Special Times with Family

 

August is a special time for Greg and me since it's the month for Greg's birthday and our wedding anniversary. 

We celebrated our special days together, and also with family.

Our anniversary came first, and relatives sent us anniversary emails and even...

pretty flowers with balloons.

Greg also gave me some...

 beautiful, unique anniversary flowers.

We went on a little anniversary trip to Fancy Gap, Virginia where we had a tasty lunch at-

FYI: www.thegapdeli.com

Afterwards, we went to Poor Boys Variety Concrete Store (on Facebook.com) in Cana, Virginia... 

where I got Greg a neat yard statue since he loves gardening and working outside in our yard.

A few days later, it was time to celebrate Greg's birthday. He received nice birthday cards, emails, and gifts. 

We had two very different celebrations. 

One part of our family came to our house...

for a birthday dinner...

complete with cake (and ice cream) for dessert.

The second celebration was at-

The Peppermill (FYI: www.the peppermillnew.com) in Abingdon, Virginia with another part of our family.

Photo of the four of us taken by our wonderful waitress.

Loved the healthy salad!

We then went to our house for...

a birthday cake for Betty and Greg since Betty's birthday is close to Greg's.

We had our refreshments...

in our new gazebo. This was very special for Greg and me since this was the first time that we'd ever gotten to use it. 

We got our unfinished gazebo just a few weeks ago, and Greg and I painted it ourselves, but we're still not quite finished with it. The gazebo was something I'd been wishing for, for a long time. Getting the gazebo is solid evidence that with positive thinking (and a little elbow grease!) dreams can and do come true!

~"Time spent with family is time well spent." -Unknown

After my father passed away, I consulted an excellent psychic who told me that family was important to my father, that family meant everything to him, which comforted me because I had never realized how much he cherished our family.

Now, especially, it's so important to enjoy our time with family and friends, and to remember them, and also our loved ones who have passed away, in our prayers every day.

Special note: Starting in September, I'll be writing mini-blog posts for "The Art of Positive Living" on the second and fourth Sundays of each month. Posts for my other blog, "Spirit Photographs," will still be published the third Saturday of each month. With this schedule, I hope to free up some time so I can work on books that I'm planning to publish sometime in the fall of this year. Also, please see the widgets above for information about my current books.

Positive thoughts: "The love of a family is life's greatest blessing." -Eva Burrows

"Family. Like branches on a tree our lives may grow in different directions, but our roots will stay as one." -Unknown

Thanks for visiting! Until Sunday, September 11, 2022, Becky

Celebrate Life!

 

February is a really busy month for us. Besides Valentine's Day, this is also my birthday month. Another busy month for us is August since it's when we celebrate Greg's birthday and our wedding anniversary.

For my birthday this year, we invited the part of our family that lives nearby to our house for a meal. The party wasn't just for me, but it was also for my cousin whose birthday is also in February. To make the get-together more fun, we called the celebration a "Winterfest Birthday Celebration." We got the idea of  "Winterfest" from the celebration in Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, Tennessee that lasts from mid-November to mid-February every year. Having something like this helps to counteract the starkness of this time of the year.

"Life should not only be lived, it should be celebrated." ~Osho (In short, celebrate life!)

We decorated our house with a wintery...

Christmassy theme.

We had a pizza meal ready for everyone to enjoy.

The three guys patiently waited to get their food...

while the ladies filled up their plates. (Ladies first!)

Dessert was a festive birthday cake, along with ice cream.

Then, it was time to open birthday gifts-

My gift was wrapped in paper with a cute snowman design.

My cousin seemed to like his birthday gifts.

Our outdoor cat, Kit-Cat, kept everybody entertained.

It was time for everyone to leave, but we made plans for future times to be together.

Greg and I celebrated Valentine's Day with little gifts to each other.

A couple of days later, we went to Rogersville, Tennessee to celebrate my birthday some more.

(We don't celebrate our birthdays just one day. We stretch it out few several days! The more, the better!)

The reason I wanted to go to Rogersville was to go to the Hale Springs Inn...

to have lunch at...

the Sweet Tooth Cafe which is located inside the inn.

The food there is delicious! Each dish is named after either a local person or place. I had "The American Hotel Bacon Melt,' along with a "Simpson House Strawberry Salad."

