Blue Ridge Junction

February ..so far.

We lost our dog, Samson, on Monday February 4th. He was 16 years old. My husband had him since he was a sweet puppy of 6 weeks old. Needless to say there were a lot of tears shed around here on Monday. We knew he was sick and was dying and we did our best to keep him comfortable over the last week. He slept in the house the last week much against his will. He hated being in the house. Finally on Sunday night he was so fiesty and seemed so much better that I let him out. I checked on him a few times on Monday to find him sleeping most of the day either in the sun or in his doghouse. I went to do some errand and came back to find him laying against the house. He looked as if he had fell over in mid stride coming up a well worn path he had made around the backyard over the last few years. He was our sweet old man and we miss him terribly already.  I can't quite bring myself to take him out of the Marett graphic at the top yet.  It will come in time I guess.

Nothing much else has happened around here since our last post. We've had a couple of snow storms and an ice storm but nothing worth getting out of the house to take pictures for. Ha! We are basically in hibernation mode until Spring when the races start. We are just not Winter people.

I've gotten quite a bit done on the craft front and will try to take pictures of it all tonight.

Ya'll Come!

New Year. New Beginning

Hello all!

I have ignored my blogging for a long time now as things got a little wild here last year.  My New Year's Resolution is to keep up with this blog and officially document our retirement.

My husband finally retired at the end of May this past year and thus began months of paperwork as he had to retire because of disabilities.  I spent months doing the paperwork for his social security and county disability retirements and finding him insurance to cover him until he can get Medicare.  It was a huge amount of work , but in the end it was all worth it as he was approved for everything by the end of summer and started drawing checks by October.

So..now..we are officially retired and planning on enjoying every minute of it.  Our first thrill of retirement came this morning when normally my husband would have went back to work after the holiday.  We had a small winter storm move through with snow and ice last night and our fun began this morning when we woke up and realized we didn't have to do anything but drink coffee, eat breakfast, and enjoy the view.  No trying to get to work or getting out in the sub zero temperatures.  It was MUCH fun.  LOL

I am heavily into my stitching and crocheting, reading, and photography and will be documenting a lot of it here this year.  Mack is into his computers, reading, and dirt racing and we will be taking a few trips over the summer to different races where the racetracks support people with handicaps.

Mack, Samson (the 16 year old wonder dog), and I hope you will follow us through our retirement, hobbies, and travels and we wish you all a very Happy New Year!!

The picture is a sunset just before Christmas that we watched in awe from our front yard.

You can click on the picture to embiggin!

Ya'll Come!

MemorySuppliers.com

Hi All,

New pictures and stuff coming soon.  Just wanted to tell you about a place my husband found called MemorySuppliers.com . They have a memory configurator so that you won't get the wrong memory for your computer and right now they've got free shipping. Check them out.

Ya'll Come!

Sundays

This has been a very lazy Sunday so far.  Husband seems to be doing a little better.  He's got that weak and tired thing going on now that comes at the end of a big ole infection, but the coughing has subsided greatly and no more coughing up blood which I am greatful for.  Problem is that mine seems to be kicking in now.  Yuk.

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and I am soooooooooo looking forward to going home for 3 or 4 days.  I have not been home since Labor Day Weekend.  My Dad called early this afternoon just to talk and I can tell he is ready to be home for the holidays too.

The weather went from 78 degrees here yesterday to just barely making it to 40 today.  Unbelieveable.  It's no wonder we are all sick!!

I am borrowing a couple of things from my cross stitch friends today.  Tina listed her November goals in hopes that she can keep up...and I think I am going to start doing that at the beginning of each month so that I can keep up with stuff that needs to be done!

My November Goals:
1.  Get me and husband over this flu stuff!
2.  Finish up the crocheted items I am doing for Christmas presents and make a HUGE dent in my Mom's present.  I'd be more specific but you never know when a family member will be sneaking around in this blog looking for ideas.
3.  Get my living room in some kind of decent order.  (yeah right)

Also from Velda ... who got it from several of her online friends. For the first 5 people who respond to this post I will send a hand crafted item from me. Catch is that you have to list an offer like this on your blog and follow it through making some pretties for people who respond on your blog. The Pay It Forward concept! Have fun and enjoy!

Ya'll Come!

