Ewwwww!

Kenyon and I recently rented a U-haul truck and drove the remainder of our furniture to Virginia. We picked up a passenger along the way. In the rural communities of Virginia among the peaceful farmland when we were nearly at our destination I heard a very loud THUMP. I was looking around to figure out what could have made that sound, and to my dismay I saw a large insect with it's head lodged in the windshield wiper. It was looking right at me. At first I thought it must be dead based on the force of the impact and the position it was currently placed, then it's little bug legs started to move and I knew it was alive. I asked Kenyon to stop and free the passenger we had picked up since it was still alive. Instead, Kenyon decided to turn on the windshield wipers to see if he could set him free that way. That strategy didn't work and I imagine the only thing it succeeded in doing is to make our passenger dizzy. Kenyon wouldn't stop driving until we reached our destination and I had those little bug eyes staring at me the whole way - very unnerving! When we arrived we were quickly distracted by unloading the vehicle before nightfall. In the morning we needed to return the truck to the rental place so we loaded up and that is when I saw the bug eyes again and was reminded of our passenger. By this time the life had been drained out of him and little bees were swarming him, though I don't know enough about nature to understand why bees would be attracted to our passenger. When we reached the rental place I took a photo. What a way to go!

This post is in memory of the passenger we picked up on the road during our move. That isn't a super close-up shot, it really was that large. What is it? If you know, do share, because inquiring minds want to know...

I am redeemed...

Kenyon and I have been attending a great church in North Carolina. It is full of diversity in a city that seriously lacks diversity. It is full of people committed to doing what God asks and following where he leads. The teaching is good, but I personally enjoy the praise time. It isn't perfectly orchestrated, but it is powerful. One of the frustrating things about a job that takes me all over the world is that I was unable to serve my church. Due to my demanding travel schedule, I was simply an unreliable volunteer so I attended when I was in town, but was otherwise uninvolved. I complained about this to a friend and she told me I needed to get over it, I was already giving so much of myself that I should be okay with just showing up somewhere and being blessed. That was hard for me to accept, but it was my only option.

A couple of weeks ago (one of my last weekends in town) I was able to attend a Sunday morning service and they played one of my favorite songs; Say So by Israel. It brought me to tears, the words are something I believe deeply, and in the midst of preparing for our next adventure I was overwhelmed with emotion. You can watch the song performed live here. Our church gets roudy when this song is played, I love the energy and conviction with which they sing this song. The lyrics are below:

Say So by Israel
What does it mean to be saved?
Isn’t it more than just a prayer to pray?
More than just a way to Heaven.
What does it mean to be His?
To be formed in His likeness?
And know that we have a purpose.

To be salt and light in the world, in the world
To be salt and light in the world

Let the redeemed of the Lord say so
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so
Say so, say so

Oh that the church would arise
Oh that we would see with Jesus’ eyes
We could show the world Heaven
Show what it means to be His
To be formed in His likeness
Show them they have a purpose

Let the redeemed of the Lord rise up
Let the redeemed of the Lord rise up
Let the redeemed of the Lord rise up
Rise up, rise up!

I am redeemed!

What is your favorite praise song right now?

traveling light

Kenyon and I have been busy packing and liquidating our stuff. It's took some effort, but we packed all of our household items in nine boxes...kitchen and bath supplies, games, holiday decorations, spices, books...everything we think we will need over the next two years in nine boxes! We've dropped them off and they will be shipped by air to Cambodia. Actually, they might arrive before us. After we unloaded I took a picture at the warehouse so you could see the sum of our wordly possessions. Our clothing for the coming years will be in our checked baggage.

How many boxes do you think it would take to pack up your possessions? You might be surprised, I know I was shocked at how much stuff I've accumulated over the years.

trash

When Kenyon and I first moved to the mountains of North Carolina I found one change incredibly inconvenient - trash disposal. In my entire adult life, until now, I simply stored my trash in a receptical at my home and it was picked up weekly by the city garbage collector. Easy, convenient, low mess or hassle. Curbside trash pick-up is rare here. We must take all trash to a public facility. I had often found this to be a big hassle, especially when trying to get out of town.

Last weekend I took a picture of our trash disposal location. Why? Because I realized I had become accustomed to this activity. I realized that in actuallity it had probably helped us reduce our waste because we were so keenly aware of how often we had to go to the trash or the amount of trash we were disposing. It must have helped, because for the first time in my life I am recycling.

