Chattanooga, TN at 2:15 pm 95* feels like 100* humidity-43% wind-N 6mph
Bloomington, IL at 1:15 pm 79* feels like 79* humidity-36% wind-NW 16 mph
Aurora, IL at 1:15 pm 81* feels like 81* humidity-34% wind-WNW 27 mph
Woah! Aurora is the windiest and Chattanooga is Blazing HOT! Must be nice to have pleasant weather in Central Illinois right now ;-)
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Sweet Soddy Acres
We have a winner! "Sweet Soddy Acres" has won!
More good news...I am composing this blog from our home! We have internet access. The Dish Network installer didn't come on Friday. We had to reschedule for today (Sunday). Ugh. I had to miss Andy's mountain bike race to sit here while the dish installer hooked us up. Oh well. We are on-line and the kitchen is clean and the laundry is done :) Not too bad for a Sunday.
All in all, Andy and I have had a productive week. Between working and finishing putting the house away, we have actually gotten some workouts in this week! I signed up for the Waterfront Olympic distance triathlon here in Chattanooga on July 12th. Andy's cousin Jacqueline asked me to be the swimmer for a 3 person team she is running on for the triathlon as well! Hopefully, my minuscule swim workouts will get me out of the water in a decent time. This is the first time I am going to be the swimmer on a relay team and also competing individually. Hopefully, I remember to pass along the right timing chip ;-) Andy and I did a 60 mile ride up Flat Top Mountain, down into Dunlap, TN and up Mobray Mountain. Over 3100 ft. of climbing! Since I am doing a tri soon, I wanted to do it on my tri-bike. Poor Zoë (yes, I named my tri-bike) has not been on the road since IM Florida! This was a big ride for us. Especially since I had my "flat land" gears still on her from Florida. In the end, I was pretty happy with it all. My power was where it was at the end of the season for time trialing and I had a huge confidence boost because I did better on both climbs than I did on my road bike 2 months ago. I did a 5k race a couple weeks ago and got 3rd in my age group. Since the short distance is not my forte, I was shocked and really happy. I don't have any big races planned yet. For sure I am doing the Olympic tri on July 12th and then a super sprint tri also here in Chattanooga at the end of August. I am thinking maybe a half marathon in the fall, but I am not sure. Right now, I am just so happy I am feeling like an athlete again and have my biker tan back. ha ha ha.
We are expecting some visitors from Illinois in the next couple weeks... Chris, Cara, and Jonah are coming for a visit! They are going to be with us from July 21-27. I am so looking forward to seeing them. It has been so long since Andy has seen his brother, sister-in-law, and nephew. It will be almost 9 months since they have seen each other. I am really excited to show off our town to them. :) My sister Heidi is planning a visit with us in September over Labor Day weekend. That will be a treat too! So if you want to come down, just let us know... Sweet Soddy Acres will be "open."
Well, I guess that is it for now. In the next couple weeks, we are going to post pictures. I promise! We are so excited about our house and property, we want to show it off to ya'll. Take care and catch you later, Heather
Monday, June 22, 2009
Name the Sweet house...
Looks like we have a winner! But then my Dad threw a monkey wrench into the whole thing and came up with some really good alternatives...
Sweet Soddy Acres seems to have won the first round, but with the addition of Team Sweet Acres and Sweet Holler we may have to have another round of voting. So here goes
Will post more after the internet hook up :)
Much love, Heather
Sweet Soddy Acres seems to have won the first round, but with the addition of Team Sweet Acres and Sweet Holler we may have to have another round of voting. So here goes
- Sweet Soddy Acres
- Team Sweet Acres
- Sweet IM Ranch
- Sweet Holler
Will post more after the internet hook up :)
Much love, Heather
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Please Vote!
With Mike Hannah's help we have come up with a couple names for the new Sweet homestead...
- Sweet Soddy Acres
- Sweet Mountain
- Sweet Mountain Estates
- The Sweet Hillside
- Sweet Wispering Pines
- The Sweet House
- Camp Sweet
Please give us your vote...
I got River-faced at Shit-bend...
