Day 17 - PCB

This is the Diplomat Guest House.  It does not exist anymore.  But it was my home for 10 weeks during the summer of 1999 in Panama City Beach, FL.  It was hands-down the greatest 10 weeks I've ever known on this planet.  I doubt there is anything else I will ever experience that can compare to that summer this side of Heaven.  Truth.  

I was in PCB for the summer on a Summer Project with Campus Crusade for Christ.  I was with 72 other college students from around our great nation and 20 or so folks who were on staff with CCC.  

We were a group of like-minded, like-hearted, and like-spirited people who lived together, worked together, ate together, laughed together, worshiped together, prayed together, and told people about Jesus together.  They are, to this day, some of the dearest people to me on earth.  And thanks to the internet and Facebook, I'm able to keep up with most of them.  :)

There is no way I can sum up how awesome a summer we had.  There are so many stories to share - I could do an entire blog just about those 10 weeks.  Amazing.  Life changing.  Eternal.  

So I decided to share just one story for now - there will likely be others at some point.  :)

I shared a room with 5 other girls.  That's right, 6 girls, 1 bathroom.  1 closet.  It was cozy, to say the least.  :) 

One Sunday morning we were all furiously getting ready in our room and as we opened the door to head to church - this is what we saw!  The hallway outside our room and ALL the girls rooms and the hallways to and from those rooms were all covered in little cups full of water!!!! 

We laughed and laughed.  The guys of the group had outdone themselves with this prank.  Once we got over being impressed by their creativity, we had to figure out how to get out of our rooms! 

It was like the smallest version of a bucket-brigade you've ever seen.  :)  We made a line to our bathroom sink and handed the cups back two at a time.  We cleared a path quick enough and made it to church on time. 

Good guys, those were.  Excellent prank.  There were many more that summer, but this one I actually have a photo of.

Day 16 - Baby Gumba

This is our cat, Gumba, on the day I brought her home.  Neema liked her.  :)

Gumba is actually Vidole Gumba - which is Swahili for 'thumbs.'  Gumba is polydactyl, which means she has 6 toes on the front (instead of 5) and 5 on the back (instead of 4.)  Polydactyl kitties are sometimes known as Hemmingway cats because reportedly, he really liked them.

I have always wanted a black polydactyl.  Not sure why.

At the time I met Gumba, I was living with a gal named Glenda.  I had just bought a house and Glenda had moved with me from our apartment to the house.  I had my dog, Neema and one cat - Sophie.  I had already tried to bring home several other cats but Sophie had made it clear she liked to be the only feline in the house.

Glenda was not a cat person.  At all.  But Sophie is the world's best cat (I kid you not) and she won Glenda over.  :)

One day at work, one of my clients brought in a small little kitten to be put to sleep.  This client is an elementary school teacher and her students heard a kitten crying under one the mobile buildings adjacent to the school.  The school janitor crawled under it to rescue the kitten - and that's when they saw that her right rear leg was badly damaged.  Somehow (we don't think it was malice) a nylon string of sorts had gotten wrapped around her leg and the tissue below it, including the foot, was dead.

The teacher was being merciful.  She was asking me to end this little kitten's suffering quickly and gently.

But I couldn't do it.  :)

I held her in my hand and said "I don't want to kill her.  I can save her!  Can I have her?"

The teacher replied 'sure!'

It was a bit of a trick to get her under anesthesia - she weighed only a pound and we estimate that she was only 4 weeks old.  I amputated her leg at the knee, put a purple bandage over her stump, and watched her completely flip out during her recovery in a fish tank.  (We put little tiny critters in the fish tank after surgery so they can't hurt themselves and to help keep them warm - it has a lid.  Regular cages are too big.)

And then I brought her home.  :)

I was sure that since she was SO small that Sophie would take to her without hostility.  I was wrong.  But Neema loved her right away.  Sweet doggie. 

Glenda, like Sophie, was also not thrilled with her arrival.  I remember Glenda exclaiming 'she can stay, but I will never like her.  The only cat I will EVER like is Sophie.'

That soon changed.  Ha! 

