March 7, 2008

We celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary in February with a trip to Gatlinburg alone...just the two of us...without the boys. It was only the second time in our marriage that we spent the night away from them. The first time was several years ago and happened because we got stranded on the interstate and could not get home. We had went to see Indigenous at a concert. They were performing in a little bar in Lexington. We couldn't take the boys and we really wanted to see them again while they were in the area.


My sister came to stay with the boys and we set out on our trip. We didn't have time to eat lunch. We were planning on eating as soon as we picked up our tickets. We were on the interstate when we looked ahead and saw traffic stopping. We turned on the radio and learned that a wreck had shut down the interstate and motorists were being directed to take an alternate route. We had just passed the exit we needed, so we made a U turn in the grass and headed for the other road. We were so hungry. We didn't even have a stick of gum or a tictac. We found the road we needed and although we were hungry, our spirits were high. We went down this road a couple of miles and then we found ourselves stopped in traffic again! We sat and sat and sat....waiting and wondering if we were going to make it on time. We noticed a man sitting on an ATV just ahead of us at the junction of another small road. People were talking to him and then turning onto this road. We found out that we could take this road to get to the concert. I can't remember where it was, but I would love to one day go back and drive on this road again. It was beautiful country. By the time we got to the concert, the first act was already playing and we didn't have time to eat. I called my sister at a pay phone to let her know we had made it and we went into the club.


It was so tiny! The whole place was no bigger than my kitchen and living room. The women's bathroom was so small you had to turn sideways to go through the door. I am not joking! There were only five or six tables so we had to stand. We were starving and we don't drink so we tried to just enjoy the music. The band was so good and we were so close to them. The stage was only about a foot off the ground. They played all our favorites and we were having a really great time until...I started feeling sick. I got really hot and dizzy and sick at my stomach. I tried to fight it off, but I kept feeling worse and worse. My blood sugar had dropped from not eating. When I couldn't take it anymore, I turned to dear husband and told him I was sick. He got me over to the wall and I slid down in the floor. If I hadn't been so sick, I would have been horribly embarrassed. I know everyone thought I was drunk. He got me to my feet and led me to the door. My this time I was passing out. He almost had to carry me to the car. He went next door to a 7-11 and bought me a Sprite and within 20 minutes I was feeling better. I wanted him to take me back to the concert, but he said I needed food so we left and went to get something to eat. I was so mad at myself for getting sick. We learned at the restaurant that the interstate was still shut down! We tried to find a motel room in Lexington, but they were all booked full of stranded motorists. We had to drive north, and we eventually found a room. I called my sister and then we went and bought a toothbrush and a more items to do until we could get back home. By this time, it was very late so we went to bed. It would be several years before we attempted to go anywhere alone again!


Here are some pix from our recent anniversary trip to Gatlinburg. The first ones are of a little town we drove through. I love the first one!



















I'll try to post more pix from our trip tomorrow.

March 6, 2008

All winter we have been in a very strange weather pattern for our area. We will have a day or two of unseasonably warm weather followed by a sharp drop in the temperature and then snow. This has been going on all winter long. Today is a beautiful day. We are expecting snow on Friday.

I walked up in the yard yesterday with dear husband to see if any of my flowers were coming up. The daffodils have been up a while in the front yard and I have a few scattered up on the hill. We went back a little too far with the garden last year and plowed some of them up. I counted six hyacinths along with a few irises and some clumps of primrose and carpet bugles. None of these were budded out yet, so I don't think the snow will hurt them. I wonder if this is just a mountain tradition, or do all women go out and count their flowers coming up in the spring?

We haven't decided if we want to raise a garden this year. It was so dry last year that I really don't know if I have the heart or the effort required to fool with it. I do love my home-grown tomatoes, though. Maybe just a few rows of them along with a row or two of white half-runners.

Youngest dear son and I have been off all this week on spring break. Unfortunately, we have both been sick. Our break is almost over. I didn't accomplish much of anything, except watching many, many, way too many episodes of Joan of Arcadia on DVD. I still miss that show.

