Granddaughter’s Wedding at Terian Farms

The beautiful couple, Amber and Eric Martin

Best friend of bride, Bridesmaid Jessica, and Mother of the Bride, my beautiful Jenny.

Grand Entrance into the Reception!

Maid of Honor and Sister of the Bride, Ashley

Niece of the Bride and Flower Girl, Kylee

Father of the Bride waits for the ceremony to begin.

  Centerpieces were lovely!

  

  

  

Bride with her Daddy dancing.

Sister, Mother and Niece of the Bride

Aunt and Uncle of the Bride (Jessica and Andrew)

Uncle and Aunt of the Bride, Toby and Mandy

Buffet table

Buffet table at opposite end

Cousins of the Bride

Cousin of the Bride

The weather was perfect–cool and clear–the Bride and Groom were simply lovely. The wedding and reception were elegant and the food was delicious. What a wonderful event. Congratulations and best wishes to the happy couple. I love you.

Wedding Weekend!

For lovely Granddaughter Amber and her handsome groom, Eric.

Rehearsal dinner was Friday night at Stoney River in Nashville–what a beautiful event that was!  Here are some photos:

The beautiful bride (left) and her equally beautiful mother, my Jenny.

The handsome Groom, Eric.

The Groom’s parents, hosts for the evening, Dan and Barbara.

Bridesmaid and one of the bride’s best friends, Jessica and her husband Adam.

A great photo of the groom, fourth from left; his brother-in-law and two sisters (bridesmaids) are to his left and his groomsmen are to his right.

TMWLH converses with Maid of Honor, Ashley’s boyfriend, Lucas.

The flower girl, Kylee, with her mother and Maid of Honor (and sister of the bride), Ashley.

The Bride’s paternal Grandmother, Cathy.

Bride’s maternal Grandfather and his wife, Alice.

Table decorations.

And the meal?  Oh my goodness!  I did not get any photos of the food presentations and I regret it.  Not only visually delectable, but also delicious.

Starters:  whiskey shrimp on country toast; vine-ripened tomato and mozzarella salad

Entrees (choice):  filet mignon, Oscar style; Scottish salmon, lime chicken

Sides:  au gratin potatoes, haricot verts, burgundy button mushrooms

Dessert platter:  white chocolate cheesecake and chocolate fudge cake

A wonderful event at the start of the wedding celebrations.

Poppy is going to Finishing School

Mother said, ‘Well, dear Poppy, it is time we made plans for your finishing.  I have made reservations for you to go July 18 for a two week period, here in Nashville, but it will be ‘abroad’ and not at home.”

And so it has begun–the preparations.  First, and most importantly, a proper wardrobe had to be selected.  This morning, Poppy went to select her everyday attire.  She selected a closely-cut copper/red velveteen-like coat with real fur cuffs and pink accessories.

She did have her nails done, but prefers them ‘au natural’ especially for this adventure.

Of most concern, of course, is Rush….the sororiety rush!  Oh my, she so hopes she will be a popular girl at finishing school!

REAL fur cuffs

Pink accessories.

So as a little practice, The Spicy Royal Red Paprika will spend two overnights with her friends at the vet kennels.  A houseful of company will be visiting here, and she agreed it was a good time to spend her first nights away from home.

But she is so excited about her upcoming finishing education!

Treasure Hunting AT a Good Cause

The Presbyterian Church hosted an all-day sale (indoors), petting zoo, baked goods sale today in Bellevue.  Of course the Brocanters went!  The proceeds were for Alzheimer’s research.

We parked our vehicle at a neighboring church lot and were transported across the street to the sale in this:

Cupcake was in one of her ‘bossy’ moods again and hopped right up in the front seat.  The littlest one of us!  The rest of us were forced to ride stuffed together like proverbial sardines in a can in the back.

“What does that mean persactly? Jabber inquired, “that you were proverbial sardines?”

Well, sardines are fishes.  They are not, as far as I am aware, proverbial….but it might have to do with proverbs probably, although it could mean something like the proverb of the loaves and the fishes.  Maybe proverbial sardines offer some sort of a lesson to the masses–said lesson might be to eat less?

Oh I don’t know!  We were crammed together in the back of the golf cart, holding on for dear life, the three of us:  Thumper, Jabber and Vanna!

And wouldn’t you know it?  Jabber found the perfect embellishment to her outfit for the day–two boas, one in black and one in white.  Never one to pass up a bargain and especially such a bargain, she scarfed them up for $1 each (pardon the pun here….scarf….scarfed….they are boas?….oh never mind.)

