Ladies Tea

I love tea.  And I love getting together with the people at our church.  We have a fun church!

Once a year, two of my ‘loves’ are put together for a special occassion.

Last Saturday, our WCG (Women of the Church of God) had our annual Ladies Tea at church.

We were instructed to make fall hats to wear to the tea.

    

Some of our ladies were very creative. (note- the only reason I am taller than my daughter in this picture is because I have heels on, sigh…. my baby is growing up.)

These ladies are sisters.  They are the sweetest, hardest working, and most hilarious women you could ever meet. They are such a joy to be around.

We had a great time of fellowship, eating, and goofing off.

I just wish more ladies would have been able to join us. Unfortunately, the flu is making it’s rounds in our community, and one of our ladies is recovering from surgery. 

So tell me, do you have a favorite church event?

Ripley’s Aquarium

Okay, I’ve had about enough frustration and all bad days that I can handle!

So enough already and on to more cheery subjects.

 

One of the neatest places we went on our vacation was Ripley’s Aquarium. At first, I was not too impressed and thought that we had about the same at the St. Louis Zoo, until we went into the walk through aquarium. It was amazing!

Again, pictures do not do this justice.

This guy was one of my favorites. He would just lay on top of the walk-thru and we could study his underside. All of the creatures were so amazing, and left me wondering why there is ever any doubt that God created it all.

 

I wish I could remember all of the names of the fish and sea creatures we saw on this trip.  They do have discounts for homeschool families (I’ll know better next time!) So I am sure we will go back at some point.

Even though I am not a huge fish (except to eat) and reptile fan, I really did enjoy the day there. However, it did not change my mind about the pets we have in this house. The rule still stands – THERE WILL BE NO SNAKES (especially not pythons) IN THIS HOUSE!

Frustrated today.

There was a rash of thefts in our neighborhood this weekend. Five or six cars were broken into and purses stolen. Unfortunately, mine was one of them. Even more unfortunately, I had left my van unlocked. Although from what I hear that would not have stopped them.

Today I am frustrated on several different levels. 

1. I am frustrated because our nice little neighborhood, where everybody looked out for everbody and no one had to lock their doors at night, has been changed into a place where you now have to guard all of your belongings. We now have 2 crack houses down the street, and the guy that lives across the street (who used to look out for us and we for him) is now heavily involved in drugs and has allowed several of his drug buddies and druggie girlfriend to move in with him.  We watch them sitting on their front porch, casing our house, and watching our every move.  Yeah, like we have a lot of money and stuff for them to take! (I don’t have any proof, but I think they probably figured that out going through my purse.)

2. I am frustrated at myself for forgetting to bring my purse in and for not locking the van. My excuse is that I was babysitting and had to carry in the baby/baby carrier and diaper bag and forgot to go back and get my purse, however there are many times that I have forgotten to take my purse and other belongings of value in, simply because in the past I have never had a reason to mistrust anyone in our neighborhood. I just don’t think anything about it.

3. I am frustrated with my memory in general. While filing the police report, I had to make a statement about the last time I was in the van, the last time I remember seeing my purse, where the van was all that day, and had to recall everything that was in my purse. Argh!  I was lucky to remember that I had a van. As for the contents of my purse, I only remember a few things. Later I remembered that there may have been a deposit for the church in my purse, but I still don’t remember if I got it to the bank. If it was indeed still in my purse, then we have more problems to deal with. Fortunately, I can call the bank this morning and find out.  Why is it that I can remember insignificant little details from 25 years ago (like the maiden name of the wife of a guy that went to college with my dad – who is now one of my professors) and can’t remember what I did yesterday? Aren’t I too young to be this forgetful????   Oh yeah, and another thing I forgot…. my tags are expired.  The nice police officer that was taking my statement very kindly let me know about it, and urged me to get it taken care of immediately.

The little girl, who lives 2 doors down, found my basically empty purse buried in the pile of leaves she was playing in. Her grandmother brought it down to my hubby while I was at the bank closing out my accounts. She came back a little later with her hands full of stuff that the thief quickly dumped out of the purse in their mad search for cash. It was evident that they were only after cash or anything they could turn into cash quickly.  They took two checkbooks, my cash, and my prescription meds.  They left behind hubby’s truck key, my debit card, and various papers that have no value to them. One thing that they very fortunately did not take out of the van was Joel’s guitar. I guess it would have been too obvious to carry out a large instrument out of someone else’s vehicle.

Well, as much as I would like to stay at home and lick my wounds, life and duty calls.  I must go to work, call the bank, and get more things straightened out.  Hopefully today will be a better day.

Cade’s Cove

We didn’t get as many pictures of Cade’s Cove as I would have liked. The batteries were running low and we didn’t have much space left on the disk. 

Cade’s Cove is one of my favorite places, and I could spend the whole day there just exploring.  Unfortunately, we got there after 4:00 p.m. and they close at sundown. My daughter was also not feeling well, and spent most of the time we were there in the truck cuddled under blankets.

