{Friday Foto Friends} Definite Signs of Spring & Other Things

I’m joining Deb again this week for Friday Foto Friends!

Last Saturday, CH & I splurged and bought some new bicycles. There have been a lot of times when we've been on a camping trip & wished we had bicycles.

While on a bike ride, we ran across this mama and her babies...in the Parks & Rec swimming pool...which is being drained. When I drove by yesterday, I noticed they were still in there. I called the office and the lady assured me that they would get them out before they get hurt. She said they deal with this every year. 

This is a tree beside the gym at my mountain school. It's so pretty when it blooms...too bad the blooms don't stay very long.

Here's a view from my window at my mountain school. I happened to look outside Thursday morning & saw the sun coming up.

CH & I are in the planning stages of a new kitchen. I went by a place the other day to just look and see what's available. I thought this was very cool. Instead of having a lazy susan in the corner, this pulls out like a drawer, and when you keep pulling it, it turns and a some shelves just appear!!!  It's probably over our budget, but I really liked that idea.

This is actually OS' picture. Isn't my granddog handsome? Such a good boy!

My SIL gave me an essential oils necklace for my birthday. I decided to give it a try. It can't hurt, right? People who use it swear by it, so I'm going to see what happens.

My dad made this super-cool wine holder. I call it "magical"! It's been sitting down at the house and no one made a claim to it, so I took it (after writing it on the list-just in case any of my siblings are reading this!) 

If you read my Hodgepodge post from Wed., I included this picture:

and I mentioned how excited I was to see the UPS man pull in the driveway. Here's what was delivered:

CH & I talked off & on since our trip to SD last summer about getting a case of wine from Prairie Berry in Hill City, SD. But, I didn't feel like I could justify spending money on a case of wine when I could drive down the street and get some wine. Not Prairie Berry, though; it's not carried here. My sweet FIL & MIL included something special in my birthday card, so I decided to indulge! YS & I brought home several bottles in July. The Wild Bill bottle you see in the Magical Wine Holder is our last bottle from the trip. So, you can see why I was so excited about seeing the UPS man!

It was a busy, busy week. How was yours?

{Friday Foto Friends} Catch Up

I skipped last week's post...I just didn't get around to it, but this week is break, so I've got a little time to catch up!

I'm joining Debra at Breathing in Grace for Friday Foto Friends.

This is an afternoon moon that I happened to see when I let the dogs out one afternoon. That is the actual color of the sky.

A couple of weekends ago, CH & I went to Asheville to see OS. We took time to walk around downtown for the first time. The view from the upper parking deck: 

Another moon shot before the sun went down. I don't know what this building is, but the architecture is really pretty.

Asheville happens to have a Basilica, so we walked down to it and had a sneak-peek inside. It was absolutely gorgeous! The Basilica was built without using any wood...only tiles and stone. It rivals the European Churches I've seen.

We went into this building for a quick beer (and to warm up a bit). The website says that this building was built in 1907, and has been a lumber supplier, automotive supply company, and a bluegrass/barbecue place. More historically significant, there is a door in the basement that allowed people during prohibition to travel the passageway to obtain their illegal liquor.

 When we got back to the car, we were in the middle of a Santa Party. And I mean, "party"! They were having a really good time! There were Santas all over town while we were there.

This guy is visiting while OS is on the West Coast. He looked a little cold, so I covered him up. 

 This is a Tea Ring that was given to me. My mom used to make these for our teachers when we were in school. I've never tried to make one on my own since it involves yeast.

 Our Christmas Tree this year. I think it's time to get new lights! I didn't bother putting up all of the ornaments, but there are still plenty on there.

My new ornaments for this year: the Santa is from our trip to Edisto; the other Santa (below right) is actually from our Charleston trip a couple of years ago (oops!). Top right angel and rocking horse below are a little piece of Denmark for this year (from CH's uncle). Under the horse is an ornament from Steamboat Springs, Co., where we camped for a few days. Under that one is an ornament from Mt. Rushmore; to the left of that is a SD ornaments, and the one to the left of that is from Edisto.

We have a couple of bushes in front of our house that doesn't seem to have any rhyme or reason as to when it blooms. It seems to bloom all through the year, and it's blooming now:

Here's wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas!

A Surprising Hodgepodge

1. What's left to be done on your Christmas to-do list? 

I have to make a couple of batches of Texas Millionaires; 1 for our neighbors & 1 for us, and then cook Christmas Eve Dinner & Christmas Brunch, and that's it. I've really scaled down my preparations this year. It's been totally stress-free and very relaxing.

