March Wrap Up

Holy Cow (said in my best Harry Caray voice)!  Happy Opening Day!  Today is Opening Day for Major League Baseball.  It's kinda a big deal in this house.  Normally Opening Day falls on a Monday.  Adam's dad always grills hamburgers and hotdogs for Opening Day and since Mondays are Adam's late days at work, we don't get to celebrate with the rest of the family.  We actually aren't celebrating today either, but we will be tomorrow!  We are having the in-laws up for, wait for it...salmon!  When we originally made the plans to celebrate Opening Day on Friday, we all forgot that Fridays mean no meat for Catholics, and I just wouldn't feel right eating a nice juicy burger in front of the rest of the family!  So we decided to go with salmon instead.  Not quite Opening Day food, but we will make it work!

Ryne started saying "baseball" and "play ball" a few weeks ago!  Just in time for the season!  We bought him an outfit and everything!  Also, if you've never heard this, listen to Dan St. Paul's impersonation of Harry Caray for the First Baseball Game!  Google it.  It's hilarious!

On to the child, which we call, Ryne.  He is plowing through jigsaw puzzles, without my help and on ones he has never seen before!  He's learning to recognize words - which leads to reading.  He is obsessed with cleaning, and mowing!  Hopefully he'll be a good little helper one day!

On to us.  We've had a few house showings recently!  Fingers crossed that it sells soon.  Bad news on the building front.  The builder we were originally going to use and the one that built our current house is closing its doors in a month or so.  They are honoring the current contracts they have, but we don't have a contract with them. Soo...that means they wont be building our house.  There are pros and cons to that.  They had a bigger floorplan for less money, but it's a cookie cutter home like the one we have now.  We are going to look into custom building a home with my best friend's husband's company.  We shall see....

I'm really loving a new book, I picked this week.  It's called, The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin.  I LOVE it!  I thought it looked interesting and so far it is!  I consider myself much like the author in the area of happiness.  I'm happy.  Not depressed or anything like that, but I could be happier.  She writes about a year-long happiness project and covers different areas of happiness in each month/chapter.  She went to law school, so I love the way she writes - profound, yet down to earth!  I'm currently in the month of March, which has the topic of Work.

Speaking of work, I've been doing a few photo shoots recently and honing my skills!  I am going to get the biz up and running very soon!  I am currently working on a business plan and pricing.  This isn't going to be easy to start, but it's what I enjoy doing.  I am going to have a photography blog up and running soon also, to use as a virtual portfolio.  I'm also starting another photography class next week to learn even more skills!  Lots to do!

There is a lot to learn in photography.  It's not so simple as putting your camera in the basic settings and letting the camera do the work, not if you're wanting it to be professional.  It's telling the camera what to do!  I kinda like being the boss!  Editing is time-consuming for now, but I will get faster with practice.  Equipment is expensive, to say the least!  I wish they gave out student loans with these classes!  I'm nervous but excited and I know that in time, I'll be able to do weddings and fun things such as that!

My Favorite Place!

This is my favorite place in the whole wide world!  Seriously, I've been to the other side of it, and there is a very close runner up on the other side of the world - Tangalooma!  Beautiful!

However, it doesn't compare to this place:

The Kingstonians who are reading this may know exactly where this is!  This picture was taken from the parking lot of my hometown church, Bethel Presbyterian and the Methodist Church in Kingston!  Whenever I need to clear my head or need some peace and quiet, I go here.  I will drive all the way from Knoxville, just to sit here!  I've sat here at sunrise (which is gorgeous), mid-day, sunset (again - gorgeous), nighttime and anytime.  It's the perfect spot!

The feeling of calmness and peacefulness here is so wonderful!  It's sandwiched between two churches so it's almost like God is giving you a big hug in this spot!  If you're in Kingston, go try out my spot.  You'll find others there too from time to time, but NOTHING beats this spot!

Orange You Glad I Didn't Say Banana!

