Join Us!

Join us in celebrating our 54th anniversary today! 

From this:

August 21, 1971 (19 & 20 years old)

Our 25th anniversary--1996

2021--50 years!

2025--54th anniversary. (73 & 74)

And the ride continues!!

Words of Wisdom Wednesday

It's That Time of Year!

Back to school time!!!

I cannot believe that "the littles" are all grown up!!

Josie is in 4th grade this year and Evie is in 8th. She seems too young to be in 8th grade! She's taller than me for sure, but she'll always be that little girl to me. 

And then there's the boys! Travis is also in 8th grade this year. Even though he bleached his hair this summer, he still seems "little" to me. Nathan is in 5th--can you tell how happy he is about that?

They all will remain "the Littles" to me!

I hope the have a great school year!

Me on Monday

Last week, my friend, Diane brought me a gift from another friend, Lyn. When I opened it, I found this:

Well, if you know me, I’m highly excitable—especially when I get a new toy! I just had to delve in to the book right away. 

It was a vintage book--I love vintage books! But, I have quit buying books since I already have a library full. To have one gifted to me was a really special surprise. 

I have always loved books. Getting them as gifts at a young age were always my favorites. Plus, English literature has always been my favorite too. That started when my favorite Aunt Marie gave me Silas Marner and Jane Eyre at 8 years old! Yes, you read that right! They were a little beyond me then, but I did read them in the 5th grade! Next it was Agatha Christie and I never looked back! In fact, Wuthering Heights is my all time favorite book! "Oh Heathcliff..." sigh!

In this new (old) book--a diary of Charles Dickens trip---I found the section on St. Louis and had to laugh at how “spot on” it was!

In 1832, Charles Dickens was traveling by the Mississippi river through the mid-west which he found incredibly flat and boring (he actually said "uninteresting")! That’s funny because every time I go “home” I notice how flat and boring it is! When that’s where you grow up, you don’t know any difference until you leave and come back.

St. Louis was settled by the French (hence, St. Louis), so CD reported of the big French influence everywhere—especially all of the Catholics and churches. He stayed at a place called The Planter’s House that was "built like an English hospital." I don’t really know what that means--I hope it's not that the beds are divided by curtains! 

As I always do, I had to research it--the hotel  no longer exists. Eventually—long after CD would have been there, the cocktail, Planter’s Punch was invented at that hotel bar.

Although CD was impressed at St. Louis’ three "free" schools in 1832, he found St. Louis, hot, swampy, full of mosquitoes and not particularly interesting. 

I have to admit that I mostly agree with Charles. He was far too early to have experienced just about the BEST Italian food in America! I know that’s quite a statement, but I stand by it!

Lyn, thanks again for this interesting book. It’s going to make a nice addition to my Dickens table at Christmas—not to mention a great conversation starter as now I know something new that ties Charles and me together!! 

I’m happy to celebrate him every year. In 2024, we raised a glass of the bubbly to him with my toast: “I wonder if Charles Dickens could ever dream that there would be a group of ladies from Nashville, Tennessee celebrating him 180+ years after the publication of A Christmas Carol. Here’s to you Chuck!”

Thanks to Lyn for the book and to Diane for delivering it to me!

Something for Sunday

Wednesday was unusual for us. Unusual in that it was full of fun "thank you" gifts!

This came from "The Swim Gals"--the name my friend, Susan coined in her sweet note to Butch. 

My friends got this collection of ice creams for him as a "thank you" for all his work in getting the pool ready for us every week. I'm grateful for that too! This gift was perfect for him as he LOVES ice cream. He eats it very sparingly--this will last him nearly a month--well, unless I help him. I usually leave the ice cream to him since he loves it so much. For me, I can pass on ice cream unless it's the only sweet in the house--or Pecan Jack's at the beach!

Later the same day, this beautiful flower arrangement arrived.

It's from my granddaughters for the fun trip we had at the beach. They are sweethearts for sure!! I love flowers!

This was the first "thank you" I got that day. It's from my cute, little, 6 year old friend, LaRue. She is the granddaughter of my friend, Nancy.

