A New Year's a Coming!

      I just thought I'd pop in and say hello! I have not written in awhile because of so many things going on. But now that the new year is embarking upon us, I feel like I need to get back to blogging. Funny how I have pushed it to the back burner. I really enjoy sharing my life with ya'll! I've even been contemplating Youtubing! If that is a word. I'm not sure about that yet. I'll let ya'll know.

      The holidays have been nice. But we lost a dear loved one. My husband's father. He was 75, and died with lung cancer. He battled it for a long time. He smoked all of his life, but quit about 15 years ago. That wasn't enough. The damage had been done. We will miss you, H.L.!

      Since the drought has ended, although we're tremendously still in need of rain, the weather has turned cooler. It was quite cold the last couple of weeks, but this week has been quite warm! I wore shorts and raked leaves Saturday, which was Christmas Eve! Air conditioners were on Christmas Day, for awhile! We do have odd weather here in the South. I never really get used to it cause it's always changing! The heat this year, though! I still can't believe how hot and dry the past few months have been! But I'm ready to start gardening again! I lost total interest in the garden during the drought and heat! The cooler temps have gotten me outside and digging again! I turned up some large sweet potatoes in the garden today. One looks like some sort of animal fetus or something! It's huge! I probably won't do anything with it because it will be so hard to cut. The others are in my pantry, curing. I hope they will be edible. Time will tell!

      Speaking of the garden, I really hope to get wood chips brought in soon. I know where a pile is that is in the decomposing process. We can get it any time. There just hasn't been time! Randy has been re-doing our heat. We had a power surge in this area and it demolished our downstairs unit! Randy has been wanting to switch back to a heat pump, so that's what he works on in the evening. We're running strip heat, which makes the power bill very high, but at least we have heat when we need it. 

      I pray that ya'll will have a wonderful holiday season and a safe and prosperous New Year! Thanks for reading and commenting! Blessings from Bama!

One load of the many I raked Saturday!

My new 'Christmas shoes'! I just need to wear socks next time. Got a blister!

The tree has some of my homemade ornaments.

Our lovely 2016 Christmas tree!

Gold and silver wreath I made. The bow is on a  wreath on the other side of the door.

Another wreath I made.

A nice set of two from my sister-in-law.

The silly goats kept jumping into the wheel barrow while I tried to scoop their poop!

Santa brought a trampoline for the girls! I love it! It is the best baby sitter!

My sweet potatoes! I'm going to dig and see if there are more.

My new profile pic.

Sherry and Gavyn.

Three of my sweeties!

Smoky Mountains.

I love this man!

Smoke on the mountain!

I love the mountains, even if I got vertigo driving around in them!

Enjoying the Moments of Christmas! 2015

      Hello Everyone! I hope your weather is as pleasant there as it has been here! We've been enjoying temps in the 60's-70's the past few weeks. Today is much cooler with the highs in the 40's, but that will warm up as well. I'm so glad we haven't experienced the cold weather that was predicted! But, winter hasn't begun just yet!

      I've been really busy lately preparing Christmas goodies. They are actually not for us, but for some trays I'm making for someone. I hope they turn out well! It's my first 'job' since I took the cottage test to be able to sell baked goods from home. So far, so good!

      I'm listening to Pandora Christmas music in the background. It makes the season become real. If not for the music and Christmas tree, it wouldn't even seem like Christmas to me! I've also celebrated another birthday and welcomed a new life into the family! His name is Gavyn, and he is the cutest little thing! I kept one of his sister's (Riley), the first week of his life, so I really miss her! But soon, we'll see them all again! And Yasmine and Layla too! It's so hard to believe the big day is one week away!

      The garden isn't producing very much now. I have received a seed catalog, but I haven't ordered anything yet. I hope our Spring will come sooner than it did last year! I hardly know what to think with cool weather lasting all the way until May! Soon enough, it will be time to get the garden ready! I do spread the goat droppings on the garden several times a week. We still need more cardboard to cover the rest of the garden. Hopefully we'll be able to aquire this during the holidays.

