Update.....

Well, it's been well over a month since I even opened up the blogger account - such a shame. It's been the craziest month......there's just so much that has happened, I'm not sure I can even tell it all.

To give you an update on our lives, here's what's happening.....

The first week of April, the choir was invited to sing again at the Pentecostal Youth Fire Conference. We went - and it was amazing. It's always great, but I thought this year was really awesome. The "classes" of the days were spent exploring the fundamental beliefs of the independent Pentecostal church and explaining why we believe what we believe. It was some great teaching.

In the middle of the month of April, Mama and Papa decided that for the moment they wanted to move back to their house in Sevierville - so that has been a great choice in our opinion. Mom has worked herself to no end to make that happen. After moving to Sevierville, they decided to take a little vacation to Atlanta with Mama's sister and the last I checked, they were still on "vacation" there. They seem to be having a ball. I saw them last Saturday along with my aunt and her son and Mama and Papa look happier and healthier than I have seen them in quite a few years. That's a nice change.

The week of the 24th (my anniversary) we took a trip up to the mountains with Jeremy's family. That turned out to be a great vacation. We had a blast with three eager little beavers who could hardly sleep because the next morning usually promised Dollywood! They had a blast. And by the end of the week - we were all completely and utterly exhausted. I really felt I needed another week of vacation to recover from that week. I think I'm still recovering! lol

While we were there, we stayed up on one of the highest mountains and Jeremy and his brave soul stayed out on the balcony a good portion of the night to watch the horrific storms that destroyed some areas around the Knoxville area come through. One evening before heading out to eat with his family, he called me out to show me the "wall cloud" that was forming into the tornado that would flatten the high school and destroy quite a bit of property in the nearby town of Newport - approximately 20 miles away from where we were staying. I was definitely thankful for the protection during that week. We were very blessed during our stay to not experience the most horrific parts of that storm. This particular night we had made a promise to the kids and with very watchful eyes, we kept that promise for a little bit of entertainment for them - and during our outing - we were evacuated to a safe block gym to be protected from a tornado that was approximately 5 miles away. We joked that of all the pleasant things they got to do on vacation - this particular evening of evacuation - sitting in a row next to a stable block wall on our laps - half scared out of their minds, would be the vacation moment that would dominate their memories. To be honest, they weren't alone. When we talk about vacation now, usually the biggest thing we talk about is the storms....

Anyway.....it's been a crazy ride the last month and now - as always - I'm so ready for life to slow down. Somehow I don't think that's going to happen. The next month promises to be just as busy as the last one was.

Hope everyone is well.......just wanted to drop by and say hello to everyone. Between the floods and storms that have occurred everywhere in the last few weeks, as far as I know, everyone that reads this has been pretty safe. For that I am grateful. Don't forget to count your blessing because there are a bunch of homeless and hurting people right now who need our prayers and our thoughts.