Halloween Memories from Madison and Max

I tried to bring up more pictures, but was having trouble, so I'll just leave you with Dorothy and the cowardly Lion...The lion didn't like his mane/hat so went without. I think this was when he was 3. I'll likely get pictures from Anne from this year.
I'm off this morning to get my flu shot, then walk Wolfie, come home showerand Richard and I are headed to the mountains to see the trees, have lunch. etc.
Everyone have a fun Halloween and kids...be safe. Judy

Rose Still Lives

Obviously yesterday's frost didn't get to my garden and my rose still lives.

I don't have much time this morning. Richard has an 8:30 appointment in Knoxville, so we have to leave soon. This picture was Max at Benjamin's birthday party. I didn't really have time to scan my photos...the kids love to see themselves and so do I.

We watched an old movie the other night and if you haven't seen it I highly recommend it...Educating Rita...I had seen it when it came out, but Richard had not. It was one of the free movies offered on our cable.

After Richard's appointment, we will go to Sam's, go to Turkey Creek to finish up our Christmas shopping and then lunch before coming home....Later...Judy

The Last Rose of Summer

Yesterday as we were leaving for the gym I spotted this rose in my front garden and knew I had to take a picture of it when I got back. Just in time because we had our first frost this morning and it is likely gone. See the little bud along side it?
I came very close to taking a bus trip to North Carolina to help campaign for Obama. I really wanted to go, but I didn't want to go alone. The bus leaves Friday morning for Winston-Salem and returns on Sunday. I would be camping out on a church floor and it sounded like something I wanted to do, but I needed a buddy. I, unfortunately, have no Democratic buddies down here. I would love it if Muir could have come down, but that is a lot to ask as she teaches and would have to take Friday off driving down here Thursday after school and then driving back to Cincy on Sunday. Anyway, I hope the N.C trip is successful!
I think we'll go to the mountains on Friday. The leaves should be at peak now and I want to go to the Christmas Store in Gatlinburg for a few things. Later....Judy

Fun with Grandkids

Tradition is that when the grandkids come down in the summer we always take a picnic to the mountains and swim/raft, etc in the river. This is Madison last summer.
Woke up to a very cold morning here..not quite freezing, but close. Flurries in the mountains. It will warm up by week's end, so I'll wait until Friday to walk Wolfie. Not much else going on today. Later....Judy

My Grandboys

Max loves his baby cousin and I'm sure J.J. loves Max, but not so much at this point. Max really wanted to hold J.J., but he wanted me to watch J.J. so Trip would go out and play ball with Max.
Watched The Bucket List last night...it was really good.
Cool day today..only in the 50s. Not much going on this week..Halloween Friday, but we'll be lucky to get 3 trick or treaters. Just a few girls on our street who come to our house before going to a neighborhood where there are lots of houses.
Later.....Judy

Before and After

See what I mean about how deserted and lonely the truck looks now? I loved seeing that truck before, but now it's just a piece of junk.

Breakfast is over..we had bacon, fried mush and fried eggs...yum! We worked on the puzzle..I just turned it over to Richard and I'm about to get dressed so we can start on our chores. We're going to straighten up the basement, disconnect our hoses and do some trimming of the shrubs.

I'm going to make beef stew later. This time I'm using dark beer instead of red wine. It's going to be a nice afternoon, but getting down to freezing by morning.

I hope I'll get some reading in this afternoon. I'm reading Three Junes and really liking it a lot. It was a slow starter, but now I don't want to put it down.....Later....Judy

Halloween is nearing

Thought I would post a picture of these 2 goblins from last year's Halloween. As you can see they were heavily into Harry Potter. I'm not sure what this year will bring. I'm not sure if Madison is going to trick or treat..we'll see and I'll post the pictures.

Facebooks connected me to 2 old friends...one from college and one from Cincy. It was good to hear from Pat (I have a hard time thinking of her with another name). The other was Barb and Walt Jossohn from Bethany. Barb was a sorority sister and she met Walt at Bethany.

The rain is over and sunshine has appeared, but it's chilly. We're off to the gym. I didn't get the house cleaned yesterday...I lost my energy, so I'll try to get some of that done today. Have a great weekend.....Judy

The Truck Story

The story behind this truck is that I see it every day on my way home from the gym. Richard said I must take my camera and take a picture of it, so I finally did. I thought it was a typical sight in East Tennessee. Well, yesterday as we rounded the bend, there was the truck, but all of the vines, etc. had been removed and there is stood looking so naked. It made me sad because it looked all nestled in before. Isn't it ironic that the day I posted the picture the picture changed. If I remember I'll take the camera and take it as it now stands...all lonely.
I had planned to vacuum and clean up around here this morning while Richard was doing the grocery shopping. At 10 of 8 the electricity and it just now (9:15) came back on. Richard just left so I'll get busy.
It's raining and Wolfie just decided he had to go out rain or not.
I just heard on the news last night that they are making progress against food allergies for kids..especially peanut allergies. They are giving them minute amounts of peanut oil and desensitizing them and it is working!!

