Gatlinburg

We were not able to get down to the beach this summer after a hurricane ruined our plans.  With football season in full swing, it is hard to consider any vacation beyond our days spent in Auburn or other SEC cities.  We figured we could still do some sort of trip if we could fit it between our commitment to Auburn games (despite our tough season, we still continue to support the boys in orange & blue).  We looked at the possibility of Wyoming or Montana, but apparently most of the ranches are shutting down this time of year.  Through the magic of the internet, Emily found a chalet in Gatlinburg that had an opening between homecoming and the UGA game.  Despite my frugal feelings in this unsure economy, Emily decided we needed to help stimulate Tennessee's economy so she booked it.  While Emily had been there before, it was my first time, and it went something like this:

DAY ONE (Sunday)

We did not get away from Birmingham when we wanted to.  We procrastinated our packing and pretty much did it all Sunday morning.  We left Bham around 10:30 and got to Gatlinburg about 4.  We decided it was best to head straight to the chalet first to unload the truck before we ventured out and about.  As we headed up the mountain, we knew it was going to be a week filled with some cool sights as the leaves were on the trees for the most part and were amazing.  We unpacked the truck and read thru all of our nice recommendations from folks and the fliers we picked up to find somewhere to eat.  We decided on the Smokey Mountain Brewery.  It was a great choice and we enjoyed sampling their different beers.  We both enjoyed the Pumpkin Spice the best.  Emily had a Chicken Rueben and I had an Italian Sausage sandwich and we both had the pretzels with some great honey mustard.

DAY TWO (Monday)

We decided that we wanted this trip to be more about experiencing the beauty of the smokey mountains instead of partaking of every touristy offering in Gatlinburg & Pigeon Forge.  We did some research and thought it would be cool to hike to Rainbow Falls on Mt. LeConte.  Unfortunately we did not realize that most of the trails in the Smokeys prohibit dogs (to prevent altercations with wildlife it says-- Do they realize Maggie is scared of our kitchen chairs??) so we were unable to take Maggie with us.  The trail was classified as moderate, and as we started off, we thought nothing of it.  Little did we realize it wouldn't be the distance that was difficult, but combined with the change in elevation, it provided us quite the workout!  It was certainly worth it though cause we saw some pretty cool things and it was neat to hear nothing but the wind in the trees and the occasional hiker that we ran into.  While we know the falls would have been more spectacular had they had more rain recently, it was still cool to see them towering over us.

After some lunch, we drove to Cades Cove.  We had originally planned to bike around the Cove, but due to the hike, decided to drive the 11 mile loop instead.  In hindsight, we should have gone earlier to have more time there, but the light at that time of the afternoon provided some amazing views.  There were lots of wildlife and we saw some cool old buildings from past settlers of the cove.  

For dinner, we ate at Bennett's BBQ, which was really good.  Their sauce was some of the best we've had.  After dinner we walked around downtown Gatlinburg to the various candy shops and other gift places.  We found a cool Christian woodworking place where Emily could have spent a small fortune.

DAY THREE (TUESDAY)

We had talked about how we thought it would be cool to ride horses through the mountains.  We did some research the night before looking at different stables in the area and what they offered.  Nothing really stuck out to us since most of the rides were mountain views, meaning "you'll ride along and be able to see the mountain, but you won't actually be on the mountain."  Luckily we remembered passing a stable along the way to Cades Cove the day before that was smack dab in the middle of the mountains.  Sure enough we called them about 8:15am and they had rides starting out at 9am.  We threw on the clothes and headed over, only to find they accepted CASH ONLY (minor detail that a quick trip back to the local yocale ATM in Gatlinburg cured).  Unbelievably, it was only Emily and I and the guide that were going out.  They had a huge stable with 50 or so horses, and yet we were the only ones there that morning.  Let me say, it is an awesome experience to climb a mountain on the back of a horse, scary at times, but very cool all the same, particularly when it is just a you and your wife and the guide.  We had some up close views of a few does, which we we amazed that both the does and the horses didn't seem to mind each others presence.

