Author: Lisa -Southern Patches

Hello everyone, my name is Lisa I am a southern girl born and raised in East Tennessee. I love discovering new places and things to do. I have a lot of favorites, shopping, traveling, knitting and photography are all at the top of my list. I am married with my fur babies my only children. This blog is actually named after my beloved basset hound Patches. She passed away a few years ago but will always have a huge part of my heart. Come with me and we will explore some wonderful places and discover some really fun things. Are you ready?

Happy Monday And A Shiny New Week!!

Happy Monday how are you? You know as bad as we hate Mondays you have to admit there is just something awesome thinking about a new week and new opportunities and new experiences. And my week will be great because I am on vacation!!! Sadly we are not going to the beach but we will be doing some fun things at home. The babies will be much happier that we are staying home.

Do you ever start your day early in the morning wondering what the day will hold? what will you have to tell about at the end of the day? what will happen today that will hold near and dear to your heart? Wow!!! when you think about all the possibilities it is mind boggling. Something could happen today that will totally change your life!!! Be still my heart!!

Here is something I like to do. I keep a journal. I keep it beside my bed. I will write the date for instance Monday morning August 24th before I leave for work or start my day. The page is blank. So many things will happen today. I will have conversations with people, I will see things, I will buy things, I will eat things, I will hear things, I will learn things. What will be different? What do I want to be different? Who will I talk to or message or see? Anyway, you see where I am coming from right?

A good week last week although a little crazy leading up to my week off. I always have to be caught up on everything before I leave. This meant some long days at work but totally worth it for a week off.

Mark and I had to go to Vanderbillt a couple of weeks ago for his 4 month check up. We leave out about 4:30 AM for the 4 hour drive. Even though we gain an hour for the time change near Nashville the traffic going into Nashville in the mornings is crazy!!!! It is usually bumper to bumper for the last hour.

This is our routine, I get up around 3:00 AM and get coffee and take care of fur babies. I grab something quick to eat and get things ready to take with us. We take a small cooler bag with waters and a Diet Coke for me and peanut M&M’s don’t ask me why it’s just a tradition and I eat them on the way over,they keep me awake. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. I also take a Yeti full of coffee. We put a blanket and pillow in the car. I often take a nap on the way back.

Look at this perfect sunrise in the rear view mirror.

Mark can’t eat anything until after his blood work so he gets up and gets ready and loads the car.

I always drive over and Mark drives back.

Wow what a difference in Nashville traffic this trip. Our doctor asked if we had noticed the difference. So many people are working from home or not working at all it has made such a difference. There were no backups and we arrived over an hour early. We sat in the car and waited for the office to open. I fell asleep. HA!!!

Acting silly while we wait for the doctor.

We always stop at Cracker Barrel for breakfast on the way back. It is still pretty early when we leave Nashville. It is a really tiring day. We usually rush back home to take care of the babies. And then usually a nap.

And guess what? tomorrow we get to do it again. Mark has to have a repeat on one of the blood tests for his anti rejection medicine. You may ask why we are not doing this locally. I will tell you that the last time he did this in May we wound up with a $900.00 bill for blood work. I have appealed this charge and gone round and round with our local hospital, Vanderbilt and the insurance company. It is still unsettled. We will go to Nashville tomorrow for the blood work and maybe I will have a chance to talk with billing and get the May charges straightened out as well. We shall see. But I am making a stop at the Yarn Patch, an awesome yarn shop in Crossville, The last time I was there I was a little disappointed by the layout of the shop but I am still going and yes I will buy yarn. I am still on vacation after all.

I hope you have a wonderful week!!!

Always remember

Love your day your way!!

I Am Not Good In A Crisis

I know I say this all the time but what a week!!! It actually started on Sunday. I was cleaning my deck, unaware that a huge red wasp nest lurked just under one of the chairs on my deck. I was using some cleaning spray and other things and I think this stirred the wasps up a little. Scruffy had come out onto the deck with me and he was wandering around sniffing at everything. I heard a little yelp and I looked over at Scruffy and he was holding his right front paw up and limping to the door as fast as he could. I looked down and there were two huge red wasps.

I ran in the house and grabbed some of the sting kill and started dabbing it on his paw but he wouldn’t let me do too much to him. He ran around the house like do something do something mom I am in pain. I felt so helpless I didn’t know what to do. I told him how I had gotten stung the year before by one of those bastar& red wasps, but it didn’t seem to calm him down. He was terrified because after all he didn’t know what had happened. He probably thought I did something to him.