Do you think others would become less wasteful if they had to haul their own trash? Does curbside pick-up encourage wastefulness?

Boone friends

Recently, we attended a party in our honor...a going away/birthday party...with our friends in Boone. You've seen many of these folks before at other parties we've hosted or attended. Though we are leaving Boone the end of the week I don't really feel like I am saying good-bye to these people because I will still be working for my employer who is based here. Enjoy the photos!

We love you, friends! We've enjoyed our times with you and plan to keep in touch.

Yard Sale update

Kenyon and I hosted our first yard sale. I had to take a day off work and wake up before the sun in order to get everything ready. Though we advertised our sale to begin at 8am, our first customer arrived at 6:30am. We had just barely begun to pull stuff out of the house, but he looked over every item as we dragged it out and left with a few things in hand. He was the newspaper man, so we cut him a break.

Shortly after he left a caravan of trucks pulled up (this was just after 7am). I still hadn't finished pulling everything on to the yard, but that didn't seem to matter. These obviously experienced yard salers came, saw and left. This is what our yard looked like at their exit, I still hadn't finished pulling everything out of the house and on to the yard.

We had a steady flow of traffic during the published hours of the event. At the end of the day we had sold a lot, but a lot still remains. Goodwill or friends will be the beneficiaries of our remaining items.

Some highlights of the day...I learned that people can be incredibly generous. When we told them why we were selling our stuff, they didn't haggle with us. For the most part, they just paid what we were asking. One of our neighbors came over to just give us some money. One woman bought some stuff, left, then came back and gave us a check as a gift for our move. There is good in humanity! Also, I had to publish my number in the paper to place the add. I received some calls asking for directions (which is always important in this mountain community), but I also received a prank phone call. I don't think I've received a prank phone call in fifteen years! It made me laugh, which provided some much needed comic relief during this stressful time.

Have you ever held a yard sale? What was your experience? When you go to yard sales, are you looking for something in particular?

Yard Sale!

This weekend Kenyon and I are hosting a yard sale. We've been able to liquidate quite a bit of our stuff through classified adds at my work.

Kenyon's truck holds the record of going the fastest. We posted the add around 2pm on a Thursday and by 6pm that night we had the money in hand and the truck was gone. Whoosh!

The Bose radio we had holds the record for being the most desirable item. I can't even count the number of inquiries we had for that item. Frankly, it was overwhelming! The winner was the night security guard who left money on my desk with a note...being willing to leave cash without the exchange of assets puts one at the front of the pack.

The lady who bought our bed didn't need it until the end of the month. Thankfully, because we needed a place to sleep. She was moving the end of July and didn't have space for the bed until then. Out of the kindness of our hearts we offered to "store it" for her in the meantime. Smile!

Saturday we are hosting a yard sale to liquidate some of the remaining items, what doesn't go Saturday will likely be donated to Goodwill. If you are in the area, stop by. We still have some furniture remaining, lots of household items (kitchen and decorating), some of my precious book collection and so much more. It's kind of scary getting rid of all this stuff. When we return from overseas we will basically be starting over. Yikes!

Easter weekend

Happy Easter! I decided a few years ago that the joy of celebrating this holiday comes from being with friends or family. In Kansas City, I often joined Elaine's family for their traditions. It included a party, games and an enormous egg hunt. It was a lot of fun.

Since we are no longer in Kansas City I decided to replicate this tradition for myself and anyone else who had no family in the area. Last year we hosted our own Easter Egg hunt. It was so much fun we are doing it again.

If you are in the area and are looking for something to do, join us Saturday at 2pm!

You know you live in a small town when...

I keep attending the public events in our town, hoping to find something that wows me. We've been here since September 2007. Either I'm not trying hard enough and there are some events I've yet to discover, or I need to lower my expectations.

On the first Friday of every month they have an art crawl downtown. It is nothing like First Friday's in Kansas City. I think they call it a crawl for a reason, because that is the only way to prolong the experience...otherwise it's over too quickly. Kenyon and I have attended this event a couple of times. The highlight is always the Turchin Center on the ASU campus...not because the art is good, but mostly because they serve food and drinks. You must remember, my hometown is Santa Fe, NM...roots like that make me an art snob.

