Finally

Hubby and I just got back from a wonderful weekend in the mountains. Finally.

We've been talking about going away for a while. Finally, a week ago we set out for Gatlinburg, TN only to have car trouble an hour from home. We managed to get back home, but the car ended up in the shop for four days. (Yay for ten and a half year old cars with 209,000 plus miles...) Friday we again set out for Gatlinburg and this time we made it all the way! Yesterday's post shows a picture of the view from our hotel room.

It was good to get away from home for a weekend. That may sound strange for us empty-nesters, but somehow not being in our house makes us spend more one-on-one time together and that's always a good thing. I guess it's because when we are gone we don't have the distractions of things to do around the house.

We love being in the mountains. We've learned that we do not love Gatlinburg or nearby Pigeon Forge. Way too touristy. "The Branson of the Smokies", is what I called it. Now we know and don't need to go back.

A friend had recommended that we not take the interstate back. That was GOOD advice! We found some really pretty drives and the leaves were so pretty in the lower elevations.

Here are a few pictures that Hubby took:

Today I am thankful for...

...the beauty of fall in the mountains
...an argument that ended in both of us laughing so hard we were crying
...old, comfortable love
...contentment in coming home

Weekend Recap

I'm feeling like I really need to step up this whole blogging thing, so let's do a little weekend recap. Bullet format.

●Friday I started feeling like I was getting a cold. Noteworthy? To me, yes. I feel like I have been sick or recovering from sickness or surgery or something since Thanksgiving. So done with that.

●Friday night we watched some college basketball only to see our Alma Mater lose a Sweet 16 game.

● I fully expected my cold to be worse Saturday morning, thankfully it wasn't, so we were up and headed off to North Carolina to see my parents and siblings.

● It was good to sit and talk with my dad for a while when we first got there.

●My siblings decided that it would be "easier" to go to Easter church service Saturday night.  Honestly? I didn't feel anything like Easter to me. While I have never been to a Sunrise Easter Service, I still feel like there is something to celebrating Easter on Sunday morning.

●The church we went to is one of those huge churches that has multiple (8?) campuses. Hubby and I agree that we just don't get the appeal. There just doesn't seem to be a way to know people or see people you may know. I guess you can be involved in a small group, but even then what are the odds of seeing the people you do know on a Sunday morning?

●I was NOT impressed by the joke the pastor gave right at the beginning of the sermon about two drunk guys in a bar. So inappropriate for any church service ever. Why do some pastors feel the need to entertain rather than just flat out preach God's word?

●My brother-in-law is learning to be a master of the smoker that came with their new house. We had some fantastic prime rib, pork and lamb chops.

●Sunday morning I woke up feeling terrible and could barely talk. Ugh.

●We got to watch my niece's and nephew's girls hunt for Easter eggs. Here's a picture of the girls (and my dad) waiting for the go ahead

●We ended up leaving earlier than we planned because I felt so terrible and kept wanting to fall asleep.

●The four hour drive home was stressful due to the heavy rain the whole way. Hubby is a champ for doing all the driving!

●The trip home was made a little better with a stop at IKEA. We were worried we wouldn't make it before it closed because of traffic delays, but we had a whole 22 minutes before it closed. I just wanted a couple of things, but came out with five things. I love IKEA.

●We both like to unpack everything as soon as we get home from a trip. Do you do that or do you do it the next day or over the next week? Or maybe you just shove the suitcase in the corner to wait until your next trip?

●I had a hard time getting to sleep last night due to the coughing, but feel a little better today.

●I'm baking a little today to have some bars to bring to our Bible study social tonight.

Fall In The Mountains

I've been waiting to write this post, hoping my laptop would start functioning better, but that hasn't happened, so I am trying to use my tablet.

The last Saturday in October Hubby and I decided to take a drive up in the mountains with the hope of seeing some fall and some views.

It was sooooo pretty and a beautiful day!

Hubby searched for a scenic drive online and found a great hour and a half drive through the mountains that just got better and better as we drove along.

