Don't Spit into a Tornado

Well, after a whirlwind series of move-outs, car trips, reunions, airplane trips, weddings, more reunions, 80th birthday parties, more reunions, and finally almost-move-ins, I finally stole the laptop from my husband (who's been finishing his final thesis revisions) and found a way to get on the internet (thank you, Baltimore neighbor with a dangerously-unsecured wireless connection!). So sorry, all you bored readers out there, but we've been having way too much fun to stop and share any of our adventures until now. : )

Since it'll take me too long to go through all the details of the last month (and since I'm not sure how much you care anyway), I'll just start with the first few highlights and add more later. I only have access to the pictures on my camera since our possessions won't arrive until later this week and/or never.

Here is our last beautiful sunset from our apartment in Cambridge.

What a going-away present!

After finally moving out of our Cambridge apartment and driving 8 hours through the night to Baltimore and spending half a day to find a place to live (which we miraculously did), we stayed the night with my brother Rob and wife Erin who just moved to D.C. (family nearby us--woohoo! and they just announced they're expecting a baby--double woohoo!), and then drove another 9 hours to get to the Charles Family Reunion on a beautiful lake near Asheville, North Carolina.

Here are the Charles cousins swarming their beloved Aunt Celina when she arrived. Clearly they are overjoyed that she survived all those years as the only girl with 6 brothers. : )

We put on a Family Home Evening where Ben got to put on the "whole armor of God" (made by the resident engineer, of course) including such items as the Helmet of Salvation, the Sword of the Spirit, the Breastplate of Righteousness, and the Shield of Faith.

This was the first time the Charles parents and their seven children had all been in the same place at the same time since 1992! And now there's a whole plethora of grandkids to add to the bunch. Thank you, Grossmama and Grosspapa for putting on this reunion!

Here are the cousins "mining" for gemstones by taking a prepaid bucket of sand and then panning for the stones in the water. Everyone found a lot of great gems, and according to the eccentric, mullet-sporting, tank-top wearing, cross-eyed mine owner (I am not making this up), Sammy found the jackpot--a giant rose quartz crystal.

More to come in a later post . . .