I'm Baaaaack!

I'm sure that because of my two plus week haitus, a lot of you thought that I gave up on my feeble attempt at blogging.  Wrong!  Mountain Man and I made a trip up to Ohio for a combination birthday celebration for our token son's wife and their eldest chile and Thanksgiving.  As anyone who has ever moved away from their home state and then gone back to visit, it's impossible to see everyone on the "I need to get together with..." list.  I made my list, checked it twice, added a few more names and then both Mountain Man and I got sick. He with a severe sinus infection (partially blamed on breathing the smoke from the forest fires), and I with my usual standby thyroid issues that had been brought on by the stress of the move and the exhaustion from the renovations. Needless to say, other than the immediate fam, our doctors got to visit us the most in our first week in Ohio.   Always looking for a bright side, feeling like I had been run over by a truck made me take it much easier than normal and gave me a lot more snuggle and reading time with my two grands.  You will never hear this Bhakti (their name for me) complain about too much snuggle time!  

Thanksgiving was a beautiful day. The whole day before, we cooked and spent the day together, and on Thanksgiving day, it was awesome!  The first Thanksgiving day in 30 some years that I didn't put the meal together!  Once the turkey was in the oven, I was off duty.  I got to watch the Macy's Parade, play, read the newspaper peruse the ads and just plain relax.  It was one of the best Thanksgivings EVER!  The kids did a fantastic job of putting on the dinner.  They have learned well and the baton has been passed.  We have had a changing of the guard!  Can you tell that I am totally excited by this change of events? After our family dinner, Mountain Man went back to bed,  my Daughter-in-Law (I really dislike that term for her.  She is as much mine as my two girl chillin so until I can come up with an appropriate title for her I will from herein refer to her as one of the girl chillin and you can just be confused!) took the two grands to her family Thanksgiving and my two chillin and I went to the nursing home to visit Mountain Man's ex mother-in-law.  She is actually our mama of the heart since she never let go of Mountain Man and she adopted me and mine when we got married 26 years ago.  She has been laid up in a nursing home for the past 15 months since breaking both legs in a fall.  We had a wonderful visit with her and promised to be back in a few days to see her again.  Then we went to visit our girl chile's family for a while.  Shortly after we all got home in the evening, we received a call that our mama of the heart had passed away shortly after we left.  Even though we had watched her health fail over the past few years, she was doing so well on Thanksgiving that we were totally in shock when the call came.  I am so blessed to have had that one last great visit with her.

The next week was a blur trying to catch up with all of the promised visits.  I must say, I failed miserably.  I did get to stop into my old place of employment and I got to see a lot of my beloved coworkers.   It felt really good that they were as excited to see me as I was to see them.  Hopefully, during my next trip to Ohio -- we are supposed to go up in January for the memorial service-- I will be able to see the rest of them and everyone else on my list.  

Leaving Ohio was bittersweet.  As you would expect, I hate having to say goodbye to my chillin' and my grands, but after being in Ohio for those two weeks, Mountain Man and I realized that Ohio is not home anymore.  Our home is in our sweet little cabin in the beautiful North Georgia mountains.  As much as we love being with our family and friends, there is just something in these mountains.  On the drive home, as soon as we could see the mountains again, we had an overwhelming sense of inner peace and joy.  It's a combination of so many things that it's hard to pinpoint what exactly makes this feel like home.  I know that at this time of year, our town is much smaller,  it only consists of the full timers now.  All of the Floridians and summer renters have gone home for the rest of the year.    Now, when you pass a car on the road, you get a friendly wave.  When you pass someone on the street in town, they stop to chat for a moment.  It's more like living with an extended family rather than a town full of strangers.  We went to the annual Christmas parade (Yes, it was a Christmas Parade, not a "Holiday" parade) downtown last night.  The whole town comes out for events such as this.  There was music on the town square.  Santa was visiting with all of the children,  the ladies of the historical society had a bake sale set up and I'm pretty sure they sold out!  The parade was great fun, but then again, I am partial to parades!  After the parade was over, we stopped in to the local coffee shop not only for a caffeine fix, but to visit with the owners. Then after walking around town, we stopped into the motel that we stayed in while waiting to get in our house in what now seems was a lifetime ago.  The owners of the hotel not only remembered us, but welcomed us with warm hugs. We enjoyed a great visit with them before making our way back through town to our car and home again.  I know that for some,  all of the friendly, family type atmosphere would be an uncomfortable and stifling thing.  For Mountain Man and me, this is exactly what we need at this point in our lives.  The only thing that could make this life any better would be to have all of our chillin and grands here with us.   That is not to be at this point so we will make the most of our visits to Ohio and Florida and make the most of their visits here with us. We know now, after only one visit back to Ohio that in these mountains, we are exactly where we belong... we are home!

When Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

When Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, the classic beautiful ballad by the Platters comes to mind every time we step out our cabin door lately.  The forest fire that started a month ago in the Chattahoochee National Forest with a single bolt of lightening has now burned over 21,000 acres of land and is only 20% contained. They don't expect to have them totally controlled for at least 2 to 4 weeks yet if we don't get any considerable amounts of rain.  Since that first fire started, there have been many other fires that have also taken off.  Unfortunately,  they are finding that some of the more recent fires that have started have been set by obviously deranged people.  Thank goodness, they have already found a few of these criminals.  I know that forest fires can be a cleansing thing to happen to forest land- burning up old dead wood and allowing new growth to come up from the forest floor fresh and new.  I understand that,  and I don't have a problem with it as long as the fires are able to be contained inside the boundaries of the forest and not have any ill effects on any homes in the area.  My only problem at this point is breathing the sooty and smelly air that is constantly surrounding us and our entire town.  Since we don't have a garage at our cabin, my car and Mountain Man's truck are constantly covered in a layer of gray powdery soot.  Not good for the lungs!  Since the smoke is getting heavier and more consistantly in our area, Mountain Man went to the local big box store and got us some masks to wear.  I must admit, it's not  a very becoming style, but it does make breathing a bit easier!

As with most tragedies and catastrophies, there is always a bright side.  The bright side in this story is the outpouring of love and generosity that is coming from ours and all of the other surrounding communities.  We have firefighting teams from all around the country and Puerto Rico,  Sky Crane Helicopters with their flight and mechanic teams, and tanker airplanes with their crews that have all come here to help us control and extinguish the fires.  Even though most of these heros are being compensated for their time spent here working on these fires, there are also countless numbers of volunteer firefighters that are actually taking time away from their full time jobs so they can be here to help.  All of the communities that are being affected by the fires are so grateful to all of these people that the local restaurants are providing free meals, people have been preparing food and bringing it to the fire departments, collecting water, toiletries and other necessary items to keep these firefighters as healthy and comfortable as possible while working on these wild fires.  To be a part of and a witness to this southern hospitality makes me proud of my community and happy to be a resident of Georgia.

