Voici

Dan and I went to Virginia Beach over Labor Day weekend for a nice little retreat together, and we ran the half marathon - 13.1 miles - our first.

The traffic going down was very light. We were surprised.

We had an awesome time! We stayed at the Days Inn on the Atlantic. All the rooms have a beach view, which is beautiful especially in the gorgeous weather we enjoyed thanks to hurricane Earl avoiding the area.

When we checked in, we went for a three mile run down the boardwalk and then ate dinner at Shogun. It’s an old favorite where the food- Japanese - is cooked in front of you, with flaming volcanic onions, spinning eggs, and corny jokes. The food is always delicious.

Saturday we bought Dan a beach cruiser - we brought mine - and we rode to the convention center to check in for the race and walked around the expo. We got some new running apparel and our free goodies. We rode back and rode around the beach some, then decided to go down to the water. When we went to get our boogey boards and chairs out of the back of the truck, we discovered they’d been stolen. We went down to the beach anyway, and Dan had just finished saying “we’ll never see them again with so many people out here” when we saw them. A group of people had both the chairs and the one boogey board, and a guy had the other boogey board right in front of them in the water. Dan walked over and picked the stuff up and said “thanks for bringing the stuff down for us” and walked off. LOL I was just happy to get it back. Later in the day we ate at Bella’s pizza (very yummy!!) and then strolled the boardwalk, enjoying the concerts.

Sunday was the big day. We were up at 4:50 and walked about a mile to the start line, drinking cytomax on the way. We stretched, visited the portopotties, and got in our corral (a ‘holding area’ based on your stated running time). We were in corral 21. Corral one began at 7am, and each corral afterwards began about a minute or so later. We ended up starting a little past 7:30. So, all the warming up and stretching didn’t really help a lot, and we started out with our muscles feeling pretty cold.

Dan and I stuck together, and we ran and ran and ran and ran … for over three hours. It was hot and I’m thankful for all the people who lived in the houses we passed who put out their garden sprinklers for us to run under! That really helped. And the one volunteer who sprayed us down as we ran past her. And all the volunteers passing out water, cytomax, and cleaning up. Hot, hard work!

We ran past Dan’s mom’s old house, and a house that he used to live in too. He was surprised by that, and it was kind of fun to see and talk about. The last few miles really hurt, and we were glad once we were done. We ended up running it in 3 hours and 11 minutes. Not fast, but it was our first and due to me hurting my hip a couple weeks ago, we weren’t able to train the past two weeks. So, I’m just glad I was healed enough to do it. I’m sure it will be our first of others to come.

After the marathon, we had to walk back to our room, which was about two miles. And then we went and enjoyed Capt George’s seafood buffet. We had a friendly, talkative waitress and the food was good. It is another long time favorite, but it wasn’t quite as exceptional as we remembered. After lunch, we went down and slept on the beach. Or tried to, except for being woken up by various moms yelling at their kids!

In the evening, we rode our bikes to 5th street, for the Pat Benatar and REO Speedwagon concert on the beach. It was fun, but there was an insane amount of people, and we were exhausted. Being stepped over and on, is not so fun. A fireworks display after the concert was a great way to end the day!

Monday we had to check out. As we were packing, we saw dolphins playing along the shore. The staff said it was fine to leave the car there, even though we had checked out, so we biked around the rest of the day. We had breakfast at Pocahontas Pancakes, where the waitress was great, and the food was amazing. We biked up and down the boardwalk, watched some men pull some flounder out of Rudee Inlet, and talked to some local guy whose kid was playing on the new playground about how we missed living there.

We went down on the pier, and again saw dolphins. This time closer up, and it appeared to be at least 8 of them. Such amazing creatures! We went shopping, got some shark teeth, beach towels, and a hermit crab for the girls. Had dinner at Zeros and then headed home. It only took 3 1/2 hours and the traffic was minimal.

It was an amazing weekend!! Virginia really is for lovers.

One of my favorite singers is Chris Cornell. He’s a newer favorite. I follow him on twitter, and I like what he posts to his wife and mom and the lyrics of his songs are sometimes very profound and clever. (A warning, though, that some of his songs have profanity.) It is obvious that he and his wife have a deep love for one another, but still have a volatile relationship. I remember one instance where she was angry at him for some reason and blocked him, then they made up publicly. Kind of immature, but they both wear their heart on their sleeve- including his in his music. 