Both Sophie and Glenda warmed up to her and Gumba actually became more of Glenda's cat than mine. In fact, when Glenda moved out she asked me if she could take Gumba with her.  Quite a request for a person who did not like cats.  :) The little stinker has always liked my roommates more than me.  It's true even now - she likes Matt way more than she likes me. 

She is so silly and sneaky.  She has the quirkiest personality.  And she is one of the funnest little cats I have ever known.  I'm so glad we found each other. 

Even if she does like Matt better than me.  :)

Day 15 - Boba Fett in a Tree

I love this picture.  I love the story behind it even more.  :)

After my brevity last night - tonight's blog will have some meat to it.  Enjoy the feast!

So, I have a friend that is currently deployed to Afghanistan.  He's a lawyer, a serious-type, and a lover of Little Debbie snack cakes.  When Matt and I were in TN visiting last summer, we came upon his address and some things he would like in a care package.  Little Debbies were not on the list.

I told my husband that we HAD to send him a care package.  First, he would totally not expect one from us and second, we could send him a massive amount of Little Debbies.  We live right down the road from one of their manufacturing facilities and they have a thrift store.  LD's for cheap!

Ever the over-achiever, I set out to create a super fun care package.

I asked another one of my friends who has done two trips to the Middle East what kinds of things she appreciated in her care packages.  She gave me some great ideas including a 'good' magazine like 'Wired.'  I looked at Target - but they didn't have it.  This led me to Books-A-Million.  After procuring the magazine, I was walking to the front of the store.  There was a bin with big-headed stuffed comic book characters sitting by the aisle.  They were fun.  I picked up Spider Man and thought...... maybe.  Then I found an Incredible Hulk.  Nope.  Then I found a Storm Trooper!!  Yes!  THIS would be great to send to him........

And then I found Boba Fett.

I stood there - for probably a good 4 or 5 minutes debating on how this would be received.  Would he think it absolutely ridiculous?  Was I being too girly-girl to send a grown man soldier in the desert a stuffed big-headed Boba Fett?

I decided to chance it.  I showed it to my husband voicing my concerns and was wholeheartedly supported to send him. 

I was hanging out on the couch and I was struck with a brilliant, albeit silly, idea.  I looked at my hubby and said "so, I'm thinking I want to have some fun with Boba Fett.  Pictures from home were included on the list of things that he would like sent to him.  He lived closed to here for a while - so that should count.  Let's take Boba Fett out and about and take some pictures of him."

I wasn't sure what my hubs reaction would be - but he loved the idea!  So, we set out on a grand adventure that really was one of the funnest afternoons we've ever had.

We took Boba up on the Blue Ridge Parkway, we took him to rock climb and tree climb, and we took him to Cracker Barrel.  My friend loves Cracker Barrel - so it was only fitting.  We took pictures of Boba Fett in the rocking chairs, playing checkers, and sitting by a plate of hash-brown casserole (his favorite.)  We then took his picture by the empty plate of hash-brown casserole.  :)

We put the pictures together in a completely legit scrapbook (and I'm SO sad that I forgot to take pictures of the actual scrapbook!)  and put it in the care package.  My husband and I absolutely laughed our heads off at our captions that we put on the pictures.

My friend wrote me a hand-written thank you note and promised to take us to dinner when he was back in town.  I hope we go to Cracker Barrel.  :)

Da 14 - Sunset Over a Creek

Just another one from the sunset series from December 26, 2009 - no more story here, just a pretty picture.  I'm tired tonight.  :)

Day 13 - Cows in a Row

Sometimes you see something you've never seen before.  This is one of those things for me.

This is a pond near my house - I drive by it at least twice a day.  This particular day was a hot one - I don't remember how hot - but HOT.  I drove by, saw the cows standing like this and went 'wow.'  I ran to the house and got my camera and came back and took some shots.

Here are these cows - standing in a perfectly straight line.  In a pond.

I've been around cows my whole life - I've never seen them line up, shoulder-to-shoulder.  Ever.

This crew consisted of a bull, a few mature cows, and several calves.

You gotta admit - this is weird.

Day 12 - December 26, 2009

I'm not going to make a habit of posting pictures a year after they were taken, but this one seemed fitting. 