Our terrific waitress, Jalyn, pleasantly surprised me when she said that since I was celebrating my birthday that I got my choice of a free dessert even though it wasn't the exact day of my birthday. I ordered the salted caramel cheesecake which was absolutely delicious! I told the owner, Jo, that it was one of the best desserts I'd ever had, which was the truth! I shared part of my dessert with Greg and he liked it although he usually doesn't like caramel.

After our wonderful lunch, we looked around downtown Rogersville which has some nice little shops-

We enjoyed this pretty shop which has a message on a sign outside that we think is really important for all of us to follow-"It's a beautiful day to shop local."

The next day, we met part of Greg's family for lunch at Freiberg's German Restaurant in Johnson City, Tennessee since they were in our area on personal business.

Greg, Outside of Freiberg's with One of  His Brothers

The food is great! I had schnitzel which was something new to me.

Enjoying Being Together

Afterwards, since we were in a celebratory mood, we went to Bass Pro Shops in Bristol, Tennessee since we've never been to that one before. Greg and I are not into sports at all, but Greg wanted to go check out their coffee, and I was interested in seeing the beautiful wildlife displays and scenes that they have.

Bass Pro Shops

For our final stop in our several-days birthday/Valentine's Day celebration, we decided to go by the...

Blackbird Bakery in Bristol, Virginia to get a couple of goodies which we enjoyed at home with warm drinks where we rested and made plans for our next adventures. (No more sweets for a while, though!)

"Every day of your life is a special occasion." ~Thomas S. Monson

Positive thought: "A good life is a collection of happy moments." ~Denis Waitley

Thanks for visiting! Until Sunday, March 6, 2022, Becky

A Celebration in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee

Welcome!

In February, Greg and I met some family members in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee to celebrate Cousin Bruce's birthday, as well as mine. It was a fun time for us all to get together. And who wouldn't have fun in Pigeon Forge!

We met at The Pottery House Cafe and Grille which is a wonderful place to eat. In fact, it's the number two restaurant out of 109 in Pigeon Forge according to TripAdvsor! And, it's reasonably priced!

The food was great! It was served on pottery dishes.

From The Pottery House Website

After the main meal, we all indulged in what else, birthday cake! They let you BYOC (bring your own cake) to celebrate birthdays.

Cutting the Cake

Gifts were opened-

Pictures were taken-

And, a good time was had by all!

FYI
www.old-mill.com/info/cafe

Positive thought: "Time spent with family is worth every second."-amazon.co.uk
Thanks for visiting! Until Sunday, April 7, 2019, Becky

Celebrating Twice!

Welcome!

One can never have too many celebrations, and this blog post will prove it!

A couple of weeks ago, we celebrated my husband Greg's birthday with our sister-in-law and her husband (Greg's brother) since Greg's and Betty's birthdays are just days apart.

We met them at a restaurant in Canton, North Carolina, "Southern Porch." We'd never before been there, and we loved it!

This unique restaurant used to be a hotel; it was named "The Imperial Hotel."

Come on in, y'all! The celebration is about to begin!

Inside, the decor is very attractive...

And the food is very tasty...

You can even BYOC. (Bring Your Own [birthday] Cake)

Betty and Mike brought this yummy one for Greg. (Thankfully, he shared!)

Betty got a gift, as well!

Photo by One of the Staff, Heidi 

We had a wonderful time, and we plan to return!

FYI
Southern Porch
117 Main Street
Canton, NC 28716
www.southern-porch.com

A few days ago, we had another great celebration, this time with my side of the family in East Tennessee at Bruce's ice cream parlor.

We all pitched in and brought food, etc.

Greg celebrated his birthday twice, this time with Nick and Julie.

They blew out all of the candles on the pretty cake! Guess their wishes will come true!

No birthday cake is complete without Bruce's ice cream sundaes! And this was a really good one!

There was no shortage of gifts here!

Nick always likes to get a group photo of everyone.

And here it is!

We'd just like to say that a good time was had by all!

Happy celebrating!

Happy Labor Day!

Positive thought: "Life should not only be lived, it should be celebrated."-Osho

Thanks for visiting! Until Sunday, October 7, 2018, Becky