Humor

So, if you knew Ticky Tacky, you knew a man who could laugh. Laugh at himself, laugh at others, while not laughing at the expense of others. When we saw him last, a few weeks before he died, he was still laughing and making jokes. I heard he was smiling at the laughter around him even days before he passed.

When we'd visit, he'd often have a new show we could watch - and it was quite the ordeal when they discovered British Comedies. My oh my, I remember when they found "Keeping Up Appearances" we watched so many episodes, and he'd laugh and laugh. Then we'd troll through old comedies, and I remember clearly introducing them to YouTube and revisiting the old comedy shows back in the day. They were funny then, and they are still funny now!

When we visited him in the hospital once awhile ago, he was cracking jokes left and right. I can't remember a single one, but I do remember thinking how interesting that he would be making people laugh in the hospital. Joking about himself, doctors, and whatever. It always cracked us up, and we always knew it would be special.

I wish there was a way to capture it all - the way he'd grin, land a joke we weren't expecting, or hear a new joke for the first time and burst out in laughter. But there simply isn't a way to write about the experience of humor effectively enough so that your reader experiences it.

So I'll have to make a recommendation. If you want to experience a small taste of Ticky Tacky's laughter and joy, get to know my dad. Or my brother. Or my sister. Or several of my aunt, uncles, and cousins, and maybe even their kids. And even those who married into the family, like my mom, Jess, Jon, and all the other "in-loves" [what we call in-laws!]. Many of them whom are deeply gifted with filling up a room with delight, and all of us delighting themselves in the laughter of others and filling the room with our laughter as well. Listen to their laughter, and you'll hear Ticky Tacky's laughter too.

Constancy

This Sunday Ticky-Tacky went to be with God. This is personally my first great loss, and I'm slowly beginning to understand what it means to loose someone like this. To process, I'd like to dedicate the next week of blogs to something I remember about him, and see where that takes us. Okay by you?  Good. Let's begin.

Constancy
As I'm sure many things are, I don't think I realized what a steady constant presence Ticky Tacky has been in my life until he is gone. Between all our many moves, and my many moves and countries later, Ticky Tacky and Mom-mom would always be found in the same house in nearly the same state - kept up but nothing fancy. The home had an odd way of luring you to sleep with it's steady character- we'd come to visit them both and find ourselves falling on couches later on! What a visit, but they always said they enjoyed it anyway. And seemed to understand.

We'd come as a family, and later on I'd come alone as an adult, then one day bringing Jon to pass their approval sometime two years ago. Ticky Tacky was always so glad to see us, or even just me, in his own way, generally leaving me to visit with mom-mom after a certain amount of time, although only after taking me out to lunch first. I can't tell you how much that meant during my single years, to be taken out by my grandpa with my grandma. Afterwards he'd generally vacate the womanly chatter to the sanity of the living room or his office.

All the rooms in their house have gone through so many changes - except his office. When we visited a few weeks ago, I took Jon through the house a bit, and of course visited the office. Stepping into the space, I felt immediately 6 years old again, sneaking into a place I knew I wasn't allowed, hoping to snag a coke out of the fridge. Twenty-some years later, there are still cokes in the fridge in the same location, except this time I can go on in without permission. Standing there was surreal, one room remaining so much the same through so much turbulence in life. Yet it felt so normal, and comforting, to feel like something  had remained the same through all of life's changes.

Ticky-Tacky was somewhat like that too. Very steady and nearly unchangeable.  We always knew what to expect - jokes, thoughts, the story about how he found an error in the dictionary, pointed it out to the authors, and didn't get a new dictionary in return. Maybe there'd be some mumbling about something or the other, however there was always a presence of love, and I would always leave with the solid knowledge he'd be very glad when I returned.

I'm going to miss that. A lot. (I can tell because I'm crying just writing about it!). It would be wrong if I didn't. And I hope I miss it for a long time, and seek to emulate the same welcoming in our own home when we settle down one day.