She painted me this picture as a thank you after the beach trip with her parents. I'm so impressed at the detail of this. Look at that sun. I love how she did the rays. First of all, I would never have thought of that. And if I did, they would have been lines. Even that umbrella--she did such a good job with making the strips look circular. And the dog---OMGosh! Really, it's amazing. I love everything about this. 

She even painted the back.

She was quick to tell me that she had mis-spelled "thank you." Seriously--she's only 6. I think this is pretty darn good. She managed to make those outlined letters. I don't think I can even do that!

LaRue's parents gave us a gift card to Sperry's--our favorite steak place here in Nashville along with a nice note. 

A was a day full of fun surprises--and who doesn't love that??

Scrapbook Saturday

I saved my project to share today because--well--I didn't have anything else!

This was such a fun little project, but it took much longer than I thought. I'd say we probably spent about 6 hours on it. It will be a nice little remembrance of our trip.

Stephanie and Mindy want to make one too. We just have to figure out when and how much time they want to devote to it. 

Friday Funnies

Five Things Thursday

Thought provoking.

Words of Wisdom Wednesday

Travel Tuesday

As you are reading this, no matter how early, I'm on my way home from the beach. We had the BEST time and plan to do it again next year. They want to include their moms, but we'll see about that. The whole point of this trip was just me and my granddaughters! I wanted this one-on-one time with them. 

SO MUCH FUN! And we didn't even do a few of the things I had planned. I made pedicure appointments, but when we got there, they didn't have us down. Could be I made the appointments at the wrong nail salon. I didn't know it was a chain!

Another thing they missed--Sunday was the day they were to go shopping. I had planned to surprise them with some money to spend. Since Victoria and Elizabeth weren't going to be there, Morgan and Jordan opted to spend the day on the beach. We'll do it next year!

Also, we didn't have any time to play poker. Since Victoria and Elizabeth had to leave on Sunday, all of our spare time was spent working on our little project. 

They turned out so cute!!

Once you open the suitcase, it's an accordion, little scrapbook. It's interesting with a little shaker pocket, flip-ups, fold-outs and library pocket. The girls each figured out their own tiny layouts. Each one is individually their style. 

Victoria picked purple.

Elizabeth chose aqua.

Morgan chose chartreuse.

Jordan picked turquoise.

As for mine--I was so busy printing pictures, I didn't have time to finish. Maybe I"ll have it finished to post on Saturday.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from our trip.

Elizabeth and Jordan had hair wraps. They are supposed to last a couple months.

Elizabeth and me at "Justin's Place"--Papa Surf's. It's owned by Brian Kelly (formerly with Florida/Georgia Line), Jason Aldean, some football player and Justin's boss. Justin went down to do an assessment after they opened. The girls decided that it's going to be known as "Justin's Place!" We love our Justin!

The girls bought beaded key chains at Alvin's.

There was ice cream involved! Three times for the girls, once for me. 

There was plenty of pool time.

We went down for sunset on the beach....

...with the "snacklebox!"

Morgan has the longest arms for the BEST selfies!

After sunset on the beach, we went back to the pool for a night swim. We had to take several pictures to get one that didn't make me look like a "little person." This is me standing on my tippy toes!

I had to snap this shot. This is why I say that our place is really only good with 4 people. The 5th person is sort of in "no-man's land!" This is Elizabeth's pile in the dining room!

One last selfie outside of The Perfect Pig (where we had brunch) before Victoria and Elizabeth headed back home.

A beautiful sunset from our porch. Kind of makes going down to the beach hardly worth it. I love the backdrop of the beautiful palm trees. 

We spent our last day on the beach before heading to the pool. We finished with dinner at Stinky's Fish Camp. Then we finished a 5 episode series called Sirens on Netflix--really good!*****

So, that's a "wrap!" Our first annual Grammy/granddaughters trip to the beach! I hope we can make it happen again next year!

*****Update: we spent about a half hour discussing the ending and decided we didn't really like it after all. But we agreed it did get us talking and speculating. Knowing what we know now, would we have watched it?? NO!! You've been warned!