Spelunking anyone?

Brian and I drove over to Raccoon Mountain, TN on Saturday. It's about 20 minutes from Chattanooga. Brian had gone there several years ago and also been there when he was a kid. We first got turned around and after driving 30 minutes up the mountain we realized were at the TVA Pumped Storage Unit. Then it started to pour rain. We waited it out in the car for a while and then went into the visitor's center and got a brief education on the pump system used for a backup electricity source. (The nerd in me found this somewhat interesting.) We saw the upper reservoir that is released into Raccoon Mountain and drops a couple hundred feet down to the lower reservoir to generate power.
So after that not-so-brief detour at TVA, we found the part of Raccoon Mountain that we were hoping to find in the first place. There used to be a cement slide that went down part of the mountain that Brian remembers going on as a kid. He's description of this so called "great ride" sounded really dangerous, so I was not surprised when we found out it had been closed down for over 6 years. Needless to say, he was disappointed. We did find out about their different cave expeditions. We saw many people there who were covered head to toe with orange clay from one of the more rigorous spelunking expeditions where you have to crawl through parts of the cave. I totally want to do this and to my delight so does Brian! We are thinking about going on one later this year. It looked like fun. I just hope I'm not claustrophobic!

I want to be a part of it, New York, New York

Vacations are always nice. I had a mini vacation this past week in New York City. It was a great time of site seeing and catching up with old friends. Here are some highlight pictures!

Brian and I in Central Park.

Heather and I across the street from the Apple Store.

Happy early B-day to me! Dinner at the most fun Indian Restaurant EVER!

Brian and I after seeing The Color Purple at the Broadway Theatre.

High school friends--Shelli and I in China Town.

Times Square

Here's to Memories!

Oh the memories! I can totally relate to this weather man. Here's a shout out to former Lula Lake roomies and all who spent time with us at our less than ideal home!

Weekend in Greenville

I went to Greenville to see Becca and Heath a few weeks ago. We went to the My Chemical Romance Concert just to hear the band MUSE play since they were the opening band. We could have cared less about My Chemical Romance and left before they came on stage. The MUSE part of the concert was pretty good. I sat next to a dad (well he sat, I was jumping up and down) who was there with his wife obviously escorting his pre-teenage son to this concert. He was not excited to be there at all. Too bad for them, but I found it very amusing in my sick sociological way and could not help but laugh about the whole thing (body language is so great).

On Friday we did some hiking along with Becca's mom outside of Greenville and stopped by Pretty Place also where Becca and Heath got engaged...awwww. Here are some pictures from the trip. We also ate at an little German restaurant which was actually in an old Waffle House building. I had some great German beer and bratwurst!

Foster Care Month

MAY is....

DID YOU KNOW?
· There are over 13,00 children in the foster care system in the State of Georgia and over 500,000 nationwide.

· Nearly half of children placed in foster care are over age 10.

· The average amount of time a child spends in foster care is 24.4 months.

· In most counties there is an extreme shortage of foster and adoptive homes meaning that children are placed in group-homes or shelters and sibling groups are split up.

· More than 20,000 children age out of the foster care system each year. These children are often left with limited or no skills or influences to help them successfully live independently.

These children need compassionate, safe, and stable homes.

More than that, these children need to hear about the love and healing that can be found in Christ.


“Whoever welcomes one of these little children in My name, welcomes Me…” - Mark 9:37

*Taken in part from Mercy's Chosen Children's bulletin insert for Foster Care Month

Heheheee

More Fun Quizzes at QuizPox.com

Weekend Photos

Our youth group's car wash and fish fry this weekend was pretty successful. We raised the money we needed for our white water trip scheduled in June!

We both had sunburns by the end of the day. Except mine did not turn to a tan by the next day!

Within 5-10 minutes almost all the kids were soaking wet.

Washing the church van is no laughing matter.

Sunday afternoon Brian and I walked up Orchard Knob to get a good view of the city. It was difficult to take a good picture of both of us. My neck got cut off on one try and then the sun was so bright, Brian couldn't stop squinting. Oh well, at least the sun was out and it was warm this weekend!

