Where are you from?

I get this question often, and I never know quite how to answer.

I just had the privilege to travel to NYC for the first time, meeting my best friends from WA for a fun girls weekend.
As we toured the city, this question was asked of all the tourists "Where are you from?"  I feel torn as to what to answer. Even when I take family/friends places in Tennessee, I am unsure what to say. My girlfriends and family can confidently say "Seattle" or "Washington State".

I live in Tennessee. My drivers license is Tennessee. We are now homeowners in Tennessee. However, we still own a house in Washington as well.
I lived in Washington for 41 years---- so where am I "from"?

I absolutely LOVE the South, and love Tennessee.
 I wish I could be 'Southern', yet I still have this fierce loyalty towards Washington State and the West Coast in general-- there is a tug of war in my heart and mind-- the things and people I miss from the PNW, and the things I adore here in the South, yet I don't feel as if I can identify ( probably not ever) as as Southerner, and I am no longer in the PNW either.

 At what point can I truthfully say "I am from Tennessee?" Almost a year and a half in doesn't seem adequate, as the answer isn't really cut and dried in my mind.

Even though I have no plans to move back to Washington, when I see a WA state plate, my heart leaps, and I want to run over and meet that person-- maybe it is the common bond, a sense of 'home' that I miss- a sense of belonging as I navigate my way through this new life we have created in the South, as I don't feel fully assimilated here.  Even Oregon or California (!?) plates make me nostalgic.

 When I say 'home' people here correct me, because here is now 'home', yet what do I call Washington State where I spent nearly my entire life, where my immediate family, lifelong friends and the bulk of my extended family still reside?

At the Nashville airport, a native ( with a thick accent)  asked me if I was from Atlanta. I told her "no, I live here." yet I still felt the need to add that I am originally from Seattle.

 How do you answer this question?

One Year... plus

So much has happened since my last blog post, ( last year!)  it is hard to wrap my head around what to share.

Beginning about 6 months in,  guests started trickling in-- experiencing their first taste of the South- and of the wonderful state of Tennessee, which we now call home.

From the end of August through a few days before Christmas, our home was a revolving door of  family and friends. We had a wonderful time touring all of the Historic homes in Franklin, trips to downtown Nashville, Main Street Festival, Pumpkinfest and Dickens Christmas in downtown Franklin,  ate plate loads of wonderful Southern foods from places like the Loveless Cafe, Big Shakes Hot Chicken and Fish, Gray's on Main, Pucketts, Acme  and Saffire-- my waistline can tell you!

We also traveled with our guests-- to Chattanooga, TN, and Mammoth Caves, KY.


Some of our guests- 

Grandpa and I had a good time listening to some live tunes at Kimbro's pickin' Parlor

Theresa and I enjoyed the Fall colors both in Franklin and Nashville

3 generations enjoying the Loveless Cafe

Josh completed his first year of working at Lampo- now called Ramsey Solutions, in November-  with the Lords help, he has risen to the challenge and has grown immensely spiritually and professionally as he has navigated this new role. We know more growth is coming, and we welcome your prayers!

The kids have just completed yet another year with Classical Conversations- this year found us with a 7th grader, in the Challenge Program. To say it has been a "challenge" is putting it lightly. The first 6 weeks I was unsure that my firstborn was going to live to see another day let alone year... However, the Lord has been gracious, and we not only survived the first 6 weeks as we got into our 'groove' but He has allowed us to finish strong, and we are very proud of the maturing Rowan has exhibited through this process. Come August is Gavin's turn.... pray for us!

Fall 2014,  @ Carnton Plantation photo by Jerry Smith 

The most significant news we have to share, is that we BOUGHT a HOUSE! And not just any house... the cutest house in Franklin, Tennessee on the prettiest tree lined street...( in my humble opinion!)

we live in Leave it to Beavers house....

This adorable Cape Cod, dubbed "Carnton Cottage" by me, sits on Franklin's historic tree lined "Carnton Lane"-- the original lane that led Andrew Jackson, and other historical characters to the doorsteps of our beautiful neighbor- Carnton Plantation, former home of the Widow of the South, Carrie Winder McGavock and her family, This stately home served as a Civil War Hospital after the battle of Franklin. 

read about Carrie, and her home, here-

http://www.midtneyewitnesses.com/still-standing/franklin/carnton

Our road now dead ends, but we are able to walk down the street, and across Eastern Flank Battlefield Park, to stroll through the plantations beautiful grounds. We love to go for walks, runs, bike rides, and even just sit on the back porch of the plantation, watching fireflies, smelling the fragrant honeysuckle growing wild on the perimeter and rocking in one of the beautiful green rocking chairs on the expansive porch.

We can't imagine a better place to be-- well, except for Josh, who is missing his garage and tools...  However,we just hired a contractor to start building a detached garage in the next few weeks. We are hopeful it will be done before more guests arrive later this summer, but not sure if that will necessarily be the case. 

