Our Neighborhood

I took Maia on a walk the other day. (Actually I try to take her on a walk every day. Good exercise for both her and me.) It was absolutely gorgeous and the trees have finally decided to change their colors. Here's a glimpse.

This is in the yard to the side of our house. I have been waiting and waiting for this valley to just bloom into full color but I'm not sure I will get to see that this year due to all the rain.

Maia plays in this yard a lot. I've started letting her run around without me holding onto the leash. It's fun to watch her run and play unhindered. I can just imagine her screaming inside her little head FREEDOOOM!!!!



This is our house. We're the one on the end. Number 56. Isn't it cute?? I love the brick.

This isn't a pretty fall picture but I wanted to show you were I always walk Maia. (As you can see these trees are all still green - seriously, I don't get it! Some trees have already lost their leaves completely and yet these still look like we could be in the middle of summer.) This is another yard that is further down the hill from our house. I let Maia run around here too. Except that kind of backfired on me not too long ago when I didn't see a little wiener dog. But Maia did. And she shot off after it. Apparently the little pipsqueak, I found out later, was a rescue dog. The owners swooped her up really quick while Maia swiped at her with her dagger-like claws. At least that's how I felt weeny's owners saw her. I was so embarrassed. My dog is a bit much for a meek little rescue dog.

This is back up by our house.

I just love the red trees. They are my favorite. Either those or the fiery orange ones. It's kind of toss-up because they are both just so rare to see everywhere else I've lived!

And this is not a good picture since I was driving when I was taking it but at least you can see the amazing color. This tree is along the way to work and I have watched it sloooowly change from just a little red on the very tip-top to this.

Are you still seeing fall colors where you're at?

NaBloPoMo

November is National Blog Posting Month. Otherwise known as NaBloPoMo. The challenge for NaBloPoMo is to post every single day of the month. And guess what! I'm taking up the challenge! There is a website dedicated to this challenge and I've registered on it in order to keep me motivated. I will be entered into a drawing and if my name gets chosen and I've been faithful to post every day, then I win a prize! I love prizes!



The posts aren't "graded" on quality, just quantity. So I apologize in advance if I post something booooring (said in a singsong voice) but I'm going to do all I can do to be qualified just in case my name gets picked. If I know myself though,I probably will struggle with posting something just to say I've posted. I try to remind myself when I'm lacking motivation that the purpose of this blog is to document my life as I know it now. So hopefully none of the posts will be too bad. Enjoy!


And remember I'm always interested in knowing what you want to hear about. I like to hear from my readers (aka my friends and family...I have to specify since that sounds like other people actually read my blog and who am I kidding?) plus I will probably need help with topics during NaBloPoMo.

The Smokies

Last weekend DJ and I finally had an opportunity to venture outside the city limits and into the beautiful Smoky mountains. We had heard how incredibly beautiful the Smokies get during the fall so I had some very high expectations. I was a little wary though because I had also heard that all this rain we have been getting might have "confused" those poor little trees and caused them to either hang onto their green glory or just dropped their leaves like a hot potato before those leaves were allowed to change color.


In fact, we found a little of everything. There was still a lot of green glory going on, there were already some bare trees and thankfully there were some fiery yellow and red trees that had decided to debunk the theory that rain equals green. Bless you sweet trees. You provided this girl with a lot of eye candy and photo ops.

Speaking of photo ops, DJ and I took the opportunity to take a family picture while we were in the midst of the beauty. Everyone say ahhhh. Altogether now. Ahhhhhh. You will all be getting a little somethin somethin in the mail after Thanksgiving. If you don't get one for some reason and want one, just email me. I'll send ya one.

Now for the other pictures of our day. We drove through a loop called Cade's Cove. It was verrry busy that day. It's an 11-mile loop that took us a few hours to drive through and it was so gorgeous. I'm going to let the pictures speak for themselves...

Passions

Everyone has something that really makes them passionate. Sometimes these things change and sometimes they are things that have been a part of a person's whole life.

I have found that my passions change in terms of hobbies or activities but the general theme always stays the same. Since about high school I have found myself constantly thinking and wondering how I can center my passions on making myself a successful and contributing citizen. It's always on the back of my mind. When I find another hobby that I love, I think, Could this be the hobby that takes off and I could turn into a business? So far, that hasn't happened but I'm not worried.

