Monday, June 29, 2009

Titanic Coming to Pigeon Forge Spring 2010











I know sounds impossible, right? Believe me it is not. I have the pictures to prove it. In the midst of Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, a replica of the Titanic ship is being built. This is not true to size but pretty doggone big. One will be able to walk the grand staircase and experience many of the things on board the Titanic. Imagine if you will, you were on Titanic's maiden voyage.
Here is a list of a few things you will be able to do.
  • Walk Titanic’s Grand Staircase
  • Touch the frozen surface of an “iceberg”
  • Feel the chill of that fateful “Starry Night
  • Study some of the largest, most detailed Titanic models ever built
  • Grip the ship’s wheel and follow the Captain’s commands
  • Tour world-class galleries and the rare historical artifacts they hold
  • Sit in a Titanic lifeboat and listen to actual survivors tell their stories
  • Send an SOS from the Marconi Wireless Room
  • Test their balance while standing on mini-decks built to show the ever-steeper slope of Titanic as she sank
  • Watch children six years and younger explore the special interactive Titanic Tot Play-and-Learn Room
  • Dive to Titanic’s wreck site via spectacular underwater camera footage

Gage went through a phase a couple years back when he was on a kick about the Titanic. This was great for me, great history for him to learn. We cannot wait to go back and visit this attraction.

Here is the website if you want to check out the facts about this museum being built. http://www.titanicpigeonforge.com/
Teresa








Thursday, June 25, 2009

Camden Park




Today Gage went here with my SIL and her 2 kids. I will just call them M&M's. They are 6 and 8 years old and so love this place. Gage is a little beyond this but he does love going with them, and they always have a good time.





Camden Park is located in Huntington, West Virginia. It is a small amusement park with very small rides but still a pretty good place to take kids. It is basically 1 of the only things we have to do in this area. Many of the rides are old, especially the Big Dipper. This is a wooden roller coaster that is around 50 years old, and is 1 of the oldest in the world. People do travel here to ride this ride. Coaster enthusiasts love it since it is an old, wooden coaster. All I can say is when you are waiting in line and look at this ride, it does not look safe, and you tell yourself, I am sure they check it, RIGHT?


Here is a you tube video of the Big Dipper. I hope it plays. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxZHpW6SXLQ




Not only do they have the Big Dipper, they have a Haunted House. It is not scary to say the least, but I can remember as a child thinking about how scary this was. Here is the video, as you can see, nothing but darkness, not much to see. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xe_oJyDeRa4

The people in these videos are not my family, just random people some guy filmed and put these videos on You Tube.


Now I will not have any pictures of this day since I am here working. I will not have any cotton candy since I am here working. I will not have any corn dogs (and they do have the best), well they are called Pronto Pups, since I am here working. But it is also pouring the rain today so I am thinking they are getting pretty wet right now, but I would still have liked to have been there, making memories with MY BIGGEST LITTLE MAN, but I am here working, well supposed to be but actually working on this post.

Many of you who are now far away can tell friends and family you have rode The Big Dipper and The Haunted House at Camden Park in Huntington, WV.

Gotta run, I hear Aidan on the monitor.

Teresa

P.S. I craved those Pronto Pups when I was pregnant with Aidan. We would take Gage to Camden Park just so I could eat Pronto Pups.

Parking Greeter

Ever been greeted by a parking greeter who looks like this?


And their clothes look like that,

I am sure many parking greeters have felt like this before, huh?

Didn't think so. This is our scarecrow. I think the hat came from a second hand store, and the shirt, well I think it is 1 of my husband's old work shirts with the name and logo torn off. I don't think the federal government would want that posted on the internet. Oops, did I say my husband worked for the federal government? Let's skip that part.
Remember a while back I posted about the scarecrow. Well, he is actually in front of where my mom's new house will be. I guess we will be losing him or moving him as I am sure they do not want to look out their windows to see him. He is pretty scary when the corn is tall and the wind is rustling the corn. I don't think he has ever actually came off this pole, at least I hope not. I am pretty sure he is fixed pretty tight on there. Now does he do his job? No!! The crows eat our corn as soon as it comes through the ground. I think this is actually the 1st year they have left it alone, and I am not quite sure why. Maybe he does come off the pole. Normally we have tin pans tied on strings and all around the garden to keep the deer and crows away, and still does not work. Yes, we do have a dog, but she just lays on the front porch and watches them. It is just too hot according to her.