New Recipe Find

Cooking for one can be rather challenging at times. If you cook something really good, you get sick of it after the 3rd or 4th night of zapping it in the microwave. If you completely botch the meal, you tend to suck it up and eat it anyway. As a single person you remind yourself that you are in fact living on one income. I've also found that no matter how bad a job I've done, adding rice can many times do miracles. I wouldn't call myself a bad cook, rather I like to consider that I'm a cook in need of more practice. So, in attempts to diversify the meals that I cook I have been making a goal to prepare at least one or two new "nice" meals a month.

Yesterday night I made the meal below from my Paula Deen cookbook (did the prep for it over the weekend). Brian ended up coming over to join me and he said he really liked it several times (which gave me quite an ego boost). Just a side note; I didn't have any bourbon, but the salmon was still really good. I also baked the fish since I don't have grill. I also added some white rice on the side. It was delicious!

Maple-Glazed Salmon with Pineapple Salsa
Recipe courtesy Paula Deen

4 (6-ounce) salmon fillets
Marinade: 1 tablespoon maple syrup 1 tablespoon teriyaki sauce 1 tablespoon pineapple juice 1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger 1 clove garlic, mashed
Pineapple Salsa, recipe follows
Place salmon filets in a resealable plastic bag. Combine marinade ingredients in a non-reactive bowl or measuring cup. Pour marinade over filets and refrigerate from 1 to 24 hours.
In a grill basket sprayed with cooking spray, grill the salmon, skin side down, over hot coals. Flip after 2 to 3 minutes and cook for another 1 to 3 minutes, or until desired doneness. Serve with pineapple salsa spooned on the side.

Pineapple Salsa: 1 medium size ripe tomato, chopped into small cubes 1/4 cup chopped bell pepper, 2 pickled jalapeno pepper slices, deseeded and finely chopped, 1/2 cup pineapple chucks, fresh or canned, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 tablespoon sugar
Place all ingredients in a small, non-reactive saucepan. Simmer over low heat for about 5 minutes. Cool. Refrigerate until ready to serve with the salmon.

Weekend, here I come!

It's not quite the weekend yet, but I can taste it! I don't have much in the way of plans, but just knowing I have all Saturday to do whatever I want is refreshing. I'm kinda weird because I now actually LIKE getting up early on Saturday. I like to get as much done on that day and then relax on Sunday. I'm excited about getting outside and enjoying Chatty's 60 degree weather in February! This weather has made me a spoiled northerner since living in the south for almost 6 years. I'm hoping to get together with a woman from my church for coffee tomorrow and catch up on life. We've been saying we need to get together for weeks (actually months come to think of it) and hopefully tomorrow will be the day.

I love my job and look forward to it almost everyday, but man, I LOVE my weekends off!

Have a good one!

The Mission Field in the Comfort of Your Home

Last weekend my co-workers and I taught foster and adoptive parent classes again to 3 families who are considering fostering, adopting, or a combination of both. The training is 18-20 hours in 3 days and I teach about 6 hours of the curriculum. Returning from these trainings are very inspirational to me and I'm always renewed in the passion I have for the thousands of children in this county who need temporary foster homes and those who are looking for their forever family through adoption. It is so incredible to see our potential foster/adoptive parents work through some really difficult truths about the need and lack of homes willing to open their doors. Each time I teach this class I see God's hand work in their lives and allow Him to stretch and mold their hearts to what He may be calling for their lives. This exact experience happened this weekend were a family did an almost 180 degree turn in the direction for their family. They went from considering infant or international adoption only (which is still greatly needed, don't get me wrong) to also opening their hearts to providing foster care to non-infant and elementary aged children.

The need for foster and adoption homes for children over the age of 8 is overwhelming. In Georgia alone there are about 14,000 children in state custody. 8,500 of these children are in family foster homes or relative foster homes and 1,200 in group homes settings. Most of the children in group homes are living there because there are no family foster homes available mainly because the children are older and less desirable to most families. The rest of the children are either still awaiting adoption, looking for adoptive families, or need specific or specialized services.

