A Lovely Hodgepodge

Joyce asks the questions, and we provide the answers. See how others answered at From This Side of the Pond.

1. What does love mean to you? 

Being there for the other person no matter what. Doing the hard things, the gross things, things you don't want to do or ever thought you would have to do. Laughing through the hard times and knowing that at some point one of you will be left to remember the love you shared through the good and the bad times but still sticking beside that person through sickness and health.

2. Is love blind? 

True love, the kind that carries through the years is not. Once you live with someone for decades you know that person inside and out. There is no way it could be blind!

3. How do you remember Valentine's Day as a kid? Do you have any special plans for the day this year? 

I don't remember any of them except my 3rd grade. This was the year the schools in the small town integrated. There was a slight riot at the high school so we didn't get to have our party. You can read about it here. As I re-read that post that was written 11 years ago, one thing that is different is that both sides of town are truly integrated now. 

I've never been a big Valentine's Day person; in fact, I think it's the dumbest day the card industry has come up with. 1 of my sisters asked me if that day was going to bother me, and I told her "no". We never really did anything special that day so it's not going to bother me at all. Besides, Ash Wednesday falls on Valentine's Day so I'm thinking that's more important to focus on. 

4 Are you a fan of the movie genre known as 'rom-com'? What's your favorite (or one of your favorites)?

I do like a good rom-com! If you know anything about me, you know that The Holiday is my favorite movie. Period. If you haven't seen Valentine's Day, it's a good movie to watch this time of year.

5. What's something you recently put your heart into? 

Discovering how to travel solo. I'm doing a lot of research into traveling solo, both domestically and internationally. At some point, I'm going to have to actually get out there and do it. I've found a podcast that has excellent advice, along with a couple of blogs. If you've traveled solo and have some good sites I need to investigate or some tips, please let me know.

6. Insert your own random thought here.  

This past weekend was busy. I drove a couple of hours to spend some time with a friend who isn't well, then to CH's aunt's surprise party, and spent the night with 1 of his cousins. The next day I picked up a college friend for lunch, and then spent the night with my sister who lives in the area. Sunday morning we had an amazing breakfast in the oldest town in TN. On the drive up, I thought about how many historical sites there are between my house and my sister's (Davy Crockett Tavern and Andrew Johnson's home are just a couple). I'm going to make it a point to visit them and start my solo traveling in my backyard. 

Olde Towne Pancake House in Jonesborough, TN

The biscuits & gravy were sooooo good! The apple pancake was also delicious.

The entrance to the restaurant

I couldn't go by the largest Buc-ees and not stop for some quick shopping. My favorites: Overbites and Beaver Nuggets. I didn't get the kolaches this time. The boys like the beef jerky so I bought some fresh jerky for them.

The world's largest Buc-ees (for now, anyway!)

{Weekend Wrap-Up} Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

My Cooper SIL & I have been talking about doing this for a couple of years, but we finally did it! Since we both have a birthday in March, we thought this would be a perfect month for a girls' weekend. Chattanooga was the perfect spot since it's halfway between both of our houses. The hotel where we stayed couldn't have been more perfect. We were able to park our cars there when we arrived, and didn't need them until we left on Sunday.
On Friday, we sat for a while & caught up, then we had to find some dinner. It was St. Patrick's Day, so we had to find an Irish Pub, and the hotel employee we spoke with had the perfect spot for us. 

At first, we sat in the pub, until we realized there was outdoor seating. We were able to escape the smoke in the pub, and, thankfully, it was warm enough to be very comfortable sitting outdoors. 
After we ate, we walked around for a bit and strolled into the Moon Pie General Store.The only thing I bought was some vanilla Moon Pie Coffee.  I love moon pies, but I knew if I bought something, I'd want to eat it. And, I've been doing well with not eating sweets...until Friday night. My SIL makes a wicked peanut butter cake, and she brought one for us. With a glass of cold milk, the cake was just amazing. We got back to the hotel, watched Miss Congeniality 2 and had our cake.
Saturday, we followed some friends' advice and ate at a popular biscuit place.

