We took the scenic route home today - through Vanleer

 

Coming home from Nashville today, we decided to take the scenic route and go through my Grandmother, Celia Blackwell Thorne McGill's hometown of Vanleer Tennessee

 

I told Dwayne about riding the Greyhound bus, local bus, of course, up to see Mawmaw during the summer.  We would go swimming in Yellow Creek, in fact I caught my first fish with Uncle Hunter at Yellow Creek.

 

You can't go from Dickson to Vanleer without driving through Pond....that is P - O - N - D!!!  She was so funny.

This is the little convenience store, as I remember, where we could go buy a cold drink.

This was the Vanleer Bank.  The old Hardware store that use to be to the left down in the parking lot has been torn down.

This was a little mechanic shop

This is a little church that sat next door to her house.  The doors to the church were never locked.  I would always go down and play the piano.  I loved the sound.

 

I thought this might have been the old post office, but we saw another building that looked more like I remember the post office looking, it was on the other side of the convenience store (antique store).  I did not get a picture of it.

This little house is built on the lot where mawmaw's house use to sit, right next to the little church.

Sadly, this is the corner lot where her house use to sit.  It was in bad repair when she lived there, so I was not surprised, but it still made me sad.  She loved living in Vanleer.

Today made me think so much of these ladies.  From left to right is my Grandmother (Daddy's momma) Celia Blackwell Thorne McGill, Her Aunt Mariah (she lived to be over 100), and then Mawmaw's sister in law, Gladys Blackwell (Hunter Blackwell was her husband) - man could she cook!!!.

 

Mawmaw was like a lot of ladies, she did not want to be alone.  She loved to talk, boy did she love to talk (in fact the summer Olympics start this week and I cannot think about the Olympics without thinking about her, she LOVED the little gymnast, Mary Lou RETINA - not Mary Lou Retton - ha!!!), but most of all she loved her family.

 

Painting with a WW Buddy

One of my WW buddies @SuzieApple and I went to a paint party for some "Me Time".  It was so much fun!!!  It was nice to get together with a friend, do something fun and the focus not be about food.

OPI Infinite Shine Review

I have been getting Shellac on my nails for about 6 months and my nail beds are getting very thin from soaking in the acetone every couple of weeks.  I decided to give the OPI long lasting color a try.  They claim it will stay on for up to 14 days.  We shall see.

The color is Pretty Pink.....this is Day 1.

Day 2 and I already have a chip.  I guess to be fair to OPI, I have just finished having Shellac and soaking my nails and having them peeled off for the last 6 months so my nails are very weak in the first place. Even shampooing my hair my nails will fold back, so this could be part of why it chipped so early.  Also, the color at the nail shop was FOR REAL almost empty and the girl diluted it with acetone to make it runny so she could polish my nails.  I asked her if it would make it less likely to stay on very well and she assured me that it would not make a difference.  We will see how it goes.  I had some regular nail polish similar in color so I touched it up.  We can't have chipped nails at work due to infection potential working with the babies.  I will keep you posted.  

I did it!!! One-Derland

There are no words to describe how this feels today. I have watched every season of the Biggest Loser and have wanted this so badly and today was the day!!!!!

I can't even think about the next hurdle right now, I am just relishing how this feels.

I made it to Wonderland!! (One-derland!) I keep singing the John Mayer song "Your Body is a Wonderland" and my 22 year old son said Momma, I am not sure that is what that song is talking about ......oooo weeee!  So yea, maybe this is not the right song!!!  ha!!!  I can't get the tune out of my head, so for today I will sing it!!!

Anyway, I am so grateful that I get to share this with all of YOU!!!!!

 

Our new wedding rings

When we got back from our vacation to the beach this summer, our wedding rings were missing.  After getting over the initial shock and hurt of losing them, we needed to do something.  It felt naked without our rings.  I bought us each a cheap ring on Amazon (like $10) and started shopping.  We found beautiful rings, but nothing special.  Even though our wedding rings were small, they had sentimental value.  24 years ago he asked me to marry him with that Marquise diamond ring.

(This is my original wedding ring after I had it sized.  It is yellow gold, but over the years I came to really love white gold, so I had had it plated in Rhodium).

 Then 23 years ago we exchanged our wedding bands at our wedding.  I wanted something special.  I talked to my sister and she gave me momma's old gold nugget diamond necklace that momma loved and wore every day.  Rhonda kept momma's gold nugget and diamond watch to have something special made for herself.

Anyway, long story short, we went to the jewelry store with momma's necklace, and this is what we ended up with.  I think they did a wonderful job.  It is beautiful and momma would be happy that something that she loved, now makes me happy.

We went to the Bartlett City Hall park on Saturday night so we could, again, exchange our wedding rings, and asked the Lord's blessings on our marriage and family.  It was just me and Dwayne.  It was a very special time.  

Back on March 6, 1993, our wedding invitation said, "On this day, I will marry my best friend, the one I will live with, laugh with and love".   To this day, I still do.   I love you, Dwayne.  

Paper Scrubs at Work

Non scale victory!!!  If you work with me at all, you know that I hate going to the O.R. for a preterm or high risk delivery.  The simple reason is that I could not get my tail in those high quality, paper, throw away scrubs.  I would have to go into the recovery room and search around for a paper lab coat.  Susanna challenged me today to just try  them on!!!  I did.  They are not making a fashion statement, but I got myself in them...ha!