the stuff of spring

besides the beautiful transformation of our countryside, spring has brought us:

*a new swing set for t.willie

 a BIG thank you to all of you who contributed!!!

*easter and its goodies

 it would seem the easter bunny knows just what t.w. likes!

these are very addictive!

 my experiment with cake balls...YUM!
made these for t.w's class party.

* a new hammock for the back yard- t.willie calls it a" hangnick"
love it!!

 *new friends for t.w.

grateful today:

*for all of the above!*

oh BLOODY HELL!!!!!!

image courtesy of speedbump.com

why why WHY do i DO these things????????? i mean, isn't life tough enough without the universe messing with us? here's what i mean...

...one day last week, i decided to break down and do some cleaning. i know, i know, you're thinking "hey, that's not like her. is it a full moon? is the world coming to an end? will life as we know it, fail to exist??" well, i blame the old "spring cleaning" mentality. it's our mothers and grandmothers who are to blame. i mean, they know not what they have done! we feel the pressure this time of year to do CRAZY things like clean cobwebs and dust ceiling fan blades and stuff. it's just not right!

so, there i was washing up a few dishes at the kitchen sink and i thought "hey, maybe i should wipe down the stove a bit. that thick layer of crud just might come off with a little elbow grease!" so i dipped the cloth in some hot ammonia water and commenced to scrubbing. the cook top was looking good, even the back of the stove was free of greasy gunk. so i stretched down over the oven door surface and was wiping away at that when i heard this "SNAP" sound and there i was, holding the door handle in my hand. just the door handle, like, with NO door attached! apparently, as i reached farther down the oven surface, i grabbed onto the door handle for support. BIG mistake.

oh man!!!! it just serves me right for thinking that cleaning was a good idea!! i am sorry to tell ya, that, at that precise moment, there was such a string of bad words issuing forth from my pie hole, it woulda made a sailor blush!

now i know, you are thinking "yes, that sounds like her!" so, my day thus far had not been going well and now i broke my stove. broke it REAL good. so i did what i always do when life hands me a crap muffin, i went and cried on my bed. but only for maybe five minutes. then i put my big girl panties on and went back out to the kitchen to finish cleaning up. and maybe there was some feeling-sorry-for-myself mumbling going on and maybe not...

when bilbo came home, i showed him the stove. he immediately looked around for t.willie, as if to yell at him for what he'd done. it was at that moment that i thought "YES! i can blame it on t.w!!!"  but i didn't, i fessed up. bilbo went right onto the internet and found the part he needed to replace the part that the handle attached to. YAY!! and it was fairly cheap too! cheaper anyway, than a new stove.

notice anything missing?

impressive, i know!

B is for broken stove.

so the moral of this story, my friends, is: don't go crazy and clean.
no good can come from it.
i know you'll thank me.

grateful for:
1. my hubby
2. the internet
3. cheap replacement parts

spring has sprung in middle tennessee!

ah spring!

t.willie loves dandelions. he likes them when they're yellow. he likes them when they're gray and fuzzy. he often brings me bouquets of them. the yellow ones are nice, the gray- not so much! and, apparently, he likes rubbing them on his face. he said he was smelling them, but with his mouth?? don't ask me....he's weird but we like him!

the weather has been mostly beautiful here in the last few weeks. our daffodils bloomed in late february, now we have redbud and dogwood and tulips- oh my!! 

 my parents live more out in the country than we do. it's beautiful in their valley. here are some pics:

this is definately THE BEST time of year to visit tennessee. it's gorgeous!
so if any of you are planning a visit, come in the spring! ya'll come!!

grateful today for:
1. the sunshine
2. the blue sky
3. dandelion bouquets brought by little blonde boys

the world's BIGGEST tree house...

...and we were there!!

 i don't know what you did yesterday, but it could not have been as cool/fun/awesome as what we did. kaye, t.willie, bilbo and i went to crossville, about 35 miles away, to check out an amazing tree house someone had told bilbo about. we were not disappointed, it was really spectacular!!

 a swinging lawn chair down the center outside of the house!

 

 it was a gorgeous day for such an adventure and many folks had come out to see the tree house. there is no sign announcing it, folks find it by word-of-mouth, just as we did.  it took us maybe an hour and a half to fully climb, explore and goggle at the structure. t.w. had such a great time, although he made kaye and i very anxious. there were some spots with holes in the floor, that i could imagine him slipping through and also, just being so high up with only a railing protecting us was a little nerve-wracking! the way the tree house is constructed- very slap-dash, is so cool.just thinking about the sheer number of single pieces of wood used is mind-boggling! some rooms have furniture, some have a staircase, some don't. the place is like a maze, with more than one way to go from room to room or floor to floor. some staircases have short steps, some have higher ones that really gave my short, lazy legs a workout! there is graffiti everywhere- some more artwork, than ugly.there is an altar room in the center that is pretty neat. it would be awesome to return in a month or so to see the place wearing its new green leaves. all in all, it was a great and unusual experience. if you live in the area, you MUST go see it!

this is kaye and t.w. looking out the top window. above is a chime tower with ten oxygen tanks clanging away in the breeze! the view from there is of a field with "jesus" spelled out in flowers.

the builder, horace burgess

 a local man, horace burgess, had built it after having a vision many years ago. for the whole story, follow this link. for many more pictures, go here.

grateful:
1. for the beautiful day
2. for one man's ingenuity that so many can enjoy
3. for a day spent with family