Rough Weekend

I was prepared for a life changer. I knew when we decided to start a family it would be a big one. I knew it would be one of the most selfless endeavors of our lives and we were as prepared as you could be. I knew there would be hard times, I knew there would be love and pain. I knew we would come against some obstacles as parents that where we would be tried and our faith tested. I heard there would be sleepless night and rest would come when all the kids were out of the house...possibly. Can you ever really be prepared and ready for this sort of thing?

What no one really told me about, was that the sleepless nights, start now, not when The Kid is born. I was not prepared for that.

I can go so many nights with little sleep before I have just had enough and melt down a little. This hasn't been quite what I had in mind for our fall here in Black Mountain. I was hoping to do our scouting for work while we were still kidless and the weather was nice. I wanted to map out the trails on our mountain and sew my little heart out. I was hoping to use our kitchen a lot more than we do now and many other things. After another sleepless night, friday was the start of a "poor me" weekend. I became well aware that the only thing I do now is work on this house. I even dream about it sometimes which drives me absolutely crazy! I can't sew or so all these other things because I am consumed on finishing this project and moving on with life. I am the kind of person who has to have a clean house in order to be creative. It is just how I do things. Well, this house isn't clean and that's no lie!

All that said, it hit me on this third day of pouting that I must get over it. For women especially, we can dwell and dwell on things in our head and it becomes extremely unhealthy. The enemy come to steal, kill and destroy everything including our joy. I have loved being pregnant and having this tiny human being grow inside of my body. What a gift from the Lord! I will not let the devil come and steal the many blessings in front of me. Instead, I will let some things go and start fresh.

Tomorrow is the start of a new month. Not only that, but it falls on a Monday. It may seem like a small thing to most, but the last time that happened was in March. March is the month that really turned our life in a good direction. A lot happened that month, good and bad. I started reading and journaling everyday. Bryce's brother Warren died and his grandfather Papa Tom. We had our 3rd anniversary and ran a 50 mile trail race to celebrate. We had a lot of good conversations about God, His will, hearing Him, etc. We decided it was time to start a family and both heard that from God in 2 different ways.

At the end of February when I realized March 1st fell on a Monday, I knew it was time to make some healthy changes in life. Bryce and I have always had a good marriage, but since that month, it has been a more than great marriage. I say all this as a reminder to myself that this is happening again tomorrow. A new month on a new week. It is a reminder to be intentional. God is good and has good plans for us.

This was a long one, hope that was okay. Oh, and I didn't proof read so ignore errors:)

This is just something fun to look at, our niece

Behind

I am posting this to say that I will seriously do a post tomorrow. Sorry I have not kept up very good this week with my blog a day month!! Life happens. Danger says he wants to happen to life not the other way around. He's doing good about that. I am a little behind:)

Zephaniah

"At that time I will gather you;

at that time I will bring you home.

I will give you honor and praise

among all the peoples of the earth when I restore

your fortunes before your very eyes."

says the Lord.

Zephaniah 3:20

Carrot

Today is Monday. Our weekend seemed way too short. It was one of those days where we were just so tired of painting and working on this house. Bryce spent the morning in the office where he was able to do some much needed office work. We have enjoyed working on the Farmhouse, but there are so many things more "Rangers" related work we would love to be doing right now. I am weary of two dirty houses and ready to just focus on one.

I watched the kid kick and push around my stomach this morning. I put my hand on it as if I was reaching out to grab the kids hand. So close to my touch yet months away! The kid is the size of a carrot this week, 10 1/2 inches long, and weighs 3/4's a pound.

Did 4 loads of laundry today. I was impressed I must say. Now we have clothes hanging all over the house trying to dry and this not so dry climate. It sure smells good though.

We had nothing to eat for dinner around this house but we did have the ingredients for homemade pancakes. Yummm. Thank you mom!

This would be my pancakes. Plain with Aunt Jemima Butter Lite...my favorite!

This would be Dangers. Smothered in peanut butter first then good

ol' Aunt Jemima. The first time I made pancakes for him I wouldn't

let him put peanut butter on them. He needed to try the original first to get the

awesome taste.

