We got stuck!!!

I guess we're officially "dorks from the South who try but just can't master being snow gurus." We got stuck in the snow yesterday. Thankfully it was right in front of the church, but as we were turning the corner in front of the church onto the road WHICH HADN'T YET BEEN PLOWED our little car just STOPPED. Wheels spinning but goin nowhere. Anthony got out and tried to push while I tried to drive, but this snow was several inches deep, so it wasn't happening. We had to go get our pastor and a shovel and he showed us how to shovel out the snow from beneath and around our tires and then "rock" the car out.

Uh, fun.

Sister Smith!!! I just found out something that you and I can celebrate. Did you know that March 26 is the official "Make your own Holiday" holiday? HA! Way cool. We can make our own family triadition that must be observed every year ... on our birthday. I'm psyched. And the wheels are turning. Let me know what you think of. :D

alright here are some more ... January 10 is Positively Penguin Day, and the 26th is the National Peanut Brittle Day (as well as Chinese New Year). February 15 is National Gumdrop Day and the 26th is Tell a Fairy Tale Day. April 26 is National Pretzel Day. (Did you know that pretzels are believed to be the world's oldest snack?)May 2 is Brothers and Sisters Day and the 16th is Wear Purple for Peace Day. June 5 is the National Donut Day (Don't tell Anthony, anybody. ;0) And June 17 is Eat Your Vegetables Day. Cool, huh? I thought those were great tidbits. In the spirit of citing my sources, this information came from Family Magazine of Michiana.

There was something else I was going to post about, but I can't seem to remember what it was ... Maybe later. Right now I have to run to the hotel. My dorky husband forgot the safe key. *rolling eyes* So now I gotta' get back out in this cold weather. Already been out in it once today.

Well, TTYL, all. :D

I WOULD LOVE, LOVE, LOVE IT IF ANY OF YOU COULD COME

I changed some of the "contact info" because this is on the web.

“The Heart of the Bride”
Great Lakes Region Ladies’ Retreat
Wisconsin, Illinois (North), Iowa, Michigan, and Canada (East)
May 22-24, 2009

“My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise.” Psalm 57:7

I will email anyone with location info and other things I didn't want to put online.

Evangelist: TBA

Contact *me* for more information

Oh, Baby, it's COLD outside!!!!

With wind chill, we're headed for 30 degrees below zero!!!! And we're getting hit with some major snow . . . supposed to have up to 2 feet on the ground by tonight. BRRRRR!!!!! Pray for Anthony. He's out in this stuff. Pray for me. I'll be out in it tonight because Ivy Tech didn't close down and I have to teach tonight. I still have a little hope that they may cancel tonight's classes, but it's only a little hope.

I'll leave you with some pictures of Jackson playing in the the white stuff. Enjoy.

Check out those icicles...

Our little "angel"

I hate it that the snowflakes didn't show up on this picture,but it really was snowing ...

Having a blast ...

Happy day!!!!

Smoky Mtn Vacation Part Two .... Finally

OK. I wrote this Saturday but wasn't able to get it up until just now, so the foot of snow's still on the ground, but I'm out and about. I start my new class today at Southwestern Michigan College. I'm teaching English as a Second Language: Culture, Language and Civics. I LOOOOVE teaching history, and I get to do a lot of that in this class, so I'm excited about it. :D So, here's what I wrote on Sunday WITH the pictures uploaded ...

I know. I know. It's been longer than I anticipated, BUT I have been really busy, sooooo today's the day. (Doesn't have a thing to do with the almost FOOT of snow outside. ;-) Anyway, we're home today. Anywhoooo ..... here it is ....

So we finished at the aquarium, which ended my last post. Theeeennnnn.....

Next on the agenda was a Fannie Farkel. It's tradition to get a Fannie Farkel when we're in Gatlinburg. You just gotta do it! What's a Fannie Farkel? Why a foot-long corn dog, of course! ;-) It's hand-battered and fried to order, so they're hot and fresh. Yum!!! Didn't get any pictures of that because you have to eat them on the sidewalk (no seating) and it's kind of awkward to do anyway, so pictures would've been extremely difficult.

Anyway, then we "swung" up the mountain. Jackson was soooo excited about this one. He had a blast!!! And the view it offers is just so gorgeous. Loved the swings!!!