I am glad for one thing though. The next time we see him, there will be no returning, just a huge greeting and lots of laughter and sharing. I'll get to know him as a young man, and see him at his best. He himself will probably be able to speak a few languages (he was always in awe that I could speak German), and we'll all be together in a place that has always been Home in our hearts, in a place even more steadfast than Ticky Tacky's office - our place in God's presence, in His welcome and love.

Lesson of Summer

As the morrow shall see the winds of change come once again to flip the page of yet another season (i.e. fall's gonna start tomorrow), I feel like sharing with you something I learned this summer.

You know how when you turn a lamp on, you have to click it twice for it to turn on, and twice again to turn it back off. So annoying, right? Why do they keep designing them that way? Why not make it quicker and efficienter with just one click for the light to respond?

Well, my dear readership, this summer it suddenly hit me! Pow! Just like that! When I saw a box for light bulbs with three different wattages listed. And I remembered! "Oh yeah!" Just like that! I've been in the presence of lamps that have three different luminances, so you can pick if you want the room brightly lit up, if you want a calmer illumination, or just discrete I-need-to-see-where-I-am-going lighting. It's not the lamp systems that do that, Silly, it's the light bulb. And so there are four settings for the turny-switchy knob thingy: off>bright>medium>dim. But with normal light bulbs, there's only two levels of brightness for the whole circle, so they round the in-between settings: off>bright>bright>off. But they design the lamps that way to accommodate a variety of bulb styles.

It was quite a sudden revelation. You learn some every season…

I dunno what the nutritional facts are, but my tongue's certainly not complainin'

Slice up a bunch of potatoes. A vegetable slicer comes in handy for this part.

Dunk each slice in a small bowl of vegetable oil then toss it in a large glass baking dish.

Make sure the baking dish is filled evenly.

Sprinkle some pepper and spices (curry powder, garlic powder, a dash of cinnamon) on all the potatoes. It can also be helpful to get, in order to all the slices, to mix the spices in with the oil for dunking.

Cook in the oven for one hour at 400 degrees.

A little before the hour is up, grate some cheese. Hard cheeses like parmesan or gruyere work best, though mixing in some soft cheeses can be a nice touch too. Today, I used mostly parmesan, some baby Swiss, and then I added a little of our cheese powder for popcorn (also recommended for potatoes, veggies, eggs and rice apparently).

Sprinkle in some herbs (parsley, thyme).

When the oven's hour's over, take the potatoes out, and sprinkle the cheese and herbs on top of them right away.

Drain the potatoes from the oil.

Eat and be merry.

My problems with blogging

Sometimes, I'm feeling really cantankerous and attempt to get out of blogging. Like tonight. When'd I'd rather fall on something really cozy and let entertainment do my thinking for me.

But, in moments like these, I realize Jon is going to be a tremendous dad (Lord willing) someday. Because he simply won't let me get out of doing what I'd say I would do. Good man, good man.

Massage Class

On Sunday, Jon and I took a "massage for couples" class offered by the local hospital.

It was a great idea! While the teacher did go off for awhile on the merits of massage (which, having signed up for the class, I knew already!), we learned alot about massaging the face, neck/shoulders, back, feet, and hands.

It was relaxing. And fun. And interesting. And mostly, good to know that we can help work out life's kinks now in a much more informed way! Probably my biggest take away was the importance of creating a "relaxing" atmosphere (the instructor even dimmed the lights and put music on his iPhone to help us all relax! Funny). Usually I just try to work on a knot and get that out of Jon's back, but I realized the first thing to take care of making sure he can relax, and that will help the knot go away!

So, next time we see any of you, feel free to ask us about our new skills :o)

Processing....

