Now these pictures aren't in order, but you wouldn't know that if I didn't tell you. So, you will have to think this is the order we did things. Below is the waterway down by the river. If you look closely you can see the kids are soaked. We told them not to get wet. Do you think they obeyed?

After we walked a little, we found this neat brick formation that was fun to climb on. We were also taking time for the sun to dry off their clothes before we got back in the car.

On top of Lookout Mountain is a beautiful house that always had fancy cars lined up in the driveway. Last year it was gorgeous. This is what it looks like this year. Look closely at the roof line and you will notice that most of the roof is missing from a fire.

When the people lived here, this is the view they saw from their deck - amazing, huh?

Chattanooga is full of weird formations or statues - this is a wooden thing with a railroad track going through the center. It is called the Railroad Wave (wonder why?).

In front of the aquarium is a brick sidewalk. You can see that the song "Chattanooga Choo-Choo" is engraved in the brick. I took a picture of the title and the first phrase. The whole thing goes about one city block. After I took this picture, a teenager walked slowly down the sidewalk, singing the song, not looking up and walking very slowly so she could get in all the words.

The first phrase...

Emily, I thought you would like this picture. It is your "old" favorite car with a wind up key. We got a kick out of it.

Our newest neighbor...we get all kinds these days.

The owners of the cabin are building a new cabin (#10). While jumping in the hole where they were going to put the water line, the man found a six foot rattlesnake. I think it is time to head back north. At least we didn't actually see it (PTL!).

While at church, we met a family that has four children, homeschooled. The wife and children attend the church, the husband doesn't. The husband's family owns a restaurant called "Randy's." Randy is the grandpa of the family we met at church. We ate our Sunday lunch at Randy's. Actually, we waited until 3:30 because of the huge breakfast we had which you will read about down below. We went with the family to the Children's Museum. They were alot of fun. They, in fact, had two free coupons for the children. So, I only had to pay for myself. We took a picnic lunch and ate on the grass/sidewalk outside the museum. The theme for the upstairs of the museum was "Clifford, the Big Red Dog." Elyse loved it. Zachary was bored to tears. Today at church, this same family gave me a coupon for the Chattanooga Nature Center for one child to get in free. So, I will only have to pay for Zachary and me. Yeah, for free (right Lacey?).

Today's church service was a little different. Since it is a fifth Sunday, they do things differently. We had the evening service at 9:00 a.m., then breakfast, then the 11:00 service. The breakfast was amazing (remember, we are in the south). You know how I make my fruit salad? Well, this salad was pineapple, apples, coconut, walnuts or pecans - can't remember - with a sauce over it. I asked about the sauce and it was the juice from the pineapple and a box of instant pudding. So, we are going to try that the next time I make a fruit salad. It was amazing. We also had homemade biscuits, sausage gravy (I ate enough for you, Dan), eggs, pancakes, sausage, egg casserole and the fruit salad. It was all amazing. We ate far too much, but it was worth it.

I am sorry that we haven't updated more often, but it is hard to get to a place that has free internet and Tim isn't using the computer. He is almost done with his last paper that is due tomorrow. He worked most of the weekend on it. Friday, we go to Erin & Tobin's house. We were going to meet halfway in Montgomery, Alabama, but we would like to see their house and visit longer than what we could over a picnic lunch. So, we will be spending the weekend with them.

ANOTHER DAY IN GA!!!!!

Zachary and our new found friends running up the hill.

Elyse rolling down the hill Zachary was running up. They had a blast. You would think there was snow here, but it was just grass.

Zachary found #20's NASCAR car, Tony Stewart's car. He was so excited! Wait 'til Dad sees this one.

Inside the Children's Museum, the girls acted out a scene in a play (what play, we don't know).

This is a 'friendly' bird we met on the way to the river. I got about five feet from him when he took off. What a wing span!

Zachary and Elyse climbed the stairs in front of the Aquarium. Elyse is trying to take my picture as well.

Both kids tried the Vacation Bible School program at a church three minutes from the cabin. It is the church we attend while staying here. The children had to learn and recite TWO verses. Of course, Elyse had no trouble doing that. Here is her prize - 360 pieces of bubble gum. What the heck?

