Surveying her domain

Jenny's visit

Tried to post this on Sunday but blogger seemed to be down. As noted on Bry's blog, Wood and I are joyously dog sitting Jenny this weekend. The car trip from Bry and Kim's was a bit of an adventure since Wood and I didn't want to put her back in the cage she traveled in just 12 hours before. So after much clawing and scratching Jenny and I came to the agreement that she really could hang 3/4 of her body out the window, perch on my chest with her back legs and not kill herself. Actually that lasted about 10 or 15 minutes then I decided I was a little tired of my chest as a shelf for her hind legs and rolled up the window to about an inch or two. She calmed down and actually seemed to enjoy the ride. She has been the perfect guest at our house. Wood bought her a 16 foot extendo leash and a brush, both of which she loves. We kept her on the leash out side as we weren't exactly sure if she would stay in the yard. She did make a couple of stupid runs for the edge of the hill but was pulled back short and now she knows not to go too close to the edge. Not to fear. She had a pretty good time exploring and surveying the domain from our hill. After a while we let her off the leash in the back yard and she was very good at staying right on the grass unless we told her she could go elsewhere. We put out her traveling cage and Bry's quilt for her to sleep on and she did for awhile but we heard her click click out in the middle of the night and I found her this morning on the living room rug. What a sleepy little wag of the tail I was greated with this morning. How she is loving the attention and all the rubbing and petting. She loves jumping up on the sheet on my lap (wood's lap too if he has a sheet on it) and puts her paws on either side of my face and licks my chin. (my chin is now very very clean). We let her totally lose today and even kept the back door open. She is still a little timid and really wouldn't go out the back door without us going with her. She loves walking around the decks and peering through them and the fence in the front. She has kept me company the last two afternoons, rocking on the front porch bench. Her nose has to be worn out from all the sniffing she is doing. So many new Georgia smells. We took her for a walk in our neighborhood today and she LOVED it. She had the whole 16 feet extended the entire time and never seemed to run out of steam. She even turned the corner ahead of us coming back and knew right where to go for our house. I LOVE having her visit. Wood does too. Bry and Kim, Jenny can come anytime. Thanks for sharing.

through an airplane window

Blazing coral eye Horizontal blush Divides depthless blue/tumultuous cotton blanket Magnificent sunset

My favorite pictures of the Smoky Mountains

I would love to hike a portion of the Appalachian trail

Smoky Mountain trip

Wood and I took his mom to Gatlinburg and to see the Smoky Mountains. Loved the mountains, not too thrilled with Gatlinburg. If t shirt shops and candy stores are your thing then you would love it there. But you all know mountains ARE my thing

Mums galore and updated house pictures

Knox with his bat mask

Appropriately hanging upside down

The find at Michaels

Nervous breakdown

Last Friday I went to get my hair cut and colored which is always fun at Crazy Dave's . I had a hard time finding anywhere that wasn't too girly to get my hair cut when I first got here and then discovered the perfect place for me. Joelle is Dave's wife and does a great job on my hair. Just the right amount of talking and boy is she quick!!! Her husband Dave is a laugh a minute. He is a unicycle rider/hair stylist/wanna be tv extreme show of any kind contestant. It is quite an enjoyable experience to go. Dave is pretty outspoken and sometimes I just give it right back to him. Joelle is amazingly quiet and we just both kind of grin and roll our eyes good naturedly at some of his comments. It is a great place. Afterwards I went to Michaels to get some frames and was bowled over. Now I know that Joanne's is an artsy craftsy place, but somehow it blew my mind and was SO intimidating to walk into Michaels and be instantly surrounded by all of these craft supplies that I find extremely frustrating because I am just not good at that sort of thing. I saw all kinds of dried flowers for fall arrangements and wanted a spiffy arrangement. Then I spotted the perfect one!! Who cares the price? it would relieve me of the stress and frustration of having to be CREATIVE. I snagged that puppy and went off in my search of frames (5x5 for the Maplethorpe prints that I have - see I am an art appreciator just not CRAFTSY). Anyway I took a wrong turn and ended up with rapid heart beat and beads of sweat breaking out on my neck as I strolled up and down the craft isles!!!! Finally I noticed that if I had take an left turn when I entered instead of right, I would have made my way to the art supplies and frames, whew. I made it to that section of the store and immediately felt more at ease. Found some great frames, a couple of M and M halloween masks for Wood's grandson, Hoss, and headed for the checkout- mission accomplished! without a nervous breakdown. Part deux of nervous break down weekend. I think I almost gave one to Wood. We went to Lowes Saturday and just about bought them out of Chrysanthemum buckets. They were gorgeous and we thought what a treat for the deck to have flowers all about. We also got some pumpkins, gourds (the really ugly kind) some corn and straw bales to decorate the front. It really looks great! Pictures to follow. Wood did suggest that we should probably not stay home for the next several weekends so we can give the ol check book a break ;-) Maybe I'll sign up for a needlepoint class instead.