I have been scanning pix to the computer. I have some from our recent trip that I should post and call Mr. and Mrs. Fairlight's excellent adventure. We went to Gatlinburg for our 25th wedding anniversary. We had a great time despite the fact that youngest dear son got sick the night we were gone and oldest dear son had to take care of him until we could get back home. I ended up sick the next day. Oldest dear son had to check his younger brother's blood sugar during the night to see if he needed additional insulin since he was sick. He said he felt like he was on LOST having to "push the button". I have to say they both did a really good job and I didn't panic. I did make...oh, around 20 calls to check on them.

It was only the second time in our marriage that we left them and went somewhere overnight alone. The first time was a disaster. I may try to write about that tomorrow. Same blog time, same blog channel.

March 5, 2008

Thinking About Some Changes

I have been thinking a lot about the blog since I haven't been able to get here and actually blog. I think I may change the number of posts on a page to just one. That way, if I have a lot of pix, it won't take the page so long to load. You will have to scroll down to the bottom and click to see the rest of the blog, but I don't think that would be such a big deal if it helped the blog to load faster. I'm not even sure if just one post a page is an option. I will have to check.

I also think I may stop giving each individual entry a title and just use the date. Although, at first, I enjoyed coming up with creative titles, now I think I would just like to write and post pix and not worry about the title so much. I know this would probably make it more bloggish. I don't think I really have a blog in the true sense of the word. I would love to write everyday, but real life and a very slow connection speed at times, make that almost impossible. The blog for me is a place to share stories and pix with my internet friends and anyone else who happens to wander in out of cyberspace in search of a good laugh or a smile.

I will probably need to delete the poems in the sidebar if I decide to trim down to one page at a time or I will have a huge empty space at the bottom of the page on the shorter entries. You can still find them by clicking on "Poems" under the "Labels" section in the sidebar.

I took six rolls of film to be developed and the machine that develops the film malfunctioned during the process. *sigh* I am going to post some of them anyway. Some of them will look like they have little flecks and spots on them, kind of like snow. It may even be snow in the bird pix. It was snowing the day I took them.

I Think I Have Forgotten How To Blog

Our computer crashed on Valentine's Day and it has been a while since I have blogged. I even missed my second anniversary of the blog! It was on the 18th. I have been sick for a week and really haven't felt like doing much. The 24th was our 25th wedding anniversary.

I hope to get back into the swing of things soon. I have several rolls of film that I need to develop and hopefully some of them will turn out good enough to share with you on the blog. Until then, take care and have a good weekend.

Bird Watching Update

I haven't mentioned the birds in a while so I thought I would do that today. Oldest dear son and I saw two Eastern bluebirds yesterday for a brief couple of minutes. They were in the carport rafters. Is there a more perfect bird? So delicate and beautiful.

I have two mockers eating apples on the roof of the pumphouse. One is huge. He is so fat he looks like his breast is going to split open. The other one is much smaller, but very wiry! As soon as he lights on the roof he struts over to the suet feeder and splays his wings out in a very defiant stance before he starts to eat. They may even be male and female. I know mockers are very territorial.

We have several titmice, chickadees, cardinals, bluejays, and a bunch of mourning doves and a couple of downies.

These pix were taken on the pumphouse roof on my fake tree which is really a dead branch that dear husband placed on the roof for me to be able to take more natural looking shots of the birds, instead of them sitting in the seed feeder as you can see in one of the pix. He is stunning no matter where he sits, though. He usually eats suet. I am not sure what he was doing that day.

See the red streak on his belly? This is where he gets his name, Red-bellied Woodpecker.

Red-bellied Woodpecker hanging out in the seeds.

Mourning Dove

Tag Time

I have been tagged by Elaine. This is the very first time I have ever been tagged!

