Hi!

So, it has been a while, huh?  I guess Blogger had a glitch for a few days because it would NOT let me post photos which really gripes me. I thought I'd switch to WordPress for a while but I changed my mind. Mostly every boring post I've made is here. I DO like WordPress for their numerous themes but I reckon I'll stay here.

To be honest, I'm not even sure why I blog anymore. I've been doing it for almost 10 years now and I have nothing to say. Mostly. :) Actually, one of the reasons that I continue to blog is because I love going back through the years and reading it all. Now that the kids are grown and gone though it's kind of like I'm at a crossroad. That realization just hit me. It's like I've been living life, but on "Pause" for the past two or three years.

I need to figure me out.

Most Boring Super Bowl EVER!

I don't remember a more boring Super Bowl, do you? I mean that was a real yawn-fest, minus Bruno Mars spectacular song and dance show. I totally dig him. Even the commercials were a real letdown.

It's raining. And raining. And raining. I'm sick of winter. I'm pretty sure I've never felt that way until this year. I'm over it. I am so excited for spring to get here, aren't you?

Two Things

Two things are coming up by my barn and I'm not too happy about it: the fox you see above, and the coyote you see below.

I wouldn't mind so much but I have chickens now, you know. I'm fairly certain that my chickens are safe, but these two creatures are pretty smart, as you know, so we will have to see.  My chickens are not at the barn but they aren't too far away from the barn either. Hubby says this summer we are going to fence the rest of the yard in and when we do that I won't have to worry too much because my dogs will keep these critters away.

Red Dawn Version 2.0

Have you 80's kiddos watched the new Red Dawn? It's pretty good but I'll take Swayze over Hemsworth any day of the week.

I'm just kidding. Either is fine to look at. ;) I still prefer Swayze and the old Red Dawn. Yep.

Have a great weekend!

Throwback Thursday!

Throwback Thursday: my great-grandfather had just told me that I shouldn't suck my thumb so I went into his bedroom and did it until I got caught, which is why I'm hiding my hand behind my back. Those boots? Stylin'!

Side note: I wasn't a thumbsucker so I'm not sure why I felt the particular need to do it on that day. ???

I'm watching Silver Linings Playbook. Pretty cute so far.

Night!

ZBB!

Schroeder is so precious. :)

I didn't know that the Zac Brown Band was coming to Chattanooga until I saw that they had to cancel tonight's show because of the weather. It just so happens that they rescheduled on the day of my birthday so Sweet Cheeks just got us two tickets! What a great birthday present! I LOVE ZBB and I cannot wait to see them in concert. :)

Surprise Snow!

I bought my hubby a metal detector for Valentine's Day and I went ahead and gave it to him so he can get the hang of how it works. We will be going down to see Brooke soon and she has one and so they are both very excited about getting to go together.

So we have this snow that NO ONE was expecting. We only have a couple of inches or so but there's ice, too, so it has caused a HUGE problem all over this area. It took my husband six hours to get home from La Fayette, which is 45 minutes from here. Of all the times for his truck to be in the shop... it's a 4-wheel drive so he's having to drive my 2-wheel drive.

This ought to make for a fun few days. :)

For Cryin' Out Loud!

I forgot to mention this yesterday but this happened yesterday as hubby was driving through our gates. :(

We have two farm gates and I opened them, stayed one one side and a gust of wind caught the other and it slammed into my mirror and knocked it off. I couldn't believe it! We drove home safely through the ice and snow and then that happened. No telling how much it's going to cost because this is the kind of mirror that has the blinker on it and the defrost and so on. Boooo!

We just watched Captain Phillips and it was fantastic. We both really liked it. If you haven't watched it yet you ought to give it a whirl.

Home

This was the view this morning. That sunrise made those mountains just glow. It was beautiful!

We are home now. Cain and Ashley, and their friends, Jordan and Allen, stayed at our house this weekend and took care of our big dogs while we were gone so when we got home we all went out and ate and then they stayed for a while and visited so that was nice.

I'm glad to be home. I wish I'd have had the chance to take some photos while we were in NC but I didn't. Bummed about that but the roads got too bad.

Night!

Weather Is Rough

This picture is tiny on here because it's a panorama from my iPhone so you may want to click on it to make it a little bigger. Anyway, this is the view from our new camera. This photo doesn't do it justice. It's a breathtaking view.

The pipes froze shortly after we got to this cabin yesterday but this time they were able to send someone to fix them, thank goodness.

We went and ate breakfast this morning and went and got some groceries. I cooked homemade baked ziti for some of the guys at the plant that Marshall is working for up here. Before we could make it back to the cabin the roads got pretty rough with snow and we slid all the way UP the hill trying to get back. Thank gosh we made it!

Just a funny that I want to remember from this morning:

I grab my bag of shampoo, conditioner, soap, make-up, etc. & start traveling down the steep steps. I said, "I hope I don't fall down these steps." From the bedroom I hear, "I hope you don't either.....I don't want to pick all that stuff up."

Really?!

North Carolina

My most preciouses. Preciouses probably isn't a word but I'm using it anyway. :)

We've I've been up since 3:30 this morning. We are now in North Carolina, but it's one of those trips where we had to drive into Virginia to get here. Hubby is looking at a job so I came with him since he has to be here all weekend. Plus, I love it here.

