Happy Thanksgiving to You!

From our family to yours, we wish all of you a very happy Thanksgiving. May you be surrounded by family, friends, and wonderful food as we celebrate God's hand of providence on our country.
Let us give thanks!

Tom had to leave on a four-day trip this morning at 4:30 a.m., so we had our Thanksgiving celebration yesterday. Due to various circumstances, our extended family was not able to be together this year, so we invited our dear friends, Wayne and Judy Rogers to our Thanksgiving feast. I love to know what other folks serve at their holiday traditions, so I will share ours with you.


Our Menu

First Course
Cream Cheese with Cranberry Sauce and Crackers
Shrimp with Cocktail Sauce
Homemade Eggnog

Second Course
Cabernet Cranberries
Green Salad with Cranberry Vinaigrette and Pecans
Parker House Rolls
Deviled Eggs

Third Course
Turkey
Mashed Potatoes and Gravy
Praline Sweet Potatoes
Stuffing
Broccoli with Walnuts
Scalloped Corn Casserole

Fourth Course
Pumpkin Pie with Maple Cream
Pecan Pie with Whipped Cream and Vanilla Ice Cream

Before dinner we read a portion of the Pilgrims' story from the book "Thanksgiving, A Time to Remember." Following the third course, we finished our reading, and moved into the dining room for our dessert. Following dessert, we played a game of Similes, Going West, and the Minister's Cat. What we should have been doing was running around the block to burn off all the calories we had just consumed!!!! OH MY!


Books we recommend for your family:

Of Plymouth Plantation by William Bradford
available at www.visionforum.com

Thanksgiving, A Time to Remember by Barbara Rainey
available at www.familylife.com



THE FIRST THANKSGIVING

On April 30, 1863 President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the first national day of Thanksgiving. Lincoln stated in his call for a national day of thanksgiving this reason:

"We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. We have been preserved, these many years in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth, and power, as no other nation has every grown. But we have forgotten God....We have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own....We have become to self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, to proud to pray to the God That made us! It behooves us, then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness."

Following that, on October 3, Lincoln declared the last Thursday of November that year to be set aside as a nationwide celebration. This proclamation stated:

“No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the most high God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy…I do, therefore, invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday in November next as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent father who dwelleth in heaven.”

Thanksgiving today is observed as an annual national holiday on the fourth Thursday in November by an act of Congress in 1941.

That, of course, was not the first “Thanksgiving” celebration in America. The first Thanksgiving was that thanksgiving service by the Mayflower Pilgrims when they gave thanks for the first harvest following their landing at Plymouth Rock in 1620:

“On December 22, 1620, they landed on Plymouth Rock. The sea-weary passengers came ashore bringing all their belongings with them. They faced tempest, sleet, snow, hunger, cold, and exposure. They had first to build houses, but soon sickness struck their enfeebled bodies. At one time only seven men were able to work on the sheds which they built to protect themselves. Every second day a grave had to be dug in the frozen ground. So many were sick that those who were well were scarcely enough to care for then. If spring had not come early the colony could have perished entirely, but as it was, half of the settlers were dead and many of the children had become orphans. Their sufferings cold not be described, but their faith remained firm, and with the arrival of spring they praised God. “Above all, there was freedom to worship God, that dearest of blessings. Only half of our company died. The rest were getting well. God was nearer to us than he ever had been in dear old England. He had planted his vine in the wilderness, and the vine of his planting would grow. What more could we ask.” For the pilgrims it was victory at last. They had come through the long winter through God’s grace. The first mild day as March 3rd. The houses had been built, their corn began to grow, but before it ripened they still suffered. Very little food was available. They caught fish, dug clams, snared rabbits, but sometimes had very little to eat. Often they knew not at night “where to have a bit in the morning.” Children cried for bread, strong men grew faint for want of food. Five kernels of parched corn were all that a boy sometimes had for to eat for his dinner, besides an oyster or crab. But they survived and many more come across from England, and the Pilgrim church from Holland eventually joined them, though Robinson never saw them again. It is a testimony to their faith not only that they survived, but that they did not murmur against God in His dealings with them. Their very extremities demonstrated their trust in Him, and calm submission to his wisdom. The first year shows us qualities in their lives that might never have been known hd they not suffered as they did. When eventually they had their first harvest the survival of the colony was assured. It was an occasion of great Thanksgiving to God. The faith of the Pilgrims has been remembered to this day in the life of the nation.”

