Wow - 59th BD at Belloo's

Best Friends and Singing Partners - me and Dehra

The Yorkie Cake

Now that was a party!!! Belloo's threw me a fabulous Birthday Party on Saturday! Actually I had a great day all day. Kenny and I and Dehra and Pat went to Ezell's (my favorite catfish place in Columbus) for lunch then Dehra and I had our "girl" time. She got me a pair of red boots at Shoe Time, then we went and tried on wigs for about 2 hours! She also got me the wig and I love it. I've almost cut my hair back like this but hated to go so short I could only do one style - well, now I don't have to. I love the wigs and we can change our look every show! It's so much fun. Pat also got me a BIG surprise - the Chimmnea I have wanted for 2 years. Actually it's prepaid here in Cumming so we have to pick it up at Lowe's and I can't wait. And my friends were so wonderful. I got so many nice presents - a Silver Pandora Charm braclet that I LOVE and hope to keep adding to, a silver ring and earrings, 2 purses, a glass necklace, picture frame, a Martini Tote Bag and mirror, a new stainless steel "Diet Coke " bottle (I never go anywhere without that) and beautiful flowers in a fall vase. Also my friend Stevie and her boyfriend Phil drove down and got a room and she makes these wonderful vintage aprons and towels and she made one for me that I got to open on stage. Of course, there were cupcakes and the very best, Kay found a tiny little Chocolate Yorkie Cake - it was precious and delis too!! And my Birthday is actually tomorrow! We had to pack ALL the stuff on Sunday and I had been leaving clothes so we had a extremely full van. Everything is still in the bags because I had my first Art Group tonight and came home and "re-packed" a small bag. For my Birthday Kenny and I have a room in Cherokee, NC tomorrow night -with a private balcony overlooking a river and pet friendly! Just one night in the "cool" mountains is all I want! Then we are going to drive the Blue Ridge Parkway on Wed and end up at Mother and Daddy's that evening. Thursday morning we'll have a Birthday Breakfast for Mother - she will be 85 - then drive back to Atlanta. We don't have much time but I just could not be this close and be there for my Mother's birthday. So, I think it's going to be a wonderful 59th birthday and I'm so blessed to have such great friends. More pictures I hope from mountains soon!!!!

And Kenny says he has NO help in the office!!!

Daddy's Helper's

It's such a hard life being a secretary!

Matilda says me and Froggie guard the front of Daddy's Desk

My I-cord Braclet



HA HA - just take a look at these "secretaries" that stay in their Daddy's office all day and all night. OK, so they bring their toys and play but still how in the world could Daddy get all his work done without them? Especially Tatiana, as you can see how she "looks up" to her Daddy while he is working. Kenny texted me to come in and take a look and I got the camera and she's still laying there!! Ah, the love of a dog! Now, I'm REALLY REALLY tired of sweating and it feeling like I'm in Florida!!! Come on now, it's almost my birthday and it's always cool on my birthday. So go away you humid 80's and come on 50's!!! I keep looking longingly - is that a word? - in my closet at my velvet sweat suits and cute little jackets and boots. And that's all I'm doing - looking! I can't wear white (gads, it's after Labor Day) and anything that looks like fall I'm going to sweat like a pig - I guess I'll just go to work in my "Birthday Suit" - oops, I don't think we have a lincense for that plus I would run off all the customers! We're off to Columbus for the big Birthday weekend - even though it's Tuesday I celebrate a "season" - take note Emma. I have no idea what we are doing on Tuesday- Kenny is swamped with paper work we - I'll settle for a drive to the mountains if it's cooler there. On a good note - yeah - whoopie - Fall TV is back which means I had a great 2 hour Grey's and knitting time. Now that I actually knit something this TV season will be a lot more fun. I sure need to get better at it - actually I need a class from Master Christy - I STILL cannot figure out those double pointed needles - we'll try again Thanksgiving. I am hooked on "I-cord's" and of course tried to make jewelry out of it - I like the braclet and I made a necklace tonight - it's drying now. OK - happy Fall - it's official now except for the temperature and start the BD celebration NOW>......
Thanks to everyone who checked on us with the Floods - we are very very grateful we did not have any water in our house and are safe and dry.....

No Photos

I'm sooooo glad I don't HAVE any flooding photos to post. We do water at the back fence but that is normal and we are very dry in the house and have not even lost power. We are very blessed because a lot of people here in Atlanta are flooded out of their homes and I'm sure it's a big mess. We've had over 20 inches of rain so it's pretty wild. It rained HARD at our house all night and all day today. It is suposed to slow down tomorrow so I just hope people can get around. Most all the schools are closed - some under water - and lots of roads out. Well, at least we're not in a drought! Now, why could this not have been january and we've have snow up to our ass!!!!! Thanks to all who were asking about us......

Bad Cold - YUK

Mel and I enjoying our cigar after the chili!!

My first bad cold of the season and it's not even cold!!! It's rainy - which I love - but muggy and that makes a cold more miserable. Our Chili Night at Belloo's was great and everyone loved the chili. On the way home yesterday my ears stopped up and by the time we got home I was feeling pretty bad. I lay down in the bed and just passed out! I slept about 4 hours - that deep exhausted sleep and then Kenny got me some tomato soup an crackers and I went back to sleep. That's the best thing for me when I get a cold and this exhausted - sleep. I stayed in bed today but we had a dinner engagement planned so I got up - took a shower and dressed - actually felt a little better by then. We had an amazing dinner with friends Kristen and Bill. We've been trying to get together for a while so there's was no way I was not going. It was a very nice evening and I'm back in back now. All my "stuff" from Columbus is sitting in the floor of the bedroom and I guess I'll just do the laundry and repack tomorrow. Damn, I need a real vacation so bad. I'm going to rest now.....The photo's are some of my "Big Boys" in Columbus eating my chili!!!

