Angels Among Us

Almost everyday in the afternoon I take Nathan and our dogs to a nearby park to walk the dogs and then I let Nathan play golf and whatever else he wants to do. It was colder yesterday, in the mid 40s, so the park wasn't busy. Usually there are a lot of kids playing and a lot of people walking or walking their dogs. There were a few kids that left as we arrived and one other couple walking. When I was nearing the end of walking our dogs, the couple stopped me and asked how much longer I was going to be at the park and I said that I was going to finish my walk and then let my son play for awhile. The man said that they didn't want to leave me in the park alone. I said that was fine as I had been there with just Nathan and the dogs before, so I didn't mind. Then they pointed out that there was this van in the parking lot that kept changing parking places and it appeared strange to them. I had noticed the van when I arrived and that someone was sitting in it, but then didn't pay anymore attention to it. As they told me that I looked over and saw that it was in a different place. They said they could do a couple more laps if I was going to be a little longer, as I needed to let Nathan run around a little bit before we left. I headed back to my car to put the dogs in and as I was doing so the van drove away. The nice people stayed until Nathan and I were finishing up on the swings. So I don't know if the person/people in the van had other plans, but praise God for good people who took the time to care and look out for a complete stranger. The other strange thing is at the beginning of that last lap before the people talked to me, my one dog who is our guard dog kept walking in front of me and stopping so I couldn't go any further. I just thought she was cold, but maybe God was trying to get my attention through her and then had to use the people since I wasn't listening. I will definitely stay more alert now, as I never thought about it or felt unsafe at that park before. I am very thankful for my "angels" who were looking out for me.

Psalm 91: 9-12 "If you make the Lord your refuge, if you make the Most High your shelter, no evil will conquer you; no plague will come near your dwelling. For he orders his angels to protect you wherever you go. They will hold you with their hands to keep you from striking your foot on a stone."

Ready for Christmas

Nathan was busy playing with his Snoopy snowglobe and a small nativity set today. I had to get a couple of pics as he had put the Santa hat on himself while he was playing. He loves the nativity set and has been carrying baby Jesus around today. He has a book that describes the Christmas story in simple pictures and words for him to understand at his age, so when he saw the nativity set today and I told him all the names of the people and animals that are the same as in his book, he was very excited and stood there naming everyone and telling the story in his own words. It was very cool to watch him!

Visiting with Nana and Papa

My parents came to visit the first part of November. It was wonderful having them here. I wanted to get some pictures up from our visit and I will write more about it later.

Knoxville Zoo

Saturday we took Nathan to the Knoxville Zoo so he could see some of the larger animals like elephants, zebras, giraffes, that they don't have at the zoo here. He had a great time. He couldn't see the gorillas at first when they were on the far side of their habitat, but luckily we were still nearby when the zookeeper came by to feed them, so we went back to watch them and Nathan was running along the path looking off into the bushes saying "Gorilla? No, no gorilla." It was really funny. He really liked the zebras and elephants. They had a cool play area at the end of the zoo for kids to run around and play which was nice for Nathan after being in his stroller most of the time. Here are some pictures from our visit.

Another Favorite Park

These are from a park that is only 5 minutes away that I have been taking Nate to frequently. It also has a great walking trail that I have been taking the dogs a lot to get them out of the apartment since they get very stir crazy not having a yard. I love this park because of the squishy track surface under the swings and slides. Nate had to go in search of some dirt and bark to play with, though. He is a typical boy who would rather play in the dirt!! I am so thankful for these days that I get to spend with him and not worry about working. They are SUCH a blessing. I love hanging out with him and taking him to the park or somewhere to play each day.

