From our family to yours...

wishing everyone a very

Merry Christmas!

Silver bells, silver bells....

...it's my 25th Wedding Anniversary! 

OK, so that phrasing doesn't really fit with the song, but it was the best I could do.  :)

And on top of that, today isn't really my anniversary, yesterday was... but I was just too busy to get this posted yesterday.  ha. 

But I am very happy to have reached this 'Silver Anniversary' milestone in life.  And I wanted to share a few pictures from a trip this past weekend that Jack and I took to Gatlinburg to celebrate.  25 years ago, we spent our honeymoon there and it was fun going back trying to remember what things were like then and reminiscing over all these years together.

So to begin with, I had these three pictures from a photo collage that we've had up for all these years that were taken while we were on our honeymoon.  One from in front of an old cabin out in Cades Cove.  One of me in the middle of a stream.  And one in front of a ginormous Christmas tree that I *think* was in front of a really nice restaurant that we ate out at one night.  I actually had kept the Coca-Cola sweatshirts that we wore those many years ago - call me a packrat if you want, but it turned out to be a good thing! -- and I thought it would be really fun to try and 'recreate' these three pictures while we were there. 

 

 

Well, as with all noble plans and intentions, some succeed and some fail.  :)  The above two picture recreations were thwarted by bad weather.  It pretty much rained the whole time we were there.  So getting out to Cades Cove and hiking really wasn't a good idea and I think if I had tried to stand in the stream for a picture, I probably would have been washed away!  So those two didn't happen. 

 

What DID happen instead, was that we set about trying to find the huge Christmas tree - it doesn't exist anymore - go figure.  Neither does the resaurant - as best we can tell, it is now the Nantahala Outdoor Sports Store.  :)  SO, we just started taking pictures in front of whatever Christmas trees we came across.  :)    I'll include a couple more of those down below, but I thought I'd offer up this one as a side-by-side comparison and see what you think after all these years:

 





So.... a few more years, more wrinkles, more pounds, less hair....  ha.  But hey!! We still fit into our sweatshirts!!  Yay!  That's more than I can say for my wedding dress, but we won't go there... 

Now for a few more pictures...

 

The Bearskin Lodge - we had an awesome suite with a fireplace overlooking a beautiful stream - very nice!

 

 

These were waiting for me in the room when we arrived.  :)

Dinner at Mellow Mushroom and another Christmas Tree picture.

 

Our first stop of the day was to buy umbrellas....haha... THEN we did indoor activities like the Hollywood Car Museum.  This is one of Jack's favorites - the 'other woman' in his life - "Eleanor"

 

This is from that Nantahala Outdoor Store that I mentioned above...

 

Cheesy self-timer picture with the camera perched precariously on the passenger door window at an overlook with Gatlinburg in the distance.

And no Anniversary trip with a car-guy is complete without more pictures of cars...  :)   This one is from the Muscle Car Museum in Seveirville.  Again, Jack's favorite car, a '69 Camaro. 

So that's the trip in pictures.  We had a really nice couple of days away.   The weather wasn't perfect and there were silly things that were annoying like trusting that if a hotel tells you that it has a jacuzzi it doesn't necessarily mean that it really works quite right...  grrr.  But it's kinda like our marriage - it's been a wonderful 25 years, but it hasn't always been picture perfect.  We've had some great times that I remember with much happiness and some very difficult times that have definitely left some scars.  But over all these years, God's grace and faithfulness to both of us has shown through in ways that when I really think about it, is hard to comprehend.  And this verse just came to mind:

I Corinthians 2:9:

“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived
what God has prepared for those who love Him.”

 

So today I am unbelievably thankful for the amazing husband that God has blessed me with, the two beautiful girls that have been entrusted to our care, and the life that we have together.  I look forward to many more years in this journey together.  :)

Lighting of the Green

 

"So wrap our injured flesh around you

Breathe our air and walk our sod

Rob our sin and make us holy

Perfect son of God

Welcome to our world"
                                       - Amy Grant, Welcome to Our World

Once Thanksgiving day is here, Christmas music makes its way back onto the airwaves in my car.  I think this song is one of the best ones of the season, and Amy Grant is a sentimental favorite of mine.  So, it was a real treat this past Tuesday night to get to go up to Lipscomb for the annual "Lighting of the Green." For the past 8 years, Amy Grant has helped organize this free concert at Lipscomb and it was a great show!  It definitely helped me get more in the mood for Christmas.  :)  And the bonus was that Lisa went with me and we got to spend some fun time with Mackenzie and her friends.  So here are a few pictures from the night:

 

 We kept wondering if Amy was ever going to take her bathrobe off.   She never did.  ha

It was SO cold...  but at least it wasn't rainy or windy!!