This is not retouched in any way - this is straight out of the camera.  A brilliant sunset, to be sure. 

We were driving home after blowing our own Christmas ornaments at Sunspots Studios in Staunton.  It was a jolly good time.  There was a lot of snow on the ground, still - so there were not many people out driving.  We turned onto this road and I exclaimed 'stop!' to Matt (who was driving.)  So, he stopped in the middle of the road so I could get out and run up and down it taking pictures.  There are others, but this one is my favorite.  For now. 

I am a huge fan of sunsets - they almost always allow true worship to rise up in my heart. 

God is so creative.  So powerful.  So worthy. 

Day 11 - Shadows in Snow

Merry Christmas!!!!

This wasn't exactly a year ago - but it was close.  This was December 20, 2009 after we  had received over 28 inches of snow here in the Valley.

It was glisteny and sparkly and beautiful.  

Day 10 - Llama Reindeer

Merry Christmas.... Eve!!!! 

This was taken in Greeneville, TN a few weeks ago while we were home visiting my family and celebrating Christmas a little early.  We went into downtown and walked around where they were having lots of little things going on - including showing "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" on the side of a building.  Greeneville got some serious 'cool factor' points from me.  :) 

There was a family with two llamas walking around with them adorned as reindeer.  Too cute. 

:)

Day 9 - Purple Bloom

It's awfully cold outside. This picture was taken when it was warm. :) It was one of the first I took with my new 50mm lens a couple of years ago.

This is a bloom on a rhododendron that we planted in our back yard. In it's current state, it does not look healthy. I do not know if it will survive the winter - which makes me sad. Anyone know how to save it???

It was so pretty. And purple. I love purple.

And raindrops on flowers makes them a whole lot more fun to take pictures of.

Day 8 - Baby Jonah

This is Baby Jonah.  Check out that hair! 

For the past week I've posted older scanned film pictures.  This week I'm going to go through some newer digital pics.  I'll likely alternate until I get bored.  :)

One of the things I have really enjoyed in the past few years is taking pictures of my friends as they experience parenthood for the first time.  I guess really I'm mostly taking pictures of their children, but they make it into a few pictures from time to time.  Let's face it, the babies are cuter than they are.  :)

Baby Jonah is the long awaited 1st child of my friends Ry and Jeanine.  He is two days old in this picture.  And it's one of my favorites I've ever taken.  :)

Day 7 - The Flannel Family

 

This is my family.  In flannel.  :)  This story is a long one - but a good one.

Matt and I met via eharmony.com in September of 2004.  We both had done online dating in the past and had some experiences that led us both to agree that it was best for us to meet in person right away.

Our first date was at Luray Caverns - which was half-way between where we each lived.  I was in Stuarts Draft, VA - he was in Frederick, MD.  It was a public place (in case he was a psychopath) and had lots to do.  A perfect first-date kind of place.  Matt and I had only had one phone conversation (to set up the date) and had only emailed a couple of times.  We had seen 1-2 pictures of each other.

I wanted to present myself well - but I also wanted to be true to who I am.  I'm also a very practical gal.  We were going into a CAVE.  So, I wore jeans, hiking boots, a tight-ish fitting gray t-shirt and had tied a flannel shirt around my waist.  I knew I would need something warm when going into the cave and I didn't want to wear a jacket.  Practical.   I was also still in that phase of my life where I carried a keychain/wallet combo that I tucked into my back pocket.


We went through the caverns, we had dippin dots on a picnic table, we went through a hedge maze, and we had a great dinner at Skyland on Skyline Drive.  At the end of the date we decided it was worth having a second one.  :)

Matt confessed to me a little later that he was pretty turned off by the flannel.  Something about bad high school memories and Kurt Cobaine.   I relayed this to my family.  'Despite his hatred of flannel, he likes me!'

Matt came to meet my family for the first time in November.  We have started a tradition since I have moved to VA of celebrating Thanksgiving the weekend before Thanksgiving in TN (as I am on-call on Thanksgiving day.)  My family decided to pull a little good-humored prank on Matt.

