Oh My Goodness! It Has Been A While

Good afternoon and welcome Through My Back Door. I have Heavenly Tea, hot tea, or coffee.Your choice. Grab a mug or a glass and help yourself, lets sit out on the porch the deck is sunny right now and catch up. Do you feel like I do that while you were wondering what you were going to do next, June slipped out like a cat, tip toeing away. I find I ask that a lot lately, where did time go? Well I have had some great times since we last visited. We celebrated the birthday with zest and lots of laughter, went to Florida to my favorite beach, and came home. Dodd, Renda, Olivia and I had a wonderful time at Seagrove.

We spent a week and ate at all of our favorite places, and tried  Dewey Destins place on 98. It was good but I still love the old one on the water. While eating there one afternoon we were excited to meet Mr. Dewey Destin himself. He was waiting tables. A very pleasant man and Renda asked if we could take his picture for the blog and he agreed.

We love eating there and can't wait to go back in the fall.
I have had a wonderful summer. Spending time with friends and family. We have had some good times just being. I did some furniture rearranging and found some twin beds for my guest room. I hated to get rid of my old walnut 1700s rope bed but needed twin beds for that room. We had looked in all our travels for a pair, but never found any I liked. Went out to Clinton one afternoon with my friends Betty and Janie and went into Corner Antiques and there they were! Right under my nose. I laughed and said I got "new" beds. These are 1860's! They are rope beds also but the rails were modified to accommodate twin mattresses. I am so happy with them.

They are all ready for company. We had to remove several items from the room including my  corner cupboard that holds my books. We took the small mustard one out of my room and put the blue one in its place. I haven't done so many changes in a long time but am happy with what we did. I have packed away lots of things, as I no longer care for a lot of clutter. My whole house has been rearranged for these beds. It is a good thing I like them.lol
Last week I went over to Asheville with my friends Georgia and Carol. We stayed the night with Carols niece Carrie and her family. Mary Ann, Carols sister met us there too. We had such a wonderful time. On Monday we went to a book signing with Susan Branch. Most of you all know I love her books and illustrations. I had never met Susan but Carol and Georgia had. She is so charming and so is her husband Joe. They acted as if they had known all of us forever. We enjoyed chatting with a couple of women from Johnson City while we were in line too.

I bought her books Fairy Tale Girl and Isle of Dreams and really enjoyed them. The next day Mary Ann left for home and Georgia, Carol, and I went over to Biltmore Village and shopped a while. Then we headed to Grove Park Inn for lunch. I had never been but I sure enjoyed it. It is rustic and the view was breath taking. It was a day we could eat outside and it couldn't have been better

I thoroughly enjoy going places with friends and feel so blessed to have so many.
I am sorry to have been away so long and hope I haven't lost all my readers. It makes me happy when you come Through My Back Door where life is good.
betty

The Fourth Quarter

Good morning and welcome Through My Back Door. I am not sure anyone will visit as my blogging leaves a lot to be desired lately. I blame it all on FB. I will say the coffee is on and the there are some cookies. Come on in and help yourself. I am a hostess who lets you wait on yourself. I pretend it is because you will feel at home if you do, but the truth is I am a lazy hostess. I love company as you know, always have, but I let you wait on yourself.  So, with this lets visit. I guess you know why the title. I am looking toward a big birthday and thinking, no wondering where the time has gone. I realize I have wasted so much, but I want to think about the past year. Let me  wander in my thoughts and pictures I will post today are some of my favorites from the past year. So many changes occur but that is life.

One of the biggest changes in the last year was the loss of my friend Kathleen. Alice won't like this picture of her(on the right) but I love it of Kathleen. We had no idea it would be our next to the last lunch together. We had one more, but got no pictures. We planned an outing to Rogersville, that Kathleen didn't get to go. We were going back, but the 4th quarter ended for her and we lost our friend. We miss her and always will. Most of you know we were high school best friends.

