A Good Summer Read

It's a quiet, lazy Friday afternoon and I am getting ready to take time out to relax and enjoy a perennial favorite summer novel, Carney's House Party by Maude Hart Lovelace.

Did you, and do you, love the Betsy-Tacy books as much as I?

If you're a fan, you know that Carney is Betsy's chum from Deep Valley, and that during the summer between her sophomore and junior years at Vassar she hosted a house party. Her guests were her Eastern college roommate, Isobel; her old high school friend, Bonnie, who moved to Paris during freshman year, and of course, the irrepressible Betsy.

The primary conflicts centers around the return to Deep Valley of Carney's high school beau, Larry (he and his family had moved to California a few years earlier), and her growing feelings for Deep Valley newcomer Sam Hutchison.

So with that being said, I won't give anything more away...I'll just quietly slip away to Deep Valley, MN, circa 1911--my ultimate getaway. Best of all, it's free! No airports, no hotel meals, no schlepping luggage!

Our First Auction

Steve and I went to our first real estate auction yesterday, in Joelton.

It was to settle the estate of Zachary Taylor. The auction consisted of his personal possession, home, two tracts of land, and farm equipment.

The personal property auction began at 10. There were tons of people there, and everyone congregated under the huge shade trees in the front yard.

Prior to the start, I was taking a look at all the stuff. A woman approached me, said she was from Michigan, and wondered how the auctions worked. I had to say, I didn't know, since I'd never been to one.

One of the auction team overheard her and explained, telling here he'd have to charge her double since she was from The North!. Later, during the auction, he mentioned that there was a woman there from Michigan who hadn't bought a thing! She was very good-natured about the teasing.

Anyway...I had read in the paper that there would be hand-stitched quilts so I took a photo of them...the biggest find in my book was a "head vase". I sold one on Ebay a couple of years ago for $164! However, we didn't come prepared to buy anything, we were just seeking the experience.

The personal possessions auction was interesting and entertaining. They sold off the bigger ticket items and then began lumping stuff together in boxes. You could take your chances. That explains why sometimes in antique booths there is a bunch of junk...it must be the leftovers from these grab boxes.

The property auction started at 11. The home was pretty outdated but it and 71 acres sold for $325k due to proximity to Interstate 24. The remaining 52 acres was up to $305k when we left.

We were tired of standing, even though it was pleasant under the shade trees. Steve's feet hurt and my back hurt.

Next time we'll be prepared: cash (for concession items as well as stuff), lawn chairs (most people had them), and water.

After we left there we headed over to Pleasant View for lunch and then a stop at our favorite antique store, The Livery Stable, on Highway 49. They had some great stuff!

I'm attaching a picture or two from the auction, and the rest are from the Livery Stable.

We came home and watched tv, worked in the garden, had a relaxing dinner, and watched more tv.

It was a wonderful day!

Rite-Aide Kitty

Oh, my goodness...I met the most adorable kitty today at Rite-Aide! He has an amazing story and an unusual life...

Unfortunately, I did not have my camera to take a pic of him.

Steve and I stopped at the Rite-Aide in Old Hickory on our way home from the Eckhart Tolle book discussion at Unity. They had 12 rolls of Scott TP for $6.99...and I had a $1 coupon!

Anyway, as we prepared to enter the store, we saw a fluffy brown mackeral tabby near the front door. He was sound asleep so I did not disturb him.

I forgot the coupon so when I went back out to the car, some young women were petting and playing with him.

So when we came out with our purchase, he was still awake so I went over to pet him. He immediately rolled over to let me rub his tummy...a sign of trust!

The Rite-Aide manager came out to share his story...they found him 20 months ago and started feeding and caring for him. One day last summer...one of those wretched days when the temp was 110, a woman came driving up and recognized him as her kitty!

She went home and got her husband and a cat carrier, but the cat fought like a tiger. Seems that at his previous home, he was kept in a basement with another cat.

He fought for his freedom...and won. The woman decided that if he was that happy at Rite-Aide, he could stay.

The Rite-Aide folks bought him a house...to the tune of $120...and put a bed in it...and put a mini Rite-Aide sign over the door.

He was so happy and laid back that he had tons of drool all over his bib!

Next week I'll be sure to bring my camera! This is a great cat story...they are such wonderful teachers.

Parade of Homes

Goodness! I never posted the photos from the Stream Valley Parade of Homes in Franklin last fall...so I will start putting up a few at a time.

Rather than taking "house" photos, I concentrated on the things I love, fabric, wallcoverings, accessories...enjoy!

Time To Renew

Greetings to All~

I certainly never intended to let six months elapse before posting but throughout late fall and winter, I put a lot of attention on business.

Now I'm more in fun mode! I'm able to relax a bit from the frantic pace of the past year, and fully enjoy the "things of the home" that call so deeply to my heart.

At present, I'm preparing to head over to Lowe's to purchase some herbs and tomato plants so I'll keep this short.

Here's a picture of our new cat, Bitsy, who arrived Easter weekend. Steve's outdoor cat, Bubba, who was feral when we found him, brought her home to meet the parents. She is absolutely adorable and brightens our hearts after the death of Rosie at age 19 in February.

