I love these people. If anything, the weekend seemed to go by too quickly. I’m sorry I don’t have any pictures of the beautiful property (the kids loved the horses, ducks, and kittens as well as a swinging bridge) or people, but since my cell had no reception, I turned it off immediately and didn’t carry it with me anywhere. Which also meant I didn’t have a camera, watch, or alarm clock.

As if I’d need an alarm clock when there were young ones running around…

One of the best parts of the weekend happened when we were leaving on Sunday. My friend Penny and I were the last to leave, as we were finishing up the clean up. When Penny put her key in the car to start it, the battery was dead.

Thankfully, her family lives in a nearby town, so we were able to get a jump from her brother so we could get into town and get the battery replaced. I’m glad that we got that extra time to talk, as at one point near the end of our 4-hour drive, tears were streaming down my face. She thought it was something she said, but really, it was just brokenness over my own sin. More on that later.

You can tell how much I enjoyed the company by how little I read. I only read 6 chapters of the Bible and maybe 15 pages of another book. Unheard of for me on a trip!

I’m very thankful for the refreshing, entertaining, and encouraging weekend. I have renewed my motivation to do what I need to do.

While there, we participated in the classic bridal-shower game: toilet paper brides. Here’s what we came up (our inspiration: bows and more bows), as modeled on my youngest cousin, age 5:

The wedding was good, and it was fun to spend extended time with my extended family, something we rarely get to do as we’re spread coast to coast (though I’m the only one on this coast).

Sunday, my dad and I got to do some exploring in Seattle. I had wanted to visit Pike’s Market, and though my dad has been to Seattle dozens of times, he’d never been.

Once we got there, the first thing I saw was a Turkish restaurant. I had to eat there for lunch and, more importantly, share Turkish cuisine with my dad, otherwise known as the pickiest eater I’ve ever met. I knew if I ordered the right thing, he’d actually like it, as Turkish food is pretty simple: meat, veggies, and bread. For the uninitiated, it’s very similar to Greek.

Can’t you tell he’s humoring me? I’m very thankful to have a dad who will do anything for his daughter!

The verdict was that he ate the chicken, onion,and sauce out of it and actually liked it. He also liked the cheese pide I ordered:

That’s kaşar cheese inside. That and the sesame seeds definitely remind me of Turkey…

Walking through the market, we saw this terrace on a nearby building. This is my aspirations as a plant lady:

When we drove to the other side of the sound, we saw the largest starfish I’ve ever seen (well over a foot long!) in the surprisingly clear water. And this rainbow over Seattle:

I had a great trip. Even the 4 hours I spent in Newark were pleasantly spent reading. This is now my 4th time on the West Coast, and each time I go, I absolutely love it. Just a different attitude than out east, and one that resonates more with me.

This weekend I’m going to Seattle for a cousin’s wedding. Of my immediate family, it’s just me and my dad going. I think it’ll be nice to get that time with my dad, plus seeing a lot of my extended family.

After spending 4 nights and 3 days in Seattle, I get to make an extended stop in Newark on the way back. I have a 4-hour layover there. I know you’re jealous of me!

I’ll be back in Raleigh for 3 days before I turn around and road trip to the North Carolina mountains for a weekend retreat with my Adult Bible Fellowship class at church. This is our 3rd such trip, and it’s always so relaxing and encouraging.

So that’s where I’ll be. I’ll be back on the blog come Tuesday. Have a great weekend!

This is my 6th Christmas flying to Kansas, and 2 of the previous 5 times I’ve gotten stuck, in Atlanta and then in Chicago.  Last year’s trip was uneventful, and that’s what I’m expecting this time.  I have pretty good odds, too, as there’s not an ounce of precipitation in the forecasts for Raleigh, Atlanta (my layover), or Wichita.

I’ll “see” you guys on the other side, after I get back to North Carolina on Monday!

This trip has been great.  I’ve gotten a good bit read, but also have spent a lot of time playing games and hanging out with the family.  All of my dad’s family was in town, so we got to have some good times with the cousins.

Some highlights:

• Being taught, alongside a couple of other older cousins, how to play dominoes by my 9yo cousin.  Actually, it’s a lot of fun…who knew?
• OU beating OSU (and what a wild game!), sending us to the Big 12 Championship.  Actually, I’m probably more excited to have one last opportunity to  beat Nebraska before the hightail it out of the Big 12.
• Spending most of the trip in my pajamas much to my mother’s chagrin (Hi, Mom!).
• Being introduced to this site by my sister-in-law.  I’ve adopted the word “historiaster,” which means a contemptible or inferior historian.  I do believe it’d make a great intellectual insult.
• Essentially having a sleepover with my cousins.  Five of us had a lot of fun playing different games including Mario Kart.  I still suck.

I’m not flying out until tomorrow morning (early! way early!), so I’ll be going to lunch with my grandma (Hi, G. Zoe!) and visiting the school where my mom principals (that’s a verb, right?).  It’s been a great trip, primarily because it’s been so low-key.  I think I’ve figured out that I most appreciate the trips where I never leave the destination after I’ve gotten there.

