In loving memory....Grandpa, We'll miss you!

My grandfather passed away unexpectedly this morning. He was such a strong, wise and inspring person. He was very loved and will be greatly missed. Anyone who ever met him was surely blessed.

Howard Lloyd Gunter
80 year old Howard Lloyd Gunter of Smithville died suddenly Saturday at DeKalb Community Hospital. He was a World War II Navy veteran, a Mason, and a retired employee of Genesco. The funeral will be Monday at 1:00 p.m. at the Bethel United Methodist Church where he was a member. Royce Martin and Wilson Williams will officiate and burial will be in the Bethel Cemetery. Visitation will be Sunday from 2:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. and Monday from 9:00 a.m. until 12:30 p.m. at which time the body will be taken to the church for the service at 1:00 p.m. He was preceded in death by his parents, Houston and Dovie Lee Blair Gunter and sisters, Mozell Cory, Odie Basham, Polly Simons, and Jimmie Shuler. Survivors include his wife of 60 years Norma Phillips Gunter of Smithville. Three children, Dan and his wife Kristen Gunter of Lakeland, Florida; Phillip and his wife Karen Gunter of Valdosta, Georgial and Sharon and her husband Harold Rader of Murfreesboro. Grandchildren, Leah Love and her husband Eric Orsbon, Monica and her husband Chris Dickens, Alex Rader, Matt Gunter, and Danielle Chamber. Great grandchild, Bryce Dickens. Sisters, Betty and her husband J.T. Hale of McMinnville, Dorcas and her husband Larry Medley of McMinnville, Ruth Payne of Jacksonville, Florida; and Naomi Sheppard of Jacksonville, Florida. Sisters-in-law, Mary Cantrell of Smithville, Fatama Walker of McMinnville, and Jane Eller of Smithville. A brother-in-law, Bill Phillips of Smithville. DeKalb Funeral Chapel is in charge of the arrangements. The family asks that donations be made to the Bethel Cemetery Fund in memory of Mr. Gunter, in lieu of flowers.

Puppy in training

This crazy dog of ours! I had a breaking point earlier this week with Duke. He's just OUT OF CONTROL! I had enough of the whizzing, chewing and disobeying that I could handle. Heck, I get enough of that from Bryce so why should I have to take it from the dog? I signed him up for Puppy Obiedience Classes at PetSmart. We started last night and we will continue for 8 weeks. All I can say is WOW! After only one class he learned the commands "sit", "watch", and "stand". I can finally get his attention now. She gave us some GREAT advice on house training. Things that I was doing wrong, like leaving his food and water out for him ALL DAY is a big no-no until he's trained. We're working on that full-force now!

Waitin' on Thursday

Watch this!
I love this "teaser" for the new season of Grey's Anatomy! I can't wait until Thursday night!

McDreamy, McVet...who will it be?

Dr. Phil stuff again

Alright, well I'm sure you read my previous post about going out to LA to see the Dr. Phil show. Let me tell you this story....We're back in town, and all of us gals are online trying to check on an air date for the shows we saw. My girl Jenni looks at the "Upcoming Shows" section and sees a call for people who put others persons needs before their own. She signs up our friend Misty (who also keeps Bryce for me) because that girl is ALWAYS doing things for other people and NEVER herself. An example of this...someone gave her one of the "filler-ups" from Bath Junkie..um I don't know about a year ago, and she STILL hasn't gone in there for it! I mean it's BATH JUNKIE! She's just never without her kids. I've offered on several occasions to come over and just stay with her kids for a couple of hours so she could go to the grocery store alone. She won't take anyone's help. So Jenni called Dr. Phil on her ass!

She sent in the letter along with some pics of Misty. She needs a wardrobe makeover in a MAJOR way! The next day, the producer was calling both of them...kind of a phone interview thing. That Sunday, the camera crew rolled up to her house. It moved SO fast! They filmed all of these segments trying to catch Misty in her daily routine, but it was Sunday and not a typical day for her. She called all of the moms that drop their kids off to see if they could come over and do a "fake drop-off" for the show. Unfortunately we were at the "Day out with Thomas" festival thing and we missed our National Television Debut. But anyhow, when the 14 hours of filming was over on Sunday, they informed the gang that they would be flown out to LA to tape the show that Tuesday morning.

Let me just say, if you can get on the Dr. Phil show I think you should! They got the rockstar treatment out there. A stretch Escalade met them at the airport to take them to their hotel (I can't remember the name of it, but it's right across from the Kodak Theater). The rooms were paid for, of course, but they also had $600 to spend on food!!! Unbelieveable! Granted, things are alot more pricey out west than here, but come on! $600 for food?!? LIVE IT UP!

Alright, so they get wisked to Paramount Studios 29 on Thursday morning (Wednesday was a free day for them) to film the show. It's an "Ask Dr. Phil and Robin" show. Kind of a hodge-podge of things going on. They're the LAST ones to come on the show. And remember the 14 hours of taping I told you about? They condensed it down to about 30 seconds! But anyway, are you ready for the COOL STUFF?!? Misty started crying while watching the clip onstage. Dr. Phil whips out one of his embroidered hankies for her to wipe her tears. She of course gets to keep it ;) But then the grand finale......Dr. Phil and Robin present her with some great goodies!

-$1000 gift certificate to Green Hills mall
-$500 spa package (an all day event) to Blue River Canyon Salon and Day Spa
-gift certificate for a hair "revamp" at a salon in downtown Nashville
-spa robe and slippers

Very cool! She hasn't bought anything yet or used her gift certificates. We're trying to plan a girl's day out to do some shopping.

We won the Powerball!!!

Well, not really....we had the Powerball plus one other number. That makes us a whopping $4 richer...actually $1 in the hole if you consider that I spent $5 on a ticket. It's still the fascination of winning that counts, right?

We spent our last "official" day on the lake today. I'm a little burned out on it, so I'm glad that we won't be doing that again for awhile. I enjoy being lazy on my Sunday afternoons. The water was FRIGID today! I guess the cooler nights are making a big difference in the water temps. Well, I'm off to catch up on some housework...oh, by the way, I decided I'll catch my blog up one day at a time instead of all at once. I plan on having a pretty low-key week so my past events will give me something to blog about :)

So much has happened!

I don't know if it's even possible to catch my blog up, but I sure can try!