Adventure

We had a great hike yesterday! We started hiking around 8:00am and summited Mt. Mitchell around 5:15. We started at the Greybeard Trailhead. Went to the top of Greybeard Mountain, back down, back up to Rocky Knob, back down a little, then back up to Mitchell. What a day! I am pretty sure the Kid loved it. Great friends, beautiful weather and colors, and memories that will last. Follow me in some pictures.

This is one of the views. I think we are on Greybeard on this one.

There were 8 of us and this was the top of G-beard.

This was a rocky face part you had to hike up to get to

the top of Rocky Knob. We had lunch there once we got to the top.

Once you hit the Blue Ridge Parkway, you had to walk the road

for about 1/2 mile or so. Seemed like forever for some reason.

Once you got back on trail, we were in Mt. Mitchell

State Park for 3 hours before reaching the top. Last mile was so

steep, but not as steep as I remember it being the summer of 09'.

my babe

The whole gang on top of the tower on top of the Mt. Yes, I know.

You can drive to the top of this thing!! Not a huge fan of that, but thankful

for the ride down:)

Wilbon, Sean, Kelly, Morgan, Katie, Heath, Danger, Spesh

Afterwards, we got picked up by our wonderful friend Stevie and went out to dinner at Chilli's. We were all pooped to say the least. We wanted mexican food but it was a 45 minute wait so Chilli's sounded like a quicker fix at the time. Hope you enjoyed the pics!

Spesh is for Italian

Tomorrow we are going for a big hike with some friends. For those of you familiar with the area we are starting out at Montreat College on the Greybeard Trailhead and ending on the top of Mt. Mitchell the highest mountain east of the Mississippi River. If you are from out west, it really isn't that high. It's about 6500ft roughly. We are guessing it is about 15 miles which normally wouldn't seem that much to me, but things are different. Though we go on daily walks and hikes around camp, these will be much longer!

Tonight for dinner I made an awesome homemade whole wheat italian pizza. Here are the pizza toppings, in no specific order:

green pepper

yellow pepper

orange pepper

green pepper

sautéed onions

turkey pepperoni's

crushed garlic cloves

cheddar cheese

mozzarella cheese

red sauce

Sounds awesome right. Not to mention the crust which is homemade was a whole wheat italian recipe. It was delicious. Wish I could have eaten more but I just got full fast. Must have been those mouth watering toppings. You won't hear from me tomorrow because we will be getting back late. We are trying yet another church out this Sunday. We are looking forward to it though. Have a great weekend and see you on Sunday!

Danger was hard at the books this evening while I was getting dinner ready.

the goods...

The Tulip Poplar

On one of the many hikes up the mountain behind our house you can find these beautiful sections of Tulip Poplar trees. This particular shot is one of my favorite places for these trees. These Tulip Poplar aren't actually in the Poplar family they belong in the Magnolia family. They can grow 80-120 feet high and the trunk is any where between 2-5 feet in diameter. In the spring they produce this beautiful flower. It is bright yellow, with a splash of orange in the inside along with some bright green mixed with it. The T. Poplar and the White Pine are the largest trees in the eastern forest.

These trees are also known as kind of an ideal lumber. They drop their branches and focus there energy upward. They grow very straight and solid and it has been told that the Indians would use these trees to make canoes. They are just a beautiful piece of lumber.

There you go friends. The Tulip Poplar. I feel this is a great picture showing their stature. Oh, and their leaves are awesome! They look like some sort of cartoon cat type of face. Enjoy!

The Kid

We decided on the way home tonight, that this little person, he/she growing inside of me will be called 'The Kid' until party time. When I say he people think I know or I am having some sort of an intuition or something. We have been calling it the Kid since we have been feeling movement. For example, "Oh the Kid is kicking." "Just felt the Kid". Get the picture? So there you go. Introducing the Kid. We like it much better than Baby Ball. Ha! Still makes me laugh.

These are pictures from our walk this morning around camp.

What a great time we had!

