It has been a month, so I figured I should give an update. Maybe I will add pictures later. So right after our last post we got ready for an incoming hurricane. Ike kept us up most of the night when it got here. The wind was pretty powerful. It knocked over a section of our fence, tore a couple of pieces of our patio roof off, and knocked our satellite dish over. We don't even use the thing, so I got up on the roof once the wind died down a little bit, and cut the wires and got it off our roof. Before I did that, it was rolling around on the roof, and that did not seem like a good thing. Galveston and Bolivar Peninsula sustained the worst damage, but there were several homes that had trees go through the roof in our area. Krissy and I were watching our neighbor's palm tree, swaying in the wind and hoping...
After Ike, we heard on the radio that it could be up to four weeks before we got power back. We were not about to stick around for that, so we headed to San Antonio for a few days. It was nice to slow down a little bit. We were also able to be there less than an hour after Annie delivered Luke Jackson. He was a big boy! 10 pounds 2 ounces! So we have another nephew!
On September 21st, we had a worship service in the parking lot of our church offices (since we don't have a building and the school we meet in was closed). It was good. Several guys in the church went around helping people cut up trees that were down and making burn piles. It was hard work, which is why we had so many people helping others. Ahh, when the body works like it should!
So, since Ike, we have rescheduled my ordination service to October 19th. I also met and interviewed with the elders a week and a half ago. I got a call the next day from David, our senior pastor, asking me if I would like to work for the church...as if I hadn't been for the last 14 months. It was good. I suppose that as I have been reading and studying about discipleship and how Paul built churches, it has been laid on my heart that we must always look for people to pour ourselves into, no matter who we are or where we are in our walk. That was something I emphasized in the interview. So, I am sort of officially the Pastor of Small Groups at Northside Christian Church now. Sort of because I am not ordained yet.
I have been reading several books on church leadership, small groups, and discipleship lately. A few of the books include Growing True Disciples by George Barna, Choose the Life by Bill Hull, The Connecting Church by Randy Frazee, The Seven Deadly Sins of Small Group Ministry by Bill Donahue and Russ Robinson, They Smell Like Sheep by Lynn Anderson, and The Disciple-Making Church by Bill Hull. At the same time, I am going through a leadership equipping study with a former professor, Derek Voorhees. It is basically a study of Ephesians, but focuses on six character traits of a disciple outlined in the letter. It has been a very good thing to walk through. I am contemplating utilizing it as a tool to guide some of our lay leaders in hermeneutics principles and discipleship training.
Overall, this month is flying by, and I am sure it will be a while before your hear from us again. We are so bad at keeping up with our blog. However, we try to let you know where we are at. Maybe some time we will utilize this a bit more efficiently. Until next time, may God be glorified in your life as well as ours. To the praise of his glorious grace! Amen.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Our August...and Other News
It's finally here! We never thought the day would come when, first of all, Gary would every finish his schooling. Well, that happened at the beginning of August, and after a formal interview with a dean from DCC, he'll be finished completely with his degree. He'll be a December '08 graduate and the commencement ceremony will be in May 2009. We are always so thankful to the Lord for bringing us through the last two and a half years of his schooling. It was not easy on his or my part, but through much diligence and lots of self-discipline, he finished.
The next big piece of information is that the ministers and elders of Northside Christian Church will be ordaining Gary on Sunday evening, September 21, at 6:30pm. We're excited about that and very honored that they would choose to do this. It's going to be a very simple service where he will vow certain things going into the ministry, and then we will have a reception afterward.
We're very excited about both of these events. Also, through recent conversations with the senior and associate ministers, it is most definitely certain that Gary will be a full-time staff member there at Northside. It's always amazing how the Lord really works things out for the good of those who love Him and are called according to his purpose. Thank you, Father.
I've started my voice lessons, and am loving every minute of it so far. I'm only teaching at the schools Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and I have chosen to open up our home to teach piano lessons on Monday afternoons. I've been teaching during the day and Tuesday afternoons at a private Christian school down the road, and that's been really fun. Then I teach Wednesday afternoons at Klein Oak, and then Thursday afternoons at Klein Collins. It's been really great meeting new people, getting things going with my own self-run business (I set up a business account at WaMu, which makes me feel even more official!). Gotta figure out the whole tax thing, though, too. That'll be interesting.
