The latter part of May 2009, Richard and I packed up all our stuff and moved to south Georgia. I had been unable to find a job in Atlanta and money had run out. After Mama passed away in 2007, we decided that when we retired we wanted to get out of the big city, and live in a smaller town and be closer to my dad. This was our 2nd move in 6 months. Richard would move in with my stepfather in Atlanta and continue to work up there until he retired, and he would come home on the weekends.

We put our stuff in storage and moved what we could into my dad’s. Daddy’s 84 now, and while he does pretty well for someone that age, he has trouble getting around because of his legs. It was quite an adjustment for him since he had lived alone for over 20 years. There were times where I thought I had made a big mistake by moving in with him, but we managed to work it out.

Then in July, Daddy started looking at larger mobile homes. At first I thought he was looking for a larger one to give us more space, but found out that he was actually looking for me. He said there just wasn’t enough room, and deep down I know he missed his privacy. I told him I didn’t want him using his money for me, but when Daddy makes up his mind to do something, there’s no changing his mind.

After a couple of weeks, he found one that he and I really liked. It was a 3 bedroom doublewide that was in great condition on 1.2 acres of land and only 7 miles from him. He bought the property the first part of August, and I moved in. Daddy says no one can make us move now. Both Richard and I are so very grateful, and while I say never say never, we are never moving again.

It’s a lot less stressful living in the country than living in the city. I can look outside and actually see the stars at night because the sky isn’t lit up by city lights. There’s a lot more privacy. We can play our stereo as loud as we want when we’re watching a movie. We have room to expand. There are definite pluses to living here.

But there are some drawbacks. What I miss the most is the high speed internet. The closest town is Waycross. It’s 15 miles away, and it’s a small town. I can’t just hop in the car and be at the grocery store in 5 minutes. We have a Kroger, Walmart, Lowe’s, Applebee’s, Ruby Tuesday and a few fast food restaurants. We even have a mall, but it’s very small and only has J.C. Penney’s, Belk’s, and Sears. No Chili’s, no Kohl’s, no Home Depot, no Great Clips. I have found a Chinese restaurant that I really like.

The town I live in now is so small that there is no traffic light. You actually pass right through it on the way to our home. Richard still works in Atlanta during the week and comes home on the weekend. I’m close enough to Daddy that I can be there in about 10 minutes. While I have a lot of family here, I really miss not being near my kids who both are still near Atlanta.

There’s plenty of room here for a garden and a water garden/pond. Richard’s got lots of plans and projects he wants to work on. Right now he’s working on building an outside shed to store our lawn equipment. Then he wants to start on a deck for the front.

Richard comes home every Friday afternoon and leaves Monday mornings. I really look forward to the time when he retires and moves down here permanently. I know he’ll be glad too.

So this city girl has gone country. I love living here. Life is good.

My last post was in May 2009. A lot has happened since then. As a result of all the changes in my life, the motivation to work on my blog died. I went from being very involved with it to it being totally backburnered.

One of the things I look forward to every morning is talking online with my sister. We usually just talk about family and how everyone is doing. Then this morning, my very intuitive sister asked me a very poignant question; one that she had wanted to ask for some time “Are you okay depression wise? You don’t seem to have much of a zip for anything these days and that worries me some.” Here I had thought I was masking it pretty well outwardly, but she noticed. I can’t tell you how much that meant to me. That opened up the conversation between us. I told her I was still taking my meds, but it didn’t seem to be enough. She went on to say that she started noticing it after I moved from Atlanta down to my dad’s hometown of Millwood, Georgia the latter part of May last year. I have lost the spark and most of the time feel like I’m just existing.

A lot of people don’t understand depression, and what it can do to a person. It was so nice to talk to my sister about it. I’ve tried talking to my husband about it, but I feel like he just doesn’t get it. So I just try to cover it up and act as normal as possible in front of people.

Sis made the suggestion that I take baby steps with one of the first steps being to start blogging again. In addition to it being a major interest, I’ve always said the blog was my therapy. It helped before. Hopefully it will help again.

So I’m back. I have a lot to talk about. Stay tuned.

They’re a little over 2 weeks old now. There’s one boy and one girl, and I’m told they’re both black and white and look like their daddy Smoky.

Daddy called this morning to tell me that Rags had two puppies. She and the babies were okay this morning, and she was feeding them when he checked on them.

Later today when my aunt called, she said there were three puppies, but one was dead. She found it underneath a pillow and said she didn’t know if it was still born or died after birth. The other two are cute as can be, both black and white. They got the puppies and Rags moved onto Daddy’s screened-in porch.

I just hope these other two make it without any complications.

Daddy called about 7:30 tonight to tell me that Rags is having puppies. We had no idea she was pregnant. She had already had one, and she and it seemed to be doing fine.