The Three Musketeers.... or the Three Amigos.... or maybe 3 Blind Mice....  3 bffs for sure.  :)

Me and my big girl. (Well, she's not so big really, but you know what I mean.)

After the concert...  we were still trying to get the feeling back in our toes as we thawed out in Mackenzie's very warm room.

...and we were trying to thaw out our faces too.  ha. 

It's all in the camera...

Well, it's always interesting when I dump the pictures off of my camera and remember what I've done in the last month.  ha.  So I'll post a few here to catch up.  Then I hope to actually get in here and post about other things that have been on my mind for a while.  I wish it didn't take so much effort to get that stuff from my head to a blog post... haha.  I admire people who can post stuff every day and keep it going - that would wear me out! :)

Two weeks ago, we celebrated Lisa Cooper's 50th birthday at the bible study at Selwyn's house.  We opted to be nice and not put 50 candles on her birtday cake.  ;-)

Then a week ago was what Lipscomb refers to as "Fall Break."  That consists of the kids getting a Friday off from school.  I'm not sure how much of a break that actually is, but it was enough to get Mackenzie (and friends! Melissa, Molly, Jessica and Nichole, in that order...) home for a couple of days.  This is all of them at a Huntsville Havoc game on Friday night.  And can I just say, THAT was an interesting experience.  I mean, hockey is pretty fun to watch - probably more so if you know what is going on, and I really don't - but the fans probably put on more of a show than the players did.  Very loud and rowdy... ha.

After the game, the girls wanted to carve pumpkins - that's what is going on here, with Jack offering some 'manpower' to cut the tops off...

Of course, it would be that Mackenzie's fall break would be on the same weekend that we had already bought tickets and planned to go to Memphis for the Gymnastics Tour of Champions.  Mackenzie had to be back in Nashville early on Sunday for the "Color Run" so she couldn't come with us, but we loved taking Ashlyn Grace along.  Speaking of Memphis, that was yet another interesting experience, walking Beale street late on a Saturday night.  hmmmm...... 

A couple of pictures from the show.... USA Women's Gymnastics champions:

And, amid sqeals of delight from hoards of young girls, the USA Men's Gymnasts:  (and let's be honest, the older women enjoyed this part of the show too... haha.)

Then Wednesday night of last week, Jack came home with this... a little 'dirt bike' for me as a 49th Birthday present.  :)  Now, we have talked about motorcycles and the fact that I've always wanted to learn how to ride one for a long time.  But still, I was so surprised when I came outside and saw this in my driveway!  Jack and Anna just laughed at me as I putted around in our front yard (in the dark) trying to figure out how it worked.  :) 

Then Saturday, we took the bike down the street (well, Jack rode it down the street) to a construction site that had lots of great cleared land to ride around on.  The two pictures below are me and Anna getting ready to ride.  I've earned the nickname "Q-Tip" because my helmet it white and that's the first thing Anna said about me as she was laughing hysterically while I was trying on helmets at the store.  ;-) 

Here's a funny story...  so Sunday, on my birthday, I took off riding down the grass on the side of the streets to get over to the construction site.  My bike isn't 'street legal' so I was trying to stay off the major roadways.  But as I was put-putting along on the side of the road, I was reminded of something I used to do as a kid to pass the time on long car trips...back in the dark ages, before dvd players and iPhones...(gasp!)  when 8Track tapes were all the entertainment we had...haha.  Anyways, as I was listening to John Denver sing Country Roads Take Me Home, I would be looking out the window and imagining myself riding, carefree, along the sides of the road on a motorcycle.  Jumping dirt mounds, dodging obstacles, riding off into big fields... that was my 'entertainment.'   Anyways, there I was yesterday, doing what I had dreamed of doing all those years ago...  maybe not quite as dramatic or flashy, but still, dreams do still come true. 

