I Would Love This Hat

I was watching Sarah Plain and Tall: Winter's End and saw this cute little bonnet with an attached scarf. It is so cute! It looks like it was crocheted or knitted. I would love to find a pattern for this. I am not sure that I could figure one out myself, but I might try. If anyone knows or has seen this pattern please let me know. I could just see my little Otter in one of these!

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?

Two Older Austen Movies

I have not commented on the last two Jane Austen adaptations, so I thought I would remedy that before tomorrow when the new Sense and Sensibility will start.

First was Pride and Prejudice (1995) with Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth. This is, in my opinion, the best film adaptation of an Austen novel I have ever seen. It follows more closely than any other P&P and if you want to watch it make sure you are prepared! This TV movie takes a whopping 5 hours (or 300 minutes). It is still amazing to me that in 1995 they went to such an extent, but with the new ones we got such short times (Mansfield Park: 88 minutes, Northanger Abbey: 93 minutes). Though I must say that I am not the biggest fan of Colin, he is very good in this movie. When I imagine Mr. Darcy I see Ioan Gruffudd...:big sigh:...anyway

Emma is good as well. The 1996 TV version with Kate Beckinsale and the 1996 Gwyneth Paltrow version are both good and I am not sure at 107 and 121 minutes respectively either can be extremely close to the novel, but I like them. I like that the characters are not cut out or given characteristics that Jane herself did not apply to them. As to which one is closer to the novel itself, I believe I will try to find that out and then I will get back to you.

Butch's Funnies

My second son is normally the funnier of the two guys and he was showing us why again tonight. We were in the van on the way to church when Butch started talking about one time he was "taking care" of Otter. "I was lullabying her to calm her down. I was singing Rocky Top to her."

Pirate Day

Ahoy! thar. This be one o' t' funniest pictures we have o' Otter. She has evidentially been over at Steeple again! I be needin' to put t' wee mate lock on t' keyboard again. Aaarrrrggg!

Kids Say The Funniest Things

Tonight we were talking with the in-laws about the ten commandments and how some people separate the commandments differently. Joe said that he lived by two commandments. Before he could answer what they were Butch said that they were sleeping and eating. How well that little guy knows his Dad!

Reading Level

I got this link from Joe as he posted his own site's reading level. I thought it would be interesting to see how I rank. I was sure that I would be under Joe's level, but I checked it out and...

(My crochet blog lists me as a genius!)

Would You Do This?

I was listening to our local newscast when they showed a story about a teenager in Florida that was being punished by holding a sign. What did he do, you may ask? He was stopped by police for driving 107 MPH in a 55 MPH zone. So for punishment his mother is having him stand outside his school every morning and afternoon to hold up a sign stating, "I was STUPID. I drove over 100 mph and got caught. Thank God! I could have killed me and my friends." If you want to read more here is a link for the story. There is also a video of the local report on the web page. Teenager Shamed Into Slowing Down

Books Galore

It is time for the book lovers to come out and shop! I have learned to love book sales over the past several years after venturing into a local library's book sale. It became a bad habit seeing that we now have so many books that we could line our house in bookcases and have enough books to fill them all! Maybe I exaggerate...but not by much. Well, here is an event for anyone else afflicted with this same problem.

The Friends of the Library in Knox County is having their annual book sale next week. Sunday is a members only sale, then they sale to the public Monday thru Saturday. The event will be held in the Old Convention Center in Downtown Knoxville. Mon-Thurs 11a-7p and Sat 9a-3p. Don't tell Joe, but I will see you there!

Snow Day!

Beautiful blanket of snow

Boy, this tastes good!

I wanna play, too!

Knitters Unite!

I have tried to learn to knit one time. It seems harder for me to pick it up than when I learned to crochet. I am not sure if I just have not spent enough time on my skills or what. Well, Joe showed me a website that puts my skills to shame. If they can do this why can I not knit?
Knitting XXXL

Dogwood Arts House & Garden Show

This weekend is also the Dogwood Arts Festival's House and Garden Show. Today thru Sunday the event will be held at the Knoxville Convention Center from 10am- 8pm on Friday and Saturday, and 11am- 5pm on Sunday. This event has about 200 exhibitors scheduled and it is sometimes just amazing what displays are setup at this show. I have not been since it has been held at the new convention center, but I am sure it is easily able to surpass the past years events. I would love to go and see everything especially the gardening exhibits as I look forward to creating my garden in our backyard.

Sing-A-Long Theatrestyle

I just learned that on Sunday the Tennessee Theatre in Downtown Knoxville will have a Mary Poppins Sing-Along showing (calendar). So not only do you get to sing along to Mary Poppins, but you also get to enjoy the wonderful, beautifully restored Tennessee Theatre. So if you want something to do on Sunday afternoon this sounds like fun to me!

As a sidenote: Events and Tourism is a new label on my blog that I hope will be of interest to anyone either locally or visiting our neck of the woods. I thought it would be nice to show off some of the great things happening here in Knoxville and the surrounding areas.

