Happy 4th, From Your's Truly

This morning, my phone rang at 7:00 and who would it be at such an early hour but my parents, 20 minutes away from our house and in need of Cracker Barrel. So we rolled out of bed and headed out for our CB breakfast along with everyone else in Ashland! After suitably filling our bellies with blueberry pancakes and more we realized we needed to get into town for the Ashland 4th of July parade that we thought started at 10:00...we later found out that it didn't start until 11:00. Arriving early wasn't such a bad thing though, it gave us a chance to find a great seat in front of the library. The parade was great complete with tons of 4th of July festivities to follow. Plus right after the train came through and the engineer and all the people on board waved to the parade goers...I know this is all to good to be true so here's a little slide show so you can sample the fun!

Ummm...You Should Watch These!

My cousin Jill made me watch these the other day and now I'm addicted. The Second one is my favorite, maybe I should start watching this show!!!!!

On Sick Dogs And Runaway Cats...

Before you read on this entry includes graphic details of my adventures with my pets. If you get grossed out easily, don't read it!

It's no secret that the move hasn't been easy on any of us. I have to say that Kev and I are slowly but surely settling in nicely, but I don't think that this is the case with pets!
I'll start with Trouble. Every time one opens the door, any door, anywhere in the house, a black streak flies by and Trouble is out the door. Sometimes I don't even know that it happens. Take for example yesterday afternoon, while I was in the back yard playing Gus I found Trouble lounging in the shade on our side porch. Later that evening when Kevin came home from work and emerged through the back door he said "is that Trouble sitting on the front steps" and sure enough it was.
Now Gus....our poor, sweet, puppy????? All I can say, is that the steel pit that was his stomach is now breaking down, because since we started the move he has had a really rough time! I thought we were past it, but yesterday when I took him out, let me just say that my thoughts were, "I'm glad that happened out here and not in the house." I thought too soon, b/c this morning not only did I come down stairs to everything in my hand bag dumped onto the floor, but a puddle, not pile, of goodness knows what!
So this morning I have been cleaning up from a very sick dog and chasing through the trees a runaway cat.
Happy Wednesday, be blessed.

Right When You Thought I Had Nothing Else To Blog About!!!!

A few months back my dear friend Linds, lost her dear friend Gabs. Her mom commissioned me to do a painting to remember the old gal...

When I first finished Gabby who was a small, white, Maltese, she ended up looking like my dog Gus .

So I fixed her, and this was the final product.

So here's to Gabby, may we never forget your frilly bows, and girly, doggy fashion sense!

The Second Thing

If you were patient enough to read the post below, I mentioned that there are various things that remind of Mississippi here in small town America. The second thing is while we were exploring town the other day we walked by "The Club Car," which is an old fashion ice cream store. Don't get me wrong I'm thrilled to try this place out, but the reminder came when I noticed some of the patrons. It looked to me that someone was having a toddler age birthday. Upon looking closely I observed that all the little boys with there mommies and daddy's were wearing smocked jump suits, in a powdered blue color.
Why?
If you were 3 years old and a little boy who likes to get dirty and spill ice cream on your self would you want to wear that? I don't know, everyone in the south dresses their children in smocked clothing, so maybe it's a cultural thing that I don't understand. All I could think was that if this is what young families look like here, Kevin and I in our laid back threads, and our whimsical, paint on her elbow, daughter Liberty(at least that's how I picture her! :) will never fit in here!

I Have A Picture of My House!!!!

Okay, so it's not much but I do have a picture from a corner in my kitchen that isn't quite finished, but at least you'll get to see something! Everything else is coming along slowly....and sometimes like when I walked downstairs this morning it even feels like home!

When I bought the antique dresser for Libbie's room I saw this little yellow one and felt like I needed it also. It works great in my kitchen to store my linens. The farm house table and chairs are from an antique store down the road. I think that I am going to refinish the chairs and I also have to cover the seats with new fabric. I found cute napkins at world market that I really like so I think that I am going to use those, not as napkins, to cover the seats!


There are various things about Ashland that remind me of the deep south, where I lived for about 8 years. The first thing is the train. No matter where you are in town, you can always here the train. The cool thing about this train is you can ride it to Baltimore for $33, so I can go see the folks whenever I want!
For those readers requesting belly shots, this is as close as you're going to get :) This shot is from the park in the middle of town. It was hot on Saturday and if you look closely at my snarled face you can tell!
This shot through the trees is of Ashland Coffee and Tea. All the cool cyclist people hang out there on Saturday morning and then they ride off into the country side after coffee and locks bagels, or at least that's what it looked like to me!



These next two are of the farmers market. I have to say that I was really excited for the farmers market, but I was let down slightly! I think it is because that the only thing that was really for sale in the way of produce was potatoes, but my dad said that will change! We bought a tomato plant that I'm sure to kill within a few days! We also met an organic meat farmer which I'm really excited about!


So there you have it folks, our own little slice of heaven, Ashland, VA. I'm sure I'll have more pics from this weekend. Mom and Dad are coming down and we're going to the 4th of July parade. Then on Saturday there is an apple pie bake off contest!
Unfortunately, I don't think that they're giving out samples.

Not Good at Documenting

A lot of my peeps have been asking me to post pictures of my new house...but I am a negligent blogger b/c I have taken almost none! This is mostly due to the fact that there is no decorating done and there are still boxes everywhere! You may be asking yourself "self why are there still unpacked boxes when she has had two full days of help unpacking them, plus the rest of the week to quietly decorate her new surroundings," and the answer is simply this- we have too much stuff! (If I had thought of it, I would have all caps locked that last statement.) So, since I lack pictures and probably wont take any until it looks the way I want it around here, I will describe...

-Our neighborhood is called Slash Cottage...doesn't that name make you feel like we live in a really scary movie? To be honest I don't think that anything bad happens here because as the name suggest all the houses look like cottages and most have beautiful,well kept, flower garden yards.
-According to our Ashland neighbors, we live on the best street in town. (we could never afford this house if we weren't renting)
-We have a great back yard with pretty trees, you should come over for a picnic on the lawn!
- We have a front porch, perfect for seasonal decorations, a deck in the back for bbq's and a screened in porch with a green wooden floor...very cottagy! I have to say that our Florida "lani" furniture does not match it!
-We have a spacious downstairs floor with living room /dining area, office(complete with fireplace), and an eat in kitchen which we can't eat in b/c our only eating table is in the dinning room! There is also a 1/2 bath downstairs, a laundry room, and a large pantry....a woohoo!
-Upstairs and boy do we have stairs, we have a three bedrooms and two bathrooms! The upstairs even though it is a rental will undergo some redecorating...nothing major just some paint so our stuff will match!
So that's it, I can not emphasize enough how much stuff we have. We have more knick knacks than any one person should own. Bless Kevin's heart for he alone with intermittent help was in charge of carrying every heavy box of them in from the POD. I and my protruding belly am in charge of cleaning and unpacking...as long as it's not too heavy!