The Lake

Today, probably while you are reading this, I will be getting my sinuses roto-rootered.

That is, if all the stars and planets are properly aligned, Dr. Gutt's wife doesn't go into labor, the Bionic Man doesn't have any meetings he can't get out of, my laundry gets done, and I don't get cold feet.

This is the third time I've been scheduled for this operation.  I'm totally kidding about the stars and planets, but I'm very serious about the rest.  Except for maybe Dr. Gutt's wife--she already gave birth the first time I had this scheduled.  It's about time my deviated septum got on the straight and narrow, and I'm kind of looking forward to being able to breathe.  I'm NOT excited about recovering from this....I've heard sotries.....so I prepared a number of blog posts in advance for you, this week.  Enjoy!

In honor of my little trip to Lala Land today via general anesthesia, I am going to show you pictures of our recent trip to Dale Hollow Reservoir in Tennessee. 

The setting was breathtaking, the atmosphere peaceful and relaxing.

We shared a houseboat with Ben's sister and her family, AKA Dustin and his A-Team.   Don't ask me to explain how a vacation spent on an aging houseboat with five children and two dogs could be relaxing.  You kind of had to be there, so you could see things like this

and this

and I'm sure it helped that there weren't any nearby cell phone towers on these hills.

We felt completely removed from the world.

There is something so satisfying about being able to tell your children that yes, they can go swimming at 8 o'clock in the morning, if they want to.  Or at 8 o'clock in the evening.  Or all day long!

We ended up having way more video than picture files of this trip.  I can't find any pictures of my sweet toddler niece or Dustin, her dad.  (You can see some funny ones here, though.)  I have some absolutely fabulous pictures of Angela shaving her legs in the lake.  But because I'm sure Angela has some equally stunning photos of me that she could share, I'm just going to keep those pics to myself. 

The Bionic Man and Justone had a great time fishing together in the early mornings and evenings.

The fish the Bionic Man is holding is known as a muskee, and that particular muskee was too small to keep.  This is the first in a series of muskee shots on my camera.  The picture below, is the last of the series, showing the other end of the fishing boat.

"It's going to eat us!"  Note the position Hunter the dog has taken in front of the three little girls.  It would be nice if that was a defensive position.  But it's not.  He's looking for a way to get out of the boat.  Turns out that we might have given Hunter the wrong name.  At least we didn't name him Swimmer.  We found out on this trip that our dog HATES the water.

Hope everyone is enjoying the pleasures of summer!  And don't forget to enter my latest giveaway!