So, onto the Vermont pictures! I arrived on Friday. Stuart had already been there a week, and was leaving Sunday morning. So my trip coincided perfectly with seeing him for a few days (Dad's brilliance in ensuring). That's why he's only in the first two pics. :)

This was my first night there. Dad decided to have a real Vermont cheese tasting. All (cheddar) cheeses are white there, btw. They are serious about their cheese, even the most basic grovery stores carry about 20 different kinds. We were trying 8 different ones, by 2 different makers (Cabot and Crawley's). Their names ranged from Hunter's to Medium Sharp to Seriously Sharp. Each one had a paper next to it for our comments. We each tried various ones, then Stuart read aloud all the comments, and then we voted on the "best of the best." Incredibly enough, 7 out of 10 voted on the same kind! It was the strongest tasting cheddar. You know our father has had a huge influence on us (his opinion is there is never a sharp enough cheddar!). Many of the comments would be, "Disappointingly sharp" "Not distinguishably sharp enough" "Missing the sharp bite its name promises" and so on. It's hilarous. Even Fred agreed, and as he's not family yet, I'd say that's promising. Oh, and for the record, Carter obstained all-together because he "doesn't like cheese." Horrendous!

Stuart's last day there we went to Grafton to eat. This was an old barn/warehouse type place that's been made into a place for large gatherings. We've ambled here in the past and adore it. Dad wants to build one like this for our always-explanding never-under-30-people family gatherings. Seriously, even the most modest Sunday lunches can't stay small with us! It's (laughably) insane at times!

This was our Father's Day picnic! We've done this in the past too. We get near the falls, spread out blankets, and serve up sandwiches, fruit, chips, olives, and (of course) cheese and crackers. Dad loves sitting/laying down and listening to the peaceful sound of the waterfalls. We wade around too, but it was rather chilly.

This was Father's Day evening. Seth & Karen (from a distance) treated everyone to Ben & Jerry's ice cream (Dad loves that). And I, being the odd ball in the family who doesn't like ice cream, obstained. Dad looooved it!

Ok, 9 of us packed into the Sequioa for a 3 hour trip to Boston. Did you get that? 9 adults! The Sequioa advertises "seats 8 comfortably." That's not true, if the 8 are adults. But there aren't even 9 seatbelts! Sometimes the girls buckeled together, sometimes Fred&Mary. It was pretty fun, even so! And this is a picture of what 9 people packing for 3 days in Boston looks like. I am so doggone proud of our packing skills! (Laptops were mandatory as Dad & I had a 1-day business trip to Chicago.)

Noah, Carter, and Dad in the resting in the cemetary in Boston along the Freedom Trail.

This was us "kids" in the elevator of the hotel one evening we ate out in Faneuil Hall together. The hotel had lemon & lime water dispensers near the elevators & we were nuts over them! We'd come inside and rush to the water. It was pretty hilarious. And we were loud. So I got a picture of us in our mirth! Except my flash wouldn't work so it's a bit dark/blurry! I really have the best of times with my awesome siblings!

This was a snack bar about 3 miles from our cabin. Everyone except Suz, Mom and me jogged the 3 miles for lunch. We took the easy route. It turned out to be awesome food and great service (1 guy cooking it all!).

Suzanne and me after lunch that day!

Mary and Fred walked down Commerce street for me an unknown distance because I knew there was a Bruegger's Bagels "somewhere" down it. They were really patient and trusted me - and thanks to Jonathan's Iphone, he got us there without any wrong turns! So I treated them, the least I could do. I couldn't stomach Starbucks (haven't in weeks), but hey I wanted the picture.

And this is a lovely one of Mom and Dad at the waterfall. They're so cute toegher and I love them SO much! Their generosity made this ALL possible!