Another Thing Passed Through Families

Please excuse my short post, but Bubba decided to get sick towards the end of last week. So as he was unhappy being sick by himself he passed it on to me and Otter. Although they were rid of their fevers all day yesterday, I am not quite so lucky. It would probably help if I would rest, but how can a mom do that when taking care of a family (two sick as well)? Perhaps tomorrow will bring me back into better health since they are better now.

Amazing Fonts

I saw someone post a link for a site that will take your font and make it a code so that you can post in cool colors.

Is this cool or what?

So to see more go to:

www.tektek.org/color/

Life Imitating Art

Claude Monet's
Le Jardin de Monet, les iris (The Artist's garden, Irises)



Le front yard de Heather
(my front yard!)

I know that mine are crocus and his are irises, but this is what my yard reminds me of as I drive up each day. These are beautiful little welcomes when you come over to my house.

What Creature Is This?

From our recent zoo trip...


Otter in the water


Otter in a tiger suit

Wild Crocus

Indianapolis

For a couple of days I was in Indianapolis, Indiana while accompanying Joe on a business trip. I went online and looked up several things for my "go see it" list. Unfortunately for me I saw hardly anything while there. I woke the first morning to thick fog, which lasted most of the day. I did get to drive close enough to see the RCA Dome and find a Chick-fil-A to eat lunch at. The second day (and might I add last day) I had to pack up everything and check out of our hotel before noon. I did that then went to the shopping center, that I was less than 1/4 of a mile from when I ate my lunch the day before but could not see through the fog, to await Joe as he finished his last day. Of course my shopping trip was also to keep out of the pouring rain outside. A little localized flooding, you will understand, kept me from venturing downtown.

We headed closer to home after Joe's work was finished and ended up staying in Lexington, KY. I admit that waking up during the wee hours of the morning to strong winds and reports of tornadoes close by was not my idea of fun. I did eventually get to sleep again. When I called my Dad after we returned, he was very glad to hear from me since he knew we were staying in Lexington and heard about the weather there.

This was a trip that was unique in its own little way. Otter and I were glad to have the time with Joe, though. It was nice to keep him company in the evenings and on the drive.

Happy New Year

The Chinese new year is today. This is the year of the RAT! Our scouts will celebrate on the 29th with our Blue and Gold Banquet.

Mansfield Park

Yet another disappointing showing from the newest Jane Austen releases. These really need some better casting, more time and perhaps some better hair styling. I am far from being impressed.

This moves so quickly that I am not sure that you can tell what the relationships are truly suppose to be. There was nothing showing Fanny's friendship with Miss Crawford, her close relationship with her cousin, Edmund, it seems like all the relationships are almost nonexistant since you see so little of the events.

This has always been a little more risque due to the subjects that Ms. Austen writes about (ie. adultery). Luckily they did not show any inappropriate scenes to show this as the last film adaptation did.

Northanger Abbey

I must admit that though this is my least favorite among Jane Austen's novels this film adaptation was not bad. This movie though is one that I do not feel comfortable letting my children watch. One character uses foul language and there is some inappropriate sensual material. It has made me want to read the book to see if it is close to the movie (also to see if some of the inappropriate things are in the novel). At least there is no psychedelic aspects to this version!

Snow!

The first snow of the year has come! Who knows if it will last till morning, but for now it is snowing huge snowflakes. I am excited.

Otter Is Seven Months Old

It is hard to believe that she is so old. She is now crawling around our living room like a pro and boy is she fast! We call her method of crawling "Spiderman". She crawls like he scales a wall.

The New Persuasion

Tonight on Masterpiece Theatre was the start of a Jane Austen Marathon. Persuasion was the first movie played. I must admit to be a little disappointed by this version. It did seem to go a little too quickly and skip over much. I would like to read the book again and watch this again afterwards to better compare. There were several things that bothered me and I feel I must go back and see how well this follows the book. I believe that I will have to watch it again to even attempt to be an impartial judge on the movie by itself (or at least as impartial as I can be). I found myself too many times thinking to myself how I did not recall the book ever following some of these scenes. Some things were scrambled about and seemed to throw the timing off by coming in too early. Perhaps I will think differently after rereading and rewatching Persuasion, but who knows. My first impression might just be correct!

Weird Workings Of The Young Mind

I was in the store the last week when my older son pointed out something he thought I needed. It was a woman's vitamin for 50+. Wow, does he really think I am I that old? I explained that I did not need that and further explained that I was not 50+. His reply... Oh, is that what that means? I just notice women's and advantage. I had no idea what the 50 meant."

This Is For Joe

New Year

Another year has begun when the last seems to have barely passed. We look forward to another year and all the blessings to come. It is also time to reflect on the past year and it's blessings. My biggest blessing in 2007 has been Otter. I cannot begin to describe how much I love my little girl. I have had a busy first week of the new year as I have had a little girl who has been under the weather. It is so hard on me as a Mom when my children are sick, especially one so young as Otter. I am blessed that I have such a little trooper, though. She will still smile and play with us even while feeling poorly. Here is a toast to you all that you will have a blessed new year!

Merry Christmas

Well, today has been a good day. We celebrated at home together then went to see Joe's family. It was a very relaxing day and we had fun seeing everyone. My wish is that you all had a wonderful day with loved ones while celebrating the birth of our Savior!

