3,2,1 Vacation....

Vacation: definition: 1.a period of time devoted to rest and relaxation. 2. a time suspended from work, study or other activity. 3. FUN!

No words can describe how bad we have been looking forward to leaving Franklin for spring break. Looking forward to a little "FL Family Time". I just keep thinking in 48 hours what I hope to be doing....celebrating my mom's birthday, enjoying the sun, going to dinner with friends, sleeping in, beach, Easter, shopping, and oh my i am so excited! I hope it all comes true soon.

Bragging on my kids

So last week I had a cold. Thankfully it lasted only a few days. But this week I got the stomach thing and it to only lasted a few days. My poor kids have been without mommy attention for what seems like forever. Well, this week while I lay in bed thinking about dinner, Kate decided to cook it for me. With a little coaching from the bedroom I yelled directions to the kitchen on what to do. She made a pasta/meat dish and from what I hear it was good. I am so impressed. 10 years old and she browned ground beef, boiled pasta, got the sauce and combined all the ingredients together to produce a meal. I am so proud. On top of this both girls have made their own lunches in the morning two days this week. I hope there was not too many sweets in them. No teacher phone calls have come. :) I LOVE my kids!

Is this appropriate hair for school mom?

When the kids are quiet in the house for a long period of time and ask for the camera all of a sudden a mother asks herself what have you been doing? This is a side of Katelyn not many see. She is a real actor when given an inch to perform. She just has not found it in her to do anything public yet.

Valentine's day- "The greatest of these is love"

Valentine's day is so much fun. If you know me you know that I am a spring and summer kinda girl. So when Valentine's day comes around I see the light at the end of a long winter tunnel. I love the flowers, mushy cards and the sweets. Not a fan of the snow you see outside in the picture though.

A wonderful mother-in-law

Just wanted to take a minute and brag about the best mother-in-law a daughter-in-law could have. She loves and gives always. We celebrated with her another wonderful birthday. We took her out to dinner to Rib Country in Hayesville NC and it was just like her to give even on her birthday. She offered to babysit ALL 7 of her grandkids after dinner so that us "big" kids can go to a movie. She is a true treasure. We love you mom.

You scream, I scream, we all scream for ice cream!!

The sun is shinning a little brighter. The days are getting a little longer. One more week till we spring forward. And best of all Peppermint Patties was finally open for ice cream today for the year. We did our favorite thing to do after school today and stopped there for our usual order. Nicole got in the car today and she had that I have had a long day look. So I suggested ice cream! Nicole is mint chocolate chip, a girl just like her mom, Katelyn is so cookies & cream. I think I might have had one of those moments today where I see feel and smell spring. It was wonderful!

Tuesday Tune

Casting Crowns is coming to Asheville Civic center Thursday. Would like to go but the weather looks threatening. Snow is in the forcast.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QASREBVDsLk

What could it have been?

We have had a visitor of some kind. This is a photo of a box of cat food we purchase from Costco. It was stollen from our garage and dragged down our back yard to be enjoyed. This is a long way down and this container was brand new unopened. This has happened before but it has always been a few feet outside our garage. It is a mystery on what it was.

A walk in the woods

Well, It started out like a nice idea. Scott had a call in Highlands to go check out a possible whole house generator sale. The catch was it could only be done on the weekend. We decided to make an event out it and spend some time together on a nice hike and lunch in highlands. To our surprise God had a life lesson plan ready we were not aware of.

The customer had told us about a cool spot we should hike to and we thought we would check it out. We stopped at a spot we thought was the trail and hiked for about 20 min as he directed. We saw a very large fallen tree across the trail. I shared with Scott that I hope this tree does on fall any farther down as I climbed under it to stay on the trail. We smiled and kept on the trail for a minute more and decided to turn around since we were not seeing what we were promised. Got back to the vehicle and gave up on the customers advise and stuck to our original hike plan. We drove down the street around many curves about 4 miles to another spot that we had read about. It was suppose to be a 2 mile "loop" that would bring us back to the vehicle. We figured that it should not be too difficult to hike 2 miles and should do it in about 1 hour if not less. Lunch time was approaching and I had thoughts of doing this hike to be rewarded with a "fabo" lunch in Highlands.

It started out beautiful with a trail along a river. The sun was shinning and I debated on leaving my jacket behind. Thinking it might be colder in the shade I decided to take it along. About five minutes in to the hike I was taking off layers and thinking I should have left the jacket but to late now. I followed Scott, my fearless leader, deep into the woods listening to the nature and enjoying the river flowing so peacefully near us. We were thinking the whole time that this is a loop trail and we will be turning at some point back towards the way we came. Knowing also that this trail is supposed to be 2 miles we should be fine.

We seemed to have hiked forever constantly thinking that we must be close to a turning point and just kept going. We were crossing snowy spots, icy water crossing spots, and cool views of the river. All was going good but a little longer than expected. We started to think about just back tracking and give up on this loop. Finally after going forever we came to a crossing in the trail and a sign that was in pretty bad shape. (Sorry I forgot to take a photo of the that sign.) The ratty sign said "loop"! I was excited that we will be heading back home now. This is now over an hour into the hike. I thought to myself that my "fabo" lunch is only 1hr away now! I can do it!

The crossing did have some problem with it. I mentioned that the sign was ratty. Well It was missing a key part. An arrow would have been nice to tell us which way to go since there were a few directions to go. Long story short we choose poorly and ended up going the wrong way. I felt at times this hike was going to turn into an episode of "I should not be alive". It is a show we have watched many times.

After coming to the realization that this is not right we decided to call for advice as soon as we got cell service. I was just glad to sit and rest for a few minutes. The weather seemed to be getting colder too so I was glad I had my jacket. The call to Leland did not get us the information we were hoping for so we decided to continue on the trail for 10 more minutes in the direction we were going. If we did not see anything we would be forced to turn around and go back the 2 hours we had been hiking already.

After another minute we came up to a tree that had fallen across the trail and Scott looks at it thinking this looks like the one we crossed early that morning. We had hiked all the way to the trail that we were on earlier that morning that we gave up on. This was the tree I had mentioned I hope it does not fall on me. What a relief to know where we were. We knew that the worse case scenario at this moment was to hike along the road the 4 miles to the vehicle. I started asking God to send someone driving down the road so we could hitch hike a ride. I knew if we did not see someone on Whiteside Cove Rd that Bull Pen was going to be a long 3 mile walk. God is good and answered mt request Scott waved him down. He thankfully gave us a ride. I love that we live in NC. I would have never done this in FL.

Lunch never tasted so good and I was thankful we did not have to back track the trail for 2 hours. Lesson learned was to trust God to bring you out of your troubles.