Total eclipse of my heart.. and the sun

Several weeks ago Smoky Mountain National park posted on their Facebook about the upcoming Solar Eclipse. I mentioned it to my hubby, cause he is kind of a nerd, and because I thought it was cool.  We have only visited Smoky Mtns once in our lives and that was this spring.  I fell in love with the park on day one. Its really beautiful. That was all it took, for my husband to start looking into solar glasses, lenses for my camera, and hotel rooms. I am so glad we found out about the eclipse weeks ago, because I had no clue how crazy people would get over this event.  I remember seeing an eclipse when I was in maybe the 4th grade.  We didn't have glasses, but the teacher let us look up through the windows at the sun.  Not a very bright idea, coming from a teacher.  It was nothing abnormal to me. Just looked like the sun without glasses on to protect my eyes.  So to me, this wasn't something I was super stoked about, unlike my husband.  

Our glasses arrived 2 weeks before the eclipse, we had a hotel room booked way in advance so there was no astronomical upcharge, and we were all set to go.  In fact he booked rooms in 2 locations TN and NC in case of bad weather! Now that is thinking ahead! The closer the day came, we realized NC was calling for rain and clouds, and TN had perfect weather on the horizon. So we cancelled NC, and started the trek to Smoky Mountain National park.  Its a short 8 hour drive for us. 

Once we were checked into our hotel, we started scoping out locations inside the park to sit and watch the eclipse.  We used Satellite imagery to look at the parks roads and fields.  We already considered Cades Cove, because its a huge open area, and there are a few side roads that run across the fields.  I had a bit of anxiety about the crowds that were expected.  Hubby reassured me it would be fine and he started talking about a side road that has little pull offs.  He was very excited, and I knew I had to just let him plan this.  I didn't want to ruin the experience for him at all.  The location he picked was absolutely perfect.  I knew letting him run with his own plans was a good idea.

We parked in a little pull off with 2 other cars as our neighbors.  We were surrounded by mountains, and fields and wildflowers and butterflies. We arrived early in the park, just to ensure we found a place to set up.  Most people went to select locations the parks set up, and our little dirt road was almost empty.  There were maybe 25 cars on our road.  It was almost like we had the place to ourselves.  The really great part was, we learned of a secret road that exits the park, that was right by where we were parked.  Its not a park road, just a one way dirt road that goes up and over the mountain and out of the park.  So when the event was over, we went up and out of the park with no traffic to contend with. (until we hit the freeway later in the day) 

We had time to blow, so we walked up and down our dirt road and saw what we could see.  Little man collected rocks as we walked up and down the road.  We spent a lot of time in the AC cooled van, because it was 90° outside.  We let the kids play on their tablets, and sang along to the radio.  The 5 hours seemed to go by a lot quicker than I thought they would.  It was nice just sitting there and doing a little car camping. The beautiful views really helped pass the time too. 

Luckily I had an awesome filter on my camera, thanks to my husband. I honestly wasn't going to take my camera.  I wanted to fully enjoy the eclipse.  I am glad he insisted.  I think he wanted the have the memory to keep, as well as I did. I set up my tripod, remote, and camera in our field and snapped about 15 minutes or so.  I read a few articles on shooting an eclipse before hand, and practiced shooting the sun with the filter on.  I am so glad I did.  I set my camera and just walked over and clicked the remote a few times and went about enjoying the day.  Once totality started I went click crazy though. I didn't want to miss a second.  I took about 700 photos during the day yesterday. Glad I had it set just right though.  While I was clicking the remote, my eyes were staring up at the sun, not my camera.  I am so grateful for that remote! I got to both capture and fully enjoy the moment at the same time. 

from 11:11 am to 2:56 pm

When I was able to take off my glasses during totality, I was completely awe struck. Its like heaven and the angels were singing.  Its something I cant quite describe in words.  It brought tears to my eyes.  I have never seen anything so beautiful and amazing.  

10 seconds before totality.

We had 2 full minutes of totality.  It gave enough time to listen to some advice we heard on the radio in TN. The host said take a look around you at the horizon at totality, you will see 360° sunset.  It was so beautiful.  Everything had the glow you get at dusk, as if the sun was setting all around you.  

When the sun started to show itself again, we hopped in the car to avoid the crowds. The sun was so weird.  At the onset of the eclipse, everything was getting darker, and had a sunset glow about it. It was quite beautiful.  However when the sun peeked through again, it was a totally different effect.  It was like someone turned on high powered spotlights, or fluorescent lights. When going under the tree cover it looked like helicopter spotlights at night shining through the trees.  The animals in the park were even confused.  As we entered onto our mountain road out of the park, we saw a mother bear and her two teeny tiny cubs, scurrying to get somewhere to hide. They were so quick to cross the road, I didn't even have time to lift my camera and take a photo. 

