Thanks for the reprieve in blogging this week. It seems like that’s the case for many of the personal blogs I read, so it’s good to know that the summer is for slacking off a bit. Oh, and does anybody know what those plants are up there? They are taller than me, maybe about 6 feet tall and just gorgeous. They’re planted in a an empty corner lot in our neighborhood with some sunflowers and cone flowers.
We played host to Matthew’s mom, dad, sister and 1-year old niece earlier this week for a few days. It was so good to see each of them and we were completely delighted by our niece Adison. She will be one next Saturday, but she is already walking all over the place, can mimic words and has stellar object recognition. So different from the tiny baby we saw at Christmas! We had a lot of fun with the family, enjoying some down time, visiting the NC Museum of Natural Science, checking out the Dead Sea Scrolls and getting some euchre in, since we can only play that with Michiganders. Southerners don’t get it.
We also made some new friends this week with four other seminary couples at the home of one of Matthew’s professors. We’re going to be studying the book of Colossians together and we started off by just getting to know one another over dinner and dessert. It is so good to be in a small group with couples who are in a similar spot in life as we are and we’re looking forward to hopefully making some long last friendships. One couple was even military and had gone through a deployment together. It’s very rare that we meet anybody up here with military experience and it was so nice to be able to relate to a wife who waited at home while her husband was at war.
Today was just a day for me to putz around after a hectic last two weeks. I found some great free stuff at the Sharing Shop (a place for seminary families to donate and pick up free items) including a few things I’ve been looking for for a while now: a cast iron skillet in perfect condition and a steamer. I was planning on buying these, so was thrilld to find them for free. I also spent time shopping in the many thrift and gift shops around Wake Forest looking for a birthday present for Mom, who has a birthday this week as well. I found a few things she’ll really like, but I’ll save the surprise for her.
This Thursday we drive to the mountains to celebrate our fourth anniversary. Matthew’s never been to the Blue Ridge Mountains and I absolutley love them, so this will be a treat. The SBC owns a retreat center up near Asheville and we are getting a super low priced room in a brand new lodge since I’m employed by a Baptist organization. We can’t wait to spend a few days outdoors in the mountains. Lots of pictures to come.
