Where did January go?

Time is just flying by so fast! This past few (oh oh 6 weeks) has been busier than usual, but I still believe that Cobii is what is taking a lot of my time I use to have for cleaning, sewing, scrapbooking, etc., but what a nicer joy and we have lots of fun. We have spent a few hours each weekend for the past 3 weeks making valentines for her to take to all her friends and family. We used a template that we copied on the printer, and one of her jobs was to push the "print" button. I cut them out, folded, and taped them together. She put stickers on them, of course they are every which way, but that what makes it her thing. We will fill them with candy, a kind Cobii can have, she will punch a hole with a paper punch, she will cut ribbon pieces, and I will tie them shut. We will have pictures. Augusta now has a Hobby Lobby!!!!! Of course, that is where Cobii and I went to get our valentine supplies.

All the family is doing quite well. All three of my children have above 3.5 GPA at school. They are enjoying school. Also, Cobii is now in school and really enjoying it. Tuesday the school took them to the futurity at the arena a couple blocks from where I work. The futurity is like the world series of barrell racing and cattle cutting. They do not butcher them, they separate one from a herd of about 24 and keep it away for 3 minutes. Of course, all the vendors are there with nothing but horse everything. The $6,000.00 saddle was very pretty.

I have worked some in my yard since we had so many wind storms. Branches all over the place, now for a nice evening for a campfire to get rid of it all.

My biggest thing is that Melissa has moved to Atlanta to be closer to her doctors. She is living with her brother and his girlfriend. She really likes her room there and is more at ease with life there. Of course, everyone here misses the fact that she can just "pop in" now and then.

Construction at my house is coming along quite nicely. The roof has all the tin on the top and now the sides will start getting closed in Monday. Is great, but now cannot hear the rain as much, but I can live with that. It is nice to hear rain on the roof though. I also got a new gas cook stove. The old one was bought used 21 years ago, and it had seen better days, although it was a much nicer stove. A gas burner is a gas burner, but it is hard to find burners far enough apart to put large pots and pans on, without spending thousands of dollars. Since my family is not as large as in the years past, I guess I can deal with it.

Again, I will try and get some pictures posted next time. I update at work as it goes faster, but left the camera stick home AGAIN. Until next time, Bless everyone.

This past weekend was a fantastic time in Gatlinburg, TN with my sister Lynda and her husband Bill. It was about the best trip I have taken yet. We arrived on Friday morning, did a bunch of shopping in Sevierville and walking around, and truly enjoyed the Dixie Stampede Christmas show in the evening. The enormous amount of food was delicious, and since they do not supply eating utensils, it was definitely finger lickin good! The show was a beautiful show with lots of snow, fun, and an emotional moving live nativity scene with music and live animals.

This picture was taken from our balcony of one of the buildings where we stayed. Like all resorts, the buildings are all identical. Very nice accomodations. Wal-Mart about 1/2 mile away!


Saturday we rode three trollies to get ourselves to Gatlinburg. We spent the day there mostly walking around all the quaint shopps. Did not buy anything except a few sourveniers. In the evening we took a trolley tour of lights through Gatlinburg. That was very pretty and we got a nice brief history of the area. The weather Friday and Saturday was quite chilly but no rain. There were plenty of places to duck in for some warmth.

Some of the attractions along the trolley rides were quite interesting!

Gatlinburg had some unusual decorations that filled the air with the Christmas Spirit.

So pretty, but looked so cold!

Everything is decorated in Gatlinburg for Christmas.

It is always fun to try silly hats on!

Not sure what these lizards had to do with Christmas!

There were also some serious moments!

Sunday was the end of the vacation and time to come home. We drove home in a light rain all the way, which was only 2 hours from my sister's house. Did not do much for the afternoon except unpack my car, went to see my niece's silent auction items at her church. She is trying to raise money for a new curriculum for the day care.

All good times in this season always end with Santa Clause!

My message to all - HAVE A HOLLY JOLLY CHRISTMAS!

This will be a quick blog entry today. This weekend Melissa and I decorated the doll house for Christmas. I did get my tree finished, and that is all the decorating I will have time to do. A couple of these pictures are a little blurry, but you can at least get the overall of it all. We had so much fun doing this.

Have a wonderful Holiday Season!

Have a blessed Christmas!

Myrtle Beach

Thanksgiving at my mother in laws was a very wonderful day. All the family was there, and the food was great as usual. Friday, all of us women left for Myrtle Beach for a weekend of fun and relaxation. As you can see, the beach was not quite summer weather, but we had fun. Cobii built sand castles.


Melissa and I were trying not to blow away.

Cobii and her best friend Kitty kat.

More strolling on the beach just before we left to come home.

Carrie -

Kat got Cobii the cutest tea set at the Disney store. Boy did we have tea parties.

Patches - doing who knows what. Think the girls were getting ready for a trip to the pool - indoor heated of course.

Our weekend was a lot of fun. Everyone had a great time, and we were all safe on the road.

Beautiful Day

Saturday, November 14 was a beautiful day. Everett was in town, and I took him to see the scenic side Augusta. First we went to Phinizy Swamp, which is also where the Natural Science Academy is. The local schools go there for Science projects. Below is the boardwalk that spans over part of the swamp out to the wetlands. Even though it was in the mid to high 70's, we saw no wildlife basking in the sun, just a couple egrets ad tons of spiders on the boardwalk, but they were not yucky ones!

This is only a small part of the wetlands used by the Science Academy AND the Waste Water Treatment Plant for filtering purposes.

This ugly spider is NOT one from the boardwalk. He/she was outside the restroom door. Very clean restrooms! It was about 3" in diameter.

After the swamp, we ventured to downtown Augusta to the Raw Water Pumping Station, where I took no pictures, and we walked part of the trail that follows the upper part of the canal.

I took this picture from the trail we walked, and saw the herron and turtles sill there later when we took the boat ride on the canal. The guide on the boat gives a very interesting history of the canal. I have ridden this boat ride about 3 times now, and each time learn something else new. Must depend on the guides and how much they research the canal history. The bird is a blue herron, and the turtles I believe are yellow bellied turtles.

The beginning of the boat ride on the canal begins in Downtown Augusta about 2 blocks from the hospitals. The boats are replicas of the original boats they used to carry cotton and tobacco down the canal to the mills, etc. The bridge has eagles and lions on it. Will have to do the history and pictures of that another time.

Textile mill below was turned into a factory to make ammo fur the Civil War. It still produces hydro electric power which it sells to GA Power and also charges the replica boats which are electric. No motor or fuel powered crafts are allowed on the canal.

No fuel power used here. The green overpass is the pedestrian/bicycle path that runs several miles along and over the canal.

The mill below is the Enterprise Mill where the boat started from and returned to. This mill has been restored to keep its original state as much as possible. There are now offices and apartments in it, along with a museum. Throughout the building you can see some of the workings of its hydro electric mechanisms.

As you can see, we did have a very pretty day for walking and boating. Hope to keep up better with the blogging. Now I shall go back to work and earn my money!

I was very surprised when Kev popped in for a quick visit Thursday evening. He got a nice warm meal of roast chicken, corn on the cob and asparagus. The next morning, he walked around my place to see what has changed, and then he had to finish the last couple legs of his trip back home.

As for me, I was informed by Cobii that I needed to be a witch. As one in my Office told me, that would not be hard for me to do!

Melissa was a cat. She did such a wonderful job painting her face. It is hard to see, but she does have ears, and the tail is not showing in this shot.

The Rimmer family stopped in on their way to take Cobii trunk or treating at the church. They had lots of fun and................

The pumpkin Wins The Prize! She was so happy that she got a prize, a CD with music on it. That made all the work put into this costume very worth it. Cobii HAD to have paint since everyone else did, so Carrie gave her a little. Cobii actually washed it off all by herself.

