I am so far behind that this is all I can do:
Carpenters for Christ –
In ten days it went from this –
To this –
Ten Days – about 150 men – and several 100+ degree days. God is so very gracious!
Toby said it was like being at a Promise Keepers Rally, but with actual work going on! If you’d like to see the progression from start to finish, the rest of the pictures are here.
(The slideshow is nice, but the captions don’t show up like in the still detail shots!)
Vermont
(can you find the second deer in that last picture?)
Those were shots from our Ladies Day Out - not quite our traditional Girls’ Week, but the hours, though short, were precious indeed!
The Cabin
A young girl stopped by to check out some wetland issues, and as she approached the cabin she looked around and said - “Wow, this is really spectacular!” Yep. That it is!
Family -
Blessing, upon blessing - A wonderful family cabin, and wonderful family to fill it with!
The Four Siblings -
All with our original spouses – (no mean feat these days!)
And then there was the board meeting – it was so nice to all be together!
Ok – that brings us almost up to date! Right now we are enjoying time in Marysville, OH with Toby and Tammy and their beautiful daughters. The guys are working hard on a new deck, and I’m just enjoying being inside with the girls - big and little. Which leads me to warn you – the next post will be FULL of pictures of grandbabies!
Here’s a sneak preview…
Just thought I’d better warn you!
Ahhhhh….there are few things in my life that I cherish more than that first cup of coffee on that first morning at the cabin. We were blessed with a stunning Vermont morning and combined with the fact that we didn’t crawl out of bed until almost 9AM, well, it just doesn’t get any better than that! (I know it must seem silly that I get so excited about our vacation time at the cabin when after all, we are retired, but there is just something so re-charging about this place for us, that I continue to gush. Sorry!)
But, before I get too far into the wonders of the cabin, let me digress a little to my time home. Along with the annual check-up (all is well, thank you for asking), the new hair cut (even Gary likes it), new glasses on the way, and going through our left-over “stuff”, I managed to exchange hugs with Joe, Janet,
Josiah, Abigail, Anne, Jay, Naomi, Cheryl, Jim, Nancy, Linda, Erik, Leslie,
Linda, Joanne, Carol, Michelle, Mary, Dave, John,
Bonnie, Connie, mazillion people at church
, Georgi, Troy, Abbi, Hannah, Tommy, Pam, Carolyn, Sherry, Chris, Judy, Carol, Luanne, Carol, Deb, Chip…I know there are more, but you get my drift! It was wonderful to be able to see so many folks, plus get some necessary life chores done at the same time. I still have a couple folks I hope we can connect with when we are back in D-town for a day or so next week. If we actually make it to the West Coast next year, it could be awhile before we pass that way again, so all these hugs are very important to me!
Memphis -
Gary and Toby had a great time working at the Carpenters for Christ project in Memphis. They sweated buckets, (and Toby suffered with some of that tomato salmonella poisoning!), but at the end of the week they were able to see amazing accomplishments. I’m going to work with Gary to get his pictures into some kind of order and we’ll get them posted soon. Here they are in all of their CfC splendor (post showers!)-
And that brings us almost up to today! Our drive north had a little bit of excitement when we were caught in an outta nowhere hail storm! We found cover under a bridge and watched the fury from there. Phew, thank goodness for overpasses! After we continued on our way we were blessed with the following sight -
, so we were encouraged that our destination had better weather than the drive! It turned out to be so….
Which brings us back to
Here is the view as we enjoyed our coffee -
Can you feel your blood pressure lowering?
Since all of the mowing has not yet been accomplished (flat tire on the riding mower!), the early spring wild flowers are still gracing the walk to the pond -
I almost hate to see the mower get fixed!
Gotta wrap this up and get dinner started! Company’s coming
(It’s kinda crazy being able to get internet here at the cabin, isn’t it!)
Gracious! I am sooooo behind in sharing with you about my wonderful 10 days at home! Among all of the “business” that got accomplished, I got to spend time with so many of my favorite people. I PROMISE I’ll be posting pictures of my sweet times along with photos from Gary’s AMAZING time at the Carpenter’s for Christ project in Memphis soon, but right now Gary is loading up the car for our trip to Vermont! I’m just waiting for the dryer to finish up so I can finish packing and then we’re off! I’ll try to do some organizing and writing in the calm of the cabin, and hopefully get some posts done in the next week.
Gotta go - I think the truck is running!
Just reporting in – Gary is hot and sweaty and working hard in Memphis, and I am up in Pennsylvania taking care of business (and doing a fair bit of playing!). At the moment I’m in Lancaster, visiting with son Josiah and his wife Abigail. They’re still sleeping, so I’m taking the opportunity to do a little catching up!
First things first, though….
We had a GREAT weekend in Nashville, visiting with friends John and Rosie Stoner, 
and even managed to connect with another Sower couple that live in the area. We left on Nashville on Monday, had a nice overnight in Memphis and then I flew off to PA while Gary stayed behind to do that Carpenters for Christ project.
But even before that…..
We had a wonderful send-off from Teen Challenge. We were honored at a staff breakfast early on Friday and then several of the boys put on a skit about life with Brother Gary and Miss Stephanie in the kitchen. It was pretty cute – here “we” are….
It was (as mentioned) hard to say good-bye to our dear friends and our “boys”, but we were soon done moping and were quite enjoying being on the road. Ah, the road before us – (and it’s not interstate – always a welcome sight!)
And as we made our way north through Alabama – Look – could that be mountains??
OK – so it’s more like foothills, but hey, we’ve been FLORIDA for a long time!
Locks of Love –
Back in March when my long hair was beginning to drive me a little crazy, I realized that I was closing in on having enough length to make a contribution to Locks of Love, an organization that supplies wigs to kids with hair loss. I decided to “tough it out” (that’s what they have those big hair clips for, right?), and wait until I got to PA to see if indeed I had the required 10 inches. Here I am on one of those rare occasions of Hair Down.
And from the back…..
Yep, it was crazy long (for me anyway!)
Gary kept measuring it for me, and I wasn’t sure I’d have the ten inches needed, but the closer I got to my hair appointment, the more excited I was about cutting my hair!
The big day….
GONE!
My 10 inches…..(so glad it doesn’t look so gray in the ponytail! But rest assured they won’t be using my hair for a sweet 10 year old’s wig! It will be sold to help with expenses)
And while I’m not sure this is the best picture of the New Do, it’s all I have right now –
Ta Da – drum roll, please…..
(Ok, those of you who have known me for years and years are saying, “hey, that’s the haircut she always had!” I guess the little spikey do will have to wait until next time!)
Think Gary will recognize his new wife?
