Trip to Knoxville

A few weeks ago we decided to take a quick trip to Knoxville, Tn just to get away for a few days. We have such fond memories of that place and sometimes it's nice to go and reminisce about those 4 years we spent there as newlyweds. We were young and naive......stupid is more like it. We made many mistakes as most newlyweds do, but we also learned many valuable lessons, not the least of which was learning how to live completely on our own with only God and each other to rely on. It brought us closer together. Deepend our love and friendship. I think I speak for both of us when I say that Knoxville feels kind of like our home town. The girls have listened to us talk about our time there and they seem to sense how special it is to us. They love Tennessee football and the color orange will usually always invoke a response out of one of them. Mark and I remembered the other night that when Annie learned her colors as a toddler she would go through them and say...red, yellow, blue, purple, brown, black, white, green, BIG ORANGE!! So funny and made daddy so proud. At age 2 she could sing the entire alma mater, fight song, and Rocky Top. I don't think we ever got that on video. Like I said, stupid. Anyway, this trip was fun and too short. We centered the trip around food - as all good southerners do. We took a trip to the UT Bookstore to stock up on all things orange that were lacking from our wardrobe and bought Jack his first football. We made a trip down to Pigeon Forge to take Annie and Ella to the Christmas Place and Bass Pro Shops. I think they have as much fun at BPS as they do at the Georgia Aquarium.

There was one thing about this trip that was different from every other time we have visited since our move here in 2004. Leaving Knoxville is always sad for me. I almost feel an ache and a strong urge to stop by a gas station and grab a home buyers guide. But this time, I didn't feel the ache - well, maybe not as much. I feel like God has placed us where we are for a purpose. Knoxville was not a time of much, if any, spiritual growth in my life. We were regular church attenders but that's where it stopped for me. I have amazing opportunities to be around godly people who encourage me in my walk with Christ. Could this have been done in Knoxville? Sure! But maybe, since it wasn't, God decided to place me somewhere else. It has taken us a good while to really enjoy living here but it has become home to us now. Maybe someday we will move back to Tennessee, but for now I believe we are right where God wants us to be.

A day at the apple orchard...

One of the fun things about homeschooling is being able to count fun activites that you would have done anyway as part of you home teaching. Each year we go up to north Georgia to an apple orchard and pick apples (and enjoy all the treats made from the apples). The last several years we have gone to Mercier Orchards in Blue Ridge, Georgia which is the best by far for the ultimate apple pickin', fritter tastin', finger lickin' experience. For anyone who may be wondering, their website is http://www.mercier-orchards.com/. You pay for how many apples you wish to pick and they give you a bag. You hop on a trailer pulled by a tractor and they drive you up through their beautiful orchards. I believe they said there are 47 different types of apples grown there. You are they allowed not only to pick any apples from any trees there but you are also encouraged to eat as many as your tummy can hold. And believe me, we usually do and that's not all we eat. If the weather is nice, it is great to bring a picnic lunch and enjoy all of God's handiwork around you, however this year, the weather was not so nice so it was grab your apples, take some pictures and get going. It still turned out to be a great experience plus when you top it off with a fried apple fritter, fried lemon pie and some homemade ice cream what could possibly be bad.

I really did believe it but.............

I just didn't know it would start so early. Boys are messy they said. Boys get so dirty they said. Boys stink they said. Oh, they said nice things too like boys love their mamas. Boys will just make your heart melt. But, back to the messiness. This is a picture of the car seat minus the seat. This is the second time in 2 weeks that I have had to completely remove the seat cover and wash it in the washing machine and sanitize the inner part of the shell. In a word, gross! If you don't get my drift, think mustard. The girls, if I remember correctly, had many an accident on clothing and such that we thought was utterly terrible and disgusting but this is on a whole other plane. How could something so small and so sweet make such a horrific mess. Oh, well. I guess they were right.

We forgot to say......GO VOLLLLLSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Looks like we have a Tennessee kicker in our future!!!

Thank you, Lord for the Woombie!!!!!

Our sweet Jack is now 3 months old. Time is just flying by so quickly! He is so precious and a generally good baby. He has started reaching for toys and holding onto things that we give him. He hated to be on his tummy until I found a toy that his Aunt Lea Anne gave him that has a pillow to prop him up on so that he can see the toys around him better. He likes this much better, as you can tell. Thank you, Aunt Lea!!!! The girls still make such a fuss over him. Right now Annie is reading to him and is also on paci duty (replacing the pacifier in his mouth when it falls out). Jack still sleeps like a champ. Thanks to the Woombie. He looks so funny in it but it is truly a blessing. He goes to sleep quickly at night around 8pm and sleeps 6-9 hours at a time and takes several naps a day in it which gives me time to do some laundry.

Makin' Mem'ries

Today was one of those days. One of those days that you remember for a long time because you felt such a joy and a sweetness about the entire day. A day that helps you feel not alone in the crazy sea of raising children. We started out with our homeschooling this morning. I had told the girls that we would go somewhere special if we got enough work done so they both worked very hard. I packed us a lunch and we grabbed our picnic stuff and headed to Downtown Woodstock. The city is having free concerts weekly through September on Thursdays. I almost decided not to go because I was tired (nothing new there) but changed my mind. I'm so glad that I did. We all had a ball. The group that was playing turned out to be a Christian group and sang many praise and worship songs we new and a few old country songs. Our sweet friends Megan and Carrie joined us with their children thanks to a status update that I posted on facebook this morning on a whim in case anyone wanted to join us. The girls all played in the inflatable bounce house that they had set up in the square and we enjoyed our lunch under the shade of a large tree. There were even a few games of hide and seek and duck, duck, goose. Annie saw a sweet friend from school and his mom and I had a nice chat. The girls threw coins in the fountain before we left and we talked on the way home about how much fun we all had. As my Nanny always says, "We were makin' mem'ries." We sure were.

The boy can SMILE!!!!!!!

Jack is smiling up a storm now and is usually in the best moods during the day unless he's sleepy. These pictures do not do him justice because the moment I get the camera out he is fascinated by it and the flash which in turn causes him to make goofy faces instead of the sweet smiles I was getting pre-camera. He is growing like a little weed. Our sweet (nosy) neighbor who is in her 80's says I am feeding him too much. I think he's just perfect. He coos now and it is just precious. He loves to look at the girls and smile at them as they act silly. They think he is a baby doll.

Silly story:

Today Ella has a stuffy nose (allergies) and was saying something about a bench this morning during our school time. I'll leave to your imaginations what Annie thought she was saying. (Hint: Hold your nose and say bench.) Anyway, Annie says the word she thought Ella was saying with a question in her voice as if to say I've never heard that word. Is it a real word, Mom? I quickly changed the subject and focussed on the BENCH that Ella was coloring.