Noticing Our World

The kids and I recently went with my Mom and Sister to spend a long weekend in the Smokey Mountains. We arrived on Friday afternoon and stayed until Sunday morning. We would have stayed longer on Sunday but we had to check out of our cabin at 10 in the morning and we had our dogs with us. It was too hot to leave them in the car while we went somewhere, so we decided to just head on home. Next time we will probably leave the dogs at home so that we can spend more time playing.

We rented a nice cabin at the top of a mountain on the Pigeon Forge side. It was called Bearadise somewhere close to Husky Grove Road. The drive up was steep, but didn’t take too awfully long. The view was nice and the cabin was large enough for all of us to sleep comfortably. There were 3 King size beds and a day bed and a couple of couches had we needed them. It had a hot tub which the kids enjoyed at night.

Our only problem was that a big storm came through Saturday night and again Sunday morning early. The roof leaked pretty bad in the kitchen and my Mom spent quite a bit of her time mopping the floor on her vacation - that’s not something you want to spend time doing while on vacation :( We kept the coolers under the leaks until we had to pack them up to leave. Otherwise, the cabin was nice, but not quite as nice as some of the others we’ve stayed in while in the mountains.

Friday afternoon we headed to Gatlinburg to see all our old favorites. It cost us $10 to park about a block or so from the main strip where everything is located. Most everything in Gatlinburg was within walking distance from our car. We considered going back through the Ripley’s museum which was a favorite for me and my 15 year old son when we were there before. We also thought about going in the Ripley’s moving 4D theater again too since that was so much fun the last time we were there. But, we didn’t have much time and we wanted to make sure that we spent it seeing any new things that were there.

We did stop by and see Stumpy again in front of Ripley’s haunted house, but somehow my kids didn’t enjoy picking on him/her as much as they did when they were younger. Thank goodness they do out grow certain things. :) They weren’t very interested in going through the new wax museum that wasn’t there last time and the new mirror maze didn’t seem to get their attention either. They talked about going back through Ripley’s aquarium and the Guinness Book of World Records attraction again, but even that didn’t seem interesting enough now that they were older.

We finally ended up back at Ober Gatlinburg where we had spent the majority of our time the last time we were there three years ago. My two younger kids loved the ice skating since we don’t ever do that at home. And my 13 year old son, Mason, loves to ride on the pirate ship that swings him WAY up in the air. He seemed to like it as much this time as he did back when he was only 10. But, this time he only did it once instead of a million times like he did the last time. We wanted to ride the alpine slide and the ski lift and all the other rides there at Ober, but we just didn’t have time for it all. And as usual, our favorite was the tram ride up to Ober and then back down to Gatlinburg.

Mason and my Sister rode the chair lift up the side of the mountain while the rest of us just walked the strip to see everything else in Gatlinburg. We all took a trip up the space needle since my kids remembered that as being a favorite as well. The really good thing about the tram ride and the space needle is that our tickets lasted for the rest of the day and even again the next day if we had wanted to ride them again. We probably would have gone several times if we’d had enough time to do it all. It’s just hard to see Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge in 2 and a half days. You should really go for a whole week and even then, you would have to leave some things out.

After seeing all their options, the kids decided to go to a new place on Saturday. On our way into town we saw an upside building - as if it had been in a tornado or earthquake. The upside down sign out front said “WonderWorks”. It really caught our attention and when we checked in to our cabin, we asked about it. They said it was really a lot of fun and that their kids enjoyed going there and spending the day. So, we decided to start out our Saturday there. We ended up spending most of the day there and the kids thoroughly enjoyed it.

Wonderworks is a sort of interactive science museum. There were lots of games, videos, experiments, arcade attractions, trivia, and more things to do and try inside this upside down building. They enjoyed the bubble lab, virtual roller coaster, mock hurricane, and science experiments. Later, we decided to head to the Hoot ‘n Holler dinner theater which was also inside the WonderWorks Museum. It was a lot of fun and we all enjoyed it except for my 15 year old son, Matthew. I guess it’s not cool for 15 year olds to be seen in dinner theaters - or at least he didn’t think so and he was thoroughly bored through dinner. He did agree that most of the food was really good.

