"Falling for Fall"

First, let me apologize for the lack of posting in the past few weeks. I looked at my blog today and was shocked to see that it has been almost a month since I last put something up here. My primary excuse is that I was not prepared for how much time 40 hours a week is. By the time I get home and we eat dinner, it's almost time to start thinking about getting ready for bed. On a normal night. Which we don't seem to have much. ;) Our weeks filled up pretty quickly, with softball on Monday, my Ladies' Bible study every other Tuesday (with dates in between), having the youth over Wednesday and Brian's evening class on Thursday (which does give me time to hang out with Hannah). By the time we get to Friday, I'm tired! I've already been working over two months, but I feel like I'm still trying to adjust to this new schedule. So apology aside, on to the reason for this post...

Fall. (or Autumn, whichever you prefer) I've decided that Fall is my favorite season. Mostly because it's the season I miss the most. Seasons in our corner of Texas are divided into two categories: summer and not-summer. I do ok with the heat until this time of year. In September, I know not to expect cool temperatures, and I think I've adjusted to that. But by October? I want cool mornings. And cool afternoon breezes.

Maybe what I miss even more than the temperature change is the color change of the trees on the mountains. Bristol is nestled in the foothills of the Appalachians. Fall is absolutely gorgeous becuase we're surrounded by mountains full of red, yellow, orange trees. I realized in going through our pictures on the computer, I have no pictures of our area in the fall. But I have to share some photos, so I browsed the net. I found lots of pics that were almost too vivid for anyone to believe if you've never seen it in person, so I went with a couple photos that were a bit more subdued. The photo with the bridge is the bridge we drive over on the way to PA to visit my Dad's parents, so I actually know where that is, and I've been there. I'm not sure where the other photo is. But they're both beautiful, and give a pretty good idea of what I think of when I think of Fall.

(Ok, I just couldn't resist one more with brighter colors)

Go! Daddy, Go!

Two kind of stories I remember growing up with: helicopter stories from my Dad's year in Vietnam, and racing stories from his days on the road racing circuit. My Dad was already involved in racing when he and my Mom met. He said he'd quit once they had kids, but I was definitely old enough to cheer at his races before he quit. (hence the blog title) He gave it up sometime after my sister was born, but he always wanted to get back into it. All my life, as a companion to the racing stories, was the refrain of how much he wanted to race again.

Twenty-five years after his last race, Dad's dream is coming true. He and a friend Steve Layfield have gone in together to start a team. They've bought a car (a spec Miata) and a trailer to haul it in, and are currently shopping for driving uniforms. I am in charge of designing a team logo, as well as team t-shirts. (hope that means I get mine free!) We're all brain-storming to try and come up with a name for this team. Dad & I first came up with "Geezers-A-Go-Go", but Steve didn't like it. Guess he's not old enough to be considered a geezer. ;)

I'm so excited for my Dad, to see this long-term dream come true. I'm looking forward to cheering for him again in future races. This time, I'll be old enough to actually know what's going on!

For those of you who are wondering what a "spec Miata" is...

Hopefully soon I'll be able to get and post some pics from Dad's previous racing career. In my opinion, (no slight to Mazda) I like his old Sprite better. They really knew how to make good looking cars back then.

WAR EAGLE!!

This past weekend Brian and I travelled out to Alabama to visit family and go to an Auburn game. I haven't been at an Auburn game in about four years, so I was really excited to be at a game. It brought back all kinds of memories of being in school, marching in pre-game, and trying to get back to our trailer after the game.

Saturday morning we all (Mom, Dad, Carrie, Grandmom, Brian and I- quite a group) piled into the Tahoe for the drive down to Auburn. Carrie & I entertained / annoyed everyone else with music from the marching band cd for the first 30 minutes of the trip. We just needed to set the mood! :) We met my friend and mentor (and former CAD teacher) Cindy for lunch, at a great local sandwich place called Momma Goldberg's. Cindy and I still talk about once a month. She encourages me and laughs at my crazy stories of life in the Architecture world.

After lunch, we walked around campus a bit. Things have certainly changed in the four years since I graduated. I was amazed at how pretty the campus looked. I regret now that I don't have pictures, but it didn't occur to me at the time. We braved the crazy, packed bookstores for t-shirts, decals and other game-day paraphenalia, and then finally, it was game time!!