I view all our foster parents as full-time missionaries. They are not only agreeing to minister to children, but they are agreeing to do it 24-7 in their own homes for an average of 2-4 years. I feel strongly that the church today needs to see how families fostering children is a true mission field, not only to the children, but also to the birth families (many who really strive to do what is right) and the surrounding community. My agency's focal verse is Mark 9:37, "Whoever welcomes one of these little children in My name, welcomes Me..."

In the United States there are more than 134,000 children in the foster care program who are available for adoption--TODAY. These children have had superior court hearings were the birth family's parental rights were terminated and the children are just waiting for a family to adopt them.

People who know me know that I love Wendy's. Well, besides there cheap jr. bacon cheeseburger I have other reasons why I like the restaurant. Dave Thomas, the founder of Wendy's, was also the founder of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. The foundation's goal is to help increase the number of foster care adoptions in the United States. I have one of their promotional posters in my office that shows a mom and about 16 year old female and reads "We didn't see her first steps, but we'll watch her walk down the aisle." This poster and others around our office remind me of the "big picture" of what I'm doing here 40 hours a week.

I could talk about this subject for hours. Whether you are interested in foster care, adoption, or just how to help get the word out and want more information let me know. I can also help you find out how to get involved in your community to adovacate for these kids or to help with the agency I work for.

Elf Yourself

Hey, Patty told me about a fantastic website called elfyourself.com. It's hysterical. Check out my elf! And yes, my moves are that good. Loft girls you can testify from our wild dance parties! wink...wink =)

http://www.elfyourself.com/?userid=7514cf96cea7b598826b384G06121414

Artsy Holiday Weekend

I went to St. Louis to spend Thanksgiving with my family. It was a nice relaxing weekend and I was able to catch up with my parents and some friends in town. Jon Krueger who is at Covenant Seminary now was in St. Louis over the holiday and we were able to get together on Friday night. We went to the St. Louis Art Museum and saw the Rembrandt exhibit. It was wonderful. I don't remember studying Rembrandt's work in CHOW A&M at Covenant, but I'm sure I did. It makes all the difference when you see the art up close and out of the mundane textbook!

On Saturday my parents and I went to the Missouri Botanical Gardens. The weekend was unusually warm for this part of the year and was perfect weather to be walking around outside! We went there to see the Chihuly exhibition. Dale Chihuly is an artist who creates amazing objects from blown glass. If you are in St. Louis sometime before January 1--GO see it!

Missouri Botanical Garden website: http://www.mobot.org/chihuly/
Dale Chihuly's website: http://www.chihuly.com/

Here are some pictures from the MBG. Please ignore my squinting eyes! It was very sunny and I forgot my sunglasses!!!

A Week To Reflect

I'm at a cafe tonight trying to make up some work from this past week while I was out sick 2.5 days. I figured to add to my procrastination I would change my blog template. What the heck. I'm not sure if I like it yet, but it's different.

Being sick this past week was not fun at all. However, it was a good chance to really sit back and reflect on some things. I was able to watch hours and hours of TV when I wasn't trying to sleep. So I got some good TV coverage on the election. I was a terrible American this week. I didn't register in time to vote in Tennessee. So, I'm glad Bob Corker won the Senate seat here. It was disapppointing that Jim Talent lost in my home state of Missouri and it made me sick that embrionic stem cell research passed in the MO Constitution. The next two years will be really interesting politically for our country. I'm hoping that the conservatives get there act together again and make some positive changes for the country now that they have been given a serious wake up call. The resignition of Rumsfeld I think is a step in the right direction. We'll just have to see and I will have to vote next time!!!

I've also been feeling a little bit sad and lonely recently too. I blame most of those feelings on the end of daylight savings and not seeing my family in a long time. However, this past week I also realized that I really miss having a house or dorm full of people. There are so many things I would love to do on my weekends off but it's difficult when you feel like your the only one who wants to do them. I'm enjoying having my own place and I don't think I would change my decision about it if I were able to go back and do it again. But I do feel some loneliness. I realized over the past week that majority of my friends here are married. Nothing against marriage, I of course would love to be married one day. I just feel like I need to make some more friends who are single. Some reading this might be thinking, "hmmm...she's just on a husband hunt!" Honestly, I'm not. Sure, I would love to be in a relationship right now if it came my way, but I'm still working out some of my emotions after this summer's break up drama. My church, I love it but it's not perfect, doesn't really have a singles or post-college group. I look forward to my small group each Wednesday night, but 99% of the current group is married and most are several years older than me. My job is fantastic but it's really, really small and again, I'm the only single person there. I'm currently looking into finding another small group at church that has more singles and I've even thought about going to other small group at different churches if they have a singles group. I just feel at a loss right now in what to do. I would appreciate any prayers on that.

