21st Birthday

Our oldest son, Jonathan turned 21 on July 26. His mother-in-law had us over for lunch after church. Jonathan and his wife, Samantha.

My precious family. Sam, Jonathan, Me, Darryl and Jordan in the back.

Jonathan and Sam

My precious boys. Jonathan acting goofy!

Jordan acting goofy!

My precious boys! What a blessing they have been and still are. I can't believe that my sweet son is now 21 and married. (They celebrated their first anniversary on June 21). I can still remember reading to him, playing hide and seek in the dark with him, his dad and his brother (and Jordan being too scared to go alone, so we were partners), him building things, soccer games, baseball games, video games, sci-fi movies, Bible drill..... where did the time go. I am so proud of the young man he has become. I pray God's continued blessings on his life. I love you my sweet Jonathan!!!

What A Mess!

The living room after the new paint job! I love the color!!!

For my few followers, sorry I have not posted in a while. I hate it when blogs I'm following have no new posts for some time, but that has been the story here. Shortly before we left for Ridgecrest, we began the process of getting a new floor for the main floor of our house. We planned to do all the work, but had Home Depot come and measure it to A) give us a list of what we would need and B) check to make sure the original floor was level enough to put down Pergo and C) just in case it wasn't too much, see what they would charge to put it down (like we really thought that would happen). Unfortunately, but not really surprising, the floors were not even level enough for the Pergo. So our options at that point were to lay more carpet and vinyl, or fix the floors. We opted, so far for the second option.

Darryl has laid another subfloor for part of the living room and then put down a leveling compound. Then the compound had to be sanded. The dust was so thick that he would have to stop after about 10 minutes to let it settle. (just imagine what my house looks like) While he was doing that, I was not able to paint for obvious reasons. I have gotten the living room and kitchen completed. I don't know why I didn't take any pictures of the kitchen. I painted it a softer yellow than it was. It was so harsh that it hurt my eyes at times. Yes, I painted it that color and have been VERY unhappy with it since. I was too tight to waste that first bucket of paint. Boy have I learned my lesson. But I love it this time. I plan to start the hall tomorrow. It will be a lighter shade of the living room. The bathroom will be the same as the living room, but not sure when it will get done since I go back to school on Thursday.

I'll keep you posted on the progress. Slow and steady wins the race, or so they say. I think it is going to drive me nuts but if I can keep from going crazy, I think I'm really going to love it when it is finished.

Ridgecrest, NC

The top photo is taken from the front of Ridgecrest. The one below is a shot of the front of the registration building. We spent several days in the beautiful mountains of North Carolina while Darryl taught at Sunday School week for Lifeway. I absolutely love coming to Ridgecrest. It is my second favorite place on planet earth, right behind Destin, Fl.
My favorite hang-out.

This is the coffee shop I frequent when there. They serve Starbucks coffee and right outside are little tables for two, which we see in the picture above. I spent quite a bit of time there reading my Bible and doing lessons for the upcoming school year.

Another look at the cute little tables outside Clouds, the coffee shop.

A beautiful cross that sits on top of the mountain at Ridgecrest.

Darryl and Mark (in red) got to get away for a little visiting with the Green Family after sessions were over one day.

One of many beautiful views at the golf course.

Darryl, Mark Miller, and Ron stopped long enough for me to get a picture. Mark works at the Tennessee Baptist Convention and is a good friend of Darryl's. Ron is a long time friend of Mark's and a pastor in Tennessee. We always enjoy our time with Mark. He is a hoot!!!

I had the awesome privilege of spending some time with some of the wives of state Sunday School directors. It is so nice to get together with ladies whose husbands do the same work as mine, only in different states. I had a great time antique shopping in Asheville and browsing through the little shops of Black Mountain with these ladies while our men lead conferences and had meetings with Lifeway.

Happy Birthday, America!

We made it home Tuesday. Darryl had to spend his 50th birthday in airports. I felt sorry for him, but was so glad to be heading home. We spent Monday night in London in order to be closer to the airport. We had such a difficult time finding things when we arrived, we felt that would be best. Leaving was much better than arriving, and I have to say that the renovations to Terminal 4 really helped. I didn't know when we arrived that they were close enough to completion that we would see them on our way out, but it definitely left me with a much better impression of the airport.

We left London an hour and 25 minutes later than scheduled. Since we had a 4+ hour layover in Detroit, it wasn't a big deal to us. Just shortened our time in Detroit. I have to admit, I was nervous coming home after the Air France incident. But both flights were very smooth.

Our precious boys met us at the airport and we went to Longhorn to celebrate Darryl's birthday. I wanted iced tea so badly, but decided I didn't need the tea. But the next two mornings, I headed to McDonald's for some sweet tea. I still have not made it to McAlister's!! I could kick myself for not getting a picture of my man on his birthday!!!

Happy 4th of July. God Bless America, Land that I love!!!!!!!

Sunday School Training

My man doing what he is so very passionate about.....leading/teaching/motivating others to reach and teach through the Sunday School.

Answering questions after the training event.

A couple of the sweet ladies discussing what they had just heard.

Pastor Pete and his wife Ruth. I have so enjoyed the time we have had with this couple. I count them friends already!!!! Just wish that big pond did not make it very difficult to visit!!!

They have a mascot!!!

Can you believe the size of this turtle???? She lives in the quad here at Regent's Park College. I have nicknamed her The Mascot. They leave her a plate of veggies every day and she enjoys coming out to eat and sun herself!!! The principle (head of this particular college) has a dog that is NOT a fan of the Regent's Park mascot. She barks her head off at the turtle while the turtle looks at Puppy like "who do you think you are".

A Trip through the English Countryside

On Wednesday, June 24 we met the pastor and wife from the church where Darryl would be conducting Sunday School Training on Saturday. We had an absolutely delightful time with this couple. They took us through the English countryside so we could see more than just the commercial England, stopping at places they thought would be good places for me to take pictures, feeding us lunch, afternoon tea and ice cream. After our afternoon with them we were both looking forward to our time together on Saturday. I'm not sure of the location of many of these pictures. Lots of pictures again. Enjoy!!!

A church in the first village we stopped. Ruth, the pastor's wife is standing by the fence.

This is Banbury Cross from the nursery rhyme "Ride a Cock Horse to Banbury Cross"

This is the "fine lady upon a white horse " from the same nursery rhyme.

The Baptist church of Banbury.

The square of Brackley.

A thatch roof in Brackley, we were in Cotswold.