After the dinner theater, the kids headed back to the virtual roller coaster. We all met back at the arcade that was located in the Museum where we played ski ball, air hockey and a multitude of other video games. That’s always a big hit with my kids - any way to spend more money I guess. :)

But, our all time favorite was the laser tag. We all got a game with our tickets so we all played the first game together. We really had a blast trying to shoot at each other in the dark. Even my senior Mom loved the game and we all went back for several rounds. Of course, my boys loved it the most and went back over and over and over again. The funny thing is that we could play laser tag at home and yet, we never go. It was good exercise and fun for the whole family, so why do we only do it on vacation? Mental note to add laser tag to our family fun nights at home. :)

On our way back Sunday, my sister had a problem with her brakes that gave us quite a scare. We decided that an angel must be along for the ride because it was a miracle that she didn’t have a wreck or hurt her car in any way. The rest of our trip was rather non-eventful, which is always a good thing when you are on the road. We were all sufficiently exhausted when we got home - including the dogs. It’s taken us most of the week to get caught up on our sleep and back in the swing of things - that’s always the sign of a good vacation :)

Cindy :)

I took the kids to a Nashville Sounds baseball game the other night. It was fireworks night, so I thought they might enjoy it. And they did. But, not so much until the fireworks show at the end. :)

I had a blast! It was a very pleasant night - not too hot, not too windy - perfect for a baseball game. I really enjoy watching live baseball and really do enjoy the food, sounds, sights and smells at the baseball park. Probably because of the memories that it brings back of going to the park with my Mom and Step-dad when I was younger. I just wanted to make those same kinds of memories with my kids.

My 10 year old girl was rather bored through the whole thing. Although, she did enjoy Ozzie the mascot and the games and entertainment between innings. For the most part, she just wanted to leave because she has a lot of trouble sitting still. Nachos, funnel cakes, popcorn and soda helped to keep her interest. :)

My 15 year old son enjoyed it ok, but since he’s now more into staying up all night than baseball games, he was too tired to enjoy it as much as I’d hoped. He eventually woke up enough to enjoy it more at the end than at the beginning. And it gave us some time to talk and connect again - something that is always a good thing with 15 year old boys.

The fireworks show made it all worthwhile. Even though Nashville lost the ballgame :( and the kids weren’t excited out of their minds to be there like I had hoped, we were all glad that we stayed for the whole game and got to see the fireworks. They were amazing and spectacular!! An AWESOME display!

The next night was fireworks night again at the ballpark. We didn’t go back, but around 9:30 we heard what sounded like a gun fight. The kids said, “WHAT IS THAT??” I remembered the fireworks and told them they were doing it again tonight. We ran outside to see if we could see them. We couldn’t, but we could hear them loud and clear! We all stood there remembering what it had looked like the night before. It was as if we were there again. And again, we got to make that small connection that every Mom dreams of when her kids start hitting the teenage years. I’m thankful for the Nashville Sounds. :)

We had a GREAT time at the Nashville Zoo. I wasn’t sure the kids would enjoy it since they are older, but they did. We all had a really good time - even Grandma & Grandpa!

You can see the pictures here

It was really a great place to go and had lots of animals for us to see. There was good weather and they had booths set up for the kids to do crafts. It was a lot of fun.

The Nashville Zoo is not the biggest of zoos but it’s not small either. We enjoyed the elephants, giraffes, tigers, cheetahs, snakes… Ok, so I DID NOT enjoy the snakes, but if I weren’t so scared of them I would have enjoyed them because they definitely have a lot of them in there. They really do have a great snake, spiders, fish, frog, creepy-crawly exhibit if you are into that kind of thing.

It’s beautiful there with lots of room and lots of walking. It was definitely good exercise with small hills to climb. I was afraid it might be too much for those of us that are older, but I made it fine and so did the Grandparents. We did stop and rest a couple of times and took our time through the park.

I think my favorite part of the whole park was the bamboo. I know they aren’t animals, but they have the biggest, tallest bamboo I think I’ve ever seen in the oriental exhibit. They say it can grow to 40 feet. It’s not quite that tall yet, but it’s well on it’s way. It was amazing to see that much bamboo in one spot, that tall.

Close behind the bamboo experience would be the Larakeet experience. Larakeets are beautiful small birds that we could feed while we were there. We could go into the huge cage where the larakeets lived, along with other ducks and beautiful birds. The larakeets would land on your arms and even your head if you were still long enough or had nectar with you. You could buy the nectar for a quarter and then the birds would come sit on your arm while they ate. Check out the pictures of them landing in my son’s bird-nest hair that I like to tease him about. It was a very exciting time at the zoo for ALL of us - including the birds. :)

It was fun. We had a great day. But, we probably won’t go back for a long while. Why? It’s just not something that we would want to do over and over again. We are glad we got to see it, but once you’ve seen it, you’ve seen it. I definitely recommend the trip, but I wouldn’t buy season passes unless you are just really into the whole zoo thing. :)

Cindy :)

“You have to put in many, many, many tiny efforts that nobody sees or appreciates before you achieve anything worthwhile.”
Brian Tracy, Author

“The value of the subconscious is enormous; it inspires us; it warns us; it furnishes us with names, facts and scenes from the storehouse of our memory. It directs our thoughts, tastes, and accomplishes tasks so intricate that no conscious mind, even if it had the power, has the capacity for.” Charles Haanel, The Master Key System

Have you hugged your subconscious lately? Have you appreciated all that it does for you? Do you realize the power that lies within?