Another thing that's happened is that our worship minister, Jeremi, has asked me to be the "Vocal Director" of the worship ministry at the church. It's a pretty big role, and will take up a lot more time than what I've been volunteering for the last three years, but I'm excited about that.
So many changes, yet a sovereign and steadfast God that we worship. Praise You, Father, for being just who You are. Constant, never-changing, omnipotent, and sovereign. You are almighty, and we bow at Your feet. Thank you, Jesus.
Here are some pictures of some things we did in August. My family went to Canyon Lake and stayed in a 3-bedroom condo. Here are Annie, Mollie, and Travis at the pool.
Here I am fishing. I caught the first fish of the evening, and was so proud of myself (although I didn't really do anything different than the rest of the group...).
Just in case you wanted a closer look, here's the fish I caught.
And here's Dad doing his fatherly duty of baiting each pole for all us girls. We were using leftover bread and tortillas for the fish bait.
Here are Dad, Bri, and Mom trying, oh-so-diligently, to catch a fish. I decided to head back to the condo, since my work was done...
The next day, we went tubing down the Guadalupe River. It was SO COLD. Here's Gary, after just having plopped into the water, trying to keep his rear-end out of the puddle in the middle of the tube.
The ducks loved Gary. They were getting pretty friendly with him (I think he had pretzels or something...).
Bri, Me, Gary, and Mom. Dad's taking the picture. If you hadn't guessed, Annie, Travis and Mollie had left the day before we did this. Travis had to get back to work, and they didn't really know if Mollie would enjoy this adventure. We ended up going around the horseshoe bend 3 times that day. It was about an hour each time. Piled on the sunscreen and had a blast!
Monday, July 7, 2008
Mollie comes to town
Annie and Mollie came to visit last week, and here's a little clip of some cuteness that I was able to capture on the video camera. Make sure you have your volume turned up.
It's about 2.5 minutes, so watch it until the end, because it will surely bring a smile to your face!
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Road Trip 2008
I've finally mustered up the energy to post about our trip. We arrived home last Saturday, June 21 at 4:30 in the morning. But of course, that's the end of it. I'll start at the very beginning. I have realized that this is more of a journal entry, so please don't feel obligated to read everything, since it will most likely be a very long posting...good luck making it to the end!
Almost as soon as Gary arrived home from the office, and we packed up the car, we left for Dallas on Wednesday evening, June 11 and headed for Stephen and Paige's home in Howe. Arrived there at 10:30pm (in really good time, I'm told!), chatted a bit, and then went to bed. I can't believe how big Hope is getting!! She is SUCH a beautiful little girl!! It was good to visit with them, and we left along with Stephen as he headed to the office the next morning, and we made our way to Omaha for that evening, driving freeway the entire way.
We got to my Aunt Cathy and Uncle Bill's at about 6:30 that evening, which was great because they had dinner for us, and my cousin Katie and her husband Chris came over to have dinner. Then we went to see their new house that they had just bought, are cleaning up and moving in gradually. Great big house, and Gary and I were really excited for the two of them. We had a fantastic evening with the family, and then left the next morning, just as my Aunt Cathy was heading out. After looking at the atlas for a little bit, we made plans to drive across Iowa into Illinois, alternately taking the freeway and some of a scenic route.
Along our way, we passed by the birthplace of John Wayne and stopped in at the Movie Site for Field of Dreams. That was somewhat anticlimactic, seeing as it was just a house and a baseball field (neither of which you can go inside or onto). Oh and we can't forget the money-making shop of the movie parafernelia...I was pretty cynical of the place, but Gary seemed to enjoy it and that's all that matters... :)
What should have been about an 7.5-hour drive, turned into about an 11-hr trip. It is mind-boggling thinking about the damage that the state has gone through and continues to go through - and then hearing about the damage in Omaha just a couple of days ago. Praise God that He kept us safe through it all, but we continue to lift those people up that are traipsing through their broken lives now after all the recent damage. We definitely need to remember these people in our prayers.
