Joia and Philip and Kiddos

Way back on Eglin AFB from 2007-2010, we were friends with this family. When we got there, they had only one son (Keenan). While there, I had my boys and she had her girl (Moriah) and now she has one more and I have two more. They live in Kansas now. John and Philip were chief residents together. Here is John's Facebook shout-out to Philip:

They also play Wingspan! They taught us how to play "Flock Mode" which is for larger groups.

A lifelong friend. Joia is truly such a dear!

Yellow Fever

Yesterday, I realized, at the last minute, that I needed to take Sidge all the way to Bristol, Virginia for a yellow fever shot. He is going to be going on a mission trip to Colombia in June. We scheduled it with our dear friends the Shraders and hunt out together after the shots. We went to Bass Pro in Bristol and also had dinner at Five Guys (everyone but Sidge and me) and Chipotle (Sidge and me.) 

Here are a few pictures from our time:

 

 

Night Out

 

 

Had an opportunity to go out to dinner with our good friends a few weeks back. Forgot to post this picture. Love Richard and Mary Kay. They are great. We were stationed with them in the Azores when he was a fighter pilot and now he is a pastor on the other side of town.  

Good bye

This morning at 4am, my friend Erin and her husband Craig and two amazing kiddos headed out of Greeneville. I am sure I've talked about the Dunhams many times on the Blog. Craig and John were at the same class at Fort Lauderdale Christian School for most of their lives. Craig and I weren't big fans of each other at all. His mother was my 2nd grade teacher. John was in Craig's wedding, and then, life took us all over the world. 

I didn't know Erin at all, but in 2015, when we lived in Spring Hill, Craig was deployed with the Air Force, and she came to visit us in Spring Hill, TN. The first time I have record of a visit with her on this Blog was in 2016. 

Erin and I are very different people. She's organized, efficient, and Type A. I'm ... well, none of those things. But somehow, we fell in love with each other and have become fast friends. 

A few years ago, they came and lived on the farm for about 7 months while Craig was deployed again, and then this past year, they spent nearly all of it in Greeneville while planning their new life in Malaysia.

We took this picture on our last day of co-op together. I brought our favorite drinks (I'm working on not drinking much Mountain Dew) and Erin's coffee. 

I've had to say a lot of good byes in my life, but since I moved to the farm ten years ago, I have been a bit protected from those challenges. This week, it came up again. It is what life is, isn't it? We love. And we lose. Not that I'm losing Erin, but it is very sad to not have her with us in Greeneville anymore. 

We are planning a (tentative) trip to Malaysia to visit them. We have never been East of Turkey so this would be a big deal for us. We will see if we can do that. We are looking at December/January of 2026-2027.  

Last night, we drove over to have an impromptu dinner with them and say our final good byes. Most of my kids were at Youth Group, but Zach and Hannah and Zoey were there and got to spend some time together. Here are a few more snaps of the evening:

Our vacation buddies

It's rare to find people you like enough to vacation with ... multiple times. But this makes a third vacay with the Shraders. We went to Costa Rica together a year ago with our kiddos, we went to Belize this year, and then we did JUST the adults back in Costa Rica again this year. 

Just glorious.

Meredith has become one of my very dearest friends. We met through ballet originally although they aren't at dance anymore, but most recently, our lives have intersected through Heritage Home Scholars. Meredith is going to be the President of our homeschool Board this coming school year. We served together on the Board before I had to step off about a year ago for my mental health. But God is allowing me to return so we will do the Board together again. 

The Shraders have three children: Lily (14 almost 15), Hosea (11), and Janessa (6). I've made many friends here in Greeneville but introverted Meredith has secured herself at the top of my list of awesome people. I love her. In addition, Daniel is an outdoorsman like John. In fact, he attended one of the first permaculture conferences we had on our farm. They have some similar interests which is also good although introverted JB doesn't really "need" many friends. 

Daniel and Meredith run an amazing wedding venue on the other side of town. Check out their Wedding Venue here. 