1. What time did you get up this morning? I overslept! I didn't get up until almost nine.
2. Diamonds or pearls? I'm not into jewelry....diamonds, I guess.
3. What was the last film you saw at the cinema? National Treasure: Book of Secrets on Christmas Eve
4. What is your favorite TV show? A tie between Heroes and Life, although Eli Stone was good!
5 What do you usually have for breakfast? one boiled egg and one slice of buttered whole wheat bread with coffee
6. What is your middle name? Kay
7. What food do you dislike? I really wanted to like it but...hummus.
8. What is your favorite CD at moment? Oh, I can't pick just one. Here's what I am listening to now:
The Very Best of Ray Charles
Jim Croce Photographs and Memories
The Best of Jackson Browne
Merle Haggard 20 Greatest Hits
Gordon Lightfoot Complete Greatest Hits
Robin Trower Bridge of Sighs
9. What kind of car do you drive? Chevy van
11. What characteristic do you despise? Deceit
12. Favorite item of clothing? An old button up brown sweater with ugly purple flowers down the front. I wear it every day.
13. If you could go anywhere in the world on vacation where would you go? Cross country trip throught the continental U.S.
14. Favorite brand of clothing? I don't really buy brands. I have no idea.
15. Where would you retire to? Somewhere near a lake in Tennessee, but still in the mountains, of course.
16. What was your most recent memorable birthday? My last one. I was just happy to have made it another year.
17. Favorite sport to watch? Baseball
18. Are you a morning person or a night person? I don't think I'm either. I never feel good.
19. What is your shoe size? 9
20. Pets? One stray cat named, Sweet Potato
21. Exciting news you'd like to share with us? Dear husband and I will be celebrating our 25 wedding anniversary this month.
22. What did you want to be when you were little? A majorette or a ballarina, LOL. I saw pictures of them in books at the school library.
23. What is your favorite candy? Milky Way
24. What is your favorite flower? This is a tough one. I like so many. I'll say Zinnia.
25. What is a day on the calendar you are looking forward to? Our anniversary
26. What are you listening to right now? The boys being silly. They are supposed to be doing chores.
27. What was the last thing you ate? Toast
28. Do you wish on stars? Yes
29. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? A beautiful, but odd shade of blue
30. How is the weather right now? Cloudy and cold
31. Last person you spoke to on the phone? My mom
32. Your favorite soft drink? Don't drink them
33. Favorite restaurant? local Huddle House
34. Hair color? Going gray. I stopped coloring my hair months ago. I used to be just brown.
35. Your favorite toy as a child? Barbie's clothes and accessories. I think I liked them much better than I actually liked Barbie!
36. Summer or Winter? Neither, but if I have to pick...summer.
37. Hugs or kisses? Kisses from dear husband; hugs from everyone else. I like them both!
38. Chocolate or Vanilla? Vanilla
39. Coffee or tea? Coffee
40. What is under your bed? A Dr. Scholl's shoebox full of music audiocassettes. Dust.
41. What did you do last night? Watched the Super Bowl
42. What are you afraid of? Opening canned biscuits.
43. Salty or sweet? sweet
44. How many keys on your keyring? 8
45. How many years at your current job? Almost 25 years of being a wife. Almost 23 years of being a mommy. I worked 12 years as an LPN and dental assistant off and on.
46. Favorite day of the week? Sunday
47. How many towns have you lived in? Four
48. Do you make friends easily? Yes
49. Do you play a musical instrument?Clarinet and piano...with a smattering of guitar
50. Who will you tag? Toby and Clarkxbar4

A Bird's Eye View

Random Ramblings

Feeling Better
I finally broke down and went to the doctor on Friday. I am on the mend now, I think. It is kind of hard to tell. One day I feel better and the next day I feel sick again. Thankfully, no one else in the house is sick.

Ad-Aware SE
I had a warning on my Ad-Aware SE that I needed to download new definitions, but every time I tried I would get an error. I finally googled it and found out that this version is now obsolete.
There is a new version, Ad-Aware 2007 that you can download for free, but from what I read, it isn't working too well. Several people had written in on the message boards about how hard it is to install and that it contains several glitches. Many people have uninstalled the new one and reinstalled the old one. I think this is a good sign to wait.

