Hello Everyone,
We have had a lot of excitement around here this week. Don & Judy has decided to move back to Iowa. They turned Connies world upside down, as now she has to also find a place for her and Sassy to live. She would like to take a big step and buy a condo. Only one thing wrong with that idea, the one she likes hasn't even been started yet, and she don't know if she can afford the payments anyway. She got approved for a loan, but don't want to go that high. She don't want to get herself in trouble by getting something that she might not be able to keep up with. With Sassy being a boxer, apartment complexes don't want dogs over 35 pounds, and I am affraid that our Sassy weighs a bit more than that.
Don and Judy have the task of finding some place to live from long distance, although there is several people looking for them. All I know is that I'm glad that I am not having to face all these problems. Its such a daunting task to have to pack and move, let alone trying to buy a house and or selling one. As much as I like having family around, I guess I will get used to it once again. They know where to find us if they ever want to move back.
Well guess that will do it for tonight. I think Dale is ready for his computer, when I started this he was asleep, but I have been on here awhile. Guess I should have turned my own on.
Take care and will try to get something wrote this coming week. Happy Daylight Savings Time everyone.
Anna

Reflections

Hi. Wanted to post some Christmas pictures of my Daughter Lynda, Hubby Marc and of course my precious Grandson Alex who is 16 months old. Isn't he a cutie. We spent Christmas Day with them so we could watch him open his first Christmas things. He was to little last year and wouldn't have cared one way or the other if it was Christmas.
In September we also attended his first Birthday party, which had the theme of a farm, it was a great party, but alas all Alex wanted to do was chew on the cards instead of open presents. A good time was had by Mommie and Aunt Connie who opened and displayed all the presents.
Back to Christmas, I hope all of you had as good a day as Dale and I did. We all know that Christmas is all about Jesus, and I try my hardest to keep that in mind by doing extra good deeds, but Christmas is also for the Children in all of us. I must say that it is one of my favorite times of the year. Even though all the trees and lights are down and put away, we still must remember to continue to do good deeds. I hope to have enough jewels in my crown that when St. Peter sees me he will throw those doors wide and won't hesitate to let me through those Pearly Gates.
Now that it is the new year, we have a lot to get done. I have long since given up making resolutions. To many of them have gone by the wayside before January is even over with, so I just try to do what I would like to to and call it good. Don't much care for disappointments, so I don't set myself up for them anymore.
I am attemping to compile a recipe book from family and friends, so if anyone out there in blogland would like to contribute, please do, I will check back on this blog from time to time to read the comments.
Thanks for listening to my rantings.
Happy January to everyone.
Anna

Friday Blues

Here it is Friday eveing already. I told Dale this morning that it shouldn't be Friday already, but that if we were still working we would be wondering what took Friday so long to get here. Guess there is no pleasing us... The first full week of November is almost over, and that puts us that much closer to Christmas. I told Dale the other day that I was ready to get my Christmas tree up. Thank God for artifical trees :-) Of course, never fear its still in the garage and we haven't gone bonkers at the Waits household. We thought we would start on a toy box for Alex for Christmas. We are going to undertake to make him one. I have the pattern ordered, so now we just have to cool our heels and wait awhile. That gives me time to get the tree up huh?
We have found that our minds still think like we were 20 years younger than we are, which in a way is a pretty good sign, its our bodies that don't live up to their end of the bargain so it takes us much longer to do things now.
My Sister told me today that she had most of her Christmas shopping done, and done it all in two weeks. She normally buys all the married Grandchildren the same thing, so she just has to decide what she wants and buy ten of them. I guess that way one can't be jealous of the other. I told my brother that they would be better off to just give their grandchildren fifty dollars each and be done with it. His Grandchildren wants IPods. My girls wanted MP3 Players for their birthdays which is in September, so that is what we got for them, at least they were cheaper than IPods. Dale says that if you take notice about all the toy recalls is that they are taking the cheaper things off the market and leaving the high dollar items, he thinks it's a conspiracy. Leave it to an old vet to think of something like that.
Well guess its time to end this blog for tonight, I guess we just have to put our trust in the almighty to take care of us fools. Love to all, Anna

Hello everyone. My name is Anna and my niece has been after me to set up a blog, so here goes.
I wanted someway of staying in touch with friends and family and thought this might just be the way. On to the new, letters just don't cut it anymore. I'm not very good at texting either. These old fingers can't work that fast, and the lingo, forget it.

Dale (hubby) and I just returned from a mini vacation to the Smokey Mountains. It was glorious, the trees were very colorful and we even managed to see a black bear this time. It crossed the road right in front of us, no I didn't get a picture. Didn't expect to see one, but got ready to snap the next one, but of course there where none to be seen. I did get lots of pictures of all the colorful trees. All your troubles seem to go away when you see God's creations. It was so peaceful and the air smelled so good. To bad I couldn't capture that in a bottle to take a whiff of from time to time. Pigeon Forge was getting ready to start their winter fest and turn on all the Christmas lights, they had everything set up, but alas, we weren't able to see it all lit. Maybe we will be able to go back over later for that, as they leave them up until February.

We went to the Cherokee Indian reservation and I got a couple of books to help me search for those elusive ancestors of ours, seems like it is a bit more involved than I thought. Altho, one of the places to hunt for ancestors is right here in our Tennessee State Archives. Its been a few years since I have been down there, but with the books, maybe I will be able to look in the right files this time. I'm not sure that I did before.

I got some beautiful pictures of my Grandson this morning in his batboy costume, I will try to see if I can master the downloading of pictures soon and post some for you all to see.

I guess that this will be it for today, glad to hear from any of you about your families and what you have been doing. Love to All