In Retrospect

I feel compelled to write a post about our weekend. Not because anyone will care to read it, but because I want to remember……. remember what we did and most importantly how it made me feel. Chris and I spent the weekend volunteering at RAM, it stands for Remote Area Medical. The program travels around the world providing FREE medical and dental care for patients that are uninsured or underinsured. The program is contingent upon volunteers. The doctors, nurses, etc are all volunteers. Chris and I were assigned to the Registration Tables. The folks had been standing outside for hours waiting for their turn. They were given a number and the numbers were called a few at a time. The patients proceeded to the Registration table where we asked them questions to complete their paperwork. It was an emotionally overwhelming job. Chris and I sat beside each other with patients on the other side of the table. Many of them shared stories about their situation and what brought them to this point in their lives. Many of the patients were elderly. I will never forget the elderly man that reminded me of my Papaw Sanders. He needed dental work. He was cold and his hands were shaking, as he took several minutes to sign his name. When all the registration was complete we headed out. There was a fall festival taking place in Grundy. We hung out there for a while and headed back to our room.
 I will never again take for granted the opportunity to go to the doctor or dentist.
At the conclusion of this weekend, I am so thankful for so many things. I am thankful for my wonderful husband………watching him with the patients, listening so sincerely and taking on their problems made me so humbled. I am thankful for our health. Finally, I am thankful for the gift of life. I want to spend as much time as possible doing things that really make a difference in this world.

Surprise…. Surprise

Yesterday was one of those days that keeps you smiling until you go to bed!! Several weeks ago, some of Chris' co-workers contacted me about having him a SURPRISE Birthday Party. I am not a secret keeper, especially when it comes to secrets and Chris. He knows more about me than he will ever want to know. I am an open book! Keeping the secret was hard, really hard! I could not wait until the day was here so I wouldn't have to keep the secret any longer.
Yesterday was the day. They decorated his office and hosted a luau in honor of his 40^th Birthday. Yep, that's right, 40^th.
They bought him a gift basket filled with all the things he loves and the very best part was a gift for me. I am not sure what I did to deserve a gift, but I was so appreciative. I love gifts!! Chris was very humbled and grateful. He is blessed to work with such thoughtful people. I felt overwhelmed as I drove home, just pondering our lives and our blessings.
I am thankful God lead Chris to Buchanan County and I am excited to see what else he has in store for us.

A crazy little thing called Love

A little lesson on love during Sunday School really made me ponder the concept of "love". Our society has a corrupt view of love. We know there are many different facets to love. We love our children in a different way than we love our neighbors. We really overuse the word love, "I love ice cream". I mean really, do you love ice cream? I was thinking about things I love and this is what I came up with:
Please note this is not a list of everything or everyone I love. Just off the top of my head.
I love:

1. My husband
2. My kiddos
3. Living in a safe place
4. The smell of fall in the air
5. Dessert
6. Being pregnant
7. Working with a purpose
8. To teach and train ( totally in my element in front of a room of adults sharing information and facilitating conversation)
9. Finishing a project
10. Making decisions that I know will have a positive influence
11. The clearance rack
12. School (I will forever be a student)
13. Honest people
14. Time with my husband (I used to take that for granted)
15. 
    
    This crazy and blessed life we lead
    
    
    What does love feel like? What do you think? How do you describe the feeling of love? Is it that warm fuzzy feeling inside? Or when something takes your breath away? Leave me a comment.

What was supposed to be a Lazy Day

We had no intentions of being productive today.

The goal was to be lazy. My goal anyways, Chris always does something productive.

I took the girls to the library. They checked out a few books. Then we met Chris for Lunch.

On our way to lunch, a plane landed on the four lane. Really! No joke! The pilot is a good friend of ours, we are thankful he was okay!

The remainder of our day is going to include fresh veggies on the new grill and

A campfire, with s'mores of course. Happy Weekend!!

Road Trip

We really love to go away for the weekend. We don't get the opportunity very often because we always end up having some kind of obligation. But when we get the chance, we hit the road!!

I have learned from Chris that packing is really not a big deal. I used to make a list and pack as I checked off the list. Not anymore!! I just open up a big duffle bag and I start throwing stuff in. His philosophy is that you can buy or do without anything for a few days. This time I thought I forgot the hairbrush but luckily, it was in the bottom of the bag. Thanks to Ava, she packed lots of random objects that I found once we arrived.

We stayed at a really kid-friendly hotel with a pool and waterslide. They also had a "marshmallow"! Maddie calls those mushrooms that spill water, "marshmallows" and I love it!!

Our primary destination was the aquarium. On our way into Gatlinburg, we stopped at a book store. I bought, "Curious George visits the Aquarium". I read it to the kids on the road several times. It was so awesome! It was like "practicing what you preach"! I encourage our teachers to relate experiences to literature, but how many times do I really do it for my own children. That's not important, right? What matters is that I did it this time. The kids listened so intently, I felt like supermom. I think Chris thought he was married to supermom too! I could tell by the little smile on his face, as I was reading (he thought I didn't see it).

And so, as a reward for being supermom (you know, facilitating a literacy experience), Chris played putt putt with the kiddos while I shopped at the outlet mall. I got an awesome shirt at J Crew and a Coach purse. I am in love with the purse, but it is black. I am not sure if it is appropriate to carry it before Labor Day? I guess I will ponder for a few more weeks or maybe I will break the rules and carry it tomorrow.

The kids loved the aquarium. Actually, the parents loved it too! It was fun! If only every day was the weekend!

Extreme Oreos

There are lots of little reasons I love Chris Austin.

Tonight I was reminded of one of the reasons. After dinner, Chris announced that he had to take a quick trip to the grocery store. He proceeded to get shoes on Maddie and Ava and off they went. They returned an hour later with 6 boxes of oreos. Yes, six! I wondered what the lady at the register thought, maybe something like "What is his wife going to think about this!!" Not the traditional oreos (that would be boring), but instead these new oreos with peanut butter, fudge covering and other additional calorie items.

Nay and I often laugh about this "extreme" tendency that Chris has on occasion. One box would not do….. six boxes are sufficient.

I forgot to mention that we devoured an entire box.

We Were so in Love….

The conversation went something like this:

Chris:    "Do you remember when we used to be so in love and sleep upside down in the bed?"

Me:    "no" (very confused)

Chris:    "oh"

The conversation ended and we both went back to our normal nighttime routine, baths, lunches, homework, and on and on.

Then before bed the same conversation continued-

Me:    "Could we talk about that sleeping upside down in the bed thing again?"

Chris:    "sure"

Me:    "Why did we sleep upside down in the bed?"

Chris:    "I think we were pretending to be on vacation"

(I did not think sleeping with my head at the wrong end of the bed was something you ordinarily do on vacation, hmmm….)

Me:    "oh, well"

Chris:    "I think you were pregnant with Maddie"

Me:    "What does love have to do with sleeping upside down in the bed?"

Chris:    "Everything"

Me:    "Are we still in love?"

Chris:    "yep"

I dozed off thanking God for my blessings, including love and humor. That is what makes the world go around, right?

Funny conversations are in order around our home place J