We rented a very small cabin. This area has two hotels - one is very nice, and the other? Not so much. So, we rented a small cabin because it was the same price as the hotel room for the weekend. When we got almost here (which was a terrifying ride over an icy, snowy mountain) we were told that we'd have to be moved to another cabin because the original cabin had frozen and busted water pipes because of the cold.

So, they moved us to this cabin:

Um, yeah. I can deal with this. BUT... my hubby was at his job site so I drove to this cabin alone, unloaded our three small dogs and all of our stuff and got settled in. Then our pipes froze.

We were moved to another cabin. A cabin that sleeps 16 people because it's all they had left. Just the two of us in this gigantic cabin. Oh well. I guess I'll suffer. ;)

Furniture Splitting

I was just dusting my furniture and we have beautiful Broyhill end tables (well, I think they are beautiful). I was just dusting them and they are splitting! We've only had them for seven months and I called the furniture store to see if they could be replaced (they can). 

The lady said they are getting lots of calls about furniture splitting because of all the cold we've had and the heat running like it is she said it's causing the wood to crack. It's solid wood but I just found out that Broyhill is no longer made in North Carolina like we thought. It's now being made in China. :(

Bummer.

Photos

A pretty Yellow-bellied Sapsucker at my old house. I have one here on the mountain. I can hear it but I haven't seen it yet. I wish it would start coming to my feeders.

Since 2004 I have taken almost 100,000 pictures, or at least that's what I have on my computer right now. Wouldn't it be nice if I'd start going through them and printing some off? Yes, it would.

Let's get it started (in here)...

Snowing

Here's Cain and one of his best friends back on this day in 2006.  They were at a football combine and it had been pouring down rain. Not much fun (for mom) at all.

Time flies!

Had lunch today with an old friend whose mother died a couple of days ago after a long battle with cancer. It was great getting to see her. We haven't seen one another in over 15 years. I hope that I was able to take her mind off of the sadness for a bit.

So many people I know are battling cancer and it's breaking my heart. Most of my buddies are winning the fight, but some aren't. What I wouldn't give if a cure could be found.

It's snowing. Yay. I'd LOVE it if it would snow enough that we could play in it but this just dusts the ground and gets everything muddy when it starts melting.

How much longer until spring?

Just A Pic

Just a picture of a Ruby-crowned Kinglet. If you look closely you can see that little stripe of red on it's head, hence its name.

Nothing to say today. :) Later!

Church

Just a buck, relaxing in the wild. :) I took this at Lake Guntersville State Park a few years ago. The deer there are wild but are obviously not frightened a bit by people. He was a beauty.

Church was fantastic this morning. We had a spectacular service. I enjoy mornings like this when I really get something out of it.

After church I picked my hubby up and then we met my Dad and stepmom for lunch. I haven't seen them since before Christmas so we had a nice visit.

I sure have enjoyed this weekend. Hope you've enjoyed yours, too.

Amish Hippie

Since I'm feeling better my hubby and I did a bit of exploring today. We stopped here at The Amish Hippie. It's a cute little store on Monteagle Mountain in Tennessee.

We had lunch at Papa Ron's (delicious!) and then came home and relaxed. I'm so glad that I actually had a weekend where I wasn't sick. It felt great to get out and be a part of this big ol' world. ;)

Night!

Massage

Today I used one of the gift certificates that my hubby wubby got me for Christmas and went and had a massage. For an hour and a half. Deeeeelightful! It felt amazing and I sure needed one.

Before my massage I had some time to kill so I drove through our local nature center. I spotted this guy beating the soup out of that tree. I was so excited! This is a Pileated Woodpecker and they are so very shy. I couldn't believe that he was completely uninterested in me so I was able to get several shots. It made my whole day.

Have a great weekend!

Bats

The Smithsonian Channel has a terrific documentary called "Killer In the Caves" about our rapidly declining bat population. If you see it, watch it. It's going to be bad, bad news if we can't stop this White-nose Syndrome that is killing our bats by the millions.

Serious questions: I have a notebook full of things that I have questions about from the Bible. Then this morning out of nowhere I remembered that when I was a little girl I was told that we don't question the Lord. Period. I don't know if that's true. If it IS true then what do I do about all my questions? If it's NOT true then my first question is this: If God didn't want Adam and Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil then why did He put it there? Couldn't He have put it somewhere else or even nowhere at all? I'm not being a jerk here. I really want to know. My second question is this: If the devil was ever capable of changing and asked God to forgive him would/could God do that? Could the devil be forgiven?

Sad to hear that the Professor from Gilligan's Island passed away today. I sure loved that show when I was a little girl. And when I was a grown up. And now. ;)

RIP, Professor.

Wayfinding Bible

Had a big need from God today and asked for prayers. He answered my prayers later that afternoon and everything turned out great - just like He is. :)

I'm reading this Bible: The Wayfinding Bible. A friend told me about it so I'm giving it a whirl. There are three different ways to read it with this book, which is a New Living Translation Bible. I've never read a NLT Bible and it's very different for me. It's easy to read, that's for sure, but I often wonder if it's okay to read anything other than the KJV (or the NKJV).

The thing here is, is that I REALLY want to read the Bible. I really do. I always start it and never finish but with this Wayfinding Bible I really don't want to put it down. I read until I go crosseyed. I'm reading the Flyover way right now and it hits 50 of the main stories of the Bible. Fascinating!

Have a wonderful evening.