 The best news of all in all of this, is that we didn't have to move! The Lord provided the perfect house at the perfect time. The Landlords had mentioned they would like to sell, when we moved in February 2014. After living here for a year, we were well acquainted with the 'issues' the house has/had, and were willing to purchase it. Once the time came to negotiate price, it was over very quickly, and we closed on the house a few weeks later. It was a little anti climactic, not needing to get keys/ etc... but I am thankful for all of the Lords provisions and spiritual growth ( Patience, Perseverance!) opportunities this adventure has allowed.

Now we shift to being homeowners instead of tenants, bringing back this little jewel from the neglect she has suffered being a rental for 6 years. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed because there is so much work to be done, but  making lists and working slowly through it, remembering it is OURS now, helps!

Porch project

 I am sure our neighbors are relieved to see we are working on it, but are having to tolerate large piles of branches, many many bags of leaves, and a couple weeks ago, an old dishwasher by the curb.

one of many piles of brush/limbs ready for pick up.. 

Fortunately, Wednesdays are days of magic, as the city of Franklin whisks all of my yard waste, garbage, recycling, and even that dishwasher away lickety split......

18 bags of yardwaste ready to be picked up..

June bugs and Cicadas-- or crazy bugs that live in Tennessee

So, I thought it would be a great idea to take the kids to the Rec Center pool... I had been avoiding going there assuming that it would be super crowded on a hot day.
Well, turns out not to be the case  because
a) there are more sunny days in TN than in WA so the pool isn't as big of a deal, and
b) many people have neighborhood pools, so it was mostly empty.

Most importantly I am thinking-- the lack of people was due to a preponderance of green June beetles, or June bugs. I have never seen these at my house, or anywhere else other than this pool.

At first I thought it was crazy carpenter bees dive-bombing my head, over and over...making a loud buzzing noise. All I could think of  is 'what the heck has come over these bees?! They have never done that before..' Then I got a good look at what it was, and it wasn't a carpenter bee... *shudder*

Rowan getting a little too close for comfort to me with this fellow...

Getting ready to land on Dylan's forehead..

These crazy bugs run into EVERYTHING. Your head. Your ear. Your body. Walls. They get stuck in your hair.  They are the most ridiculous, clumsy beetles I have ever seen.  After running into something, they get stuck on their backs on the ground, only to finally get up and do it all over again, and they are loud! Not only is their buzzing loud, but when they run into things, they do so with a loud "Thwack" or "Ping" depending on what they run into. I hit one with my magazine and it made a loud "ker-ping!" as I batted that thing to far right field.

As the kids were going down the slides, they were swarming around and landing on kids' heads. Dylan was running around trying to catch them and naming them. (of course.) Rowan was trying to fling them on me (I know, shocking) 

Meanwhile, I was doing my own interpretive dance in the sun chair, waving my arms wildly as 2 June bugs and a rogue butterfly carried out their attack.

I have never seen these bugs anywhere but at this pool.  Next time I think I need to bring a tennis racket. PING!

Our next runner up in the creepy bug pageant  is the Cicada. I have never heard this noise before. It sounds almost like a rattle snake in the trees. We first heard it when we went to Atlanta for the 4th of July. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWWyC-7AeDs

They totally creep me out... I haven't seen on yet, but you can hear them in the trees, and if one ever comes near me, it  will be pulverized- YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED CICADAS!

 There are not too many at my house, but there are other places around town that they are more prevalent and noisy. 

 the sounds of crickets complete the sultry Southern summer nights--but we  know why people have screened in porches.... 

SNAKENADO

 Poisonous Snakes. Tornadoes.
These are the two things that concerned me the most  in moving to the South.
In the early weeks, I was pretty paranoid working in the yard, worried there were legions of deadly snakes lurking in every pile of leaves I encountered.
We have been here a few months now, and I haven't seen a single snake. Until now.  I had become rather complacent in working in the yard, weeding, trimming plants and tidying up.

Last week, we had new friends from Lampo over for a BBQ-- I was sitting outside and realized something smelled really bad. First thing I thought of was that the garbage can was open-- it has been warm ( mid to high 80's)  lately, and having the can open could possibly be the issue. It was closed. There was some picnic garbage nearby, which I took care of, and it seemed to be better.
Fast forward about an hour, and while some of us were chatting in the house, Dylan and a friend burst through the door screaming "THERE'S A DEAD SNAKE IN THE BUSHES!" Now, anyone that knows this girl knows that she does tend to step over the 'drama' line just a teensy bit... We kind of poo poo-ed it, but when we went outside, we found this--- a FIVE FOOT LONG DEAD COPPERHEAD SNAKE, that stunk to high heaven.