Matt and I spent our early afternoon at the Echols house.  I was told not to show up to my parents' house until a certain time.  I remember that we actually said our good-bye's and got ready to leave and then.....I remembered that the time had changed and we needed to stay another hour!  I am the worst secret keeper ever - but I managed to not tell Matt what was going on.

When we arrived at my family's house they were all dressed in flannel!  It took Matt a minute to figure it out - but when my mom handed him his very own red flannel shirt to wear, he got it.  :)

I took this picture with me to Bangladesh that next February.  I must have gotten it wet which is why there are splotches on it.  Sad. 

 But it still makes me smile.

Day 6 - The Echols Building

I have some great friends and this is their last name. Echols. It's a cool last name - and not one I've heard or seen anywhere else.

The months following my graduation from vet school found my life in a bit of a messy place. My best friend and I were in the midst of what I call our 'great divorce.' (Which thankfully is over and we are fully reconciled and lovely again.) I had no idea WHEN I was going to find a job much less WHERE I was going to find a job.  All of my belongings were in a cattle trailer, covered in a tarp, parked in my grandparents' barn. I was traveling around to different clinics all along the East Coast and doing phone interviews all over the country.

As I was job hunting, there were several folks who helped to act as my sounding board as I talked about the pros and cons of the various practices I was interviewing with. The Echols family was one of those. I had dinner with them the very night I returned from my trip to VA and my interview with Commonwealth Vet Clinic (where I have worked for the past 8 years.) They spurred me on to take this job, in fact, as they saw how excited I was about every aspect of what it had to offer. They are great friends to me. :)

I had a new apartment, a new job, a new dog.... and I longed for old friends. I was sad and lonely at times. I did my best not to have a pity-party and I routinely went out to explore the area on my days off - and one of those days, I found this!

I was walking around downtown Staunton, VA (just down the road from where I work in Fishersville) and spotted this building. I had my camera with me and snapped a couple of shots.

I was missing them. And somehow, knowing that there was a building in town with their name on it made me feel better. :)

Love to you all, Echols. Thanks for always being there for me.

Day 5 - Alum Cave Bluff

Had a really long calving tonight. I'm pretty tired. But I WILL stick with my blog-a-day! I can't flake out the first week.

This is the Alum Cave Bluffs trail on the way to Mt. LeConte in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. I was hiking with Bob on November 14, 1998.

Why do I remember the actual date?

Because I was hiking in the rain when the 1998 University of TN Volunteers sealed the deal on being a team of destiny. They played top-ranked Arkansas that day. TN had no expectations of winning. And winning they were NOT as they headed into final seconds of the game. All that the Arkansas QB had to do was take a knee. That's it. Game over. But he stumbled, and he fumbled, and my man Travis Henry ran the ball in for TD to win the game. You can read someone else's version here. I enjoyed the hike immensely - there was snow at the top! But it was SO foggy there was no view to be seen.

In 1998 the UT VOLS were the National Champs. It was my first year at UT and I shamefully admit I only went to TWO games. :(

But the hike really was cool.

Day 4 - The Day I Brought Her Home

I'm on a scanned-in pictures kick for now. :)

This is my sweet puppy dog, Neema on the day I brought her home. Look at that sweet face! I remember how soft she was.

Neema (which is a Swahili word meaning 'grace') was a gift to me from my brother and sister-in-law. She was a 'you graduated from vet school and moved to a place where you know no one!' kind of gift. She has been my constant companion for over 8 years.

I moved to VA in July of 2002 - Neema came to live with me in August. From the moment I got her, she went everywhere I did. I remember stopping at the rest station on the drive from East TN to here and taking her in the restroom stall with me. :)

She went with me to work everyday. She went to church with me (staying in the car, of course), she went to the grocery store, to Wal-Mart, and she went with me on farm calls. She was my company on lonely nights and my main reason for getting outside to play. She needed to play a LOT when she was younger.

Since my husband works from home now, most days she stays with him so he can get her outside and play with her. But there are days she is adamant she is going with me. She gets between me and the door.

She's a great dog and was one of my favorite photography subjects as I was learning. This will not be the last picture you see of her, but it is the first one I ever took of her.

They grow up so fast.

Day 3 - The Blue Ridge

Now, seriously, how gorgeous is this?!?

