We’re off to Panama City Beach, FL this weekend. Brian and I are going to a marriage conference put on by our church, and Grandma and Grandpa Toone are coming along to babysit. How lucky are we?!? Hopefully there will be a little sunshine so we can introduce Analise to the beach. We’ll have pictures for you on Monday.

Thanks for all your comments thus far… I love knowing people are checking in! It inspires me to blog more:) If you didn’t see Analise with a bow in her hair, go check it out here and tell me if you like it!

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

Inspired by my wife’s post yesterday, I decided to put together a blog with some of the pictures I like the most from my bike rides here in Alabama. Most of these are from January, February, and March so the leaves still haven’t turned yet. Everything is so green now. You’ll have to wait for the pics from my bike commute today to see just how green!

Beautiful view looking northeast from atop Double Oak mountain.

From atop a different point of Double Oak mountain looking south on a different bike ride.

On Easter, I went for a bike ride that took me down to my brother’s house in Pelham. Since it was Easter, I had originally intended to take an Easter egg, but I forgot it! So I dropped off a water bottle instead.

Easter present for my brother.

Another ride took me past Star Lake in Hoover. As you might be able to see, it gets its name from the manmade island near the middle of the lake that is shaped like a star.

Hoover’s Star lake

Steve Donaldson and I drove down to Marion, Alabama in Perry County in Alabama’s historic cotton belt to ride 100 miles in a century organized by none other than Samford University. Steve is a fellow computer science professor at Samford. It’s hard to believe that I am teaching at a university where one of my co-workers totally into cycling and which would organize a century my first semester teaching! Below are some pictures from the ride.

First, a picture of my really bad sunburn after the ride.

There were several fields of flowers blooming in the early Spring.

Another field of yellow flowers.

This was one of the coolest things I’ve seen on a century – a bagpiper playing for the cyclists as we rode by the site of the original Alabama Baptist convention. This bagpiper is a Samford student who can be heard throughout the campus whenever he plays his bagpipes in the football stadium.

Here’s a view of some green hills on the ride.

And finally, here are two more from bike rides in Hoover.

First, here’s a sunset view looking from the top of the hill in our neighborhood. In the distance are the Vestavia Hills ridge and Shades Mountain.

Lastly, here is the view from atop Shades Mountain looking west at a Robert Trent Jones golf course.

Today, we had lunch with Grandma Locke. She’s in an assisted living center just down the road from Samford University, where Brian teaches. We join her for lunch every other week, but this is the first week we’ve eaten in the main dining room. Analise was the star of the room – gurgling and babbling, trying to pull the tablecloth off, gobbling up her veggie puffs and cheese, twice trying to steal a Chicken McNugget, and smiling all the while. Grandma is so proud to tell everyone Brian “teaches at the college” and let everyone “ooh” and “ahh” over her great-grandbaby, whom she insists looks just like her (see above).

As we were leaving, Grandma was walking us out and a friend of hers came up. “Are these your kinfolk?” she asked Grandma. I have to smile, even now. I don’t think I’ve ever been kinfolk before.

Adapting to this southern language is fun. I like “y’all” – in fact, having lived in Louisiana when I was younger, I even said it now and then before we moved here. But now, it makes me feel REAL southern. But there are several Southern-isms that I probably won’t find myself using. Among them: might could (“I might could do that for you, if you need me to.”), rekon (“I reckon it’s gonna rain today.”), and fixin’ (“I’m fixin’ to go to the store.”). My little girl may grow up with a southern drawl, but I’ve got to make sure she’s speaking good English or Grandma Sandy won’t be happy:) Growing up, I couldn’t even say “gonna” or “gotta”.

  

Now that you can make comments on my blogs, I need your input. Analise finally got a bow in her hair this weekend. Brian wasn’t so impressed, and neither was Uncle Matthew, but Grandma Beverly and I thought she looked cute. What do you think? Leave us a comment!

Photos: Top- Analise and Grandma Locke in January; 2nd- Standing tall for a picture. Analise loves to stand by herself these days. Won’t be long before she’s walking! 3rd- Vote for the bow:) Above- Analise has a way of finding things she wants to get into. This basket of shredded paper has been in our front room for a while, and she’s found it several times. I think her memory is improving, because now if she’s in the hallway, she heads in that direction.

Yeah! After just a quick evening of programming (and teaching me programming!) Brian updated the blog to include a comment section. Below, using the add comment link, you can enter your own tidbit that will be posted below my blog.
Feel free to point out how much you like the pictures, how deep my thoughts are, how cute my little girl is, etc, etc:) You can post other comments as well… those are just some suggestions if you are at a loss for words. I’m excited to see what y’all have to say about my musings:) One last suggestion… you could post how amazing my husband is for setting this up for me! I love him!

Just a quick glimpse of our weekend adventure… Brian, Analise and I went hiking in a trail that’s hidden right in the middle of a neighborhood near us. It was a beautiful trail, culminating in a pretty waterfall (this is the small part – it got bigger!). Analise loved the gurgling water. I think it reminded her of her bathtime, and she was ready to jump in. I’ll post some more pictures tomorrow, but I thought I’d reward all my diligent readers with a quick pretty picture. Hope you had a great weekend!