As I mentioned in the last paragraph, there has been a Sky Crane Helicopter, which is equipped with a snorkle to suck up 3,000 gallons of water in 45 seconds that can then be dumped on the fires, stationed at our local airport.  This past Sunday, Mountain Man and I were making a trip the Walmart to pick up a few things.  The road that leads to the Walmart passes by the end of the runway.  We could see that the helicopter was there as we drove by so on our way home we decided to stop in at the airport and see if we could meet crew and thank them for risking their lives to save our forest.  We pulled up to the operations center at the airport and Mountain Man went in to ask if we could meet the crew.  I am still not totally used to small town living, the operations manager at the airport told us to go ahead and drive across the runway to see the copter and the crew!  Yes, you read right, drive across the runway.  Well, he did tell us to be sure to look both ways for landing planes!  Good enough for us, off we drove across the runway.  When we got to the other side,  the copter and crew were all just hanging out waiting for their next call.  We were able to have a nice visit with the whole crew and much to Mountain Man's delight, he was able to cross another thing off of his bucket list. He not only got to get his picture taken in front of the giant flying machine, but he also was able to get up inside of it and have the captain give him a lesson in how to start up and fly the big bird.  Needless to say, it was one of the great highlights of recent times for my Mountain Man.  To be able to watch him getting to experience something that brings him such joy and to see his childlike awe brings me such great joy, there are just no words.

So, until next week, wash your cars, clean your windows, forget your umbrellas, do a rain dance and most of all, pray for rain!

Green Acres, We Are There!

There is definitely a "slow southern style" way of living here in these mountains. There is an inbred politeness and kindness that just about every soul in this area carries with them.   Case in point: nearly everywhere that I have been in this country I have seen No Littering signs.  They are usually matter of fact and are accompanied with a threat of fines.  On the roads in our community, we also have similar signs.  The only difference is that they are polite reminders.  These signs say "NO TRASH PLEASE".  As we were taught as youngsters, please and thank you goes a long way.  I'm not sure whether there is just more pride and respect in our community or whether people appreciate the manners, but either way, it is rare to see any trash along our roadways.

We also have, as most other communities do, community online yard sales.  I have taken to reading these posts on Facebook, not because I'm in need of anything. Heaven knows I've got way too much stuff already.  I ready them for the pure entertainment value.  As the oldest of my chillin' called to my attention, most of these people have no filters.  Everything from phone numbers to personal information as to their whereabouts is openly shared on these sites. You can tell that this is a small, trusting community because you could never get away with these things in big cities.   Here are a few of my favorite posts from these sites.  I hope that you will also see the humor and innocence in them.

The first one that every caught my attention was a desperate woman with an unemployed man.  This ad read something like this:  "My boyfriend needs work now.  The baby's coming soon and he needs to be working.  he will do almost anything.  Please call me at --- ----."  The way I read into this is that he will do almost anything other than look for a job!

The next one was a man trying to sell his truck. He was also including the wench.  Yup, you read that one right.  So did a lot of other people.  The first person to pull the trigger on that one wanted to know if she works and what does she look like and is it legal to sell wenches in Georgia.  The gentleman that placed the ad soon saw the error in his spelling and corrected it promptly!

Sometimes people aren't looking to make money on their items, sometimes they just want to trade.  There was this one gentleman who was looking to get rid of his car.  He wasn't interested in cash he only wanted either a truck or weapons!  There are no words!

The last one for today is a lady that was interested in getting rid of some of her farm animals.  She had the usual goats and chickens for sale, but the one that caught my eye was the silky chicks.  She said that she had a whole batch of silky chicks for sale, but they were too young to be sexed.  My question is: How old does a silky chick have to be to be sexed???

Now for my Green Acres moment.  Last week, Mountain Man was trying to make a phone call.  When he picked up the land line, he heard a man's voice on the other end.  After a few confused moments, he found out that the phone line was being worked on and he would have to wait to make his call.  I was starting to feel a Green Acres moment coming on.  If any of you are old enough to remember Green Acres, you'll remember that the Douglas's had to climb to the top of the telephone pole to make their phone calls.  After they would climb all that way, they had to talk to the operator if no one was using the line so they could make their call.  Later that day, our middle chile called us.  The only problem was that when she called, the person that answered the phone had an unusually thick southern accent.  Her, knowing her Mountain Mama like she does, thought that I was playing around with her so she just refused to say anything until Mama straightened up and talked right!  The voice on the other end again said hello, can I help you?  Now, realizing that this isn't  the Mama, she looks at her phone to make sure that she hasn't dialed the wrong number. Reassured that she had indeed dialed the correct number,  she, now wondering who exactly is in her parents house, said, "I'm trying to call my mom."  The kind voice with the strong southern drawl then politely informed her that he was working on the phone lines and that she should try back in a few minutes.  When I did finally talk with her, she asked if the lineman had given me the message that she had called.  I told her no, but that wasn't his fault.  I only waved and kept on driving when I passed him.  I'm sure that if I had stopped and said hello, he would have given me the message!  That's just how things work down here!

A Walk In The Forest On An Autumn Eve

Well, the work on the mountain cabin has all but been wrapped up.  After a few more deliveries and a new HVAC unit going in this coming week, we will be all settled in.  The rooms have all been painted, cleaned and decorated and the place now feels like home, our perfect little mountain cabin.  We will now have time to relax and enjoy our beautiful surroundings before heading back to Ohio in a few weeks.  We will be going up to celebrate birthdays and Thanksgiving with the Ohio Mountain Chillins.  I am looking forward to seeing them all again, along with all of our extended family and friends that we left behind.  With all of the modern technologies that we have now in our lives, it is so much easier to stay closely connected to our loved ones,  so even though there are over 600 miles between us, I can still talk to them almost daily and see their face. It does help with the homesickness.   Still, nothing is better than a good hug! I'm looking forward to lots of those!

