While Jim Wrestled the Snake........

Remember Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom? Well, anyway, it was only a plumbing snake. Our kitchen sink was draining very slowly, so we bought a drain snake and went from the sink down, and then into the cellar and about 20' to the T in the pipe. There seems to be 30 years of sludge in the pipes and only a small opening for the water. So after a couple hours of that, and no real progress we called Roto Rooter. It's good now. We have this beautiful new dishwasher that we'll want to hook up some day, so it's good to have the drain working. We're making great progress on the kitchen and bathroom. The bathroom is going to look great. The kitchen will be spectacular. Every step we make in there, we look at it and say "Wow, that looks great". I'll let you see it when it's done. The weather is just starting to change, until yesterday it was in the 80's and 90's. The rest of the week is forecast to be mid 60's, then back up again at the beginning of next week. We could use lots of rain but that's not in the forecast. Hopefully at some point that will come. Gotta get to work! Have a great day!

Meet Jake and Rusty. They're 6 weeks old and absolutely adorable. Rusty (in the back) is a little larger, squarer body shape, and nappy fur. Jake has the look of a tradition golden retriever, and is about a pound lighter than Rusty. They've been with us for a week and have reminded us what sleep deprivation is. Of course we're tearing apart the kitchen at the same time, so we've been keeping busy. All here is well, let us know how ya'll are doing.

Time flies when you're having fun.....

I don't know how long you thought it would be before we started renovations, but whoever had their money on 19 days wins!!! We decided to start on the kitchen right away and hopefully have it done by Thanksgiving. We've gotten a good start. Jim has most of the lower cabinets built and I've got a coat of primer on them. Appliances and counters have been picked out and we're ready to get started. We've been focusing on getting guest rooms ready so there's plenty of room whenever anyone wants to visit. We're ready! We're going to look at a couple of boats this weekend - I'll keep you posted on that. Tonight we're watching the Red Sox/Yankees game. It's the bottom of the 6th, so far so good. The weather has cooled considerably so we're able to get outside and enjoy the yard, maybe soon we can even go golfing. Hope everyone is doing well. Keep in touch!

We're In!!

I know it's been awhile, sorry. We're in our new house! We closed on Friday and Jim's brother and his wife and son came for the weekend to help us unpack. We couldn't have done it without them - Thanks guys! The house is great - plenty of room, a garage under for Jims' shop and a big, shady backyard. We've unpacked enough to function, but have a long way to go. It's nice to be in a house and not stuck in a little hotel room or the truck during this heat wave. It was only in the 90's today - but still muggy so not very comfortable. We've managed to learn the area pretty well and have found stores and shops we like. We also found that we're only about 2 miles from the closest boat ramp. So once Jim buys another boat he won't have far to travel. There are lots of public recreation areas around the lakes and throughout the park system. Most of which we haven't checked out yet. We have found a couple of parks with swimming areas and boat ramps, also some with greenways you can walk or bike. Lots of golf courses around - unfortunately we haven't had time to play any of them. Once it cools down we'll be able to check them out. As you may know, Jim and I have spent the last month with only one car (in fact we were in the car for most of the month)! We spent today car shopping - one of life's necessary evils - and I think we will have a new Pathfinder soon. It'll be nice to be a 2 car family again. Keep in touch and let us know how you are - now that we're back on the internet full time it's easier for us. I'll post more house pictures soon

Cumberland Caverns

Well we left Gatlinburg Friday morning and stopped at a place called Cumberland Caverns.


It is this amazing series of caves that have been turned into a tourist mecca. There are 32 miles of caves in all, obviously we didn't see anywhere near that much, but it was awesome. All the natural formations are amazing.

Came back into Nashville last night and we're here for a while. Next week will be setting up accounts with the various utility companies and doing last minute stuff with the realtor. And Friday (keep your fingers crossed) we're closing on the house. We just went to an estate sale and found some furniture, then stopped at the Opry ticket window and got tickets for tonight's show. Trisha Yearwood, Clint Black, Cherryholmes, among others. Should be a great show.

Laural Falls

We Hiked up to Laural Falls today and
just hung out by the river where it was nice and cool! Tommorow we head back to Nashville need to get everything in order for Fri. My Brother Mike & Deb
and Chris( Itchy ) coming down to help us unload the truck this weekend. So it
Should be fun as long as it's no to hot. the're calling for 90s so that won't be bad.

Smokey Moutains Cool Place

Passed our home inspection yesterday so we're here in the moutains trying to find a cooler place to hang out. It's a little cooler low 90's but back in nashville well over 100. We went on an auto trail up to the top of the moutains, stoping along the way to take a few short hiking trails. Plan on taking a longer hike tommorow up to one of the falls.