Today we all went to Sam's to stock on a few essentials.  Sunday is probably busiest worst day to go to Sam's.  It was insanely busy with people crawling all over the place.  As soon as we walked through the door a lady was handing out slices of navel oranges!  Everyone knows you go to Sam's when you're hungry to take advantage of the samples...and Ryne did just that!

Ryne LOVES oranges (and lemons).  He will shove it in his little mouth and get it all over his face...and he did just that!  However, when Ryne got through eating the pulp part, he started eating the rind!  We just laughed at him as he ate the whole orange slice.

Adam said Ryne was a like goat or a garbage disposal.  I said, " well, I wonder where he got that from?"  Adam claims to not know where Ryne's good eating habits come from.  Ha!  Any of you who have seen Adam eat know EXACTLY where Ryne's goat-like/garbage disposal eating habits come from.  I guess this explains why my grocery bill is so high.  My boys can put it away!!!

Not So Puzzling

Ryne has FINALLY been able to do an entire jigsaw puzzle on his own!  Whoo hoo!  I'm so proud of him!  He's been working on jigsaw puzzles recently and doing quite well; however, I figured out the way for him to start completing them on his own.

I had an inclination that Ryne is more of spatial thinker.  That's probably why he has done so well with peg board puzzles.  So jigsaw puzzles created another level of complication with puzzles.  He does have a board puzzle that requires more visual awareness to complete it and he has been able to complete it for quite some time, but it didn't come as easy to him as the other puzzles.

Ryne is very good at matching.  We use the cards from a Memory game to do matching.  That obviously requires the visual perception, so he obviously has that ability, but he tends to rely more on spatial awareness and perception when completing puzzles.  So, I decided to take a two jigsaw puzzles that have a board underneath them to contain the pieces and outline the shapes of the pieces.  It made a huge difference!  Ryne completed the 9-piece puzzle almost instantly!  It's like it finally clicked!

Ryne actually did better with the 25-piece jigsaw than the 9-piece, prior to outlining the pieces.  The pieces were more complex in shape on the 25-piece, so Ryne could distinguish where they went better.  Now that I have also outlined that puzzle.  He is now able to complete about 75-80% of it on his own and finish the rest of it with some coaching.  He understands if you tell him a pieces should go "up at the top/bottom/left/right."  We also didn't realize that he knew left, right, top and bottom, so that was a cool discovery as well!

Ryne will sometimes pick up the right piece, but try to put it in upside down.  That's where some coaching comes into play, and we discuss what's actually on the puzzle piece and where a similar thing is on the puzzle.  Sometimes he will also try to stick a piece into the wrong place and if you ask him where it goes, he will point to the correct location.  What a stinker!  Sometimes I think he just wants someone to tell him or do it for him!  He does have a 24-piece jigsaw puzzle that has no board under it that he can almost do on his own completely.  It's one of his favorites and one he has had the longest so I think he's possibly memorized where the pieces go by this point.

I'm so proud of Ryne!  He definitely doesn't work a puzzle like I do.  I'm such a visual person.  I can pick up almost any piece of a 500+ piece puzzle, look at the picture on the box and tell you where that piece goes.  I hardly look at shape.  Ryne is totally different!  Maybe he's more like Adam - he seems to be in almost every other way!  Anyway, I'm glad that I have finally found a method to teaching Ryne the visual aspect of puzzles without either one of us getting frustrated.  I'm also glad that I have cracked the Ryno code at least in one aspect of his thinking and education.  Although sometimes I wonder if Adam should take over all the teaching stuff, since he and Ryne seem to be on the same wavelength.

Anywho, puzzles should be fun and I'm glad they continue to be to Ryne!  I hope one day that Ryne will be able to jump in on the family puzzles that we do at Mom and Dad's house.  We all dive into a 500+ puzzle and have it done in no time!  Ryne sits and watches us and tries to put a few together, and I just know he wants to be able to do what we are doing...he always does.

Stuffed Pork Tenderloin

This past weekend, Dad made the absolute best pork tenderloin I've ever eaten!  I'm not a big pork fan.  I LOVE me some bacon - who doesn't, and I will eat ham on occasion, but for the most part, pork is not all that tasty to me....until now!

