Busyness

Hi friendly readers. Sorry that I'm way behind. Sometime there is so much to say and not enough time to form the post as is the case with me these days. There has been a lot going on in my heart and in my head but not nearly enough time or energy to put in down in type...BUT seeing as it's 1:45 in the morning and I'm still awake, I figure if not now, when?

Tonight I went to see Kelly Willis at the Grey Eagle with friends Rita (longtime friend from Texas) and Sarah (fast friend as of a year). Kelly Willis is ingrained in my high school years like band practice and curly bangs. It was a lot of fun and very nostalgic for me in a lot of ways. I might as well face it, I'm a sentimental sucker. I love to reminisce and talk about the ways things were (all of 20 years ago! I'm not super sentimental about the first 10 years of my life). Anyway, I've been thinking about Austin lately, maybe because I'm going there in Oct., maybe because Chrissy is there this weekend, maybe because I loved living there after college, maybe because I'm missing the familiarity of a place to call home (the kind of place where you know the best places to eat, you know short cuts through a neighborhood to get around a traffic jam, you know the best place to run in town, the best views, the best hikes, you know the lingo, the news anchors, etc.). There is a history there and I guess the common denominator is the know-factor. I'm going on year 5 of life in Western North Carolina and still waiting for know-factor consistency. Every once and awhile I feel sentimental about this place (and I'm sure the grass would be so green if we ever move) like when we come back from a vacation or trip or when I'm able to give someone directions or when I'm at a restaurant and I think about how many times I've eaten there with different people. But all in all, it doesn't totally feel like home. Not yet. Should it? Will it? Give it time? I feel frustrated with myself sometimes about even feeling this way. Truth is, God has given us more than we could ever ask for or imagine in a short period of time with a cherry on top. Do you ever feel this way?

I'm getting a Mountain Xpress (local paper) and actually reading it this weekend.

Here's one thing I love about life here--the seasons! And it's almost time for apple-picking!!

Pinnacle Point

Chris and I went camping last weekend. We didn't want to risk going to a campground where we had a ton of neighbors and lots of noise, so we opted for a night at a "new" Young Life camp about 1 1/2 hours away. It's a camp that was given to YL several years ago. Unfortunately, YL camping hit a slump along with the rest of the economy a few years ago and building was halted until there was funding. Now the word on the street is that construction will start up again and supposedly Pinnacle Point will open summer of 2009. There is certainly a lot to be done! We camped at their Pond Shelter. There is a nearby trout pond with a 2-story shelter, fireplace, and a perfect place to camp. Here are some pictures...

Homer's Home

So, this is how our dog is often found in the morning--still alseep! Does Homer need a bigger crate? Some people say they enjoy the cozy feeling of their own cave, but it sure looks like he is trying stretch out, huh? Either way, he looks real cute!

Settlers of Catan

Have any of you ever played this game?

I have to say the first time I played was way confusing, but the second time I started to think this could be a new favorite game in the very near future.

Some of my Favorite Girls

This was a picture we took out on the town at Early Girl Eatery with this last session's summer staff in the snack bar, store, and crafts. Aren't they sweet?!

Farmer Chris

This is just one thing that Chris did this summer. This week he's back to school with kids coming on Thursday. I went to work today for the first time since "summer" ended on Saturday. It was a little lonely, I have to say. Now that I have more time though you can look forward to more posts!

Bear

I just thought I'd share a picture of the bear print on our back step. (Sorry there's nothing for scale.) On Wed. morning we were woken up by a call on Chris' cell phone from our neighbors across the street. They wanted to make sure that Homer was inside because there was a bear in our back yard. Thank goodness, he was! We looked outside and saw our trashcan knocked over with trash spilling out. Then we saw that he was eating apples under our apple tree. Next, he bent a fence to our neighbor's yard and walked on over. It was unreal. I mean, it's not the first time we've seen a bear nearby, but it was SO close. After he was out of sight, Chris could hear him going through other people's trash and later a car alarm went off. Needless to say, we were awake!

Independence Day

Backyard of the Troyer's home. This is a tradition they've had for years. It's always a guaranteed good time with friends, babies, food, and fireworks.

Here's the two of us since it seems that we rarely get pictures of us together these days.

Gotcha! Lucy Sloan and Knox Troyer kicking back on the 4th together.

Just taking a break from the routine of the work week.

"Say, um, nice stripes there, Knox."

Congrats to Jenn Wisecarver and Kyle Murphy who finally got engaged!!

They've only been dating for 7 years, with a small break in the middle.

I Know He's Just a Dog

...but sometimes he's almost as good as our firstborn, probably better actually for the simple fact that we can leave him outside all day if we want! So, forgive me when I go on and on as if we were from the same gene pool. He's just so darn cute to us!

