I have a nasty reputation for getting lyrics wrong. :glare: Two of my more famous ones: "Dirty Deeds and the Thunderchief" (cool song about Native Americans, right?) "My Angel is a Centepede" (in my defense, I was too young to understand what a center-fold was) ETA: I have a funny one on my dd.... In Silent Night, she thought AND sang "holy imbecile, so tender and warm" That is what happens when you have a very young child with a large vocabulary and a poor grasp on theology!

Only when it rings, usually :confused: It is almost always near me, and I have a dumb phone...so I have no reason to check it unless it is ringing.

I highly recommend the Chimney Tops Picnic area near Gatlinburg, it has a great spot for playing in the river on the rocks. The Roaring Forks Motor Trail is pretty. I love going early in the morning while it is still a little foggy. Norris Dam State Park is near the Museum of Appalachia. There is a museum there that is fun to go through: http://www.cityofnorris.com/id61.html I agree, the area is pretty gimmicky, but there are a lot of beautiful places to see :) Oh, and if you do end up in the Norris/Anderson County area, you may want to check out The American Museum of Science and Energy in Oak Ridge. There is a lot of history there about the Manhattan Project.

Here is another screen shot of part of the property on Bing...None of the vehicles are there, neither are the buses. All the dog kennels are VERY grown over. The huge structure near the pond is a pavilion with ceiling fans, lights, and a fishing porch...where you can fish in the pond right from the pavilion.

:lol: the inspector will be shaking his head the whole time. It will be inspected purely to see if there is anything we missed. So far we know it needs the following: The entire roof taken off and replaced (rafters, etc.) Siding on the entire house A sunroom that runs the length of the house removed and that area turned into a covered porch (no chance of salvaging the sunroom) New flooring in over 1/2 of the house, and the hardwood refinished in the other part. One bathroom gutted and redone. A 30+ year old jacuzzi taken out and replaced with something. Drywall repairs in nearly every room. Paint...for everything. A wall removed in a bedroom (they turned a bedroom into a closet..lol.) Drop ceiling replaced in the office area above the garage. A few doors replaced New everything in the kitchen. Possibly new heating and air. Let's not even get started on the clean up the land itself needs. We don't know whether to hope they accept our offer, or be afraid that that they WILL...:001_huh:

We are making an offer :)

We are going back this morning to look closer at a few things. We loved the property. The house is HUGE. It is listed as a 4 bedroom, but it is really a 6 bedroom, with 2 living areas upstairs and a rec room in the basement. There are also 3 baths, and a huge laundry room. It needs a new roof, new flooring, siding and a bit of drywall work. It also needs a good coat of Kilz...someone was a smoker. Has an awesome 1960's pink bathroom. ;) The property has a giagantic pond with a dock that needs repair. There is also an adorable little 1950s trailer that is in pristine condition sitting by the pond with a huge deck. Also by the pond is a giagantic shelter/pavillion. Ceiling fans and lights, and you can fish from it in the pond. There are more sheds and barn structures than you can shake a stick at. There are probably about 30 kennels (which means lots and lots of fencing we can use for animals and such.) We are going to take a closer look at the roof and basement today with flashlights. The power is off, so it was a tad dark with my little van flashlight yesterday.

My twins were on it for a while. We had to go on WIC to afford it :( Unfortunately it didn't help. The girls had a milk protein intolerance, and Nutramigen has Casien in it. We ended up on a soy-based formula and it worked wonders.

It was built in '65. Looks like it has brick exterior. The girls and I drove part of the way up the driveway today...there are fruit trees everywhere :) Here is the google map. The large body of water is a lake that connects to the main river through here. The house is near the pond.

Why would I dry off in the shower? It's WET in there! :tongue_smilie:

It took me a year every time.

Yes, I do most of his clothes shopping for him. He has no sense of what matches and what doesn't. None. I've just always done it. He WILL go pick out and get fitted for his suits, but I go with him :lol:

Even though we have just gotten property transferred to our name to build We haven't signed anything to start a build yet. This property just popped up. It's a foreclosure. It needs a TON of work and cleaning up. But it is also 27 acres with a large pond, and several small ones. It has a 4 bedroom house with a basement and, what looks like a about 5 scrapped trailers to remove . It is also very, very close to the lake and our family. $135K. Yes, you read that right. $135K We are probably crazy.

I feel like it is our responsibility to be there when we are needed. To help out where we can, without promoting the prolonged adolescence that seems so rampant today. On the flip side of that, I think it is also our responsibility to let them fall on their butts every once in a while. I hope we are like dh's parents have been with us. We know, without a shadow of a doubt, that they would do anything for us if we needed it. As a young couple just starting out, that was so reassuring to us. Now as parents, it is reassuring to know that they would do the best they could for OUR kids should anything ever happen to us.