News

I know I've been terrible at this blogging thing. I've been told more than once. I really appreciate all you kind friends who come here to read how life is. I enjoy all your blogs so much, and so I should put more time into keeping mine up to date. Honestly, in the last 5 months with our lives going in such a drastically different direction than we ever could have foreseen, it's been hard to keep this up. Life is not all gloriously simple and easy and happy. Even though Jonathan and I have one of the most fabulous marriages ever, and we have such wonderful family members and friends and church, and both of our jobs have been such undeserved gifts to us, there has definitely been a cloud of confusion overshadowing our lives. Maybe it doesn't even daily come into our conversation, but it has been present in the background. When we don't even have understanding about a lot, it's hard to want to share on a blog like this. Things can be misunderstood too easily. I can communicate very badly at times, not giving the full picture, since my writing can be emotionally triggered. Anyway, I haven't felt like coming to this blog and spilling my heart, so I've stayed away. Because it also feels disingenuous to just post about all the lovely happy things going on, while tiptoeing around or ignoring the other stuff. I don't know that I'll get better at posting in the future yet, but I'll try to make efforts. And I just ask my dear friends and readers to bear with me.

So.... lots of news. The most exciting actually came on January 18th! My brother Stuart proposed in such a romantic way to his sweetheart of two years and asked her to marry him!!! Haley of course said YES!!! The wedding is set for July 19th and we could not be happier to finally have a sister-in-law coming into our family. Stuart is head-over-heels and they are extremely cute and loving together. Just thinking of gaining another girl in the family makes me giddy. It's exciting to have a great relationship with her, and with both of them as a couple, knowing down the road it will blossom as they enter marriage and we have even more to share in common. We are thrilled!!! This will the the first Graydon boy married, and the first marriage in 4 years (I was the last one in '04; Karen in '03, 9 months apart, poor Dad)! Here is the happy couple.

Right now, I have been visiting my wonderful friend Susi right outside of Seattle! I used some airline points and flew free over here a week and a half ago. Her husband is deployed right now, has been gone since last April, folks! And her with a 15 month old daughter. This is strength! Even with the love of our lives gone, we were such good friends years ago, and have really reconnected in an amazingly deep way for me. I rarely have friends in my life who I feel so much in common with in life-style, ideas about Christianity, teaching on submission/relationship to our husbands, love/closeness to family members, and appreciation for the finer things in life (i.e. music, chocolate, coffee, cheese, etc). (Understand, though, not necessarily more expensive, though, we are deal-shoppers!). Susi and her sweet-natured, obedient daughter Violet have been taking me to all sorts of delights the area offers. I do not have my cable to download pictures, so all those lovely details will have to wait! But for a teaser, visit Susi's entry complete with some pictures!

I had some trouble with the HSG done in Georgia (that hospital is a joke), so I had it re-done while I was out here (this base here actually is one of the 5-6 IVF programs in the US, incidentally, so they are fully equipt to perform it correctly). Went fine, and I applaud myself for continually learning the military system and how to get what you need when you can. It took a few hours to even get it ordered, but it worked. My IVF #2 is set for beginning April 16th. I will be gone until the beginning of May, and may or may not post while I'm there. All depends on how I'm feeling. I will again stay with my best friend there, which I am looking forward to. We've still got some things to be straightened out with leave, a couple more perscriptions I have to pick up in GA, etc. So here's to hoping it works out as smoothly as it can.

And for final big news, my youngest sister Mary turns 21 next Saturday! I can't believe that my "little" sister is already such an adult. I am SOSOSOSO grateful I'll get to be in NC for that and for my brother Carter's 19th bday a few days later! I'm planning a nice little "drinks and dessert" party for Mary with just the family, and hope I can make it sweet/special for her. It's hard planning something when it's not your home, but I'm sure I can make it work. :)

Jonathan has completed over half of his deployment. There's a new post up at his site. We miss each other more than words could say. But we are making it, slowly but surely. That reunion is going to be something else, lemme tell you!

Travels & Pics!

Back home now! What a trip! Marvelous, fun, enjoyable, and so worth it! I've got some pictures to capture some highlights!