Since we have more free time now, we have been taking advantage of having the Chattahoochee National Forest in our back yard.  There is a beautiful, gently sloping trail that leads through the mountains that we have been walking.  With each walk that we take, we have ventured further up the mountain.  With Mountain Man being a hunter, we normally can navigate the trails looking for signs of all of the forest creatures and sometimes even stumbling across a few without making a peep.  With this years drought, though, there is no such thing as a silent step.  The beautifully colored leaves that carpet the trail are so dry that the crunch of our footsteps is almost deafening.  There is absolutely no chance of quietly coming upon a feeding doe or any of the other small wildlife scampering about.  They are able to hear us long before they see us.  Just as when we are sitting on our deck, we can hear them making their way along the well worn trails long before we can see them.  Autumn in the mountains is so different from Autumn anywhere else that I have experienced it.  The air is cleaner, the sky is so clear and blue that I sometimes feel like I'm looking at it through a high definition camera lens.  The leaves vary much so in color that I'm sure there are not even names for some of the beautiful shades that they turn.  If you stop long enough and sit quietly, you can hear the birds and critters calling out to one another in their own personal conversations that we are blessed to be able to eavesdrop in on.  The wonders of nature are truly here in these North Georgia mountains.  I'm not wishing my life away, but I am living in anticipation of the spring, when hopefully the drought will subside and the creeks and rivers will once again be filling and the sounds of the babbling waters flowing down the mountain.  Since I am a water baby by nature, I do miss having the water around me.  

After a light dinner this evening, we trekked back out into the woods to collect some wood to turn into walking sticks and curtain rods.  We hiked up the hill across from our cabin, selected the perfect saplings;  a hickory for me since Mountain Man says that a hickory is a lady's stick and a mighty oak for him.  In true Mountain Man nature, he used his handy little ax to cut them down.  No chain saws for this Mountain Man!  As we were dragging our saplings back up the road to our cabin, I secretly hoped that none of the neighbors would drive by.  You see, the hickory that I was dragging was nearly 20 feet long and the Oak was every bit of 15 feet.  Oh, and, I forgot to mention that since this wasn't a planned adventure, I was wearing my slippers.  When you are alone on a mountain most of the time, you tend to forget that, on occasion, other people are around!  We were almost back to our driveway when we heard a car coming up the road, I didn't realize how fast I could move in slippers dragging a big stick.  I felt like I was doing the mountain version of Cross Fit!  I beat the car, so  no explanation needed!  Mountain Man then cut the sticks to length, skinned them both and they are now drying so they can be sanded and oiled.  This will make our hikes quite a bit easier.  Plus, having it made with love, just for me, makes it even more important.  I will be making curtains for the basement windows when the fabric comes and I will have enough of the saplings left to use as curtain rods.  This living off of the land thing is fun.  Now every excursion into the forest will surely provide more decorating ideas and materials!

Not So Random Acts Of Kindness

Up until just a few months ago, I have lived my entire life in or within a few mile radius of Akron, Ohio.  Most of the people that I know have also lived their entire lives in that same area.  I know, or at least am acquainted with, many good people with big hearts that have always been kind, caring, compassionate and generous with not only us, but anyone else they come in contact with.  But working in the public venue for most of my adult life I have also come into contact with just as many, if not more, selfish, rude and impolite people.  Here's where I'm going with this... in the few short months of living here in these beautiful mountains, I have witnessed more of what most people would call "random acts of kindness" than I have in the past few years of living in Ohio. As a matter of fact, I would even be tempted to retitle them Common Acts of Kindness.   Some are so touching that they will bring a tear to your eye.  Some are actually kind of comical.  One of the funnier ones that we were witness to happened just yesterday in the parking lot of our local Walmart.  We were waiting behind a car to turn down an aisle to find a parking space.  The car was sitting still for what seemed an extra long amount of time waiting to make its left turn.  As there were no cars coming the opposite direction, Mountain Man and I began looking around to see what the holdup could be.  There, standing at the end of the row of cars, was an elderly gentleman with a cane.  You could tell by the way that he was standing that to walk was a chore for him.  We realized that the lady in the car ahead of us was waiting and waving him across the crosswalk in front of her.  After two waves and no movement on his part, she rolled down her window and kindly told the gentleman that she was waving him across and he was free to go.  He then told her, I understand that, but I'm not crossing, just waiting here for someone!  It brought to mind the old show Laugh In where the boy scout would pick up Ruth Buzzy, who was dressed as an old lady, and carry her across the street when she didn't want to go and she would end up beating him with her purse.  This instance wasn't as animated or as violent for that matter, but still made us giggle.  We have witnessed and been a part of so many acts of kindness here that there are just too many to mention.

On Friday of this week, Mountain Man was invited by one of our new friends to go with him to check out the hunting grounds in our area.  Always up for a hunting adventure, Mountain Man gladly took him up on his offer.  After a good four or five hours, they returned to our house to fill me in on their adventures. Expecting only to hear about the trails they found and the animals that they saw, I was only slightly excited to hear the tales they had to tell.  Well, I couldn't have been more wrong.  The tale that they had to tell was about one of the most emotional acts of kindness that I have ever heard.  You see, our new friend is of Cherokee decent.  He was raised not to be proud of his heritage, but to not acknowledge that part of who he is.  Therefore his children were also not raised to be a proud descendant of the native people.  A few years ago, after learning much about his descendants and his heritage, he decided that he would like to have a statue erected in Meeks Park,  our local community park, to honor the tribes of our area.  He started a small fundraising campaign to obtain the $32,000 that it will cost for the statue to be commissioned.  It will be sculpted by Daniel Horse Chief,  who is of Cherokee, Pawnee decent and is from Oklahoma. This started out for our friend to be a tribute to his people who were not only stripped of their land, but also of their lives, to acknowledge that this is their home.  This plan seemed to take on a life of its own.  It has now gone way past the statue.  Our friend is now waiting to be able to meet with the congressmen from here in Georgia to get approval from the federal government to officially welcome the tribes back to their original homes here in the four county area of the North Georgia Mountains.  This might not sound like a big deal, but it would be the first time in our country's history that the native people have been officially welcomed back to the land that was stolen from them so long ago.  In case you are wondering, this has nothing to do with the so called "Indian Casinos".  This would be a much more personal welcome.  No one thinks that there will be a mass exodus of the tribes that were displaced to Oklahoma back here to Georgia.  After all, the people have lives and careers and homes where they reside now.  What it will do is to open our communities and towns to anyone who would be interested in relocating, opening businesses and making a life in their true native land.  There would be help set up to assist these people in reestablishing a life here in their mountains.  

Mountain Man and I have always felt a strong connection to the native tribes. I'm not sure if it is just from our history lessons or if we were part of these tribes in another lifetime.  Either way, I feel that this act is long overdue. Mountain Man and I feel blessed to have a friend that has sacrificed so much of his heart, time and not to mention personal funds, to extend this kindness to the most deserving of people.

If you are interested in learning more about this endeavor, please check out the webpage at We Are Still Here.  It is a little outdated since it has taken longer to raise the funds and obtain the meetings that need to take place to make to make this happen.  And until next week, let's all go out and commit some acts of kindness!

Sunday Morning In the Mountains

We have yet another beautiful Sunday morning here on our mountain.  Sunny, cool breeze blowing, birds singing back and forth with one another, the mountainside is a little more kissed with the colors of autumn. Even though we are in a drought and desperately need rain, I still appreciate these beautiful mornings. This is my religion. This is my peace. 

