Pigs on the Porch and Other Tennessee Sites

 

I miss blogging!  Our year has been so busy, but I still miss sitting down and writing about our latest adventures.  We've spent a lot of time in Tennessee this year and we know it's where we need to be.  So far I've run in heat and high humidity, along with frigid temperatures (twice last month it was in the low 30s.)

 

A little frost on the grass

We were there for three weeks last month and the leaves changed before our eyes!

 

 

In spite of the weather, I have been getting out and running.  The hills are endless, but I'm pushing through.  I've seen quite a few cows, but the highlight was two pigs on a porch!  This is not a one time occurrence, I've seen them there quite regularly. 

 

We went on a little vacation in September - my good friend, Lori Long, retired this year so we took a cruise (with our husbands, of course) to celebrate!  I'll try to blog about that soon.

Southern California Fires

 

 

I'm sure you are aware of the fires here in Southern California.  The devastation is widespread and heart breaking.  We are not in danger at this time, but still under a wind and fire advisory through tomorrow.  Les took these pictures while on a bike ride this morning.  The Palisades Fire is about 25 miles from us as the crow flies

 

We were at the church Tuesday night for prayer and there were multiple trees down in our parking lot.  At least one car was damaged.  Driving home that night was probably one of the scariest ever, the wind was rocking us.

 

If you're looking for a way to help, a local LA restaurant, Calico Fish House, is about 30 miles south of the Palisades Fire.  They are allowing people to park/camp in their parking lot, providing free meals and collecting supplies. They are taking shipments directly from Amazon, Walmart, etc.  16600 Pacific Coast Hwy, Huntington Beach, CA 92649.  There is also a local veterinarian who has taken in over 40 animals and Calico Fish House is sending supplies to her as well.

Please help us pray for rain and calm!

Friday Foto Dump

As usual, September went by in a blur.  I posted about our niece, Leksi, visiting us over Labor Day, but didn't post any pictures of her!  We went for a hike on Labor Day:

We had an earthquake on September 12th!  We definitely felt it at our house!

 

In between days of extreme heat, it felt like Fall for a few days.  The leaves are starting to change and fall:

We tried a new coffee creamer, Southern Butter Pecan, that had a special message.  If you can't read it, it says, "This Southern Butter Pecan creamer is just delicious.  Bless Its Heart!"

I got some new trail shoes.  They will never be this clean again!

I've already taken them on two different runs.  One was cool and cloudy:

 

The other was just as the sun was coming up:

Leksi was back for another visit last weekend.  God really touched her at church on Sunday.

We then met up with Brian and Barb Abernathy (Les's cousin and her husband) who were in Long Beach.  It was wonderful catching up over lunch!

From Long Beach, we drove to Anaheim to drop Leksi off at the Amtrak station.  We had just enough time to go to Holy Roly.  I had never heard of rolled ice cream before.  They use a special freezing technique, mixing the cream on a freezing pan.  It was so good!

This week feels like a blur as we are preparing to go to the Philippines!  We got a message late Wednesday night that there had been changes to our flight from LAX to Manila, but with the help of Sister White here at home and Sister Aida in the Philippines, we got it all straightened out.  Pray for us as we travel on Sunday.

 

I enjoyed a run this morning.  The actual running wasn't great, my legs felt dead.  But the sunrise was definitely worth getting out the door to see!

What Happened to May and June?

It seems like at least once a year I take a break from blogging.  It's never planned, I just get busy with enjoying life and don't write about it!  I still have a draft post about our trip to the San Diego Zoo for my birthday, maybe I'll get it posted this week or maybe not!  I don't get paid to blog, so when I lack motivation, I just let it go.

 

Let me try to catch up!  We didn't do much in May.  Les had one trip for work.  We celebrated our 33rd anniversary on May 25th.  We took Amtrak to Santa Barbara and enjoyed a lovely day, with very few pictures.

I found these cute mugs on Amazon and they were the perfect anniversary gift!

Our church celebrated Sis. White's 70th birthday on May 26th.  We love her so much!

Elder Tom Johnson made her a special guitar.  Now we're all waiting to hear her play it!

Early June saw wonderful running weather with lots of cool mornings.

I don't mind seeing snakes, as long as they're dead like this one!

We spent 10 days in Tennessee in June.  Our plan was to be there for Father's Day.  When we found out Les' sister, Lisa, and her family were going to Utah for vacation, we decided to stay a little longer.  Pops is still very independent, but it gives our family peace of mind to have someone close by.  We enjoyed Lisa's home, including early mornings on the back porch.

We visited the cemetery.  This was the first time we had seen Dolly's marker.

Father's Day at church:

And lunch at Crawdaddy's afterwards!

We both enjoyed riding in the Tennessee hills.  It is tough, though!  The hills aren't super steep, but they never stop.  The heat and humidity were both high as well.

I also did some running.  At the end of the Wearing's street is quite a collection of farm animals.  As soon as the goats see me, they come running!

The ponies also decided to come meet me!

While we were in Tennessee, we filled our social calendar.  On Monday night Les had dinner with a friend he has known since elementary school.  On Tuesday, our dear friends, Doug and Lori Long, came and spent the day with us.  You know you're having the best time when you don't take a single picture together!  We never run out of things to talk about!  Lance came down from Indiana and on Thursday, cousin Jonathan came over!

We came home to more heat, but that's what air conditioning and our swimming pool are for.  Next up - Fourth of July - I'll be making homemade ice cream and we've got ribs to throw on the grill.

Friday Trail Run

 

We have rain in the forecast starting late tonight and going through Monday morning.  I decided I needed to a get a longer run in today.  Coyotes were my alarm clock - it sounded like an entire pack was on the hill behind our house at about 5:15.  I stayed in bed a little while, but was up and driving to the trail head by 6:15.

 

I had the trail mostly to myself.  One mountain biker passed me on the way up and I saw him again when he was coming down while I was still going up. I turned around at the four mile mark after taking the pictures in this post.

 

I didn't see anyone else until my last couple of miles.  Two women were running up the trail and one guy was walking up the final ramp at the trail head.

 

It was a peaceful morning and I enjoyed it immensely!