Reason Why

...oh yea. The reason why the last posting ended abruptly was because while we were at the base of the waterfall. The camera for the first time since we bought it has no battery power left. So no more pictures = no more blog posting. You only get what we got.

Also blogger was not being very cooperative with that last posting. Or maybe I was tired and the long day away from electronics came into effect which inhibited me from using the computer and internet efficiently. If it's the latter... I have issues.




There was no Monday this work week. AWESOME!

Sky Blue Sky

Today was a beautiful day and it was great to be outdoors under the blue sky. Friday night we had planned on going somewhere to hike for Labor Day. Turns out we decided on Fall Creek Falls State Park & Resort.
That park is known for having the tallest waterfall east of the Rockies. That is clearly enough reason to go...right? Bet your bottom dollar it is! So we set off bright and early today. But you can't start a day of hiking without some breakfast, so we all met at a convenient local Cracker Barrel for some good morning eats.

Great drive and we finally got there around 10:30am got all of our gear ready (we packed lunches to eat on the trails) and off we went and hit the trails!


I don't know how many of you all know this (actually I did mention this in my last posting) but TN has been low on the rainfall for the summer months. So we had been talking about how the waterfalls might just look like your ordinary neighborhood cliff...or gorge....because there would be NO water to provide the waterfall we wanted to see.

Well low and behold there was water falling!

The little white dots there at the bottom are some people.

The overlook where i took those pictures of the waterfall was really high so here's is a picture of us with some distance. It's a good one!

Well from that overlook we took the rigorous trail to the base of the waterfall. It was not rigorous going down but we knew climbing back up was going to be cramping our style, literally. The base of the waterfall was worth the trip though being in the gorge surounded by earth, rock, and trees was incredible. So we actually sat down there on the rocks and ate our lunches. Relaxing in the coolness of the shade the gorge provided and hearing the water fall down was just what we needed. Here we are chillin' on our rocks.

The Wall

...actually more like the fence. But whatev


So finally...FINALLY (that looks weird in all caps) here ate pictures of our fence that our wonderful Dad and brothers built for us! I'm actually glad that we waited to even take these dang pictures because the grass has been brown most of the summer because of our water drought here in TN. So finally it rained more than once in a week and out grass greened up enough to look decent. Actually it looks amazing in these pics.

The front of left side of the house, or as we refer to it as the non-street side. And you can clearly see why.





Then of course this is the street side of the house. If you were also wondering yes I had cut the yard recently, the day before actually and yes I still cannot grow any stinkin' grass on the sides of the house.

And now 3 pics of the backyard...in all it's glory.

I had actually just finished mowing the backyard and you can see the tracks on the pavement from the lawn mower. I cut the yard on 2 different days because the back so so stinkin' tall that it would have taken me all of yesterday to do. So being the smarty pants I am...split it into two days. (I really only did it b/c we had plans both afternoons, don't let me fool you into thinking I really am a smarty pants)

Tomorrow is Labor Day which
= NO WORK!
= 4 day work week!
= happy Isaac & Amy!

And everyone wants a happy Isaac & Amy around
...especially Bugsy and Rupert.

Back to the Helicopter

OK...so we have been slacking over in the blogging department. Why does this happen? oh well, i figure no one is waiting on the edge of their chair for the next Llanes blog posting. But if you are...let me know...i got a remedy somewhere up my sleeve.

So i have recently fallen in love with yet another Google feature: Google Reader. What it does is feeds any website or blog that I subscribe to via the RSS Feed feature and it'll send it all to my Reader. So I have subscribed to a bunch of blogs that I read up on and websites with great articles and whenever something new is posted I get notification of it in my Reader. It's coming in really handy. It also has a share folder where it'll post articles or blog posting that I like onto theis blog. It is the little window over on the right side menu. There's 3 things in there right now( I think). So anytime I read something I want you guys to read, I'll share it via that Reader share box.
Cool...right!?!
Yes it is!


So keep your eyes aware of that sharing box as well as for new postings. Not that I guarantee it'll be updated any more than this here blog itself. But I can try.