The line was long, but moved quickly. It was very worth it. They had maple coffee that was so good that we dropped back by that night to buy some to take home.
We strolled down to the Rivermart in the parking lot of the Tennessee Aquarium. We visited booths of some very talented artists. Our favorite booth was jewelry made from classic books. They had earrings, necklaces, bracelets. We were mesmerized and couldn't pull ourselves away. If you have a book-lover in the family, check out their Facebook page. These are some pictures of some of the other jewelry they offer. I'm not sure why I didn't get a picture of the book jewelry.

 There was also a lady that made jewelry out of hardware; it was beautiful. How she could look at a sprocket and know it would make beautiful earrings is beyond me. She has an Etsy shop, so go check it out.
We walked over to St. Paddy's on the Parkway and were instantly under-whelmed. The entry fee went to a good cause, but it was much smaller than we thought it was going to be. The most excitement I had was meeting Tank:

My SIL said he was unhappy because he had on a green tutu. Poor little thing! He was such a sweetheart.
Then, we saw these guys the night before, and they showed up on the Parkway:

There were bands on the outdoor stage:

And we knew there were going to be some inside, too, so we headed in The Honest Pint:

We were awed by the building:

 I ordered the same kind of beer I had before we came in, and was disappointed. My SIL ordered Harp, and was told that they were out. So, we ordered Guiness Blonde, and it was flat. I felt sorry for our waitress...she had a few tables upstairs and downstairs. We ordered a couple of appetizers, but were told that they were out of the dip. (And then my SIL saw someone eating some later.) All of that didn't deter us from sitting at the table for a few hours and enjoying some of the music. This was our favorite (Molly Maguires):

On our walk back to the hotel, we saw some interesting structures. The Dome:

Part of the First Methodist Church in 1881:

A random gate that my SIL noticed:

Eyes on a building. There's also a confederate statue on a fountain and a cannon in front of the building. This would appear to be a popular hangout with the college crowd.

My SIL noticed the tile on this building:

We ate a supper of biscuits & peanut butter cake (with milk, of course!) and watched a couple of episodes of Say Yes to the Dress. Overall, it was a pretty low-key weekend, but it was so nice to be able to spend time with my SIL...alone. Without the guys and without distractions.
Before I left Chattanooga, I went to Mass at the Minor Basilica, Sts. Peter and Paul. I saw the building as we were walking back to the hotel (it's across the street from The Dome Building), but I didn't realize that was it because it looks very non-descript on the outside. Oh, but inside!

 The altar

The 3 physical signs that a church is a "lesser basilica": 

 The first is the presence of the conopaeum — a silk canopy designed with stripes of yellow and red, traditional papal colors.  The minor basilicas also have the right to display the papal symbol as in the above picture (the crossed keys). 

The third is the tintinnabulum, or bell. It is mounted on a pole and carried processionally, along with the conopaeum, at the head of the clergy on special occasions.

 I'm not sure about this side of the altar. 

This side is pretty self-explanatory, especially if you're a Catholic!

 The stained-glass windows were designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany.

The Stations of the Cross:

 Kilgen Organ. The Basilica has had the same organist since 1960.

 As American Churches go, this one is pretty old: 1890. But, as in European Churches, it's always important to look up.

The Mass was different than what I'm used to: lots of chanting with Latin thrown in, and, during the Eucharist Prayer the priest had his back to the congregation. It was just amazing.

So...back to work tomorrow, but no kids, making it almost like a day off! 9 more weeks until summer break!

Milestone Weekend

I am so proud of myself! I went camping with no electricity or running water! And I wasn’t scared or uncomfortable one bit! It's not the kind of primitive camping that Confessions of a Catholic Mutt does (so I'm sure she's getting a good laugh out of this!), but for me, it's a milestone! I guess I really should preface that with it was only for 1 night, and it wasn't like it was out in the wilderness. There were no bears, and we didn't even see any raccoons. The only sign of wildlife were the bullfrogs that serenaded us all night long. And I mean...ALL.NIGHT.LONG.

