Reminiscing in North Carolina

My great-grandfather ("Pop-Pop") built a house on a mountain in a little town called Etowah, North Carolina.  When he passed away, my grandparents inherited it.  I remember visiting this place probably once a year for almost every year of my childhood.  In 2004, my grandparents were no longer able to maintain the house as they aged so they had to sell it.  I didn't meet Curtis until 2005 so he never had the opportunity to experience it.  Here's some of the pictures that I snagged as I shared my childhood memories with my husband:

This is on Folly Road - right before you get to the mountain.  The colors were gorgeous!

I used my panoramic camera to take some of these pictures.

My grandparents lived on a private road where there were only 1-2 other families living on that stretch of the mountain.  I walked this road so many times picking blueberries!  My brothers and cousins always loved to ride (or drive) the 4-wheeler whenever we'd visit!

My grandfather would take care of this water wheel.  There used to be a fake duck with little ducklings walking towards the stream.  I was happy to see that the neighbors were still keeping the water running!  

Here's a panoramic view of the area around the water wheel.

This is the house that my great-grandfather built.  I was warmly greeted by the new owners of the house, which was very kind since we showed up unexpectedly.  They gave us a tour of the house.  The new owner is an interior designer and she re-did the entire house.  She did a great job and the house looked great, but a lot of the memories that I would have felt inside the house weren't there.

This is the view from the deck of the house!  It is just breath-taking!

So glad for the panoramic ones - I think I'm going to have to try to develop some of these!

This one was pretty cool - it shows me taking a picture and gives you a little bit more of the deck than my pictures do.

Curtis really enjoyed the view!

Some additional angles of the back of the house (which the neighbors now consider their front of the house)

It was so beautiful.

Next up...I took Curtis to the Pisgah Forest and showed him Looking Glass Falls.

We would come here often with my family and I was happy to share this with Curtis.

We also stopped by Sliding Rock, a naturally occurring 60-foot water slide.  I only got the nerve to do it one time with my grandfather when I was younger.  I have this picture with my mouth open as wide as it's ever been as I slid down!  As for this day, it was too cold to slide (or so we thought), but there were a few people that had to slide down because they lost a bet.  Notice that one of them doesn't even have legs!  I was impressed.

Our trip also consisted of visiting Charlotte to spend some time with one of Curtis' roommates.  We had a wonderful time with them.  We spent our evenings in downtown Asheville, which was really fun.  We ate at some amazing restaurants - Asheville Pizza & Brewing Company and Tupelo Honey Cafe.  We went to Greenville, South Caroline to worship at Downtown Presbyterian Church.  It was such a delight!  

We even found gas for as low as $2.97 in Greenville.  That is so low!

We also went to the Skytop Apple Orchard in Flat Rock, NC.  It was really beautiful there, but it wasn't really the season for apples so we just enjoyed the view.

It was really nice to get away for about 4 days and explore North Carolina.  This will be one of our last trips before I am unable to travel for a while now that I'm getting farther along in my pregnancy.  It was definitely worth the trip!

Wedding Número 3

Curtis and I have had the honor of counseling and preparing David and Amanda Brodmann for their upcoming marriage for the past 9 or 10 months.  Finally, the big day arrived on October 13!  Every year since Curtis has been ordained, he has had the opportunity to officiate for one wedding, which makes this wedding #3. :)

The wedding was gorgeous - they had it at the Mackey House in Savannah.

I got a pretty good picture of Amanda and her father walking down the aisle.

You may now kiss the bride!

Amanda & David released doves after the ceremony was complete.  I thought this was a pretty good capture from my phone!

Curtis and I really enjoyed being able to celebrate with David, Amanda and their families.  I'm sure the Brodmanns are feeling relieved that both weddings went smoothly this year - (A Beautiful Beach Wedding in May and this one in October)!

Quick Trip to Central Florida

Last weekend, my aunt and uncle planned a day trip to tube down the Ichetucknee River with my parents.  They also planned to surprise my parents by having Curtis and I show up!  

 Curtis and I traveled to Gainesville the day before so that we would have a shorter trip the next morning.  This was a blessing because Curtis and I were able to spend more time with the Fields!  Jeffrey, another good friend, was even able to join us for a little bit.  Pictured above, you can see Curtis and his buds praying over each other.

Meanwhile, everything was going smoothly for the surprise until my parents ended up canceling at the last minute.  By this time, we were in Gainesville and my aunt and uncle were in Ocala prepared to head to the Ichetucknee River the following morning. We ended up spilling the beans to my parents and we worked out a compromise so that we could at least see them after we went tubing.