On our drive home last night, even though it was long and tedious. I  told my husband, I am so glad you made us do this.  I am so glad you thought way ahead of time to get us prepared for this event.  I told him it was something I will never forget.  We talked about it for a good many hours last night as we made the trek back home. Its something I hope my kids remember for a  long time too. 

The mental struggle of dieting.

Our bodies are wonderful things.  We can abuse them with food, and laziness, and can recover from it with a little hard work.  Our bodies have this amazing ability to recover, and heal itself. There is a quote that is in the movie "Here comes the boom" that actually rings very true with this subject.  In the movie Kevin James talks about stagnant cells, and how when one cells starts to die, the other cells take suit and follow and they start to die off.  But when one cell tries to regenerate, or heal itself, the other cells will follow suit.  When you abuse your body, with food, or whatever, the cells start to die, and more die, and illness and disease set in.  If you let if continue, and you keep on abusing your body, the death will continue.  But here is the miraculous part, the body can also reverse damage. If you take initiative and make changes and try to heal yourself, your body will take suit and follow.  It just takes one cell, then another, and you can restore what you have destroyed.

The physical part has always been easier than the mental aspect.  I sabotage myself.  I cant get out of my own head and I give up.  Its a struggle to constantly fight yourself.  After all food has always been there for me.  It has always given me comfort.  My mom used food as both a reward and a bribe.  So what do I do? I reward myself with food, like a dog.  My father was my worse critic, he hated my weight.  He would criticize me in the worse ways. His voice is stronger than my own, it always has been.  So the voice in my head, is very critical.  These are the mental hurdles I am trying to climb right now.  I have immense amounts of self doubt, and self criticism. The other day, I tried on my workout outfit.  The very first one I bought 4 years ago, when I really started this journey towards weight loss. Before the surgeries, and pregnancy.  Before I let other people take over my life, my home, and my sanity. The last few years have been tough.  I punished myself for not handling everything better, by binge eating.  That outfit that used to fit, that is worn out and stretched out, IS TIGHT.  So tight I fought to put it on.  I cried. I felt sorry for myself.  I went into a downward spiral of self hatred. I told myself GIVE UP ITS TOO HARD.  I told myself "your suffering for nothing, you will never lose that much weight again" I told myself "i am fat, and gross, go eat it will make you feel better" Ya know what I did? I stuck to my diet, I worked out every single night.  I hated the machines, I hated my body, and I punished the machines instead of myself.  I punished my body, with hard workouts, that lifted my mood.  I started to turn myself back around.  But I fight my brain, my moods, all the thoughts inside my head that are negative.  That is the hardest part of this all.

Last night I was up until 3:30 am watching my 600 lb life.  I felt so sorry for those people.  Even though I am no where near 600 lbs, I related so much to what they were going through.  The mental part of this is so hard. Overcoming the damage other people did to you.  Overcoming what you did to yourself.  Learning to LOVE YOURSELF enough to repair all that damage you have done.  Loving yourself enough to say NO to the drug that once fed your addiction... food. Loving yourself enough to get on a machine that feels like its trying to kill you, because you know it will make you feel better in the long run.

I struggle every single day with just being good to myself.  I want to eat chips, and fast food, and salt.  Some times the cravings get so bad, I turn into super bitch.  Then I go in the kitchen and fix myself something healthy to try and calm down the bitchiness. I try to keep my body fed and full, so that I don't feel like I am starving myself to death. So I eat several small meals and snacks throughout the day.  I workout 7 days a week, because I know if I skip a day, that can turn into skipping 2 days, then 3 then 4, then altogether quitting.  I know all my triggers, and I try to avoid them.  I know what foods to avoid, what people to avoid, and I know how to stop the mindless eating.  I just dont know how to love myself enough.   Not yet.  I dont know how not to beat myself up for slipping.  I dont know how to love myself even though clothes dont fit.  I dont know how to not beat myself up over slipping up once in a while.  I am a huge work in progress.

living healthy, growing my own food.

So as you may have seen in past blogs, I am trying to live a healthy lifestyle.  I admit, I fell HARD off the bandwagon. I gained weight, and my health began to once again decline.  I blame stress mostly for this mishap. I allowed stress to take over my life, and I slipped.

My little piece of farmland. 

My husband built me, my own little piece of paradise in the backyard.  It has 2 large beds, a smaller bed, and now an herb box. It also has a planting table, a pretty pink bench, and room to built a few more raised beds.  This year I planted a good variety of fruit and veggies all from seed. I am so happy with our harvest already. We have 5 tomato plants, different varieties, Pickle sized cucumbers, spinach, watermelon, cauliflower, butternut squash, zucchini, carrots, green beans, basil, cilantro and sage. There is a great thrill in harvesting and cooking food you grew! I cant tell you how excited I get.  The carrots are one of my faves. I pick them, wash them and eat them almost immediately.  Who knew carrots tasted so good? They taste so much better than store bought. I have put my carrots and green beans in homemade soup, stir fry, and just eaten them fresh.  Today I picked the spinach and after cleaning it, we cooked it down.  It was so delicious. Recipe will follow.  Although I have to admit I was nervous eating the spinach.  Its a new variety of spinach, and it looks and feels almost rubbery. And picking it, there were bugs, and dirt.  I asked for help picking it, and my daughter and husband were squeamish too.  I said, ALL spinach is grown in the dirt, with bugs! Of course I cleaned it thoroughly.  Its a weird adjustment to grow your own food.  We get so used to buying it in the store.  Although now days, thats not any safer.  How many times have you seen the news report bad spinach and greens, with salmonella? Far too often!  I know my spinach is completely organic, not chemicals, just fresh dirt, with no animal interference. I know how it was washed, and where it touched.  I am incredibly proud of myself for being able to grow food, that I have never even seen grown before.  Of course its all a learning process, because I grew up in the ghetto. Although, my mom and grandpa did in fact grow limited veggies. So I do have some exposure.

Spinach recipe

Big fat bowl of fresh spinach leaves.  I am going to say at least 3 lbs. (wash thoroughly)
one jalapeno sliced open, but left whole
lemon juice (half lemon or 2 tbsp)
a good heavy pinch of kosher salt
1 tsp chipotle powder (gives a smokey flavor without using a hamhock)
put everything in a pot, cook over low-med heat for about half an hour. when all the liquid is about gone, add a splash of chicken stock.

This recipe is really great for you
 Low in fat and even lower in cholesterol, spinach is high in niacin and zinc, as well as protein, fiber, vitamins A, C, E and K, thiamin, vitamin B6, folate, calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, copper, and manganese. (info taken from http://foodfacts.mercola.com/spinach.html )

If you make it this way, its flavorful and low in fat, and calories.  Because we added all the flavor without adding the traditional hamhock or fatback. 

I will try to include more recipes in future posts.  

Just 2 weeks

Just 2 short weeks of including more of my veggies, and eating less processed food has made a huge difference.  I already dropped one pant size. I have a pair of shorts, that I grew out of  months ago.  These shorts sit in my drawer and torture me.  Yesterday, I tried them on and they fit.  They fit me really good, and even a little baggie in the legs. 2 weeks of just changing my food intake, nothing else.  amazing isnt it?

Living with purpose.

A few years ago, my daughter was starting Kindergarten, and I was finally realizing my life's ambition. We were all embarking on a new life full of big dreams.

I have been in love with photography for years. When I married my husband in 2003, he said to me, you could totally be a wedding photographer. For a while I thought about it, but we didn't have the means to get me started in that venture. Flash forward a few (or 5) years. We finally had the finances to buy me a real camera.  After hiring my cousin to take photos of my daughter with her point and shoot camera, I was inspired.  Maybe I could do this photography thing. When I started photographing people, and places, I was hooked.  Its like a light shone over my head, that had never shined before.  Photography was my purpose.  Its the "thing" I was meant to do. For the first time in my life I felt confident and sure of myself.  When I had my camera in my hands I felt no fear.  After living with anxiety and social anxiety for years, this was a huge step for me.  I was doing things I had never dreamed of.   I actually created a business that was all mine, and it was running successfully.

Then things changed. My husbands had dreams of his own. Dreams he worked very hard for in his career, and through college. We had the chance at something huge happening for him, and our family.  So we decided to move.  We moved 9 hours away from my family, friends, and all my wonderful clients that I built up.  My heart was broken. I tried very hard to keep going back to Michigan to keep up with my clients.  I halfheartedly tried to get a new client base here in Virginia.  After running into several people who were using me for free sessions, or tips on how to start their own business.  I gave up trying.  To say I felt lost, is an understatement. I felt crushed, empty, alone, like a failure.

Here's the thing. Something else was coming. Something I never expected.  God was preparing me for a new life. That meant I had to let go of some of my old dreams.  Trust me, I fought this with everything I had. I was not going down like this.  I kept trying to force the photography thing, the way I had it back in Michigan.  Until I realized, I hated doing portraits.  I hated dealing with crooked clients. I hated shooting weddings.  I also, no longer had the time to deal with all that.