Teresa

Groundbreaking Ceremony

The footer for the house is dug.




Before the footer.






Her house will also contain 1 of these, as we love porches around here in the country.
Wow, Wordless Wednesday was hard for me as I always have so much too say. I logged in several times to do another post but tried to remain at my word. Aidan and I both have little colds so that is annoying both of us right now and I did think about posting late last night but I was so ready for bed with my head all congested and with little sleep from the night before.
Did we hold an actual groundbreaking ceremony, well no, but we should have. My mom and I and Aidan worked so hard yesterday helping with this. If you notice the 2 chairs in the picture, well those are ours. And Gage, well he swam the entire time to stay cool. The only thing we basically did was make sure the guys stayed hydrated and I cooked supper for them. In the next few days we hope to have a tent for the yard to keep the bugs off of us and to give us some shade.
Yesterday we started the groundbreaking on my mom's house on our farm. This will be a smaller house for her and my dad with less to take care of, plus they will next to us and this will make babysitting a breeze for me and her. She is very excited and we cannot wait to pick out all the new stuff for the house. I am going to post all the different stages of this house, and we are sure hoping it does not take too long. You see, she has a girl already trying to buy her house, and if the bank comes through, voila, they are outer there and going to have to move in with me. For months I have been telling her to try to be getting rid of things she really doesn't need, and she has.
Teresa




Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Wordless Wednesday


Well almost wordless. How do you know you need a break from blogging, when you are up at night around 2:35 a.m. and your mind is racing about things to blog about. So today, I take a little break and leave you with this.

Teresa

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Gatlinburg, Tennessee

The Mansion itself with a hearse in front of it.

Why can they never take a good picture without being crazy faced and all?





Not sure why I am smiling, I think just glad to be out!

I always like to go to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and actually wish we had stayed there instead of Pigeon Forge, that is until we get there with the bumper to bumper traffic and all the people. I think it must have been 105 degrees there on Saturday. There are no shades and all the cars make it feel so much hotter than it probably actually is. Many of the shops have their doors open to attract customers so we would dart in and out to try to stay cool and keep Aidan cool. At 1 point his little cheeks were so red we knew we had to get out of this place. The only thing we could think was to feed him some ice cream to cool him off, and that we did. I know, I know, ice cream to a 17-week old baby, well it was just a little and I chose the raspberry sorbet for him. He loved it! Imagine that, a baby liking ice cream. He kept it down and really gave him no problems.

We had so much planned to do in Gatlinburg but I think since we all just about stroked out, we forgot about all of our plans. We did manage to go to Mysterious Mansion, and it was pretty fun, well scary to say the least. The lady at the desk told us they had this haunted house up to #5 in the United States for scaring people. I know I am 35 years old and know all this was wake, but there is something about being in a house you know nothing about with complete strangers jumping out to scar you in complete and utter darkness. I am not very up with that. I think I screamed the entire way through this place. It was completely dark, had no clue which way to go and they made me got 1st with Gage crammed completely into me and my sister taking up the back. I think at 1 point we were all hugged around each other. Gage kept walking on my shoes and I knew any minute I was going to leave this place barefoot. At 1 point I did contemplate taking the emergency exit because I was so done with this place. Needless to say after all the screaming I did, my throat was pretty sore and my heart was racing. And no, we did not take Aidan inside for this. Darrell stayed outside with him and they took a breather by the stream that runs in front of this house.