“As the Lord loveth a cheerful giver, so likewise a cheerful thanksgiver,” John Boys

“Thankless men are like swine feeding on acorns, which, though they fall upon their heads, never make them look up to the tree from which they come,” Jean Daille.

“When he hath all things, he is unthankful; and when he hath nothing, he beginneth to be thankful,” Henry Smith.

“What unthankfulness is it to forget our consolations and to look upon matters of grievance; to think so much upon two or three crosses as to forget an hundred blessings,” Richard Sibbes.

We Finally Made it to the Creation Museum!!

After months of talking about it and some mechanical difficulties with the trailer, we finally made it up to the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky. See www.answersingenesis.org to find out more about the Creation Museum.

Christian, Sarah and Andrew in the Garden of Eden

Martin Luther nailing his theses to the Wittenburg door, sparking the Protestant Reformation, a defining moment in Christian history.

Wax figures of Isaiah and Moses displayed on the walk of moments defining Christian history.

Christian escaped these fearful jaws!

Tom did not . . . . . .

We were so blessed to hear an amazing lecture given by Ken Ham the day we were visiting the museum. If he is ever lecturing near you, clear your calendar and go! You will be inspired and challenged in your faith and what you believe!

Lauren Green from Fox News was visiting the museum the same day we were, filming a special that will air on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.



Following our visit to the museum, we drove a little further west to visit with Aunt Sue (Brad's sister) and her kids, Jacob and Marlena. We enjoyed having the kids spend the night with us in the trailer, and then going to the Frazier Arms Museum the next day.



Marlena, Jacob, Sarah, Andrew, Christian, and Aunt Sue



As we were driving home through Chattanooga on October 27th, I got a phone call on my cell phone from my parents' next door neighbor, Connie. I knew as soon as she told me who was calling that she wasn't going to have good news. She informed me that my Dad had just been taken by ambulance to the hospital with what appeared to be a stroke. She called me because my Mom was in Ohio attending a family wedding and she couldn't reach her.

As you can imagine, there are many details to this story -- too many to write about here, but I will share a few. Dad did suffer a stroke, and spent five days in the hospital. His left side was paralyzed, but most of the function returned very quickly. When he was discharged, the left side of his face had a bit of a droop to it, his left leg had returned 90%, and he didn't have any movement at all in his left hand. He began receiving intensive therapy in the hospital, and currently goes three times a week for further therapy. I am thrilled to report that 8 weeks after his stroke, he continues to have improvement with his hand and facial paralysis!



I took this picture when he was in I.C.U on October 28th, 24 hours following the stroke. We noticed that when he laughed or smiled real big, it was not apparent that he had any facial paralysis at all. How many folks look this great while laying in the I.C.U. ON THEIR BIRTHDAY?!!!!

We're Still Around!

Yes, it has been a long time since I have posted. And anonymous commenter, I know who you are. ~wink~

We have much to post, but it takes time to do so, and I have fallen way behind! We are on vacation again, and I have pictures I want to post, but not before I finished the post of our last vacation, which I have now done. If you scroll down to September 6th, before Tom's birthday, you will find the posts from our vacation in September.

Be watching for more updates!!

Georgia Aquarium

Our intentions were to make a camping trip up to Petersburg, Kentucky, to the Creation Museum, the last week of September. The afternoon of the 24th, we finally got the trailer loaded up, the house closed up and pulled out of the driveway. We pulled up to the stop sign at the end of our street, and Tom began playing with a little gizmo in the Excursion that controls the brakes on the trailer. As a furrow appeared on his brow, he rounded the corner of the next street and came to a stop, jumped out of the Excursion and began checking the trailer over. A few minutes later, he came back in announced that we needed to return to the driveway so that he could do some troubleshooting and determine if the brakes were a problem, or the brake controller in the Excursion.

After getting the trailer backed into the driveway (no small task!), he and the boys got down on their haunches and began inspecting the brake wires and the underneath side of the trailer, at which time they detected smoke -- not a good sign! Tom touched the wires and burned his hand. They popped the cover off of the compartment that houses all the wires under the trailer and found a melted mess. It became very clear that we were not going on our trip after all.

Everyone maintained a good attitude despite the fact that we had just loaded the trailer, and now we had to unload it. As disappointed as we were, we knew that God had protected us from a potential disaster as we were driving down the highway!