And that's what I've been up to, according to my camera.  :)

Dinner Party

You know that it's been too long since you've posted on your blog when you open it up and could swear that the most recent post you are looking at couldn't possibly be the last thing you wrote - to the point that I actually went and looked at my list of posts to see if I had written something more recent and just forgotten to actually post it.  Nope, nothing.  It really has been that long... ha.

 

Anyways, last night I had a bunch of friends over for the first dinner party that I've hosted in I don't know how long.  I really can't remember the last time I did something like this.  And it was so much fun! :)  What's amazing to me to realize is that as much fun as the actual event was, I actually really enjoyed all the preparation for it.  Honestly, that part usually stresses me out, but this time I was happy to get all the cleaning done and the decorating and shopping and cooking...  I really am looking forward to doing it again sometime soon. :)

 

Anyways, just wanted to post a few pictures from the night:

 

I just love what Anna did with this pumpkin - does it remind anyone else of Charlie Brown?  :)

My new dining room center piece - if you like it, check out the new Home Goods store on Hwy 72!  It's pretty awesome.

More fall decor.  I'm pretty excited about my lighted pumpkin!

...And all the awesome women from our bible study group - Iris, Lisa C., Rene, Danette, and Lisa B.  I have learned so much from each of these women this year in our times together and am so thankful for each of them.  :)

August in Pictures

Just wanted to catch up on a month's worth of what's been happening in the Carter family...  it always seems easiest just to do that with pictures.  It was funny when I started downloading them off my camera...  it's kinda like the carbon copies in my checkbook -- since I'm obviously not very good at recording things as I go along, it's a good way to go back and actually remember what happened!  :) 

 

 

Mackenzie made it back home after 'conquering' Australia.  ha.  Actually, she got home at the end of July, but her pictures were still on my camera so this one made the cut.  That was definitely a life-changing trip for her and an experience she will never forget.

 

About the time she came home, all of the Townsley family descended upon Huntsville.  We were lucky to get a beautiful half of a day down at the lake before the rains came.  Of course, I had to work the part of the day that was beautiful...  when I arrived later, so did the rain.  They all probably wish I had stayed home and kept the rain with me.  ;-)   Nevertheless, my sister apparently got some good pictures of the aunts and uncles and cousins...  I'm thinking she either took all the pictures or cleverly managed to avoid getting in  any of them... at least, this is what I tend to do.  :)

So this first picture is Mark, Adeline and Zoe - and it looks like Zoe is wondering if her life jacket is really going to keep her afloat. :)

 

And this picture?  How cute is she?  Just gotta love the sunglasses and turtle life jacket - a true French diva right there!  :)

 

Shelby - looks like she's ready for some tubing.

 

And he will probably kill me for this - but here's Nathan in his studly pose.  :)

 

Tom and Shelby - a nice father/daughter moment.

 

This is Lena with her mom....  I'm not quite sure if' she's laughing or screaming her head off!

 

When I saw this picture, the first thing I thought was, "Bond, James Bond..."  ;-)

 

 

Back at mom and dad's house, this is Lena in the puppy pile.  This was one of those moments that really made me miss childhood.  I don't know why we don't do things like this as adults (maybe because it's not so comfortable as it used to be before all of our aches and pains) but I remember making what we called 'pallets' out of every pillow, blanket, and stuffed animal we could find and laying around on them watching TV.

 

 

I just liked this picture - upside-down texting - probably with the boyfriend.  :)

 

In the middle of family visiting, we took a weekend out to move Mackenzie back up to Lipscomb.  She had to go back a couple of weeks early to get ready for her RA job. (The nice perk of that is getting a room to herself this year!)   Becca is in Nashville this fall doing a co-op job so we met up with her there.  And Jessica went along with us for fun.  This is them being silly in the room with Mackenzie's other friend Jessica. 

 A couple more shots of her room...

 

 

This is the obligatory picture that had to be taken before saying good-bye.  :)  Jessica (on the left) was laughing because we just named this picture the "Jessica Sandwich".

