Weekends

Hello Friends how are you?

My weekend was really good.  First let me tell you that we finally got the Fiber Optic Cable installed at our house.  They installed it on Wednesday.  It took about 6 hours.  This was the fifth attempt.  There had been rescheduling and actual cancellations, not by us, etc.  Mark and I are like kids.  We have been watching everything on TV that we couldn’t before.  Our Amazon Prime would just buffer constantly before we got the cable installed. It was so frustrating. We have been catching up on all the Star Trek Next Generation and Deep Space Nine Episodes we like. Mark has watched 5 episodes of The Mandalorian on Disney and he is in love with Baby Yoda. He keeps yelling for me to come and see how adorable Baby Yoda is.  You know we are geeks right?  I think I told you we had had Hughes Net before.   Hughes Net Satellite service is sort of a last resort for people who can’t get any other kind of internet service.  For this I guess it serves it’s purpose.  Even the man I talked to at Hughes Net said ” if you can get fiber optic, GET IT!!!”   Well we have it now and I can even use my cell phone at home to make phone calls.  Ahhh rural living, it’s the little things.

The rain continued most of last week.  It did stop for awhile on Wednesday and we were able to have the cable installed. Thank goodness. The big tree that fell in the back yard is still right where it fell.  Between Mark working and the rain we haven’t been able to cut it up.  Maybe this week. My nephew Tyler is going to come and help.   Friday Saturday and Sunday brought a lot of sunshine.  Still a little cool but with the sun shining all is well. My favorite kind of weather.  Cool, sunny days.

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   Look what is blooming.  We always called these Easter flowers when I was a kid, because they usually bloom around Easter.  The weather here has been so warm and we have had so much rain lots of things are starting to bloom. 

I had Galentine lunch with my friend Lorie on Friday.  We went to Kokita – Sushi Bar in Sweetwater.  It is a fairly new restaurant.  I am not a huge fan of sushi but they have a lot of other things on the menu.  I love the Hibachi Chicken and their carrots are to die for.   I have eaten there several times, actually two times in the past week.  I also had lunch there last Tuesday with my friend Dann.  If you are in Sweetwater check it out it is located on Main Street.

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    Lorie gave me these sweet tulips for Valentine’s and some killer earrings.  I will take a picture and post them soon.  I love them!!!!

Mark had lavender roses sent to me at work on Friday.   They were very different, they were in a hat box.  The hat box is reusable. He knows I love roses and hats so it was the perfect combination. My mother died on Valentine’s Day back in 2003.  Mark always sends flowers on Valentine’s Day to try and make it a little brighter for me.

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   Aren’t these beautiful. They are specially preserved and supposed to last for six months.  I’ll let you know. 

 

I visited my favorite thrift store on Saturday to check out the book section.  I get a lot of books on Kindle and on my devices with Tennessee Reads.  Tennessee Reads is the program I told you about where you check out books online through your local library.  It is great!!!  I have read  a lot of books since I got it. But I still love reading books and I have a ton of them.  While I was at the thrift store, and it is always a little busy on Saturday, I was sitting in a chair looking at a book I was debating on getting.  A woman reached for a large book above me and dropped it right on my head!!!  It didn’t really hurt it just startled me more than anything.  I had to laugh at the look on the woman’s face she was so embarrassed.  I reassured her that I was fine and very hard headed so it didn’t hurt a bit.  We had a good laugh over it.

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  Here are the three books I got.  I started the Dean Koontz book and it is creepy already. I haven’t read Dean Koontz in quite awhile.  The cat book is a book of short stories about cats.  The friendship cake is a novel but also has a lot of recipes in it.

I made Mark a pecan pie for Valentine’s Day.  We really don’t get into the whole celebration and spending a lot of money on Valentine’s Day.  We have been married a long time.  We buy what we want when we want it anyway without one or the other having to get it.

So the rest of the weekend was good.  Catching up on laundry and reading and knitting and watching some amazing shows.

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  I repotted my Aloe Vera plant on Sunday.  It has been struggling a bit.  I think it is because the pot I had it in wasn’t draining.  

I hope your Valentine’s Day and weekend was wonderful.

Always remember,

Love your day your way!!!!

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Happy Birthday To My Blog

It is hard to believe that I started this blog two years ago. I toyed with the idea for a long time before I actually secured a site, picked a name and actually did my first blog post.  I have changed some things along the way.  I decided to change the look a little in celebration of my two years of blogging.   I have heard that blogging is sort of on the way out, and that with Instagram, Instagram Stories, Vlogging and YouTube that not many people blog anymore. I don’t think that’s true.  I still read a lot of blogs and I really enjoy having a blog. I have posted 107 blog posts in the last two years.   I will tell you why I love blogging.