I usually listen to his songs when I run or do yardwork. The beat helps me to keep up a good clip. One of my favorite songs is “Scream.” It starts off like this:

I take a minute to tell you right
And you can say what you want
And turn around every night
Somehow you’re always going off

Doesn’t matter what I’ve done
Or if I even crossed the line
You start to holler, going for blood
Girl, it doesn’t have to be a fight

It makes me think of how God has told wives in 1 Peter 3 that husbands may be won over by a wife’s behavior - without words -  that true beauty is a gentle and quiet spirit. Not only is this of great worth in God’s eyes, it is what He is telling us wins a man over and is how He wants us to be.

Some of the other lyrics in Chris Cornell’s song includes these:  

Hey, why you keep screaming at the top of your head?

I got no trouble with what you said
I don’t even think you’re wrong
It’s how you say it, you lose your head
Girl, I’m standing right in front of you

It’s true men really don’t like it when women yell at them. Women are more emotional and have a tendency to raise their voice. Me included, although it is something I did manage to get a pretty good grip on when confronted on it, praise the Lord. While a woman might admit to occasionally raising her voice, her man might describe it as screaming, yelling, hollering, or screetching.

One of the lines in his song is

There may come a time when I don’t bother you at all
It isn’t my call, it isn’t my call

Meaning, he won’t be talking to her at all if she keeps screaming at him. One of the reasons I love his songs is he gives a great look into his male mind. Most men will avoid conflict at all costs. When faced with conflict, the man will withdraw- work more, go find a sport, go off with friends, spend time on the computer, or games, or whatever he finds takes him away from anything he percieves as unpleasant. You. Ouch.

I think the key in having a gentle and quiet spirit takes place first in the mind. We are told to renew our mind which means that first we have to have a right relationship with Jesus- trusting in Him alone for taking our sin. Then, we have to continue to trust Him with our husband. We have to think on the good (Phil 4:8) and remember that He works all things together for good (Ro 8:28). And we are told to keep our speech full of grace (Col 4:6)

One thing that really convicted me was that the Bible says again and again for us to watch our words and control our tongues. I remember over the years hearing people ask for prayer for God to help them to do that, but one day God spoke to me that He had already given us that power and commanded us to do it. Just reread 1 Peter 3, James 3, and the above mentioned verses. God’s not asking.

Have you ever been angry at your husband or children and someone comes around the corner and you stop whatever you are saying, smile, and wait for them to leave? That means we CAN control our tongue. It may not be easy, but we can. We should be our husband’s best friend. We started out that way, didn’t we? We wouldn’t yell at our best girl friend. If we did, she’d stop being our friend, right? We know how to build a friend up, but don’t realize when we tear our husbands down. Screaming is kind of like termites, eating away at the foundation of your home.

By wisdom a house is built,
and through understanding it is established;
through knowledge its rooms are filled
with rare and beautiful treasures. Prov 24:3-4

So, let’s go and build our beautiful houses. Jesus is there with us to be our master builder.

The other day I came across the web site of a humorous, grace filled writer. He is  Dave Burchett author of When Bad Christians Happen To Good People and Bring ‘Em Back Alive. I haven’t read those books, yet, although I plan to order them and read them as soon as possible. But I’ve been reading his blog, and it’s like a breath of fresh air. He talks in his latest blog about friends who are “grace misters” like the water misters that are found at parks, some people are grace misters. What a sweet thought. Those friends are the most beautiful, for sure. Dave is most definitely a grace mister.

He blogs about going on vacation where volunteers observe and dig up turtle eggs to count hatched and unhatched eggs. As he watched the volunteers, they came across two baby turtles that had hatched, but gotten stuck down under two feet of sand. They stayed alive by air trapped under shells. He is inspired with how the volunteers ‘care enough’ to look after the turtles and then realizes he is “sad that really cool people like Sam will do that for baby turtles and that so many followers of Jesus can’t or won’t find the time to do that for fellow believers buried deep in the hole of despair and woundedness.”

