Mississippi to Korea » Kentucky

Goodbye Kentucky. Hello Tennessee

JR — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 22:40:03 +0000

JJ and I woke up on Monday and were greeted with the smells of a home cooked country breakfast. My grandmother always waits until the last day to outdo herself on breakfast. She cooked eggs, biscuits, sausage, bacon, grits and pancakes. After we we were completely stuffed, we packed the rest of our things, took a couple of photos and hit the road for Tennessee.

Last Second Family Photo

It took us about six hours to get Gatlinburg. Having to drive through Nashville, I took the time to try to convert JJ to country music. I didn’t have that much luck but we listened to this song so many times that I think that it grew on her.

The girls were thrilled when JJ arrived.

The back door of our cabin opened up to a great balcony and we sat out here pretty much every night. Ronnie and the crew saw a bear as soon as they arrived. We were not so lucky!

View from the balcony.

Looking for bears.

We spent the first night hanging out and catching up with everyone at the chalet. Even though everyone lives only 30 minutes away, we really don’t get to see each other that often. The chalet was 3 stories with a game room and hot-tub on the bottom floor. We ended up staying up really late enjoying micro-brewed beer and the hot-tub.

The next few days were spent shopping, sightseeing, and hiking. I have tons of images to go through and will post a few of them tomorrow~!

Already a month….

JR — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 06:30:41 +0000

JJ and I both can’t believe that a month has already passed by. When we first decided to visit my grandparents before settling in Hattiesburg, I thought that a month may be too long but it turned out to be a little bit too short. I have not had enough time to do all that I really wanted to do. My grandfather and I did get most of the work we planned to do done but I really wish that we would have spent more time arguing politics. He loves it even when I get him riled up.
I know that we will be back as soon as possible but as my grandparents get older I want to spend as much time with them as possible. Unfortunately, jobs and studies are calling our names!

JJ wearing Poppa’s hat!

My turn with the hat.

Saying goodbye to Socks!

Snow and Birds

JR — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 02:20:14 +0000

We are still in Kentucky and are here for at least another few days. The plan is to head to Little Rock on Wednesday to spend a couple of days with my aunt and then back to Hattiesburg,MS by Friday. We are in the middle of a huge snow storm here in Kentucky. We were supposed to get snow last night but it really didn’t start until about noon today. We have gotten a few inches already and are expecting about 8-10 inches total. Today was a pretty good day for photos. Here are a few from today:

Downy Woodpecker

Redhead and Fruitloops

He let me get a couple of shots.

Grammy, JJ and Sheeba

Socks was not that into the snow.

Cutie

This guy loves this tree in my grandparent's yard.

Sunday Outside

JR — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 04:15:50 +0000

JJ and I made it to 11am mass today. We picked up Billie who came out to the house for lunch. After lunch we watched Brett Favre lead the Vikings to victory. After the game I took Billie on a sight-seeing tour of the area. We came across a bunch of deer, a hawk, an eagle and an unhappy cow. It was great to spend some time with him and talk about future plans and school. My grandparents have already said that they are gonna kidnap him from church and make him come out and eat lunch again.

This girl was not too happy to pose for me.

I was a little too slow to catch this buck.

Sweet Doe

JJ and the unfriendly dog.

The neighbor’s dog has taken such a liking to JJ that she walked all around the lake with her today. This is the dog that will not even let my grandmother pet her. JJ has been giving her treats and I guess has won her over. I was shocked to see them in the driveway playing when Billie and I drove up.

Daily Walks

JR — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 23:29:27 +0000

I have been trying to get some cardio everyday to keep my goals for Project 35(basically to lose 35lbs this year). I usually start walking around 1 or 2 and walk/hike for an hour or two. Every time I go out I see something unexpected. On Wednesday’s walk, I ran across a few turkeys, a bunch of woodpeckers, some whitetail deer, and a pair of bald eagles. The deer ran away too quickly for me to get a shot of them.

This turkey crossed right in front of me.

I have been chasing this Red Headed Woodpecker all around the lake trying to get a shot.

These guys were sitting above my car when I got back from my walk

When I got back, we realized that I had turned off the faucets in our bathroom last night. The pipes froze up and so my grandfather and I hooked up a shop vac on reverse to blow hot air into the paneling that holds the pipes. It was totally my fault but he took it all in stride. Luckily, the pipes did not burst. It took us about an hour to unfreeze the pipes.

We got some snow on Thursday and today and I will post some more photos later. My grandmother is calling me into the kitchen for something that she has cooked. I swear I am going to gain 20lbs this month. Project 35 may turn into project 75.

Happy New Year!

JR — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 08:11:34 +0000

I hope that everyone had a great New Year~ JJ and I are starting the new year off with a trip to Kentucky to visit my grandparents. We will be in New Concord KY for little over a month. I have a lot of work to do helping my grandfather with some maintenance around his house and I hope to be able to get some great landscape shots of Kentucky Lake and some of the older tobacco barns. It also sounds like we will visit a couple of the distillers while we are in KY. I am looking forward to visiting Jim Beam.

We played around with some sparkles tonight but pretty much had a quiet New Year’s Eve. We spent most of the night packing for our trip! We will leave as soon as we get up in the morning!

Happy 2010

Grammy Poppa Part Deux

JR — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 03:46:00 +0000

Week with Grammy and Poppa

JR — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 10:35:00 +0000

I was told that I do not write enough and that I only seem to be posting pictures. This was told to me by someone who claims to check this sight two times a day…ahahahahah…..well if you really check it twice a day then you will be sending me a message and letting me know you got this message……hahaha

Jenny and I drove to New Concord, KY to stay with my grandparents for awhile. She was introduced to all of the family including Cleo the dog and the two cats…

We had a great time. Not only did we eat great home cooked food, but we saw a bunch of wildlife as well( video of the deer coming soon!)

I have many pictures to post, but Gram and Poppa were great. We had a great time visiting and meetting their friends and just really relaxing. We are already planning a return trip in a few weeks after Thanksgiving. On the next trip, Jenny will be learning Grammy’s reciepe for Pepper Steak(Which is pictured above)