Sister Lunch

For more than a decade me and my sisters have been having sister lunch every Wednesday at noon at a little restaurant in town. It started with “hey let’s get together and have lunch.” I think it has always been on Wednesday. We have had to change the day a few times because of one sister or another being out of town. We sometimes do it on Friday. But for the most part it is always on Wednesday. The restaurant where we meet is a combination of American and Italian food. The Gondolier in Sweetwater. The owners know us and when we walk in we have a particular side of the restaurant and a table where we sit. Well this actually depends on how many people are coming to sister Lunch. I’ll explain more about that in a minute. The waitress knows our drink order and usually meets us at the table with our drinks.

When Sister Lunch first started it was me and my two sisters Sandy and Pat. My sister Carolyn lived in Georgia at the time and couldn’t often make it to sister lunch.

The three of us would get together and catch up on the weekly happenings in our lives. We would give encouragement, advice, listen to troubles and basically solve all the world’s problems. You would be amazed at what all we could discuss in an hour. We have been there through kids, grandkids, illness, breakups, jobs, retirement, death and just about anything you can imagine. Oh and we laugh and laugh.

When we leave the restaurant we stand in the parking lot and hug and yell I love you to each other like we won’t see each other for months. People sometimes look at us a little strangely. Most of the time we will be seeing each other in a day or two. But hey you never know.

After a few years my sister Carolyn retired from her job in Georgia and moved back to Tennessee. She became a regular at sister lunch.

My niece also came to lunch when she could and her two boys would join us when they weren’t in school. Then my nephew and his wife started meeting us when they had a free day. My cousin Cathy and her husband Carl came from Texas to visit their granddaughter in Tennessee and came to Sister Lunch.

My sister Carolyn passed away suddenly a couple of years ago. We didn’t go to sister lunch for a while because it was just too painful not having her there.

We soon returned to having Sister Lunch though because we knew she would want us to do that.

Me and my sisters and my niece Tammy also do a Sister Trip. We usually go somewhere close by like Gatlinburg Tennessee for a few days. Here is a recap of our Sister Trip last year.

After my sister passed away her daughter started joining us. At times we might have up to eight or nine people at Sister Lunch. If someone is having a birthday or getting close to their Birthday we put a balloon on their chair and bring a Birthday cake. We never miss a reason to celebrate and have cake.

The number of people who come to Sister Lunch goes up and down but it is almost always me and my sisters, Sandy and Pat.

We figure we have been to over 500 lunches and spent thousands of dollars and shared billions of laughs. I think that is time very well spent.

I wouldn’t give anything for our Sister Lunches. So if you are ever in Sweetwater on a Wednesday at noon. Join us at the Gondolier. The more the merrier.

This is a picture of several of us at Sister Lunch a couple of years ago. I think it was my birthday.

Remember always

Love your day your way

A Few Of My Favorite Things & No Internet For Three Days

Hello how are you? I hope you have had a wonderful week and weekend are looking forward to a great week. It is hot here in the south with most days reaching 90 degrees with a heat index close to 100!!!!

It has been awhile since I shared some of my favorite things with you. You will have to disregard the beginning of this post however because these were not some of my favorite things.

This has been another crazy week for me. It started with me getting a bee sting. I am not totally, where I have to have an epipen, allergic but I do tend to swell pretty bad when I get a sting. The little bas$&@d got me on the side of my stomach through my shirt!!!! I was on my way to the land fill, dump, and had gone over to my father in law’s house to pick up some garbage. His house is next door to ours. He has a gate to get into his property and every year bees or wasps build a nest in the opening where the lock is. I checked and didn’t see anything but then when I put the key in, a red wasp flew out. I went on my way even though he was circling me. On my way back I again checked the lock and didn’t see anything but then when I put the lock back on he came out of nowhere and started circling again. I felt a pain like a hot coal on the side of my stomach. I knew immediately what it was. I went back to the house and got some wasp and hornet spray but I am not sure if I got him or not.

I went about my day and took some Benadryl which made me feel loopy and seemed to open my sinuses causing me to feel really horrible and have a sore throat. Anyway I felt bad all week. On Wednesday my internet went out. Because we live in the boonies we have satellite for our internet system. It is not great. We have Hughes Net. I guess they do the best they can but I have been less than satisfied with them. When I called them on Wednesday evening to report the problem they did several tests on the system and after an hour they told me they would have to send me a new modem. By this time it was 8:00 pm on Wednesday night. Day one without internet. Although the lady on the phone assured me the modem would arrive the next day I was skeptical. And with good reason.