I have been to the Ripley's Haunted House before, and this place is so much better. So the next time you are in Gatlinburg, tour the Mysterious Mansion. I am sure you will like it.
Teresa

Monday, June 22, 2009

Vacation Means Good Eatin'


I always look forward to eating at new restaurants when on vacation, and this was no exception, but the 1 thing I really like is fudge, and in what seemed to be everywhere I turned this weekend was The Fudgery. I knew if I got this stuff, I would eat and eat it, that is 1 reason I always delay making it at home. I just cannot pass it up. The 1st day I made it but we had just had ice cream.
The 2nd day while shopping at the outlet malls (I love these!!), I decided we would buy some. We picked out 2 kinds, rocky road and vanilla, and then the girl said if you buy 1 more you get 1 free. Free, well that was good enough for me. So we ended up with vanilla, rocky road, cookies n' cream and peanut butter and chocolate mixed (chocolate on the outside with a twist of peanut butter running through the middle). We started with just a few pinches here and there and then bigger pieces, and by the time my shopping was over, I felt like I had a major sweet fix going on and oh was I thirsty. Needless to say we munched on this fudge the entire trip home. I kept wondering if a pound of fudge would make you gain a pound of weight. I was kind of worried about that as I had sure eaten a lot of this fudge. By the time we got home, no fudge left except for the Cookies n' Cream, and I think Gage sneaked it for breakfast this morning. We NEVER eat junk food for breakfast here, NEVER I SAY.
This taste of fudge only leaves me wanting to make more, but we are going to skip. I have to get these last baby pounds off, and I am almost certain this is not going to happen if I keep eating fudge.
By the way did I mention the fudge was right at 30 bucks. I think Darrell just about freaked cause I know I did when she said how much it was. I justified it by saying, you know fudge is expensive to make, and he just looked at me like, yeah right!
Teresa


They're Everywhere!!

Literally, they were everywhere we went. No one wants to go on vacation to only have someone constantly hassling you about buying a resort or timeshare. Everywhere we went, there were booths or people constantly asking how long we were going to be in town, what were we doing, would we like 75 dollars. Well yes, who would not like 75 dollars, but not at the cost of going to watch a promo for a certain resort, who shall rename nameless. I am not quite sure about mentioning their name on here and legal issues. This got real annoying, to the point that we were literally just walking out the doors of places and ignoring these people. They just would not shut up.

We finally make it in a place to eat with no hassle. I will mention here it was Cracker Barrel. Our waiter seemed very friendly, well almost to the point of annoying. I literally thought he was going to just sit down and eat our meal with us. We could not even eat without him talking to us. We could not even carry on conversation with our family without him talking to us. He just kept coming back and coming back. Eventually he said he had moved there from South Carolina and started working initially for unnamed resort company. Well, that explains it all. He definitely missed his calling and needs to go back to working for unnamed resort company and leave his job as a waiter. My sister kept looking at him like he was crazy, and yes, I think he might very well be close.

Needless to say, they're everywhere. I felt like I would come home and 1 of these people would great me at my door. This is where i SCREAM!!!!!

Teresa

Weekend Road Trip

Pretty tired this morning but loving our trip. You see, on Friday on a spur of the moment, I decided we would head to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, which is only about 5 hours from where we live. We packed hurriedly and headed on our way. We got back late last night and with so much to do, dirty laundry, bottles and unpacking, plus rocking my baby is his rocking chair that he so desperately missed, I had no time to blog. I have so much to blog about, the kids riding the go-karts, the hot, hot weather, feeding Aidan ice cream, the haunted house and so much more, I will have to do this a little later today, so keep checking back.

Teresa

Friday, June 19, 2009

Thank You Lord For Your Many Blessings!

I have read so many blogs of people with sick babies, babies who do not live and many other cases. I want to take this time to thank the Lord for my 2 healthy children. I love these children and want that to be known.

Teresa

Please Pray For Stellan

Head on over to www.mycharmingkids.net and read his updates. Stellan is back in the hospital. Please pray for his family and this little guy.