I'm not sure if Dad came up with this recipe on his own or if he got it from a cooking show or Internet source, but it is amazing!  Like I've mentioned before, we don't measure ingredients very often, so you'll just have to wing it, but it's totally worth it!  Ryne eat this like a little pig...ha ha!

Ingredients:
Pork Tenderloin (not a marinated one, just plain pork tenderloin)
McCormick's Pork Rub
Peanut Oil

Stuffing:
Baby Spinach
Sun dried tomatoes
Capers
Monterey Jack cheese
Parmesan cheese
minced garlic
salt

Other Stuff:
twine
meat thermometer
casserole dish (big enough for tenderloin)
skillet/pan


Basically you cut the tenderloin so that it opens up and flat - sort of like they open up a Subway sandwich.  Cut up the spinach, sun dried tomatoes, and capers.  Add the garlic, cheeses and salt to taste.  You can actually sample the stuffing to see if you like the taste.  Add the stuffing to the middle of the tenderloin (as much as you can!)  and roll it up and tie it up with the twine so the stuffing stays put.  Cover the outside of the tenderloin with pork rub - and I mean COVER it because some will come off in the sears and baking process.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Put the empty casserole dish in the oven to heat up as the oven heats up.  Add peanut oil to a skillet/pan and put on high heat.  The peanut oil has a high burn temp so it's the best to use.  Sear the tenderloin in hot pan until the entire outside is seared and kinda crispy, but not burnt.  This only takes a few minutes.  Take casserole dish out of oven and add the tenderloin.  Bake tenderloin for 30 minutes or so.  Use your thermometer to check doneness.  Pork should be around 160 degrees in the middle.  After it's reach the proper temp, take it out and let it rest a few minutes before slicing.  Then enjoy...and you will enjoy!

Dirty Photo Shoot!

Literally, dirty!  When Mom, Ryne and I visited my grandparents last weekend, Ryne LOVED playing in Papa's plowed up garden.  Papa lives in the Sandhills of North Carolina, so his garden is different than most I've seen around East TN.  He doesn't really have much dirt, it's more sand or dirty sand!  I guess some of the dirty aspect to the sand may be from years and years and years of adding compost to the sand.

Anywho, Ryne wanted to go out one evening so I took him out there and slowly but surly his shoes started getting dirt all down in them.  He took his shoes off and thought he'd just walk around in his little white socks.  I thought differently about that so I took his socks off too, and he had the best time playing in the dirty sand!  Every boy needs some dirt and give a boy a stick and they will cooperate for photos!

I haven't had much of a chance to edit these photos, since I'm still new at Photoshop and I've been editing another real photo shoot that I did this weekend with a little cutie pie and his parents!  Such a beautiful family!

But I still wanted to share.  These pictures may not be works of art, but it captures the essence of Ryne in real life.  I think that's sort of the root of my photography:  REAL life, especially with children because they are more relaxed, cooperative, and fun!  I love great poses too, but my child isn't posable, so I take what I can get!  I am going to make an album for my grandparents to enjoy and to keep the memory of the family going!

Pre-editing.  Notice in the header of the blog, this picture has no house and removed some drool stain from Ryne's shirt!  This is my favorite picture from this photo shoot!

Bark off a log!

Playing in a brush pile 

 Dirty Sand

 Ryne likes to get REAL close to the camera!

 Exploring

 Crawling 

 Found a hole!

 In the hole...with four inches of drool coming off his lip! 

 Whoops!

 Trying to fill the hole back up with more dirty sand.

 Bubble Mowing is hard work!  

 More exploring

 Speak softly and carry a broken fishing pole

Chickens!  

T.O. Hale

This past weekend, Mom, Ryne and I headed to God's Country to visit my grandparents.  We have been trying to make more frequent visits since my grandfather was diagnosed with metastatic bone cancer back in June.  Papa's diagnosis is a bit of a grim one.  He basically has cancer everywhere in his bones.  My Aunt Holly saw the scan that they did of his body.  Apparently the cancer sort of lights up on the scan.  She said that Papa's scan looked like a Christmas tree!  When they asked about the life expectancy, the doctor told Papa that he had already outlived the life expectancy being 87 years old.  I guess that is somewhat comforting.