Fort Worth Texas, especially if you plug into the homeschool community. At least compared to the few other places I have lived. It was culturally diverse (our church had people of every ethnicity you can imagine and a huge adopted family population). While there are a lot of under educated people in Texas, Fort Worth seemed to have plenty of educated people that valued a good education. The people in the area seemed to be generally conservative. I loved it there. The winters are definitely mild, and the summers are hot! Don't go for Tennessee if you are looking for diverse. It is getting better, but has a LONG way to go IMO.

For us, it is not okay. We have couple friends and we have same sex friends. We do not spend time with people of the opposite sex (one on one) unless they are related. In my opinion, it is just asking for trouble, whether from the rumor mill, or from wandering thoughts.

I think personality is a huge factor. Dh and I were ridiculously young when we got married. I frankly didn't know what I was getting into! I love him more than any other man on this planet, but I find him difficult to live with sometimes. He is a good man. He just has personality traits that conflict with mine, more than I would like :) So, yes, I have to work to make my marriage happy. I have to work at not letting him irritate me because of my issues. I have to choose, every day, to make my marriage a good one.

For our marriage, it depends on the day..:lol: I seriously think it is harder work for ME than my dh. He is just content. He is always content. Drives me batty. :glare: Seriously though, I have always struggled with certain aspects of our marriage, and have to work through them. There are days I have to choose to love my dh, rather than just simply being in love with him. We do NOT always click or see eye to eye, and when that happens you have to work at it until you do. For the record, we've been married 20 years, and we were actually separated at one point. We are in it for life now though ;)

I'm overweight. I need to lose about 50lbs to be healthy (for ME and MY body type) For me, it is 100% because I eat too much and move too little. I love food. I love to cook. We eat GOOD food. We just eat too much of it. And I'm naturally lazy. I default to chair potato (not couch...don't like TV..lol) unless I force myself to go do something. I have fun when I'm active...it just takes a lot of mental effort for me to start. I am married to a man that is the exact same way. So we don't exactly encourage each other to lead an active life. We are trying to be more active, especially after dh's health scare, and the health problems in our immediate families. I easily lost weight about a year ago. Looked better, felt great. We had taken up biking and I was eating gluten free. (the reason GF helped was because my favorite foods revolve around pasta and bread) The weight fell off. Then dd and I stopped eating GF, and my dh landed in the hospital with multiple surgeries. Months of inactivity and poor eating put every single pound back on. The only thing I'm genetically predisposed to is being built like a tank. The excess weight is completely my fault and a result of my lifestyle.

My dd loves to write fiction...she posted a snippet of a story she is currently working on. (A little background: many of the characters in the story are animals that can transform into humans...that is the reason for the odd dog girl/master reference) http://amazingbrainsofkelsieandemma.blogspot.com/2012/07/betrayed.html ETA: This is unedited...I see some corrections she needs to make, but I thought the overall picture of the scene was pretty good.

They are just fun :) Mustaches are all the rage around here..lol.

Never have, although my dh insists that I flirt with danger because I let it get below an 1/8 of a tank quite often. I HAVE come very close a time or two, but in my usual running around I'm never far from a gas station. Since my dh is a former mechanic, he would have a crow if I ever actually let it run out. He has informed me that it is very hard on the engine. In fact, he says letting it get as low as I do, as often as I do, is also hard on it. :glare:

I hit the mother-load the other day. We have an awesome used book store in Knoxville. Anyway, they have a huge free box out front for things they won't give credit for. Sometimes people just dump their stuff right in there. I found complete newest editions of Apologia Biology, Apologia Chemistry, and Saxon Algebra 2, with answer keys. Free. Great condition. :D That box has fed so much of my book/curriculum addiction..lol

Not petty, but one you decide to be "that" house, you'll have to accept that not everyone else has that mindset. We are "that" house. The one that kids are always welcome. We often have 6 or 7 kids running around...and I only gave birth to 3 :lol:. I make a deliberate effort to be that house. If my dh didn't work from home, it would probably be even crazier here. On the other hand, my SIL (who gave birth to the majority of my extras that are usually running around) is NOT that type of person, and has no desire to be. It is a major stress for her to have other people at her house. So there is little reciprocation. She has had my kids over twice in the past 6 months, while hers have practically lived over here. (seriously, they spent an entire week here without going home..lol.) It used to bother me, but then I realized that having the open kind of house I do is my choice, not hers.

This year I'm picking as soon as they begin to turn...but we are battling critters and some sort of rot/fungus.