Great Smoky Mountains National Park

The little angels posing in the creek that runs along the side of the road as you drive into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
And the posing is over....

Gatlinburg Go Carts

When we were getting ready to leave Grandma and Grandpa's house this year I said to Adrian, "Let's go home through Gatlinburg and let the kids play."





Or maybe he had the idea and said, "Let's go home through Pigeon Forge and stop at the Great Smoky Mountain Knifeworks."





Either way we decided that the other one was brilliant so we said bye bye beach and hello mountains.



After a quick stop at the welcome center we headed to the knife works. Any of you that know Harrison know that he has a thing for knives. And swords. He really likes swords. We (or should I say HE) found some amazing items (including a walking stick that pulls out and has a sword hidden inside. Just like Mr. Steed has on the Avengers!!!). So after the purchases were made we headed back to the car. I have to admit I was already gettting grumpy and tired. And it was about 5 in the afternoon. Anyway...

Then we did some voting on what people wanted to do. Laser tag, go-carts and mini golf won.





Waiting to ride the Go-Carts







The double cars. Luckily we had just the right assortment of ages and sizes. Ella and Molly were not tall enough to ride by themselves, but to ride in a double car the driver had to be at least 16. I know, I could have driven one of them, but, well, they wanted to have fun! I do not drive fun. I have a hard time even going the speed limit. I would have been terrified in one of those things. I couldn't even watch them on the turns!
Ella and AdrianRachel and HarrisonLucyMolly and WilliamLucy

Harrison and Rachel

"Want to do it again????"Creepy picture from the blacklight mini golf

The next morning we went to Cades Cove. Adrian and I have been and seen black bears and baby black bears. So cute. We were so tired that we didn't get there until midday. No bears out in the hot hot sun. Be we sure had fun!

Loyal Thomas

I want everyone to go and read this post. How right she is when she talks about how so many times we dwell on the mediocrity of our loved ones. They may do 1000 things wonderfully but we spend time fussing on the one annoyance of the day.

I know I do it. I have caught myself doing it many times and have tried to improve the behavior. One thing that I have started to avoid are certain people that seem to bring the worst out of my mouth. Do you know what I mean? The re are some people that just seem to get me to complain about things, that are not important, that my family members do.

I avoid talking to them at all costs! I do not want to complain about my husband and kids and feel all yucky! I try to talk to people that make me brag about how great they are.

I know, you are thinking, I have heard her complain. Sorry. You have found out my secret.




Shh.... don't tell





I am NOT perfect. There, I said it.

I know, I know, I have been MIA....

I have a billion pictures to show you and stuff to tell you about. We have been to the beach. We have been to the mountains. We have had enough vacation to last a good long while. Next week the 3 oldest go to Church Camp. Then there is band camp. Then our Japanese exchange student. And then School starts back.



I WILL get to all of this. But first, THIS:







DO not rent this. Do not let the lady at the video store tell you that it just has a few swear words. I don't do swear words, but our TVGuardian can take care of those. Do not let her say that it is fine for family viewing. Do not be lulled into a sense of security because the middle school has a poster in the entry hallway advertising this movie.


Do not look at Owen Wilson on the cover. Because he is a hottie.


This movie sucks eggs. And it is vulgar. Disgusting. Rude. Inappropriate.


I had to fast forward through half of it and the other half we were reading because the TVGuardian was editing out some kind of vulgarity and muting the real words.

I took it back to Movie Gallery tonight. She sent me home with a replacement movie.


Bee Movie. Moviemom says that it is appropriate for preschoolers.


It better be. Or I am going to go all Drillbit Taylor crazy on Movie Gallery.

My mailbox luvs me today

What a day. What a week, really. Did you all read about the tornadoes in Tennessee on Friday? They were one mile from my house. ONE MILE!! The kids couldn't leave school until about half an hour later than the bell because they had them all in the hall/basement in tornado position. I was in my tornado position down on Rachel's bed reading a book. With a flash light. Our power was out about half an hour. The tornado did major damage to some houses of people that we know. Very scary.