A Hell of a lot of Chili

Papa and Tatiana
Black Cherry Hair!!!

Wow - when you start with 12 pounds of Ground Beef and add all the other stuff you end up with about 8 gallon's of chili!!! I had to keep adding pots but I got it all done and in the freezer. We go to Columbus tomorrow and play the weekend then Monday night is Claiborne Monday Night Football Chili Night at Beloo's. I think I have enough chili for Fort Benning - I shoulda been a cook in the Army! And Kenny says it taste good too. I had a wonderful but short overnight in Sc with Mother and Daddy - he tried to be perky and did a pretty good job of it. He looked better this time and I loved seeing them. We had a great thunderstorm right before I drove back to Atlanta and as I left home I saw the most beautiful rainbow. Along with all the chili cooking today I did all my laundry, packed for the weekend, finished a red hat, cut my hair and dyed it really dark!!! I would say that is enough multi-tasking for today.....

going to SC

The Girls have their "Fall" bows in after a bath
Tina Turner on the loose!!!

The girls and I are going to run up to SC tomorrow for an overnight visit with Granny and Papa - I just need to see them both so it will be a very quick trip. I have to get back and make Homemade Chili for next Monday's Belloo's Monday Night Football. Now realize I doubt I've ever watched an entire football game in my life and really has no desire too but I'm sponsering the Chili Night - we have some mighty big boys in Columbus and we need for them to DRINK at the bar so what better way than to serve hot chili with football!! I'm going to make it all here and freeze it - of course, got to save some out for the band this weekend too then on Monday we'll set it all up and have a party! I have no idea who is playing and really could give a rat's ass but hey - it's for Belloo's! And I love to cook my chili! Now, if I could just find a short little plaid "Catholic School Girl" skirt and tenny shoes - I could be the cheerleader - and OLD cheerleader but a cute one! HA HA ....So we had a very nice Labor Day - went to eat Chinese for lunch - WHAT - I wanted ribs!!! We came back and Kenny changed the "snares" on his snare drumn for the first time since we lived in Houston - over 24 years ago! He cleaned the hardward - tried to me to wire brush the screws but all of a sudden I decided that was the perfect time to give the girls a bath! I also changed around the living room furniture so I can have the perfect view of the fireplace (anticipating cold weather) and I put out fall decorations - yes, FALL - it's after Labor Day so no white shoes and I can to put out my pumpkins!!! Then I looked out and Kenny is cutting the grass so I go to help - can't let him love my tractor too much but by the time I got on it was almost dark. Trust me, you do not want to see the front yard!!! Back up for a nice Salmon Salad and French Bread dinner and I've taken my nite-nite pill so that's that......Oh, the scary picture at the bottom is me in Dehra's "Tina Turner" Wig - actually it looked better than the picture and everyone at the club loved it!! The dye job this week is gonna be dark!!! Happy Labor Day to all.......

Beautiful day

I've been in such a funk lately that I almost missed a beautiful day. I tried to paint yesterday - bad idea - well, I did paint 3 cigar boxes but mostly looked at photos and tried to find something I want to paint. My neice, Christy is taking a photograpy class and judging by the pictures on her blog I'll have plenty of fresh idea's to work with - great great job Christy! I'm also happy to report that Baby Nolan is doing very well and so is Mommy Mindy - he is breathing on his own now and Thank you Lord for this precious tiny baby. Soooooo, got up, took a shower, and decided to go check out a campgroud about 37 miles from our house in the mountains. It was just OK and I think I'll keep looking. I rode through the town of Dahlonega and walked around the square. It was such a beautiful day - rolled down all the windows, opened the sun roof and listened to my book on CD. I found one shop that might be a painting. Drove back home and to Kroger - came back and made us a nice dinner. I really really need a break right now just from the day to day stuff. What I really need is a week's vacation but that's not going to happen. So, I'm hoping for about a 3 day camping trip sometime this month. Tomorrow it's laundry and packing for Columbus this weekend. I've got all the window's open and gonna sleep with them like that!!!

New Baby Great Nephew

Just a short post to say we have a new Great Nephew today. Nolan came 8 weeks early so we are all praying hard for him and Mama Mindy and of course Papa Joe. He is breathing on his own and that is a good sign right now. Very Tiny - somewhere around 3 pounds. We are blessed. This is also the anniversary of Kenny's wreck that was horrible. On this day every year I say a prayer of thanks for Kenny and he is alive and well. Nothing much going on around here except work and in need a vacation really bad. We are planning to some how fit in a camping trip close to home in Sept. The weather is getting cooler and everyone knows I'm soooo happy about that. I did finish another "smoke ring" and wrist warmers for Mel's birthday this weekend - didn't post a picture because I figure everyone has seen that on enough! Oh, also, 5 years ago yesterday we brought our baby Tatiana to her forever home. I'll never forget that night - I don't think I slept at all! We had a good weekend at Beluga and a great show on saturday night. It's back to Belloo's for the month of September and hopefully cool enough to sit on the deck and just enjoy. We are going to rehearse and learn new songs (Prince, Tower of Power and Stevie Wonder so far) so that will be good. I still trying to knit every night a little and working on the christmas dish cloths too. I really need to paint tomorrow so hope to spend the day in the studio. I'm going to say my prayers for Baby Nolan and Mindy and try and get some much needed sleep!