This is a picture of the Blue Ridge Mountains just before sunrise in October of 2004. This was my morning view after a very long sleepless night during my first overnight backpacking trip.

I slept SO good the next night in my own bed. :)

I took this backpacking trip with three good friends: my aforementioned outdoorsy pal, Bob, my roommate here in VA, Glenda, and my hiking buddy and very good friend, Paul. Oh, and my dog, Neema. :)

I was the only one of the crew who had not backpacked before. Bob and Paul planned the trip and the menu. And they carried most of our supplies, including a tent. We drove south to Buena Vista to tackle the short, but just-strenuous-enough hike to Mount Pleasant. There were two vistas - we admired the west summit with a lot of other folks and then we headed to the east summit. There was no one else there and we set up camp. Paul had carried the tent and set it up - but no one was going to sleep in it! Bob and Glenda were set on sleeping in their bags on the actual summit. Paul wanted to sleep on the ground outside of the tent. Neema and I were not going to let that tent go to waste! We took it! :)

Paul promised to wake me before sunrise. I really believe that I did not fall asleep until like 30 minutes before he woke me up. Hate that!

But the sunrise was spectacular. And I got to see first hand why the Blue Ridge is named so.

This picture was taken with my Canon Rebel 35mm film camera. My first 'real' camera. :)

Day 2 - Hiking Boots

These are hiking boots. That's mine on the left and my good pal, Bob's on the right.

We are sitting atop one of the twin tops that make up Chimney Tops in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. This picture was taken during my third year in veterinary school (I THINK.) We got up really early to hike this trail - and there was a good group of us, including my bestest buds Candi, Samantha, and Chad. It was super foggy - but a good hike none-the-less.

I was always an 'outdoor girl' since I was raised on a farm. But befriending Bob really expanded my horizons in that arena. Bob took me on my first ever hike to this very place when I was 17 years old. And he took me on lots more outdoor adventures that ranged from even longer hikes, learning to roll a kayak, caving, and backpacking. I am quite confident you will see pictures of some of those on this blog at some time or another. I have a whole year to go. :)

But for now, enjoy the boots.

Day 1 - African Sunrise

So, the first picture for the first post of this new blog needed to be a worthwhile one. It needed to have a great story. As I was making my decision, I thought about it for only a few minutes before I knew where I wanted to start. I started by looking up from where I normally sit in my living room and looking at the wall. This picture is front and center as an 8x10 enlargement in a collage of pictures I took on my trip to Africa.

The picture is scanned because it is a "real-life taken with a 35mm FILM camera" picture. I'll likely have several scanned pictures on here as I journal over the next year the pictures that tell my life story. Digital pictures are newish, ya know?

THIS picture, however, encompasses so much. There is so much story behind it. :) Hey, it's my first post, it's a given that it's going to be a long one.

I had dreamed of going to Africa my entire life. I did not have cable or satellite TV growing up so I usually spent Saturday afternoons watching Mutual of Omaha's 'Wild Kingdom' on PBS. Marlin Perkins introduced me to the African plains and wildlife - and I was completely captivated. Most of my young life was spent dreaming of becoming a veterinarian in a zoo just so I could work on African animals.

My time in college and vet school brought about two revelations: 1) I did not want to work in a zoo. 2) I did want to travel and do mission work.

I took my first overseas mission trip in the summer between my first and second year of vet school. I traveled to Ecuador with one of my professors from the vet school and a senior vet student. We spent 8 days high in the Andes mountains of southern Ecuador and it was the worst trip imaginable. (I'm sure there will be pictures and stories from that trip at a later time.)

Through my involvement with the student chapter of Christian Veterinary Missions, my heart was pulled to take another trip. A longer trip. A trip to Africa.

I'll spare all of the details, but let's just say that getting 4 weeks off in the middle of my clinical year of vet school was a miracle in itself. There were many months that it seemed impossible for it to happen. But then I got the go-ahead! And then all of the funding I needed to go came in! And then I got all of my required vaccines JUST in time!

