My thr3e weeks: The Hike (Part 3)

It 'twas a fine day for a hike and one of the only opportunities that we would have to go... So we all loaded up into our Expedition and went to the nearest State Park headquarters to get some maps and figure out where we wanted to go hiking. After looking at some of the maps we realized that we'd better find a hiking trail that was nearby as it was getting later and later into the afternoon and getting lost in the Tennessee mountains at night on vacation did not sound like fun. So we chose a trail that had an old homestead somewhere along the way... that is if we could find the right trail. Finding the park entrance was the easy part... being in Tennessee was a little bit different then being at home where every trail is marked with many different signs and arrows showing you which way to go. There were no signs telling you how far to go or where the trail started. So we just drove, and drove, and drove. Now the road that we were on seemed to get narrower as you went on. And it was a two way road, so occasionally we would come upon an oncoming car or truck and sometime I think I could feel our car cringing as we squeaked by the other cars with just inches to spare. But needless to say we finally got to a gate blocking a pathway and a parking lot, so this must be the spot. It had to be the spot, wherever we were, we were going to go hiking, whether we found the old homestead or not, we would at least get our hike in. It was a beautiful day, only slightly humid... which is better then other days when it was unbearably humid. And so on this beautiful only slightly humid day we took our hike.

There were a couple very cool trees that I had to get pictures of... (Above) A tree that was right by the creek and because of the rush of water all of its roots were visible. (Below) A tree that Dad said probably grew on top of another tree stump that had over time rotted away, as there was a big cavern that the tree grew on top of.





A spider web that I nearly wore as a mask, thankfully I ducked away before I met the web and its maker.



After all the wondering and wandering we finally found the old homestead, which was actually a barn that was built in 1875, and over a little stream was a hikers club cabin that was built in the 1930's and a little cold spring cellar that they must have used for refrigeration. The cabin was actually built using logs from a nearby Whaley family cabin. Our hike was successful and was pretty cool to boot.

"Located along the Porters Creek Trail, the John Messer Barn was constructed in 1875 by Pinkney Whaley. The only remaining structure of the pre-park community of Greenbrier Cove, it was added to the National Register in 1976. The Messer Barn is a type of double-cantilever barn unique to East Tennessee and rarely found outside its immediate vicinity." ~ Wikipedia

NEWS ALERT

My baby slept ALL night long last night!!!
I fed him last night around 10:30 and he took awhile to eat and finally fall asleep, I actually had
to get him back up out of his crib because he wanted to eat more after I had put him to bed but it completely paid off because he slept until almost 7:00 this morning. I actually woke up before he did because I realized I hadn't heard him all night. He has always slept well, just waking up for feedings during the night but it was VERY nice to sleep through the whole night uninterrupted and I hope that it is a new habit ;)

On other news...

...I do believe I am going to get a thumb sucker.

Before he was born and you had asked me if I wanted my baby to suck on fingers or thumbs I would've told you "no, I would like them to take a pacifier" because then I could control when and if he had it, but Jimmy won't take a pacifier unless he is in a VERY rare mood and then I have to hold it in his mouth or it falls right out. But now I say that it is rather nice to have him be able to keep himself happy for a little bit when he gets his thumb in his mouth. Last evening he was in his crib taking a nap and I heard him making noise before Curtiss and I sat down for dinner and we were able to eat our WHOLE meal without him crying!!! a rather rare occurrence since he was born unless he happened to be sleeping (which he always seems to wake up as soon as I put the food on the table). After eating I went upstairs and there he was laying with his thumb in his mouth :)

My thr3e weeks: The Cabin (Part 2)

This post should be labeled "The Cabins," for we did have two. One cabin was a three bedroom and the other was a two bedroom. Christine and I stayed in the master bedroom of the two bedroom and Isaiah and Nathanael had the second bedroom. Mom and Dad had the bigger cabin, where Micah and Colin both had there own rooms.



A lot of our time was spent in the bigger one mostly because they had most of the food... but we did have the snacky type food in the smaller cabin, and we had the pool table.

It had beautiful pine interior and exterior. It was gorgeous.

The cabins looked about the same with a few differences in layout and furniture set up.

The Master Bedroom, had the most comfortable, huge, ginormous bed. It was like laying on pillows, you literally sank down into it... Christine said she had to really look for me the first morning, only my head was partially visible.

I didn't get a picture of the back porch which had a hot tub, and I also didn't get a picture of the super cool pool that they had at the resort, or the huge hot tub they had right next to the pool, which because it was so big, was pretty much a hot pool. It was a truly beautiful vacation spot. To bad we couldn't pack it all up in our suitcase and bring it home with us. But then it really wouldn't be special if it was normal, so I suppose we will have to leave it where it is. :: sigh ::
But anyway, enough about how wonderful the cabins were, forward to the next post...

