Strawberry Festival

I got home after midnight on Friday after spending a week in California. We had planned to go to the Strawberry Festival on Saturday but we had to get there early if we wanted to actually get strawberries. Remember how we went to the Cornbread Festival and were SOOO disappointed........So we did get an early start, not as early as I had planned but early enough.

The Strawberry Festival is in Dayton, TN, just outside of Chattanooga. Instead of going all the way down I-24 we cut through some old country roads and had a beautiful drive.

Mom and Dad met us at the festival and they arrived early to stake out the strawberry stands. There was a delivery scheduled for noon so we got there just in time, stood in line for about 20 minutes and walked away with these beauties.

We enjoyed all that festivals have to offer; the parade, the crafts, the port-a-potties, fried food, and we had the BEST frozen strawberry lemonade!

That next week I had everything STRAWBERRY!

It's too bad strawberries are at their best only a few weeks out of the year! They are my favorite!

May is the Month for Moms

I'm a little late for Mother's Day but it's still May (even if it's the last day of the month) so that counts for something, right?)

Through the years I've had many ups and downs with my mom. My relationship has gone something like this...........I pretty much needed my mom for everything from the day I was born until about 5th grade (even though I was a huge daddy's girl), then mom wasn't so cool from about 6th grade through high school.  We somewhat became friends again while I was away at college. Then during my adult life we are the bestest of friends.  I'm so very thankful for all stages of our relationship; we've smiled a lot, laughed even more, fought a lot, cried some and have made many memories that will last forever.

I've heard many stories from friends about the relationships with their moms, some are good and some not so much. Having a great relationship goes both ways, it takes two. Just like a marriage or any other relationship it takes effort and time, sometimes that comes very easy. I'm thankful to say our relationship comes easy.

These are just a few reasons why I"m thankful for Linda:
We talk almost everyday, even if we have nothing to say
We're best friends
She's the best mother-in-law Mark and Casey could ever want
Her heart is as big as Texas
She's has a great work ethic
She's taught me to be a Christ Follower
She always has a homemade sweet treat in the kitchen
She's the best Granna to Drew and Alex
She's funny
She still dresses cute, not like an old lady, wait she's not old either
We have the same taste
She loves to shop
She taught me right from wrong
She's the center of our family
She still "dates" my dad and they have set the example for love and marriage
Her laugh - I think we both can pretty much laugh at anything
She's a great cook
She's a role model
She's on. the. go. - we tend to never slow down. I think we both tick with the more we have going on.
She's active - she does love her Curves workouts
She has such a giving heart
She's fun to be around no matter what - she lights up the room for sure
She finds the best in every situation
We share a love for festivals, strawberries AND chocolate


Now..............if I can one day just be half the mother she is to me. I'm not sure what I would do without you, I look forward to the many more memories we'll make. Thanks Mom, love you!

Photo 25: Shoes

Boot Country in downtown Nashville is known for their Buy 1 Get 2 Pair FREE promotion. You heard correctly, buy ONE get TWO pair FREE!!







So it was bout time we took advantage of this great deal. The girls at work and I took our lunch break one Friday and hit Boot Country with the intent to Buy 1 Get 2 Pair Free. And we did just that!  There were SO many to choose from. We tried on probably 10 pairs each. Some were black, some where brown, some had lots of color, some were more traditional, some had high heels, some not so much. At checkout they even split our ticket so we could each individually pay for our pair of boots. It was awesome. They must have people do that all the time. It's nice that they are so accommodating. :)

So here they are.......my new cowboy boots. Love them!

Photo 24: Technology

For my birthday I got a new case for my iPad but it also has a bluetooth keyboard! It's awesome, I love it! It's so much easier to answer email and surf the web with it. I still feel like I should have a mouse. :)

Cornbread Festival

We kicked off the season of festivals this past weekend with the Cornbread Festival in South Pittsburgh, TN.

We arrived a little before lunch time and were hungry for cornbread. We strolled through the crafts and other vendors then hit Cornbread Alley. Here there were 8 different foods made out of cornbread. The food was only ok, not great. Since that didn't satisfy us we went for a bbq sammy. then headed to the Lodge factory outlet.

Sine we were there we had to tour the Lodge factory where they make all the cast iron cookware. It was a let down too. Of course the plant wasn't operating because it was Saturday but there just wasn't much to it.

We had a good time but were a little let down. We were there for only a short time, 3 hours tops. Our expectation was to be sick of cornbread by the time we left. We only tasted the little sample plate in Cornbread Alley. They didn't have cornbread for sale, only one vendor was actually giving samples of cornbread, and this was a CORNBREAD festival!

I think this one could be planned a little better. I mean the biggest and I would think easiest thing would be to have some cornbread there. Gee, is that too much to ask!?!?

So by this post you can pretty much get my feelings for this festival. I give it two stars.

You can find my complete list of festivals here.