Category Archives: On the Road

Better get started

on getting caught up before another week gets away from me! So I’ll start with my trip to PA, two weekends ago!

The reason for my trip north was to attend the funeral of my dear friend Connie. That day was special beyond words.  Reconnecting with old friends who also loved Connie, hugging and weeping with her beautiful daughters, remembering and reflecting on what a Godly, gracious, and very fun friend she was – well, those moments were priceless. I’m so very thankful I was able to be there. Too much hugging for pictures – they are all just beautiful memories.

But to make that part of the weekend work, I needed to solicit the help of my sister and her daughter, Abby.   (Airport pick-ups and drop-offs, accommodations, driving me about – you know, that kind of stuff!)
Such a fun way to start the visit – here’s Joie with three of her grands-
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and Fitz with the littlest one.
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It was a lovely start to the weekend!
Once we made it to Joie’s we got to work sorting through our Mom’s hope chest and a variety of other family history items.
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Look at this cute little family!
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Awww…
At the bottom of that trunk was this doll –
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dressed in a replica of my mother’s dress from her 1947 wedding.
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How very special! But what to do with it?? The doll was in some disrepair – the head showed some previous repair work and was no longer attached (but the eyes still worked!) and the legs and arms were quite cracked.
We’re hoping to put the dress along with a photo or two into a shadow box and maybe someone from the next generation will be interested in it. But right now we’re looking for a home for the doll. The one doll hospital I contacted said they already had plenty of these dolls (apparently she’s an early ‘Patsy Effanbee” doll). So we’re still on the lookout for someone to care for her! (Let me know in the comments if you’re interested or know someone who might be!)
It was a wonderful weekend! Another set of Joie’s kids came by on Sunday, and then on Monday we were on our way back towards Abby’s for my early Tuesday return to Tampa. Being able to sneak in some unexpected sister time this winter was a huge blessing.
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Thanks for stopping by – and for your patience with my erratic blogging these days.  Have a blessed Sabbath!
Steph

What’s that up in the sky?

We didn’t have too long of a drive to get here on Thursday, but the drive was diverse. We traveled some divided highway miles-
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some two-lane roads with itty-bitty shoulders –
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and stopped at a couple too many traffic lights –
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before we reached our final destination.
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But it was earlier in the drive that I noticed something odd up in the sky-
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Wait. Is that a helicopter with something dangling from it?
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Why, yes it is!! We never had a good enough angle to figure out just what was dangling, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t James Bond! It was a little too shiny!

Settling in once again

The new neighborhood!
Word of Life Florida – Hudson, FL

We made it safely across the state and are settling in nicely at our February SOWER project – Word of Life Florida (WOL) – another new-to-us location! We haven’t explored much, but we do know they have an RV campground with over 250 spots! Not to mention many other standard accommodations, so this place is really busy! During the winter months, WOL runs weekly programs with speakers and concerts, and while we won’t be able to enjoy many of those events, we hope to be able to take in a few! We’re the Group Leaders again this month, and we haven’t met with our project manager yet, so we’re not sure just what our jobs will be. And since the rest of the team won’t be arriving until tomorrow, tonight we’re just enjoying a nice quiet start to February!
And that works just fine for us!

The New Neighborhood

This month we’re serving at Community Baptist Church and Christian Academy  in Stuart, Florida.

Although this is a new-to-us project, it’s been in the SOWER project family for many years! We’ll be working with some “seasoned SOWERs” like us and with some newer ones (but who have worked here before). As you can see by the map, we’re a little farther south this month and the traffic we’ve experienced so far has reminded us how popular this area of Florida is! Thankfully we got our Lizzie all tucked in at her new neighborhood, and we’re looking forward to a good month!

On an interesting note – we back up to a small pond
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and currently residing on that little patch of green just offshore is this little fellow –
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He’s just a young’un – about three ft. long – and as long as he stays right there on that little floating grass island, we’ll all be just fine!

But I do kinda wonder where his (her?) momma is.

Thanks for stopping by, friends! Happy January!
Steph

Happy faces and tight spaces

I can’t say that we crammed our spare time this month with lots of sightseeing and touristy things. But we still had some lovely highlights.
First the Happy Faces!
We were able to connect with Gary’s older brother (who we found out about less than a year ago!) early in the month which was very special!
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We were able to tour a nearby SOWER project and have a lovely visit with dear SOWER friends, Ron & Reenie!
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We started out our SOWER project with a pizza night –
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and the gang of us checked out a local ice cream spot for my birthday! Yumm!
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And then just yesterday (wait. was it only yesterday???), we ladies had a delicious lunch out at an eclectic cafe in Lumberton
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and did a little thrift shop shopping. Always a favorite activity!!
And just in the nick of time we got together for our Group Picture.
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It was great working with a couple we’d worked with early in our SOWER days, and just as great working with a couple who are  starting out on their SOWER journey! It was such a good month!

But about those Tight Spaces –
While the guys were working on that big drywall job, Gary got stuck in some pretty small spaces.
There was this teeny-tiny alcove that needed to be finished off.
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Pretty squishy! But he got ‘er done!
And then there was this little bit of plumbing that needed to be done. Behind the ice machine!
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I just never know where I’m going to find my guy!

And for a real-time update – we’re safely parked at the Georgia Welcome Center on I95 just outside of Savannah. We’re on our way for a week of camping before we go into our next project! We don’t often do this, so I’ll keep you posted on how it all works out!

Till next time – thanks for stopping by!
Steph