down time

I got my wisdom teeth pulled on Friday morning. I came up with ways to sit up on the couch with ice packs squished in too.

On Sabbath afternoon we took a walk in hopes of seeing the red-winged blackbird colony that usually lives at the pond. On the way, Ryan found a few snacks.

These aren't ripe yet, but they look good anyway.

We walked past the school's field (same one we detonated the chemical in)

At the pond, I talked Ryan into walking along the bank to try to get pictures of the frogs jumping in. See the circled one?

FROG!

also a frog, even if it looks like mud

another frog!

snacks on the way back

our backyard in summer

greenway - greener this time

As soon as we got home from church, we dashed out to the White House greenway again.

Ryan opted for the skateboard this time.

spring flowers

I wanted a picture with the cows. Ryan wanted a self-portrait. I was concerned that the autofocus wouldn't catch us. Looks like I was right! One of my favorite mess-ups of the day.


Ryan's skateboarding gave way to his running most of the way back to the car. He was even nice enough to run up the hill to get the car and drove back to pick me up at the high school. I didn't wanna do the big hill . . .

miles to go before we sleep

Sabbath afternoon on the White House Greenway - Valentine's Day <3

This is us at the beginning of what we thought would be a 3.5-mile leisurely jaunt around White House's Greenway. You can see the sign and map behind us. The Greenway crosses the roads that Ryan drives to school every day, TN-31 and TN-76.

Pictures of your fearless Greenway-goers. I don't know what to call Ryan . . . a scooterer?

I liked this shot of Ryan going down the hill in front of me. I can't remember if this was before or after the really steep part. I almost died! . . . but I'm sure you don't want to hear about that . . .





This part of the woods was my favorite. Not only was it downhill (one way!), but it had all the pretty beech trees with their leaves still on. It felt very airy in that stretch. At the bottom of this hill was our first road crossing. I think we went across two roads and under two roads.

Us at a bridge near a lovely-smelling water treatment facility

This is my reaction to discovering that we could only go from point A (left hand) counter-clockwise to point B (right hand) and that the part between my hands DOES NOT EXIST YET! We found the Adventist church though. It was right where we came out. So, we had to go back the 3.5 miles to our car instead of just looping around. The Greenway will eventually go through the municipal park.

A lot of our journey was along Honey Run Creek, appropriately named for our outing! I could tell that a LOT of water comes through there sometimes. There were bags high in the trees from the water being way up. There are signs around that warn of flash floods. There are also signs that warn of snakes, so we'll (I'll) definitely look out for those.

Can you tell this is the after picture? This was after a sprint up the very long hill almost at the end (back to our car). We were pretty sweaty, but cold because of the wind chill.

We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring White House (didn't take very long). We wrapped up the evening by hitting Taco Bell, then a quick grocery run to Walmart.

Sabbath

So, today at church we sat with the Patricks. Olivia told us part way through the sermon that she was going to sit between us, but we wouldn't let her. So she sat beside me next to the aisle. I was drawing and she wanted a page from my notebook to draw on.

This is what I got back from her. That's me on the left and her on the right. (Ryan added my ears, mouth, and hair later.)

Round 2 - This is Ryan, according to Olivia. You can see Ryan's commentary in the top left.

Ryan's rendition of our little group. I showed this to Olivia, who can't read, and she immediately knew that it was the three of us. (Btw, "Junior" is a fictional character!!!)

So then I decided to draw us to complete our portfolio. I showed this to Olivia and asked her who it was. Her response: "I don't know." . . . I'm going back to stick people.

After our lunch of pot pie, we took a walk in between the sprinkles. Most of our back yard leaves are gone now . . . well, not gone, but on the ground. We're going to mulch them up.

We walked to the ad building to use the scanner in my office for the drawings. It has been getting colder as the day has gone on.

This is where most of the leaves are now. Our walk wasn't very long. I came back home and Ryan tried to keep walking, but the rain forced him back inside within a few minutes.

Sabbath

My morning started out by sitting with Bobtail for a while before my walk. She's always dressed up for fall, and looks red instead of black in the sun.

The colors are really starting to come out on some of the trees here.

We celebrated Anita's (Chadd's mom) birthday at lunch. She has the plate that says "I'm special today."

Nikie made her Olive Garden's chocolate lasagna.

Chadd tries to hold up Nikie's belly. She's due on December 23.

Gabby, Olivia, and Becky came over on the golf cart for a visit. Olivia was tired, but didn't want to admit it. She only rested briefly in the window.

Wes lost a bet to Tyler playing ping pong and had to get his hair cut. Renee was the one who did the cutting and it turned out pretty good!

Olivia and Gabby had to hang onto the edge while Tyler jumped. They really flew high!

Olivia heard it was time to go. This isn't even their cart.