On Thursday the modem did not arrive. I went home from work without internet. Day two without internet. Even though I may not seem like it. I am actually fine without having internet. It is more of an annoyance than anything. I like to read and do lots of other things. But there is just something about not being able to check email, or any other sites, that is just plain annoying. I think it’s more of a mind thing.

On Friday the UPS man arrived at work without the modem. I jumped up and down and begged him to check the truck again. Not really. I did ask him if he was absolutely positive he had nothing for me on his truck and he said he did not. He said all orders were arriving later than usual because of the Amazon Prime Days which were Monday and Tuesday. This did not make me feel better after all I was promised delivery Thursday.

I called Hughes Net, the thought of a weekend in the boonies without internet was less than pleasing. The young man I talked to assured me the modem would be here by the end of day today, Friday. I explained that our UPS driver had already made his delivery and had arrived without my modem. He still insisted it would arrive by 8:00 pm. Friday night. We will see. Anyway, on to some of my favorite things. I will make the best of it.

These are granny squares that I am crocheting. I have been working on them for several weeks. They are really big with ten rows each. It will take twenty of them to make the blanket I want. But I love making granny squares and these have been so much fun. I have eighteen now and I can’t wait to put them all together. I wanted to use mostly light colors with lots of white. I had a spring, summer throw in mind but if I don’t hurry it’s going to be fall.

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Hydrangeas. Are they not just the most beautiful flower you have ever seen. This photo is of a bush at work. I love the pink ones. I have a couple of bushes at home but they are not doing as well as these. These are also easy to dry and they last a long time. I dried some of them last year and I have them in some milk glass vases. I will show you those one day.

From crocheting to knitting. I recently finished two pairs of socks. This is one of them. I worked on these mostly while I was on the European trip. Lots of airplane time and waiting in the airport makes for lots of good knitting time.

I finished these purple ones after I got back home. I actually had these almost finished before my trip

I am not usually a reality TV fan but I came across this show a few weeks ago and I love it. It is called “Out Daughtered”. It is about a couple in Texas who had a young daughter maybe three years old. They were trying to have another baby and wound up with all girl quintuplets. So they now have six daughters and they say they are officially out daughtered. I don’t know why I love this show. The quints are four or five years old now and I have been binge watching all the episodes. They are adorable. They all have such unique personalities. The show deals with their day to day lives, which to me seems quite overwhelming. I guess not ever having any children of my own makes me think WOW!! How does anyone do this. Of course they have lots of help from their families. Check it out. You might like it. http://www.tlc.com/tv-shows/outdaughtered.

I just finished this book and I loved it!!!! I read it for book club last weekend. I finished it in about three days. Read it. I think you will enjoy it.

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I just have to tell you about this cream I have been using for a couple of months now. Neutrogena Rapid Wrinkle Repair, I saw the commercial on TV and decided to try it. If you are not used to using retinol it takes just a bit for your skin to adjust to it. I apply it around my eyes after I have put on my nighttime moisturizer. I only put it on a couple of spots. A little goes a long way. It really makes a difference. You can see a noticeable difference in the skin around your eyes or forehead, or wherever you choose to use it, in about a week. It really brightens your skin and softens the wrinkles.

Well back to the internet. Believe it or not the modem did arrive later in the day on Friday. A different UPS truck delivered it to my office about 3:30. I was overjoyed. I picked up the box and stroked it and cuddled it and called it George. (you have to be old to remember that cartoon lol)

Anyway the internet is back up and looking back I guess it wasn’t that bad. I had a couple of nights of going to bed really early and probably getting better sleep.

Have a great week and remember,

Love your day your way!!!!

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Who Will Come To Your Funeral?

Warning: This is just the ramblings of an old errrrr older southern woman. Yeah that’s right.

I attended a funeral this past week. A young woman in our town passed away. I was not a good friend of hers but her daughter was part of my work staff. My husband was work friends with her husband so yes I knew her. I knew that she was an amazing woman, mother, wife, daughter, aunt, friend, co-worker. This woman was only 40 years old with so much life ahead of her. She was diagnosed with cancer three weeks ago and before anything could be done she died.

