Saturday, March 21, 2009

It's been a long time, I shouldn't have left you!!

Hey everyone!! It is almost 60 degrees here in Pleasant View on Saturday afternoon. I have been busier than a one-armed paper hanger in the kitchen this afternoon. I made a cake to take to a friend, Lindsay, that recently had a new little one. Her name is Evelyn (like that name!), and I can't wait to meet her. I made my famous Cinnamon Pound Cake for her. I hope she thinks its yummy! I also made a Chocolate Chip Cheeseball for a bridal shower at church tomorrow evening. It looks good enough to eat so far. Did I mention that we are covered up with showers in our class group?? So far this year we have 8 baby showers and 1 bridal shower on the books!! We should start a catering business. It is so much fun, though. I think if I could be anything I wanted to be, I would own a tea shop and catering/party planning business! Maybe one day!!


Well, I went to "midnight mass" at Wal-Mart last night..... mass of people, that is. Last night, or I should say this morning at 12:01 am, the vampire movie Twilight came out on DVD! Yes, I like vampire books and movies! I acted like a grown-up and waited my turn in line. There were a bunch of tweens there with Team Edward or Team Jacob t-shirts on. I am sure I would have done the same thing at my age. I am going to attempt to add some photos I took last night at the "mass." Let's see:


For some reason, they had the release party in the lingerie section!!




Another view of the "mass."


Sweet Smell of Success!!

Well, I guess I should end this one cause I need to get ready to go over to Aunt Evelyn's house for supper!! Cara will be here any minute to go with. Love and peace to all!! :)

Monday, March 9, 2009

Monday! It has been awhile!

Hello everyone! It is 74 warm degrees in Pleasant View. I just checked the forecast for the next 10 days and it is showing rain for 9/10 of those days. Uggghhhh!
So a lot has happened since I last updated...for one, I am now driving a 2003 Mitsubishi Lancer! I love it!! My old vehicle is still running, but is not reliable for long trips anymore, so it is sitting in the front yard with a For Sale sign in it. Anyone want something cheap to run around in?????
My Mama came up here on Friday afternoon!! YAY!! We had such a great time together. I took a short nap Friday morning before she got here so I was up and ready to go when she got here. We rode down to the Green Hills area of Nashville for some lunch and shopping. We had lunch at a place called Five Guys Burger and Fries. It was good, but expensive. We got what is considered "little" burgers, shared a fry order, and two small drinks. The total was over $16. Afterwards, we walked outside in this outdoor shopping center. We went to one of my favorite stores. It is called Swoozie's and is considered "cutesy" to use a word from my friend, Mary. I picked up a birthday present for my friend, Leslie, who better be coming up here in a couple of weeks! Do you hear me Leslie Eileen!! Anyway, then it was on to Whole Foods Market to walk up and down the aisles but not buy anything, just like we always do. If you've never been to the deli/bakery section at Whole Foods, you should consider just going to look. They make some of the cutest desserts. We looked but didn't touch! Next, I went to look at the car that I ended up getting on Saturday. We were tired by this time, but we kept right on going.... We went to Sam's next and walked all over that store, then it was off to Hendersonville to have supper. We ate a place called Mimi's Cafe. They have the best muffins, however they are about as big as a softball so you should definitely plan on taking them home and having them for breakfast, like we did. Our last stop before home was Wal-Mart, of course. It is a long-standing joke, that my Mom has been to a Wal-Mart in just about every town in the South! By the time we got home, we were T-I-R-E-D!
