Rocky Top

I am so excited about the first VOLS game tomorrow at 8pm(est) that I probably said it too many times to Dewey on our way home from Maw and Paw's tonight. I am glad football season is finally here. I hope the VOLS have a good season this year.

Finally Friday

CONGRATULATIONS, DAD FOR COMPLETING ALL CHEMO TREATMENTS TODAY!! WE ARE ALL SO PROUD OF YOU!









Well, it's finally Friday. I thought this week would never end! Work has been slow in the Call Center this week, I have processed a lot of faxes and mail requests from our insureds. For instance, I only answered 8 phone calls all day yesterday. That's for the entire eight hour day!
I am looking forward to this weekend. A three day weekend, thanks to Labor Day.Thank.You.



I have an interesting story to share about what I witnessed in our office yesterday....It goes like this(sorry for such detail, but I am a very analytical person). A gentleman came into the office to receive a check payment from a claim that he filed against our insured, so I call his claim adjuster to assist him. To no avail his adjuster is not available, so I do the next best thing-Call her manager. He.Wasn't.Available.Either. So the gentleman begins to get impatient, so I call
another manager to assist him. When our manager brings the folder of claim information(including the check) the gentleman eagerly takes the check but reviews the check first and starts arguing about the name it was written to. The check was written to he and his wife, he did not want his wife's name on the check....apparently the have been estranged for some years back. He insisted that his 'wife' has nothing to do with this claim and the check should only be issued to him. The manager continues to explain that he and his 'wife' signed the release settlement and the check must be issued to both of them. Get this.....the gentleman insists that his 'wife' has no connection to him what so ever and demands the check be re-issued to him only, although they are not legally separted or divorced. The bad thing about this entire situation, the manager was doing him a favor-he was not the manager involved with his claim, poor manager----so to try and give the customer what he wants)after all, the customer is NEVER WRONG)**wink**wink. The options given were to take the check and have 'wife' endorse it with him to cash it, or we could re-issue a check to him only but would not be available until Friday morning(and the man drove up from ATlanta). Immediately, the man
chose to take the check we already had prepared---funny how a check of $3000 all of a sudden makes someone decided their 'wife' is some connected to them, Huh.



This story was funny to me, thought I would share it....hope you enjoyed.



Remember, as long as you are married you do have a connection to your spouse!

Wordless Wednesday

It Was Only A Quarter

Several years ago, a preacher from out-of-state accepted a call to a church in Houston, Texas. Some weeks after he arrived, he had anoccasion to ride the bus from his home to the downtown area. Whenhe sat down, he discovered that the driver had accidentally given him aquarter too much change. As he considered what to do, he thought to himself, 'You'd better give the quarter back.. It would be wrong to keep it.' Then he thought, 'Oh, forget it, it's only a quarter. Who would worry about this little amount? Anyway, the bus company gets too muchfare; they will never miss it. Accept it as a gift from God' and keep quiet.'

When his stop came, he paused momentarily at the door, then he handed the quarter to the driver and said, 'Here, you gave me too much change.' The driver, with a smile, replied, 'Aren't you the new preacher in town? I have been thinking a lot lately about going somewhere to worship. I just wanted to see what you would do if I gave you too much change. I'll see you at church on Sunday.

When the preacher stepped off of the bus, he literally grabbed the nearest light pole, held on, and said, 'Oh God, I almost sold your Son for a quarter.

Our lives are the only Bible some people will ever read. Thisis a really scary example of how much people watch us as Christians andwill put us to the test! Always be on guard and remember that you carry the name of Christ on your shoulders when you call yourself Christian.

Watch your thoughts; they become words.

Watch your words; they become actions.

Watch your actions; they become habits.

Watch your habits; they become character.

Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.

Live life in such a way that those who don't know Jesus will cometo know Jesus because they know you.

Random Thoughts

Recently my best friend, April moved away to West Tennessee to relocate with her husband and family for him to accept a better job. I miss April so much, I don't get to talk with her as often as I would like, although the Internet and phone messaging does help us keep in touch a little.

