Life as we tell it

Sometimes as I live in the moment, I imagine that I am living in a movie.  Not quite like Will Ferrell in Stranger than Fiction, but something like that.   As Justin and I enjoyed a hot fudge cake Sundae at Shoney’s tonight at 8:00pm (where we went just for dessert after our burger and fries dinner), I had one of those moments.  Justin and I have spent almost as entire week here in Gatlinburg and have increased the revenue of the town by quite a bit.  We have spent a small fortune stomping at the Dixie Stampede, looking at the unbelievably, unusual, yet beautiful fish at the aquarium, and attempting to play 18 holes at the most up and down golf course I’ve ever seen!  But, we have also spent every waking moment together.   Here are a few moments that make our life worth telling our way.

Yesterday we took a drive to Cade’s Cove, an 11 mile loop to recap a once small farm town.  About half-way around is a hiking trail to Abram’s Falls.  (I remember when my family traveled to Gatlinburg many years ago, we saw some falls.  However, hindsight tells me this was not it!) The sign at the base of the hill says 2.5 mile moderately difficult.  (Let’s think about this. When Justin and I were walking at the gym a year ago, we walked 2 miles in a half hour or less.  We are at least 10 pounds lighter a year later, so I’m thinking we are in decent shape. )  The rest of the sign says 3-4 hours.  What?!?!  I can stroll and walk a mile in 20 minutes, that calculates to 50 minutes – one way.  Let’s just say that climbing a mountain, which is what I would say we did, takes a little longer.  15 minutes into the walk, I’m thinking this isn’t so bad.  When we reach what appeared to be the top of the mountain, I realize this is rough, we aren’t there yet, and I will have to walk all the way back down to get back to the car.   I had begun to give up hope, since there are no “mile” markers to track your progress, when I finally got up the nerve to ask someone coming back.  She said that is was only about 20 more minutes.  At this point we had been walking 50 minutes.  She was right at 1 hour 10 minutes we completed our 2.5 mile hike to this waterfall.

 

We also tried out some new photography techniques, but  I’ll leave that explanation to the expert.

Knowing about how long it would take to get back and that the top of the mountain was half-way, the walk back was a little better and about 10 minutes quicker.  But it was nice to spend the time walking, hiking, climbing in the beautiful mountain that the Lord gave us to enjoy.  But most of all as we climbed, we remembered just a few years ago this wouldn’t have been possible.  Learning about Justin’s heart condition and knowing that not getting it fixed would be taking a risk, then the by-pass failing again leaving him at-risk and finally being able to have it fixed by a renown surgeon who wanted it fixed more than we even knew was possible and now climbing a mountain!  Isn’t God Great!!

Today we spent the day playing golf, not playing well but smiling all the same.  I would say it was moderately difficult to “AHHHHH!” level of difficulty.   The good news: I two-putted a few holes, had 1 really good “stick it” shot from the fairway to the green about 5 feet from the hole, hit a couple of good drives, didn’t lose my temper, made some new friends, and spent a beautiful day playing golf with my husband!

The celebration of our 5 years of marriage has been a wonderful trip full of adventures, smiles, reminiscences, and most importantly – LIFE just as we like to tell it!