Not your grandma's porch swing

This is the birthday present my sweet hubby made me (back in June). For the past 5 years, we've logged a lot of time on our front porch in a swing that used to be his grandmother's. While it served us well, we decided it was time to upgrade. This is the Mercedes of porch swings. It's made of poplar, much of it salvaged from several barns Spence tore down.


Note the contoured arm rests and handy-dandy drink trays (or beer holders, as we call them).


Eventually Spence will make and sell these. You can see his lamps here. Thanks, sweetie!

Ethiopian cuisine in the neighborhood

Yesterday, Caroline and I rediscovered a neighborhood treasure within walking distance of our little Nashville house: Gojo Ethiopian Restaurant. I knew it was there, I'd even been there once when it was a scary hole-in-the-wall. But it always looked so deserted I wasn't sure it was even in business anymore. A few months ago someone painted it a bright orange and changed the name from Lalibela to Gojo. Well, last night we decided to give it a go, and it was an absolute delight.

The little girl who waited on us was from Addis Ababa and had lived in the States for many years. She was still in high school and said she came here for the education opportunities. She was helping out her aunt in the restaurant for the summer. She said a family had come in that same day saying they were adopting from Ethiopia. I wish I knew who? I ordered the vegetarian combo. My favorite was the shiro wet (ground chickpeas) and Caroline liked the ye atkilt wet (green beans). She was not a fan of injera, but she kept trying it thinking it would be more like bread. We'll have to work on that one. I'm eager to take Spence and try some new dishes. I think they will do a coffee ceremony too.

In other news...three Bethany families passed court on Friday and are officially parents of their little ones. They will travel to Ethiopia in the next couple months to pick them up. Yippee!

Tender moments and milestones

Caroline has never been the lovey dovey type. She's not big on hugs, and cuddling has to be on her terms. One routine we've established that I'm so thankful for is the bedtime rock. She snuggles up to me in the rocking chair while clutching her bear lovey and instructing me on which song she wants me to sing, usually Itsy Bitsy Spider.

Last night she was particularly cuddly, gazing into my eyes as I sang. I soaked up every moment of it, stroking her hair and cheek and resisting the urge to hold her just a little tighter. I silently prayed that I would have tender moments like this with our Ethiopian child one day too.

At that very moment she nonchalantly put her finger in her nose and deposited the contents right on my t-shirt. It brought tears to my eyes.

In another special moment, as I was unloading my car from the weekend, I came back inside to a disturbing quiet to find that C had opened the bathroom door (I didn't know she could do that) and was unloading cupfuls of toilet water (an obscene amount of toilet water) onto the bathroom floor and hall carpet using her plastic, Lookouts baseball cap cup (see post below).

Take me out to the ball game...

Caroline enjoyed her first baseball game when we went to see the Chattanooga Lookouts Friday night. We trekked up the hill to the stadium in 90+ degree heat and an unrelenting sun.

Little C happily collected her freebies: a Lookouts cap and a fan.

She ate ice cream out of a plastic baseball cap, no spoon required. She also ate a hot dog and pizza, two of her favorites.

Visited with her cousin Savannah, who turned 2 that day. Notice the sweaty, stringy hair?

And spent some time torturing the little girl (well, pretty much the whole family) in front of us. She pulled ponytails, removed caps, scratched backs, played with curls, fanned and poked the entire family of 5 before we finally called it quits at the bottom of the 3rd and let the family enjoy the rest of the game in peace.

Here's cousins Baylee and Jordan looking all glamorous.

We had a great time, but I think I enjoy the close-up excitement -- and air conditioning -- of the Tech basketball games better.

Just in case

Tuesday I took an infant/child CPR and first aid class at the Red Cross. I have two fears regarding Caroline's safety -- choking and falling/injuring her head. Before this class I would have only had a vague idea what to do -- now I know exactly what to do.

I write this because I want to encourage everyone I know (and don't know) to take this class.

I not only learned rescue breathing and CPR, but also how to assist a choking victim, recognize signs of stroke, stop bleeding, treat a snakebite, help a seizure victim, etc. And none of the recommendations included applying a tourniquet, sucking out poison or shoving something into someone's mouth.

As I sat in the 5-hour class, I recalled many situations when these skills would have helped me, but I didn't know enough to step forward. Now I do. You should too.

4th fun!

This year, we celebrated the 4th in a non-traditional way. In fact, we never even left the valley. We went to visit our neighbors Hector and Susie Black about 6 miles upriver. They own Hidden Springs Nursery, which includes an amazing blueberry patch. Caroline's strategy: one for the bucket, 50 for my tummy. She got the hang of picking the blue (not the green or red) ones real quick, and she wasn't afraid of crawling right in there to get the good ones. But her bucket never saw more than 4 berries.






We also went wading down Roaring River Gorge, appropriately named because it is gorgeous. This is the same river than runs by our house, but it's about 10 miles upstream where the gorge walls are 100+ feet high. This is a Class III-IV section when the water is high, but in the summer it's a great place to wade and swim. This is Spence's sister Allison.

It's so hard to get a family pic where everyone's smiling!

Happy birthday, Jordie!

Big birthday wishes to my niece, Jordan, who turned 10 today. Wish we could be there to celebrate with you. We love you!