Here is the craft she made. They painted and decorated wooden frames and put their pictures in it that were taken the first day of VBS.

The last day of VBS they drew names out of a jar for two main prizes. Elyse was the first name drawn and she won a digital camera. When we figure out how to load some of her pictures, we can post the good ones.


That is all for now. This connection and computer are going to drive me crazy. Another day when I have more time.

2008 COVENANT!!!!!

We have arrived safely! We have a different cabin this year - one with a bedroom. But, the kids sleep in the bedroom and we are on a hide-a-bed in the living room. This cabin has a full kitchen (which makes my job much easier). It also has a tub (which makes shaving and washing Elyse's hair much easier). The owners promised we would have NO scorpions and NO dead cats under the cabin. We hope they are right. But, we do have an issue. The family that stayed in this cabin until we arrived had a HUGE dog. The owners moved them to our last year's cabin because we had reserved the new cabin in March, before they came on the property. The owners vacuumed and cleaned the cabin the day before we arrived. When we unpacked, I saw a huge bug on the floor by the t.v. It was big enough to be a mouse. So, I walked slowly up to it and noticed that it was a big gob of dog hair. So, I got a tissue and threw it away. When we opened the hide-a-bed it still had the old sheets on and it was full of dog hair. We pulled off the sheets and decided to put the clean one out of the closet. When we opened them, they were full of dog hair. It was late at night, so we had to sleep in it anyway. The next morning, I told the owners about it. She said she would vacuum after work - but I offered to do it now. She had already vacuumed two bags full of dog hair. I got another full bag of hair. Gross! So, we vacuumed and thought we were done with the job. When opening the bed again that night, it was full of hair AGAIN! The owners are coming today to clean and spray (we are itching like crazy - we are afraid the place if full of fleas). YIKES! What fun we are having.

Here is another advantage of living on a mountain - we have lizards that cross our deck. Elyse screamed when she saw it and made me shut the front door (just in case it wanted to check out our dog hair). Here is a picture of our new found friend:

Here he is again going into his house (which is under our kitchen). We are hoping there aren't any holes in the floor that he can enter and visit us in the night).

Do you think Tim's brother will win the election? There are a whole bunch of Rumleys here - although we don't think they are related. Are they Jon?


I have more pictures that I will blog later, but I left the memory card at the cabin. Dummy!

SINCE LACEY.....!!!!!

Since Lacey publishes her deals, I thought I would publish mine. Yesterday was our anniversary, so we decided to go to Billy Jack's Cafe and Catering for dinner. When our bill came, I handed the waitress our Entertainment Card and a gift certificate. She came back with change. So, our dinner for two cost us a negative $3.27. How about that! They paid US to eat there. Pretty cool, huh?

PCS'S NEW STUDENT!!!!!

Mr. Good was mowing the school lawn, and look what he found!

What grade do you think she should be in?

THE AMAZING ZACHARY!!!!!

We finally got pictures of Zachary as catcher. Some of these pictures are very blurry, but you get the picture! Here's the man in uniform:

...In action:


Up to bat...


Stealing second...


Tobin & Erin got to go to the game with us. Tonight is another game at 7:30. Our last game of the regular season is Saturday at 9:00 a.m. Come see him play!

The tournament starts Wednesday night. If we win, we play again on Friday night. Then that is it for the year. The coaches really think Zachary is a good player. They are so excited about his natural abilities and being left handed. They keep telling me how Portage High School will LOVE him when he gets there. Little do they know, he will never get to PHS. It is so good to hear such favorable comments about your boy.

WE'RE SO PROUD OF HIM!!!!!

Today was the Teacher/Staff Appreciation Luncheon for PCS. The following was a certificate given to Tim for 10 years of service. He also got a gas card (which will take us to the end of the block these days). Thanks, PCS!


They sure like him at PCS. They are very generous with him.

For PCS and Rumley Academy we sing: "School's out for summer!" Yeah! We have all books put away, desks cleaned out, and new books for next year organized and on the shelf. Now we get ready for Covenant. Exciting times!