Higher Ground

I love it when people name homes. It seems to give the house a personality all its own! Last weekend, Nick and I along with our friends Michael and Kelly visited Higher Ground, along with new friends (for us) Katie and Matthew. Higher Ground belongs to Kelly's parents, and it's in Lake Junalesca, North Carolina, in the Great Smoky Mountains. Higher Ground is a perfectly cozy and homey yet beautiful home with an amazing view of the lake.

Thanks to a heavy snow the previous weekend we had great snow on Friday and early Saturday. Now, the Smokies are not the Rockies, but with the benefit of good snow, I'd compare the whole mountain to a good blue run in Colorado, which is what I like to ski anyway! Despite some trepidation about how well we'd perform after a five year ski/snowboard hiatus, Nick and I did better than we expected. We had so much fun!! Below are a few pictures from the slopes. Enjoy!

Thanks, Michael and Kelly for such a fun weekend!

One month from today...

Nick leaves to begin 3 months of training in Indiana three months from today. After he goes this time, I only might get to see him for 3 or 4 days before he heads to Afghanistan. Truthfully, I'm feeling really stressed out by everything that's happening right now. Today when I opened up my Daily Light devotional, I saw this verse from Proverbs: " Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and he will direct your paths." You may remember that I used this verse in my post on September 4th (see it here). It was a reassuring coincidence to find this verse waiting for me today, to remind me that God has a plan and He is busy working it out.

Nick's Feet

Caution - This post contains a graphic post of Nick's feet. Do not read it while, or immediately after, eating, or if you have a strong gag reflex!

Nick's feet after his Thursday night soccer game:

Just a little story

Last night Nick had to come straight to our Ash Wednesday service from work, which meant that he arrived in his uniform. There was a little girl with us in the choir room as we were getting ready. When she spotted Nick she tugged on her mom's arm and said "Mommy, that soldier guy is cool!" Then she thought a moment and asked, "does he keep me safe?" When her mother confirmed her suspicion, the little girl said simply, "I like him."
That's got to put a smile on your face!

Lifeline II

Today our choir, from the Trenholm Road United Methodist, came together with the choir from St. Joseph's Catholic Church and two children's choirs from the Columbia area for a benefit concert. This was planned through an initiative of the Midlands Interfaith Homeless Action Council, called Light the Way for the Homeless Through the Arts. You can read about the MIHAC here: http://www.lightthewaycolumbia.com/. The issue of homelessness is especially urgent in Columbia for a number of reasons outlined on the MIHAC website, and is something that has really bothered me since we moved here so Nick and I were happy to be able to participate in this event.

The concert was a fantastic opportunity, not only to support the homeless initiative, but to spend time with our choir friends. Along with our young adult sunday school class, the choir has already provided a huge support system for me. Of course everyone is very concerned about Nick's impending deployment, and I can't tell you how many times, today alone, that I heard things like "well, you've got a great support system here" or, "we'll just have to keep you extra busy at the church" or "you'll just have to spend Easter at our house!" That latter comment was made by Paula Wilson, our choir director and mother of my friend Kelly, and I intend to take her up on it.

So you see, Skype (if and when it works reliably in the wilderness of Afghanistan) is not my only lifeline during Nick's deployment. I've got an entire network of caring and fun-loving friends to depend on when the going gets tough. Do I believe that this is all of my doing? Well, my winning personality aside, I know that God has prepared the way for me by leading me to TRUMC and helping to foster these friendships. This is just another way in which I can see Him working in my life, giving me everything I need to walk down the path He's prepared for me.

P.S. to Mom and Dad - these friends really want to meet you so you might keep that in mind when you schedule your flight for my hooding in May!

Lifeline

This afternoon Nick and I ran some pre-deployment errands, picking up duffel bags, socks, underwear, etc. By far our most important purchases were a laptop for him and a webcam for me. We'll be able to use Skype to video chat every day (or almost every day at least) while he's deployed! It's amazing to think about how technological innovations improve the deployment experience for service members and their families. Of course letters have been around, in some form, for just about as long as people have been fighting wars. Over time mail delivery has become faster and more reliable. We still rely on the mail service to deliver packages of necessities and goodies to our loved ones in the desert and elsewhere. I've talked to people who, during the Vietnam War, exchanged audio tapes with loved ones who were overseas to keep in touch. More recently we've been able to use phones and the internet to keep up with each other. During Nick's last deployment we relied on e-mails and weekly phone calls. This time we will be able to see each other and talk to each other frequently. In the grand scheme of things, I don't think I could ask for much more. Skype will certainly be a lifeline during this deployment.

This morning I happened upon a blog that a sorority sister and college friend of mine, who is also an Air Force wife, started. It's called Confessions of an Air Force wife. The latest post on there is a great description of what we AF wives do. You can check out the blog in my Friends' Blogs links to the left.

This is where I live...

This article ran in The State today, our newspaper: http://www.thestate.com/local/story/690492.html
The line in here that caught my attention was, "Currently, one in four S.C. schools has more than 90 percent of its students living in poverty." The article goes on to predict that with rising poverty levels due to the recession (and I would add one of the highest unemployment rates in the country, which continues to climb) this number will only increase. Of course, those schools with the high poverty rates chronically underperform on standardized tests, etc., earning them the ire of the state education big wigs.
You Texans who read this will be interested to note, in light of the above information, that of the $1 billion cut from our state budget this year, about a third came from the public school system. Seems like a great way to solve this problem to me.
I know this is off-topic, but I just had to get it off my chest!