The Wooly Worm came to our house!

So we came home after a day full of shopping, put all the groceries away and did some cleaning up. Joe decided to go on the front porch and put the cover over the grill for the winter. Picking the cover up off the ground, he noticed that quite a few critters had made their home underneath the cover over the summer. Most of bugs were Gemini Crickets, spiders and a couple of flies. But there was one thing that he definately did not expect to see.... a wooly worm! Now we had never heard of these before until Channel 19 did a report last year about weather folklore and predicting winter. Joe had to find some pictures of wooly worms to use for the story since you can supposedly predict how harsh or mild a winter will be by the length of his orange band of color.

What he was doing on our front porch, will never know, I guess he just found some shelter underneath an unused vinyl tarp. Now the tarp is gone, we hope he will be okay. Here are a couple of pictures we took of him. Aren't I brave? One thing interesting that we found out, when they get scared, they curl up into a little fuzzy ball like rolly pollies do... he's cute!

Creepy Crawler Bug!!

So I was just sitting out on the front porch with the computer checking my e-mail. I glanced up to the walkway and saw this big bug coming towards me. Having never seen this particular kind of bug before, I wanted to catch it so I could show Joe and see if he knew what it was. I ran inside, grabbed a glass jar and came back outside and he was gone. A few seconds later he came back out from the grass onto the walkway, so I acted swiftly and trapped him in the glass jar. Meanwhile, waiting for Joe to come home I did some researching online and found out he was something called a cow killer. Joe came home, looked at the bug and confirmed what I now knew. He said that's a cow killer! The first he has ever seen in the state. Usually they're only in Florida.
While I was online,I found out....Red velvet ant or "cow killer" The females are wingless and are sometimes mistaken for a large, hairy, orange and black ant. These "ants" are actually wasp! A solitary wasp, the velvet ant does not live in colonies or have a "nest". They are found crawling through lawns, digging around soil, or even in garages where they have wandered in by accident. Velvet ants are not aggressive and will try to escape from you. The females have a very painful sting if handled. The name "Cow Killer Ant" was given to the velvet ant because of the reputation of the female's sting. It is said that the sting is so painful that it could kill a cow. This handsome insect does make a sound (especially when stepped on) but the squeaks of the cow killer ant would hardly be heard over the painful screams, if the person stepping on the wasp was barefoot.

P.S a week later I caught another one in our yard. So it seems like they're migrating to North Alabama, so be careful when you walk outside barefoot.

Our Special Spot!

These pictures show the spot where Joe proposed to me three years ago.

More pictures in the park!

Here are some of my favorties that we took that day!

Pictures in the Park!

My sweet friend took these pictures of us at Big Spring Park.
Thanks Becki!

Vacation Adventures Part Four!

