Well, well, well ... here I am again, and honestly, I've been having to control myself from blogging too often. I don't have much to say, cept all this ...

Hope all of you had a wonderful Labor Day Weekend ! We (the girls, Dave, and Frick and Frack and I) loaded up and headed to East Tennessee for the weekend. The weather was absolutely amazing. Funny how we can go from 120 degrees to 72 in less than two days. We woke up on Saturday morning to crisp Fall air after enduring such a hot summer. More proof that God is for certain a Vol fan, as it was "Football time in Tennessee" on Saturday. Interstate 40 is like the Audobon on a game day. You drive in a sea of orange and white flags, pom poms, magnets, and every car you look into has at least 4 people in Orange shirts (with as many 6 packs of beer and a small bottle of bourbon to smuggle past the game security). They flat fly on game day, we were going 80 and got passed the whole ride. Well, we drove on through Knoxville and into Sevierville (traffic was already backed up off the exit ramp) so we took back roads ... CURVY back roads to the farm. There was at least one rise and dip that pitted my stomach , and thankfully I had loaded Autumn with Dramamine and both girls were asleep for most of the way giving me full opportunity to cuss, sneer and make Dave completely furious while commenting on his driving.

We had time over the weekend to visit with his family, drove up into the most beautiful apple orchard, pick and eat fresh apples, went fishing (and yes, caught clams on a hook), cooked out, toasted marshmallows (the new huge ones from WalMart) and had a blast. On Monday afternoon, before heading back to Cookeville, we stopped at some of the shops in Pigeon Forge, and all 4 of us managed to buy new shoes ! Can't pass up a Labor Day sale ...

So, back to Frick and Frack, our little chickens ... they now reside at Mountain Winds Farm, unless they turn out to be roosters (which they probably are), in which case they will end up on another farm which allows for roosters. Peggy and Mike only have egg laying hens, and can't have roosters because of the whole fertilized egg , crack one open, half formed chicken type scenario. Gross. I sure miss them.

All is still well here in Cooke-vegas ... trying to get the reunion stuff organized (October 10 at St Marks ya'll) ... I am excited and nervous. I only wanted to be in charge of decorating, but I guess you have to be President or an officer of some type to get that honor. Jeez.

My running is going well, in fact, I just finished week 2 on the Couch to 5K program. I will start week 3 on Friday morning, which looks to be a big jump. Wish me luck.

All for now,

Hope ya'll are all good !!

Signing On

I finally am on here. I already had a Google account, but had forgotten about it, so I spent quite a while trying to set up a Google account, which it wouldn't let me do. I finally looked on my password list, and there it was. It's hell to be old, but better than you know what.

Your Ma made the trip to MSP and back OK as I assured her she would. I had every reason to believe the plane wasn't going to crash, and I kept telling her that, but she has a hard time believing anything I say. She was somewhat apprehensive to say the least, but it all turned out well.

I probably won't be putting much stuff on this thing, but will be reading regularly what everyone else posts, so keep it active. Good idea, George. Facebook has too much stuff, so I don't bother with it very often.

frivolity

TO BE CLEAR:
I do not support financial frivolity in any capacity. Ok, i'm done.

Learning

OK We're sitting here like to "old people" who haven't a clue as to what we are doing. Picture it - back to back and both mumbling. Thanks, George, for the entertainment for the day.

Signing On

This is a test to see if I know what I'm doing.

Travel News

Touched down at Charlotte International at 6:20 last night. Bet you never thought you'd hear me say that!!! I made the flight to St. Paul and back with no tears or fainting spells. I really did enjoy it. SO glad to know we will ALL be together for Thanksgiving. Thank You!!!!! No turducken~ just plain ol' turkey and all the good stuff. I hope Barbara and Jenks will be able to do the fried turkeys on Wednesday or Friday, just like always. So, all of the younger ones are back in school. Have a good year Katy, Sam, Ella and Auti. We have no big news to send from 101 Wactor - as far as we know we are well. Rosser said to me a couple of weeks ago, "Well, if you aren't - don't tell me. I don't want to hear it." I don't want to hear it either if you aren't, but I want to know - so keep us posted on all that's going on. If you're happy we want to smile with you. If something goes wrong, we want to hurt with you. We are still your Mama and Daddy. Love you ALL.

Loys at a glance

OK, I like this ! I will definitely play along. As for the Tennessee side of the Sumter Siblings, we are all well, meaning, no one is sick at the moment, FYI. School is back in full swing for Ella (except for the two "snow days" we've taken already for the Putnam County Flood). Speaking of floods, our backyard was waist deep two weeks ago from the rain water. We got over 8 inches of rain here in Cookeville in as many hours. It was truly terrifying, and we have several friends who suffered major water damage. Ella is also doing gymnastics one day per week, which is really all we can spare of her free time, third grade is quite different from second, but together, we will all muddle through. Autumn is attending a tumbling class on Mondays, Daycare on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday and has just started going to Community Bible Study with me on Thursdays. She also does gymnastics on Wednesdays, same time as Ella. I seem to fill my car up twice weekly. Dave tells me we need to spend a specific amount on the Discover Card per month in order to get the cash back reward, and I'm doing my best !!! Speaking of the love of my life (don't you hate to see that on someones Facebook profile? ... ack !!), he brought a mini dirt bike home yesterday for Ella. HE's ridden it and crashed it already several times. Ella has yet to get on it... Things are busy for him at work, in fact, he's barely able to come home to have lunch with me on a daily basis, which leaves me no choice but to spend the day exercising my Discover Card...for the reward, you remember. And now, drumroll please, some info about ME !!! Let's see, for starters, on January 8, I became fed up with my fatness and sent an eviction notice to all my fat rolls. They went down swingin' tho, but I won out, and have lost about 30 pounds. To actually SEE 30# is pretty humbling, as I went to WalMart and loaded Ella's arms with 30 pounds of sugar. She was amazed, and I was amazed that she didn't get hurt, and it was pretty funny to see people staring at me as I loaded her like a mule out of the Bible. I am walking or running daily, and am planning on run-ish-ing the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving Day with Katy (of the Charlotte Sumter Siblings). My goal is to finish without throwing up. Later, I will eat enough of mom's dressing to make it all balance out.
Lucy is still hanging in there "like a hair in a biscuit". She's 12, deaf, partially disabled, lacks depth perception, and provides pure entertainment. We added a black rabbit (TarBaby) at Easter time, and won two chickens at the fair, which, in light of the egg recall nationwide, we may keep them for egg production! At 2 eggs per day, we will have enough on Saturday and Sunday to make breakfast !
OK, we're set to pop here ... where's the post button !