Your subconscious is probably one of our least acknowledged body parts or functions. We take it for granted so many times that it’s a wonder that it doesn’t up and leave us! It works behind the scenes doing so much for us that we really couldn’t live without it and yet, we rarely give it the credit that it deserves. We talk so much about what ‘I’ve’ done or been or had, but rarely do we acknowledge that without this power within, we couldn’t have done or had or been any of those things!

Without our subconscious mind, we couldn’t even get up in the morning, much less remember how to make the coffee. Without our subconscious mind, we couldn’t tie our shoes or comb our hair. We would have to re-learn everything, every single day. Without our subconscious mind, our creativity would be non-existent along with our memories, both good and bad.

Today, appreciate all that your subconscious mind does for you! Today, appreciate the freedoms that your subconscious mind allows you to have! Today, acknowledge that your subconscious mind makes you exactly who you are, determines exactly what you have, and directs everything you do. Today, give your subconscious mind all the credit it deserves! Today, give your subconscious mind a great BIG hug!!

Have an ABUNDANT day!!

We are all aware how dependent we are upon the subconscious, and the greater, the nobler, the more brilliant our thoughts are, the more it is obvious to ourselves that the origin lies beyond our ken. We find ourselves endowed with tact, instinct, sense of the beautiful in art, music, etc., of whose origin or dwelling place we are wholly unconscious.” Charles Haanel, The Master Key System

Have you ever had one of those awesome thoughts and then wondered, “Where the heck did that come from?” Or have you done something that you knew you couldn’t have done without some extraordinary power or force that isn’t completely your own? Have you ever said something that you felt could not have really been you saying it? Isn’t it an awesome feeling?

I used to teach at our church and more times than not, I knew that the things I was saying were really not my own words. There were times when I felt that something - someone - God - was speaking through me. I couldn’t even get up in front of people on my own. I failed classes in school because I refused to give speeches. But, somehow, something inside of me was speaking.

I also used to sing in a Gospel singing group. Now, I know (and my kids know) that I can hardly carry a tune. But, in certain situations and when I can get myself to that ‘zone’ where I completely rely on my subconscious mind, there is a voice within me that really isn’t mine - or at least it doesn’t sound like me.

There have also been times when I get engrossed in concentration while programming and create beautiful things that I know I couldn’t have done on my own. We all have talents and creativity that can only be fully expressed when we can tap into and completely depend upon our subconscious mind.

It’s amazing what can happen when we completely depend on our subconscious mind. It takes practice to get to that point, but it can be done. We can access that power and that force within us that is capable of anything and everything. But, first, we must get ourselves out of the way. We must learn to completely depend on our subconscious mind.

Today, focus on depending completely on your subconscious mind. Today, move yourself out of the way so that you can tap into the greatness within. Today, create something beautiful by tapping into that power that lies within your inner world.

Have an ABUNDANT day!

Cindy

“Belief is the ignition switch that gets you off the launching pad.”
Denis Waitley, writer

“Ease and perfection depend entirely upon the degree in which we cease to depend upon the consciousness; playing the piano, skating, operating the typewriter, the skilled trades depend for their perfect execution on the process of the subconscious mind. The marvel of playing a brilliant piece on the piano, while at the same time conducting a vigorous conversation, shows the greatness of our subconscious powers.” Charles Haanel, The Master Key System

When I quit relying on Cindy to do things perfectly, it becomes much easier. When I start trusting my subconscious mind, everything seems to fall into place and just work. When I start allowing my subconscious mind to take over - especially those things that are habit, then it all seems to flow much easier. It’s the creation of these habits that is so important. These habits allow our subconscious mind to take over.

It’s not always easy to get our conscious mind to quiet down. Sometimes our thoughts run wild and free through our mind overwhelming us with things we need to do, things we want to be, things we want to have, trivial things, monumental things, little things, and big things. Sometimes our thoughts are bombarding us so much and so frequently, that our subconscious mind never has a chance to ‘get a word in edgewise’.

We must learn to quiet and still our mind so that our subconscious has a chance to ’speak’ to us. We must acknowledge this powerful part of ourselves that connects us to greatness - this magnificent part of our mind that connects us to truth, to love, to God.

Today, depend on your subconscious mind more and your conscious mind less. Today, build new, good habits that will train your subconscious mind to act when your conscious mind is elsewhere. Today, still your conscious mind so that you can connect with your subconscious mind and hear the still, small voice of God.

Have an ABUNDANT day!

Cindy

“If you have not consciously made the decision to be rich, excellent, and healthy, then you have
unconsciously made the decision to be poor, mediocre, and unhealthy.”
Wallace D. Wattles, self-help author

“You always pass failure on the way to success.”
Mickey Rooney, actor.”