Like a bootcamp

Friday evening we joined eight others in Fayetteville for the opening night of the Dogwood Festival. Our dear brother, Bill (pictured below) had a booth set up. We gave away free Bibles, lots of tracts, and balloons to the children. The balloons allowed the gospel to be shared with folks that would have otherwise not come up to the booth.There were several one-to-one encounters that took place throughout the night. There was one time when Becky and I were having two separate conversations underneath the tent at the same time and we actually synced while sharing scripture with the individuals ... so it amplified our point. It was neat. What an amazing privilege we have! We packed up the booth around 10pm and we headed to Krispy Kreme for some yummy donuts and coffee and some great fellowship. :)


Saturday morning we headed to the pickle festival. We walked around, passed out tracts and had a few one-to-one encounters. We enjoyed some yummy festival food ~ a sausage do for Tony and a gyro for me. Mmmm. Mid-afternoon we met up with Mark and his family. Mark and Tony open air preached ~ starting with some trivia questions. "Free money" always attracts people. ;)

After church on Sunday, Tony & I went to the Wings Over Wayne airshow. Thousands of people attended. And we were able to pass out nearly 1,000 gospel tracts - well mostly Tony, since I was standing under my umbrella protecting the sunburn I received at the festival the day before. :)

Veggie Wedgies & Growing Garden

Last night for dinner we had "Veggie Wedgies". A couple weeks back we had ordered one from a local restaurant. It was pretty tasty ~ so I decided to recreate it here at home. :) Here's my recipe: prepare pizza dough (I made this in the bread machine). Spread out onto baking sheet and bake for 6 minutes at 350*. Meanwhile stir-fry some green peppers, onions, and garlic until tender. Spread grated cheese (I used an Italian blend) on the pizza crust and sprinkle generously with basil (or whatever seasoning suits your fancy!). Put this in the oven for a few minutes to melt the cheese Pull it back out and spread the heated peppers, onion, and garlic along half of the pizza - fold it in half (creating like a Stromboli of sorts). Toast on both sides in the oven until desired doneness. You can turn the oven off now. :) Open the Stromboli and top it with the raw veggies of your choice. I chose thinly sliced cucumbers, tomatoes, yellow squash, and lettuce. Spritz with some type of Italian dressing (I used a vinaigrette). Fold back over. Cut. Serve. Eat. Mmmm. It was so good!! Couples well with a pasta salad and/or chips.

You can see above that our garden is growing - or I guess you could say spreading. I've added four rows of corn behind the pea trapeaze and also a mound of zucchini to the right. So far our lettuces, carrots, peas, tomatoes, and cucumbers are sprouting. It is so exciting. I've been walking outside each morning with much anticipation to see what took place during the night. :)

Still loving our grain mill~!!

Since January we have consumed nearly 40 lbs of freshly ground wheat berries. :) I am sooo glad that Tony surprised me with this awesome machine!! I just scoop out the desired amount of berries, drop them in the top of the machine, and wa-la! Flour comes out the bottom in a matter of seconds. It's truly amazing if you ask me. ;) The main reason we choose to grind our own flour vs. buying it from the store would be for the health benefits. Here's a short science lesson for ya! A wheat kernal is made up of three basic parts: the endosperm, bran, and germ. (If you search wheat kernal diagram in the google serch engine, you can see a picture. Gotta luv google. Haha). This kernal is filled with over 30 vital nutrients and vitamins. These kernals will keep indefinately. But, as soon as the outer shell is cracked, the nutrients began to oxidize. Within 72 hours, most of the nutrients are gone. White flour that you purchase from the grocery store is made from the endosperm only - leaving out all together the treasure of nutrients found in the bran and germ. And through the process all nutrients are gone - that is why they have to "enrich" the flour; but they only put back about 4 of the vitamins out of the 30 or so that were lost. Wheat flour from the grocery store does use all parts of the kernal ... but because it is well over 72 hours since it was milled, it is nowhere near as nutrious for you as it could be. Hence the great benefit of having a mill right in your own home. (Who would have thought??) Then you can grind the wheat kernals as needed ... and recieve lots of yummy-good-for-you stuff. :)

Solid Rock

Birthday & visit from Mimi

Well, Tony is officially 27 years old today. I am so very blessed to have him as my husband! {HAPPY BIRTHDAY LOVE} We had a family celebration at his parents house on Sunday. Hamburgers and hot dogs with lots of sides and Heath ice cream cake for dessert. The nieces and nephews sang "happy birthday." Cute!

I took a walk around "Papa and Nanny's" yard with Cayleigh, Mary Grace, Marshall and Peyton (who was being pushed/dragged by Marshall. I had to remind him that Peyton wasn't a toy. Ha!) The girls held my hand as we walked through the woods along the back of their property. A big stick got wedged up in the wheel of Peyton's car which prevented it from rolling. Marshall and Cayleigh were quick to repair that. As we left the woods, we stopped by the chicken house where Cayleigh picked up 1 fresh egg - in her pocket it went. Next stop was the bike ramps. We ran up and down several times and pushed Peyton up and down (gently of course). :)

We stopped by the sand pit / construction site. Below they were building a nice sturdy ramp so that Peyton could be pushed up into the garage. :) Back to the ramps we went for more ups and downs. Then we made our way to the swing set - picking flowers as we went. It was a nice little walk just the five of us. :)

That evening we went to my parents house - Mimi (dad's mom) and Keith came for a visit from the mountains of NC!! :) We talked a lot, ate a nice meal of chicken breasts stuffed with tomato, basil, and provolone cheese; green beans, pasta with pesto, and dinner rolls. Yum! Two pots of coffee were devoured along with mom's carrot cake.