We offered to drive up to the Creation Museum and stay in a hotel, but the kids didn't want to. They love to camp! As a consolation incentive, we took them to the Georgia Aquarium on Wednesday of that week. It was wonderful!


The tunnel that we are standing in in the picture above is amazing! There were whale sharks, and all other kinds of sea creatures swimming right over our heads!



A whale shark as it swam over us



A VERY LARGE grouper -- the rock formation behind it was about as tall as we were



The Pacific Sea Nettles (above) was my favorite exhibit. The exhibit encompassed a whole wall in which there were nettles everywhere, very peacefully floating up and down in the water, with very relaxing music playing in the background. The only way to describe it is tranquil! I could have stayed here a long time, but the family pushed me along . . . . .



Tom in front of the coral reef exhibit

Happy Birthday, Darling!

Tom turned 45 today!!

Happy birthday, my love. You only improve with age . . .
(Notice the "I'm-on-vacation-and-my-wife-thinks-I'm-hot-with-a-gotee" look)

The kids were insistent that I put in a picture of me cooking Dad's birthday dinner, because my picture rarely makes it onto the blog. There's a reason for that . . . . . .

I gave Tom a collection of recipes to choose his birthday dinner from. The finalists were:

Bourbon Pecan Chicken
Wild rice with Mushrooms and Almonds
Apricot Rosemary Roasted Parsnips and Carrots

And Tiramisu Cake for for dessert

The Smoky Mountains

We pulled out of Ringgold on September 9th, and headed for Tennessee and the Great Smoky Mountains. We were thrilled that Grandpa and Hazel wanted to go on with us! Shortly into our drive, we were witnesses to a roll-over accident, that only by the grace and providence of God, didn't involve us as well.

We were on I-75 heading north, when a PT Cruiser in the far left, south bound lane, came careening through the median, crossed over the three north bound lanes, rolled and hit the embankment, all just several hundred yards ahead of us. We quickly pulled over to lend assistance. Thankfully, the three passengers of the vehicle had crawled out on their own. An RN was the first car on the scene and had already assessed the injuries, and all appeared to be non-life threatening.

Thankful for our safety, we got back on the freeway and headed north again. As we came upon our exit in Sevierville/Pigeon Forge, it was backed up about a half mile onto the highway. After about 30 minutes of inching (literally!) our way along, we made it to the exit intersection, where we discovered the reason for the backup. A Class C motor home had caught on fire and had been virtually destroyed right there at the intersection. The fire trucks were still there spraying it down.

Thankful AGAIN for our safety, we headed for the River Plantation campground in Sevierville. We spent three nights there and did a little bit sight seeing while we were there. It was a beautiful, well kept campground, and they put Grandpa and Hazel in the lot right next to ours, which was wonderful.

On Monday, we ventured down the main strip of town and were a little overwhelmed with all the tourist attractions. Tom's goal was to leave town without attending any kind of a show, and it was a rainy day, so we chose to do something low key. We visited the Amazon Rain Forest which turned out to be very fun and educational, as well.

We listened to a presentation given by one of the staff there who had a variety of animals and creepy things that he allowed us to touch. I was very disappointed that none of the men folk in my party were willing to let the tarantula crawl on their hand. They were, however, willing to hold the python.

I held the python around my neck as well, but for prideful reasons, I won't be showing it here.

Much to the kids' delight, we were there to observe feeding time. Here is a picture of the nice, juicy rats that were fed to the snakes.

We were hoping this guy would be really hungry, but he didn't seem to be too interested. We followed the guy around that was doing the feeding, and were rewarded for our persistence when one of the snakes eagerly snatched a rat from the staff member's hand.

Here are our campsites -- ours on the right, Grandpa and Hazel on the left.


On Tuesday, we hung around the campsite, while Christian attended his virtual classes all day.

On Wednesday, Grandpa and Hazel headed on north, and we drove over to the Smoky Mountain Parkway, and stopped off at Cades Cove. It was absolutely beautiful, and we wish that we had more time to spend here. There were many historical buildings that we toured along the route, and the scenery was like the picture above -- breathtaking!

Thursday morning, we pulled out and headed back home. We can't wait to visit the Smoky Mountains again!

The Battle of Tunnel Hill

The Battles of Tunnel Hill

The small town of Tunnel Hill was the site of several skirmishes and battles from September 1863 to March 1865

Scroll down to see the pictures and skip this history lesson if you must, but you might miss learning something you didn't know before!