Been a Long Time

It's been a long time since I posted and I've had good and bad reasons.

The bad reasons are well my hubby has been very sick on and off and I've just been too involved with that and seeing to him that I basically just lost interest in keeping up with the blog for a while.  I know.  I should have wrote about all of it and it would have helped with the stress, but at the time when I finally got around to sitting down here and working on it I was just too tired.  He is getting better and I think I am ready to start writing again.  I've had all kinds of ideas for this blog over the years.  It's been about everything, but I've decided to just make this blog about me, what I do, who I am.  Hopefully you won't find that too boring.  There will still be pictures here.  My hubby just recently bought me a new 9 megapixel Fuji camera and yes...I've been out exploring the Fall.  There will be a lot about craft stuff here...mostly cross stitching and crocheting for now.  There will be lots about the family here.  So...instead of trying to make this blog into something..it is just going to be about me and mine.  I hope you enjoy.  I hope you will comment.

Here's the first picture I took with the new camera.  Its from a lookout on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Transylvania County, NC.  It was a beautiful day, but the Lady Bugs were swarming and being very very annoying.

Still Here

I have not abandoned this blog.  Really!  No.  I swear I haven't. 

It will be going through a bit of transformation shortly though.  I am still going to include the photography, but am going to be adding crafts and a store to it if any of you are interested.  I have not abandoned photography, but I swear..the weather has just not cooperated lately.  It's either been warm, dreary, and rainy...or so dadgum cold and icy that you can't get out.  LOL

I am looking forward to Spring.

Ya'll Come!

Happy New Year's Eve

Christmas was a blast. Easy journey home. No massive snow storms this year. We got to see everyone and had an absolutely wonderful Christmas. all the gifts that Mack and I had worked so hard on seemed to go over very well and we were happy about that. We received a lot of goodies that we were very very happy with.

Trip home was long and exhausting. I got a terrible stomach virus and I was sick as a dog all the way home. Made the 8 hour trip seem like a 30 hour trip. I'm still dealing with the after effects of it. It's been a long time since I've been that sick.

The picture above is my great Aunt Bea. She was like a second grandmother to us as we were growing up. She lives in a nursing home now since she is unable to stand, but there is someone by to see to her every couple of days. She is much loved in our family and my sweet girl. I took this picture of her over Thanksgiving as she was eating her Thanksgiving dinner that we had carried to her.

Ya'll Come!

It's Cold this morning...

As you can see we had a major ice storm over night. It started about 1am as a constant downpour of sleet and freezing rain and still has not let up completely. The temperature is just now getting to 32 degrees. The picture is a Japanese Chain Tree in my front yard. It's not broken YET. Just laying over from the weight of the ice. I'm hoping it stands back up. Amazingly we have power, but no cable. Our neighbors across the street have no power. We are watching episodes of Hogan's Heroes and Andy Griffith on DVD. Hubby stayed home from work though he was not happy about it. I think he could tell I was going to be even unhappier if he tried to go in. I'd say..."ya'll come", but I don't think you could get here right now.

Ice and Cold

Well, I kinda fell off the map there for a week or two didn't I? Sorry bout that. Christmas coming up so fast is just kicking my ..well..you know. We had a light ice storm this past week. This is a bush in my front yard. Yes, I know, I should know what it is, but I don't.

I've got a few good pics from Thanksgiving, but not going to post them just yet. I promise to show you all after Christmas as I am going to use a couple of them as Christmas presents to people.

If you are looking for some great wildlife pics then check out this link that I stole from Fletch. It's the photo contestover at the National Wildlife Magazine. The photos are just ..well..amazing.

Almost done with Christmas. Still making some stuff and still figuring out a last minute gift for Mom, but almost there. Hope you are all having a fun and safe holiday season. Watch for deer. I've had a couple of friends hit them lately.

Ya'll Come!

Blue Ridge Autumn

Going home for Thanksgiving next Wednesday so there will be a shortage of posts during that time, but when I get back I'm sure there will be more pictures of my family and a Kentucky Thanksgiving than you ever wanted to see. LOL

Still have a few more Fall pics, but am about to be out of them for now. It never got up to 40 degrees here today. How unbelieveably rude! I only like winter when it snows. LOL

Ya'll Come!