Wordless Wednesday

I've seriously been out of bloggy-touch lately due to a very busy schedule that hasn't made it possible for me to "play" on the computer. I'm finally coming out of it a little, so will hopefully get back on track. In the meantime, I thought I'd post a Wordless Wednesday that's just plain adorable!

This is one of "B's" best man's golden retriever puppies...notice the tongue! He's about 4 months old in this picture that was taken during our vacation the last week of August.

Join in the fun on this Wordless Wednesday!

Vacation - Part 1

By popular demand, I'm going to do a little recap of our trip down south. Since we fit so much in, I'm going to split this into 3 part...one part for each leg of the trip.

We started out with a beautiful drive (all 11 hours of it) to Pigeon Forge, TN to visit the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. The few days we were there the weather was not tremendously cooperative so there were many things we would have like to do but couldn't because of the rain. We made the best of it, though. During the times that it didn't rain:

1. We took a ride on a sky lift (scary!)

2. We hiked up to Grotto Falls (a less traveled hiking path). We didn't see any bears while hiking but we saw plenty of evidence (very fresh) that they were near! And, of course...Grotto Falls...And a few other things along the way. 3. Then we decided to head up to Clingman's Dome, the highest point in the Smoky Mountains, where there's supposed to be a terrific view. But the weather showed up before we got there and this is what we saw:Notice the bottom half of the picture shows what we should have seen! Here are a couple more from Clingman's Dome. 4. The next day we went to Cades Cove which was a beautiful drive! The highlight were the mama bear and her cubs. See my bear post from last week for the pics. And we ate lunch at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. -- yummy food!!!

5. We went to the Ripley's museum and saw the longest gum wrapper chain which stretches over a mile.

Here's one for the road:

Okay...I just couldn't resist...it was there just begging to have it's picture taken!

How do you kill the time while 10+ hours in the car?

You crochet cat toys, of course (as long as you're not prone to car sickness that is). Well, really I only crocheted during some of the 2 to 3 hour stints when I WASN'T driving:)

So how did I decide this would be a good car riding activity? I've often brought crocheting along when I've been a passenger in lengthy car rides and I've had a project due. But this time I was inspired by the pet rescue that I volunteer with (Res-Q-Pets), which is participating in the Plainsboro Flea Market on September 20th (in Plainsboro, NJ). They will be selling homemade goodies, most of which they want to be usable by pets. So I decided to offer up my services.

I elected to spend my time crocheting stuffed mouse toys with catnip inside. Well, of course I didn't bring the catnip and stuffing along so I crocheted each mouse up to the point of stuffing (which is literally up to its ears). During the trip south and back and between locations (combining to ~28 hours on the road) with me driving about 40% of the time and sleeping or just observing another ~20% of the time, I managed to crank out 23 mice (up to the ears).

I have since finished stuffing them all and have done the last bit of stitching on a few.

This was a great way to make the driving time go by quickly. However, I do caution anyone who tries this...make sure you look up at the scenery every couple minutes and take a break every once in awhile. Otherwise, it gets difficult to focus far off and you might even get a little dizzy.

If you are interested in making your own mouse toys, click here for the free pattern. They only take about 20 minutes or so to make each one, once you get the hang of it.

Wordless Wednesday - Bear Hunt

Now back from a bit of a break because of vacation, over the next few Wordless Wednesdays I'll be posting pics from vacation to Tennessee and Alabama. The theme this week is our hunt to see the black bear in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park!

Here's the first one we saw...a "cub" about 1 year old high up in a tree:

Here is a pic of the largest bear we saw. It was in this tree literally breaking off branches and eating from them. I didn't get a great picture of him because I wasn't about to get too close!

And the highlight...a mama and what we initially thought to be 1 cub, but turned out that there was a second cub in the tree that came down later. This family of bears was about 20 feet from our car. No, we did not get out of the car like some of the crazy people in cars behind us!!!

Join in the fun on this Wordless Wednesday!

Learning to be more gracious

I think God is trying to teach me something...to be more gracious and not whine!

There have been several situations occur over the past few weeks that have brought my attention to how things seem to "just work out". Well, I believe 100% that God is in control and that there is a reason for everything. However, I still find that sometimes it's just so much easier to go straight to the thoughts "Why is this happening to me?" "Not now, God!" "There's just too much on my plate, I can't handle one more thing!"

Last Saturday, "B" and I were sitting in my living room talking about little Sheeba and discussing how I missed her already (after only just a couple hours) and how things were so quiet, etc. Then I said to him that one very good thing (other than Sheeba getting her forever home, of course) was the timing of her adoption. I said something like "Isn't it strange how no one has been interested in her until now, just 1 week before our vacation? Now I don't have to figure out who will take care of her while I'm gone!" And "B" just looked at me and said "Don't question when things work out. We (people in general) so easily complain when things go wrong or don't work out, but rarely thank God when things do work out. We need to learn to thank God more."

I'm in total agreement to what "B" said and already knew that it was God's hand in it all. But it made me reflect on how God's hand has been so visible the past few weeks...all of the hassle with my car that could have been crazy worse than it was (I haven't even shared the whole story yet!), Sheeba's adoption, and the latest is the destination of our vacation. We originally had planned to go to the Grand Canyon, had planned to leave on August 23rd and even got the days off work. Since then, we have changed our destination twice, having never made any arrangements for Arizona. Well, I was watching the news the other day and saw the crazy flooding and dam breakage in the Grand Canyon and I realized that we would have been going at a time when it's not quite at its best (nevermind the rafters and hikers that had to be rescued). So, just one more thing where God's presence is obvious and known.

With all of those events over the past few weeks I've realized that I think God is trying to tell me something. Ya' think?!?

7 hours then...FREEDOM!!!

I can hardly contain my excitement. Just over 7 hours and I will be officiallly on vacation...for a few days anyway. Things have been so hectic at work that this vacation is much needed. I'm heading to sunny (with the occasional thundershower) Florida so probably won't be posting until I get back on Monday.

I'm going to visit with my dear cousin and just "chill" and recharge my batteries. I haven't seen her in about 7 years, so this visit is LONG overdue. Wow! Looks like 7 is the lucky number today :) It is difficult to stay focused and I can hardly sit still, but still so much to do before I leave so I better run and get to work.