My sister and her daughters came to live with us. I acted as mom to them for 3 years. I went from one child, to 3 children and an adult to raise. Then I started to get sick. Borderline diabetic, high blood pressure, reproductive failures, surgeries.  Then a miracle, my son.  I never expected him after getting so sick, and being infertile for 8 years.

My son.  He takes up all my time, my energy and my patience.  God love him, he is my miracle.

My sister and nieces have since moved on, but I see now my purpose was not photographing people.  My purpose is living life, truly living it.  Taking care of my precious babies. Raising my daughter to be a strong independent woman. Making my son a great man one day.  And living, loving and seeing the world with my loving husband. Part of my gift is to share the beauty of the world with other people. I want people to look at my images and see the beauty the world holds, and make dreams of their own.  Dreams to travel, dreams to see the world, dreams to adventure.

I think the key to life is living with purpose.  Granted most days I don't know what the purpose of anything is. Every day I try to live in faith. Faith in a bigger plan, that I cant see just yet.  I try to live in love and compassion for others. Some days I am just trying to survive the day.  Most importantly I try to keep reminding myself, there is a purpose for everything. Everything that happens, is a step towards something else.  Life is a giant set of dominoes. One falling into another, falling into another, racing towards an ending we can't see. Heart break, disappointments, they are all a tool to get you to where you are supposed to be.  Call it God, or Fate, or Destiny, or even Karma.  Its all the same set of dominoes, called by a different name. No matter how hard you fight the inevitable, the ending will all be the same as it was planned out.

So I say, Live every day with purpose. Make goals and work to achieve them. Dream big, and believe your dreams can come true.  Have faith that things will work out, no matter how hard they get. And please Love One Another.

How to road trip like a BOSS

My husband is from Southern California. I am from Southeast Michigan. We live in Virginia.  We literally have family spread all across this country, and the only way to see them is to travel to them.

Road trip summer 2016

We have always enjoyed travelling together, ever since our first trip from Michigan to California via the Greyhound bus. Now a days we do our travelling mostly via our own personal car. Through the years we have realized some things just don't work for us. Like driving straight through to anywhere.  We have to plan stops, and places to get out and explore. Otherwise I think we all get overtired and cranky.

open road

Tip #1: Set a time limit. If you cant stand being in the car longer than 4 hours, then make it a point to preplan a stop someplace every 4 hours.  Whether it be to just get out and stretch your legs for 15 minutes at a rest stop.

rest stop in Arkansas

Tip #2: Decide how long you will drive total each day.  Driving coast to coast is a several day drive, no matter how you plan the trip.  We set limits to staying in the car no longer than 12 hours every day, total.  Which usually means 10 hours of driving time, and 2 hours worth of breaks, to eat, for rest stops, and for and adventure.

Foamhenge

During our trip last summer we planned one roadside attraction every day. Usually we would stop halfway through the day and spend an hour just exploring, and seeing new things.  In Virginia we visited Foamhenge. In Tennessee we stopped and saw The Statue of Liberation. Oklahoma we stopped at Pops 66 Soda Ranch and had lunch. Of course we couldn't leave without buying a few cases of unusual soda. Texas, we saw the inspiration for Ramones Auto body shop in Disney's Cars movie.  The building is an old Conoco gas station, but now serves as Shamrocks Chamber of Commerce. We also stopped at the Cadillac Ranch and left our mark on Amarillo.

Tip #3 bring healthy snacks, and a few non-healthy ones too.  After being in the car for 4 days, there is nothing I crave more than REAL FOOD. Especially the way we used to travel. We would bring chips and soda and crackers and junkfood.  You need to bring a cooler with some nutrition.  If your anything like me, car rides make me swell up like a balloon.  Its painful and can be dangerous.  Make sure you keep your cooler filled with fresh veggies, and hummus, or bread and fillings for sandwiches.  It saves you a ton of money, by not stopping at fast food joints.  It also makes the trip more enjoyable. I am not saying not to bring chips, but make sure you get some good food in there too.  It will make everyone happier. My favorites are cheese, and crackers, carrots and hummus, or premade sandwich wraps or burritos.

Tip #4 bring things for your kids to do.  Music, tablets, coloring books and crayons, blank paper so they can play games like tic tac toe. My daughter likes to bring a journal so she can draw, and so she can log all the fun stuff we did along the way, or meals she really enjoyed. What can i say shes a foodie. They are not going to look out the window and enjoy the scenery the same way you will. So let them keep themselves busy any way they can.  But please limit their phone use.  We brought our nieces on a trip to Smoky mountains this year, and I took her phone away completely.  She has a habit of nonstop texting. While I appreciate that she loves her friends (shes 13) this really is a time for family togetherness.  And if they always have their minds on whats going on back home, they arent really truly bonding with you.  And they aren't creating memories of grand adventures, because their minds are back home.