We attended this event in March. The Turchin Center had live music playing. I've heard live music in Boone three times - once I attended the summer concert series at Jones House, at the High Country apple fest, and now at Turchin during the Art Crawl. Here's the thing...it's been the same muscician every time. A woman in dreads named Chris who sings blues like Tracy Chapman. I like her stuff, but isn't there other talent available in this town?

Winter Wonderland

I mentioned my recent travel delays in an earlier post. The last flight of a very long journey was cancelled due to weather. We had the largest dumping of snow in one time in our area in recent years. Here is a picture of our front yard. We live in the basement apartment and trudge through the snow to get to our front door. When I arrived from the airport I stepped in the fresh snow and I swear I sunk quickly with snow to my knees.

This is the road leading up to our neighbors home. The little blue ant did not do well on these roads. For the first time I realized why so many people have SUV, four wheel drive vehicles here...it isn't just a status symbol in the mountains, but in times like this it is a necessity.

Innovation

We often rent movies from the Redbox. If you don't have one in your community, it is basically a vending machine that dispenses DVD's for $1 per night. Then simply return the movie to any Redbox vending machine in town. We also get a free movie each week by entering the code that is sent by SMS text to our cell phone.

I can't really explain it, but I am fascinated by this Redbox concept. In my opinion the inventor deserves credit. They had the originality to believe that a vending machine could replace an entire Blockbuster store. A vending machine? I just never would have thought of that. Then they made it red (eye catching) and call it a Redbox (simple). Then integrate modern technology (cell phone texting) to encourage regular customers. I'm just amazed at their creativity and innovation.

Are there other services that can be replaced by a vending machine?

Ahh, the life of a renter

I've been a home owner for many years. At one point I owned a three bedroom, two bath home; sold it (and by "owned" I mean I paid mortgage payments on a home). Then I owned a condo; after the move we sold it...eventually.

Since moving to North Carolina I have been a renter. I forgot all the perks of renting. I pay rent on the first of each month. In exchange for that rent, I get a nice place to live (with heat, a welcome change from our last rental where we lived all winter in the master bedroom with a space heater - one room of a three bedroom house!). We enjoy good neighbors in a safe neighborhood. And best of all, no responsibility!!!

It is our landlords job to maintain the place. If there is a plumbing problem, I don't have to figure out how to fix it (for the single handy-woman out there I recommend Dare to Repair for your common household repair jobs). It is someone elses responsibility to take care of annual maintenance, repair jobs and landscaping. I'm really enjoying this change. I don't have to spend weekends raking leaves or mowing lawns. Nope, not me. I pay rent, let the landlord do it. What freedom! I am not shackled with the responsibility of home ownership.


I know some of you out there are thinking, "rent is such a waste of money." In this economy it's working for me. My last home lost so much value from the time I bought it to the time I sold it, that the mortgage I owed exceeded what the property was worth. Yes, we all expect property values to rise again in the future and if I'd of hung on to it I could have gotten that money back. First, there is no guarantee of that, and second, I didn't want the hassle of owning property in a state I don't live in. So, I chose freedom...and I'm loving it!

I also like that we aren't shackled to a place. Where will we go next? Who knows?! But, renting gives us the flexible to go quickly when we are ready.

ice skating

In the mountain community we live in there are three ski resorts near our town. This weekend I went with a group to one of these resorts, not to ski, but to go ice skating. It was fantastic! Beautiful mountain views all around. On this particular day the sun was shining, which I like. I ice skated for two and a half hours. 

The one benefit of all this snow is that it should make for a good ski season...maybe I can get Kenyon to learn to ski this year. Maybe? He did go white water rafting with me this summer, miracles can happen. One of the ski resorts expanded their tubing area. I'll start there. He skipped the ice skating, but I'm pretty sure he will like tubing.

What is your favorite winter sport?

It's begining to look a lot like...a white Thanksgiving?

It's snowing again. Lots of snow. It's white outside. It isn't even Thanksgiving yet and this is the second snow in a week! I was told that it was going to be a tough winter this year because the apple trees did really well this season. I don't really get the correlation between apple trees and winter weather predictions, I'm not a farmer, but I am starting to believe they know what they are talking about.

$1.74

The cheapest gas I have seen in...well, years. $1.74. I didn't think I would see gas under $2 again in my lifetime. How low will it go? How much are you paying for gas where you live?

snow?!

