Making The Best Of It

Private Ryan leaves in less than 280 hours, so we have been trying hard lately to make the best of the time we have left before he is gone. Besides, it's Spring Break for us and the best way to keep our kids on good behavior is to run them ragged ... and we've been trying.

Mostly, the kids are fine, but we've certainly run ourselves ragged, and here are some of the things we've seen along the way ...

I thought this sign was hilarious. I don't usually take photos of street signs and billboards and stuff but in Knoxville we have flirty, overconfident billboards like this one all over the place. They always make me laugh, and I like to imagine the boardroom where some advertising dude first suggested this. This one happens to be about a ten minute walk from the Knox County Courthouse, the biggest of the Knox County libraries, and really the main hub of our city. I laughed as usual when we walked by, strolling over a bridge thing that took us over the street. I'm glad the bridge was there ... no way in heck would I have walked my kids across Henley Street. No way. Even if I was Superwoman and I had Superman pushing Piglet in her stroller. Not happening. Even Piglet liked looking around, and I remember thinking it was cooler under the cover of the bridge than on the street. Maybe being up off the road and away from the cars helped.

The footbridge was cool in other ways too. We were able to watch Teenybop get all excited as the cars drove underneath her, she giggled when we walked right past the stoplights and I was able to squat down to get a photo of a red light. Anyone who knows how short I am knows that it wasn't just thrilling for her ... There I was, right next to a light. And they? They are tall. For those few short moments, so was I. They are also huge! When you're in your car looking up at a stoplight, sometimes you watch them wave and sway in the breezes ... They don't seem nearly as large to me as they really are until I'm standing right next to one. Unfortunately, I'm not sure how to make blogger rotate this photo and after all that we've done this week, I just don't have the energy to be forceful with the internet right now. So tilt your head to the left ... a little more ... a little more ... There, see? A red light. And I was TALLER! Awesome!

We also took our girls up into the Sunsphere, and it was high enough to be creepy. It's beautiful, and in theory going up there would be awesome. In some ways it was. I got a whole new look at my city, and since I am pretty well in love with this place, that was cool. We have a decent skyline depending on where you look, and most days, looking down from the sphere would be really lovely. Unfortunately, we went when they were cleaning out the pond and the trees have only begun to bloom. I will be sure to go back later in the spring for a better look, and a prettier memory. Once the pond is clean and full of children who shouldn't be in there and the dogwoods and other flowering trees have begun to really bloom, it will truly be a sight to see. I'd love to get up there at the end of the day and see the sunset! In the meantime, I'm glad I finally made it up there, since I've been wanting to go for a while now. It's so high though! I kept feeling like the ball was going to roll off it's pedestal and we'd plummet to the ground, screaming like some horror movie. And that doesn't even mention the rickety elevator that takes you up! When you watch someone get in, you can see the elevator car dip a little under the weight. And then when you get in and feel it? It's scary, you wait for the elevator to finally decide that it's had enough. Having that feeling isn't so bad when you're still on the ground level ... but when you're almost to the top? That elevator is taking you about 280 feet above the ground, and the drop would be ... frightening ... Thankfully it didn't happen and we moved on. This photo was taken maybe an hour after we'd been in the ball and made it out alive. If you look in the bottom right corner, there's Teenybop, teeny and boppy as always. She stood still here just long enough to get the photo, then was ready to move on.

But it was a good Tuesday, even if it did take me this long to blog it.