What Do You Think Of When You Hear The Song, Sweet Georgia Brown?
That's right! The Harlem Globetrotters! When I was a little girl, we would get so excited when they came on television. This week, we saw them again on TV for the first time in years. Of course we made our two sons stop what they were doing and sat them down in front of the TV like any good parents would do. They loved it! We had hot chocolate and for an hour watched the Globetrotters dribble, shoot, and throw buckets of popcorn and confetti water, yes they still do that! We even got to see Curly Neal. He is 66 years old now. He didn't play, but sat on the bench. It was an hour of pure joy. If all of life could be so simple.

Decluttering
Well...decluttering stalled when I got sick. In fact, he has piled up more stuff on top of the clean spaces I had cleared. Now I need to muster up the gumption to go back in and tackle it again. My mom called and said she had three large paper boxes with lids that I could have for the attic. Don't you just love boxes with lids?

Healthy Living
It has finally happened. After years of trying to eat healthier and exercise, dear husband has expressed an interest in doing the same! I know. Don't go into shock. We have been walking in the evening when he gets home from work if the weather permits. We have been walking a mile at our local park. It is a nice trail that goes through the woods and up and down hills, so you get a good workout. We plan to increase our distance as the weather permits. Right now, it is getting dark so early that we really can't walk longer. We are also lifting weights and I continue to do my Classical Stretch. I had lost 30 pounds before Christmas, but I put some of it back on during the holidays. Still, I am committed to living a healthier lifestyle and take it one day at a time.

And Finally...
If God had wanted sugar in cornbread he would have called it cake.

That's it for now. Take care.

Random Ramblings

Did You Miss Me?
I've been sick. I'm still sick. I thought I was getting better, but for some reason I feel just as bad today as I did when I was the sickest...most sick. I have a cold and sore throat and my ears are stopped up. I have kept a bottle of hand sanitizer nearby and have squirted it on my hands every time, and I do mean every single time, I have sneezed or blown my nose. I sanitize the phone when I use it and I sanitize the door knobs, light switches, and commode handle after I touch them. So far, I am the only one sick and worn out from all the sanitizing. It takes a lot of brain to remember to sanitize after each sneeze and blowing of the nose when you are sick and foggy from NyQuil. I have been staying away from my guys, too, and I am lonesome. I haven't had a decent hug since I have been sick. I guess you could say I am feeling very sorry for myself right now.

Homeschooling
We haven't missed any school since I have been sick, since youngest dear son can do most of it on his own. We did an experiment this week on substances that retard the growth of bacteria. Dear son dissolved a chicken bouillon cube in warm water and divided it up into four small juice glasses. In one glass, he added salt. Another, vinegar. The third one was left plain for a control and the fourth one went into the refrigerator. The glasses had to sit out for two days. We sat them on a TV tray in the living room. They looked like three urine specimens. Or three shots of beer. I couldn't decide.

In the last chapter of World Studies, dear son learned about a Spanish explorer, named Medana, who discovered the Solomon Islands. The native islanders were at first friendly, until Medana tried to use force to get food. Shots were fired and several natives were shot and wounded or killed. Several of Medana's men were ambushed after that. A landing party tried to go ashore after this and they were ambushed. Only one man made it back to the ship. They next day, they tried again only to see the angry natives on shore yelling and waving dismembered arms and legs. Medana decided that it would be best to go on to explore other islands. I love homeschooling.

Winter
I hate it. It makes me itch and makes my bones hurt. For years, we had warmer and warmer winters and that lulled us into forgetting about what winter really was all about. This winter has made up for it. I also don't drive on slick roads and now have to worry about dear husband and oldest dear son when they are out at school or work. Oldest dear son nearly went into the creek this week on black ice. One car was already there. Dear husband and I have been talking about retiring to a warmer climate. As soon as I find one with no mosquitoes, I am moving.

