skiing - who could ask for anything more?!

SKIING!!! we leave to go skiing in 20 days and oh my GOSH i'm excited. this is a picture that a friend of mine sent me to make me drool. it's breckenridge. that's where we're going. well, for part of the time at least. chris has never been skiing before so i'm going to be his teacher! some people may think this is a bad idea, but i do not. neither does chris - of course he doesn't know either way...anyway. once upon a time, my dream job of all dream jobs was to be a ski instructor in colorado. seriously!! jglass - remember that? man oh man. i still wouldn't mind it. i taught jglass how to ski! i remember she went to ski school and then we went up together and i was like "WHAT DID THEY TEACH YOU??!??!" poor thing. looked like a long-legged girl with no ability to stop. no offense, of course. ;) but after one course in The Walker School of Awesome Skiing, she was ripping the slopes apart! and not from "yard sale" busts, either. :) so anyway, i'm super excited and can't wait to put christopher through The Slaten School of Awesome Skiing. (the name has changed, of course...) my goodness, i hope skiing is like riding a bike...i haven't been since 2002. WHOA! it's been that long since the wreck!?!??! i can't believe it.

anyway, today has been slow, so i've been sorta kinda maybe researching the trip a bit and planning out just about how much we're going to be spending. we've saved for it, so we're good. did you know that if you fly frontier airlines that your boarding pass counts as a buy one/get one free lift ticket at copper mountain?!?!? whoever told me that had better not been lying, dangit!!! :) :) :) :) AND i bought a buy one/get one coupon on ebay for $7. so there's some money saving right there. and now that we're renting a car instead of riding the bus, we can get cheap tickets in denver and save more dough!!!

okay i'm sorry. this is a boring entry, but i'm just so stinking excited. the place we're staying is just adorable. and the people speak with english accents and have been nothing but wonderfully helpful!! what more could you want?! bruno, i suppose... :,( i don't think we'll be seeing him this time.

in other news...nope. there is no other news!! oh wait! except that zane and catherine are getting married in denver in september!!! which means i'll finally get to see colorado in the summertime!! sept counts as summer, right?! hmm...

pray

please pray. (<-click that) for the family, for his friends, that God's glory be revealed somehow.

in the assembly for him this morning, the school counselor closed his remarks by telling us the only thing able to make him smile in this whole ordeal is something that david's parents told him last night - that they know where david is. "that he is in the arms of a living, and loving Lord." praise God.

please pray for this student body. it's a unique community here - very tight-knit group of young men with a strong sense of brotherhood. pray that they would know how to express their feelings and support one another through this, especially david's twin brother, reid.

fingerpainting

this is on a girl's hand and her dad did the painting.

restful sunday

happy sunday! we went hiking at signal point together today. it felt so good to actually do something active. and right now chris is playing on the train with nathan again (this time he took lots of snacks, cards and a book! hah!) so i have time to post some pictures. aren't you excited??? i like em. here we are looking cute. isn't he cute?! :) this is my new favorite picture of us.

on the way to "our rock", there's this giant boulder with a pathway through it - kind of like fat-man's squeeze at rock city. here's christopher looking angelic (b/c of the light shining through...) and peeking at me.

a view through the trees on the way down. good stuff! it is a totally clear-blue-sky day, and the sun was shining brightly down on the beautifully sparkling water. i wanted to be riding in a canoe or something down in it!














here's the view looking toward the mountain from "our rock". it's "julia falls" with ice at the bottom! awesome! i hope you can see it alright...it's just of far away. i didn't take a picture of the gorge - just a little video, and i don't know how to post videos, although i think i could if i knew how...hmm...

anyway, we sat there for about a half hour trying to just be still. i mean, our bodies were very still, but our minds were just racing. and then we just wound up talking about how hard it is to be still, which wasn't being still...round and round. oh well. God's doing great things in our lives. He is so good to us.

ain't no sunshine when he's gone

so. chris and nathan did music on the train last night and tonight. it's 11:30. they're still on the train. *sigh* last night they got back to the apartment at 12:48. tonight they're going to get home around 12. the idea is to pull out of the station, go on a four hour train ride, and arrive back at the station at 9. in that time, one of the two passenger cars eats in the dining car while the others sit and enjoy the quality music and some appetizers, and then the eaters go back to their car to enjoy music while the sitters go eat. well, it's the first time the railroad company has ever done this, and the first two nights have no gone very well. last night something went wrong with the ovens and the first car wasn't served until about 8, which left the poor souls on the second car starving. chris said that they played for three solid hours and just stopped b/c people were getting tired of them. he said that people - grown people, keep in mind - were writing on the foggy windows "HELP US!" and shouting jokingly when they would go through towns "they're holding us captive and not feeding us!!" THAT was hilarious! that was the only funny part about it though. the girl that hired them said that they would get to eat. yeah. last night they gave them styrofoam containers of food as they were leaving the car at 12:30. nice. thanks. geez!!!

tonight the dining car was fine and on schedule and everything, but something happened to the train itself. chris called me at 8:30 (SHOULD be when they're almost back) and said that they had just reached the halfway point where the engine switches places and he heard one of the guys mumble something about having to fix the broken water pipe before they could move. about 45 minutes later, he called me again and said they hadn't moved. *sigh*

i mean, it's not like they're in trouble or hurt or suffering. the worst thing that happens is they get bored. but still. they're only getting paid $50 a night, which isn't bad, really. but it's not worth it, i don't think. i'm going to seriously suggest them saying "dude, play a cd sunday and wednesday night. it's just not worth it."

