Well, I've been asked about the hair-cutting class, so I thought I would put your minds at ease and let you know that I still have every bit of hair I had when I posted the last entry! I did not have to sacrifice my hair. In fact, the whole event turned out to be a little unusual. We had a very bad storm, and the power went out in the middle of a lady's haircut. Thankfully, the lady cutting her hair is a professional and continued by the light of a flashlight!! She did a beautiful job, but most people were more interested in the storm as it was the first rain we'd seen in a really long time. I'm sure that many of you can relate to that! The other folks who came over to watch the haircut stayed glued to the windows watching the rain and lightning. It was like we'd all forgotten what a storm looks and sounds like.
I also started my quilt tonight. I was told that it will take between 10 and 15 hours if I stay committed to it. Once I finish, I'll try to remember to post a picture of it.
We both had our first round of shots yesterday. We both got three shots, and one of them was for Rabies. No, there's been no foaming at the mouth or crazy behaviors! HA! But our arms are rather sore, and we are fotunate enough to get some more shots next week. We have two more Rabies shots to go (plus a few others). Yeah! The nurses were wonderful, and we got some really cool band-aids!!
I think it's time for me to close for the night. It's been a long day, and I think the bed's calling my name. Take care!
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Lifelong Learners
I suppose that I've always enjoyed being a student. There's something about those "Ah-ha" moments that I crave!! Well, I've had lots of those over the past week and a half. As we have gathered with a few of our colleagues for training, my craving for learning is certainly being fulfilled!
What I'm learning most of all is that there is more to this life than ME! Well, yes, of course, I already "knew" that!! But knowing it in my head and living it wholeheartedly are two different things. We've really been challenged to consistently examine our attitudes and seek to live a lifestyle that's willing to be inconvenienced so that others will have opportunities. Hopefully, that makes at least a little sense to you. If not, I hope you will continue thinking about it until it does!!
OK - enough of the heavy stuff! Tonight I am going to a class on how to cut hair. Who knows what I'll end up looking like by the end of class because I'm going to offer my hair for practice, if needed. I'm also going to start a quilting class sometime next week, and I've been told that if I spend so much time per week, I might just be able to finish a small quilt by the time we move. I'm very excited!! So far Mark hasn't signed up for any fun classes, but I'll let you know if/when he does.
Also, next week we have get our first round of overseas vaccinations. Yipee!!! They've already told us to take some Tylenol or Ibuprofen before we get them. Looks like we'll be learning a bit about pain, too!
Please take care! Send a comment if you'd like by clicking on the comment link below this post. We'd love to hear from you!!
Blessings,
M&M
What I'm learning most of all is that there is more to this life than ME! Well, yes, of course, I already "knew" that!! But knowing it in my head and living it wholeheartedly are two different things. We've really been challenged to consistently examine our attitudes and seek to live a lifestyle that's willing to be inconvenienced so that others will have opportunities. Hopefully, that makes at least a little sense to you. If not, I hope you will continue thinking about it until it does!!
OK - enough of the heavy stuff! Tonight I am going to a class on how to cut hair. Who knows what I'll end up looking like by the end of class because I'm going to offer my hair for practice, if needed. I'm also going to start a quilting class sometime next week, and I've been told that if I spend so much time per week, I might just be able to finish a small quilt by the time we move. I'm very excited!! So far Mark hasn't signed up for any fun classes, but I'll let you know if/when he does.
Also, next week we have get our first round of overseas vaccinations. Yipee!!! They've already told us to take some Tylenol or Ibuprofen before we get them. Looks like we'll be learning a bit about pain, too!
Please take care! Send a comment if you'd like by clicking on the comment link below this post. We'd love to hear from you!!
Blessings,
M&M
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
What a Whirlwind!
Here we are, in the sweltering southern summer heat, getting ready for the biggest move we've ever made in our lives! We have gotten settled into our new "digs" and are meeting lots of new friends. We are really excited about not living out of a suitcase for a few weeks!!