Yesterday, I attended a baby shower for Sarah's best friend, Jamie with Sarah, my Mom and My Dad. Jamie also is having a baby girl, I loved seeing all the baby stuff she received and it really opened my eyes to how much I am going spoil my niece, Macie once she arrives! It is going to be wonderful watching their girls grow up together and become good friends just like their mother's have. Watch out boys, Kylee and Macie are going to be two beautiful girls! I just can't wait to see both of them after their arrival to the world.

This week, my Dad is scheduled to have his last chemo treatment and I am so excited!! As my mother has shared in her blog: Bumgarner's Blog he has been in tremendous Spirits throughout his entire treatments with cancer. I have always known that my father is a strong man, but I must say he has been even stronger since diagnosed with cancer. He has never given up the faith and I am so proud of him (more proud than before). There is no doubt of God's healing Power in his life.

I am so grateful for my husband, Dewey - He is a very compassionate man and he compliments our marriage so well. We are coming upon our 8th anniversary and I can't believe its already been 8 years. I am glad God placed him in my life (I love you Baby)!!!

Let'em know what YOU want....

House on Fox...check your local listing

Hey, all you Dr. House fans I am sure you already know this, but I thought I would post a friendly reminder...........

I can't wait for this new season......I will be watching, WILL YOU??

Fun Friday Part 2

Oh well, Dew did not win the Toyota FJ Cruiser! But we did have a blast.

The 4 general admission tickets were given to my parents

and my sister joined them.

(hope you guys had fun!)

The Lookouts lost their last home game 5-2, but the game was still great. And the weather?

Not too bad either, it rained lightly before the game and cooled off the temp.

I would have to say, all in all a good night for some baseball.

I have to tell you, Dew's color coded key lasted until the last three eliminated keys were pulled. What a disappointment.

They had a fireworks show after the game, this was the best one I could get on my

camera phone.......

Fun Friday

Well tonight Dew and I will be attending the last home game of our Chattanooga Lookouts game! I can't wait, I have attended more games this year alone then the 16 yrs I have lived here. Another reason we are excited about tonight's game is the Toyota FJ Cruiser posted above, Dew won a chance to win this beauty! He has never won anything in is life, EXCEPT me **wink wink**. We probably don't stand a chance, but it is exciting to be a apart of it at least.

Also, I hope the heat will not be too bad (Who am I kidding!) We originally were sent four general admission tickets in the mail with a color-coded key. We have invited my bosses to attend with (they are husband and wife bosses at my workplace). When they agreed to go, general admission wasn't good enough, so Dan purchased four box seat admissions, so we will be two rows behind our Lookouts dugout....WOW!

Well, I will keep you posted on the results of the Toyota FJ Cruiser Giveaway on Saturday.

Take me out to the ballgame......

Thankful Thursday

My job, and the hours I work.

My Health.

My wonderful relationship w/my husband

(some peolpe we went to school w/already divorced once or twice)

Macie Noel, my soon to be niece (the first one too)

That my dad is almost finished w/chemo.

FOR MORE THANKFUL THURSDAY GO TO STING MY HEART

Massive Attack

I love this song/video. I dedicate this to my sister, Sarah. I love you!
"Teardrop"
[Liz Fraser]
Love, love is a verb
Love is a doing word
Fearless on my breath
Gentle impulsion
Shakes me makes me lighter
Fearless on my breath
Teardrop on the fire
Fearless on my breath
Nine night of matter
Black flowers blossom
Fearless on my breath
Black flowers blossom
Fearless on my breath
Teardrop on the fire
Fearless on my breath
Water is my eye
Most faithful mirror
Fearless on my breath
Teardrop on the fire of a confession
Fearless on my breath
Most faithful mirror
Fearless on my breath
Teardrop on the fire
Fearless on my breath
Stumbling a little
Stumbling a little

Wordless Wednesday

10 Things I Don't Like About My Job

10 Things I Don;t Like About My Job

I don't really complain about my job very often...so this list will be hard!

