Just for Fun

These things are neat....and usually surprise me by how accurate they are. I had to post it on here instead of forwarding it in an email. I'll tell you why next week, but I can't say right now. Remind me when I come back from vacation to tell you why.
http://memoriter.net/flash/test.html

Going Home

We're going home for about a week or so, so I won't be around to post. I'm taking a break from everything. However, when we get back, I'll have pictures so don't forget me. Check in with me sometime around the 10th or a few days after.
Take Care!

Tagged

Meagan, my sister, tagged me on her blog to answer these questions. So I guess thats what I'm going to do.

1. What was I doing 10 years ago (1998)?
Lets see....That was the year I had the weird "break-up" with my not really my boyfriend friend, couldn't figure out what I was doing at college so I quite after the spring semester for a year, worked at the Girl Scout camp that summer and had a blast, worked at B&N for a few months in the fall, and went to visit my friends in Europe for the month of December. That was a big year....was it only 10 years ago?

2. 5 things left on my "to do" list today:
Well, its pretty much the end of the day so, I think mostly I'm going to
a. drive through Yellowstone National Park to Bozeman where we're stopping to pick up Malcolm's sister Justine from boarding school before finishing our trip home
b. Post a blog entry telling you I'm going home for a week so I won't be posting till I get back,.
c. try to figure out what this weird rash coming up on Paris's neck and back is without getting too concerned. Thats what I get for bragging to Malcolm about what nice skin she has compared to Carlie's puberty achne covered skin.
d. organize a few things in the truck once we get parked to get ready to go home.
e. go to sleep

3. what I would do if I was a billionaire:
I'd probably buy a whole lot of land somewhere, probably very close to where I am now cause I like it there. Definatly quit truck driving, not that its that bad, but I'd rather do all this traveling in a car so I could get up some side roads that look really fun. Visit my family more often, and fly them out to see me, maybe buy a little vacation home down there.

4. bad habiits:
procrastinate...big time! I often fail to prioritize....I'll read a book instead of working on taxes or dusting the house when it would only take 15 minutes to dust...if that long and then I could read without a cloud over my head.

5. places I've lived:
my parents house in Ooltewah, Dad's little rental house by his resteraunt in Oolteway (I lived there by myself and with Malcolm after I got married), on UTC's campus in Chattanooga, at the ranch in Baker, MT, and where ever this truck parks every day, which over the past two years would include many places in all the states but Maine.

Now, I'm supposed to tag someone else, but I havn't got that many blogging friends yet that have their blogs ready to roll, and Meagan tagged the only other one I know besides her when she tagged me. SO....I'm not taggin anyone.

Poll

I'm polling you! Please participate. Over in the right hand column!
Thanks!

I Liked This

I found this in a little calender Mom gave me for Christmas. Considering the circumstances this woman found herself in, I think what she is saying is really powerful. I would not have wanted to be in her position.

"I am still determined to be cheerful and happy, in whatever situation I may be; for I have also learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions, and not upon our circumstances."
-Martha Washington

The Beauty We Don't See

Last night it rained. Not a lot, just enough to dampen the parking lot, the window on the truck, and the ground.

While Malcolm was unloading I took the girls out to potty and stretch their legs a little. We went over to the far edge of the property so that we wouldn't be in the way and hopefully wouldn't be noticed because occasionally one of these places will be picky about that sort of thing. I mean, last week one one of our pickups made me sit at a bench in the parking lot while Malcolm went in and the place we loaded at today wanted me to sit in the office until Malcolm convinced them I was a driver. Then they agreed to let me stay in the truck which was good cause I got a log of blogging done. I usually don't take the girls out at places like these industrial sights, but it was taking a LONG time to unload, and its just not fair to them. So I did it anyway, and standing around watching them, and watching where I stepped so I wouldn't get muddy, I noticed a slug on a leaf. Normally I think they are ugly, but I was curious what he would look like through the lens of my new camera, so I took the girls back to the truck and picked up the camera

and went back to the slug

and took this...

Now, isnt' he kind of pretty. I've never thought of slugs as pretty, or cute, or even picture worthy, but looking at him through my lens, I found that God even gave this little guy his own unique beauty. I think there's a lesson there.

And so, being all inspired on this damp, chilly, Oregon morning, I saw other things. And this is what my mind came up with. So often we just cruise through our day and don't really look around. Some things are unattractive, or we're busy, or we just take it for granted. But, if you look closer, even ugly things like slugs have beauty in them.

We comment on the beauty of a tree, or tall grasses waving in the wind, but we never look down at the ground we're standing on and see what the smaller things have to offer us.

Have you ever considered the beauty in a perfectly shaped drop of water, or its significance? Every little drip, no matter how small, is significant and important. Every drip is full of life that the little drop is going to share with the world.

And if one drip has that much power and beauty, how much more do they all have together?

And even an old ugly industrial sight can have its dilapidates sharp edges softened a little and offer us some beauty to enjoy. We just have to take the time to look for it sometimes.

Another Mountain

Yesterday we drove through the "Oregon Outback" until we reached Hwy 97, where we turned north for about 60 miles before cutting off on Hwy 26 to Portland. We were winding down Hwy 26 admiring the views when we noticed this mountain rising majesticaly about the landscape. Mt Hood....the king of the Cascades. I wanted a picture....I wanted one bad. Because I'd already introduced you to Mt Shasta, and you just needed to know Mt Hood as well. The problem here is that there was once again no where to pull off, traffic behind us, and about a million bug splatters in the windshield, plus it wasn't even in front of us, it was out the driver's side window and the driver was in the way of my shot.

SO...

I ran to the sleeper, flopped down on the bed, snatched up my camera, frantically wiped the doggy snot off the window from where my girls lay and look out the window, and draw pictures with their noses, and lick the window (a lot in Carlie's case...she's wierd but we love her), and started snapping pictures.

And these are what we got.

I wasn't satisfied with the shots so I grabbed my zoom lens, having not used it yet, and finding that it was surprisingly fast and easy to change lenses, and snapped a few shots like this.
WoW! It really made a difference!

Now....please excuse the blue tinting. I didn't realize the window was that much more tinted than the front until I plugged in my memory card and got to see the full size version of the picture. Things look a little gloomy in Oregon...but it was an incredibly beautiful Sunday afternoon.

Here's the sad part of the story. After snapping all those pictures of Mt Hood, I returned to the co-pilot's chair, at which point my wonderful observant husband said, "So....what's THAT mountain?"...as he points ahead of us to this giant of a mountain thats at least twice as big as the one I just finished photographing. (at that point a little column of steam started coming up off my head...but I got over it.)
So the pictures above with the unusual blue tinting are not Mt. Hood. I think its Mt Mitchel, which is just a measly little 5,599 feet, nothing compared to Mt Hood's 11,239ft. You think I would have noticed the difference. I never got a shot of Mt Hood, but I did get to ride around the base of it and a little way up its side, which is closer than we've ever been before.
At least Mt Mitchell was picturesque.