Many “Things” I Love and other musings

I love, God.

I love, Jesus.

I love, Love

My work in progress, see me us grow.

It goes without saying that I love my family especially my three children. I am so blessed to have such wonderful children that God gave me.  Previous entry edited as the future remains to be seen.

2009 Kids at Rosemary Beach, Seagrove

I love my parents even though mom is gone.  I love my brothers and their wives.

Seagrove Fam 2010

Show me your guns

Sunset with spray – Rosemary Beach Seagrove

I love going to Seagrove, Rosemary or Grayton Beach every summer and getting together with my brothers, sisters in law, nieces and nephew, my father and my family. I love the Gulf of Mexico, white sandy beaches. I love looking for sea treasures with my children. Going to the beach at sunset, or sunrise. Watching the mist spraying off the ocean onto the beach, making everything seem hazy and dreamy.

Godiva Chocolates

I love Chocolate, Chocolate cake, Chocolate Pie, Chocolate Hershey kisses, Ghirardelli Chocolate, Dove Chocolate, Hot Chocolate, Homemade Hot Chocolate, Chocolate icing, Chocolate chips, Chocolate truffles, Chocolate brownies, Chocolate cookies, Tootse roll tootsie’s (chocolate of course), hmmm what have I missed?  YES!!! I know what I missed!!!!! I Love the smell of Chocolate!!!!     I made homemade chocolate mousse with my oldest daughter, this was fun and it was yummy!  I had never made mousse or any type of decadent dessert recipe before and baking with her was a joy….I love her so much. ❤

I love musicians, I love to watch them play, I love to watch their facial expressions, I love to hear their passion, I love to watch their passion. I homeschooled our daughter in tenth grade and needed to pick up a semester elective credit and put her in piano lessons, I hoped and prayed she would stick with it and even bought a gorgeous sounding and looking piano. Took all of them to lessons here and there and now no one except guests play it. I’m still hoping. I played a twelve string in high school like a hippie and loved it. One of my best girlfriends son plays piano and I love to hear him play. His high school graduation photo was black and white of him playing his piano! I loved it. The last summer I went to England he was learning Midnight train by Journey; love this song, his mother and I went to see Journey in concert in high school. It was great fun.

The sweet couple, my friends

I love the Smokey Mountains, Cades Cove, The Forks at Townsend (I had brothers and no one but me would climb as high as I could to the top and dive into the cold water at the forks in the river), I used to love all the quant shops that lined the strip when entering Gatlinburg.  Most if not all the original owners with their candy making, quilt craft, or wood carvings have died and their children work in the “modern age” I guess, nowadays there is no time, room, or money in crafts; something that made this country great.  No time for the labor intensive art of quilt making, candy making, wood carving, etc.  Myself included, I’m always looking for the fastest most economical way to do something, I’m guilty.  The shops have been bought by middle easterners selling tourist trinkets and t shirts; I guess this is what people want most.  Oh well, I love the mountains, the beauty, the solitude…hearing myself think.

Growing up my father would ride us up to Townsend or Gatlinburg where the roads were closed from snow and we would bring our sleds and sled all day long.  It was so doggone fun. During the summer our mother would pack a cooler and we would head to Gatlinburg then Greenbrier which was just a little strip running almost parallel to the main Gatlinburg strip along a great (I say great not because it was big but because it was perfect) mountain stream with waterfalls and small rapids, a smooth round rock beach to sit beside the stream.  One day some people had ridden the rapids on diesel truck inner tubes.  They finished up at Greenbrier and gave us the tubes.  Oh my gosh, we played and played all day, we had so much fun!  My mother absolutely loved the Smokies and Cades Cove.  I think we explored every cabin, creek, barn, and trail throughout cades cove during my childhood and as a young adult.  One year my older brother and I insisted on riding our bikes the 11 miles through the cove along side the station wagon with our parents and younger brothers inside.  Needless to say, we did not make it far through all those mountain like hills in the cove.  We soon reliquinshed our bikes back to the top of the family station wagon. My mothers ashes are scattered in Cades Cove.  Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, from wenst we came there we will return.

I love watching my children play sports.  Hmm, down to the last “little” child playing sports, one no longer in little league but high school sports and one off to college soon, Praise the Lord. Lots more to add here.