Cade’s Cove (originally Kate’s Cove, named after the wife of an old Cherokee chief) was a community that was first settled in 1812 by John Oliver. The government bought the land as part of The Great Smoky Mountain National Park, and has preserved or restored many of the buildings that still exist to their original design.

John Oliver’s cabin.

 

The Methodist Church.  Notice there are two doors.  We wondered about this because Mennonites usually use two doors, one for men and one for women.  I found out that the only reason this Methodist Church has two door is because they borrowed the plans from another church.

 

Missionary Baptist Church

 

It was very peaceful. Just beyond here in the same meadow, there were 5-6 deer laying down in the field.

 

Pictures, especially those taken through the truck window, do not do justice to the beauty of the area.

Clingman’s Dome

We decided to do some more relaxing things on vacation; go into the Smoky Mountain National Park, see some of the sights I remember from when I went as a small child, enjoy God’s awesome handiwork, and stand in amazement at the beauty of it all.

My son took this picture while standing on a rock in the middle of the river, after decending a rather steep slope. There were many areas that were like this, or much more majestic.  The pictures of the scenery and mountains do not do any justice to the actual beauty.

I remembered going to Clingman’s Dome when I was a little girl – I’m guessing I was about four. I remember that it was cold and misty, I was wearing my mother’s jacket, and we all seemed to have a good time. What I did NOT remember was the long, steep climb to the top. My guess is because my dad may have carried me most of the way. Let’s just say that it took me some of us longer to get to the top than others 😀

 

Clingman’s dome is the highest point in Tennesse. It also happens to fall right on the state line, with half of the observation tower in Tennessee, and half in North Carolina.

 

After arriving at the parking area of Clingman’s Dome, there is a half mile trail seemingly straight up to the top of the mountain to get to the observation tower. Fortunately, there are benches along the way to sit down and rest. I took advantage of each one! My son was my constant companion – I was too slow for the others and was breaking their stride, so I told them I would meet them at the top 😉 . My sonshine refused to leave me.

 

It was a beautiful day to be there. We were able to see for miles and miles, and yet observe the clouds below us at the same time.

 

We did all finally make it to the top, and found a nice person to take our picture to prove it.

 

After gazing at the beauty, we decided to make our way back down.

It took  me  some of us longer to get down than it did to come up. I was a bit dizzy and my lungs were burning. After pondering this for a few moments, I realized it was due not only to the elevation, but also to the fact that I’m missing part of my right lung.  It was almost humorous. People would pass us on their way up and then again on their way back down. Hubby was starting to get a little worried, though. On our way back down, to pass the time while I was resting I let my son call his grandmother, because oddly enough, there was good cell phone reception right out in the middle of no civilization!

On our way back out of the state park, we encountered more breath-taking views at Newfound Gap, and some just along the road.

 

We spotted some other black bears along the way, but they were too quick to be able to snap their picture.

We ended the day by roasting hot dogs and marshmellows over our campfire.  It was a lovely day!

Pigeon Forge

The second half of our vacation was spent in Pigeon Forge.  We stayed in a very, very small cabin at a campgound (sorry, for some reason there is no picture of this) It had a full-bed and a bunk bed with 2 feet in-between. And then there were about 3 feet until you reached the door. No kitchen, no bathroom. All facilities were down the hill from the cabin – I usually took the truck down.

But it was fun.

One of the places we went (several times) was to Dollywood.  It is owned by the same family that owns Silver Dollar City and is very similar. We had a blast!

 

We rode rides…

(notice I am alone on this one… wonder why?)

 

(Daughter and I were in the last car)

 

played on bumper cars…

 

rode on the train… (my son was allow in an ‘authorized area only’ to get an up close and personal look at the workings of the train- he was thrilled!)

         

 

watched some shows, including Riders in the Sky, and some of us decided which instrument we want to learn next…

   I just don’t know where I would put it 🙂

 

The kids did some gem mining (I really wanted to do this too, it looked like so much fun – but I would rather dig for them myself)

 

But what we all enjoyed most was the time that we spent together as a family.

Okay, I’m back from my extended vacation.

I’ve been back for a week, but it has been so crazy around here getting things back in order that I haven’t had time to post anything.

Over the next few days, I will be sharing pictures and experiences from our trip. We had such a great time! We spent the first week in Virginia candidating at a wonderful church, then we went to Pigeon Forge to enjoy some family vacation time.

Packing for this vacation was quite an event, basically because we were going to be gone for 2 weeks, at two different venues.  Some of us were able to pack quickly, others – not so much, and someone in the family felt that he really needed to come along.  He was really quite persistent.

   

   

Other’s were a bit depressed about our imminent departure.

 

We finally got it all together and then realized the challenges of traveling in a truck.

    

 

and then there were other passengers to consider…. I think they got the best seats 🙂

 

Eventually, we did get on the road, only 1  1/2 hours behind schedule.  “Bertha,” our GPS system, failed us a bit in Illinois, (let’s just say we took a very long  scenic route)  but we still made it.

This is the bridge going over the Mississippi River right outside of Cape Girardeau.

Tomorrow I will show you some of the fun things we did in Pigeon Forge.