My thr3e weeks: Summit (Part 1)

How do you sum up three weeks of awesomeness? You cannot do it in one post, I can tell you that much. So I will be doing a few posts on my last 3 weeks. Some of the content will be taken directly from my journal, so bear with me.
July 4th, Day 1: (Diary entry 1) "Chattanooga, T.N. here I come... Christine's alarm went off at 5:15 this morning. Dad greeted me with a "Happy Birthday!" and an omelet at my bedroom door. I donned my red, white, and blue star-spangled shirt, Dad grabbed my 48 lb. suitcase, Mom grabbed my really heavy carry-on, I gave Christine a hug and we were off. We made it to the airport by 7:00 am and I was through customs and at my gate waiting at 7:30. The flight was uneventful which is good. The only thing that happened worth some notice, was, as I sat down in my seat in the very back of the plane, I looked down and I had egg and cheese clinging to my shirt, breakfast left-overs. I quickly wiped them from my shirt and thought, "is this as embarrassing as egg on my face?""
~~~ Making it to the college campus late afternoon on Sunday, I then settled into the dorm room
met my room mate, ate dinner, and then I headed to orientation. Looking at the schedule I knew the two weeks were going to be exhausting. This is what the first full day looked like:

• (Diary entry 2:) ~ "5:40 - get up, get stuff out and be ready to take your shower at six. Read your Bible, take a 12 minute shower. Get ready to go to breakfast.
• 7:00 - Walk down to breakfast in cafeteria
• 7:15 - eat breakfast.
• 8:05 - Classes start. Ben W---'s does a couple sessions with a couple of breaks.
• 10:20 - Scott K---- does a couple of sessions
• 12:00 - lunch
• 1:00 - Another session with Ben W.
• 2:00-5:00 - free time to join in with the group activity or whatever you want to do.
• 6:00 - Optional-open forum with Scott K. I go play pool with a girl in my small group.
• 7:00 - Worship with Josh B---'s then last session for today.
• 9:00 - Get out of session, and walk to dorm to take your contacts out, that are starting to bother you after wearing them since six-something. Write in journal.
• 9:45 - small group meeting, which goes to 10:30
• 11:00 - Lights out."

Pretty much this is what everyday looked like, just different speakers and different topics. Over 72 hours of teaching and many different topics were covered. It was a truly awesome challenging time.
~~~

On Saturday after being at Summit for almost a week, Kami (my room mate) and I decided to join in a hike through Pocket. It was a beautiful day for a walk/run in the heart of Tennessee. I think it was a six mile hike, and it was extremely warm for this northerner. It was fun though... and Kami and I realized we were dressed alike which was pretty funny.

The two weeks went by very quickly... and before we knew it we were sitting in the last sessions... Friday night they had a graduation ceremony which we got to dress up for, which was cool. Kami and I were reunited with our families, and we both stayed in the same hotel Friday night.

This was my small group... we would meet every night and discuss the stuff that we were learning. Jessica (the one standing next to me) was the small group leader, and she would direct stuff and ask questions. We had fun together, they were a cool bunch of girls. It is weird to think that our paths might never cross again, after spending two weeks together I feel like we should live closer... it is kind of a strange feeling, knowing that they live a long way away, and I might not see them on this earth again. I am thankful for the time we had together though.

Well, that just about sums up my time at Summit... there is a lot more I could write about worldviews, and post-modernism... but I think that is better in person, and it would take forever to talk about even half of what was taught there. So this will be my last post on Summit, but family vacation (part 2) is coming shortly...

For Aunt Trina

So that you can see him in his dragon slayers outfit :)




(He was still recovering from the bath that his mother made him take thus the expression;)





and to prove that he doesn't always smile ^^^

'bout Time

For a post, don't you think? Sometimes I am amazed by how fast time flies, I can't believe it has already been weeks since I posted anything on here, I mean July is already half over before you know it I will be posted pictures of Jimmy's first birthday :) Ok, so maybe we have a few months left to go before that but come Friday he will be 8 weeks old.
I feel like I have left many of you behind in what has been happening in our lives, we have had so many life changes coming all at once that I either haven't had time or haven't been up to keeping you all up to date on what has been happening. Just for a brief overview...

Over the last three months we have:
Started a new job (after looking for almost a year) and because of that we...

Moved to a different state
(a first for me but of course I did plan on moving to Romania so moving to a different state doesn't seem all that big of a thing :)

And had a baby (personally this is what has changed my life more than anything else:)

We have gotten some good looks when we tell people one or two of these things, and if we mention all that we have done over the last year they think it is amazing that we could handle so many things in such an short time and still be able to walk and talk in a somewhat coherent manner ;)
The Lord has been so good to us and we are doing very well. Curtiss is loving his job and we are starting to get some stability in our lives. I don't even remember if I have mentioned what he is doing now, he is working on maintaining oil and gas wells for a small company owned by his uncle. He has about 10 wells that he has to go out and check everyday (except for Sundays) plus some other duties, so his schedule varies and he is doing something different everyday.

And since I haven't posted any in a while here are some pictures for all of you, I took them this afternoon while I was eating lunch and I couldn't decide which ones to post so here are all of them :)

I will try and post sooner next time, and sometime I do promise to post pictures of our apartment.