It's the Little Things that Make Us Happy!

My boss went on a trip, and left her car keys with me. She was returning today, and I realized that her keys looked different. That's because her car starts by pushing a button; I just had to go try it out, and I needed someone to take the fall in case the alarm went off. So, my buddy Paulette went with me to check it out. See we found the button, but it wouldn't start. Paulette's foot wasn't on the brake. Don't laugh to hard, we did finally get it started!

Short video below:

Kathy: thanks so much for having such an awesome car, letting us start your car, take photos standing by it, and making our day. You are the best ever!

You will leave your keys with me again right?

My Adopted Puppies for the Weekend!

My best buddy, Paulette, went on vacation to the mountains over the weekend, and she let my sister and I take care of her puppies Saturday. Robin and I had it all planned, we would go to a few yard sales in the morning, have brunch at O'Charley's, get a pedicure, get some treats for Jake, Hannah and Scout, feed them, play with them for a few hours, and then right before we leave give them their treats. Great plan right?

Part of the plan came together, just not all of it. We did make it to one yard sale in the morning around 8:30 a.m., and then it started pouring rain. So that ended the yard sales for me; I don't like going through wet yard sale items. The rest of our plan worked, except we got a pedicure before going to brunch.

Then we were off to see the puppies; below is Hannah, she is the sweetest dog. She jumps in your lap, licks your face, and just wants to stay right with you. She gets along well with both Jake and Scout. She's the middle child.


Then, below, there is Scout. Scout was actually given to Brandon, John & Paulette's son, but he stayed at Paulette's house while Brandon was sick and became attached to John & Paulette so he stayed. Scout is a beautiful, big dog; I can't spell the breed of dog he is, but he has so much energy. It was actually hard for me to get a picture. Paulette had warned me about something that Scout would do, but I had forgotten. He likes to walk through your legs; well, Robin and I are a little shorter than John and we almost sat on his back like a minature horse. It was quite funny! Scout is the number three child; such a sweet dog and she may be the last. You never know, Paulette may find another one though.


I left the best for last, Jake. Paulette found Jake in the road one day; she picked him up, and took him home. Jake is getting older; I always try to make sure I pet him, I liked him before I had ever seen Scout or Hannah. Jake doesn't really like the playing between Scout and Hannah; most of the time he ignores it, but just don't get next to his food. He's still such a friendly dog, and you could tell he was missing his family. He'll be mad if they don't come home soon.


I will not forget Lady; she was an outside dog that John and Paulette had for years, and Jake was there for a few years before she passed away from old age. They would bring her in during the winter or on raining days, but she liked being outside. Lady was black, a little bigger than Jake, and she had long hair. We miss you Lady!

Robin and I had a ball playing with, feeding, watering, and giving them treats. I don't know where John & Paulette get the energy to keep up with Jake, Scout and Hannah (especially Scout) every day since they are getting up in years. I'm way younger, and I was tired afterwards.

Thanks for letting us take care of your boys Paulette & John; we loved doing it!

"Shadowfever" - I Can't Put it Down!

My sister and I were walking around Target about three or four months ago, and the cover of this book, "Shadowfever", stopped me in my tracks. I didn't know what the story was about, or if it was a series. I just had to find out.

Karen Marie Moning also wrote the "Highlander" series of books; I hadn't read the books, but I loved the movies. This Fever series had five books, and that includes the last book for now "Shadowfever" that came out in January of 2011. She had dreamed this story, and it took her a while to decide to write her thoughts down from her dream.

My favorite sis got on Amazon and bought me the whole series of books in April, and I didn't slow up reading them until I got to the last one. The one I saw on the shelf at Target, "Shadowfever". I don't want them to end, and I accidentally turned to the last page a few days ago. I was so excited to see that the last sentence ends with, "for now"! So now I'm full throttle ahead with reading, then I will get it to Robin to read, then to Paulette, and finally Brooke will get it.

What amazing marketing of that cover; it got my interest, and I kept going. I've even got three more people on board. This series even has music, merchandise, blog and chat room. The only thing I will warn you of is that some of the sex scenes get a little descriptive. You'll fall in love with Jericho Barrons though.

Karen: Please write another book soon, I will not be able to contain myself if you don't, and thanks so much for writing this series. They keep you thinking all the way through, but I hope some answers are in book five. I love them!

Things I Like - I'm Going to Try this Abatha.

Life is getting me down this week; I remember that Abatha does these posts about what she likes, and that way you think about good things and not bad. So, here I go.

Below are few things I like!

1. Pictures - I love looking at my photos, my friends photos, and even strangers photos; you can find out so much from just looking at a photo. I've found so many old, really old - older than Paulette, pictures lately; I don't know everyone in these photos, but I could look at them for hours.

2. Friends - I'm so lucky to have all the great friends that I have; they keep me going, and cheer me up. We had a "Soon to be Grandmother's Snack Day" yesterday for Paulette and A' Della; it was touching to see how excited they are, and I can't wait for the stories to start rolling in when their grand babies are born.

3. Listening to Music - I was lucky enough to go to Beachaven Winery last Saturday to listen to some Jazz music; this Friday I'm hoping to go to Arrington Winery to listen to the San Rafael Band, they sound a little like Santana.

Well, that did help. I have a tear in one eye, but I'm smiling really big. It's nice to remember good memories and things you like.

