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Hey Grandma,

You're with Jesus now, WOO! And you're with Momma too.
I've been on a blogging kick lately Granma so I'm writing this one to you.

You've been a beautiful shining example of a godly woman, mother and grandmother. So kind, so sweet. The Lord inspired me to paint a picture for you. I wish I had been able to finish it while you were still here so I could've explained it to you. But I'll finish it in light of your legacy and pray that many people will be touched by your life.

 It's a little silly but I was listening to a new artist I was recently introduced to and I thought of you during his song "The ball game." You definitely didn't waste any time, in my opinion. Andrew Osenga sings  about not wasting any time, and of course it was applicable to you.
The Ball Game, Andrew Osenga

 Grandma, you gave everything you possibly could to your family, esp  your grandkids. I loved spending the night with you. Watching Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune habitually every time at 7pm. I learned to love how you would fall asleep while you  read me a bed time story. I would lay there and watch your blinking get heavier and heavier, and your reading get slower and slower. Then I'd nudge you and you'd sit right up and laugh at yourself. You always made me put vicks vapor rub on my chest when I had a cough too. I never like that. haha. And you always let me play with your lipstick! That was so fun:)

And we can't forget your beautiful flowers, and bountiful garden. Or the chickens! Oh, the famous Henrietta! She was so cute as a chick, but even cuter when she'd follow you around the yard and garden. I never quite understood why you sold her to those Mexicans... haha I always prayed they didn't eat her.

I loved how you'd always save a biscuit for Keilo. Our fat puppy dog LOVED you for that:)

Oh dear sweet Grandmother, there's much more to share and say. You are an inspiration to me. Tanner, Eliza and I are so blessed by your spoiling and generosity to us as kids. Bless you precious lady. I'm so glad you're with your beloved maker. I'll be seeing you soon then!

xoxo,
Kathryn

LIZZY

I'm just gonna need to be a little sentimental for moment.

Lizzy just left for an awesome summer job in VA to live with my brother's awesome family and she's gonna do an awesome job with the middle school girls she's going to mentor. No way around it! ha AWESOME.

But, she has up and left me again. SAD. And good. It's good, and we are still so close despite the distance. We will be meeting up in TX in a week or so. That's gonna be grrrreat!

Anyway, I am choosing to be thankful for the two or so weeks I've had with her. I mean, I AM thankful. I'm just selfish and want to be with her always!  So, I guess  I'll list off reasons why I'm thankful for that girl.

Start singing with me:

We've got so much so much so much soooo much so much so much so much  sooo much *CLAP* to be thankful for!!!

I've got Elizaaaa to be thankful for, I've got Eliza to be thankful for!

--Repeat chorus--

(that's a camp song if you are a little lost)

I'm thankful she appreciate's my love for Kung Fu Panda. It's a little weird yeah, but she's promised to take me to see Kung Fu Panda TWO! yessss

I'm thankful she has good taste in music and belted the tunes with me all the way to cherokee cove. All the way until my voice was scratchy and I was coughing. And I'm thankful she likes my "Harmony" skills.

I'm thankful I have had all those fun times with  her freshman year of college... and I got to be the third wheel so many times:) Actually, it is sometimes way more fun being the third wheel. Well, when you're a twin it's a little harder, but mostly more fun because the guy in love with her just can't interprete our language in looks. I know secretly I really annoyed you many times Eliza, being super stupid in front of your admirers, ruining (actually enhancing though:) the mood - but I got your back babe



I'm thankful for the way you lighten my mood, interprete my grumbles in the morning and laugh at my absent minded-ness.

I'm thankful for all the times we laughed reeeeally hard too. I haven't done that in a while. Thanks pal.

I'm thankful for your cuteness, like the ONE time we went snowboarding this year and you went down at 2mph and after the 3rd run you wanted to go home.GREAT FUN hehe - it was though, it  always is!

I'm thankful for the floppy brimmed hat you got me, even though it hides my boy hair. And i'm thankful  you love the Cra-zay boy hair.

I'm thankful for the time you turned right back around and came back to CC this week just to spend one more day with me. I was eating a few too many animal crackers, then I got your call and i was just SO happy!.