Some people say that when they look over the ocean, that peace comes to their soul. I get that feeling when I see the mountains. The expanse just speaks to me of God's majesty.

So much beauty! Hubby brought his really nice camera and took some pretty terrific pictures.

Hubby and I had a good day together and were thankful to see that the mountains aren't always socked in with fog like we experienced on our abandoned vacation the month before!

Oh, one more picture.... Hubby thought he needed to take a picture of me in the mountains. I should know that his "one" picture always means lots and lots of pictures.  This is the result after he took more than I wanted him to. Can't decide if I am laughing or screaming.

I am thankful to God for blessing us with a good day and for allowing us to see His creation.

What I Did On My Abandoned Vacation

Hubby and I managed to be pretty productive after we got home from our abandoned vacation, even thought The Rain That Seemed To Never End came along.  Hubby went back to work for two days, but we still did some fun things.

We managed to knock out several errands which included getting my new glasses adjusted, finding a shoe repair store to fix my favorite purse, finding a new hair stylist and making an appointment. (I really liked her!)

One evening before that monsoon hit, we tried a new restaurant (weren't impressed) and went to a movie. We saw The Intern and really liked it. One of my take-aways from the movie is that I hope I look to those who have walked this road called life longer than me and realize they have much more wisdom and life experience than me and that because of that they have much to offer.

Hubby didn't work on Friday so we spent the majority of the day knocking off the list of stores we've been wanting to explore. We checked out interior design stores, a consignment store, an antique shop, a couple of garden stores, Hobby Lobby, and World Market.

I noticed something at many of these stores that just has me baffled as to why this is a decorating thing:

Why would I want a giant painting of a cow in my house? It's not even accurate because it's not dirty and doesn't have slobber dripping out of its mouth. (In case my son-in-law reads this I realize this bovine may not be a cow, technically, but it is impossible to tell from the picture if I should call it a cow, heifer, bull or whatever else is an appropriate title. Let me use "cow" as a generic term, okay?) I have also seen paintings of pigs in this style. I just don't understand.

Anyway, I loved, loved, loved spending the whole day on Friday with my hubby. I was just telling God tonight that I am very excited for Hubby to retire someday because the older we get, the more I like being with him.

Friday night the rain started here. We spent basically all of Saturday and Sunday at home (while it rained and rained and rained and rained). Hubby worked on a bathroom removing a horrible wallpaper border and painting over the pink and green stripes and hanging up a new shower curtain. It looks sooooo much better!

While Hubby did those jobs, I worked some more on my sewing room. I threw out a bunch of fabric, although if you looked in there you would probably think there was no way I could have because I still have lots of fabric. Thus is the life of a quilter. I also have a ton of fabric leftover from my days of sewing garments for myself and the kids. I started to plow through all of that, but quickly realized it was too much of a scrapbook of memories for me to handle getting rid of too much. There is fabric from numerous pairs of pajamas I made for the kids, the crazy neon 90s shorts, the sweet dresses, curtains...you get the idea. Despite my slobbery self, I did manage to purge quite a bit. 

By Sunday afternoon we realized it hadn't rained for several hours so we decided we wanted to get out of the house and we went granddaughter shopping and out for supper.

It was a good three day weekend for us and I was kind of sad to see it end.

I Should Have Brought My Scuba Gear

This was our week to explore a wonderful part of the Southeast. Hubby and I planned a 10 day get-away, just the two of us. We hadn't done that this year yet as all of our time away has involved visiting family and business meetings. Vacation spent with family is a good thing, but so is time alone with my hubby, even after 31 years of marriage.

So what did we plan to do? We wanted to take a week and drive the 469 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway. We wanted to see views like this:

Instead, this is what we saw for three days and 169 miles:

Fog. Lots of fog. Oh, and rain. Lots of rain.

Tuesday morning we woke up in Floyd, Virginia and saw the weather forecast for more rain, so we decided to abandon the vacation and come home. So, instead of a 10 day vacation, we had a 4 day weekend. Sigh.