But on to lighter subjects. I walked out of my very cold house today into the very cold front yard in my fleece jammies to get the mail. It was on the 80's all last week and then boom, tornado and cold weather. Adrian actually got snowed on this morning while doing an inspection up the mountain a bit!So I am keeping warm in my jammies. And yes, I drove the kids to school in my jammies. First time I have ever done it.

So I walk out after the mailman has turned around and is headed back

up the road but still get caught by the UPS lady. Not like she cares that I am in fuzzy blue jammies, but I felt funny.

But she brought ME a package! It was from my Grandmother. How exciting. And then when I get in the house and rummage through the mail there is a letter for me. A LETTER? And guess where it was from....

KANSAS!

From a certain Country Doctors Wife. You know, Mr. Panties Sister in Law!

Hooray, Rechelle! I received my Gift card to Anthropoligie. I am so excited to use it. I have been perusing their site and it may take me a while to pick what I want because I am really bad at decisions like this! But I am so excited to look. I am going to admit my small towness here when I say I had never heard of Anthropologie. So, Rechelle has saved me from a life doomed to only shopping at Wal-Mart and I am eternally grateful!

And from my Grandmother came some clothes and these three gems...

A book, because I love to read!

And these two pics. On the left is my Great Grandmother. We called her Daddo but her real name was Cynthia (just like yours truly, every ones fave blogger!) On the right is Daddo's mother, my great great grandmother. Her name was Martha Lou Shelby Hardin. I knew Daddo. She lived until my freshman year at college, but I never met Mattie, as she was called.

What a great day, and what wonderful treats that came to me.

Thank You Dee Dee and Rechelle!

Cool Gift

This Christmas our kids received a very cool gift from my brother's family. Each of the kids were given a Tis Best gift card. The Tis Best gift card is actually an eco friendly print out. Here is a picture of all of the printouts.When you receive a card you simply go to the website and pick a charitable organization to donate to. Here are Rachel and Molly looking at the 100's of choices that they offer. Do you feel passionately about pandas? Trees? Sick kids? If there is a reason to donate money, Tis Best has that group covered.
Are you wondering where the Hale kids sent their donation? As you can see here Molly likes animals. Cats to be specific. She looked and looked under the animal category. There were no cat specific charities but then she found this one that really caught her fancy:

Canine Companions for Independence® is a national nonprofit organization
that enhances the lives of children and adults with disabilities by
providing highly-trained assistance dogs and
ongoing support to ensure quality partnerships.

The rest of the kids sent donations to the following groups:

The Alzheimer’s Association

Save The Children

Autism Research

Make A Wish Foundation

Best Friends Animal Sanctuary

We thought this was a great present. It was fun to spend the afternoon checking out these charities and trying to decide which one was closest to their hearts.

Thank you Uncle Pat, Aunt Jen, and Trevor

teeheee

Okay, I will warn you that they say a bit of a nasty word in this. But we laughed so hard that I had to post it anyway. And just to set the record straight, my husband has sent me flowers! And we dance! Well, not Adrian and I personally, but we have dances at church all the time.

Any other questions? I will be glad to set the record straight!

Pictures from our date

*************SCROLL DOWN FOR FUN MONDAY*********

Life in our family is just like a walk in the park. Here are the pictures to prove it. Since Blogger only lets you upload 5 at a time I decided to pick my favorite 5 and just post them today.

Here is a picture of the dam. Ella thought that it was beautiful the way you could see the reflections of the trees and sunset in the water.

Molly being a cutie patootie

Ella and Molly posing

The sun set while we were walking and I shot this of the railroad tracks as we left. I like the spooky haunted look that they have.

Southern kids meet ice

******Edit: There is some confusion, mainly since I forgot to mention this. I have been ice skating, many times. I know what I am missing. I have a scar on my knee from a skate being stuck in it. I suspect that I owned my own skates, but I don't really remember. In high school we used to skate all the time at the rink at the mall. In Hong Kong. Some of you don't know I spent some years as an expat in HK. Anyway, back to the regularly scheduled story:


The day after Christmas we went to the Carolina Ice Palace. It is the official practice ice of Tara Lipinski. Tara Lipinski lives across the street from my parents. We rarely see her at her house. We did not see her the day we went skating. Good thing. She would have been mortified to know the lack of skating skill that her neighbors grand kids have.