I'm thankful you don't mind sappy blog posts dedicated to you. :D

I really don't know how I'd deal with life the past 6 years without you. We never were really close until Momma died huh? I mean, in preschool it was hard to get over how you managed to have TWO boyfriends and send the other boys to chase me around and bury me in the gravel under the slide! haha. Then third grade when we had that love triangle going  on and you didn't  tell duncan to like me, you just took his snacks. good job! haha. And then cooking in the farm cabin and perfecting the cookie recipe, and laughing at me when I drove the tractor. And NOT teaching me how to clog! And being really cute and frustrated when I'd try to get  you to sketch with me. baha. And never going  back packing with me. And not  saving me from the wolf spider hahaha. And that one time with Rebecca at CC when we rode on TOP of four mattresses, stacked on the back of the four wheeler, in the rain down the rocky, muddy trail from  the Christmas cabin. Good times :)



Well you  know me I could ramble more. Which reminds me, I'm thankful you helped me edit out all my major run-on sentence paragraphs in my scholarship essays. Fun fun. And the road trips. super fun! Ahhh! and the "interstate flirting"! baha. Ok  i'm done. This is getting out of hand, I could write a book! yeah-ah!





Well my friend, Love ya.

MUAH!

xoxoxo

C4C

This week at my place of work, in the middle of the woods,  it rained, it went down into the 40's and there were over 100 carpenters working there. Crazy!!
It is unbelievable to me that God, as Sam said, gave the Stephens and Cherokee Cove the biggest hug this week ever.

Those guys will never fully know what they have done for that family, and their ministry. I wish they'd come back next year, but the beautiful thing is they will keep moving on according to God's calling. It like the native tribe warrior in the movie "The Four Feathers" where he adopts Heath Ledger because God told him to. And for about a year, I guess, he follows, protects, and befriends Ledger until he knows it's time to move on. (I know that a really random movie, but I just bought it from a thrift store and it was pretty intense! and the black man is a beast! and Heath would've died if not for him. but the title is lame-o, to me)
Anyway, those men came along side Cherokee Cove and totally transformed little things, and big things like the conference center foundation! They picked us up and built us back up, brushed us off and now they're off to more brothers and sisters in need.

 It was so fun talking to them too. A lot of them have been going on these trips for years and they are so apparently filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit because they happily work on anything you put before them.
They are SO funny, but you can also see the love for Jesus, and God's people in them. It's beautiful to me.

One point in time sticks out to me. I was about to make the rounds with the camera to all the job sites with Sam when she ran back inside to get something. As I  was waiting I heard someone yell "three thirty!" (i think that's what said) Immediately everyone stopped what they were doing, knelt down and started praying. It was overwhelming. I think they do that once or twice a day. And I agree with Sam, because they do that, and because they honor and glorify the Lord in all they do, He blesses them. I mean blesses them abundantly! It brought tears to my eyes. What group of men does that? I was moved.

Here are the carpenters praying before a meal.

It was pretty different having the camp full of men (a lot of men) instead of the scraping booking retreats. Having those ladies groups three weekends in a row is fine! But it's a lot of women chattering away. Total opposite end of the spectrum when this group pulled in ha!

 I got Eliza to come out with me too which was SO fun. She would bring me ginger snaps while I worked in the office, read me quotes out of the "Fit to be tied" book on marriage HAHA, and make fun of my awesome dancing, singing and card playing skillz. She's the bomb (dot com!) and i love her.

There's Eliza sneaking us some fresh strawberries from
Mo, Bud,  and Bob.

I also  got a gift from Carlos who is from Mexico. He was the crew leader for the rock work projects. He gave me his heavy duty, 10 lbs, professional carpenter man, humongous flash light! haha! Its amazing! I can even charge in the cigarette lighter in my car! I'll definitely be leading more night hikes from now on :)  It was so sweet, and hilarious. It's staying in my car, right beside my hammock, as an essential item to travel with at all times. I'm thinking about renting it out. :) not really. But it's great!

There's Carlos, and there's the flashlight! :)

There are a lot of other funny, sweet things too, but I'm done here for today!
PS: favorite quote of my week: "I told some of these young bucks they better bag them up a doe!"
BAHA

Libby and Eliza gave out speeding tickets.

Here's a new johnny house!