The eldest of our three mountain chillin' and her hubs came and stayed with us for a few days.  We not only celebrated her birthday with a beautiful trail ride through the mountains, we put them to work.  Mountain Man and I are blessed to have a wonderful family that is always willing to help each other with whatever needs to be done.  Whether it is as simple as raking leaves to as complex as remodeling a house.  It is awesome because there is no one keeping track of who helps the most or the least, it's just let's do this and get it done! This weekend, it was a major kitchen organization and painting a cathedral ceilinged living room.  Thank goodness for tall kids and hubs!  We were able to get a great deal done in a short amount of time which still left enough time for play. They also brought our grand puppy with them.  It was so nice to have a dog's energy in our house again.  This is something that I've missed since our Bailey found her time had come to go and live in another dimension. Her spirit is always with us, but it is also nice to be able to physically snuggle with a puppy.

Today we will slow our pace back down to mountain time.  It's funny how quickly you acclimate to the slower pace of life here.  It now feels more natural to me to take my time and relax as I do things instead of rushing.  I feel that my body and mind are more in sync with my creator and the earth this way.  I may not get as much done as quickly, but I feel that I do it better and more thoughtfully.

The only thing that is a must on our to do list today is to repair the sliding screen door that goes out onto the deck yet again.  You see, it is a bad habit that Mountain Man and our oldest chile have acquired.  They either ignore or forget about the doors.  The oldest chile has actually given herself a pretty severe case of whiplash by walking into a patio door.  More than once!  Mountain man has also perfected this bad habit.  Once while in Florida, I witnessed him walking into a glass patio door with such speed that I could actually see the glass bow.  All I can say is thank goodness for hurricane and Mountain Man proof glass.  Today's event was much more minor.  After going inside from the deck, he closed the screen door behind him.  A few minutes later, as I was sitting on the swing, I heard a crash and looked over in time to see the screen door come flying off the frame and into the deck rail and Mountain Man hot on its tail with a look of great shock on his face.  I am grateful that the deck rail is a strong one, or he would have been testing his flying skills.  There were no injuries incurred in this latest event, so feel free to laugh now!  I have decided that I will not only buy an extra repair kit for the screen door, but I will be buying a few screen hangers to put on the screen in hopes of catching people's attention and warning them that the door is indeed closed!

This week, we will be working on the guest bedroom and bath.  Check back next week to see what fun that brings!

Gushing Water and Falling Leaves

Reading the title of this chapter of my blog probably brings to mind a beautiful autumn scene of a roaring waterfall amid colorful leaves gently falling from the forest of trees.  You may even be able to imagine the cool mist of the falls along with the gentle breeze carrying the leaves.  Yeah, well, you wouldn't be further from right!  One day last week, after a full day of working to paint and update the master bathroom, I was getting cleaned up in the guest bathroom to make yet another trip to our local Home Depot.  We are on a first name basis with most of the cashiers there now.  As I said, I was getting cleaned up and Mountain Man was out on the deck working on one of his many projects.  I finished in the shower, stepped out and turned off the water.  I no sooner had the cold water shut off, turned to grab my towel and heard a whoosh and a thunk.  I turned back around to see a torrent of water coming out of the wall so hard it was hitting the back wall of the shower.  It was coming out where the cold water faucet used to be.  I was grabbing at the shower curtain to try and contain as much of the water as possible in the tub while yelling for Mountain Man to shut off the main water valve.  Being on the deck, he couldn't hear the water, only my desperate calls for help.  MM came running in toward the bathroom, thinking that I had fallen in the shower.  Once he saw what, looking back at it now, was quite a sight, me in all my glory battling an uncontrollable gush of water, he knew he was headed in the wrong direction and made a B line for the basement.  Thank goodness, just the day before we had looked to see where the shut off valve for the entire house was, so he knew right where to go. I don't know if I ever told you this, but, Mountain Man's nickname is Mr. FixIt, so in a matter of minutes he had figured out that the entire cold water stem had unscrewed itself, or had never been properly screwed in.  Either way, he had everything fixed quickly and was helping me sop up all of the water that managed to escape the shower.

A few days later, we had purchased a new toilet for the master bath and were installing it.  I don't know how toilet savvy you are, but we had no idea that the new toilets come with a pump system instead of the old flapper system.  They say that it gives you a much more powerful flush with much less water.  I don't know about that, but I do know that it was more like working on a spaceship than a simple toilet!  After much analyzing, reading, and rereading the directions, the unit was finally installed.  We were ready for the "maiden flush"! Never having seen a "pump" toilet work, we decided to leave the lid off so we could watch the "super pump action" that this unit was advertised to have.  That was our first mistake.  Our second mistake was taking too literally the instructions saying not to over tighten the tank to the seat because it would cause cracking and breaking of either or both parts.  So, with the excitement and anticipation of a child on Christmas morning, we flushed!  No where in the installation instructions did it say that if the toilet is flushed without the lid on that the water will spray straight upward like a geyser.  And you can imagine where the rest of the water went since the bolts for the tank were obviously not tightened enough!  This time, I was the runner to get every available towel while Mountain Man shut off the water to the toilet and tried to contain the water that was quickly making its way toward our bedroom.  After rereading the directions AGAIN and resecuring the bolts, all the while holding our breath that we wouldn't hear any cracking noises, we were ready for the longed perfect flush.  As we are fast learners, we put the top on the tank this time and proceeded to flush.  And the perfect flush it was.  Not an errant drop of water anywhere.  We were back in business!

After all of that excitement, I was ready for a break.  On the back of our house we have a 40 foot long, 20 foot high deck that overlooks the mountain that we live on.  With being up so high, I am able to sit and watch at eye level the leaves flutter on the trees and every once in a while, I am able to see one as it comes loose of the tree and floats to the ground.  You always hear people talking about mindfulness.  This is a perfect example of being mindful.  Having 
your mind relaxed and empty enough that you can totally, without even trying, focus on that one beautiful leaf's journey from limb to ground.  Noticing nothing else around you.  This is why I am here.  This is why I love this place.  To be able to take the time, calm my crazy mind and focus on the incredible perfection that is nature.  To see all of the gifts that my creator has given to me so abundantly and that I rushed through life and totally missed out on until now. As my journey continues, I am anticipating many new and amazing experiences, even some wet and maybe less that perfect experiences and I am so honored to be able to share them with you.  Thank you!  

I've Got The Music In Me...Again!

