I LOVE BOOKS!!!

As long as I can remember, I've loved to read. As a child, my mother would have to MAKE me put down a book to go outside to get fresh air. I just simply took the book with me outside. I remember laying in the floor as a young child with my head laid on the back of my German Shepherd, Tuffy, as if he was a pillow, and reading to him. He seemed to like the stories, and I liked reading out loud. Now I read quietly. But I still read. And I still carry my books outside with me when I need fresh air. I've been known to spend an entire afternoon in the peace of our backyard reading in the hammock. What heaven!

I have a great new way of keeping up with my favorite books and books I want to read. Check it out!!

Shelfari: Book reviews on your book blog

Home at last!

Home has always been a wonderful, safe place, but it never looked as good to me as it did on Friday night after spending a week in the hospital. I was so happy to get home that when I saw the big, lazy trees in the yard and my cats sitting on the porch rail, tears came to my eyes. Home!

I had a very tough week. After a visit to the local emergency room on Sunday evening, I had to follow-up with my doctor on Monday morning. As soon as she listened to my asthmatic lungs, she immediately put me in the hospital. Come to find out, I was suffering from what she called the worst case of asthma and bronchitis she'd ever seen and a partially collapsed lung. I knew I was having trouble breathing, but I hadn't been prepared to hear all that! She immediately started me on antibiotics, steroids, and breathing treatments. I thought I might be in the hospital overnight until my lungs sounded clearer, but imagine how distraught I was when, on Friday morning, I was STILL in the hospital with wheezy lungs and horrible coughing.

She did let me go home on Friday evening with specific instructions and a case of medications to continue my treatment. We had a full house of guests for the weekend, so B&B duty was calling, but impossible for me. Thank goodness my mother had mercy on Michael and me and came down to help us. We don't know what we would have done without her. She cleaned guest rooms, cooked breakfast, and fed animals! When Michael came down sick, as well, she cooked dinner for us and kept us going.

I've been home for four days now, and I've brought home with me coughing fits and bruised arms from the iv's and blood tests they took. But I'd much rather be home, as comfortable as is possible, with my husband, my mom and our animals than in the hospital. It seemed impossible to get well in the hospital. I instantly felt better upon returning home. Restorative. Home is restorative.

It's been a week and a half since the illness overtook me. I can't believe it's been that long, and it feels as though I've missed entire days of my life (probably spent sleeping through them at the hospital). I've got a list of projects to focus on the rest of the week while I'm home: clean out the kitchen junk drawer, get out my Easter decorations, add new pictures to our photo album -- all things that I can do that won't cause my asthma to flare up or take so much energy that it sends me into asthmatic convulsions. It might be nice to have an organized kitchen junk drawer.

Page 123 Meme

"One dark Sunday, when the midday sky was thick and grey as granite, when sullen thunder rumbled and the odd dash of lightning made human stomachs queasy, Ines was overcome with a need to be out in the weather."

My friend, Janet, had these instructions on her blog today, and it looked like fun. The rules are simple:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
5. Don't search around and look for the coolest book you can find. Do what's actually next to you.

My book is Little Black Book of Stories by A.S. Byatt. Page 123 happens to fall within the story "The Stone Woman."

Weekend in Atlanta

Michael and I were lucky enough to get a much-needed weekend away from the B&B and our other responsibilities, and we took the opportunity to visit Atlanta. What a relief it was to be away for a couple of days...no animals, no phone, no responsibilities!

We visited the Shakespeare Tavern on Friday evening and watched the play "Twelfth Night." If ever in Atlanta, we highly recommend this playhouse! They did a fantastic job, and we laughed through the entire play.

We stayed at the beautiful Georgian Terrace Hotel, just down Peachtree Street, in a great King Suite, complete with a kitchen, livingroom, and office in addition to our bedroom. We felt like we were getting the royal treatment! This beautiful old hotel is right across the street from the famous Fox Theatre, and was host to the premiere party of "Gone with the Wind" in 1939. It's been visited by presidents and famous actors over the years and can boast quite a guest list! In recent years, it's been bought and managed by Camberly, a hotel management company for historic inns, and one that we feel could do a much better job. Still, the hotel itself is lovely and quite a piece of history!

On Saturday, we went to see comedian Sinbad. We love him because he's funny without being offensive. That's difficult to find in a comedian these days! We also at at the Cheesecake Factory and saw the movie, Atonement, which I enjoyed and Michael hated. He called it an "Artsy-Fartsy" film.

