Day One Hundred Twenty

Drive-by shooting: I drove by the courthouse and shot a picture. The flags on the north side of the courthouse were whipping in the gusty wind around lunch time today.

Day One Hundred Nineteen

My sister Jane and me at cardio-sculpt class back in March, but it represents a typical Wednesday afternoon for us between 4:15 and 5:15. (Didn't have a fresh pic. Sorry.) Our instructor wore us out today. We lived to tell the tale! Go, us!

Day One Hundred Eighteen

Grandpa Neil got a little help from grandson Elijah this afternoon, out in the sunshine in the backyard, planting ferns. Good times. Great memories. Love you guys!!

Day One Hundred Seventeen

Are you next in line for swine flu? I remember that strain of flu from back in the day when Gerald Ford was president. There were people who took the vaccine for it and ended up permanently disabled. Apparently there is no vaccine or cure for it this time around. The talking heads on the news keep telling us to wash our hands and hold your breath when somebody near by coughs or sneezes. Not really. I made that last one up. I guess we can only pray to be spared from this latest dread. And keep washing our hands.

Day One Hundred Sixteen

Project 365, a picture a day for a year, is what this blog is all about. But it's also about scrap booking the pictures I take. Here is the digital scrapbook page I did for week eleven. As you can see, I'm falling behind. I use Photoshop Elements 5.0. The template is KL 365 01. It was a nice freebie from a website I am ashamed to say I did not record in my list of products. If someone recognizes it, maybe they can drop me a note here. The bottom paper is Christina Renee's Grungy Gingham Green and the top paper is Katie Pertiet's A Bit of Grunge No. 02. The font is Especial Kay (hee hee! wonder why I chose that one). Got to get busy and do some more pages!

Day One Hundred Fifteen

Today was a quiet and laid back Saturday. Started organizing all sorts of photos that are loose and scattered in a box. When I tired of that, I grabbed my cell phone and started walking around the house, inside and outside, taking random pictures in the negative setting. Thought I'd share one of those, since I didn't take any "normal" pictures. This is a sun face stepping stone in a rock path on the north side of our house. It's speckled with those little tree seeds that blow all over the place like tiny helicopters in the spring. I think this picture nicely represents this hot, sunny, cloudless, smiley kind of day. If you'd like to see more random cell phone pictures taken in the negative, check out http://kaykel.blogspot.com.

Day One Hundred Fourteen

I guess I'm in a '60's frame of mind this week. Lava lamps and Love posters. Neil says we need some incense and sitar music. Late Beatle George Harrison comes to mind. This poster is a favorite of mine and has hung in my living room for probably years. So Peace out, y'all, and have a groovy weekend.

Day One Hundred Thirteen

I bought a lava lamp at Wal-Mart yesterday. It is more fun than human beings should be allowed to have. More entertaining to me than anything on TV (well, except for '24' and 'Lost' of course). I've always wanted one. My sister Ann has one and I always thought it was neat. It's probably the cheapest chill pill on the market. I highly recommend it.

Day One Hundred Twelve

Did you ever get bored at the doctor's office, sitting in the exam room, waiting and waiting? And waiting? Had to go in for a tune up today (not really, just had to get a couple of prescriptions renewed). Looking for amusement other than old Good Housekeeping magazines, I took advantage of the situation and turned my boredom into a photo op. This pic proves how boring the wait can be. It doesn't get any more mind numbing than tongue depressors. I did get new prescriptions and some blood drawn for cholesterol checks and such. In and out in forty five minutes. Could've been worse.

Day One Hundred Eleven

Today was like an autumn day. Sunshine, blue sky, puffy clouds, cool breeze. Perfect day for blowing bubbles. And catching them. This is one of Elijah's favorite things to do at Granny's house. Good times.

Day One Hundred Ten

Monday did not start out this way, weather wise. The morning was gray, rainy, dreary, chilly. But early this afternoon, the weather did a one eighty. The sun popped out and the sky turned blue and the sweater came off. This is a shot of the view out my windshield around five twenty this evening as I headed home from cardio-sculpt class. Wow.