Happy Mothers Day

Happy Mother's day Momma.

I miss you. So I'm going to write you what I would want  to say to you if I could be right beside you today.
You inspire me. You push me. You make me pursue confidence in Christ.  I continually tell stories of how you took Elizabeth and I all over the nation. You took us on adventures all the time! I am so thankful for that now. I know at the time I was always a little scared. I was insecure sometimes and didn't appreciate what you were giving me, but I am so thankful. I am so grateful for your prayers. Your powerful prayers. I am so grateful for your passion for learning. It rubbed off on me, a little. I remember the first fall ball you let us go to. You were sick but you made Dad take us anyway. You took us to get our hair done and I felt so pretty. You made me feel beautiful when I stepped out of my room, in my light purple dress, and walked up to the side of your bed. You gave the world to me, and now you're with Jesus. What a wonderful place to be! I am so happy for you now. I haven't always been. I have been jealous and mad Jesus for taking you to the foot of His throne. That was selfish, and now all I wish for my life is to be as close to Jesus as possible. You beat me to it. I am glad you are right there with the lover of your soul! I miss you. I love you. I still really love you.

xoxo,
Kathryn

11/29/2006

Today I have been cleaning around in my room and wrapping presents and writing letters... and right near my stationary shelf is my old journal shelf. Now those old journals are priceless... not because I was profound at a young age, but because I always write the funniest stuff, especially about who I'm crushing on. I just HAVE to share this excerpt because its great, just great... although the boy will remain nameless... even though I haven't seen him in years. ahem, get ready, drum rollll -

11/29/06

" (my crush) called me tonight. Here is a complete documentary of what all  happened:

Around 6:45, he called our cell phone. I had rushed up the stairs to find the phone. So when I answered I was breathing hard but trying to cover it and I was frantically excited which made me even more breathy. But he asked if we were going to the football game Friday night. And we are. How ever, someone else was calling him so he had to hang up. He called me back at Betty's around 7:30ish. 

We started a conversation about (ski slopes) sugar and app slopes and when the home school days were. But yet another person was calling so the little dingo hung up again. Around 8 he called back and we talked for, like 1 hour and 18mins. You know at first I was kidding him about how popular and famous he was. And so now we have an on going joke about his busy social calendar, and getting an autograph with his special pen etc. 

He's funny, but I like talking to him better in person. Anyway we finished with that and went onto g-mail and google and yahoo stuff. He invited us to get g-mail... Then he went on to fast cars, and thanksgiving, and fast cars, and CAP,and fast cars, and work, ebay and fast cars until his brother kicked him off the computer. Thank Goodness. 

Then we moved onto movies. He likes action and comedy.  His favs are Batman Begins, Lord of the Rings, King Kong etc. Of course I said I like chick flicks and my favorite movie was Princess Bride. But he said he like that one and that a few chick flicks were good. We proceeded onto school and Saxon math. And he's the best at math than any other subject.  But he's still not super good. And we both want to ride in really fast cars before we die.  He wants to fly a bomber plane. I want to ride a motorcycle before I die and he wants to get one and get his license.  He also wants to go  to Arizona where there are no speed limits and drive like crazy. I said I'd like to go to the Auto bon in Germany one day - he agreed he'd like to go there too.

 All in all, I really wanted to talk about something else more interesting, but I reckin' he was so nervous that was all he could do. Poor kid :) I hope he gets to come to the football game Friday night. That would be fun. But anyway, I wonder if he wishes he could have talked about so many other things, I wonder if he likes me. Right now I really don't  care about him, other than keeping our friendship. I know we need to grow up, mature more, deepen our relationship with God much more, before I consider getting my heart involved. The only thing is.... it already is....

-Kathryn"

Ooooh yes, that was me at 15.
 haha! That kid went on to break my heart. Did you like that ending by the way? Geeze I was cheese-i-licious! Read "Do you want to keep dancing?" for the complete tale of the quick end to our friendship/crush.
Those were the days, though, when Eliza and I shared a cell phone, we stayed with Betty a lot, and she would give me free reign of her house phone. Whew boy, and Dad never knew. But I told him today, and we laughed, a little, he mostly just shook his head. :)

-K.G.

