Thanksgiving...Callaway Gardens...A New Home!

Thanksgiving 2011 and it was just Mike, Toby and me.  Kristi did not have the kids so she was going to Orlando to be with Linda and her family.  Amanda was going to spend it with Josiah and his family so...we made reservations at Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain, GA for their holiday weekend.

We have visited Callaway Gardens before and really enjoy the whole atmosphere.  It's like stepping back in time a bit.  Quiet paths to stroll down, benches that are strategically placed to provide a breathtaking view, nature shows and a gorgeous chapel for reflection.  In the summer there is a lake and beach area that has shuffleboard courts, canoe rentals, an amphitheater, hot dogs and ice cream and fun.

This is our first visit in the fall and it is spectacular.  The weather is cool but not cold, there is some color left on the trees and the Christmas decorations are going up.  Mike, Toby and I wandered the paths and enjoyed all the gardens had to offer. 

Then....we got a call from Wendy, our Georgia real estate agent, checking in and once again urging us to make an offer if we still like the house.  The owners wanted to sell and were actually moving in to their new house.  Mike said 'ok' but we are offering $60K less then they are asking.  Well, I won't bore you with the details, but it got all the way down to $1K dollar difference and Mike would not budge!  I was a wreck.  But lo and behold the owners took our offer and the house was ours!!!!!!  Of course, all of this was a flurry of emailing, faxing and phoning to get to this point and the internet at Callaway was spotty at best.  I had one corner near our room that I could receive a signal at.  So I was racing back and forth to the office trying to get reception to send and receive all of these communications.  YIKES!  But at long last...signed, sealed and delivered. 

Thanksgiving Day was almost anticlimactic after all of that.   We truly enjoyed it though.  The dinner was excellent, we met some nice people and the day was lovely.  That evening we took the little train ride though the holiday light show that Callaway is known for.  How much fun!  The weather was quite cool and crisp, the holiday music was very festive and the light show was great.  

What a weekend!  We headed back to Orlando and my head was spinning.  I was dreaming and decorating and planning.  I could not believe that we had bought our house!

Catching Up

How the time has flown!  And how much has happened during that time.  Major milestones....Mike, my husband, retired.  Amanda, our granddaughter, has graduated from high school, and we sold our home and in July 2012 moved to Gainesville, GA.

This is our new house and to say that I fell in love with it...well, that is an understatement.  I feel a deep affinity with this house.  Mike and I saw it in October....the leaves were brilliant, pumpkins on the porch, fall swirling the leaves around the yard and that wonderful smell that accompanies that time of year.  It was out of our price range but I had the realtor take us through the house 3 times in the weekend we were there.  She kept telling us to put in an offer that the owners were ready to sell since they had already purchased their new home. 

We left and I dreamt...literally...of this house.  Mike kept telling me it was out of our price range.  I dreamt some more! 

I loved the brick enclosed patio and the birdhouse!  I loved the way the trees dipped over the tops of the wall and draped them with color.  

This was my house....Mike just didn't realize it yet!

Mike did love the property though and the heart of pine wood floors.  

Time will tell.  

Petulant

Petulant -insolent or rude in speech or behavior. 2. : characterized by temporary or capricious ill humor : peevish. — pet·u·lant·ly adverb.

 This is the word that best describes Amanda right now.  I'd hate to think that this was her permanent personality...I'd hate to think that she exhibited this demeanor to people other than family...but, I know this is who she is with us.  

  

Find a Positive Memory Every Day

I am usually a positive person so doing a posting a day would be a rather negative journey.  Raising a very good teenager should be a piece of cake.  But, my very good teenager is also an opinionated, stubborn, non-communicative, strong willed young woman.  There is no real talking to he, she knows everything, she is always right and she has to have the last word.  It makes documenting the positive difficult.  Perhaps I should change my journey from 'A Thought A Day' to "Find a Positive Memory Every Day'. 

A Thought A Day

Perhaps the best way to remember the year is to post a thought a day....I'm sure I will skip some days but I'm going to try and keep on track.  

So, my thought for today is on projects.  I have so many in the Que and my mind keeps conjuring up additional ones that I want to do.  There is an urgency to these thoughts and plans.  Why?  Well, time is marching on.  As I sit and write this I see my hands typing away and I see...I see the aging...the veins becoming more prominent, the  skin a bit drier and crisscrossed with a few more creases each day.  And it is these hands that I need to create, and the eyes that are seeing a bit less clearly that I need to transfer the thoughts to fabric or paper or computer.  It's the mind that has such clarity and sharpness at one moment and then, with the blink of an eye, the edges blur and the thought disappears behind a veil of years.  So....I hope I remember to place a thought a day here!

I watched The Quilt Show this morning and they had the episode with Susan Carlson on it. Wow! I have always loved her work but seeing how she creates her collages and how she steps outside of the box is so inspirational! It makes me want to cut all my stash into little pieces, throw them into bins or cases and collage away!

I used her first book to make a collage of a fish for Owen. Her second book has a Mandela, moon and sun and many more exciting images. I wonder if I can do a series of pillows for the sofa when we move? They would certainly be colorful and fun. Just another thing to add to my already too long list of wanttodo's!'

Why don't I have more time to do these things I want to do? Retirement isn't what I thought it would be. Wonderful? Yes! Productive? NO!