Battling the Breakers

“You work too hard.”  My brother stood at the kitchen counter, flipping chicken breasts on the grill pan. I could feel Bubba’s eyes on my back as I sat working at my computer on my kitchen table/home office.  I shrugged and continued working on camp rooming assignments.  “It’s gotta be done.” I heard the heavy [...]

On the Fly

I wish I could say that this is one of those blog posts that I prayed and slaved and meditated over for you.  Sorry folks.  Forgive me for writing yet another post “on the fly.”  I just got home after about 15 and a half hours at Falcon Youth Camp.  And I just have to [...]

A little hard work is good for ya!

img027

If there was one thing that my Granddaddy really believed in, it was hard work.  If you don’t believe me, just ask my Dad.  My Dad spent his entire honeymoon (in mid-August 1972) helping his new father-in-law dig the footings for the little one-bedroom/one-bathroom house that my Grandparents lived in down at the coast.  When [...]

Moving Day

topher1

I almost didn’t write this.  A couple of days ago was the twenty-second anniversary of one of the worst days in the life of our family.  As the years have gone by, we’ve stopped discussing it.  The anniversary comes and goes, seemingly unnoticed.  But tonight, as I talked to my brother, we both admitted that even [...]

Bad Hair Days

rain

Falcon Youth Camp, Day 5… “Dear Mom and Dad, It is raining. The good news is that now Pastor Jon won’t have to make me take a shower. On the downside, Nurse Missy won’t let us play any more human foosball or atomic dodgeball ’cause she’s running out of ibuprofen, ace bandages, and instant cold [...]

Lifelines

Today, at Falcon Youth Camp, I had lunch with two camp counselors (both youth leaders) and my camp nurse (the wife of a youth leader).  My task this weekend has been to complete the rooming assignments for my second and largest camp—Middle School—which begins tomorrow night at 6.  During lunch, I took about 45 minutes [...]

From Mountaintop to Mule to Mountaintop Again

Let me start by apologizing.  Tonight’s blog will probably be the least coherent that I’ve ever written.  I’ll go ahead and warn you that I worked a fifteen hour day today and in less than seven hours, I have to be back at work for another day that is probably just as long.  Because of this, [...]

Being a Quitter

I would like to preface this by saying that this is a true story.  I’ve told this story before and usually, people don’t believe me.  But really y’all, it’s true… I have another horrible little confession to make. I used to smoke. C’mon y’all.  Cut me a little slack.  I grew up in NC– a [...]

The Sand Dollars

img026

When I was a little bitty girl, I began a personal quest: to find an unbroken sand dollar.  Anybody can go buy one from one of those tourist-trappy little stores.  But I was determined to examine every shell on the coast of NC until I found one myself. When I told my mother of my [...]

The Crossroads and the Occasional Steamroller…

Have you ever noticed how some of the biggest changes in your life just seem to happen over night?    12 days ago, I was sitting in my easy chair, inventorying mission team pharmaceuticals, when my cell phone rang.  It was my Dad, calling to tell me that my Uncle Jimmy had gone into the [...]