2. The Hodgepodge lands on the first day of winter this year. What's your favorite thing about winter? 

Some people are going to think this is crazy, but I love that it gets dark so early, especially if I don't have anywhere I need to be after work. I love getting into my jammies right after supper and hopping into bed to watch a movie.

3. In what area of your life are you immature? Feel free to elaborate or not. 

Oh, my! I think the better question would be "in what area am I mature?"! 

4. What was the most (or one of the most) important lessons you learned in 2016? 

God knows everything. He knows what we're going to do, how we're going to mess up, and how we're going to fix it, so there's no need to worry. He's got it.

5. It's Fried Shrimp Day...are you a fan? What's your favorite way to eat shrimp? Will there be shrimp somewhere in your holiday feastings? 

I absolutely love shrimp! Favorite way: marinate in Italian Dressing and grill. There will most certainly be shrimp in my very near future!

6. What sound lulls you to sleep? 

I can't believe I'm saying this, but...silence. I've always had to have some background noise to sleep, but during Lent I started going to sleep without the tv or radio on. 

7. What one word best describes your 2016? 

Rollercoaster. It started off kind of sucky, we had fantastic trips to Edisto & SD, and then the fires in the area. 

8.  Insert your own random thought here.

I was ready for a very quiet Christmas with just my daddy, CH, and YS. OS is out on the West Coast with his girlfriend, and MS decided to stay at school. There was an incident with his car and the university bus, so he was without a car. I had resigned myself to maybe seeing him next week for a day or two. BUT...one of his friends let him borrow his truck, and he surprised me! CH & YS didn't say anything to me, and I was totally surprised! 

Merry Christmas! See y'all next year!

{Friday Foto Friends} Thanksgiving Hangover

Time for another Friday Foto Friends hosted by Deb at Breathing in Grace.  As I said last week, I use this as an opportunity to summarize my week and events that are going on in the Small Town.

Sunday between Masses, our parish held a "Harvest of Blessings" in the Parish Hall. Different ministries set up tables to give parishioners information and a chance to donate to the different ministries. So, yeah; it's a fundraiser. The Council of Catholic Women (CCW) did a table with Cookies and baked goods, Crafts, and What-nots. The baked goods sold very well; the other things were a bit iffy. 

The firefighters are continuing to get the fires near my mountain school under control. There has been no school there since last Thursday; the whole system had Wednesday off for the Thanksgiving Holiday. On Tuesday, I was blowing the driveway off when I heard a helicopter. I didn't think to take my phone out of my pocket to snap a picture, which was really too bad because the one that flew over had a bucket hanging from it and it would have been a great picture! I snapped this one flying over (minus the bucket) on Wednesday. All of us who have anything to do with that community will be forever grateful to the firefighters...no structures were lost.

Wednesday, I had a haircut & pedi scheduled. This is my girl, Charity. She does an amazing job with my giant "peasant" feet! We have a good time during that hour catching up and chatting. 💕 her!

I finished my pie-making and was very pleased with how my pies turned out. They were both new recipes, and were absolutely amazing!

 Mass on Thanksgiving: There were quite a few people there, which is great for that day to not be a Holy Day of Obligation (a day when it is required for us to attend Mass). The picture above is a blanket that was blessed by the Priest. This will go to someone who is ill. Father does this during a Weekday Mass as needed. As we go to receive the Eucharist in Communion, we are invited to lay our hand on the blanket and say a short prayer for the person receiving it.

I didn't get to this table in time, but this table was directly behind the blanket table. People brought their Thanksgiving Bread in and put it on the table to be blessed during Mass. A couple of youth baked small loaves of bread to be given away. The table was completely full (and overflowing) during Mass. I love this tradition that our current Priest started a few years ago.

Last picture! This was our Thanksgiving Table. I completely forgot to get a picture of the "food table" before everyone dug in. On the menu: turkey (duh!), ham, Tipsy Sweet Potatoes (using Tennessee Honey...delish!), Dressing (another new recipe because I couldn't find the one I usually use...CH thought it was his granny's recipe, so I'd say it turned out well!), garlic green beans, Holy Bread (see bread picture above!), orange cranberry salad (thank you, Publix!), deviled eggs, and a couple of fruit/cool whip salads. Oh, and pies for dessert, which no one ate until much later. 2 of the 3 boys were here; MS is too far away to justify coming home for a long weekend. My dad and 1 of YS' friends also joined us.

