Hasta Luego

I bought this little luggage trinket at a flea market a while back (for next to nothing) and have it on a book shelf in a guestroom. As a symbol of travel, I hope that my guests might find rest and comfort during their stay in this room. And it is also a simple reminder to me of a very meaningful trip in my life.

Two years ago I went to Ecuador with my church mission team and while I was there, on my birthday of all days, a team member told me she had a dream about me the previous night. Her dream was that I was carrying around a very heavy trunk by myself. And that I was struggling but would not let go or ask for help. She then told me if I was truly carrying around any excess baggage or heavy burdens that God wanted me to lay them down and get rid of "carrying that trunk" because He promises to do all that for me. Whew! I had in fact, been weighed down with a heavy burden but she did not know of it. What a message I had from the Lord that day (I saw it as a special birthday gift too)!

Often I'll walk by that bookshelf now with my trinket suitcase and think about the places I want to go and the places I have been. And I am reminded of His promises to take care of me and the burdens and baggage I do not have to carry around.

I head out for a new mission trip to Costa Rica this weekend and I am not carrying any heavy baggage with me this time. Hasta Luego!

red heads

getting ready for Costa Rica

I thought I might show you a snippit of some things I am packing for my Costa Rica Mission Trip. I'll be working with a team of 19 doing construction work (uh huh-that's right but I'll be very careful of the shoulders) for a Methodist Children's Home and we are giving a Vacation Bible School for children in San José. Can't wait to tell you all about it when I return home!

Of interest

Today we discovered something interesting. We knew there was a couple in our Sunday School class whose daughter was on The Survivor Show. We knew her name was Debbie and had watched her several times. We knew she was also on leave from her job as Principal at Auburn's Drake Middle School. But what we didn't know was she is the same person we had met around the corner 2 years ago and politely said we could feed her horses whenever we wanted to and is the owner of our beloved horse friends, Samantha and Martin! The light bulb went off when we walked by their house this morning on our walk after we saw the article in today's paper. It's a small world after all!

Pictures From the weekend - Part 1

This baby girl is a cuddle bug!




my Sweet Pea!


Lily Kate is old enough to enjoy a lollipop out of the highchair now...but it's best keeping her on the porch with it for now!


We found a dead chipmunk (named Simon) on our driveway Saturday morning and Annie ran to get her Princess cell phone so she could take a picture! Mercy! I loved it! A 3 year old copying her parents with the cellphone camera taking.

You Scream - I scream -

We all scream for ice cream!

Horse outting

We took a quick stroll in the morning while fevers were nil to see our favorite animal friends.
I love looking at LK's flip hair do! My own mother and grandmothers must have enjoyed this same view of me. They tell me I was nearly bald til age 2 and just a little redder than this.

pictures from the weekend -part 2

It was a busy weekend and a good mixture of grandmothering and mothering combined. Both girls had earaches and then came down with the fever virus. And we had them by ourselves Saturday and Sat night and Sunday morning while J & J zipped over to Atlanta for a party for my SIL's sister and brother in law to be.
We were able to get outside when there was no fever and play a little in the shade but bedtimes and nap times (or the lack of) were exhausting to say the least. I felt my motherhood repeating itself, but this time, 27 years later, I am not alone as before and my committed partner is helping me (except for the 1:30 AM - 102 degree fever episode of Lily Kate's :). I am thankful Pops is willingly by my side during these times and I really appreciated not having to do the dishes all weekend. The pictures really do not tell how bad the girls felt because they are well trained to smile at the camera :)

My Mother's Day Weekend

Needs a title!

I just recently had some photos developed from my other camera that have been sitting for quite some time (as you can tell).
Annie was given this dollar and the look on her face seems perfect for a title. Problem is I could not decide which title to label this post with it so maybe you blog readers will help me:

"Economy Going Down Hill, Grandchild Only Gets One Dollar"
"Economy Already Being Questioned By The Next Generation"
"What Is A Dollar?....No One Seems To Know These Days"
"Hey Bah Bah, There Will Be No More Black Sheep In Today's Economy!"
"Hey Mr. President, What Do You Expect Me To Do With This?"

You pick one of these titles or make one up and let me know!

Corey's baseball weekend

Lolli and Pops were fortunate to have 10 year old Corey playing his baseball tournament in Valley, AL and staying in Auburn. Last weekend while we were at Sydney's communion, we were not able to get too close to Corey since he had a little stomach bug, but this weekend, he was a key player for his team, the Georgia Raptors and he was feeling good, hitting good and pitching good. We got our good hug this weekend from this older Downes grandson that grew up sooooooo fast in our opinion.
Corey can pitch and hit real well and we were there to see him hit some of his team mates in and put his team ahead. They call him "sticks".


Loved this moment of him hitting the ball.....
...and then sliding into home plate! Fun cheering moment for Lolli and Pops!
Greg kept the team stats. We found it interesting that even on the Daddy's team hats was their son's number on the back. Corey is #10.

Greg has always been totally involved in Corey's sports teams as his own Dad was. It makes for some fun father-son sports events and the kids learn alot more than just sports by being with the fathers. I think some Leadership/Management genes are being handed down once again.

Couldn't help but reflect on the flag as we left the ball park. Flags could be a whole other blog subject but what it really makes me think about is "what will this country be like for these grandchildren in the next 10-20 years?"