Quick Visit in Dillon

*I apologize for the many pictures that will follow. I think my mom will be the only one to look at them all. :)

When we went to Raleigh last weekend, we broke up our trip so that we wouldn't have to drive the 5 hours all at once or get a hotel there. My mom happened to be going to see my grandma in Dillon the same day we were leaving for Raleigh. Since Dillon was on the way, we decided to stay there for the night and make the remainder of the trip the next morning.

I haven't been to Dillon in a really long time. I have so many wonderful memories of going, like riding 4-wheelers (my favorite), playing with my cousins, brushing the horses' hair, driving my grandpa's pickup truck and loving the open land. These memories came rushing as soon as we were pulling into my grandma's drive.

I was so glad for Jeremy and Finn to see a place I had so many good times too. We all enjoyed being in the country and made a day of memories ourselves.

[So much room to roam and run.]

[Finn's favorite thing right now is trucks. So you can imagine his wonder when he saw all these. Let's just say there were a ton of "trucks!" "honk hoooonk's!""wow's!" & "whoa's!"]

 [If Finn was in heaven seeing all these trucks, Jeremy was equally in heaven seeing his favorite trucks, the International Scout, that my uncle has. I believe I heard a few, "whoooa's!" out of him too. In fact, this is the first time he's asked me to take his picture. I know one day he'd like to restore one like the beautiful one my uncle did.]

[Here's a 1957 Chevy truck my Uncle Charles restored. It has all original parts and so it took 15 years to complete. How cool is this?]

[We couldn't pass up seeing the chickens and horses.]

[So if you're stuck it out til here, you can see we made our rounds on our short visit. We got to see our family's farm fields, lots of trucks, animals and family. It was a great visit & want to make it back soon!]

Unfiltered

We went to Raleigh on Sunday to celebrate the life of Jeremy's Grandpa Bert who passed away Thursday at the age of 91. He lived with Jeremy's parents for the last 5 years, so we got to see him every time we went to Florence. He wasn't famous here on earth but I believe he was ushered into heaven with a roaring applause by the cloud of witnesses who cheered him on to live and finish well.

I have a theory that when our social filters fade, our true self is seen.

Grandpa Bert became a Christian much later in life and there's a story that Jeremy always loves to tell. When he was in World War II he had to have surgery in order to remove the shrapnel. As he was awaking from surgery, he needed to be restrained, for he was loudly yelling obscenities. Later in life, after becoming a believer, he had to have surgery once again. When he was awaking, he needed to be restrained, for he was loudly singing hymns. Praising God was a natural response for him.

Grandpa Bert later suffered from Alzheimer's and became much worse towards the end of his life. When we saw him at Christmas I was surprised at his digression. He was thin & frail, slowly shuffled from one place to another, extra hard of hearing and completely dependent on others for the basics of life. But what always amazed me is that Grandpa Bert's filters were steadily being removed and out of his unfiltered life proved a man who truly was sweet, generous, kind, thankful and Gospel-centered.

Jeremy was there when Grandpa Bert was being brought back home from the hospital for the last time. As he was laying in a fetal position and unaware of his surroundings, the nurses moved him a little and apologized as it caused him pain. This was the only time Jeremy saw Grandpa Bert respond to anything. His was response was a weak whisper, "praise Jesus."

The last word on his lips was Jesus. May that be said of me. Even if I lose my ability to think and function, may Jesus be so alive in me that He's given full reign to shine through. Just like Grandpa Bert, whose unfiltered, unhindered life is this example for us.

Because he had a well-lived life and we know he is totally restored, we enjoyed the time we had getting together with family. We stayed in Raleigh with friends of the family and ate, laughed and relaxed. Here are a few shots from our time.

Goofball

Things Said

My husband can say some funny things when he's asleep.

Take last night. Since he has to be at work at 4am, he goes to sleep way before I do. So as I was walking into the room to go to bed, this was our conversation.
J: What's up?
Me: Nothing. Just getting into bed.
J: Who is it?
Me: It's me. Your wife.
J: Oh.

This reminded me of another funny question he asked when I was 8 months pregnant. In the middle of the night (probably after I had gotten back in bed from using the bathroom for the 10th time), he rolled over, touched my huge belly and then it went something like this, 
J: when did you get that?
Me: Huh?!?
J: What is it?
Me: It's your baby in there.
J: Oh. Congratulations.

Ah, always entertaining.

Easter Fun

I'm a little late on this, but we had a great Easter! Celebrating Jesus' resurrected life, along with having Jeremy off from work, awesome fellowship with friends, tasty food and great weather made for a really nice day. Here are a few snapshots from it.

I must say my men were looking quite sharp.

 

Run like the wind, Finn!

This is the fourth year that we've gone to our friends', Kevin and Shannon, mom's house on the lake in Eutawville. It's become a tradition and is always a blast. We feel like part of a big family when we go, which is really nice.

Here's Finn waiting on lunch.

Last year's Easter at the lake was Finn's first time in the water and he loooooved it. (That made his daddy happy and relieved!) Here are a couple pics as reminders for what is next.

This year Jeremy was going to take him on his first kayak ride. Finn had already been wading and splashing around on the boat ramp, so he was very eager to get in the water. A little too eager. That boy would not sit still in the kayak. He kept trying to climb out so that he could just swim. It was hilarious! Jeremy's idea of having a sweet, relaxing kayak trip with Finn quickly turned into a hold-on-to-Finn's-dear-life-and-turn-around-asap trip. Oh well, it was a memory. 

Finally in the water!

When I saw Finn like this, he just seemed so old to me. I could so easily imagine him years down the line doing the same thing.

Juice before we packed up and headed home.

 And one last unintended picture from last year and this year.