Silly Blampa...

We are creatures of habits we make for ourselves. I like to begin my morning by waddling downstairs to my computer, checking eMails, doing the daily jigsaw puzzle on my home page, then reading the blog updates. Then I waddle back upstairs for breakfast, vitamins, calcium, etc. That is my favorite way to being my morning. I'm usually up before my dear hubby so that when I get back upstairs he is in his office checking his eMails. This morning however as I waddled up the stairs I heard dishes clattering in the kitchen. I went through the dining room to the kitchen and found no one there. I muttered something like, "Where are you? I heard noise." and it was way too quiet. So I tip-toed around the end of the kitchen counter to the living room and what did I find...My over-grown boy of a hubby with shoulders scrunched up trying to tip-toe around to the dining room to surprise or scare me, one or the other, you pick. I just stood there at the wall that separates the kitchen from the living room and watched him for a few seconds before he turned around and realized I was on to his game. We both laughed at the silliness of the situation. My golly, I'm 58 and he is 59 and he is trying to play (by his own admission) hide-and-seek with me. See there kids, even if you get older in years and physical being, there is still a lot of kid in these old bodies.

The MOTHER of Invention...

We keep a dorm fridge in our pantry and keep it full of soda pops. On the door, in the slots at the top, I have cans of Sprite. On the top shelf of the inside I have Dr. Pepper (Nectar of the Gods!) and Mountain Dew. The bottom shelf inside is Diet Pepsi. The bottom shelf on the door is reserved for Dr. McGillacuddy's Root Beer (a Kentucky original and only purchased at Buffalo Trace Distillery in Frankfort, KY). Claude was in Bowling Green, KY for a couple of days for training. I stayed home to get some house work done (beginnings of some spring cleaning). I was restocking the dorm fridge and noticed the cans of Sprite. Then I had a 'flash of intellect'. Amazingly, I kept that thought until Claude came home last night. While watching TV in the evening, I said to the hunter/gatherer of our family, "Would you like a ________(fill in the blank) to drink?" He said, "That sounds good." So I made us a __________(fill in the blank) to drink and we both tried it. It was delicious. We haven't thought of a name for it yet but we will definitely try it again. Here is the recipe. Take 2 glasses, fill them with ice cubes, take 1 can of Sprite and pour half of it into each of the 2 glasses, fill remaining portion of each glass with apple juice. It was so refreshing and we totally enjoyed it. Since I put these together in the dark it wasn't until this morning that I noticed I had picked out a can of Mountain Dew (which had been put in a Sprite slot on the door) instead of a can of Sprite. At any rate, if you want a nice refreshing drink that gets some juice in you, try this. My next foray into 'drink mixing' will be to make up some grape juice and put a can of Sprite in it. I'm hoping it will be as refreshing as the apple juice.

Reflections...

1st Reflection...

Last summer I purchased a bushel of apples from Evans Orchard. I also had some other apples in a large quantity from somewhere. I diligently froze them for pies and muffins, made applesauce (for the 1st time) and dried some for grandmonsters to consume (which they did over Christmas). As I worked with all those apples, I had some seed that came out just perfect and I had another flash. Not the hot flash kind but a flash of intellect. I wondered if I could get these seeds to grow into apple trees. So I saved them in 2 custard dishes, one with red apple seeds and one with green apple seeds. I let them dry out and just sit on the counter for a long time. Then Thanksgiving rolled around and I figured this would be a great Hayden and Ma activity. So I pulled out old containers we save and potting soil and called Hayden to his step stool by the island. We had a great fun playing in the dirt and planting the seeds. I put the pots on paper plates and they sat on the dining room table for a while. Then I moved them to the pantry for the High Priest Christmas Social. Then when I realized I was really having a house full of company for Christmas, I moved them to the storage shelves in the cold garage and promptly forgot them. In January I noticed them as I was taking something to the garbage cans. I brought them in and set them on the floor in the pantry and watered them thinking whatever happened was what it was to be. Then we had the ice storm. I had just watered them and figured those little seeds were doomed. After the ice storm I found a plastic lid to cover a 9x13 pan and put the pots in it and set them on a chair at the breakfast table, watered them again and hoped a few rays of sun might do them good. Imagine my surprise to go to my kitchen one morning and find a little plant starting to grow. Then a few days later I noticed another one and then a 3rd start. That gives me a fighting chance at having a red apple tree. But I had nothing in either of the green apple seed pots. Day before yesterday I noticed a start in the green apple seeds. We may actually get an apple tree if one of these survives. Thank you Hayden for helping Ma plant these seeds. It will be great fun if they do grow and one day we have apples on our hill in Sadieville.

2nd Reflection...

I love turtles. Turtle has always been my favorite word. It just kind of rolls around in your mouth. Somewhere along the line my family found out that I loved the word turtle and my turtle collection began to grow. I have many kinds of turtles from stuffed to play with to Lenox crystal salt and pepper shakers. Papa gave me a turtle for Christmas one year that walks across the room singing "You have to slow down, you move to fast, gotta make the moment last!" I know he gave it to me for the turtle but the song is also something I need to hear. The grandmonsters love to flip that button on and play with the singing turtle. I have turtle ornaments on my Christmas tree from many places we have traveled. I bought one etched in wood when we were in Gatlinburg. I have a Lenox bowl with turtles on it. And while traveling through ice coming home from Utah on Christmas, we stayed in Kansas City and ate at a Cracker Barrel. They had 3 turtles that were "Hear No Evil", "See No Evil" and "Speak No Evil". They were a must purchase for the collection. My mum-in-law had a turtle that sat in her home for as long as Claude and I have been married and longer. You could lift his shell and use him as a candy dish. But she just had him sitting on the floor and eventually by the fireplace when that was added. When Bonnie learned of my love of turtles, she gave me this lovely turtle. I brought him home and had him stand guard by the plant stand in the corner of the dining room. Now, when Miss Bailey was old enough to begin toddling around she found the turtle and picked him up. But he was too heavy (sounds like Goldilocks doesn't it). She dropped him and his body broke in half. Then she toddled over to the 3 turtles Hear No Evil, See No Evil and Speak No Evil and picked up Hear No Evil and he was too heavy (Brownilocks is at it again). She dropped him and his foot broke off. Gramma finally learned her lesson and hid all breakable turtles close to the ground. This week I took them to the workbench of Claude in the basement and left them. Magically they were glued back together. This morning I walked through the dining room to go to the basement when I paused for a good laugh. There, standing on it's head on Claude John Deere paperclip in the middle of the dining room table was the body of the turtle that Bonnie gave me. He was all glued and posed there to dry. He looked so silly. Then it registered that the "hear no evil" turtle was also glued and watching the body of his friend standing on his head. It was just a great comic scene. Hear No Evil really looked like he was in total surprise that his friend had lost his shell and was standing on his head, a most usual pose for a turtle. When I went back up to get my daily dose of Nectar of the Gods, the scene was changed. I am so grateful I got the pictures before that happened. Enjoy!

39th Anniversary...The Party's Over

Well, Friday we must have been soooooo worn out from our Thursday escapades that we didn't get out of our hotel room until NOON!! That's right folks, old age has caught up to us and one full day of partying is all we can take. We missed the breakfast opportunities on Friday but since we ate dinner at the Old Mill Thursday night and spent a good share of Thursday nights rest with our friend, Tums, we really were not disappointed in missing breakfast. The hour of the day though meant it was time for lunch. We had already chosen the place to dine for lunch and headed to Gatlinburg, found parking, and walked down the street to Bubba Gumps for the best meal of the trip. This was a truly fun restaurant. I commented to Claude that you could just feel the energy in the place. It didn't hurt that they were playing an Eagles song as we entered. Our table came with 2 license plates on a stand. One said "Run Forest, Run!!" and the other said "Stop Forest, Stop!!" If you needed something from your waiter you just flipped to the license plate that said "stop" and someone would come to your rescue and get you whatever you needed. Otherwise, the license plate with "run" stayed up so they just passed you by. The beverage & dessert menu was on a ping-pong paddle. Our server was Lance and he asked several trivia questions to get us started. Claude knew every answer. I was very impressed and so was Lance. Claude was a little surprised. He said he just doesn't know why all that stuff stays in his head. I'm thinking I may have married the next Ken Jennings. We ordered shrimp. Mine came in the form of a shrimp po-boy sandwich. Yum!! Claude's came in the form of a weird holder with 4 large cone-shaped cups in it. Each cup had shrimp made a different way. Claude was very, very disappointed when he emptied the first one. We also each ordered a lemonade. I had strawberry lemonade and Claude had blueberry lemonade. They came in a glass (like a tall beer glass) and the base of it had flashing lights. The deal was, if you purchased this type of drink, you got to take the glass home with you. So we now have in our kitchen 2 glasses that say Bubba Gump on them with little flashing lights in the bottom. We are betting our grandmonsters will get a kick out of drinking in them when they visit. After our meal and visit to the gift shop, we headed out to walk the street of Gatlinburg. But first we had to have a photo out with Colonel Gump!!