Anyone who has known me for very long knows of my love for music.  It started at a very young age.  Some of my earliest memories of music in my life are my mom playing the huge wooden console radio that sat in the corner of our dining room.  WAKR was the station and that was back in the day when they played all the top hits.  As she would lay out sheets on the dining room table and sprinkle them, one of her favorite songs would come on the radio. As she would be ironing sheets, I would be playing on the floor near her and we would sing "Red Roses for A Blue Lady" by Dean Martin.  To this day, I can't hear that song without that vision coming to my mind. 

On my brother's thirteenth birthday, I was three and I remember him getting his first record player.  It was a portable in a red and white leather case that you had to take the top off of to play records.  I think that I loved that gift even more than he did.  A few of his first records were some of my favorite.  One in particular, Lemon Tree by Peter, Paul and Mary was my absolute favorite. Looking back, I feel bad for my poor brother, every time the record player came out, I would beg him to play that record for me.  He finally got so sick of it that he either threw out the record or gave it to a friend.  I was never sure which, but I missed that song.  From there, I learned the words to most of Frankie Valley and the Four Seasons songs.  I still love their music.

For my first five years of school, I went to St. Paul's Catholic School.  They never had much in the way of music class.  In my fifth grade year, after having five long years of not fitting into the catholic school dogma, my parents finally put me in public school.  Much to my delight, they had choir!  A class where I could actually get to listen to music and sing for the whole hour!  That quickly became my favorite class.  From that point on, all I wanted to do was to be able to sing and play instruments.  Unfortunately for me, I had relatively little talent in either area, but that never stopped my love and desire for music in my life.

I was never able to take piano or dance like most of my friends did, but that never stopped me!  I would tag along with them to their lessons trying to pick up pointers as I sat quietly and watched.  When my friends would get new dance costumes, I would gladly take their old ones and I would have them teach me the steps to the dances that they used them for.  This led to my love of feeling the music move through my body and moving me to dance.  This was one of my requirements when Mountain Man proposed to me.  Will you always dance with me?  The answer was obviously yes.  We've been dancing now for 26 years.

All through the rest of my schooling, I always participated in choir and Singers.  I've never figured out if the instructors had pity on me since I had such a sincere love of music or whether they were that desperate for bodies and voices.  Either way, I loved every minute of it.  I even got to sing a few solos throughout my high school years.  

In my early adult life, my love of music stayed strong.  I was now able to buy all of the albums then eight tracks and then onto cassettes and CDs that I wanted. My choice of music was widely varied.  Once my Mountain Chillin' came along, I made sure that they had a variety of music in their lives also, starting with classical when they were newborns.

As life progresses, as it does sometimes, some of your favorite things fall by the wayside.  Life gets too busy to make time for yourself and the things that you love most.  This is what happened with me and music.  For the last 10-15 years, sadly, music was not high on my priority list.  I felt as if I had lost a close friend.  A part of me was missing.

As Mountain Man and I are settling into our new house and our new community a little more, we are finding something that I had known in the past but I had not really thought about.  The people of the south have music in their souls. They have a great amount of talent, a love and appreciation for it, and a desire to share it.  Since we have been in the mountains, my old friend, music, is coming back to live on in my soul again.  Every Friday and Saturday evenings, there is a free concert somewhere to enjoy.  Fridays are usually at the old court house with a wide variety of music from blue grass to jazz.  Saturdays are where everyone of the local bands is playing.  The rest of the evenings are a step back to my childhood.  We sit on the porch swing and listen to the radio.  I still have all of my music collection.  The only things that I have gotten rid of were the eight tracks.  I was sad about that, but I had nothing left to play them on.  I have replaced most of them with either cassettes or CDs.  

I am so happy to have my old friend back again.  My music fills me up.  It moves my soul and more times than not, my feet.  Welcome home, my dear friend, welcome home!

The Mover is Here!....The Mover is Here?

Yes, folks, you read that right.  Mover, not movers.  No, there is no plural there. There is also no 26 foot straight truck.  Before I confuse you any more, please let me explain.

Last Tuesday afternoon, I received a call from our moving company stating that our movers, note the plural, would be arriving on Thursday morning.  The movers, again note the plural, would be calling as they got closer to our home to let us know a more exact time to expect them.  A few hours later, I received a text that was either very poorly spelled or very broken English, at that point I wasn't sure which,  stating that he was on the road and would let me know when he would be arriving tomorrow.  As in Wednesday.  Hhhhmmmmm. Already something doesn't seem right, but I'll go with it.  If they do come on Wednesday, that would be fine since we were now ready for them.  We spent all Wednesday morning working around the house, waiting for our long anticipated call.  By early Wednesday afternoon, we decided to go out and do some shopping while we waited since we would be within a half an hour of our house and could get back before the movers if they call.  It was a lovely afternoon. We shopped, ate, and went for a ride to scope out a riding stable for Mountain Man. Finally, on our way home from the stable at about 5:30, I got a call from the movers.  They were in Tennessee and would be in Blairsville at around 8:30 if they didn't hit any traffic or get lost and would like to start the delivery then!  I don't know about you, but I for one think that its a very bad idea to start a move at my bedtime.  Ok, so I'm not really in bed at 8:30, but I do like to have my jammies on and be relaxing with a good book before bed.  Thinking that this was one of the worst ideas that I had heard lately, and believe me, I've heard A LOT of really crappy ideas in these past few months, I promptly called the moving company and plead my case.  The compassionate fellow on the other end of the line agreed with me about the poor timing and called off the move til 7 a.m. on Thursday.

Thursday morning, we were up bright and early ready and waiting.  We had coffee and waited.  We cleaned up the kitchen and waited.  We sat on the swing on the deck and waited.  Finally, a little after 8:30, the movers are here!!! We heard them coming down the gravel road at the bottom of the mountain. Mountain Man walked up the drive way and down the road to meet them and instruct them on the best way to get up our road and down our drive without going over the edge of the road.  He wasn't gone long.  Not nearly long enough and when he came back, there was no moving truck following him and he wasn't smiling and whistling.  For any of you that know my Mountain Man, know that if he stops whistling, things are NOT going his way.  I met him at the door already knowing that the news I was about to get was not good.  Without me even asking, he wasted no time telling me that our movers was just a mover and our 26 foot straight truck was an under powered 24 foot flat bed truck pulling a 35 foot overloaded low slung enclosed trailer that would not only be able to make it up our road, but definitely would NEVER make it down our driveway.  Oh, and our "mover" had arrived in this country seven months ago from Siberia and spoke very broken English.  I had to see this to believe it! I got in my car and drove down the road with Mountain Man in tow.  I drove, not because I am too lazy to walk, but because our cell phones get no reception at our house and our new land line wasn't working.  But that's a whole other story. So, down the road we drove, I met "Paul" who was very confused and apologetic and I left Mountain Man with him while I drove to our friends on the other side of the mountain so I could use their phone.  I explained the situation to Mountain Friends and as we were discussing the predicament, I realized that I was working with very limited time since the moving rig, if you can call it that, was blocking a good portion of the road leading up to ours.  Not a good foot to get off on with our new neighbors.

