Our mountain get-away weekend!

We went to Asheville and Hendersonville this weekend and had a great time!

When we do this we stay at the Biltmore Park where we can walk to all the restaurants, the theater, and the greatest toy store, O. P. Taylors and other stores including Barnes and Noble.

Our reason for the trip was my aunt's 80th surprise birthday party. She and my uncle live in Hendersonville and the party was at The Cedars, a very old house in Hendersonville, where my aunt's mother lived while she was teaching school many years ago! It's a beautiful old home and now I wish I had gotten some pictures of it while we were there.

I have a "party picture" of my mom with her brother, my uncle and Aunt Jean, the birthday girl.

Also have a picture of my sisters and their husbands and then one with my cousins who live in NJ, VA, OH, and NY. One is a lawyer, another a librarian, another a museum curator and the other an author/homemaker. We see each other once or twice a year and always pick up where we left off! Much love there!

After the party my mom and my sisters and their husbands and Mike and I went downtown and browsed through the Mast Store! What a treat!

Think I've explained all the pictures now!

Video #2

Emma and Kylie doing the Varsity Drag!

"Grand" Delight!

Got Emma and Kylie yesterday and took them to the Main Street Grill for lunch. After lunch we shopped at Target...shopped and shopped and shopped. Grabbed bags of popcorn on the way out and came home to watch a Rapunzel movie. After that we visited Mrs. Ruth and the girls played with Diesel the dog! He entertained them throwing his little brown bear back and forth. They giggled and giggled and I loved listening to their enjoyment!

Home again for another princess movie, supper, and three puzzles. After cleaning up we retired to bed to watch "Scott Calvin" and after the movie, sweet sleep!

This morning we had a Bible story on the porch, coffee, bagels and cream cheese and then we made 2 videos. Now Kylie is on the treadmill with my supervision of course and Emma is playing a game after jumping on the rebounder.

All this and it's only 8:30 am!

Who knows what we'll do next but I'll take them home after lunch and watch Duncan play his computer game that I promised yesterday to watch today.

It has been such fun!

Love making those memories!

Too Darn Hot!

"It is a sultry day; the sun has drunk

The dew that lay upon the morning grass;

There is no rustling in the lofty elm

That canopies my dwelling, and its shade scarce cools me.

All is silent save the faint and interrupted murmur of the bee,

Settling on the sick flowers, and then again instantly on the wing."

William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878)

"All conquering Heat, O, intermit thy wrath!

And on my throbbing temples, potent thus,

Beam not so fierce!

James Thomson (1700-1748)

Christmas Exhuberance!

Christmas exhuberance is a special, fairly rare gene that only some people have.

It, however runs rampant in the offspring of several Durham/Woods households and the symptoms it produces tend to manifest in the month of July.

I received a phone call just a little while ago from our oldest granddaughter, Makenna.

When I answered the phone she said, "Merry Christmas!" and informed me it was 5 months until Christmas!

She said that she and her mom, our oldest, had been working a jigsaw puzzle and she said it just felt like Christmas to her. So they did what any normal people who have this rare gene would do!

They put on Christmas music, playing it all over the house and dressed in red and returned to their puzzle...all in the spirit of Christmas!

They have now deemed this day, July 25th, to be their "Christmas in July" celebration!

Ahhh....kids and grands after my own heart!

"Damages"

For a while now we've been greeted with something very similar to this every morning!

First we thought it was a large dog. We ended up having to tie the top down but as you can see,

something worked its way around it and managed to get the top off.

Last night Mike discovered that our culprit was a ....yep! you guessed it...a raccoon!

Now today with all my other tasks at hand, I must come up with a solution to end this "damaging" situation!

Speaking of "Damages", seems to be the name of an upcoming Fall TV program. After viewing a few previews, ( and there are NO raccoons) and reading some info on it, in my opinion, it falls right in line with "refuse" TV. There is a character that is described as a "devout Christian" who is a liar, cheat, etc. shown praying in Jesus' name with his grandkids. (Read this in a review.) Bit of an oxymoron, don't you think?

Does this offend me? I must admit that it does...just like cursing and just like someone who professes to serve Christ but screams and yells and "beats" people over the head with their huge Bibles. Apparently they don't even know Christ! And they certainly don't really "know" the Word.

And apparently the TV sitcom people don't have dictionaries because a true "devout Christian" would reflect the character of Christ.

Is this programming done to make fun? Probably.

But there is something that we, as Christians, can learn from this. We are to reflect the character of Jesus, period! Some of us aren't very good examples. Some of us mistreat people, speak harshly, yell at waiters/waitresses, yell at drivers, bikers, etc. Some of us show hatred and anger more than we show love...scowl rather than smile, especially at those closest to us. We've all done it but it shouldn't be the "norm".

The solution is simple. Study the character of Christ. Allow the Lord to change us into His image.

Learn to walk in love. Grow "in" Christ. As we devote our time to developing a relationship with Him, He will change us. AND we will learn to reflect His love and react as He would react.

Will this change the opinion of non-believers? Maybe some. But that really isn't the point.

The point is that we will reflect Jesus and won't that make our Father proud!

He so wants His Son to be seen in us! That's why we're here...to be like Christ and carry on His work.

Gratitude

"Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday

epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever

how we experience life and the world."

Sarah Ban Breathnach