That's okay, though. We had a blast. I use the term we very loosely. No, I did not don skates. I am very sure that if I fell I would be like the old lady in the old TV commercials,

"I have fallen and I can't get up!"

No thank you. I do not enjoy any activity that may involve pain. Or movement. That irritates my husband a little. But he knew what he was getting before we got married. I never once, while we were dating, had the idea to play basketball. Or go rappelling. Or white water rafting. Or biking, etc. You get the idea.

So my 6 children and my husband all donned their first pair of ice skates and went skating. They had fun. I think the girls had more fun than the boys. The boys quit early to give their feet a rest and exercise their new Ipods. They really know how to sacrifice.

See my sweetheart here? He has on some sensible rental skates. Now, rental skates have little brakes in the front and long backs so you don't fall backwards. These are appropriate for 36 year old man who has had his ACL replaced twice. Who now is self employed so our insurance is a $10,000 deductible HSA policy. Who has never ice skated in his life. These are pretty safe skates. No serious injuries. We hope. Do you see where I am going with this? Those standard rental skates didn't fit right. So he went and traded them for these:

Hockey Skates!!! Umm, can I help you there, partner? Those are a little harder. They are really for more advanced skaters... Oh, what's that? Mind you own stinkin' business? Okay,buddy I warned you.

Actually, he did great. He didn't fall once. Everyone did really well.

This was the least blurry picture of Harrison. I never got any of William.

Ella spent a lot of the time holding on to the side and "walking" around the rink. Once we convinced her to skate, she did great and had fun. Of course the girls made friends with the two girls that showed up dressed in skating outfits. They tried to teach them some cool tricks, but rental skates aren't very sharp. Rachel did learn to jump up in the air!

Molly started with the walker, but gave it up after about half an hour. She had never even been roller skating before, so this was really a new experience for her.

I spent a lot of time tying skates tighter and trying to convince everyone that tight was the way to go. I now wish I had a picture of the, umm... homeboy? that came out onto the ice for about five minutes. He had his skates tied the way young urban men like their sneakers tied. and their pants. Very loose. It didn't work out for him!It was dark, even when I tried the flash. It was just too big a place.Here is Rachel after she had really gotten the hang of it. She skated towards me and said some kind of smart alec thing about ice skating not being hard at all...blah, blah, blah...

She past by me with this I am so cool look about her and then...












































Splat!!!!!

That is what you get for being a show off, Little Miss Smarty Pants!

How sweet is this picture?

Cookie Monster

On Sunday night, Molly made cookies to take to her class the next day. Monday was my assigned day to come and read a Christmas book to her classroom. Molly picked Angelina's Christmas by Catherine Holibird?.? I am not sure of her last name. And the book is in the car still. Anyway, this was a lot of fun but very time consuming.

She spent about 3 hours making 3 cookie sheets full. We painted the cookies with egg yolk mixed with food color before baking them You can look at the recipe HERE. William likes to help cook. He does not like to be in the picture.
Still painting. It was in the 70's on Sunday. We were all pretty hot there in the kitchen with the oven on. Molly had put on a blanket sleeper! She said she was comfortable. Ella makes a fabulous snowman

After baking William is applying some royal icing. Do you see that cool squeezy thing he is using? Pampered Chef sells them and they totally work great! Set of 3 is only $10.50! Buy some today. Really. Especially if you can't go anywhere because of the ice storm. Us? We have been spared. It is 78 and sunny. Don't hate me because my roads are safe!
oops. I forgot to rotate again. This snowman is *special* Adrian made it. He made it blonde. He said it was for Lucy. Do you believe the abuse my children get at the hands of their father? It is criminal. I have never teased her. Well, except for this one time.

