Happy Friday All, Lately I've been trying to figure out some mess with my website, being Mom, editing, writing, going on family vacation, prepping for different things. I'll post pictures from my family vacation on here, soon, I just need to get them up on my computer. But it was nice. We went up to Michigan for my nephew's wedding. The ceremony was lovely, the venue was gorgeous, the bride and groom were so happy and we all had a fantastic time. I'm one of 8 kids, and we hadn't all been together in the same place since my parents' 50th wedding anniversary celebration, which was about three years ago. For us, it's pretty incredible that it's only been 3 years. With our schedules, and the fact that we're all over the USA, it's hard for us all to get together in one place. But we did, and it was so much fun. A lot of laughter, hugs, reminiscing, and fun. I really am blessed to be in this family and I'm blessed that my parents are such gener...

Happy Wednesday Night Folks, Normally I don't "double-post" but I have a ton of pictures and I'm picking some to post on here, so I figure I'd break them into a series of posts.  Check for the captions on description for each picture. At the resort me and my family stayed at in Gatlinburg, TN. It's up in the Smoky Mountains. In the background, you can see a  marvelous view of the mountains. Below is the construction of another cabin for the resort (there were A TON of cabins!) Yet another gorgeous view In downtown Gatlinburg, there's a bunch of charming shops, restaurants, and attractions. I wish we could have done way more than we did. The streets were almost always busy, but the people were nice We went to an ice cream shop, and that was their Nutritional Warning LOL We didn't go here, but anything Indiana Jones-esque catches my husband's eye There were A LOT of places to do Miniature Golf We did play one game of miniature ...

Happy Wednesday All, Oh my! I'm so behind. Last week, I was up in Gatlinburg, Tennessee at a resort for a family reunion. We flew out to Charlotte, North Carolina on July 14th, rented a car, and drove up to the resort.  Offspring and Husband went swimming at one of the resort pools and hiking in a National Park. I hung out with my family, answered posts on Christie Craig's blog (on July 16th--congratulations to Kathleen O. for winning a copy of All's Fair In Love & Lion . Hope you enjoy it). Thursday we had a baby shower for my brother and his wife. That was fun.  Friday we went out to Dollywood for the day. Offspring and Husband are far more adventurous about rides than I am, but that was okay. I walked through the water that they had misting around for park-goers to cool off. Of course, I probably shouldn't have bothered since later we got totally drenched by a rain shower. However, before that happened, we saw birds of prey (including a bald eagle and g...

Happy Tuesday All, My adventures in Arkansas continued on Wednesday with a trip to the mall so that offspring could play on the playground, and then to the  Botanical Gardens . There were so many different types of gardens. They had these pretty little stone signs: In the Children's Garden, there was this awesome train called Reading Railroad. Made my husband and I think of the game, Monopoly. But, the train was eye-catching both as a writer and a reader...can you guess why?   In one garden (I think the Japanese Garden), there was this fountain in the shape of a Lotus Blossom, but I thought it also looked like a banana. (Yes, that's me in the photo):    Those tall, purple flowers you see to the right were everywhere in the garden. I think they're Foxglove? Anyway, they were pretty. There were areas where it looked really pretty with all the trees around. I don't know what expression I'm making--I guess I wasn't completely ready f...

Happy Monday All, Hope everyone had a great weekend! As I posted over the weekend, last week I was up in Arkansas visiting my in-laws. I thought I'd use this week to document the trip (I took a TON of pictures!) So Monday in Arkansas we didn't do too much. We had traveled all day on Sunday, so we took it easy. Tuesday we went to the Pea Ridge National Park where some of the Civil War was fought and we also headed into Eureka Springs. Pea Ridge had a self-guided driving tour that was 7 miles long, and a visitors center. At the visitors' center we saw several exhibits, such as this cannon:    Along the driving tour there were other cannons marking battle grounds and lines where both the Union and Rebel soldiers lined up.  The open spaces of the battle grounds gave me an eerie feeling...like I could sense the fighting that went on there. It's really something. The scenery is gorgeous now, but I can imagine it was incredibly bloody back then.    ...

Happy Weekend Everyone! I normally don't post on the weekends, but I have a bunch of pictures from our road trip up to see my in-laws in Arkansas, so I thought I'd go ahead and start today. We traveled up a longer distance going up there, but it took us through the Boston Mountains. The roads were narrow, windy, and steep, but the scenery was gorgeous! Check it out... The road sign in this picture pretty much tells you what the road was like: There were places along the road where it was possible to pull over and take pictures. Some of these aren't so pretty (because of the fences) however, my husband got a couple of awesome pics: Anyway, that's the BEGINNING of the adventures in Arkansas. Stay tuned for more... Have A Wonderful Weekend!