After we finished the tour there, my "plans" for the day were to start out at Millennium Park again (to see it in the daytime), then walk the Magnificent Mile, and end up at Navy Pier to enjoy an evening of fun and perhaps a game or two. Well, we ended up parking so far at the south end of downtown, and the train station we were hoping to catch (just another part of Chicago we were hoping to experience, the "L") was closed, and the next one to get us to where we wanted to go was where we were wanting to be...so we walked about 3/4 mile to get to the Magnificent Mile. This ended up being pretty much what anyone would expect - just a long stretch of really expensive stores and people peddling for money by doing some weird things - one contortionist man was climbing in and out of a box and twisting his body in all sorts of ungodly positions, and another man was painted completely in a copper-colored paint and posing next to a sign (see pictures below). A little crazy, but it was part of the whole experience. I got a cool picture of the Chicago River from the bridge we crossed right before making it to the actual Magnificent Mile stretch.
We enjoyed a deep-dish pizza from Pizano's Pizza and Pasta Restaurant, which was really, REALLY good. The guy messed up our order, so he brought us a free appetizer of garlic bread and then a free dessert (hot chocolate chip cookie and ice cream dessert, so Gary wasn't too interested in that...left more for me, though!!). Wasn't bad, since it was hot outside, and we were just thankful for the place to sit and rest in the middle of the day. So we walked around a little more and got a really expensive shoe-shine (got suckered into it by a smooth-talking street peddler...I didn't speak to Gary for a good hour or so, I was so peeved by how we got shmuckered out of a LOT of money - and I mean a LOT!!! And both of our tennis shoes were dirtier afterward!!) But I won't get into that...
We were so tired and I was so upset about the "shoe shine" by the time we made it back to our car, that we decided to just go back to the hotel and chill out. So, no Navy Pier, and no Lincoln Park or zoo the next day (I didn't have any desire to go back downtown after that stupid man "stole" our money). We drove by the Sears Tower, for those of you wondering about that, but didn't make it up there. Perhaps, if I can get over the whole shoe shine thing, we'll make it back there and visit those places...perhaps...
So on Sunday, we slept late and packed our things and then enjoyed an expensive Sunday morning brunch at the Doubletree, and lazily made our way down to Bloomington where our hotel was for the next stop. On our way to Bloomington, we stopped in Peoria, to check it out, since it's a pretty big town close to the seminary we're looking at in Lincoln, IL. We were wanting to get a feel for the surrounding communities, so we looked and searched for the Chamber of Commerce, which we never found in downtown Peoria, and were kicked out by a torrential downpour after about 45 minutes of searching. So we moved on.
When we arrived at Bloomington, our hotel was right next door to a Cracker Barrel, so we ate dinner there, and went and saw the stupidest Adam Sandler movie he's made yet, "You Don't Mess with the Zohan." Really, don't waste your time or money. It was so dumb - but what do you expect with his movies...we should have known.
The next morning, we made our way to Lincoln to meet up with David, the admissions guy at Lincoln Christian Seminary. He showed us around the school, which was pretty small and not too terribly impressive, and introduced us to a few of the really neat professors who happened to be there during the summer break. He then arranged for the two deans, Dr. Paul Boatman and Dr. Bob Lowery, to join us for lunch at the one Mexican restaurant in the town, Don Panchitos. It was pretty far from what we know down here in Texas, but a good try, and we just had to think that it was some other cultural food. It really didn't taste at all like what we're used to. The food was made worth it by the company and the discussion at the table. It was so wonderful for me and Gary to be sitting across the table from two of the most humbly intelligent men we've been introduced to. Gary really thinks a lot of Dr. Lowery already, and Dr. Boatman was just as kind and intelligent. We discussed the seminary, the degree programs, the communities, philosophies of ministry, our current lives, and future hopes. It was an all-around wonderfully amazing meeting, and Gary and I left there riding on Cloud 9. David then took us around the community, and he even drove us to the public school administrative offices, so I could get some information on teaching/substituting in the area. He drove us by his home, and just pretty much answered any and all questions we could think of.
It was quite the fulfilling trip to visit our hopefully future place of residence...
After we left there, we drove over to Arthur, an Amish community, and I was able to drool over several quilt shops and Gary experienced his first Amish visit. Quite interesting. We just drove around the community and made our way back through Champaign and back to Bloomington. Bloomington is the home of the University of Illinois as well as Illinois Wesleyan University. It was definitely a college community, and had some really nice homes. We drove around in the neighborhoods picking up fliers from homes for sale and seeing what we liked about the community. Reminded me of a northern version of College Station, actually.
