Monday, June 29, 2009

Servant's Heart

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many. Mark 10:45

My niece, Holly, has recently been called to the mission field. She is 17 and already knows what God wants her to do with her life. I have heard preachers talk about a servant's heart and I have had this on my mind a lot recently. Are you born with a servant's heart or through prayer, study, and compassion do you develop one? I believe a servant's heart is a mark of spiritual maturity gained through a close and personal relationship with God. A servant is one who seeks to meet the real needs of others through a very Christ-like love. That being said, I think if you were to google it, wikipedia it, or webster it, this is the picture you would find...




I am very proud of you, Holly, you never cease to amaze me...
Posted by Picasa

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

50/50/50 Rule

While we were tubing on Saturday, the kids got on the tube as soon as we got the boat in the water. The water was 77 degrees when they got in. Tony pulled them up, up, up the lake, as far as we could go in his boat. As we got closer to the end of the lake, the water was getting progressively colder. And colder. And colder. They were doing sign language. C-O-L-D. I was laughing at them. I could feel a nice cool breeze coming down the valley so I thought that was what they were talking about. Toughen up guys!! Then Tony told me that there's a river that feeds into this lake and we were in the river at that time. The gauge on the boat now read 51 degree water temperature. Whew, they were cold!! He pulled the tube to the boat and both of them scrambled onto the boat without even touching the water. What a mean trick.


We were a little confused about the 50/50/50 rule and left out a few 0's when we were telling Ant and Al about it. We told them they could survive 5 minutes in 50 degree water. I looked that up when I got home and the real rule is ( I think), "A 50-year-old has a 50/50 chance of surviving 50 minutes in 50 degree water." But if you ask Alex, she was five minutes away from dying...
Posted by Picasa

Monday, June 22, 2009

Lucky Me


How did I get so lucky to be born in these beautiful East Tennessee mountains? From our house we can get to so many different and beautiful places. This deer is in Cades Cove. We can get to Cades Cove, in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in under an hour.

There are loads of lakes we can get to in less than an hour, less than 30 minutes probably, but this one is my favorite, about 30 minutes away. It's in a mountain range that joins the Smokies. It is a beautiful, undeveloped area. Just look at the views on this lake!!!! The water here is so clear. And cold.



And you certainly can't take views like this for granted. Mountain ranges as far as the eye can see. Just minutes from my house.
Posted by Picasa

Sunday, June 21, 2009

What if...


What if your sons new cross country team is meeting at Cades Cove at 7:45 in the morning and you take he and his sister there and they run the shortest loop, the four mile one?


Then, after doing that four mile run, he comes home and mows and weed eats the yard?


Then, what if after he runs the four miles and mows and weed eats the yard, you take he and his sister to the lake? And pull, drag, and sling them up and down the lake for four hours?



Then, what if after he runs four miles, mows and weed eats the yard, tubes for four hours, he decides to do a little bit of this?


Then you can be sure he did a WHOLE LOT OF THIS!!!
Yes, 14-year-old boys can still sleep in the truck...Posted by Picasa

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Iva's Cabin

One of my favorite places to go when I was a very little girl was "Iva's Cabin," or "Iva's Lake." Of course, it really isn't her lake, it's actually Cherokee Lake in Jefferson City, but it is her cabin. It's the second cabin on this spot, the first one was struck by lightening and burned. Both built by she and her daddy and several others, this cabin has given us many weekends of fun. I am very proud to say now that it is one of my kids favorite places to go, too. They beg to go to Iva's cabin. It's not for the cable television, or the nice facilities, the private bedrooms, or the modern kitchen. It is for exactly the opposite of all that. There is no electricity. No bathroom. No kitchen. We are really roughing it. Except for the beds, cozy quilts, and roof over our heads.

This is the front of the cabin that faces the lake.

This is Iva and Elizabeth, a.k.a. Busy Beth.

Anthony, Erica, Alex, and Elizabeth are playing cards.

Many very good biscuits made by Lib and Dorothy have been rolled out on this table.

The biscuits are cooked in an old wood burning cook stove. When we go to the cabin in the summer, we don't get biscuits cause that makes the cabin way too hot.

There are three full size iron beds and a couple of twin cots. Depending on how many people are there determines whether the front porch is used as a bedroom, too.

These are the "facilities".

The days at the cabin are spent at the lake...

Playing volleyball...

Playing hide-and-go-seek in the dark... Playing badminton...

Walking to the Black Oak dock for ice cream...

And whatever else their imaginations can come up with.