The next day, while the kids were playing, they watched a man run over a 5 ft long  rat snake with his truck, on our street. It didn't kill it, so it was dispatched with a shovel in the neighbors yard, bagged and chucked in the garbage. We own 2 snakes, so this was disturbing to us. It wasn't poisonous ( like the copperhead) but we are learning that folks in South don't take chances, and it is better to be safe than sorry. We still feel sad, but I am sure with time we will get over it. Last week, a  friend caught a snake eating a bird in their yard, someone else had a snake stuck in their garden netting, and we have seen lots of dead ones on the roads. Apparently it is snake season here in Middle Tennessee.

A few weeks ago, there was some severe weather going through our area. I joined twitter so that I could follow this guy-- @nashseverewx, he also has a website. (www.nashseverewx.com) He lives about a mile away and is an amateur meteorologist, and along with some meteorologist interns do a really good job of tweeting the weather-- down to the neighborhood.
I was a nervous wreck watching the forecast which called for possible Tornadoes, golf ball sized hail, winds, and buckets, no GALLONS of rain.  We didn't get any tornadoes ( Pray for OK, AR, and MS  who are still recovering.) We did get 3 inches of rain in about 2 hours. It. Was. Crazy.  WA rain has nothing on 'Southern Rain'.

People in this area are pretty nonchalant when it comes to the 'severe weather'. Right now we are on 'watch' for severe weather potential tonight/early in the AM. It is likened to storm lottery-- if it happens to land on you, bad, but who knows where it will land. We have had "watches" in the past and had the sun shine all day with nary a cloud in the sky. Today is set to be 90 degrees, with a heat index of 93, but no rain until late tonight.  "Watch" means it may or may not happen.. and "warning"  means it is imminent, or likely to happen and you need to take cover.

The Nashville area sits in a bowl in the middle north of the state. Tennessee is  divided into three regions- West, Middle and East. We live in Middle Tennessee. Tennessee has 95 (!) counties. The weather reports will call watches and warnings by county as storms move through. We live in the CITY of Franklin, but the COUNTY of Williamson.

 this is from www.tnhistoryforkids.com

Here, where Rutherford County meets Coffee County, the Central Basin begins to climb into the Highland Rim.

* Highland Rim and Central Basin.

Middle Tennessee is divided into two regions. The outer ring of Middle Tennessee is called the Highland Rim. It is dominated by rolling hills and valleys. Some of the hills are gradual, while some are quite steep.

The Central Basin is lower than and completely surrounded by the Highland Rim. You might think of the Central Basin as a bowl, surrounded by the Highland Rim.

In this era of the interstate superhighway, it can be hard to distinguish between the Central Basin and the Highland Rim. But it you look for it, you'll notice the change. The next time you ride southeast on Interstate 24 (from Nashville to Chattanooga), notice how flat it is in Rutherford County. But when you get to Coffee County you go slightly uphill for a few miles. That, you see, is where the Central Basin becomes the Highland Rim.

If you look up the elevations of cities that are in the Central Basin and those that are in the Highland Rim, you will notice a slight difference. Nashville (600 feet), Franklin (650 feet) and Murfreesboro (620 feet) are in the Central Basin. Lawrenceburg (900 feet), Manchester (1,060 feet) and Cookeville (1,140 feet) are in the Highland Rim.

West Tennessee's proximity to  the Gulf Coastal States, makes it more susceptible to remnants of tropical storms and hurricanes which collide with the colder air from the North, causing severe weather. Our being in a 'bowl'  protects us somewhat from the more serious weather many times.

It doesn't mean that we wont see any severe weather or Tornadoes in Middle Tennessee, however this information hopefully will ease your minds...

The Franklin Trolley

I keep seeing these Trolleys around town. I have even seen them drive down my street. I assumed that they

were some sort of tourist attraction to see the city, but wondered why it would be on my street, as there isn't access to the Plantation.

Well, it turns out this is Franklin's public transportation. 

For $1 for Adults/Kids over 5 ( kids under 5 are 50 cents, and kids 2 and under are free)  you can travel all over Franklin from the Factory to Main Street, and even the Historical sites such as Carnton Plantation, Carter House and Lotz House. You can take it into Cool Springs, where you can stop at the Galleria Mall, Whole Foods, the Goodwill, Publix, Walmart and a myriad of other convenient stops. A Fast pass can be purchased for $25 for 31 rides.

The coolest feature of this service is TODD- or "Transit on Demand".

You can call up TMA, and for $4, requested 24 hours in advance, they will supply  curb-to-curb pick-up and drop-off service that also provides all-day, same-day access to Franklin’s Fixed Route Service. I have heard of one family hiring the Trolley to pick a group kids up from co-op and take them to pizza for a birthday party, and delivering them back again.

http://www.tmagroup.org/franklin-transit/

 The Trolley's operate 6 days a week, and make stops every hour at each stop. We are looking forward to catching it at Carnton and taking it into town. 