After a couple of minutes he seemed to calm down. He went over to lay on the rug. I went out to the garage to see if I had something else to put on his paw. When I came back in just a couple of minutes later I called for him and he didn’t come to the door like he always does. I ran into the living room and noticed that he had pooped all over the floor, he has never done that. He also had diarrhea. The really scary part was he way lying in the floor somewhat unresponsive. I rolled him over and he had poop on his belly, he was lying in it!!! I know this is way more info than you need but I am just trying to let you know how bad the situation was. I freaked!!!!!! I thought that he must be having an allergic reaction to the sting.

My niece is a vet tech and I tried calling her but I was in such a panic I couldn’t get the phone to work I don’t know what I was doing in my panicked state but it wouldn’t ring!!! I called our vet clinic because they always have a number to call for emergencies but their mailbox was full and I couldn’t get the message. That should never happen. Just saying.

Scruffy was breathing and there was no swelling in his face, and his heart was beating although it was somewhat fast. I grabbed my shoes and car keys and decided I would take him to the U.T. Veterinary Clinic Emergency Care although it was about 45 minutes away. I called my sister to ask her to google the number of a clinic a little closer I couldn’t remember the name. She was not at home but my brother in law was and he got in touch with my niece and she called me immediately. She told me to give him a Benadryl, I did, she also told me to check several things, his eyes, his face, his breathing, his heart rate. After just a few minutes he was more alert and sitting up. I think he may have passed out from the fear or just didn’t know what to do and that is why he went limp.

He slept on my lap most of the afternoon. He is totally fine, he limped for a few hours because his paw was sore.

As soon as Mark got home we went out on the deck to look for the nest. Two chairs were stacked together and at first we didn’t see anything then we noticed between the chairs there was a huge nest. We blasted those things with some spray. About 15 wasps fell off of the nest. Those little bas&ar*s won’t hurt my baby again.

I am not sure what all Scruffy went through before I got him. He was a rescue and he is very sensitive to noises and change of any kind. I think he was probably traumatized in some way or another before he came to live with us. I will do my very best to make sure this precious baby is taken care of the very best he can be.

But I did discover I am not good in a crisis. Well who am I kidding it is really not a discovery. I panic and let fear get in the way and all reason goes out the door. I get this from my daddy he was the same way. Mark is the calm one and can reason through just about anything. But all is well now and I will be vigilantly watching for those nasty red wasps and anything else that might hurt my poor Scruffy. He is such a sweet gentle soul.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!

The Mysterious Midnight Moon

Happy Wednesday. I actually just ask my husband a few minutes ago, is it really just Wednesday? It could be I am a little sluggish from my lack of sleep last night. Let me explain.

I was upstairs minding my own business knitting on that blue shawl that has become my nemesis even though I really do love it. It seems like as I near the end the end gets farther and farther away. But I am plugging along and I will finish it soon. I know I will!!!!

I actually started dozing while knitting, which can be very dangerous because of dropped stitches and things, and I also had the T.V. on. I realized it was about 10:30 and Scruffy needed one more bathroom break before we went to bed.

We went downstairs and Scruffy did his business and got a treat and we started back upstairs to bed. Just at that moment I caught a glint of light out of the corner of my eye. I went to the window and it was just about the most beautiful full moon you have ever seen. The sky was clear, and there the moon was, shining, just begging me to take pictures. It looked so mysterious and decadent. If you know me you know I have taken about a million moon pictures over the years but I don’t care when I see a shot like that I just have to get it.

I ran into our little office where I keep my cameras and my tripod. This craziness at 10:30 at night was starting to get Scruffy and even Kitty Kitty a little jacked up. They were running around like crazy. I mean after all we are usually in bed asleep by 9:30.

I grabbed my older camera that I am a little more familiar with and prayed the battery would be charged. It was!!! Whoooo Hoooo!! I set the tripod up and got the camera mounted on it and took it out onto the deck. I was carefully watching for Kitty Kitty, you may remember the story I told you about her getting out one night when I was taking pictures. I didn’t even know it until the next morning. I try not to think of that horrible. time.