Two months later and we're finally finishing our vacation blog....
Last full day at the beach and we decided to spend the whole day actually at the beach. Dad bought a canopy to set up at the beach to use for shade, so we decided to set it up and spend the day down at the beach. Setting it up was a lot more troublesome than we thought it would be since it was a cheap kind. We followed the directions putting the poles together, then throwing the roof on top, then trying to erect it. We were doing ok until we tried to raise it up. The wind would start grabbing the top, blowing it causing the poles to come undone. We tried to fix those poles, then the poles on the other side would come undone. When we tried to fix those, the poles in the middle would come undone and the roof would try to blow away. Eventually Joe figured this was a lost cause and gave up and put it away. While putting it away a gentleman from Missouri walked up and thanked us for his entertainment. He said he was watching us to see how far we would go before giving up. He said the day before, his brother's family had tried to put the same kind of canopy together but didn't give up so soon. Eventually they got it together, then a big wind gusted and sent the canopy tumbling down the beach. He said we made the smart move by giving up early. This gentleman then offered us the use of one of his spare beach umbrellas and he set it up in front of the ocean. How nice of him. It's good to know that there are still nice people in the world.
It was a nice day. Joe brought down the inflatable raft and floated in the surf. Amber tried to read her book on the beach, but kept getting distracted because she thought Joe was going out too far. Which he thinks he wasn't. It was really fun. Maybe next year Amber will go out on the raft with him. The rest of the day we just relaxed at the beach, at the pool, and the hot tub. We enjoyed a nice seafood dinner at a restaraunt with mom and dad.
Last day... the trip home. We came home the scenic way, taking the ferry across Mobile Bay to Dauphin Island. While we were waiting for our ferry, we toured Fort Morgan at the very tip of the penninsula. It was considerably smaller than Fort Pickens but had the same combination of Civil War and WWII technologies. Pretty much a miniture version of Fort Pickens. The ferry was fun, a good experience for Amber who had never been on a ferry before. We got to see all the oil and gas rigs in the bay as we passed them. And we watched the seagulls and pelicans as they fished in the ferry wake. Before we knew it we had arrived at Dauphin Island. We drove around the tip of the island and saw Fort Gaines and the Dauphin Island sea lab. Joe went there when he was in sixth grade with his school class. Ahh memories...
Driving back home we once again went off the beaten path and drove through Alabama's blackbelt area. We went to Old Cahawba, site of Alabama's first capital and now a ghost town. Of course we got there right as they closed, so we couldn't see a couple of the more interesting ruins since they were behind padlock barbed-wire topped fences. Holy cow! Why do they need such security for a few pieces of old stone? I guess it's a testament to the area and the crime rates. Nearly out of gas, we stopped a passerby to ask him the quickest way to Selma, and he gave us directions in exchange for a Jehovah's Witness pamphlet. Too bad we didn't have a Book of Mormon to give him at the time.
Driving through Selma was interesting... we kept our doors locked the whole time. We found the historic bridge where a famous civil rights march took place and took a picture of it, then ran back to the car and locked the doors behind us. Hate to sound like a racist, but we felt like we were in the ghetto the whole time. We got gas and got out of there and headed home. It was a nice scenic drive, driving along the back-road highways. We hit the interstate just south of Birmingham, ate yummy Cracker Barrel for dinner and came home. Can't wait to go back to the beach again next year!

Vacation Adventures Part Three!

