Progress in Port Gibson

Mark, Ashton, Lulu, Kudzu and I spent a few days in Port Gibson recently. We went expecting it to be really cold and it turned out to be a beautiful, perfect temperature weekend. We watched all of the Indiana Jones Movies, made a trip to the Dollar General, went to Georgia's at the Depot and heard Lonesome Mel sing and enjoyed dinner,I finished a lamp I've been restoring forever, and I got the Christmas Tree up! Ashton and I tackled a project we've been wanting to get done; we stripped the Original wallpaper off the walls in her bedroom!!! Quite a Dirty Job! What an awesome surprise I found .... I was working on the area above the fireplace and found that it wasn't solid mortar, but was wood in one area....I found some hinges and a keyhole and discovered a hidden DOOR!! I was so excited I about fainted! I pried it open, scared of what might jump out at me, and found a small area with shelves inside....NO TREASURE! Darn! It was still very exciting! We didn't get started until Sunday and were so tired that we decided to spend the night and wake up really early Monday and head home so that Mark would get to work on time.

Maw Maw's Birthday

My Grandmother turned 94 on Friday!! My Mother, Aunt Carol Lynn and I took her to lunch at Applebees. Maw Maw is just as sharp as a tack still. She makes sure you are taking the right turns to get to your destination, she always orders hot tea ( no matter what the restaurant) and wants to know what kind of cup it's going to come in....most of the time it's not fine china! haha... We had a great time catching up. I also redid my booth this week and Christmasized ( my own word) it!

October

October was a very busy and fun month for us. It started with Ashton and I going on a road trip to Greenville, MS to visit a new dermatologist. I am directionally challenged and took a wrong turn and to our surprise we ended up in Arkansas, who knew it was so close!? However had we not made that wrong turn we would never have seen the Alpaca Farm!! We had to pull over and take pictures!
That weekend Mark and I headed to Port Gibson. We finally hung some pictures on a few of the walls ( who cares that they aren't painted!) We also hung drapes in the billiards room.

The next weekend we went back to Port Gibson with the kids, Mom and Tom came for the day on Sunday. We cooked hotdogs on the grill and rocked on the porch and took the driving tour of Port Gibson ending at the Mississippi River.

A few days later we were driving past Petsmart and saw the CARA people with puppies for adoption. Ashton and I fell for a puppy we named Kudzu! ( a weed that grows by the side of the road) Yes we are suckers for a puppy!

The next weekend we visited Marks parents in Jasper, with all THREE dogs! I'm sure they are still vaccumning up dog hair! We had a wonderful visit; fishing, shooting skeet, riding in the woods, and paddle boating.

The next weekend we were back in Port Gibson with Ashton and her friend Tori. The weather was beautiful so we rode bikes a lot! While we were there we saw a flyer about "Paint Day" that was to take place the next weekend, so yes we were back again!

This was Halloween weekend; Austin and Ellen arrived before Mark and I and were set up on the front porch handing out candy to the neighborhood kids! Ellen dressed up like Mrs. Heath and Austin was planning on doing Risky Business ( underwear and socks), but thank goodness it was too cold! They even brought Austiin's pumpkin he carved "Happy Hal". The Saturday morning was "Paint Day". Artists set up all over twon painting things in Port Gibson. We rode around on our bikes checking it all out! That night there was a wine and cheese part at Georgias and the art was auctioned off with 20% of the profits going to the Save Church Street fund. We had a great time, met new friends and left with THREE painting!

Creative Escape

Sister and I went on our annual trip to Phoenix for a "Creative Escape"...for those of you that don't know, it's a scrapbooking convention. They say it's the cadillac of all scrapbooking events in the United States...over 10,000 women applied and only 600 got in! Hard to believe!! We had a great time just being together, but the classes were also great. I'm a really slow scrapper, so I came home with boxes of unfinished projects, but I also came home inspired to be creative; which is really what it's all about! I Halloweenized ( I know that's not a word ) my booth today and sold three big items while I was there! Yippie....

Back to School

Going back to school time is always a sad time for me! Austin and Beau headed back to Starkville with the excitement of moving into a townhouse and Ashton headed back to high school with the excitement of being a Senior! Boo Hoo! What will I do next year???

Also in August, Mark and I took our good friends Trey and Courtney to Port Gibson. It was the weekend of the member guest at Moss Wood, so Mark and Trey played lots of golf and Courtney and I did our own thing. Courtney likes true life ghost stories on t.v. and was very disappointed when Momma and John did not come out to greet her. She mentioned a house in St. Francisville, LA that was known as the most haunted house in America; so I googled it and found out it's only and hour and a half away from Port Gibson. We took the tour and walked the grounds in hopes of seeing a ghost or two and I took lots of pictures hoping there would be a ghost in one. These two pictures are of Courtney holding the hand of her imaginary ghost friend and the other one is of the front of the house and if you blow it up really big and look in the front door ( the one with lights on either side) you can see the ghost of the two children that were killed there. They were killed after eating birthday cake laced with oleander! Look close; I'm not kidding! The girl is very clear on the left and the boy is not as clear on the right!!

Mark's Birthday

Ashton made Mark a fabulous cake for his birthday. We had a party at home with Austin, Ashton and Ellen. After having Mark's favorite meal (hamburgers)and opening presents, we surprised him with a bag of candy with movie tickets inside for a late movie.

Our 25th Wedding Anniversary

Mark and I celebrated our 25th Wedding Anniversary on July 23rd. It's hard to believe we have been married that long. Time goes by so fast....but what a wonderful ride it has been so far! I'm looking forward to many more wonderful years! We celebrated with Austin and Ashton and Ellen at Shapley's Restaurant.

Happy Birthday to Me!

This year for my birthday Mark surprised me with a new truck...I named him Cowboy! We had planned a trip to Memphis with the kids so we loaded up in Cowboy. We were so comfortable...it's so nice having a vehicle we can all ride in comfortably! For our trip everyone picked something they wanted to do while in Memphis....Ashton picked going to the opening night of Momma Mia...Austin picked a really nice store that sold men's clothes and the Vineyard Vines Store....Mark picked eating at a BBQ restaurant that served barbeque spaghetti...and I picked the Memphis Flea Market! It was all lots of fun. We also had a great time on Beale Street at night! When we got home Mom and Tom had a dinner for me for my birthday! Mom used her headvase collection with flowers in them for the table centerpiece. Ashton made me the beautiful cake!

Corn Pickin' in Port Gibson

Everytime we drive the trace on our way to Port Gibson and the corn is in bloom I have wanted to stop and pick some, but Mark has not let me! SO....When Ashton, Amber and I went in July we did just that! We didn't know that corn has a short window of time to be picked for human eating vs. for the cows! ha-ha... It was a bit ( a lot) hard, but we ate it and enjoyed it. We did worry about awakening to explosive diarhea, but thankfully that did not happen.

Another great time in Port Gibson!