Thursday, September 27, 2007

A little peace and serenity

This morning I woke up with the bright idea that it would be nice to go up on Green Mountain Nature trailhttp://huntsville.about.com/library/weekly/aa052701a.htm and check it out. I haven't been to this particular trail or area for quite a number of years....probably about 8-10 years to be exact. I went a few times in college and once with my parents and now-husband. I have fond memories of a nice picnic area and decent trail/scenery. I get kid #1 to school and later kid #2 to preschool and realize that it is drizzling rain. I didn't let that deter me, though, and I drove right on up Green Mountain anyway. Well, Green Mountain is practically in my backyard. What a treat! You'd think I would have gone back sooner..

So I get to the parking area and it looks mostly like I remember. There were lots more big houses on the drive up, however. I guess some folks around here are discovering Green Mountain and it's bluff views. Anyway, I was only the 3rd vehicle in the parking lot and I saw a guy that obviously works there. So I get out, equipped with a small water, cell phone and keys. Off I head to the very large picnic area, which is very scenic because there is a large lake beyond the tables and chairs. There is a nice restroom and a covered picnic area, complete with a multitude of rocking chairs (they won my heart immediately with the addition of rocking chairs!). I'm focused on hitting the trail first, so off I head on the trail. They've added landscape timbers to line the trail, whereas before you just had to figure it out. There are various trails leading off of the main trail that are not marked, but for today I stayed on the main trail. It was a very nice, refreshing walk around the lake. I always enjoy being alone on a trail because I'm better able to focus on the workings of nature around me; birds singing, woodpeckers pecking, faint rustling of leaves from some small, unidentified creature...you get the idea. I only met one group of hikers at the very end. There's some spots along the way of interest: a log cabin, a chapel, and a neat covered bridge. I saw several ducks and geese, and a fly-fisherman. There's a small waterfall off of the lake and main trail. It's just a very nice, serene area. I'm sure on the weekend it's packed with more people, but it suited my purposes for today. Once I finished the trail I found a wooden swing facing the lake, so I sat and enjoyed the peaceful day for a while. It had stopped spitting rain by this point, so it was cool and breezy.

I would really like to take the kids up there sometime. They'd love to explore the covered bridge and they're always keen for a waterfall and nature. We'll have to make a morning trip up there soon while the weather is cooler.

It's a rare thing when I don't have a gazillion errands or chores to do while the kids are in school, so I'm particularly glad that I took the trip up Green Mountain today. Once I got home I was much more willing to get some laundry and dishes done. I should probably make a habit of it. :)

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Oven Woes

So, our family has been without an oven for the past 9 days. This is not a good situation in which to find oneself. Thursday night last my husband and I were sitting in the office chatting when a loud beeping noise started coming from the kitchen. My first thought was that it was the smoke alarm. My husband got up to check it out, and discovered that it was our oven. It was beeping loudly while displaying the secret oven code of F1. My husband and I not knowing oven code didn't know what to do. Thus, we commenced hitting all of the buttons on the oven in rapid succession in attempt to make it stop. It didn't work. Finally, my husband went and turned off the circuit.
The next day we decided to try again and my husband turned the circuit back on. As we stood in hopeful expectation, hovering next to the oven, it began beeping again and flashing it's dumb code again. It was then we decided to call up our home warranty folks. Now, we are very lucky that when we purchased our house nearly 6 months ago, we got a home warranty included. It has really come in handy, since some of our outlets and garage light went on the blink (not literally) a while back and it took 2 electricians to repair it. We also had a main water pipe burst under our shower, leaking water into our garage. We now have a huge hole in the ceiling of our garage. Apparently the home warranty covers the water pipe, but not the big hole the guy put in our ceiling to actually GET TO the water pipe. Nevertheless, we still saved mucho money by having a home warranty.
Well, we call the place about our dumb oven (which, by the way, I have never liked and really would like a new one..). They send out a guy a few DAYS later and all he does is write down the dumb oven code and says he has to "call it in." OK, so I think this won't take long, but here it is almost a week later and NOTHING has been done. Now, mind you, I can still cook on the oven. I merely have to go out to the garage, flip on the circuit, run back inside before the code starts flashing so I can hit the Bake button. As soon as I get that accomplished, it stops beeping and I can commence cooking. Could be worse. But, whenever the oven guy comes and gets our circuit board to "rebuild" it, I won't even have that luxury. Ah well...life goes on.

We had Family Fun Day at my daughter's school today and it was indeed fun. I got to monitor the kids on the huge, blow-up Double Slide. It was entertaining, at least! But, we all got a little too much sun. I'll be happy for cooler weather here shortly. I love Fall! I can't go through a Fall anymore without reminiscing about walking on the Quad at the great University of Alabama, when the leaves are beginning to fall and the weather is cool. I can almost hear Denny Chimes ringing out and cheers coming from Bryant-Denny stadium...almost. It's still my favorite time of year.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Why True and Real?

Hi everyone! I don't even know who would take the time to read my blog, but maybe somewhere out there will happen my way. :) Anyway, I got the idea for True and Real from one of the ways I try to live my life. Over a year ago, my Sunday School class did a study and one of the scriptures we studied was Philippians 4:8--"Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praise worthy--meditate on these things". What I gained from this lesson is to in every situation, only focus on what is "true and real". In any situation, my perspective may be skewed or the other person's perspective may be off, but I can always remind myself of the facts--what is true and real. I don't have to agree with everyone and I don't have to look at situations in exactly the same way as others. Well, it's helpful to me, anyway. :)

As I type this, my 2-year-old son is flailing about on the floor, being silly. He's just thrown the entire contents of a Yahtzee game across the floor. He's had croup and bronchitis for the past 5 days or so, and today is the beginnings of what seems to be recovery. Hence, the throwing and flailing. I don't mind him flailing about when he's happy about it. It's when he's kicking and screaming along with the flailing that gets worrisome. He's also picked up the phrase, "na-na-boo-boo" from somewhere....so he's saying that while he's tossing things about. I just hope I don't get pegged by a wayward dice (di??) so that I can still make it to the car rider line to pick up my 5-year-old from school in a few minutes!

I guess that's a good enough start as any. We'll see how long this actually lasts--me posting comments on here. :)