Story, Interrupted...

I realize that it's been a couple of days since I started Anna's "Sweet Sixteen" story and I still haven't finished it yet.  Some of that has to do with lack of time...  but right now it seems, for some reason, that Blogspot is having trouble with uploading pictures from your computer's hardrive.  This is really frustrating and I've tried a couple of workarounds that aren't working.  :(  And since most of my follow-up story is one that I intended to tell with pictures, it's a little hard to do right now! 

So I will say, for now, that the day continued to have more twists and turns, but by the NEXT day, everything finally got worked out.  And when the picture-uploading thing gets straightened out, I will finish my story.  :)

I will say this -- Would you believe that the easiest and probably best part of the day came when we went to the DMV to get Anna's license?  You don't hear too many people being able to say that -- ever...  haha. 

More later...

Sweet Sixteen!

So this morning my mind starting wandering backwards... this time 5 years ago, 10 years ago, 15 years ago... amazing how your life and times change so much in blocks of time like that.  Then to 16 years ago as we headed to the hospital.  I had been 'about to have' Anna for a couple of weeks and she just didn't quite want to seem to make her appearance into this crazy world.  So I was scheduled to be induced.  My two pretty vivid memories of that morning came first, after the doctor broke my water, that I STILL didn't go into labor...  so we passed the time walking the halls and playing cards.  :)   Then second, them coming in to tell me that they would start me on the lowest dose of pitocin and see how that would go.... well, it worked almost immediately and suddenly I went from playing cards to full blown active labor!  yikes...  anyways, it didn't take much longer after that for Anna Louise to grace our world with her presence.  :)   I'll spare the details on that.... haha.

So today has been a bit of a 'comedy of errors,' though I have to say so far it's been more frustrating than funny.  I hope that writing about these sorts of things will mean that one day, when I look back, THEN it will be funny. 

The idea for today was that Anna's birthday present was going to be a 'car makeover.'  Of course, we didn't want her to know about it, so Jack to her to school as usual, and then turned around and came home so that he could install running boards on her car.  Then we were going to take it down to Wal-mart to have them put on some new, bigger, (cooler-looking) tires.  Meanwhile, as Jack was working on the running board installation, I was detailing the car and putting some cosmetic touches on new stickers, a new tire cover, etc. 

Sigh.

First of all, let me mention the weather.  It's been raining now for 2 days straight and it's COLD.  So there's not even a chance of a car wash or anything like that.  So scratch that.  So I put the car in the garage and started drying it off so I could put the stickers on the back windshield... then I started cleaning inside.  Jack got home and started working on the running boards... only to find that they had sent the wrong set of hardware (nuts and bolts).  grrr......    So, that completely derailed the running board project.  (pun intended - ha)    So, we moved on from that and took the car to Wal-mart to put on the tires.  Well, did you know that Wal-mart won't mount tires that are a different size from the ones you already have on the car?  Un, no, we didn't know that either.  But now we do.  And now you do, too.  :)    So no tires got put on at Wal-mart.  So we drove back home and started making phone calls and found a place in New Hope that would put the tires on.  "Yeah, we can do that in about an hour.  No problem."  That was at 9:30 this morning.  It's 1:30 now --- and yes, I'm seriously running out of time to be able to get the car back from them and still make it to the school with the car to pick up Anna.  Why is this important, you ask?  Well, because Anna is going to get her liscense this afternoon and wants to drive HER car to gymnastics tonight.  Oh dear. 

Anyways, this is where I find myself in the saga...  and I may just go ahead and post this now and let you know how it turns out later...   

Happy New Year!

 

This is how New Year's Eve started last night:

 

 

This is how I found things when I woke up this morning:

 

 

And no, I couldn't talk Jack out of cleaning up after them... I'm meaner than he is, and less of a clean freak. (ha)  I was willing to let it sit there until they woke up.  ;-)  Guess they're just lucky to have such a good dad.  :)

 

 

And so another year comes to a close and another one stretches out before me.  I don't feel like this past couple of weeks has been too terribly hectic, but I still find myself screeching into this new year without any big plans.  Honestly, right now, as I sit in my mess of an office, if I could just get this room cleaned out, I would be happy for a long time with just that.  :)

 

What has been on my mind the last few days are thoughts and images from the movie Les Miserables.  I've seen it twice now in the span of a week and would probably go see it again right now if you asked me.  I thought I might get a little bored the second time through, but I didn't at all.  It's just so full of depth and emotion and pain and truths and redemption...  as Lisa said the other night, "It's amazing what you can learn in a couple of hours at the movies..."   I just find it intriguing to see how different characters react to both desperate circumstances as well as unbelievable grace and forgiveness.  For some it changes them for the good; for others it brings them to despair.  Looking at Jean Valjean, the grace extended to him brings him to his knees in brokenness over his sin and repentance and changes him into a humble, honest, and giving man.  But as grace is extended, more than once, to Javert, his pride in what he has always thought to be true and his faith in the rule of God's law allow him no room for his own failings and no room for the forgiveness being offered.

 

I would like to think that I see myself most in Jean Valjean - and perhaps that is my desire for the year ahead, to learn from what I saw in his character.  But this last year, I think, has been a bit of an exercise in living in the mind of Javert.  Doubts, questions, and challenges to what I have believed most of my life have come at me from every side, it seems.  I have been rethinking a lot of things and this line from one of Javert's songs comes to mind:

 

"And must I now begin to doubt, who never doubted all these years?  My heart is stone and still it trembles.  The world I have known is lost in shadows."

 

Thankfully, I do not feel the despair at this point that Javert gives in to.  But it has been a hard road that has spun me around, frightened me at times, angered me, made me cynical in some ways, made me cry, and I know I've worried and hurt and annoyed family and friends along the way. 

 

There is good news though.  :)   The soul-searching and willingness to ask the hard questions have led me to a place of learning to find peace within the tension of not having all the answers.  This is NOT easy for someone like me who likes to fix everything and everyone and always have a solution waiting in the wings.  BUT, I am finding myself less in need of control.  Less in need of living other people's lives for them.  Less in need of knowing what the 'plan' is. 

 

This verse is taking on new meaning in light of all of this:

"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."   (Matthew 6:33-34)

 

What I am more in need of now is discovering ways to seek first God's kingdom and righteousness in my own life - not waiting on anyone else (or any other church or organization, for that matter) to do it for me.  Asking the question, "Where has God put me right now that I can work together with Him to, as my favorite preacher of the moment likes to say, bring a little bit of heaven down to earth?"

 

When I look back at the character of Jean Valjean, that's what he did.  He brought compassion and help wherever he could in the midst of terrible and desperate times and conditions.  He couldn't fix it all, but he did what he could.

 

And isn't it even better to know that we are loved by a God and redeemed by a savior who can 'fix' all that is broken in our lives?   Hmmm... another solid lesson of this year comes to mind.  By 'fix,' I don't mean that all is miraculously changed and perfect...  one thing that has become increasingly clear to me is that there are just some consequences of mistakes and sin that carry on through life even when forgiveness and redemption have been fully applied to them.  That is just the nature of sin and consequence.  That is why God warns us so strongly against it and why it hurts Him so when we don't listen.  

 

SO, I'm hoping to listen better, love better, and live better in this new year...  hmmm, guess that's my resolution.  :)  

 

Happy New Year to all! 

 

 

P.S.   Go see this movie!!  It's amazing!!  :)

 





 

 

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.  :)