I do know that this woman was loved. You could hear it in every comment, every tear that was shed, every story about her, every hug to her family and in one way or another every person that was present.

There were hundreds of people there to pay their respects. The small funeral home in our hometown was probably overwhelmed with the amount of people crammed into this small building. Actually there was a line of people that wrapped around the building. In the south we call this “the receiving of friends” it is usually held in the evening for a couple of hours and then the graveside service is held the following day. You go to the local funeral home and stand in a line and socialize with people you haven’t seen in a while and make the obligatory remark “It’s good to see you I wish it wasn’t under these circumstances” and “why must we wait until times like this to get together?” Yes why indeed? You may hear comments like “ohhhh the flowers were amazing” and “we couldn’t believe the turnout”.

Do you ever wonder who will come to your funeral? Do you care? I am curious. I know this probably sounds narcissistic but don’t tell me it hasn’t crossed your mind. I think this is something that comes to mind when you realize you are probably more than halfway through your life.

Does the good works of someone or maybe how many friends they have or what they have contributed to their community determine how many people will come to pay their respects when they die? Maybe it is because they have a large family and lots of their friends are coming to pay respects. I know it isn’t the age of someone because it seems the older people get the less friends and loved ones they still have around. Does it matter? NO. You will not even know. But still I think about it when I attend a service.

Lord knows it can’t be based on how many Facebook or Instagram, or any other social media site, followers you have. You can run into “them” at the grocery store and they don’t even recognize you, or feel familiar enough to speak to you.

My husband refuses to attend most funeral services. I tried to explain that it is not for the deceased but for their living family members. It is a show of respect for them. At least I hope this is some of what it means to most people.

Sometimes I think we attend because we think we should. I certainly wouldn’t want someone to attend my funeral because they “think they should”. If this means only two or three really close friends or family attend mine then I’m ok with that. And I hope they bring balloons and ice cream and cake. And daisies. Those are all my favorites. And even if I can’t enjoy those things then I will know that someone else has.

Love your day your way!!!

Mimosa Trees and a Flower Moon

Hello friends, how are you?

I will tell you how I am. HOT!!!! And not in the good way either haha. Summer has arrived a little early here in East Tennessee. The last two weeks have found us with temps in the low to mid nineties. What? What happened to the spring? And it’s also humid so it’s sticky and sweaty by noon. The weather, as far as sunshine and no rain, has been wonderful. That makes for nice days on the lake, picnics, and hanging out on the deck under my big umbrella but who has the time for that. Not this girl not right now anyway.

Because of some co-workers’ vacations I have started a seven day work week. We will see how it is going by the end of the week. This is only day two.

A couple of weeks ago me and my niece Amy went antiquing in a small town near us, Etowah. We had been a couple of years ago and we were so sad to see the difference this time. What had been a small but booming town with several shops and restaurants along the Main Street had almost become a ghost town. The last time we were there we visited at least six antique shops and a couple of furniture stores and ate at a great little diner. I know booming right? you know what I mean. Well this time there was one clothing store and one antique store. There was no where on the street to eat. So sad to see the smaller shops moving out of town.

The Gem Theatre is truly a gem. Built in 1927 as a movie house the Gem Theatre was the hub of the city as far as entertainment. In 1991 the city acquired ownership and throughout the year different productions are put on by talented area residents.

The L&N Depot is also a treasure. The old depot now houses a museum.

L&N photo credit- City of Etowah

There is so much history here. You can get more information about the depot here: http://www.cityofetowahtn.com/2186/LN-Depot

We did go up the street to a great little restaurant called The Farmhouse. They serve country southern cooking. It has been there for many years. It was still as good as I had remembered.

We also visited the local farm market. I love going. They have the best vegetables and other things.

So you can see they have lots of other hand made things as well. This farm is run by the Mennonite community in Delano Tennessee. It is very similar to the one closer to me in Tellico Plains. Remember last year I bought the braided rug. Here is a picture. Of it. I’ll show you a few purchases from this trip in my next post.

I still think this sweet town is worth visiting if nothing else for the one antique shop, the Farmhouse Restaurant, the Gem Theatre, and of course the L&N depot.

I got a couple of good shots during the full Flower Moon earlier this month.