Must Have Hydrangeas Always

Surely there will be hydrangeas in Heaven? If I had to live with only one flower for the rest of my life, it would most certainly be a hydrangea. Preferably an entire bed of them. I recently spotted some that were in no man's land and stopped to pick them. Actually, I made my friend Kara pull the car over and make sure no one was looking while I picked them. They are making me so happy every time I see them.

I also wanted to share part of this simple prayer from one of our favorite Puritan prayer books, The Valley of Vision.   I'm being reminded again that our time with the Patriots is in the Lord's hands and not our own. I have every confidence that Thomas can make the team, but the fact of the matter is the NFL is a game of numbers. If they need a player at another position, we could easily be packing our bags again. This prayer reminded me that a quiet spirit is all that I'm called to have. It is appropriately entitled "Resting in God."

O God most high, most glorious, 

The thought of Thine infinite serenity cheers me, 

For I am toiling and moiling, troubled and distressed, 

But Thou art forever at perfect peace. 

Thy designs cause Thee no fear or care of unfulfillment, 

They stand fast as the eternal hills. 

Thy power knows no bond, Thy goodness no stint. 

Thou bringest order out of confusion, and my defeats are Thy victories:

The Lord omnipotent reigneth.

Lord, help me, for I am often lukewarm and chill; 

unbelief mars my confidence, 

sin makes me forget Thee. 

Let the weeds that grow in my soul be cut at their roots; 

Grant me to know that I truly live only when I live to Thee, 

that all else is trifling. 

Thy presence alone can make me holy, devout, strong and happy. 

Abide in me, gracious God. 

Block Island

This past weekend, my cousin Elizabeth flew up for a visit. She'd asked forever ago when would be a good time to come, little did I know the poor thing would end up having to spend her last day with us in a frenzy because of the lockout ending. She can attest to the fact that we really ARE crazy and probably shouldn't be let out into public as often as we are. 

We picked her up at the Boston airport just in time to swing by Henrietta's Table for dinner. We've only eaten breakfast there, and dinner lived up to every expectation and more. Elizabeth had that amazing salmon with a chive-butter sauce, Thomas had the Yankee Pot Roast and was beside himself with joy, and I had hake (a delicious white fish I'd never heard of) served atop roasted veggies and spinach. We enjoyed every morsel of our meal, then proceeded to burn off every calorie by walking/sweating part of the Freedom Trail in Boston. We were having a major heat wave....it was hotter here than it was in Las Vegas!

Of course we had to introduce Elizabeth to Mike's Pastry. Don't worry, we brought back half of these pastries for Danny and Stacia, we didn't eat all of this. But we did determine that the Florentine cannoli is our very, very, very favorite. 

 The next morning we took the ferry to Block Island.  We've been hearing how wonderful it is out there and it truly felt like we were in another country. Although we had quite the nauseating ferry ride and a mediocre lunch after we landed (we needed food quickly for our nauseated bellies) the rest of the day only improved. The island is just 11 square miles about 13 miles off the coast of Rhode Island, so the water was chilly and the breeze was refreshing.

I dared Thomas to swim out to a rock in the water (he was the only one brave enough to go in past his knee caps) and of course he did. But only on the stipulation that I make him a pot roast similar to the one he'd eaten the night before at Henrietta's. There he is on his way back from the little rock. He wouldn't climb on top of it because he claimed it was covered in bird poop, so I told him all bets were off. 

We rented mopeds for part of the day and it was definitely worth every penny. It was such a fun way to see the entire island. Here we are at Mohegan Bluffs, which made me feel like we were in Ireland or somewhere far, far away. 

Farmhouses, rolling hills and rock walls were everywhere. 

Thomas loved every minute of riding the mopeds. He had one in college and misses it almost every day. He likes to lean forward because it "makes him more aerodynamic." 

We ended our Block Island experience with an amazing dinner at Eli's.  I can't decide if it was better than Henrietta's, or if they were both just that good. The best part about it, you could come in looking like bums (which we did) and they still served you an amazing meal. I had swordfish on top of an edamame, corn, tomato and barley salad. And that is a truffle butter sauce around it. I don't even remember what the other two had because I was so focused on enjoying every single bite of my own meal.

