One great weekend

Jon's mission companion, Jeff Marshall,
was in Raleigh for a southern fair experience!
He treated us to a Segway tour of the city
and then we enjoyed a night at the fair.

You know that's a demolition derby
going on in the background!
The hand dipped corn dogs were off the hook
and you could treat yourself to any fried food you could imagine
(fried twinkies, cheesecake, pb & js, ANYTHING!!)

Lulu would be proud!

Wade Ave, Wrightsville Beach, and ...

LIBBY LANE.

I love it.
We love her.
And so does East Tennessee, we see!

a favorite quote

Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort
of feeling safe with a person;
having neither to weigh thoughts nor to measure words
but to pour them all out,
just as it is, chaff and grain together,
knowing that a faithful hand will take and sift them,
keeping what is worth keeping,
and then, with the breath
of kindness, blow the rest away.
George Eliot

Top 10 reasons

Ted should come to Raleigh!!!

#10 - when is she going to have a chance to live it up on the east coast with two 30 year old fogies?? I mean, seriously!
#9 - she gets a chance to drive whitey, taking corners at 90, and help us reach our 300,000 mile goal!
#8 - there's a sweet picture of Don Quixote hanging in her room to help you dream the impossible dream
#7 - Jon will make us French crepes every morning . . . in our dreams!!
#6 - we live 2 hours (exactly) from wrightsville beach www.exitcoast.net/.../UploadedFiles/WB.jpg
#5 - we are planning sweet road trips to Washington DC, Virginia, Philly, etc., etc., (maybe even Boston:)
#4 - I make a killer chicken salad sandwich (seriously better than Arby's)
#3 - we can watch the Lord of the Ring trilogy until we can quote every line
#2 - she can teach us your Keva 'secrets'
#1 - we love her and would give our eye teeth to be graced with her presence!

Highlight of our trip

Dibbs, Spackmans, Wades and ??
Can't remember their last name, but they
know Melinda's sister and they hooked us up with
a delicious lasagna dinner.

Maura Lee was in Knoxville that night
and drove 1 1/2 hours to see us.

I love kindred friends.

Mt Mitchell

The pics of us camping go with these.
The camp site was at the base of Mt. Mitchell,
the highest peak east of the Mississippi.

It was beautiful and super hard.
Never have I hiked anything like it:
5 1/2 miles straight up ... and
5 1/2 miles straight down!

armed and ready

thanks to Rob for these sweet hiking shoes
he gave me a few Christmases back.
(is that how you write plural christmas???)

The leaves are just starting to change,
it was amazing.

goal

For my 30th birthday, I made a goal to read the entire
standard works during this year.

From Genesis to the Articles of Faith.
2,476 pages = 6.78 pages per day
so far, so good.

I've made it to II Chronicles and have really loved it.
For me, the lesson of the OT is GOD IS FAITHFUL.
I've felt akin to Sarah, Rebekah, Hannah, & Rachel.

I'm grateful for the scriptures.

I like what Sis Holland once said about scripture study:
'it's our opportunity to have an exhilarating encounter with God."

I loved reading by the fire with the trusted
head lamp..and Jon loved trying out the
settings of our camera.

this makes it look like i haven't even made a dent!

camping NC style

Life couldn't get any better for Jonny Lingoa little mate around the fire

the best s'more he's ever made

delicious tinfoil dinners (hence the smoke:)
I added mushrooms and green peppers
to the usual - they were bomb

the pics were supposed to be in the opposite order...oh well

the roadtrip ritual: if jon fills the tank, i clean the windshield
i learned that from brian who i think has written a book
about roadtrip etiquette!

A house isn't a home...

until you find an awesome group of Latinos to play indoor with!

a little sweaty and a lot happy

There are a couple of 'for sures' when you move to a new place...
church & soccer.
A beautiful combination!

classic email from the spackmans

enjoy!

Speaking of tons, Quinn continues to be so :-) Both Darice and I are suffering with muscle problems in our arms and shoulders...what a chunk. He is going through a difficult stage right now. Very ill tempered and having difficulty sleeping. He kept us up half the night last night. Darice and I probably look like hell today :-[~ We may need an elephant blow dart to get him to sleep.


Love that family, lucky for us we get to see them this weekend....yahoo!