Oysters....mmmm, what a lovely way to start the day. We had to make sure we got our fill of oysters on this trip. That was half the reason for coming. We went over to Pensacola today to see Fort Pickens. All through this trip Amber has been learning her Civil War history. There is tons of Civil War and World War II history all along the Gulf Coast. Joe had been to Fort Pickens once before as a Boy Scout. There are a number of forts guarding the bays along the Gulf Coast and Fort Pickens is the biggest and most interesting of all. On the way there, just past the Fort Pickens park entrance it was strange to see that alot of the beach parking lots off the road were submerged under water and sand. We were trying to think if there had been any storms lately to cause the road to flood. Also the campgrounds and the stores were closed and boarded up, how strange.
We got to the fort and noticed that there was a diesel generator outside the visitor center. We toured the fort, and learned about the battle of Pensacola Bay, that never was. This fort is interesting in part because it was built for the Civil War, then used again in World War II, so it was a mixture 1800's and 1900's technology. It was also interesting to see that part of the fort had been blown up and was missing due to a fire that got to the powder rooms. Oops! I'd hate to be the one responsible for that mistake. Walking around the fort got us really hot and Amber was ready to go, while Joe wanted to explore more. So I guess it was time to go. We bought a couple souveniers and found out that the fort had just opened a week before. It had been closed since Hurricane Ivan hit..... 5 years ago. Wow, guess that explains the submerged roads and closed up stores on the way here. They didn't even have water and electricity yet, which is why they had a diesel generator powering the gift shop. What timing! It's a good thing we came this week instead of last week.
On the way back to the condo, right before crossing the forever long bridge over Pensacola Bay, Amber started screaming because a spider decided to drop down from the rear view mirror to say hi. Of course he had to make himself known right as we started crossing the bay. We couldn't find him, hopefully he enjoyed the ride. We haven't been down here since the hurricanes, so a couple of things were different since the last time we were here. The biggest thing we noticed was that the old Pensacola Bay bridge next to the current bridge that used to be open as a fishing pier was now in pieces and was creepy to watch as we drove alongside it. There were sections of the bridge that were intact, but there was a majority of the bridge that looked like the sections had been picked up and dropped like lego blocks. We guess that happened when the storm surge came into Pensacola and made the water rise really fast, picking up sections of the bridge with it.
We got back to the condo and there was a beautiful sunset on the horizon. We couldn't miss this moment so we ran out to the beach where we could get a good view of the sunset so we could take pictures of it. After taking the pictures, Joe noticed how beautiful Amber was in the light of the sunset. So he had to get some pictures of her of course. Much to Amber's surprise Joe got into a romantic mood. We decided to go for a little walk on the beach to the dunes away from people, and did some kissie kissie smoochie smoochie on the beach in the light of the sunset. Yep Joe can be romantic sometimes.
On our trip, we promised Amber's little cousin, Brianna, that we would find some cute little sea creatures and take a picture for her. We went crab hunting after the sun went down. We've never looked for crabs at the beach before, but we see people doing it all the time with their flashlights, buckets and nets, and figured how hard could it be? At first we didn't know where to look for them. Do we dig holes? Are they down by the water? Or are they up closer to the dunes? We went down and walked along the shore sweeping with our flashlight looking for any signs of life. For the first few minutes nothing, but as we walked further down the shore, we started to see white things sitting still, and as we got closer to them they ran really fast into the surf. And as we walked, we saw more and more of these. They were crabs!!! After seeing these over and over again we started getting creeped out because we didn't realize the crabs were out in plain sight. Never again will we walk along the shore at night without a flashlight.
Trying to catch them was interesting, they're so fast. Even if you try to sneak up on one, they can still see you and they run into the surf or they disappear altogether. That got us really baffled. Eventually, we were able to catch a couple of little ones and figured out what they were doing. They were hiding in footprints where they think they're safe, even if you're hovering right over them. Another reason that we're not going to walk on the beach at night without a flashlight anymore. It was fun catching the big ones as long as we kept them in our sights and blocked them from going into the surf. We just followed them until they hid in a footprint, then captured them with a net, trying not to get pinched. We bought them inside to take pictures. Of course Joe thought he was smart and tried to pick one of the big ones up. He thought if he picked them up by the body from behind they wouldn't be able to pinch him. That wasn't the case. Man, those little things are strong! He could reach all the way back behind him and pinched Joe's finger. It didn't hurt until he found the cuticle and pinched the crap out of it. Ouch, scream, back into the bucket! We were finally able to take pictures of them by dumping him into the sink. Poor thing was scared to death. He was kinda cute in a crab sorta way. We took them back to the beach and let them go.

Vacation Adventures '09, Part Two!

For the first part of our trip, we decided to visit some of Joe's family since a couple of his family members might not be with us for too much longer. This day we were spending in Tallahassee with Joe's relatives on his father's side. We haven't been all that close to some of them before, but we all mutually felt that it was time to get over past issues and get closer as a family.
Joe and his parents got some songs together to play (clarinet, piano and bass) for granddad at the assisted living center. It was kind of a pain to carry the bass and the amp all the way down there, but it worked out well. Joe's granddad loved jazz music and was a music professor at FSU, so we figured this would be a good way to connect with him. After playing, visiting and spending the day with family we came back to Marianna and had a Memorial Day dinner at a Chinese resturant with Aunt Cheryl and Uncle Bill.
The next day was a wet one. This was the day to head over to the beach. Yay!!

After sleeping in we started the day with loud thunder and lightning as our companion, and the rain was drenching. We had planned to hit Flordia Caverns before going over to the beach but the rain and the anticipation of walking on the muddy trails deterred from doing so. Looking over the map and seeing the next town we would be going through, Joe recalled that there is a very interesting natural attraction.... Falling Waters State Park, a waterfall falling into a big sinkhole. Joe had been there once before with a friend and thought it would be good to take Amber. It wasn't even too far off the interstate.

It was actually pretty cool, there were boardwalks going around a series of sinkholes in the forest and one of them, the one with the water falling into it actually had a cave at the bottom where the water drains into. This sinkhole had walls of sheer stone and it was as if someone had taken a cookie-cutter to the stone. We took some picutures to help illustrate :) If you ever find yourself in the Chipley, FL area of I-10 with a half-hour of extra time, this would be worth it.
Back on the open road, through some fun, blinding thunderheads, and two hours later we're making our way through the ten-thousand little towns toward Gulf Shores. The condo was great. We even got some nice enterainment by a little bunny rabbit and several little bitty lizards as we boiled in the hot tub! We ate dinner that night at a local oyster house. Amber, before meeting Joe, hated fish and all types of seafood even though her last name was Fish, guess it must be a cannibal thing ;) When she became a Glotzbach, Joe began the process of trying to break that hatred of seafood... heck, how can you live in the South and not like seafood? The first time Joe introduced her to oysters she was scared to death. But it was actually a very positive experience. Now, whenever we go to the beach, we have to have oysters at least twice on our visit. That night it was good to sleep on a nice king sized bed again.
The next day was obvious... we spent it at the beach! Amber has always been afraid to go into the ocean, especially after getting stung by a jellyfish last year. And of course that had to be the first time she had ever ventured out into the ocean, Utah... what's an ocean? (Amber: I know what an ocean is. Joe: I've seen China on the map before).

The water was really pretty and clear this year, Joe was even able to talk Amber into coming out into the water. The beach is great. The waves are so much fun to wade in, especially if you get to the point just beyond the breakers when you get a nice ride going up and back down again with each wave. The sandbar wasn't too far here. We made it to the sandbar and continued enjoying ourselves until Amber looked into the water, pointed, and said what's that? It was a huge jellyfish of course. Okay, back to shore!
Beautiful sunset that night at the beach. Dan, the local weather expert here had predicted storms at the beach all week long. So we were prepared to have to stay on our balcony all week. Luckily, Dan was wrong. After driving though the storms on the way to the beach we didn't see a drop of rain the rest of the week. We took advantage of the sunset and took pictures of us at the beach at sunset. We found a nice lady who just finished having their family pictures taken, to take our picture for us. We think it turned out pretty good!

Vacation Adventures '09, part one!

