a wedding at table rock

Last weekend I had the privilege of attending Glenn and Jess's wedding in a lovely South Carolina state park, Table Rock. My friend Kelly graciously lent us her big ol' truck and we hopped in, cranked up the country tunes, and headed for the hills.

Glenn is Matt's childhood friend from Murray, also known as "the adventurous one." The location was fitting for his wedding - a beautiful lodge overlooking a lake dotted with lazy canoes. I met Jess and Glenn, both architects, while in Murray last April so it was fun to share in their special day!

The lodge. So pretty! And you can see my Matt searching unsuccessfully for reception in the corner. It's nice not to have contact with the outside world every once in a while, except when another groomsman is lost on his way to the rehearsal.

More of the Murray crew around the fire at night . . . Micah pointing to the snazzy "Glenn and Jess" plastic cups.

Saturday morning, after breakfast with Matt's parents, Matt headed off for groomsmen duties and Maggie and I went hiking through the trails. Beautiful. And fun. And I took a picture of a butterfly on a sock. Kind of gross, the sock part.

Wedding Time!
My attempt at shooting a picture of the party during a prayer. It was beautiful!

The details . . . ie a cand bar full of delightful green treats. Yummy.

The wedding party before the party. . .



My goodlooking date.

Maggie and me, partners in hiking and scouting for seats in the shade.

My LAST bouquet toss, can't you just see the enthusiasm? The bouquet ended up going over the railing into the bushes below. . .

The happy couple(s)! Hard to believe in 4 weeks we'll switch places. :) Congrats, Jess and Glenn! See you soon!

...charlotte!...

The city of Charlotte was named after King George's wife. As in King George of "Why Can't you Make them Behave, King George?" Or, if you're not familiar with children's lit . . . the King George that didn't want to let the colonies go. So Charlotte is the Queen City, and when you fly into America's 17th busiest airport, which I have done about 20 times in the past 3 years, you are greeted by a tall statue of what I presume to be Queen Charlotte, holding her crown.

I like that statue.
She says welcome home.
I have no more belongings in the Queen City, no place to sleep, no keys, no car. But I do have friends that became family. And that feels like home!

During my scant 3 days in NC, I spent a precious evening with some dear friends from Desiring God Community Church. This was my 'sending church' and faithful prayer warriors over the past year. I wasn't able to be there on a Sunday so they kindly allowed me to take over our Wednesday night core study to share about my year in Kenya. While it wasn't the most eloquent of speeches, I enjoyed sharing from my heart about RVA and its people. It was the closing of a chapter, and the opening of a new one.

I hope you appreciate the 70's style montage that took way too long to create with way too little to show for it. It makes me smile, though.


Besides sweet DGCC time, I saw some dear friends . . . I got to stay with Kelly and Justin for a few days. Kelly had a little celebration for Nicole and me. Nicole and I have shared many wonderful memories on Second South, our wing at Taylor. She migrated to Charlotte this spring. . . I love it when my life intersects with an old friend!

(birthday buddies)

And I was so thankful for my time with Erin. I decided that driving up to Long Island was kind of unnecessary, so we were free to enjoy our time together rooted in one place instead of road tripping across America. The point is - she would've. And that's the type of friend she is. She's also the type who will move all your stuff to a storage unit and then spend a rainy morning kicking the door up and down until all your stuff is taken care of. But let's dwell on happier times, shall we?

Matt flew in to Charlotte on Friday morning and we had lunch with Kel, Erin, and Nicole. Hardly sufficient but I'm thankful for their brief introduction. And then it was off to a wedding in SC.

I love these two. We missed our far away friends!

make my day

Whoa, baby. Another reason to L*O*V*E this country.

Today was my birthday (happy 25th, old lady). We had a family celebration yesterday since Dad and brother weren't around today. But tonight my mom took me to this AMAZING place. Perhaps you have one of your own in your town, but it blew my socks off.

Ours is called Orange Tree.

You get to make your own frozen yogurt treat. It's incredible.

There are levers all along the wall with many different flavor options. You can pick as many as you want! Like a kid in a candy store, I was.

(this is Elyse, looking appropriately thrilled at the experience)

THEN you come to the toppings bar. Only this isn't behind glass, limited to the mood of your ice cream server. This is where you get to be as creative as you want.

There were plenty of yummy fruits and a bunch of tasty treats like cheesecake squares and cookie dough and reese's pieces . . . and chocolate and caramel sauce and cool whip, too!

So then you present your masterpiece and they weigh it up and charge you by the ounce.

GENIUS.

I loved it.

Oklahoma Birthday Sky.

funny

This type of thing happens sometimes. It seems like it happens to US fairly frequently.

