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Okay, there is terminal cuteness here ( behind the cut. )

I cannot believe how much my grandsons have grown. They look like little boys rather than babies now. I wish I could see them more often.

Any LOTR fans not on a dial up connection go here
and be amazed. It's a dollhouse of Bag End, there are nearly twenty pictures of it. Absolutely brilliantly done.

Since I'm not working and my life has gotten extremely boring, this update will feature some pictures of my sister and her hubby and their newest family members. (After which I will be addressing Christmas cards! Can you stand the excitement???)

So, onward! Cute pics await you ( behind the cut )

And, yes he does actually bring the object back. We started with a crumpled piece of paper and that's still his favorite thing to use. He will do it with a ball, but sometimes balls will distract him and he forgets to bring it back, heh. Behind the cut are many pictures we took to document this amazing thing...since we all know how cats just hate to do anything their owners people want them to do. We have a short video, too, which is hilarious because Merry ambushes him while he's bringing the paper back and knocks it out of his mouth to steal it from him. hehehehe We have the best time watching our cats, we really do.

Here's one picture for everyone to see of Pippin bringing back the paper wad that hubby threw for him. That's Merry on the bookcase, watching in disbelief.


( Here's the rest of the pictoral evidence! )

Every day, Pippin will jump onto the table and "meow" at us until we wad up some paper for him to go fetch. Hope you enjoyed this as much as we do!

Now I must turn off the computer...thunderstorms are in the area. See you all tomorrow!

On Saturday morning, hubby and I rose early, showered, packed and loaded up the cats' food and water. We got in the car and headed out on our adventure! Instead of our usual McDonald's breakfast (a tradition for us whenever we start out on a road trip), we stopped at Jack In the Box for one of their Ciabatta Breakfast sandwiches. Oh. My. God. For several minutes, there was nothing but yummy noises coming from both hubby and me. That sandwich is a heart-attack on Ciabatta bread, but it was sooo good.

So, we got onto the interstate and made our way to Rugby. What a crazy ride THAT was. The road was kind of crowded, but there were quite a few entitled assholes who thought they had to "get ahead" of everyone else and did so by weaving dangerously in and out of traffic. Hubby and I just shook our heads and hoped they got caught by the cops before they crashed.

It didn't take as long to get there as we thought it might, so a couple of hours later, we arrived in Historic Rugby.

( My account of our trip including lots of pictures. Dial up friends, you have been warned! )
I would like to encourage all of you reading this to take the road less travelled by as often as you can. We had the best time, just talking, laughing, oohhing and ahhing over the scenery all the way home. The time went by so fast, it seemed like before we knew it we were back in familiar territory. And we didn't have any of the stress or headaches that sometimes come from travelling on the interstates because there were no idiots on the road we were on. We travelled through several small towns and saw some awesome homes and beautiful landscapes. I highly recommend it!

Well, that's basically it. When we got to Lebanon, we stopped by our pub for a drink and a snack before heading home. The kitties were glad to see us! I told hubby we have to stop being lazy and do the whole weekend trip again. The entire thing, including gas, admission, food and souvineers cost less than a hundred dollars. Well worth it. This was the best anniversary yet. I can't wait for next year!

So, on Saturday morning, hubby and I got up early. We got some breakfast, finished packing and then picked up the rental car. (One free upgrade later and we were stylin' in a
Buick Century
awesome...yowza) We made sure we had our Mapquest maps (only we forgot to print out a map TO our hotel--DOH!!) and off we went.
The trip up was relaxing and uneventful. Just hubby and me chatting, singing and laughing as we always do when on a road trip. We found
Kingsport, TN without any trouble at all. The trouble came when we realized we had neglected to find out exactly WHERE in Kingsport our hotel was located.
Oops.
Well, we had directions to the Kingsport Renaissance Center" (thanks to Beth and Jack's excellent invitation!) so we went there and then backtracked to our hotel. We arrived at the hotel with just enough time to shower, change and head out to the wedding.
When we arrived at the Ren Center, we followed the other folks who were obviously wedding guests (at one point, we held the door open for a woman with a fractured ankle and her friend--who turned out to be the Maid of Honor) and soon we were in a beautiful, brick atrium which was filled with plants.
( Lovely place for a wedding. )