Summertime has finally arrived! So we packed up, loaded the car, and headed out for some long overdue vacation. We have been looking forward to this for a long time now, although we've had to change the date a few times because of work complications. We were finally able to settle on a date that would be a good time to go.
Since Joe has been working so hard at work the last few months and working such long hours, the upper management was able to work out a deal with one of the station's clients on the Gulf coast to get Joe a $500 gift certificate to a nice condo in Gulf Shores. Joe took a week off and we headed down to the beach to relax.
On big car trips like these, we like to do a little extra exploring and see some of the local sites. On the trip down we decided to go a little different route and see Alabama's longest covered bridge that is still in use. It is always nice to go a different way and see different scenery, and all the little towns that you never know about unless you go off the beaten path. You also never know what will be around the next bend.
We have a nice map of Alabama that has all the little roads and topography of the land. It also has local tourist destinations, which is how we found out about this covered bridge, the Swann Bridge. As detailed as this map is, however, we've discovered that they are inaccuracies and usually these inaccuracies make themselves known to us at the most inopportune times. Luckily we were able to find the bridge without any trouble... it was a pretty neat bridge. We were wondering if there was going to be a newer bridge beside it, since the road has to cross the river but there wasn't. When we got down to the bridge and saw how far down the river was and how long the bridge was we were scared to cross it. Instantly, the covered bridge scene from the movie "The Funny Farm" came to mind. The part when the moving people had to cross the covered bridge and it collasped on them because of the weight.
We cautiously proceeded onto the bridge as we rolled our windows down so we could listen to any sounds of wood stress. At first we moved slowly and we could hear the boards clunk and shift below us and every now and then we could see cracks of light peering though the baseboards. When we got halfway across the bridge we could see out the windows and we realized how high we were up. And we could see the water below of the Mulberry River. It was at this moment where are heartbeats got faster and we decided it was time to get off the bridge, so we floored it! Shifting wood, bumping swells of an uneven surface..... it was good to see daylight again.
We parked on the other side and got out and looked around. It had been storming on the trip down but the weather had cleared up and it was nice outside now. We could see people down the river starting a float trip with rafts and kayaks, and made Joe long for his days of canoeing.
Much to Amber's protest, we walked down the sandy, dirty road to the edge of the river. Well can you blame her? We had flip flops on. The river was beautiful. It was shallow but wide and had the occasionally class I and II rapids. Joe wanted to go down it so bad, but we will have to save that for another trip. As we were going back up to the car, Amber, who was extra cautious to not get her feet dirty just happened to be the one of us to find the soft, muddy spot in the road. She got her foot all muddy. After washing her feet off in the river we were on our way. We continued our journey as the map directed us to until we found ourselves on a dirt road going up this mountain. We double-checked the map and confirmed that we were supposed to go over a mountain, but when the road turned into two wheel-wells and stopped at a pile of deadfallen trees and overgrowth, we knew the map had faliled us.
We found sometime outside trapping who we could ask for directions to the road we were looking for. We somehow got way off. We found our road and got back on track and things were going smoothly until we crossed the river where we shouldn't have. And we realized that the map had failed us again. Oh, to have a GPS device right now. We backed up and went down another road and found an old lady to ask directions from, and ended up going the wrong direction.
We finally were able to figure out where we were, and found the interstate,where we floored it to Flordia. You say Florida? Not Gulf Shores? Yep. The first part of our trip we decided to go to Florida to see Joe's relatives, while some of them are still alive. We didn't realize when we left this morning, that dinner was being served at 5:00 in Marianna. We were truckin' the whole way down, but were still an hour and a half late for dinner. None the less dinner was yummy, a southern vegetable feast with a side of roast beef. This is one thing that Joe always loves about going to Marianna... eating Aunt Bernice's delicious southern vegetables. Unfortunately (Great) Aunt Bernice isn't doing very well right now, but her niece Bobby's cooking was still yummy.

We saw a cute little bitty froggy on the ground while we were there, a little bitty green toad. It was so cute. We picked him up and held him and then let him go. We slept for the night at Aunt Cheryl's place

Night out at the space dome!

By the grace of WHNT NEWS 19 (got to love being married to the graphic artist, police deputy of the station brand), we were able to spend Tuesday evening at the space and rocket center space dome theater watching the Huntsville premier of the new Star Trek movie. This was my first visit to the space dome. Joe tried to explain what it would be like, but this was something that I had to experience to really get a grasp for. Its a really cool place.
The movie screen really is a big dome that surrounds you. Unfortunately we walked in just before the movie started, so our seats were close to the bottom. We spent the whole evening looking stright up to where the action was happening. For a movie that is designed for a hortizontial widescreen theater, watching it projected onto an IMAX concave screen is quite the different experience. Alot of times the movie was so action-packed that it was hard to tell what was going on, since it was so big. Almost like taking a picture on a computer screen and zooming into a section. When you're zoomed in so close its hard to tell what is going on.
It was a great movie, we will have to go and see it again at a regular theater in a couple of weeks, after all the hype dies down some.
About two-thirds of the way through it was a little too much for my body to handle and I had to look away to avoid getting motion sickness.
I guess the overall lesson to be learned here is if you go see a movie at the space dome, make sure you get there early enough to get a good seat at the top... It's probably much better experience from there.

