Last But Not Least (More Pics...)

This barn was one of the first things that we saw as we entered Serenbe. I would love to go back and ride there. The surrouding land is beautiful. The barn is magnificent.

And if you're impressed by the barn, check out the gate to the entryway. Yes, it actually works!

And the end of it is full of horseshoes. I'm sure it has some sort of significance (luck?). At any rate, we were properly amazed by the thing...

Our final destination was the aquarium in Atlanta, where we met up with my sister and her brood. I tried to get pics in there, but only one turned out somewhat decently, so here is M checking out the fishies.

More Trip Pics

This old barn was the Welcome Center for our trip. Most of the buildings on the farm were at least 100 years old....

This was the back entry to the main house. I didn't get a good picture of the whole house, but our bedroom was right off this entry way.


Here was the view from our room. This place was charmingly landscaped!

Truly a Happy Anniversary

So we started the day out right. Happy Anniversary #4. A beautiful end to an entirely conflict-free August (the first, I might add, in our marriage). And hub was off to a great start - who could go wrong with red roses?

Next it was off for a little R & R at a B & B. If the picture looks like we went to a farm, that's because we did. Check out Serenbe at serenbe.com. If you live anywhere near Atlanta and want to get away for a night or two, here's your spot.

We stayed in the honeymoon suite, a first for us, and I am trying to include several photos, so we might have more than one blog entry. You can see from the pictures that it was a rainy weekend, but that was okay since we had more to do indoors than out.

We entered our room in the main house through this lovely little entry way. We adjoined the restaurant and the food smells were tantalizing (the food itself was even better than it smelled).

Anyway, my apologies for taking a picture of the room after we messed it up and with poor lighting. I totally forgot my camera and all of the picture I'm sharing are from my camera phone. However, the room was all in white and was enormous. And we had a great time and I can't wait for the opportunity to do something like this again.

Check the next posts for some more pics of our trip...

Fond Memory & Good Buy

Years ago my Dad used to take us to a restaurant called "Teddy's." They had great burgers (I liked the chili cheese burger) and the whole place was decked out with Gloria Vanderbears. You could buy the bears from the North American Bear Company there, but they were waaay too expensive (even in the early 80's) for us to have ever gone home with them.

I remember Gini's favorite was Scarlett O'Beara. Well, I found a good buy the other day while antiquing with my husband. Scarlett O'Beara (79) and Rhett Beartler (84). I have their tags in a drawer, and they're in great original condition. The pair is worth around $400. I bought the pair for $40.

Of course, for me the value is more sentimental than monetary, but all in all, I'm thrilled to have them.

(The pair of bears is featured here on my anniversary gift to Geoff. We celebrate 4 years of marriage on Thursday, and I got him two porch rockers).

My Sunshine

I had been thinking over this post all weekend when I noticed my sister wrote something similar this morning. I was thinking about what a stabalizing force she has always been in my life and how rare and neat it is to count your sister as your best friend.
Some of my earliest memories still make me smile and laugh. I remember her teaching me the words to "You are my sunshine" when we lived on Pennsylvania in Shreveport (I wasn't even 5 years old). I remember standing on the edge of the double bed we shared and falling backwards playing "TIMBER." I remember her pretending that she could fall asleep in 10 seconds and me trying to wake her up (she was such a good faker I could push her to the floor before she'd get mad enough to stick her tongue out at me).
I remember watching her through the glass doors as she played with Dylan on our jungle gym when I wasn't "cool enough" to hang out with them. But I also remember her sticking up for me on our walk to school when someone was picking on me. I remember her driving me to school and us getting lost during one of the first ice storms in Birmingham. I remember us sitting in the senior parking lot and her telling me to stop listening to depressing music because she was worried about me (It was her tape of Pearl Jam, but she was right).
She was the reason I had a date to prom my senior year. My date's grandma died and a friend of hers took me and I had a wonderful time! She included me in college, we got to know each other better. I remember when my grandmother's second husband died how she and I drove together and listened to Jim Brickman and how it felt funny to be as old as we were.
We fought alot, but I had her there to fight with, and that was always more important. We tattled too much, but we still somehow found it in ourselves to trust each other again, and I would still trust her with my life. We moved so much that I am just glad I was never totally alone. Sometimes people are lucky enough to find a friend who becomes a sort of sister. I have been lucky enough to have a sister who has become (and always was) my friend.

There's no place like home

I just spent my first weekend at home since Hurricane Katrina made shore. This street sign is the only picture I have right now of my parents' home in New Orleans, but I will have more soon, which I will place here and on my Dad's blog (ghallquist.blogspot.com). Though I never called New Orleans "home" my home was in New Orleans with my family. I have completely selfish feelings of joy over having my family even closer now, namely that I have seen more of them in the past six weeks than I had in the past year, and also that my niece Mercy and I have had a great bonding period, but I feel for them as they go through this time of relocation....