On Saturday morning, we were up by 6 am, because I thought we might trade my car in, which we didn't end of doing obviously. So we got out the "bulldozer" and cleaned out my car. It only took 3 garbage bags to get stuff out that I was throwing away, and then another 1 and 1/2 to get stuff out that I was keeping. Not too mention, I took the tent and folding chair out as well. I know, I know.... I am a pack-rat. We rode to Madison, TN and got my car which only took about an hour and a half. I would like the give a shout-out to all the people who helped out during last week when I was having trouble with my car and then during the transition from old car to new. I really really appreciate it and couldn't have done any of it without you!! SO THANK YOU!!!!!!!
OK, so then we went to Clarksville, TN to pick up the baby-shower cake. The ladies at Carol's Cakes and Moore did a very good job, and the cake got rave reviews at the shower yesterday. The top of the cake had a round cake which had been cut in half and placed side-by-side to make a baby body and head. Icing was used to create arms, hands, legs, and feet. The diaper on the body was monogrammed with baby Rachel's initials. It was really cute! Saturday afternoon, after taking an hour nap, we went back to Hendersonville to do a little shopping and see a movie. We saw Taken with Liam Neeson. It was awesome! Who knew Liam could kick butt! I highly recommend it! We ate supper at Carrabba's after the movie, and of course, we went back to Wal-Mart. Saturday night, I tried to catch up on the trillion shows I have backlogged on TiVo. Still trying to catch up!!!
Sunday, we went to church. Mr. Ed gave such a great lesson on how we use the full armor of God to protect us against the devil. My Mom enjoyed meeting more of my group at church. Then, after Sunday school, we went to worship and heard another great lesson which was a about
Restarting Your Heart. It was about the scripture in Matthew 5 that talks about how the pure in heart will see God. After church, we had to stop at the gas station to put gas in my new car.....and.... I filled up from Empty for only $18.45!!!!! That was totally awesome! I wanted to ask the gas pump if it was sure that it was done!! :) Sunday afternoon, I rode over to Mt. Juliet to attend Adam and Tonya's baby shower. They got a lot of cute stuff, and I got to hold baby Lilli who was the youngest in attendance! She is the first baby that has been born from our group this year and is just over a month old. Sweetie pie! Last night, my Mom and I worked on my income tax and then watched some television.
She woke me at 6 am this morning and left not long after that. I went back to bed, of course, because I have to work tonight! After I got up, I took a load of trash off to the garbage and went over to my Aunt Evelyn's to see the new baby goat that was born yesterday morning. His name is Issac and he is white and brown. Maggie went with me and didn't really know what to think about him. I picked him up and held him for a little while, but his mother, Rebecca couldn't find him which made her start hollering and get upset. Needless to say, I put him back down and picked up Maggie so she wouldn't get butted in the head by the protective mother goat.
SO.... there is the update. One day, I am going to figure out the whole camera/picture thing and post pictures on here to go along with my stories. I hope you all have a great week! Enjoy this beautiful Spring weather! Love to all!! S :)