Being a Christian adds an additional element to this topic. I know that God gives each of His children special gifts and talents. I find this fascinating because this fact gives each and every person a purpose. A purpose in life. No one is here just to be. God calls each of His children to use their special talents and gifts to glorify Him.

Some people's talents and gifts are more obvious. Some people can sing. That's an obvious one. Some people can draw or paint. Another obvious one. Some people are mathematical and business-minded. This isn't as obvious but still more obvious than others.

I'm always wondering what talents or gifts God has blessed me with. I've come a long way since I started thinking on this many years ago but I don't think my gifts are as obvious. You could figure this out yourself too if you ever heard me sing. I mean, I'm not as bad as the Little Mermaid seagull but I'm not Whitney Houston material either. I'm good enough to sing hymns in church where only the people that are standing right next to me and love me (and thus cannot shun me) can hear me. And as far as artistic skills go, I once was inspired by my mom's artistic ability. I was probably 11 years old or so. I thought I would draw a beautiful Christmas picture, complete with holly and ivy. I got out all my mom's paints and brushes and a little piece of canvas (I wanted to start out small). I figured I would just sweep my brush here and there and a picture would just magically appear because of my inherited artistic talent. Let's just say, when I got finished with my picture, there was nothing magical about my holly and ivy. In fact I'm not sure you could really call what I painted anything close to art. I knew right then that I had sadly not inherited my mom's talent.

So finding the talents that God made me to have is always on the back of my mind as I find hobbies and activities. How is this hobby or activity that is really exciting to me something that I would be able to use to glorify God? And as God molds me into the person He wants me to be, I think those gifts become more obvious. I heard it described just this week that we are like gold. Gold has to be worked and shined and rubbed in such a way that all the impurities are brought to the surface and worked out so that the metal can really shine. I can certainly relate to this analogy as I feel that I have more impurities on the surface right now than a golden shine.

The beautiful thing about all of this though, is that no matter when you or I discover our God-given talents and discover those passions that really gets us going, God has a work in each of us that He will complete. This gives me hope. And I know that just because I haven't really figured out my niche yet, doesn't mean I won't. It's just not time yet. God is rubbing and working my impurities out so that when I do discover exactly what God has gifted me to do, I can shine and show the whole world what God has created in me and really do those talents justice.

Give 'em a break

Every morning when I drive to work and every afternoon when I drive home for lunch and every day when I return to work after eating lunch at home, I go through a very long school zone. It's actually one of the longest school zones I've seen. It's a side effect of having an elementary school on one side of the road and then just as you pass the elementary school, you pass a high school on the other side of the road. That whole way is a slow 20 miles per hour. I've learned to be patient during that stretch of road because otherwise that zone would be the death of me. It never fails that any time I am in a hurry, the school zone lights are blinking. So instead of maxing out the speed limit to get to where I need to get, I am slowing down to a mere 20 miles per hour. Seriously.

I've gotten to the point where it is very natural to reach this spot in my commute and hit the brakes. One could say it's a habit now. So yesterday was no different. I was headed back to work after lunch and I reached the school zone. Being the upstanding citizen that I am, I slowed waaaaay down. (I should mention that I was also chatting on the phone.) I had almost reached the halfway point which is a stoplight when a truck who had been driving along behind me suddenly honked its horn, sped up and passed me on the left into the turning lane. It is not unusual to see cars driving much too fast when they should be dutifully minding the speed limit (it's for the kids people!) but what I didn't understand is why the guy honked at me! I thought about it for a little while because it irritated me that someone could be so rude to honk when I was driving at a respectful 20 miles per hour. And then suddenly it hit me. I had been going 20 miles per hour when the zone lights hadn't even been blinking! And this guy had to endure me doing this because he needed to turn at the light, so he couldn't just pass me! I must have been so into my conversation on the phone that I didn't even check the school zone lights and just slowed down automatically. Talk about some patience. This guy was probably so irritated with the lady in front of him just talking away on her phone dutifully minding a non-existent speed limit of mind-numbingly slow proportions that I'm surprised he didn't lay on his horn a little harder. Now that I think about it, he was actually quite polite with the tap on the horn to say "hey lady, you're going ridiculously slow. Move along!"

