Speaking of scary things

So when I got on the internet this morning I had an email from my Papa with a link to see some pictures. All he wrote in the email was " Sorry I didn't invite you to my barbeque". These pictures were attached.


My heart sank. These are pictures taken of my great grandma's old barn and the trailer that sat behind it. The trailer was my Uncle's but now he has moved and it was deserted. No one was injured but still it breaks my heart. I know I have lots of memories of the barn and I am sure that my Papa does too.
The first pictures is my Papa and Uncle Mark looking at the trailer..to the right you can see my Nana who is rushing over to see what happened. She was at church when it started. She actually just had knee surgery so I sent an email back telling her to sit down and get off that knee!!!
The second picture is what gets me. It just my papa standing in front of all his burned memories. These are from the Enon Newspaper in Florida. I am glad that my Papa had a sense of humor about it all but it was definitely a shock to wake up to.

P.s.- I just love that all of the recent pictures I have of my Papa are of him in coveralls.
P.P.s- this is on Kinzie Lane.

Scary Things

So, as I was sitting in the library (where lots of thinking is done) I got to thinking about Halloween and all the things I am scared of. I don't watch scary movies. I started to realize that they really did get into my mind and so I just said goodbye to them all. Adam watches them...he's tough. I don't even watch previews b/c sure enough the minute I watch one I will find myself at home alone and Satan will pop an image into my head that takes a phone call to adam and some ice cream to get out!!! So anyways, here is what I am afraid of...in no particular order.
1. Adam dying first...no really, I rewrote our wedding vows so we didn't say "til death do us part" b/c that is just a sad concept to me. I know he will be in Heaven but it still scares me.
2. The dark...who knows what crazies could be in there.
3. Caves, no make that anywhere underground, no make that anywhere confining.
4. Bees, Yellow-jackets, Hornets-their only mission in life is to make me squirm
5. No Friends- I remember moving to JC and crying for weeks b/c we didn't have any friends...now we have so many that we are gone almost every night of the week and I LOVE IT!!!
6. My little brother driving-not his driving but the fact that he is out there on the road with the crazies.
7. Captain D's - fish from a fast food place just can't be right
8. The upcoming election- I am just scared of the changes that could happen...either way God is control
9. Having (adopting) children and being a horrible mother
10. Those big trucks with the big rims that look like they extend 4 ft into your lane.
11. Snakes- been there, done that
12. Needles,blood,anything that has to do with the internal part of your body...SICK OUT
13. Balding- I know it probably won't happen but there is always that chance.
14. Orks- from Lord of the Rings..if I ever saw one coming at me I would just lose it
15. Public speaking-not in front of the classroom, but like to crowds of 30 or more..I'm sweating already
16. Tornadoes- I have been through several hurricanes where tornadoes touched down all around my house, but I have never physically been in one.

October 08

Even though we (and by we I mean me) have not posted anything lately does not mean that there aren't stellar things going on in our life :). Ha...ok, maybe not. We really both have been busy. We are about 97% done with the kicthen and I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!! We have 60 inches of new cabinets and countertop space, the painting is completed, and the floor looks beautiful. We are still working on shoe molding and I am painting a window to hang above the new countertops. I will post pictures soon.
Adam has not been a happy camper lately though..his Auburn Tigers have lost 4 straight games in a row. I have quit watching games with him.....I don't like it when he gets mad :). So, while he is watching football I have resorted to knitting ( I taught myself) and scrapbooking. I have almost all of my homemade Christmas presents done...and the last couple should be finished over the weekend.
Elvis (the cat) has become quite a little terror lately. He stuck his head in my glass of milk, got it stuck and when he pulled it out took the whole glass of milk with him. The milk went everywhere and came within inches of our brand new laptop.....I could have skinned him!!! He and Priscilla have also got in the habit of waking us up after the alarm has gone off...Here is the procedure. Alarm goes off at 7, Adam hits snooze, 2 seconds later the cats are on top of us, purring like crazy (they are soo loud) and licking any inch of skin that we leave out from under the covers....it sounds cute, but becomes annoying after 2 solid weeks. Then they follow us into the bathrooms and play with the shower curtains and whine as if they are starving (which they never are, they are tubby). However, if not for them I am pretty sure that Adam and I would both sleep in and be late daily.
This semester is flying by..i have 6 weeks of class left before student teaching. I have never been so ready to get on with something then right now. It could be b/c I have a teacher who gave me a C for being an overachiever...no really. She said that I was asking my art students to think to much, and that they probably wouldn't be that interested in art or art history. I told her that I don't do C work. That sounds cocky..but its the truth. I give everything 110% (well everything academically :). So I redid the dumb project, made it "easier" and put the initial project in my portfolio to show off some day soon :)!!
Other than that I am loving my job at Woodland and enjoying the kids there. My last day at the Medical Bookstore is Dec. 4th-a day that I have been looking forward to for over a year now. I really do enjoy the people there, and have made good relationships but you try being stuck in a basement, where you can't control the temperature and working in a field that honestly makes you sick to your stomach. Just ask Adam, the mention of the word needles can make me upchuck.
I'm SUPER SUPER SUPER !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!( those are for you Angela :)) excited about Thanksgiving. Both of our families are heading up here for 5 whole days. My parents have not been able to see our house yet and neither one of them have met our church family!!!! They will get here Wednesday and leave Sunday after church. I am also excited that we will have enough room to sleep them all. My brother will be in the small guest bedroom, adam's parents in the guest bedroom, my parents in our bed, Adam and I downstairs on the sectional (where we sleep a lot anyways) and if Jason (adam's brother) comes he will have a blow up mattress downstairs.
I also get to make my first Turkey ( i think I will stow some ham in the fridge just in case). That Saturday is the Auburn vs. Alabama game and even though Auburn is having a crummy season it should be a good game. We have alabama fans coming and i think it will be great party. I won some catering from Main St. about a month ago and they are going to provide the food for that night.
Also, my mom is bringing up my wedding dress so that Brittany, Whitney and I can do trash the dress photos around Johnson City...I'm super excited...We are going to get our hair did and go crazy. I think my mom wants some more "good shots" though before trashing it...haha, lets just hope I can still fit in the thing!!!!
Ok, enough rambling...just thought I should give our blog a little attention.
Peace Out- and don't forget to vote early if you can!!!!