I've always been good at thinking on my feet and this time was no different.  I looked up the phone number for the moving company in Blairsville, called and plead my case.  They obviously have dealt with mishaps like this before because they were awesome!  Within two hours they had three guys and a straight truck on their way.  While our mover waited for the other movers to arrive, he had to unpack almost half the trailer onto the roadside because he was also moving a household to the Orlando area when he left our house!  Mountain Man stood and watched this whole escapade take place, met and visited with all four of our neighbors as they came by to see what the ruckus was on their quiet mountain. Everyone was very sympathetic to our plight and was very friendly. What a way to meet the neighbors!  

We also had time to get acquainted with "Paul" and learn that he came to our country to try and make a better life for his family.  He is trying to get settled and then will bring his wife and ten year old daughter over.  You never know what other people are going through unless you take the time to listen to them. We also learned a great deal about life in Russia and also how a person new to the United States perceives our country.  Needless to say, this was an awesome reminder of the gratitude that we should always have for our awesome lives and the people in them.

Once the other moving company got here, within three hours everything was transferred from trailer to truck and was unloaded into the house.  The local moving company guys were such a great bunch of guys.  Seeing that our mover was new to this country, they really helped him out and explained easier ways to do things.  They even helped him reload his truck and got him on his way again.  It was really beautiful to see how some good old boys from Georgia took a foreigner from a foreign land under their wing, even despite the language barrier.  

Just as the movers were all leaving, our Mountain Friends pulled in with two bottles of wine to help us celebrate our move.  After an evening of celebrating and enjoying their company, we woke the next morning to a house full of boxes. After working to make sense of things, we took a break and Mountain Man left to walk down to our mailbox.  A guy in a four wheeler from the other side of the mountain stopped and gave him a ride.  Mountain Man introduced himself and the first thing the guy said was "heard you had quite a moving experience yesterday!"  News does travel fast in these here mountains!

Welcome Home.........Finally!

After three looooong and, at times, trying months, our house finally closed on Thursday, September 8.  To say that we were not only overjoyed but also greatly relieved is an understatement.  After signing our lives away with at least 100 signatures, we received our long coveted keys and took our first trip up Wilson Mountain as new home owners.  With all of the giddiness of a couple of teenagers, Mountain Man and I hurriedly unlocked the lock and walked through the door of our dream home, which now after the long humid summer months of being locked up with no air circulation reeked of mildew.  After closer examination, EVERYTHING had a coat of that fine white powdery mildew covering it.  YUCK!  Oh well, no time to fret, we were leaving for our beach vacation the very next morning.  So after a quick repacking, off we went for our week at the beach.  It was a fun and hectic week.  The grands were great fun as usual.  Mountain Man's Mountain Sis and her hubby were even able to come spend a few days with us which always is a good time.  I have always felt a very strong connection to the ocean and its inhabitants.  This time was no different. I was once again blessed to be able to be in the water when a school of dolphins swam by.  The energy that they share is amazing.  Whenever I am lucky enough to be near them and receiving their energy, I also send Reiki to them. I only hope that they feel the wonderfulness of the energy share that I do. Needless to say, the week flew by.  We arrived back on our mountain late Saturday afternoon. Sunday was spent shopping for our necessary arsenal of bleach, Odoban and other assorted cleaners and smell good items.  We took the rest of the day to regroup, smudge the house, and rest up.    Sunday afternoon it rained all afternoon.  To be able to sit on our covered porch overlooking the mountains while listening to the rain fall gives me the truest sense of peace and contentment that I have ever felt.  All is right with the world.

We received word that the Movers would be here either Wednesday or Thursday.  Let the cleaning frenzy begin!  By 10:00 Tuesday night, not a single surface in our house has been left untouched.  Mountain Man and I were thoroughly exhausted and hurt in places we didn't even know we had.  After emptying the last bucket of water from the carpet scrubber in the guest bathroom, Mountain Man went down the basement to make sure all of the lights were turned off.  I was finishing cleaning everything up when all of a sudden up the basement stairs he flew faster than I'd seen him move in a long time.  It seems that all of the buckets of water that we'd been dumping in that bathtub, probably 50 or more that day alone, were now on the basement floor.  The trap in the tub drain had come off!  No wonder it drained so well!  Now, after much mopping and scrubbing, the basement floor is also clean and disinfected!

The movers will be here at 7:00 tomorrow morning.  I'm looking forward to the simple things, like having a paper basket in my bathroom and a real mattress (air mattresses aren't bad for a night or two) to sleep on.  After working in our new home these last few days, I know that I packed waaayyy too much.  We will be purging much of what will be delivered here tomorrow.  Who needs to live in a cluttered indoors when we have the perfection of nature out our back door?

Namaste

What fascinating people and beautiful land that we have moved to.  Since our house didn't end up closing until this past Thursday, we had many days to fill. We filled them by visiting most of the shops and restaurants in Blairsville and the near by towns of Blue Ridge, and Young Harris Georgia and Murphy North Carolina.  Everyone that we came in contact with and talked with were very friendly and gracious.  I'm  sure that it was because of our lack of accent or too much of an unfamiliar one, people always ask where we hail from.  Most of the time when we tell people Ohio, they usually were at one time,  knew someone who was or were at least curious about the state, which always started a fairly long conversation.  Blairsville has a very large summer population of Floridians who have homes that they come to so that they can get out of the summer heat of Florida.  So many times when stopping into the local shops the people usually ask if we are from Florida.  Once, while in the local hair salon getting my hair done, a gentleman that works there, assumed that I was one of the Floridians, asked me what part of Florida I was from.  When I said that I was from Ohio, he thought for a moment and then asked, "is that near Clearwater?"  Hmmm.

While in Murphy, we went into a sweet little shop that had everything from jewelry to Indian and spiritual items.  The store was divided into small rooms.  As I entered the second of five rooms, all at once I felt a great peace come over me.  I couldn't help but smile.  It felt like I was home.  The shopkeeper came in and started talking with me.  I shared with her that I am a Reiki Master and before you know it we were involved in a deep personal conversation and, I'm still not sure if it was the energy of the room, the mountains or just the moment, but, without any information from her, I was able to share with her some problem areas in her life and give her some positive reinforcement and encouragement.  A few more customers then came in and we ended our visit.  It was an incredibly spiritual experience.  A few days later I ran into her in our local coffee shop and she shared that with the encouragement that I was able to offer, she had mustered up the courage to start making the changes in her life, and heading in a more positive direction.  I feel that it was a true gift that I was able to help this beautiful soul.