12 things you would never see in WA state.

We absolutely love living in Middle Tennessee,  one of the things we enjoy is the 'compare and contrast' to the PNW



1. bible eggs. I bought these eggs at Aldi, they were $1.79, no hormone, natural eggs. It was a nice surprise, and yes, today IS the day the Lord has made!

2. Runaway truck ramp
We saw this on our way to Chattanooga, as we came down Monteagle Mountain. Apparently it is the highest point between Chicago and Miami at 2000 feet above sea level. In contrast, Snoqualmie Pass is 3,022 feet above sea level..** post edit- apparently these do exist in WA state, however I have never seen one.

3. Gun billboards
These are everywhere. On the way to Chattanooga there were about 10, each one 'showcasing' a different gun, and advertising gun ranges, or gun stores. Go 'Murica!

4. Everything Weapons
to go along with the theme of being all American, check out this store about 10 minutes from my house.

5. Bible Billboards
This is one of the things that kept surprising me on our way across the country, the farther south we got, the more prevalent. I am still not used to them!

6. Ethanol free gas. Having gasoline without ethanol is illegal in WA state.

7. Pro- Life license plates. Tennessee is one of only 16 states in the country that allows these license plates.

8. those backwards cement trucks still bother me...

9.  Tennessee/Alabama fireworks. Saw these all along hwy 41 on our way to Chattanooga. Fireworks are legal year round here. What more could you ask for? Beer, Pizza, and Fireworks all under the same roof!

10.  Southern Food. I really enjoy exploring each and every aisle in the grocery store and seeing the different regional foods. Haven't had instant grits yet, but have had goat cheese grits at Gray's on Main and they were good. We have also tried boiled peanuts, Pimento cheese, Moon Pies, Meat and Three and of course sweet tea.

11. Carpenter bees.
These are crazy. The first time I saw one, it cast a shadow next to me in the driveway. I did freak out. ( am sure we keep the neighbors entertained..)  They are like big black flying, fuzzy walnuts. HUGE. I thought it was a beetle at first, as I wasn't too keen to get a closer look! The males are all black and do not have a stinger, the females have a little bit of yellow near their heads. They are basically like gigantic bumblebees and will not sting unless necessary.

12. blue recycle bags. My happiest day of the work week  is Wednesday when I put as many of these babies out at the curb as I want, along with any yard waste bags and piles of sticks/brush. They all disappear like magic. Every. Single. Week.
*sigh*

Chattanooga

We had a great time meeting our friends from home in Chattanooga this last week. They moved to Atlanta last summer, and it was the first time we have seen them since they moved. Chattanooga was the perfect destination, as it is pretty near exactly in the middle for each of us-- around 2 hours.

We met at a great little hot dog joint called "Good Dog" -- excellent food, fun, friendly atmosphere. Would definately go back again.

                                                            http://www.eatatgooddog.com/

We had tickets to go on the Duck, but the reservation ended up not being until later in the afternoon, giving us plenty of time to eat, and explore some of Downtown. We decided to walk down to see the "Chattanooga Choo-Choo".  Everytime I see that name, I instantly think of the Glen Miller Orchestra song and can't seem to get it out of my head.. Well, much to my surprise, the Chattanooga Choo Choo was an actual train, and it is there in the refurbished  train terminal /Hotel. Maybe that is where we need to stay next time we go, because we MUST go back, there is so much more to explore!

"Pardon me, boy, is that the Chattanooga Choo-Choo?"

"Track 29!"

"Boy, you can give me a shine."

 

This train ran from  1880 ran between Cinncinnati and Chattanooga. This wood burning 'choo choo' was the first to provide non-stop service.

After we sated ourselves on ice cream and cupcakes, we boarded the "Duck" for a tour of the city.

 we had the opportunity to see a Duck go into the water just after us- SPLASH!

Captain Gavin.

The Hunter Art Museum overlooking the River.

These two got wet after we splashed down into the water.

The tour was excellent, through the city and down the river we learned many interesting facts about Chattanooga. I think the most interesting was that until  21 years ago, it was practically a Ghost Town. In the late 60's, Chattanooga was declared one of the most polluted cities in America. They had over 90 Factories in town, and the pollution was not regulated. When the EPA instituted the Clean Air/Water acts in the early 70's, to avoid fines for their excessive pollution the factories needed to cut back on production. Cutting back on production meant loss of jobs, and many people left Chattanooga to find work. It wasn't until the mid eighties that citizens began to come up with a plan to save their town. The Tennessee Aquarium was built in 1992  and was the beginning of the rebirth of the city. Today it is a vibrant, busy, but quaint town that I look forward to exploring more!

River boat view from Pedestrian Bridge crossing the Tennessee River

Dunn/Light kids, April  2014