More High Falls Pics!

High Falls Junket

I went exploring today at High Falls State Park in Jackson and had such a wonderful time! It is a gorgeous park and I regret that I hadn't been there before today. It is only a 45-minute drive straight up I-75. I'll definitely be going back!

I got there around 11:00 and drove around, trying to get my bearings and figure out where everything was. I decided that I'd start my hiking at the end of the nature trail where the falls are and work my way back. I did that for a while but I kept noticing that there was something going on over across the falls. Another trail! So I walked across the bridge to see what was over there. I ended up at the end of that one, where the old gristmill is. It was about 1:30 then and I was getting hungry so I started trying to find a place to eat. There are a couple of restaurants nearby but one didn't open until 4:00 (of course that one was the one with the fried catfish!) but the other one, a TRUE barbecue joint, was open. It's High Falls Barbecue and Beverage and if you're ever in the neighborhood, stop and get you a sammich! They give you enough of the juiciest pulled pork barbecue for TWO sandwiches and they have a dozen different sauces to pick from. It's really reasonable, too!

After lunch, I went back to the park and walked the 2.5 mile nature trail again, starting at the beginning and ending at the falls. There were a few folks here and there on the trail but for the most part, it was me and God and it was nice. I was so awestruck many times by the things I saw, the things I touched and smelled. I kept hearing the roar of the falls getting louder and louder so I knew I was getting close to the end so I slowed down and took in everything around me, like this pretty little mushroom just as content as it can be growing in that carpet of soft green moss.

I ended up hiking five miles on the two trails and it was absolutely exhilarating!! I was hot and sweaty but I wasn't tired. Six months ago, I would not have even tried this. My ankle would have been lookin' at me all wild-eyed and crazy. But today was perfect. I did it. I walked up hills, down hills, over roots, through mud and over little streams. And it was amazing!!!

Eclipse at Midnight!

I was here making history last night at midnight to see the premiere of Twilight #3, Eclipse! I say making history 'cause I'm hearing that the midnight showings brought in record $$$$, like $30 million. That's a lot of crazy, screaming girls.  I was there with my friends, Kelly and Jennifer, and a new friend, Alexis.  We went to the new Houston Lakes theater and I was so impressed with how very organized and calm it was.  We did have to stand in line about an hour to get seated but they were filling up all ten rooms and it just took a while.  

I thought the movie was great!!  I thought Kristen Stewart was so much better in #3 than she was in the first two.  She has this really annoying thing she does with her mouth that drives me up a tree but she didn't seem to do it that much in Eclipse. Maybe somebody's said something to her about it and she's working on it. Whatever, she seemed better, more animated, funnier and a much better actress.  Maybe she's finally getting comfortable in her role.  I thought she did good!

The funniest thing to me was when Jacob told Edward, "I'm hotter than you." He was talking about keeping Bella warm but it was SO obvious that that had a double meaning. Taylor Lautner's first scene, in a SHIRT, mind you, brought the house down. 

We'll have to wait until November 2011 for the first installment of Breaking Dawn.  That was my favorite book of them all.  I can wait.  I got True Blood to keep me, um, occupied.

Crack In A Jar

OH. MY. GOD.

Vacation!!

I'm on vacation this week!!  I have SO much that I need to get done this week so I started today, early.  Well, early for me.  I slept until 9:00 and was out in the yard working at 10:00. I got the grass cut, the deck water sealed, a load of towels hung out on the line, the bird bath scrubbed and refilled with cold water for my birdies and I added some stuff to the compost including a SunChips compostable bag that Ami gave me to try.  I can't wait to see how long it takes it to break down!

I got all my stuff done outside and came in to cool off.  I swear, whoever invented air conditioning ought to be kissed right dead in the mouth. Repeatedly.  It was SO. HOT. out there!

I discovered last night that I don't have to pay for HBO to watch True Blood after all.  I have On Demand and I can watch episodes for free there!!  Yay!! So that's what I'm doing this afternoon, enjoying the wonders of air conditioning and a few really cute vampires.

My Birthday Weekend

I am still celebrating my birthday! I went to Ami and Brian's yesterday to pick up my "swag", as Larry calls it. The swag he got me. He tells her what he wants, gives her the money and she does the shopping. I am so grateful to her for all the help she gives him!! Larry told me about a week ago about something that might be coming but he didn't want me getting my hopes up in case the person didn't follow through. As soon as it was out of his mouth, though, it was too late. My hopes were all kinds of up!! 

He'd gotten a letter from an old Army buddy telling him that he had Larry's

old helmet that he's held on to for 40 years. Larry wrote him back and gave him an address to send it to and it arrived ON my birthday at my sister's house! I cannot even tell you how excited I am to have it. It is a MIRACLE that it made its way to me after all these years. It was mine, mine, mine from the very beginning. I could not put it down last night. I even slept with it! Ha!! Larry's nickname back then was "Spider" (sooooooo cute!!) and when I saw that written on the chin strap, I just got all melty.