The downtown motel that we spent the last week in had two comfy rocking chairs right outside our door.  Needless to say, we spent many hours sitting and rocking and visiting with other guests and the owners of the motel.  The other motel guests were from all over the country, and many had very interesting life stories that they shared with us.  The owners were a wonderful couple that we had much in common with on many levels.  On Wednesday evening, it was almost dark when a car dropped off an Appalachian Trail hiker and his dog.  They had come off of the trail to get supplies.  When they got out of the car that gave them a ride, the dog, a beautiful black German Sheppard, trotted right over to our truck in the parking lot and waited to get in.  The hiker called him back, they stopped by our rockers and visited for a few minutes before going to their room for a good night's sleep.  The next morning, we were sitting outside enjoying a cup of coffee when the hiker and his dog came out.  After taking care of business, they stopped by.  They ended up talking with us for more than an hour.  During the course of conversation, we realized that we connected on a very spiritual level.  When it was time for him to leave, he said that he needed to call for a shuttle to return him to the trail head.  Mountain Man and I decided that we would offer to give him a ride back so we could continue our visit.  Hiker gladly accepted our offer of a ride.  His dog ran to the truck and waited to be let in.  The dog actually knew the night before that he was to go for a ride in our truck.  Dogs are very perceptive!  We drove up the mountain to the trail head.  There was a beautiful old stone building on top of the mountain with an overlook with the most breathtaking view I have ever seen.  After taking in the view, and taking some pictures, we sat down and continued our conversation.  Before we knew it, more than two hours had flown by.  Mountain Man's phone rang and on it was our realtor with the good news that we had been waiting for.  Our house was going to close in two hours!  It was a perfect gift to end a perfect day.  We bid our new friend, who by now, we felt as if we had known a lifetime, a fond farewell and headed back to town to prepare for our trip to the attorney's office.

I am really beginning to understand how good mountain living is for me.  The relaxed pace is helping me to realign myself with spirit and open myself on a much deeper level.  Human connections are coming on a much more open and honest plane.  It seems as if Spirit is connecting us with more and more like minded people all the time.  I am beginning to feel that I may be finding my soul purpose here in this new home of ours.  

Hello...Hello...Is Anyone There???

I'm sure that by now, you all thought that our house would have closed, the movers would have moved all of our belongings in and we would be settling into the wonderful world of mountain living.  Yeah, so did we!  Well, it seems as though the universal creator has other plans for us and she's sitting back laughing as we are busy making our plans.  She knows full well that we will be abiding by hers and ours was just a silly idea.

Here's a very abbreviated version of the past week of our life.  After hearing nothing about closing on Monday, we were promised that the closing would probably be on Tuesday.  Note the word probably.  Most of Tuesday came and went and at around 6 in the evening, we had an email from the law firm and a call from our agent saying that all of our ducks were not only not yet in a row, but there may be a few chickens in the mix.  Now the target date was moved to Friday!  So all week long, we enjoyed our cabin, did some necessary shopping for things for the cabin and met many of our fellow Blairsvillains (not quite sure if this is the politically correct term). Actually, we have not met a single person in this town who is not completely kind, friendly and helpful.  We are thoroughly enjoying our new community.  OK, fast forward past all of the fun to the target day.  FRIDAY!!!  It's here, we're ready!  All we need is the phone call from the attorney giving us our time to show up.  So we waited...and waited...oh, and did I say that we waited?  FINALLY, at 3:30 Friday afternoon, the call came. Our attorney's office didn't get the final package from the bank or the final paperwork from the seller's attorney. With the holiday weekend, our prospective closing date now falls somewhere between September 6th and 9th.   Now, you can imagine the sound in comedy movies when something disappointing happens.  I swear you could hear that noise in our car when we got the call. Thank goodness, I went with a gut feeling and booked us a room in the motel in downtown as a just in case.

Oh, and, did I mention that we are leaving on a long ago planned vacation on the ninth of September with Token Son and the fam?  I am sooo very excited to spend an entire week at the beach with them.  But, the timing, really????   So the first thing that we needed to do was to get a hold of the mover.  Since we can't give him an exact date of closing, and we will be gone for the entire week of September 11, the soonest we could get our belongings will not be until September 19.  We also had to cancel all of the turn ons and start ups that had been scheduled.  Also, I hadn't done a lick of laundry since we left Ohio and it was either go to a laundrymat or buy new clothes.  Since you all know how badly I hate shopping for clothes, you know what I did Friday evening.  I never even gave that possibility a thought since our new cabin has a washer and dryer in it who would have thought that I would be spending $30 to wash clothes.  This did not set well with "the queen of cheep" as I am known to Mountain Man and my Mountain Chillin'.  I must say,  after all of our hitches and giddy ups along the way, Mountain Man took all of Friday's news rather well.  I, on the other hand,  instead of having a total come apart, had a total shut down! I guess that's what you call it when the brain experiences a total overload?  I felt like my three year old Grand:   Don't look at me, don't talk to me, don't touch me!  I honestly can't tell you the last time I felt this way.  It was NOT fun!

After filling our bellies at the local all-you-can-eat Pizza Bar and an eventful night's sleep (there was a group of musicians staying at the motel that had a parking lot jam into the wee hours of the morning), I woke up looking at the brighter side of life again.  Even though we aren't in our own home yet, we do have all of the creature comforts:  A warm bed, a hot shower, food, an occasional cocktail and my Mountain Man by my side.  

Today is Monday, the beginning of a new week.  Will we be able to close on our house this week?  Who knows.  If our creator sees fit, we will, if not, it'll just have to wait til we get back from the beach.  As for me, this week will be business as normal or abnormal, however one chooses to look at it!  I will wake up every morning with Mountain Man by my side, have a cup of coffee or two, take care of any business that needs tending to and then move on through my day enjoying my new surroundings, making new friends and trying to spread some happiness and love in the world.  

Hi Y'all and Welcome!

Mountain Man and I left Ohio bright and early, 4:30 a.m. to be exact, on Thursday, August 26.  Our circus train resembling the Beverly Hillbillies began with our 17 year old Ford F250 loaded to the gills and then some, pulling a car carrier that carried our 16 year old Nissan, also loaded to the gills.  But, can I go on?  Oh yes I can!  Underneath the car rode our truck ramps and on top of the car was tied our full size canoe.  I only half teasingly told the fam that I was going to put a rocking chair on the top of the truck and ride like Granny!

The trip itself was rather calm and uneventful other than the barrage of calls and texts from our banker and real estate agent.  Mountain Man drove and I worked and in 11 short hours we arrived at our temporary new home.

Upon our arrival our local friends invited us over for dinner, but being road weary and brain dead, we opted out.  I threw a couple of frozen dinners, that I had brought with us, into the microwave. We ate, showered and were in bed before eight.  