Random Sunday gettogether

On Sunday, we randomly had a bunch of loved ones over to hang out. Gramps and Grama came over, Aunt Betsy (Grama's sister who now lives here), and Katie and Eddie and their two little ones. Jacob was with us as well. He is living in Bristol, TN (less than an hour from us) and tries to come and see a few times a month. Since Erin took some photos, I thought I would share them:

Craig was in town! He has probably only been here about 50% of the time as he is still doing reserve status for the military. He is at Langley right now. They will be staying in Greeneville (at my parents' house) for one more month before life moves them onward. They do something called "world schooling." Craig teaches law online so they move all around the world with him and experience all kinds of cool cultures.

The four youngest kiddos. The boys are now becoming too cool for pictures.


And with Erin. Hannah got that really cool BINGO dog (from the show BLUEY) at her friend Piper's birthday party.

Happy Birthday to Lily

 

This was the only picture I see on my phone from Lily's birthday. I should have gotten more! :) We went out and got burgers for her birthday. The Shrader family are some of our closest friends here in Greeneville. We love this family! And we were glad to get to celebrate with Lily. 

I also got this video of our singing her Happy Birthday. Here it is!

Greene County Derby

My friend, Meredith (along with her husband Daniel and her kiddos: Lilly, Hosea, and Janesa), invited me and the kids to the Greene County Fair. Sidge wasn't feeling well so I went with the other three kiddos. We were specifically there for the "Powder Puff Derby" (women's derby). 

It was incredibly loud. Incredibly. I will wear ear plugs the next time. Here are some pictures from our evening:

To be fair, we only did one portion of the Greene County Fair, and there are many different types of events that we could have participated in. But holy cow ... this felt like another planet. 

I have always wanted to spend more time with the animals at the County Fair. (I did spend time at the Minnesota State Fair which is a step up from the County Fair many moons ago.)

Firstly, we were the only people with our hand's over their ears. Are these people deaf?!

Secondly, JB saw many of the people that I saw at the fair later in his ER after fights and what-not that occur at the fair. 

Thirdly, I think I felt more out of place at this event than I did living in Turkey and the Azores. Truly this is a completely different sub-set of our county. Not saying that this is bad or good ... just different.

Fourthly, I let Isaac and Hannah (and Gabe and Eoin who joined us later) do one ride at the fair: The Graviton. Gabe actually passed out on this ride! I kid you not. And fair rides scare me. I don't think I am going to do that again.

I really love the Scraders 

 

Kelsey visits!

Oh do I LOVE my friend Kelsey. We have now been friends for nearly 20 years. She lives in Denver now, and MAN am I glad she didn't end up going "all the way" in being a nun. I jokingly call her my "almost nun friend" which doesn't offend her so that's good. I love what being a sister was for Kelsey and the nine years she spent in the convent. But I missed her. What a commitment it is to the family of people who commit their life to Christ.

Last night (Sunday), we decided to take Kelsey down to Knoxville a bit early. Her flight was scheduled for Monday morning. But between a projected snow storm for East TN and so many flights having been cancelled in the last ten days or soon due to an omicron-variant-covid-spread which is causing staff to be out of work, we really weren't sure she'd get out on Monday morning -- especially if we had to drive the 1:15 from Bulls Gap.

So instead, we went to Knoxville as a family with Kelsey after church on Sunday. (First we made sure we squeezed in a game of Wingspan!! Kelsey loves this game as much as I do. Abigail has also come over and is really getting into it with us. We played a ton of games while she was here.) We made a stop at a flea market where Isaac did some HotWheel car hunting (where Kelsey bought the girls some Australian Shepherd socks), found an aquarium store for Sidge's newfound passion, and then went to dinner at a first for the kiddos: A Brazilian Steakhouse! Quite expensive and not something you do very often, but what FUN!

Afterwards, we took Kelsey to her hotel outside of the Knoxville airport and said good bye. here are some last-minute snapshots in the hotel:

And here are a few photos recollecting our time together. MAN do I love this girl! She is truly a bosom friend of mine. While playing Apples2Apples (another favorite of our family that we played two times with Kelsey), Hannah became very determined to create "proper" bunny ears:

We also took TWO nearly five mile walks while Kelsey was here. The weather was Uh-maz-ing. A little rainy when she first got here, but in the 60's and even 70 while she was here. It ended quickly though with our snow storm!

Anni and Erin joined us for dinner one evening. Little Erin loved Ms. Kelsey: