Road Trip to Daytona Beach....

We left Friday at 5:00 pm from my mom's house in Rossville, GA. We stopped at Cracker Barrel's to eat and feed Hudson and then 6 hours (or so I thought) to go and we'll make a pit stop in Tampa to visit Aunt Judy and family. We made great time from Chattanooga to Tifton, GA where we stopped to gas up and I got some natural engery booster that only gave heart burn. After Tifton, time and miles felt like they were standing still. We got to Tampa at 3am and went straight to bed. The next morning Phillip (Judy's husband) made pancakes and they even cut their pinapple that they had grown (which took 2 1/2 years to grow). We enjoyed visiting family and eating cubans. About 4pm we headed to Daytona for the rest of our trip. Enjoy pictures from the first part of our trip.

Carmen and I at Cracker Barrel ....

Pinapple at it's greatest....yummy!

Aunt Judy holding Hudson...

The girls in the garden.... Carmen, Me, Anise, and Judy (the guys are taking the pictures)

Phil wanted me to say hello to the Michael and Matthew......be good while we are gone.

Chinese Food, Nail Polish, and Formula

Phil and I just celebrated our 3rd year anniversary yesturday. We went to P.F. Changs and had an incredible cross cultural food experience. We tried many different things and loved being out by ourselves. My mom came over to watch Hudson and my sister thought she should come so my mom could paint her toenails. Since we are leaving for the beach on Friday I figured she could paint mine as part of my anniversary gift. We had a great time together last night. I just really love my family and spending time cutting up.

Hudson has been going through a stubborn stage of not wanting to eat his night time feeding. This also includes his much needed medicine that is suppose to be taken appoximatly around 8pm. We are having a time trying to get him to take it then but are also trying to be cool about it. We went to speech therapy yesturday where we tried baby food. He wasn't having a good time and the therapist came up with a really interesting idea for getting Hudson to try new foods. We will start by using our finger and doing some therapies at home to get him used to different textures in his mouth. Pretty cool I thought. This week is very full of appointments, laundry, and taking care of Hudson but I must say life is never boring.

Thinking of all of this Phil and I are amazed at how much grace the Lord has given us. We still are able to laugh and not be serious all the time. I do like that I can be crying and mad one minute and the next laughing and feeling blessed.

I am a mix of emotions now and have many things to consider as I possibly look for a job, a new place to live, or other very serious things. It will be a roller coaster ride but I'm ready. Bring it on.

The Kilmer Family Reunion

Sorry it has taken me a few days to get this posted. Life has been busy but I must say last weekend was wonderful. We went to Phil's mom's family's reunion. It was filled with laughter, fun, and a time of reflextion on times past. Friday we all gave updates about each family because the last time we met was in 2006. We meet every two years. Saturday we played family games and had a blast. I amazed that everyone from young to old takes part. Saturday night we ate together and then met to watch a film about the good old days, then had our elephant gift exchange. Each reunion wouldn't be complete without a devotional time where the gospel is presented and a time of singing some wonderful hymns. We met at the Gastof Amish Inn in the south of Indiana. It was a great time and Hudson got to meet a lot of Aunts, Uncles, Grandma, and distant cousins. Enjoy the pictures below.

On the way to Indiana....

What a trip! We started this morning at 9am for Indiana. Hudson slept all the way to Clarksville, TN. So we stopped at Craker Barrel and ate. I had blueberry pancakes with blueberry syrup. After we left Craker Barrel Hudson began to cry. Phil eventually got in the back seat to console him. The ride was beautiful and we even saw sunflowers on the side of the road. We got to the Amish village and our hotel and met all that was involved with the reunion. We ate and then we all shared what has happend to each family since we last met in 2006. After this we all played a huge game of bunko and had a wonderful time. Poor Hudson was exhausted and we will go to bed soon. Watch tomorrow...there is more to come.

Vacation Bible School

This week is our annual Vacation Bible School. I have the priviledge of leading the Faith Finale each day. This year's theme is The Power Lab and takes place in a science lab where we learn about God's miraculous power. The stories, songs, and even snack time has been really cool. Each day a crew gets to make the snack for the whole vbs and the snack goes along with that day's theme.

I have enjoyed the finale everyday. We have done some pretty cool experiments too. I found myself at home singing the songs from VBS. I was trying to remember what VBS was like when I was growing up and one year comes to mind. I was about 8 years old and I remember everyone lining up outside under the sign with our age on it. I remember doing crafts., hearing a bible story and my favorite was hearing the missionary story. They would only tell a little bit each night and we had to come back each night to see how it ended. Now that I think of it God was starting to instill in me a desire to be a missionary. It's amazing how God uses children's ministries to impact a child. I am really appriciative that I was able to be a part of VBS now and in the past. What is your VBS memory?

A Great Weekend!

Wow! I woke up this morning feeling utterley exhausted. I just got back from having a great weekend with friends who are now family. It started on July 4th. Phil and I left for our great friend and Phil's old roommate from college, Josh Walker! We stayed at his house for the weekend. We had a blast. We went and watched incredible fireworks. We were so close we had to run from the firwork debris. Hudson seemed to be enthralled and of course we left tired, sweaty, and loving the American tradition of watching fireworks. We packed pb&j sandwhiches and sodas and headed out. We met some of Josh's friends and had a great time.

Saturday was great. It started out with Phil and Josh picking blackberries out of Josh's backyard and then making me fresh blackberry pancakes with sausage. Then Phil, Hudson, and I headed out to Toccoa Falls College to see Cathy, Nathan, and Ellie Doan (my old roomie from college and her family). We spent some time with them and it was great to be back in my 2nd home. Later that day we had more friends over to Josh's for a cookout. It was great to see everyone who is either pregnant or has kids. I never thought we would be having babies and living our dreams.

Sunday we went to church and enjoyed fellowship with Josh's church friends. Since we were headed home we couldn't help but to stop by our favorite resturant in Atlanta. We ate at Havana's cuban resturant. We had cubans, black beans and rice and ending it all with rice pudding. It was great end to a great weekend. After leading the Truth Project at church we came home and crashed. A weekend well spent!

Independence Day......

Do I really take a moment and think about being free? I remember trying to explain this holiday to my arab students in Lebanon in 2001. Wow! I found myself on the thin line between a freedom of a nation and freedom in our hearts and minds. I told them of the true freedom we can find in Christ. I'm not sure how it was received but so many times I keep myself locked up in the chains of sin and I don't allow myself to live the life that my God so eagerly paved the way for. That is freedom from sin and freedom to follow Him. Are you free today? Do you lock yourself up in sin, lies from the enemy, or lies from our culture?

One thing is certain, I do know I am blessed to be an American citizen. I have never known the sting of not being able to pursue my dreams and to pursue my Lord in a country that does not allow freedom. I would love to hear some of your experiences with this issue of freedom.

"It was for freedom He set us free..."

A New Post ....

Wow! I finally did it. I have been saying for months now that I would start a blog. I do have many issues in my life that I need to get out and write about. In return I would love to hear your feedback and know someone gets a kick out of this blog. I am amazed of the blogs that we keep on our favorites; how many of them have some of the most profound and interesting things to say. I'm always excited to see what is going on in the daily life of our friends. So to those who choose to read...Enjoy!