It was nice to have Thanksgiving at my own house, and to cook the whole dinner by myself. YS helped out by clearing the dishes & loading the dishwasher for me. OS left for his house after a few hours; his roommates aren't home, so I think he was looking forward to some peace & quiet for a while. 

I hope you had a nice Thanksgiving!

Fall in East Tn/Western NC

I honestly believe that I live in one of the most beautiful places in the country, but especially during this time of year. Even when we have the heat on one day and then have to switch over to air conditioning the next, you just can't beat East Tennessee.

Last weekend, CH & I went for a ride in the mountains. I thought we were going to find a couple of places I heard about on a local tv channel, but CH wanted to go somewhere else, and I was just along for the ride.

Technically, we weren't in East Tn. for most of the pictures I'm sharing. I'm not 100% sure if we were in NC or East Tn.; we probably went back and forth between the states several times. CH had us on backroads, so I didn't know where we were. (Which, could've been bad, especially when he mentioned that if someone wanted to get rid of a body, throwing it down the side of the mountain would be ideal...no one would ever find it!)

If the leaves weren't peaking last weekend, they should be this one. The colors weren't as vivid as last year; we haven't had as much rain this year. Last year, it seemed like they stayed pretty vivid for a long time.

And...I'm rambling. We left the house just as the sun was coming up, so we were treated to a spectacular view as we left the house.

(Click on the pictures for bigger views.)

I love how you can see the clouds in between the mountains just to the right of the sun:

This is the kind of road we were on:

But, hey, if you don't go on the back roads, you can't stop and take pictures like this:

Or this:

And, if you don't take a wrong turn, you miss out on seeing this:

We finally got to our destination: Cataloochee. We ended arriving a little later than we wanted, but we did get to see these girls:

Along with this guy watching over the 4 females we saw:

Truly spectacular!

Families settled in Cataloochee in the early 1800's and lived there until the area became part of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. There are still structures around the area, like this barn:

There was a wedding about to take place at Palmer's Chapel:

There are plenty of hiking trails:

And, again, beautiful sites:

As we were heading back to the Interstate, we stopped at an overlook:

(I was able to get a couple of leaves that were falling in the above picture. You may have to click on it to make it larger.) 

On the way back, we stopped at this restaurant where we met OS a couple of months ago. We hit it just right: it was their last day of the season, so they'll be closed until late February. The tourist kayak/raft season is over, and that's where they get most of their business. It sits right on the river with indoor or outdoor seating. If you're in the area, I'd highly suggest eating at Bean Trees Cafe. You can find information on their Facebook Page.

Take a ride this fall and leave the main road...just see where it takes you!

Weekend Wrap-up

I really am going to try to do better about posting on this blog! I was listening to a talk show on the radio the other day, and her guest said that she thought snapchat was the new blogging. She said, "who has time to sit down and write a blogpost?" Weeelll, apparently I haven't gotten the hang of the snapchat video, because it takes me a good 30 minutes to an hour to string together 10 second segments! I haven't gotten to the point to where I record it once and can sent it to "my story". 

Last week, I managed to do a snapchat story while I was baking a cake. A few days later, YS got the sour cream out of the refrigerator. I looked and asked him where he got it from. And then it hit me...I forgot to put the sour cream in the cake! It was still good, but I could tell it was missing something!

Now about the weekend:

OS called and asked if we could take care of Sultie for a few days since he had to go out of town for work. He is the best dog in the world; soooo laid back. He never whines; when you want to take him out, he'll go out. When you want to feed him, he'll eat. Mostly he just lays around and sleeps. Anyway, I left work on Friday & drove 2 hours to Asheville to pick up my grand-dog. OS & I had a nice dinner. After we parked, he took me through this lot (for lack of a better word). It was full of eclectic things. There were the old metal outdoor chairs in a circle that you could sit down and chill if you wanted, or you could just walk around and see what you could find.

Shovels

 Bird cages

 Red bottles

Blue bottles

Sultie made himself at home right away.

I spent Saturday catching up on paperwork & doing a bit of laundry, which was fine because CH had to go into work and catch up on some stuff. Sunday was Mass, grocery shopping, and a bit of cleaning. And, we're back to the old grind. We're already in our 4th week of school...we're almost halfway to Fall Break!

Are you on Snapchat? If so, find me at tnslp29!