 

  1. It is a great way to keep a running diary of day to day events.
  2. I have met and shared things, and actually become really good friends, with some fellow bloggers.
  3. It is definitely a way to express myself in a way I didn’t know was possible.
  4. It makes me more aware of the things I do, places I visit and things I discover.
  5. I tend to want to experience more.  I want to try new adventures and share them with you.
  6. It has made me more aware of me as a person.  Reading back through past blogs makes me appreciate what I have and how I have grown in different ways.

I feel like my blog has come a long way since I first started blogging.  I have learned so much.  I am going to list some of my favorite posts from the last two years and also my first blog post ( I am a little embarrassed by this one, I had no idea what I was doing)

My second post was about losing my brother Allen.  Today is the second anniversary of his death and I am really missing him.

Here are a few of my favorite posts and my very first one.

Welcome to Southern Patches ( My very first post)
Saying Goodbye to My Brother Allen
I looked Like Jack Nicholson In The Shining
Redbud Winter
I Survived Mother’s Day
Juggle The Struggle
A Valuable Thanksgiving Lesson
Pottery, Pastries & Nancy Drew
Do You Always Know When You Are Being a Bit*h

And then there are several of my favorites about travel.  I love to travel and I think you learn so much from it.  Here are a few of my favorites.

Mainly In Maine
A Week In Chattanooga
European Vacation Part 1
European Vacation Part 2
European Vacation Part 3
Let Me Take You To Nashville

I hope you have enjoyed reading my blog whether you are a long time reader or just started reading.   I have so enjoyed the last two years and look forward to many more.

I hope you are having a wonderful day thank you for celebrating with me!!

Always remember,

Love your day your way!!

 

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Weekends

Hello friends how have you been?

We have had some crazy weather around here.  My weekend was pretty low key.  I had to work on Saturday because I spent Friday at home waiting for the tech for our fiber optic cable.  This was the fourth attempt and we were rescheduled yet again.   I was so mad at AT&T and even made a really ugly phone call to complain but I doubt it will do any good.  We are now scheduled for Wednesday but it is supposed to rain all week so we will see.  Because I had to be at home on Friday I rescheduled several appointments for Saturday.  I hate splitting my days off.


  The calm before the crazy weather.  I pass this everyday on my way to and from work.

Molly has a really bad ear infection.  She gets them constantly.  She has allergies and we really have to watch her ears.  I had to stop by the Vet Clinic last Monday morning and get her some meds. She has to be on antibiotic ear drops for ten days.  She is a gentle old girl and very easy to give medicine to.


   Mom quit taking pictures of me!!!!

Last week started pretty good with mild weather and just day to day stuff. I got Mark an air fryer for Christmas. I was skeptical about having something else take up counter space but he works with several people who have them and love them. We finally started using it last week and we love it!!!  I cooked chicken breasts in 20 minutes and they were so yummy.  We have been experimenting with several things.  Adjusting the cooking time is a little challenging with different things but we are getting the hang of it.

 

So on Wednesday the rain started. Because the ground was already saturated the flooding started quickly in some areas. It rained all of Wednesday and then even some thunder and lightning on Wednesday night.

On Thursday morning the rain continued. I was standing at the kitchen sink just before daylight and I could see something through the window that looked like large stalks in the back yard. What??? I went out onto the deck and discovered a huuuuge tree down in the back yard. I think the roots were loosened by all the rain. It missed our house by only a few feet and our deck by inches. We didn’t even hear it fall!!!! We are just so thankful it didn’t fall on the house.


You can see how muddy the lake is from all the rain.

So on Friday the rain stopped and the temperature started dropping and by Saturday morning we had snow.  With the temperatures so low the roads became slick really fast.  I had to work on Saturday but I had already gotten to work before the roads got bad.  I knew the temperature was supposed to rise by noon and the snow would probably turn to rain.  It did.  But the snow was quite beautiful while it lasted.

More rain is predicted for this week. Oh well better rain than snow I guess.

Anyway, always remember:

Love your day your way!!

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A Short Trip to Gatlinburg, TN And a Stay at The Margaritaville Resort

Happy February friends,

Can you believe that February is here already?  I can’t.  Last Monday I went to Gatlinburg for an attractions meeting.  The organization is called Southern Highlands Attractions and is made up of several top attractions in the south. Check out our website.  I have probably mentioned this group before.  We meet three times a year and visit other tourist attractions in the area and even some out of the area.  We have traveled to San Diego, St. Louis and other states and this year we will be visiting Niagara Falls.  I can’t wait for that one.

On Monday I left for the Gatlinburg meeting.  Gatlinburg is about an hour and a half from me.  We stayed at the new five star Margaritaville Resort in Gatlinburg.  I had not been there before so I was really excited about seeing the resort and getting a chance to stay there.

The Margaritaville Resort is lovely.  Of course it has an island theme and Jimmy Buffett music coming from speakers everywhere.  All of the staff members wear tropical shirts and they are beyond nice.  Customer service is something I always pay close attention to. I believe in it totally.