Well, I still think I’m right about that, but I won’t be making that argument again.  I had to drive 3 hours north to get to Roanoke from Raleigh (all on back roads), and somehow ended up in the most Southern place I’ve ever been.  As I sat in the dining room of the 19th century hotel, I felt like I had been transported back to its heyday.  I was served “fancy” grits, peanut soup, and bread pudding.  The upcoming deer season and Virginia Tech football were the two major topics of conversation beyond the boring subject of our class.

It was quite foreign to this non-Southern city girl, that’s for sure.

As I was driving to and from Virginia, I was thinking about what it would be like to live in any of the various communities I drove through.  I just can’t picture living that far from a city.  Where would you work?

After my three days of training, I headed out to the cabin which was about an hour away.  I honestly thought that I might get freaked out being there alone, but I wasn’t.   Well, except for when a wasp kept dive bombing my pajama pants because the cloud pattern apparently looked like a window to him.  If Ronnica screams in an empty cabin in the middle of nowhere, does it still count as a girly scream?

I had a great two days alone.  It was peaceful.  It was agenda-free.  My major accomplishment was completing a 1000-piece puzzle (with help).

It was just what I needed.

Though I could have spent the whole 4 days alone, I was excited for my friends to join me for the weekend.  We had 21 people–including 13 children ages 2 to 17–in the cabin.  It was too much fun…I wish I could live in community *almost* like that all the time (it’d be great to have a little bit more personal space for each family and a larger kitchen!).  It’s great just to live life with others.

So overall it was a great week, though I am glad to be back now.

But I can’t end this post there.  Remember, I hinted at the possibility of a vlog?

Here it is:

I realized that I didn’t show the height of the cabin in the video. Here is a picture from the couch, showing the fireplace, hallway, and a bit of the kitchen:

Isn’t it gorgeous?

Or what passes for mountains here on the East Coast.

Thanks to some so-boring-my-eyes-will-fall-out work training today through Wednesday in this “exotic” location, I’ve decided to take the rest of the week and spend it in my friend’s mountain cabin not too far away.

And I do mean in it.  Except for the hilly walks I’ll *have* to take, since we’ve started a new round of Game On! this week.

I’ll be joined by several families this weekend, but for the first 48 hours there I’ll be alone.  I’ve never been alone alone before.  I’m looking forward to the lack of distractions, and the time to read (ha, haven’t gotten enough!), worship, and reset my priorities.

So with that, I’ll see you all back here, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, Monday, October 18th.

With pictures.  And maybe video.

This picture is what it looked like at the cabin the last time I was there, this summer.

It may sound that we’ve got servant’s hearts, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say that the church plant’s location didn’t have a bit of a natural draw.

It is Myrtle Beach, after all.

Though the thought of heading to a popular tourist destination for the last unofficial weekend of summer was a bit cringe-worthy, I was so glad I went.  I haven’t laughed that hard for a while…it felt good.  It was great to help out…even in a couple of very small ways.

A few high (and low) lights:

- The gas station we stopped at in South Carolina smelled like Turkey to me, for some unexplainable reason.  It also was stocked almost exclusively with beer and dog food.  I wonder where you can buy ammo, or maybe we just missed that.

- I may be a swimmer, but this weekend was the first time I’ve laid out or swam outside in 2 years.  It’s weird to have tan lines again…at least lines that aren’t a farmer’s tan.

- Since 5 of the 6 of us were playing Game On!, our first stop when arriving in Myrtle Beach was the Walmart to buy healthy groceries.   We didn’t even make it in the front door before we were confronted with a heated argument and a fire in the trashcan.  Welcome to South Carolina, right?

- It’s amazing how many bathroom breaks you have to take when traveling with 5 people aiming to drink 100 ounces of water a day.

- I had the privilege of chasing a 2-year-old around in the waves.  While I was happy to do it, I was incredibly nervous I’d lose him to a wave.  I was thankful that while he hadn’t had perfect obedience to that point, he did when it really counted.  How do parents do it?

- My roommate stepped on a nail sticking up from the wooden sidewalk that led to the beach.  Just thankful she was wearing flip flops, or it could have gone in much deeper!

- And that was only the nail in the coffin of her day…earlier that day she was greeted to her car, stripped of her GPS and several other personal (though not monetarily valuable) items.  She was a good sport, in spite of it all.  Things ARE just things.

While it’s not a “camp” camp (yay for using a college campus!), I’m looking forward to being at camp again.  I LOVED going to Girl Scout camp as a kid, and then later working 5 summers at a Girl Scout day camp.

Since this is the first year for us as a church, we’re only taking 8 kids.  And 4 adults…AWESOME ratio.  Plus, I already know the kids, so I know that we won’t have behavior issues in our group.  I look forward to getting to know them more.

So, since I’m going to be off doing the camp thang, I’m taking a blogging break.  I’ll be back Friday with an awesome camp update!

Photo by ex.libris

So where I am?

Nowhere exciting (at least not to you all).  I’m in the land of the sunflower, wheat, tornadoes, good highways (at least that’s what everyone who drives through it says), and Ronnica.

What, you didn’t know that Kansas was famous for producing me?

I’m visiting family for a long weekend.  I even get to go visit the bro and SIL at their new home.

I’m looking forward to a feet-up, fun, family-filled weekend!