Our plans were to go to the High Museum of Art, but since there was at least a half inch of snow on the ground in Atlanta (yes, I'm being sarcastic), the town literally shut down! There wasn't a lot of traffic on the roads, which is completely unusual for Atlanta. We'll have to get there next time we're in town. We also ate at the famous Varsity restaurant, an Atlanta icon. I'd never been, so Michael had to teach me the fine art of ordering a chili dog. What fun!

We hated that our weekend ended so quickly, but we loved it so much, that we're already planning our next weekend trip to Atlanta. "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is on stage in April....

The lobby of the Georgian Terrace Hotel on Peachtree Street, Downtown Atlanta

The Grand Ballroom, the location of the premier party of Gone With the Wind in 1939.

The draperies and other embellishments are quite elegant.

The moulding is original to the hotel, built in 1911.

The chandelliers in the ballroom and lobby are outstanding pieces of art.

Good-bye, Atlanta...

We've been elfed...

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1840183220

Christmas Cake Disaster

Michael's family came over for Christmas eve. We had ten people for dinner, and I made a carrot cake for dessert. A few people ate a piece. I didn't eat any of the cake until today. When I tasted it, I thought, "it tastes funny," but the icing was so good....cream cheese, my favorite, so I mostly tasted the icing. The second bite still tasted a bit weird, so I just tasted the cake. Oh boy. No sugar. I forgot to put the SUGAR in my carrot cake!! Of course, I could taste the other ingredients...like the baking soda. Yech. If you've ever tried a no-sugar carrot cake, you know what I'm talking about. If you haven't tried one...hope you never do.

The rest of the day I've had this no-sugar carrot cake taste in my mouth, and every time I think about it, it gags me. All day long, I've wanted to call the others who tasted it and apologize. I wonder if they want to gag, too, when they think of my carrot cake?

Housecleaner Nightmare

Do you remember the show Murphy Brown and her endless parade of crazy secretaries? That's how I feel when it comes to finding someone decent to clean our house. It took us forever to finally hire someone, but we did finally hire a woman about six months ago. The first time she cleaned, she did a great job. The second time she cleaned, she did a little less. The last few months with her were a nightmare. She wouldn't clean anything higher than her shoulders, which meant no shelves or light fixtures got dusted. She also didn't do baseboards. She only did things between about shoulder level and knee level, and she didn't even do that stuff very well. When she mopped and waxed, she actually waxed dirt and dog hair into the corners of our hardwood floors (which meant she must have just mopped without ever really sweeping very well). You, surely, are thinking the same thing we thought...."Yech!" The final blow was when she wouldn't move things on our kitchen counters to clean behind them...or dust anything sitting on tables. I mean ANYthing sitting on tables. We had dust bunnies the size of small cats, and cobwebs hanging from our chandeliers. It was BAD. We'd have to come home to clean after she finished cleaning...and WE were paying HER!!

So, Michael and I decided that I would talk to her. I asked her to pleeeeease move things on the counters and to pleeeeease not wax dirt into the hardwood floors. And you know what her response was?!?! SHE QUIT! We didn't get the pleasure of firing her. We simply asked her to do her job....and she actually quit! It amazes me that some people want to be paid for nothing. What a shame.

My grandfather taught me early in my life to take pride in the work I do, no matter what work it was...something as simple as making up my bed or cleaning a window, because the quality of my work made a difference in one way or another. It's a shame that more people don't feel that way.

So, now, we're looking for another cleaning person, and we've had no luck. The people we've talked to, quite honestly, have scared us. And now, because of the last person we hired, we're a little gun-shy. We've been doing the housecleaning ourselves the last few weeks, and I have to say the house is the cleanest it's been in six months!! But we're tired. We want the help. If we were actually lucky enough to talk to someone that didn't frighten us, we'd hired him or her in a minute!! Surely, someone out there can give us some advice in hiring cleaning people. We're not especially picky, although we do want someone to do the job we're paying them to do. Any suggestions would be SO appreciated!!!

The blog is short today...I'm off to do some housework...(sigh).

Going Home

I'm not sure why it happens, but it happens every time. Every time I go home to Kentucky to spend time with my family, it's as if I digress back in time...back to adolescence. Suddenly, my brother gets on my nerves, monopolizes the bathroom too much, and calls me names just like he did when we were young. Still, it's always good to see him, and it's fun revisiting the past every once in a while. I get by with saying things and doing things when I go back home that I would never get by with in the "real world." Like...burping in my brothers ear and him giving me a high five because it's an especially good one. I can't see any of my adult friends doing that (or me doing that in front of them), but, somehow, it seems the thing to do when I go back home. I also talk louder, laugh louder, and become more animated. What's with that?!?!?!