Rags had a litter of puppies a few years back, and we had no idea then she was pregnant either. She had three and all three died. The oldest one lived 33 days.

The father then was Smoky, and I suspect he’s the father again. It worries me because they are brother and sister. I just hope she and the babies are going to be allright.

I’m wondering if I might need to drive on down to check on them. I’ll know more in the morning.

While I was at my dad’s last week, we went through some old pictures that he had stashed in an old cigar box. I came across the picture of me that was taken my junior year of high school.

I hate having my picture made. Maybe it’s because I’m overweight, and I have thinning hair. It couldn’t possibly be because I’m getting older. Whatever the reason, I’m just not comfortable posing for a camera. So this is a first.

Here’s 3 pictures of me, the 1st one was taken back in 2005 when I had very short hair and did not color it. The 2nd one was taken last year when I was a blond. The 3rd one is of me now, as a brunette again and without a bit of makeup on.

I sure am getting bold in my old age by posting this. I can always chalk it up to a “senior moment.”

My dear sister at Apron Strings and Angst gave me my 1st blog award this week, and I am most thankful for it. Ever since I started working again, I haven’t had much time to work on my blog. I don’t guess I’ll ever be a serious blogger, but I must admit I love it when I am able to work on it. So I post my award with much appreciation for it. Thanks Sis!

DH’s vacation is over and we’re back at home. As much as I love seeing my Dad, it was great to be able to get back home and into my own bed again. Luckily the air mattress I bought to sleep on while I was down there held up and didn’t spring a leak.

We got back home Friday afternoon and after the long drive, we were both worn out. Saturday and Sunday were spent doing laundry and grocery shopping, the usual stuff.

Went to Best Buy and bought a small home theater system for our bedroom and got it hooked up. Thank goodness for Reward Zone certificates and special discounts over the July 4th weekend. I got a Samsung system with 5 speakers, subwoofer, upconverting dvd player and tuner for about $200.00. It even has a special adapter for Ipod’s and a USB port for mp3 players. For a small system, it’s got plenty of power, and I’m very pleased with my purchase. I like to stretch across the bed on the weekends and just chill out and now I can watch a movie on t.v. or on the dvd in the bedroom whenver I want to and actually be able to hear it.

The fish were none the worse for wear and were so happy to see me again and get back on a regular feeding schedule. My son and his wife spent a few days here, but she admitted that she hadn’t fed them very much at all. I knew the fish would be okay though as there’s plenty of plants in the pond for them to munch on. The water level in the pond was down a couple of inches so it had to be topped off. It was also looking murky so I put my other pump in a big bag of quilt batting, and threw it and the ultraviolet lamp in the bottom of the pond Sunday evening. When I went out to check it this morning, the water was clear as a bell.  I still need to get the vacuum out though and clean some debris off the bottom.

My daughter-in-law did some cleaning for me too while she was here, and I greatly appreciated it.

I was really pleased when I got on the scales this morning. I was so afraid I had put on some weight while I was gone, but to my surprise I had lost 4 pounds since I started eating more healthy.

Housework today consisted of mopping the bathroom floor, some light vacuuming and folding up and putting the laundry away. Cooked my first meal in over a week, spaghetti with meatballs and garlic. I like to keep things simple.

Did a little job searching this afternoon, and boy do things look dismal. Not much out there that I found interesting, but I’m not done yet. Still have some more searching to do.

Had a conversation with my stepdad this afternoon that left me really angry afterwards, but that’s for another post.

After being at my Dad’s for a week and only taking showers, it’s so nice to be back home where I can get in a hot tub of water and soak. That’s sounds like a great idea right about now.

There’s no place like home!

Just finished a bowl of Extreme Moose Tracks ice cream, my absolute favorite, and thought I would recap what happened today.

Today was Father’s Day, and I talked to Daddy this morning and then again this evening. I can tell he’s getting lonesome again. I really wish he had stayed a little longer.

Worked on my blog this morning. Added several music pages containing jukeboxes of some of my favorite songs.

Putzed around the pond some more and fed the fishies.

Went to the grocery store and dropped a big chunk of change. Went a little crazy buying ice cream and other goodies.

Talked to my son and Ayden again. Son wants me to come babysit next Saturday while wife is out shopping with the bride-to-be again, and he’s cutting grass.

Cooked flat iron steaks on the grill. This was the first time I had ever tried this type of steak before (steaks were included in the CARE package that Daddy brought) and I marinated them about 2 hours. Boy were they delicious! Even my husband who is not an enthusiastic steak connoisseur conveyed his satisfaction.

Watched the season finale of Battlestar Galactica again. We had watched it last night, but both wanted to see it again. It was the best show of the season!

Spent most of this evening downloading and experimenting with WP themes. Think I’ll try this theme out for a little bit and see how I like it.