Jabber shared them with Cupcake and Vanna, of course, but only for a little while:

Vanna wore the black boa because, of course, it coordinated with her outfit. She is our DIVA indeed.

And Cupcake….well, I’ll let the picture speak for itself:

“Wait!  Is she trying to impersonate Santa?” Jabber asked…..

No!  She was luxuriating in the luxury of the white boa, Jabber!

Meanwhile, Thumper had made a deal.  Thumper likes deals almost as much as Girlfriend likes deals–but Girlfriend and Sosew were out of pocket again, off on adventures of their own today.  We waited while Thumper negotiated the deal:

Finally, Thumper came out to talk with Vanna about including HER in the deal!  And she did!  Thumper and Vanna each purchased a purple Alzheimer’s T-shirt to benefit the charity.

  Thumper discusses the deal with Vanna and Cupcake.

Finally, we were done.  After our exciting ride TO the event, we decided to walk back to the car, which we did.

Oh….what’s that you ask?  The baked goodies that Vanna has in her lap?

Cupcake bought us some zucchini bread and we ate that YUMMM! and Vanna took home some homemade cinnamon rolls.

It was a fun sale and a good cause.  We were glad we went.

Repurposing!

I love to repurpose things which I can’t use as they were originally intended….don’t you?

I found this lovely belt at a sale yesterday for all of $1.  Obviously, the days of having a 17 inch waist are very long gone for me–but……the lady (who is a decorator) said, “I always thought it would look so pretty on a pillow.”

Ah ha!  Genius idea!

The Pillow was also from a recent sale–$4!

A Hunting We Did Go….

“A Hunting We Did Go, A Hunting We Did Go, Hi HO the Merry-O, A Hunting We Did Go!” Jabberwocky happily reminisced about all the fun things we saw today.  “Not to mention the treasures we got, too!” Jabber said, but she didn’t mention.

So I will….

Yes, Weeders–it was Saturday and two of our favorite community sales were held today.  We had to decide which one to choose…..it is always a difficult decision.  But since Sosew lived in one community, we decided to go there first.  Besides, she agreed to come with us if we would pick her up.  So we did.

Girlfriend found an area rug for under $10 (I don’t recall the exact amount); Thumper found a fun sign which said, “Kiss The Cat” and while I can’t explain exactly why anybodies would want to do such a thing, she knew.  (Thumper being a Bunny of the highest quality generally knows about these things.)

SOSew found two pairs of Coach tennis shoes which Jabber REALLY wanted, but they didn’t fit Jabber.  They did fit Sosew….Jabber still hasn’t gotten over it.  They were so cute!  Vanna found a Chico’s shirt which she promptly put on.

What?

Oh yes, she HAD on a shirt before, but she liked the new one so much she just changed shirts.  The reason, she said, was that her first shirt was sleeveless and she wanted to cover up her ‘wings’.  I informed her that we ALL had ‘wings’ and we should really be proud of them as they showed we were angels.   Somehow this didn’t seem to make Vanna any more pleased.  The shirt did, however.

Cupcake was in a bossy mood today, too, telling everyone that she, and only she, would sit in the back seat.  She planted her water container there in the holder and got quite miffed if anyone else tried to take her spot.  Cupcake found some books which looked unread (but how does one KNOW they were unread I ask you) and some lovely pillows on which to lie while reading said books, unread or not.

And Jabber!  Well, Jabber found some wonderful treasures which began with:

Yes, Weeders, a gen-u-ine silver birdcage on a stand!  For $5.  It’s perfect in the mint garden.

“You don’t HAVE a bird!” Jabber declared, “but on the other hand, it looks big enough for TMWLH…if he could get through the tiny little door.”

Ignore Jabber.  That was meant as a Joke, Jabber.  We all know that a dog house is what a man is placed in should he misbehave.  I don’t have one of those, but I DO have a kennel….

But I digress….

What did you ask?  Oh….

Well, yes, it’s a mint garden.  I do have some pots with herbs scattered in there, but the mint has taken over and I’ve let it, so I just call it my mint garden.  Got a problem with that?  If you do, then YOU come pull up all that excess mint.  Besides, it does make a nice flavoring for iced tea.  When I think of it….

But I digress!