We saw my grandparents for Thanksgiving but had not been back.  Since then Papa has started experiencing pain and is having trouble getting out of chairs and such, so he has a pretty awesome Lazy Boy chair that literally lifts him up to almost a standing position.  Ryne was a fan of riding the Lazy boy up and down!  He had also lost 40 lbs since then.  I think Mom and I were worried about how he would look with all the weight off.  I haven't really known Papa as a skinny man, so I knew it would shock me more than Mom.  He actually looked pretty good and seemed to be in good spirits.  He has said that he feels the best when his family comes to see him!  And he especially loves hugs from Ryne!

Papa is an amazing man.  Truly, one of the greats!  He came from nothing...and I mean nothing and has managed to stay out of debt his whole life, I think.  That is such a rarity anymore that it is definitely something to admire!  Papa told some stories of when he was growing up that really put things into perspective.  He said that when his father finally came home for good (his father kind of came and went and they never knew where he went or when he'd be back) that they finally moved into a 1 room house.  Not one bedroom.  One Room!  He said there was no insulation so my great grandfather nailed cardboard-type material up on the wall whenever they came across some.  Can you imagine 6 people living in a small one room house?  There was no bathroom, not even an outhouse.  They had to just walk out into the woods to use the bathroom and borrowed one bucket of water a day from a neighbor's well to cook and wash with.  That story sort of made me cringe at the idea that Adam and I are selling our house, which we think is small, to get into a bigger house so we can have enough room for our family.  We take so much for granted these days.  Lets face it, Adam and I are not as well off as most of our friends, and we have it MADE in comparison to Papa's upbringing.  Be grateful for what you have!

Papa's yard/garden/vineyard is actually quite amazing to me!  He has quite a bit of property and he uses it very well.  He has been an organic gardener for YEARS...like before I was born.  By organic, I mean, absolutely NO pesticides.  Here's the break down:  He has a huge garden - bigger than the lot my house sits on.  He has chickens for bug control.  He used to have bees to help pollinate his garden.  He had a worm bed because the worms would help aerate the soil.  The has several compost piles for fertilization.  He also eats the eggs the chickens lay.  He grew just about anything you could think of - sun flowers, peanuts, all kinds of vegetables and fruits.  He had apple trees, blueberries, and muscadine and scuppernong grape vines.  He also used to make some REALLY good wine - like knock your socks off, one sip and you were gooooood, kind of wine!  My grandmother canned food so they could eat off the garden all year long.  At one time they had a pony, a cow, a goat and pigs.  Life at Papa's is so different from any other place I've been!

I think when Papa passes that all the things that made up his lifestyle will be missed just as much as he will be.  It's like the garden, the grape vines, the chicken coop, the compost piles, and the old fashioned push plow are Papa.  Now the garden is pretty bare and the chicken are cooped up (literally) and the compost piles are smaller.  It's hard to see that because that is who Papa was.

The weather was pretty amazing during our visit.  It was sunny and 75 on Sunday and my Aunt Holly, Uncle Kevin and cousin Alex came to see us and my grandparents.  It was a beautiful day and Ryne and Alex (he's 7 or 8 years old) had so much fun playing in Papa's plowed up garden.  I took some pictures of Papa's yard and such, since we have such great memories there.   These will not likely have much meaning to anyone else, but to my family that are the various aspects of the greatest father, grandfather and great grandfather that we will ever have!

Papa's initials are T.O. and the fact that he didn't use punctuation to separate the first two initials and his last name is Hale make his mail box hilarious!

Mom and Ryne with the shed in the background.  

I guess this is one way to hang an axe

Back of the shed. 

Playing with a broken shovel.  

 Ryne with Papa.

 The chicken coop

 Papa never throws anything like this away.

 Rusted chain

The grapevines

 Mushrooms

 The doorknob of the old shed

 Sunny and 75!

 Birdhouse

 The chickens and the rooster

 The barn, which was made out of wood from the old school house.