Photo of The Day-- Sept 7

We had a long wait for the fireworks yesterday. By 2 PM, people were camping out in their spots. We finally staked a space along the river at 7, giving us 2.5 hours to chat. I played around with the features on my camera and found the feature that will let you select a color, and every color except for that color is in black and white. The sky was a beautiful dusky blue, and I liked how this shot of the bridge turned out. I wish it was a bit sharper, but I didn't have anything to use as a tripod and the light was low. And I wish it was well-framed, but I couldn't move through the seas of people around me. Still, pretty fun :-) I'm excited to mess around with this feature more!

Photo of The Day-- Sept 6

Boomsday Festival, the largest Labor Day fireworks display in the nation (ok, not too many people do fireworks for Labor Day, but still).

It was IMPRESSIVE. Tied with Disneyland for best fireworks show I've seen. Twenty minutes long, totally coordinated to the (awesome) music. They shot the fireworks from the main bridge over the river, so it was a beautiful location. The show included a sparkly waterfall of fireworks into the river, and some blasts being shot off from the water. Classic music such as The Eagles, Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga, "Rocky Top" (sort of our Tennessee patriotic song), and "I Can Only Imagine."

Tennessee loves its festivals!

Photo of The Day-- Sept 5

One of the best birthday presents ever-- Scott booked us for a Saturday horseback ride. We got to help brush the horses and get them ready to ride, then we rode from 10-2, ate lunch, and rode from 3-5. Then we got to feed the horses and clean them after the ride. It was with a really nice lady who runs a B&B and does trail rides, and we were the only two people on the ride. We learned about native flora and fauna, saw ruins of old cabins, and got to see the hills of Tennessee up close. Since I've ridden before, I got an adventurous (aka finnicky) horse. She tried to buck me off three times! I didn't die, or even fall off! All in all a fantastic, wonderful day!

Orange Chicken

Now that I'm finally restocking our kitchen with the basics for cooking (slow going on a small grocery budget!), I'm getting to cook fun meals again. I've been wanting to try this recipe for a while, and I finally did on Tuesday night!

It is yummy orange chicken... I could tell the difference from Panda Express, but not much! I'd say it was just as good. Of course, it's fried so it's not health food, but it's probably healthier than Panda... I didn't dump any MSG in it or anything :-D I think next time I'd make a bit more sauce, and stirfry some onions, pineapple, and bell pepper. It was delicious with white rice. You should try this sometime. I halved the recipe for two of us, it made a bit more than enough, and it didn't take too much time!

Panda-Style Orange Chicken:
http://www.owlhaven.net/2009/04/23/panda-style-orange-chicken/

Photo Of The Day

Monday - Wednesday, Scott is done with work an hour and a half after I am. So I walk across the street from my work (the gorgeous church in the back ground) to World's Fair Park while I wait for him. I sit up on the hill above this fountain and I read my Bible and pray and journal and usually nap. It's one of my favorite times of day.

One of Those Moments

I usually love my job... but really.


Yesterday was a decently calm morning. Until...


There's one girl in my class who doesn't really talk, besides one word here and there (but somehow she still manages to be loud). We'll call her Blondie. Well, she's potty-training and she started to say "paah-eee... PAAH-EEEEE" which I have learned by now means she wants to put her training to practice. Well, the three-year-old class was using our adjoining bathroom at the moment, so her shrieks became louder and louder. After hurrying several playful three-year-olds through their pottying routine, I stood her at the doorway to the bathroom and yanked down her shorts and Pull-up. Now, usually I would check contents of said Pull-up before pulling it down, but I was just trying to get her to her target destination. Bad idea. Poop exploded all over the floor. And her leg. And pants.


But 4.2 seconds before this happened, a kid's mother walked in carrying him and happened to stand right next to where I was kneeling down. So she just stood there watching me while I had a heart attack over the Great Explosion.


So while I scrambled for paper towels and bleach, and stuck Blondie on the toilet, and tried to keep curious kids from entering the bathroom, and Artsy Mom stood right in my path, I heard shrieking from the other corner of the classroom. SHU-RIEK-ING. The smallest girl in my class had chosen this opportune moment to tormet the only three-year-old. Classic David and Goliath, except David is a teensy pink-dress-wearing ball of fire. For some reason, she was yelling "NO" to Three-Year-Old, which apparently made him so angry that he was howling, screaming, yelling, basically having conniptions and dying AT THE TOP OF HIS LUNGS in the other corner of my classroom. Which Peanut thought was so funny that she'd do it again (hey, I guess I'm trying to teach them about cause and effect and she's got it down pat).


Why do parents choose to walk in at these moments? And stand there helpless? Oh yeah, because they have one two-year-old. And I have seven.


I don't ever want septuplets, thanks.


Oh, and then we ate breakfast.

Pedestrian Danger

I was on a run today, and I was pondering how decidedly non-hickish Knoxville has turned out to be.

Then I realized... there are seriously NO sidewalks in this city.

I'm running on tiny residential streets, lined with trees, and no sidewalks, waving at people riding their riding mowers through their lawns.

Ok, it's a tiny bit country, but I love this place.