4 Day Hike

So today we are leaving for a 4 day hike on the AT with our good friends Whitney and Morgan (a married couple, morgan is the boy). Adam has already hiked almost all of the AT (they had to stop when his brother got lyme disease) and he has a 4 day route planned for us that will take us about 30 miles. We are leaving tonight and hiking about a mile in the dark to camp. Then we will get up Saturday and hike about 8 miles to where we are meeting two other couples from church to camp that night. Our camp site is about 2 miles from that meeting point. The next day we are getting up and having our own church service out in God's creation (this is what I am looking forward to the most). When I worked at Camp Rockmont in Black Mtn, NC we would get up every Sunday and meet on the pier in the middle of the lake and physically worship God as the sun came up. We would do certain moves to show gratitude, humility, forgiveness and other things...it sounds weird but it was very powerful and our worship can be physical!! Anyways, after that the two couples are going home and Adam, myself, Whitney and Morgan are continuing on for another 11 miles to our camping site for Sunday night. Monday we will have about 8 miles left to go til we reach our destination. I think all of us, minus Adam, have never been on a trip like this and we are very excited. Its been a lot of planning with packing foods, sealing foods, packing clothes, sleeping bags, tents, hygiene stuff ( a small amount) and arranging for a car to be at the end destination. I just know we will have a wonderful time and enjoy God's creation. Last night we took Whitney's car to leave at our last stop and decided to hike a little bit of the trail just to see where we would be ending up...it was breathtaking. The leaves are changing, the weather is perfect, and Whitney and I jumped twice in our little 500 yd walk at the site of bugs. Sounds like we are going to have a blast!

The VP Debate

Last night I watched the VP Debate. Someone asked me "why?, don't you already have your mind made up as to who you are going to vote for?". Well, No I didn't. And No, I never once considered voting for Obama. I just was not 100% for the Republican ticket yet..I guess that would have left me voting for Nader....or just not voting...which is another conversation for another blog. Anyways, I was very proud of Palin last night. I have been really troubled about how I felt with a women being in a "authoratative role" over the country and how that relates to men being our spiritual leaders. I have grown up Southern Baptist and I agree with thier doctrine that women should not lead over men. However, here I am thinking that on Nov. 4th I will more than likely vote for the Republican ticket....its a pickle isn't it? I mean I can't and WILL NOT vote Democratic, and voting Independantly would not suite me either. So what to do? Trust that God can work through her? Trust that God has a reason for her to be in this position...such as Ester? I know that God can and will work through imperfect people but there are places in the bible where He puts women in high ranking positions and they do make judgment calls over groups with men present. Its funny isn't. I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place.
Like I said though, I was very pleased with Palin's performance. She is a very likable candidate and I think she was very poised. She did not come off as a " unqualified, unintelligent, unknowing" person as the tabloids would lead us to believe. I do beleive that she is not your normal politican and not going to stand for those ways. I do believe that although she and McCain disagree on certain issues that she has our interests at heart.
My heart started to sink a little more with every word that both candidates said about Isreal, Iran and Pakistan. They said " wipe Isreal off the face of the planet", "have missles pointed at Isreal", "unstable governments with nuclear weapons at thier disposal". With so much uncertainty, my excitment over our upcoming move was definitely not increased. I just started thinking the worse...which by the way if that was a job I would be rolling in the dough. I just wonder how the situation in Isreal, especially Jerusalem will be next May/June. I know that God will take care of us, but we are not garunteed safety. I was talking to a mom at Educare, who adopted one of her sons from Isreal, about our trip and she kept saying " God's blessing is on that place, He will take care of you, He will bless you". And you know what, she is right!! God will take care of us, but I'm going to need His help in declaring that. Hopefully after the election in November some concrete interventions will be made in the Middle East and the government will be more stable than what it is now. If not though, God could still choose to send us there and I ask that you pray for us to be confident and bold. I ask that you pray for me to stop worrying. I also ask that you begin to pray for God to put Isreali people in our path that need to know Him, that need to meet Him. I'm thinking of sending IMB a letter to see what kind of missions that have avaliable over there. That would be a great ministry/ job for me while we are over there.
P.S.- you should see this kid that the lady from Educare adopted. His name is Noah and he has the most beautiful skin, dark red/brown hair and big brown eyes. He sees me in the afternoons and takes off running with his arms already open, yelling "Mrs. Kinzie"..When he gets excited, he grabs the hand of the closest person and invites them to jump up and down in joy with him....He has a little brother from gautemala and they hug each other in the afternoons b/c they have been seperated all day long and immediately talk about what they are going to do when they see thier dad.....melts my heart. WATCH OUT..we may bring some kiddos back with us!!