As most of you who read this blog probably know, our father's father and our grandpa(Ticky-Tacky, Pop-pop, Chief, Al, and a myriad other nicknames he has gathered over the years) is currently dying. He about 86 years old, so in essence we all knew this day would be coming... however I am not sure that it makes anything easier. Death simply is not something we were designed for, and it speaks to the brokenness of the world.

On a purely subjective and selfish note, and in my pursuit to express my own internal emotions -  I've been intrigued to watch myself go through the tidal waves of emotion that, must be, grief and the impending sense of loss. I've never lost anyone this close to me, so I'm completely unsure how to prepare Jon for whatever I'll go through. So far, I've noticed - for me - feelings come in batches. I'll be completely okay, and then suddenly a memory, thought, or simply a friend asking how I'm doing (as someone did in church today), and the tears start pouring out and I'll be overwhelmed by emotion. And then it will pass. And then it will come again. Its good to be aware of and I'm learning how to allow myself to feel pain fully, and not just dismiss it to be "strong" - as if I have to prove I'm strong to anyone! And it's been helpful to hear how everyone else is doing as well.

And good to have a husband to whom God gave VERY long arms, which can wrap around me instantaneously if available.

I will keep you all updated, and prayers for my family are coveted to be sure!

And, of course, I'll update everyone on the massage class we took today - first we'll have to practice a little bit to be sure we learned something!

Saturdays :o)

Today we both slept in remarkably late (black-out curtains strike again!) and almost immediately began cleaning up the place. Somehow we have fallen behind the cleaning curve in this place and today was in dire need of some catch up. So far, so good. Most of the laundry is done, there's no dirty dishes lying around the place, the bathroom is cleaned and organized, and we managed to organize our tools. I still see all the other tasks that need to get done, and realize - yet again - that housework will never be done, and I should simply be grateful there is no mold growing on anything it shouldn't grow on at this point.

All mothers - I applaud and admire you. I have no idea how you do it - I can barely keep up with our own mess, let alone the mess of other's who can't help themselves!

We did take a few breaks to chill out and watch some shows. We watched "Something the Lord Made," the true story of Vivien Thomas, an african american, who contributed largely to the field of cardiac surgery - in fact was a pioneer - without education beyond high school and during the 50's when racism was no joke. I highly recommend watching it.

On a side note: tomorrow we are taking a massage class for couples offered by the local hospital. I'm tremendously excited, and will send you all a report on how it goes!

Je parle francais!

Tonight we watched "Flyboys" - a story about Americans during World War I who volunteered to fly planes for the French army. I wouldn't necessarily recommend watching it - very kitschy in many ways and tremendously predictable. That said, part of the love story is the American who meets a beautiful French woman in town, and they begin to like each other. However, they both know next to nothing about each other's language, so it's fun to watch them bumble through and finally get to a point where they can pretty much barely communicate. Needless to say, when you find out they don't find each other after the war, it's pretty much okay. They wouldn't be able to talk about much anyway!

Learning how to speak another language is always challenging and somewhat humiliating, and it's taken me a while to get the courage to bumble through a language which Jon can speak perfectly! However, once the film was over, my courage was bolstered as well as my vocabulary. For I learned the word "pourquoi" - "why"! Maybe it is because I saw them saying it in the film, however armed with the word "pourquoi" and its relative "quoi" (what?) I can keep a silly conversation moving along pretty well. It was a blast. Here is a small sampling:

J: Tu es marrante! [You are funny!]
S: Moi? pourquoi?! [Me? Why?] (please note, I have no idea what marrante is!)
J: Parce que tu me fais rire!  [ because you make me laugh! ]
S: Quoi? Fais rire? Pourquoi? [What? Laugh? Why?] (again, note, I now have no idea what fais rire is!)
J: Parce que tu marrante...... [Because you are funny....]
S: Moi? Quoi est marrante? [Me? What is "marrante"?]
J: Funny!
S: Je suis marrante? Et quoi est fais rire? [I am funny? And what is "fais rire"?]
J: Laugh! (at this point Jon is laughing either at me or with me, still not quite sure, but its absolutely fun!)