In fact, Bitsy is a lot like Rosie...not afraid of anything, and into everything!

We were expecting to see some kittens and since Bitsy is part Siamese and Bubba is an orange tabby, we planned to call them our orange mocha latte kittens! However...Bitsy has been here six weeks now and no sign of kittens!

Well, here she is...our new darling...

Failure Can Be Good...But I Like Success Best!

Well, after thinking about it for nearly seven years today I finally became a real estate agent! Even though I don't have license in hand yet, I did pass the exam today and the rest is a matter of paperwork and sending the Tennessee Real Estate Comission a check for $130! So I considermyself an agent.

The process of obtaining my license has been quite and ordeal, much more difficult that obtaining two bachelor's degrees and completing 18 hours of grad school but also more rewarding.

I first became interested in becoming a real estate agent about 7 years ago, but I let a Century 21 agent in my then=hometown of Senatobia, MS, talk me out of it.
Then about 18 months ago when Steven went through the prelicensing course, I decided to go for it, too. I decided to take the class at night even though I was not working full time during the day.

I went two nights and dropped out! I am not a nighttime person by any means. We'd get out of class around 9:30 and I'd be hungry because all I'd had was a light dinner around 4. It was a 30 minute drive home, and then at 10 I'd be in Wal Mart, perusing the aisles looking for something easy to fix--like frozen pizza. Then I'd watch TV for awhile to unwind, and wind up staying up waaaay to late. So I dropped out, thinking it would be easy to resume later.

Then it just never seemed like the right time--until this summer. Again, a friend who's been an agent about 30 years tried to talk me out of it but I did not listen. I listened to myself instead, and enrolled in the class again, this time in the daytime.

It pushed me to sit in class 7 hours a day for two weeks, crammed in a tiny room with 49 other agents in training. We had a test each Friday on the material we'd covered so tension was high. Our class was rowdy. One day I audited another class and they were so quiet! I wish I had been in with them two weeks. Oh, well...I made it.

I studied my butt off for the national exam, and lightly skimmed over the state law portion. The teachers had not made too big a deal out of the law portion so I didn't either.

To my total surprise, I failed the law portion! In the meantime, Steven, who was thinking about going ahead and getting his license (since he had already completed the course), and I had interviewed with 8 companies. I narrowed it down to two, one small and local, one a franchise with fantastic training.

About two weeks after failing the law portion, I retook it. I called myself studying this time, but since I have never really studied before what I was doing wasn't really studying and I failed the test again!

It was a blow. I felt like I let both Steven and myself down, and wondered whether I had a future in real estate. The worst part, or so I thought, was that I had to wait 30 days to retake it. If I did not pass the third time, I would have to wait six months and then retake the entire thing, even the part I had passed the first time, again. Not fun. And--what would I do in the meantime?

I had told the small local company I was going to sign with them, but during my 30 day waiting period I reconnected with a different branch of the franchise. I loved the training and high energy and knew this was where I was supposed to be. I realized that if I had passed the test the second time and gone with the small company, I would not be getting off to the successful start that I need as a new agent.

I still had my dilemma of how to pass the test, when Maggie suggested I get Steven to ask me the questions in the practice test book. It worked! Everything about Tennessee real estate law started to make sense, and better yet, I was retaining it. It helped that Steven had been through the course, too.

So today I took the test and passed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Steven told me when I got home that I looked younger because the stress had been alleviated!

We celebrated with sparkling organic pear juice since neither of us drink alcohol. I also made some yummy chicken parmesan which turned out great even thought initially I forgot to brown the chicken first. I had to tear apart the whole casserole, brown the chicken, then put it back together but it was none the worse for it.

All in all, it's been a wonderful day and I am excited aobut the wonderful future ahead of me as a real estate agent. I know it will be an exciting adventure!

Fall Is Finally Here

Greetings to All!

I have not posted for almost 10 days, since we were running around like chickens all last week. I had been sick the week before, and we had lots of catching up to do. Plus, Steve will be starting his new job soon, so we had to shop for new shoes and clothes for him. We also purchased a professional quality video camera for our Golden Legacies business, and took care of lots of other errands and household chores. Still, we have yet to pressure wash the house...sigh. Maybe I will wake up tomorrow to discover that the pressure washing fairies have taken care of it! Ha!

On Saturday we decided to relax with a trip to the Franklin Farmer's Market, our favorite summer/fall activity. Steve took the new video camera and shot some footage of our buddies, the Franklin Square Pickers. I took some photos of them but they did not turn out because the market coordinator has them playing in the center of the shed now instead of out on the market grounds...it is really dark in that shed! Steven's video did not turn out too well as a result.

I did get a few vendor photos, since they were on the outer edges of the shed and got more light.

Those tomatoes sure look good! Better than they did all summer. I don't know why I did not buy any...I got sweet potatoes and turnip greens (organic) which we have already eaten up. Now I am craving one of those tomatoes! And wishing I had a beautiful bouquet of flowers.

Oh...temps were 95 early last week; then dropped to the 60s and 70s during the day and 40s at night Thurs and Friday...now they are back up, we were out today and the car thermometer registered 86! Ugh! At least we are finally seeing a few fall leaves, though.