We took several trips last year and one of my favorites was to DC to visit Olivia and the Capitol, when she was interning in Sen Corkers office. Andrew and Mollie,as well as Amanda went along and it was one of my all time favorite trips. All but the DC traffic, and that is a story with in itself.

These were a few of my favorite DC pictures.
As always we made our annual trips to the beach. What fun we had and all the good seafood, I just love every minute of being there. You all have made several trips with us and it won't be long until we leave again.

I find so much peace at this beach. I love the green water, the quietness and I always think of the words on the lost fishermens monument,"Oh God, your sea is so vast and my boat is so small."

I took a trip to W. Va to visit a friend, then headed to Ohio where I visited friends and family. Met a couple of internet friends and came home for Mollies birthday party. We had a great Christmas and I am thankful for that. The New Year came and all was well, except I was experiencing severe shoulder pain and had been for months. Finally Ryan got me to let him X ray it and then we MRI'd and it was a mess. Shoulder surgery was scheduled when I went for my dermatology visit and a melanoma was diagnosed on my foot. It was removed on Debs birthday and I moved in with them. I was there all of Feb and most of March. It was a long healing process but I am almost 100% now. God is good. The 4th quarter is ticking away.
In March we took another trip and it was so much fun. We had perfect weather and lots of neat experiences. Things just sort of happen when we are out and about and I will not go into them. Lets just say some of the strangest people get attracted to me.lol
So we are nearing the monumental birthday and I am just delighted to be doing all I am doing. I feel great and am blessed. No one ever knows how long a 4th quarter will last. Some longer than others. But we know at a certain age, as Patsy Miller stated one day, we are in the 4th quarter of our lives. I have been blessed beyond measure. I have had so many wonderful experiences. I shared one time I had done TV commercials, had my home in a magazine, traveled to some of my favorite places, met some wonderful people, went to a Kennedy luncheon, stepped on a flagstone in the Court of the 2 Sisters in New Orleans and the Matrie D clean my pants at the bar, (oh yes it happened) while everyone cheered,( I did get a free lunch) got to attend the International Special Olympics, had the best job ever,and too many other wonderful things to even mention. I am blessed with a wonderful family and get to enjoy their accomplishments, and the best friends ever. I have to mention my card group of over 30 years who still lets me play and treats me as if I am as young as they are. I have the best church ever and the best friends.God has blessed me in so many ways. So if I may I will say the 4th quarter may last a while or it may end. We never know. I do know I am enjoying every play of the game and I especially enjoy you coming Through My Back Door where life is good.

 betty
PS: I did not intend this to be sad post. We are all in one quarter of our lives
PSS: I will try hard to be a better blogger as blogging is falling by the wayside and I have made so many friends I am not ready to stop completely
PSSS Let's all enjoy what ever quarter we are in and make it the best quarter ever.

Where Oh Where Has The time Gone?

Good morning and welcome Through My Back Door. I feel I must apologize for having been absent from blogland so long. If you follow me on FB you know why, but if you don't you must be wondering what on earth is going Through My Back Door.

Well let me bring you up to date after you get a cup of DD coffee and you have choices of a slice of lemon meringue pie or a chocolate cupcake. Come on in and lets play catch up, okay?
At the end of January I went to my dermatologist for my 6 month check up, that I have faithfully been doing for a long while. I had in the past had some basil cells and 2 or 3 squamous cells removed. Well to make a long story short she found a melanoma on the bottom of my foot. I was stunned because I had that freckle forever and I don't fit the criteria for melanoma. I am so thankful for my observant Nurse Practitioner, Melissa, who zeroed in on it, insisted on biopsying it, thus getting it early. It was a stage 1A. Again I am so grateful and thank God daily. Now I want YOU to go get a check up ASAP. I could not put my foot down as there were over 27 stitches for 2 weeks, so I went to Debs. I knew I was having shoulder surgery and I did on the 15th of Feb. So there I was, a Flamingo! One leg and one arm. Did I tell you these were on the same side? My right. As I am left handed I could feed myself. (And that is about all I could do) Anyway I am progressing quite nicely an start therapy on my shoulder this week.
I was able to go to Hershey, Pa the middle of March with Dodd, Renda, Deb, and Michael on an antiquing trip. Well I sat a lot but they did a lot of shopping. I did buy a set of chairs and a high chair, along with some red ware and pewter. Sadly I have only been taking pictures with my phone and can't share today. I will get some on here for my next post. I did meet the nicest people on the trip and the kids found some wonderful pieces of furniture. I have no room for anything unless I get rid of something and I really have nothing I want to get rid of.

