New floor and New "neighbor"

Last Sunday (20th), Lee came up and we decided to go ahead and pull up the carpet in our family room since we were putting the new floor down on Saturday. Therefore, we had what I called a "poor newlyweds apartment" for the last week (not to offend anyone!): no entertainment center and just a third of our sectional couch. It was actually quite cozy!









Saturday, Jason and Gary put the new floor down, but unfortunately, the salesman did not estimate correctly, so we're missing about 2 feet. He got to the store just after it closed, so we'll finish it this week!








Lastly, we have a "new neighbor" who we've named Charlotte. A few weeks ago, she had camped out right outside our sunroom door, so we had to relocate her to the Crape Myrtle tree in the backyard, but she parked just outside our window in the back of the family room. She has a very nice web! We think she's a garden spider. Apparently, she likes Wake Forest!





Saturday night, we went to our friend Tony B.'s 60th birthday party, which was tons of fun! An Italian cook made from stratch lasagna, even the noddles were homemade, so it seemed sweeter than the other kinds.

Sunday, went went down to Charlotte for Becca's birthday, eating at Olive Garden, and then going to their house and we played pictionary. Jason and I did pretty well, getting some hard ones that we drew for each other since we were on the same team.

Then, we had TNT talking about the distorations with the word community: how we hide our struggles and isolate ourselves, which thereby doesn't promote community. It was very challenging!

Off to a new week! Next Saturday is the U2 concert in Raleigh, which I've been looking forward to since April when I bought the tickets! It's going to be a long week!

All Church Retreat!

We had the Corinth All Church Retreat this weekend! Jason and I really enjoy this retreat. This our third time going. We actually went when we weren't even members of Corinth, which is where we met a bunch of people, and even found out about the life group we now attend on Fridays.



The theme this year was "All Hands on Deck: Service over Self". Pastor Bob talked about the idea of a "consumer driven church": where we are more focused on what we get out of church then how we can contribute to church and the community. It made me think a lot of how I can get caught up in having more things instead of doing more things for God and others.



We really enjoyed that since our theme was service, each "crew" did a project around the Blowing Rock Assembly Grounds. Our crew pulled weeds in the front and then put some new mulch down. It was so amazing that in an hour, the flower beds looked completely different! I guess it shows that improvements happen when you pull the bad stuff ("weeds") out of your life and replace it with good stuff (like mulch!).



Saturday evening, the whole retreat goes to the Daniel Boone Inn to eat dinner. We had to leave early since we helped with the "Nautical Nonsense" games later that evening. I think everyone had a great time! First, we did a "shoe hunt" and had everyone take off their shoes and pile them in the middle. Then one person from each team goes up, finds their shoes, ties them and runs back and another person goes.



I didn't get this on video, but someone tied Pastor Bob's shoe strings together, and then our other Pastor Paul threw one of the youth's shoes across the gym at the end and then they wrestled a bit as they tried to get back to their team to "win" the game. I have a quick video from the beginning of the game!

Then, we had them complete different tasks and at the end, they'd make a flag for their ship.

Blindfold a crew member to "walk the plank" because they complained about the food

Stick life saver candy to a member's face since they were drowning

Pull one of the younger members on a towel with a rope (to pull in the anchor in )

Pass a beach ball over each member's head in a line (to help work together as a storm comes)

Blow up balloons as your "floaties" since the ship is sinking!

Most of my pictures turned out blurry since the teams completed their tasks so quickly! Just use your imagination! But, here's a photo of some of the flags! Our team was the SOS Servant's Heart!

Quirky pets!

This week felt long for both of us, even with Monday off! We've both been feeling a bit of fall allergies, which is a bit distracting to life.

We enjoyed life group of Friday, talking about Joseph revealing who he was to his brothers and saying the infamous translation to his brothers: "You intended it for evil, but God intended it for good."

Saturday, Jason went dove hunting while I just chilled at the house. I did get my cat Lilac to actually sit on my lap for about 5 minutes, which is HUGE progress! Sunday, we watched the Panthers get slaughtered with Liz here at the house and then went to Red Lobster.

I have some videos of our crazy pets for entertainment.

First is Lilac, who is in love with our kitchen faucet:

Jimi doesn't do much that's odd, but he loves the sunroom!

Lastly, the crazy dogs! Chip sneezes when he's excited and Molly just loves to love!

Pre Labor Day Week and Labor Day

It's been a busy week!

Monday, had the normal dinner with my mom and dad.

Tuesday, I went to help with a service project at church that the women's ministry did. We put together care packages for a missionary in India. Jason went with Liz to the Crawdads game, but it wasn't a very good game at all.


Wednesday, had the usual working at church.


Thursday, we had a Community Watch meeting. There were more people than I thought since it wasn't just our circle. A few weeks ago, a house was broken into and a car stolen. The people were on vacation. The police officer did mention that alarms are good to have. We do leave the dogs in the sunroom at night, which makes me feel safer, but I'm not sure if we need to take further steps or not.

Friday, I had half day off and Jason took comp time. Gary, Linda, and Lee picked us up around 1:30 and we headed up 321. We stopped at Moses Cone for awhile, then the Boone Mass General store where we bought some candy (since we never do!), and then headed to Shatley Springs for dinner. It was a nice evening to just spend with family!


Saturday, Jason and I decided to head to Grandfather Mountain!







Both of us had not been there in years and I just thought it would be nice to go! We enjoyed seeing the animals (we fed a bear in the video below) and the mountain views! The weather was a bit overcast so it felt great! We drove on the parkway with the windows down since it was so cool!




Sunday & Monday, we just rested for the most part! We did do some yardwork and walked the dogs today, so we weren't completely lazy!