Books
After I finished Anne of Green Gables, I read Hitty, Her First Hundred Years, by Rachel Field. Very good. This book would make a great read aloud. Each chapter is a little adventure in itself. It is about a little doll carved out of wood, but I honestly think boys would enjoy this book just as much as girls. Youngest dear son is reading it now and loving it. It is a book for all ages.

Getting Old
I have stopped coloring my hair. I doubt that this is even blog worthy, but I thought I would record it here for posterity. I hope by summer to be a natural gray. I have been coloring my hair for years and finally decided I was tired of fooling with it and wanted to let it grow out. I will be 47 this year.

A Clean Room Is A Happy Room

Did you know that "decluttering" is not a word? We use it all the time, how can it not be a word? I spent most of yesterday in youngest dear son's room trying to declutter.

I consumed the first part of the day in his room, and spent the rest of the day decluttering the rest of the house from the stuff I removed from his room. I'm sure there is a better, more efficient way to declutter, but there was a method to my madness and by the end of the day I had knocked a dent in it.

I bought three bright green wicker baskets at Big Lots to contain the stuff he uses most. The baskets are lined with a striped fabric. So pretty and clean looking. The smaller basket will be used for all the remotes that belong in his room that he can never find when he needs them. I corralled his magazines into two magazine racks and still had some left over. I'll deal with that later.

I found over ten pencils, two chap sticks, Christmas ornament hangers, a lid to my big stock pot, two large spoons and one ladle, four drumsticks, an arrow, Lego's, a dead bug, three of his Mystery of History memory cards, two balloons, and a bunch and I do mean a bunch of scraps of paper of varying sizes with numbers on them. He said the numbers were codes for video games and that he needed them. The Mr. Monk in me stapled them all together and placed them in a labelled file in with his magazines.

Today, I will tackle the shelves in top of the closet and the computer desk. I may even post pix if I ever finish. If you don't hear from me in a while, send help.

True Confessions

We still have the tree up. I had planned on taking it down after the first of the year and then a cold spell hit. I didn't want to have to get up in the cold attic to put everything away so I have been waiting on it to warm up a bit. It was 72 on Tuesday and I still haven't made it up in the attic. So...Merry Christmas!


I read Anne of Green Gables for the very first time this week! I don't know why I didn't read it sooner. I loved it, except for the sad parts. Yes, it has sad parts. They occur near the end of the book. I cried like a baby.


Remember the pix of the barn in the fog below? I took it in Townsend when we were looking for the old set where they filmed Christy. I thought it was just a beautiful old barn in the fog. A few days after I posted that pix I put in my Christy DVDs to watch some episodes just so I could see Birds Eye again. I watched the very last episode about the "Tea House" and there was my barn! I couldn't believe it. The sign is gone in the pix, but it is the barn they used when people would go into El Pano. When Mike Hickman told us the barn was still there that they used in the El Pano scene, I wasn't thinking about this barn. I was thinking of when Christy first arrived in El Pano and went to the Livery Stable to find someone to take her into Cutter Gap. I have had a pix of the El Pano barn this whole time and didn't realize it. Not only that, we think we passed the house that they used as the Tea House. Dear husband pointed it out while we were watching that episode. If so, I will get a pix of it, too, when we go back. I would love to go before spring. I am afraid the weeds will grow up and I won't be able to see as much.


I have been having trouble getting my blog to load. Has anyone else been having trouble? I guess that is enough confessing for today. Take care and have a good one.

Baby It's Cold Outside!

We started the new year with snow and colder temperatures. It was 11 when I got up this morning. The birds were in a feeding frenzy all day yesterday. I shot two rolls of film and hopefully got a couple of good shots to put on the blog. Not only were they eating the seeds and suet that I put out for them, they were also eating the cat's food out of his dish. The blue jays and one titmouse kept flying down on the porch to carry away morsels of cat food. We had jays, cardinals, chickadees, titmice, wrens, downies, red bellies, and doves. I think I managed to get a pix of each. I had a new visitor, a white throated sparrow. I haven't seen them in quite a while. One of the cardinals had something wrong with one of his legs and was hopping around on one foot the whole time.

