retro blog - sophie's out!

okay. i have had nothing exciting happen to me lately except the wedding and honeymoon, and i've talked about that too much on here. so i'm copying my friend derek in dragging out the retro blog from an old blog i found of mine. this was posted on 9/9/2005.


A few months ago, my parents’ Scottie dog got out of her pen. It was such a heartbreaking mistake! They had people at the house raking leaves, and they had told my parents that they were going to be working in the dog pen for a couple of hours. My mom went to the store, and after they were done, my dad looked out and saw that the gate was closed and let Sophie out. A few hours later, dad noticed that she was gone and that the back gate, out of view of the house, was open!! He called mom, and later mom said that she was more worried about dad than she was about Sophie!

Mom and dad have had Scotties their whole life together. The last one they had lived to be fifteen years old. They had just gotten Sophie a couple of years before this happened, and mom was still in the “she’s new and I’m still obsessed with her” phase. The worst thing about it was that she didn’t have on her collar. Her neck was rubbing raw from one of her collars, and we had been giving her a break from them lately. But the real kicker was that we thought she might be pregnant. Yeah, really not good that she was out.

I called home from work about something trivial and mom was in a panic state. The moment I got home, I asked if they had called anyone or hung up any posters. Nope. The only thing they had done was drive around looking for her from the car.

Our community phone book has a section in the back where the numbers are sorted by street. So I got on the phone and started calling everyone in the neighborhood, leaving messages, talking to children and parents, all of whom were concerned and sorry they couldn’t help me. I went to the store and got some neon colored poster board, cut it into smaller squares and made lots of signs.

Dad was a whole lot less crazy about her than mom and complained about her pretty much constantly. It had sort of turned into a joke that dad was going to get rid of her somehow, but he never intended to do anything like that. He’s all talk. But the fact that dad was the one who let her out when she escaped did not make matters better for him. I saw dad sitting on the couch looking helpless and overwhelmed. Taking a break from the phone and signs, I sat down beside him and asked him if he was okay. Tears came to his eyes and he whispered, “I never wanted anything like this to happen…” and I collapsed into his lap. He was afraid we were going to blame him for doing it on purpose! I assured him that we certainly didn’t blame him for anything, and that we were definitely going to find her.

By this time it was around 6 or 7 in the evening. It was just beginning to edge closer to dusk, and we were all getting more and more worried. The phone rang several times with different people saying they thought they had seen her at the golf course earlier in the day. One lady said that she spent a few hours with her and her children playing on the golf course. The golf course?! That’s like two miles away!!! We would have never dreamed of looking over there! A few people called saying they had seen the posters, and were just wondering if we had found her. Wow. Amazing community.

Since we had some leads that she was in a different area where we had originally thought, I made some more posters to hang in that area. I got in my car to go hang them up, and Forrest and mom got in his truck to go in that area to call for her. Dad stayed home in case anyone called or she happened to show up.

As I was driving around hanging up the posters on stop signs and telephone poles, it had grown very dark. And I didn’t even think to call for her as I was hanging them up. Who knows why?! I had a few places in mind where I wanted to hang the signs, but as I was on my way to the final stop, I slammed on the breaks, thankful no one was behind me. There was a perfect spot to hang one! It was a 100-yard strip of a parking area in front of a few apartments on the main road with a telephone pole in the middle of it. I parked my car in the very last spot, picked up a sign and the staple gun and walked toward pole. A few steps later I heard a strange noise, like someone running toward me or sweeping their porch vigorously. I was nervous that someone was outside and going to approach me – I’m not too confident by myself in the dark, even on Signal Mountain. But I sucked it up and looked over toward the noise. I saw this little shadow in the distance, and it didn’t take me much time at all to realize that it was Sophie, running faster than I’ve ever seen her run, directly at me.

In the split second that I dropped the poster and staple gun and realized it was her, the biggest fear entered my mind that she would want to play “keep away” like she always does when we’re trying to catch her. She dashed those fears when she practically leapt into my arms, panting and dirty. I started crying immediately saying, “Oh! Sophie!! Sophie!!!!” and realized I was pretty much screaming, laughing and crying hysterically. (Goodness, I’m crying now just remembering it!!!) Shaking from excitement and relief, I put her in my car and went back to get the poster and staple gun.

I called mom and couldn’t say anything except, “I’ve got her! I’ve got her!!” which, after the first couple of words out of my hysterical mouth, realized I should add, “She’s okay! She’s okay!” Mom freaked out and practically hung up on me saying she would see me at home. Sophie was sitting in my passenger seat, and all the way home I had my arm around her, petting her and telling her that everything was going to be okay, as if she was scared or nervous. (She probably had no clue she was even lost - what a fun day she must have had!) I was still crying, trying to blink away the tears to see to drive!

