HAD A WONDERFUL, BUT SHORT, VISIT WITH MY GRANDCHILDREN AND DAUGHTERS

This past week-end, as I said previously, we went to visit with our daughters and their families.  They were all together at our youngest daughter's house in Mt. Juliet.  My husband and I, wisely, got a motel in town.  It did have a pool, so everyone was invited to come to the pool for an afternoon swim, which they did.  Nuts!  Those photos are in my camera, so I'll have to post them tomorrow, but here are a couple of pictures that were sent to me by iPhone:

 

This is our youngest daughter with her son, Eli (on the left) and daughter Abby (above) and Cade (on the right).  Cade is our oldest daughter's son.  They were on a shopping trip.  You can tell Eli was loving it.  Ha!

 

 

This lovely lady (with the skunk hair,  as Cade described her) is Joanne Cash,  Johnny Cash's sister, who was waiting to get on a plane at the Nashville airport, and was apparently on their flight to Atlanta.  Cade couldn't take his eyes off her.  I'm sure you can see why.  She was very nice to pose for a picture with him, though.

 

Anyway, we all had a great time together, but we were glad to get home.

OFF TOMORROW TO VISIT ALL THE GRANDKIDS IN MT. JULIET

I'll be away from my computer and all my toys for the week-end, because we're going to be leaving for Mt. Juliet (near Nashville) early tomorrow.  It takes nearly 3 hrs., but we'll spend the night and most of the day tomorrow with them.  Our oldest daughter came up with her son too, so we'll all be together in one place at the same time - which is a rare thing.  My husband and I are going to stay in a convenient motel, so we can get a good night's sleep and avoid some of the nightime chaos of getting all the kids settled down to sleep.  I will write you all when we get home on Sunday

FIRST BUNCH GONE. SECOND BUNCH TOMORROW.

Our youngest daughter departed with her three children this morning - off on their way to Dollywood's opening week-end in Pigeon Forge.  It's freezing cold outside, and it's even supposed to snow up there this week-end, so I fear the weather is not going to be to their liking.  However, they're staying at a real neat place with an indoor waterpark and game room, so I'm sure they'll have a ball.  It was really great to have the kids here for those three days.  They were so good, and played outside a lot, even though it was cold.  Little Eli, age nearly eight, got to ride the small 4-wheeler all by himself, but he came in crying, because his hands were numb with cold.

I've managed to get most of the sheets washed, but not all of them.  Our oldest daughter, her husband, and seven year old son arrive at 8:30 tomorrow morning, and I haven't even had time to put clean sheets on her bed yet.  I'll have to do that after they get her, I guess - or else stay up an extra hour tonight.  Not!!  They plan to go snowboarding  in Boone, NC, and I think the weather will be just right for it.  I don't know if I want to go over with them, though, because I'd have to drive my own car, and I just hate to drive in bad road conditions - especially on curvy mountain roads!   My sister is here too, and she will have to go with me - if I do go.

IT'S SPRING BREAK AGAIN!

It sure seems like spring break rolls around quickly these days.  The months of winter have gone by fairly quickly, and spring has sprung, and the grandchildren have arrived.  It happens at this time every year, and now instead of little toddlers, we have a teenager and three others who can pretty much entertain themselves both inside and out.  It's been fun these past few days having our Nashville bunch.  Yesterday we were all entertained by a racoon that our dogs had treed in our yard.  He stayed there all day and didn't move until later in the afternoon, when he came down and started eating the sunflower seeds out of the birdfeeder.  That's when our dogs cornered him, and they had an eye-to-eye face-off with our Brittany spaniel standing on the wall at the level of the feeder.  He and the wild animal were virtually nose to nose, and I was sure that the racoon was going to jump on his head and tear him up.  'Coons can really tear a dog up, and Nick (our dog) is really a wimp.  Our grandson wanted to get his 22 and shoot the racoon, but we didn't let him.  Finally, Nick came when I called him, and I grabbed him by the collar until the racoon left the feeder and went back up the tree.  After that the dogs left him alone and night came, and when morning arrived he was long gone - thank goodness.  It did make for some excitement, though!  Did I get a picture of any of it -NO!

In three days our daughter and family in Florida will be up here, but by that time this group will be enjoying opening week-end in Dollywood.  It's been a busy week!

IT'S INCOME TAX TIME AT OUR HOUSE

It's that time of year again, and I'm gathering all our tax information together to take to our daughter in Nashville.  She owns a bookkeeping business, and she has told us year after year that her certified tax preparer would be able to do our taxes for us, so this year we have decided to take her up on it.  We usually have H & R Block do our taxes, but lately they've gotten so expensive that we can't afford them any longer.  I think last year we had to pay them nearly $500!  And to top it off, we had to pay the IRS also.  That's double insult!!  I don't know if Kim (our daughter) is ready for our "shoebox filing system" however, but she asked for it!

I'm taking all our paperwork to Nashville tomorrow, and leaving them with her accountant.  In return, I will be bringing three of our grandchildren home with me for a few days, as they are all off for spring break.  It's sort of an even trade - we both get a certain amount of stress.  I'm going to stay over  there and visit with them through the week-end, since I don't get over there too often.  It'll give my husband a chance to get over his bad cold.  He's been sick ever since he got home from Florida, so some peace and quite will probably do him some good.  He'll get enough noise and excitement when we get back.