This is one of my favorite shots of my living room. I will leave you with this and I will be back with pictures of my new chairs. I really like them so much better.
I am sorry to have been gone so long and I hope I will be better at blogging than I have been. It is always so nice to have you come Through My Back Door where life is good.
betty

Is There Always A Story? Probably

Good morning and welcome Through My Back Door. The coffee is on, and guess what? We are back to DD. It is a good thing I wasn't this fickle in other things, as I am coffee. I LOVE good coffee. It is important to me, but I find if I drink the same brand day in and day out, it just gets blah, so I change around. I am a Gemini and I don't know enough about astrology to know if that is in our make up or not. Hahahaha. However, there is also some cake, strawberries and whipped cream if you want it this early. As many of you know, I belong to a few decorating groups on FB. One of the people in the group, made the comment that all of my things had a story, and it set my mind a whirl. I guess for the most part they do. With that said, I think when I sit in this little house and I look around at all the pieces I have collected, they do tell a story and they do bring back memories. So when Al made that comment I thought, "I feel a blog coming on". Well home is where I spend a lot of time now that I am retired and no longer work part time, so yes I want it to feel good. I want to look at something and remember where,when, and why I have it. It makes me happy. Most of you who know me, personally, know I am happy most all the time. Oh I have my moments, as I have lost a husband and other wonderful people in my life, but for most part I am happy. You see as a Christian, I KNOW I will see them again. Well when I look around and I see a dresser Curtis refinished that had green enamel on it I smile. He used to say the wood spoke to him. I believe it did.

See it in the back ground? We have another just like it in the bedroom. See that picture over it, that was a gift from a fellow blogger, the year Amanda was diagnosed with breast cancer. He wouldn't let me pay for it, said it made him happy to make someone smile. Well, I smile everytime I look at it.
See the desk? I looked for 3-4 years on my travels for the "right" desk. It couldn't be over a certain size to fit in this spot. Well my daughter in law Renda, found it on line in up state New York, she and Dodd bought it, had it shipped to me for Christmas a year ago.It fills my heart to see it and know what they went through to get it for me. The cupboard in the background? Most of you know the story about the two German cupboards.

The other one is in this picture. We bought those 3 years apart, sold the small one, bought the big one kept it, and eventually bought the little one back. Curtis loved them. See the mantle? I had always wanted a mantle to decorate. One day Deb and Michael pulled up to the front door and had bought this for me. Just because. I smile every time I flip that remote, and think about what wonderful children I have. BTW this is an old picture and although the big things remain, it looks completely different.
All of you know the story of the little yellow bowl. It restores my faith in people every time I look at it. I have my great great grandfathers little chair and Curtis stripped it and put the last bottom in it. It makes me smile for it has lots of stories.
Then there is my kitchen table.

