Caving

Oh my what an adventure!!! If we had only known a little bit more about what to expect we would have changed a few things....
As it is we headed to Raccoon Mountain in Chattanooga, Tennessee. When we arrived we found a great little BBQ joint and feasted like they instructed but careful not to drink too much since we would be in the cave for quite sometime without potties. If only we had known, which we do now, we would not have eaten but a very small meal much earlier and taken trail snacks to eat when we settled in for the night.

But wow!!! We overcame some serious issues - claustrophobia, vertigo, total darkness .... Yep, it was great!!
Apparently we did some 2 1\2 miles underground, practically crouched over, crawling or belly crawling almost the entire time. We squeezed through spots that were a mere 11-inches tall after belly crawling 180 feet, navigated the top of a ravine, waded through underground streams, and told stories of underground caves in total darkness while taking a breather for me to recover from a nauseating bout of vertigo!

If you look close you see Ashley to the left, some gear in blue in the middle, and David's head in between them .... That is a tight squeeze to be belly crawling for 180 feet and the only way out is 11 inches high!

Survived the Key Hole (the 11-inch space)

One of the many areas we had to crawl through

The ravine we had to traverse

We lived!

Molly Marine Monument Dedication

Quantico, Virginia, July 2013

I haven't been to Quantico since September 1997 when I graduated Small Systems Computer School. It felt like home! It was absolutely bone weary exhausting but it was so very worth it to be at the Molly Marine Monument Dedication with Generals Salinas, Mutter, and Reals, and of course, the ever motivating Dr. Brown!

I was a Molly Marine back in April 1997 after my platoon - Platoon 4010, November Company, 4th Battalion - voted me as their Molly. I wish I could have recorded General Salinas' description of becoming Molly of her platoon - it was so spot on, this description of the brusque way we Mollies are awarded this honor! At the time we don't have a real clue - until we see things like this letter my parents received. (It is toward the middle... You won't miss it.)

Being a Molly is a pretty big deal - a max of 52 women are awarded this each year. That's only if all the female platoon dates fall just right and a platoon forms every two weeks like clockwork without being interrupted by specific holidays in which no platoons form. To put this in perspective for every 2 female platoons around 24 much larger male platoons graduate. We females tend to have 40-45 per platoon graduate while male platoons have upwards of 60-80 graduate. So while about 2% of females are awarded this honor that makes us about .001% of the entire Corps!

I am so thankful that my wonderfully good friend, Rock-L, could accompany me on this trip! Not only did we attend a lovely 4th of July Neighborhood Bash at my godbrother's, watch 7 fireworks shows!, tour the Museum of the Marine Corps and Semper Fidelis park, but we visited all over Washington, D.C.!! When we got back to my godbrother's the last night we were there, we literally crawled into the tub and crawled out of the tub. Our feet and legs hurt so bad that we couldn't stand. In fact we went to bed without eating because our lower extremities won the "I hurt worse war" with our stomachs!!

This is Molly Marine!

 

Major General Angela Salinas - at that moment the highest ranking female officer in the Marine Corps prior to her retirement.

Lt. General Mutter - the first female to attain the rank of Lt Gen (3 stars)not only in the Marine Corps but in all of the Armed Forces. She was also the first female to command a Fleet Marine Force at flag level - 3d Force Service Support Group in Okinawa, Japan - and the first woman to attain the rank of Major General.

Bg. General Reals, the first female to attain the rank of General via the selection board in the Marine Corps. The late Bg. General Brewer was the very first female to attain the rank of General in the Marine Corps by promotion.

As I just discovered when looking up Lt Gen Mutter's command, my platoon is in Wikipedia as the first females to attend Marine Combat Training. What isn't mentioned is that we were the first (and according to several sources, only) platoon of women to hump (carry) all the weight the males did. Oohrah! How honored I feel to be among those great women listed on that great list of firsts for the Marine Corps ... so humbling.

Here is a photo of The Museum of the Marine Corps from across the parking lot. See the hill gently sloping down toward the US Flag? Molly stands right at the bottom of that hill, essentially greeting and bidding farewell all who visit the museum.

There are more beautiful pictures of the whole place but they will have to wait as only a portion are uploaded. I promise that I'm working on it all!

But until then let me leave you with the only place I visit each and every, single time I am in D.C. - The Vietnam Veteran's Memorial Wall where I visit my dad's best friend, Sammy James. The rubbing of his name is from the very first time I visited in 1997. The photo of me in blue was taken by Rock-L.

Feel free to visit my dad's page .... Just click here

Tallulah Gorge plus

A group of friends and I decided to go hiking at Tallulah Gorge as a part of the Canyon Climber's Club. This turned into 4 total hikes as we found 3 more little hikes to go on :) It helps that one of us had already hiked them! (And, no that wasn't me!)

Sorry for some of the sideways photos - I have yet to edit them :-\

Here are Rose and David at one of the lookouts...

Rock-L and David....

A snail on a moss covered stone at the 66 Steps Trail

The beautiful beginning of the 66 Steps Trailhead

Let's play "find the copperhead!"

This was one of two we ran across that day.

This was on the Trail at Warwoman Dell.

On the Trail at Warwoman Dell

Then we went over to Dick's Creek where we splashed around a bit to cool off before hitting the trail back home. This is where we saw our second copperhead - a juvenile this go 'round.

The second copperhead - hard to pick out if you don't already know where it is .... Beside the stick kind of in the crevice of the rock - we were wading in the water right here and all of our stuff is right above this little guy.