There was no "assigned" seating, so we found a couple of chairs which were almost dead center and settled down. The music was lovely and the atmosphere was relaxing. Before long, the groomsmen escorted Jack and Beth's parents to the places of honor. Then the celebrant, Jack and his groomsmen all walked in and took their places in the center of the atrium and the guests all became quiet and anticipatory.
I looked over to my left and spotted some activity through an arched doorway. It was the bridal party!
( Jack's beautiful daughter was a bridesmaid. )

Suddenly, there was a hush and then the processional music began to play. Jack's daughter and then Beth's sister walked in--both were wearing dresses of different shades of green. We peeked and saw the beautiful bride with her dad standing in the doorway.
( Beth saw me and gave me a huge smile. )

She walked in, escorted by her father and when she turned the corner and Jack got his first look at her--his smile lit up the entire room. The ceremony was beautiful and I'm not ashamed to say--I had tears of joy in my eyes.
( The Ceremony )

Then came to moment everyone was waiting for...The KISS!! The celebrant said,
( *Jack, you may kiss your bride.* )

Then, in a suprise move--he said:
( *Beth, you may kiss your groom!* )

That was awesome. Then they were pronounced husband and wife! Everyone applauded and then went upstairs to the reception area.
The room was lovely. There were several round tables set up and we were at lucky table 7 with some of Beth's friends from high school. Carol is a HP fan, (and a Neil Gaiman fan too, OMGWTFBBQ!11!!!) so we had lots to talk about. The room was decorated with more greenery. There was an open bar (W00T!) which everyone took advantage of. The DJ was really good and the music he played varied from Frank Sinatra to Rap to Disco to rock and roll.
( The cake was beautiful. )
( And why am I not surprised that the Groom's cake was a cookie? )

The DJ introduced the bridal party, and before the bride and groom came in they played a video that Beth's sister had put together of old pictures, home movies, etc of Beth and Jack. There was a lot of sniffling and giggling throughout. Then in came Beth and Jack for their first dance. The lyrics of the song they danced to were printed on the back of the program they handed out and just reading them made me cry. It was Rascal Flatts' Bless the Broken Road
( First Dance as husband and wife. )

After that, everyone got up to dance.
( It's boogie time! )

After some dancing and visiting, it was time to eat. OMG, the food was wonderful. There was grilled chicken and wild rice, stuffed salmon, prime rib and chicken strips for the kids. There was mashed potatoes along with the rice and broccoli, califlower and carrot mix, awesome rolls, salad-caesar and regular...oh, and there were also potato chips for the kids. (And I just have to say here that all of the children in attendence were well behaved. Jack and Beth had a room set up for them to play in, and a seperate table area they could use if they wanted to. And most of them did want to, which left the grown ups at the "big" tables. Fabulous.) There was also an ice cream bar with lots of toppings that everyone enjoyed.

After dinner, there was more dancing and visiting. Jack and Beth both made a point to come over and visit with hubby and I. ( So Cute. )
Check out the rock!
( Beth's ring. )

They were so sweet, and they made us feel like old friends rather than someone they had only met an hour before.( Jack, Beth, Hubby and Me )

The party went on for several hours. Everyone had a wonderful time. Hubby and I danced several times which was fabulous! This has to be one of the best weddings I've ever been to...it was such a great time! Thanks, Beth and Jack, for the invitation and your friendship. We are really looking forward to getting together again sometime soon!

( The happy couple )

To the happy couple, a Vulcan blessing: Live long and prosper!

Hubby came home to find this today:



Don't they look guilty as hell???

Just a quick entry to share a couple of pictures with you. My kids and grandkids and the t-shirt my husband designed for the Murfreesboro State Farm March of Dimes Walk America Walk-a-thon folks.

( Fair warning, the pics are HUGE )

My dad sent me a disk with some pics from a Christmas party my family in Ft. Lauderdale attended the weekend before Christmas. I have put the pics behind a cut to spare the dial up LJ friends, but I have to say...these pics? Totally worth the wait. You will see cute babies and sweet parents...aka: my grandkids and my kids.

Enjoy!

( AWWWWWW!!! )