Hills of Kentucky

Emma and I are enjoying the beautiful warm weather of the south. I am visiting my parents who live in Southeastern Kentucky. It is absolutely beautiful here! I worked in the yard on Friday doing what I love....digging in the dirt. :) I planted about 40 plants. It was fun. I love that kind of stuff. I even got a little sun on my skin, which I needed. I was beginning to look a little dead. ha.

Emma is loving playing outside. The first day we were here my Dad was going to take her outside and Emma said, "I need my coat on". It was 80 degrees outside. She definitely did not need her coat, but she doesn't remember playing outside without wearing a coat. Poor baby. :)

While we have been enjoying the warm weather, Kyle has had to deal with about 2 feet of snow that fell in about two days. They even sent people home early Friday. Crazy. They never send people home unless it is absolutely bad, because most people are used to driving in snowy conditions. I wished Kyle could have come home too. I miss horribly. There are so many memories Kyle and I have made here in Kentucky. We were married not even an hour from here. Our entire 2 year courtship was here in Kentucky. Lots of funny date memories have been coming back to me. ha.

It's good to be back. I need to get away and relax. It's sort of hard for me to do though. I keep wanting to work on something. I am loving Kentucky, but I will be ready to go back to Alaska next week.

Great service

We had a great service tonight.  We were expecting a small crowd because of all the people gone for vacations and retreats. But, we ended up having a decent crowd.  It always so encouraging to see people getting the help they need from God.  It makes our job as ministers worth every hour spent if just one person hears THE Message.   We had six new people in our service that are here for either a short two week assignment or just moved to Elmendorf.  Thank you Lord for growth. We want to see people reached for Christ.  That is what makes us love our job as Chaplain and wife. :)   

Tonight's service was exactly what Kyle and I both needed to be a part of.  I think we were both getting weary.   God just gave us the shot in the arm to let us know we are doing what He called us to.  Thank you, Holy Spirit for speaking when we don't have the words.  

Don't you know?

I am so weary.  I feel tired today because Emma woke up at 4:55 am singing  the song from The little Mermaid as loudly as she could.  She was cold.   I went in held her in my arms with a big soft and warm blanket and she went right back to sleep. THank you God for that!

I also feel weary in my spirit.  I think Kyle is too.  We have both been going 900 miles an hour it seems in ministry and I am hitting the breaking point. :)   

Today I just had to be reminded of how BIG God is... I love these verses from Isaiah 40.

"Do you not know?

Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God,

  the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He will not grow tired or weary,

and his understanding no one can fathom.

He gives strength to the weary and 

increases the power of the weak.

....those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength."

I needed that today.  The verse is saying to me,  Don't you know by now, Erica, I am the God who gives the strength you need!

walking down memory lane

I have been taking on a major project today.....cleaning out the guest bedroom.   We have our first guests arriving in May and this guest bedroom looks clean from first appearances, but there is so much JUNK that we have and it all ends up under the bed or in that closet! ugh!!!!  Annoying.  

I save strange things, but they have special memories for me.  I have spent like over an hour going through just one tote of paper work, cards, and other momentos saved from like 15 years ago. One cool thing about saving this stuff is you actually can remember things you would have forgotten.  I found several camp newspapers from the youth camp days.   That was so funny.  

I also found the card that was attached to the first roses Kyle sent me. More love letters. I found the program to Kyle's grandpa's funeral.  And a program from my friend Rebekah's Dad's funeral, great missionary to Africa, Robert Holmes.   I don't think I will ever throw that away.

I found Grandma and Grandpa Huff's 50 wedding anniversary program.  Dad's 50 birthday party announcement and program.  Kara's graduation invitation.  My college and HS speeches and even a song we sang at our college graduation.  This is getting crazy but I love the memories.

I found wedding invitations to almost every friend I have.  Seriously.  I am sorry I threw a  lot of those away.  I love you but that is just borderline strange for me to keep those.  I found a fan from Mandy and Brandon's wedding.  Okay I know I am weird.  

Honeymoon and vacation brochures and tons of postcards.  I always love to buy postcards on a trip because the pictures are so great.  

Fliers and brochures from OKlahoma district youth camp, convention, fine arts and girls retreat. Such fun times.  I don't want to throw it away. 

It was a fun experience to find all these treasures of mine.  I just need to put them in a scrapbook sometime or throw them out.  What good is this stuff in totes?  

God help me. 

I only have about 23 days until the first guests arrive and I will be gone for 12 of those days! agh!  Better go work. :)

Retreat in beautiful Alaska.

Retreat 2

I am looking tired in this picture. But the chocolate masks sure were fun! 
My friend Alahna.  We moved here exactly the same time and lived in the TLF at the same time. Danica came to retreat too!!! 
Kim was in my moving Moving Class last fall.  So glad she came!
Barb, Loree and Bevin enjoying paraffin wax on their hands and feet.

Retreat pictures

Kim shows up to pick me up wondering why I have all this stuff!!!
Five moose decided to come to the retreat this year.  I was in the building taking this picture, but they are running right on the path we walked to go to dinner! Got to love Alaska!!!
                Sherri Brunson, my friend who is leaving us to move to Charleston.  :(

Weekend report

Today, I have been recovering from the weekend retreat!  It has been wonderful to just stay home.   I had a completely empty calendar except for a contractor coming by to measure our counter tops.   Since we are moving next summer, we wanted to purchase them now so we an enjoy them before we move.  

 

Retreat went really well.  It was fun, relaxing, and renewing.  I came home a better woman, well, except for the amount of calories consumed on the retreat.  The only exercise I got while there was walking to the next meal!   The food was so good.  I don't know if it is because the cooks are really good or just the fact that we didn't have to make it! ha. All we had to do was just walk in and eat!   We didn't have to shop for it, prepare, cook or clean it up!  That is one of the best things about retreat!!!

Our speaker, Sharon Beeman, did a wonderful job.  She has a lot of personality and funny.  That makes a lot of difference for me.  I am so A.D.D. sometimes.  I start fading out if someone talks to long about something without illustrations, stories or something.  Sharon is a great communicator.   She kept my attention and that is hard to do.

Sherri did a great job leading worship. The songs she chose were perfect.  I know she was worried not everyone would know them or like them. But, it was great.  

I think God really just knew who would be there and orchestrated the event perfectly.  I loved getting to know some of the ladies a little better.  Game night was hilarious.  You really find out who is competitive! ha!  I thought at one point there would be blood shed.  Believe it or not I was actually one of the calm ones that night. 

I could write a book about the weekend, but I will just say it was exactly how God planned it to be.  I had a wonderful time.    

August Rush

I finally watched the movie, August Rush, which was highly recommended from my sister, Kara.  She loved it so much she watched it about five times!  I liked it too.  I still can hear the music score ringing in my ears. ha It's a pretty clean and decent movie for the most part. 

I loved the final quote of the movie something like "music is all around you, you just have to listen".   It made me cry.  I don't know why but it just made me think of God.  He is all around us.  We just have to listen.