Virtual Tour Sloss Furnace

   I just love modern technology!  Here I am living in the great state of Alabama and not too far away from my house is this famous historical site of Sloss Furnace.  It is amazing that I had not actually been to the Furnace as of yet, but through the 360 virtual tours website, I can access a personalized tour by not even leaving my house!  Look at the many exciting pictures you can see and experience just through taking this tour through cyberspace. Here is a picture of me looking down over the Sloss Furnace water tower.

The Sloss Furnace produced iron for over 90 years, and it gave rise to building the city of
Birmingham. This web of smoke stacks and pipes have visitors seeing into our industrial past of the South.

 

Even though these pipes and smoke stacks look old, I bet they could still work to this day. At least from these pictures it looks that way.  Maybe it would be a great field trip to experience the Sloss Furnace for myself one day, because I love learning about our deep Southern historical past and this is just one site worth seeing!

Birmingham IN Guide iPhone & Android App

Whether you live in Birmingham or if you are visiting for the very first time, the IN Guide is a great source for reviews and directions to the most frequented local hang-outs and complete with customer tours. This app has listings about restaurants, coffee shops, local attractions, hotels, monthly events, and other activities Birmingham has to offer.

http://birminghamal.org/app/

4th Grade! What a Blast!

This morning I decided to go to school with my mom.  She is studying to be a teacher, and is presently in a classroom of twenty-seven 4th graders!  This is her assigned field placement for the semester.   My mom's host teacher is really nice, and she is so helpful to my mom and answers any questions that she may have. This morning when I came with her to the classroom, the teacher just smiled because she thinks this blogging activity is really cool!  I think she really likes me though, well "I'm just saying."
Today in math class, the students were making a large poster of a graph with numbers up to 10,000.  I didn't know that someone could count that high, but that is just one thing I am learning in this 4th grade class.

In this picture, I had my photo taken next to the science books from Scholastic books.  I think Science is absolutely one of my most favorite subjects to study, because I get to engage in a lot of really amazing science experiments!  I would have to say, now that my mom is in Dr. Fly's class, she has learned that Social Studies is another amazing subject that a teacher can utilize projects and inquiry-based learning in order for students to understand more about their world, especially through using technology!

It's a Coffee Morning!

   This morning I awoke to rain! I love the rain, and hearing it fall on my roof while lazily falling in and out of sleep.  As I began to gather my thoughts together, I thought to myself that this morning would be a great day to have some coffee time on my back porch!  As you can tell by my bloggs, I am an outdoors person and love the opportunities to be there. With that, the month of October is rapidly approaching,  and our family usually goes to the mountains for the weekend.  Going to the mountains is a great way to experience the outdoors, like walking the trails and seeing nature.  I especially like to see the leaves change on the trees and to experience the cooler weather.
    This is why I am out on my back porch drinking coffee at 6am!  I like soaking up the cooler weather and thinking about all of the fall activities I like to do during this season of the year. Having morning coffee is just a great way to stop and reflect about the things that are important to me, especially this morning, because the rain is falling and the leaves are rustling in the wind.  Ahh...the outdoors, can't you hear it?  So many sights and sounds to engage the senses.  Why don't you take the time to drink a cup of coffee and relax to the sounds of nature.

Let's go Fishing

Wake up!  It is 5 am. Saturday morning September 14th. I am a little sleepy this morning climbing into the boat with my fishing rod, but I had family with me and we had fun together just watching the sun rise over Logan Martin.

After about an hour of fishing, I caught my first baby bass!  Can you believe that this fish was actually smaller than me?  Too bad we had to toss him back because of his size. See by the picture?
                                     

It is always fun fishing with my family!  This morning my Aunt Laura and cousin Kadi came over from Atlanta just to enjoy some time together.  My Aunt is an Oncologist and not able to always get away as

often, and it is a stretch for her because she is not a fisherman.  My cousin Kadi, now she loves to fish and had been asking all summer to come over and be with us.  Kadi is a teenager and attends a premier school in Atlanta.  In this school, it requires a lot of responsibility and she looks for ways to relax.  It was great to have them both come to Birmingham and enjoy the simpler things of life.

This link shares information about the local fishing in Pell City and at Logan Martin Lake.  Please see the link below if you are interested in the Coosa River Systems, lake temperature, water levels, fishing guide and or pictures of fish caught in the river.
http://www.fishingalabama.com/2013/01/logan-martin-lake-3/

Small Group Night

    It is Thursday night and small group night at my church.  Tonight we learned about how we should be living in the tree of life through our actions.  It was a great time of talking with my friends Ben and Jamil! They may be a little older than me, but hey, I need all the help I can get!  I like it when I can go to small group, eat snacks, and talk with friends.  I also get to play inside with my younger friends too.  There are so many fun people at my church and everyone is like family.
    Below is a picture of our friend Ben with whom we met in Thailand years ago.  He is the one wearing the white hat.  When we had first met Ben in 2003, he could barely speak any English, because he had just moved from Yemen to Bangkok.  As of last spring, he had been living in the US for 5 years, speaks wonderful English, and had just became a US citizen!  He, his wife and child are all living in Knoxville, Tennessee, and frequently come to Birmingham to see us because we are the closest thing to family.  I am excited to have my picture made with him because we do not get to see him everyday.

Breakfast at Cracker Barrel

     The sun was shining in my room this Saturday morning and as I climbed out of bed, my family decided that today would be a great day to have breakfast at Cracker Barrel.  I absolutely love this restaurant!  There are so many choices on the menu and the atmosphere is so peaceful, that I could just stay and eat and eat until my belly becomes fat!  I have uploaded several pictures for you to see because I want you to enjoy my morning adventure just as much as I did.



   This is our waiter Alan. He was so efficient, that he helped me order my meal because I really wasn't sure what I had wanted to eat.  Alan thought I was so amazing for my size, that he just had to pick me up.  I had imagined that he just wanted to understand how thin I actually was, but after looking at the photo, I think Alan just wanted to have his picture taken, right beside me!  We both are so photogenic!

Aw... food at last!  I decided to order the Old Timer, because I love the breakfast combination.  Scrambled eggs, bacon, and hash brown casserole, yum!  My day is starting out just the way I like it, one adventure at a time and nothing could be better, than food.  I could not think of a better starting point of the day than to be eating food at one of my most favorite places, Cracker Barrel!

Outdoor Adventure

This past Labor Day weekend, I was able to go on my first outdoor adventure!  We had gotten up early on Friday morning and went with a group of young boys and drove to Rome, Georgia.  I was so excited to be there; camping, 4-wheeling, and roasting marshmallows over an open fire.  Life could not get any better than this.  This is a picture of me after I had set up my tent. It was a hard job, but I was able to get the other boys to help me.


Ah..roasting marshmallows is absolutely one of the most favorite things to do on a campout. We had just finished building this campfire when my marshmallow caught on fire and fell to the ground.  I love burnt marshmallows on my S'mores, don't you?


To cap off my weekend, I created a video for you to see me riding on the back of a 4-wheeler.  This is the first time I had ever ridden one and I was a little nervous.  It was so much fun... well, that is after I decided to let Punt drive.  What else could be more adventurous!