Mini College Reunion

Here we are in Baltimore, actually Towson, at Carey's house. She was so great to host us all for the day. From left to right we have Lisa Garnett (whose adorable baby Richard was napping at the time of this picture), Robyn Vining (who has Jackson featured on the bottom left of this shot and also Belle, in the pool with the boys below), myself, and Carey Cooper (who also has a Jackson, red hat in pool picture, and Mia, playing with Belle in bottom photo, AND you'd never guess in this picture is 5 months prego). It was so much fun these friends who, for some, I hadn't seen in almost 5 years. All of them are the sweetest moms in the world. It's so great to see their kids as an extension of themselves and also the product of much love and nurturing.


I'm sad I didn't get a picture of Amber Gardner, who I met on the way home in Staunton, VA. She was also a member of the West View crowd and is living in Charlottesville. We had a quick, early dinner at Cracker Barrel and just enough time to catch up on the basics.


So many memories came flooding back as I drove up through Harrisonburg on 81. I was able to stop for some Kline's ice cream, where they were featuring Mint Cookies and Cream--delish! I feel like even though I'm relatively close to this part of the country, I have managed to somehow compartmentalize this part of my life and past. I so want to take advantage of the fact that we are fairly close in proximity at this point in life! (Carey lives 15 minutes max from my sister!)

I was also able to see my sister and dad in Baltimore. There's something so great and relaxing about being with family. We took my dad out for a belated Father's Day dinner. Great food, great weather, and lots of that being known feeling. Ahh.


West View Ladies unable to make it: YOU WERE MISSED!! I say we need to plan a real reunion where everyone is able to be together. I'm offering up Asheville as a possible destination. If we can secure Windy Gap for free or inexpensive lodging, there would be loads of things to do and also plenty of room. If anyone is interested, let me know!

Action Shot

Here's our pup playing with his friend Moses. He's a few weeks younger and they are so funny together. We get them together to wear them out, it's a non-stop, crazy wrestling match.

I'm still very busy with work, so I haven't had a lot to write about...except that my intern and summer staff are amazing this month. Yeah! I have off Fridays and Saturdays, so today I went to Chris' school for the first time. It's really a cute school. It's more of a small community college campus then the elementary school that I went to. He's got his own office and everything. This means that Chris got to clean out his car for the first time in a year! He's been toting everything around from school to school.

Anyways, enjoy some more pictures of Homer...

Music Fun Times

Hey Friends!

Here is my newest internet find: www.pandora.com (thanks to my friend Sanne). You can type in your favorite artist or song and Pandora will find more like it. It's so great. Seriously, I love it. Have fun!

The Calm Before the Storm

So, I was up at 5AM this morning...Week 1, Day 1 of summer is today. I can't believe it! It came so fast and it will be over even faster. I had all kinds of silly store and Sippie (snack bar) dreams last night in anticipation of training the summer staff and doing everything for the first time. I am so very excited for summer this year. We are trying a few new things this summer. For starters, I have an intern who is amazing!! This is great news all the way around. It will be such a big help! We are also going to try and open the Sippie in the morning as a coffee shop. The goal is that this will be a place for leaders to bring their kids in the morning to start the day or engage in more serious conversation. Another function of the coffee shop, will be a place for folks to go and start their day in the Word. We shall see what happens! Today between the hours of 3-5PM EST, there will be 350+ kids arriving at camp to hear more about Jesus and hopefully commit their lives to following Him. We get a "front row seat" in all of this!! Love it.

My mom is doing much better. She returned home on Friday evening and my sister arrived in Austin yesterday for a trip that had already been planned. Thank you for your prayers and intercession for her quick recovery. (Thanks, Carey!)

Please pray..

Sorry it's been so long folks. There is some news I want to share with you tonight. There certainly are a great many things to be thankful for, especially after just finishing 4 days of work week at Windy Gap. We saw over 275 people come to camp Thurs. through this morning to help us get ready for the summer God has already planned at the place I call work. Incredible.

Tonight though, there are even more praises and prayer requests that I would love to tell you about. First off, my mom had to have emergency surgery on Thurs. for an intestine that was being pinched. She had trouble breathing and her blood pressure was very low after the surgery. She was in ICU for a few days. She is now however, in an intermediate care room and, with progress, will move into a regular recovery room. I haven't been able to talk to her yet, although my brother just called to say that he had spoken with her for 30-40 minutes this afternoon and she sounded better than he expected. Great news.

I feel like I've been somewhat removed from the situation though. True I was busy with one of the busier weeks we have all year, but at times I wondered if I let myself be more focused on work than on my family and my mom's situation. It's tough feeling and being so far away and not knowing how serious the situation really is. (My parents like to protect us from worry, so sometimes I think they downplay things that really are quite significant. Parents, if you are reading this, we're onto you (Luci, Sam, and I)). Anyway, please pray for a quick recovery. While there is no cure for the leukemia, there are good seasons and there are downright hard ones. It seems like a cloud overhead that may blow away for a while, but it's out there and it could come back any minute. It's scary...so sometimes I pretend it's not back and it is really just sprinkling while the sun is still shining. (Truth be told, I actually hate this kind of weather because I don't know how to feel about it and then before I can decide, it's over and ridiculously humid.) I honestly think that the Lord may have devised this plan where my parents alternate health problems just to keep our family close even though we have each coast covered. And for this, I am grateful.