On September 11, 1863, just days before the Battle of Chickamauga, the first skirmish in Tunnel Hill took place. After the fight at Chickamauga, many sick and wounded were brought to Tunnel Hill, including Confederate General John Bell Hood. While there, his leg was amputated and buried in the woods nearby. (Wish we knew where -- we'd have a dig!)

The second conflict took place in November, 1863. After Bragg's defeat at Missionary Ridge, his army was in retreat to Dalton. As his army was passing through, a rear guard set up positions in Ringgold Gap where the Confederates delayed the Federals for several hours before withdrawing. On November 28th, the Confederates who had retired to Tunnel Hill found themselves under an aggressive attack. They were able to hold their positions and have the Federals retire to Ringgold.

The third skirmish occurred on January 28th, 1864, when a strong body of infantry from the US Fourteenth Army Corps who was advancing from Ringgold met up with Confederate outposts. Driving them to Tunnel Hill, the Federals got close enough to see it still in control of the Confederates. The Federal infantry then retired. Union losses were two wounded, with 32 wounded for the Confederates.

During Sherman's March to the Sea, Yankee soldiers reached Tunnel Hill February 23, 1864. Sherman took over the Clisby Austin House from May 7th to May 12th that same year. Legend says he slept in the same bed previously occupied by the wounded Confederate General Hood.

The Union soldiers prepare to fire the first round of cannons

It was quite an impressive sound -- I can only imagine the fear it struck into the hearts of men as they heard it, knowing what was coming.

At this point, the battle had been going on for about an hour. My mind began to wander, thinking about the battle that took place here over 100 years ago, and the men who fought it. I was brought back to reality when my eyes began to water from the smoke in the air -- at least that's my story, and I'm stickin' to it.

As the smoke cleared, the field was littered with bodies. These men were husbands, fathers, sons, uncles, and friends. Today, they got up and walked off the field. In the early 1860's, they didn't.

I would have to say, and I think the kids would too, that the best part about this day was visiting the sutlers' tents. Such interesting wares for sale! We really enjoyed walking around and seeing so many people dressed up. To view some of the things available for purchase, visit the Fall Creek Suttlery website at www.fcsutler.com. Christian had been bitten by the re-enacting bug before we came - now he is REALLY looking forward to being involved someday. The Clisby Austin House spoken of in the first part of this post is visible behind the sutlers tents on the left.

Re-enacting is not a cheap hobby, so Christian will have to build his equipment stash and outfit gradually. Today, he acquired his brogans (boots), and his hat. No -- that's not hard liquor he's holding! One of the sutler's had a tent in which you got to pick out your keepsake bottle, and then they filled it with old-fashioned soda.

Following the re-enactment, we took a walk over to The Old Tunnel, which you see in the picture behind us. The Tunnel was completed in 1850, and was the first railroad tunnel built south of the Mason-Dixon line. It is 1,477 feet in length and took almost two years to build. As we walked through the entire length of the tunnel, there were gouges and scrapes evident, and we heard the guide tell of several stories where trains that were too big barely made it through. In once instance, a steam engine loco didn't make it and became lodged. You can imagine what it would be like in a stone tunnel with that kind of heat! The men on board passed out from heat exhaustion and had to be rescued. The engine was dislodged when another engine rammed it back out the way it had come in. Very interesting history . . . . . .

We returned to the Ringgold KOA in the late afternoon, and were glad to find that my Grandpa, and his wife Hazel had made it up from Florida with the fifth-wheel RV. We enjoyed visiting around the fire with them and eating s'mores.

Christian and Andrew enjoying the fire

A doggie tower!
Several people have asked us if the dogs come with us when we camp. Yes, they do, and this is what we do with them when they need to be contained (which is much of the time!)

A Billboard Changes Our Plans . . . .

After we got on the road Friday morning, we began to get serious in our discussion regarding where we wanted to spend a few days. Consensus was that we wanted to go up into Tennessee towards Norris Dam State Park, where we could fish, hike and rent a boat. We had not been on the road an hour, when we spotted a billboard that read:

Civil War Re-enactment
September 8th & 9th
Battle of Tunnel Hill
Tunnel Hill, Georgia

The passengers in the Excursion were all very excited as they realized the date was September 7th, so we hadn't missed it. All family members were in agreement that we would rather stop and attend the re-enactment than continue on to Norris Dam. Yay! I did some quick work with our handy dandy Travel Directory and found a KOA with full hook-ups in Ringgold, Ga, the next town north of Tunnel Hill.