We woke fresh and ready for the world twelve hours later.  Little did we know, that while we slept, our welcoming committee had also arrived.  Still quite groggy, I stumbled into the kitchen ready for my first of many cups of coffee. As I was pouring the coffee, I noticed a couple little tiny red ants scamper across the top of the stove.  No big deal, I was warned by more than a few people that I should expect a whole new variety of critters in the south so a few little ants were the least of my concerns. By now Mountain Man was up and dying of starvation (according to him).  So, being the good little mountain wife that I'd like to think that I am (yes, I can hear you all laughing), I put out a spread fit for a king.  I poured the Cheerios and put out the almond milk for my lactose intolerant MM.  I had also brought along a few doughnuts and muffins, so I added them to the smorgasbord.  MM dug right into the doughnut box to get one of his favorite iced jelly filled yummies.  I saw the look of horror on his face and instantly knew that something beat him to his favorite treat.  Yes, there on top of all of that gooey white icing were teeny little red ants.  I swear that they were laughing at the fact that they had won the prize.  Not to be beaten by those stupid ants, I told MM that I also had some tasty blueberry muffins that were inside of a plastic container, so I KNEW that they had to be safe!  Wasting no time, MM opened the package, grabbed a muffin and proceeded to take the paper wrapper off all the while holding it over his cereal bowl.  My MM was well trained by his mountain mama and is very neat and tidy.  This fact usually serves him well.  Except for that morning.  As he was unwrapping his muffin I watched in disbelief as one little red ant after another fell from the bottom of his muffin paper into his gourmet bowl of cereal.  Needless to say, that was the end of breakfast for both of us!  After cleaning up the kitchen and finding several more of the welcoming committee, we made a trip to our local Ace Hardware. We walked straight in and right to the aisle of death knowing just what we needed to eliminate our new found friends.  I hope this isn't a sign of things to come when we get into our permanent digs!

We have spent the last few days visiting our local coffee shop and a few local restaurants and hangouts and meeting some very nice people who are also transplants to the area.  One of my fears was that I would be made to feel like an outsider looking in.  So far, that's not been the case.  People seem genuinely happy here and happy to have new people among them.  

Sometimes, as we are driving down the road enjoying the mountain views I start thinking that this is just another vacation and wondering how many days that we have left till we have to head home.  Then I come back to reality and realize that, wow, I am home! 

Goodbyes

As they say, I don't know who "they" are, by the way, all new beginnings start with and end.  My end was very emotional and bittersweet.  

I guess, before I get to the ending of the new beginning, I should give you a little history so  all of this makes a little more sense.

My mountain man and I have been married now for  26 years.  Most of them for better a few of them for worse.  Together we raised our three great kids. Changed jobs, careers, houses and pets.  Last year was one of our epic "for worse" years.  Only a year after Mountain Man's long time employer decided that he and MANY of his coworkers no longer needed to be employed my Mountain Man had the health year from hell that ended with a completely torn off hamstring.  Oh, and by the way, I also had to go back into the work force.  

As all of my family and friends know, that whenever things go from bad to worse, my go to idea is that I'm just going to run away from home and find a tiny little cabin in the mountains where no one knows me.  One year, our family had a "dream" Christmas.  We all picked the "perfect" gift to give each other and wrote down what we chose to give and why.  Mountain Man and I, with a good amount of surprise, gave each other a cabin in the mountains.  The idea was planted.

While Mountain Man was layed up for a full six months with surgery and recovery, I played nurse (quite effectively, I might add), and continued to work my menial job.  Needless to say, by the end of this period MM was quite lonely and depressed and I was exhausted!  When MM's best friend who also lost his job, he and his wife decided it was time for a new start in a new state and arrived here in Georgia last July.  So once MM was back on his feet (and his a__) he informed me that he decided that at our age life was getting way to short.  He made arrangements for us to come down and spend a few weeks with our friends.  Oh, AND look for a cabin in the mountains.  Since I've always encouraged my kids and my friends to take chances in life and try new things, who was I to say no to this new adventure?

Not thinking that we would ever find anything that we would like in our price range, or that the area would actually be appealing, off I went on this big adventure.  Well, surprise!  The third cabin that we looked at was not only affordable, but was the exact layout of my "dream cabin" of that past Christmas.  Being one who firmly believes in omens and signs, off we went to make an offer on the cabin and you guessed it, the seller accepted!  Things like this just don't happen this easily for us.  To loosely quote one of my favorite lines from my favorite movie, I couldn't have been any more surprised if I woke up with my head nailed to the carpet!

Long story short, after a few false starts our Ohio digs sold and from various hitches and giddy ups we had three different closing dates.  I'm packing like a mad woman and arranging my first out of state move.  Out of state moves require MUCH more detail and organization making me even MORE of a mad woman!  AND since the closing dates didn't line up, we are now temporarily staying in an adorable little cabin on the Nottley River.  Bonus vacation days before the second half of "the big move".

Now that you have the, believe me, VERY abbreviated version of the story, back to the goodbyes.  Our oldest daughter lives in Florida.  Needless to say, she was ecstatic that we would be only eight hours away from her now.  Our middle daughter was VERY supportive of our decision.  She sees it as a new vacation opportunity.  Smart girl!  Our youngest, "the token son" and his wife, our third daughter, since we have known her since she was six, were the least happy of all.  In all honesty, since they have our only two grandchildren, this was the most difficult part of the move for me.  I have never been separated from my younger two or my grands for more than a few months.  Logically, I know that all three of our kids were raised as well as we could and that they will be fine without mom and dad's help.  Missing them will be another story all together.  I still miss oldest daughter like crazy and she's been in Florida for 10 years!  You have to understand, I'm the mom that even though my kids are all in their 30's now I still love to get the rare opportunity to put my head to their chest and listen to their hearts beat.  They are the best part of me and my grands are the best part of them, which makes them absolutely perfect!  

The night of the goodbyes was an evening filled with laughter,  love, and lots and lots of tears.  I am realistic enough to know that with all of the modern conveniences of telephone and internet that the Ohioans are literally only a button click away.  But you can't hug, kiss, sneak a stolen sniff of their own personal scent or just snuggle on the internet.  I, for the first time in my adult life, will live in a place where the only other person that I am actually related to, that knows me as well as I know myself will be my husband.  No kids, grands, cousins, or anyone else.  Just he and I.  I will now start the second half of my life finally learning who I am, as just a person.  Not hiding behind the title of mom or Bhakti.  I am blessed with a Mountain Man husband who encourages me (I'm stealing a line from a commercial here) to be the best I can be.  No excuses, no hiding, I'm on a new adventure and I hope you'll join me for the fun, the fears, the laughter and the tears of Mountain Mags!