5:15 pm

It's been a sad weekend here at Possum Cough. We had to find a new home for Dixie. She got more aggressive and "wild" and it just didn't work out. We will be praying that God brings us just the right dog to be Peepaw's little companion.

Yesterday, we decided to get away for a few hours and so we headed toward Sevierville and stopped in at the Smoky Mountain Knife Works store. Man...is it ever huge! It was very similar to Bass Pro Shop but instead of fishing and sporting stuff, it was mostly all varieties of knives and lots of kitchen gadgets, which I loved. I tried talking Peepaw into buying a neat sword, but he decided against it. They even had replicas of the ones from Lord of the Rings. We heard some folks saying they were going to look at "the bears" so we hurriedly followed them only to find two dummy bears playing guitars and singing. At least we didn't find real bears down in a pit, looking up at us and hoping we would drop a morsel of food down to them. There is a souvenier shop in Pigeon Forge that has one of those "bear pits" and I was going to post a picture of it, but it's just too sad. We also went to a Lodge Cast Iron store because I needed some little pot holder thingys to put on the handles of my skillets because they get so hot. I'm glad I threw out my non-stick cookware and started just using cast iron and stainless steel. It's a little bit of a challenge to learn how to cook eggs but I found the right combination of heat and cooking time and I think I've got it licked.

After we got home, Peepaw popped some popcorn the old fashioned way and we poured butter all over it and watched Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - the musical with David Hasselhoff. I know it sounds weird considering who starred in it but it was actually very good. It was a nice end to the day and the popcorn tasted just like movie popcorn.

We had a nice but short visit with our friend, Doug. He stopped here Wed. night on his way to the D.C. area to start a new job. It was nice to see him and he loved it here. We sat outside until pretty late and at one point, Peepaw and I heard this very weird noise. It sounded like a shrill ghost whistle and it got closer to the edge of the woods and then another one answered it down the valley. Then we heard it go back up into the woods and shortly after that, a regular owl hooted. We were thinking (and hoping!) that it was some kind of a weird owl or bird. I don't think it was a four legged animal because we couldn't hear any rustling in the leaves. Sadly, though, Doug couldn't hear it at all because he's partially deaf. Oh, on that same note (Jason, you'll get a kick out of this), Doug decided he was going to pet Butters. So he started rubbing down her back rather vigorously and she promptly started in with that real low growl and bless his heart, he couldn't hear her. So Peepaw jumped in and told Doug that he really might really want to stop. I think we saved him from having a bad memory at Possum Cough.

I will leave you now with all my love. All of you hug and kiss each other for us, okay?

Mom

6:11 p.m.

I know y'all thought this blog was dead, but we're reviving it and will make a more concerted effort to keep it updated.

We have had the most gorgeous weather here this weekend and y'all will be jealous, I think. It was in the high 60's/low 70's and in fact, Peepaw and I had to put on jackets yesterday afternoon as we sat outside with Dixie. I know - y'all are mad at me for telling you, huh? Well, it will warm up this week but we were so glad for the reprieve from the heat because our a/c was acting weird all last week. It would come on and then after a few minutes, it started moaning so we would turn it off. Then we tried a few minutes later and it wouldn't blow air. Then the next time it was fine. So we just turned fans on us and left it off for the most part and then tried again Friday and it was fine. My imagination was running rampant with thoughts of some kind of varmint in the duct work or a big chunk of dirt and stuff blocking the fan but in any case, maybe "it's" gone, whatever "it" was. I imagine a call to the local a/c guy will be next.

We're really enjoying Dixie a lot. I did have a bit of a meltdown the other morning, though. I had forgotten how much work it is to train a puppy and since I take her to work with me, too, I was kinda burned out and needed a good cry. I had gotten up early and taken her outside. The mornings are when she is most active and she was flipping head over tail, spinning in circles, carrying her leash in her mouth, and biting everything that came in contact with her little mouth while we were out for her morning constitutional. I was half asleep, tired, hot, and not in the mood for all that foolishness. So I came in the house, sat on the couch and started crying. Peepaw was very concerned and asked if we needed to find her a home. I told him that I didn't...I just needed to cry a little bit. After he left for work, I sat down at the computer and started looking at sites for housebreaking puppies. After learning that we were doing really well and she was actually ahead of her game, so to speak, for her age, I felt really encouraged and and that seemed to do the trick. So I adjusted my own attitude and we've had smooth sailing ever since. She goes to bed at 10 every night and last night, she went out to tinkle, came in and got a drink of water, then ran to her little kennel and pulled the door open, hopped in bed by herself (!) and was ready to go to sleep. We were so proud of her and we talked about it all day. She can't replace Sophie in my heart, but there is definitely a space reserved just for her.

We're amazed at how much she's growing. We haven't yet captured just the right photo, but her legs are three times longer than they were just a few days ago. She looks like a brindled deer.

We're waiting for Dixie to try this with Butternut because the outcome will be much less peaceful.

We have sure been enjoying the bounty of summer around here. We've eaten lots of squash from our little garden and the tomatoes are now turning red. Peepaw has a very sweet and generous co-worker that sends tomatoes home with him about twice a week, so we've been well supplied. I also got some Peaches and Cream corn at the store recently and froze a lot of it. Mmmm...we LOVE fresh corn. We also have some friends that came to visit us and brought a huge bucket full of fresh blueberries that they had picked from their yard that morning, so I've got about 6 packs of those in the freezer. I'll tell you...getting stuff like that is more precious to me than if we were given a box of steaks, don't y'all agree?

As you can see, Peepaw and Dixie are plumb worn out from the festivities at FunFest.

By the way, we had a congregational meeting at church this morning and Peepaw and one other man were elected as ruling elders. Since Peepaw is already ordained, he will be installed while the other fellow will be ordained and installed. This will happen either next week or the week after. Our church family was very gracious and seemed to be very happy that Peepaw will be serving in this capacity. We love them and are glad to be there.

I leave you with all of my love until next time.