Rose and I made a trip to Sevierville

We spent the day in Sevierville. Our first stop was the courthouse. We always heard that my great--great--grandfather put the tin roof on top of the steeple..
We walked down the street to cousin Bon's hardware store..
Rose in front of the Dolly Parton statue in the courthouse yard
This is a quilt shop now, but it used to be my Grandfather's Men's clothing store and dry cleaners..
My Mother's family lived here when she was a young girl.
This is the house where my grandparents lived.

Then we went to Shiloh Cemetery
There was a beautiful holly tree at the cemetery and a beautiful girl posed under it...
This is where my ancestors are buried...the Nichols and the Murphys.
We visited the downtown square..
James Crawford Murphy was my great grandfather
B.W. Murphy was my grandfather
Rose took me to Mel's Diner for supper..
We had an old-fashioned hamburger and listened to the jukebox playing 50's songs.
After we left the diner, we went to the Sevierville Library where the DAR meeting was held.
I met my cousin Helen Murphy Allen at the DAR meeting. Rose thinks she looks a little like my mother....
When we left , the Sevierville streets were deserted and the courthouse was lit up

Hats

Rose says that some of my hats sold at the cupcake place ! Here are two of my valentine hats being modeled.

Valentine 2009

We had to top the "broom for Christmas" adventure, so yesterday we made a trip to west Knoxville to the Cupcake Store.




Rose had lots of pretty scarves, hats, aprons,cards and jewelery on display .



We ate breakfast at the cracker barrel this morning to continue our valentine celebration

We had a visitor this weekend....

She arrived on Friday evening, and we sent out a message to cousins to join us for a celebration. Two cousins and two parents showed up Saturday for lunch at Littons. It was a nice party.The weather was warm and spring-like. We walked a mile at the park before we came back to the patio to sit in the sun and visit. We hadn't seen some of these people since Christmas. Fun Party!!!

Snow Day..

The weatherman said it was supposed to rain here today so we dressed to go to the pool for our exercise class. It was snowing a little, but we knew that usually when it snows on the ridge, it's clear down on Broadway. Well, we got to Broadway and decided to turn around and come home. It was slushy down there and still snowing. It's still snowing this afternoon and below freezing temperatures are predicted tonight. I think we'll stay home for a while.

We started this jigsaw puzzle at the Christmas Cabin..We brought it home to finish it and finally today we did. It's the hardest puzzles we have ever done...lots of dark colors. It is beautiful though. The picture matches what we see out our window today...

Christmas 2008

Some Christmas Pictures

hiking at Elkmont

Sam swinging on a grape vine..

four generations...

me and my children

I got a broom for Christmas...

I told JMB that I wanted to go to Gatlinburg and get a new bottom for my broom for Christmas. We drove to The Glades Road shops and found the shop where we had bought the broom 30 year ago. David Ogle is the son of the man who made our broom. He said " I'll make it like new for you in about 30 minutes." We browsed at all the shops...there's a Jim Gray gallery next door. We ate lunch at Ma's Kitchen. It was like my grandmother's cooking...Good! It was a nice day...

Christmas Story

One Christmas season I came home from shopping and found glass on the floor in the living room. Someone had shot our window in front, and the bullet didn’t go all the way through…it just shattered the glass. I called the police to report it, and they showed up that night.

It was a cold night, and when they came in they seemed so surprised and amazed. The room was lit with Christmas tree lights . There were packages under the tree. A fire was blazing in the fireplace, The mantle was decorated with wreaths. Garvey was locked in the bedroom and he was whining to get out. One policeman sat down in John’s easy chair to fill out his report. They didn’t want to go back out in the cold world where most of the calls they got were bad.

I think they were reminded that there is a good world out there too.