Half Way

Today was officially the halfway mark of pregnancy. We are pretty stoked about that:) We picked out some new floors for one of the bedrooms and one of the bathrooms for the Farmhouse. Found some really good deals on them too, bonus. Did some more painting and caulking and of course of tons more to do! If you are ever bored, come on by and grab a brush or broom! Good day though. 1 more day closer to setting up our craft room at the new house. Then I will be able to get my sew on which I am way over do for. Bryce starts another class tomorrow night. Now 3 of the 4 days of school he has a week he will be gone from lunch till 9:30. Not to excited about that. I am not much on evening to begin with. Must get this sewing room going fast!!!

Here is a random picture that was actually taken over a month ago but it is this creature that we have seen on our house a few times. The first time we saw him it was evening and I opened the front door and he came on in. Bryce tried to capture him and it screamed! NO joke, screamed! We don't have a clue what he is, but I have seen him a couple of times since then. Not in awhile though. See you tomorrow!

Fiddle Away

We went to a great fiddling contest this weekend. Anyone could enter, all ages and levels and it was awesome. There were two contest in one: Traditional Appalachian Folk and Nontraditional Appalachian Folk music. It started with a 6 year old playing 'Mary had a Little Lamb'. It was pretty cute. It quickly moved on to some pretty amazing artist. I have always loved string instruments and I think if I had to pick a new one right now it would have to be the fiddle. I have always loved the Cello, but the fiddle seems like a much more practical instrument to play. Mainly for its size and for living in the Appalachian Mountains.

Our home is becoming home once again. It is peaceful outside, stars and moon are bright, and the air is much warmer than usual for this time in the evening. I am looking forward to camp cleaning out and getting back to working on the Farmhouse.

On other news, tomorrow is our halfway mark in this whole 40 week pregnancy thing we got going on. The baby is now (of course this is an estimation I give every week) the size of a banana. We like bananas:) 10 1/2 inches long from head to feet! WOW! I also read I will start gaining a pound a week roughly. That sounds exciting! Oh, and I got the best night sleep last night. I haven't slept that good and hard since the beginning of June. I still woke up twice to pee, but that was it! No tossing and turning. I could breath through my nose which I haven't been able to do for some time now. It was awesome. It made today very vibrant! Good night to all!

This is Addair who is 14 and friends of ours here at camp.

She won the Nontraditional Style. She is incredibly talented.

Actually, the whole family is.

This is who won the Traditional Style.

This was the 6 year old. Too cute!

Bonus Saturday

Tonight I was swaying to the music with my husband. I had butterflies in my stomach and that feeling that I just could't get close enough to him...no matter how much I tried or how we held hands and rested our faces against each others. I knew and have known this is the man I want to spend the rest of my days with. Not because he WAS the most handsome man out there or the stars were just so pretty laid in the background of the music, but I have so much respect, love, and admiration for this man I get to call my beloved. I hope I always have those moments of excitement when I hold his hand or when we puts his hand on my back to direct me. I will always strive to have these moments where he is more than just my roommate but someone who I will only love more as the days pass by. I am a blessed woman.

The Gulley

First off, I do apologize for no post yesterday. I am hoping all these wonderful pictures will make up for it. It was 9:30pm when we got home last night and we had quite the full day. Needless to say, went straight to bed.

We spent half the day Friday doing some Farmhouse work, which I haven't gone into much detail about. This Fall our project for work has been fixing up this old house on camp. The A-Team which we oversee, typically lives there and we turn the place into a commercial kitchen where we pack out all our camping type food from. Make sense? Then we had to fight our way through the crowds of people to make sure everything was set for the climbing wall. The wall is open all weekend during LEAF along with the waterfront. We got it all set and on our way home noticed the Gulley Washer going absolutely crazy in all the wind! The Gulley is this huge awesome slide that goes into the lake. We had really bad winds yesterday and it was becoming extremely dangerous because metal pieces from the Gulley were breaking right off of it. Not good when there are 1-2,000 people walking around camp.

Something had to be done and of course Danger was right on it. Nick Patton was his accomplice and many others along the way. We thought we could just tie this slide down, but one good wind ripped the rope right from the guys hands and took the eyebolt right out of the wooden raft it was tied off on. Ouch, rope burn hurts. When we knew just tying it down would't stop the hazard, we decided it had to come off. This is not an easy quick process. I took some pictures along the way to document the events. You will see them in a second.