I remember the first time Michael met my family. I was petrified!! Michael, being an only child, grew up in a much quieter home than me. Besides, his family isn't nearly as vocal as my family. My family is loud. Let me say that again....my family is LOUD. I remember praying that, somehow, he would survive his first meeting with them and would be able to get a word in edge-wise. That's quite a feat around the Whitakers. We all talk loudly, we all talk at the same time, and we all think we're right and everyone else is wrong. I just KNEW Michael would run screaming from my parents' house and the romance would be over. I thought he would never be able to tolerate the Whitaker clan. But he was a trooper. He held his own. Now, he didn't really talk a lot...he stood around and watched in disbelief most of the time. But when he did say something, all the Whitakers stopped to listen. I couldn't believe it. I knew then that he would be okay. If he managed to somehow gain the attention and respect of my extremely loud family, he would be okay. And he was. That's not to say that some visits to Kentucky aren't hard on him and he doesn't want to lock himself in a room just to get some peace and quiet, but he's a good sport. And the Whitakers are so amazed when he actually does say something loud enough for them to hear, that they all actually shut up and pay attention! Miracles never cease!!

With that being said, I went home for Thanksgiving a couple of weeks ago. Michael and I loaded up the car and took the six hour drive back to Harlan. I was excited because my Aunt Vivian, her husband, Jerry, my brother Todd, sister-in-law Heather, and niece Mary Addison would be there, too. My mom cooked this year instead of my grandmother (as my grandmother feels that since she's reached the age of 90, she has earned the right not to cook), and Dad just enjoys having all his family back home.

Todd and I barely said ill words (although I think there were a couple of brother-sister insults) and nothing got broken. All in all, it was a successful Thanksgiving!!

Michael and me in Kentucky. Doesn't Michael look thrilled to be there?!?!

Michael, Jerry and Todd (Todd's giving Jerry a wet-willy...see, told ya...aren't we mature?)

Heather and Mary Addison play with Tiger, the puppy.

My grandmother with my Aunt Vivian. Grandmother turned 90 over the Thanksgiving weekend. Doesn't she look fantastic for 90!?!?!?!

Michael considering running for the state line.

Mary Addison in her princess dress (notice the furry cuffs) with Uncle Michael

Mary Addison and MiMi make a doll

Vivian and Tiger, the latest addition to the family.

Fayetteville 10:00 p.m.

Tonight, Michael, my mother-in-law, Suzanne, and I had a nice night, Fayetteville-style. We went out to dinner and to a movie, afterwhich I convinced Michael we HAD to take pictures of Fayetteville "in the dark." The Square looks beautiful at night, despite my poor photography skills.

View of the North side of the square that houses several gift and antique shops, an old fashioned hardware store, and our old Lincoln Theatre, named after our county.

South side of the square features several antique shops, a quilt shop, a jewelery store, a pool hall and diner, a book store and O'Houlihan's Restaurant, a favorite Fayetteville eatery.

The West side of the square is home to the Magnolia Mall, a great place to shop for antiques, a barber shop, a flower shop, an art gallery and several other businesses.

Another view of the South side of the square and a closer view of the book store and O'Houlihan's.

College Street bathed in street light.

North side of the square (where you turn to go to our bed and breakfast!)

A view of the Lincoln County Courthouse and the gazebo where many community activities take place.

A view of the courthouse with our Charlie Brown Christmas Tree all lit up for the holidays.

A view of the moon over the corner of one of the buildings.

A view down College Street.

This group of kids was walking the square the same time I was and insisted I take their photograph. Not enough light, so they each have four eyes in this shot instead of the customary two.

My mother-in-law's house in the moonlight.

Next door to Suzanne's house is the oldest cemetary in town at the Presbyterian Church.

Another view of the cemetary in the dark.

At Home

Michael and I are so fortunate to own such a peaceful and beautiful home. The property that surrounds our house is shaded by beautiful old trees, and a creek runs down one side. Although we are located within the city's limnits, our one-acre of land is tranquil and abundant with simple beauty.

Today, we've been able to spend some time enjoying that beauty. Our animals make our home even more special and add so much pleasure to our lives. We love the days we get to spend at home enjoying our little place in the world. Thought we'd share some of the images that help to make our lives so special...