      I hope you all have a wonderful, safe holiday season! Remember: Jesus is the reason for the season! Thanks for stopping by! Blessings from Bama!

My favorite picture of the girls!

The front here has never been painted. Randy is putting on primer.

Peppers from the garden. I cut these up a couple of weeks ago.

My first photo of Gavyn.

A much better picture of him.

April with two of her babies.

Randy sheet rocked the stairwell.

Got to get a pic of Randy holding Gavyn. How do you like his hair? I cut it!

I love the expression on Riley's face as she examines the dead flower. The photo was taken from inside.

Riley wasn't afraid to get close enough to feed them!

Sweet balarina princess!

Back to Our Regular Programming!

      After the whirlwind of seasonal activities, I'm trying to get back my sense of 'normal'! Since I wrote my last post, I've celebrated a birthday, gone camping, made holiday goodies, wrapped presents, been to family gatherings, celebrated Christmas! And the girls have been here several times. I'm sure you all have done the same! I just can't seem to write blog posts when I'm so busy, like most of you all do. I'm not that talented, I guess. There were some whirlwinds around here, in the natural too. We had severe storms one day when I was driving to a Christmas lunch, and the sky was so dark at 11:00 in the morning! It immediately gave way to light and hard rain! The wind was so strong, I thought I might have to pull off to the side of the road so I wouldn't be blown away! That subsided quickly, thank God! Now the weather is so nice with sun, clouds, and fifty something. We have such variable weather here!

      I exchanged gifts with my longest follower, Jacky, from http://dickybirdsnest.blogspot.com/2014/12/thank-you-felicia.html. She sent me so many nice things, that I'll show you in a photo below. Randy got me a Smartphone, so now I can keep up with things better. I am writing this from the laptop since it's easier to see, but the phone makes better photos than my camera so I hope to be able to download those here. I'm really slow at learning tech things, so it might take awhile to change my ways! (I didn't get the photos downloaded from my phone!)

      I hope you all are having a wonderful holiday season with your loved ones, and staying safe and warm! I send you hugs, warm thoughts, and Blessings from Bama!

A wreath I made for my Mom.

Ornaments for others.

This tool helped to make the ornaments a lot easier.

Animated lights we took the girls to see.

This tree was so pretty in motion.

The girls were in awe of the beauty!

The alligator's head moved as did the dinosaur's head.

Sweet girls and guy!

The dinosaur.

The turtle snapped it's mouth all of a sudden and made the girls scream!

The Ferris wheel at the Island in Pigeon Forge.

Isn't this a beautiful carousel?

These are puzzles at a puzzle store at the Island.

Paula Deen's restaurant is coming to the Island, yay!

Me and Randy at a restaurant.

The Smoky Mountain Opry. We didn't go this time.

Wonderworks Mansion. We didn't go there either.

Dolly's Dixie Stampede. A great place for entertainment, but we didn't go there this time.

This is why they call them the Smoky Mountains!

Up here at Newfound Gap, it was a winter wonderland of ice!

Another beautiful view!

Skylar leading the way up the icy trail.

It was so pretty here!

I enjoyed visiting this place.

It was fascinating watching them throw the clay!

He made an apple baker.

I love the rivers here!

At the other end of the bridge, there was a sign warning about not feeding the bears. It was surreal thinking we might actually see one!

My Mom and Dad went on a short hike with us.

These rocks are ginormous!

Look how water cut these rocks after flowing over them for many years. The river doesn't flow through them now. 

One of our favorite restaurants.

I like this photo except for my chub. I hope Zumba takes care of this soon!

Another potter performing his magic.

It will be a nice bowl after being fired.

Here are the items my friend sent me: a bottle of maple syrup, a beautiful angel pic, a tree she made, angels, hankies, a felted pin made by Jacky, and local snacks from her state of Wisconsin!

I finally got a pic of Skylar showing his beautiful teeth!

Yasmine and Layla put the puzzle together.

We made cookies for Santa.

Winterlynne.

Riley.

I couldn't resist adding more photos! I love this one! These are from my phone.

They love Skylar!

Such a sweet baby!

My little drama queen!