So the party was good. I made a ton of food and the bonfire was AWESOME. Only bummer was the last night of Riverbend was Saturday night too. Some peeps didn't make it out :( FYI--Riverbend is a music festival where ALL the rednecks from the mountains come down for a "good ol'time." They make a pig-stye of our town and clog up the streets with their giant stupid trucks and drive wickedly drunk everywhere. *Suggestion: do not come to visit Chattanooga during the second week of June. The horror. The horror.
Even with the attraction of Riverbend, there were a lot of people that came out to party with us. The one that wins the prize for farthest traveled is my father-in-law Larry! He drove all the way down from Kappa, IL to hang with us. He also helped us with some major "honey do" projects we had on the list. Larry power washed the deck, fixed our air conditioner, cut down a tree (with Loyd's help), and put together Andy's new wheelbarrow...I think Larry will need a vacation after his "vacation" with us.
We still don't have internet! Ugh. If I have to talk to another customer service representative I am gonna go out and buy me a big a$# gun! After over 1.5 hours with these "experts" I came to the same result. They don't have the equipment to install satellite dish internet. I wonder... let's play a little game... if someone were to come into the restaurant I work at and give me $100 would they wait over 3 weeks for their food? Hell no! They would bitch and moan in less than 30 minutes. Why the F should I be expected to patiently wait for a service I have ALREADY paid for????? Double Ugh. Living in the sticks, you are at the mercy of many many others.
I have thought about doing this for sometime, but I think I am actually going to implement this into each blog I post. In the old days, you know when people actually used to write letters to each other? With a pen and paper? Use a stamp? No? Ok, modern day correspondence is the blog/e-mail/text. Back to my point, sorry. It is weather. We are dialed into www.weather.com all day, but we don't take the opportunity to tell each other what is happening in each other's "neck of the woods." So here goes...
Chattanooga, TN at 5:45 pm it is 92* feels like 96* wind from the WSW at 13 mph with 46% humidity.
Bloomington, IL at 4:45 pm it is 85* feels like 87* wind from the WNW at 7 mph with 51% humidity.
Aurora, IL at 4:45 pm it is 78* feels like 78* wind from the NW at 6 mph with 63% humidity.
Looks like Chattanooga wins for the most "hot" but Aurora is the most humid...strange.
Much love y'all,
Heather
Even with the attraction of Riverbend, there were a lot of people that came out to party with us. The one that wins the prize for farthest traveled is my father-in-law Larry! He drove all the way down from Kappa, IL to hang with us. He also helped us with some major "honey do" projects we had on the list. Larry power washed the deck, fixed our air conditioner, cut down a tree (with Loyd's help), and put together Andy's new wheelbarrow...I think Larry will need a vacation after his "vacation" with us.
We still don't have internet! Ugh. If I have to talk to another customer service representative I am gonna go out and buy me a big a$# gun! After over 1.5 hours with these "experts" I came to the same result. They don't have the equipment to install satellite dish internet. I wonder... let's play a little game... if someone were to come into the restaurant I work at and give me $100 would they wait over 3 weeks for their food? Hell no! They would bitch and moan in less than 30 minutes. Why the F should I be expected to patiently wait for a service I have ALREADY paid for????? Double Ugh. Living in the sticks, you are at the mercy of many many others.
I have thought about doing this for sometime, but I think I am actually going to implement this into each blog I post. In the old days, you know when people actually used to write letters to each other? With a pen and paper? Use a stamp? No? Ok, modern day correspondence is the blog/e-mail/text. Back to my point, sorry. It is weather. We are dialed into www.weather.com all day, but we don't take the opportunity to tell each other what is happening in each other's "neck of the woods." So here goes...
Chattanooga, TN at 5:45 pm it is 92* feels like 96* wind from the WSW at 13 mph with 46% humidity.
Bloomington, IL at 4:45 pm it is 85* feels like 87* wind from the WNW at 7 mph with 51% humidity.
Aurora, IL at 4:45 pm it is 78* feels like 78* wind from the NW at 6 mph with 63% humidity.
Looks like Chattanooga wins for the most "hot" but Aurora is the most humid...strange.
Much love y'all,
Heather
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Home Sweet Home.