When we left Bloomington the next day, we made our way down through Indianapolis, through Louisville, through Knoxville and down to the base of the Smoky Mountains just halfway between Gatlinburg and Cosby.
Our campground, the Great Smoky Mountain Jellystone Campground, backed up to a well-traveled hiking trail (which we didn't actually make it to during our stay). It was a precious family-oriented facility. Our campsite (yes, we tent-camped for three solid nights) was right next to a beautiful flowing stream. We did have an air mattress to sleep on, which made it possible to sleep out there, and our amazingly warm sleeping bags were absolutely perfect for the sawing of many logs. The first evening, we barely made it there with enough daylight to set up camp, and then had to run back to Cosby to make a Wal-Mart run for our camping groceries. We finally hit the sack by about midnight.
The next morning, we slept late and got up and made bacon, eggs, and had some applesauce for breakfast. We then left to explore the mountains and drive the winding roads that took us through them. We got out at one point and hiked a 2.6 mile trail to the beautiful Laurel Falls. Then made our way back with a few stops.
There was a traffic jam at one point, which brought us to the realization that everyone was stopped and out of their cars because there was a bear within sight of the road. Quite a commotion, if I do say so, but it was cool to see the brown bear who was probably about 50 yards away from us by the time Gary and I got out to see it. He was just out getting some lunch, I guess. He was way too far for me to get any sort of a picture, but you'll just have to believe me.
We got back to the campsite and after we doused ourselves with Deep Woods Off, made our first gourmet camp dinner consisting of blackened frankfurters topped with Mustard and Ketchup and Sweet Whole-Kernel Corn, straight from the can! Gary and I decided to go ahead and splurge on a Coleman Propane camping stove, which was absolutely perfect for the meals we cooked on it. Then I enjoyed a couple of roasted marshmallows over our campfire, again, next to our babbling brook. Just the definition of relaxation, in my humble opinion. Gary and I then proceeded to take out our books and read by the light of the other splurchase of ours, the propane lantern. It was just perfect as well.
We slept in the next morning - really late - like 10:30 - which tells you just how comfortable we actually were there in the tent on our air mattress. That day was a day of complete nothingness and rest and relaxation. Just wonderful doing almost absolutely nothing, except, of course cooking our fine meals. Our dinner that evening was actually a little closer to what a lot of people would consider higher-end campground cooking. We seasoned a few chicken breasts and made garlic bread out of the leftover hotdog buns. We had picked out a side of already-prepared sweet potatoes, and had a can of green beans. We were so stuffed we really didn't know what to do with ourselves. Then after dinner, I stuffed some more roasted marshmallows in my already stuffed belly (what is camping without roasted marshmallows???? Tell me, please! I was merely taking advantage of the very rare occasion!) We then proceeded to again, read by the light of the lantern until we were too pooped to poop (not really - I actually think Gary and I both made it to the bathroom before we went to bed that night...) I guess at this point, I'm wondering if anyone is actually reading all this - and if you've made it this far, congratulations!
So we woke up the next morning and packed up our stuff and headed out. We took the scenic drive (you'd think that we would have learned our lesson in Iowa, but we decided to take our chances again). And it was such a pretty drive. We made it to Memphis by about 8:00 that evening, and decided to make it to Little Rock to stay for the night. When we got to Little Rock by about 9:30, we couldn't stop, since we were both pretty ready to get home. So we pulled into our driveway at 4:30 that next morning. Gary says that I talked in my sleep on the last leg of the drive, which he took over in Nacadoches at 2:30am. I'm not sure if I believe him, since I normally snore, not talk... :) We had left our bed un-made, so we needed to put sheets on it when we arrived in the bedroom, and then when our heads hit the pillows, we were out!! Slept until about 10:00 the next morning, and then called Gary's parents to see if they'd be willing to give us our baby back if we met them halfway. They obliged, and we got to see Moses again after two whole weeks of missing him terribly.
So that's my story, and I'm stickin' to it. I hope you enjoyed the read and the pictures. If you didn't make it all the way through reading everything, don't feel bad. I realize it was a long posting, and hopefully the pictures will suffice. Have a wonderful day, and until next time...