Our Day at the Corn Maze

Yesterday we went to the Enchanted Maize that is held in Lookout Valley every year. Nathan had a lot of fun and it was a beautiful day to be outside. The maze was fun, but finding our way out turned into being a challenge. Each maze had a set of questions, when answered correctly, would give you directions on how to get out of the maze. Unfortunately, we didn't seem to get the answers right as we found ourselves going around in circles. So we decided to find the way we got into the maze and just get out that way. I guess we need to find out more about corn farming and Chattanooga history to answer the questions for next year. Plus, Nathan decided it was more fun to play in the dirt rather than follow Brent and I through the maze. After the maze, we let Nathan ride the cow train and we all went on a hayride where we enjoyed eating Kettle Korn the entire time. Yummy!! Nathan also got to pick out a small pumpkin to take home. It was a fun morning.

It Finally Feels Like Fall!

Today our high was 69 and it was a beautiful day!! Our low should be about 47 and the high tomorrow is going to be around 73! I love cooler temperatures. I would wear a sweater and jeans year round if the weather permitted. Our last few weekends have been filled with looking at neighborhoods and houses in Chattanooga and north Georgia. We are trying to get a feel for where we might want to live and learn about school districts and find places convenient for Brent to get to work and all that. It is kind of overwhelming, but at least we have some time to decide. Since I hadn't posted anything in awhile I thought I would share a couple of pictures from tonight of Nathan wearing his new Spiderman jammies that he got from Brent's parents for his birthday. He likes to scrunch up his face trying to smile for the camera. The other picture is of my boys watching football. Nate loves to watch football and golf, especially golf, with Brent. He will ask for golf and then get his club and study the players while they swing and then copy them. It is very funny to watch!

This weekend we are going to a corn maze which is a huge annual thing they do here every fall, so it should be fun. So, we'll see if we can make it out easily or not. Hopefully I'll have some good pictures from that.

Another Day at the Park

Yesterday I took Nathan back to ride the carousel and to play in the splash fountain. It has been warmer these past few days, so playing in the water was nice. I splashed around with him! It is so nice not working for now and getting to spend more time with him. I am so thankful for this time!! Today I am thinking that we'll go to the Y so I can work out and then head to a park to play.

Zoo Trip

"Fried Pickle anyone?"

"Nice goat, nice goat!"

"What are you looking at?"

"Ridem cowboy"

"No Nathan, the cougar is just sleeping."

"Hello Mr. Big Monkey"

"My first monkey visit"

Saturday we took Nate to the Chattanooga zoo, which isn't very big, but he seemed to enjoy it. They have primarily smaller animals, with the largest being the chimpanzees, snow leopards, a cougar, and a camel. Unfortunately no elephants or zebras, which Nathan asked about zebras when we told him where we were going. He liked the friendly chimpanzee at the window who made faces back at you and ran right up to the goats and donkey. So, even though it was small, it was a good first zoo outing. We'll have to take a trip to Atlanta, Knoxville, or Nashville, whichever has the larger zoo so Nathan can see some zebras and elephants.

After our zoo trip we drove around for awhile and found a restaurant called Bones Smokehouse. The picture is of our fried pickles and we had already eaten a lot!! Nathan even liked the fried pickles and liked dipping them in ranch. Brent had a stuffed baked potato with pulled pork, I had a salad topped with beef and a BBQ vinaigrette salad dressing, and Nate had chicken fingers. It all was so yummy! We will definitely be going back.

Nathan's Birthday

At 10:30 pm we will have had Nate in our lives (in addition to the 9 months I carried him) for 2 years. I posted one of the first pictures that was taken of us as a family. It is hard to believe that he is now 2. He is so amazing and such a wonderful gift from God. He is saying new words everyday and knows the names and sounds for most animals even if he can't say them perfectly. He can also name all of the Backyardigans and the Wiggles characters. Pablo is his favorite Backyardigan and he draws out the 'y' when he says Tyrone and it cracks me up. I guess he is getting his southern Tennessee drawl! I took a picture of him when he woke up this morning. He had a good day. Waffles for breakfast, then grocery shopping with mom having fun naming all the fruits and vegetables, and then I took him to lunch at Panera Bread for grilled cheese. After that we went and bought balloons for his birthday and came home. I made his cake while he napped and then Brent got home early and helped me make spaghetti for Nate's birthday dinner, which is one of his favorites. We ended the day with cake, presents and talking to Nana and Papa (my parents) and Grandma and Grandpa (Brent's parents) on the phone. Nate got lots of fun presents including a stuffed hippo from Nana and Papa. He is in this hippo obsession stage. He loves hippos! Brent and I got him a play hut and he got much needed fall clothes and pajamas from Grandma and Grandpa. He also got some other good things. Nathan loved his Pablo cake and had to move his piece of cake to each of the different Backyardigans plates that I got. He ate off of his Pablo plate, then wanted his cake on my Tasha and Uniqua plate and then on Brent's Tyrone and Austin plate, talking about the characters the whole time. Tomorrow we are taking him to the zoo to continue the celebration.