Since the last time I posted something, we have traveled a great deal to visit with family and friends. It's been great to reconnect with so many folks that have had such an impact in our lives. I wish there was time and space enough to tell all of the stories that have been retold and memories that have been relived, but there's not. I'll just say that we've been encouraged in a way that we both really needed! We've laughed a lot, and we're realizing more and more that we aren't as young as we once were!!
As I have written before, uprooting our lives comes with some pretty hefty stress at times. Last week was one of those really stressful weeks. Computers and technology are wonderful things . . . except for when they're not! We had a big glitch and lost some important information. BUT after a few tears and a passing thought of chunking some of our technology, we managed to salvage part of the information and decided to re-enter the rest of it. It turned out to be OK.
The hardest thing we've had to do so far is leave our beloved Titus at the kennel for boarding before we headed up to VA. He will be staying with my (Melissa's) parents and he'll be taken excellent care of, but there's just something really sad about not being able to get those puppy kisses when I need a little sunshine in my day! We will get to see him once more before we travel overseas, so there's a few puppy kisses waiting for us!!
Hopefully, we'll have another update soon. Until then . . .
Love to you all,
M&M
Since the last time I posted something, we have traveled a great deal to visit with family and friends. It's been great to reconnect with so many folks that have had such an impact in our lives. I wish there was time and space enough to tell all of the stories that have been retold and memories that have been relived, but there's not. I'll just say that we've been encouraged in a way that we both really needed! We've laughed a lot, and we're realizing more and more that we aren't as young as we once were!!
As I have written before, uprooting our lives comes with some pretty hefty stress at times. Last week was one of those really stressful weeks. Computers and technology are wonderful things . . . except for when they're not! We had a big glitch and lost some important information. BUT after a few tears and a passing thought of chunking some of our technology, we managed to salvage part of the information and decided to re-enter the rest of it. It turned out to be OK.
The hardest thing we've had to do so far is leave our beloved Titus at the kennel for boarding before we headed up to VA. He will be staying with my (Melissa's) parents and he'll be taken excellent care of, but there's just something really sad about not being able to get those puppy kisses when I need a little sunshine in my day! We will get to see him once more before we travel overseas, so there's a few puppy kisses waiting for us!!
Hopefully, we'll have another update soon. Until then . . .
Love to you all,
M&M
Saturday, July 21, 2007
On the Road Again
The laundry basket is calling my name, but before I go throw some clothes in the washer I thought I'd let you know what we've been up to for the last week or so.
We first traveled to NC to spend a couple of nights with some dear friends. Among other things, we went bowling with them and their children - what a hoot that was!! For the first 7 frames of the game Melissa was only beating their 5 year old by 6 points. But then she came back with 2 strikes in a row. Sweet, huh?!
Next, we headed up to VA for a few days of meetings. We stayed really busy, but we got to spend time with some new friends who are traveling a lot like we are. There were lots of laughs and even a few tears as we had opportunities to share our stories with each other. It seems that the more people we meet and the more places we travel, the smaller the world gets. You never know who you're going to meet just around the bend!
After we returned to SC, we headed over to spend the night with Mark's sister and family. Mark stayed busy teaching our nephews the ins and outs of a few Playstation games. They love to watch him exercise his video game skills!
And today we attended Melissa's grandfather's wedding. It was beautiful! He's been blessed with a very special lady, and we wish them many years together.
It seems we may get to stay put for a couple of weeks. So that means the laundry and our ever-growing "to do" list will finally get the attention they need.
Until next time . . . travel safe and stay cool!
We first traveled to NC to spend a couple of nights with some dear friends. Among other things, we went bowling with them and their children - what a hoot that was!! For the first 7 frames of the game Melissa was only beating their 5 year old by 6 points. But then she came back with 2 strikes in a row. Sweet, huh?!