Now, I had read about these Mirror Maze places and I really wanted to see one. So we walked many blocks until we came to the Ripley's Mirror Maze. Yes, I had coupons. Claude paid the rest and we donned plastic gloves so as not to finger print the mirrors and not to spread germs. Then we entered the door and began our journey with Claude in front. Somewhere along the line I ended up in front. And in a few short minutes we were back at the beginning. There were 3 kids (probably siblings) coming back in for another trip through. Your ticket lets you go through as many times in one day as you would like. These kids were telling us we needed to go through again only we should walk backwards. Apparently this was a great deal more fun for them than walking through forwards. In addition to the joy of walking backwards they had purchased, for another nominal fee, 3-D glasses. Doesn't this just sound like sooooo much fun - backwards with 3-D glasses. Claude and I both agreed we enjoyed the kids excitement as they let us try on their 3-D glasses and encouraged us to try walking through backwards more that we enjoyed the over-priced mirror maze. As we left I said to Claude, "I think this was the Joshua Tree of Gatlinburg!" He smiled and agreed. (Years ago when we only had Nissa as an infant, my parents came to visit us in California. Papa had heard of Joshua Tree National Monument and really wanted to see it. A Joshua tree is something like a cactus like thing. We loaded up their car and headed south of Sunnymead where we lived and entered at some point Joshua Tree National Forest. We only knew we finished it because we saw a sign that thanked up for visiting. From that point forward, any event we tried that really didn't meet our expectation has been called a Joshua Tree. Hence, the mirror maze is the Joshua Tree of Gatlinburg.) We walked thru a few shops and ended up in a 2nd story ice cream/lemonade store. We purchased 2 tall fresh squeezed lemonade and sat on the rocking chairs of the porch and watched the tourist go by. This type of activity is always good for us because Claude has a real knack for telling me the story of each tourist. I enjoyed the ladies walking around in their high heeled shoes. We would see this in tourists in DC and always thought these ladies must be very vain and very stupid. Sneakers were made for a reason and should be used when you are going to do miles of walking. After our lemonades we did a little more store browsing. We found a cute little store name after Jake. The didn't carry his size in a t-shirt or one would have been purchased.

Then we popped into Ben & Jerry's for a scoop of ice cream. Now it was time to head for dinner. This was our actual anniversary day and we felt compelled to have that anniversary dinner. We were both feeling another night with our friend Tums was on the way but we were just sure we must have that anniversary dinner. Bennett's BBQ was our choice (I had coupons) and we went to the one on the way back to our hotel. Our server was very cheerful and tried extremely hard to get Claude and I to respond to her cheerfulness. We made it thru most of our dinner and then waddled out to the car. The Lil Dolly's store was very close and Claude let me peek in there. They had quilts on sale and we purchased 2 of them for our anniversary. They can be used for bedspreads. Very pretty. Then we headed to the hotel.

Saturday we felt we could play in the morning before heading back to Sadieville. This building had intrigued us for our entire visit. We had a pancake breakfast and headed to Wonder Works. The outside of the building and the 1st room inside are all built like they were turned upside down. As you approach the building they have speakers playing groaning and creaking sounds like the building is going to collapse. It is really a museum for your mind. It was great fun and we spent a couple of hours enjoying the things they had to experience. Some were great fun and others were just fun. This was a much better use of our time and means than the mirror maze. Claude loves the simulator rides and they had one he enjoyed for a time. Then we got a picture of him as Colonel Astronaut.

The silliest thing we did was a mind relaxation game. They have you sit at opposite ends of a table that is about 6 feet long. There is a clear tube running down the middle of the table with a little ball about the size of a ping-pong ball inside. Each of us velcroed a strip around our foreheads with 3 metal circles that rested on your forehead. The object was to stay as relaxed as you could. The one who was least relaxed would have that little ball roll their way. Can you guess who had the ball come right at them and who was the most relaxed and could send it away from them???? I'll tell you if you can't guess. I'm am the least relaxed of the two of us. Now, I didn't have to play a game to know that. However, I am also the one who has not had 2 bleeding ulcers, thank you!! We had a wonderful few days just enjoying each other and experiencing some new things and seeing wonderful sites. Let me tell you...39 years is not that bad.

Cades Cove Loop Road Tour

39th Anniversary - A Step Back In Time

Well now, let's see what else we did on Thursday, our day in the sun. After completing our tour of Ober Gatlinburg, we turned the trusty Buick steed toward the Great Smoky Mountains, specifically Cades Cove. After Claude and I moved to Maryland, my parents would tour through sections of the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Great Smoky Mountains that they had come to love as they returned home to Louisiana after visiting us. One of those places was Cades Cove in the southwest corner of Great Smoky Mountain National Park. I have heard how lovely this place was for 24 years now. Claude and I determined we should see it for ourselves. So off we went through the Wear Valley area and into the Park. I'm posting another slide show (best way to get lots of pictures out there) of the Cades Cove Loop Road tour. It was late in the afternoon when we arrived so we saw as much as we could in the few hours we had to drive and walk to some of the sites. Cades Cove was settled by the Joshua Jobe family in 1821, who found no Cherokees living in that area when they settled it. They did encounter them prowling around but none resided there when they settled it. By 1850 it had 132 families living there. Primarily it was a farming community but they also added grist mills and blacksmith shops. At one point they tried a forge for smelting iron. Two residents were licensed distillers of apple and peach brandy and corn whiskey. From the land around them they ate wild game and fish and they valued their huge harvest of chestnuts each year. In this community, neighbors would have helped each other and entertainment would have been the dinners at a church. We saw lots of deer who didn't care how close you were. They seemed to know they were protected and we were just there to watch them. One of the old homes reminded me of a smaller version of the home my mothers parents lived in. It had a little room that was added using a portion of the front porch. This room was used if a stranger came thru and needed a place to rest. Gramma & Grampa Fisch used their little room as a "fruit" room where they kept all the items bottled in glass jars from the garden. All the little homes had a fireplace in the main room with a set of stairs going to the upstairs where the boys would have slept. The girls traditionally slept on the main level. These homes set on top rock pedestals to keep them off the damp ground. Our home in Shreveport was built up on brick pedestals to keep it off the damp ground. These homes had no running water or electricity and no indoor plumbing. So in many of them I felt like I was back at Grampa and Gramma Fisch's home in Louisiana. I experienced a lot of what these homes would have been like when I grew up and visited Mimi's parents. The cantilevered barns were fascinating. Cades Cove would have been a very peaceful place to live. We missed a couple of the preserved homes but really saw most of these buildings. I was talking with another couple who stopped at the same house we were visiting and we were both commenting about the way the walls were made. They had huge spaces between the logs or boards in the walls. These had been filled with mud but in many places that mud had fallen out. These would not have been warm places in the winter. Maybe I'm still reeling over the power outage and single digit temps outside and trying to keep the inside of our home at 50 degrees. But I don't remember ever seeing that big a space in the walls between logs or boards. One home had a shed to shelter bee gums. I didn't even know bees chewed gum!!! There were a few smoke houses. This made me remember being in Grampa and Gramma Fisch's smokehouse. It smelled so good and maybe that is why I love bacon so much today. Good memories. This is a drive that is worth your time if you are ever in that area. Allow time to just enjoy the calmness of being in that spot. And then to appreciate how fortunate we are to live with all the niceties we are blessed with...like being able to share this thru a blog!!

Ober Gatlinburg & Ski Lift

39th Anniversary...Up, Up, & Away

After our great helicopter tour, we drove to Gatlinburg and found a parking spot. Then walked to the Ober Gatlinburg Tram. Ober Gatlinburg is the ski spot for the area. You can drive up a little road but it is very steep and hard on the brakes coming down. We wanted to experience the tram ride version so we located the ticket office and quickly boarded the tram. It is a nice leisurely ride up the mountain, over the really expensive real estate, over the beautiful really tall trees, and to Ober Gatlinburg's main complex. They have an outdoor exhibit area that reminds one of a mini-zoo where they keep live black bears. However, there were none on display that we could see. They must have escaped to the woods. We wondered through the complex, past the ice skating rink, to the outside where the ski lifts and ski slopes are located. There was another ski lift that could take you to the top of Mt. Harrison so we bought tickets and again took to the air. Ober Gatlinburg has several ski slopes in varying degrees of difficulty. They make man-made snow to suppliment the real snow so we were able to watch people enjoying the final ski for this season. They have a play ground for the little ones, 2 slides that you come down in carts and get on by riding the blue ski lifts you see in the pictures I'll post next. There are 2 water slides for the summer. There was a tall tower with things coming out 2 sides at the top. Claude guessed correctly that they were originally bungy jumping platforms. Our lift helper told us they determined that was not a good idea and don't use them for that any more. Since they are very, very close to the other stuff, we felt they made a grand decision. At the top of the ski lift we had a beautiful view of Gatlinburg, Ober Gatlinburg and the Great Smokey Mountains. On the way down the sky lift, Claude got a call for Sadieville business. We just laughed at the timing. When we got back to the Ober Gatlinburg complex we went to the restaurant and had a nice lunch of chili and salads. Then we took the tram back down to Gatlinburg.

First in Flight

39th Anniversary Story...Part 1

Wednesday, February 11th we left Sadieville in the morning and headed to Pigeon Forge, TN where our room at the Holiday Inn Express awaited our arrival. We anticipated bad weather and wanted to get there before the bad weather hit in the afternoon. While traveling south on I-75 Claude noted signs stating I-75 was closed below Corbin, KY. So I pulled out the maps (we aren't GPS users to date) and found us an alternate route. We took Hwy 25 East out of Corbin through the Pine Mountain area, through the Cumberland Gap and into Tennesee. Beautiful drive. We arrived at the hotel just as the sprinkles started. We unloaded the Buick and checked into our room. Since this was a 3 night stay I unpacked us and set up our home-away-from-home. Then we headed to the lobby and caught the weather alerts on the TV before heading out to dinner. The storm was right over Pigeon Forge. It was a fast moving storm so we waited it out. It cleared quickly and we headed for dinner. Claude and I prefer eating at local restaurants when traveling if possible and I had a list I collected from the Internet. From this list we picked the Alamo and headed there. The building was built like the Alamo in Texas. The food was expensive but delicious. We had a coupon and they had a buy one get one free special that night as well. They only do this on Wednesday night. We had a great meal for a lot less than the usual cost. Score one for us!! After dinner we drove the "Parkway" which is really Hwy 441 going through Sevierville, Pigeon Forge and the Gatlinburg. There it enters the Great Smoky Mountain National Park and goes through the center of the park into North Carolina. We only drove through Gatlinburg as it was getting dark. We headed back to the hotel and picked out some brochures to supplement my computer research. We listed the things we wanted to do most, Claude suggested that we do outside things on Thursday as the possibility of clouds and then rainy weather was forecast for Friday and Saturday, I cut out coupons for all interested locations, then we plotted Thursdays activites and I filled my purse with maps and coupons. We were ready to sleep in preparation for our Thursday activities. Thursday morning we arose early and went to the buffet provided by the hotel. Then it was off to Scenic Helicopter Tours. We picked a tour that lasted about 28 minutes and took us over Sevierville, Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg and the foothills of the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. It was such a clear day we could see Knoxville in the distance. Our pilot gave narration of the things we were seeing. His name was Spencer and he was a really nice pilot. I sat in the front seat and took the pictures that I'll post in a slide show next. This was my first time in a helicopter. Claude and Jake took a ride in a helicopter outside of Gettysburg, PA many years ago. It was a great experience and a great way to start the day. We flew over Dollywood (closed for the winter). We learned it was originally a little train ride through the hills. They got permission to use Dolly Parton's name and the park was born from those beginnings. We flew over a gravel pit that serves these 3 cities. It was easy to see why a portion of the highway through the area is named Forks of the River as you flew over that area. We could see the snow left in Ober Gatlinburg. There are some huge homes on those foothills. It was a great start to our day.