A week or two before I was to leave, one my vet school classmates, Jennifer, asked me what kind of camera I was going to take with me. I told her that I just had a little point-and-shoot Vivitar. She bluntly told me that would NOT do and then stated matter-of-factly that I was going to take her camera. (Her camera was a very nice Cannon SLR with several high-dollar lenses including a 300 zoom.) I was extremely thankful for her generosity but warned her that valuable cameras were the number one target of thievery in Africa. She told me that she trusted me and I promised her I'd guard it with my life.

But I had NO IDEA how to use it.

I think it was several days to a week before I was leaving that I called and asked my friend, Chris, to show me how to use the thing. He spared me all technical details and boiled it down to what I needed to know. I remember him saying, "when in doubt, just put it on 'P.' Not on full auto (the green box) but 'P."

When you spend 6-8 months planning something like a trip to Africa and the moment comes that you get on the plane to take that trip - everything seems surreal. I kept saying to myself 'it's actually happening. I'm actually GOING!'

20+ hours of traveling later - I arrived. I arrived with only half of my team and without my team leader. (They were stuck in Amsterdam - unable to make our flight to Nairobi due to intense fog in Amsterdam preventing their landing.) I was then handed a slip of paper that read "Due to a complete FAILURE of the baggage sorting system, you will not be receiving your luggage." I laughed. I did not get my luggage for my 8 day trip to Ecuador until day 6. :) It seems to be my travel 'curse.'

I arrived in Nairobi at night. Slept hard. Had the best shower ever. Woke up in that completely brain-fogged 'am I awake or still asleep' kind of mental state. Walked outside. I was in Kenya.

And it was COLD!! No one told me it gets cold in Africa! Ha!

After several days we were all arrived, all of our luggage was arrived, and our bodies were rested, fed and acclimated to the time change. We were ready to head out into the expanse of East Africa.

We went on safari for 4 days. It was unbelievable. The 6 of us students bonded tightly as we experienced possibly one of the greatest spectacles on our Creator's planet.

This picture, this sunrise picture, was taken on our last morning on safari. It was the first morning it was not raining. :) After the sun came up we watched cheetahs stalk a flock of guinea hens.

This day - the day of this sunrise - my heart was broken open and exposed to the greatest noise my ears have ever heard. After we had finished our morning safari drive, we packed up and drove to a small church. It was Sunday. Our team leader, Dr. George Mixon, had lived as a veterinary missionary in Kenya for 6 years prior to our trip. He had been back in the states for a year working on his seminary degree. But this church is the fruit of his labor among the Maasai people in Losho, Kenya. And this day was his homecoming.

The small congregation had been excitedly expecting us. We were welcomed into a small cinder-block wall structure with a concrete floor and thatched roof. We women were instructed to sit on the left side of the room, with the men on the right. We sat on hand-carved wooden benches. And then they sang for us.

My eyes are tearing up even now with the distant memory of that melody. I have no doubt that when we get to Heaven it will be Africans who lead the worship. :)

I was engulfed in a harmony and rhythm that contained more joy and depth of heart than I knew was possible in a church. The leader sang out and the congregation echoed back a flood of worship. I stood in tears. It was the first time I really grasped that Jesus really is the Lord of ALL and really deserving of all of my heart and all worship. A translator was kind enough to give us a summary of what they were singing. One of the songs was about 'Seats in Heaven.'

I believe that those African Believers got it. This earth is not our home. They long for their Heavenly home in a way that I do not. Makes me think of Reepicheep in the Voyage of the Dawn Treader and his deep, long, heartfelt desire to go into Aslan's Land.

:)

One thing is for sure - this picture represents two births in me:

The first is the birth of the joy of photography. I took 14 rolls of film on this trip. I could only afford to have one developed in the 'one hour' department at Wal-Mart. The rest I sent off for the cheaper developing that took a week to get back. But this picture was in that first roll of film I saw. The pictures were stunning. It was not my camera - but I was extremely blessed to have gotten to use it and to capture the experiences I had. And to be able to experience them over and over again is the true joy and magic of the photograph.

The second birth is the understanding of when it says in Revelation that every tongue, every tribe, and every nation will gather at Jesus' feet to praise Him - that it is REAL.

African sunrise and African Sonrise

What a glorious day that was!