Merry Christmas!

Jack Gets Down

Jack learns the fine art of Steve Martin impressions...

Giving Thanks

It was a great day to celebrate! These are some of the things we're thankful for...

Sweet faces,

Cooperation,

Boys that love their Momo Jo,

and being together.

Leaves

Does Jack like playing in the leaves...

...or does he like watching himself playing in the leaves more?

Fall in East Tennessee

Just a few... above, on the road between Knoxville and Nashville, below from our front porch and the back yard.

How Many Snowflakes in a Flurry?

This morning on the way to Nashville, we drove through about 5 flakes and a few miles of snow on the ground.As you can see, the leaves are changing nicely. And as you can see below, Abbott was very cute today (yes, Aunt Lissa, that's his new guitar he's playing with).

A Movie for Aunt Lissa

First Signs of Fall

The equinox has come and gone. The temperature may not show it yet, but when our dogwoods go red and the maples in the neighbor's yard begin to turn, that's the real beginning of fall here.
Enjoy these before...

...we subject you to more grandson photos and videos.

Oh, and of course, it's football time in Tennessee.

We've got spirit, yes we do;

we've got spirit, how 'bout you!?

I don't like Ike

An old soldier bites the dust...

a fine old oak tree south of Wannie & Poppa's house downed by Ike.

7am

Good morning from our front porch
at around 7:00am over the past week.

A Dark and Stormy Night

Monday night, September 8

No damage, we were just without cable, internet and phone for about 12 hours. It was nice.

Boys Gotta Dance

Just one of the highlights of our Smoky Mountains vacation...

Jack's Back!

OK, he wasn't speaking French when he returned, but Jami was right: we did have to come up with alot of answers to the question "doing?"

Jack brought over his new bubble lawn mower, a birthday present from Aunt Lissa.














Filling up with gas (bubbles).
















We now have the most well-manicured, and possibly the cleanest (thanks to the bubbles) carpet in the county.

King Tut

On the advice of our new friend Ron Emery (owner of Emery 5 & 10, possibly the coolest place to shop east of the Mississippi), we had lunch at King Tut. Mo (the owner) was most gracious and showed us a few magic tricks, and the food was memorable (good memories). Our visit was documented when our old friend Phil snapped this photo.














If you're ever in south Knoxville, give it a try.

A Walk in the Park

We decided hiking would be a good thing, so to get started, we drove over to GSMNP last weekend for a short hike to Laurel Falls.
















































And we were right...hiking was a good thing. We think we'll do it again.

Quote of the day

Popo said "We haven't seen Jack in so long he might be speaking French by now!"

Elusive Criminal Held in Hoosegow

The varmint played right into the trap, had even left evidence nearby (a half-eaten green tomato) and he's now being held in custody. The critter sheriff is expected to ride in and haul him off up the river (or at least across the river so he can't find his way back) in the mornin'.



As seen below, once in jail, he was pretty contrite.















We hope he was workin' alone so our neighborhood gardens can now grow in peace.

"I don't know what it is, but I LOVE IT!"

George has a new favorite thing.

E G A D

Groundhog, Woodchuck, Whistle-Pig; Call it what you like, but we call it an Evil Garden Attackin' Demon! He's eaten all the tops off the okra and most of the peas, and is working on the squash. Yesterday I caught him eating a green tomato.

So not being the poisoning or shooting type, tomorrow I call the trappers.

Pie R Squared

Yes, I know pie are round.

Pie

'nuff said.

My Candidate For President

I have put off this blog as long as possible, but have decided that now is the time for me to declare my support in the upcoming election. I hope you'll join me at this critical time in our nation's history to help elect the one person who can bring real change to our country. To see my choice, please click to view the video.

Another Spring on the Hillside

Can this really be our third spring in East Tennessee?
Have we been gone from Texas for 13 years?
I have several dozen unfinished songs in a folder, one of them called "Time Flies"

"When you don’t know what you’re doing
And don’t know what to do
Time flies so much faster than you."

Okay, it's not Lennon/McCartney, but it's true. At any rate, while we have missed Texas, we've enjoyed this local version of life coming back into bloom.

On this hillside, we're surrounded by flowering trees and shrubs (and weeds)...













if we could only get them all blooming at once! The confounded clover is always first, followed by flowering pear, red and white dogwoods, azaleas, columbine (thanks, Susan) and dandelion.
















With the arrival of spring, we have started getting our garden in. This year we're going with tomatoes, peppers (jalapenos for salsa; poblanos, green and red bells), cucumbers, okra and squash. Herbs are dill, chives, parsley (what, no sage?), rosemary and thyme. Our blueberry is also in bloom and we're hoping for fruit.

So now begins again the growing and mowing season. No respite until November. This steep grassy slope quickly becomes a love/hate thing, but the flowering and planting is pure joy.

First Post

What a crazy, fantastic two weeks it has been! When you work for yourselves like we do, and in our "feast or famine" line of business, you have the mixed blessing of sometimes being able to take off for several days. With just a few work projects to occupy our time, we've spent the past couple of weeks since Abbott's arrival living on the road back and forth to Nashville (many thanks to our good client West Chevrolet for the loaner van, which made the family travel with Wannie & Poppa, Jami & Jack more comfortable).

With the thousands (well, nearly) of photos posted on Jami's and Kelly's blogs, we won't try to post too many here, but we do have a few...

Us Too!

With all the bloggin' going on, we had to get in on the fun, too!