My week away

I was on vacation last week and, I must say, it was great. What a good feeling to know that when you finally decide to lay your head down at night, the alarm isn’t going to rudely awake you in the morning.

Tuesday morning, however, we did get up early and hit the road. I rode with my daughter and grandson to Chattanooga, TN. We stopped there for lunch and visited the Tennessee Aquarium. I hadn’t been to that aquarium since my daughter was little. It is so much fun to go places like that with a small child. The wonder and amazement in a child’s eyes is priceless. Although, since the aquarium had a couple of displays where you could put your hand in and “pet” the fish, my grandson now doesn’t understand why he cant put his hands in the tank we have at home and pet our fish!

Later that afternoon I checked into the Chattanooga Choo Choo for the night and the kids got back on the road headed to Pennsylvania. This was my first visit to the Choo Choo and I was very well pleased. I was upgraded to a suite simply because I joined their rewards program when I made the reservation. Not that I needed a suite, but it was nice!

There is a restaurant name The Station House located at the Choo Choo that has really good steak and live entertainment. All of the wait staff sings! They have a band and all of the servers take turns singing. It was a lot of fun.

On Wednesday, I spent the day exploring Chattanooga on foot. I shopped, ate, strolled thru the parks and even got a massage. It was a great day.

The remainder of vacation was spent at home. It was also nice to have time to get a few things done around the house that I had been putting off. Also, to just relax and do nothing!



Getting to know you (link up)

Today I am going to do a link up with Mississippi Women Bloggers called...Getting to know you. I love the idea of this. I have several favorites that I follow and feel like I know the writers, but dont know so many of the details about them. So, here I go! 1. What part of Mississippi are you from? - I am not originally from Mississippi. I was born and raised in Oklahoma and came to MS in 1993 at the age of 21. I was stationed at NAS Meridian while in the Navy. I had a baby and got married about a year and a half after moving here. I got out of the military after my time here was up and decided to stay. 2. How long have you been blogging? - I am a newby blogger. I think it has been less than a year but not certian how long. 3. Why did you start blogging? - Even though I am a fairly introverted person, I usually have something I want to talk about or share. Blogging is perfect! I can tell an unlimited amount of people about what is happening in my life. 4. What can we expect when reading your blog? - The best thing I can tell you is to expect a "regular" person talking about everyday kinds of things. I know a lot of people who have some sort of theme or favorite thing to blog about but I am just random. 5. What does your blog title mean? - Refer to #4. I just like to share my day to day. 6. What do you love about being part of Mississippi Women Bloggers? - I love the idea of having a blogging community that is close to me and can really relate to what is going on in the area. The same is true for what I get to read from the other members. 7. Who inspires you to blog? - The first blogger I really started reading is Joy Henson Sowell (The Sowell Life). I used to always look forward to seeing her put a link on Twitter about a new blog. She inspired me to just share my life experiences both joys and sorrows. 8. What is your favorite blog of the past year? - Wow, this is a hard one. I'm not sure if I have a favorite, I did really like the blog I wrote about Potholes in Life. It came to me while driving to work and I could hardly wait to put it in black and white. 9. Do your real life friends know you blog? What do they think about it? - A good many of my friends do. I put links for many of my blogs on Twitter and Facebook. One of my good friends is completely clueless about why we blog. She has asked me "what do y'all write about?" on more than one occasion. It always makes me giggle. 10. What is your current blogging routine? - There is no routine! I blog when I have an inspiration and the time to sit down and type it. I would love to do a lot more and hopefully develope a routine in the future so it can happen.

The joy of country living

I just love all of the things that can happen when you live out in the country! One night, last month, when my daughter got home from work she discovered a raccoon in the garage eating out of the cat’s food bowl. A couple of weeks later, she came home late and heard something bumping around in the garage just to discover a possum making his way to the cat food. As you can see, he wasn’t shy at all! Yesterday evening, we were sitting in the living room talking and I noticed a raccoon strolling across the back porch like he didn’t have a care in the world. My daughter said it didn’t look like the one she had seen before because this one wasn’t as fat as the first. A few minutes after we watched the raccoon cross the porch, I went to look in the garage and sure enough, there he was. The raccoon was having a snack and the cat was stretched out taking a nap like this was the most normal thing ever! I used to joke that I spent more on pet food than people food because of all of the stray cats that ate at my house. Little did I know I have been feeding half of the forest too!

Whew!

Wow! What an exhausting day. But I can say that I feel like I accomplished a lot. All of the laundry done, thoroughly cleaned Lane's room. I am disgusted by how dirty the carpet under an area rug can get. Yuck! I would love to rip all of the carpet out of my house. Thoroughly cleaned the living room and rearranged the furniture. Cooked a tasty lunch of chicken & rice, black eyed peas and cornbread. Mowed the grass in the front yard and trimmed the front yard trees (between rain showers). Most all of the above during the first half of the day when I was home alone. I rarely have the house to myself to deep clean. This evening, Lane and I spent time on the front porch enjoying the cooler weather while it was raining. Now, if I can just get in there and clean the kitchen, I'm going to call it a day. I am one tired Gigi!!

Brain overload....and it's just Wednesday!

As I was thinking about what to write today, I realized that my brain just kept jumping from idea to idea. Sudden onset ADHD? Probably not, but that still doesnt help me slow down and pick a thought or topic.
Maybe I will just blog about why my mind is all over the place.
I am planning on taking vacation in 2 weeks. I know that I am going to Chattanooga for at least a couple of days. My daughter and I are taking my grandson to the wonderful aquarium there, then they are heading further north to Pennsylvania to visit her dad. So, what else am I going to do while I am there and on the drive home?
I am taking a couple of classes this fall at MCC and am trying to make sure that I have all of my paperwork in, etc.
I am trying to make plans to go to Jamaica on a mission trip in the spring. Lots of paperwork involved in leaving the country!
Then, in the here and now, I am trying to remember what all I need from Wal-Mart, what my grandbaby and I are going to have for supper tonight, if I remembered to put the last load of laundry in the dryer, and hoping I didn't let the lawn mower run out of oil and mess up the motor. Sigh!
I'm sure the Route 44 diet DP I am drinking hasnt helped any but it makes me feel a little happier.

Beauty amidst the mess



Between all the rain we have had this year and my hectic life, I haven’t spent near enough time caring for my yard. To be more specific, my flower beds are pitiful. I am very thankful that elephant ears don’t require much attention because they are abundant and help distract from the over growth of grass and weeds.

Then, in the midst of the chaos, this burst of color erupts. It reminds me that beauty can always be found and at times strives to make its self known. Like a bright smile in the middle of a storm.

Strawberry Preserve Cupcakes!

I’m not doing a Friday 5 link up today. I am, instead, going to brag on the super yummy cupcakes I made last night.

These are an adaptation of a recipe from “The Cupcake Bible”. They are called Strawberry Preserve Cupcakes, and they are so moist and good.



1 -  box moist strawberry cake mix

1 – 8 oz carton sour cream

2/3 cup water

¼ cup oil

3 eggs

Strawberry preserves

Line muffin tin with paper cupcake liners. Preheat oven to 350.

Mix the first 5 ingredients together until smooth. Will be thick.

Fill cupcake liners ½ way with batter. Carefully place about a teaspoon of

The strawberry preserves in the center of each cup. Cover the preserves with

a little more batter. Cups will be about 2/3 full.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

These cupcakes are great just as they are or for a little more yumminess, top with

your favorite frosting. I used a simple vanilla frosting.

Last night my house smelled amazing and I had two happy kids!