I love old papers, especially the family ones I rescued after mom died.  Old letters and correspondence where my ancestors proved their lineage from Scotland, The Mayflower, and the American Revolution.  You ask, does this really matter?  Proving anything?  No, absolutely not, but it is kinda cool.  I mean we all got here somehow.  Everyone has a story to tell.  While it’s nice, it really does not amount to much, because guess what?  One day I will be dead, just like my ancestors…so what?  All, well most, of their belongings are still here and they have been dead and gone for decades, even centuries.  We have old photos, tin type etc., furniture, pipes, paintings heck even clothing from my ancestors.  Of course God’s word comes to mind; “…build your treasures in Heaven, not where rust and moth destroy and thieves break in and steal…build your treasures in and for eternity…the cup that overflows…” Speaking of ancestry and the Mayflower…hmmm, should I actually write this? It will be incriminating, oh well here goes. One day after mom died (we would never been moving stuff around had she been alive) my husband and this guy from his work were at the house and were bringing this antique table down the stairs. Did they take the 400 year old oil lamp off the table before they started down the stairs? NO, hell no. The lamp starts to slide, I think my husband grabs it, the paper thin cranberry and clear hand etched globe flys off the chimney and shatters into a million shards in the entry way below. Now, it’s funny as heck, then I was mad as hell. Do I love this? No, but I had to capture it here, why? Because really, I think this lamp really did come over on the Mayflower. Hmmm, my brother has the lamp of which we quickly found another globe that was not nearly as exquisite or pristine; wonder if he has noticed? My lips are sealed. 😉

Ghirardelli Square on San Francisco Bay

I loved San Francisco and actually really did “Leave my heart in San Francisco”, I loved riding a trolly car with my parents and grandfather, I loved walking through China Town with my mother, I loved driving down Lombardi Street with my mom, I loved eating at Fisherman’s warf, I loved visiting the Ghirardelli Square Chocolate store with my mom.  I would have never thought that I would have felt that way about San Francisco, but I did.  It is true what “they” say…You really do leave your heart in San Francisco. I was going to visit my parents in Houston and my father said, “meet us in San Francisco” so I did and LOVED it! My mother was such great fun, she was mostly on her death bed for the last 20 years of her life but when it came to travel, beautiful sights, family, and fun stuff she couldn’t be beat. Actually she walked my legs off in San Francisco and there was nothing wrong with me, heck and that was over thirteen years ago.

Army Soliers

I love the sound of an army helicopter. I love nap of the earth in a huey. I love the sound of an F16 or F4 jet or any other military aircraft for that matter.  I get such a thrill when I hear that sound. Lots more to add here.  It truly is the sound of freedom.  There is an air guard flying wing here and they were training off and on all week and I sure enjoyed my thrill. Lots of cloud cover so I couldn’t see them but I could hear them. I loved the feeling when I graduated from basic training, I never realized just how beautiful the American Flag was. I had never felt the swell of pride in my heart, in my being that I felt on that day. The feeling is unlike any in regard to pride, accomplishment, duty, self-less service. It can’t be described. When I graduated from the Warrant Officer Academy of course I was proud but no feeling has ever touched that original pride I felt on that balmy day in May of 1987.

I love to read, lots to add here. Hmmm, books I’ve read of which I can remember or books I am reading: Grimms Fairy Tales by brother’s Grimm, Coma by Robin Cook, What Men live By by Leo Tolstoy, The Stand by Stephen King, Bachman books by Richard Bachman, Christine by Stephen King, Thinner by Stephen King, Pilgrims Progress by John Bunyan, Lord of the Flies by Wm Golding, The Agony and The Ecstacy by Irving Stone, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Old Man and The Sea by Hemingway, more more more…later

Cades Cove Double-cantilever barn

I love to visit historic sites, lots to add here. All the cabins, churches, mills, cemetaries, and barns dotting the hills of the Smokey Mountains in Cades Cove. Once with a high school friend we climbed high into one of the barns and he took a picture of me sitting with my legs dangling from the loft. The photo was kinda cool because there must have been a lot of dust or pollen in the air and the sun was setting which made the picture appear golden and hazy. I love that memory. We scattered my mother’s ashes in Cades Cove at her request, I’m happy she wanted to do that. At first I was appaled at the idea of my mother being “burned” upon her death and had images of hell and burning (which were unwarranted), but Mom said, “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust” and I immediately felt at peace. Thank you Mom!

I have not seen a lot of the world but have seen a little. I would love to see more, especially Italy. If I were younger I would back pack across the UK and Italy and enjoy every minute of it. Actually, age is really not holding me back, but reality is. The reality that age usually brings such as marriage, children, responsibilty. Hmmm, what is the earliest age at which I could backpack across Europe? 58 YIKES! Oh well, maybe I could drive across GB? haha That is a funny thought. 🙂

Me and the boys at the Tower of London

Here is a photo of the boys (brothers) and me in 1989 the first time we traveled to the UK. Taken in the Tower of London.

One of my best friends moved to England.

@ Longacres??? Scones & Clotted Cream!

Photo of us in 2005 having a blast, eating clotted cream, scones, drinking heavy lager, etc. Too funny and too fun! We visited The Tower of London, Brighton, Stone Henge, and I think we went to the local tea shop for clotted cream, jam, scones, and hot tea EVERYDAY! Brighton was beautiful with the amusement park on a pier into the ocean; fabulous.

Went again in 2009! What a blast, first stop Great Fosters for Hot Tea, Scones, Cream, and Crumpets!

Great Fosters

I love to do fine embroidery, lots to add here.

I love to French Hand Sew, lots to add here.  The dress pictured is the last one I completed.  It was made of silk tafetta with silk ribbon embroidery as opposed to my usual Swiss batiste with fine embroidery.