Wishing You Could Come, Too

I have had a great time blogging about our vacation preparations.  It has been fun to anticipate it together.      I appreciate all of you who have been following my musings - mostly my mom and sisters.  I wish you could come along with us.  Please continue to follow our vacation journey.  I will try to update once a day with a picture or two, I hope.  And please pray that that we would have a God-glorifying, grace-filled, relationship-building, memory-making time together.


For right now, it's off to the grocery store!

New Car!

Well, he did it.  Matthew purchased a new (to him) car this afternoon.  He and the Ethans have already road tested it on a trip to Target.  Surely we will have plenty of room to carry all that we need.  I think Matthew is pretty pleased with his purchase.  He is going to retrieve his old car from Alabama tomorrow morning.  They still aren't certain what is wrong with it, but Matthew plans to drive it to Greenville, regardless.  Do you know anyone who would like a used red Tahoe with or without a working fuel pump?

Thinking about the beach, from so far away

Oh, the beach. I have a slightly weird attitude about the beach this year... I don't know why. Well, I do know why. This week for Thomas and me is crazy. Truly crazy. It's the AGO national convention. We have a wedding and reception to play Saturday, strings are playing Sunday, car needs new tires, the summer camp I teach is 1 week after get back, Seth and Steve are visiting, out late for fireworks, out late Monday night for the Yale ISM reception, and Thomas is hardly home because of the Fisk being tuned and 2 recitals happening today at Covenant. Meals have been flipped upside down because of our opportunity to eat with some pretty cool organ people. Basically, I can't really dwell on the loveliness of sand and water because we have a crazy week that we are in. BUT, we (Thomas and I) have made a pact. Crazy week this week for a wonderful, amazing, relaxing, edifying week next week. Thomas and I are going to do everything in our power to be able to leave Nashville behind us - which is consequently making this week crazy. But, sometimes when I'm just drinking my coffee, I start thinking about it and it literally makes my heart beat faster I'm so excited. I mean, we haven't done vacation (for more than 36 hours) since our honeymoon. And, on top of that... with you guys. I'm so thankful for the hard work you've (Grammy) put into this trip. Even though it's for the whole family, I feel (as everyone probably does too) that you are putting in special effort for each of us. I love you guys invited us, I love that I get to spend some good quality time with my SEESTAR (Faith), I love that I get to bond and get closer with my MomR, I love that Wilson is going to just explode with excitement on this trip, and I love that our family will all be together. So, MomR, thank you for your hard work and love. I'm right there with you getting my family ready for the epic-ness and I know how hard you are working.

This is how I feel inside about the beach "just give it to me already" - This is also a good indication of what we will all have to encounter at the beach - CRAZY MAN WILSON!

Vacation Blahs

Our much longed for and anticipate vacation is two days away.  What?!!  So why am I feeling weary and let down instead of excited?  What have I been doing this week?  Well...

a lot of this

(Math tutoring - that's right - some students come in the summer time, too.)

A good bit of this:

(Wedding Director stuff)

A whole lot of this:


(Tutoring and wedding directing involved a lot of email this week.)

And mostly this:

(I'm an incorrigible list maker, but I'm still overwhelmed.)

What to do about this state of mind?  I will tell you.  Think of something to be thankful for!
Here is one:

I get to spend time with the Love of My Life next week.

I am also pretty excited about this:

With those things to be thankful for, I think I can overlook the bicycle parked in my living room in front of the pile of STUFF for the beach. We are almost there!

Henna-body Want a ...

... Tattoo?  As part of mandatory craft time this year the Russells will once again have the opportunity to get tatted up - with henna, of course.  We already know that Seth has a knack for creative designs, but I suspect that Julie and Thomas do , too.  Sadly, the Ethans may already be too golden for henna tattoos to show up no their well tanned bodies.  Too bad.  But everyone else should start thinking about where they would like a tattoo and what kind of design they would like.  Dare to be radical, at least for a couple of vacation days.

Vacation Snags

This post could be titled, "When Your Car Lets You Down."  That's what happened to Matthew on his journey through the deep South to get home to Greenville.  His trusty Tahoe kept taking unscheduled breaks as he was tooling down the highway through Mississippi and Alabama.  An incompetent tow truck driver towed the car to a repair shop after leaving the stranded man for an hour to go and ask Daddy how to operate the tow truck.  No vacancies at the motel meant that Matthew spent the night in the uncooperative car in the midst of record breaking heat.  The next day the knowledgeable people at the repair shop replaced the battery and assured Matthew that all was well.  It wasn't.  The Greenville folks heard from Matthew again when he was outside of Anniston, Alabama.  The car was up to its old tricks again.  Matthew coaxed the car to a Chevy dealership.  The repair shop was closed (of course), but the helpful salesmen tried to help Matthew locate a rental car.  No rental places open on a Saturday afternoon.  Walt to the rescue.  Walter left Greenville around 5:30 PM to drive to Alabama and retrieve Matthew.  The tired pair rolled in around 2:00 AM Sunday morning. As of Tuesday morning, no word from the repair shop.  Once repaired,  he will have to figure out how to go back and retrieve his car. Or sell it on the spot.

I might need to start rethinking that Beach packing list.  We might all end up in one car.  These are the trials that keep us dependent upon the Lord.  They also make for great vacation stories.

Home Guard

Job will be one sad puppy when his people abandon him for the beach. His people will miss him, too.  On the bright side, Job loves neighbor Doug whom we hope will take care of him in our absence. And Doug loves Job and lets him in his yard to play with Mia and Diesel.  More importantly, Job will be around to guard the old homestead.  I don't think anyone would dare mess with our stuff after hearing his ferocious bark.