Yesterday, I was really regretting the decision. Today after looking at the Blue Ridge Parkway page on the National Park Service website, I feel better. I read that there is an advisory for the whole Blue Ridge Parkway because of the possibility of falling rocks and trees (due to the massive amount of rain). I am choosing to believe that God sent us home to protect us danger.

We covered 169 miles on the Parkway, but didn't see anything but fog. We did do a few fun things, anyway.

Saturday we drove to Charlottesville, Virginia since it is near the beginning of the Parkway. When we got to town, we went to visit Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson. (Thanks, Joyce, for giving me a heads up about that!)

This place was built about 1772. (The many, many years of history out here in the east sometimes is hard to wrap my brain around). We went on a tour of the house and learned a lot and enjoyed it very much.

Sunday morning we stopped at an apple orchard, bought a few apples, some cider and a piece of apple pie to share at lunch time.

Then we headed to the Parkway in the rain and fog with hopes of the weather clearing up.

At mile marker 19 (the speed limit is 45mph on the Parkway), we stopped at an overlook, (with so much fog we couldn't see anything) chatted with another couple who were stopped there, then cracked open the cooler and fixed some sandwiches for our lunch.

After lunch, Hubby tried to start the car and there was NOTHING. Just a little wrrrrr sound. The battery was dead. We have never had any trouble with that car and we were stumped. We had no cell service and there were not many cars on the Parkway. We tried to text our kids to pray for us and to call someone to help us, but no texts would go through, We ended up sitting in the car with the hood up for an hour and a half before someone stopped to help us. I have never been more thankful for cigarette smoking, tattooed, pickup driving people with jumper cables!! (Our car was fine the rest of the trip...go figure.)

We spent Sunday night at a pretty cool hotel in Roanoke, Virginia. Monday morning we looked over a D-Day memorial. I am always sobered with the global impact of World War II. Before we left Roanoke, we browsed through an antique architecture hardware store and had lunch at an amazing french cafe.

Tuesday morning found us texting our kids that we were abandoning our vacation and driving four hours in the rain (of course) back home.

Hubby went back to work a couple of days this week. We now have a couple more vacation days to use in the remaining part of the year. Hopefully we can get in some three days weekends and see some more of this awesome part of the country.

The Weekend in Review

It was a stay-at-home-and-finish-up-some-projects kind of weekend.

Oh who am I kidding? The "projects" are really never, ever finished.  Heavy sigh.

Friday night, kind of at the last minute, we made reservations for dinner and dashed out the door. On the way there, I looked down at my shirt and realized I hadn't changed it like I had intended. It didn't look horrible, but I have kind of designated the shirt for a hang-around-the-house-and-maybe-go-to-the-grocery-store-kind-of-shirt. You know, the type: old, a little faded, a couple of small  holes, but not yet pajama-worthy. I only mention this because when we got to the restaurant and I saw someone come out in kind of nice, business-causal kind of clothes, I cringed. I felt severely under-dressed. I have never been more thankful for low-lighting in a restaurant! ha. ha. Anyway... the food was good, and we'd go back....dressed a little nicer, of course.

When we got back home, Hubby talked me through the things he was hoping to do on Saturday, which included hanging 544 more pictures. In my infinite wisdom, I decided I wanted to hang up ALL the "people" pictures we have. Believe me, after 31 years of marriage, we have a LOT of them! (And of course, I mean I wanted Hubby to hang up the pictures, because I am absolutely not the engineer in the family and would do a horrible job of it and would probably require having to redo all the dry-wall in the house.) And then on Sunday I decided to add six more pictures to the lot that didn't have frames, which of course required trips to Target and Michael's.

Anyway, back to Friday...

Before I got ready for bed I called my dad to catch-up as he had been to the Mayo in Rochester, MN the day before. He's getting some good help for himself and is striving to be in good health so he can take care of my mom. It was good to catch up even if the conversation was cut short because my brother and nephew showed up at my parents' house for the weekend.