Tall kids not allowed

Yesterday there was some discussion about how tall William was. Gretchen thought he was as tall as Adrian. I was sure that wasn't the case. It was unsettling for me to think of him being taller than his dad. He has been taller than me for years, but I am not ready for him to be the tallest person in the house.

I said "He only looks tall because he wears those Etnies shoes." I thought, that is why you have to pay so much for them, they give you the illusion of being several inches taller. I was looking at William standing next to his dad when I said that.

William looked down at his feet and said "No Mom, I am barefoot, Dad made me take my socks and shoes off."

Uh Oh. Gulp... Is the kid really as tall as his dad? My world kinda falls apart with this one. I know he is going to be 16 in 2 months. I know he will be moving on out of here int the next few years. But I can deny these things easier when he still looks like a kid. But he is now becoming a tall, car driving, beard shaving, receiving all sorts of mail from college recruiters almost adult.

It is a good thing there are a lot of desserts in the house this weekend because just writing this post is making me feel the kind of stress that only pecan pie can calm.

There was a really happy ending, though. William is still actually an inch shorter than Adrian.

The planets are still lining up for me!

Now I just need to figure out a way to sabotage his Eagle Scout Project. He is actually working on it. He has been ready to work on it for over 2 years and has just not done anything about it. He has known all along that he would not be allowed to get his driver's license until he earned that Eagle rank. Countdown to 16th birthday has finally lit a fire under him.

After all of the measuring and my worries (Most of the thought s that ran through my head are ones that I wrote about here but it happened in about a 4.5 second frame of time.) we realized that Uncle Steve hadn't been measured. We didn't want him to feel left out. I was too lazy to get up out of my semi-reclined position on the couch until I saw Adrian measuring Steve. I hopped up and grabbed the camera to snap a picture of this funny sight.

Uncle Steve had everyone in the whole house beat. He was taller by several inches than anyone.

Next Thanksgiving maybe we should get the scale out and everyone can try to outweigh each other.

Thanksgiving Company

I cook.

I clean.

I bake.

I set the table.

I do the dishes.

And this is what I get. My brother-in-law and sister-in-law asleep on the couch in a Thanksgiving induced nap.

They are great company.

I have Pride!!

I saw it again. Not here, but on another blog. The gay car dealer. It was even better this time. They had a catchy slogan. I thought it was great, at first.

Does your ride reflect your pride?

Umm, okay. Does that apply to me, also? Gay people don't have the market cornered on pride, do they. So I have spent a lot of the day thinking, worrying, okay- fretting and chewing my nails! My dad gum (note local vernacular) car had better reflect my pride! Then I went out and looked at the car, since it was time to start my afternoon taxi service anyway. DUH! Of coarse it reflects my pride. Do you all remember this? It's all good. I realized that since these sweet thangs I call my children are what fill me with pride then my whole life reflects that pride. I am actually running over with pride. It has actually spilled onto the floor, it is over flowing wastepaper baskets in the bathroom... Look, it is piled up on the bathroom counter...
Oh boy, I see it on the kids computer desk in the living room. And look how lucky I am, there is a little bit on the floor under the chair.
And spilling off of the couch and out from under it!
As luck would have it, you can see it lined up in the bathroom. That AXE body wash that my boys like to use has a warning on it that it may elicit extra female attention if you use it. It should have a warning about how much pride it will fill a mother with when she sees so many bottles of it in her shower. Especially empty bottles. Those have even more pride in them. Oh boy, the warm feelings that I get when I see empty bottles in the shower, or in the refrigerator. I especially love empty boxes of crackers and cereal in the pantry. It is like this fun game of - we don't need anything from the grocery store to- Haha, jokes on mom! We are actually out of EVERYTHING. Fills me with pride!


Razors show a lot of pride too. We have so many hanging out in this shower it is really a game of Russian Roulette when you get in. You would think we were shaving Bigfoot in here. Oh, in case you were wondering, all 8 of us share this bathroom. Yep, you heard me right.


As you can see, here at our house we are using our good parenting skills to instill a sense of order and cleanliness in our children. It will create a real sense of PRIDE in them of where they cam e from. We are really so proud!