His story had me choking up and then I read this line that he is “challenged by the thought that someone may be gasping for spiritual air today just waiting for me to care enough….”

Wow. I don’t know about you, but I too, am challenged by that thought. I do want to care enough.

Wow I didn’t blog for a whole year!

Well… mostly that is because of facebook, but also because I have started working and I couldn’t remember my password here, either.

I am working for social services now…. something I have always wanted to do. It’s what I went to college for, just never managed to do with moving around due to Dan being in the military and having kids and homeschooling and all. But here I am employed with social services, thanks mostly to Obama’s stimulus package.

I enjoy most of the job, although it is so busy due to the rise in unemployment. We are all overworked and it doesn’t seem like we’ll ever get caught up. Interviewing people is fun, and the computer system is even fun, but the paperwork, not so much.

I’m currently in training. They will send me periodically for policy updates and such. I love training! The hours are awesome and it is so relaxed it’s almost like a vacation.

Cassie is in her last year of highschool, consecutively she is in her first year at college. She made the honor list. Great job, Cassie! I’m proud of you!!

Praying for those in Haiti.

Thanksgiving and Christmas have come and gone and the New Year is coming up… Time sure does go by fast. We have taken the boat out on warm days… Dan and I were just able to go out on Saturday. It was bitter cold and then the temps rose into the 60’s. I’m lovin’ it!

We are really enjoying having the boat. We haven’t taken many vacations over the years, and now having it is like having a vacation day whenever we want. It is so much fun, and there is nothing like feeling the salty breeze and rocking on the endless water.  Dan loves being out on it so much. I’m so glad that we got it! We are looking forward to taking the girls out on it this summer.

Last night Dan’s boss offered us his tickets and we went to the Ravens last home game. They won against Jacksonville and are now going to be in the playoffs. It was a good game, lots of fun to be at, and we had a great time. We stopped at the Outback on the way home for a late night dinner. We enjoyed a terrific date. What a nice end to a long Christmas holiday weekend. : ) And we didn’t have to worry about the girls, as our friends had asked for them to spend the day with them. It all worked out great!

I can’t believe in a few days it will be 2009! Happy New Year! The Lord is good!

Bonnie here~  Dan took the boat to a man who fixed the fuel pump. Sunday after church we were able to go out on the bay. It was a little choppy, and it was windy, but the skies were blue and the boat ran perfectly!

Dan was very happy! Here’s some photos we took with the cell phone…

Last week Dan and I had a great time at the Renaissance Fair. We ran into some friends from church in full costume!

Ahem. The picture you see above, is our boat getting towed. “What? Towed?” You may ask. Yes, indeed. Towed. “Why would you need to be towed?” You may ask. Well, let’s just put it this way…

*flashback*

Dad: “Hey let’s go on a boatride today. I fixed all the wiring and I put in the new gas tank and etc. etc. etc.”
Us: “Ummmm sure I guess. Are you sure everything is all good and ready?”
Dad: “Well yeah! I fixed it all.”

So we hop in the truck and off we drive to the bay. We load the boat into the water, tie it to the dock with my mom’s awesome horse reign tying skills, and park the truck and trailer. We all get into the boat and go, “Oh great! Nothing bad happened so far!” Dad starts up the boat with this phrase: “Hmmm maybe we can ride to one of those islands today.”

So off we go. Finally, we get into like, 15 foot water. The engine dies. “Uhhhh,” we all say in unison, “What’s wrong?” Dad keeps turning the key in the ignition and finally it starts back up. We go out a little further. It dies again. “Uh-oh. That’s not good.” Are the words whispered from all four of us. All of the sudden, the sky turned black and we realized we wouldn’t make it out alive a big wave comes and rocks our boat. We thought, even for just five minutes, we just might drown. We all put our lifejackets on, for at least the next half hour.

Nope. It wouldn’t start again. If it did, we couldn’t get it to move. Or stay idle. Oh dear.

So out we sat, in the boat, in the Chesapeake bay, for 3.5 hours. Yes, 3.5 hours. Don’t worry, we had chips. And water bottles. And a dying radio. And cell phones. So it’s all good.