Tip #4  Take time to visit some natural wonders.  We made a plan to visit some of our nations National Parks.  We bought the annual pass, to save a little money.  We knew we would be visiting several parks, and some of the fees are pretty high. For example the fee for the Grand Canyon is $25 a day. So we figured if we spend $80 on the year pass, we can visit as many of the parks as we want over the next year. The pass has already paid for itself. During this trip we visted Grand Canyon in Arizon, Painted Desert and Petrified Forest, Arizona, Sequoia and Kings in California, and Seguaro in New Mexico. It was like traveling to completely different distant lands, and some times it felt like we were on another planet altogether. Spending time in nature is a priceless experience.  Its good for the soul, and the brain.  There is so much you can learn by visiting our National Parks.  Your kids, and you, will learn things they don't teach in school.  And I can tell you, there is no experiance that compares to touching a giant Sequoia tree, or getting poked by a Saguaro Cactus, that only grow in a very small area in the Sonoran Desert.

The Grand Canyon

Painted Desert

Seguaro National Park

The best tip I can give you to road trip like a boss is this, Sit back and enjoy the adventure.  Stop the rushing to get to your destination. Enjoy the sites, enjoy your family, soak it all in.

Sequoia and Kings National park

Mothers day

To start off I will say, Mothers day is both the most joyous holiday for me, and the saddest.  Being a mom, is the greatest gift that God, and my husband has ever given me. Mothers day means more to me than my own birthday.  However, anyone that has had a mom who is no longer with them on Mothers day, also understand how sad that can be.  I miss my mom all year long, but Easter and Mothers day I miss her the most.  My mother was an extraordinary woman, that has left a hole, that nothing could ever fill. However, I know my mom would not want me to focus on that at all.  She would want me to be celebrated for the Mom that I am.  So thats what we are going to focus on today.

me and my mom

My husband is usually really good at spoiling me.  Probably too good at it in fact.  He would spend every penny he had to make me feel special. This year, our washing machine blew up. Not literally, but whatever happened, it left black powdery scorch marks on my floor.  So we will say it blew up. While I have a beautiful new washer, we were left broke as a joke. I will admit I really felt sorry for myself for a minute there.  I felt like I didn't even want to celebrate Mothers day. Its been a rough week. 

I told my daughter to just sit down and make me cards with her brother, and that would be fine.  I love homemade gifts from my kids.  That wasnt good enough for her.  So I gave her my credit card and said $20 max, but I would prefer you spend closer to $10.  Her daddy took her to the mall, and they did there best to find me a gift I could open.  I requested Lil man to buy mommy some chocolate and I told him I would share it with him. 

 

On Sunday morning, I woke up to a lot of noise downstairs.  My husband and Daughter were putzing around.  So I closed my bedroom door, and stayed in bed until the noise died down. When I came downstairs I was immediately handed tissue wrapped gifts.  Lil man got mommy some chocolate truffles, and as soon as we opened them, he took one and popped it in his cute little mouth. Then he proceeded to throw a fit because I wouldn't let him eat the rest of them (hes 2 ).  lol  My Daughter bought me a really pretty necklace that say OHANA.  My favorite movie is Lilo and Stitch. And a POP figure of baby Moana, my 2nd fave Disney movie. I was really touched by her thoughtful gifts.  

My husband brought me a bouquet of handpicked flowers.  He went scavenging through my garden and picked me a bouquet. He said he wanted to pick some of my lilies too, but they looked too perfect and he didn't want to mess them up. This is the first time anyone has ever picked me a bouquet, besides my kids and nieces. It was a beautiful sentiment. Especially since my garden means so much to me. He also planned a beautiful picnic at one of our favorite places.  Its owned my the national park service. Its an old battlefield site.  Its absolutely breathtaking.  We sat under a tree with a soft breeze blowing by, and crystal blue skies, and rolling hills in the distance. He packed sandwiches and potato chips, and water for everyone.  We sat on a blanket and watched our kids play in the grass.  It was a picture perfect day.  

What really made our day even more special was my husband taking my camera and doing a photo session of me and my babies. I do not step in front of the camera very often.  I have huge body image issues. I feel so awkward and uncomfortable in front of the camera.  Most times, I also hate the way the pictures turn out, because I am not in total control.  I am a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to my art, and I am very very critical of my own work, let alone giving control over to someone else to do it.  So just getting dressed, and getting the kids ready, was kind of nerve wracking.  