Kudos to Abatha for thinking of this!

Customs House Museum and Center in Clarksville

Saturday Robin, Jim and I met Debbie, Mike and Grady in Clarksville at their house; we were spending the day together before Deb and Grady takes off on their new adventure of moving to Arizona Sunday. We got to Clarksville about 8:30 a.m.; Mike and Jim went off to play golf at a course on the base, and Robin, Deb, Grady and I was off to do something. First we went to the waterfront and played on the playground, then we walked by the river. The water was almost up to the bottom of the rails. At the end of one walk, we saw several sheriff cars and law enforcement boats, but we never did find out what was happening. After the park, we went to the Customs House Museum in downtown Clarksville. Debbie is setting by Grady beside the fountain; we all threw coins into the fountain, and made wishes.

These are sculptures that children had made with cans and such to show that you can make things out of trash (Trash to Treasures). Grady loved getting up on the platform with Thomas the Train; Robin had to catch a couple of the sulptures so they didn't fall off, and she only had to yell help once!

Grady loved playing with the trains; they even had a couple of train stations that you pushed buttons to make them move. The two other rooms that we all loved; one was the bubble room where you could make bubbles and you could even stand in a bubble, and the other room was where you rolled golf balls down all kinds of obstacles. So Amazing!

This is the original spire from the top of the Customs House Museum. It was wrenched from the building during the January 22, 1999 tornado and recovered several blocks away. I had forgotten about that tornado; it happened while working at Nation's Bank Business Center, and it was around the same time that I was trying for a job at the Small Business Development Center at TSU with Kathy and Billy. Such a GREAT move!

There was a room within the museum that showed all the sports greats that had been from Clarksville; I think Grady had fun climbing instead of looking at all the exhibits. Isn't he so cute?

The top of one part of the museum building looked like this; I was so intrigued by all the dormers and windows.

A plan of eating Mexican food was on the books; when I said the word Japanese, Debbie was taking us to Shogun's. There was some excitement when we pulled into Shogun's parking lot, there were three cop cars helping a huge group of Harley riders out of The Lodge restaurant next door. We went into Shoguns; there was a beautiful water fountain with fish. The food was awesome, and Grady loved the show that the chef put on. I liked the onion valcano.

Jim and Mike arrived home right after we had gotten there; they were tired, so Grady and the girls watched TV and even went outside to play football with Grady. The boys slept for a little while, and then we went to get hamburgers down the street.

The end of our visit was going to the Beechaven Jazz Fest; there were so many people at the festival, and Mike, Deb, Robin, Jim and I took turns walking with Grady. He liked to dart through the middle of the grape vines, play ball with the other children, and dance. We even caught Jim dancing with him while that Jazz music was playing. The counter where we were buying a couple of bottles, the cashier told us that other people were mixing the Beechaven Blackberry with their Peach wine. It was completely delicious; not to sweet, but not to dry.

At 8:45 p.m. we made our way to the car and told Grady, Mike and Deb bye. I knew it would be hard, but I hope Arizona is exactly what Debbie wants it to be. Believe me I will be visiting every chance I get, and hopefully we'll get to Las Vegas while I'm there. Good Luck Debbie!

Harley Day at Work - Photo Opportunity

Did you know that when you see a Harley Davidson Bike, it's a photo session? When Harry told me that he had rode his bike to work; I grabbed Paulette, and we convinced Harry to come with us. That was a good day.

Harry and Me on his Harley; I like this picture.
















Harry, Steve and Wesley with Harry's Bike.
















Paulette and Harry with his bike; what a day for Paulette to wear a dress.















After we all were able to take pictures with Harry and his awesome bike, it made us want to go out and buy a leather jacket, black shirt, black blue jeans and leather chaps. Paulette may even look for a leather skirt, and I can't wait to take all those leather outfit pictures!

Happy Birthday Robin

May wasn't easy this year; it was the first year without my Mom on Mother's Day, and I told myself that I was going to keep busy so I wouldn't think about it. That didn't work; I kept thinking about it. Then that made me think of my older sister, Wendy. Her birthday was May 17. I always mixed up Robin's birthday with Wendy's; that's understandable, they were in the same month. Robin always harassed me about getting those dates wrong; she was always kidding me about something, she told me I was adopted when I was little. Of course, I believed her and cried all the time. I should have known I wasn't adopted; I looked too much like my Daddy, and everyone told me so.

I'm not getting Robin's birthday wrong this year; it's Wednesday, May 11th. She will be the big Five O. Boy is she old! She already has most of her presents, because I'm a sucker and gave them to her early. I do have a few more surprises, though.

I've always been proud of my sisters, and boy did I look up to them. Robin was amazing in beauty pagents, then she became a nurse with a special interest in taking care of the elderly, she quit her job without a second thought to take care of our Mom and Dad while they were ill, she was my rock when I was recouperating from both of my ankle surgeries and when I had a blood clot. Robin has found a full time job at Vanderbilt since our Mom passed away, and is still attending college to pursue her Bachelors Degree in Medical Administration.

Robin in the Miss Edmonson County Pagent in 1978

I hope you have a GREAT Birthday Robin; you so deserve it, and I'll do my best to make that happen. Like you always say: " We are like fine wine, we get better with age!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!