. Just fabulous!

Jimmy and I celebrated our 32nd wedding anniversary June 16th. It doesn't seem possible that so much time has passed. We've weathered some storms throughout the years, but we've made it through together. I look forward to growing old(er) with him!

Rachel, Layke and Seth are all doing well. So is mother. They are all busy with their lives and things are good.

Jimmy is playing music every chance he can. I go listen to live music every chance I can. My next quick trip is July 27 to Nashville.  I also have a couple of weekends to TN planned in August and one to GA in September. This year I made a promise to myself that I would try my best not to fly anywhere. So far I've kept that promise, although it gets tempting at times. For example, a girl from Brazil has come to the U.S. this month to catch some Bo shows. She's been a fan since 2005 at age 14. Unfortunately, I'm not going to get to go to any of the shows she's attending in OH and MI, so I won't get to meet her. :( That makes me sad.

Well, that's my life in a nutshell for 2011. I'll try my best to start blogging regularly. Oh, and I'm starting back with my couponing! I was big into that before the tornado in 2010. I'm excited at the prospect of the bargains I'm going to get! 

New Year's Eve

Can't believe New Year's is here again.  All I can say is that I hope 2011 is better than 2010.  Nope, I'm not in the mood to be cheerful and be all happy and put up a lively uplifting blog.  Today it is what it is. 

Have a safe celebration tonight and I'll catch you all down the road.

Giving Thanks

This is Thanksgiving week, and I have so much to be thankful for this year.  It was rough with the tornado and all, but we have made it.  They finished up the house last week and if I do say so myself, it is beautiful!  I still have to get pictures hung on the walls and the boxes in the garage cleared out, but we are good.

There's been sickness this year, too, but thankfully everyone is on the mend or well.  I am so thankful!

A week ago Saturday we brought our dogs home from Mother's house where they had been staying since the tornado struck.  We took them for their shots and on to the groomer to get all dolled up before they came home to their new digs.  They looked so handsome when we picked them up!  Each of them had a bandana tied around their neck and they smelled wonderful!

I've never seen dogs so proud to be home!  They ran all over the back yard, sniffing and checking out the new fences and their new little covered shed that we had built for them.  They were so happy!  Later on that week we got a new Great Pyrenees.  He's 8 months old and already weighs 85 pounds!  Jimmy named him Toby Dick, the Great White Dog.  Toby is adorable and is adjusting well to his new home and brothers.

Little Pugsley worried me all last week.  He was blind and deaf and when I picked him up from the groomer he just laid his little body up against me, something that little ball of fire has never done.  As the week progressed I realized that he was unhappy.  He just stood around and when he did try to walk, he walked into the fence.  He had no idea where he was going.  My heart was so heavy because I knew something was going to have to be done.  I grieved all week long over that little sweet dog.  Thursday I went out and when I petted him, he curled up his little tail and wagged it at me.  He had not done that in ages; he kept his tail limp and hanging down.  Friday morning I took their food out and he wouldn't eat a bite, which was unusual for him.

I had a doctor's appointment in Huntsville Friday and Jimmy went with me.  The appointment took FOREVER and when I got out I met Debbie to head to Nashville for a quick overnight trip.  We were going up I65 when Jimmy called and told me Pugsley had died.  He said it looked like he had just fallen over.

The Lord works in wondrous ways.  I don't think I could have stood to see Pugs dead.  My last memory is of that little tail curling up and wagging when I petted him.  He knew I loved him.  Friday night I was able to go and see Bo at a benefit.  He was sweet and it always does my heart good to see him and hear him sing. We also met a guy named Mike Farris, who sings gospel songs.  Mike used to be with the Screaming Cheetah Wheelies but he has been singing gospel music for several years now.  He won a Dove award last year.  Just listening to him sing gave my heart comfort when all I wanted to do was cry about Pugsley.  Here is Mike singing Can't No Grave Gonna Hold This Body Down.


I had a good trip and when I got home, Jimmy had already buried Pugsley right inside our fence.  He said that when he was burying him, Ernie, our basset hound, sat and bayed.  He has been missing him something terrible and will not let Toby near the grave.  Animals amaze me.

Well, I went on a rabbit chase, but it all ends up pointing to this thought:  God is good.  God is merciful.  God loves me and for that I am humbled and grateful.

I hope all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving. I know I am going to!

This is Puglsey on November 13 right after we picked him up at the groomer.  RIP, buddy.