I don’t normally post about my dogs but I thought this was pretty funny.  I have 2 boxers; Roxy and Grady.  They are both so sweet and loving and make me laugh every single day.  Roxy can be a handful.  More often than not she is a handful, let’s put it that way.  She gets into EVERYTHING.  She is 5 years old and still is such a puppy.  Let’s see she destroyed our room the one and only time left alone, not crated in our house.  That was 4 years ago; she has been crated ever since.  She has eaten 2 whole loaves of bread, she has the arms of a monkey; they can reach anything!!!  She has also eaten a whole, unused bar of Dove Cucumber Green Tea soap…  She is a crazy one, but we could not love her more.  Grady is more reserved and let’s Roxy get into all the trouble… Anyway, ever since the soap eating incident that was over 3 years ago now she STILL wants soap.  If we throw away a little sliver of soap she is in the trashcan trying to get at it.  She has devoured slivers of soap.  Not only soap does she like, she also likes the box that the soap is in; she will shred a box of soap even if it is empty.  Last time she did this Grady joined in…  She teaches him bad things…  Well, Monday night we mowed the lawn.  If we are home we will leave them unattended while we are outside.  We shut all the bedroom and bathroom doors and pretty much Roxy proof everything.  Although, she can also open doors so we are really taking our chances by doing this.

So, after the lawn is all done I am the first back inside.  All the doors leading into our bedroom/bathroom area are now opened.  There are little shreds of paper all over the family room floor and also a soap box shredded.  I pick it all up and leave it to show Jon.  There had also been some soap in the box but it was now MIA.  I assume Roxy and Grady devoured it.  Later that night we hear scratching at the carpet in front of the couch.  Then Grady gets his paws under the couch and yelped so loud.  We sometimes have scorpions in the house so I whisk the dogs out of teh family room so Jon can make sure that he didn’t get stung or bitten by anything.  Jon flips the couch over an declares that there was nothing under there.  I walk in there and lo and behold……… a scrap of soap box was under there…  Grady wanted it so badly, he had reached under there and gotten his little paw stuck for it.  It was funny and sad all at the same time.  I grabbed the soap box and held it out to Grady he bit onto and tried to get it so hard.  I do not know what it with our dogs and soap. Crazy.

Let me start off by saying how sorry I am that I have not kept up with the blogging.  Life has a way of getting me busy and distracted.  I have been told by plenty of people to update the blog already!  Things have been going along as normal; get up go to work, come home and cook, play with the pups…  Same ol’ same ol’.  It is HOT down here in Florida and it isn’t even summer yet!!  How I long for a pool or something just to splash around in.  Jon has threatened to buy an inflatable pool…  Embarassing, but you never know; I might get desparate one day.  I will become delusional with the heat and next thing I know there will be an inflatable pool in the yard. 

So the biggest change is that we are now JTA riders…Jacksonville Transit Authority.  That’s right, public transportation.  We live on the outskirts of J’ville and drive in everyday.  Jon and I both head off in different directions but drive about the same mileage.  He drives about 61 miles round trip a day and I drive roughly 70.  So, a change was in order what with the ridiculous gas prices.  The good thing is that we catch the bus at the same stop just 30 minutes apart ( I leave first and arrive back first).  So we drive one car 15 miles to the stop and then board our respective buses.  It is a culture change that is for sure.  Jon’s bus goes directly to his work, it is a commuter bus.  I on the other hand work downtown so I get off downtown at the main bus terminal.  I am sure you can imagine the clientel there, sketchy to say the least.  But, it has not been bad.  I work about a block from the station and get there right on time.  The bus ride is nice because I can relax and read a book or listen to my iPOD.  We are really hoping to save on gas and car maintenance. 

In other news Rock the Universe (Universal Studios) is right around the corner, September 5 and 6.  I am already ready to buy tickets.  The main acts this year are Newsboys, Jeremy Camp and Jars of Clay.  Also one of my new favorites Leeland.  They are awesome!  So we are looking forward to that.  So, that is my update for now.  See you later!