Happy birthday Nathan!! We love you!!

A Day at the Park

Nathan and I spent the morning yesterday at Coolidge Park in downtown Chattanooga. It was a fun day for Nathan with riding the zebra on the carousel twice and playing for a long time in the splash fountain. It is really cool with different levels of water that spray up and with the stone animals, like the lion, all around that squirt out water intermittently. After that we went and watched boats on the river before heading home.

Today we went to the YMCA so I could work out and Nathan could play with the other kids in the childcare area for awhile and then headed to the park with all the wooden structures to play. So it has been two busy mornings with lots of fun for Nathan!

Our Weekend

This weekend consisted of driving down to Calhoun, GA to the outlet mall on Saturday. It is about 50 miles from where we live, but it didn't seem like a long drive with all the trees to look at along the way. I found Gap jeans for $27, so I will definitely be going back. All of the pictures are from Sunday. We didn't make it to church as we found another church we want to try and it is only meeting every other week at this point and it meets next week. Instead we went to the Chattanooga Market, which is an outdoor market with musicians, food, and booths for people to sell crafts they've made and local farm produce. It was small but nice, and meets every Sunday April through December. Nathan got a balloon puppy there and unfortunately insisted upon draggin puppy's nose on the ground until puppy popped. He just didn't understand where puppy went. When we got in the car he kept asking for "puppy". After this, we went to Coolidge Park, which is only a few minutes from where we were, so we went to take Nathan on the carousel. He loves the zebra and kept saying 'zebra' when I was talking to him about what animal he wanted to ride. After that we went and watched the boats on the river and got an ice cream cone at a local place called Clumpies http://www.clumpies.com/ . We really like Clumpies. We can get an ounce of ice cream in a cup for Nathan, which is just enough for him and pick from all their different locally made flavors for a cone for us. One of the strangest is Firecracker, tutti frutti ice cream with pop rocks on top. I haven't ventured to try that yet.

That was our weekend. We love having downtown so close to us. I am thinking that I will take Nathan back to a splash park that is next to the carousel this week. He was mad that he couldn't go play in the water yesterday. So, hopefully I'll have more pictures from that this week.

Why I decided to write

I never thought I would write a blog. I read them, but I am not really one for sharing my thoughts with just anyone, but with our move to Tennessee and that I am not working right now, I have more time and thought I would set something up to keep family and friends in on what we are up to here. Also, it is clearly evident that God directed all the steps of this move and we just had to step out in faith, something Brent and I don't always like doing because we like our comfort zone. But, to see God work in the past several weeks has been incredible. He has ordered all our steps, recent events in our lives both good and hard, to this point. I don't know what all He has for us here, but I am excited to see. While taking a step of faith is often hard, especially to nudge yourself to do it, God is always faithful in return leading and confirming that step. One thing I am loving is all the trees! After growing up in part of the Rockies, our land bordered on a national forest, and then ending up in Dallas, the trees, landscape, and nice views were lacking. The Smokies and Appalachians look totally different than the Rockies, but to have trees and small mountains again, I love it!! I can't wait for the leaves to start turning as it cools off. Here are a couple of pictures from one of our new favorite parks. There is a walking trail, an awesome wooden and tire play structure and a train to climb into!! We have made several trips to this park already.