Stay Colorful, My Friends!

Yahoo!  Road trip time!  First stop...a Cider Mill near St. Johns :P

Watching them work the cider press was pretty cool....but, 

THESE WERE MARVELOUS....and how can you even describe the taste of fresh hot cider?  YUM!

Waiting for our train for the color tour....had to try the iconic railroad track pictures....I told Brad to lay across the tracks :)

 

I said I would do this pose too, but Brad had to tell me if the train started coming up behind me....he said he would give me a couple seconds to move. :)

This is Brad's, "Most Interesting Man In The World" pose....actually after this I thought it was pretty funny that we were going on this color tour train ride because they really aren't seeing much color change up here yet.  Some years this is peak time for it, but I think because we had a warmer September than normal, it is a little delayed this year.  Anyway, I made up a new "Most Interesting Man" quote....wanna hear it? (If you don't, TOO BAD)...here goes:

I don't take color tours often, but when I do

I AM THE COLOR.

Stay colorful, my friends!

Well, I liked it!

Here's some of the color we saw...

What a privilege it is to have a part in God's harvest!

"He Ain't Just Puttin' On The Ritz"

This morning Vannah altered the words of a familiar song to create her own anthem....

  

...it is wonderful the things kids think of when they are happy!  

Don't worry, she still believes in the proclamation from the original version, but it was great to hear about this act of creativity :)  I am enjoying that she is finding so much joy in performing with the Color Guard this year.

Truly, 

OUR GOD IS AN AWESOME GOD!

Stand The Test

I attended a funeral today for a man who always made me smile.  He was just one of those people who made a person feel really special and he was always delightful to be around. 

It was awesome to hear that so many others felt the same way about him.  He had asked me to sing at his funeral one time when I visited him...and that was such an honor.  He and his wife have been through a lot of trials as they had to, at different points in life, live out the "in sickness" and "for worse" parts of marriage vows.  They both, especially his wife as a role model for me, have been so inspirational.  I think of her endurance many times when I talk to God about my own struggles.

Today, as I was praying for her and the rest of their family and friends who will be grieving his loss intimately, this verse came to my mind.

 

"That You Are Here - That Life Exists And Identity,...

....That the powerful play goes on,

and you may contribute a verse."

 ~Walt Whitman~

Words and ideas really do change the world...

what kind of world are you speaking?

....I really feel like whispering "Carpe Diem" right now...

SEIZE THE DAY!

A Moving Van Outside My Happy Place

I got to meet up with one of my international students over coffee today to see how her first few weeks of school have been.  We chatted about her classes and how much different education in the United States is as compared to Brazil.  She said Brazilians talk all the time and when a teacher asks for an answer, sometimes it is hard to get the students in Brazil to stop talking :)....Here, it is so quiet after a teacher asks a question...that cultural difference has shocked her.  She told me some things about her life and it was so interesting because, for a couple years, she and her family had to seek asylum here in the U.S.  Her dad had been a journalist in Brazil and had received a death threat which prompted their move.  I asked her if she had felt fearful at that time...with the threat and needing to move to the United States for a few years.  She said all she remembers was how excited she was that she might get to go to Disney World....she was 8 years old at the time :)

That made me smile...I mean she was only 8 years old, but still....she decided to look forward to something and, now, that is her most vivid memory from a traumatic time.  I think kids can teach us a lot about looking forward to things.  To them there is always something beautiful on the horizon.

If you saw a moving van outside your happy place would you freak out...or would you be excited about the adventure?  What if, instead of looking for your happy place, you decided to be happy and to do your best to make others lives more enjoyable?

Wow, Didn't September Fly By?!