More about our travels:

We stopped at a house where we’d had great finds last year.  This year the sale was for the benefit of Happy Tails, a no-kill animal shelter.  And for the Brownies, too, evidently.  At this sale, the Brownies were selling cookies:

Aren’t they a cute bunch of little Brownies? (No, no!  The Brownies were not available for adoption–the animals at Happy Tails were available for adoption.  PAY ATTENTION!)

And guess what?  Cupcake was a Brownie and said her goal at that age was to grow up to be a Girl Scout!  Girlfriend, when she saw this photo, said, “Well!  You’d think she’d have BEEN a Girl Scout by now!”  But no, she is a Cupcake instead.

Yep, there is Cupcake still wanting to be a Brownie or a Girl Scout or something……

The Brownies were taking contributions for Happy Tails, selling cookies, and handing out goodie bags (for free!) for shoppers’ DOGS!  Poppy was so thrilled when I came home and told her I’d found some things for her.

  This bag contained six treats such as:

         

And then, Jabber found some other treasures including:

These were $2 total.  Two weeks ago, Jabber found another few of these, and then last week one glass, and this week four more.  It seems that people all decide to dispose of their old items–the SAME items–at about the same time.  Perfectly lovely summer glasses for fun.  And Jabber just loves to have fun.  And pretty things.  And to drink wine….   Well, yes, that too.

Three panels @ $10.  New.

Let me explain–Houdini made a portion of the drapes disappear in the office.

This she did a couple of months ago, whilst teething, by eating off one corner and the weight in said corner of said drapery.  Since then, the drapes have been gathered up and held above Houdini’s mouth grasp, but they really needed replacing.  (And I suppose I shouldn’t tell you how Houdini does her magic tricks, but in this case, we figured it out.)

We retired to Sosew’s for a lovely cup of coffee and bagels.

“What do you mean you ‘retired’?” Jabber  indignantly stated, “You retired YEARS ago!”

Yes, yes.  I did.  What I meant was, Sosew hosted a little gathering at her house.  We’d all had ENOUGH treasure hunting for the day.  Besides, we’d already had to do a drop off earlier at Sosew’s as we’d filled up the van after only ONE BLOCK of shopping.  It was also very hot by  10:30 or so and getting warmer.

At the gathering, right in the middle of our very deep conversations about washing machines, Thumper put her hands up in the air, making circles with them as she is wont to do, and interrupted us for a word from our sponsor with a commercial.  Thumper is wonderful at impromptu commercials.  As we all know.  And which I DID get on video.  However, I regret to inform you that my very life has been threatened should I post such videos on this blog, so I won’t.

However, I will say that after everyone got home, we received this photo and a message which said, “This is what I was talking about!” via smartphone from Thumper:

The “Cone of Shame”

You do know what the ‘Cone of Shame’ is, don’t you?

NO?

Well, that phrase was made famous by Doug the Dog, in the animated feature film, “UP”….

Indeed, most dogs do not like the Cone of Shame.  The Royal Red barely escaped such a fate herself this past week.  Only drugs helped her avoid the same.  This meant we had a sleepy, loopy, large poodlette wandering around the house, sometimes staring into space and sometimes just collapsing and falling asleep almost on her feet  BUT we avoided the Cone of Shame.

A small rescue dog in our neighborhood, however, did not avoid the Cone of Shame.  He came walking his person past our home this morning.  His person explained that it was because he’d had fleas prior to his rescue and kept biting at said spots.

What?

NO!

Not the man.

He hadn’t had fleas.

The dog had had fleas……..goodness Weeders!

I mean, otherwise, the man would have been wearing the Cone of Shame.  He was not.

So, his man initiated the Cone of Shame.  The man mentioned he’d not ever heard that term before–actually there was a little bit of umbrage* in his tone when he inquired.

The two dogs sniffed each other and the small one attempted to remove his Cone of Shame with both paws…..it wasn’t coming off…..

I explained this was a reference to an animated cartoon (and that I had grandchildren–I didn’t bother to explain that it was actually my grown children who used that term more than once), he was somewhat relieved to hear the explanation.  I said that the Royal Red avoided this because of drugs–she’d had her major surgery last week….

Incredulous, the man’s eyebrows raised as his mouth opened and he blurted before he could stop himself, “THAT’S A PUPPY?”

I said, yes, indeed.

He grabbed up his small dog, cone and all, in his arms and remarked, “Well, it will certainly be interesting to see her grow up!” and he walked away.

I wonder if he will be walking past our house again?

Above, Spicy Royal Red Paprika (aka Poppy) relaxes on her throne  pillow.