The road up here in the holler is a sheet of ice. School has been called off in the county for the rest of the week. The cat's water froze into a solid block of ice three times yesterday. Last night, when dear husband drove me to the post office, I noticed foot long icicles hanging from the roof.

I think I am getting too old for cold weather. For several years, our winters have been much milder and I have forgotten what it is like to be cold. I hate it. It hurts my skin and makes my bones ache. The snow is beautiful, but it is too cold to go outside and play. Our high today will be 25. Today would be a good day to cook a kettle of soup beans or make some chili. I usually make more oven meals in the winter to help heat the house.

When I was a teenager, all the kids at church used to meet at a couple's house up on the hill and go sledding on Big Mack truck inner tubes. They are huge inner tubes that up to four people can ride on at one time. It was a very steep hill with a couple of drop offs. We would ride down the hill, across the lane and if we were going fast enough down into a neighbor's driveway. My first night on the hill, I was afraid to ride. I just stood around the fire and watched, until one of the guys picked me up and sent me down the hill alone backwards. I went down the hill, over both drop offs, into the lane and hit the neighbor's mailbox, knocking it down! Thankfully, I wasn't hurt and couldn't wait to get back up the hill to go again. We played until late at night, going down the hill, standing around the fire talking and drinking hot chocolate. It is one of my favorite winter memories.

A New Year

2007 is gone and I survived. That is the first thing that popped into my head when I thought about blogging about the upcoming new year. We as a family survived another year of dealing with Type 1 diabetes. Youngest dear son had good reports at all of his doctor's visits this year. Dear husband made it through another year of working in the coal mines without an accident or injury. I praise God for that. Oldest dear son finished up his next to last semester of college with good grades. He will graduate this May and I am happy to say that we did not have to go into debt to pay for his education. He was blessed to receive two scholarships and he worked out most of the rest.

In 2007 I lost a total of 28 pounds which was a major accomplishment for me. I still have a few more pounds to go. We are now trying to eat healthier as a family so I am hoping that my good eating habits have rubbed off on my guys. I still need to work on getting more exercise.

On New Year's eve, we all stayed up, or got back up, and toasted in the new year with a bottle of cheap champagne. We do not drink and the last time we had a drink was in 2000 when we bought our first bottle of cheap champagne to ring in the new year. Blek. We rode with dear husband to the wet part of town this year and he bought the most expensive bottle he could find which was...............twelve whole dollars and seventy-five cents. Blek. Either cheap champagne is really bad or we just do not like champagne. Either way, it was fun and we all laughed as we sipped our champagne out of punch cups that belonged to dear husband's mom. Youngest dear son was not allowed the pleasure, so he sipped on Diet Rite Cola. It was fine with him. We hugged and kissed and shouted Happy New Year. We watched Dick Clark on ABC. Then we went to bed.

So today is a new day of a new year. A brand new start. A fresh start. We pulled out the books this morning and started our second semester of homeschooling. Youngest dear son prayed a magnificent prayer and we sang This Is The Day That The Lord Hath Made. Then I read the second chapter of Proverbs which turned out to be very appropriate for the start of a new semester.

I made a few resolutions...more like a continuation of the ones I made last year. I would love to eliminate all sugar and white stuff from my diet. I have already cut down a lot in 2007. I need to exercise more and tone. I also would like to have a quiet time each day. A real quiet time, not just after everybody goes to bed. I am too tired to think by that time and I can't really function early in the morning to plan it then. I need a quiet time during the day when my brain will cooperate. Just some time set aside for thought and not worry. Constructive thought. A time that I could plan goals and meditate on my blessings. I have never been able to do this. Maybe this will be the year it does. I'll let you know. It hasn't happened so far today.

