What a lucky weekend...

Daniel and Courtney were in Charleston visiting family this past week and stopped here for the weekend before going back to Indiana. Friday morning, while Trish and I were watching Good Morning America, our local news came on and said something about Bill Clinton was to speak that evening at Asheville High School!! We made sure Daniel and Courtney were up for it, and made plans to go!!!! When we pulled up, the line looked a mile long, they were only allowing 2,500 people in, so I was very skeptical, but to my surprise we made it in.

us waiting in line....
On Saturday, the weather wasn't real great, we planned on going to the woods and for a drive on the parkway, but we thought we should stop at the Farmer's Market first for some boiled P-Nuts, and to our surprise they were having a blue grass and BBQ festival.....So we had to have a snack/lunch on our way to the woods.

just a short video of the speech. FYI : You have to click the "play" button a couple of times to get it to play.

EASTER!!!

So what would Easter be without spending time with family or friends or cutting down trees or getting all 4 dogs together for a barkin good time!?!

When Seth asked if I was interested in bringing the chainsaw over on Easter, Well....................... of course I was!!


Before we started cooking we had to get the chores out of the way, Seth and Amy had this crooked tree growing in the front yard, so we turned it into fire wood.
Amy, the master chef, marinated these beautiful Hunks of Leg o Lamb for 24 hours, then grilled them. YUMMY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Trish made the Deviled eggs, I mixed in some diced jalapenos to a few of them, I think we'll be making more of those.

THANK YOU AMY, Anytime you want to cook large meals that include Lamb, please don't hesitate, "If you are waitin on me....your backin up"
Add a fantastic Strawberry Shortcake, and that is one complete meal. Don't know how I had room for it, but I made it fit:)

WHAT A FUN WEEK!!!!!

What a great Week!!! Marley and Nathan were on Spring Break last week and decided to spend it visiting Trisha and I in the Lovely Mountains of Western North Carolina. Not only did we have a great time, decent weather(atleast it was warmer than good old Indiana), great house guests, but they also brought us 3 PIZZA KING Pizza's(Thanks to Grandma and Jackie!!) We kept a pretty busy schedule while they were here, we went to the outlet mall in Tennessee, went Hiking, went out to dinner, shopping downtown, they painted pottery, they toured the Biltmore, Nathan did a major upgrade to our Computer(THAN YOU SO MUCH!!!!) it now runs at lightening speed, we played board games and UNO, rented movies, and just really had a great time!! We Urge them to come back anytime, as well as anyone else, we enjoy showing off our neck of the woods!! The following pictures are a compilation of last weeks activities......enjoy

One of the best Rainbows:








I Love Mussels, but Trish sure doesn't eat many:



at the Bier Garden:


Marley and Nathan at the Biltmore:

The biggest Old Navy store:

I took the next set of pictures during our Hiking excursion...

Marley is people that Know's people and scored two free tix to the Bristol Race....That must have been a great time!!!

Lazy weekend

We went to see Dark Star 2 nights in a row this past week, so this weekend we needed to stay close to home and let the dogs have some play time. So Sunday, we took the dogs to Seth and Amy's for a little play date. The dogs usually run and play for the first few minutes (5 if we are lucky) and then they come up on the deck and lay around like they are bored, and Maggie whines to go in the house. Just like kids, always bored and never satisfied ;)

We are the new hair family. I got my hair done on Saturday and I love the color! It is hard to see in this picture since I have black on, but it has a maroon tint to it. I hope it doesn't fade too much. Those nasty blonde highlights keep coming back to haunt me, so I hope this darker shade keeps them away!

Doggie Mayhem!!!! Bear Dogg, Harley, Lola and Maggie = BFF

Tom is so National Geographic! I can't wait until we go to Salt Lake City and Yellowstone this summer. We are going to come home with some great pictures!

(oh, and we will have pictures of me with my braces off!!! Only 3 more months!!!)

Lola and Magpie

SPRING IS ALMOST HERE! My tulips are coming up all over! The daffodils are blooming in a lot of places too. Yay! I am sending warm spring like vibes to all of you in Indiana.......It will be sping there soon too. Spring is very nice here, but Spring in Indiana has a whole other meaning. It's like the earth comes alive again, and it brings such feelings of hope. When we were at Seth and Amy's we saw a bunch of Robins flying overhead. I believe they are headed up to IN ! Only 17 More days until spring.

