The "Tote and Float" and Other Adventures on the Tenessee Tom Bigbee River

Trying to get these pictures while my toddler toddled around on a dock was neither a safe nor a wise undertaking. But the light and water were so irresistalbe! Imagine what I'll be able to do (and risk) when I get my new camera!

That's our R.V. set-up in the background. (Have I mentioned I like camping Jacobsen style? Roughing it is for the birds. . . )

my little sun-bathing beauty

Ah yes, we've been exploring the Tenessee Tom Bigbee River. And doing some camping, Jacobsen style, which means that we set up the RV on a campsite with full hook-ups, down by the river (yes, "down by the river") and we fill it with food and drink, and then we don't actually sleep there, we just drive over to the state park whenever we want to spend some time out on the river, and we bring either the boat or some jet ski's and Matt and his dad Ernie (a.k.a. Paw Paw) launch them into the river. On our first day out, we were out in the boat when we ran across a patch of mud and silt, and the impeller sucked in the mud and then the mud got into the engine block and settled in like concrete. The engine overheated almost immediatly, and we ended up stranded. Lucky for us, we were right around the bend from "The Tote and Float".
The Tote and Float

We docked at the Tote and Float and enjoyed a cool beverage while a very sweet couple gave Matt a ride over to the state park on the other side of the river, where the truck and boat trailer were parked, so we could get the boat loaded up.
Maya enjoyed many aspects of "The Tikki Bar" . . .

If you're gonna get stranded, this was a great place to do it! I was embarrassed that I didn't even have a tshirt on the boat to cover up in, but this was clearly a "No shirt, no shoes, no problem" kind of place!

Trip to Florida

We made a recent trip to Florida to spend some time with the folks at First Baptist, Panama City, and it was wonderful. What a wonderful body they are. We were encouraged and blessed by our time with them, and hope that they were as well! Here are some pics from the sweet beach day they scheduled for us! (i know, right?!)

Changes In Diet

doe eyes

Yep, that's a little grass in the corner of her mouth. And do you see that leaf in her hand? About 20 minutes later when Grammie was trying to feed her breakfast, Maya kept gagging and gagging. I had cut up some melon into TINY pieces and thought, surely she's not gagging on those itty bitty pieces of melon. She hardly ate any breakfast and as I came into the kitchen to get her down from the high chair she looked up at me and I saw something in her mouth. I fought the iron jaws of death and did a finger sweep. Yeah, you see that leaf in her hand? It was in her mouth all through breakfast! No wonder she was gagging! The thing was probably poking her in the throat! How did she keep it in there all that time?!

Thankfully, I caught her before she put this critter in her mouth (it was way bigger than it looks in this picture, if you can believe that!). Nasty. More eating grass, but isn't the lighting nice? This is what we do when Mommy wishes she were still sleeping--we do a sunrise photo shoot in the grass. The lighting is really amazing at this hour. . .

No way my kid can be this old already. No way. I'm in complete denial. She just looks sooooo grown up here it hurts! And these? Yes, they are shoes. This is the first time I have purchased shoes for Maya. She loves to walk all the time, and there are some places you'd just rather not have your sweet baby's skin touching, you know? We've been pretty laid back about barefooting it all the time, but we decided it's time. And since she's outgrown all the cute shoes she was given as a teeny baby, we went to WalMart and got these little sparkly ones. She likes looking at them, but not wearing them. Which I'm okay with. Because I am in denial that she is big enough to wear them anyway. I was feeling really sad about how big they look and how big she is, then to show scale, I laid them next to the bread (below) and then felt much better about the whole thing. I wonder how big my shoes would look next to a loaf of bread . . .

Burn It Up?

My mom and I have both been experiencing blog block. That's like writers block. Only for bloggers. A family member (Barry, when will we finally get to meet you?) suggested to my mom that she write nonsense sentences over and over and her brain would get so tired of it that it would think of something else to write. He even suggested a sentence that I thought was quite funny, but now I've forgotten it. So then I was thinking about what gets me riled up right now and thought I could write about that. The thing I have been most riled up about recently has been in the news--the scheduled Quran burning at a church in Florida. I don't know the details or the people involved, but what I suspect, that a Quran burning won't bring anybody any closer to Jesus. I fear it will make people who are already blinded by their fear and prejudice feel affirmed in their feelings of hate and anger. And as for those folks who claim Islam as their faith and revere the Quran in much the same way that Christians revere Jesus, this is a devastating act that is so offensive it is hard to even figure out what to compare it to. So basically, when "Christians" do something like this in the name of Christianity or worse yet, in the name of Jesus, the last thing Muslims want to do is know more about Christianity. What is this church thinking? What are they hoping to achieve? Shouldn't Christians be going out of their way and bending over backward to help and serve and love Muslims? Why are Christians more well known for what we are against than what we are for? Does the world have any idea what we are for? This whole situation makes my heart so heavy. I could go on and on, but I'm curious--what do you think? Leave me a comment, I really want to try to understand what the average person thinks about this. . .

Nine Months Old

(i was experimenting with changing the colors in the pictures b/c the originals were really blue-wish i knew how to use photo shop!)

Well, my little peanut is nine months old now. She is expressing more and more of her personality and seems to discover new "tricks" every day. These days she is gargling water, crawling very fast, pulling up on furniture and holding onto matt's fingers while they "run" together. She is careful and cautious while she is exploring new things and she really takes her time and has had very few head bonks as a result. She is a great eater and happily eats everything we give her. She especially loves to chomp on pickles. She still wakes up at night and wants to nurse, but we're working on that! She likes to sing quietly to herself in the car and in the stroller. She recently got to see cows and then at a petting zoo, she got to meet all sorts of animals for the first time, including an alpaca! I think she liked the camel the best (he tickled her when he touched her hand with his soft nose). She is still a super extroverted kid and always goes happily to strangers. She is very laid back and doesn't need a tight routine (which is so helpful right now as we travel a lot). We learn so much about God's love for us as we love her and as she brings our hearts so much delight every day.