Surprise!

These beautiful flowers were a suprise to me on Monday night, from my sweet and loveable husband!!! He has been working really late the past couple of weeks at the t.v. station and he promised to make it up to me. He told me that this was just the start of his making up the long hours to me. I was really suprised. I'm looking forward to more suprises from the love of my love. I love you Joe!!! Thanks for being my wonderful husband!!!

Sunday Evening Fish Fry

Amber has gotten us on this new diet recently to help her get pregnant. (and she thinks she needs to lose weight too, but I think she looks great as is) The other week we were going through recipes and meals in her diet book and planning our dinners. We came across a suggestion to have baked trout. Me being a fish loving person, I got all excited. Amber didn't share the enthusiasm. Even though her maiden name is Fish, she's never really been too keen on the idea of fish for a main meal. In fact, she'll probably tell you that she hates fish. But in the spirit of this new diet, she reluctantly gave in. When we picked up the fish in the store, each time I mentioned it she would give me a look of discust, so I mentioned it more and more just to get a reaction out of her. We cooked the fish, and it turned out pretty good, and I even think she liked it even though she wouldn't admit it.
Yesterday we made Louisiana gumbo and had some left over catfish so we (I) decided to have a fish fry with the leftover catfish and trout. It was great! I even heard Amber say she liked the trout, but not the catfish so much...we'll keep working on that one. It was funny watching her expressions as she was watching me pull the fish off the bones for her, and eating my fish directly off the skeleton (do I hear a unanimous yuck from all the ladies reading this) Mmmmmm....fish!

My Adventures in Crochet Land!

So I have decided to re-learn how to crochet again. When I was younger my mom taught me how to crochet, I crochet some blankets, but that was all. Since I'm home most afternoons by myself and get bored I decided to do a craft so I picked crocheting. I went to Wal-mart and bought a book called I taught myself how to crochet. So I read though it and started making a scarf, then I moved on to cell phone pocket, then I made joe a hat. Also made some baby booties. I have really had lots of fun crocheting and look forward to making many more things..... I"m in the process of making me a snowman applique. Here are some pictures of the items that I crochet. If anyone whats to get together to crochet, let me know.

Our Wedding Trip

Here are some pictures of when we got married and our trip from Utah to Huntsville AL.

Letter J

So my friend Akane tagged me on 10 things I like/love that begin with the letter J. 

Here is what I came up with.....

1. Joe

2. Joan (mother in law)

3. Justin (my brother)

4. June

5. Jane Austen

6. Jade (one of my favorite colors)

7. Jelly Beans ( the Jelly Belly kind)

8. Jeans

9. Jewelry

10. Jam (strawberry)

I tag Becki with letter E, Talene with letter M, Melissa with letter K, Mary Jones with letter O.

 

The pictures in the slideshow are from when me and Joe first met.

A little Alabama snowstorm!

We woke up this morning to a white backyard and large snowflakes falling. The weather guys predicted snow, but its Alabama... it doesn't snow here. Sure enough it snowed. We turned the t.v on to the news and watching for them to announce that the roads were closed and church had been cancelled, but no such luck. Usually when it snows here they close the whole city down. So it was strange to be able to drive on the interstate overpassess covered with snow. It was fun. Heavenly Father gave us some variety for a Sunday morning. We took a couple of picutures just because snow in Alabama only happens once every other blue moon. Joe tried to make a snowman, but he couldn't do much since most of the snow had melted by the time we got out of church.

Ooey gooey plastic!

Today after dinner I was putting away the dishes. I could smell this funny odor and couldn't figure what it was. When I went to the stove to get the purple bowl I was in for a shock, it was stuck to the stove. In my hurry to get dinner on the table before Joe had to go to the church for the priesthood meeting I forgot to turn the burner off on the stove not thinking when I placed the bowl down on the hot burner. As you can see in the picture what it did to my bowl.