Last weekend my dad, mom, sister and I drove to Kentucky for the showers/family bonding. It was an uneventful drive there, through the wheat fields of Oklahoma, corn of Missouri, and tobacco of Kentucky. Flat. Sunny skies. An Amish buggy going through a McDonalds drive-thru.



The way back, however, was ill-fated from the start. We left about an hour later than we said we would. Not a big deal, nothing to rush home for. But then we got to the driveway to leave and . . . the car wouldn't start.

So after a family gathering to jump the car, we waved goodbye and drove to the Murray battery place to buy a new battery.

That taken care of, we jumped back into the trusty minivan and, singing family songs of road tripping lore, chugged south, towards home.

Suddenly . . .
phhhhht . . .
She ain't lookin too good.

But, don't worry, we were in Tennessee (a grand 20 minutes from our point of origin). We pulled into a local establishment and gave these southerners a chance to prove their famed hospitality.
They passed with flying colors.

An hour and a half later, after buying a new tire in Paris, we pointed the wheel south and didn't look back. And that, folks, is just how we roll.

in case you're keeping track

My schedule:

I leave for Charlotte on Tuesday to gather up some of my belongs and spend some time with precious friends. I'll be there until Friday, when Matt flies in, and we go to a wedding in SC together. I'll fly back to OK on Sunday. And here I will stay until September 5, when I fly to Beaufort to stay until our wedding on September 12th. Then it's honeymoon and off to our new home in Long Island!

Just in case you were wondering.

And now I'm going to edit all my Africa contact information because that's just not true anymore. We're moving on.

showers in murray

Not the rain kind of showers, the PRESENT kind of showers! Last weekend my family (minus Ryan) went up to stay with Matt's family (minus Adam). And we had some other family members grace us with their presence. Matt's Grandpa Yezerski and Aunt Diane and cousins Tyler and Mike stayed with us, as did my Grandma and cousin Heather. Matt's Aunt Bo and Aunt Doris and Uncle Bob came from Glasgow and my friend Kerry came in from Maryville, TN. Full house - what fun!

So, thus follows the typical set of cliche shower photos.

The lovely hostesses and their stunning array of food and flowers.

Mothers!

sister and ker
very cute
of course we did a lot of this . . .

and roped some relatives and kerry into tying ribbons on fans . . .

Important people:

Rhonda and the Parents

Aunt Bo and Mrs. Travis

Cousin Heather and Kerry

And there are many MORE important people that I don't have pictures of . . . but maybe I can get ahold of some soon. It was super fun to be with everyone and celebrating with the Murray crew. Can't wait to see many of them in September!

the view . . . of america

Soooo . . . I've been back almost 3 weeks. I've already been to New York and Kentucky and spent some lovely time in Oklahoma. In a couple days I'm off to Charlotte and then to a wedding in South Carolina. Then it's back to OK until my own wedding! (wow)

Since I've been back, I've been observing and absorbing America. I've left the U.S. and returned oodles of times, so culture shock is not really a part of my vocabulary at the moment. I like re-noticing things that I'd forgotten about. Smooth roads, for instance. Oh, thank you taxpayers for providing us with highways that have painted lines down the middle of them. Sidenote - I still have mini-freakouts about whether I'm turning into the correct lane. Even though I never drove in Kenya, I still second guess my driving abilities. With good reason . . . they're not that great.

Anyway, besides the recession, there have been some fun additions to our society. Since I've been gone, Skittles Crazy Cores have entered the candy scene. And Green Apple Mentos. I haven't had an opportunity to try these treats yet but I'll let you know how that goes. Also Wheat Thins and Walmart changed their logos. That's lovely of them, everything is so much more attractive.

It's been nice to revisit some of my old favorites . . . everything in the world of coffee has improved exponentially. Back to the world of coffee creamers . . . and our old favorite corporate giant, Starbucks. Did you know if you buy a coffee in the morning, you can come back and get a grande cold drink for only $2? It's called receipt treat or something like that. I haven't actually done that, either, but I get a kick out of knowing I can!

Oh, and let me not forget to mention technology . . . Matt tricked me into thinking we needed to go get a cell phone for me during the few days I was there . . . when really he had already taken care of it AND programmed in my friends and family, as an early birthday present. So now I can not only talk to everybody in the USA whenever I want, but I can also facebook and internet and youtube my life away. Oh, 3G. Also the zippy nature of our internet is a constant source of joy.

I do miss Kenya. It's not ALL fine and dandy here in the mother country. Maybe I'll get around to posting some of the negatives . . . but I thought, positives first. I learned that back in cross-cultural connections in college. And I am a lifelong learner, I tell ya . . .