This morning

I absolutely love mornings with the girls. If there is one part of the day where they are prone to get along more so than any other, it is the morning. I don't know what it is about morning that makes them sweeter, cuddlier, and happier, but I like it. When I came down the steps this morning, this is what I saw...

The thing is, this is "Hannah's couch." She lays here day in and day out when she watches TV and she rarely shares. But, here they were this morning, laying together, very content, watching cartoons.

My heart has officially been stolen...

Norris Lake Part III (finally and kinda long)

So, on our last day of our fabulous trip to Norris Lake Tennessee, we spent the day "hiking." But, by "hiking", I mean walking some pretty easy trails through the trees. Hannah had just suffered her concussion the night before, so we had to take it light. First we visited the dam...

Then we "hiked" some trails...

We stopped in several places to take some pictures...

(You can see Hannah's wounds in this picture)

After the hike, Hannah needed a nap (and we all needed lunch), so we went back to the cabin for rest and food and light reading...(that's In Touch she is looking at)...

We went out to eat at a local Mexican restaraunt that didn't serve Margaritas...

And ended the night by roasting marshamallows...

As I have said before, the trip was awesome and made even more so by going with Jo Ann and Brian. I look forward to taking many more trips like this in the years to come.

Our View

All we had to do to see this view was to walk out our back door onto our back porch and take in all this glorious nature:

I pieced together 3 pictures for my "panoramic" view. You can tell that one picture's exposure doesn't match the others, but I think you still get the idea. I could have included one more picture, but that exposure was way off. I really did enjoy stepping out our back door, lounging on our back porch in rocking chairs, and taking in the views of the lake and the hills (or mountains as Ray liked to call them).

Look who visited me!

After our freak hurricane in Ohio last Sunday afternoon, Vickie went without power for days (as of Thursday she still didn't have power). On Wednesday, she needed to do some work and needed internet access so she came over to my house (since I didn't have to go in) and brought this cute little guy with her!

We spent several hours together and had lots of fun. He laughs and smiles and coos. Soon, he will be a toddler getting into mischief, but for right now, he's just a sweet, innocent little boy who loves to cuddle and to just simply hang out.

Even Emily enjoys having Aaron around. She was so excited to see him when she got off the bus that she hung out with him for a time in the living room while I was getting dinner ready.

I do have to say, though, that by having Aaron with me all afternoon, I now no longer crave having another child (not that getting pregnant is even an option for me). Hannah and Emily are so independent right now and play so well with each other (for the most part) and have their friends, that I'm not sure I'd ever want to give up this new-found freedom I have. So, I have to thank Vickie for curing me of that! Now, if I could just figure out a way to stop longing to be pregnant...;-)

Not quite part 3

I'm still working on getting around to posting the pictures from our last day at Norris Lake, but I wanted to share a scrapbook page I made today about our trip (I really should have been grading papers and whatnot, but when I'm craving some scrapbooking time, I must give in). I went "shopping" for digital scrapbook supplies and came across this template by one of my favorite scrapbookers, Ali Edwards.

It was super easy to use. The hardest part was trying to decide which pictures to use, but I think it adequately sums up the fun we had while riding in the boat that day.

Hope you like it.

Norris Lake in Three Parts Part II

Our first full day at Norris Lake found us at the Marina where we rented a 10 person ski boat and tube. We spent the entire day on the lake.

We left at 8 a.m. and found the lake to be as smooth as glass. It was a bit chilly to dive in, so we rode around for a little while checking out the scenery.










After a while, Jo Ann decided she was ready to go. Hannah decided to join her.




The water was surprisingly warm...almost like taking a bath. After watching Jo Ann and Hannah tube and subsequently crash, the rest of us took turns riding the tube (see slide show below for pictures of our tubing adventures).

We decided to call it quits around 4:30. That's when the fun stopped because shortly after that was Hannah's accident. I have rehashed this event so many times, I don't want to do it again. But, for those of you who don't know, she fell while running down a hill and landed face/head first onto the concrete. It knocked her out--literally. She wasn't moving at all. (Big sigh right here; this part is hard for me) Brian swooped in, picked her up, and carried her to the cabin where Ray joined in. She had amnesia. We went to Children's Hospital in Knoxville by ambulance (45 minutes away) where we learned she had suffered a Grade 2 concussion. It took several hours, but her memory finally returned. Good news is she needed no stitches and suffered very little. She was almost her old self by the next morning.

So, I think it's an understatement to say that our first full day at Norris Lake was adventurous; one I will never forget. But, that's just the way life is...you have to take the good with the bad and all together it makes a life worth living.

Tubing on Norris Lake