So - there's an inside look into our exciting Friday nights!
[on a side note, I just had Jon correct my spelling of this entire blog. That made him laugh too! apparently "fais rire" is two words - I thought it was just "ferrier"... oh figure. Always learning!]

Thoughtless Thursdays

Jon and I admiring the sky on our way to Sam's Club:

Sara: Wow - look at the sky, isn't it beautiful!
Jon: It's marvelous
Sara: Yes, absolutely breath taking.
Jon: Yes. It must be trying to be like you.
Sara: (silence and feeling very touched!)

He's pretty much wonderful!

Almost 1 year?!

We are approaching our 1 year anniversary in 18 days. 

Wow. 

Really?!

Really.

Wow.

Yeah.

(behold, my own internal conversation with myself).

See we were officially a couple for about a year and half - a little over - and that seemed like FOREVER until we were finally hitched. Days dragged on, and I thought we'd always been nearly-married, but never quite there somehow. 

Now almost 12 months have gone by, and they have been simply joyous and blissful. Granted, there's been some non-joyous and non-blissful parts as we worked on some new communication skills, but over all - it's been nice.

Now thinking about this tonight, I realized I based my entire decision on marrying someone during a time period just a little bit less than the entire time we've been married. It seems crazy to me now! But Jon kindly reminded me that I was quite willing to take much less time to make the decision then! 

I am realizing, however, I'm not calculating all the years spent before in which God was preparing us to make that decision in the time He allotted for it. All the books we both read, the people we listened to, our friendships, the relationships we observed - both good and bad- and the hard lessons we learned through broken hearts, all equipped us to "know" when we met each other that this was our life-partner. The soul searching had been done and, I guess in hind-sight, we were ready to make the call within a reasonable time frame to get to know each other and observe any potential red flags that may arise. 

Hm. That's a nice thought. Glad to have had it, and thank you all for reading it. 

Churching II

The other thing that's stuck with me since church this past Sunday was seeing a family file in a few rows ahead of us as the service was starting. As they got to their seats, the young girl (I'd say elementary-school-age) quickly climbed up onto the chair to be picked up by her daddy. And as she overlooked the congregation from that vantage point leaning her weight onto her father who was holding her up, with her arms wrapped around his neck, she had a huge, cute grin covering the bottom half of her face. She later did the same with her mommy. She looked so happy to be in her parents' arms.

I look forward to when Sara & I can be in the same position as those parents. What a blessing!

Rambling Thoughts

Tonight Jon came home after a rollicking game of a soccer, made a delicious salad, and now is doing the dishes while allowing me to rest after a very stressful day. So many times I think I don't deserve him, which he certainly refutes, and more often I'm simply deeply and tremendously grateful. I want to be like him someday - that's one of the reasons I married him :o) Living with each other, he's bound to rub off on me!

Without fail, I always spell soccer "socceer" - because I cannot remember whether the C or the E is duplicated, so I guess at both. The spell check line appears, so I take away the "c" - soceer - because somehow this makes more sense to me. Alas, still not right. Then I realized it is the "c" and all things are set right. I do this almost every single time I spell the word. fascinating. and annoying.

Recently I have been delving into facebook and the blogosphere more often. Stepping back a bit today, I realized the lives of family, friends, and some complete strangers are essentially boiled down to my own entertainment. I'm not very comfortable with that at all, yet I still contribute via my own facebook updating and blogging, holding out the hope that those who read actually do care and aren't simply consumers of my thoughts, be it profound (on the rare occasion or the tangential meanderings of mine mind. This is, however, a very lofty thought, as I can note well from my own activities how much a consumer I have become of other's profound and tangential meanderings. Perhaps it is just a product of this age.

My mom is coming over soonish to help me hang some pictures on a huge wall we have that has remained black for awhile. We finally have some pictures to hang up there and I need her expertise for a large, blank, and prominent space. I am looking forward to this alot!

