Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

This is what this dog does virtually every moment of every day. It is amazing. I bet even his dreams are filled with couches, heavenly slumber and snoring. But I love him all the same! Even though sometimes I have to stop what I am doing upstairs because I hear a strange noise coming from the lower level only to realize that it is the loud snores emitting from his smooshy, wrinkled face!

Roaring Gap :: Two

While in Roaring Gap, I tried to snag a few pictures my youngest niece Miss L. But, she pretty much wanted nothing to do with that idea. We were able to coax her to stand and look towards the camera but our attempts at making her smile were futile :)



But as you can see, she is super cute! The entire thing only lasted a couple of minutes, if that, and while she did not smile once for the camera... she definitely did entertain us!






At one point Mama asked her to "show us your teeth"... meaning smile. Well, she opened wide and literally did show us her teeth!







And then she was finished indulging our fantasies of smiling little girls dressed in pink... On to more important things. Blowing up balloons!

Roaring Gap :: One

We recently took a trip up to Roaring Gap to celebrate my step-father'sx4th birthday. (I don't know if I'm in the will or not but just to be safe I thought it best not to divulge his actual age...) All of my siblings and five of the 6 nieces/nephews were in attendance.




The weekend was filled with fun.




Weirdness.




Seriousness.




Dirt and bugs.

And through it all I learned a very important lesson...



Even Spiderman gets wedgies.

Blowing Rock, North Carolina

After we went to Grandfather Mountain we drove to nearby Blowing Rock. Which I love. It is so quaint and wonderful and if nothing else, look at their hanging baskets!



The little "tourist" section really is wonderful. It is a street of shops and restaurants with great small town feel and architecture.



Honestly, this is my kind of small town. It is very quaint and friendly but has maintained a different level of class than you sometimes are able to find in small Southern towns. I really love it... a lot.



Plus, the crisp mountain atmosphere is perfect for growing the most beautiful flowers.



They have a couple of b-e-a-utiful churches.



Take another look. Or don't. It's up to you.



Across the street is the Episcopalian Church. Their landscaping, which I did not adequately capture in the photos, is absolutely stunning. Very much the English country garden feel. Love, love, love it.




Again.



Again. Okay, I won't make you look at any more.



One of the reasons we went to Blowing Rock was for this restaurant. The Storie Street Grille. We've been there once before and DM developed a severe crush on their sweet potato fries topped with gorgonzola. And I mean severe. He used to talk in his sleep about how much he loved them. Okay, okay he didn't.



Or maybe he did and I didn't hear because I was asleep. You never know....




They do have excellent food. I ordered the lasagna, which was fantastic, and also enough food to feed the entire Blowing Rock population. But their food really is delicious!



Also? Did I mention their hanging baskets? Mine look pretty much the same way if you think dead brown twigs shooting in random directions out of a basket that hangs pathetically from the front porch looks the same as these (don't judge me!). If you do, you are also my new best friend. So come on by, new best friend, and gaze at my beautiful hanging basket bounty! It will be glorious!

Happy NFL Day

Yesterday marked the beginning of the NFL season. Which made my husband a happy man. A very happy man. He spent the majority of his morning serenading me with various well-known melodies that he changed the words to be about football. Anything about football. Not only that, but he wished me a Happy NFL Day approximately two thousand times throughout the day and continuously reminded me that, for him, this was the happiest day of the year. Although he didn't specify for him. Because I think in his eyes it is just plainly the happiest day of the year for everyone.

In honor of him and his happiness, I hope everyone else had a very happy NFL day!

Grandfather Mountain :: Part Three

Things have been very busy around here! Both of us have been busy with work, etc and I can't believe I haven't finished posting about our trip to Grandfather Mountain! Don't worry, this is the last.... then you get to see beautiful Blowing Rock followed by family pictures from Roaring Gap! It's a good thing I'm obsessed with the mountains.... Okay, okay, I'll post about other things too since I'm pretty sure you mostly care about the puppy dogs :) In the meantime, if you don't hear from me it is because I have literally been buried in paperwork and filing. Send a personal assistant STAT!



Grandfather Mountain really is quite beautiful. It was terribly foggy on this day which was actually okay with us because it provided a different vista than we would have seen otherwise. It was quite interesting to watch the fog move across the mountains and once we were at the top of Grandfather we watched it come toward us and engulf the pinnacle. I tried to scare DM by telling him it was The Mist (since I think he read that book at too early an age and it left him shivering and scared...) but apparently he doesn't have residual PTSD from it and, at age 27, it was not scary at all. Color me depressed.



They have a really beautiful butterfly garden on the mountain and these photos you saw the other day were all taken there. I wish I could say that they were taken from our beautiful butterfly garden at our house.. but that would be a big fat lie. Although we have had tons of butterflies around the last few days! Love it!



The eagles they have at the "zoo" on the mountain are all rescues. I believe they come to the preserve if they have been shot or otherwise wounded and are unable to be returned to the wild. At the moment they only have one.



Personally I find eagles very fascinating and I love to see them soaring above. Until they try to dive bomb your boat with their razor sharp talons exposed and ready to rip the poor saps on the boat apart limb from limb. Have I told you that story? It is pretty shocking how scary a bird can be! :)

Beautiful Day!

Today is an incredibly beautiful day!



The skies are the bluest of blue, the temperature is magnificent, and Ilove it!

The horses are munching on grass, the puppies are snoozing on the front porch, the husband is mowing the grass... all is right on this homestead.



Now, if my laundry would somehow just magically fold and put itself away...