Hey, anybody out there?

So, I've been thinking about starting up the blogging again. Since almost 2 years of inactivity, I'm trying to find my voice again. Twitter is lame. Facebook is played out. Let's bring back the blog. Anybody with me?

Laugh with me

Interesting stats

According to LifeWay Research, the top reasons young adults are dropping out of church these days:

1. They simply want a break from church (27%);

2. They felt church members are judgmental and/or hypocritical (26%);

3. They moved to college and didn't find another church (25%);

4. They have work responsibilities that keep them from attending (23%);

5. They moved too far from church (22%);

6. They just got too busy, even though they’d still like to attend (22%);

7. They didn’t feel connected to the church in the first place (20%);

8. They disagreed with the church’s political/social stance (18%);

9. They decided to spend more time with friends (17%);

10. They were just going to church to please their parents (17%).

(Thanks for sending along cousin Chad. These are interesting, slightly depressing and good food for thought.)

Sliding Rock & Mint Mango Mojitos

Up through the Pisgah Mountain is the Davidson River featuring the NC-famous Sliding Rock. Although not caught on camera, I did go down - yeah for me. The water was FREEZING so I let the boys go another time to take a picture.

The Davidson River also has a number of waterfalls. This one was specifically popular with kids looking to cool off in the freezing water.

Mint mojitos after a wonderful afternoon!

The Lost Sea

After our trip to Big Creek, we kept driving to Ten Mile, TN to visit Zac's grandparent's and their cabin on Watts Bar Lake. On Wednesday morning, we drove to Sweetwater, TN to tour the "Lost Sea" - the world's largest under ground lake. Zac and cousin Ben in the tunnel into the caverns. 

Great Smokey Mountains National Park

On Tuesday morning we drove just over the NC/TN border into the Great Smokey Mountains National Park to the Big Creek area. Big Creek includes campgrounds, hiking and some pretty good river walking. The reason for the trip was the famous Midnight Hole - a collection of big rocks perfect for jumping into the (freezing cold) water below.  A few natural water falls were also found on the trail. 

In the mountains, the air temperature was just about 70 degrees - the water - as you can imagine was quite cold. Aster didn't seem to mind. 

Zac didn't seem to mind, but quote "holy crap, that was so so so cold". Both dog and man shivered like babies afterwards. 

Looked like paradise in the mountains - with blue water all the way to the bottom. 

Nature dog - back at it! 

Dupont State Forest

Dupont State Forest, the largest in NC, boasts some of the state's best waterfalls. Today, we hiked up to Triple Falls and Hooker Falls. On the way down the mountain we grabbed some fresh S. Carolina peaches in Hendersonville. Good day all around. 

On a side note, Aster Pup woke up last night vomiting on the bed. Yeah, that sucked. Zac managed to catch a large portion of the dog barf in his HANDS (gross!) but we had to change sheets around 1:30 a.m.. Another round of barf at 6:30 and then at 10 a.m. - the pup looked so hangdog through the morning it was sad to watch. After a low-key day at the house and a small bowl of rice and chicken, he seems to have snapped back. Hopefully nature-dog will be back at it in the morning so we can hike up to Big Creek and continue on to Tennessee. 

Black Balsam

Black Balsam, one of many, many sections of mountain off the Blue Ridge Parkway was our first vacation adventure. Up to an elevation of about 5,000 feet, the views were amazing! Obviously, the pictures speak for themselves. 

One of many places just to watch the clouds go by. Uncle John & Aunt Marty to the left - our expert tour guides. 

Zac and Aster (nature dog) - who loved every minute of it! 

The climb up the mountain and across the ridges included sandy trails, wooded areas as well as sparkly rocks like this one. The rocks and all other sandy/dirty areas sparked with minerals. I'm not sure if the picture does it justice, but the whole ridge top sparkled as if it were dusted with glitter. 

 

Vacation Day 1

The drive to North Carolina went well yesterday. Leaving at 7:30 a.m. put us in N.C. around 4:30 in the afternoon. The drive was beautiful through OH, WVa, Va, TN, NC. Aster pup appreciated the anti-nausea medicine and did well through the trip. He most especially enjoyed when I sat in the back seat with him so he could sit on my lap and stare our the front window.  We figured that since they don't exactly design back seats to help dogs from sliding back and forth through the winding mountain highway, he would at least like something to hold on to. 