So maybe the next time you see someone driving reeeealllly slooooow, give them a break. They probably just think they are doing their civic duty and minding the speed limit. They're not intentionally trying to irritate the "you-know-what" out of you. I know from experience.

A Commercial Break

I am trying very hard to get a new post completed that details our adventures last weekend but due to scheduling issues (DJ worked late Monday night, and the post depends on him since he has the computer and I was otherwise engaged last night), that post is coming soon (hopefully later today!) In the mean time, please watch for your viewing pleasure...

Fall Festivities

Well I hate to brag, but, well, I guess this would be the place to do it, sooo ok, here goes. I'm...DJ's favorite. I know what you're thinking. That's a pretty bold statement there Nichole. And normally, I might agree with you, but the evidence is screaming at me. I've gotta be right. I mean, he spent the whole entire weekend with me. And I'm almost positive he had as much fun as I did. Now you believe me right?

Friday night, we vegged out. Ate some delicious lasagna leftovers (fyi, DJ made the lasagna from scratch on Thursday. It was aMAzing and even better the second day. That's when you know it's really good.) It was so comfy in our house too because it was nice and warm inside and so cold outside. 40s or something ridiculous like that. I fell asleep at 8:00 p.m. It was a great night's sleep.

Saturday was a very special day. Remember this little girl?

Her momma had back surgery so her daddy had to bring her to work and he asked me to come watch her. Which meeeant that I got to go to work with DJ! I was way excited because that's like hallowed ground. That's what it feels like any way since that's where DJ spends probably 90% of his life right now and I don't really know what happens there or what it looks like. So to be invited to enter the sacred inner chambers, aka DJ's "office", was a true honor. I really wanted to take some pictures of him working but I started to feel obnoxious (and sort of ridiculous too, I mean, can you imagine what the guys would think if DJ's wifey started following him around snapping pictures? Not very professional.) so all I got were pictures after everyone left.

This is the main area of the training room. I was surprised at how small it was but I learned that this is a typical-sized training room. UNM's training room was abnormally large and is definitely not the norm. Even the Dallas Cowboys, where DJ interned for a summer, has a much smaller training room than UNM.

This hallway is the back part of the training room. The door to the left is where you walk into the head trainer's office which he shares with DJ. This is where I spent the majority of my time with Addison. Mainly taking her on rides on the little stools. Back and forth. Back. and. forth.

Another view of the main area.

Here's the indoor field. You have to walk through this area to get to the training room. That far wall has pictures of all the all-American players to come out of UT.

This guy is on there.

Here's another view of the indoor field.

And here's the man himself.

After "we" got done working, the plan was to go to a corn maze and pumpkin patch but instead we decided it was too cold and we were feeling too lazy to be running around like fools in a field of corn so instead we stopped alongside the road, bought our pumpkins and went to our nice cozy house.

You can really tell that DJ was almost having as much fun as I was picking out each special pumpkin.

The funny thing is that all these special pumpkins came from New Mexico! The Navajo Nation to be exact. They came out here on a big ginormous truck. Who would have guessed that the first pumpkins I would buy from a "pumpkin patch" would be New Mexico pumpkins in Tennessee?

And here's the special New Mexican pumpkins that I picked out. Now I just need a hay bale to finish the look.

Saturday night we were invited to the Party of the Year. That's what it should be called anyway. It was a great time at an even more amazing house. The ortho surgeon that DJ works with has an annual party at his house and I feel privileged to have been invited. The hosts were the most hospitable, kind, sincere, genuine people that anyone could ever ask for. I felt truly at home and comfortable to have a good time.

Some highlights... best quesadillas ever. Gorgeous house. Enjoyable guests. A delicious cheese platter. (hey, I'm easy to please sometimes. Just give me some good cheese.)

I'm going to leave Sunday's adventures for another post because this is getting to be a verrrrrry looooooong post. But you can look forward to seeing some beautiful pictures of the mountains I now call home. (I'm going to say hopefully tomorrow.)