We drove to Clingman's Dome, the highest point in Tennessee.  It even snowed a little on us.  We also got to see the Appalachian Trail and some hikers who had left Maine in June and were going to turn around and head back when they got to Georgia!  That is a lot of walking!

trees are dead from acid rain and some asian insect

We had been told to go to the Peddler Steakhouse.  We looked online and it seemed pretty pricey and got some so so reviews.  We were not sure that we wanted to pay top dollar for something that may or may not be worth it.  We had seen a neat looking restaurant near the Brewery Sunday night called "Cherokee Grill" and decided to head that way.  This was far and away the best place we ate.  They also happened to serve beers from the brewery nearby (except the pumpkin kind, which we had wanted, but there were other good ones that we were happy with too).  The steak was phenomenal, better than any we had tried before.  The seasoning was great and they placed a spoonful of worschetshire butter on top that was heavenly.  Even though we were absolutely stuffed, we had seen the apple cobbler and wanted to splurge.  It was some of the best cobbler we've had no doubt.  Needless to say there were no leftovers and we got away for under $75!  We highly recommend the Cherokee Grill to anyone.

DAY FOUR (WEDNESDAY)

We spent this day as a redneck tour of Gatlinburg.  Despite my protests, we PAID to walk through the world's only salt & pepper museum (as featured on Food Network).  Emily was thrilled.

We also made a stop by Cooters for some Dukes of Hazzard nostaglia.  We even saw Elvis touring it while we were in there.

We figured what better way to complete our day than to check out some western wear.

(Notice the no photography sign...HA HA)

For dinner we ventured into Pigeon Forge.  We thought it was too expensive to do the dinner shows, so we went to the Old Mill.  It was decent, but not our favorite.  After dinner we went to a huge Cowboy type store called Stage's West.  Emily convinced me she needed some authentic cowboy boots, so there went the savings from not going to Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede show!  I cant give her too much grief as I found a pair of Ariat boots on sale for under $100.

The best part of the day was that night when we got back from dinner.  As we were walking across the deck, Emily noticed some dark figures at the cabin below us.  BEARS!  We got the camera and our spotlight, but couldn't get a good picture from that far away.  I started calling them like dogs (much to Emily's nervousness) and sure enough they started up the mountain.  I figure they must make the rounds because some folks feed them.  We got a couple good photos as they ventured up close, but unfortunately we did not get the shots of them play fighting on their hind legs to show up.

moments before he reared up to look over the deck and made Emily scramble inside

FINAL DAY (Thursday)

It was raining as we packed the truck and drove home.  Kind of made us feel better about leaving since it was a yucky day anyway.  We had a great time though!

Tiny Invader

We have recently discovered a side effect of our successful gardening.  It is clear that God created delicious vegetables for many creatures to enjoy, not just humans.  Earlier this summer we noticed several holes inside the garden and thought we might have a mole.  We put Maggie on patrol for the culprit, only to see the tiny invader ourselves one day.

Emily observed a field mouse running along the outskirts of the garden one day.  After some research we were interested to discover that field mice do not climb things like other rodents.  It never said they wouldn't climb up a vine, but certainly not a wall or a tomato cage.  Regardless, we never noticed any damage to our vegetables, so we just kept an eye out for him.

Last Saturday, while Emily and I were watching Gameday, I noticed something scurry across the carpet from the laundry room to the entertainment center.  It looked too big for a roach, but surely we did not have a mouse inside the house in the middle of the day!  A quick glance behind the tv proved otherwise, and our attempts to corral him into some rubbermaid storage boxes proved comedic.  So it was off to Home Depot for some traps.  Our friend reared his twitchy nose later that night while we were getting ready for bed, but somehow managed to miss the traps we had set.  He managed to set one off, yet did not get caught!  We decided to put peanut butter on them the next morning to further entice his pallet and make him linger longer over the fame cheese pedal.  Apparently despite all this talk of the magic of evolution, mice have not learned what peanut butter is essentially a kiss of death, and find it irrestible.  Monday afternoon, we came home and found this:

We'd like to thank Victor mouse traps and Jiff peanut butter for their contributions to this successful operation.

