Good friend's birthday and a surprise trip to Longwood Gardens

We had another wonderful weekend! Friday night, we were able to go to Mazzi's to celebrate with this guy ----> and his wife and some other friends his 30TH BIRTHDAY!!!! Happy Birthday Jeremy! We know the plans God has for you will ASTOUND all of us (already have!) Allison surprised him BIG-TIME and I think we were all blessed in the process :) Thank you for letting us celebrate with you!

Saturday morning, we woke up, ate some breakfast and ventured out for my surprise for Nate. He loves being outside, loves trees, loves beng active, so I took him to Longwood Gardens. It was beautiful! I'll let the pics speak for themselves!


For Grandpa! ------->

For mom -------->

Thought this was cool with the flower and clouds...

Another white flower... Really like the petals on this one:

And one last parting shot: it's weird and funky, but I like it :-)

More photos on our photo site... (link to right)

On our way home, we stopped in Strasburg to visit the Weaver's and the Sanderson's kiddos. They are so cute and sweet. Liliana hugged me for a long time, it was nice to get some sweet cuddle time and Teagan picked mums for me to take home... I love each of those kids (and their parents!)

Sunday after church, Nate and Jeremy went on a bike ride while I hung out with Allison and the boys. She challenges me with her life! I thank God for friends who keep me moving ahead. They came over later that night for dinner and it was so fun. Their boys did a great job at our place and played with Nate's horse barn from when he was a kid. Josiah also turned our ottoman into a toilet (not a real one, don't worry, but we did have fun spinning him down the drain... weird, but cute. imaginations rock!) We feel so spoiled to get to spend so much time with them!

Nate shared this passage of Scripture with Jeremy and it has been challenging me as well:

Psalm 15

LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill? He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from his heart and has no slander on his tongue, who does his neighbor no wrong and casts no slur on his fellowman, who despises a vile man but honors those who fear the LORD, who keeps his oath even when it hurts, who lends his money without usury and does not accept a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken.

Who keeps his oath even when it hurts... Wow... I need to chew on that some more...

God bless you!

Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania in three days :)

What an adventure - short but fun! We enjoyed some time traveling together, working together, driving A LOT and just being together over the past few days. We also got to see some more of God's creation, which of course, was amazing.
After spending quite a while longer than expected in the airport in Atlanta, I finally arrived in MS. It was nice to see Nate! The trip was definitely adventurous after I befriended the flight attendant on my second flight and she "overshared" with me a bit ;)
We spent Friday working on some things at the MDS warehouse, and I learned the extreme importance of eye protection when operating a circular saw... :)
After work, we visited some sweet folks Nate hangs out with down there (Ottis and Anna Mae) and enjoyed a meal with them. Afterwards, we went to their daughter's house to watch their European video from their recent travels, there were quite a few people there to watch along with us! What a great time with great people.Our task for Friday: finish out the tool trailer - build shelves, hang hooks, organize. Nate and others had also worked on it during the week.

Mississippi is FLAT. And I discovered it's not so easy to understand what they are saying :)
Early Saturday, well, not too early, since we bagged the whitewater rafting trip after we found out we would need to leave at 3:30am!!! to make it, we woke up, got packed up and ready to go in the Ford F250 Super Duty, huge extended cab truck and off we went. I was excited to drive. Why? Because it was three new state's worth of driving for me! Yippee!!!!
I missed Alabama's state sign (I was not paying close enough attention!), but did get Georgia and Tennessee!

The Piggly Wiggly Truck ;) We could have visited "Hoover" but decided not to...

Saturday night, I jumped on the internet on Nate's laptop (while he was driving) and tried to find somewhere cool to stop for the night. We happened upon a quaint, very historic and cool town in TN, Jonesborough, which also happens to be the oldest town in TN... Very neat.
Jonesborough's Oldest Building

Nate even took me on a date to a cool French Bistro, where I introduced him to capers with trout and grilled brie cheese ;)

I thought the houses, buildings, etc. in this town were very gorgeous and fascinating, too!
I thought this church was cool, and I also thought the sign on the outside was great :)

The fog in Tennessee early Sunday morning :)

Our drive home was safe, fun, and quite nice for being 16 hours worth of driving. I guess all things are a bit more fun when you're in love with the one you're traveling with ;)

Oh, and one last pic: check out this sign and where this guy was from: