Baseball, Vacation and Sir Paul

I haven't posted anything since May? Wow! However are you guys supposed to keep up with us Joneses? Boy, this sounds familiar. Every three months when I post I say the same thing. A lot has happened since I last posted. School let out, baseball ended, Summer began, we went to South Carolina, got a new dog, we went to NYC and school is about to start again. I just ordered Peyton some new school clothes just a few minutes ago. I can't believe it's almost time for 5th grade to begin.

So again, this year we vacationed with my parents on beautiful Fripp Island, SC. It's God's country. We barely had time to put our luggage inside and grab a drink & snack before our friends came by for a visit. This year we had a deer we called "Arnold" visit us every day. He had a very large growth on his stomach so we thought Arnold was most appropriate. "It's not a tumor". I was sitting there with my Diet Coke and snack and felt a head on my shoulder. I turned around and Arnold was resting his head on me begging for my snack. So of course, I shared.


We took a walk on the gorgeous beach and enjoyed the sunset. Sunsets are always more special on the beach. Or maybe I don't have time at home to stop and enjoy them. Perhaps both.


After vacation, we came back home and Peyton finished up baseball season. He played on The Dodgers and they came in second place in their division. The last night was rough. We were at the ball field all night. The boys (and parents) were exhausted.



A few weeks ago, a girl I work with was talking about a dog she found at her apartment complex. Someone had tied this beautiful girl up to a park bench in the apartments and left her for 24 hours with no food or water. And trust me, it is very hot here in Memphis in the summertime. After going to a few different temporary homes, I volunteered to take her temporarily. Since we lost Bailey, we wanted to go to the pound and get another dog so Barney would have someone to play with. We needed a young dog with a lot of energy and one that could hold their own with him. We brought this gorgeous girl home and they immediately hit it off. We let them loose in the back yard and she ran so fast that Barney couldn't begin to catch up with her. They have so much fun playing together. She's as sweet as she can be and it makes me sad to think that someone would abandon her. But their loss is our gain. We named her Zeva. Peyton loves the show NCIS and one of the characters on that show (the hottest girl on the show of course) is named Zeva.


And the most exciting thing that happened to us this summer......we went to New York City to see Sir Paul McCartney. This might not excite a lot of people my age (certainly not my husband) but this was one of the best nights of my entire life. He is 69 years old and still rocks the house. Oh yeah, and the house he rocked was none other than the New Yankee Stadium. That's right! The only thing that would have made the night more complete is if Derek Jeter had been there too. Sir Paul put on a nearly three hour show. Check out this amazing set list. I love The Beatles older music and he definitely didn't disappoint.
We flew into LaGuardia. We have been to NYC before years ago, but we managed to avoid having to ride in a cab. This time though, we had to. When you step outside the airport, there are taxis lined up as far as the eye can see. Beware though: ONLY TAKE THE YELLOW CABS. There are some guys there who want you to ride with them and God only knows where they're going to take you.

These pictures were taken from our hotel room. We stayed at The Hilton Garden Inn on West 35th Street. It was one block from The Empire State Building and Herald Square, home of Macy's and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.


Once we put our luggage down and freshened up, we headed to The Top of The Rock. Rockefeller Center. We bought tickets to go up to the top of this amazing building. You can see the entire island from up there, and of course the Statue of Liberty too. It's gorgeous and will really take your breath away. First, we stopped at Bryant Park and grabbed a sandwich. We ate at Wichcraft Soups & Sandwiches. I had the most delicious grilled cheese sandwich ever. It was made with Gruyere cheese and caramelized onions on grilled rye bread. Oh so good!! And we saw these adorable dogs while we were there.



Okay so back to The Top of The Rock. Here are some pictures from up there.