Teresa

What We Did Late Last Night

























After all the rushing around this week, even with laundry still to do, bottles to be made, we had to take some time to relax. I have to make an effort to try not to forget I have another child at home and he needs my attention. Babies take up a lot of your time, but I always want Gage to know I love him beyond words and he will always be my baby no matter how big or how old he is. I can still remember the very moment I laid eyes upon him when he was born. He has grown so much and even this last year began to look more mature and older out of his face. I hate that he is losing his baby face look.





After we got home, he wanted to swim as he loves to swim at night. We decided a fire in the fire pit would be great, so we did this, and ate Smores. We love these. We did have to compromise a bit as we had no Hershey bars. I did have an old candy kit from Easter to make chocolate suckers out of so we used the white chocolate in that kit, and they were actually pretty good. Marshmallows, graham crackers and white chocolate. Not sure about you guys, but I always burn my marshmallows. Love them that way. My family thinks I crazy when I do this. By the way, Aidan only ate his hands. He thinks they taste pretty good.

We had a great little family evening to end a busy week. I encourage you all to enjoy time with your family and try to not sweat the small stuff.

Teresa

Childhood Memories







Wow, what a whirlwind week. We have been so busy with work, the kids and yes, Vacation Bible School. It is a pleasure at the end of the week to see all the children do their little skits and sing their songs. Thursday was the last night and the church always plans a family night with food and funflatables for the kids to jump in. They all love this.






I did not get a chance to get many pictures this week. It is pretty difficult with taking care of 16-week old baby and helping with 3 to 5-year-old children.






I can remember as a child going to VBS and getting cookies and Kool-Aid to drink. This was a highlight for me. Times have definitely changed. We give these kids pretty much full meals every night, and so many more activities than when I was small. Plus, not to mention the last day with all the goodies and the funflatables. What more could a child want?






I pray that through this week something was instilled in these children's hearts and mind that they may take this with them throughout their life.




Teresa

Thursday, June 18, 2009

What You Might Find Down a Country Road























































Driving down a country road. Should be the title to a country song, huh? Well, maybe not. You see, I have strived for a road like this, gravel on the sides and grass growing in the middle. Many people want the pavement, but me, I like this, well except when it rains or in the winter and you get mud with grass growing in the middle. Needless to say, we have been about 4 years getting this road to this point, and another part still does not have the grass in the middle and seems to have more mud puddles. Anyway, where does this lead you? It leads you here, and once you are here, you might find these things. You see, I like junk. Another person's trash is someone else's treasure. To me, these are good things. We have an old claw foot tub, actually about 4, numerous old doors and screen doors, old beds and sinks and even an old piece of farm equipment. This piece of farm equipment was actually here when we moved here and we just kept it. Here are some pictures of the garden, small to say the least. If you look closely you can see our scarecrow, which does look pretty scary right now, but really does not do the job. He is wearing an old baseball hat and an old dress shirt of my husbands. Pretty torn and tattered now.

Wow, just gave me the idea to get a closeup shot of him, ran all the way down there, yes ran (used to be my past time before I got pregnant, my form of physical exercise), to only turn the camera on, get ready to snap and the camera screen was flashing, no memory card. Oh crap, yes crap. I left it in the computer. Oh well, maybe another day I can just concentrate on Mr. Scarecrow and tell you how scary he is when the corn is high and the wind is blowing in the fall and rustling the leaves. Right out of a Children of the Corn movie. I did run all the way back, guess that is my exercise for the day.

The picture of the house was taken from the main road this morning. We are actually pretty far from it, and this is the only clearing we have in the summer that allows people to see us, and us to see them, the way we like it on the farm.
I have neglected to show you the garage inside, a little embarassed, because I have so much stuff stored in there for future use, hopefully when I get the time.
Teresa



































Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Orange-Flavored Baby Food, What?





