Monday, November 29, 2010

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas........




Don't look at my "Christmas chaos" on the table....it is now decorated for the Christmas holiday.....



Here......




The trees are UP and the house is decorated (well, for the most part)!! Yes, not only was I early this year on the holiday cheer, but we have TWO trees decorated in our house! More on the second one later.....for now, Merry Christmas!
























Thursday, November 11, 2010

HAPPY VETERAN'S DAY

Happy Veteran's Day to all who serve; who currently are serving and have served in the past. May we all remember that FREEDOM IS NOT FREE! It has been bought and paid for ~ the cost, the ultimate price. Least we never take it for granted!

I know this saying is well-used and well-known, but I love it just the same....

"If you can read this, thank a teacher. If you are reading it in English, THANK A VET!"

Thank you Veterans......

Go out, enjoy the day, and when you see a serviceman or women, TELL THEM THANK YOU!

They will appreciate it!



"Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you; Jesus Christ and the American GI; one for your soul and the other for your Freedom"



Thursday, July 22, 2010

Very sad day.........

Goodbye my sweet, lovable companion ~ Things will never be the same around here without you! I love you.........








Today is a very sad day here at "little oak" ~ Our beloved dog, Tag passed away this morning. I have known that this day would come and, honestly, I have dreaded it! Tag came into our lives when he was just 8 weeks old, the cutest little puppy I'd ever seen.....he was our "child" before we had Sutherlyn. When she came into our lives, he loved her so. The day we brought her home from the hospital Tag went to his "toy" basket and brought all of his toys to her room and laid them, one by one, at the foot of her changing table. Then he sat down, looked up at me and began to wag his tail! He was a great dog! A dog that I could have only dreamed of having. He never, ever was ugly or mean to Sutherlyn, even when she was a baby, a new little one in his home, he always loved her. And she loved him, so much so that her very first word was "Tag"! She is not currently here, she is away this week at horse camp but I know when she returns her heart will be broken, as is mine today. Our beloved Tag was 12 years old on Monday, July 19th. Today, he is gone. We will miss him terribly. My heart is breaking for him at this moment. However, I know that this is a part of life and he was just a dog ~ Oh but to us, he was so very much more, he was our Tag and we loved him very much! He was the best dog I could have ever asked for! Thank you Lord for allowing me to spend the last 12 years with him, my life is much better because I loved him and he loved us!




















Monday, April 19, 2010

Making a house a home........

The new bird house.......


For about three years now this little bluebird has made her spring nest at our house. First she started in a birdhouse that was never intended to actually be a bird house! That one was moved from the front porch to atop the post that is currently in the ground just off of our front porch. The kitty cat got ahold of the old house one time and broke all of the baby bird eggs! Wasn't a pretty sight.....anyway, I digress. This is the new and improved, made for the weather birdhouse that I purchased for our little bluebird family this year at the Spring Garden Show......I was worried that she may not make a new nest in it ~ since it was different I was concerned that maybe she would be more concerned with where her other house and nest went....so we put it up on the post and we waited. They arrived just as they have for the last three years, around the middle of March. They started flying around our porch in search of their house, they investigated the new house but didn't seem particularly interested in it......Moma bird tried to make a nest in a cute little rabbit pitcher I had out for decoration on a table on the front porch. I quickly took it out of the picture as the kitty cat would have been very glad to see them in there, boy could she have gotten to that nest easily! So, after I moved that pitcher, I was again worried that Moma bird was upset. She flew away for a day or so and I didn't see her. Then, one morning, she re-appeared, Daddy in tow. She feverishly began to haul anything that she could pick up into the new house!
I thought you might enjoy a few pics so here they are......making their little house a home! We can't wait for the baby birds to hatch out once she finishes with the preparation and actually lays the eggs. That should be soon....it is so nice early in the mornings to sit and watch her as the dawn breaks on another of God's wonderful days. We watch her fly out and fly back with breakfast and we can hear the baby birds inside each time she comes back to feed them. Such an amazing thing to watch.
Till next time........





Wednesday, February 3, 2010




Castaway Cay...Disney's Private Island in the Bahamas...That is the "Flying Dutchman" from the Pirates of the Carribbean movie....have I mentioned that Sutherlyn loves that movie?! It is her favorite .....on the top of the list of her most favorite movies of all time! Go figure? Capt Jack Sparrow is her favorite pirate (as if she knows any other pirates?!) So you can imagine her surprise when he was there, waiting for her!

Onboard ship......



Sutherlyn and me just before dinner the 2nd night....



Sutherlyn and "Pirate" Minnie.....







Nobody does it like Disney!

Are we going on a Disney Cruise?! Yes......Yipeeeeeeee.........











