Cades Cove Pictures

These are some of the wonderful views in Cades Cove. It is a wonderful place to visit. These are all pictures from this past weekend.

Weekend Camping

After a weekend of camping I am still tired. I have not unloaded the vehicle yet, so I will have to come back later and edit the post to give more information as well as some pictures. Hold your breathe and I will be back later with more morsels!

Update:

Friday we went up to Cades Cove for a weekend of camping with the Cub Scouts. We spent the evening setting up camp then sitting around the campfire. Our leader made a chocolate cherry cobbler. It was very good! It was also great when we went to sleep with the wind blowing through the trees. It was so relaxing.


On Saturday we woke and prepared for a hike to Abrams Falls. I strapped Otter to my back and we set off on our hike. We had been concerned about the thunder and gray clouds earlier in the morning, but it cleared away for a great day. We made several stops as they tracked the locations on the GPS, then we made it to the falls. It has been many years since I have seen the falls, so it was nice to see it again. On the trail we also saw three deer. They got as close as four feet from me (I was in the back end of the line).


Later that evening we went on a hayride through the loop. We were excited to see lots of wild turkey and over 70 deer (all the older kids around middle school age were counting). We were especially hoping to see a bear. Early on in the ride there was a large group of people standing in one area, some with binoculars, saying they had spotted a bear. None of us saw one. When we got to the other end of the loop from that location we saw another large crowd. This time we did see the bear! I did not get a clear picture, but I will share a picture anyway. Otter enjoyed her first hayride, but fell asleep towards the end.


The rain and bad weather held out until after we left on Sunday. We were blessed with a good time and good weather. The three of us had a wonderful time. I must say that if we all go camping together as a family we will defiantly need a bigger tent!

Soccer Practice

Ridiculous

I saw a news article that just had "ridiculous" written all over it! A Nashville paper covered a story from Baltimore. Here is the link. A nursing mother was summoned for jury duty. She wrote a letter asking to be excused because...duh, she is NURSING an infant child. She was denied her request and when she failed to show was held in contempt of court, looking at a possible fine and jail time. Are you kidding me? When did our society decided that mothers who are home taking care of children deserve such little respect.

I must say that luckily the only time I was called in for jury duty there was a judge with some common sense. I was also called into court to answer as to why I failed to respond to my summons. I had in fact written a letter to the judge explaining that I had two children (I believe they were between 1 to 3 yrs old), no one to care for them as well as a few other reasons. Evidently several letters had been misplaced around the same time in his office. There was a group of about 15 people called into a back room together where he questioned us all. When I went in I made sure that I took the guys in with me. I told him of my letter and stated "these are part of my reasons" and he excused me. I am not saying that I never would serve on jury duty, but I would hope that they would accommodate a stay at home mother to small children.

Also, I believe that there are some trials that should not have women jurors. Take for example a local case we have. There was a young couple who were kidnapped, tortured, raped and murdered. All of the details have not been released, partially for reasons of the disgusting and graphic nature. It was a horrible event that took place and something that I think that we should protect woman and children from seeing or hearing about. Some things are so detestable and immoral in nature that we should shield these horrors from women and children, not willingly expose them to it.

Survivor Follies

Last night was quite amusing as we sat and watched Survivor. Many weeks ago the immunity idol was found by Ozzy and he quickly made a fake idol to hide in it's place. Later another member found it and thought it was the real idol. Last night Eliza was at the tribal council knowing that she was the intended target. I was puzzled at her smugness in light of her knowledge (and even her attempts to try to sway others by stating that they should have learned from the past to keep the people you don't like to the end) until she mentioned ,in the diary style interview before the meeting, that Jason had given her the immunity idol! Joe and I could not contain our laughter. They truly believed that it was the real idol and she actually was foolish enough to play it! The look on her face when she learned the truth was so amusing! It made my evening!

Update On The River Rescue

We had a good day at the River Rescue on Saturday. Dreary, rainy weather was threatening all morning, but held off until after the cleanup was finished. We had thirteen people total from our group, 4 adults, 6 Boy Scouts, 2 Cub Scouts and 1 Otter. If you notice the large pile in the picture you will see we collected quite a bit of trash for our small section of waterfront. We were also filthy from the muddy conditions from our recent rains, but they were all proud of their work.

Sense and Sensibility

Ahh...finally! I was so pleased to see the 2008 version of Sense and Sensibility.

Although, it could expand further on a few characters, I was pleased to see several of the characters that were left out of earlier adaptations coming out of the woodworks. The casting seems to have been much better as well. I was glad to see that Elinor was no longer looking closer to her mother's age(40) than her 19 years (Emma Thompson who played the role in the 1995 version was 36 years old at the release of the film, hardly looking like the 19 year old Elinor should!)

There were several parts that I had quite forgotten about, but after doing some quick glances at the book found were indeed in the novel. I had forgot about Edward's visit to the cottage, Willoughby's visit to Allenham, and the duel. There were also some scenes added in, which is expected. The most troubling was the start of the film. It was to show the seduction of the ward of Col. Brandon's. Jane Austen alluded to the events, but never more than second hand accounts.

Overall I am quite pleased with this version. It follows more closely to the novel and does not pass over as much as earlier works. This is now added to the list of my favorite movies!

Historic Homes Tour

If you would like to take a tour of six historic homes in Knoxville, have I got something just for you! The tours are at 9am and 1pm and are three hours long. There are two tours you can take. The first is James White Fort, Ramsey House, and Marble Springs. The second is Blount Mansion, Mabry-Hazen House, and Crescent Bend. This is right up my alley, too bad I will be busy during this time tomorrow. If you would like more information you can go to the Knox Heritage website.

Ijam's River Rescue

Tomorrow we (our Boy Scout Troop) will be on the banks of the Tennessee River helping to clean the garbage that collects on the banks. This is an annual event hosted by Ijams Nature Center and many other sponsors. They take a 50 mile shoreline and section it up and assign each group to an area. This is a great way for the boys to see how the trash that is thrown out adds up. Most people think, "Oh, it is just a little bottle. It won't make much difference." It all adds up along with the huge things that are also found: ie. tires, barrels. If you would like to get involved come and join us!

Soccer Mom?

I had always thought that I would never have the label "Soccer Mom." I was around soccer fields as a young girl since my older brother played, but I never took to the sport very much. Well, this week that all changed in our family. Bubba was asked to fill in for the rest of the season for the school team, as one of their players was injured and would be unable to play until the season was over. He seemed very excited, so here I am now staying over after school for soccer practice and tonight is his first game. This will be interesting. So here we are entering the world of school sports. Where will we go from here?