Did You Miss Me!?!?!?

So we are back from vacation. The Clay's went on their first official vacation last week and had a blast! I had funnel cake twice and deep fried oreos. Talk about heaven on earth! (leave it to me to talk about the food first but I can only be me...)



We went to Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg, Tennessee and stayed in a Chalet on the side of the mountain (literally).

We had a blast! Instead of doing the normal tourist trapsy types of things...we went White Water Rafting and Zip lining!! Yes folks...I said white water rafting and ZIP LINING.

I will let the pics speak for themselves. Q's mom has the video of zip lining and as soon as she posts it I will put it up!

Smokey Mountain Vacation Summer 2009

(click the links to enlarge)

The Chalet above ours...these things are literally on the side of the mountain.

Our chalet was called "A Room With a View"...and here are some views.

My hubby before we went into the cabin.

Our Room...

The Lovely Mrs. Clay (ITS ME FOOLZ!)



Ok that wasn't nice sorry for calling you guys foolz...I got carried away. (Foolz is the word of the week...)



My cute hubby giving the thumbs up! His smile makes me melt!

The view on the way to our White Water Rafting Adventure!





Its me again...ready to go rafting! Q deep in thought...









The Old Mill...whatever. Its lame after going rafting and zip lining. We drove past and stopped for some pics.



We loved getting home for the sunset...they didn't call the chalet "A Room With a View" for nothing!!

This is my absolute favorite!

Noticing You Noticing Me

So I just finished reading this lovely book called, "The Noticer". May I say I read it in like two days, which for me has become great because I have such a short attention span.

Actually I didn't just finish reading it. I finished reading it like two weeks ago...but I forgot to post about it. I was sitting here and started thinking about how I'm so mediocre and saw the book sitting on the table.

I thought about how I felt reading the book. Powerful. Invincible. Hopeful. My mind wandered back to the excitement I felt at each revelation that was brought forth through the telling of this tale.

I have been saying this since before I read the book but it made it even more plain to me.

"Sometimes all a person needs is a little perspective."

I love that. I don't have much to say...I just know that I need to do things to gain more perspective and build my confidence. Mostly because if I don't know my value how will anyone else. Do you know your value? I mean really...do you know?

Do I know is the only question I can answer. If I did know how much of a gift I am, I would never downplay my impact on the lives of my friends and family. They really do need me in their lives, I am an asset. If I really knew how brilliant I am, I wouldn't feed myself negative messages and tear myself down for no reason but to do it before someone else got the chance to. I don't deserve that treatment from others and I definately dont have the right to mistreat myself.

Well I need to pray more. read more. blog more. save more. love more. risk more. risk more. risk more. dream more. clean more. learn more. praise more. call more. write more. eat more fruit. float more. hunt and gather more. be silent more.

I started typing the list and thought of more things I needed to do. I'm missing the point. Let me pick five things to focus on...

I'm going to pray more. write more. eat more fruit. risk more and love more.

Lets see what perspective I can get in six days!

PS...No baby news Jenna but im going to find perspective on that during this week.

Walla Walla Bing Bang

Soo...whats going on out there in bloggerville???

You all know I live in Nashville. Let me just say that Knockout Wings has the best sweet tea in the city. For real. Its not that regular syrupy sweet tea...it is sweet but is flavored with lemon juice and plenty of sugar. Its smooth going down. I hate going there though because the folks that are normally hanging around are unsavory. But I speak to everyone none the less because I love people and embrace things that are different from my norm.

My husband always says that my solution for every problem is to try something new. I have this thing with my body where I cant use something for more than three months or I will break out. I'm so serious. Take my deodorant for example. I change brands every few months or I will itch to death. My hubby of course says that I am imagining this condition....and making an excuse to get something else. But I'm serious. The same goes for shampoo and conditioner...if I use the same thing for more than six months it stops working.

Hence my need to always do & have new things, experience new people, and embark upon territories never seen! I think that life is supposed to be an adventure. And everyone knows that an adventure without twists, turns, scares, and dare is not an adventure at all! Do you remember Pippy Longstockings??? Oh my goodness I loved her. I wanted to be her.

"Pippy Longstockings is coming into your world, a freckled face red head girl..." I still know the song. I'm singing it right now.

Anyways..I loved her. And she made me feel like there was nothing I couldn't do. Seriously. Dreams and ideas = tangible. She always did what she wanted to do and didn't let anyone stop her. She always ran into trouble and got into trouble and was trouble. But she still did whatever she wanted and had fun. Things always worked out for Pippy at the end.

But even when she was down and counted out...she still came out on top! When did I stop having that kind of wreckless abandon about my life. When people started telling me i lived in a fantasy world. Well im going back to my oldway of relating to the world...time to get back to my adventure!