Lessons learned:

1)  Take care of rodents the moment you discover them near the house...don't let them run low on food and decide to see what may be in the house for them to eat

2)  Do not follow the directions on mouse traps that say "No need to actually place bait on our fake cheese pedals"-- they should say "PUT PEANUT BUTTER HERE"- it works more effectively and quicker

3)  Mice may be agile, but they can't outrun a Victor spring loaded death bar

Bucket List

I've always thought the phrase "kicked the bucket" was interesting. It seemed like such a redneck thing when you hear, "Betty Sue kicked the bucket." It honestly makes me laugh and I don't quite know where the it comes from from (Ryan should check Wikipedia).  We saw the movie "The Bucket List" a couple months ago and loved it.  We decided that we needed to make our own bucket list, so here is a sample of our bucket list not in any particular order (and these could change next week!):  Emily 1. Learn how to snowboard 2. Skydive in Hawaii 3. Stay at a dude ranch in Wyoming and let my inner cowgirl come out 4. Run through a never ending field of wildflowers 5. Ride a donkey in the Grand Canyon 6. Go on an African Safari 7. Go on a sunset Hot Air Balloon Ride with a bottle of champagne and my love 8. Go whale watching

9. Further the Kingdom. 10. Laugh with my children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren 11. Learn how to smock and knit well really just learn how to sew 12. Grow old with my love 13. Do a triathlon or marathon

14. Live at the lake

Ryan

1.  Go to Ireland and Scotland and see the green hills you always see in photos

2.  Go to Italy and see places where our grandfathers served our country in WWII

3.  See and feel an active volcano in Hawaii (at least some lava flowing & the heat)

4.  Go to Israel and see historical places from the Bible

5.  Learn to be a good carpenter and be able to build stuff with my own two hands

6.  Go on an African safari

7.   Live on the lake

8.  Own a Corvette

9.  Participate in a cattle drive in Wyoming or Montana (ala City Slickers without the birthing)

10.  Be able to help bring unbelieving people close to me to Christ

A day in the life of a Technology Specialist...

I often get a very funny look when I tell people that I am a technology specialist at an Elementary School.  No, I do not know a lot about computers, but somehow they seem to keep me in this position. So for everyone who wonders what a typical day is like, 

I now present a day in the life of a technology specialist...

6:45 a.m.  Arrive at school  and begin checking email.  This seems to be the only uninterrupted quiet time

7:00 a.m.  The computer recycling guy has arrived. Phillip and I help him load 10 monitors and CPUs onto his truck.  I cannot believe that we have to pay this company to haul off our equipment, knowing that they are just going to turn around and make money off it.  

7:15 Begin turning on equipment and getting things ready for our morning broadcast.  Every Wednesday & Friday the 4th and 5th graders do a morning show that is broadcasted live over the entire school. It is very entertaining.  The 5th graders run all the equipment and the 4th graders are anchors.  

7:30 Help the kids set up equipment and rehearse the show which is very very entertaining, ended up having a very enlightening conversation with some 10 year olds about how their parents named them. I love these kids and they just make me laugh!!

8:15  Live!  It was a first show for many of the kids, so they were very nervous and  did a fantastic job!!!  I was very proud of them

8:15- Help the Assistant Superintendent get her presentation loaded on the network, answer a few emails

8:30  Off to teach a 5th grade class about Word.  They learn how to do borders, watermarks, bullets, and numbering in their word documents.  It is amazing how excited kids become when they learn how to put a heart border around a word document.  