Day One Hundred Nine

Sometimes the urge for ice cream is so strong you have to trek over to Baskin-Robbins in the pouring rain to satisfy the longing. Kelly, Neil, Shelby, Elijah and I did just that this rainy Sunday afternoon after lunch. Shelby is wearing her chocolate fudge like lipstick. Elijah is biting into his vanilla clown cone with gusto. For the record, Kelly and Neil had cups of pralines and cream and I had a scoop of mint chocolate chip on a sugar cone. Yes, it was all that and more. Worth getting drenched in the rain.

Day One Hundred Eight

What a gorgeous Saturday! Daughter Kelly and I went to daughter Holly's house to see the covered deck they just had built. Really nice! Kelly can't resist getting on the trampoline whenever we're there. She and grand daughter Shelby had a good time, jumping. I took this pic with my cell phone. I was trying to capture them both in the air. It's hard to snap an action shot because by the time you've clicked the button, the action has moved on and you get the aftermath. But I like this picture. Kelly had come in for a landing and looks like she's ready to fly away. I did manage to get Shelby in mid air. Good times!

Day One Hundred Seven

Ocha redux. Daughter Kelly loves our favorite Thai restaurant, Ocha, and sometimes comes in from Murfreesboro for the weekend early on a Friday so she can eat there, since it isn't open on the weekends. So here we all are again, digging into the rice, spicy chicken, mixed veggies, and sweet and sour pork with an egg roll or two on the side. It was yummy.

Day One Hundred Six

Elijah and Shelby walking to the house after Shelby got out of school this afternoon. I was behind them, taking pictures, and Shelby suddenly whirled around to see what I was doing. By the way, guess who was carrying her heavy book bag. She got to attend the book fair at her school today. She bought two books for herself and was thoughtful enough to buy one for her brother--a Clifford the Big Red Dog book because she knows he likes Clifford. Good stuff.

Day One Hundred Five

Our favorite Thai restaurant, Ocha, reopened this week. Elijah loves the rice and dug into a big pile of it. He brings his own drinks. Coke Zero seems to be his fave right now. Next time remind me to move Neil's cup out of the way! Honestly. Who takes these pictures.

Day One Hundred Four

Daughter Holly, grand daughter Shelby, and grand son Elijah allow me a reluctant pose as they get ready to head for home after a long day of work and school. At that point, Elijah didn't want to leave and Shelby was annoyed because she was working on a piece of art and didn't want to quit just so I could take their picture together. What's a mom/grannymom to do? I forced them to be still and look at the camera and this is what I got. Priceless!

Day One Hundred Three

Monday night at our house means '24'! For us, it is must see TV. We've watched it from the very first hour. It rocked again tonight! Gotta say, I just didn't see that one coming....

Day One Hundred Two

Shelby, Elijah, Julia, Sarah



checking out the loot




Sarah,Holly,Shelby,Kelly,Elijah,Julia





The Leftovers!





We enjoyed perfect weather today for our annual backyard egg hunt. Usually, after the kids find all (well, most) of the eggs, they remove the candy from the eggs, and we hide them all over again for another hunt. They didn't want to today. They enjoyed batting the ball and just sitting around, talking and laughing and eating too much candy. I think everyone had fun. I know I did. I always love the opportunity to be with my family. Love you all!

Day One Hundred One

Our family got together today for pizza at Momma Rosa's Restaurant. Shelby and Elijah stayed here at the house after that so their parents could do a bit of Easter shopping. I took this picture while they were watching a Scooby Doo movie they'd never seen before. Lots of giggles. But Elijah grew tired of it and we ended up outside blowing bubbles. Fun stuff.

Day One Hundred

Middle Tennessee got hit hard this afternoon with severe thunderstorms and tornadoes. Murfreesboro got hit the hardest. Lots of damage and, worst of all, loss of life. I'm relieved to say my loved ones weathered the scary weather. My heart goes out to those families who lost everything.

Day Ninety Nine

Scattered

And they're off!