The tubing was really relaxing - Curtis and I were able to float down the river talking with two of my uncles, an aunt and our sweet 4 year old cousin.  Afterwards, we met my parents at Sonny's for a late lunch.  Even though our plans were changed a little bit, our trip was a lot of fun.  Great memories were made! :)

Coming in February 2013

Yes, it is true!  God has answered our prayers and we are excited to announce that we will be having a baby next year.  We praise the Lord for his faithfulness to us.  What a blessing!

Ironically, I found out that I was pregnant exactly one year later to the day that I found out that I was pregnant with Brooks.  My due date is February 27; Brooks' due date was February 23.  The challenging part is not to fear that we will lose this one also.  I am going through each month just as far along as I was with Brooks, which makes me worried about the month of September since that is when we lost him.  When I begin to fear, I am trying to spend time in prayer knowing that the Lord is in control.  Curtis and I believe that God is redeeming all the sad dates from our loss with happy ones from this new baby.  Please pray with us that our baby would be healthy.  We look forward to finally having an earthly child!

 12 Week Appointment

Vacation Bible School

This year was the first time that I was able to serve as a teacher in our church's Vacation Bible School.  I was one of the teachers for the K4 group. 

Recording the VBS music - each family receives a CD
at the end of the VBS program

The music was wonderful, I don't think a single person walked away without hiding scripture in their heart through the lyrics.  I think my little 4 and 5 year old kids know the following verses just from our songs:

"Though the grass will wither and the flowers fall, the word of our God will stand forever" - Isaiah 40:8 and "I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you." Psalm 119:11

It was so cute to see them do the little hand motions! 

We spent the week learning about the armor of God, as well as several attributes of God.  One of my responsibilities was to try to communicate to the kids different attributes about God.  A lot of my family and friends probably don't realize that God used them to teach little children about who God is.  I created this poster to help:

On Day 1, I explained that God is loving.  I depicted it by putting some pictures of our loving family.  I included a picture of me with three of my cousins (Jane, Judy, Beth).  I also included a picture of Curtis with his Nana and his aunt (Diane).

On Day 2, the children learned that God is our protector.  I tried to use a few different examples of protectors.  I put a picture of my brother, Tim, in his military uniform as he protects our country.  I put a picture of Curtis in his football attire, explaining that he protected the quarterback.  I also told them that his dad is in the picture, and he protected Curtis, just as each of the children's fathers protect them.

On Day 3, I taught them that God is faithful.  I showed this by putting up pictures of some of the faithful marriages in my family.  I put up my deceased Grandmom & Grandad, who were married for 50 years.  I also added my parents, who have been married for 28 years.  And of course, I put a picture of our wedding.

On Day 4, the children were taught that God is truth.  This one was a little tricky, but I placed pictures of Bible Studies where I have taught God's word, which is the truth.  One of them is from a RUF Freshman Bible Study that I co-taught with my good friend, Kaylen.  The other was a middle school Bible Study that I co-taught at Pinewood.  It makes me miss all those girls!

On the final day, I shared with the children that God is kind.  I explained this one by putting up pictures of some of our sweet friends that we are kind to one another.  One has two of my good college friends, Miranda & Kelly.  The other has Curtis with two of his good college friends, Sean and Joel.

It was really fun to go through old pictures and decide how I would use them for this task.  If you were one of the ones mentioned above, thanks for letting God use you in the lives of little ones.

All of Curtis' Roommates Are Now Married

Curtis had three close roommates in college - Ryan, Josh and Jeffrey.  They all took bets on who would get married first.  Everyone thought Jeffrey would be the first.

Here's how the weddings actually occurred:

6/7/2008 - Curtis and I

5/28/2011 - Josh and Alicia

10/15/2011 - Ryan and Emily

7/1/2012 - Jeffrey and Jessie

We are so happy that we were able to come to Jeffrey & Jessie's wedding!  Curtis served as an Usher.  Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures.  So, I've taken this picture from the official photographer (not trying to infringe on any copyrights) - if you want to see more pictures, please go to Valentina Glidden Photography.  It completes the roommates all getting married.

The wedding was beautiful and we enjoyed getting to meet Jessie.  Jeffrey first told us about Jessie at Josh's wedding...and by the time Ryan's wedding came around, he was ready to marry her!