I left Tuesday morning at 5:05 and had a terrific drive down. Listened to a MP3 disc Jonathan burned for me AND C.S. Lewis's The Great Divorce (twice) - awesome! Met Daddy for lunch at Cracker Barrell outside of Charlotte, and arrived at Seth & Karen's around 4 after a stop at my parents'. After giving the girls' their birthday presents it started to storm. Katrina excitedly looks at me and says, "Oh goodie! We get to make cookies!" Apparently Karen always makes chocoalte chip cookies with Katrina when it storms - what a sweet tradition! So I made chocolate chocolate-chip with her. We had steaks Seth cooked, squash casserole, and broccoli. Shiona had a really scary apple-choking inicdent, and Crystal stayed for dinner. Unfortunately, she went to take my car home & it wouldn't stay started! :( Thank God it got me there safely. We got it towed Wednesday morn & fixed at the dealership that day, they said it wasn't a big problem. (It did act up on my drive back, 3 hrs from home - not sure it was fixed!)

Wednesday morning Suzanne, Crystal & I headed to the Howells to see Susi & Violet. Violet is a beautful baby, especially in purple. So adorable! It was SO GOOD to see Susi - I hadn't since her wedding in June '05! The Howell girls all visited with us and it was just like old times! They had us for lunch and we had this magnificent venison chili with homemade bread and salad from their garden. I've never had a meal I wouldn't want to recreate at the Howells (which I did this Saturday, actually!)! Yum! They served us hot tea, although it was sad I didn't think ahead of time to make scones or something to make it an official "tea party."

Susi took me to get the car & I headed back to my parents' house for the Mexican meal Aunt Tammy was fixing for the Graydons, Dienstfreis, Robinsons, and O'Malleys (brave women!): Chicken & Beef Fajitas, Enchiladas, Fiesta Rice, and I made Strawberry & Original Margaritas. Aunt Tammy had even bought Mexican cookies & soda. So good! Seeing Christen & Michelle was so much fun! We had a blast!!! I think the only differences in us now are we're more mature! :)

Thursday morning a bunch of us Graydons went into Danville together. I took the girls out to Buffalo Wild Wings for lunch & we pigged out on wings, potato skins, and mozzarella sticks! So good - they'd never been. We then got Noah from lessons & went to STARBUCKS! Yes, my 1st time in the Danville one. Not too shabby! Mary then left for work & we went to buy stuff from her. :) Well, I did. Then I visited with the O'Malleys the rest of the afternoon.

That night I took Christen, Michelle & Stephanie (their younger sister) to Danville to meet up with Karen & her girls. We bought more stuff from Mary at Lancome, met the family for dinner, Karen treated us to Starbucks, and we girls saw a late showing of Oceans 13 (lame). We bought tons of popcorn and candy and were throwing it at each other in the theatre. If these 3 boys hadn't been present, we'd have had the theatre to ourselves!!! I think we stayed up til 2 trying to delay our goodbyes. :(

Then, I haded home the next morning. I stopped in Charlotte to visit Jeanie & Alathea, who is just such a fun little cutie! I brought us all Starbucks (even though Alathea likes chai lattes, Jeanie keeps her orders limited to chocoate milk! *grin*) Rebecca stopped by for a while to chat, and I left after a 3 hour visit & some yummy lunch! I had so much fun and was SO GLAD I stopped by to see them! Jeanie makes such a natural mom, she just really enjoys Alathea. I turned my camera's display out so Alathea could see herself & she LOVED making faces and sticking her tongue out....

Jonathan's ALMOST HOME!!!!!

As I write this, I am sitting in a Starbucks inside a Kroger in Atlanta.... waiting for Jonathan's flight to come in. I had to drop off Mary at 6:40am, and his plane isn't scheduled to come in until 5pm, but he's trying to fly standby for a 1:00pm flight. I'm killing time at a place nearby the airport. I don't know Atlanta at all and I don't want to get lost, especially in a bad section of town. There is a Borders, Target, and Bed, Bath & Beyond at this location, so I'll probably browse those over the next few hours.

I miss Mary. She was a HUGE blessing! She painted and worked and painted and worked for hours and hours and never was the 1st to stop. Most nights we stayed up until 11ish working, although we made time in the day for trips to Starbucks, the mall, and various other fun spots. Last night (Friday) we stayed up until 2:11am and our alarms went off at 4:00am. Agh! On the 1 hour 20 minute drive to the airport, Mary was doing a good job talking to me so I'd be alert, but she kept saying gibberish because she would get into a twilight-sleep phase! Anyway, when I download pictures I'll post them, but she and I got the kithcen painted a Velvety Merlot and the master bath painted a Morning Breeze. I love them both!!! But I can't tell you how many man-hours went into all that. Mary is also amazing at checking off boxes to ensure to movers bring everything.