Couches- we will need a new one soon. I'm beginning to realize our college days couch may be on it's last legs as our bums slowly sink to the bottom. And perhaps it's just being in my late twenties hurdling quickly towards my early thirties - a grown-up couch would be nice to have and a pleasure to seat guests in. Any advice on how to find them is, of course, appreciated. I'm stalking Craigs list as I have time. And what color to get? Bold? Neutral? Funky pattern? Sleeper Sofa? (we have a sleeper love seat) Are the dealers on CraigsList reputable? Anything else I should know about furniture buying? I am clearly a couch buying neophyte.

And thank you to you reader, for reading this far and allowing me to digest the thoughts running around my brain!

Recent Discoveries in the Jerdan household

Here are some things we are discovering recently:

Chicken noodle soup - homemade! yummy! Made some in a crock pot today, wonderful way to come home.
Sara is re-discovering period dramas. Nice way to relax.
iPhone Apps - Yelp and Zillow are on the top of the list.


That's about it! Been a long day, so the blog is that much shorter...

Churching

This morning, pastor Chris preached on Romans 12:1-2, which includes "Do not be conformed to this world..." (and also referencing Ephesians 4:17-24).

As he was talking about how the church is not to conform to the culture, he mentioned that in the parlance of today's youth, Christians are to be "hipsters," although in my mind that term carries additional connotations of unhealthy pride and self-absorption in knowing better than "them."

What struck me more was what he said about different kinds of worship service styles. In particular, the Bible church style, or maybe more so what I find a lot of churches that don't have the word "church" in their names do: exciting music praising God, stirring particular emotions, impressive visual aids grabbing the congregation's attention, etc. I normally have the impression that is a way of conforming to the culture: "This is what (young) people like these days, so let's do exactly that, and even more, or else there's no way we'll reach them." So although I wouldn't say that there's no redeeming factor in that, it has not attracted me as a helpful habit for Christ's local body. But Chris pointed out that to some people, some parts of our society, that kind of worship goes against everything they know and it is counter-cultural.

That was good food for thought. After all, in some other people's eyes, the fact that we use a drum kit in the church's music is a sign of conformance to the surrounding culture.

That said, I do still think certain worship service styles are much richer than that mentioned above, even if they may not be as quick to grab the attention of some segments of the population.

I was blessed to have grown up in churches that had intentional, thought-through liturgy that better covered the breadth of the Christian walk. It was not just because that's what had been traditionally done. It was meaningful and purposed. And it follows scriptural examples. As an example, when the Israelites gathered as a people upon leaving Egypt, they first joyfully praised God for who He is what He has done and His amazing goodness; then as they came to meet with the Lord, He revealed the way things are, what He wants and expects of His followers, and thereby putting a mirror to the sin in their lives; so they repented of theirs sins, and they recommitted themselves to the Lord; then they were better able to follow God's leading.

As that's what I was raised with, I saw all that as normal. That was how churches prepare hearts to listen to the sermon, to better build one another up to go back into the world, to which we do not belong, for the week ahead. That is how church functions, through reading the Bible, prayer, the different steps emphasized with fitting songs, in preparation to hear the main message clarifying God's word for life in our current situation.

There are of course a variety of ways to practice this in its details. However it reminds me of my first real church search when I left home for college, and Sunday after Sunday I was shocked by how easy it was to go to what felt more like a praise music event (or maybe a Christian music and prayer event) with a message from the pastor thrown in. I'm sure many of these establishments do wonderful things for the Kingdom of God, and their members can have a faith that is on fire, but going there on Sunday morning, I'd feel like I missed church and would be disappointed that so much of the wealth of the Christian experience that was thrown out of the service and ignored.

This is all mulling around in my mind, as we are starting to look for where we will move to next, which is intrinsically tied to our next search for a church family, with which we can grow into the man and woman, and family, God created us to be.