Again I have to ask myself....

...WHY THE HECK AM I LIVING IN THE SOUTH?!?!?!

In case some of you who have moved away from Chattanooga or have never lived in the south, let me fill you in on the one of our top news stories!! As a northerner and a city/suburbanite girl this totally cracks me up. I shared this story with Becca last weekend and decided that I just needed to make a post about it.

This story was taken from Chattanooga's glorious local TV news station. Take note that is just one story on this "growing" problem in Chattanooga. This story made top news here several nights in a row this spring and continues to be a big topic here. Check out the video clip, it's worth the laughs! ENJOY!

Goats Tackle the Kudzu

The city of Chattanooga is taking a stab at tackling the city's kudzu problem and they've hired some very experienced workers... goats. These guys will spend the next two months on the side of Missionary Ridge. The goal is to knock out the kudzu. Their owner says no problem.
Maurice Beavers says "I'm gone tell you like I told the people at city hall, they said will goats eat kudzu and I said, I guarantee they'll eat it cause they ain't gonna get nothing else."
Public works officials say they'll be back next April if the trial works out.

WRCB TV - Channel 3 - Chattanooga, Tennessee

Here Kitty, Kitty!

It's official! Here is my newly adopted kitty, Chloe! She's a Himalayan cat and about 6-9 months old.

My dog would roll over in her grave...

Even after last night's adventure of the homeless kitty outside trying to rip my window screen down for hours, I'm thinking pretty seriously about getting a cat. I love animals and I could use the company. One of my foster families has a few cats and kittens they want to give away and they said I can have any of them for free.

Here's my problem, I'm allergic to some (not all) cats. I'm possibly kitty sitting this weekend and I'll see how it goes. Any suggestions on allergy medications that have worked for you or someone you know who is allergic to animals? I think I need allergy medication anyway for dust and stuff. So if I can find one that would help out some with cat dander, that would rock!

For those who were at my apartment last night, that kitty stayed around for another 2 hours after you all left!

I don't have anything to comment now, but this picture is just screaming to be posted!
YES--this is my Grandma!!! She visited my family in St. Louis a few weeks ago and she apparently liked my brother's hat. Too bad I wasn't there to witness this in person!
Have a good weekend everyone!!!

ST. LOUIS!!!!!!!!!!!

Last weekend was a blast. Jess, Heather and I went to St. Louis and stayed with my parents. Elliot's 21st Birthday was that weekend too and one of his friend's from Chattanooga drove up with us to St. Louis and was supposed to get another ride back to Chattanooga with another one of Elliot's friends that was already in St. Louis. However, Elliot's friend ended up riding back with us to Chattanooga in the end becasuse his original ride home left without him! Poor kid! I think he had enough girly road trip stuff to last him for years to come!

I think I just about wore Jess and Heather out with activities on Saturday! It was worth it though. We had a great time. We also walked around Covenant Seminary and Jess showed us where she is going to be living in the fall. We also got to spend some time with Ev and Amalia. They share an apartment about 5 minutes from where I grew up and it is actually the same complex my parents lived at for 3 months while they were waiting for their new house to be built! Crazy! Enjoy the photos!

All kinds of chocolate martinis at the Chocolate Cafe' near my parents house!

Yum!

Jessica playing with the toys at the cafe'.

How true!

At the top of the Arch!

St. Louis Science Center

How much it would cost for me to go up into space!

(Another reason I need to marry a rich man!)

On the glass bridge over Hwy. 40 at the St. Louis Science Center!

It was harder to build than it looks!

At the Montelle Winery for Elliot's 21st B-day!

Yep, he cut his hair!

The City Museum!

NERTZ!

Courtni, me, and Katherine--old high school buddies!