I wasn't dreaming of a white Christmas

We left for our long Christmas vacation the Friday before Christmas. There was snow forecast up here in Maryland but it wasn't supposed to arrive until midnight so we figured we had plenty of time. We left around 3 and encountered a good deal of traffic as we got into Virginia. We had been in the car less than 3 hours when it started snowing. At first it seemed like we could make it, just a little snow, right? Within 10 minutes Keith could barely see the lines on the road. A few more minutes and he was feeling a little slip here and there. Time to find a place to sleep for the night :) So, we spent two nights in the Knights Inn in Verona, Virginia--if you're wondering if it's a good vacation spot, I assure you its not :) We kept hearing rumors the next morning that the interstate was clear, but the road to our motel was not and snow was STILL falling (for almost 24 hours). Numerous cars stuck in the snow assured us we should stay another night. We ended up with almost 2 feet of snow where we were! I had grabbed all of our snow gloves (and thankfully my snow pants were in the bag too!) on the way out but nothing else. Keith walked to the Wendy's and gas station at the end of the road the first night for dinner and a $5 box of raisin bran for the next morning. Day two he made the 1.5 mile trek through two feet of snow in tennis shoes to the Food Lion for some more food. He's my hero! For being stuck in a tiny (and nasty) motel room for 2 days, the kids did surprisingly well. We took them up to the lobby once to run around and they got covered in snow on the way back and totally soaked. We left early Sunday morning to brave 100 miles of ice and snow on the roads. We drove 6 hours straight without a single stop or complaint from our children! I think they were as glad as us to be going to Grammy & Papaw's house and not staying in that motel!
Not that I ever want to repeat it, but it certainly made some memories!

And we're back!

My new (old) computer is up and running! Another story of God's gracious provision--a dear man Keith works with, who just loves computers, offered to help us shop for him. Well, long story short, he gave us his brother's old computer (which is only about a year old) so we just had to get a monitor! God is so kind :)

Here are pictures from the last month :) yes, it's been a whole month. Keith's birthday, our afternoon at the Agricultural History Farm Park, a visit from Jerry Bridges to PC gym day, our early Thanksgiving with my parents and brother (including our trip to Annapolis, see previous post), Thanksgiving part 2 with the Purswells, the first snow of the season, and a fabulous surprise date to see Handel's Messiah at the National Cathedral and dinner on the top floor of The W Hotel!

That's the long and short of it :) Oh, one more wonderful surprise of the month was being asked to share at my dear friend Laura's MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) group. She asked me to share the gospel through sharing my testimony of God's grace in mothering. It's been a long time since I spoke in front of a group like that, but the Lord definitely used the preparation and the morning of to draw me nearer to Him! I was so blessed to share the good news of God's saving grace through Jesus Christ and how Christ's perfect righteousness affects my everyday!

Looking for Prince Charming

Well, my computer totally died two weeks ago, which explains the lack of blog posts. I didn't realize how much I relied on that silly machine! I've survived so far only because Keith brings his home from work so I can at least check email :) Hopefully we'll have our new one in the next week or two, but until then, no pictures for the blog.
A quick Samy story until I have my own computer back. My mom, dad and younger brother were up last weekend for an early Thanksgiving trip. While they were up we went to Annapolis. We came around the corner and saw the huge "State House" towering over us. It's a very large building built in the 1700s that actually served as the US capital for 9 months and is still in use as the Maryland capital building. So, we see this huge building with it's large steeple sort of thing on top and Samy gasps, "Cindyrella's castle! I want to go in my castle! Find prince." (She often tells us, "I AM Cindyrella.") So we walked to the front of the building and up the huge stairs to the entrance. Samy is all the while saying, "Go in my castle. Find prince." Oh it was so funny and adorable! Inside there is a very Cinderella-like marble staircase that goes up stairs, but it's roped off. Samy wants desperately to go up and find her prince. There's another staircase around the corner that goes down and isn't roped off so my mom took her down. Wasn't much to see down there so my mom is trying to get her to come back up, but Samy is insisting they "find prince." Suddenly my mom and Samy hear a man's voice coming from up the stairs and Samy gasps again, "Prince!!!" and takes off for the stairs :) It was hilarious! She didn't find her prince, but was content enough to twirl around in "the ball" (a very large, empty, ornate room where they must set up tables for meetings). If she didn't usually refer to Daddy as her prince, I would be a little more concerned for her obsession with "Prince" :)

Harvest Party

Covenant Life had their annual Harvest Party on Halloween. Isaac decided he wanted to be Mr. Incredible this year (which I must say is considerably easier to make than Lightning McQueen!) and Samy, of course, wanted to be Cinderella (which just means dress up like a princess). Keith and I debated dressing up as the Incredibles, but Samy wanted me to be Cinderella too and we knew we couldn't get her to be anything but a princess, so we just didn't dress up (I mean how was I going to dress up like Cinderella??). The Purswell family was actually dressed as the "Ultimates" (if you remember the humorous story from one of Jeff's messages here), they were too cute!

Isaac was very interested in getting candy, but he did enjoy the games. Samy on the other hand would hardly leave my side and usually refused to play the games. I think all the costumes were a little frightening to her, even if they weren't actually scary :)

Autumn Bike Ride

Keith and I wanted to try our bike ride again before the winter got here and this time we took the kids along. Last Saturday was warm enough and we actually made it out early enough to miss the rain. We've only tried to use our bike trailer once since moving up here where there are hills so the kids were actually excited about riding in it again, they didn't complain once (even though Samy looks miserable in the picture)! My poor husband got quite the workout pulling them up the hills! We made it back to the car just as it started sprinkling.
The leaves are getting close to peak so it was that much prettier on the trail. As we rode along I couldn't help but praise God for His glory and majesty revealed in nature! Can you imagine how beautiful the new heavens and earth will be when you see how amazing this earth is?!
Enjoy the pictures!

Ahhh, fall.

Fall is certainly in the air up here! Many trees have just a few beautiful red leaves remaining, others haven't changed at all, but most are covered in shades of yellow and red. It is so amazing to see God's perfect design in the seasons changing, everything dying to be made new again with the spring. Another beautiful picture of how we must die to be brought to life again--as I read this morning: 1 Corinthians 15:36 "What you sow does not come to life unless it dies."

Last week Samy got her first black eye. I was just glad it wasn't her brother who gave it to her :) She ran into one of our bar stools in the kitchen, which she does often, but this time got her eye. She's looked like she's wearing eye shadow all week!

I also had to put in a picture of her with all her bracelets and groovy headband making me think of the 80s (especially with her "blue eyeshadow" right now). Sister, that one is for you :)

Saturday afternoon we headed across Maryland to visit my college roommate and very dear friend and her hubby, Laura and Joel. Always so good to see them!

Sunday we went to the pumpkin patch and ended up picking apples as well since we were there. It was so much fun, but picking apples went way too fast. The kids weren't ready to stop but it was getting expense :) Then the kids each picked a little sugar pumpkin so we could eat it.

You have to listen to this!

Give your view of God a reality check with this amazing message from Wayne Grudem at our church this morning. What a gift from God this man is!

The Greatness of God