 

That same weekend, Jack and I went from there up to Louisville, KY to the National Street Rod Association car show. (I should probably mention that, meanwhile, Anna was in Auburn at a gymnastics camp.  We were kinda scattered everywhere...)  Anyways, while we were at the show, we saw this ridiculous SUV and took a picture to show Anna because she's been telling us for a while that she really wanted an SUV whenever she gets a car.  We thought she might like this one.  :)

 

And then last but not least, thanks to Jeff Burgess and his amazing  bargain-finding ways, we were fortunate to get this nice Honda CRV for Anna and she's very happy about it!   Of course, it will make her birthday in January a little anti-climatic, but I think she'll get over it.  ;-)

And that's August in pictures.

Besides all that, I've been doing a lot of thinking, and thinking, and thinking...  and this quote is one that keeps tossing around in my head and I hope will transform my heart:

"Through His transcendent love, our Jesus Christ became what we are so that He might make us what He is."    -  St. Ireneaus

I heard that in a sermon by Patrick Mead called "Pure Love."  You can listen to it here:
http://eastsidechurch.us/listen-online/

And that's all I have for tonight...  caught up again for a little while.  :)

Things I miss...

• Summers of my long ago childhood where the days seemed endless and I actually got bored (and really didn't care how hot it was)
• Being able to see the numbers on a credit card without having to squint or pull out my reading glasses
• Being at Six Flags with the teens
• Having a dog that could see and run and play
• My girls being 2 and 6 years old and how sweet that time of life was (I'm being reminded of this as I have my brother's two little girls here in the states for a while and they are so fun)
• Having a BFF that I could tell the little stupid day-to-day things I've done or complain to and who actually wants to hear about it
• Being able to remember people's names
• Looking good in a bikini (that was a long, long, time ago... if ever... maybe that's just a fantasy... ha)
• Going along with the above, being able to eat all the Ritz crackers with butter on top that I wanted and not gain any weight (yum!)
• Being able to run without it making everything hurt
• Having the time and energy to run
• My girls needing me more than they do these days - they've grown up so fast!
• Not having to pay the bills
• Short getaway weekends with my husband that didn't require so much planning and jumping through hoops
• Having a pool in my back yard
• When right and wrong seemed so black and white and easy to understand
• Parker's Maple Barn (and all things New England that it represents!)
• Believe it or not, time to read (now that I don't have it, I want it - ha)

Anyways, this is not exhaustive, but it gets out some things that for some reason got floating around in my head today.  Sorry for the melancholy nature of such a list, but it reflects my mood at the moment.  Maybe my next post should be "Things I'm thankful for..." to balance it out...  but hey, these are all things I've been thankful for at some time and am just missing now!  :-)

A night in July...

So tonight I was at church singing some of the songs that I love to sing and looking around at the faces of people that have been my friends for years.  

Announcements were read, prayers were said, and then the elders went up front to speak. 

Apologies were made for decisions made in haste...  and then the presentation began.  I'm sure that many around me heard words like unity, peace, liberty, love, freedom.

I wish I could have heard those words in what was said. 

But I heard... authority, submission, feminism, gender roles, headship, law, limits, constraints.

Sigh.

And my heart is broken.   :( 

From the mouths of babes...

Last night I was fortunate to get to attend the wedding of Mike and Danette Sigler.  It was a beautiful ceremony held outside just as the sun was going down on the grounds of a beautiful farm just down the road from where I live.    Fortunately, the rain held off just long enough for Mike to get to kiss his bride, and then it couldn't hold back any longer. 

But there was this moment that I wanted to remember that really didn't have that much to do with the wedding itself, but it was just one of those things that totally grabbed my attention and spoke to me in a really neat way.  Clyde Jones was 'officiating' and I believe this happened right after the exchange of rings....  he stopped to say a prayer.  Well, just as he began to pray, this precious little baby girl a couple of rows in front of me, who was the cutest thing and was as happy as could be, started saying, "Dadadadadadada......."   I heard her and looked up and had this sudden thought that it was so ironic to hear her babbling "da..da.." as Clyde was praying to our Father in heaven.      For everyone around her, maybe it just sounded like babytalk gibberish  --- but to her daddy, that is the sweetest sound in the world.   It made me wonder if sometimes that is exactly what God hears when we pray to Him.   And even when we are struggling and trying to get the 'right' words out in prayer, to Him, it is the most beautiful sound in the world...

Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him.  “Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” (Jesus speaking in Mark 14:36)

And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father."  (Paul speaking in Galatians 4:6)

Last weekend I was able to attend the Summer Celebration at Lipscomb.  I've been wanting to go for the past few years, but family vacations have always seemed to fall around this time of year and I haven't been able to do it.  But everything worked out this year and I was able to get away and go with Jeff, Lisa and Jenna.  So before I forget everything that I got out of that couple of days, I thought I'd record a few highlights:

Best times of singing, praise and worship:
Late Monday night with the praise team from the Hillsboro Church
Late Sunday night with the praise team from Otter Creek Church
A special treat singing "It Is Well With My Soul" led by Michael W. Smith  (more on that later)
And it's hard not to be encouraged by Keith Lancaster's spirited leading of even some of our oldest hymns  :)

Most encouraging class:
A Missional Experiment: The Journey of the Ethos Church --- We got a chance to hear how the church got started and various stories of faith that have encouraged them over the past 3 years. The most uplifting thing to me was that everything they shared centered around the very simple idea that 'Jesus changes everything.' They spoke very little about their 'church' but said a whole lot about what Jesus was doing among them... maybe that explains why their 'experiment' has been so overwhelmingly successful at drawing people to Jesus.

Funny moments along the way:
The 'scary toilet' in our shared bathroom
Thinking that we had found a quiet spot to each lunch outside only to be serenaded by a lawnmower and weed eaters
Going to Joe Beam's class "The Art of Love" with Jeff  (no, that wasn't awkward at all - ha)
Getting lost trying to find Mafioza's, then finally finding it, parking in the wrong parking lot, only to find that it was closed anyway... 
The look on Jeff's face as he tried to figure out something that he could eat at Fido's
Sitting in a class at the Shamblin Theater wrapped head to toe in my sleeping bag because I swear it was, like, 20 degrees in that room all weekend

Most unexpected thing that I really liked:
A class called "Come to the Quiet:  Creation" that I had not planned on going to, but ended up in because Patrick Mead was not able to make it to speak this year because of the fires in Colorado (which I was so disappointed about because I just LOVE him!)  ....anyways.... this class ended up being a time of guided, responsive reading of scripture and prayers with a few hymns sprinkled in.  It ended up being very refreshing, contemplative and moving.    Something I needed and didn't even know...  :)

A highlight for me:

Rhonda Lowery (the wife of Randy Lowery, president of Lipscomb) hosts 'conversations' with people every year at this event.  One of her guests this time was Michael W. Smith - one of my heros.  :)    I just love his music and what he has meant as a pioneer to Christian contemporary music.   I loved getting to hear his story, a little about his career, and a lot about what his passion (besides music) is now - the Rocketown ministry in downtown Nashville.  I was not aware until then that he had started that and it was neat to hear about what that ministry is doing for kids in that area.   Just one more example of creative ways to reach out with the heart and love of Jesus through community to those who may not find their way in to 'church' in any other way.   (example... they have 'Skater Church' on Tuesday nights where all the kids that come there to use the indoor skate park can get in for free that night and they have a devotional for them - pretty cool.)

At the very end of the interview with Michael W. Smith, Rhonda Lowery asked him to play a hym for us...  he smiled and said, "Oh, I know just what to play...  but I want you all to sing for me with your 3 part harmony."  (It's 4 part, but who's counting - ha)  So he sat down at the piano and began to play "It Is Well With My Soul" and we all started to sing.  Then everyone in the auditorium began to stand up and we sang along as he played - it was beautiful.  As he started into the 2nd verse, he stopped playing and just stood up and walked around in front of the piano to stand and listen to us sing the rest of the song... and it was just the neatest moment - to see how much he was enjoying our singing and how awesome it sounded.   It's hard to describe, but it was just an inspiring moment.

I know there was a lot more, but that is what is coming to mind now.   It was great getting away for a couple of days and just having time to be immersed in lessons and conversation about Jesus and enjoying times of singing and worship of all kinds.  It was also a lot of fun to be a part of how the Burgesses do these kinds of things as a family.  It was fun to go off to different classes and then all get together at meals and the end of the day to share what we learned...  and I loved that Jenna was the one that insisted at the end of the day (even when everybody was tired) that we get together and share from the day.  That's awesome. :)  

(Speaking of Jenna - just wanted to give her credit for the photos - I stole them from her!!)