This year we had a smaller party than usual. With ALL the kids in college, working, etc., there was no time to plan or decorate. We did have all of us plus about 6 more people that are Carrie's friends, it rained quite hard which put the kabosh on the bonfire, had lots of sweets, and just had fun. Next blog will be soon for sure.

Catch up Time

I have been stretched out to the max with going here, going there, helping others, and have not taken much time for myself. I always preach that ones self is FIRST. I have been going to the Y and watching what I eat, and it is paying off. I have lost a couple of pounds and toned up. The other day at work I had to constantly pull my pants up, they kept sliding down to where dropped waist clothes go. I went to Cato and found a couple of nice pair of slacks in a smaller size!

Part of my running around has been traveling half way between home and Atlanta transporting Melissa. Her car is in the shop, so she needed rides. She has had some inconsistencies in her blood work, so has to go for blood work. Her brother or other family members have met me at the halfway point. The exit we stop at has everything from all the fast food places, WalMart, Lowes and a bunch of other places. It is 1.5 hour trip on each end for everyone. Yesterday on our way back, after we left I-20, we saw........... are you ready?.......

She was just strolling around very leisurely. She stood in the road for a little bit just looking at us like "What are you doing?" That was awesome. I am glad Melissa remembers we have cameras on our phones, because I just plain forget in my old age. I have a camera AND a phone. I guess because I do not pay to send and receive photos, I do not think about it.

I have read everyones blogs, and am enjoying reading about all the FOOD and activities. My latest activity I have had some time to do is Cobii's halloween costume. I have sent some pictures of it, but not sure who I sent it to. Will post a new picture at a later date when it is totally finished.

Until the next blog, hopefully not so long, I will sign off. Love to all.

It has been awhile since I have done some updating. Saturday, 8/29/09, the girls and I bbq'd some chicken and potatoes that were doctored with butter, onions and peppers. It looked like rain, so the old rain barrier that use to be used when I worked craft fairs got put up. Then the sun came out and made for a very pretty day. My girls were "drawing" in the sand. One of Cobii's favorite things to do, and she is a good teacher. She tells one what to draw, how big, etc.

The food turned out to be quite tasty and the last of the left overs got finished in my lunches on Wednesday.

Just before dark, the weather was perfect for cleaning the roof off and the gutters. You can see that there were trees growing in the gutters. That sure was a workout! As you can see below, it was also a very dirty job.

The shower sure felt good after that, and it was still quite warm, but not like in the hot sunshine.

I have joined the Y along with my friend Melissa. She goes nearly everyday around noon or so. I car pool so do not have as much time to go without driving all the way back into town. Patches and I are going bike riding after work today, so I drove myself and stopped at the Y on the way to work. Didn't have a lot of time, but did have time to do 2 miles on the tread mill with an average speed of 4mph. That felt great! Took a shower, and here I am.

This weekend is a long weekend for me, and I am so looking forward to it. Not sure what I will do, but do know I will go to the Y a couple of times. Scrapbooking has really been on my mind lately. Have not done anything on that in a long time. Also need to make Cobii some winter PJ's, but I have plenty of time before the cold weather sets in to do that. Maybe scrapbooking will be it then.

My mother in law will have her left big toe operated on next Friday. The gout has gotten so bad, that it has eaten most of one of the bones in the toe. A circulation test has been done, and her circulation is fine, so surgery will be day surgery with a local. They will remove the rest of the bone that has been deteriorating. With her good sense of humor, she said "I can hardly wait". She does know she will be in pain and have some trouble moving about, but she is a strong and good recoverer of things.

Now I suppose it is time to get something done around the Office. I will close with a picture I took of Oliver last night. Jason, Carrie, Cobii, Oliver and I were walking all around the horse pasture looking at all the different mushrooms growing. Even though he wakes me up at 3AM to be let outside, he is still my best companion.

A safe and great holiday weekend to all.