We had a nausea-free ferry ride back to the mainland (thanks to Dramamine and sitting in the middle of the boat) and we all slept soundly that night. It was so much fun to have Elizabeth here, and we'll definitely be visiting Block Island again as soon as we can.

My Love/Hate Relationship With the Lockout

As of Monday afternoon, The Lockout ended. The emotions we've been feeling have definitely been mixed. As bad as it was that the players got locked out, The Lockout has become like a family member or old friend. We talked about it on a daily basis, and towards the end of it the phone was ringing every other minute with a player calling to discuss the different scenarios for when it would be over. If one more person asked me "when will the lockout be over?" or better yet, "when will the STRIKE be over?" I was sure I was going to have a meltdown in public, kick my feet and scream, "IT IS NOT A STRIKE! IT IS A LOCKOUT. GOOGLE THE DEFINITION."

Thankfully it never had to come to that, but when it quickly ended on Monday I began to panic. Thomas had to report to the facility at 7am the next morning and OUR.TIME.WAS.UP. We've really been able to take it easy the past 6 months and our schedules were only constricted by my work and Thomas' rehab schedule for his ankle.  So the fact that my husband is now living in a hotel with 89 other players for the next 3 weeks is making me feel a little sorry for myself. But, look on the bright side! Our grocery bill will be slashed by more than half and my house will be spotless. And we got to do some really fun things in the week leading up to the end of our friend The Lockout.

At the recommendation of folks from church, we visited East Beach in Rhode Island one afternoon last week with our friends Danny and Stacia. It was a perfect day, but the water was really rough. You can barely see Thomas and Danny in that big splash in the wave. The waves were tossing them around like children. Well, mostly tossing Danny around like a child while Thomas laughed. 

Stacia forbid me to post a picture of her in a bathing suit since she is almost 9 months pregnant (she looks awesome) so I will oblige even though it restricts me to posting two boring photos. But you can see the salt pond in the distance of this picture that runs along behind the ocean. It made me want to kayak. Too bad our life isn't conducive to carrying around a kayak. 

We also helped Danny and Stacia move into their new house which is only a mile away (hooray!) Thomas and Danny decided to try to mount their TV onto the wall above the fireplace. The previous tenants had their TV in the same place, so it seemed logical to assume we could hang another. Thomas and Danny spent about 2 hours trying to hang the darn thing. At one point I heard Danny say "Dude, Thomas, to be honest with you, I have no clue how to find the stud in the wall." Thomas said "Dude, that's easy. You just beat your fist along the wall like this, and it makes different noises." 

Let's just say their TV is sitting on a table in front of the fireplace. 

The Last Leg

The last leg of our trip was spent in the middle of South Carolina, also known as one of the hottest parts of our dearly beloved state. Thomas spent his middle and high school years there, and when we drove in our mobile Weather Channel said there was an extreme heat warning and people should stay indoors and avoid all outdoor activity except in the early morning and evening. Oh okay, great, that sounds like a total BLAST.

While no one from Thomas' family lives in Camden anymore, we did have a wonderful time hanging out with his parent's dear friends whom we call Uncle Pat and Aunt Mary. While they may not be blood relatives, they are like family and so much fun to be with. They graciously allowed us to stay with them and fed us some delicious meals and provided lots of good conversation. We also got to share a meal with Thomas' former high school coach and his former youth pastor. Both of them were very influential in his life and it was great to catch up with them.

Thomas with his youth pastor and very much grown up son who could barely talk the first time I met him! 

I got to see my dear friend Caroline for a night of catching up! Her parents were gracious hosts and have an incredibly relaxing home in Edgefield, SC (home of 10 of South Carolina's governors and PROUD of it.) 

Thomas was in another wedding that weekend in which he was given the title "Worst Groomsman Ever." He was given this title thanks to the fact that his suit for the wedding was mailed to our apartment in Massachusetts. We figured this out on Thursday around 4:00pm. We'd been gone for 3 weeks and failed to tell the bride and groom that small detail, so they mailed the suit to us just like they did for all of the other groomsmen. Thankfully, our landlord was able to overnight it to us and we had it by 2:00pm the next day. I was relieved that the pants didn't look like skinny jeans on Thomas and I was able to "hem" them with some sort of double sided fabric tape that you iron in, thanks to Aunt Mary. It was quite the fiasco and was the cause of much marital conflict. We can now laugh about it, but it was an epic scene to be sure. Thankfully the newlyweds are super laid back, so they didn't mind our unorganized chaos! 