Then we went to a contra dancing beginners class. Contra is kind of this partnered folk dance/line dancing thing. It's pretty awesome and extremely popular in our area. LEAF is known for their contra dancing. Bryce and I and many others friends went contra dancing yesterday evening and I must say, we didn't do too bad! The only thing bad was all the spinning involved and we are kind of an easily motion sicked kind a family. It was great though and we really like watching the really good people dancing.

Then we had some dinner and went to go watch the Honey Cutters play. They were pretty good, but we were feeling pretty wind blown and tired from the day so we went home afterwards and went to bed. What a great day! I get really irritated on these weekends and feel claustrophobic from everything going on, but it has been so nice to have so many great friends in town. They have made the weekend worth the crowd and the invasion.

Here is a lot of pictures. I will explain some of them. We have been enjoying today also. More music, people watching, fiddle contest, and much more. Have a great weekend!

This bottom one was an accident, but I really liked it.

This is of the Gulley getting blown around!

Extremely dangerous!

Bryce and Nick on the raft trying to tie down the bottom of the slide.

Now the slide is coming down and it took a big crew to take it

off the cables.

Waterfront taking it easy because only a few have been

crazy enough to swim in this cold water!

This is Corrie:) We are about to fold part of the Gulley

up so we can store it away for the winter.

White Chicken Chilli

All day LEAF has left me stressed with all the people and the added things to do on my list with them being here. However, tonight having a good friend Hannah make us a delicious dinner and then having neighbors and friends pop by for a visit made it oh so much more delightful. It was a short time of forgetting the crowd and the claustrophobic feeling I get on these weekends and enjoying community, friendships, and good warm food (and cold ice cream). I am so grateful to have a life full of great loving family and friends.

This Chili was amazing and also came with special recipe chocolate chip cookies. They were heaven in your mouth.

Me, Mark, Corrie on the right, and Hannah in front.

After Work Adventure

My heart has been longing to be out in the woods enjoying this fall weather and colors before the wind blows and shakes them all off. This is always my season of awe and wonder. At times, I am looking up at the mountains and the beauty it is wrapped in and I about run myself off the road on my bike. Lord help the squirrels not get run over! I want to pull out a comfy chair, blop it right next to the 'tree', bring my blanket, and just stare at such handy work. I really could go on and on about this season. Oh that we would long to be still with our Father and praise His might works because He is most worthy of praise!

After work today, Bryce and I went on a very short hike up our mountain. We were trying to beat the rain, but we were craving to be outside. Here is a short telling of our hike.

We got up the first hill out from our house and came across one

of my favorite spots. I love this tree bent over the trail!

Bryce took the camera so he could snap a shot of me. He told me to

hang onto the tree bent across the trail. He helped me up

and then it took part of my finger off. Wow, such a little

thing but it sure hurt.

I managed to survive so we continued on our way. We got

up next to the first shelter out of 5 that are up on our mountain.

The colors are so awesome!

I must say, it was early evening and overcast so the

pictures just don't do it justice at all! Even the perfect shooting

conditions couldn't display properly what is all looks like as a whole.

Then it started to really rain so we took shelter for a little while to

let it pass over.

Once it passed we went back down the mountain using a different trail

and back to our house for some pasta dinner. What

a great day we had!

Invasion Once Again

LEAF is here...what happen to my beautiful camp?I have talked about Leaf before when I first started this blog. It is a great music festival with lots to see and do and it happens right at our front door. No really, like 15 feet away and I am there. It starts this Thursday and goes through Sunday. This is our last big off season group work that we will have and then it is the "real off season". A quite camp. Yeah.

This baby of ours has really been moving around today. The coolest thing of all is Bryce got to feel him move a few minutes ago! I didn't think that would happen for awhile, but I felt him moving around so I told Bryce to come quick. Sure enough, Bryce felt him once or twice.

I know I said I would have a pic of the new ride which is yet to be named yet, but does anyone know where my camera is??? No pic again today...sorry. I will find it tomorrow. It is my new mission.

Exhausted and ready to lay down with my husband...I know, I know, it is very early tonight. We are beat!

See you tomorrow.