Matthew and Keith provided some music - guitar and harmonica. Some of us even danced along. Lots of fun! :) Then we opened our gifts from Mimi.

Monday morning Keith and Mimi gradually packed up their things. Mimi got some different plants from my parents yard to transplant into hers.

See my dad's contribution of weeds on top - he said they grow really well. Haha!

Time for some pictures...

Dad, Mom, Keith, Mimi, and I went treasure hunting at Ollies discount store. And ate a late breakfast at the Lantern Inn. Then we said our goodbyes.

Glimpse of our garden and other things

Carrots, cucumbers, lettuces, spinach, and arugula planted in the garden box. I noticed little lettuces poking their head out today. So exciting! :)

Big tomatoes and midget tomatoes planted in buckets
that will eventually be hanging upside down.

Peas planted around the "trapeze" and green bean bushes planted
in the two rows. There's still more to be planted ... corn, peppers, zucchini, flowers ...

Freshly mowed grass

Bridal shower for our niece.

Spending time together.

Baby shower for our friends.

Pepere' and Memere'

This past weekend our Pepere' & Memere' came for a visit (that is French for Grandpa and Grandma). This would be my dad's dad and stepmom who live in the pretty state of Connecticut. :) Here they are with four grandchildren - Joey, Shayna, Matthew, and Brittany. (Matthew always makes a goofy face; he says he doesn't like posed pictures). ;)

They arrived early afternoon Sunday ... on Resurrection Day. Tony & I went to church that morning and then to a family get together at his parents house. I didn't get any pictures from there. Boo hoo. Lunch was great though and it's always fun watching our neices and nephews - they're growing so fast. We were at my parents house around 4pm. We ate a yummy dinner prepared mostly by dad & mom (pictured below). Then we stayed and chatted for a few hours. It was a nice visit.

Tony was the only one that had to work on Monday. :( My family came over our house for about an hour that morning. Then we went back to my parents house (it's real nice only living 4 miles apart). Pepere' & Memere' were buying a souveneir mug for each of our cousins back in CT ... one of them had broke, so I rode with them and my parents on the base to get a replacement mug. :) There were lots of laughs on the back seat.

When Tony got home from work, we all went out to eat at Pupetta's Italian Restaurant. Mmmm! Dad had called to make a reservation for 10 people. Joey & Chrissie arrived first and they said there was no reservation. No biggie; they just sat them down at a huge table that seats 14. We all arrived and gathered around the table ... after about 10 minutes dad gets a phone call from the restaurant, asking if he still wanted the reservation? Dad said, "We're already seated." There was confusion on both ends of the phone. Come to find out, dad had called the old Pupetta's number which is now Illiano's Italian Restaurant. Ha! :)

After some yummy bread and pasta, and lots of talking, we said our goodbyes. This would be the last time we'd all be together on this visit. From there, Tony & I went to Sam's Club to pick up his early birthday present ... an iPod Touch. We're both pretty impressed with all this little gadget can do! How did we ever live without one?? ;) Happy Birthday my love!!

Tuesday morning, Dad and I joined Pepere' & Memere' for breakfast at the Country Skillet. Pepere' and Dad had large cups of coffee; Memere' had a little; I had none. The guys enjoyed french toast with bacon (and eggs for Dad). Funny that they ordered the same thing. Since there are many miles between here and Connecticut, we do not get to see each other often. The last time they were here was for our wedding - almost four years ago. We did have a real quick visit with them last year about this time, when we went up for Laura's wedding. And I 'm looking forward to seeing them again in JUNE, when we go to attend Scott's wedding!

Pepere', Memere', and Dad

Campus Tour - April 09

After church last Sunday (4/5) we traveled to Newport News, VA to spend a few days evangelizing with the crew there. That evening Nathan & Mary invited over many friends and hosted a yummy cookout. The fellowship was great! Monday morning a group of us went to the local Abortion clinic to minister to the ladies there. Nathan, Tony, and Marcus tried to reason with this lady pictured for several minutes.


From there we went back to the house for a bit, then we made our way to the University of Virginia in Charlottesville - about a 2 hour drive. Part of our group set up at the outdoor amphitheater. The guys took turns open air preaching. Paul and Don set up not too far from us - Paul is with Open Air Campaigners and uses visual aids to engage the students. Several one-to-one conversations sprung from this presentation.

Prayer

Marcus

Tony toward the back

Ham speaking with a young lady.

Tuesday and Wednesday we spent the day at Virginia Commonwealth University. The Lord opened the hearts of several students to pay attention to what was being said (Acts 16:14). Many one-to-ones took place. There is a large Christian presence on this campus - which was very refreshing! A group of Christian students meet at the compass every day at noon to pray for their campus. Two of the groups I spoke with were familiar with The Way of the Master and witness to their classmates on a regular basis. Praise the LORD! May the glorious truth of God's Word continue to spread at VCU!

The student in the striped shirt had his Bible handy and started
to share scripture with one of the hecklers.

TRUTH

There were several Muslim students on Wednesday.

After dinner on Wednesday we made our way back to NC - home sweet home we were at 10pm.