Wolfie's Fault

All kinds of issues today. Wolfie woke Richard up at 4 this morning to go out. Then R. couldn't get back to sleep so got up. When I got up at 6:30 he was in the great room doing a puzzle and watching MSNBC..this ruined my morning routine. I finally convinced him to go back to bed. He did and slept until after 11 and I couldn't get on the computer as it is in our bedroom. When he finally woke up, the computer wouldn't bring up the Internet throwing my routine off even more!! I'm finally on, as you can read, but I couldn't bring up the picture I wanted to show.
I did get the rest of my warm weather clothes in my closet and my others stored away until spring. I'm happy about that because it's getting cooler here by the day. We had a wonderful fire last night and will have another tonight. As to my clothes...now that I am retired, I don't wear most of them. I have tons of tops and I know I won't wear most of them this season. Oh well..I'll try to post some pictures later. We have all of these pictures on different files and I couldn't access the file I wanted.

Feeling like Fall

It's really feeling like fall today. We still don't have frost here, but the mountains have it and just a bit north also. I'm going to walk Wolfie, but I want to wait until the sun has a chance to warm things up a bit. My flowers in the front are doing much better now that it has cooled down.
We watched "Living With the Wolfman" last night on Animal Planet. I'm sure Madison couldn't watch because it was on from 10-11. Hopefully, it will be aired at different times so she can see it.
On another note...do men ever really hear what we say? Yesterday Richard was cleaning his bathroom. He wanted to know how to use the Swiffer on the floor. I started to explain it to him, he was doing a puzzle and not even looking at me. I finally got his attention and explained the "intricacy" of the mop. Then, I got the mop and the wet pads and put them on the oak cabinet for him. Some time later he was looking for them around the utility room and I showed him where they were. He fumbled around asking me how this worked...I did it for him. He can figure out problems on the computer, but he couldn't figure out this mop!! My question...do they just act dumb so that we'll come to their aid? I guess things equal out because the computer and technical things do confuse me. Later...Judy

More at Maggie's

I have lots of pictures...I'll be adding some daily.
The lentil soup was scrumptious!! It made a lot so I will be having it again tonight..thankfully, Richard can have the same meal over and over again if it's really good. If anyone wants the recipe, let me know. It's one of Ina's.
After the gym we explored 2 new places in Maryville...one a bakery(we were trying to find great bread). They only do bread on Friday as they are just opening. The other was a market with various vendors. They had great looking fish, meat and produce as well as an Italian deli in front. Their bread was all gone and they said it goes early each day. They have several people bringing various kinds of bread. I ordered a salt rising bread for the 29th.
Today I'm cleaning out my front closet and Richard is going to bring up wood so we can start having fires.
Look for more darling pictures..mostly of grandkids and granddogs.....later

Great Family Weekend

The trip to Columbus was great fun! We love Maggie and Charlie's house...it's just perfect. The weather was cool, but nice. Thursday evening the four of us went to Bone Fish..M.aggie's birthday. Friday Maggie and I cooked in preparation for Saturday. Trip, Susan and J.J. and Mollie arrived about five. We made beef stroganoff for Trip's birthday and Susan baked a cake. J.J. had a rough night with everyone but me getting up and not getting much sleep. He was much better on Saturday. The rest of the gang arrived Saturday...first Muir and Jim and later Anne, Dan, Madison and Max. We had a great dinner..lasagna, chicken tetrazinni, etc. Charlie and Maggie's friends also came and we enjoyed talking to them. Saturday afternoon and boys and Muir played "corn hole" and Bocci. Much beer and fun abounded!! It was a late night and we were all tired come Sunday morning. We got on the road around 10 and had a pleasant drive back to Tennessee. We stopped at the Ky arts and craft center in Berea to stretch our legs. Got home before 5 picking up Wolfie first. Needless to say, he was glad to see us.
As you can see, Muir instructed me on addi ng pictures to my blog. I'll add more later this week. Today is busy...I'm doing laundry..putting flannel sheets on our bed and adding the down comforter which I washed first and will take a LONG time to dry. Lentil soup is simmering on the stove.