Jumbo Days

Maybe it was becasue they actually named it this year rather than just calling it the Roanoke Festival.  Maybe it was because I haven't really been there the last four years and just missed it.  Whatever the reason, I was pretty excited for Jumbo Days.  Now, for anyone who doesn't know, we have a mountain in Roanoke.  Well, of sorts.  It's really just a big pile of dirt leftover from the coal mining days but it has been deemed Mt. Jumbo.  I think I've only climbed it once in my life.  And it only took about 10 or 15 minutes to get to the top.  And it only took that long because there's not really a trail to follow, you have to just blaze your own.

Anyway.  Back to Jumbo Days.  Due to the fact that I don't particularly enjoy throwing up, I generally chose not to go on rides.  However, I do enjoy the ferris wheel and I was bound and determined that I would go on it.  I got a picture from the top.... and then my camera died.  So the pictures I had envisioned myself taking the rest of the time were not to be.

Saturday morning was the annual parade.  After sitting overnight, I managed to squeeze a few more pictures out of my camera.  Umbrellas were a nice accessory to have during the parade.  That there is my cousin's husband and son.  With MY umbrella.  But it didn't ever completely down pour and there was no lightning or thunder so the parade went on!

Boni, here's the only picture of the cupcake I got.  Sorry- it's not a very good one.  My cousin who has the cafe/bakery I work at once a week made a giant cupcake out of cardboard, packing foam and white material to enter in the parade.  Along with a red balloon for the cherry on top.  And sequins glued on for sprinkles.  The picture isn't that great but at least you get the idea.

After the parade we went up to the carnival for lunch and then I had to leave for work.  Another cousin and his girlfriend were singing for the afternon entertainment and I was pretty bummed to miss out.  They have great aspirations to move to Nashville and try to make it big.

Now Jumbo Days are over for the year.  Here's to next year!

:)

Athens:)

Friday morning I got up bright and early and headed down to Athens.  I wanted to go next weekend for the big Memorial Day singing but I have to work.  Plus, I really wanted to go to the preschool graduation.  Soon I won't know any of the kids and families that are there and I wanted to be able to go while I still knew most of them.  The kids still know me but since they don't see me very often the are kind of shy which is only natural.  I mostly went so I could see the parents that I worked with and love dearly.  It was pretty fun to be there.  And not nearly as stressful sitting in the audience rather than the front row trying to corral (corall?) a bunch of children.  It was the first time in five years I took pictures of a preschool graduation.  They were pretty stinkin cute:)

After the program it's always mass chaos.  So while I was able to talk to most everyone I wanted to see, getting up close and personal pictures with my kiddos didn't happen quite like I wanted it to.  I did get a cute one of Kenya.  She is the definition of spunky!

Saturday morning (bright and early again) most of us went up to the Tennessee fellowship center to get all the cleaning done for next weekend.  Not always a fun job.  I thought once I moved I wouldn't have to do that anymore.  I thought wrong.  But it turned out okay.  I spent most of the morning raking the sand in our volleyball court, getting a jump start on my summer suntan  burn.  I left from there and made it to Devin's last baseball game of the season.  He also had a spring program thing at his school that they invited me to.  At the end of the program, all the kids handed out a long stemmed rose to their moms.  He gave me his rose!  I felt really bad for his mom, although I really think she was okay with it, but I felt pretty honored too.  It was all I could do to not sit and cry and make a spectacle of myself.  The rose was supposed to be in the picture but the photographer aimed the camera a little too high.

The next few pictures are some that I took Sunday afternoon of some of the tornado damage in Athens.  This first house was brand new- nobody had even moved in yet.

Hmm..... farm much?

I had planned to leave for home right after church.  But then EVERYbody was going out to eat together.  Since people are coming and going right now doing tornado cleanup, it made for quite the crowd.  And I couldn't miss out on the party, right?  I thought as long as I got on the road by 4:00 it would be fine.  Then, while we were eating lunch, I realized I was just NOT ready to leave.  I kept hanging around and hanging around, ate supper and then finally left about 7:15.  I really wanted to push through and make it all the way home last night but I do know my limits.  From many past experiences of driving late into the night, I know that about 1:00 in the morning I hit a wall.  It's one thing if I only have thirty or so more minutes to go.  But when I knew I wouldn't get to my house until 3 or 3:30, and I was starting to get very heavy eyelids, and the rain was pouring down along with blinding lightning, I decided it would probably be wise to stop around midnight.  And they hold true to their word.

They left the light on for me:)  Thirty bucks, a night of rest and a hot shower later, I was back on the road again.  Good, good weekend!

El Planos

As you can see from the title of the post, my Spanish skills are lacking.  Which is why I'm going to Morelia, MX this summer for language school!  I started taking Spanish when I moved back from Athens because I planned on doing the whole occupational therapy thing and I thought knowing some Spanish in the medical field could be very beneficial.  Plus, I wanted to learn it just for the sake of knowing a little bit when I go on work teams.  But as we all know, things change.  The OTA plan is no longer but I did discover that I really enjoyed learning the Spanish language.  Last summer if you would have said "Next summer you'll go to Mexico for five weeks to learn Spanish", I would have scoffed in your face.  But things have just really worked out for me to take this opportunity.  I'm planning to leave July 1 and take classes for 5 weeks before heading up to CVE to visit Joel and Kristi, then stopping in Phoenix to visit my aunt, uncle and cousins before swinging by Denver to visit the small amount of family I have out there.  Hopefully followed by a roadtrip to the eastcoast with Cassie but that's a whole nother story. 
The inevitable question when I tell people the scoop is "So.... are you going to move to Mexico to do mission work?"  For now?  No.  I'm definitely open to it though should I feel God leading in that direction.  I do know that I want to use the language somehow whether in the states or in Mexico.  I don't want to just learn it and forget it.  I know there's lots of opportunity.  There were plenty of times in Athens that I wished I knew it because of the number of Mexicans living there and the number of times I needed/wanted to ineract with them but was very limited.
I'm excited and nervous.  I got the information for the family I'll be staying with and have already stalked out their kids on facebook:)  I'm excited to just be able to check out of life up here for awhile and excited to really experiece a different culture.  I'm nervous about communication (obviously) and I'm nervous that I will fail.  Just that fear of "what if I go down and fall really far behind in the classes and just can't seem to pick it up anymore" type of thing.  Because if I'm going to learn it, I want to learn it right and I want to learn it well.  I just need to get over it though and know that probably most people have those same thoughts and it's out of everyone's comfort zone to just start talking in a language they don't know very well.
Welp, didn't mean for that to be a confession session where I bare my soul but sometimes that just happens:)

National Day of Prayer

Okay, enough of the post with my numb face plastered on it. 
Last night our church had a special National Day of Prayer service.  I typically haven't been able to go to anything like that since I'm leading a second shift life right now.  But there was a group of us that was asked to sing a couple songs so I traded around at work so I was able to go.  It was really neat, and I was so thankful that our church decided it was an important enough day to create a special service.  Four different groups sang throughout the evening.  Each of the ministers from church read a few verses and had a prayer devoted to a specific topic.  We had a praer for the nation, for the lost, for the needy and a prayer of praise and worship.  Along with an opening and closing prayer.  Everybody sang the final song together and it was absolutely beautiful.  I left with a feeling of zeal and refreshment in my heart.  Praise God for evenings like that!