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Wednesday.... Ever have one of those days??

Good morning! It is 47 degrees and sunny in Pleasant View, TN. Yesterday, I had a doozie of a day!! It started going downhill after I got off work yesterday morning, which means that I had already been up 17 hours. Everything started pretty smooth, I took Maggie to the groomer to get her hair "did," and they said, "Miss Maggie is due for her Bordetella vaccination." I said, "Ok, sure." I handed Maggie off, and of course she made me feel bad for leaving her there by crying as soon as I handed her over. So great, thanks Maggie!! She is absolutely fine and loves the lady who cuts her hair, so I don't know what the big deal!!
I was then on my way to Clarksville to order a cake for a baby shower that we are having on Sunday, and it was a beautiful day. I got to the cake store and was a little early, so I jumped out of the car to see what time the store opened. The sign said 10am, and I had half an hour until then, so I thought I would go run another errand while I waited. WRONG!! I got back in the car to leave, cranked it up, and tried to put the car in Reverse. Well, the stupid button that you push to engage the gear shift wouldn't push in which means I was stuck in park. I will attest to how sore my arm is from pulling and yanking on the gear shift like I expected a different result! I called my Uncle James, my car-trouble savior, and he got on the phone with his people trying to get me some help. I called my Mom to freak out about it, like I have to do, before my rational brain kicks in. She, of course, was great with helping that part, as she always is. By this time, the cake store was open, so I went in and ordered the precious cake we will eat on Sunday. I will tell you more about it after the shower is over. But I digress.... so.... a very nice young man came over to try and help me get the stupid car in reverse. He was unable to do anything which meant "tow truck" time. He gave me a ride over to Gateway Tire, which is where my Uncle, the savior, had called. My car was towed over and another nice young man fixed it, or so we thought. He said, "There was a fuse that shorted out, which caused the gear shift not to engage." I said, "Ok, how much do I owe you?" He said, "Nothing." At this point, I must stop and put in a plug for the great guys over at the Gateway Tire and Services in Clarksville, TN. They were so nice and did a great job. Go see them for all your car needs!! OK, now... by this time, it was almost 12 noon, which means I had been up for 22 hours and was starving. I drove over to the O'Charley's on Riverside Drive to have some lunch. Love, love, love their rolls, by the way. After I had the yummy lunch, I walked out to my lovely working car, got in, fastened my seat belt, cranked it up, put my foot on the brake, and pushed the lovely button to engage the gear shift. THE STUPID BUTTON WOULDN'T WORK!! I was ready to just give up and sleep right there in my car. I called the nice people over at Gateway Tire, and the nice man on the phone said, "I will send the mechanic right over." WOW! So I called my Mom and freaked out again. The nice young man that fixed my car the first time came up and tried again. He removed both the back brake lights and taped some stuff with that black electrical tape and replaced some more fuses, and said, "Ok, I don't know if I got it completely fixed this time, but I am going to show you how to put a new fuse in the control panel so you won't have to be towed if it happens again." He then gave me four fuses in case I needed them. Did I mention how sweet these nice people are??
I left Clarksville after being there for 4 hours more than I had originally planned and went on my way to pick Maggie up at the groomer. She was happy to see me and get out of there. She looks really cute, and they put a cute, little Pooh Bear bandanna on her. So, here was the ultimate test. I paid the bill, took my wriggly Maggie out to the car, got in, fastened my seat belt, cranked up the car, and pushed in the lovely little put on the gear shift. IT WORKED, HALLELUJAH! I then proceeded to drive my tired, 24-hour body home and crash on the couch for a few hours before I woke up at 6 pm and went to bed.
I got a solid 12 hours sleep, and today is a brand new day!! YAY! I thank God for all my blessings that he gave me yesterday, just like he does every other day of my life. To God be the glory!! I am looking forward to my Mama coming on Friday and spending the weekend with me! I will be telling you all about that soon!! Love to all and remember to be thankful for your blessings today!
S :)

Saturday, February 28, 2009

The last day of February!

Hello from Pleasant View, TN. It is a windy 39 degrees with snow in the forecast for this afternoon. I know yall enjoy my weather updates!!
I go to the dreaded workplace this evening, and I will be working for the next three days. I just have to make it through tonight and tomorrow night and then I will be working with an actual helper. I really hate calling it the dreaded workplace because I really do love my job. It is just a lot easier to love my job when I work with people who work as a team. I usually end up getting the short end of the stick when I work with my "weekend partner." I guess things could be worse though. We have been busy at work lately and that usually makes the time go by a lot quicker. :)
It has been a good week. I worked Tuesday and Wednesday, and we were as busy as a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest. I had help though! Then, I was off on Thursday and Friday. Thursday, I went to a book meeting for a children's book that a group from my Sunday school is writing. It is about a strange, lovely little boy named Alfalfa Zucchini. He is basically very happy with his life and tells the reader about himself using clever alliterations with the alphabet. We will be meeting with the illustrator soon to start sketching out the pictures in our heads. Last night, I met up with some people from the Upper Room (Sunday school group) over at Matt's house. We had a movie/game night which ended up being more of a game night. A bunch of us played Pop Culture Trivial Pursuit and had a blast! I am pretty good at this version of Trivial Pursuit because I watch a lot of television, watch a lot of movies, and listen to a lot of music.
Today has started out as "Blast from the Past" day. I have been watching 90210 re-runs and listening to old Collective Soul and Cranberries' songs! I just love the Cranberries!! Ok, I need to go put clothes in the dryer, (yes Mama, I am washing clothes). I am sure the next update will come after I get done working the weekend. Hope everyone has all the blessings they can stand!! Love to all! :)

