Genevieve Taylor Arnold is Here!

Kelley Hogan Arnold delivered her 2nd child this morning at 2:13am! She weighs 7 pounds 7 ounces and is 18.5 inches long. Mommy and baby are both doing great. Little brother Aiden (3) is OK with Genevieve coming home to their house, but has no interest in holding or touching his little sister. Hopefully he will have a good transition from only child and only grandchild to sharing the limelight. :)

The picture is on Genevieve's actual birthday. Look at those cute cheeks. She is just so beautiful especially to be a new born.

Go Vote!

Have you voted yet? If not, you really should! Regardless of which way you vote, you really should vote for someone. Early voting is the way to go! I went last Wednesday and from start to finish it took me 15 minutes. The last time I voted on election day it took me 1.5 hours!

I finally got my shower fixed!

It’s only been a problem since I bought my house 5.5 years ago. I’m slowly getting all my issues taken care of. I’ve actually only been looking for a plumber since December. Yes, I know that it is now October, but I was patiently trying to find an individual to do the work. I hate dealing with companies and they are always trying to rip off the poor single “woman”. With individuals, you get better after hour support, they get all the money for the work they do and I don’t feel I get ripped off in the process. As much as I would like to say that I can handle all my issues myself, it just isn’t possible.

So, I had tried getting a hold of two other recommended plumbers and that was like an act of congress. I don’t know how people expect to get business if they only have a home phone, with no answering machine, and then are never there. I tried calling this guy for 5 months with not one success. J The 2nd man I got a hold of kept telling me he would swing by on Saturday. Five weeks later and 2 more phone calls, he had still failed to ever show up. So, I sent out another all points bulletin to my friends to find a plumber. As it turns out a past co-worker and also the neighbor of a good friend is married to an excellent plumber!

Mark Fant (number will be provided to anyone who needs help) came over to do a consultation on my day off a few weeks ago. He was a very pleasant and helpful man. I first had him crawl up under my house. You see, last December I was told I had a leak under my laundry room and I was already at about 40% rot on my foundation and I had a fungus growing under there. Keep in mind that I will not be crawling under my house ever! I seem to be growing opossums under there and who knows what else and I can’t physically bring myself to do it. Well, I told the Orkin guy that I wasn’t interested in paying $600 to have the fungus sprayed since I wasn’t allergic to mold and it wasn’t it my budget, but I would have the leak looked into. Now, I never had any symptoms (water bill stayed the same) of said leak, but I continued to worry that I had one. Fascinatingly, Mark couldn’t find any sign of a leak or that I ever had one! So needless to say, I’m looking very forward to my upcoming termite inspection. I would love nothing more for the inspector to try and sell me the same lie again. Could be a great blog post when that occurs.

Anyway, Mark did a fabulous job on changing out all of my shower hardware! I would highly recommend him to anyone that needs some assistance. Especially, if you live on the airport side of Nashville.

Critter Hotel

Just thought I would update everyone that I caught ANOTHER opossum this weekend. That makes 3 this month. I have caught a opossum each of the last 3 weekends! Apparently under my house is the place to be!

Anyway, i finally decided I could dispose of the varmit myself. I put it in my trunk (on newspapers of course) and drove it down to a not so quite finished subdivision. Well, it took a little longer than last time. The dang thing would get out of the cage. I finally got it dumped on the ground and it was still testing me. Anyway, I have blocked the hole under the house temporarily with the cage and hopefully, nothing can get in around it for now.

Daddy is going to have to get down here soon!! I need that hole closed under the house!

The Library

Do you live in Davidson County? If so, and you aren’t using the public library, you are really missing out! Davidson County has one of the best libraries around. Most of you are like myself and probably grew up with just an average library. Let me tell you what you are missing.

Our library has one of the most extensive collections of everything! You can check out books, CD’s, videos, and DVD’s. Our library has all the new releases and it’s all free! Now don’t get me wrong, you do have to wait a while for most of the new DVD releases. However, the cost makes it worth the wait to me. Our library usually has a minimum of 3 copies of all movies and all it takes is a few minutes to get on the waiting list. Then, you get to keep the movie for 7 days before the late fees start accruing.

The best part is the online reservation system. You can go to the public library’s website http://www.library.nashville.org/index.asp and do everything from there. Once you register your library card number online you can search the catalog and then request the item(s) you would like and have them sent to the library closest to you. When it is your turn, the library marks the book with your name and puts it on a hold shelf. Then you have about a week to go pick up the item and you can even self checkout. It is sooo nice!

Since I made this discovery I haven’t rented a single movie. Also, keep in mind the library is great for hobby books. In the past few years I have taken up cake decorating and knitting. The library has extensive collections on both of these topics. So, I check out 5 or 6 books at a time on either topic, and look through them for ideas. If I come across a book with lots of projects I would like to try. I just make a note to actually buy that book later. It’s a wonderful way to try before you buy. Happy Reading!!!!