2 Car Family

Bryce and I live as simple lives as we can. When you enter our home there is a sign that says "Simplify". We try to hold that statement true in all aspects of our lives. It is easy to do that when you are hiking 1,000 miles up through California or living out of your car, or in a small cave. It isn't that hard to do that when you are working in Yosemite and living amongst many many others abiding by the same lifestyle. We could easily rid ourselves of everything we possess and I say that very honestly. I love my home and my crock-pot and my guitar and pictures, but I love more the God I follow and how He has given Bryce and I freedom and the desire to live simply. I have many things in my house that I don't necessarily need even though I use the heck out of most of it.

I am around a lot of kids and families and I do live in America despite my phone coverage at times. I see a lot of children with rooms full of stuff they never even touch. Price tags on clothes that are just taken to Goodwill or given away. TONS of toys and must haves that never even get touched because the kid just wants to chew on his parents keys or play in the tupperware.

Bryce and I are committed to keeping our family simple even though we are now entering a life with a child. We have to remind ourselves every few days at times that just because you have some extra space doesn't mean you have to fill it. Just because you have a baby now, doesn't mean you need a playroom packed full of all the latest and best toys a kid could have. We wonder why kids can't pay attention for longer than 60 seconds, but it seems we have trained them to always have a million options for instant gratification. It is just not my heart's desire and thankfully it isn't Bryce's either.

All that said, we have been a 1 car family since we started dating in 2006. We love it and it has never been that big of deal. There might be things you miss here and there, but it has always been worth it to us. Bryce goes to school about 30 minutes from our house right now. When he switches to the main university it will be even further. We have been looking for a fuel efficient car for awhile now knowing the right thing would come along at some point. We started to become more keen as we talked through Bryce needing the car for school and me being left with our baby with no emergency vehicle. Neither one of us liked the idea of something happening at home at not having a car there to help as an option. So with much thought and some searching we bought a Honda Civic this morning. It is 1991 but only has 109,000 miles on it which is less than our Passport. It is in great shape and we got it for only $1800!

So it is official we are a 2 car family, BUT we are committed to making our gas bill less not more by doing this. This new car gets 40MPG unlike Lucy are other car that gets 20 on her best days. Bryce had school today and a class tonight so I have no picture of it so you must wait till tomorrow for a pic.

Have a great night!

To Be Woman

Women have many reminders in their life to let them know 'you-are-woman'. Some of those reminders really aren't great in my opinion and I could do without them. Others are quite beautiful. I have been thinking on this a little here and a little there for a couple of weeks now. I have decided this: There is no better reminder that I know thus far in my life that I-am-woman than carrying our child inside of my belly. Reading each week what new thing is happening and how he is growing is quite fascinating. I am in constant awe. This week I felt our child move for the first time inside of me. I am definitely growing and believing even more that he is too! I love being pregnant despite some of the smaller issues you deal with in being so.

We love going on walks around our community here at Rockmont. We took a nice one late afternoon around 3-4 of our lakes and made our way over to our farm as well. Here are some pictures of the beautiful garden Jon has and some of his animals as well. Enjoy!

Time to Play!

We live in a great place. I mean, we live at a summer camp year around. All those things that attract thousands of boys in the summer and thousands during the off season we get at our disposal almost everyday.

Right now we live right next to the archery shed. Bryce is getting into bow hunting so this works great to get practice in at any moments notice. Besides archery, we have a water zipline, a HUGE water slide called the Gulley Washer, great outdoor climbing wall, ceramics and a craft room, weights, fishing, all sorts of gun shooting, the Blob, and much much more! I wish I could say we took advantage to it all more, but we try to get things in whenever we can.

We love swimming laps in open water at the lake. We used to climb all the time, but I am giving up the harness till next spring or summer. We have eaten out of our lake from the fish Bryce has caught. We just love it here. The closet trail is literally 15 steps from our front porch, how awesome is that! Oh and we have horses and chickens and goats and all kinds of organic goodies in the garden that Jon takes such good care of. It is just a great place to be since we are committed to this area for the time being. I can't wait to have this baby and eventually get to play in creeks and in our sandy beach area and play in the garden and pet the animals. What a cool place to be married and have children.

Here's a couple of pics of us shooting some arrows.