This is my favorite spot on our road. I love to walk up here and just watch the clouds roll by. It's also a nice place to stop to catch your breath before you pass out! The hill is very steep getting up here, but luckily I have two dogs that pull when they are on the leashes! The hill is much harder without them!

Sweet baby cows! If I was a cow I would want to live where these guys live. They are so lucky, they have rolling hills and great views!

Not More Wood.......and a snazzy new hair cut!!

Last week I ran an add on Craigslist, "Want to borrow a large chainsaw in exchange for a truck load of wood" and believe it or not, within 24 hours I had been contacted a couple times. One of the guys, Logan, said that he had just gotten this saw from his dad, it's about 20yrs old and it should be able to cut through anything. He also said he would come out and cut up for me, and didn't care about the wood for barter, he was just happy to have a chance to use his saw. Well the first time he came out, the chain on the saw really needed to be replaced, so I told him I would buy a new one if he would come back. So that he did. Check out this Saw............


My chainsaw looks so little sitting on those slices, and I think it's the biggest saw Home Depot sells!!!

Keep in mind that Logan is about 6'3", if that helps give any reference as to how big this tree actually is. Several of the rounds were between 3 and 4 feet in diameter and probably weigh somewhere in the ball park of 400 pounds each!! It was all Logan and I could do to roll the slices out of the way.

We've got about 25 rounds that are all this big!!!! Too bad we don't have a Fireplace or a Wood stove!!

NOW FOR THE SNAZZY NEW HAIRCUT.........................

Well...I didn't work this past Friday, so Trish and I decided to meet downtown for lunch. I got to town a little early, and just had an itch to cut my hair. I wear a hat most days to work and it started to get a little uncomfortable, so what the heck, cut it all off!!!

If every February was like this...

We had another spectacularly warm Saturday this past weekend! We slept in a little and we were feeling kind of lazy so a strenuous hike was out of the picture. We wanted to at least get the dogs out and play so we decided we would go to one of our favorite campsites and hang out and explore a little. Well, appearantly a lot of other people had the same idea so we didn't get to hang out at the site we wanted, but we were able to get close and we hung out on the creek/ river and let the doggies play. We were trying to walk back to this little swimming hole but the trail was all grown over and I already took my shoes off once to cross the creek and frankly, I did not want to do it again so here is where we stayed! Many of you probably know I have a hard time in the water without anything on my feet....so yes, you read right- I took my shoes off, socks and all, and crossed the creek!!! No swimmy shoes!! Can you believe it? I kept my shoes on when we crossed to go back to the car though! (baby steps:) )

Harley is truly a water dog--he loves to play in it, as long as he can touch! Notice the small tree he is picking up. When we are around water Harley 's favorite game is to get the rocks (and sticks/trees!). He will find a rock he wants and stick his head down in the water to get it! He will also retrieve one that you throw in the water...as long as it is not too deep! After this picture was taken I think he found a rock that looked facinating and as he was trying to figure out just how he was going to get it out of the deep part, along came Maggie and bumped him and Harley went in head first. He was fine, and came to Tom and I immediately to have his eyes and face wiped! He is so funny. YAY!! Everyone get in the picture! Maggie believes she is a lap dog...all 82 pounds of her!

Don't be fooled by the shades! Although it was warm out, there was quite a bit of cloud cover :(

We found an empty campsite and decided to hang out here for a minute and build a little fire. It was right about this time that we were kicking ourselves for not bringing the camping equipment. It would have been a great night to camp. Sir Harley the Mountain Dogg! Check out the mountain in the background! She just looks like TROUBLE doesn't she? But she's sooooo sweet ;)

This is what happens if we do not go to the woods! hehe! I figured if Tom can post a pic. of my air/stick gutiar playing I can post this one!!!!

We had another super day in the woods! It feels so good to be able to just drive a short distance down the road and be in the middle of the woods like this! I hope this good weather continues through March when we have company--- because we love to show this place off!!!