Grand Rivers is in the top ten!

I have often thought that I live in the most beautiful resort town in Kentucky, part of what brought me here four years ago in the first place. Now, Southern Living Magazine's wonderful readers agree with me! January's issue put our town in the top ten of these two categories, only a few years after Cosmopolitan magazine named our Lighthouse Landing one of the most romantic places to be kissed!

Best Scenic View
1. Lookout Mountain, Chattanooga, Tennessee

2. Grandfather Mountain, Linville, North Carolina

3. Chimney Rock Park, North Carolina

4. Grand Rivers Jetty, Kentucky (pictured below)

Jetty Sunset, Corinne Sullivan 2007, oil on canvas, 16x20

5. Rock City Gardens, Lookout Mountain, Georgia

6. Cades Cove, Tennessee

7. (tie) Clingman’s Dome, North Carolina/Tennessee

7. (tie) Stone Mountain, Georgia

9. Brasstown Bald, Georgia

10. Mount Magazine, Arkansas



Best Small Town
1. Beaufort, South Carolina

2. Fairhope, Alabama

3. Fredericksburg, Texas

4. Blowing Rock, North Carolina

5. Franklin, Tennessee6. Eureka Springs, Arkansas

7. Oxford, Mississippi

8. Grand Rivers, Kentucky

9. Madison, Georgia

10. Hendersonville, North Carolina

That's how we do it in Kentucky...

My dad totally rocks. He has always loved to spend time with me, and loves to hang out with his granddaughter too. He also loves guns, and last Christmas bought Sierra a 22/ 410 for her first gun ever. This Christmas he came down to spend the holiday with us, and got to help Sierra shoot it. Thank goodness we live in Kentucky, where the neighbors think nothing of hearing gunshots outside when you shoot at boxes and cans in the backyard!

We got a new dog!

Anyone who knows me knows I can be very impulsive and spontaneous. So to those people, it may come as no surprise that this weekend, when we went to PetSmart to buy a few fish to replace Roger and Larry, our two fish who met their maker shortly before Christmas, we instead came out with a dog. But in all fairness, PetSmart doesn't usually have dogs, unless you count the ones people bring in. So when we were looking for fish and I happened to notice cages all along the back of the store full of dogs, I HAD to go say hi. I mean, looking at all the animals at PetSmart is the closest thing we have to a zoo here. When this little Rat Terrier looked at me through the bars of his little jail, he seemed to say, "please, don't let me stay in the shelter," and later, after learning about his past, "don't let another crazy family take me and be mean to me." Besides, he looks like Lady (except he is alot smaller), and he is the same age too. Oh, and his name is Cubby. It's like it was meant to be!

See? He is little enough to fit in the toy bin! Which he jumped in to bury his bone almost right away. Which, oddly enough, turned out to be a pretty good hiding place for it since it stayed there for two days with two dogs in the house.

I hope everyone else's new year brings them happy surprises too!