The first hour passed. We were drifting in closer to the beach. We were thinking about swimming in to the shore, but we figured we couldn’t leave the boat (not to mention the cute little jelly fishies we saw dotting the cold, brown water). We were trying to flag down other boaters, we were making in calls from the radio to the people that are supposed to help you when you’re in boating trouble, etc. etc.
Then, “Please move back.” From the shore. We looked over to see a park ranger with a megaphone.
“Move back, please. Move your boat back.” We tried and tried to start our engine but to no avail. “Move your boat back please!” Hmm. We were getting nowhere. Another hour passed, after being informed that we couldn’t get help from the radio people. Finally, the police and coastguards came out on a boat.
“You need to move your boat back, you’re getting too close to the beach.”
“Ummmm, we can’t, we’re having engine trouble.”
“Oh. Put on your lifejackets.”
“Um okay. But can you tow us?”
“No we can’t. It’s against the rules ’cause we’d be competing with the towing companies. Do you have a number you’d like us to call?”
“Ummm we have one. Thanks.”
“We’re supposed to stick around until the towing company comes.”

So we called the towing company, and they said they’d be here in about 45 minutes. Then came that towing boat. Finally, we were being rescued! We could see some children on the beach who were watching, and we saw them pumping their fists in the air in joy for us. Yay!

When we finally were all settled back in the truck, my dad was doing something in the boat while it was on the trailer. My mom saw that other people left their boats on their trailers in the parking lot.
Mom: “Hey, that’s not a bad idea. We could leave the boat here closer to the water.”
My sister Anna, excitedly: “Yeah!!!! And if we’re lucky, someone will come and steal it!!!!”

We all laughed wickedly. When my dad heard, he wasn’t so impressed.

So… When do you suppose we’ll go on another boat ride?

~Kitty

I decided to copy mom’s idea and put up pictures of me with my friends. A lot of these will be off my phone, so bear with any grainy-ness. Also, the way they’re inserted is quite strange, so I’m like “Computer say wha???” Sorry. These aren’t all my friends… More pics soon.

~Kitty

I thought I’d post some photos of our ‘real life’ friends that we took last Christmas.

Allison and Daryan.

Kylie with baby Luke. She LOVES babies. LOL

Anna and Katie.

Some of the children making cards.

Katie, Emily, and Linda.

Emily, Ruthanne and Danielle, who are both off to college this year.

Nathan, Mark, Charlie, and Jimmy playing Wii, with Travis watching.

Tia, Kassie, and Johnny hanging out, and not looking too happy, LOL.

The Smith sisters.

Peggy, Sandra, Janet, Sharon, Horacio, and Don.

Diane talking with Don.

Andy and Carol.

Amy and Bill

A different Amy, and her husband Brian

A different Brian, Sandy, Alice and Gary

Horacio and Sharon.

Lara and Patrick

Ron and Sally with their grandson Travis

Our pastor, Ed, and his wife, Sandy

Don and Lynn, and Heather with the giggles

and these are some pictures we took while we were camping…

Maggie and Anna exploring!

Me walking through our camp

Tia, Kassie and Kitty, too.

Me and Anna walking towards the shore.

There you have it. Hope you have enjoyed meeting our friends!

~ Bonnie

Our friends told us about a tradition of theirs — they burn their school work at the end of the year. The kids loved the idea and so we decided to do it this year.

When we moved in, we worked hard to clear a section in our woods. It’s near a running stream and is a cool place to hang out. Kitty and I hung some party lights from the trees. So, last night we pulled some chairs down there and Dan built a little fire in an old grill.

The girls gathered some of last year’s workbooks.

Tearing up your old work and burning it! Just imagine how good that feels! LOL

And we of course toasted some marshmallows, too. Yum!

While uploading these, I discovered some photos that I forgot to upload from the park. So, here’s some more…

This is one of the ospreys that nest off shore.

Kitty got a shot of the water lapping up on shore. Cool eh?

Great shot of the bee, even though the girls hate bees.

They have a nice little garden there. So, of course there are plenty of beautiful butterflies along with the bees!

Isn’t this a cute little guy?

Walking through a trail in the woods, you come across a little swampy area.

This little guy is very happy in his home there. : )

And so is this heron. Watch out little frog!

I enjoy living on the east coast. And I’m really thankful for parks!