Saturday was a pretty awesome day for me. I spent the whole day with Beth Moore and didn't have to leave my house at all! How? I signed up to participate in the Living Proof Live Simulcast. She was in Wichita and the conference was broadcast all over the world. 150,000 people! I just tucked myself in our bedroom with my laptop, Bible and notebook and had a blast. At the lunch break, Hubby asked me if I was glad I was participating and I said I am never disappointed with Beth's teaching.

Beth taught about living with audacity, which means to live with intrepid (resolute fearlessness) boldness. Certainly something I struggle with.

Romans 8:15  The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”

Because of Jesus in my life, who has all the authority and is my Savior, I can have audacity.

I want to stay in the Word and not water it down to be more palatable to the world. (Here are words to a "lullaby" from Satan that Beth wrote: Rock-a-bye Christian lulled by the world. When the wind blows all hell will unfurl. Stay in your sleep distracted or scared so when I wreak havoc you won't be prepared."   Chilling.)
 
I want to pray for astonishing works of the Holy Spirit. 

I want to forgive and live forgiven. 

I want to hold on to Romans 8:18 - "For I consider that our present sufferings cannot even be compared to the coming glory that will be revealed to us."

I want to walk in humility. That means I have 0% confidence in the flesh and 100% confidence in the Holy Spirit.

I do not want to exude pretense and showiness. I want to exude Jesus.

That's a brief summary of the notes I scribbled down. It was a cool thing to sit and watch and listen to Beth teach over my computer.

By the time I was finished with that, Hubby was in the midst of planting a bunch of bushes outside. Boy howdy, he sure is working hard to make this house look nice! By the time Hubby was all done with that and cleaned up it was time for him to sit down and relax and watch the Iowa State / Iowa football game. How cool is it that we got to watch that all the way out here? Unfortunately, Iowa State lost. Supper involved a little ordering on-line and me dashing to Panera to pick it up. Have I mentioned how much I love that Panera is 2.1 miles from my house?

Sunday was filled with church, lunch out, and an afternoon of putting things away and telling Hubby what stuff to hang up where. Poor guy. He probably doesn't want to ever look at another hammer again. At least he got to watch the Chiefs and the Royals play! A stellar weekend of sports for him to be able to watch all his favorite teams! Now he just needs a TV set up in the basement so he doesn't have to listen to my highly entertaining commentary. And by highly entertaining, I mean annoying.

And now on to this week...

The Weekend

Hubby and I took a little road trip on Saturday. He was told about a little town in northern Georgia, called Helen, that has cute shops and restaurants. Along the way we stopped at a Farmer's Market stand and bought some tomatoes, a watermelon and some Georgia Peaches.

Somehow buying Georgia Peaches in Georgia just seemed right. I love fresh peaches and really want to make a peach pie, but I haven't found my recipe box in the unpacking yet so I don't have the recipe. (I should insert here how anxious I am about not finding my recipe box. It would be a disaster to loose 31 years worth of recipes collected.)

As we approached our destination, we got stuck in a traffic back up. We figured out that it would take us awhile to get into Helen and we were hungry, so we turned around to have lunch at a pizza place we spotted along the way.

The pizza was very good...

But the popcorn they served while we waited was amazing...

I have no idea what made it so good, but we devoured two bowls of this. It reminded me of popcorn popped in my parents' really old popcorn popper.

Our lunch spot was less than two miles from Helen, but it took us 30 minutes to finally get onto town only to realize there was a Shriner's parade going on which explained the forty billion people trying to get into town. We decided it wasn't worth trying to fight the crowds, so we decided to not explore the town that day.

We took a small detour on the way back home to see this college campus. 

A sweet friend went to school here a number of years ago, so we thought we'd give the campus a look. This friend and her little family live in China loving people there for God. You can read her blog here.

 It was a very pretty and very small campus.

We were back home in time to slice up some of the tomatoes we bought for the summer's first BLTs. 