Vacation ...4 days and counting

Zac, Aster and I leave for our trip to North Carolina in 4 days!! I promise to TRY and start this blog back up while we're relaxing in the mountains. ; )

What do you do?

I often don't know how to answer the question when my family or friends ask what I "do" at work. This video is a bit extreme, but oh, so true.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wac3aGn5twc

And the agency-client relationship, so true.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2a8TRSgzZY

Blog Loser

To the one person out there (LeAnna) who actually checks my blog....I do apologize. Been so busy at work that I haven't had time for much social media of any kind. Hopefully some day soon I'll pick it back up. Don't loose hope. : )

Tulsa

We arrived in Tulsa around 10 a.m. this morning after a rather painless 15-hour drive. Not bad, a bit of rain, but it wasn't terrible. 

We're relaxing now, but I can't help but wonder why this sign kept popping up on the Oklahoma Turnpike - "Don't drive into smoke." Seriously, there was a sign every 10 miles or so. I could understand maybe "don't drive into tornado" but what the heck? 

Trying

Trying to get ready for vacation. Trying to pack. Trying to detach from my work responsibilities. Trying to delegate. Trying to be okay with leaving Aster for a week. Trying to prepare myself for a 15-hour car ride. Trying to figure out what the weather is like in Tulsa.

Insulation

Pictures are actually backwards - this was the finished project.
R-49 - almost 2 feet of insulation!It's fiberglass, but felt like cotton.

20 bags that expand to 8x their size when agitated in the machine.

Levi's job - slice, stuff, wait. Slice, stuff, wait.

Getting the edges first.

This past week, was home improvement at its best. On Thursday night, Zac installed four mini-cans in the dining room. Finally there will be enough light to actually see your food! On Friday, Zac began prepping the attic for the blown-in insulation and finished it up with his brother's help on Saturday. Prep work was the most time consuming because it involved crawling around in the low spaces of the attic to install the soffit vents...not his favorite part of the weekend. On Sunday, we rented the AtticCat fiberglass insulation blower for Home Depot and bought 20 bags of insulation. That part of the process went surprisingly smooth and quick - 15 bags in 2 hours. We ended up not even needing all 20, so we even got some $$ back.

The sunroom seems warmer already! hooray!

Big Nick, Little Lucy

I can't help but share this picture with the world. That is my big brother...and that his his little doggie. Manly, huh?

Lazy Sunday

Yesterday, I enjoyed a wonderful lazy Sunday. In the morning, I went to church and then came home around the same time that Zac got home from his band show overnighter. He was feeling a little under the weather, so we spent most of the day on the couch. After a brisk walk with Aster after lunch, I stopped by the library to check my email and grab a few books. My afternoon was spent reading The Lucky One by Nicholas Sparks. I love his books because they are so entertaining and I got sucked in right away. The rest of the day was spent on the couch with Aster sleeping on my lap just reading. With the snow falling outside, it was the perfect thing to do on a cold winter Sunday.

My Boys

Lake, rivers and a whole lot of digging.

Due to the recent melt-down, we now have a lake in our back yard which extends over to the side of our house. In addition to a bunch of other back yard issues, our dear neighbor (not his fault, he just moved in) has bricks stacked up on his side of the fence to keep the water from running through his yard to the drain. Great. And because said lake is putting so much pressure on our foundation, we also have a million little rivers running all over our basement floor. Awesome.

Last week Zac called the city of Stow and the engineer came out to access our situation. From just poking around, he doesn't think that we have the required 2-acres of fall to have the city fix our drain problem on their dime. But he said that a survey team would come back out in the spring to verify, and then he would work with us to set up a plan to fix our problem. Not the answer we were looking for, but its progress. So all you friends and family out there, bring you shovels because this very well may be the summer of dig. ; )

To combat the basement rivers, Zac and I are having a handful of basement waterproofing companies come out to give estimates and advice on what to do. We've got everybody from Ohio Waterproofing to an independent contractor who might be able to work with Zac to do it. We'll see what our best options are to get a dry basement and not break the bank.

Oh the joys of home ownership! It may be expensive and stressful, but we wouldn't trade it for the world.

Chasing Chariots Show