A Surprise Trip.

Lest some of you think I fell off the face of the earth... I did not:o). I knew I was in for a pretty busy week with Revival Services last week and towards the end of the week, I went with a family in my church to Tennessee ~ a complete surprise to all the kids in the family and my sister-in-law who came down from Indiana! The plan was concocted a few weeks ago, but my friend agreed to keep the whole thing a secret, telling only her husband. So after church Thursday night, I headed out to her house and was met by several of her confused daughters who couldn't figure out why I was there until it dawned on them that I was coming with them:o).


The main purpose of the trip was to help the family out with a house they recently bought ~ beautiful, but in need of a lot of work! So we spent the weekend cleaning, painting (the whole first floor was painted in yellow... I like yellow, but this was a little extreme!), and just general work...

An added bonus was the opportunity to see my sister-in-law, niece, and nephew. Originally my brother and other nephew were coming too, but in the end it worked out to be the three of them. The secret of the past two weeks was completely worth it... my sister-in-law shrieked when she saw me! Since she wasn't expecting to see me for another two months, this was a huge surprise!

(Hopefully she doesn't cause great harm to me for posting this picture!)

The weekend was so fun, peaceful, and quiet... well, quiet is a relative term. There were 10 females in the house and one very active 5-year-old-boy, so it wasn't quiet in the realm of noise but it was a very relaxing weekend. I've found yet another place I would love to go back and visit someday... Muddy Pond, Tennessee!

Seeing my nephew is always such a highlight for me. He is talking more and it's understandable too! Towards the end of the trip, he began to say "we go home now", but Kim and I knew he was definitely done with Tennessee when he said to me, "Good-bye Auntie Anne"! I'm looking forward to see that whole gang come December:o).

The whole trip was very pleasant, minus having a queasy stomach early Tuesday morning and having a tire blow out on the trailer two hours from home. Thankfully I feel much better now and two very nice men (one from Mississippi and one from Carlisle, PA) helped us out with the tire, which was a huge relief to us!

There's no place like home, but I sure do love taking these trips... and the next one's coming up in just a couple of weeks!