I love BLTs, but I cannot stand the smell of bacon in the house for days afterwards. I had a brainstorm about cooking the bacon. I put eight slices of thick cut bacon in my biggest cast iron skillet and put it on the grill outside. It worked wonderfully! The bacon cooked nice and crispy like we like it and the smell stayed outside!!!

Sunday morning we visited yet another church that didn't seem like a good fit, went out for BBQ for lunch and came home to unpacked a bazillion boxes. I have unpacked every box that was labeled "kitchen" but still have not found my recipe box. Because of that and because I unpacked a box that was labeled "living room" and had pillows from the couch and three small shelves from the basement bathroom, I have to conclude that the recipe box is probably in a box marked "garage" or something equally absurd. Whenever the recipe box is found, there will be much rejoicing on my part (and probably on Hubby's part as well since he won't have to listen to me whine about it anymore).

This week's goals for me are getting the pantry in order, unpacking a box from my desk and finding a place for all those things, organizing a bookcase in our bedroom and getting a pedicure. Lofty goals for sure.

Charleston

There have been many places in the Southeast I have wanted to visit for a long time and since we now live in the Southeast, this is the perfect time to take advantage of that!

Memorial Day weekend we hopped into our car, hit the road and a mere three hours later we were in Charleston, SC! That is a little mind-boggling for this Midwest girl. We are wanting to take advantage of being able to travel in a part of the country we haven't seen much of.

We started the weekend by having pizza with a high school friend of Hubby's. He actually lives in the Chicago area, but was visiting his daughter who lives in the Charleston area. It's always good to see him and his wife. I was determined to take a picture of them, but I stupidly managed to talk myself out of it. I seem to always feel awkward when we are with friends to ask them for a picture.

Here's a crazy thing: We met Hubby's friend in a town that is the same as our last name, only spelled differently by one letter. Our hotel was in a town that has the same name as the town where my hubby went to high school in Iowa. Funny.

Saturday morning we decided to tour a plantation called Middleton Place just outside of Charleston. 

The property was beautiful. This house, built in 1755, was one of three that were there at one time. This is the only one that survived both the Civil War and the 1886 earthquake.

I was enchanted with the huge live oak trees that were dripping with Spanish moss. 

Just beautiful!

The "wildlife" was enchanting as well.

I am also enthralled with peacocks. The male peacock is a stunning creature. God has some crazy imagination to create this creature. I have a book from my childhood called Suki and the Invisible Peacock. It was one of my favorite books. I think of it whenever I see a peacock.

After some yummy seafood for lunch, we headed off for a boat tour of the harbor.

We often will take a tour of a new city to learn more about the history and layout of the place. This boat tour was a disappointment. The guide spent the majority of the 90 minutes talking about pirates. While I understand there were pirates in the area, it would have been more interesting to hear about what we were seeing along the shorelines and even more about Fort Sumter and the Civil War.

I didn't get very many good pictures, but here are a few:

Fort Sumter

Saturday evening was another time I wished I would get over my stupid awkwardness about taking picture of people we are with. We had supper at the home of some friends we met while we lived in Singapore. We hadn't seen each other for 15 years. It was fun to be in their house and see some familiar artwork and pieces of furniture. Us expats sure seem to like to buy the same types of things! Linda and I were in a number of Bible studies together over the two years we were in Singapore together. Since she had already lived there three years before we arrived, she had a lot of tips and knew where the good shopping places were. I learned so much from her. Butch enjoyed talking with our kids at church and especially teasing our daughter. It was a very enjoyable evening. I hope we can see each other more whenever we go back to Charleston.

Our Sunday morning carriage ride around the old part of Charleston redeemed the horrible harbor cruise. Our tour guide was very informative and we learned so much about the area.

Sunday's lunch was on the waterfront. The scenery and the food were both fantastic. 

I had a soft shell crab BLT. I am a huge fan of crab but had never had soft shell crab. I've heard people rave about it so when it was on the menu, I ordered it. I was not disappointed. It was soooo yummy!

 
As we worked our way around Charleston on foot on Monday, we came across this very old cemetery.