I haven't seen snow in nearly two years. Last year I traveled the entire winter. I heard it snowed, but I never saw it. When I returned between trips the sun was shining.

this morning I woke up to snow. It's snowing! I think there was wisdom in traveling during winter to warm weather places. I'll have to make a note of that for next year.

Ode to Reverend Billy

Kenyon and I were honored to receive an invitation to Billy Graham's 90th Birthday Party. The party was last night, though his real b-day was earlier in the month. It was a star studded event with tributes from presidents (yes, of the United States), musical artists, pastor's and average Joe's who had all been touched by this one man's life. There were sweet moments, like the one when he spoke of his beloved wife Ruth. There were funny moments, like just about anything his baby sister had to say. It truly was an honor to attend an event in honor of such a great man.

Reverend Billy Graham is on my list of great individuals. He loves his family, was passionate about his calling, and has been faithful to the very end. Anyone who met him, worked with him, or lived with him say the same thing - "Billy, is the real deal."

With him, there isn't a public persona and a private life that didn't match - he lived the values he espoused. I think one of the tributes to him by a member of the board of directors for the BGEA put it best:

"Thank you for the example of your life."

Amen to that!

Ghost Train

Kenyon is still out of town, so I have been spending a lot more time with girlfriends. Halloween night Athalia and I had a girls night out. There is a small amusement park near our town called Tweetsie Railroad. They have a special event on Halloween night called the Ghost Train.

Basically, they set up this whole story with werewolf's, there were firecrackers and actors. Early in the train ride they got Athalia really good. She screamed so loud! I don't know if all that adrenaline is good for a pregnant lady. 

We visited the haunted house and saw the show "werewolf of London" - aah eew! There were amusement park rides, but we skipped those. I'm pretty sure those aren't recommended for a pregnant lady.

The staff at Tweetsie were dressed in costume. Music was playing all over the park. We danced with the staff to Thriller, the macarena, and the cha-cha slide.

I screamed, I laughed, I generally had a great time. This was a Halloween for the record books. I must catch the Ghost Train again next year!

1980's prom night

I did something last week that I have never done before. I had a new experience. I love new experiences, they are fun and exhilarating. What did I do? I went shopping with my friend Athalia for a 1980's prom dress (nearly 30 years later). Athalia is from Georgia and moved here when she married Travis. Travis and I are colleagues working for the same employer, but in different departments. One of our co-workers was throwing a big birthday bash and the theme was a 1980's prom night. All guests were asked to come dressed appropriately.

Athalia and I scoured the local thrift store for just the right thing. What made this particularly fun was the fact that Athalia is 6 months pregnant. She and Travis had a theme going, "teen pregnancy." I had some fun 80's rocker ideas, but we were pretty sure Travis wasn't going to go for it. So, we settled on a bright purple dress, complete with the necessary bow in the back, and for Travis, her escort, we got a matching brightly colored vest and thin purple tie. I went with a bright pink and green number. Leann the party planner did a phenomenal job. It really felt like we had time warped back to prom night. The costumes were very entertaining. We danced and sang karaoke songs...of course from that era. There were pac man and ms. pac man cakes. They had even found a pac man game and set it up in the corner for guests to play. There was punch and spiked punch, appropriately labeled. Each couple had their picture taken together. I had to attend alone (though I'm pretty sure Kenyon would not have worn a costume if he were here), so I skipped the photo.

I would happily share pictures with you, but sadly, I had no camera. I sent it with Kenyon to Haiti. So, this is just one you are going to have to imagine...the sillier, probably the more accurate.

High Country Apple Fest

I may be an unmotivated voter, but regardless of what I do there will be a winner and looser come November. I predict Obama will triumph. I think he has the momentum, charisma and popularity to win. Though it has always annoyed me, the presidential race is a popularity contest. Few Americans actually know what the candidates stand for, they vote for the best known name or the person they like the best. I think Obama has that X-factor going for him.

Last weekend my friend Alexa and I were walking around one of the seasons annual events - the local apple fest. It wasn't very big, but there was one sight worth sharing. In the old town area there was a storyteller. A red neck in overalls telling stories of the old country. Notice the man in the blue t-shirt and camouflage hat...this picture has not been altered in anyway. It is true, Obama has even penetrated this crowd. If he has convinced some high country hill billies to vote for him; he has a very, very good chance of being elected president.