icy sunday

With a little bit of anxiety, I set out this morning for church. There is ice all around... the temperature was well below freezing... we live in the mountains. There is no forgiveness when you slip off the side of the road. But. Well. I wanted to go. And I figured that there must be some special dispensation of grace for the trip to church.

Although there was this one time, many years ago, when Ryan was a tiny babe, when we ran off the road on our way to church on a snowy day. The car was stuck in a ditch near my mother-in-law's home so I bundled up my little baby and walked down the icy hill to her house. I slipped and fell while holding him but he never hit the ground. Three times I have had significant falls while holding my babies and never once did one hit the ground. Once I was carrying the two youngest at the same time and fell and they didn't hit the ground... but I sure did! Anyways... that one time we ran off the road - I believe it was my friend Mary's husband, Doug, who came to our rescue... so it would have been 1987 or 1988, I believe. But I digress...

I was glad I risked it. Even if church hadn't been a joy (and it was) the view of the mountains covered in ice was absolutely breathtaking! I took lots of pictures but with my laptop still limping along (as I have not yet had the time or money to deal with fixing it) I am not able to load those photos. Bummer. Once I do, you'll see what I mean... the sun glistening off the ice that coats everything... makes the mountains look - not just white - but almost silver! I thought to myself, surely this must be one of the things we'll see in heaven... such an amazing sight!

After church we had lunch at La Cabana - which lots of our friends do almost every week but we rarely do because of the expense and because I'm usually ready to get home. This week we went and had a lovely lunch with two lovely ladies and then got to enjoy the lovely drive home through our winter wonderland.

I'm glad we didn't get snow.

I'm now ready for spring.

Most likely it will be here in the next few weeks - that's how we roll in the south!

When I got to church this morning... Sarabeth was in the hallway with her friend Jessalyn (whose father grew up in the same church I went to - and whose mother was Austin's science teacher last year). Sarabeth and Jessalyn rushed to hug me... can't beat a warm welcome! I stopped by Jamie's class to get a squeeze and she squealed, "Aunt Heather!!!" and I squealed back, "Niece Jamie!" and got the squeeze I was looking for... and a young lady said, "are you Aunt Heather? I've heard alot about you...". I worry so much about changing my last name to remove all traces of the evil Darby reign in our lives when... maybe I should just forgo a last name and legally change my name to Aunt Heather...

Speaking of Aunts... it's my Aunt Ginger's birthday today... she was the best aunt ever until I became an aunt. I haven't quite mastered her talent for making paper dolls... but I always have gum.

Lazy rest of the day for me... the work week is back already and I'll have a busy weekend next weekend with my disaster recovery certification. I'm so excited, very excited about being a part of this ministry.

I think I'll make some egg salad... have a good day, y'all!