When I decided to downsize my table Renda found this one on Craigslist. A 2 board East Tn Walnut table. So Michael and I go to look at it. Let me digress a minute, and say when Curtis' mind deteriorated, every old piece of furniture he saw, he would say, we used to own that. Well it got to be a joke with all the family. Everyone of my children, Doug, Dodd, and Deb love anything old and all collect, so we all used that phrase, as it made us smile. Well back to the table, when Michael and I went into the house and saw this table, I said, We used to own this table.lol The look on his face said, "uh oh. Here we go again".  However when I told him  to look for a couple of things, he knew I was still ok. Anyway, we never had used it in our house, but had sold it in the shop. So it does have a story too. The cupboard behind it has a story. Curtis tried to buy it in NC , but a local auction house won the bid. Their truck broke down and he hauled them and the cupboard back home. When they eventually put it up for bid, we bought it.
My churns all have a story, as do my baskets, and so many other things.Another post I will share some other pieces and their stories. So yes, there is always a story and I wouldn't have it any other way.
Know what else I wouldn't have any other way? You coming Through My Back door where life is good.
betty
PS: I want to throw out a thank you for my domino group. They came and played yesterday with sheetrock dust everywhere, Subway sandwiches for lunch and never once complained.
PSS: I have lost approx 30 followers. Someone said it was because people are stopping to blog. I find that so sad
PSSS I don't air my personal ailments but I am facing shoulder surgery of some kind.Waiting on the results of the MRI to know how involved.

I Did What!

Good morning and welcome Through My Back Door. Grab a mug and get yourself a cup of coffee. I love it when you make yourself at home. After all you have been coming Through My Back Door for a long time now. I always love seeing you because I know we will have a good visit.
I have been "tweaking". Yes, I have! You can't believe it can you? When I put my Christmas away, the day after Christmas, I decided to declutter. I think there must be something wrong with me but I cannot feel sad putting my decorations away. I am so ready to reclaim my house for the winter. Nothing extra comes out until a little bit before Valentines Day, and then I will put some hearts. Not many, but as you know I LOVE hearts. Not the cut out 60-70's hearts, but special ones. Anyway, I digress, when I put things away this year, I decided I was not going to have many smalls out. I know so many of you collect brooms, mashers, rolling pins, graters, etc. Not me. Deb had a copper candy kettle full of rolling pins yesterday and I asked her why she had all that stuff? She said because she liked it. Well, I am not one who does, so, now I have hardly any smalls out and I like it. I will share a few pictures of my "less than" decor. One of the things I always wanted to do was hang my spice box. There was only one place to hang it and that was where my wall of love was. Well after lots of thought, I dismantled that wall and hung my spice box and I am loving it.

what do you think? I may at a later date change it but for now, this is where it is and I like it. I had it on my mantle.  After removing that I had to find something to replace it.

I think I am good with this. It isn't cluttered and I can enjoy my tiger maple knife box.
I put the candle box from the same state on the tavern table.

I am liking this look so much. I used to think I had to have everything out, but "everything" got to be too much.The large blanket chest is lampless for the first time in 40 years.

I am loving this as I love my red tulips. I got them at a local shop many years ago and I never tire of them.

I bought this little stage coach trunk from Dodd. It "spoke" to me. Don't laugh it did.lol Well I have no place for it. I tried stacking it and that didn't work for me, so it sets happily on the floor holding wrapping paper. I paid big bucks for that horse at a show after I retired. I must have been in a fog, because I have no where for him either, so the two little misfits are together and hopefully happy.lol

Well I have just bombarded you with pictures so I will stop showing house pictures. I hope you enjoyed coming Through My Back Door today as much as I enjoyed having you.
betty
PS: After receiving so many private emails and lots of prayer I will keep the blog going for a while longer. The hits are staggering to me. I never expected it
PSS:I am getting excited as the first trip of 2016 is coming up soon.
PSSS: I received an article on my FB timeline that there would be no more Cadbury Caramel eggs, due to a lawsuit by Hershey. Well that sent me into a nose dive! However my neighbors, Jackie and Phil found some the other day, When I got home that day, there was a bag of them on my back door knob! I knew exactly where they came from. I called her and said I was glad her hens were laying. She replied, that she gathered them because she knew I would be afraid too! I love them.