Almost as soon as Gary arrived home from the office, and we packed up the car, we left for Dallas on Wednesday evening, June 11 and headed for Stephen and Paige's home in Howe. Arrived there at 10:30pm (in really good time, I'm told!), chatted a bit, and then went to bed. I can't believe how big Hope is getting!! She is SUCH a beautiful little girl!! It was good to visit with them, and we left along with Stephen as he headed to the office the next morning, and we made our way to Omaha for that evening, driving freeway the entire way.
We got to my Aunt Cathy and Uncle Bill's at about 6:30 that evening, which was great because they had dinner for us, and my cousin Katie and her husband Chris came over to have dinner. Then we went to see their new house that they had just bought, are cleaning up and moving in gradually. Great big house, and Gary and I were really excited for the two of them. We had a fantastic evening with the family, and then left the next morning, just as my Aunt Cathy was heading out. After looking at the atlas for a little bit, we made plans to drive across Iowa into Illinois, alternately taking the freeway and some of a scenic route.
Along our way, we passed by the birthplace of John Wayne and stopped in at the Movie Site for Field of Dreams. That was somewhat anticlimactic, seeing as it was just a house and a baseball field (neither of which you can go inside or onto). Oh and we can't forget the money-making shop of the movie parafernelia...I was pretty cynical of the place, but Gary seemed to enjoy it and that's all that matters... :)
Field of Dreams Movie Site
There's no corn - how do we know where the back fence is??!?!
DUN Dun dun...
Here is what we ran into in Cedar Rapids, IA. It was pretty devastating, and before we drove through, we were clueless as to the extent of the damage of the flooding and what exactly we had gotten ourselves into. We were calling family members trying to get online and see if there was even the slightest possibility that we would even be able to cross over the Mississippi River in order to reach our next destination of Chicago. We were able to make it to the very northeast corner of Iowa and drive through Dubuque, into Illinois, and took the scenic route through Galena (a place that we would definitely love to go back and visit someday) down to Chicago.
Cedar Rapids
What should have been about an 7.5-hour drive, turned into about an 11-hr trip. It is mind-boggling thinking about the damage that the state has gone through and continues to go through - and then hearing about the damage in Omaha just a couple of days ago. Praise God that He kept us safe through it all, but we continue to lift those people up that are traipsing through their broken lives now after all the recent damage. We definitely need to remember these people in our prayers.
The beautiful clouds while driving into Chicago
So we made it to downtown Chicago by about 8:30 that evening and went and parked in an underground parking garage under Millenium Park (seems kind of weird to me to park under a park - sort of takes away the "natural-ness" of it). Anyway, Millenium Park is sort of more or less like a Central Park of New York or a Hermann Park of Houston. Just a nice park in the middle of downtown Chicago, and it happens to have a few gardens, modern-age sculptures, and an amazing outdoor theater. It was absolutely beautiful, and better than anything I've ever seen before in an outdoor theater venue. Gary and I walked around Millenium Park for a little while, took some pictures, and headed back to the parking garage, where we paid $13 for about an hour of parking...nearly lost our dinner over that...but it was just a taste of what was to come for the remainder of our stay in Chicago.
Birmingham Fountain Light Show - about 10:00pm
The "Snake Bridge" at Millennium Park
The coolest sculpture there...don't know what it's called, but it reflects the Chicago skyline.
We made it to our hotel in Schaumburg (a suburb of Chicago, where our Doubletree hotel was extremely cheap for Chicago ($75!) - and a great stay!) by about midnight and let our bodies relax into the very comfortable king-size bed.
The next morning, we left again for downtown Chicago, only our first stop was Wrigley Field. I had reserved us two spots in a ballpark tour for 10:00 that morning, and Gary was all smiles. It was a very interesting tour, and was just cool seeing real American history before our eyes. Just a really neat way to start out the day. I posted pictures in the next blog.
The next morning, we left again for downtown Chicago, only our first stop was Wrigley Field. I had reserved us two spots in a ballpark tour for 10:00 that morning, and Gary was all smiles. It was a very interesting tour, and was just cool seeing real American history before our eyes. Just a really neat way to start out the day. I posted pictures in the next blog.