Next, we headed up to VA for a few days of meetings. We stayed really busy, but we got to spend time with some new friends who are traveling a lot like we are. There were lots of laughs and even a few tears as we had opportunities to share our stories with each other. It seems that the more people we meet and the more places we travel, the smaller the world gets. You never know who you're going to meet just around the bend!
After we returned to SC, we headed over to spend the night with Mark's sister and family. Mark stayed busy teaching our nephews the ins and outs of a few Playstation games. They love to watch him exercise his video game skills!
And today we attended Melissa's grandfather's wedding. It was beautiful! He's been blessed with a very special lady, and we wish them many years together.
It seems we may get to stay put for a couple of weeks. So that means the laundry and our ever-growing "to do" list will finally get the attention they need.
Until next time . . . travel safe and stay cool!
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Pictures from Tennessee
Here are a few more pictures that I promised in the last post. Hope you enjoy them!We went to a museum in Erwin one day and I saw this stained glass "picture" of the railroad, which used to be the livelihood of the town. This picture doesn't do it justice. It's beautiful!
Rock Creek Falls (Our reward for the 1.5 mile hike that I thought would kill me!)
Titus trying to steal a full bottle of water off the shelf. (He was trying to be sneaky, but can a 75 pound dog ever really be sneaky?!)
A Mountaintop Experience
If you've never been to the mountains of TN, you're missing a beautiful opportunity! That's where we spent the past two weeks camping. No, not in tents! The temperature on our campsite was between 70 and 80 during the day (a few days were cooler than that) and at night it was in the 50's. We had just enough rain to make us appreciate the sunshine and enough sunshine that we really did enjoy the rain that came. Well, Titus didn't enjoy the rain too much beucase it was usually accompanied with thunder and lightning! But he did enjoy playing with all of the plastic bottles that inevitably accompany campers.
Our first few days were a bit bumpy trying to make a couple of purchases that would make our stay a little more enjoyable, but my dad's GPS unit led us in the wrong direction one day and we had to make a couple of returns because of "bad" merchandise. Once we got all of that settled we were finally able to relax. And relax we did!!!
We strolled through Historic Jonesborough, home of the International Storytelling Center and the oldest town in TN. (This is what you see in the picture at the beginning of this post.) We crusied the streets of Erwin to look at all the beautiful old homes decorated for the 4th of July. We hiked the trail connected to the campground to Rock Creek Falls (supposedly 1.5 miles but felt like 3!). We sat around the campfire at night, hoping the next morning we wouldn't wake up to too many bug bites itching. We stuffed ourselves twice at a restaurant that serves family style Amish-type meals. Oh yeah, I almost forgot that Mark golfed a few times. One day I rode along on the golf cart with him just to take pictures . . . of the course, not him! And, yes, I did use my brain a little. I finally purchased a book of Sudoku puzzles and learned how to solve them. I've only been thinking about it since we went to Paris a year ago!
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Takin' a Break
Isn't this the picture of one very tired puppy dog?! This is about the way we all looked after we got settled in at my (Melissa's) mom and dad's house Sunday evening.Our move up here was rather uneventful (that is, if you don't count the flat tire we had to change in the sweltering afternoon heat in the emergency lane of the interstate). There are always a few "kinks" in the system when trying to load the belongings of two adults and one dog into two cars, but we squeezed and pushed and stacked until we got it all to fit. Well, all except for what I forgot! About halfway into our trip, I realized I forgot to get a few things out of one of the kitchen cabinets. Oh, well! Nobody's perfect, right?
We've managed to actually get quite a bit accomplished since we got here. You know, the really important stuff . . . visiting the local Starbucks, going to a movie, staying up late AND sleeping in late, walking around the neighborhood, playing with Titus. OK - I think you get the picture! Believe me when I say I know this won't last forever, but it's been a long time coming!! I hope that you all get to take a little break from the hustle and bustle of life today, too!
By the way, for those of you who have never seen our dog, Titus, that's him in the picture at the beginning of this post. Isn't he handsome?!
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