So here's a video I came across on the web one day while using the StumbleUpon feature on Mozilla Firefox web browser. I think this place would be awesome to work at...enjoy...


Lip Dub - Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger from amandalynferri and Vimeo.

With A Little Help From My Friends

These are the pics of us guys from the wedding.
Josh, Michael, Jeff, and Isaac.

The Longest Time

Wowzers!
We have a lot to update you all on. And where to begin...ah yes...

on July 25th We flew out to Dallas/Fort Worth area for a few days to spend with Amy's family but mainly for Isaac to be in Jeff Howard's wedding on the 28th. It was a fabulous time of travel that completely wore us out. In all our trip included:
a night in Hico
a day trip to Brownwood
a night in Stephenville,
drive to Ft. Worth, and on to Plano/Richardson area
Wedding on Sat. night
Sunday the 29th we flew to Houston, arrived at 10:30am
then flew back to Nashville at 7:45pm
Finally arriving home at 11:30 pm to get up the next day at get to work.

that wore me out remembering all of that geeesh!

It was a great time seeing family and friends, having all of the Fantastic Four back together again for 2 days! That's Jeff Howard, Josh Shetter, Michael Peeples, and Isaac. The reason it was great was b/c Michael has been overseas for 3 yrs now and we all got to see him at the same time and had a grand 'ole time running a muck through the DFW area.


Our detour through Houston was all planned out to surprise Isaac's Dad on his birthdya being July 29th. Isai and his wife Amy picked us up from the airport and we surprised that at lunch. It was awesome! The only bummer thing about it was that we had to leave that same day.
But it was something that will never be forgotten!

OK...sorry for no picks but we were slackers in the picture department on our trip except for the wedding. I'll post those soon.


Then on August 4th Michael flew into Nashville to spend a few days with Josh, Amy, and I. It was great to have Michael come over and meet our friends and just see where we live before he goes overseas again. As usual we mostly ate, talked about our current lives, talked about music, and reminisced about the old college days. ha! good time!

Michael flew out on Wed. morning of the 8th and then Amy's Dad, 2 brothers, and grandmother arrived Thurs. morning at 4am. They dove all night through!!! Amy's family had agreed to come help us get a fence up at the house. (again sorry for the lack of pictures, soon though) So they did and the fence was finished by Sun. morning.
We cannot in anyway so how much appreciate Dad, Scott, and Daniel for all of their hard work! I helped some but I mostly tried staying out of the way to not disrupt what was going on. But i tried to make sure everything that was needed was available. I wonder if they think i did? probably not. ha!
The bad part was that Scott and Daniel had developed blisters on their hands from working the two-man auger to dig the post holes, Scott dropped a pallet with 5 bags of cement onto one of his big toes, and Daniel got sick with a deathly cough that we thought might kill him even as they left this morning. For all of their hard work and hurts and sickness we are indebted to you guys!
Thank you SO much. And we hope you get home safe tonight.


Well that wraps up our major events. Now that you are up to date I can rest in peace.
Again...we will have pictures of the wedding up soon and of the house with our newly built fence!

A Message

If you can start the day without caffeine;
If you can get going without pep pills;
If you can always be cheerful, ignoring aches and pains;
If you can resist complaining and boring people with your troubles;
If you can eat the same food every day and be grateful for it;
If you can understand when your loved ones are too busy to give you any time;
If you can forgive a friend's lack of consideration;
If you can overlook it when those you love take it out on you when,
through no fault of your own, something goes wrong;
If you can take criticism and blame without resentment;
If you can ignore a friend's limited education and never correct him;
If you can resist treating a rich friend better than a poor friend;
If you can face the world without lies and deceit;
If you can conquer tension without medical help;
If you can relax without liquor;
If you can sleep without the aid of drugs;
If you can honestly say that deep in your heart you have no prejudice
against creed or color, religion or politics; then, my friend, you are
almost as good as your dog.


A little insight that I found on the web that helps us see some perspective
from a dog's point of view.