After we finished the tour there, my "plans" for the day were to start out at Millennium Park again (to see it in the daytime), then walk the Magnificent Mile, and end up at Navy Pier to enjoy an evening of fun and perhaps a game or two. Well, we ended up parking so far at the south end of downtown, and the train station we were hoping to catch (just another part of Chicago we were hoping to experience, the "L") was closed, and the next one to get us to where we wanted to go was where we were wanting to be...so we walked about 3/4 mile to get to the Magnificent Mile. This ended up being pretty much what anyone would expect - just a long stretch of really expensive stores and people peddling for money by doing some weird things - one contortionist man was climbing in and out of a box and twisting his body in all sorts of ungodly positions, and another man was painted completely in a copper-colored paint and posing next to a sign (see pictures below). A little crazy, but it was part of the whole experience. I got a cool picture of the Chicago River from the bridge we crossed right before making it to the actual Magnificent Mile stretch.
We enjoyed a deep-dish pizza from Pizano's Pizza and Pasta Restaurant, which was really, REALLY good. The guy messed up our order, so he brought us a free appetizer of garlic bread and then a free dessert (hot chocolate chip cookie and ice cream dessert, so Gary wasn't too interested in that...left more for me, though!!). Wasn't bad, since it was hot outside, and we were just thankful for the place to sit and rest in the middle of the day. So we walked around a little more and got a really expensive shoe-shine (got suckered into it by a smooth-talking street peddler...I didn't speak to Gary for a good hour or so, I was so peeved by how we got shmuckered out of a LOT of money - and I mean a LOT!!! And both of our tennis shoes were dirtier afterward!!) But I won't get into that...
We were so tired and I was so upset about the "shoe shine" by the time we made it back to our car, that we decided to just go back to the hotel and chill out. So, no Navy Pier, and no Lincoln Park or zoo the next day (I didn't have any desire to go back downtown after that stupid man "stole" our money). We drove by the Sears Tower, for those of you wondering about that, but didn't make it up there. Perhaps, if I can get over the whole shoe shine thing, we'll make it back there and visit those places...perhaps...
So on Sunday, we slept late and packed our things and then enjoyed an expensive Sunday morning brunch at the Doubletree, and lazily made our way down to Bloomington where our hotel was for the next stop. On our way to Bloomington, we stopped in Peoria, to check it out, since it's a pretty big town close to the seminary we're looking at in Lincoln, IL. We were wanting to get a feel for the surrounding communities, so we looked and searched for the Chamber of Commerce, which we never found in downtown Peoria, and were kicked out by a torrential downpour after about 45 minutes of searching. So we moved on.
When we arrived at Bloomington, our hotel was right next door to a Cracker Barrel, so we ate dinner there, and went and saw the stupidest Adam Sandler movie he's made yet, "You Don't Mess with the Zohan." Really, don't waste your time or money. It was so dumb - but what do you expect with his movies...we should have known.
The next morning, we made our way to Lincoln to meet up with David, the admissions guy at Lincoln Christian Seminary. He showed us around the school, which was pretty small and not too terribly impressive, and introduced us to a few of the really neat professors who happened to be there during the summer break. He then arranged for the two deans, Dr. Paul Boatman and Dr. Bob Lowery, to join us for lunch at the one Mexican restaurant in the town, Don Panchitos. It was pretty far from what we know down here in Texas, but a good try, and we just had to think that it was some other cultural food. It really didn't taste at all like what we're used to. The food was made worth it by the company and the discussion at the table. It was so wonderful for me and Gary to be sitting across the table from two of the most humbly intelligent men we've been introduced to. Gary really thinks a lot of Dr. Lowery already, and Dr. Boatman was just as kind and intelligent. We discussed the seminary, the degree programs, the communities, philosophies of ministry, our current lives, and future hopes. It was an all-around wonderfully amazing meeting, and Gary and I left there riding on Cloud 9. David then took us around the community, and he even drove us to the public school administrative offices, so I could get some information on teaching/substituting in the area. He drove us by his home, and just pretty much answered any and all questions we could think of.
It was quite the fulfilling trip to visit our hopefully future place of residence...
After we left there, we drove over to Arthur, an Amish community, and I was able to drool over several quilt shops and Gary experienced his first Amish visit. Quite interesting. We just drove around the community and made our way back through Champaign and back to Bloomington. Bloomington is the home of the University of Illinois as well as Illinois Wesleyan University. It was definitely a college community, and had some really nice homes. We drove around in the neighborhoods picking up fliers from homes for sale and seeing what we liked about the community. Reminded me of a northern version of College Station, actually.