Most photographers say, "do this for your kids, they will want the memories one day" I have to say this was entirely selfish on my part.  I wanted pictures so that I could remember these days.  You blink and life has flown by.  In what feels like no time at all, your kids are all grown.  It feels like yesterday my almost 12 year old was in my arms, looking at me adoringly, touching my face with her cute little hands.  Time goes by too quickly.  So this session was entirely for me. Before my baby girl gets too grown, while she still crawls into bed and rests her head on my stomach, and watches TV.  While she still lets me run my fingers through her hair. Those times are fleeting and they are happening less and less.  Shes growing up. 

 Or while my lil man still wants to be held and cuddled, while he still follows me from room to room like a little shadow. I want to remember these days forever. 

Granted had the washer not blown, a lot of things this mothers day would have been different.  I am glad it went the way it did.  My husband had to get not only creative, but he really was thoughtful in his gifts for me.  A picnic, a photo session, and a hand picked bouquet, meant more to me, than if he had spend a million dollars on a gift.  Even my daughter really thought out my gift.  And I will have these memories forever.  It was a truly memorable amazing Mothers Day.   

Waterfall Wednesday.

My first experience of a waterfall was when I was about 6.  My parents saved up to finally take a honeymoon.(with 3 kids in tow) It was an experiance I will never forget.  I can still see the falls today, as clearly as if I had just went yesterday.

Since then I have not seen anything that even compares to the magnitude of the Niagara falls, when it comes to waterfalls anyway.  However, I think each drop in the water, is unique, beautiful, and meant to be admired.

This one was just a little cascade in a river.  I am not even sure it has a name.  Yet it is so powerful, it deserves admiration.  This was taken in the little pigeon river inside Great Smoky Mountain National Park.

There is something so peaceful about sitting and watching the water rush past you.  To sit and admire nature in all her fury.  This water was ice cold.  In fact it was so cold that after maybe 3 seconds in the water, my feet tingled and burned like I had frost bite.  I didnt expect it to be so cold in March.  I drastically underestimated how cold it could be.  I am glad I only had the mind to put my toes in.

Different angle of the same location.

























Driving further on down the road, and through the park we happened upon another waterfall, just off the roadway.  In fact it was so unexpected we had to turn around.
Meigs Falls, Smoky Mountains. I was very grateful for the roadside waterfalls during this trip.  Hiking with our 2 year old son, is not feasible at this time. You see, he had no fear, and acts hard of hearing most times. Like most 2 year olds, he hears what he wants to hear, and ignores you when hes having fun.  Not a good combination in the mountains.

Getting to see any waterfalls, was a pleasant surprise for me.  I fully accepted that we wouldn't see any, because we could do major hiking that day. So when I saw Meigs falls out of the corner of my eye, while doing 45 down a mountain road. You can imagine me screaming "WATERFALL, WATERFALL, YOU HAVE TO TURN AROUND!!" Thankfully my husband is used to such demands, and turned around as quickly as he could.  It must be hard being a photographers husband.

                             more images from Meigs falls, Smoky Mountain National Park, Tennessee

The last big hike we ran for a waterfall adventure was before my son was born.  We hiked down to see Dark Hollow Falls, in Shenandoah National park, in Virginia.  The hike has a 440 foot elevation change from the top of the hike, to the bottom of the falls. Its about a 1 1\2 miles round trip hike.  But honestly the hike down was easy, getting back up was pretty strenuous. I can tell you it was well worth the trip.  The falls are spectacular.

I love family time, and there is no greater family time than spending time in nature.

2013 Dark Hollow falls, Shenandoah National Park, Virginia

One of our hikes this year 2017 at Smoky Mountain National Park, with our 2 kids, and our 2 nieces.

I hope you enjoyed Waterfall Wednesday.  I hope I have inspired you to go chase your own waterfalls.

Farmer Jen

I have had this dream since forever. I have always wanted to live on a farm, run a farm, be a farmer.  I know to most people that just sounds absolutely ridiculous.  

My Papa lived down the street from us my entire childhood.  My papa was an urban farmer.  From the front yard it looked like every other house on the block.  Once you stepped through his back porch the world changed.  Even though I was never particularly close to my papa, my Uncle Peaches also lived there and he was a second father to me.  In the back yard was hand built raised beds, filled with mostly rhubarb, but other veggies on occasion.  My only concern was the rhubarb, its still my favorite veggie.  Raw with salt! mmm.  He also had pens, and coops filled with foul, and birds of all kinds.  He had quail, pheasants, ducks, chickens, and fancy chickens, along with coups with pigeons.  I remember fresh egg being sent to our house, and refusing to eat brown eggs.  gross.  My mom fed them to me anyway, lying saying they were from the store.  They were delicious by the way, and I am not a big egg fan.  He also had this great big giant snow ball bush, that I was in love with.  His backyard was like the secret garden to me.  All hidden behind a fence, that the cold cruel world outside never saw.  It was our safety.  Because in the front yard, hid the drug dealers, crack heads, and I cant tell you how many times we were approached by grown men in that neighborhood, with ill intent.  