Dad told me later that when he saw our cars pull in the driveway at the same time he knew we had found her. I felt like a proud new mother carrying Sophie in the house for dad to see. He almost fell out of his chair when she saw that we had her. He cried pretty hard too.

All day long at work when I knew that she was out, I couldn’t stop praying, “Lord, I know it seems silly to pray for a dog, but please let us find her! Oh let us find her!!!” I do not doubt for one moment that it was the Lord that put the idea in my head at the last second to hang that poster where I wasn’t planning on it. At exactly the right moment I pulled my car into exactly the right spot. If I had even parked in the first spot of the parking strip instead of the last, she might not have seen me! The Lord gives and takes away! All praise to Him!

PS - Turns out Sophie WAS pregnant and had six wonderful puppies just a few short weeks later!!!

more stacey's shots

the garter bites the dust!!! look how bad forrest wants it!!! (click on the picture to make it bigger and look at his face!!)
and he got it!!! :)
forrest with stacey.
forrest and laura - my other sister.
jennifer glass and laura ruth!!!
this one makes me cry every time...
yes!

stacey's shots!

FINALLY! my sister stacey took a TON of pictures and gave us a cd with all of them on there. i meant to bring it to work immediately, but then we lost it somewhere in the house. we found it yesterday!! here's some good shots that she took.
wedding party coming in.
here's our program cover!
WOOO BABY!!!
carrie and lyndsay have a tender moment...aww...
NO IDEA what we're saying to each other. i PROMISE we weren't mad!!!! it makes me laugh though...or maybe it was something like, "what do you MEAN they disassembled the chocolate fountain????" and chris tries to console me, "now lyndsay, i know you said you were going to stick your face under the flow, but we all decided it was for your best, and the dress's, that we took it away. now just chill out!!" (*just for the record, we did NOT have a chocolate fountain*)
haha! he's afraid he'll hurt it...or something...
look how BEAUTIFUL mccallie made our cake tables!!!! i was seriously blown away. i tell you what...i've worked here for a year and a half and they never cease to amaze me. their every-day food is AMAZING (not just "amazing-for-cafeteria-food" - truly DELICIOUS) and when they do something "nice" - like our annual visitors day when people come in from around the country - it's just smashing. better than anything anywhere else in town. melissa and amy!!! you're the BEST!!!! :) :) :)

more CVP

check out CVP, the best, most wonderful summer camp ever! it's the reason i am where i am spiritually, pretty much.

anyway, the 2 following posts are about forrest, my fabulous brother. all the pictures were taken from the cvp website, and in searching for pictures of that handsome devil, i found these.

the hishmehs - the old camp director that was there 4 out of 5 summers when i worked - now live in kansas, but they came up this summer for family camp. james and jack are in the middle - the ones that look exactly alike - and are SO OLD NOW!!! i haven't seen them since they were like 5 and 6!! it's amazing. the other 2 boys are the 2 sons of the current director, bo towns - tanner and reid. all 4 boys are really close in age and have a great time together whenever the hishmehs come in town!

jency franklin, as a lot of you know, was my beloved maid of honor, is the giver of great gifts (as well as her mother!!) and is a dear friend of mine. she has a little sister named sarah that ADORES camp. and there she is!!! proof that she was there and swam BEFORE she got stitches in her knee!!! (she's on the far left in the blue flowery bathing suit with pigtails - early in the camping week she fell and got a really nasty cut just below her knee and had to have 5 or 6 stitches. she insisted on going back up to camp immediately afterward! her parents made her spend the night at home, though, since it was, like, midnight!) she and i have a close relationship b/c we both adore animals. she's 10 years old and says she's going to be a veterinarian. when they catch mice in their barn, she makes her dad set them free in their fields rather than disposing of them otherwise. she is the main reason for them owning 2 rabbits, 2 fish, and now a bird (along with 3 horses and 2 dogs) just the other day they drove to huntsville, al, to "just go looking" at a bird show and they came home with a ringneck *insert fancy word* parrot. she named him bob. he could live 40 years. i MUST meet bob SOON!!! but i digress...

more FWalk

alright!!
like i said in the below post, he's a baseball coach, and this is his uniform. they apparently played baseball one day at camp and he was the pitcher. he's great!! (he pitches (and does evreything else in life) right handed but bats (and golfs) left handed...go figure!) camp loves him because he's always really into whatever they do. you meet him, and he's pretty reserved. when he gets to camp, he's crazy!! he has a crazy sense of humor and isn't afraid to do anything to make the kids have a great time.

speaking of being crazy...woo!!! they have a costume closet and whenever anyone has a birthday, the staff comes out during a meal singing "the birthday rap" (you can see the girl to forrest's right holding up the songboard) and they're always dressed cRaZiLy...you can TELL by the look on his face that he's in a mischievous mood...like he's about to break out into some mean german guard "shpeal" or something...go forrest go!!! :)

and he's just awesome. he's SO good on these low ropes courses because he's such a great encourager. he loves to help people experience things that he loves. i adore him. i hope you do as well!!!