We moved into our house on Jones Gap Rd. on May 25, 2009 and closed on our house June 3, 2009. The seller was kind enough to let us "pay rent" to her until we closed. Good thing because we were supposed to move out of our rental house on Love Lane on May 8th...we got an extension until the 25th. Whew.
So we have been in the house for almost 3 weeks. In that time we have discovered a couple things:
Memorial Day weekend Andy was in Atlanta for a friend's wedding. That Saturday I came home from the grocery store very excited to make rice crispy treats for my work buddies. I pull up in our drive and our neighbor Loyd is walking across the yard. At this point, I haven't met him yet, but Andy has. Loyd is a really nice guy, but a little intimidating. He looks like a bald lumber jack/mountain-man with a huge smile. Loyd says to me right off, "Great day today, right?" Of course I agree. I am about to do some pseudo baking. He then says, "It is a great day to cut grass too." Oh darn. Well Andy is out of town so I am off the hook, right? Nope. Loyd escorts me over to his very fancy lawn mower. Asks me to get on it and start it up. Ummmm. Ok. After a very quick tutorial on how to start the darn thing Loyd suggests I go ahead and cut over an acre of grass. Ummmm. Ok. Here is a picture of the beast...
So we have been in the house for almost 3 weeks. In that time we have discovered a couple things:
- The dogs LOVE the back deck, and so do we ;-)
- There are A LOT of critters in the woods--so far I have seen a ton of butterflies/bees/wasps/carpenter bees, 1 black widow spider (she was eating a moth-very cool), 2 toads, a bijillion rabbits, 5 blue tailed skinks (lizards), and a multitude of insects. More to come for sure. I have heard the coyotes, but thankfully we haven't seen them.
- Our neighbors are really cool
- The house is perfect for us and we are so happy
- We have a big yard
Memorial Day weekend Andy was in Atlanta for a friend's wedding. That Saturday I came home from the grocery store very excited to make rice crispy treats for my work buddies. I pull up in our drive and our neighbor Loyd is walking across the yard. At this point, I haven't met him yet, but Andy has. Loyd is a really nice guy, but a little intimidating. He looks like a bald lumber jack/mountain-man with a huge smile. Loyd says to me right off, "Great day today, right?" Of course I agree. I am about to do some pseudo baking. He then says, "It is a great day to cut grass too." Oh darn. Well Andy is out of town so I am off the hook, right? Nope. Loyd escorts me over to his very fancy lawn mower. Asks me to get on it and start it up. Ummmm. Ok. After a very quick tutorial on how to start the darn thing Loyd suggests I go ahead and cut over an acre of grass. Ummmm. Ok. Here is a picture of the beast...
If good ol' Loyd had a video camera he would have made some serious money on America's Funniest Home Videos. Loyd forgot to tell me how to steer the darn thing! I ran over so many things -- that weren't grass! I also ran into a couple trees and Loyd and Denie's rock wall! After about 10 minutes I got the hang of it. Then it was the most fun thing I have driven since I was 16. I felt like I was in a video game. This thing turns on a dime and goes FAST! I was done cutting the grass (over 1.5 acres of just grass to cut) in less than 45 minutes. It would have taken me a couple days to do that with the push mower. Fun times.
We are still without internet access. Bummer. We are planning on getting DishNetwork, but they had trouble getting "a part" this weekend and have postponed our installation until next Sunday (6/14). Once we get our computer up and going, and maybe a new digital camera, the pictures of the house and yard will come rolling out. Our current camera takes great pictures outside, but total blackness occurs when we attempt to capture images of the inside of our beautiful house. Good thing, I guess. We are still unpacking all of our boxes. Hopefully, we can get the boxes sorted out before the weekend because we are having our first party at the house. We are having a "stock the bar" and BONFIRE party! Whoo Hoo. Hopefully someone will have a camera and we can document the carnage for you all.
A small request from you all, we want to name our new home. So far Andy has come up with The Lucky Duck Ranch. That got vetoed right away and for some reason he can't think of anything else. Personally, I think he is pulling my leg. ;-) So if anyone can come up with something cool and fitting, I would really appreciate it :)
Take care, Heather
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