A barn...

I love my dad. I love him for many reasons. He has influenced my life in so many positive ways I can hardly count. (But that's for another time and another blog) I do love him for his wisdom and incite on all matters of life. And with 4 daughters and a wife (and one son) he new himself well enough that he had to have a place of retreat... of rest... to get away. His solution? He built a barn. His place of refuge away from all the girls, all the talking, all the tea parties. And he loves his barn! He has this great work bench, his little refrigerator... even a half broken old, tiny tv. And surrounded by all his tools and with a cold root beer he has his alone time in his barn. I think its the great!

So my Love and I have been planning a barn of our own since before we got married. We hope to move back near where I grew up in the country and build our own barn. Yep, we're building a barn first, a house later. And I'm ready for my barn. The home we are currently living in is the one he's lived in for the past 5 years before we got married. Its actually a sweet house and sweet neighborhood, but for some reason it doesn't feel mine, its till feels his. It doesn't feel like my place of refuge, my domain. Therefore, my complete lack of motivation to really get down and dirty and "fix it up" (and why i should be cleaning out two messy rooms but am just blogging about it instead). sigh*

So my Love sent me plans for the cutest little barn the other day. It has an apartment upstairs and then a "man space" below. :0) I'm ready for my barn... Below is sorta what it would look like. What do ya think? (the garage doors will totally be barn doors too!)

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There's something a little magical about a barn. Maybe its all in my head. I don't know... But I've always thought that a lot of love, hard work, and character build a barn.

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Do you have a place of refuge... a place of retreat?

Coon Dog Day

This past weekend my family headed up to the fabulous Saluda NC once again for their annual Coon Dog Day festival. I've blogged about sweet Saluda many times and jump at the chance to head up the mountain. Friday night all my siblings gathered at the Purple Onion to start of the fun weekend. And it is quite a weekend!I've been going to this festival since I was really little and even have participated in the parade once or twice when I was super small and my grandpa was a part of the Shriners. This festival has it all: 5K run (which we cheered my brother and sister in), all sorts of food, booths, parade and the infamous "tree the coon" exposition. It is quite the event! However, one of the best part of the day is simply people watching. It is the most fun just to sit back and watch who comes out of the mountains! :)

Everybody Dies Famous...

In A SMALL TOWN!

Well, unfortunately I worked the 2nd, 3rd, & 4th of this month and missed all our small town festivities we hold annually to celebrate the 4th of July. Oh, yes. And how I treasure our celebrations. So what do these small town festivities consist of you ask? Well: hot dog supper at our volunteer fire department, little kids everywhere dressed in red, white, and blue (usually cupcake in hand or all over their face), the "huge" parade all the kids ride their bikes in, and all the old men standing around and cooking the hash and BBQ sold the next morning. *sigh* Yes, I hated to miss it! :)

Thankfully we have pics so I feel like I was ALMOST there! This post is dedicated to a group of guys and galls that always put forth great effort for the parade. This group is considered the "younger group" in our community, although most have graduated college now and not young at all. But they always participated in the parade and, God love 'em, they still do. And we love to see what theme they will chose. This years theme: 4th of July Flashbacks where they dresses as little kids again. But it made me flashback to previous parades they've participated in. I love their enthusiasm!

20010 "4th of July Flashbacks"

2009 " Our Forefathers & Old Glory


2008 "Mountville Militia"


2007 "Mountville Hillbilies"

What are your July 4th traditions?

God Bless America

Land that I love...

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