*************

*umbrage–note that I have been working on my vocabulary recently.

 

Adventures in Housecleaning: Saved by a Mermaid

As you may recall, CCQ Daughter has a cleaning business.  She’s done this for many years, but recently relocated to a new area in Tennessee where she has new customers.

As we know, every home has its peculiarities.  We live in a house or apartment and adapt ourselves to those peculiarities and then don’t think much about them.  Unfortunately, for the new housekeeper, this might pose a problem.

Seems that CCQ Daughter was working at a new client’s home yesterday.  As always, she cleans the bathrooms first, not only the sinks and tubs and toilets and floors, but also wiping down doors and doorways, etc.  It was the first cleaning, always takes a bit longer as she adapts the best procedures for each home….so she was diligently and completely engrossed in cleaning the bathroom.  The husband had been home, but he’d just left on an errand.  There were workers in the backyard, too.

Of course, they didn’t know she was cleaning the bathroom.  Nor about the door….

And neither did she know about the door.

Closing the bathroom door in order to open the closet door in the bathroom, CCQ Daughter proceeded to put some things away, and now was done with the bathroom.  She closed the closet door.  She turned the handle on the bathroom door.

Nothing happened.  The door was securely closed.

She was stuck in the bathroom.

She hollered for the homeowner.  But he’d left on an errand.

She hollered at the workmen in the backyard.

They didn’t hear her.

Luckily, she’d brought her cell phone with her into the bathroom, so she decided to call the lady at work.  The lady is her doctor.  She knew the doctor was busy, but then again this was an emergency!

Seems that this door had a peculiarity:  when it was closed it locked itself.  To avoid such a problem, the homeowners had placed tape on the latch so that it could not be ‘securely’ closed.  CCQ Daughter had removed the tape when she was wiping down the door, thinking that it was unsightly and some painter must have missed removing it or the kids might have been playing with tape and stuck it there.

So the homeowner, the doctor, said, “Well, this is what you do.  There is a basket of toys the kids use in the bathtub there on the floor.  Look through them and ind the Mermaid.  It has a flat tail.  Push the tail through the opening there and you can unlatch the door.”

Well, sure.  Doesn’t everyone?

Thirty minutes into lockdown, CCQ Daughter managed to use the Mermaid’s tail to open the door.

And that is the end of the tail……

Money Can’t Buy You Love….

I DON’T CARE TOO MUCH FOR MONEY…..MONEY CAN’T BUY YOU LOVE

BUT A LOT OF TREATS AND BONES AND A BALL AND A POOL CAN BUY YOU LOVE….

“Hi Peoples!  Poppy here.  The Authorities aren’t looking so I thought I’d give an update on how the human training is going.  

Better,

              but they aren’t trained yet.  As anticipated.

First of all, The Authorities are in cahoots with the Medical Profession!–(and I thought those nice ladies at the clinic were my friends….)  

The Authorities put me in a harness and strapped me into the back seat of the van for a trip to see my doctor.  I didn’t know why.  I was feeling just fine.  But…..

They decided I needed an operation.  And something called a microchip implant, too.  Mom said that’s in case I ran off and got lost they could find me.  Silly–I’m not running off!  I’ve already invested 5 months of my short life in training these humans and I sure don’t want to start all over again.    

And then they drugged me up.  

That’s okay, it was fun being loopy for over a week.  Besides, I finally conned The Authorities into letting me get on the couch.  Whenever I wanted to.  So now I do.

Sometimes The Authorities think they can kick me off the couch when they want to sit there.  Well!  I get right back on it next to them.  The Authorities have said something about better discipline….I dunno what that means persactly….

Secondly, they gave me extra doses of peanut butter with my drugs, so that’s nice.  I like peanut butter.  Better than anything else.  ‘Sept human food.  Haven’t succeeded in getting much of that, though.  

The Authorities  really are stingy.

The other day I didn’t feel good at all and so I ran around crazy-like and peed on the rug.  The Authorities didn’t understand and threw me in jail again.  I didn’t feel good and they put me in JAIL!  Totally unfair.  And my attorney was not reachable by phone.  I thought everybody got at least one phone call if they got locked up?  But not me.  Nope.  Wham!  In the slammer, door shut, lights out.  So I went to sleep.

Then the next morning, they hauled me to that Medical place where somebody chased after me whenever I tried to pee–I mean humans really ARE crazy–but after they finally managed to get some, they declared I was sick with an infection, so now I’m back to getting medications with peanut butter!  