Counting eggs

Shelby and friend

Elijah and goodies

We live across the street from my grand daughter's school. Shelby's teacher asked if her second grade class could have their egg hunt in my backyard. Well of course I said yes! This afternoon, about 25 second graders ran wildly around the yard, plucking up colorful Easter eggs wherever they might find them. Hope you can see the scattered eggs in the top picture. And the mom's hid a bunch that were hard to find. In the end, if some found more eggs than others, they shared their bounty with each other. Shelby is seen here with her good buddy. And last but never least is Elijah man, who enjoyed his own egg hunt and party at pre-school today. He was so thrilled with this basket of goodies and proudly and carefully carried it to the car when I picked him up. The kids had a good time today. So did I.

Day Ninety Eight

Monday and Tuesday it snowed. Today was gorgeous! Blue sky, cool breeze. I took this on my way home from aerobics class this afternoon. Couldn't have asked for a nicer day.

Had to make a candy run to Wal-Mart today. I started freaking out because we hadn't bought anything yet to fill up the plastic eggs we hide for the backyard hunt on Sunday. From the looks of this pic, you'd think I bought everything they had left.

Day Ninety Seven

Grandkids Shelby and Elijah, hanging out at my house after school, watching Scooby Doo cartoons on DVD, eating all sorts of stuff that can rot their little teeth. Shelby says she's sick of Scooby Doo, but she's always the first to pick out an episode to watch. Funny. We had snow flurries here all day. Even when the sun came out and the temperature rose to 43 degrees. Weekend weather looks good. Hope the kids get to hunt Easter eggs.

Day Ninety Six

As I've said before, it's a rare treat for Neil and me to get to enjoy a lunch with both our daughters on a weekday. But Kelly decided to stay over Sunday night. She was jumping at the chance to have lunch at Ocha, our favorite local Thai restaurant. It was supposed to have re-opened today after a month long hiatus, but when we got there, a note on the door said it would be closed until April 13. Bummer. So the question of the day became: Where do you want to have lunch? And the usual answer: I don't care. Which is never true. Because when you start mentioning names of fast food joints around town, someone will invariably groan. Holly suggested the Soup Kitchen. We've talked about trying it for probably years but we never go. Well, today is the perfect day for some soup. It's cold, windy, and raw and we've had snow flurries off and on all day. Homemade soup and bread hit the spot and we all wondered why we had put off coming here for so long.

Day Ninety Five

I didn't take pictures today, so I'll share one from our trip to Stones River Battlefield in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, yesterday. This is a small section of Union soldier graves. Across the street and beyond the fence is the battlefield. 24,000 men were killed in three days, December 31, 1862 to January 2, 1863. We learned that the Battle of Murfreesboro was one of the bloodiest in the entire Civil War.

Day Ninety Four

My great great grandfather, Robert James Campbell Gailbreath, a Confederate soldier from Gainesboro, Tennessee, was wounded in the Battle of Murfreesboro, December 31, 1862. His arm was amputated and he died January 12, 1863. He is buried in a mass grave along with 2000 other Confederate soldiers in Evergreen Cemetery in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. I've always wanted to visit his grave site and got the chance today. Our daughter, Kelly, lives in Murfreesboro not far from the battlefield where her great great great grandfather was wounded and later died. We spent this beautiful afternoon with the dead, walking around The Confederate Circle at Evergreen, then heading over to the battlefield at Stone's River where the thousands of Union soldiers are buried. We spent a lot of time in the cemetery. The next time we visit, we plan to walk the battlefield and maybe get a feel for some of the last moments of RJC Gailbreath's life. By the way, his name is misspelled on the headstone.

Day Ninety Three

Sometimes I have to go out on my front porch and gaze at the flag for a few moments just to reassure myself that I am still living in America.

Day Ninety Two

The tulips are finally blooming in our yard. They're my favorite spring time flower. I hope they're still around for Easter.

Day Ninety One

Every time we eat out with grand daughter Shelby, she amuses herself with making gross food combination concoctions. An uneaten bun from an Arby's roast beef sandwich, salt, pepper, Sweet n Low, a little salsa and ketchup and maybe a curly fry or two--it all makes for a totally repulsive sandwich. She and Neil always offer each other money if one of them will actually take a bite. I think she did take a bite out of one of these once for five bucks. But that's the last time she did it. This need to gross people out is genetic, apparently. Her mom used to do the same thing.