9:30  Decide to call tech support to figure out why my Tricaster has stopped working. I really think that when the tech support people talk to a woman they seem to think that we are not very smart in the technical arena and have just done something stupid like forget to plug it in.  Now when I call I just start the conversation out by stating the problem and telling them every trouble shooting method that I have already tried, which seems to cut down on the nonsense. After a 20 minute conversation and trying different things, I learn that I just have to send it in, great.

10:00 check and return emails

10:30  Off to teach a 4th grade class about software.  They seem to think that if their friend has a fun computer game that they can just borrow it and also download it to their computer.  Which leads to an interesting conversation of copyright laws for music and software.  

11:30 lunch in the cafeteria

12:05  meeting with Assistant Superintendent and Director of Curriculum and Instruction about learning targets and the future of report cards and assessments 

1:15  check and return emails. 

1:30 back up info on the Tricaster

1:45 walk to the UPS store to send the tricaster off for repair. What a beautiful day to get outside!!! 

2:00 AVI contractors finally come finish my AV installation in the gym and auditorium.  This project was supposed to be completed July 31.  He is very very sarcastic with me and just plain rude. This man made me very very upset earlier in the year. I think many of these contractors forget that we are the customer and we pay them.  His arrogance drives me just makes my blood boil!!!!  Wasn't this project supposed to be completed in July.  

2:15 Help the counselor with her powerpoint presentation

2:30 Help a 4th grade class do research on the new online Alabama Encyclopedia.  It is a fabulous resource and wonderful Alabama History tool for 4th graders!! This makes me remember how much I loved teaching 4th grade.  

3:00 Crosswalk duty which is always an entertaining conversation with 2 11-year olds. Today we discussed Auburn football and Harry Potter.  

3:15 help 1st grade teacher with her Activotes.  Activotes are  little egg shaped remote controls. They allow the students to answer any question the teacher poses.  With the click of a mouse the teacher can then see every kids answer. It really gives every kid a voice, even the kid who never raises his hand.  Wonderful tool that every teacher loves!!

4:00 cut out some die cut letters for character ed sign in the lobby

4:15 check and return emails and head home

So, here is an example of what a day is like.  No two days are alike, but hey it is always that way in education.  

There's camo in my mirror!!

So, I'm driving into work today along Hwy 31 in Vestavia.  I was behind a slow poke in the right lane and like the good driver I am, I put on my blinker and began to move into the left lane to pass this person.  As I moved over, I suddenly noticed a man looking at me in the lane.  OOPS!! I immediatly swerved  back in my lane, caught eyes with the man, waved, smiled, and told the man "sorry, didn't see you."  As he continuted to pass me, I died laughing because this truck was covered from roof to tires in camouflauge.  "I didn't see you, I'm sorry, you seem to blend in with your surroundings" What the heck?!  Camouflage on a truck???  I could just see the police officer's face as I tried to explain to him that I just did not see that truck in my blind spot because he really blended in with his surroundings.  I mean really...

Why in the world would you cover your truck, suv, sedan, whatever, in camouflage????  I mean what is the purpose?  Bambi is not going to see your truck out in the woods and say "Oh no, Bubba is back again, I better go hide."  I can understand wearing camouflage to hunt in because you don't want the deer to see you as you sit for hours in the tree stand.  But why in the world would you feel the need to paint your truck with camouflage??  Does someone actually paint each leaf in detail on the truck or is there some type of wallpaper/wrap material that you apply?

I would of loved to have actually had the opportunity to speak to that man before he pulled into Mark's Outdoors and ask "Why did you paint your truck with camouflage?  I really did not see you!"

Seinfeld, Batman, Roller Coasters, and Pickles

Being a teacher, I recently began freaking out because the beginning of school is just right around the corner. I realized that pretty soon, we could no longer just enjoy the summer and do adventurous things. Ryan and I kept trying to find a weekday to take off work and go to Six Flags, it never worked out so we finally decided that we would have to go over the weekend. I really wanted to do something adventurous on Saturday, but wasn't sure what. 