I've never heard frogs sound like that; I really thought they were ducks the first time I heard them. (City-girl)

We went to this place because: 1) once again, we waited too long to try to get a reservation at a campground, and 2)  there were some offroad people riding the trails where we were. (That's the talking/music you hear in the video.) They stayed across the pond from us; the "campground" was just a field that had been roped off, so we couldn't stay there with our trailer.

We thought it was going to get really dark after the sun went down, but the moon must have been fairly bright. CH put the solar panels out and we were able to charge our phones and my tablet. AND, we did have service, so I was able to chat with some friends on FB. So...not exactly roughing it, and I did have my "luggable loo" to save the day.

As I said, we were right next to a pond, which supplied an opportunity for some "reflection" pictures.

Monday, we just hung around the house and made a trip to Lowe's. I loved that they were playing patriotic music pretty loudly. While I'm on this...does anyone else think it's inappropriate to say, "Happy Memorial Day"? It's kind of like saying, "Happy 9/11", isn't it? It's a tragedy that so many young men and women sacrificed their lives so we can have our freedom; it just seems odd to hear/see "Happy Memorial Day".

We invited Daddy up for burgers last night; YS had the idea to have brownies and ice cream, topped off with caramel sauce spiked with Jack Daniels. He was spot on! It was fantastic!

Exploring East Tennessee: Winter Edition

It still amazes me that CH can take me to places in East Tennessee where I've never been. Actually, I guess it shouldn't surprise me. He loves to go exploring. While growing up, we didn't get out much. Daddy didn't just say, "Hey! Why don't the 12 of us hop in the car and see where the road takes us?" The only time we all got in the car at the same time was when we went to church, or in the summer when we went swimming in the mountains to escape the heat.
So...CH is introducing me to places in the area I never knew existed. Saturday, we went to Cosby, Tn. This is a very small town near Gatlinburg, but in a different county. It's actually in a county that doesn't have a great reputation, but that's beside the point. Cosby is so small, it doesn't even have a website. Seriously.
We specifically went to Cosby for lunch. Yes, we drove a little over an hour to eat lunch. Oh, but it was soooo worth it! Our view:

 It's hard to see, but there's a birdhouse on the top of one of the limbs in the picture below. (I didn't take my big-girl camera in.)

The food was excellent, the view spectacular, and the company wasn't too bad, either. I definitely want to go back in the spring when the apple trees are blooming. Oh! And the fall, too. One of my sisters goes in the fall & gets some amazing apple pies. There is also a market on the site, where you can buy fried apple pies, apples, chow-chow relish, apple butter, along with various jams and other fruit items. Oh, and they have different varieties of apples, too. 

During the season (which I'm assuming would be any season except for winter), there is a candy store and a couple of other buildings that are open for business.

When we left, we had the choice to go back to the interstate, or take the scenic route. We decided on the latter, and headed toward Gatlinburg. We saw the entrance to the Foothills Parkway and thought about taking it. We turned, and then realized that it went to the interstate (we're pretty sure that's where it goes, anyway.) We turned around, but not before we saw these guys:

As we drove closer to Gatlinburg, we decided to drive through the Artists' Colony, which takes you on back-roads and allows you to miss all of the traffic and congestion in Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge. Most of the places were closed for winter, but I would highly recommend visiting this area if you're in G'burg. As we were driving, we saw some animals on the hill. CH said, "Those look like buffalo"; then we saw a sign that said they were indeed buffalo. He didn't stop so I could change my camera lens and get a better picture; but, in his defense, I didn't tell him to. Guess he wasn't mind-reading at that moment!

We ended up checking out a couple of stores in Kodak, which is right off of the interstate. If you've driven to G'burg from I-40 and have taken the exit where Bass Pro is, then you've been to Kodak. You just didn't know it.

To summarize:

Drive to Cosby. Eat at Carver's. Visit the G'burg Artists' Colony. Get out and just ride around. You'll never know what you'll find!