FWalk

okay, i'm tired of looking at the protest post, and my protest was incorrectly aimed at the frantz children since it's mostly my place of employment that blocked the video. anyway...
i'm doing a special entry on my brother, raymond forrest walker, the second. he's 29 years old, graduated from samford university with a degree in math and has taught high school math for 7 years now. 3 of those years have been here in chattanooga where he also coaches baseball. everyone call him forrest, and some people call him f-walk. he's worked at camp vesper point for something like 28 years...okay not really. this is his 11th summer, so he's become a sort of legend up there. kids that were in my cabin when i was a counselor are now working there and say it's weird working with him when he worked when he was a camper. people that i don't even know will somehow discover in a conversation that he's my brother and just freak out b/c they know and love him so much
anyway, i was looking at cvp's website today and found these pictures of him and thought i would sort of tribute his time there. i used to work up there (summers of 97-2001) and he is just amazing in the presence of these kids. it's like his switch it turned all the way to "on" and he shines like he doesn't anywhere else. the best part is when he does the talk for the night. my goodness! the Holy Spirit just flows that that man's life like no one i've ever heard! everyone always tells him that he should go to seminary. i don't think it's such a bad idea.
the first one is him with a cute kid on the dock, obviously. the second one is him playing with some boys on the mini-playground type thing down at the waterfront that's in the shape of an ark. (the playground is, not the waterfront...)
here he is giving waterfront instructions to the entire camp. he's standing on top of the blob tower to make himself seem more powerful, even though he doesn't need to since every camper that attends cvp knows who forrest walker is! okay just kidding. he's going to be the director one day...

blogger isn't letting post anymore pictures in this entry...and it's not letting me post anymore pictures at all...not even in a new post. boooo on blogger!!!!

PROTEST!!

i'm here to announce my official protest, and officially BOOOOO all of the frantz children. well, maybe i'll only give josh a frown as opposed to a boo. and maybe i'll let jodie off the hook since she just birthed a baby. so maybe that means i'm only here to BOOOO jill!!!!!

let me explain. jodie has been pregnant for about 9 months now, and we here in blog land have all been anxiously awaiting the birth of beautiful felicity. well, thanks to josh's blog, we now know that the baby is here!!! but the video that he posted isn't working. so *frown* to you.

and no one would expect jodie to post pictures of her newly birthed child. obviously.

and you know, really, jill is probably so super, super busy being felicity's aunt and jodie's big sister that she doesn't have time to post the hundreds of pictures that i'm sure she took and that i'm dying to see. so i'll retract my boo and make it a "COME ON PEOPLE!!!!!"

*sigh*

day 7

***oops..i forgot to say that the beach pictures are from st. petersburg/st. pete beach***

notice the mickey sausage...and our drinks have mickey-shaped ice cubes in them...HAH! :)

"it's HUGE!"

watching "finding nemo" - it was cloudy, so don't be upset about us watching a movie while we were at the beach! we needed some lazy time!!!

we did make it to the ocean though. chris likes to beat the waves up...he kept smashing into them...i've got some good videos of it!

and this is our sad attempt at building a sand castle. we just weren't feeling the inspiration...

we had been waiting all week to get in the hot tub and were so excited about it! when we finally did, it smelled bad and wasn't hot AT ALL. it felt like a bath that i had been sitting way too long. GROSS!!!

day 5 & day 6

making breakfast in our little kitchen!

this is the "colin slaten special" - salami & provelone omelette...MMMMM!!!!!

look how HOT he is!!!! ;)

mmm...nap time...:)

day 5 - the beach!

we got there earlier than this and even played on the beach in the sun, but i'm not too keen on showing myself in a 2-piece to the entire world...no offense, people.

feet! i love taking pictures of feet!

here's christopher looking all handsome and stuff. mmm!!!

and here's me, being all supermodelish, blurry as it is. oh yeah!!!!

and here we are together. chris doesn't like this picture b/c his hair is wack. but i like it!!

there were these giant rocks going out into the water that looked awesome b/c of the sunset!! we got a bunch of silhouette pictures...

day 4 cont'd - port orleans & downtown disney

port orleans riverside!!

chris finishing his postcard to his parents in the riverside lobby.

blurry shot of our daily walk back to our room...or maybe this is when we're on the boat. either way, the only shots we got of the walk back to our room were videos, and this is the closest to what we walked by every day! beautiful!!

sunset at downtown disney.

legos, people. LEGOS. i stand amazed.

look at the nice lego family!!!

this is a shirt i wanted, but it was $25 for a thin, short sleeved tshirt...i just couldn't do it. i was really proud that i walked away! *sigh*