Went back to the hotel, took a nap, got up, and went to Red Lobster for supper and had an absolutely fabulous-o waiter, so that was really a nice touch to a vacation treat like Red Lobster. :D The meal wrapped up our marine biology day. (Didn't do that on purpose ;-) just realized it later)

Sunday was really our last day for vacation. We started with a place called Adventure Quest and had a blast.

First was the Mirror of Mazes. Way cool. They made you put on plastic gloves so the mirrors didn't get smudged. The mirrors were immaculate, so it was difficult to tell whether a "wall" was a mirror or an opening. Crazy stuff. Jackson though it was crazy, but fun. I thought it was neat because of the different sections. One part looked like castle hallways and another part was black with these pretty purple twinkling stars everywhere. Then you went through what looked like a vineyard with grapevines. There were other sections that I can't remember at the moment. Anyway, most of the pictures didn't turn out so great because of all the mirrors. The flash ricocheted and ruined the effect.

Next was the Pirate Putt-Putt. Jackson LOVES putt-putt and so do Anthony and I, so we had a blast in there. Jackson's pretty good, too ... for a four-year, but Daddy beat us both. (he always does ... grrrr....) But he only beat me by 6 points, so it wasn't too bad, I guess for 18 holes.

Can't figure out why this one's still sideways, but anyway...

Love that expression ...

We then took a drive through Cade's Cove and saw lots and lots of deer. Anthony kept hoping to see bear, but I lovingly *smirk* reminded him that the bear were probably *ahem* HIBERNATING!!!! Dork!!!! Anyway, I love that place. The vistas are breathtaking. Cade's Cove, by the way, is where the Christy shows were filmed.

Went back to the hotel, took a quick nap, and got back up for dinner. This time we tried Tony Romas and had a good experience there, too. Look at the place next to it. Pretty cool, huh? It's like a big Science/Discovery Museum, and we wanted to do it and probably would have if we hadn't required naps. But as it was, I guess we saved some money this way, which is never a bad thing. Tony needs to get a light bulb for his "O".

Dirt Cake Dessert

I KNOW I flipped these pics before I uploaded them. Grrrr.... Computers ...

Monday we slept in a bit (by this time I had started getting Jackson's cold) and took our time getting our things together, so we missed the hotel breakfast and had to go out. We decided on Flapjack's Pancake House for breakfast and had a HORRIBLE experience. I do NOT recommend that place. The food just didn't taste fresh. I ordered one of their skillets with hashbrowns, veggies, cheese, eggs, etc. The mushrooms were from a can and COLD, they didn't put any cheese on it, and the eggs weren't cooked over medium, as I'd ordered. They were still a bit slimy. YUCK!!! On top of that, it was a very small portion of food ... especially for what we were paying for it. I didn't eat but maybe one bite and sent it back for an omelette, which was a tiny bit better ... but that's not saying much. Even Jackson and Anthony's pancakes were rubbery. Now, when you've got a restaurant named Flapjack's, you thiiiiinnnkkk that they'd at least get the pancakes right. Nope. On top of that, the waitress was rude and the bus boy was SLAMMING stuff into that bus tub REALLY LOUD, which didn't help the ambience of the place. Left unhappy. Never will darken their doors again.

But then my husband did something really sweet. I'd been eyeing a Super Scrapbook Store that was in one of the outlet mall areas but didn't push the issue. He took me AND KEPT JACKSON IN THE CAR while I went in!!! What a good husband I have. (Keeping Jackson in the car was the best part ... tee hee) :D I spent an hour in there and he didn't even get upset!!! I really didn't mean to stay that long, but I, um, sort of accidently lost track of time. But I got some cool stuff to scrap our vacation with. ;-) We left from there and headed home. Got home around 10:00 that night, drug all our stuff in, let Jackson play with his toys for a few minutes while I started some laundry, and then we all went to bed.

It was a good vacation with lots of fun, memory-making times. The weather wasn't even bad. Actually, Saturday it was a balmy 70 degrees!!!!!! But the other two days, it was a bit cold/cool mostly in the 50's. A lot warmer than what we're used to up here, but still a bit cool to be out tromping around for long periods of time. I wanted to go to Dixie Stampede, but we couldn't bring ourselves to dish out that much money. And we thought about Dollywood because they say the Christmas lights at this time of year are just gorgeous, but did you know it's $50 for an adult ticket???!!!! That's ridiculous. That's what a Disney World park costs, and, sorry, but Dollywood doesn't have anything on Disney whatsoever. Anyway, I like what we decided on. Except for Flapjack's. ;0)

Smoky Mountain Vacation

I don't know what's been wrong with me the past few days, but I just haven't been in the mood to blog. I think it's because I'm missing my family pretty bad. We were there for Thanksgiving, but Christmas is just the one that's hard to miss with family. When we lived in either GA or MO, we'd get to do both holidays with both families because we were close to one and we'd just have to travel to the other. But now things are pretty different, living away from both. Really, I was ok until just the past few days. I'm still o.k. though, just a bit sad.

