A new year means a new outlook on life

He new year came in with me living in a new location.  A move of 2000 miles again. This decade, just like last decade has me starting over in a new state.  This time I have moved to Kentucky. I am closer to Angie and happily Casey and her family and Ellis and his family relocated here as well. 


This move has been great for the family. We have been reunited with Angie and it means that all 11 grandchildren are now in one city.  One small city named Winchester. This is the city that Daniel Boone lived before the civil war.  The history here is interesting, and since I love history, it is conveniently located. We had plans to attend the open house at Fort Boonesboro, but it was closed because of bad weather. Once spring arrives I will be touring the fort and learning more about how the lives were led back in the early 1800's.


The house I rent is backed up to a sheep farm and so Beau and Arrow, the Australian shepherds love to herd them by running up to the fence and barking. They can herd the sheep all the way up to the house on top of the hill.  They feel quite a sense of accomplishment and head in for dinner.


The winter here has been a bit cold.  We have had snow several days and one ice storm.  The power has never gone out, so I am thankful for that.  The dogs seem to enjoy the snow to a certain degree. They  do however come in quickly when there is snow on the ground.  Arrow has developed the bad habit of slipping past Gerry when he comes home from work and running loose for about thirty  minutes.  She returns after checking out the back yards that connect all the houses on the dead end road. 


Hubpages have been occupying much of my time as I try to increase my presence at the site.  This is a site that allows you to write on a variety of subjects and have people comment and leave feedback. I enjoy the site immensely and have been writing there for over a year. 


Casey writes there and has some interesting hubs on some very unusual topics. After much convincing, Angie has set up an account and I hope to read some of her work soon.  I know she will have a wealth of information once she takes a few minutes to start writing. 


Ellis has moved his five children here and they are settling down nicely. They have a cute house with the best fireplace in Winchester. I love the feel of that fire and find myself sitting close to it and soaking it all in. Tyler has really been talking and talking well. He is potty trained and very proud of that accomplishment. The children from all three families had a wonderful Christmas and the day was full of happiness, good company and good food. 


Angie Casey and I have started an exercise program. It is called Zumba and it is fun to exercise when you are dancing to the Brazilian music. The weight is slow to come off, but the fitness is the main goal. So slow and steady is the goal as long as it is fun, I am comfortable with that. There is a website that we use which tracks nutrition, exercise and fitness. The website is called Sparkpeople.com. There are so many tools available on this site.  A place to track not just your weight, but your inches as well.


This is a recap of what has been going on in my life and will get me back in the blogging mode. 

A New fun Gaming Addiction

Recap on the weekends activities.  This weekend was spent both on Hubpages and on Facebook. I have found a great way to spend a little time when on Facebook.  The game I have recently picked up is called Backyard Monsters.  The game is so fun that I have created several pages on how to play and what to expect from the game. These two pages will get you started with hints and tips that will speed you on your way.

The game is a Civilization, Age of Empires type of game and has a very involved tutorial which will really get you off to a great start. The stories that I have written about the game should teach you everything you need to know about getting started and what creatures you should create in order to protect your village . If you are more aggressive, there is a thorough description of each monster so that you will choose the best monsters to build before you take off to attack other villages. 
The game has both defense and offense available so that you can play in the most aggressive style or be able to concentrate on building up your monster army to protect your lovely village.  Much like Starcraft, you will have to face monsters that come over trying to zerg your village. Towers will assist you in keeping your buildings and creatures safe.

If you just enjoy the match three type of games more than the war games,  I have created a few pages to help you enjoy Jungle Jewels and Bejeweled Blitz. 

Posted via email from vicgoodwin's posterous

Backyard Monsters game on Facebook What Fun!!

Awesome little game on Facebook. Fun to play and fun to see the little monsters take shape. Want to know more about it. Check out the story. http://hubpages.com/hub/Backyard-Monsters
 

History of Pleasant Grove's Mining Disaster

History of Pleasant Grove's Mining Disaster

I researched this when I lived in Pleasant Grove, Alabama. I spoke with the families that remember this like it was yesterday. Some of these children I spoke with were in their 80's and still recalled the last time they spoke with their daddy before leaving for work that morning.

Preparing for New York Fashion Week

Preparing for New York Fashion Week

Moving to a New Writing Gig at Hub Pages

I have recently been making a move over to the Hub Pages and this is where I am doing my writing.  I have been writing at Mahalo for over a year now and they have moved on to a different format.  I was making a nice amount working from home on the pages that I made with love and a lot of research.  The management decided that it wasn't profitable for them to share the page revenue with the writers, so some changes were made.  I am not running down Mahalo. They can run their business any way they choose, I just was enjoying the freedom that writing had offered me for the last year and I am not going to stop writing. So I needed to relocate to a site that will continue to pay me for my work.  

If you are interested in my writing then I will continue to link my stories so that you can see them if you so choose.  I hope over the last year you can see an improvement in my writing. I admit I still write with a southern accent.  Not that I think that is a bad thing.  I actually write some things with a southern spin intentionally.  I think the southern way of saying some things in some situations is just perfect and says it in a way that is so much better.  

This is simply an announcement that lets you all know what is going on.  I hope you visit my pages at Hub Pages and like what you read.  Just to give you an idea I have been writing about, I have published a page using  the history of my family and I wrote a little page on Nessmuk.  Nessmuk was my ancestor and he was one of the first conservationists and a writer in the 1880's for the magazine that became Field and Stream . There is a section on some of the games on Face book like Jungle Jewels. 

Let me know how you like my work and if you see changes I need to make, just let me know. I am here on this planet to learn and grow, and I count on you all to help me on the journey.

Anniversary of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park

This year the Great Smoky Mountain National Park is 75 years old.  That is one thing I remember about being a small child, the trips to the Smokies.  Going to the Deep Creek Campground and the smell of the campfire.  My Grandmother cooking an amazing breakfast over that fire and the thick Black coffee that we were (as a treat) allowed to have a little taste. The fishing in Deep Creek river, I remember the fishing because we all cried about having to eat the fish we had caught.

The chilly morning air would wake us up and we would sit around the fire shivering and trying to get going for the day.  While my Grandfather planned out the day's adventures and packed up the car with the items we would need. Bathing suits on and hiding under our perfectly matching shorts outfits just in case we ran into a swimming hole. We also had on our snow white Keds.  Everyone knows once you had on your Keds, you were ready for the day. 

We always had some fun and unexpected adventure while on vacation.  Crossing a swinging bridge with wasps chasing us because we had stirred them up with the movement of our walking. Now three little children trying to out run a pack of angry wasps will always make a lasting memory.  This was a time before Dollywood and big amusement parks. This was even before Six Flags over Georgia opened its doors.  Times were simpler and looking forward to the Smoky mountain vacation was just part of being a kid. 

When I took my children to the Smoky Mountains many years later,  I had my children stand on the same wall that my sister and brother and I had stood on as children as I snapped their picture.  We, guided by my memories of vacations past, traveled over the top of the mountain over to Maggie Valley Ghost Town  in North Carolina and saw the bears that were at the small village near Maggie Valley and yet another chance for Deja vu.  We saw the old western town that when I was a small child had looked so large and complex, which now had been built up into an amusement park. When I was a child it was a more simple Ghost Town. It was one of those rare moments in time when you actually could go back and relive a part, a very important part, of childhood.

So congratulations on 75 awesome years of being the best place to take a family to see bears and pristine woods, mountain rivers and streams and thank you for taking this time to make sure we have a place to visit and continue the family traditions.
Thank you Great Smoky Mountain National Park for 75 awesome years!

Posted via email from vicgoodwin's posterous