(The print is called the Knaffl Madonna. This was taken by Joseph Knaffl. The woman is the wife of my great-grandmother's cousin.)

Bright Lights

Wow. Last night I said something I never thought I would hear. "Honey, can you turn the tree back on so I can see to sweep?" Last night we put up our new pre-lit Christmas tree. Well, needless to say it is bright when turned on. I went outside and noticed that I could read what movies and books we have on the bookcases in the living room. That is amazing seeing as the Christmas tree was the only light!

Naturally Powered Tree

I am not sure if you have heard about this, but I heard about it yesterday and knew I had to share. In Japan an aquarium has placed an eel in a tank with two aluminum panels which collects the power and uses it to power their Christmas tree (link). It is quite humorous to think about, but I am now flooded with ideas! I think that Joe and I should create a large pool under the house where we store our eels. How much better for the environment would this be than relying on other ways to create power. This could be the ultimate going green! Of course it is also a great source of food as well! In the summer we could eat a few eels and that way their population is regulated. We would not want an overflow of eels coming from underneath our house.

Christmas pics

Earlier this week I mailed out some Christmas cards with pictures of the kids. It is really hard to get three children to look at the camera as well as smile. Anyway, I picked one that was the best and made cards. I had originally planned to have them wearing casual clothing in red (Bubba), blue (Butch) and green (Otter), but I had taken some pictures of Otter by herself in a red dress and it looked so cute I decided to use it and go more formal when they were together. I also thought I might share pictures of two little girls wearing this same dress. My mom has yet to call and tell me what she thought of the picture on her card (I am wondering if she recognizes the dress?). So here are the pictures I took and one that has a few decades on it.

Christmas Parade

The Mayfield's cow joined in

The scouts being pulled by a dump truck!

How Things Change When You Are A Mother

I was watching an episode of Little House on the Prairie this morning that had me laughing. In this episode Charles and Caroline are going to Mancado (sp?) without the girls on a little holiday while Charles traveled there on business. The original idea was to have a local lady watch the girls, but on the day they planned to leave she got sick. So instead they (by a great accident) left the girls with Mr. Edwards. Oh, that is where the fun began!

He was late in waking up the girls for school the first morning, so they were late. He lost Carrie while doing the laundry, so he tied her to a post with the rope tied around her waist. Then later he and Carrie were walking around and they got close to a rattlesnake. Mr. Edwards shot the snake and as he held it up said, "This looks like enough for four!" That night he cooked snake stew! The older girls did not like it and Laura even tried to feed some of her's to the dog. The dog wouldn't take it! Then that night the girls remember that they forgot to gather eggs, so they head out in the middle of the night (in their gowns in a thunderstorm) to get the eggs. Mr Edwards wakes up with all the chickens clucking and thinks they are chicken thieves so he gets his shotgun. They come in the door and hit him and the gun goes off and blows a hole in the roof. So the next day he is on the roof to repair it when he noticed Carrie gone again. He searches all around and can not find her. He goes inside the house and sits down to try to think where she could be while trying to stay calm. She then peaks out from under the bed and says boo. Next thing you see is the two older girls coming home from school and they see Carrie on the roof with Mr Edwards. They are so frightened and they go running and tell him that Carrie is too young to be up there because she might fall. He said it was alright since he nailed her dress to the roof!

Meanwhile Caroline is in town trying to not worry and talk about the children. She keeps hearing things that make that impossible. First a woman comes in the store where they are shopping. She is looking for her family. Caroline tells the shopkeeper she hopes she finds them, but the lady said she won't. She tells the story about how the woman lost her family. The children died in a fire from an electrical storm. She was immediately upset and they left without making their purchases. Then that evening they go to see a show at the theater. It was about abandoned daughters. Their mother said that she was leaving them because she wanted a life, she did not love them, etc. Caroline was bawling so they had to leave early. She and Charles were talking on the way home (a day early, too) about how they never had these problems on their first honeymoon.

It just reminds me how different things are now than before the children came along. Now our discussions are more along the lines of what is happening at school, the new things the baby is doing, household things. Sometimes I wonder if we would have anything to talk about if it weren't for the children. I guess that we are sometimes led to believe that that is wrong. As parents they are our first concern. Their welfare is our first responsibility. I know that there are times that we need to think about our relationship and keeping it alive and healthy. I think that I just learned not to think badly of myself for thinking of three of the biggest parts of our life together. Joe and I have had many things change in our life together in the time we have been together. We are older and hopefully wiser. We now have three children, a home, and many more responsibilities. How can I imagine that trying to separate three of the biggest parts of that life from our time alone as a couple is damaging to our relationship. That can also be a way to build a stronger relationship. All aspects of our relationship together are what we need to work on to build a stronger relationship. Leaving one area alone is like letting one part of the body wither away while helping the rest of the body grow strong. It will only weaken the body as a whole no matter how strong the rest of the body is. I encourage you all to ignore the common thoughts that we have learned and remember to embrace all the blessings in your life because they make you who you are. All the good and bad are what have shaped you into who you are today. We learn from the bad, laugh during the good, but most importantly we should always praise the Lord in everything!