I was very excited to be at a game. I lost count of the times I leaned over and told my Dad just that. ;) It was great to see the band's pre-game show and just soak in the atmosphere. But then the evening went rapidly down-hill. Any of you who watched the game on tv know that this game was not the best performance by an Auburn football team. Finally during the last half of the fourth quarter, the Auburn players came alive and pulled out a win. Then it was lots of fun - jumping up and down, yelling and cheering. There's just nothing quite like being there.

Winning the game meant that I got to introduce Brian to another Auburn tradition: rolling Toomer's Corner. Toomer's Corner is so named because of Toomer's Drugstore that has sat at the intersection of two main roads in downtown Auburn. After an Auburn win, fans go up to Toomer's and "roll" (yes, with rolls of toilet paper) the trees on the corner opposite the drugstore. As you can imagine, it makes quite a mess, but it's tradition! I have no idea how this one got started, but I'm sure someone in my family does. (If you're reading and you know, please feel free to comment) The effect is really neat - kind of like weird snow.

Anyway, it was a great weekend. Even though we didn't get back to Birmingham until 2:30 in the morning. We all definitely took naps Sunday afternoon after church. We got to visit the rest of the weekend with my family, which was really great. Living out here in Texas, I don't get to spend enough time with them.

"Planned Obsolecence"

I picked up a book today that we got as a wedding present. It is "The Mystery of Marriage: Meditations on the Miracle" by Mike Mason. (wow, that's a lot of "m's") Anyway, I think it's a great book, in that it captures the essence of the wonder I feel about marriage. The chapter I came to tonight is on Submission, and one part caught my attention especially. Here are bits and pieces that really struck me as I read:

From one point of view, the whole of life may be seen as a taking away, as one long and painful series of subtractions. We are forever being called upon to pull up stakes, to release our hold upon the things and places and people we have loved and even upon each precious second as it slips through our aging fingers. Our very bodies are like tents, says Paul (2 Cor 5:1), the most temporary of houses, and our whole existence under the sun bears the marks of exile and nomadism...
There is no escaping this fate, no circumventing our planned obsolecence in this world. There is no discipline that will appease it, no faith that will reverse it...Tragically, so large and real looms this specter of unrelenting decay that for many people it is the only side of life they ever see. How many go down to death in bitterness, resentment, and rage!...By waging so pitiful a struggle not to become obsolete, when in reality the whole natural flow of physical life is toward obsolesence, what people really do is to declare a preference for temporal values over eternal ones. What they do, in fact, is to reject the Kingdom of God and its gift of eternal life.
As it turns out, the only way not to reject eternal values is to submit willingly to the erosion of temporal ones.

I think the first reason this passage caught my attention was that it reminded me of Knox, in the author's mention of a "painful series of subtractions." And I thought about how precious our time with our loved ones is, that we can never get it back once it's gone.

But then as the author went on to talk about how people run from the inevitable, I was reminded of how our society fears and tries to avoid death and even the hint of aging. When people have no hope in an eternal life after this temporal one, I guess it makes sense to pursue immortality. But the conclusion drawn from this is chilling. In running after the pleasures of this life in an attempt to prolong it, they are really rejecting the only One who can give them what they truly desire - eternal life.

God, teach me to give up the things I cannot keep, in order to store up treasures that I cannot lose. Give me grace to hold loosely to the things of this earth, to fix my eyes on You and on eternity.

I've been Tagged!

If you read Hannah Ayers' blog, you know that a few days ago she "Tagged" me. So, after a little delay (just to heighten the anticipation) I'm responding to my tagging. Here goes...

4 jobs I have had:
I have definitely seen God working in my life in this area in the past three years. (1) My first job here in Texas was as a Research Assistant to one of the profs in the Architecture Department. I won't go into details. But I spent a lot of time in the Arcchitecture library picking out slides for his lectures. I got along well with the "boss" of the Slide Collection, so he hired me to work in the Slide Collection starting the summer before my second year of school. (Job 2) At the end of my second year of school, a prof I really liked asked if I would like to be his TA, and I accepted, quitting my job at the SC. However, over the summer, this projf left for another university, leaving me job-less. (3) I was assigned to be a TA for one of the structures profs, and I worked for her for a semester. This prof spoke very highly of me to her husband, who works for BRW, and here I am at Job #4!

