Hello Monday

Hello and happy Monday!!! How was your week and your weekend? I have been a bit under the weather. I am not sure what is going on. I think it is just that I haven’t been getting enough rest. Also a change in the temperature always gives me some sinus issues. I am feeling better today and I honestly think it was just the fact that I returned from my Wisconsin/Minnesota trip and went right back to work. We had a big week at work last week. We had some filming done for commercial and promotional footage and it was a lot to prepare for. It was a bit exhausting.

***It was exciting to see our cave lit up like this. I can’t wait to see all the footage. They even took a drone inside the cave.***

Last Saturday we celebrated my brother and sister-in-law’s 50th wedding anniversary. It was very nice. My two nieces planned everything and had it at my nieces’ church in the sanctuary. It was supposed to be a surprise but I think they sort of figured it out when they drove them to the church instead of out to eat. We had a great time catching up with friends and family. I was supposed to make the wedding cake but I realized a few weeks ago that the anniversary party fell the day after I returned from my Wisconsin trip. I knew I just couldn’t put a huge cake together in less than a day. They bought one somewhere else and it was yummy. They did a great job with everything.

***It’s hard to believe these two have been married for 50 years. I think ii was in Jr Hi when they got married.***

Yesterday we celebrated my nephew’s, well my great nephew actually, 21st Birthday. A milestone birthday so we had to celebrate although, who am I kidding we celebrate anything. We had the party at my sister’s house. My nephew Chris did most of the cooking on the grill. We brought some sides and had a feast. My sister just got a new dog baby and he is precious. He only weighs three pounds and will only be about seven our eight pounds when he is full grown. His name is Cooper, and I will admit I tried to smuggle him out of the house in my purse. It was such a fun day.

***Birthday Boy, Caleb holding his sweatshirt I got him when I went through Chicago last week.***

***Sorry about the blurry picture but this guy would not stop wiggling. He loves people and wants to be in the middle of everything.***

Today I felt much better when I went to work. Work has slowed down a tiny bit. The weather is cooler and so nice, especially early mornings and late afternoon. the leaves are changing colors but not a lot and not very fast. The weather here had been fairly dry until a few weeks ago and the leaves need more moisture to turn those beautiful colors.

***The trees with yellow leaves are my favorite.***

***We also had our first frost last week. It was beautiful.***

So that has been me for the last week. I have been listening to a great audio book. Olive Kitteridge written by Elizabeth Strout. I just finished it and found the second one, Olive Again, there is also a mini series on Max. Olive Kitteridge. The mini series follows the book and I am hoping for a second season. Only four episodes in the first season. Olive lives in Crosby Maine. The books are Almost like short stories but all of them weave Olive into them. I have loved them and now I am almost finished with the second one. At first I didn’t like Olive but now I love her. She is outspoken and tough but she can be so kind and she believes in treating everyone equally.

So other than work, housework, taking care of hubs and the kitties that is what I have been doing. Thankfully my traveling is over for a few months. That makes me very happy.

What have you been up to? I am sorry if I have neglected your blog posts. I love reading all of them and can’t wait to catch up.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!

Hello Monday

Hello and happy Monday!! I was gone all last week on a work trip to North Carolina. Well most of the week anyway. I am so glad to be back to a regular routine. I was even glad to get back to work today. What???

I did take a couple of days off at the end of the week to sort of rest and rejuvenate. I did some work outside in my yard, and trimmed shrubs and some overgrown hedges. I still have a lot to do. I was just reading that and I was thinking, where was the rest? If you are like me working outside is restful. The temps have cooled a little and will be even cooler this week. I am loving it!!!

I stayed home most of the weekend. On Saturday, Mark and I drove to Knoxville with my niece and picked up her kayak from a friends’ house. It was in an area I had never been to before. I just love looking at homes and yards in places I haven’t been.

We also worked on the house a bit and it seems so clean and shiny. Too bad it won’t last long.

I thought I would show you some of my projects I am working on. You know it isn’t me if I don’t have several going at one time. Sorry for the wrinkled comforter. The color is a great background for my projects.

***This is the granny square afghan I am working on for my nephew. This is Tennessee Titans colors. One of his favorite teams.***

***My Hats off to Halloween cross stitch. I really need to get to work on this one. I want to get it finished, framed and out before Halloween.***

This is a shawl I started yesterday. It is sort of a trial and error. I am going with a pattern as I go along. I’m not sure if it will work out. I used an inexpensive yarn so if it doesn’t work out, it’s no loss. I just realized it looks sort of like candy corn. You see where my mind is. There’s several other colors as well.

***This scarf. I love the pattern and I love this green color.***

I am also reading a couple of good books.