Rain, rain,... it went away!!

It has been WET here - surreally so. Driving back yesterday was nerve wracking, and so was this morning (I had to drive to get my oil changed). Generally people know how to drive in normal rain, and people tend to be cautious in the snow - I've been in a few tight spots around here in snow, and everyone generally is keeping their eyes out for each other.

But no one knows how to drive in soggy, day-long flash flood conditions. There are rash judgments, panicked looks, and frustration every where. On the way home yesterday, I was nearly hit once and almost witnessed a head-on collision, not to mention one I almost caused myself while backing up in a tight spot... could barely see the car around me.

So today when the sun popped out of the sky and everything lit up - it was remarkable! It is just a blessings to be reminded of what a blessing the sun is, and rain is, and how perfectly in balance they are the large majority of the time. Truly praise worthy.

Times like this, having Jon work from home is very very convenient!

Thoughtless Thursday (September)

Tonight:
(Sara starts eating very very slowly)
Jon: (candidly) Why are you eating slowly?
Sara: Actually, I'm eating dramatically!!!!! 
Jon: (jovially) I married a funny one.
Sara (also jovially) You married me!!!

The last two lines are actually a standard exchange between Jon and I. Apparently I'm funny if you live with me long enough! His tone is always loving to be sure!

Note: I have no idea why I suddenly decided to eat dramatically - afterwards I slept for nearly 2 hours. Rough day maybe?

Time to relax

With all the raining and storming all day long, the area around here got more water than it knew what to do with, so when rush hour settled in, all the creeks and other water flows in the area decided to see what would happen if they dumped the excess onto the roads.

Poor Sara had a stressful trip back home from work this evening. After dinner, she plopped down in all her cuteness on the futon and fell fast asleep:

Well she must not have been completely asleep, since for quite some time she expressed an acknowledging "Mm-hmm" after every one of my hiccups.

Yet after her eyes fought to open just a bit ago, she mentioned that she didn't remember what awake is like.

Weekend, here she comes!

Cuzzie and Liberty

When we visited Jon at Liberty, we took so many pictures, I thought I'd dedicate a whole post to him, rather than tagging him in lots of pictures on facebook.

Here he is in his dorm room! I got to go in because I'm family. It really sincerely is a hotel room. So weird.

An RA with swagger - and alot of posters and other administrvia.

That's right. Seriously learning happens here. And a lot of librarianing.

Basketball court and HUGE chapel. They fit 15,000 people in here 3 times a week. crazy.

Here is where cuzzie's hall sits. He has to count them sometimes.

We all went here for ice cream. It was wonderful. And very green, and very pink.

And, finally, Tuesday!

Today was the last day of our trip, alas.

Here's a picture of our fancy hotel (yahoo Groupon!) and a mirror in which Jon could see his WHOLE self. Very unusual.

How tall!

Saying good-bye to our hotel suite, we explored a few small towns around Roanoke, Grandin and Raleigh Court, finally finding a place to eat in Grandin. Of course we asked the waitress what she thought of the town and, per usual, she loved it.

We then made it up to the "Roanoke Star" which is on a wonderful look-out point! Unfortunately it was very very cloudy, so we couldn't see anything :( But at least we've been there!

It's big! Largest man made star apparently.

Our actual view and, in the pictures, the view that is apparently obscured by the clouds.

We actually think it's quite jolly.

Then Jon drove us home through rain the whole time (did I mention he did ALL the driving this weekend?!) and we arrived safe and sound back home in Reston.

Overall, we loved poking around this area. Most of all, it was so much fun to ask anyone who would listen "We're thinking about living here some day, what do you think?" and watch them open up all about their lives and interests. I think anywhere we travel from now on will be a place we are "thinking about living" as people have so many things to say!