I guess thats where my fantasy comes in.  To be a Farmer, or master secret gardener at least.  When we bought and moved into this house, I had every intention of having a garden and growing my own food.  If we didnt live in an homeowners association, I would also have a few goats back there as well. But I digress.  The first year didnt go so well.  We have a crazy dog who likes to eat all my tomatoes.  Not only that we tried to plant in a plot, and the soil back there is tough and full of clay.  I knew, we had to have a fence to keep the dogs out, and my veggies in.  Last year we went BIG.  Chris built me my own little secret garden! Its surrounded by a fence, with a gate that latches.  We have 2 raised beds, and working on a 3rd this year.  He built me a beautiful bench, which I painted pink.  The bench is surrounded by colorful pots filled to the rim with flowers! (The flowers attract bees, which pollinate the veggie plants and gives us veggies). We are even working on putting a planting table out there for me.

  

Right now we have lots of veggie seedlings growing on our covered deck.  They are doing much better than I thought they would.  I had a lot of trouble with seeds in the past, and gave up and bought plants.  However my goal this year is to be a self reliant as possible.  Start everything from seed, spend as little as possible, and grow enough food to sustain my family and pass the rest on to others.  

My husband promises me one day he will buy me my farm.  I guess this is my practice for being a real farmer.  As for right now I am so happy with our little secret garden.  Some nights when its warm, I go out there and sit among my plants, and watch the sunset paint the sky cotton candy colors.  I pray prayers of thanksgiving, and I feel Gods love and peace throughout me.  Some days that little section of land, is my only calm in a hectic day.  I am so thankful for that. 

Spring Break Adventures

I have a lot of goals in my life.  One of my goals is to visit all 59 national parks.  2016 was the first time I had ever been to one of the bigger national parks (aside from Shenandoah).  I kind of fell in love with the National Park Service.  We bought a yearly pass and that was all I needed in my life.

My husband is a total wanderer like I am.  In fact, he is the one who first brought out my Wanderlust. So whenever I have the urge to travel, he is always up for it.  So for Spring break we decided to visit Eastern Tennessee and the Smoky Mountain National park.  We have visited Pigeon Forge before when I was pregnant with my daughter. Life was a lot different back then, and we didn't really explore the area all that much.  In fact, we didn't visit the mountains at all.  This time it was going to be completely different.

We decided to bring our nieces along for the adventure.  They both lived in eastern Tennessee when they were very little, but they don't have any memories of it.  I thought it would be neat for them to go back.

Our adventure began with a nice long road trip.  The drive was about 8 hours total.  Which may be a long drive to some of you.  That is just a short day trip for us.

The Appalachian mountain range through Virginia and Tennessee is absolutely breathtaking. The rolling hills, and farmlands.  I don't know if I have enough words to describe the beauty to you.

Chris found us a really cool resort to stay at.  The hotel had a huge indoor water park, with slides and a wave pool.  The park even had a surf station.  The kids all loved playing in the water park.  I cant tell you how many times the 3 girls went down the water slides.  It was probably close to 50 times between the slides.  Even little Lucas went down a water slide with Hermione.  Me and Chris stuck to the wave pool for the most part, but Chris did go down a few water slides with the girls.  I honestly think if we did nothing but stay at the hotel, the girls would have been happy.


What I liked about the hotel was the full kitchen in the room.  We all ate dinner at a big table every night.  Granted, one night we just had Bojangles take out.  It was nice to cook a nice meal for everyone.  I thought I would hate cooking on vacation.  Honestly though, I always miss real food when I am on vacation.  Eating out all the time gets old, and I cant wait to go home and eat a sandwich.  It also probably saved us a little bit of money.  6 people at a restaurant, gets expensive really fast.

One of our adventures was to go to the Ripleys Aquarium of the Smokies. We have been to the Ripleys Aquarium in Myrtle beach, and I really loved it.  So I couldn't wait to see this one.  I remember our first visit to the strip, We sat down on a bench across the street from the Aquarium of the Smokies, and they were raving about their shark exhibit.  I had never been to an aquarium before at that point.  I wanted to go over there so bad and visit.  Chris and I just didn't have the money for that.  So it was really great to be able to go, and take the kids.  The aquarium did not disappoint either.  We got to actually touch and interact with horseshoe crabs, rays, and moon jellies.  We had a really great time.