***First Lie Wins. I just started this one on my Libby App. It is already full of secrets and suspense. I will let you know what I think of it.***

Isadora is a University researcher. On her 30th Birthday she reads an article about 31 ways to be happy. Being the researcher she is she tries to prove the article may not make everyone happy. A lot of things happen for Isadora along the way. I have heard a lot of good things about this book. I can’t wait to read it.

That is pretty much what I have been up to. A little boring I know but just the way I love it. I have a sister trip coming up in a couple of weeks and a work trip in October. So for now I am just going to hang out at the house and enjoy some quiet time with my husband and the kitties. Speaking of kitties, I will leave you with a picture of Kitty Kitty. She was very cool to me when I returned home. I think she was mad that I left her behind. She’s starting to come around. Silly kitties.

How is your week? Do you have lots of plans and fun things to do?

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!

Hello September

Happy Labor Day. If you work in tourism, as I do, there’s two very important days in the season. Memorial Day is very important because it is sort of the kick-off to the summer season. And then Labor Day is the last big hurrah for the season. Whew!!! I am happy to see you Labor Day and the start of a slower work pace.

I have to go back and give August its due, all thirty minutes of it. That’s how fast it seems like it flew by. August was a very busy month.

I started August in Las Vegas at the Star Trek Convention and then had a short visit to Utah and Zion National Park. It seems like as soon as I got back home work was busier than ever and I was trying to juggle everything again.

We are still dealing with a lot of final issues with my mother in law. She passed away in July. We are still settling things with the nursing facility and continuing to clean out her house, which is going to be quite the undertaking.

We had a quick day trip to Nashville for the Time Traveler’s Vintage Expo. That was a lot of fun. And then last week we, hubs and I, had a quick overnight to Nashville for a four month doctor visit for him. We always eat at a nice restaurant and spend the night in the same hotel near the hospital. That makes our trip over and back, about four hours each way, much easier.

Because of my job the summer months are really hard and stressful. Luckily, I have amazing and wonderful co-workers. We try to have as much fun as I can during these times. Life is way too short not to try and enjoy something about every season. But I’m always happy to see the fall season arrive. What is your favorite time of year?

Labor Day is almost over. I am home where I love to be. I just came in and fed the kitties and had some dinner and gave all eighteen orchids a water bath. Now I am off to work on a knitting stitch that I just learned from a YouTube video. Life is good, precious, wonderful!!!!

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!

This and That

Hello and happy Friday. I feel like I don’t have a lot to share with you. Things have been really busy. Work is always a little crazy in July but this year has been even busier than last year.

Last Friday night I had dinner with a couple of friends. We went to the Peach Street Grill again. They were packed. Luckily we got there before it got too busy. We had a nice dinner. It was great catching up.

***Peach. Cobbler and homemade vanilla ice cream. It was delicious.***

I worked for a few hours on Saturday so that cut into my weekend a bit. On Sunday I did the usual laundry, cooked dinner and then decided to make some chocolate chip cookies to take to work for my coworkers. I did both chocolate chip and white chocolate chip. They were yummy.

Last weekend I also put new curtains in my kitchen. I got these on Amazon and I love them. The others were really old and needed to be replaced. I should have done a before and after pic but I forgot. I am using a lot of black accents in my kitchen. I am planning to switch my cabinet and drawer pulls to black.

I abandoned the book, A Little Life, because I just didn’t have time to read it not because it wasn’t a good book, and downloaded an audio book. I felt like I needed to return the Little Life book because there was a wait for it. I may buy it later and then I can read it at my leisure with no one waiting for me to finish it. At least I can listen to my audio book while I’m in the car. His and Hers is a murder mystery and very creepy. I have so many thoughts on who the murderer is.

The Crepe Myrtle trees are blooming and so beautiful. I just love the different colors.

***This is my favorite of the colors.***

Wednesday I took my sister to Knoxville for out patient surgery. While we were in the waiting room a couple came in with two adorable dogs. I think they may have been Golden Doodles. I’m not sure. One was named Shiloh and the other Gracie. They were going from person to person and letting them pet the babies, if they wanted to, some people don’t care for dogs. I can’t imagine that but some people don’t. I ask them if I could take a picture of them. And they said yes. They have permission from the hospital to bring the dogs into the waiting areas. They said it makes people so happy seeing them and it helps relieve stress while waiting to hear news about their loved ones.

I wasn’t able to get a great picture because the dogs kept moving so much. But it seemed to brighten up the entire room. I think it’s a great idea. These people are just wonderful for taking the time to do this.

I took off a couple of hours from work yesterday to get my hair done. Much needed. So a very busy week. I haven’t had much of a chance to catch up with my blog or reading my favorite blogs. My husband and I are headed to Vegas next week to attend the annual Star Trek Convention, we’re such nerds, and then take a short trip into Utah to Zion National Park and Bryce Canyon.

That is what has been going on in my world how about you?

I leave you with another picture of my big boy Gus who seems to think he is King of the kitties. At least he looks like it in this picture.