Vernazza

Thought I would post one of the destinations I'm most excited about on our Italy trip. Vernazza is the next to northernmost town and perhaps most picturesque of the five towns of Cinque Terre in Italy. Colorful, antique homes cling to impossible cliffs. It is a charming, small fishing village. If you look closely, you can see the terrace of our bed and breakfast in the bottom center of the picture..the one you can see below the trees. Ancora!!!! (Breathtaking!)

Almost forgot about this thing

It's been a long time since my last post. Sort of forgot about it with my recent obsession with Rick Steves. His website now dominates all my spare time as I read every morsal of information I can get on Italy before our trip. Only 10 days left according to my countdown on my work calendar. I love crossing off those days!! However, I grew sad last night thinking about the let down after the trip is over. I hope the actual trip will be as fun as the planning. Nathan has been traveling Monday-Friday for the last 4 weeks. Man, I'm missing him. We're on week 5 of 5 right now and I'm so thankful this morning was the last Monday I'll have to say goodbye for a while. While I'm so thankful for his job and his desire to do well in the position God has called him to, it's just hard to be apart. Praise God he brings hard things to make us grow and depend on Him. God has been so gracious to provide time to grow closer to girls in my life in Atlanta. I feel more at home here than I ever have.

Well, two bigs events occured since my last post. Nathan and I got to meet our most precious new nephew for the first time and our other precious nephew, Rob, turned 7! Reece Corbitt Anderson was born on May 26, weighing 7 lb. 14 oz. and 19 inches long. Nathan and I made a whirl wind trip to visit him 10 days after his birth. He is adorable! I was most overwhelmed with how small he is. His tiny hands, feets, fingernails, and toes! Pictures will come soon. Also, on June 18th Rob turned 7! He had a swim party and a bowling party. We were sad we couldn't make it, but got to send a little something to know how thankful we are for his creation and celebration of his life.

Hopefully, I'll keep this more up to date and get to share Italy pictures soon!!

God's Mercy

Well this past Monday marked the fourth round of lay-offs for Nathan's company. Nathan made it!!! God is so gracious to let us stay there. However, more than the obvious reasons of a paycheck, insurance benefits, Nathan's assurance, comfort, etc. ; I'm overwhelmed with how thankful I am of God's leading. Of course He's always leading us, but I feel very confident that His plan for us right now is to be in Norcross. I guess the main work in that sentence is "feel". It's not good to rely soley on feelings, but when The Truth and our feelings match up leading to worship, it's pretty great. On another note. This past weekend we celebrated Nathan's 10th year out of high school with a reunion of school mates in Clayton. It was great fun getting to catch up/meet (for me) with folks, some of whom Nathan hadn't seen in 10 years. The girls were extremely friendly and easy to get to know. I miss the hospitality of small towns. At one point we managed to be the only childless couple in a discussion on lamaze classes. As the discussion grew more and more personal then crossing over the line into a world a man with no child should ever be exposed to, I had this great urge to just cover Nathan's ears. Wow! I thought I knew most things about childbirth from friends, but I had definitely missed out on this one. Think we might skip those classes.

Widows

Nathan has been gone on business this week which has given me far too much time by myself. Last night as I was frightened by the thunder and lightning outside, my mind went to widows. I can't imagine the pain and shock of losing a husband. The sudden shift from constant companionship to none is hard. Of course I realize that my time of being alone has been brief and has a end in sight. By no means am I comparing these few weeks alone to being a widow. However, I had no idea the dependancy I have on Nathan. As I was eating my dinner alone, cleaning the house alone, and going to bed alone, God gave me an intense compassion for women who make this transition in life. Ms. Betty T, my mentor in Auburn, always reminded us that statistically most women will experience this loss in their lifetime and God offers special care for them. Strangely enough, I was debating all day about driving to Booneville to see my new nephew (more to come about him:), but felt it wasn't the right thing to do. I kept thinking last night that if I had just gone home I wouldn't be experiencing this sadness, lonliness and fear. However, I guess that is exactly what God wanted me to feel. As bad as my flesh hates pain, I can see how it is necessary it is to bring me to depend on God. I have a new perspective today...greater thankfulness for Nathan, softer heart for those who suffer-especially widows, and more humbled awe of God's plan. Who knows, maybe God will use this to have me involved in a widows life. Hold me accountable to that option.

Way over our heads!

On Saturday morning, Nathan and I ran/biked in the XTerra Duathalon in Pelham, AL which was part of a bigger race called the Southeast Cup. Man, were we out of our league. We knew there would be pros there as this race is a qualifier for an Xterra Iron Man, but we weren't expecting the seriousness of the other amitures. I knew I was in trouble when I was one of two runners not in spandex at the starting line. :) Nathan did an excellent job biking. He biked the entire 17 miles very competetively without stoppng (except for a brief walk at the blood mountain section for which I am very thankful since it was wet and dangerous). I did a very poor job running, if you want to call it that...truthfully, it was mostly walking/gasping for breath up the ridiculous hills. We're pretty bumbed because our race time was not listed on the results page for some reason. Hopefully we can email someone and get our results. Regardless of results, we had a GREAT time being a team and doing things we both love. This weekend was full of travel! From Birmingham we went to Montgomery, AL to Nathan's cousin, Lisa's, wedding. Then on to Clayton to hang out with family, then back to Atlanta for relaxing night at the Westin. See the pictures of our Chili's dinner in the room (thanks Ms. Barbara and Mr. Harold for the gift card!) and Nathan's "engineering" to keep the milk cold overnight.

I'm a Blogger!!

Can't believe I've eaten my words and the Curries are in the Blog World!! I'm not telling a sole, except Nathan until I figure out if I can keep this up.