We are looking forward to many years spent with all 8 of us (and their families as they increase).  I've never met such incredible, godly men before.  All four of them are very strong in their walks with the Lord.  Three of them have now graduated from seminary, two of them are pastors and the other two want to be missionaries in the future.

Our 4th Anniversary to the Southernmost Point (Key West)

This was my first trip to the Keys, but it was Curtis' fourth trip!  We were there from June 10 - June 15.  We got a pretty good hotel deal through priceline.  Our first day in Key West, we went snorkeling.  I have a slight fear of water and I kinda freaked out on our snorkeling adventure during our honeymoon, but I was willing to give it a try.  Curtis claimed that the best place to snorkel in the United States is in the Keys.

We boarded the Jolly Roger in Marathon, Florida to begin our excursion.

I was a little nervous!

I think I did pretty well!  I was able to swim around and see all sorts of fish and coral.  I'm pictured above in my snorkeling gear.

The view was amazing!  We actually were able to see dolphins when we were traveling to our second location to snorkel.

Unfortunately, Curtis got a little seasick during it, but he was fine once we were back on stable ground.

For dinner, we went to a place called 2 Cents Restaurant.  Everything on their menu was much more than 2 cents, however.   It was very tasty though.  It was fun to see Curtis finally able to completely relax.

On our second day, we took a trolley tour to explore the entire island of Key West.  We thought this was a pretty cool sign above - it showed how many miles away we were from lots of places, in and out of the country.  We actually ended up purchasing a picture of a similar sign that we are hoping to put up in our Master Bedroom.

One of my favorite things that we did was we went to a the Key West Butterfly and Nature Conservatory.  It took me forever to get a good picture of the morpho butterfly pictured above.  I love the blue color!

Orange.

Yellow.

These are baby quail birds.  I thought they were so cute!  They were placed in this ecosystem so that they will eat the fruit flies.  (Butterflies eat fruit, which brings fruit flies.)

Look at how little this bird is compared to Curtis' hand.

There were two turtles there too.

Here we are in the conservatory.  Curtis had a bird poop on him when he was sitting in one of these benches.  It was kind of funny...although, it probably wouldn't have been funny if it happened to me.  He had a good attitude about it though!

We also visited the Southernmost Point of the United States.  We were actually closer to Cuba than Miami.

You have got to love the dorky cut-outs!  Here's our advertisement for Old Town Trolley.

Everywhere we walked, we found baby chicks, hens and roosters.  This was the best one that I got all week.  Apparently, roosters were brought to Key West back in the day for cock fights (which is now illegal).

We also had the opportunity to see not only the beginning...

...but the end of US 1!

We went to Mallory Square because we heard they had some of the best sunset celebrations.  Not only were they selling all kinds of unique items, but they had magicians and performers.  We watched this guy do really cool gymnastic tricks.  I was impressed because he gave all the glory to God when he succeeded. :)

Here's the sunset at Mallory Square.  I even have a sailboat in the distance (on the left) and I caught a bird in mid-flight.  Not a bad picture for a iPod Touch camera.

Of course, we had to try Kermit's Frozen Dark Chocolate Dipped Key Lime Pie!

These pictures aren't the best, but it was my favorite way to eat a key lime pie!  (But I am a chocoholic.)

I think the third day was my favorite.  We went to Higgs Beach.  The weather was amazing and we had shade under this nice palm tree.  You can see Curtis was reading a book. 

Here I am under the palm tree.  I am in the midst of reading The Hunger Games Trilogy.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.  What a great book for vacation!  

We ate dinner that night at a place called Paseo and it was probably our favorite place to eat.  We tried to eat there on about 2 or 3 different occasions, but they have really odd hours.  It was definitely worth the wait!

Margaret on Margaret Street.

We went on a Sunset Sail after dinner.  It was beautiful on the boat.  We met some nice people and got some great photos.

I love this picture.

And then the sun began to set.

How romantic!

Yes, this was my favorite day.

We even had an amazing dessert called "Cookie Monster."  It was a half-pound chocolate chip cookie, with 3 huge scoops of ice cream - "Brownie Boom," "Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough," and "Cake Batter."

On our fourth day, we went to No Name Key and had a kayak tour!  I had never been in a kayak so Curtis helped me out by taking a double-person kayak.

We were able to see sponges, conch crabs, birds, fish and jellyfish. 

Every day we were there, it was perfect weather.

What a fun experience!

On our final night, we went to the top of the Crowne Plaza to watch the sun set go down one final time.  Curtis and I are already wishing we were still there!