all that to say: it's WEIRD being by myself in the apartment. i mean, jency came over and we made little red, white and pink chocolate hearts for valentines day and stuff. but she left a couple of hours ago and i'm sitting here wondering: what did i DO before we got married?!?!?! "...and the two shall become one..." so true. i stinking miss that man. we were listening to eva cassidy earlier (AWESOME - check her out) and she covers "ain't no sunshine when she's gone" except she sings "when HE'S gone" since she's a she...anyway, the song is stuck in my head, and it's really ringing true to life tonight.

in other news, chris killed the biggest spider i've ever seen in this apartment the other night. he was at a meeting for church and i was here cleaning up and noticed a dark spot in the corner of our bedroom and froze. i couldn't move!!!!!!!!!!!! he was at least two inches across. *shiver* i finally took a breath and ran to get the spider killer. i sprayed him and he just sort of wiggled. i think he was already dying...maybe from a previous spray that didn't quite cover him! poor guy!! anyway, a few minutes later, i saw him again crawling around as if to say "it's not working! finish me off!! please!!!" so i got my shoe, looked at him from about four feet away, and again, i COULD NOT move. my true aracnaphobic self came shining through. it was really weird. i seriously could not move. so, thanks to my perfect-timing husband who pulled in the driveway at that exact moment, "hector" was put out of his misery. i ran outside shoeless and was, not quite screaming, but close "he's huge!! you've got to come kill him!!!" *shiver* eeewww....i'm itching to get out of this creepy apartment....

in still more news, who would have thought that all my poor painful arms needed was prescription strength anti-inflamatories. *shrug* it's really strange to have almost constant pain for over two years and suddenly not have it anymore. it almost surprises me when i pick something up or move a certain way and DON'T have pain. thank you, God, for dr franklin (jency's daddy!).

in more news again, i went to walmart (blech) tonight to get the melting chocolate stuff and ran into none other than jrigsby!! i cannot believe that it's been eight months since i laid eyes on that girl. it was SO GOOD to just stand there and talk. i can't wait to get together with her for real soon, b/c, oh yes, it will happen!! that's right jay are!! we WILL get together!! :)

stomach bug

quick! look out! wash your hands! it's on the loose! it's the stomach bug! it infected christopher saturday night and he saw the "results" sunday morning at 11am and they continued until that afternoon. it then infected me and i saw my results at 11pm sunday night and they continued all through the night and subsided monday morning at 11am. the scale measures in at a whopping 5 pounds less than i usually weigh (and no, i'm not happy about it), and even two full days later, i still can't eat more than a handful of food, about twice a day. and it always makes me say "blech". i'm thankful for a healthy body that can fight off viruses, but i'm about to the point of groaning "how long, oh Lord?!? how long?????"

in other news, christopher and nathan have a gig to play their guitars on the TN Valley Railroad Museum's Valentine Special. ***choo!! choo!!*** it's a four hour train ride through the north georgia mountains that people have paid $140 per couple for! "...music will be presented on board to entertain passengers as the cars gently sway along the line, either before or after dinner..." <---that's THEM! apparently they have to play two 1.5 hour sets on whichever train car isn't eating. it's kind of hilarious, but it's also kind of cool. especially since they sound absolutely amazing together. they're playing songs like "you've got a friend in me", "here, there and everywhere", "scarborough fair", "moon river", and i'm trying to get chris to learn "imagine me and you". i wish i could be a fly on the wall...the verdict has yet to be determined as to whether or not i will be able to ride along for at least one ride.

in still other news, it's in the 50s today. BOO on waning temperatures!!!!

eight months

happy eight month anniversary to us!! it feels like it's been a week, but at the same time, i have a hard time remember life before being married to christopher. it's a bizarre phenomenon!! :)

SNOW DAY!

i can't believe it actually snowed in chattanooga!! and off the mountain too!!! my only experience with snow in this city has been on signal mountain, and i had given up hope totally as to ever seeing snow again in this town, so i was doubly surprised and amazed when chris sheepishly woke me up at 5am to look at the snow. i said "whatever..." and sat bewildered at the snow-covered roof across the side-street from us. AMAZING!! we were wide awake immediately. this picture was taken at about 6:30am. it's our across the street neighbor's giant vehicle covered with beauty. there were school closings (mccallie being one of them!!! but i had to be here at 10...phooey), thrilling dare-devils trying to make it down the street to work (they all made it), us trying to get chris to work by 7 so he could get off at 3:30 (we didn't make it.) yeah, when we turned left onto the main road, we sliiiiiiiid big time, and i started almost hyperventilating and literally having flashbacks to 2002 colorado wreck. it. was. horrible. we slowly went back home and i promptly went to sleep for another hour.

chris got to work by 9 and i drove around downtown and coolidge park and the art district taking pictures of the snowy wonderland. it was rainy by then, so it was kinda gross, but still oh so beautiful! i read my email at 10:15 that said i was supposed to be at work at 10. oops. and after lunch i built SEYMOUR!!! oh. OH! i LOVE him! that's the scarf that jency made me around his neck. he was freezing! i didn't wear gloves today (or he would have them on) so my hands were completely and totally numb after making him. bbbrrrrrrr....but it was so worth it. b/c now i get to look at him all day! he's sitting right outside my office window under the beautiful dogwood tree. seymour. my buddy.

this is him from my office chair...:) :) :)

i might be losing my mind....i wish i were sledding with my brother....*whine*