Out on the deck my deck chairs were wet and I couldn’t sit on them. The moon liked just a little bit clearing the leaves on the trees in the back yard. So I had to wait for a few minutes. I couldn’t sit on the wet chairs so I drug a stool from the kitchen out onto the deck. It is so quiet at my house you really can’t hear anything but crickets and the occasional splash of a fish jumping up in the water. I started singing moon songs, Blue Moon, Fly me to the moon, Moon River, Blue Moon of Kentucky. But when I started singing Bad Moon Rising by Creedence Clearwater Revival I started thinking about an American Werewolf in London. That was a really scary movie. It made me think of werewolves and here I was in the woods with a full moon. Oh well I am getting side tracked. Anyway I stopped singing.

This is just before the moon cleared the leaves on the trees.

Now wasn’t that worth waiting for!!!!

Finally the moon rose above the trees and it was absolutely beautiful!!! I took picture after picture and tried some different settings on my camera. I was in heaven this is one of my most favorite things to do. It is so calming for me. The next step of course is downloading the pictures on my laptop to get a really good look at them. That is also one of my favorite things to do. By the time this was finished it was about 12:30 and way past my bedtime, Scruffy and Kitty Kitty’s too.

Just an odd shot but I thought it looked interesting.

This morning Mark came downstairs and there was all of my cameras and equipment on the kitchen table. He looked at it questioningly and said “what were you doing last night”? I said ” having a wonderful moonlight adventure of course”. He shakes his head and walks away. He never knows what to expect out of me, HA!!!!

You should have yourself a little moonlight adventure.

Always remember,

Love your day your way!!!!

10 Things To Love About Summer

Well hello August. How did you get here so fast? I feel a little bad because I am not a friend to summer time. It seems like summer is passing us by so quickly. All I have done this summer is work work work and I don’t feel like I have taken time to enjoy it. As I mentioned summer is not my favorite season. You probably guessed that right? As I have gotten older the heat bothers me more I hate to sweat, etc etc, I look forward to fall and cooler temperatures. However, living in East Tennessee, it could be awhile before we feel any cooler temperatures. So I will make the most of the summer time. I came up with some things to love about summer time. So here we go:

Getting up early to enjoy the early morning air:
I love to get up early and drink coffee on my deck. The air is still warm but not hot and the grass is dewy, it reminds me of being a kid running out first thing in the morning and getting my feet wet and slippery from dew. The air was really soft and the expectation of a new day was intoxicating. I think every day should be that way.
It stays light outside longer. The sun comes up earlier and the daylight lasts longer. Sometimes I go to bed really early, like at 9:00 PM or so and when I get in bed I can still see the light outside. For some reason this is very comforting to me although it also makes me feel really really old. HA HA. You can also get more done outside in the mornings before work and later in the evening after work.
It’s a great time to grill food outside and enjoy fruity drinks and cocktails.
I think sitting outside with friends and family and eating food straight from the grill is one of summer’s favorite things. Add in a fruity drink or two and amazing.
It’s a great time to be on the lake.
My husband and I live on the lake and it is sad just how many times we have been on the water this year. We have very different work schedules and are not often able to have days off together. But I have to tell you some of our most favorite times is on the lake in a boat with the wind blowing and that feeling of total freedom from everything.
Fruits and vegetables are so yummy:
I think I could live on fruits and vegetables in the summer. I could make a meal on squash and cucumbers and potatoes and green beans and corn. My daddy used to make a garden about an acre wide. We had to help work in it and that part was not so much fun but when it came time to eating all of those vegetables we loved it!!!
Your skin is dewy
You don’t have that dry leg and elbow thing going on like you do in the winter. Even when you don’t apply body lotion everyday.
You don’t have to wear as many clothes.
This may or may not be a curse depending on how you look at it. HA HA. I think it feels very freeing in the summer to go out without being weighed down with quite so many clothes.
You can lay on a blanket in your yard and watch the clouds take on different shapes.
We used to do this when I was a kid. I haven’t done it in awhile I guess since my Patches was alive but I have always loved it. Patches and I would lay on a quilt in the back yard. I would stare at the clouds and try to make shapes out of them. Patches would sit on the blanket and sniff for rabbits.
Flowers are blooming everywhere!!!
So many flowers and trees are blooming and there is color everywhere!!! The scent from all the flowers and bushes can be intoxicating. I love it!!!!
To every thing there is a season.
And a time to every purpose under the heaven. Things happen and the day to day pulses in and out. Things change quickly. So I have to remember to enjoy the best of what we are offered at this exact time.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!