Day 2:

We started out today with Apple Corn Cakes (got the recipe).  We had looked online and in our many books about NC and the Blue Ridge Mountains and determined the places that we wanted to see today.  We started out trying to go to Bull Pen Bridge.  We winded down the mountain, went past Black Rock Mountain and saw many beautiful homes and scenery.  Here is Blackrock Mountain.

Here is another neat picture that Jon took of some of the scenery.

Anyway, we get all the way to the road that we are supposed to turn down, it is gravel and we need to go 3 miles to get to Bull Pen Bridge.  The Bridge is an iron bridge across the river.  Jon thought it would make a great picture.  Anyway, we get about a mile down the road they are logging.  There is a huge 18 wheeler blocking this very narrow gravel road.  No one is there to move it!!  So, we have to turn around very carefully.  So no Bull Pen Bridge.  We drove at least 30 minutes for nothing.  We really didn’t drive that far but the roads are so narrow and so winding that you had to go really, really slow to be careful.  So, we turned back around and headed back into Highlands.
 
The next stop was  Glen Falls.  It was a HIKE!!!  To get to the bottom of the falls you went down 700 feet in elevation.  We didn’t make it all the way down but we got over ¾ of the way there.  It was SO steep and downhill all the way…which meant uphill all the way back.  Here are some shots of the falls.

It was 40 degrees or less when we were hiking to the falls.  Yet, when we finally hikes back to the top we were so hot and sweaty.  It felt so hot outside and when we got back to the car it was 39 degrees outside!!  We really worked up a sweat going down there.

Next, we headed into Franklin to see some antique shops (not worth it by the way).  On the way there we stopped at Bridal Veil Falls which is right on the side of the road.  You used to be able to drive underneath it.  They have deemed it unsafe so now you can just look at it.  I walked behind it however…
Here I am with some HUGE icicles.  They were so cold.  They were everywhere on the mountains.

The next stop along the way was Quarry Falls.  It was also on the side of the road.  It was pretty but not spectacular.  Here are some shots of us out on the rocks in front of the falls.

Here are some shots of the Inn.  These are the exterior of it.  Jon also took some of the inside those will come later.

Tonight we went to Fireside for dinner.  It was so good.  The owner’s son is the chef, he is 21.  Just like my brother, Jason.  This kid went to school in Colorado for 6 months and then went to Italy and Paris for a month to study cooking.  WOW!  Anyway, I had a filet with a demi glace (?) whatever this means, it was great whatever it was.  It was the best steak of my life and it melted in my mouth.  We then had some homemade chocolate apricot torte.  Also, so good.  I love being on vacation.

Day 3:

Today we started the day bright and early at the inn.  We had another great breakfast.  Then we packed up and headed off.  Here are some pictures of the interior of the inn:

We then headed to Asheville.  We stopped along the way in Brevard and then in the Pisgah National Forest.  That is a beautiful place, my dad would love it!!  We definitely want to go back and see the leaves change there.  We stopped and saw Looking Glass Falls.  In this part of the state it was much warmer than in Highlands.  More people were out looking at the falls and like I said it was warmer.  Lots of people were at this fall and they were all but in the water. One kid was even behind the fall on the wet rocks.  We were just waiting for him to fall.  Eventually he did, but he was in shallower water.  Here we are in front of it:

One mile down the road we went to Mill Cove Falls.  Here we go again…another hike that was longer and more strenuous than expected.  This was uphill all the way it seemed and lots of big steps and drops.  This was neat to go to because you could walk behind it, which I did.  Here are the falls:

It is funny because in the 1st picture the falls don’t look that big, and then in the other picture I am behind it and I look tiny!!
 
After this we went to the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Neither of us had ever been on it before.  We got a book all about today and want to plan a trip where we travel the whole thing.  There are so many neat stops along the way and tunnels and the scenery was beautiful.
 