Think, Think, Think...

Our little Hayden is fascinated with what is inside of things and under things. He is especially taken with what is inside the body. It occurred to Claude and I that we have a Jello mold in the shape of a brain. "Why do you have that?" you might rightfully ask. For the life of us, we can't remember why we bought that item. Ironic isn't it that we can't remember why we bought a brain Jello mold. But, again, I digress...Since Hayden is fascinated with the inside of us, we have wanted to make a brain Jello mold for him. This weekend we remembered to take it to La Grange. While the testosterone filled portion of our family went in search of dinner (the pizza), they stopped at the store for ice cream. We called and had them bring the Jello and frozen raspberries. After the kids went to bed on Saturday night, Michael made his first batch of Jello ever. We filled the brain and let it chill until lunch time on Sunday. After carefully removing it from the mold to a plate, it was just amazingly great fun to have Hayden and Bailey enjoy a Jello brain.

Aging Gracefully...

Last week was spent visiting doctors. Monday was the gynecologist. Tuesday was the eye doctor for Claude and me. And Friday was the primary care physician. At this point all I am experiencing is stuff incident to aging. I suppose I should say..."Yippee". It is an interesting thing that as this process happens, mentally you don't feel younger. Then you walk past a mirror and go, "Gee whiz, when did that happen." But life gives you little bits of joy that put it all into focus. After a full week of medical advice, Claude and I went to a Legislative Breakfast in Georgetown Saturday morning before heading off to La Grange to help Miss Bailey Marx enjoy her own little aging process. She turned 2 years old on Sunday. Andie and Michael were kind enough to have a birthday lunch and family gift giving on Saturday. Papa was then able to join us and we filled the middle of our day with birthday merriment. Bailey's favorite toy is her monkey she has affectionately named Wah-Wah (I could be spelling that incorrectly). She is a bit of a monkey herself so Andie made the best monkey birthday cake a mom could create. Bailey was exploding with those throaty laughs when Andie brought the cake into the dining room. We enjoyed the moment watching blow out the candle after several attempts and then watching her eat all that icing with a fork and mostly her hands. You just have to play with that icing when you are little. We opened presents. It was great fun to watch Papa through all of this. He just delights in all the things little children do. This is also part of the aging process. He's raised his own and watched his grandchildren as he could. Now he can sit back and thoroughly enjoy the actions of little ones. Then Papa headed back to Georgetown and Claude and I stayed to spend the night and enjoy Sunday morning with the mini-Marx's and their parental units. This year I made dress-up clothes for Bailey and Claude and I made strings of beads for necklaces for her. We made plenty so she had some to share with friends as they visit. I also crocheted a hat and put a flower on it for her for dress-up. While Hayden, Michael and Claude went for pizza, Andie and I got a few shots of Princess Busy-bee in some of her duds.

Hayden, who is at the age where you make the posed grin for the camera most of the time, decided to run from Gramma when she tried to take a picture. It was great sport and good exercise to run around the house and into the garage, especially after being couped up for 2 weeks with the ice storm. He did find one great place of refuge where he could feel hidden and safe from the camera but still watch me creep up on him in his reflection in the glass in the back door.

Now, lest you think Claude and I are so ancient we are past the point of having fun...I share 2 pictures of my hubby. Since I take just about all the pictures in our family, I'm very seldom in them. Andie is careful to catch me in them a few times. So...with that explanation...I share two pictures of my hubby enjoying his 2nd childhood with his grandmonsters this weekend.

So...aging isn't so bad. It is great to watch the process again with grandmonsters and to see the future with my parents. This weekend Claude and I will be off to Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge for a few days to enjoy our 39th anniversary. So, even our marriage gets older. I am really grateful for this wonderful life I have been able to enjoy. I am blessed with a wonderful hubby, 3 great kids, and 5 wonderful grandmonsters. I get to share my parents waining years. I can sew and crochet and cross-stitch a lot more that in prior years. I live in the most wonderful home in the neatest spot on earth. I enjoy my calling in Church. What more could a girl ask for...not much I would say. Viva La Age!!!