1. I am glued to my desk for 8 hours.

2. Not getting to choose my own breaks or lunchtime.

3. Angry customers that think yelling at me will 'fix' their problems.

4. Lazy co-workers.

5. Departments not communicating to one another.

6. My pay is too little.

7. Not being able to do customer service from home (while in my P.J.'s)

8. Having to get approval from management to 'fix' a problem.

9. No naptime...LOL

10. Having no cafeteria to order lunch and eat in.

....I really do love my job, and can't wait until next week when I can share with you the 10 Things I like aboiut my job.

IT'S A GIRL

Sarah went her high risk doctor today, the verdict is in! IT'S A GIRL, her name will be Macie Noel Butler. Macie weighs 18oz to date at 17weeks 2 days

Deidre, we will have to make another trip!

Family Reunion Part 2

There was an added benefit to this years trip for the Bumgarner Family Reunion.......

We were able to make plans to visit my aunt Patricia and her family.

It had been since E. was first born since I visited my cousin DeeDee and her husband, Eric and their beautiful girls! It was great to meet with them, we had a wonderful time. I made two new friends while I was at their house, their girls E. and O. I feel like I know them already from DeeDee's blog but I finally met them in the flesh, they are such smart children.

It was particularly wonderful to see O.'s response to us and how quickly she 'warmed up' to us.

This was the first time she had ever met us and she was so quick to let me and my little sister, Sarah into her playroom downstairs. I must say, I honestly did not expect this to happen!

It was a great visit, I enjoyed listening to E. because after all, she is so very intelligent.

I must honestly tell you, this was the first time I have ever had a conversation with a two yr old...talking about O.



Dee Dee and Eric have, and are doing a wonderful job raising their beautiful children, I know that E. has a great heart for the Lord, that is a blessing to see. I know that God's hand is working in her life and I discern that she is going to be working in Ministry in her future!

Keep up the great work DeeDee and Eric, God is using your lives to show your children how to live for God and how to always Trust In HIM...it is great to see the fruits in E. at the young age of 5.



I can't wait until the next trip, hopefully we will be able to visit Dee and Eric more...I am already counting the remaining Holidays for this year...Thanksgiving and Christmas.

We must get together during one of these holidays, if not both! I am posting pics of my two new friends (E. and O.)

See Deidre, no pics of you!

Family Reunion Part 1

Uncle Howard The Oxentines

Paw Paw Herman and PK

The BEST Dad ever! MINE (Dale)


My Sissy, Brother-in-law and the baby.





Well, we arrived back in Chattanooga on Sunday night around 10:30pm and I was exhausted, to the point I had a tension/migraine headache since 11:00 am Sunday morning. I always enjoy our road trips to North Carolina to visit with family, but most our trip is spent eating or driving so needless to say I got very LITTLE sleep. Probably only ten hours all weekend, so I guess my body was telling me...Get. Some. Rest! It is hard to get rest, because I want to know all that has being going on since my last visit. This trip was to attend the Bumgarner Family Reunion, we had a BLAST! Lots of food, fellowship, and did I mention Food! I love sitting around and listening to the older generation tell stories of how they were disciplined by my Great-Grandparents and how growing was so much different that my childhood. Alot of children in this generation are SPOILED! In all we had probably four generations, It was a big crowd, and not everyone was in attendance. I learned all about where the discipline of the 'switch' came from....I thought my parents invented it, I was so very wrong! I laughed about stories where my great-aunts were 'switched' for interrupting my Granny Bum's soap operas (those were definitely in the days before the DVR folks!) the children of Granny Bum told us younger in the family only knew Granny Bum's loving side because we were her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, but she was good with the switch...from what I hear!