Another huge praise, Christie Smith that I wrote about a few weeks back has come out of her coma. Slowly she has regained some functioning in her arms and legs. She is talking and her eyes are open for several hours at a time. Please pray specifically for her parents now. They have taken her back to Charlotte and are overwhelmed trying to figure out life after such a dramatic life-changing event. During work week, we were led by the property manager in corporate prayer for our sister Christie. I know that God does not always (or even close) answer our prayers with the outcome that we ask for, but either way we have a choice to believe in Him or not. No matter what happens. Period.

Thanks for reading and for being our friends and family and the body of Christ. There is so much power in that! I guess when I don't post or talk to a lot of people in a few weeks it comes out on here.

Mother, I love you.

Working Hard

Here's a picture of me working hard at the 1/2 marathon last weekend in Nashville. It was way more fun than I expected (despite the all-business snapshot). It was hard not to run with all those people along the road cheering and yelling for everyone as they ran by! Not to mention all of the live music along the route (several people stopped running just to boogie to their favorite song). I thought I was in trouble a few times before we even started. I had planned to meet my friends at specific spot before the start time, but I waited and waited and soon they were telling us to go to our corral. Right about this time I also started to panic because I realized I had jumped out of the car and forgot my iPod (right there in my purse, on the floor of Chris's car, all charged up and ready with some new music!). I borrowed someone's phone and told Chris to meet me with it at one of the places we had predetermined that he'd be. I went to my corral to start the race and was looking around frantically for Julie and Hannah. I almost asked this really tall guy if he'd be willing to help me look for them (I was thinking he could yell for them or let me on his shoulders!). As we approached the start line, and I'm mentally preparing myself to run "solo" (me and 32,000 other people), I spotted them and made a b-line straight for them. We rejoiced and started the run. My time was 2 hours and 28 minutes. I'm happy with it. We'll see what happens next year (wink wink).

Big Homer Love

Here is Homer's latest glamour shot.

I know I need to update everyone with news and I hope to do it this week. Please stay tuned...

Christie Smith

Hey folks, this is a reminder to PRAY if you would. Christie was injured while training some of the new horses at Windy Gap 2 weeks ago. She is still in a coma at a hospital in Asheville. Her parents are there and waiting expectantly for any reports. It looks as though she will almost certainly have some sort of brain damage from the accident. The unknown is just to what extent--we don't know yet. Please visit www.caringbridge.org and click on "Visit a caring bridge site" and type in "christiesmith" (no space) to get the full story. She was an intern last summer and a fantastic one at that! She is so special to so many people--just see how many people are visiting her website. Please pray for her and her family during a time that no parent wants to go through. Their faith is a strong one, thank the Lord God for His ability to multiply even our own faith in Him.

Puppy Love

Everybody, meet Homer.

Homer, this is everybody.

We got a puppy! And we named him Homer after Chris's great-grandfather, Homer Dale, who helped raise him. He's got quite a name to live up to! We also call him, "Homey", "Homes", "Home slice" and other variations. So, we went to look at him last night and Chris said those magic words--"I like him." We've been looking for awhile now and Chris just hadn't seen quite the right one (I, on the other hand, could have taken all of them!). But, when he saw this one, it was all over. We borrowed a crate for him so he's been staying in that when we are out and at night. He whined A LOT last night. Chris (who swore he wouldn't) got up at 2AM and took him out. (Is this good practice or what??) I found myself wondering how he was doing as we sat in church this morning. The next step for us is the vet. He hasn't had any shots yet. His mom was mostly German Short-haired Pointer and we have no idea about his dad, so we'll just have to see how he turns out! We welcome any puppy advice!

Destination Vacation

We're off to Pigeon Forge, TN and Dollywood for a few days. Chris is on Spring Break and I took off from work. We're celebrating his birthday (the big 2-7) a little early and also getting away from all of the home improvement to be done! We'll be back on Thursday though. (I've always seen the signs for Dollywood on I-40, but never stopped--until NOW!)

Pictures from Easter

We spent Easter at the home of some friends of ours in our small group. We had a bunch of fun playing with the kids, eating delicious food, and playing a rousing game of Battle of the Sexes! I definitely have a crush on the bunny rabbit. Notice the profile shot, spikey hair, roundest cheeks I've ever seen--does it get any better?? His name is Jack. His parents are Jay and Kate Womack. They are wonderful and we love our other friends Blair and Cara and the Boldens too! Blair and Cara are pictured sitting on the couch playing with Daniel (the Boldens oldest) and Ashley is the cute little thing exploring the world of plastic eggs and everything pastel. We had a great time. These folks have really become our new family in town. They are such a huge answer to prayer for me and Chris. Since joining the church and spending Sunday nights with this group, we have felt more at home than ever here.