Our Monday

MORNING:
Woke up, saw the price on the breakfast buffet ($10??? what???) so trolled around Roanoke desperately trying to find breakfast. We finally went out of town to get to a McDonalds - surely they are open on Labor Day? - and ate there for a bit. It began to rain, and a little disappointed, we drove to nearby Salem, which we have heard is a better place to live than Roanoke proper. On the way we wandered into a Kmart to get a desperately needed umbrella. We walked around a bit, found a few magazines with apartment/housing prices, a local newspaper, and eventually a local coffee shop. We got some hot beverages - it was still rainy and cold - and settled down to learn more about the area. We found some reasonable prices and then walked around Roanoke college to get a feel for the area. We then drove to an apartment park, tried to get into a YMCA, and then decided to head to the nearby D-Day memorial.

AFTERNOON:
At this point I (Sara) was definitely tired and disappointed. We hadn't found any good inspiration or connections in the area, especially no churches, and this search was becoming discouraging. We came to the DDay Memorial, which also houses the Bedford welcome center. Bedford is a small town, however it lost the most people per-capita on DDay, hence the location of the monument. There we finally met some friendly people, who told us all about their town! That lifted my spirits, and then we headed on to the monument. It is quite impressive, the first monument I've seen to incorporate real sound, and memorializes the event quite well.

What you aren't hearing are the random up bursts of water, symbolizing the bullets.

Up close.

 



We stopped into the gift shop to find a magnet and ran into quite the fellow running it! He had grown up in Bedford, then left Bedford, then came back for the exact reasons he left. It is a quiet community! He then gave us recommendations for a good restaurant and we were on our way.

The restaurant was an old train station with excellent food at wonderful prices! (things are indeed cheaper down here!) I had an "Almond Joy Salad" which included coconut, almonds, and white chocolate as toppings. It was g.o.o.d.

Yummy Bread!

We trolled around "Centertown" Bedford, wandering into the general store. There we had a wonderful chat with the people who owned it, who moved from the DC area in order to have a safe place to raise their kids. After leaving we wandered around, and the man from the gift shop drove by and honked! We are already becoming locals apparently...

EVENING:
As we were leaving the area, we reflected on how nice the towns were, however we still hadn't been able to locate a church. All the churches seem to fall into either Baptist, fairly liberal, or pentacostal churches. As presbyterian/anglican/non-denominational folks, we still hadn't found something we were comfortable with. I pulled up my iPhone as we were driving and typed in "Anglican Church" in the map app, just to see what would come up. Low-and-behold, there was an AMA (anglican mission in america) church just up the road! We popped by there, however it was closed. Peeking in we saw a sign up table for "WEiRD Groups, because normal isn't working any more." We both had to laugh!

On their website, which I again was seeing through my phone, we saw they were a church plant from another Roanoke church! So we drove another 30 minutes to that church, and eventually found it. A much larger church, we saw it was open and wandered around to the side to sneak in. There we were greeted by quite a few people, as there was a fairly large recovery group session going on. We explained our situation, and a friendly fellow showed us all around the church, told us all about their experiences (another northern VA plant!), and invited us to their worship service that night. We also met his wife and the small-group pastor! Wowsers. What a blessings!

So now we are feeling fairly comfortable with the area - of course no decisions yet - however it's nice to know there is a place to plug in if God calls us here!

BEST.DAY.EVER.

MORNING:
Found a church in nearby Chester. After greeting the greeters and sitting down, and woman came over to greet us again :o) After explaining our situation - that is we are passing through trying to determine where to live - she sat and prayed with us spontaneously! It was such a blessing to have the start of our let's-find-a-place-affordable-to-live search prayed over so earnestly, the very day we are beginning it!