We left Rockefeller Center and headed over to St Patrick's Cathedral. It doesnt matter if you are Catholic or not. This place is a must see. The doors on the church weigh 20,000 pounds. It is a gorgeous cathedral. We had to head back to the hotel after this but we passed a lot of great things along the way like the NY Public Library. This is where the wedding of the century was supposed to take place. Not Catherine and Prince William....Carrie Bradshaw and John James Preston (aka Big) from Sex and The City.









I was told by Yankee Stadium that I couldn't bring a camera to the concert. Naturally, when we got there, everyone had a camera. I had an iPhone though which was okay too. I took some great video on it. Our seats were unbelievably great. The food there is delicious. I had garlic french fries. Yep, that was my whole meal.




Saturday we got up, had a bite to eat and then headed down to the State Island Ferry. The subways were under construction so we had to take one subway, exit and take a shuttle to get to the ferry. No biggie. It was worth it. The ferry is free and the absolute best way to see The Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan Skyline.






After the ferry ride, we walked up Wall Street, saw the bull, had an altercation with a homeless man, took a cab to Little Italy and ate at Lombardi's Pizzeria. This establishment has been dubbed the first pizzeria in America, opened in 1905. There was a 40 minute wait but worth every minute of it. FYI: They only take cash. No credit cards.



After our delicious pizza, we headed to Chinatown. We saw the fish markets, some dragon fruit for sale on the street that was beautiful and a lot of women asking us if we wanted to buy purses or watches. I'm not sure where they would have taken us if we had gone with them.



Sunday morning, we had to face the bitter truth that our very short trip to NYC was about to come to an end. We woke up and headed to Central Park. We took the subway up and walked up Central Park West. We entered the park at West 72nd Street, the location of The Dakota Apartments. This is where John Lennon lived and was shot & killed in December of 1980. The apartment building is just gorgeous. Central Park is so wonderful. Over 800 acres of gorgeous land. The statues, castles, bridges, waterfalls, arches and trees will take your breath away. It's wonderful to be in a busy city like New York and be able to take time out to step inside this wonderland.










After a stroll through Central Park, we walked over to The Plaza Hotel. It's simply stunning inside and out. I had to take a picture of the chandelier inside the lobby. Maybe one day we can stay there.



Our last visit of the weekend was FAO Schwarz. We had to stop in and see The Big Piano from the movie Big.



Back to reality and the heat of Memphis. Being away from home always makes you appreciate your city.

Back By Popular Demand

It has been over a month since I last posted. It's hard to keep up with the Joneses when they don't let you know what's going on. Well folks, it's baseball season. America's favorite pastime (and mine). I love baseball. Peyton plays for Arlington Little League, the 9 & 10 year old Dodgers. They are really good too. It's great to watch how this kids start out and just get better & better with each game. It's wonderful to watch them develop into each better players each week right before your eyes.



So in between working and going to baseball games and practices, I have been working on some crafts and also researching my family tree. There's a chance that I may be related to one Sir Paul McCartney so I'm trying to keep digging until I get to the bottom of that. We'll save this story for another day though.

On April 30th, I did a craft fair called Arlington in April. It was a beautiful day and there were so many people there. We had a lot of people walk by but I didn't get a ton of business. I made fabric covered buckets, wooden crosses and picture frames. I do a few craft fairs during the year, usually in the Fall & Winter, so I will just save everything for Christmastime.





What's next...oh yes, the FLOOD. The river finally crested today at 48 feet but it has been really sad to see all of the water accumulating around town. Beale Street at Riverside Drive is flooded and the area of Riverside Drive around Beale is flooded as well. They had to move the World Championship BBQ Contest from Tom Lee Park to Tiger Row at the Liberty Bowl for this upcoming weekend. It's just sad to see this. Everyone is very lucky around here though. They've done a great job of making sure everyone was prepared and there are several shelters set up around town for the folks that are displaced.




Alright, I will try and do better with my blogging. I have plenty more to tell everyone and more pictures so I will work on that another night.
Have a great week everyone!!

There's A Hole In My Bucket

Yes, I found a new craft. I just love to try new projects. This weekend, I have been working on a few buckets. Check 'em out.