4 Films I could watch over and over:
Sabrina (with Julia Ormond and Harrison Ford - too funny!), The Princess Bride, You've Got Mail, Maverick

4 Places I have lived:
Birmingham, AL; Atlanta, GA; Bristol, TN; Auburn, AL

4 Favorite TV shows:
Frasier, Everybody Loves Raymond, The Cosby Show, Jeopardy (which I never get to watch anymore b/c I'm at work :( )

4 Favorite Foods:
Chocolate, lasagna, Chili, Pizza

4 Websites I visit everyday (or almost):
Gmail, Work email (not very entertaining), Hannah's blog, Rachel's Knox memories

4 Places I would love to be:
Cuddled up with Brian :), Belize (it's warm and right now our office is very cold), hanging out with our usual lunch crowd, my G'mom's 95th b'day party (which would involve going back in time, 'cause it was last weekend)

4 Favorite colors:
Deep, dusky purples; navy blue, 1/4 Korean (yes, I'm still crazy in love), sunset orange

4 Names I love but would / could not use for my children:
Benjamin (think about it...); I really like the name Cai (rhymes with eye) for a boy, but Brian doesn't want to use a name if its pronunciation isn't obvious from the spelling; I don't know if I have anymore...we haven't had the honor of naming any children yet, so I can't say what we'll end up not using

Ok, I think that's it for me. Now it's my turn to tag ... Anna Kate, Juli, Theresa, Lindsey Newcomer. And just to keep it going, you need to do this...because as Jack A. would say, "I asked you nicely."

Search for Hidden Treasure

As I read my Bible tonight, I came across verses in Proverbs that jumped out at me as if it was the first time I had ever seen them. I'm sure I've read them at least a half-dozen times before, but tonight I was really convicted. From the second chapter:

1 My son, if you accept my words
and store up my commands within you,
2 turning your ear to wisdom
and applying your heart to understanding,

3 and if you call out for insight
and cry aloud for understanding,

4 and if you look for it as for silver
and search for it as for hidden treasure,

5 then you will understand the fear of the LORD
and find the knowledge of God.

According to this passage, our time spent in the word is to be active. We are to be seeking out God's truths and His promises, diving deep into the Word. Too often I read passively, skimming over the words instead of searching through the Scriptures, calling out to God for wisdom, seeking to apply His word to my life. I prayed tonight that I would have a greater desire to seek Him in His Word, and that I would be more diligent to apply His Word to my life. Even as I prayed, I was certain of His answer. Verse 6 says: "For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding." Truly our God is an amazing God.

Dear, Dear Friends

This posting is dedicated to Austin Ayers. I realized today that in all my posting about Peru and school projects that I have left out a huge piece of our life. Our Westminster family: the Ayers, Colemans, Lees, and (now it's official) Butchers in particular.





A full explanation of what these dear friends mean to me would take up way too much space, and Blogger would probably cut off my account. ;) I'll have to be content with saying that these families are family to us now and we love them dearly. The kids especially are a weekly source of joy.

I said in the beginning that this posting is dedicated to Austin Ayers. Austin is the oldest Ayers kiddo and the most faithful (and frequent) blog-checker we have. He was very quick to agree this afternoon when I said I'd only posted once since we got back from Peru. And because it's way more fun to read blog postings with pictures, here are pics of these dear friends...

Ayden (Ayers #4) just taking a break after a long day of creating.






How to explain Micah? (Coleman #3) Micah is easily the most energetic of all the Ayers and Colemans.

Anna Kate, Addison (Ayers #3 &4 respectively) Joshua and Christopher (Coleman #1 & 2) hanging out after VBS last summer.




Big boy Asa, the youngest Ayers.











Me and Hannah (Mom Ayers)








Marian and her youngest Cara Beth.


The Lees: Matt, Ashlee, and Gracie May.








And the youngest family, Josh and Hannah Butcher. We got to celebrate with them at their wedding last weekend.








Whew! I didn't realize it would take me that long to pick pictures. Sorry Wade and Kevin, I'll have to get pics of you up here sometime later!