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After getting checked in I went straight to a meeting that started at 1:00 PM.  There was a lunch set up for us before the meeting started.  After our meeting ended at 5:00 I had an opportunity to freshen up before we headed uptown to the  Gatlinburg Sky Lift and Sky Bridge.  You may remember I visited the Sky Lift and the new Sky Bridge, which is the longest pedestrian suspension bridge in North America,  back in the fall when I was on my Sister Trip, you can read about that here.  The bridge is 680 feet across with a height of 140 feet at its midpoint. The middle of the bridge has a glass-floor panel where you can see straight down.  This part is a little scary.   The night we were up there it was dark and rainy and the bridge was not as scary somehow.  Darkness can do that.  It was beautiful seeing the lights of Gatlinburg from such an altitude.

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The next day was a full day of sight seeing.  We started the day at Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies. I have been there many times and so had everyone that was with us.  So I though meh so what.  But this time we met with the GM and we were able to do a behind the scenes tour.  WOW!!!  So much goes on to keep such a place running day to day.   We were able to see how they prepared the food for the sharks and the other animals. It was just a different world from what is seen by people every day.  So much to see.


This big girl is Sally.  She is a sea turtle, she weighs about 500 pounds and she is 60 years old.  She has to be put in this holding tank while the sharks are being fed, if not Sally will take the food right out of the sharks’ mouths.

Next we visited the Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Museum.  I mentioned a few months back,  on my Sister Trip post,  that a wildfire spread through much of Gatlinburg in November of 2016.  While a lot of the city was left untouched by the fire many many people lost their homes and businesses and several people lost their lives.  It was horrific.   After the fire many businesses were renovated and updated.  The Ripley’s Museum is one of those.  I have visited the Museum many times.  I was really happy to see a wonderful change to the museum.  The GM explained to us that they had discovered that people wanted to see more modern, and I know that modern and museum doesn’t necessarily mix, but in this case it does, pop culture.  So we saw a lot of different and new things.  It was very hands on and interactive.  I loved it and can’t wait to take the hubs back to see it.


This village was built with 15,000 match sticks.  Man I would hate to transport that.

We lunched at  Ole Red’s,  a fairly new restaurant owned by country star Blake Shelton.  The food was good and the atmosphere was nice with lots of music.  There is often a live band that plays.  Since we were having lunch there was not live music.  I think that is saved for night but I’m not sure.   The home made tater tots are a must have as well as the fried, smoked okra and the yummy cornbread.

The next stop was Ober Gatlinburg.  Another place I had not visited in many years.  You have to ride a tram to the top or drive a very steep and winding mountain road.  The trolleys in Gatlinburg will not drive this road.  We took the tram.


It takes about 10 minutes to get to the top of the mountain by tram.
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The temperature has to be below freezing, at night, for several days for Ober to be able to make snow.  They were making snow the day we were there.  You can ski, snow board,  go tubing in the snow, ice skate and lots of other things.   We didn’t get to do a lot because we had a very limited amount of time.  I had on some boots that were not really for a lot of outdoor activities and were a little slick on the bottom.  I was happy to just look around.   Remember the part about the slick boots because they will come up again in a minute.

Our last adventure was a tour of the Smoky Mountains National Park, visited by 12.5 million visitors a year.  I did notice on the agenda that a two hour plus time limit had been allotted for it.  Nowhere on the agenda did it mention a hike.  We pulled up to the Visitor’s Center and a Park Ranger got on the trolley and we drove down the road for about 3 miles.  We pulled up to a lot that had a sign for Laurel Falls.  I had heard of this waterfall and I knew it involved a hike.  The Ranger was giving us instructions and precautions that we might want to take during the hike. Make sure you have plenty of water, almost none of us did, make sure you have comfortable shoes for walking up hill , lots of us didn’t.  I showed the ranger my boots and she said they should be fine.   She also told us it was 1.5 miles round trip.  It was not.  It was 1.3 miles each way.  The first 1.3 miles was all uphill.  The trail was narrow and wet and paved in most places.  My boots were so slick.  I probably should have turned around, some people did, but I continued on.  Keep in mind it was not just the shoes but I am also out of shape and overweight.  Also again we were on a time limit.  I gave up on the time limit and just took my time.  I had come this far and I was determined to see the falls and take some pictures.  I was the last one to the falls and the last one back to the trolley.  This was mildly embarrassing but I saw the falls and they were beyond beautiful.  The falls are 80 feet high and named after the mountain laurel that grows wild around the falls.  I will go back with my husband and I will wear hiking boots and take water and take lots of time.

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See I told you it was beautiful and well worth the hike to see it even if it was a little scary. I am so glad now that we did the hike and got to see the falls.

That night we had a wonderful dinner and I think I was in bed by 8:30.
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A full day I would say.

Wednesday was a half day of meetings and then headed home.  All in all a great meeting and visits.  As always I am soooo glad to get back to my little family.

Until next time,  Always remember

Love your day your way!!

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