King of the Mountain!

So much fun!! I can't wait to finish the Canyon Climber's Club with this fun bunch :)

School's Out!

Well, my school is :-D  After taking a week to get sick (like I always do when the semester ends) and recuperate, I'm back at it today!

I've got beans snapped (I did that while wallowing on the couch watching tv while I was sick) and ready to go into the pressure canner.  I have a box of Vidalia onions that are about to get sliced and dehydrated once the beans are in the canner.  Other than that I really need to focus on cleaning up this house from where I did nothing but sit on the couch all day for several days.

The one thing I did get accomplished while sick besides snapping beans was laundry.  I would put in a load, watch a tv show, put it in dryer, watch a tv show, get it out and fold it while watching a tv show, then put away and hang up items during the commercials of a tv show ... just round and round and round and round we go - until I have like two loads left to do in the whole house.

Included in focusing on cleaning is making some cleaners ... I'm either out or nearly out of almost everything.  This past month has been brutal on me between the end of the semester projects and finals to focus on, spring planting, kids end of the year activities, visiting the hospital every spare minute (my best friend, BestBean - since kindergarten - had an aneurysm), and just normal daily "have-to's" (like providing food to the masses) - I've let just about everything else go.  So making these cleaners that keep me sane is a must ... the only store bought cleaner I allowed in the house and was generally okay with was some petroleum-free laundry detergent - everything else has been stretched to its limit!

Alright, back to work!

Dehydration - Problems, Solutions, & More

For the past two weeks I have been slicing and dicing and dehydrating - amongst other things like pressuring canning, baking & freezing, making hygiene items, and herbal stuff.  I literally got up two Saturday mornings ago and started slicing eggplant to make a "fake bacon" - note to self, add salt to the marinade.  I started using a mandolin to get the perfect slices and I'm so glad I started using this consistently!!

Since then I've dehydrated celery, red bell peppers, mushrooms, zucchini, frozen strawberries, and apples coated with cinnamon sugar.  Onions will be next when the rest of the apples are complete.

I've decided to start storing my dehydrated produce in the various jars that we'd normally throw away.  Of course, I'm starting to make a lot of the stuff I buy from the store from scratch so this may not last too long.  I'll be happy to buy more canning jars for storing the dehydrated stuff or vacuum sealing it all - but for now, why waste the resources I have.

I had an issue with the trays on my dehydrator.  I have a round one that is obviously not an Excaliber.  But at the same time I do like this that MrBeans got me back in January - it doesn't get too hot and there is lots of air circulation.  So far, I'm very happy with the results.  It's an Oster brand - and I've kept the trays from my previous dehydrator that finally kicked the bucket last fall.  Because that is an issue with the new Oster - not enough trays.  There is also no flexible mats to put small things on or to make fruit leather.  So I've made some.  Now I do not have to spray my trays which was causing a problem - my fruits and veggies were a bit greasy.  That's okay for short-term storage but not for long-term ... and sometimes, things get stored for a long time here if they aren't used often.  I don't want my stuff going rancid - that's worse than it rotting on the counter after having gone through all the work to slice, dehydrate, and store.

So anyway, two birds one stone, as the saying goes with this little flexible mats.

I would love to get cross-stitch plastic but the store I was in didn't have any so I settled for those little silicon-type chopping mats.  I got 2 for $1 at the Dollar Store.  They aren't quite wide enough to cover the entire round tray BUT that's okay cause it's just a little bit and I think it helps with the air flow considering I have solid sheets versus screened trays.  So far everything is coming out wonderfully and I couldn't be happier with the performance --- well, I could use some more trays, that would make me happier!! :-D

Valentine's Day Pancakes

I got up this morning and made special pancakes for my babies since tonight will be wild with stuff and last night I had class.  Of course, any time I decide to make pancakes for them it is special BUT these were extra special AND the leftovers are now in the freezer so that they can have pancakes for several mornings!

Now I'm no great pancake maker.  Never have been, never will be.  So please excuse the crudeness of my pancakes.  I also couldn't find my regular heart cookie cutter so I used my double heart and xo cutters instead.  As someone pointed out to me - each time I do something from pinterest, I make it my own by changing it up.  This is probably how it is meant to be because even when I have the right "equipment" I wind up not being able to find it when I go to make whatever it is - but then it turns up later when I need it for something else.  Personally, I believe these are little personal lessons to me.

Here are some little bits of love for my babies (yes, even when they are grown, they are my babies!)....
And at the end I played around with the last little bit of batter ....

 

So this turned into two things at once - a special breakfast for my children and some stock for my freezer grab-n-heat "meals" for the kiddos.  Two for one is usually pretty great!

Crossfit 90 Day Challenge - Day 16

Sorry I've been a slacker in keep up ... I'll just have to start up again with this one!

Day 16
2 rounds for time of:
100 Jump rope
50 Shoulder to overhead (shoulder press), 20 lbs
25 Knees to elbows

What I did: 6 minutes
While that seems great ... I slacked on the shoulder presses ... :-/
2 rounds of:
100 Jump rope ... Yes completed
50 Shoulder to overhead (shoulder press), 20 lbs .... 20 lbs but only 20 each round
25 Knees to elbows .... Yes completed - laying down because I couldn't get to the bar properly - laying down is harder for me as it works more ab muscles for me - knees to elbows done "correctly" are like candy to me so I pushed myself a little bit

I have weak arms - this is not news to me - but it still disappoints me every. single. time.