My Favorite Shots From The Trip

I now know this is the barn that was used in the El Pano scenes in the TV series Christy.




Cades Cove at dusk.

Meeting Birds Eye

I am a true daughter of Appalachia. Born and raised in the mountains of southeast Kentucky like my mother and grandmother before me. It is no wonder then, that I fell in love with the book, Christy, by Catherine Marshall. It is my heritage. My mother and grandmother lived as the characters in the pages of her book lived. Poor, but proud. Uneducated, but extremely intelligent. Leary of the outside world, but always willing to help a neighbor.

I have read the book many times. I have loaned several copies, only to have them not be returned. My first copy was a birthday present from my oldest dear son who was in the 6th grade at the time. I have been to the real Cutter Gap in Tennessee. The real Fairlight's grandson still lives there. I have visited the Museum of Appalachia where one of the episodes of the television series was filmed. I bought a couple of props that were used on the set...an old art book with leaves pressed in the pages and a small wooden bowl.



Mike Hickman as Birds Eye Taylor

During our trip to Townsend, I had the pleasure of meeting Mike Hickman. Hickman played Birds Eye Taylor in the TV series. He works at the motel where we were staying. You could not meet a nicer man. He told us that he had recently had a stroke and that it had affected his speech. It was barely noticeable. I learned that years ago, he had done volunteer work at a mission in our county. We talked for a few minutes and then he said he wanted to give me something, even though I hadn't asked. He walked over to a filing cabinet and took out an 8x10 pix and autographed it for me. He told me he had finished filming a new movie, The Lena Baker Story which should be out in 2008. We talked a few more minutes and thanked him for his time.




Hand drawn map


As we were leaving, he asked if we had been to the old TV set where Christy was filmed. We told him that we hadn't. He took out a piece of paper and drew us a map to the set! To have played the bad guy in the series, you would not believe what a sweet soul Mike Hickman really is. He told us he wasn't "near as mean" as Birds Eye. We thanked him again and left to go to our room, somewhat stunned at how nice he was.

The next morning, we left the motel just after daylight to go look for "Cutter Gap". The fog was so thick we couldn't see anything. We stopped and talked to a little old man who had walked down his driveway to get his morning paper. He told us that we were driving right by it, but that the fog was so thick you couldn't see anything. I was disappointed, but glad to know that we were in the right place. We will try again another trip. The Smokies have always been such a special place to me. Now I have another reason for loving them.

How I Spent My Christmas Vacation

One of the cool things about homeschooling is that you can make up your own schedule. We live in a state that requires 180 school days a year. I break this down into four 9 week quarters and plan breaks around each quarter. Each year we put the books away for Thanksgiving and don't start back until after the first of the new year. This gives me lots of time for shopping, baking, wrapping gifts, and visiting with family and friends.

This year I had the pleasure of meeting one of my dear friends in Townsend, a little town on the peaceful side of the Smokies. Karen and her family were on vacation in the Smokies and invited us to come and visit them. Dear husband had some days off, so we went down on Friday and spent the night. Here are some pix of our trip.

Fighting Creek

Cataract Falls

Deer grazing in the cove

Church at dusk in the cove

Merry Christmas!

Just a quick note to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. Things have been very busy here! I promise to write more as soon as possible. It may be after the first of the year.

Here are a few pix to brighten up my empty blog until my return.

Norris Lake: Drought Conditions

Dear husband and oldest dear son fished on Norris Lake back in November. These pix showing the condition of the lake were taken by dear son.

Normally, the water would be all the way up to the tree line.

The rocky bank is now exposed in this pix. Water is usually covering this bank.

Not much water at all in this pix. The water usually covers this area from treeline to treeline opposite the lake. There are several spots inaccessible on the lake now. The launching ramp that we usually use is so far out of the water now that it is closed. The last I heard, we were 15 inches behind in annual rainfall.

Butterflies