Last night late my husband decided we needed some groceries, and we really did. I made a list, wrote down all the necessary things with strict orders to not just buy junk food. I wrote down baby food and told him and wrote down orange-colored foods in the 1st food stages. I told him carrots, sweet potatoes, squash plus get more applesauce. When we came home he had chicken baby food. I immediately let him know Aidan could not eat this yet. He replied with it is 1st foods, I said, "yes, but not just yet." I asked where the other stuff was, carrots, squash and sweet potatoes. He said he did not get any, and by the way, he could not find any orange-flavored baby food. I know he must have gotten 1 of my signature looks of "what in the world are you talking about." He said he looked and looked for orange-flavored baby food and could not find any, and thought it might be a little too strong for Aidan to eat right now. He even said the woman at Wal-Mart said there was no such thing as orange-flavored baby food. I immediately reminded him I said orange-colored baby food and told him the different kinds to get.

I can just picture this as an Amelia Bedelia moment. Not sure if you have read any of her stories, but there is 1 in particular where she is babysitting and feeding the baby food. When she makes baby food, she makes baby hamburgers and stuff that is small in size, not something the baby can actually eat. You could get the book


I know this is just another classic example of how different men and women are. This would be like sending me to a hardware store to get a specific nail or tool (well actually I could do that as I have before), but you get the picture. Men and women have a different agenda, and I guess the orange-flavored baby food would have been junk food for Aidan.


Just a thought, maybe I could get Darrell an apron and hat like Amelia Bedelia had. By the way, these are great books. Check them out on www.amazon.com, and get some.


Teresa

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Swinging Bridges and Farmhouses











Life on the farm, as we call it, is pretty peaceful. I always sit and work with my window open, gives me the feeling of being outside. About 4 years ago my decided to build a house. My father-in-law had purchased this property and told us he would give us some of the land and we could build there. We immediately jumped on this. I only had 2 requests, red roof with a wrap-around porch, and this is what he chose. I do like this house but it is way to big even for a family of 4. We are on the only house here for about 70 acres. This property had no bridge and the people who lived here before just drove through the creek. Yes, you heard me right, drove through the creek, well when it was low. Otherwise, they used this swinging bridge. I have walked across this many times since living here, but at this moment this bridge is in poor condition, and I would not attempt to cross unless a raving maniac was after me. I would love to get this repaired but it is very expensive to do and with needing so many more things I just don't think that would be a good decision. Now, we do have a car bridge now, and I am oh so thankful for this. We too drove through the creek a few times. The water would only be about 2 or 3 inches on your tires. Otherwise, if the water was too high, we drove around was used to be an old mining road and actually drove down to our house. I could tell you some stories about coming down this road in bad weather, but I just don't have the time. You see, I am supposed to be transcribing right now as we speak. Gosh, I have to get more disciplined. I am definitely losing my discipline right now.








Here are pics of our house and of the swinging bridge.





Teresa

Rice, Poop and Marriage




Figured this would catch your attention. It seems to me that every time I feed Aidan his rice cereal in the morning, about half way through this he starts to poop. This baby is real dramatic when he poops and has been since he was born and just a little thing. His face is blood red, straining to the point his lips turn white, really concentrating, fists drawn in front of him. All I can say is somebody give this baby a magazine.

Now I started to offer you a visual of his face this morning covered with rice cereal and him straining, but the batteries in my camera were dead, and I seem to never have it when I need it. I do have a few pictures to share this morning of my 2 sons.
Head on over to www.mycharmingkids.net and read her last post. She talks about struggles during her marriage, and she so puts things into perspective for many of us. We all tend to pick out the negative things about our spouse or family and friends, and dwell on that, and we really should concentrate on their good qualities. I too know this all too well. We as women think men can read our minds. My husband tells me all the time, you have to tell me to please pick up the laundry. He says he just never really even thinks about it. I have been trying to not focus on all the negative stuff too becuase I know there are many times when I am not the perfect wife, but when you do take divorce out of the equation and know that is not an option, you have to try to make things work. I love my husband, and with Father's Day coming up (hope you guys had not forgotten about your fathers), the boys and I are planning a celebration for him.