Friday night we had tickets to see Jerry Seinfeld.  We enjoyed a nice dinner downtown with Ryan and Kelly and headed to Seinfeld.   Jerry was of course hysterical and clean.  His act is so funny. I am still amazed how after so many years of reruns his show is still so successful.   We had  a wonderful evening of laughing and hanging out.  At the end he answered questions from the audience and did some classic lines from the show.  I really wanted him to go on and on, but of course he had to end sometime.

Saturday morning we woke up and I kept telling Ryan I wanted to do something adventurous, but wasn't quite sure what.  After breakfast, we headed off to the Y for our morning exercise.  On the way home we stopped by the library to return some stuff.  When we came outside, we found that my car would not start.  It had a little juice, but not enough to start the engine.  We called OnStar and they sent someone to come out and jump start us, as there really wasn't anyone near us at the time.  We needed gas, but wanted the battery to charge up for a little while, so we first got a car wash since we didn't have to turn off the car.  Well let me just say we spent the next 2 hours trying to get my car fixed and battery replaced.  After we got gas, the car would not start again.  Ryan pushed the car into a parking spot and we walked to Advance Auto Parts.  We didn't quite have the exact adventure I was looking for, but we made some good friends at Advance Auto Parts.

 

That afternoon we went to see the new Batman movie and Jennifer and Mitchell were there too.   It was a great movie.  Yall know I am not much of a movie person, but I thought this movie was great.  Heath Ledger did awesome and of course the whole clown thing made Ryan uneasy!! I recommend him for whatever that award is for movies actors.  I think it is the Oscar, but I'm not really sure, but he was really good as the Joker!!   

Sunday we finally decided to travel to Six Flags!!! We had so much fun!! We hadn't been there since we got married, so we had a blast riding all the new roller coasters.  My fair skinned husband got a little hot throughout the day. He was such a trooper though!!!!  Sorry, we did not feel like carrying a camera around, so we do not have any pictures.  I must say that Goliath was our most favorite roller coaster.  It was so much fun!!!! 

Sunday night I decided to pickle some cucumbers.   So, hopefully in the future we will have some wonderful pickles to share with everyone. I became very fascinated with how easy it is to can things. I realized how easy it was to can practically every vegetable from the garden for us to eat in the future.  I guess if we ever have a natural disaster I will be very prepared.  

Here is a picture of canned banana peppers and some dill pickle slices & spears.

Squash anyone...

Thank you mom, Nanny, and Nanny for showing me how to work in the garden. 

I must say that I have my grandmothers and mom to thank for my green thumb.  There is just something relaxing about digging around and getting some mud and dirt on your hands. 

As you can see from previous posts that I finally convinced Ryan that it was time to build a garden.   We have had a plethora of squash, zucchini, cucumbers, and cherry tomatoes.  I have had to be very very creative because Ryan doesn't really like those vegetables.   Well I found a recipe in this month's Cooking Light for Squash and Corn soup.  Yes, I did say soup.  For those of you that don't know... I LOVE SOUP.  I love it!!!  I think this love was developed in college when every meal had to be cooked in the dorm microwave and soup was just easy. I can eat soup 12 months of the year over and over and over.  I love it!!!  So, I was very excited to find this recipe.  It was really good, very very easy, and Ryan really liked it.  I recommend it to anyone. 

So, I need some help... I have grilled squash, make zucchini bread, steamed squash and zucchini,and made squash soup.  I am completely out of ideas of what else to do with squash and zucchini.  Help..... what else can I do?????

We also cut our first cantaloupe from the garden yesterday. It was good. Not the best tasting cantaloupe. I think I cut it too early, but I guess I'm learning.

 

This gardening thing is pretty fun.  I find it very satisfying to sit at the dinner table and say "hey we actually grew this... for free."   

Now if anyone would like any cherry tomatoes, squash, zucchini, cucumbers, or banana peppers please let me know.