OUR LATE CHRISTMAS

Today we are celebrating our late Christmas with our daughters and their families.  The had all wanted to have Christmas morning with their families at home, so they decided to travel to see us the next day.  Our daughter that lives in Florida arrived really late last night because their plane had been delayed due to the storm up in the northeast.  However, the family from Nashville drove over and made it quite nicely - even though they had to drive through some snow showers on the Cumberland Plateau.  By the time we all got together, it was after 9:00 at night, and the kids were wild and crazy.  It was after 12:00 midnight when we gto them to bed.  The Nashville bunch stayed at my sister's house in town. 

      This morning we all get up to eat sausage balls sweet rolls and honey baked ham while we merrily opened Christmas presents.  A good time was had by all!  I got a New Wave oven, so tomorrow I'm goinng to try my hand at cooking a turkey breast in it.

      This afternoon everyone went shopping at our local mall, but I was a party pooper and stayed home to watch all the kiddoes.  That's fine with me!  All in all, it was a fun day.

STILL SPENDING TIME WITH OUR GRANDCHILDREN

We still have two of our grandchildren spending the week with us, and I have been busy!!  I can't believe the laundry that these two produce.  You can tell that I've forgotten what a family of four can eat and use in clothes.  On top of that, the weather has been cold and rainy, so we really haven't had much good time outdoors.  It looks like the weather is going to improve now, though, although they only have one more day here.  I'm going to drive them back home to Mt. Juliet on Thursday, spend the night and then get back home on Friday.  I'm beginning to get the pictures from our Disney Cruise organized, and here's one from my phone.  Cade got a model of the Disney Dream, and he absolutely loved it - carried it around everywhere.  He even got the captain to autograph it for him.  I'll post some others as they come along.  This is a picture of The Atrium in the center of the Disney Dream (4th floor).  It looks like a hotel doesn't it?  Well, the whole ship looked like a huge hotel from the inside - except that sometimes it felt like it was rolling just a little.  Fun!

THE JOYS OF A GRANDAUGHTER

Two of my grandchildren have been with me this week and will continue to to be here for most of next week.  The oldest is Benjamin, age 14, and he spends most of his day with my husband ("Papaw") working at various projects that need to be done.  In fact they have spent the last three days along with our son-in-law tearing out and replacing the front porch of their rental house in Knoxville.  So I don't really see much of Benjamin, except at the end of the day.

It is Abby, our 8 year old grandaughter, who is my artistic sweetheart this week.  We spend our days together doing artsy things.  Today we did an iron-on pattern on a new T shirt from Michaels, and she decorated it with glittered designs and her picture (that we ironed on the shirt).  She was quite proud, and it took up most of the afternoon.  Tomorrow we're going to a card-making class to make 12 Christmas cards.  That should be fun.  I've got a number of little projects like this planned to keep her busy, and we're having a great time.  She is supposed to go back home with her father on Sunday, but now I think she's decided it's more fun at Grammy's house than it is at home.  It looks like I'll have both her and her brother until next week-end.  I'll be worn out by then!!

LIFE RETURNS TO NORMAL, I GUESS

I've been home for a week now, and life has pretty much returned to normal.  My laundry is caught up, and I have unpacked all my clothes and washed and put them away.  I haven't had much time to be creative lately, though, because my brother and sister arrived the day we got back home.  I have been doing things with them and have had very little spare time.  Tomorrow we are picking up our three grandchildren that live in Nashville and taking them home with us for a few days.  It's their fall break, and they like to come visit us on the farm.  What can I do with three young children to keep them busy??  Got any ideas?  If you do please let me know.  I don't dare let them loose in my craft room - there are too many sharp instruments around!  I usually keep that room locked when they're here.  Hopefully the weather will be nice and they can ride the toys and play with the dogs.  I might even take them to "Boo At the Zoo".  That sounds like fun.  Knoxville has a wonderful, large zoo, but they don't seem to have many animals - at least they weren't very visible. 

This week I am on a campaign to get everything off the floor that doesn't belong on it.  I have a tendency to stash boxes of things behind chairs, in corners, behind the door, etc., and my DH has threatened to throw everything on the floor out.  So, I thought I'd better take care of the problem.  I also have a bunch of nice purses that I never use, and I think I'm going to put those up on eBay.  Time to create some space, I say!  Wish me luck.

My Grandkids Are Coming. Yikes!!

I have spent so much time on these paper bag mini albums that I've let this week slip by, and my daughter and her family are arriving on Saturday.  That's when bedlam breaks loose in our house!  I have to store up and lock my craft room, the cat hides under our bed for the duration, my large cage full of finches go all aflutter and get little feathers everywhere, and I have to get my house kid-proofed.  I love seeing them all, but the two little ones (5 & 7) feed off each other and run around getting into everything.  You have to understand, my husband and I are both retired now, and we live a peaceful, quiet life on the farm, on the top of a hill, far away from the maddening crowd.   I never used to be this way when they just had the one child (who is now 12), but the addition of the other two, who are so full of energy, wears me down after a day or two.  But, I don't get to see them that often, so, hopefully we'll have a good week-end.  I will miss my crafting though.  I have a new video to put up, so I'll get that done tomorrow.