Monday, February 23, 2009

Monday

Good morning everyone! It is sunny and 29 degrees in Pleasant View this morning. I got 6 hours sleep last night and am thankful for those 6 hours because I took a nap yesterday afternoon for 6 hours!!!!!! I couldn't believe it... I guess people that work night shifts can't lay down to take short naps. I missed the Red Carpet and the first important award on the Oscar's. Thankfully, the rearranged the awards this year so I didn't miss anything really important. So....
The Oscar's.... I have already voted Anne Hathaway as best dressed. I thought her emotions during the nominee announcements by Shirley MacLaine were very beautiful, and I could tell how appreciative she was for the nomination. I haven't seen Rachel Getting Married yet, but it is in my Netflix queue. My worst dressed vote is a toss-up between Bridget Fonda and Melissa Leo, another Best Actress nominee. I was so glad that Heath Ledger got his posthumous Oscar for his performance in The Dark Knight... he was awesome; I couldn't take my eyes off of him anytime he was on-screen in that movie! I haven't seen most of the other movies that were nominated so I can't really say that one actor/actress deserved it more than another, except for Heath, of course. Slumdog Millionaire and Benjamin Button took home the most awards.
My weekend was a good one! Cara and I went to J. Alexander's before the theater on Saturday evening. I got Mr. Jack's Crispy Chicken, and she got the Prime Rib. This restaurant has an unusual way of stacking things up really high on the plates. We saw one appetizer plate of Onion Rings that had to be over a foot high. It makes for a really nice presentation! My chicken was very good, (I'm an expert on chicken fingers) but my fries were nothing to write home about. Cara obviously enjoyed her food because she joined the Clean Plate Club. After supper, it was off the Pajama Game at TPAC. The show was really cute! Our seats were in the Loge and were good seats for the price. The show lasted 2 and 1/2 hours, but you would never know that. It was a musical so all the singing and dancing kept me well entertained. We just weren't ready to throw in the towel after the show, so we decided to go to the Melting Pot for dessert. If you've never been, the Melting Pot is a fondue restaurant where you cook on your table and dip your food in delicious sauces. We did chocolate only. I chose the Smores chocolate, and Cara chose the Banana's Foster. Smores was my favorite. We both went home as happy girls and fell into chocolate comas as soon as our heads hit the pillow.
Sunday morning means worship in this house! I attend Madison church of Christ in Madison, TN, and I had an awesome Sunday. In Sunday school, we had a special announcement that one of the couples were expecting a baby. That makes 6 new babies on the list for this year! Worship was absolutely wonderful just like it always is. Brother Phil presented a great lesson on how the meek will inherit the earth. Heard a lot of AMENs!! After church, I went out to lunch with Cara, her parents, her brother Kyle, and Meredith. We ate at the Olive Garden, and I had my fav, Chicken Scampi. When I got home, the 6-hour nap commenced, and you know the rest!
Today, I need to go to Wal-Mart because my cupboards are bare. I also need to take off the garbage and do more laundry!! Fun! Tonight, I am going to a basketball game at church to support the guys in my Sunday school class, The Upper Room. Have a blessed day!

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Saturday

Hello to all who read this... which is no one!! Today is a beautiful chilled day in Pleasant View, TN! It is 51 degrees and sunny with a forecast for snow later on this afternoon. I am taking a break at the moment from full-on cleaning mode. My house is a WRECK!! You don't want to know the last time I cleaned!! I am hoping that I survive it. The reason I need to take a break at this point is because I just went up and down the stairs like 10 times to finally put away all of my CHRISTMAS decorations!! I just took down my tree... now that is ridiculous! I wish I could have a better attitude about cleaning.
Anyway, I am looking forward to going to TPAC tonight, which is the performance arts center in Nashville. Cara and I are going to see The Pajama Game. It looks really cute. The Pajama Game is about a pajama factory where the workers are coming closer and closer to strike. The two main characters are Babe, the complaint committee head and the new factory superintendent, Sid. It is a musical which I love!! I will let you know what I think. Before the show we are going to J. Alexander's for supper, (love it).
I am going to end this little update and put my full cleaning armor back on. Wish me luck! I hope everyone is having a great day!!
Peace!!