The "sail-away" party on deck as we were leaving Port Canaveral.




Our Stateroom...we had an oceanview window...it is huge!

I don't know what it is about us....maybe we look "special" ~ I have no idea, but once again one of the Disney "cast members" walked up to us on the first night of the cruise, we were attending the "Golden Mickeys" ~ and he asked Sutherlyn, "How would you like to be part of the "special" show tonight? The 7 dwarfs are missing, we left them onshore in Port Canaveral, they missed the ship. We need some children to fill-in for them. How would you like to come up on stage and help us out by being a "dwarf" for our production tonight?" What is it with us? Seriously, it is always fun but we are always picked out of a huge crowd to take part in the "special" events (while down at Fort Wilderness a few years ago, we were picked out to go back and have "special" time with Chip and Dale....while at Disney that same year we were picked out of a large crowd of people standing in line for a ride to be given the "special" treatment...they gave us fast passes to all of the rides that day, the Disney Dream Pass, we didn't have to wait in line for anything the rest of the day and then this, on the cruise.....we were excited to say the least. So, the above picture is Sutherlyn as a "dwarf"....she is right in the middle with the purple hat on, right beside the black and white striped shirt kid.
Coming into port in Nassau.....Bahamas.



The "traffic" cop in Nassau. They don't have "traffic" lights, they have these!







More of everything.....



This is the restaurant in the Hotel....this is part of the downstairs that has been renovated by Joe...the current owner. Based on what he did down there, I can't wait to see the upstairs! He did a great job and was very true to the character of the hotel while adding sophisticated touches throughout. It is beautiful!




This is Clinton Anderson and one of his horses, Diez.....I had the camera on "action" so it was taking pictures one right after the other, in sequential frames, it caught this, the horse was licking and chewing (something all of you horse entheusiast know is a good thing) however, when I looked back at the pictures, based on the way the camera was working, it looks like he is sticking out his tongue! I thought this was funny...










Here is the picture of Clinton coming to the side of the arena to answer Sutherlyn's question. He came over to the side because he said that "he couldn't understand her accent and needed to come nearer to her to hear her better" - lol - He is from Australia ~ who do you think has an accent? She is on the right side of the picture, in the red jacket, just a row in front of the red blanket there.







This is the main stairwell in the Hotel....it was beautiful too....Don't like the carpet, hopefully Joe will pull that up too.


This is the view across the street ~ this is what you see when you are standing/sitting at the Hotel. It looks like a postcard to me. This is Wartrace.....it is a small town, a very small town!




Monday, February 1, 2010

The Hotel - from our Tennessee vacation in November.....for Stephanie (again!)

The front view of the hotel....




The Walking Horse Hotel - circa 1917 ~ This place was right up my alley! The last picture here is our room....the hallway was long and wide and the floor creaks when you walk on it!!! (Stephanie, I wish you'd been there, you would love it!)
Someone came in a number of years ago (the previous owners) and "updated" things (ugh), the red carpet is going as soon as the new owner begins his upstairs renovations...should be some time this month. He is going to send me new pics once he has completed some of it. My pictures here really do not do this place justice, it really was very cool! The halls are adorned with some pictures of the Grand Champion Tennessee Walking horses in the early 1900's. The first and most famous, Stolling Jim, is pictured below. He's also buried behind the hotel.

I'll post a few more of these later.....these are to hold Stephanie over for a bit!

This is a link to an article done in the paper about the hotel and its new owner...great story!

SURPRISE!





Well, Happy Birthday to Sutherlyn....I cannot believe she is 9 years old! It is hard to imagine that she is growing up so fast.




We decided it would be fun this year to break from a traditional Birthday party and surprise her with a Disney Cruise for her birthday....much better than cake and ice cream, don't you think?!



Anyway ~ I have a lot of pictures to post but for now I will start with this one~ this was the look on her face when she saw the Disney ship sitting at Port Canaveral on Thursday afternoon as we drove over the bridge to the port.......I'll post more all about the adventure and the days leading up to it later, for now, enjoy this.....til next time!


Here are a few more, when she looked out the window this is what she saw....the SHIP - quite a sight.....don't you think?! I have others that are far better than these, but this is the ship at port....at the dock waiting for us!













Thursday, January 14, 2010

I just love this face......






Is this not the cutest little dog face you've ever seen!? This is our "Tag" , we have had him for 12 years....he is getting to be an old man but still just as sweet as ever and still just as cute! Just wanted to share this - found it while I was trying to get some Christmas pics on here before it comes again this year! Also, I got a new camera for Christmas so I was playing around with it here - practicing on Tag. Anyway, hope you enjoy our little Tagger Man.....til next time.