Good ole' York

We spent another few days of our trip celebrating some monumental family occasions in my hometown of York. Every time I go home, I am glad to be reminded of where I "came from" as my dad always says. (Whenever I'd head back to college after a weekend at home, my dad would say "Marg, don't forget where you came from.) It was a lot of fun to be together on the farm. 

My dad caught a 5 foot long black snake in the chicken coop in the midst of eating an egg. Please notice the lump in the middle of the snake which is the egg, and please notice that 3 year old Ev was fearless and literally hugged the snake at one point. Also note that my dad has on shorts and boots and socks pulled halfway up his legs. 

 We always try to eat outside as much as we can when there is a full house to save my mom from having so many dishes and to save my dad from having to vacuum. I swear, the man vacuums 4 times a week.

Thomas continued to hone his Uncle Big Big skills and remains favorite uncle of all time. Sometimes I wonder if my nephews and nieces even know I exist. 

One night all of us girls went to The Brandon House for dinner while the boys had man time celebrating my cousin Martin's graduation and heading off to college. They all shared wisdom about becoming a man over beef tenderloin, green beans, homemade french fries and peach cobber. 

Side note on The Brandon House: it really might be one of my favorite places to eat. If you live within driving distance to York, you'd better stop by. Chef Colin Flynn and his wife Ashley have really brought a spark to downtown York, and their crème brûlée makes me weak in the knees. Plus, he buys most of his produce from my uncle over at The Bush-N-Vine. Hooray for buying local!

 Here is my recently graduated cousin and his dad. That awful wolf t-shirt was given to him as a gift by my brothers+brothers-in-law. Hideous, but it had to be documented.

We made an attempt at taking a picture of all of the cousins. Didn't work out too well, but I do wish we could've filmed myself, my sister, 2 sister-in-law's, and mom all trying to get them to cooperate at the same time. We did this while the guys were celebrating another cousin's bachelor party by playing paint ball. They came home with whelps on every square inch of their bodies. And they were trying to coerce us wives into letting them "invest" in their relationships with each other by buying their own paintball guns. Yeah, right.  

Last but not least, my adopted nephew Shatu was baptized on Sunday and my entire family got to be there for it. It was such a special time! We are so thankful he is such an integral part of our earthly family, but even more thankful to call him our brother in Christ. 

Franklin

After we wrapped it up at the lake we headed to Franklin, NC to visit Thomas' Nana and Poppa who live right across the street from his aunt, uncle and cousin. They've moved since we visited last, and they have a great set up in two awesome houses. It was so good to be with each of them, even though Nana is pretty sassy and tells me what to do. (Nana, I hope you're reading this!) Once, when we were still dating, Nana whacked me on the hand with a knife because I was taking bites from a dish that I was preparing in the kitchen. She got all sassy on me again this time because I didn't like her pickled beets. I thought I politely proclaimed that they tasted like soil, but Nana didn't take too kindly to that. See, she's a sassy Nana, but we love her. 

                             

 Aunt Kim took us on a hike on part of the Appalachian Trail. Sadly, it was a really foggy morning so we couldn't see any of the view, but we saw plenty of wildflowers and we got a good workout in. Thomas was determined to beat Aunt Kim's previous time of one hour up the mountain. (He's not competitive at all) and we made it in 45 minutes. That would explain why we look a little rough in the photos!

We love you all in Franklin! Thanks for hosting us. 

A Decathalon

Our second stop was to the lake with our friends Sarah Kathryn and Jordan. They very generously allowed us to join them and Sarah Kathryn's family for a few days of fun at their lake house. It rained one morning, so Thomas and Jordan decided that we needed to hold a decathlon. By the time they finally decided what ten events we'd do, the rain had stopped so we held the decathlon out of doors. It included going off of the rope swing about a million times, watching Thomas and Jordan do back flips off of the dock, and jumping from the 2nd level of the dock into an inner tube. We had so much fun and it was a wonderful few days of relaxation and activities. We took a LOT of pictures so I'll only include the highlights here.