Really that isn’t too bad. 

Sept that I was allergic to THAT medication.  Mom gave me a pill and within an hour my eyes were slits, my face had swollen up and I was again running around like a crazy dog.  She threw me in the van–complete with that harness–and we drove to the Medical office AGAIN.  Well, they took one look at me and I was shot!  I mean, come on…..isn’t this punishment without a trial?  I was thrown into jail, and then I was shot all in 24 hours.  But the shot made me better.  And then I got some more pills which were different and some more pain medication.  So I slept for a couple of days.  Now I feel lots better.

Another complaint I have:

The Authorities don’t always pay attention when my food and water bowls go empty.  I don’t know how this happens, but as I’ve always done, I dig loudly in the metal bowl and that gets their attention.  Then the bowls get magically refilled.  But only THEY have access to the source.  This is patently unfair.  The Authorities must, at some point, be put in their place.

I, however, have access to the noise.  This morning they weren’t paying attention to me and the food bowl went empty.  I tried my usual technique, but nothing happened.  So I decided to eat the venetian blinds next to the bowl.  The Authorities came running and voila! the food bowl got filled again.  

I do like to eat, loopy or not.

Finally, let’s have a conversation about this walking business.  Every day I have to take My Dad Authority on a walk.  I don’t know why.  He likes to walk a long, long, long way.  It’s really exhausting.  You’d think he’d want to sit down and rest, but he doesn’t seem to.  

So I do.  Rest that is…..

In fact, lately I’ve just been lying down on the pavement next to the curb.  It’s nicer there than the wet grass.  After I’ve rested up (sometimes people stop their big boxes on wheels and talk to me), I’ll resume taking The Dad Authority for a walk and finally get him home.  I tell you, this man likes to walk!!  I can’t understand why.  He has his own big box on wheels and you’d think he’d want to use it, but he doesn’t.  And when I take him on these walks, we don’t go ANYWHERE.  We just walk in a circle around the block and come home.  

Ridiculous.

So the other afternoon, The Authorities decided to go to my toy store and get me some new toys and treats  This is because (I overheard The Authorities telling a nice lady there) I got bored and ate The Dad Authority’s glasses the other day.  I didn’t actually EAT them, I just chewed them up into all their parts.  They were fun to chew on.  I did leave the parts on the floor for The Authorities to reassemble, but they threw them all away.  I think they aren’t very good at fixing things.

Last weekend I ate stuffing out of a chair my Mom Authority was taking apart.  I consider it my job to take things apart, but she beat me to it.  I don’t know why she was taking it apart, but she was and the stuffing was there and, well, she wasn’t looking, so I just ate it.

 It was sort of like cotton candy without the taste.  Anyway, I got it down.  But then, of course, it was supposed to come out and when it did The Authorities were alarmed so much they took me back to the Medical place.   Mom Authority said that they already owned one wing of that building and were trying to get another one with me.  I don’t know what that means.

The Lady there was worried about me when she heard I had eaten cotton candy  stuffing.  She weighed me and I’d gained 2 1/2 pounds in about 10 days.  I am very good at growing.  And I don’t think I put on that much weight with the cotton candy!  Anyway, then she took my temperature and I had a fever.  So she told The Authorities to leave me there for a while.

I was afraid I was going to have another surgery, but turns out all they wanted was some of my blood.  It wasn’t very nice of them, but then a bunch of them gave me a tummy rub, so that sort of made up for it all.

My blood work was fine, my fever came down to a reasonable level and The Authorities came to pick me up.  The good part about it all is that they pampered me a lot when I got home.  That’s more like The Authorities should behave.

So then I went to the Pet Store and The Authorities got me new toys to chew and some more treats and a ball and I got to meet a nice lady visiting there who has a very old Royal Standard Poodle–he is 15 years old!  He is ANCIENT.  But she made over me a lot.  I deserved it.

When we got home I got one of the bones to chew which tastes like PEANUT BUTTER!  The Authorities finally got something right!  And while money won’t buy you love, a new peanut-butter flavored Nyla Bone will.

It’s gotten really hot outside and I don’t like to go out much.  So My Jenny

My Jenny

got me a pink swimming pool and it was delivered today.  I like my swimming pool, but only for a short while.  At least My Jenny understands me, even if The Authorities do not.

Here I am in my new swimming pool!

I will continue training The Authorities, but you know, you can only do so much with them.  

They are nice pets, though.