Larry got me a TomTom, too!! And I'm really excited about it. I've been wanting one for a while. Now I won't get lost no more!!! It's so cool. I'm still figuring it out and I'm gonna use it this week when I go exploring at High Falls. I'm wondering tonight how I'm gonna hike with a blister on my foot (thanks, new tennis shoes!) that is right in the SAME SPOT where I 'bout cut my foot off two years ago. Of course it is. Ow!!

I had a great birthday weekend. I spent both days with Larry and then yesterday afternoon, Ami, Brian and I went out to Chili's for supper and then went and did a little grocery shopping. I got some great stuff at the farmers' market today to eat this week while I'm on vacation (squash, onions, sweet potatoes, peaches) and I have a full week planned of stuff to do!!

Sleeping in tomorrow morning is first on my agenda. :)

It's My Birthday!

What a wonderful day I had!!  The girls at work took me out to lunch today at The Greek Village and the food was sooooo good. And we were even honored with the mayor's presence, too.  He sat at a table near ours.  Here are a few pictures!  

Jennifer and me checking out the menu.  

Everybody on the other side of the table was too scared of my BLOG.  Ha!

My Greek salad.  

Olives, lettuce, tomato, cucumbers, peppercinis, 

feta cheese and Greek salad dressing.  It was incredible!

The Tour of Greece.

Grilled chicken, steak and sausage gyro with Greek potatoes.

Delicious coconut cake I got for dessert.

I only had a few bites of it and the rest is still in the fridge at work.

The folks I work with are awesome.  At the office, we had angel food cake, sweet juicy strawberries and whipped cream.  We all went out for lunch but they also all chipped in and got me a humongous gift card from Kohl's.  Dr. N gave me a gift card to Penney's and Lisa gave me a pair of beautiful silver sand dollar earrings and a cute Birthday Girl ribbon that I wore all day. I can't wait to go shopping for clothes next week while I'm on vacation!  I'm gonna clean out my closet and take all those FAT clothes to Goodwill.  After all I ate today, though, they might not even BE fat clothes anymore.  Ha!! 

I had 60+ Happy Birthday wishes on Facebook, too!!  That just thrilled me.  I kept checking all day and there were more and more and more.  

I had such a great birthday.  It was filled with laughter, good food and the love of friends.  What else could a girl ask for?

True Blood

Okay, so there's this little show on HBO that's in its third season and I'm just now hearing about it. I'm just now hearing about it only because a girl I work with, Jennifer, told me about it and loaned me the first two seasons on DVD to watch and catch up.  I disconnected HBO when my beloved Sex and The City ended, I saw no reason to keep it with my favorite show gone.  

Y'all, Imma have to call Cox back.  

I LOVE True Blood!!!  I'm hooked on it already and I'm not even to Season Two yet.  It's based on Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire Mysteries.  While I was watching the first couple of episodes, I noticed more than a few Twilight similarities but since the Southern Vampire books came out in 2001 and Twilight in 2005, who copied who?  Uh oh.

It's such a cool show!!  And it has the BEST theme song.  

When you came in the air went out.
And all those shadows there filled up with doubt.
I don’t know who you think you are,
But before the night is through,
I wanna do bad things with you.

Oh, yeah.

Home

I spent yesterday, Father's Day, with my love and with my daddy.

After our family dinner, Brian, Ami and I went to visit Maw for a little while and then we went exploring, taking pictures in Oglethorpe, our home town. I really like how this picture turned out.  I'm sitting in front of a very old building, they're all very old, that has been so many things in the past hundred years.  I think it's an antique furniture store now.  It's had a thousand coats of paint and holds a million secrets.  It's the very definition of small town and I loved it.  So I'm sitting there on a bench looking off down Sumter Street in little bitty Oglethorpe, Georgia, thinking how lucky I am to have grown up there.  I may not live there anymore but my heart sure does.

Welcome, Summer!

I just love this picture!  It reminds me of so many summer days I spent as a kid playing outside every day until after dark, running through the sprinkler in the hot sunshine and drinking that cold well water right from the hose. 

We've had a couple of weeks of record high temperatures here in Georgia so it's been summer for us since the end of May! But today marks the official start of summer and the longest day of the year. Today was also the first Monday since April that I didn't have a class to go to. Sweet!! Not that I don't love what I'm doing but I'm glad to have the break.

I swear that dog next door must have read my blog 'cause since Friday when I got that training whistle, she has not barked!  It's amazing.  The only sounds I hear right now are the kids on the other side of me laughing and playing in their pool.  

