Move in Weekend

In the airport trying to get a car big enough for our bags!

Jim and I took Grace to Belmont to move in and made a sightseeing trip out of it.  We arrived on Thursday nite and immediately went to Hattie B's for dinner!  Then we took a tour of the campus as it was the first time Jim had been there!   Then we took a drive down Honky Tonk row!

G's new earrings - "the path of life"

The next morning we toured Centennial Park and the Parthenon before we headed out to Biscuit Love for breakfast.  Then we shopped at Target.  Once shopping was done we went back to the hotel to rest up for the Grand Ole Opry that night.  As usual the Opry did not disappoint - it was a great show!

Belmont tour

 When we took Jim on the Belmont tour, we ran into this set up near the basketball stadium - so we decided to pose for pics!  No one was around so we had to set up the camera on a timer.

Bo-nuts (biscuit donut)

Biscuit with pineapple, pecans and cream cheese frosting - OMG!

What the heck!

The Parthenon

Centennial Park

Biscuit Love breakfast

After all our touring and shopping, it was move in day.  Move in was amazing!  We drove up and it was like locust stormed the car and emptied it of all our belongings.  Next thing we knew, we were in G's room and all her stuff was already there!

Her roommate, Addie, had just arrived and was waiting for us to help sort out where they wanted everything!

We spent about 2 hours setting them up and they ended up with an excellent set up!

This is us driving up to her dorm

The Opry

I love this green sign

September birthdays in the dorm

Hanging up posters

Grace's space

G's stickers

Once we were all moved in, there was a welcome session that was so impressive and was so welcoming for the students and the families.   It really made me feel good about her being there.  I think its a great fit!

G's College Quilt

Grace made a quilt to take to college and had it professionally quilted and the binding done.   It turned out so beautiful!  And it will be a nice comfort of home.

Young Love

Grace has been hanging out with Grandma Anna and Grandpa Roy helping then with some things before she heads off to school.   She has been checking out old photos and sent me this one of the two of them at the Gamma Phi Beta Pledge dance.  What a couple of lookers!

Roll on

We had a roll your own sushi party to celebrate Grace leaving for college and Drew getting a job offer for when he graduates in January!   Two wonderful things to celebrate. Unfortunately Grandpa Roy was in the hospital getting his heart tuned up so he missed the festivities.  But it's a good thing because all the sodium is not good for a heart!

We order our sashimi from a company in San Diego that flash freezes it and ships in frozen overnight.  The is the second time we have used them and it is really good quality.  We also do tons of vegetarian sushi like the inari above.  And we even grilled a piece of salmon for Grandma Anna "who doesn't do sushi" but managed to scarf down a bunch of California rolls and veggie rolls.

This roll your own sushi night will be remembered as the one where we had toxically hot wasabi!   We were all howling!

Quilts

My quilt

Grace took pics of all the quilts she made and I think its super cool to see them all lined up.  Her latest quilt is currently being professionally quilted using a big machine!  Can't wait to get it back and add it here.

G's quilt

Jim's quilt

Melbourne, Australia

AC/DC Street

Our first stop on our AU/NZ Tour was Melbourne.  What a cool city!  Our favorite parts were the street art and the food!

War Memorial

We did a bus tour the first morning and got an overview of the city and the history.   We enjoyed the history of the War Memorials and it gave us a great view of the city in the distance.  It was a good city to explore on foot.

This was our first haul of baked goods!

Captain Cook's house

A local family bought Captain Cook's family home from the UK and had it shipped and rebuilt in a park in Melbourne.

Loved this flowering succulent

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The corner of AC/DC Lane

We had a great fully equipped little apartment and decided we would wash the clothes we wore over on the airplane - to remove airplane germs!   The washer was a 2 in 1 washer and dryer combo.  You washed your clothes and left them in the same machine to dry.  The problem was....they wouldn't dry....and then we couldn't get the door open!  This is Jim holding the handle after he muscled the handle and broke it right off.  Maintenance had to come and open the machine and we had to dry the stuff downstairs!

At the war memorial looking over the city

This is our apartment in Melbourne.  And that us Jim asleep on the couch in the background!  It was a cozy little spot to recover from jet lag and eat donuts!

Macaroni and cheese "hot dog"

Lunch at a pub after the bus tour

Cousin Cabin Time

We spent the weekend with the BFed Fam at the cabin - under smokey skies and oppressive heat!  We braved both and did a day down at Don Pedro and a morning out at PML.

I think that Henry probably had more fun than anyone - he swam and swam and learned to jump off the boat into the lake!

Smoke from the Ferguson Fire

Mimi and Jack

Where ya been?

I am getting a piece of jewelry made with Daisy Mae's remains and a piece of wood from her favorite spot in the world - the Magic Fishing Hole at Cherry.

Tonite we were packaging up the remains to send them to the artist and the dogs started going crazy - sniffing the air and wagging their tails.  All three of them!   It totally made me cry.

But then Drew came along and in a dog voice acting like he was one of the dogs talking says, "Hey, where have you been!?"  And then I cracked up!

Daisy Mae

While we were in Australia, Drew picked up Daisy Mae's remains and brought them home.  We had her cremated so that we could sprinkle her ashes at Cherry Lake, her favorite place in the world.  We took a trip up there right after we returned but I was not ready.  I need more time.

I also need to get a piece of jewelry made with her remains first.  Sound creepy but I want to do it.  They take a little but of remains and mix it into glass or resin and make a pendant.  I am also going to have a piece of wood from a Sugar Pine tree at the Magic Fishing Hole at Cherry incorporated into the jewerly too.

It has been a really hard time - I still cry just about every time I talk about her.  She was a great dog and will forever be missed.

Sinking Pontoon Mama?

We have been having trouble with one of the pontoons on the boat filling with water!  YIKES, right!?!?!  Well, mystery finally solved...there was a crack in the plug!  Luckily we have replacement plugs and could replace it right away.  The boat is back in the water and we will check for water in the toon next time we take it out.

Quilt

Grace is working on a new quilt!  She is going to have this one quilted using a long armed quilting machine.  It's a super cool machine that can be set to do just about any type of quilting pattern - she chose a flowered pattern using red, white and blue thread.  It may take up to 8 weeks to get it back which means I will have to pick it up and mail it to her in TN.  I can't wait to see it.