This was the worst move I've done. Lots of broken/smashed/damage to our stuff. Nothing irreplacable, but it's odd it would happen this way. Just like the Stang made it fine to San Antonio, but got real damaged coming back to NC. Anyway, bunches of paperwork to file.

So for now, I sign off with a breathlessly expectant Denise who will get to see her husband after 17 days not seeing him at all!!!!!!! I can't wait to run into his arms!!!!

Air Force Jets!

"Wide sky big breaks; Michigan, Great Lakes;
Cattle rattle, snowflakes, Georgia beaches.
Louisiana harpoon, New York attitude, Florida beaches.
Tennessee whiskey; Diddy, are you with me?
Texas chili, Virginia pine.
It's hard to beat that California sunshine.
Baby, you're my favorite,
Favorite state of mind."
-from "Favorite State of Mind"

May already and I really didn't update in April, how bad I have been! At least I can say, I've been very busy "living" to not have a lot of time to "document" it. But enought is enough and it's finally time to give this my attention. So, here's the current scoop:
My sisterMary spent her hard-earned money and visited for a week in April. It was the highlight of my month, and I did not expect to grieve like I did when she left. It was seriously some sort of depression to b left all alone again (during the day) and not have my friend to be doing stuff with! However, I learned to be joyful and content again and God already worked out my family to come visit in May during my birthday too! So I only had a month to wait! That was a tremendous blessing!
Jonathan and I had a large group of friends at our home for Easter, all unsaved friends we were opening up our home to share God's love with. It was a great time, and we continue to be excited about all the opportunities God has given us to daily interact with those who need Jesus. We pray & attempt to meet their physical needs like Jesus did so tha topportunity will open up to meet their spiritual needs when they become apparent, by demonstrating true love. We love being in a church that emphasises so strongly personal ministering to those in your sphere of influence. :)
Life Group at church is still wonderful! Our church had baptisms yesterday and 17 people were baptised! It was special to watch those in their 30's all the way down to 9 year olds. We had a nice picnic and had lots of fun fellowshipping and playing with all the kids!
Jonathan and I had all Friday to hear briefs from crews of all the aircraft he can go to, as well as to actually walk on the aircraft and see exactly what it looks like (all but the B-52, since the runway's not big enough at Randolph). It was extremely enlightening, ang I got to sit in the cockpit of one of these (F-15E Eagle):


Makes me understand why Jonathan would want that more than an y other! However, it's not an option, they must have just had it there for fun. :) With all the wisdom we have, he's leaning toward B-52's (Bombers) or KC-135's (air refulers).
Heres's a B-52 Bomber

Here's a KC-135 refueling:

So maybe you don't think all these pics are cool, but they are to me!!!
Now, May should be a busy month, too. Jonathan's siblings (sans Emily) will be coming to visit for 6 days and then 4 days later my family comes for a week! So we'll have wonderful times and a full house in May! That is extremely exiciting!
Have I mentioned that I love the United States? I do. Just living different places makes me aware of how different God made even just one continent. He gave us beautiful mountains and the rolling hills of Virginia/NC with the kudzu and dogwoods and wonderful pines! He gave us the flat-straight land of Illinois with its acres of corn. He gave us the rugged, brown, full of live oaks and cactuses, mostly flat, dry area of Texas. I could name differences in every state, and that only covers one country! It's amaznig he's given Jonathan and me the opportunity to travel around and live all these different places! Just thinking about our next assignment stirs excitement in me for what it will be like.
And this will have to end my thought for today. Sorry there aren't any personal pictures. I have blackmail pictures of Mary, Jonathan, and me line-dancing in ridiculous clothes, but I'll resist posting those. :) Ok here's on of Jonathan & little Emerson (our CG leader's youngest girl).

Have a blessed May everyone, and keep seeking Christ! I close with this:
"And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross." Colossians 2:13,14

Mary's Gone :(

*sighs* We had such a lovely time, and now my beloved sisster is gone, gone, gone........