Artistic Flower Arrangements

As much as I miss my old friend Freeway, hubby and I adopted a new gal by the name of Chloe.  She is a  3 year old mountain cur mix and a delight to have.  We got her from our local shelter on August 20th.  Unfortunately, she had been an abused gal for most of her 3 years, and was kept caged and used as a puppy mill.  She is the sweetest, gentlest dog and it infuriates me to think that there are people out there who will do such things to a dog.  Her front teeth are very short from gnawing on the cage.  She is extremely skittish, and will jump at the slight sound or moves.  It will take some time for her to overcome her past, but we are patient.  She is just now starting to gain our trust, but if we make to fast of a gesture she will run to her safe place under our coffee table in the living room.  Her other safe place is under my desk in my office.

Right now we are playing a game, or rather she is playing a game with us on getting her out of the house and on a leash to go for her daily walk.  I have to pretend that I am leaving and that she has to watch the house while hubby and I are gone.  I begin to walk away and wouldn’t you know it, Chloe goes to the front door and sits until we get her leash on.  Of course, sometimes she will run off as soon as I approach her to put her leash on.  Then the whole process begins again, until I finally get the leash on, and turn her over to hubby to take her for her walk.

So now you know about my new family addition, and I am so glad that we found such a sweet, loveable pooch!

Learn about Flower arranging – FREE lesson and newsletter

This week I lost my best friend.  She was a joy to have around the house and kept me and hubby laughing at her antics.  I am talking of our dog Freeway.  Since the day we found her at the shelter until the day we had to take her on her last trip to the vet she will always be remembered fondly.  Freeway loved her belly rubs every morning, before her daily walk with my husband.  She loved  to be petted and cuddling on the couch .  She relished visiting her friends around the neighborhood when she and hubby would go on neighborhood watch together.  All my husband had to do was jingle the keys to the truck and she was there, ready to go.  Yes, I will miss her silent begging for treats and loving nature.  She was the love of our lives for 9 years, and we will miss her dearly……..Good bye my friend.

Learn about Flower arranging – FREE lesson and newsletter

There are good days and there are bad days and then there was today!

The day started out really nice.  It was a a beautiful sunny morning.  I decided to make some hummingbird sugar water to put in my feeders. I got the water and sugar measured out put it all into a pot and placed it on the stove burner to cook.

I then proceeded to my office and turned on the computer.  My husband was at his computer next to me.  As I  became more and more distracted with my office work, the faint smell of smoke started to make it’s way in.  All of I sudden I sprung from my seat as I remembered the sugar water was left on the stove.

Smoking Pot

My hubby was the first one to get to the smokey kitchen.  He immediately took the smoking pot outside.  The smoke was all over the entire house.  We both started opening windows, doors anything to help clear the smoke.  About that time the smoke alarm went off.  Then, about 1 minute later the alarm company called to ask if there was an emergency.  My husband told them no, everything was okay, it was just a burnt pot of sugar water.

As I sit here tonight writing this story, I have scented candles in every nook and cranny trying to get the odor of burnt sugar out of the house.  Did you know that burnt sugar smells just as bad as burnt popcorn?  I expect the smell will be around for some time.

I will probably never hear the end of this from my dear darling hubby.  He will relish every chance he gets to tease me  about it.

The only good to come out of this entire situation, is that we found out our smoke alarm really works and that the signal made it to the alarm company.  However,we also learned that this WAS NOT the way to test the system at the expense of a smoke filled house.

Learn about Flower arranging – FREE lesson and newsletter

On Monday, 4/27/09 we had a really good scare in our community.  I live in a wooded area and most the lots are 1 acre or more.  Anyway, one of the homeowners smelled smoke and low and behold a fire indeed had started in a field near them.  During this time I was inside working on the computer when I heard sirens and thought oh, no one of our neighbors had taken a turn for the worse  and was being taken to the hospital.  I called one of my neighbors to find out what had happened and found out that instead a fire was engulfing some of the properties on their side of the complex.  By the time it was all done, we had 50 acres of our community burned by the brush fires.  (We were very fortunate that the fires remained near the ground and had not gotten up high into the tree tops.)  The next day I went out with hubby to see what had actually happened and the area looked like a battle zone.  I could not believe all the damage that was done to the land.  Thank the Lord that no homes were burned, even though the fire did come to within 30 feet of a few. Now I have a good understanding of  the devastation fire can do, even if it was small compared to what happens on the West Coast.  My heart goes out to all those folks that have lost everything they had in such a manner.  I have included some photos of  the area for all you to see.  My hat is off to the men and women who fight these fires, Thank You for saving our Community.

Learn about Flower arranging – FREE lesson and newsletter

This year will be a quiet Super Bowl Sunday for me.  Poor hubby is down with the flu and the two parties we were supposed to go to will not be.  So intead we will sit down and watch the game from home, enjoy a pizza some soda-pop for me a beer for him and enjoy.  No sense infecting all our friends with this darn flue that’s been making its’ way around the area.  If he isn’t feeling better by tomorrow, we will be taking a trip to see the Doctor for some antibiotics.   With my luck I will be the next one coming down with the bug.  I’ll have to keep my fingers crossed and hope that doesn’t happen.

At least we have had a very pleasant day today.  The sun has been out all day and it even got into the 50′s for a change.  However, tomorrow is supposed to be a different story.  Expecting snow again.  One good thing about living here in Tennessee is that the snow in my area does not last long.  It might stay a week or 10 days and then it just melts away.  Most times when we make out trip to town down the mountain, by the time we get to town there’s not even a sign that it’s been snowing at all.  Stay well all and enjoy the football game.

Learn about Flower arranging – FREE lesson and newsletter

My poor sore hubby. Last night was not too good for him. I asked him to please go out and get the mail from the mail box, since I had never bothered earlier in the day, and he graciously offered. Little did I know the terrible consequences of my request. It was about 9 PM when I asked him to go out. I never realized it had been drizzling rain out a sort of misty type drizzle. Anyway, it was also cold enought to create what we call “black ice”. The type that makes the pavement just look like it’s wet, but it’s actually pure ice. Well, he took that first step on the first stair and his foot went right out from under him and down the cement steps he went, all 8 of them. He painfully got himself up and still walked the 100 yards to the mailbox and back. (Bless his heart.) He managed to get back into the house, I got him to sit down and we rubbed his back up good with some muscle rub.

Today, needless to say, he is pretty sore and thankfully no broken bones. I’m ordering him to bed rest to get that back to feeling better. Later today we found out that a section of the main highway had been closed during the night because of the icing conditions and a 17 car pile-up that occurred not far from the house. I’m just glad I did not have to drive in that weather last night and take him to the emergency room, we probably would never have gotten there.

Learn about Flower arranging – FREE lesson and newsletter

What a beautiful, glorious morning. The sun is shining, got to sleep in late and my loving hubby made me breakfast. What more could I ask for. Now if this would keep up all year long that would be just great, but I don’t think that will be the case. We will have to just see what the future holds. Other than that I have only one other thing to say HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

Learn about Flower arranging – FREE lesson and newsletter

I can’t believe that Christmas is now behind me. The day turned out to be a wonderful one for my husband and me, but alas no snow showed up. Slept in late Christmas morning. Enjoyed a quiet breakfast together, opened a few presents and relaxed the rest of the afternoon. Later in the early evening walked next door to my sisters house for Christmas dinner with her and her hubby. Opened a few more gifts, watched some TV together and headed back to our house. A totally relaxing day. I hope that everyone all over enjoyed their holiday celebrations. Here’s to the the coming New Year. I wish everyone the best for 2009!

Learn about Flower arranging – FREE lesson and newsletter