Furniture Redo

I've been trying to keep busy lately so I'm trying to find furniture to refinish.
Last Sunday, I painted this end table for our bonus room that we're about to refinish. It was very nice before but I think it looks even better now. A nice $22 purchase on Craig's List. So if you have any old solid wood furniture you're looking to get rid of, I'm your girl. The older and uglier the better.

My Best Friend

Today might be the hardest day of my life. My first born son, Bailey Parker Junkin, went to Heaven this morning. He has been losing a lot of weight lately. For a while, he was very much overweight and we tried to get him to lose weight. Then it just happened very rapidly. In the last couple of months he lost his appetite...for dog food. I had to make him a special dinner every night, which in turn tore up his tummy. This weekend, on top of being very skinny, his stomach was very bloated. We spent a lot of time loving on him yesterday afternoon and gave him steak for dinner. He also had some fruit loops. Ü This morning I woke up and made an appointment with the vet. As we sat in the waiting room, I was oddly okay. I knew that in a few minutes, I would have to say goodbye to my best buddy. But when someone you love is in pain, you just have to let go. We met with the vet about 10:20 and he checked him out. He said that he had a heart murmur and he was in a lot of pain. He asked if we wanted to try to do some treatment on him but I told him no, we were ready to let him go. We had our last few minutes with him, loving on him and reassuring him that we'd see him again one day.

Bailey was the best dog anyone could have and the best friend a girl could ever want. I got him in August of 1997 when he was just 6 weeks old. When I went to pick out a puppy, all of his brothers and sisters and his parents were on site. Most of the dogs were running around playing but there was this one that was off to the side digging a hole. I knew, that was the one I had to have. Through his puppy days, he did some very funny things and made me laugh a lot. No matter how bad my day was, I would come home to this amazing little dog that always made me smile. If I was sad, he would crawl in my lap and lick my face and dry my tears.
His favorite things in life were going for puppy walks and puppy rides. He loved getting in the car, but he was always terrified that he was going to the vet. I would take him to Baskin Robbins and buy him ice cream, take him to McDonalds and buy him hamburgers and basically take him anywhere he wanted to go. He loved his mamaw & pop-pop very much. They spoiled him rotten, because after all, he was their first grandchild. When we would go over there, sometimes he would stand at the door when it was time to go as if he was saying "go on mommma, I'm going to stay a while longer". He loved treats too. That boy couldn't get enough treats. Christmas was his favorite holiday. Every year, he would get under the tree days or weeks before Christmas, and get out his gifts and unwrap them. I always knew he could read because he only opened his gifts. HA!!

He also loved his family. He followed me everywhere I went, all of the time. He couldn't walk up the stairs in our house so whenever I was up there, he would sit at the bottom and cry for me. Sometimes he would howl and sing the funniest little tunes to get my attention. He loved his daddy and Peyton too. And of course, he loved his four-legged brother, Barney.
We will all miss our sweet Bailey boy and will think about him always. No other dog will ever fill his shoes.
I love you Bay!!


Bailey Parker Junkin Jones
July 22, 1997 - March 14, 2011

Delta Girl Frames

I recently joined a page on Facebook for Delta Girl Frames. She's a local frame maker in Collierville, TN. She had a contest on her FB page yesterday and low and behold, I won it!! I won a free frame of my choice that holds a 3x3 picture. Choosing the pattern/color was very hard but I finally narrowed it down. I will post a picture of it when I receive it. But in the meantime, I wanted to give her a shout out here on my blog. Check her out on Facebook or visit her Delta Girl Frames Etsy website.

Here Comes The Sun

It's finally here....the sun!! We are supposed to have a warm-up this weekend here in Memphis. My mother in law and I drove up to Covington, TN today and looked around at the stores on the square. We found some gorgeous furniture at a store up there. These are some of the pieces we found.









We came home and Peyton and I made these chocolate covered marshmallows for his teachers. They are so cute and delicious.