Anyway .... Happy New Year, everybody!!! The last year in the decade, so that's pretty cool, I guess. Unless 2010 is the last year and the new decade starts in 2011. I don't know, but it seems so weird that just next year we're going to start saying twenty-ten instead of two-thousand-something. Unless the Lord comes back before then. Then time won't matter at all.

Well, I said I'd post about our vacation. We really did have fun. On Friday we left the in-laws' house around 11:00 and went and spent an hour or so with Anthony's step-grandmother. She sure is a sweet lady. And a talker. Whew! ;-) She told us about the activities she's been involved in since Pa-Paw passed away. She's done some sewing. She showed us a quilt she'd just finished with and it was just beautiful. I told her she ought to start selling them and she said she'd been thinking about it. Anyway, this quilt had a pretty pink and brown color scheme and in each square she'd done a different star pattern. It was very unique, but really pretty.

She said she'd been on a tour bus trip with the people at the Senior Center to Savannah and Tybee Island. Anthony and I had been there before so we recognized some of the places she talked about. She got to eat at Paula Deen's restaurant, which is cool. Something I've wanted to do for some time. Anyway I'm glad she's staying busy and active.

Then we went to Chattanooga and met some of our friends for lunch. We hadn't seen them since Easter and it was so good to see them. They have a little boy just a bit younger than Jackson so the two of them enjoyed one another's company while we were there. We got a few really cute pics of them outside the restaurant. Here's one. Aren't they cute???

We then ventured on up to Cleveland and spent a few hours with Terry and Shaye Ammons where Jackson got to play with their little boy John Devon at their house. Those two had a blast. Terry and Shaye are close friends of ours, so it was so good to see them as well. All this fellowship almost made me just a little homesick for the Chattanooga Valley.

Then it was off to Kodak to check into our hotel and rest up for an action-packed vacation Saturday. There was one problem I was a little worried about, though. Jackson was coming down with a cold and I didn't want him out in the cool air too much. We didn't get in as much activitiy as we'd planned because he needed naps to help him get over his cold. Anthony, too, since he was just getting over a mild case of mono. But maybe that was a good thing. We probably needed R&R just as much as we needed fun time. So we built a nap into our schedule each day, which kept us refreshed and kept our sickness down. That and the touch of the good Lord. :D

We spent our first day in Gatlinburg. We did the aquarium, which is just way cool. If any of you ever vacation in the Smokies, it is the #1 thing I'd recommend doing. I also enjoyed the tropical waters exhibit where they have the most beautiful coral and tropical fish. Soooo pretty. This is the best aquarium we've ever been to!!!! It's actually voted #1 in the U.S. Loved it.

Excited to get started...

Curious little boy....
Look at those colors!!!

The coolest part is the glass tunnel that walks underneath a huge tank filled with fish and sharks and all manner of sea life. It is enormous and you get to spend a lot of time in there.
So cool. I mean, this is how close you are to the sealife.

And it's all around you ...

Mommy's boy ...
Daddy's boy ...
Check out the difference in the expression in those two pics. Can't figure the little twerpie out. *rolling eyes*Play area

Look at that little girl's pretty blonde, curly hair. Aw, so sweet. ;-)

We thought the area where they had the jellyfish, sea dragons, and spider crabs and such was just so cool.

These tanks were so cool. See the round part in the middle? Well, the kids could climb underneat and stick their heads up in there. We tried to get Jackson to do it and he stuck his head in for 1/2 second and got scared and got out real fast. :-( Would've made the coolest pictures ... if only he would've cooperated. Grrrrr....

The second coolest part is the Touch a Ray Bay where you get to actually touch a stingray. Awesome! Jackson and I tried and I got the tip of the "wing", but Jackson's arms were a bit too short and he couldn't reach it. Maybe next time.
This guy did a show with the stingrays while an emcee taught a mini-lesson on stingrays. We only caught the tail-end of it, so I wish I'd seen more. But what we did see was pretty cool.

Part two coming soon ......