We are now at Sourwood Inn.  It is very nice.  There are a couple of resident labs that live here on the land.  They belong to the Inn Keeper.  I love seeing dogs out and about, especially when I miss mine SO much.  We called Matt today and they are doing great by the way.  We are not sure what tomorrow holds yet.  We want to get back up on the Parkway but part of it is closed now due to rockslide.  So we’ll see.  There are some more falls not far away that might be worth checking out.  I am sitting here now in our room with a nice fire going, no TV and no internet.  So this will get posted when we get home Friday.  It is weird that people back home are at work and we are just having a great old time up here.  It feels like a constant weekend.  We are already talking about our next vacation up here and what we want to see and do.  We love just getting out and spending time together and seeing all the beauty that God put on this earth.   This country really is beautiful and we just love getting out and seeing it and getting great photos of it.    Well, since we have no tv or internet we are now going to watch a movie on the laptop.  I will update again tomorrow but like I said we will post everything when we get back in town on Friday.  Below are some more photos I took on the way to some of the falls, enjoy.Until then…

Well, this will be the first and only post from our trip. We arrived in Highlands, NC on Sunday night. We are leaving this morning for Ashville, NC. We will not have internet there so we decided to post a couple of the hundreds of pictures we have taken.

We left home on Sunday morning. We drove around Atlanta and then got onto a back road (sometimes 2 lanes, sometimes 4 lanes). It was beautiful, going through the backroads through the mountains. We stopped at a tourist trap of sorts that was on the border or GA and NC. We were driving by and I saw the sign, here it is:

It grabbed my attention instantly. I thought that cannot be…Goats ON a ROOF!!! So, we made a quick turn into the place, we never went in but took pictures and fed the goats. It was a log cabin looking place with goats literally on the roof. Living on a roof… It was great. Here I am feeding a goat…

Then we stopped somewhere that Jon’s aunt Martye recommended to us. It was called the Dillard House. It was in a beautiful area and the scenery was great. We saw what was on the menu when we walked in, all southern food. Right up our alley… So, we went in and sat down. The place was packed. I assumed that we would sit down and order what we wanted from the menu… Like a normal restaurant we thought we order. WRONG. When we sat down there were some bowls on the table, melon, tomatoes, jelly, cole slaw… We weren’t sure what to do. So we just sat there. They came and got our drink order. Then I look over and the table next to us got bowls and bowls and bowls of food put on their table. Weird I thought, they never ordered. Then, to my surprise we got bowls and bowls and bowls of food on our table. 16 plates and bowls of food on our table. We had fried chicken, BBQ chicken, ham, roast beef, sweet potatoes, cauliflower, fried okra, cole slaw, lima beans, green beans, fried corn…to name a few. Here I am.

Here I am on the way to Highlands up in the mountains.

Then we got to the inn. We have plenty of pictures of it but will post later. We already want to come back here. It was phenomenal. The room was so cozy, the bed was comfortable and the sheets were so soft. And I could live in the shower. Breakfast was provided every morning. Delicious. We had upside down peach French toast, apple corn cakes, eggs, endless hot chocolate and today we had something called a Dutch Baby. SO good. Like a baked pancake with fresh berries on it. I have the recipe now. We had appetizers every night in front of the fire. We truly loved it.

The first day we went into Cashiers, NC and saw all the waterfalls this town had to offer. We went to Whitewater falls, the largest fall in the east, even dropping farther than Niagara falls. We couldn’t get too close too it but we were able to get some great shots of it. By the way it NEVER got above 40 degrees on this day. It was SO cold. We were bundled up so much. They said it might snow but we didn’t believe it. Here we are in front of Whitewater Falls.

We then tried to get to Horsepasture River, there were 3 falls here. We couldn’t get to it. The park it was in was closed. We weren’t sure why but it was all blocked off. Our GPS was telling us to turn into nothing to get there, which was weird but needless to say we didn’t get to see these falls. We then went back into Cashiers and ate some great BBQ for lunch and regrouped to see what we wanted to do next. We went to Silver Falls next, we have photos of this also and will post later. We got super close to this fall. We got right up underneath it almost. We walked all over the rocks and both got so close.

Next we went to King Creek Falls. Now this was a hike!!! Jon wanted to hike and hike we did!!! This was a beautiful fall. We hiked over a mile to get to the fall. We never thought we would get there. We were so high up during the hike and the river was right below us off the cliff. We had to crawl over so many rocks but finally made it to the fall. Beautiful, we will post these later too. Jon tried to touch up as many as he could last night and just couldn’t get them all done.

