Waterfall Cabin Weekend

Waterfall Cabin

Ever need to just get away?  A little mental break from the hustle and bustle of urban living?  Yeah?  Me too!  Michael being the sweet and awesome person that he is, could sense I needed a little escape, so he arranged and secretly planned a weekend getaway to the mountains in Tennessee!  He cleared it with my boss in advance and surprised me on Friday with a trip to Waterfall Cabin!  He picked me up from work at noon and off we were on the open road.  It was an easy drive, about 4 hours south of Louisville.  Upon arriving it looked like something out of a catalog!  A cabin set on a picturesque landscape of a waterfall.  The pictures really don't do it justice, but the waterfall actually went UNDER the house.  The cabin was built over and around the waterfall in the Great Smoky Mountains.  The cabin itself was nothing to balk at either!  It was a large size cabin with 2 full bedrooms and 2 baths.  A hot tub was on the side deck so while soaking it up, you can simultaneously soak up the scene around you.  The waterfall provided a non-stop audio track to the trip, combined with singing birds and it was difficult to NOT relax.  Not always such an easy task for a high strung person like myself.  We ventured out on Saturday to the Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies in Gatlinburg.  Wow.  Absolutely amazing.  It took us about two hours to walk through the entire aquarium.  We saw sharks, jelly fish, eels, tropical fish of all kinds.  The best part was walking underneath the aquarium in a sort of tube they'd built.  You got to see the fish from every angle.  Very very cool.  After that we returned to the cabin for some of Michael's world famous grilling - dry aged steaks!  Mmmmm.  We ate, relaxed, enjoyed the scenery and got some R and R before returning late Sunday.   If you're looking for a weekend getaway, I'd recommend this destination!  It's privately owned by an individual and not a rental company, this really shows in the quality of the cabin and character inside.  You can tell the owner themselves spend time there, and it'd decorated and cared for as such.

Off the back porch

View from sun porch

Deck off of Master Bedroom

The waterfall going underneath the cabin

Michael climbed to the top....eek!

Back deck

Waterfall behind cabin

Happy 4th Birthday Pete!

First week home - a little thinner then- 2009

Happy 4th Birthday to my baby Pete.  I adopted him from a rescue organization in Indy called "From the Heart Rescue" in January of 2009, around his first birthday.  He's been my little partner in crime ever since and I don't know what I'd do without him.  He's came a long way with his fear issues (after coming from an abusive situation) but we still have a ways to go on confidence.  He's a super sweetie to those he feels comfortable around and trusts, and a great little guard dog to those he doesn't.  Happy Birthday to my little "Tiny Dancer" Petey!!!  I love you buddy!

After a fun game of fetch - 2009

"The Most Interesting Dog in the World" - 2010

Pete with his toy on a Fall afternoon 2011

Winter Wardrobe - 2010

Pete doing what he does best, cuddling! - 2012

3 Simple Steps to Improving Energy Efficiency Within Your Home.

Perfect specimen:  both lazy and fat

Step 1 - Acquire cat from local shelter, preferably overweight for maximum vent coverage.   This cat is both fat and lazy, two major pluses when lowering your heating costs.

Step 2 - Place cat over vent in a room that you use infrequently.  For example, the cat shown to the right, is covering a vent in a guest bathroom. 








 Step 3 - Repeat Step 2, then save on energy costs all winter long!

So, now what?

Ferg had too much Champagne on New Years

Another holiday season is now under our belt.  With lots of gift giving, receiving, visitors, errands, shopping, and general frenzy, life is back to a steady routine.  We had a wonderful Christmas and Christmas dinner at Mom and Mike's.  Next stop was Dad and Sharon's for more gift exchanging and some board game fun.  Michael's parents and his sister and fiancee made it up for New Years weekend for a belated Christmas weekend...all in all it was a fabulous couple of weekends.  Michael and I did small gifts this year, mainly because we don't need anything but more importantly because our major gift to each other was a new surround sound system!  This baby has completely revolutionized the basement and our movie viewing!  Pete and Rigby are NOT fans, but I think they're slowly getting used to it.  I think it confuses them to hear noises and voices coming from behind us.  It's amazing how much detail we were missing before!  So glad we decided to do that.  Next stop on the home improvement tour:  new counter tops and flooring in the kitchen and sun room.

HEATED Competition

In a friendly New Years wager, the Colts vs. Patriots rivalry came alive in our very own home.  You see,  Michael's sisters fiancee, Pat has the unfortunate reality of being a Patriots fan.  I know, I know...how did you even allow him into your home you're asking.  Well, it wasn't easy.   After some adult beverages a wager was proposed.  The loser had to wear the opposing teams apparel for the remainder of the evening, while allowing pictures to be taken, making said picture their Facebook profile picture.  Clearly opening the door for harassment, embarrassment and shame from our friends.  Being the clutch foosball player that I am (the wager was over a game of foosball) I pretty much wiped the floor with poor Pat.  My only regret is not specifying that it had to be a Manning jersey and not just Colts.  Oh well, live and learn.  There is always next year, right Pat?

Winner.

So far 2012 has a handful of trips planned, so that's the "now what" part.  January 31st I'll be going to Bristol, TN to visit a client. (Exciting!)  But St. Patrick's Day is what we're really looking forward to.  We're going to Boston/New York for St. Patty's to visit my friend Jennifer and have an awesome time with some Southie's and green beer.   We'll extend the St. Patty's Day to a long weekend in NYC for our birthdays.  After that I'm off to a conference in Pittsburgh, PA...and I'm hoping to get some sand and beach in there soon afterwards.  Here's to a great 2012 to all!

Christmas 2012