I also learned that the children would 'be in for it' if they spoke of her middle name which she hated immensely....I kinda like the name Viva, but she HATED it, they tell me she would even deny that she had a middle name (that's so funny). We have a wonderful time, although I did not get to take as many photos as I would have liked to...due to limited memory cards. I have posted a couple of funny ones and some serious ones..hope you enjoy!

My hilarious Aunt Doris!

TGIF

My post this morning will be short. and. sweet. I am off to work, then for the long awaited trip to Hickory, NC. We are having a family reunion for the Bumgarner family, we always have such a great time together. Also we have planned to get together with some of my mothers family while we are in town.....It will good to see them.


Well, I plan to bring back photos to post on my blogs next week, so keep loooking


C ya on tha flip side........


Keeley

Thankful Thursday

This is my first Thankful Thursday post......
Here is what I am thankful for this week:

1. For air condition in my home and workplace.

2. My father has almost completed his chemo treatments.

3. My sister has past her first trimester of her first pregnancy!

4. I get to travel to see family with my parents, my sister, her husband, and my husband this weekend.

5. I don't have to cook this weekend!

6. For my job (have I mentioned we were recently bought out)

7. For God's saving grace and loving kindness


For more Thankful Thursday, visit Iris at Sting My Heart.

Happy HumpDay

What a day this has been! I woke up this morning with a sore thumb and sore right arm.....to be expected since I have started bowling in a league on Tuesday nights. It has been almost three years since I have bowled. I started bowling at the age of four or five, I come from a family of bowlers. I enjoy bowling very much, but my work schedule about three years ago prevented me from being able to bowl in a league. Well I am not as young as I used to be, although that is not a good excuse for my pains. My father has been bowling for 30 years or more, he is now 50 yrs old, but my poor arm was so sore from my three games of bowling that I woke with pain and it has been hurting all day. Well enough complaining about that, I have had a wonderful day, work has been pretty slow the past several weeks. I work in an insurance Call Center in Chattanooga, TN and we are full staffed to the point I do not receive many phone calls these days. In many ways this is a good thing, not alot of irate callers when they get in touch with a 'live person' because their wait isn't very long. I have learned over that past months how much people really hate CHANGE. Our company was recently purchased by a multi-million dollar company called Unitrin and many people in our office and some of our customers are very uneasy about the acquisition. I myself am someone that likes change, I not like the normal melancholy everyday things. I believe this CHANGE is a good thing and our company will benefit greatly from it. Can you believe we have actually had customers cancel their business with us because of this change?! It beats all I have ever seen, joining forces with a much larger and more profitable company and we lose business....pretty weird if you ask me.

After I arrive home from work today, my husband Dew (short for Dewey-shown above) was waiting on me with bated breathe as usual and we went out to enjoy dinner together, something we don't do as often as we used to since I have tried to cook more. For those of you that may not know me, I DON'T COOK...ask my mother! I recently decided I would attempt to start cooking at home more, to help save money. I went to a local used bookstore and purchased four...yes FOUR cookbooks to help with some ideas, I am not a very creative lady so I needed some help. A co-worker accompanied me, to insure I would get something useful for my lack of knowledge around the kitchen. This happened a perfect time, because the Sunday lunches that our family has at Maw and Paw's every week is now 'pot luck'. My grandparents have cooked for the entire family for a long time, and it was long overdue that we all start helping with the food we partake in. So for my very first recipe, I figure a DESSERT cant be too hard so I look cover to cover in all four of my 'new' cookbooks and there I find IT! Pecan Tassies, sounds a little fancy huh? Well I made my purchases of the ingredients, because of course none of the needed items are in my cupboard or Whirlpool refrigerator. I even make the crusts my scratch....that is leading up to the comical part of my story. The instructions clearly say and I quote, "In a large bowl or food processor, thoroughly MIX the butter, cream cheese, and flour". So being the Betty Crocker I am not, I grab my hand mixer and start mixing in my large bowl these ingredients. Minutes later after fighting with the gooey dough and fighting my MIXER I start to smell something burning! I know I have nothing in my oven which is at this time preheating, so I lean down to my MIXER, and you guessed it.....my MIXER had burnt up, the motor I mean. How was I supposed to know you can't use a hand mixer to mix dough!
Once the motor blew in my mixer, I figured mixing by hand would be easier anyway...to say the least I finished my dessert and they were even eatable. Needless to say, when I displayed my item that Sunday, the tassies were a crowd pleaser. I hope someone gets a laugh out of this experience, and I look forward to posting some more of mishaps or should I say some of my accomplishments with my cooking.

