Mini Vacation to Chattanooga

Watch Out for the Shark!


DH, DS/8 and I flew to Chattanooga, TN, on Wednesday and returned Thursday. We visited the Tennessee Aquarium, the world's largest freshwater aquarium, and Ruby Falls, America's highest underground waterfall. The weather was great and it wasn't humid like it is in Memphis.

On Wednesday, at the aquarium, we were able to touch stingrays, sharks, and sturgeons. My DS/8 loved it! There was an entire exhibit of seahorses, too. We spent several hours at the aquarium which is in two buildings. One is the Ocean journey and the other is the River journey. At the top of the Ocean Journey Building is the Butterfly Tropical Garden. It was breathtaking.
Many species of butterflies were everywhere.
Visiting the Tennessee Aquarium website before our trip made it very helpful to identify the fish, sharks and seahorses. I highly recommend taking the time to go through each page, of the interactive portion, if you are taking school-age children. It made it more interesting to my son and me.

Following the aquarium visit, we walked up to the BluffView Art District and saw the large-scale outdoor sculptures along the way. After passing the exhibits, we were able to walk across Walnut Street Bridge, for pedestrians, that crossed over the Tennessee River to North Shore.
Walnut Street Bridge
(The red, black & white thing around DS/8's neck is his souvenir stuffed snake!

On the bridge we had a great view of the skyline and Coolidge Park. Before walking back over the bridge, we stopped in Mudpie Coffeehouse and had some coffee. Later, we ate dinner at Big River Grille (located 1/2 block from the aquarium). After dinner, we caught the free shuttle by to the hotel to watch the finale of American Idol.

On Thursday, we had breakfast at City Cafe Diner, then set out for the trip to see Ruby Falls. We had a great view of the town of Chattanooga from Lookout Mountain following our tour of Ruby Falls. Ruby Falls also has a lesson plan (in case you homeschool or just for fun.) While driving back down the mountain, we stopped in a roadside shop that had handmade quilts.
What eye candy!!!! This quilt featured ants eating a picnic lunch.
Picnic Quilt

All in all, we had a great trip. If we visit again, I'd like to see more of the Art District.

Happy Dance on Final Fish

Squarespot Basslet

I finally completed the last fish on Fish Medley! This fish has also been backstitched. I only need to backstitch the other four fish to complete. Yay! This fish was also shown as a frame piece by itself in the Cross My Heart leaflet called "The Ocean".


Thursday night was Bunco night and I won the door prize. It was a "Jolly Rancher" candle. It smelled good enough to eat! We all had a great time together and had lots of laughs, especially when my cousin, Michael, had to wear a strand of pearls around his neck because he won a round of Bunco! (He was subbing for a player who couldn't attend). I'm already looking forward to next month.

Last night DH played 2 shows at Isaac Hayes. We all had a great time. The crowd really got into the music. DH will post pics soon on his blog.

Awards & Autographs

My DS/8 won a CD boom box at school for being the Top Accelerated Reader in his class! He is so excited! I'm so proud of him. His last day of 2nd grade is Friday. He is ready for summer break.

My DH played with the band in Bixby, Oklahoma, this past weekend, which meant a road trip. They had a great time. The event was Bixby BBQ & Blues Festival. The town built a new amphitheater following last year's festival, so it was a great place to play music. There was a crowd of around 2,000 and they really enjoyed the show. DH even signed a few autographs. They will playing again this Friday night at Isaac Hayes Club.

In stitching news, I've completed all the coral and the last fish on Fish Medley. I have begun the backstitching. I'll try to post a pic soon. The last fish is really colorful.

Bunco Night is tomorrow night and I'm really looking forward to it.

Designer Teresa Wentzler on Indefinite Hiatus

Teresa Wentzler has announced she will no longer design cross stitch patterns indefinitely. You can read more about this surprising news at the Teresa Wentzler Bulletin Board.

I've been tagged!

I've been tagged by Taneya!

Choose 5 and complete the sentence...

If I could be a scientist . . .
If I could be a farmer . . .
If I could be a musician . . .
If I could be a doctor . . .
If I could be a painter . . .
If I could be a gardener . . .
If I could be a missionary . . .
If I could be a chef . . .
If I could be an architect . . .
If I could be a linguist . . .
If I could be a psychologist . . .
If I could be a librarian . . .
If I could be an athlete . . .
If I could be a lawyer . . .
If I could be an inn-keeper . . .
If I could be a professor . . .
If I could be a writer . . .
If I could be a llama-rider . . .
If I could be a bonnie pirate . . .
If I could be an astronaut . . .
If I could be a world famous blogger . . .
If I could be a justice on any one court in the world . . .
If I could be married to any current famous political figure . . .

If I could be a writer...I'd write lyrics. It would be very cool to hear your song on the radio. That would be very cool. Songs can also outlive you.

If I could be a musician...I'd be a piano player/harmonica playing guitarist.
But, since I'm not, I married a piano playing/mandolin playing/guitarist.
Pretty clever, eh?

If I could be a professor...I'd teach web design. My DS/19 taught himself to make websites by buying manuals and learning everything from scratch. No copy and paste for him. I get excited when something works correctly on my blog, so I know it would be a thrill to learn and teach others web design.

If I could be a painter...I'd paint with intricate detail. My paintings could then be converted to cross stitch. It would be nice to have a gallery and those who stitched could take home the kit of a painting. It's the Paula Vaughn concept.

If I could be a missionary...I believe it would make me more appreciative of all aspects of my life. My daughter has been on a few mission trips, as have many of our friends. Each of them, upon return home, have a more unmaterialistic mind and value relationships more than ever before. For every one I know who's been on a mission trip, it has changed their life. You can read about my friend, Grace, who is a missionary here. Her father has an orphanage in Brazil.

Now it's my turn to tag some people. So here it goes: Debbi, Lake Stitcher, and Musings from a 3-Bedroom Ranch.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all of you blogging moms!

Following church, we went out for lunch and to the cemetery. We put flowers on my MIL's marker. There were quite a few people on the grounds because of Mother's Day, I guess. We even saw a family having a picnic there, lawn chairs and all! I must admit, that was a little strange. We saw a woman sitting on the ground engrossed in a conversation, very animated with her arms and hands, but she was there alone. I suppose she was talking to her mom who had passed away.

I treated my mom to dinner last night for Mother's Day. She saw DH play music with the Dani band for the first time. We enjoyed spending time together. (She didn't raise me and our relationship has had its ups and downs, so I'm thankful for the good times).

I was able to see all 3 of my children today which was a treat. Each one told me they loved me. That's the best! DS/8 gave me some petunias and DD/23 gave me a bouquet of spring flowers. DS/19 gave me lots of hugs. It's all good!

DH gave me $ to spend on a few things, like the top I wore to dinner last night. He's the best!!

Bookcrossing & DeCluttering

De-Cluttering
I released a few books into the "wild" yesterday. Bookcrossing is a way to pass on books. If you enjoy reading, but have a hard time getting rid of books, this is a great way to pass them on and it's fun. I visit library book sales and buy books from .10 to $2.00.

Books just wanna be FREE! See what I mean at:
Bookcrossing

Please show "Institches" as your referrer if you sign up. See the books I've set free...here

Mirabilia's New Freebie!

Mirabilia has a new free design, Bumblebee. I don't know if I'll stitch it, but I'm keeping it in a file just in case. I want to stitch some of the free angels first.