Since it was so early in the day, we were able to get our campsite set up and still have time to go sightseeing in nearby Chattanooga.

After collecting a bazillion brochures, we decided that Lookout Mountain was a good place to start. We made the meandering drive up the mountain and stopped at the Incline Railway Station. Nobody in the family wanted to ride the Incline, but it made for good entertainment to watch it come and go from above. No day should ever be void of learning something new, so for those of you who have never visited the Incline Railway, or have never even heard of it, here is a brief history taken from their website:

"Following the Civil War, development on Lookout Mountain was minimal. The four-hour trip up Whiteside Pike, a toll road, discouraged many people, and the two-dollar toll discouraged the rest. However, many people were interested in visiting the peak, in part due to the romanticized "Battle Above the Clouds" that occurred on the mountain during The Civil War.

During the railroad boom of the 1880's, speculators decided to develop a hotel on the mountaintop serviced by a narrow gauge railroad that would run up the mountain. A second, broad-gauge line and an earlier incline were also competing for passengers.

On November 16, 1895 the railroad known today simply as "The Incline" opened, rising up the steepest part of Lookout Mountain. Built by John Crass and the Lookout Mountain Incline Railway Company this technical marvel boasted an incline of 72.7% at one point, making it the steepest passenger Incline in the world. Literally millions of residents and tourists have taken this ride up to the top of Lookout Mountain. By 1900 the success of this railway closed down all of its competitors.

Originally the cars were made of wood and powered by huge coal-burning steam engines. Electric power was used after 1911, and it now uses two 100 horsepower motors. Today The Incline Railway still attracts people from around the world."

The Incline Railway making it's mile trek down the mountain as we watched from above.

Sarah checking out the view!

Looking out over downtown Chattanooga








After we left the Incline Railway observation deck, we decided to check out Ruby Falls. As we were driving there, I was thinking about how many times I've seen the signs as you drive down the freeway, SEE RUBY FALLS. Oh, and don't forget to SEE ROCK CITY. I have seen so many billboards, bird houses and barn roofs that bear these messages through the years, that I had personally vowed never to see either attraction in protest to the obnoxious advertising. Alas, I was overruled.

I did not know anything about Ruby Falls before going in, but I did have some expectations of a really hokey tourist trap of a small waterfall with red lights illuminating it. I was pleasantly surprised.

Our tour began with an elevator ride down a couple of hundred feet through limestone, into a cavern where our tour guide was waiting. The first things we noticed was that it was cold -- 60 degrees cold. It wasn't too bad at first given the temps were in the 90's outside, but after walking further into the mountain, we all had cold hands and feet.

As we went along, our tour guide told us the history of the cave, which I won't bore you with, since I tested your patience with the history of the Incline Railway. Ruby Falls has a website, so you can check it out further if you wish. Anyway, the history of the cave is very interesting, especially the part where its founder, Leo Lambert, spent many hours crawling on his belly through this cavern before he was ever able to stand up. I personally think that if Mr. Lambert had been put through psychological testing, he would have dismally failed. I saw the tunnel he crawled through, and a person couldn't be in their right mind to do so.

As for the name Ruby Falls, it's not because the falls are ruby colored, but because Mr. Lambert named them after his wife, Ruby. So sweet! Right after he discovered the falls, he took her in to see it, which means that she would have had to crawl through on her belly as well. I think it's great that two people not in their right mind ended up together!

Of course, we heard all of the malarkey about the cavern and falls being millions of years old. We were touring with a rather large group, so rather than disagreeing with the tour guide, our family just rolled their eyes at one another. We believe in a biblical account of creation -- a literal 6 days as the Bible says, and we also believe that scientific data supports a young earth. If anyone reading this has a different view, we would welcome friendly discussion on the subject. If you would like to know more about what we believe and why, we invite you to do your own research at www.answersingenesis.org.

The Lambert's

The kids really enjoyed this attraction!

We left Ruby Falls around 7:30 and realized that we were really hungry. We ended our evening with a fabulous meal at Alfredo's Italian Restaurant in Chattanooga, and a good night's sleep in our own beds. Knowing where you're putting your head each night is very nice!