Up Top...

Just feast your eyes on this...


 

...and then invite me over for drinks. I will clearly need one.

Par-Tay...

Really, it's not a birthday party until a Michael Jackson impersonator shows up to surprise the birthday boy! Happy 40th Adam!!!!!


 

I took a ton of pictures, but I promised everyone to be discreet about putting them on the internet. :) 

Ultimate Rednecks...

What kind of redneck would leave this out in a field?

 

Oh, that's right. My people. HA!

Don't ask. I have no clue why an old three wheeler happens to be next to cans and a filing cabinet currently being used as targets. Ask J and Jeffrey. I'm sure there is a reason.

Sides...

"You're not going to change anyone's mind by arguing with them."
Jaina, friend and minister
This was a casual statement that has stuck out in my mind ever since.


It's so true. When I was younger, I didn't grasp this concept. I really believed that I could argue someone into taking my side. As if.

 

Do you know what really helps change a person's perspective?

Love.
Exposure.
Careful and kind seeds planted in their minds.


My hope is that some day we can all be on the same side instead of greatly divided and angry.

Please, dear friends, I ask you to be kind.
Kind to one another.
Kind to me.
Kind to our future.

After all, no matter which side of the fence you are on, we are still breathing the same air.

It Was Good Enough...

 

It's good enough.
My home.
My life.
My circumstances.
Good enough.
Splendid in fact.
I take it all for granted.


Reminder: A-Ro, you have it good...so very, very good. Don't forget.

Lego...My Head-O...

The cake topper...stolen by Ella...


 

Bite It...Just Bite It...

Yeah, the sharks are my favorite...

 

 

 

 

My pictures were kind of crappy. It's tough to get decent pictures in the aquarium. It's dark, and if I used a flash, there was a giant reflection in the glass. Word. I should have carried my external flash with me, but I was trying to keep my bag light weight. Still though, I can't help but be sucked in by these creatures.

Yo, Yo, Happy 3-0...

Uncle Cody, Happy Birthday!!!

 

Goofy faces!! Lego cake!! Best surprise party ever!!

Fish and Kids...

The Aquarium. It's a fun place to visit. I am partial to the sharks. Scary beautiful creatures.

After visiting the aquarium in Gatlinburg, these two cuties had favorites of their own.

 

Hmmm. My child pretending the waterfall was going to get her? Nah, surely my children would never be so dramatic. In public.

 

I don't remember what these little wormy things were called, but they were kind of cute in a really gross "I hope that never ends up on my plate" kind of way.

 

The obligatory climb inside the tank picture. Come on. You know you've done it.

 

Check this out. Nephew Nathan is smiling at his parents. My child is....well...maybe my children would be this dramatic...in public. And you people wonder why I am so ragged all the time.

 

The codependents definitely enjoyed their visit to the aquarium.

 

What is Contentment?...

 

You can thank me for this transcendent post later. Ha!

Give It Away Now...

So, here is how it played out.
The two little codependents were on the scene.

 

The comments were printed.

 

The comments were folded.



Into a bin the comments went.

 

They flipped a coin to see who would hold the bucket and who would draw a name.

 

Ella pulled one out.

 

She read the comment.

 

We zoomed in on the name.



Congrats, MK!! I'll get in touch with you about getting the beads to you!!


P.S. Hadley did not help with the giveaway. She was doing this.

She has a turrible cold. You know you like the word turrible. :)

A Decade of Debate...

Once upon a time there was a lovely couple who went out for breakfast while on vacation. They decided to try out a pancake place they had seen earlier in the week. The husband (who has bad ideas) ordered corn meal pancakes. The wife (who is a beautiful genius) opted for buttermilk pancakes. The hubs loved his pancakes so much that the missus had to have a bite. She declared that those corn meal pancakes tasted just like Jiffy mix dropped in a skillet. The hubs disagreed. And so they continued to disagree. For more than a decade.

A decade later the couple goes to the same restaurant for breakfast while on vacation. It was an attempt to end the debate. Were the corn meal pancakes jiffy mix or carefully crafted from scratch by pioneers as the hubs asserted?

 

The missus does not believe that a restaurant with laminated menus makes anything from scratch.

 

The hubs is convinced that some precious old soul is in the back with a mortar and pestle about to mash some meal for his special pioneer corn meal pancakes.

 

It only takes a matter of 20 minutes or so until fluffy pancakes appear on the table.

 

After a decade of arguing about the pancakes, the hubs and missus finally agree. These pancakes must have been really good a decade ago, but now they just didn't seem worth a decade of debate.

I still say those sorry cakes are from a mix.

Hold on Tight...

"Daddy, my hands are cold."


 

One little sentence from Ella and her hands are wrapped inside J's. His hands may hold hers to warm them, but she has his heart wrapped in her hands.

Intoxicated...

I am drunk. From pictures. I have so many to go through. I can't even decide what to put on the blog and what to trash.

 

I literally took over 2,000 pictures on our trip to the Smoky Mountains. Yikes! the views were just so beautiful that I kept snapping and snapping and snapping. Is there anything you'd like to see?

Lunch in a Cemetery...

When we went to the Smoky Mountains for Thanksgiving, we took the children for a hike to see Baskins Creek Falls. We picked this trail because it is a less travelled one. I love being in the National Park...especially if we can be quasi-secluded. It makes me feel more mountainous (is that even a word?) if I am not hiking with 65 other people.
Along the way there was a sign for Baskins Creek Cemetery. In A-Ro fashion, I looked at J, shrugged my shoulders, and said, "Why not go check it out?" The trail to get to the cemetery was really beautiful, and the last 50 feet or so seemed to go straight up.


 

The cemetery was amazing. That may seem like a morbid thing to say, but it's true. It was quiet and partially shaded by the trees. The headstones were a variety of shapes. Names and dates had been carved into the stones, but each was so weathered and old that we couldn't fully read the names and dates.


 

There was one modern headstone. It was for a baby girl (Grace) who died in 1926. I wonder when and who placed it there for her. This is not a grave site that is easy to reach, so whoever took the time to have the stone placed in the cemetery obviously loved the child deeply. I also wonder why an old cemetery in the Smoky Mountains was chosen as the final resting place for baby Grace. I found a webpage that has family tree information for her and her parents. Her father died in 1992 and her mother in 1985.


 

We had packed our lunches for the day, and so we sat in the cemetery and ate. It may seem strange, but it was a peaceful meal. It was a beautiful location and intrigued the children. They are already begging to go back and hike some more. I think part of it was being able to experience this cemetery.