This is RubyK - Installment 1

Have you ever wondered what might happen when a 19yr old and 22 yr old spend a large amount of time together and befriend each other through the winter months? No, not a life long romance... because you see these people are both females. Instead... A business! Yep, through a lot of creative ingenuity and lots of down time... Ruby K was birthed!

I'm not going to start for the beginning today because its really unexciting. Installment 1 is dedicated to Ruby K Designs first business trip!

Monday April 25 Jamie called me up and we decided it was time for a pow wow. We realized, after all the Easter festivities that we actually had a lot of work to do before a Tuesday trip. We were really sort of caught of guard.  But I mean really it wasn't that disconcerting. We really just made some last few earrings, created our display and printed out a picture of our logo to frame beside our display. TADA. Then  I think we ate pound cake and went to bed.

The alarm went off at 6:15am but I didn't get up until 6:45. heh. And I forgot my hair spray so my hair was a little poofy, a little wavy, and a little flat. Not what I anticipated for a day of first impressions. And  it was raining. And it was cold. And we forgot my ipod adapter, and couldn't find another one. But we did get a warm cup of coffee from Stick Boy and hit the foggy road by 7:30(ish).

I drove to Winston where we had another coffee break. Jamie drove the rest of the way, and we got followed for a short distance by a cop. FREAK OUT! haha She hadn't been speeding the whole time but she did a little bit of swerving once... she was convinced the cop was gonna give her a ticket because of it, so we slowed down to about 55mph. No worries, he passed us. :)

Once we got to Raleigh we had to find this warehouse that I called the day before in order to purchase some earring card holders for our display. This place was sketchy!!! There were tons of manicans and flashing neon signs inside, and out side it was a little deserted except for loading vans... creepy loading vans. But we marched in there and bought a 100 cards. Then marched right out quickly.

We meet up with Jamie's Aunt and had lunch with her cousins. We went to Five Guys Burgers and Fries. Delicious right?! Yes... except when you eat too many fries, like me. I confess! ok! haha So we still had to stamp our earring holders with our signature bird so Jamie let her cousin drive to the Nursery gift shop. Umm, I had forgotten  why I usually dont read in the car. And I figured it out while I was stamping the cards... I got SOO car sick. Reeeally car sick. And when I feel bad I don't really talk. And I got really quiet. And the display we made looked worse and worse... Jamie thought I was super nervous, haha nope! I seriously thought I was going to throw up. Not good!

So we meet the gift shop manager and she is as nice as she can be. Too bad I wasn't feeling well and half our stuff was still in the car! I mean really? Yea, of course that would happen. I ended up being pretty successful with the small talk though, and after some discussion at the gift shop we went to Jamie's uncle's office for a further presentation. The big dog, the boss man of the whole home and garden center! This would've been intimidating, except that he was kin to Jamie, and already loved her. He was SO nice, and helpful and shared a lot of business wisdom with us (thank you!) and over all the second meeting boosted my moral a lot. Plus the motion sickness wore off and I had some diet coke so I was pretty much as good as new!:)

All in all we left Homewood with eight earrings out in the world to circulate around and frame the pretty little faces of women in Raleigh. On the way home we made big plans to get more displays into local venues before the summer starts and Jamie leaves for Liberia.

On the way home, since we didn't have an ipod, Jamie decided to read Crazy Love aloud. I love it! I loved that she willingly read it aloud too, so fun. We came to the conclusion though that we wanted to really act on the crazy love Jesus has for us. So! each month or two we will be high lighting one friend/missionary or organization that will be receiving a portion of our sales. This month it is Sarah who is in Holland attending a school of worship! Next month it will be our friend Heidi who will be visiting an orphanage in Mexico! and so on. This is really exciting to us.

We still have a few wrinkles to iron out, but all in all we drove home tired, a little quiet, thoughtful, and full of Whole Foods grocery snacks, YUM!

Below are some photos of the escapade. They're pretty funny. They really capture the fatigue and loopiness for the whole outing. Pretty priceless.

Packing up the earrings!

This one is  my favorite!! baha. jamie looks photo shopped
in and notice the nice flying away hair on my head
and then of course the sleepiness!

yea, morning time = not our best time

At the end of the successful day. mmm lookin good(?)