Happy Monday!

Mr. Rogers calls them helpers, Dan Heath calls them bright spots, I always say 'If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem'.

However you say it - helper, bright spot, solution - strive to be one of them.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Cheekwood in January

Yesterday was too nice to stay inside, so we decided to go to Cheekwood, which is a local botanical garden. It was originally built as the home of one of the family members of the Maxwell House coffee brand (maybe that's one of the reasons we enjoy it there). It's a beautiful estate and they have numerous gardens and lots of different exhibits throughout the year.

One of my favorite things is this stone. It's something I would bet a lot of people don't see, but it's there's, in the middle of one of the walkways.

There is a Japanese garden. Not much color, but there are some great garden accents.

There's also a train track through one of the gardens with two trains. One is Thomas, the other is the Southern Railroad.

They have all sorts of neat buildings and bridges all around.

We spent a couple of hours walking through the garden paths. It was a great way to spend a sunny Saturday afternoon.

 

Posted with Blogsy

Savannah Georgia

What a great city! We spent a couple of days there after Thanksgiving. We stopped at the Visitor's Center when we first got to the city, and them found our hotel. we stayed at the Hilton DeSoto. They say the 11th floor is haunted - luckily we weren't on 11!!

The historic district is about 3 miles square, and this hotel was right in the middle of it. We left the car parked the whole time we were there.

From our room we could see The Old Savannah Theater

And this house that I think, maybe, could have been the Munster's house.

We asked the concierge where we should go for dinner and he suggested either Mrs. Wilkes Dining Room or The Pink House. Mrs. Wilkes if family style southern fare, which is plentiful in Nashville so we didn't feel like we needed to to there, and we weren't really dressed for The Pink House, so we ended up at B&D Burgers - great burgers and cold beer.

The next day we took the sightseeing trolley. It's an on/off trolley - we made one full loop on the trolley and then spent the rest of the day getting off at different spots and exploring the city. We went to Forsyth Park and saw this fountain

And saw some beautiful architecture

We went down to the waterfront for a while, too. Lots of shops and restaurants down there. Cobblestone streets, old buildings, nice place to wander around.

We decided to stay closer to the hotel for dinner the second night. We had seen the Sixpence Pub while we were walking around, so we decided to go there. Great atmosphere, great food - all within walking distance.

Would I go back. Again? Absolutely!!

Posted with Blogsy

Wordless Wednesday

 

 

Posted with Blogsy

Now we're cooking!

We got a new toy after Christmas and have been having fun testing it out.

Isn't she a beauty!!

I've been wanting one for a long time and found a deal I couldn't pass up. So...

I made pumpkin cupcakes

 

Jim made strawberry cupcakes

And bread.

(Which I didn't get a picture of, but it was good!)

I brought cupcakes into work, and we have more in the freezer. We certainly don't need to eat them all!

I'm just dying to test out my favorite banana bread recipe, though......

 

Posted with Blogsy

New Year 2013

Don't you just love Calvin and Hobbs?? I do!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

 

Posted with Blogsy

ANOTHER Great Opry Show

We had tickets to last nights' Opry. We've had them for a while and didn't realize that last night was the kickoff to the CMA Music Fest. There was a special Plaza Party before the Opry. We got to the Plaza around 5:00 and walked around a little, GAC tv had a bus there and you could register for something - the line was long, we didn't bother. There were a couple other booths giving away things, a tire changing contest, lots of stuff to see. At 5: 30 Luke Bryan came out to the stage to perform. He certainly seemed to be having fun. He played for about an hour, put on quite a show. Lots of interaction with the audience.

There were also a bunch of people walking around with these t-shirts on

the front had Carrie Underwoods Fan Club logo on it. So I asked a couple girls who were wearing them if they really did get to party with Carrie. They said yes, she does a fan club private concert every year for them. That's kinda cool!!

So we got to our seats and, they were kinda far away from the stage.

Ok, it's almost as far away as you can get, but it was a great show, and there are big screens on the walls so it's easy to see what's happening on stage.. We saw a four or five starting acts, then the big names came on:

Carrie Underwood

Montgomery Gentry,

The Oak Ridge Boys,

and Luke Bryant again!