LUNCH TIME:
Stopped by Petersburg to begin visiting this area. Walked to the tourist information center, which stated it was closed. However, the door was ajar, and I - being adventurous and in desperate need of a map - pushed it open! The 83-year-old Lucy Smith had come in early for her shift at the tourist center because she still didn't have power after Irene! There was another couple there, who are from Roanoke (and gave us some "neighborly" advice as to where to live), and after she gave us a tour of the visitor's center, she volunteered herself to get us a walking tour of old town Petersburg! Just as we were about to leave, another group came in.... which included a member of our old home church! (Kim) It was impressive. Here are some walking tour pictures!!

She always would stop in the shade at every spot! These were old warehouses converted to apartments.

After the walking tour, we ate lunch at "Hiram Haines' Coffee House" - a coffee house frequented by Edgar Allen Poe, and in fact he spent his honeymoon right above it in what used to be an inn. Restored by writers, it was simply an enchanting place to eat. Plus it doubled as a "used" book store - extra bonus!

AFTERNOON:
We visited our cousin, Jon Lentz, at Liberty University! We are still grinning from ear to ear with the joy of seeing him at his college, getting a tour of campus (which is very different from the colleges we attended), hearing of all his experiences and thoughts from being an RA, and meeting his friends. Family is such a blessing, and it is such a blessing to have participated in this young man's life from infancy until today, and witnessed his continual growth in Christ. Wow. It was VERY hard to leave! We took so many pictures, I'm going to have to add another blog post for them :o)

NIGHT:
We are now settling into a very nice hotel we found a deal on, and considering going for another late night swim. :o) I absolutely LOVE traveling with Jon, exploring new places, and meeting new people. It is such an exhilarating and enlivening experience. I'll cherish it always.

Yay weddings!

Today we were blessed to witness the marriage of Allison and Paul!

The day began with a yummy breakfast with Mom and Dad J and then we hit the road to the Fredericksburg area. It began to rain outside,which not only slowed traffic way down (we arrived with 7 minutes to spare...), but also prompted quite a few prayers for the rain to stop for the outdoor wedding!

The rain stopped just in time for the wedding, and we were handed programs and paper towels to wipe off our chairs as we arrived to the ceremony site (very creative). The wedding was held on her family's land, which included a beautiful area almost designed for a wedding, with trees on either side and a beautiful trellis overlooking the trees.

The ceremony itself was beautiful. Both Allison and Paul are devout believers in Christ and the entire ceremony pointed directly to Him. The wedding was officiated by three pastors (their college pastor, and Turkish pastor, and Allison's childhood pastor) and it was truly beautiful.

Oh right! So for those who don't know - Paul was adopted from Turkey when he was 16 years old (his official name is Ozgur Paul Jerdan - we call him either Ozgur or Paul). He became a Christian when he came to the states and his now filled with passion for reaching Turkey with the gospel. Allison shares the same passion; in her vows she quoted Ruth "Your people shall be my people"... and it shows. Their entire wedding reflected both cultures - we learned a traditional turkish dance, ate Turkish food, all intermingled with the traditional bouquet toss, toasts, first dance, etc. It was so much fun.

I myself enjoyed being on the other side of the Jerdan wedding, hanging out with family, catching up with everyone, even remembering a few names here and there! It's a blessing to be part of another large and loving family, and I'm delighted to have Allison join the crew.

After the wedding we headed to the Richmond area, where we are staying the night, beginning or fun adventure around the south of Virginia for a few days! We're pretty excited to be spending time with each other, making new memories, and seeing new sites.

Fun with the Parents

Today Mom and Dad J arrived! We are all heading to Paul and Allison's wedding tomorrow and been able to enjoy a fun evening together here. Additionally, we introduced them to "Ingenious" - a game some of you may remember from past blogs.

In a remarkably stroke of luck, in addition to some strategy and intelligence, I (Sara), played a perfect game! Here is a picture to commemorate the experience:

The second game we played was a significantly greater challenge! Boy those parents sure catch on quick.....

Thoughtless Thursdays v.15ish

A man voluntarily vacuuming the home quickly becomes the most attractive and most desirable man in all of history to his wife. - me