When we left Bloomington the next day, we made our way down through Indianapolis, through Louisville, through Knoxville and down to the base of the Smoky Mountains just halfway between Gatlinburg and Cosby.
Our campground, the Great Smoky Mountain Jellystone Campground, backed up to a well-traveled hiking trail (which we didn't actually make it to during our stay). It was a precious family-oriented facility. Our campsite (yes, we tent-camped for three solid nights) was right next to a beautiful flowing stream. We did have an air mattress to sleep on, which made it possible to sleep out there, and our amazingly warm sleeping bags were absolutely perfect for the sawing of many logs. The first evening, we barely made it there with enough daylight to set up camp, and then had to run back to Cosby to make a Wal-Mart run for our camping groceries. We finally hit the sack by about midnight.
The next morning, we slept late and got up and made bacon, eggs, and had some applesauce for breakfast. We then left to explore the mountains and drive the winding roads that took us through them. We got out at one point and hiked a 2.6 mile trail to the beautiful Laurel Falls. Then made our way back with a few stops.
There was a traffic jam at one point, which brought us to the realization that everyone was stopped and out of their cars because there was a bear within sight of the road. Quite a commotion, if I do say so, but it was cool to see the brown bear who was probably about 50 yards away from us by the time Gary and I got out to see it. He was just out getting some lunch, I guess. He was way too far for me to get any sort of a picture, but you'll just have to believe me.
We got back to the campsite and after we doused ourselves with Deep Woods Off, made our first gourmet camp dinner consisting of blackened frankfurters topped with Mustard and Ketchup and Sweet Whole-Kernel Corn, straight from the can! Gary and I decided to go ahead and splurge on a Coleman Propane camping stove, which was absolutely perfect for the meals we cooked on it. Then I enjoyed a couple of roasted marshmallows over our campfire, again, next to our babbling brook. Just the definition of relaxation, in my humble opinion. Gary and I then proceeded to take out our books and read by the light of the other splurchase of ours, the propane lantern. It was just perfect as well.
We slept in the next morning - really late - like 10:30 - which tells you just how comfortable we actually were there in the tent on our air mattress. That day was a day of complete nothingness and rest and relaxation. Just wonderful doing almost absolutely nothing, except, of course cooking our fine meals. Our dinner that evening was actually a little closer to what a lot of people would consider higher-end campground cooking. We seasoned a few chicken breasts and made garlic bread out of the leftover hotdog buns. We had picked out a side of already-prepared sweet potatoes, and had a can of green beans. We were so stuffed we really didn't know what to do with ourselves. Then after dinner, I stuffed some more roasted marshmallows in my already stuffed belly (what is camping without roasted marshmallows???? Tell me, please! I was merely taking advantage of the very rare occasion!) We then proceeded to again, read by the light of the lantern until we were too pooped to poop (not really - I actually think Gary and I both made it to the bathroom before we went to bed that night...) I guess at this point, I'm wondering if anyone is actually reading all this - and if you've made it this far, congratulations!
So we woke up the next morning and packed up our stuff and headed out. We took the scenic drive (you'd think that we would have learned our lesson in Iowa, but we decided to take our chances again). And it was such a pretty drive. We made it to Memphis by about 8:00 that evening, and decided to make it to Little Rock to stay for the night. When we got to Little Rock by about 9:30, we couldn't stop, since we were both pretty ready to get home. So we pulled into our driveway at 4:30 that next morning. Gary says that I talked in my sleep on the last leg of the drive, which he took over in Nacadoches at 2:30am. I'm not sure if I believe him, since I normally snore, not talk... :) We had left our bed un-made, so we needed to put sheets on it when we arrived in the bedroom, and then when our heads hit the pillows, we were out!! Slept until about 10:00 the next morning, and then called Gary's parents to see if they'd be willing to give us our baby back if we met them halfway. They obliged, and we got to see Moses again after two whole weeks of missing him terribly.
So that's my story, and I'm stickin' to it. I hope you enjoyed the read and the pictures. If you didn't make it all the way through reading everything, don't feel bad. I realize it was a long posting, and hopefully the pictures will suffice. Have a wonderful day, and until next time...
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