Welcome, Summer.  I can't wait to see what you'll bring me!

Strawberry Lemonade

Since strawberries are so plentiful right now, this is a perfect way to enjoy them!

4 cups water

1 cup sugar (I used stevia)

2 cups fresh strawberries, pureed

5 small lemons, juiced

In a small saucepan, boil 1 cup water with the sugar, until the sugar completely melts

Set aside and let cool completely

In a blender, blend the strawberry puree and lemon juice, add sugar mixture

Add the remaining 3 cups of water and serve with lots of ice!

(Oh, and it tastes even better when you drink it out of an IKEA glass!)

A Day Off

I have today off! And I really, really, reallyohmygod needed it. I had planned to sleep late but that damn dog next door saw to it that that wasn't going to happen. She did let me sleep until 9:00, though, but that's early for me. I was thinking more like 1:00! This dog has been barking since NOVEMBER and she's driving me nuts. I've talked to her owners several times and called the police once. The police came out, told them (and me) if they got another call, they'd take the dog. I don't want that. There are little kids in that house who love that dog and I can't take her away from them. So, I've just been stewin'. And throwing stuff over the fence at her, telling her to shut up. I can't sleep late, take naps or study. My neighbors tell me she's barking at squirrels. Well, that's just retarded.

I got a gift card from Walmart in the mail the other day with an invitation to come join them for the grand opening of our newly remodeled store. I needed a few things anyway and since I was already up, I got dressed and went over there and walked around a little bit and I have to admit, it looks so good. Even if the shoes are in the front of the store. I've only been in there twice during the remodeling process and the-shoes-in-the-front-of-the-store thing had me all in a tizzy. Shoes don't belong in the front of the store. That's just downright un-American.

I left there and went to PetSmart and got one of those silent dog whistles that I'm gonna try on Li'l Miss Prissy next door. The guy at the store told me I could try to train her to not bark by blowing that whistle when she does. We'll see...

I'm gonna go see Toy Story 3 this afternoon. I had a girls' night out Wednesday night with Lisa and Jennifer from work to celebrate me not having to go to class (We're so easy. We'll celebrate anything. Ha!). We went to Mellow Mushroom (yum!!) but didn't even get pizza. We did good!! I had the Capri salad and a half avocado sandwich on wheat. Then we went to the brand new theater out on 96 to see Killers. The movie was cute (and so was Ashton Kutcher!) and the theater is soooo nice. It's COLD in there, though, but they have pizza so it's a wash.

My Cookie's So Bright, It's Gotta Wear Shades

(Lord, I am showing my age with that title!)

There are certain perks to working in a doctor's office. One of them is GOODIES!!  We get lots and lots of goodies, from drug reps and other doctors' offices and labs and home health care facilities that we use.  You should see our kitchen table in December!  That table stays loaded down with stuff.

Anyway, the good folks at IV Care Options brought us these cute cookies from Wilson's Bakery today.  Those of you in the area know about Wilson's Bakery.  It's THE bakery in Warner Robins.  Seriously, they have no competition.  They'd probably shut the competition DOWN the first week anyway.  I have hurt myself bad over some of their Finger Nut cookies and apple fritters before.  

So, we got these sunny little cookies today and I thought this one with the sunglasses was so cute, I had to blog about it!!  

And since I reached 48 pounds this morning, I ate it.  

Happy Summer to me!!!

My New Quilt!

Larry read about this program in a magazine where they make and distribute quilts to children of incarcerated people and he wrote them to see if they'd be willing to make me one. They wrote him back and said they'd be happy to, they just needed to know my favorite colors. He told them blue and brown and they sent me a quilt!! It's perfect and looks sooooo pretty on our bed, don't you think??

45

June 6, 1965

Today is my mama and daddy's 45th wedding anniversary.  They are such a loving inspiration for our family and although I've said this before, I'm gonna say it again.  I believe the example they have set for us over the years is the reason my brother, my sister and I have such strong, happy marriages today.

Daddy taught me how to drive and bait a hook, Mama taught me how to pray and how to cook, I've learned a bazillion things from them but I believe it was the love, commitment, compromise and the sticking together through good times and bad that has made me a good wife for Larry.  I learned that by watching them.

Happy Anniversary, Mama and Daddy!
I love you both as big as the ocean.

Peace, Love and TEA

It was bound to happen. Two of my favorite things, coming together for the common good.

Peace and sweet tea.

I've been a good girl on SB and I've been drinking my tea with stevia and I'm gonna keep doing that but I stopped by a store out by the college tonight on my way to class to get some gum 'cause yes, I DO chew gum in class, and I saw these cans of tea! I just loved the artwork and at just 99 cents each, thought they'd be a cool (and cheap!) blog talky.