After the Aquarium we were  hungry.  Chris found a place across the street that served NY style pizza.  So we went into this old building that they turned into a mall.  It looked like a really old office building, with an old grist mill feel to it.  It was quite odd.  The pizza place was in a tiny little corner, and was ran by people with an Eastern European accent.  But honestly I am so glad we stopped there.  The pizza was phenomenal.  The crust was super thin and very good texture.  Not soggy at all.  The sauce was slightly sweet, not acidic at all.  and the cheese was so good.  And the kids loved eating pizza slices bigger than their head.

The following day we searched for something fun to do.  We had what felt like a hundred pamphlets on the table.  Trying to find something fun to do, while it rained outside.  I will say this, it rained every day we were there.  Not once did we let it damper our fun! We finally decided on visiting a little Zoo.  The Rainforest Adventure Zoo.  When we pulled up to the building, it was not what we expected at all.  To call yourself a zoo, and be completely enclosed in a building, in a very busy area of Gatlinburg.  I dont know what I expected, but I didnt have very high hopes when I saw the building. I really thought it would be outdoors.  When we entered the building, or store I should say, it smelled very strong of urine. However, despite all that.  We had a really good time.  They had so many animals packed in that building.  Birds, lizards, snakes, spiders, chinchillas, lemurs, tamarins.  I mean the list goes on and on.  They even had a petting section, and you could feed and pet goats, emus, donkeys, and my all time favorite Giant Tortoise.  We stopped for a long time and had a conversations with a cockatoo named Coral.  She was very sweet and new she was a pretty bird.  But when a sassy little cockatoo started yelling things at my son, the party really got started.  This guy was so funny.  He was trying to kiss my son through the glass.  This particular bird stayed on the ground, while all his buddies were on perches.  Lucas was the only one at ground level.  So this bird had a field day playing with him. At one point Lucas had his back to the glass, and he started screaming at the back of his head, bouncing up and down.  Lucas thought that was so funny, so he started mimicking the bird.  The bird yelled I LOVE YOU to Lucas, and then started singing ROW ROW ROW YOUR BOAT, GENTLY DOWN THE STREAM.  It was a hoot.


Our last full day in Tennessee we decided to finally go to the mountains.  It was the point of our whole trip, but with the non stop rain, we couldn't go until the last day.  The roads driving into the mountains can be terrifying at times.  With no guard rails and sheer drop offs 3 feet from the road. The views however could not be beat.  The mountains were so green from the new spring growth.  A beautiful river runs along the road.  We spent time climbing, and dipping our toes in the ice cold mountain river.  We also were on a search for wildflowers and wildlife.

The Great Smoky Mountains are filled with the most wildflowers of any other national park.

One of my goals in the parks, is to see wildlife.  I love seeing animals in there natural habitat.  And I love our local black bears.  So all through the park the kids were all on bear lookout.  We spent many hours driving, hiking and playing in the park.  When we finally had enough, Chris decided to take this one way dirt road out of the park.  this road looks like its barely ever used.  It was so janky.  It twisted and turned up and up and up to the tippy tops of the mountains.  It was one way, because its only wide enough for one car to pass.  At this point, we did not see any bears.  We had seen quite a few wild turkeys, but no bears.  Chris took one look at this road, and said "now we will see some wildlife". I wasn't buying it.  I thought, "no bears this trip"  As we were driving, my niece Samira yells out, I think i see a bear!!!  And sure enough, there the little guy was eating on the side of the hill.  Because the way the road twisted and turned up the mountain, we got to see the bear from below and from above.  I couldn't believe how close we were to this little guy.  It was a pretty cool end to a nice trip through the National Parks.

The day we came home.  At some point during the drive, I felt like I wanted to see more, do more.  I wasn't ready for the trip to be over.  So I asked Chris if we could get off the freeway and go drive a bit on the Blue Ridge parkway.  He gladly obliged.  The kids at this point were not feeling it.  They were all tired and ready to be home.  Adding time to the drive home, didnt make them happy either.  But I was so happy we did.  The mountains were so beautiful.  You would never guess that I am terrified of heights, and even more afraid of falling. I just cant get enough of the views from the top of the world.  I always tell my daughter, "its ok to be scared, I am afraid all the time.  Its not ok to ever let fear stop you from doing anything in this life"  There were points of this trip, that I was so afraid, I thought I might throw up.  But I will never ever left fear stop me.   I cant imagine how many things in my life, I would never have experienced if I let fear stop me.