All the falls we went to we found ourselves with the help of a book all about Highlands and Cashiers. Some were far off the road, some were right off the road. We had so much fun. On the way back to Highlands which is 4100 feet in elevation we saw something that looked like snow… Could it be, did it snow in Highlands?!?!?! Who looks like they have never seen snow before?

We then went back to the inn for appetizers by the fire. Cheese and crackers and cokes. Then we went to Sunset Rock. By this time it was 29 degrees outside…COLD!! Can you tell?

We will write more later. We are having a blast. We are headed to Asheville today where we won’t have internet or TV. We are headed to the Sourwood Inn. It looks beautiful and we cannot wait. We are hitting more falls today and then going to Grandfather Mountain tomorrow.

Yesterday we did more falls and more hikes. We will post about that later. We ate somewhere last night called Fireside, I had the BEST steak I have ever had!!!!!! More later on that!

Well it was quite a busy weekend for Amy and I. It started Friday night, Amy went to the Gospel meeting our church was having by her. Justin and I went to another friend’s house to start putting up a fence for them. We were there for about 2 and ½ hours that night. I was proud Amy for still going to the Gospel Meeting even though none of our friends our family went (and I didn’t go). Saturday started at 6 am for me. I got up and loaded all my equipment up to work on the fence that day; which pretty much loaded my Civic to the brim. I was going to meet Justin at the nearest Home Depot near our friend’s house to rent an auger and nail gun for Justin. Well I got there and Justin was already there. We went inside and found out they don’t rent equipment there, so we had to drive to the next closes one, which was about 30 minutes away to rent the equipment. After all that we got started on the fence around 8am after unloading all our tools and gear. We stopped at 10:30 to eat breakfast they had made us (it was good). After breakfast we worked some more then took a break at 1:30 to eat pizza they had order for lunch for us. (Side note I expected to be done with the fence by 2:00 that day. This fence is not nearly as big as the one at my house I am still putting up by the way. I am on the slates now though, I will up load photos tonight.) Amy had called to check in on me, see how the fence was coming. She had gone out a bought plants and flowers for her pots in the back yard. I felt bad leaving her home all day by herself. So I really wanted to get the fence done as soon as possible. To make a long story short, Justin and I didn’t leave our friend’s house until 7:30 that night. I have to go back tomorrow to finish there gate. So I definitely learned a valuable lesson about how long some takes to how long I think it will take. So I took Amy to Mellow Mushroom that night to eat. I felt so bad, knowing she was waiting for me. We ate around 9:30. But that good news is Justin and I are getting bad for doing the fence. We saved them around $800 with me and him doing it.

This week I hope goes by fast. I have to work on our fence every night this week. But Saturday is the Casting Crowns concert, Justin is going with us. We are in the 7^{th row on the floor. Then Easter Sunday we leave for our North Carolina trip to the mountains. Amy and I know we both need this trip. We did not take one last year and we can tell how stressed we get, when we don’t take time out together and just enjoy the beauty around us. I feel bad for people who don’t or can’t take family vacation or trips. I know how much the re-energize Amy and I. We are hoping to go on a family trip this year too with either family. And in other news we rented Dan in Real Life this weekend. It is really good and clean if you get the chance to watch it, you should.}

I have had issues uploading photos for our blog. But here are the photos of the Toy Chest I built for Emma & Jenna for Xmas 07. Now that I can upload photos again I will start to post more photos. Amy and I are in the countdown to our trip to North Caroline. We leave Easter Sunday and get back that Friday. We are so excited we have not been on a weeklong trip in years. We both need it so bad, we did not go on a trip at all last year and we like to go on at least one trip every year even if it is for the weekend. We are excited about taking more photos to hang in the house. I am editing some photos this week to put in a local Starbucks. I have wanted to put photos in a Starbucks for a long time. I also got some new photo cards made for advertising for a local baby boutique.  Pray for us on our journey. I also am going start posting photos from any photo session I have.

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