Teresa




Monday, June 15, 2009

Twenty-One Gun Salute







I talked about how busy we were this weekend so I thought I would just do a few pics from the weekend. I talked about the funeral of our friend and how he was a Veteran. I did neglect to mention about the 21-gun salute. I do do pictures of this too. Now I am not sure if you have ever seen this, I had never. It has a way of bringing things into perspective. Imagine if you can, many people crowded onto a hillside with a group of men and women with guns standing in a straight line. There is 1 man with a bugle and 1 who does all the commands. These men and women are well choreographed in their maneuvers and in time with each other. Now remember, we are all on a small hillside. I never imagined this would be so loud. As Aidan lay in his daddy's arms sleeping, the 1st shot rang out. Immediately his eyes flew open and he was screaming. Keep in mind this is a 21-gun salute, 7 people fire 3 times, so they were not finished. His daddy rushed as far as away with him as he could as the proceeding shots rang out. After the shots were finished, all you could hear on a quiet, peaceful hillside was my screaming baby and I think another little girl who was crying. I never imagined this would be so loud and scary, but it was. I am going to post the pics that show how evident it was that it was scary. The picture is blurry and that is because it scared me too death.
Teresa







Let Freedom Ring!!


Wow, what a busy weekend. I cannot believe we are already back to the work week. I think we should reverse this schedule, have the week for the weekend and then only work 2 days on the weekend. Any takers?


We were so busy with getting caught up from working so many days without a day off, and then the viewing and funeral of our beloved friend and fellow brother in Christ. This man was a Veteran of the Korean War. At his funeral yesterday the Veterans were there for the 21-gun salute and presentation of the flag. A flag covered his coffin in the chapel and as it lay on the hill at the cemetery. It was a great honor to watch the Veterans fold this flag and present this to his wife, and salute her. Tears filled my eyes as I thought of all the young men and women who have lost their lives for this country. How many spouses, children, mothers and fathers have been left behind.


The Veterans asked us all to remember why we are able to stand here this day in peace and have all the privileges we have, the American Soldier. We seem to forget this easily as we go throughout our lives. We take this freedom for granted.


As yesterday was Flag Day, take time to remember our Veterans, our current soldiers and their families. Tell them how much you appreciate them and what they have given and are giving to us.

God Bless America!
Teresa

Friday, June 12, 2009

Almost Forgot







I forgot to mention the Valentine's Cookies. We also got these today at the close-out store. They have shelves and shelves of these cookies with either Christmas, which I felt was probably way out of date, The Simpson's, which I felt were not appropriate, or The Valentine Cookies. You get 24 of these for 1.99, and they are usually at least that for each cookie. We got the entire box for VBS next week. They still feel fresh, and you know how kids are, they usually waste them for the most part. MckMama showed us that when her son's decorated cookies.

Also, I mentioned how hungry Aidan always is. I have started him on baby food, rice cereal with a jar of applesauce in the morning after his 1st bottle, and then in the eveing he usually eats some sort of the 1st vegetables. Now this evening, he was just not that into the sweet potatoes. I wanted to get his picture, but did not have enough hands. I mean he screamed and cried tears until the bottle came his way. He actually spit the sweet potatoes out, and here is the proof. I love this bib from Baby Gap. I hope it comes clean. Did I mention I love the Baby All. I love the smell and it seems to do a good job on all his messes, not to mention not too harsh on his skin. I have switched over to the All Clear dryer sheets also, and love these. They have no perfume smell and I like that. I have even been washing all of our clothes and sheets in Baby All but I think I am also going to switch us over to the All Clear Liquid Detergent.

Now the last thing I wanted to mention was this Little Golden Book. Yes, I know it is another book, but like I said, we love these, especially Little Golden Books. I had these as a child, and had this exact book. My mom still has it. Gage's favorite Little Golden Book was The Poky Little Puppy, and we have that.
I am not sure how many posts I will get next week since VBS starts on Sunday. It is pretty hectic working and going to VBS in the evenings, but I am hoping to blog about all the fun we will be having at VBS. Please pray for us that we might instill something wonderful in these little children's mind. Please pray for a lot of help, nice weather and lots of patience on our part.
Teresa

P.S. I am not sure what is the deal with my pictures not being straight. Anyone have any suggestions. I tried to rotate.




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