We arrived on the day of our anniversary and Sarah Kathryn and her mom had worked really hard to make our room look like a resort, complete with rose petals all the way down the hall. 

Thomas was an expert at the rope swing and I only chose a few of the poses he did for the camera. I, on the other hand, just screamed the entire time with my eyes closed.

I had the pleasure of living in Clemson with two of the Williams sisters! They were both faithful workout partners and good friends to me. 

Thomas stepped right through the flooring on their boat. Thankfully it was a little rotten so it wasn't technically his fault. 

I'm thankful that I lived through this tubing experience to tell the story. I was a little terrified that 300 pounds falling off of the tube on top of me would kill me, but it didn't. 

Thomas and Jordan really love each other and were sad to leave. 

Thanks for having us!

Beach Week 2011

The first leg of our journey we spent a few days at the beach with my mom's side of the family. 50+ years ago, my grandfather began organizing beach trips among all of their friends from their hometown. They'd go to a South Carolina beach for two weeks in which he'd plan crabbing, games, skit night, a bonfire on the beach, huge meals and lots of togetherness. Not a whole lot has changed through the years besides the attendees. Thomas absolutely loves the chaos of it all (sometimes I think I married a version of my grandfather), and while I do love the time with family, it pales in comparison to his passion for Beach Week. This year did not disappoint, and a wonderful time was had by all. 

We designate who is in charge of meals each night, and Thomas and I made tacos one night. Here is my cousin with a gigantic plate of tacos. He can almost eat as much as Thomas. Not kidding. 

 On one of the nights we have a bonfire on the beach and cook s'mores and hot dogs. Is it illegal to have a bonfire on the beach? Probably. Do we care? Nope.

Here is a photo of the beloved sectional. We've rented this house two years in a row just because we love the sectional so much. I'm kind of kidding, but not really. It holds at least 12 people (comfortably) and is a highlight of our trip. We were playing a really fun game called Pit in this picture. Thomas looks angry in the photo because he'd been winning for a few hands and my dad convinced the rest of us to gang up on him and not let him win. It didn't end well.....

Here we all are celebrating my grandparent's 60th anniversary. We don't usually all wear matching t-shirts, but it makes my grandfather happy when we wear our Beach Week t-shirts at least once during the week. 

Thomas and our friend Tyler participated in Skit night by rapping a Shai Linne song. In matching "soli deo gloria" t-shirts. It was priceless. 

If you ask me, being on the beach in the late afternoon is the absolute best time of day. The boys especially enjoyed riding the waves and playing football together. 

I couldn't help but include this picture. I asked my nephew to pull the kayak out into the water. He tried...and tried....and tried. It made my day. 

On our last night, Thomas' sister Bekah had a few hours she could be away from Campus Outreach so we took her to dinner and to Costco. If you want to feel like you've really made someone's day, take a college student to Costco. The sheer joy that Bekah expressed was gratifying. We were thankful to get to spend a little time with her! 

On the road again

Sorry for the lack of posts lately. We've been traveling down South for almost 2 weeks, and we've got another week to go. We started out at the McCreight family Beach Week, and we've got some time to kill before Thomas is in another.......you guessed it....WEDDING! Thankfully I had this time off from work, so we've had plenty of time to travel from one end of South Carolina to the other. We went to the beach with my mom's entire family (40+ people=chaos), spent an afteroon with Thomas' sister Bekah who is ministering with Campus Outreach in Myrtle Beach, to my parent's house for the night of 4th of July, went to the lake with our dear friends Jordan and Sarah Kathryn (which is conveniently located close to Clemson so that Thomas could work out every day), to Franklin, NC to see Thomas' aunt, uncle, grandparents and cousin, and now we're back at my parent's to see my oldest nephew get baptized on Sunday. THEN we'll head to Thomas' former hometown for 4 days for him to workout and be in another wedding.

Whew. It is fun to see everyone, but a tad tiring. I'll post pictures when I can actually think again!