Posted by Picasa

Another Backporch Guest

I am becoming leery of sitting on my back porch. This evening, I was sitting on my deck when I felt something crawling on my leg. After swatting it off, I saw many, MANY more of the same little crawly things. They were baby praying mantises (praying manti?). There were LOTS of them.


I am not really sure what to think about this one. "Don't go into the light"... or "Beam me up, Scotty"...

I think it just hypnotized them and they followed the leader right down the side of the chair.

Posted by Picasa

Trampoline Number .... 3


When Ant and Al were much younger they got a trampoline for Christmas. They loved it. Much to our surprise they actually used it. One night while we were eating dinner and enduring a terrible thunderstorm, our trampoline was blown through our yard like a big piece of tumbleweed. The kids thought that was funny until the realization hit them that there was no more trampoline. Springs flew all over the yard.

About a year later, Alex decided to use her Christmas money to buy a new one. This one we tied down but apparently not very effectively. After another particularly bad storm the second trampoline was bounced around and wadded up. It didn't fly thorugh the yard though because it was tied down - on one side. Since there was so much other damage to our house and camper we were able to get her money back for this trampoline through our insurance agency. She thought she could live without a trampoline, and did for a little while, but gave in and bought another one this week.

All three of us worked on getting it put together and all I want to know is - who writes those darn instructions??? It started out well enough...


Do you see our problem? How does that happen? It is a perfect circle minus one piece. But, there were not any pieces missing. Believe me, we looked all over for that missing piece. All twelve pieces were there. Somehow, in the way you arrange them, the pieces fit together to make a complete circle.

So, let's try this again.

Actually, I missed getting pictures of a complete take down and rebuild. Again. The second building of this trampoline afforded the same problem. I will not be beaten. The third time's the charm. See?

Whew!! Then we had to switch instruction books in order to get the sides put together.


Are you kidding me?


Finally, she is a jumping girl again!
If I never put together another trampoline that will be too soon.
Posted by Picasa

Monday, June 15, 2009

Water Fun


We finally got the opportunity to take Alex to the lake (Anthony was on his mission trip) for her "I get to tube first" trip. She was supposed to get to ride in the boat first but that didn't work out - Anthony beat her to it. So the "tubing first" is her consolation.

She rode forever. I bet her arms were like jelly when she finished.




Then she got to drive. Somebody has to learn to drive so that Tony can tube some this summer, too.


While we were out on the lake we did a little house shopping. This one would do.


But if we are going to dream we may as well dream big...

Wonder if it's for sale?Posted by Picasa

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Rockies Season Is Over


This weekend Alex finished up league play in a halfway good game on Saturday night. We ended up in second place for the tournament and third place for the season.

When you decide to do something new/different with you child and they are not fully on board you fret about whether you are doing the right thing. That is how we felt about moving Alex to a different little league this year. The league that we were in before has always been a good league for softball until the last couple of years. It became increasingly more of a boys league with the girls program really suffering. Their fields were ill prepared for games and we didn't always have umpires. We had kicked around the idea of changing leagues the season before but decided to give it one more year. We were going to have to get Alex a waiver to be allowed to play in the other league and that seemed like a lot of trouble. This year, though, we decided we would just go ahead and give it a try. Did we do the right thing? This time we did. The new league she played in was much more competitive, had a lot of close games, and a LOT of good players. It is unbelievable what they can learn from good, close, competitive games with umpires. Umpires who know the rules. And don't change their minds. And show up to the games. Early. With the field lined. And know the rules - did I say that already cause that is a biggy. We could play by softball rules and not softballized baseball rules. Of course, she knew very few of the girls in this league at the beginning of the season but she has made a lot of new friends. A lot of them she will play against again when Middle School season starts. I think that will just make it a lot more fun. I am proud of her for taking this step alone - not many of her friends made this move - and doing it well.

One of the drawbacks of the previous league was that there were not a lot of pitchers so that is the only position she ever really got to play. There were some outfield positions when she was much younger but for the last couple of years she was on the mound.

At her new league, where we had four pitchers on our team, she got to play a little bit of second, shortstop, and third. And LOVED it.


And a little bit of catcher.

Al is a very funny girl, who has personal space issues. So, the first time she struck someone out she turned around and was surprised to see all the infielders there to smack gloves. Not during the whole season did she get use to this invasion of her personal space. We joked that they should line up outside the pitchers chalked in circle.
Alex had a great year, learned a LOT, and made great friends. We made the right decision. This time.