Although, I haven't cooked for a week or so, I got bad stomach bug when I was prepared to cook the entre' for our family gathering....I will start cooking again soon, and hope each thing I cook will continue to be eatable.


Until next time...What Can Dew 4 U signing off.

Finally....

Well, I am finally connected to the world-wide web. I told you it would take a little time, now all that is needed is more memory (RAM) to make it faster. I am looking forward to posting more frequently (I hope). Not much has been going on since my last (first) posting.

Friday night, we had Girls Night Out. My mother, sister, aunt, and grandmother went to see Steel Magnolias play at our local theatre. It was a great time, Steel Magnolias is my favorite movie ever, and the play was great as well. We all had such a great time, we actually had three generations together. We will have to do it more often, maybe once a month or so - We have to get Maw out of the house more! It tickled me pink to spend my Friday night with them all, hey guys if you read this, we must do it more often!

I did get to babysit this past weekend, I watch Tristan (my boss's grandson) from time to time, he is 8 months old and he is helping me prepare for motherhood and aunt hood. He is a busy little guy, although he is the best baby I think I have ever been around. He is nicknamed Tug (given to him by his grandfather, after Tug McGraw). He is the most precious thing, I can only imagine what a mother's love must feel like. I love him as if he were my own, I enjoy every minute I have him, but he sure does wear me out! I can't wait until Sarah (my baby sister) has her child, I will spoil him/her alot. Hopefully, she will get to find out the gender of her little today when she goes to the doctor. I believe she is having a boy, but my aunt, Janet is fo sure it is going to be a girl. Sorry Janet, your so wrong! I may have to post twice today, I will post to let everyone know the gender if she was able to find out.
Well sorry it is so short today, got alot of surfing to attend to.
Until next time.....What can brown dew 4 u signing off. Below I have posted a pic of Tristan (isn't he just adorable!)

Beginner

I have procrastinated starting my very own blog for too long. I have such an interest in blogging and now I have joined all the many others ( my own mother started a blog before me)!!

I am supposed to be working right now, but I left due to feeling ill. I am not sure why I am ill, think my dinner from last night did not agree with my stomach.

I am chilling out at my parent's house as I post this blog, because I am still waiting for Internet connection at my home. So I apologize in advance if I skip some days on my blog, bare with me and I will be able to post regularly.

I am looking forward to sharing blogs with others and hope others will enjoy mine as well.

I have been so excited for the past several weeks (maybe a month by now), my baby sister is pregnant with her first child. She is going to be a GREAT mother!! I am so proud of her and happy for her at the same time. Although I must admit, I am jealous that she is having the first grandchild for my parents. She is about fourteen weeks along and looks about 6 months pregnant! We think she is farther along then the doctors say. Our mother is very excited and READY to be a grandmother and the pregnancy could not have occured at a better time, our father, Dale was diagnosed with cancer and has completed his radiation treatment and only has three rounds of chemo left to go. He is such a strong man ( by GOD'S DESIGN) and I know he is thankful that the treatment is close to an end.

I am ready to spoil my neice/nephew and Jan. 26th could not get here any quicker... I am going to be the best aunt I can be! (my aunt Janet has been a greast example of what a great aunt is like)

My time will come soon, I hope. I am so ready to be a mother to the point it is frustrating. But I know God has a reason that it hasn't happened, so I am waiting for God's best for me and my husband