The winds have settled!

We've had a blustery couple of weeks around the Shelton household! AWANA has gone great for Ian. I stayed with him the first night, just to see what all went on. He had a good time, but whined a lot. I think most of that had to do with me being there and also this being his first time in a structured environment. Last Wednesday I just dropped him off, and his teacher said he did great! I'm so glad he's having fun there!

We also made it back from our trip to Asheville in one piece. It was a jam-packed weekend! Here's a quick rundown of what we did:

We left Thursday around lunchtime and got to our hotel about 6pm. Ordered Papa John's pizza. mmmm! Let Ian jump on the hotel bed a bit. Went to sleep. Eventually.

Fri morning DH left to go to the conference. We slept in, played in the tub, and watched cartoons. DH came home for lunch and we went downtown and walked around. Found a neat little Indian cafe and had a super yummy lunch! Hung out at the hotel the rest of the evening while DH was in meetings.

Saturday morning I took the boys to the pool while DH was gone. DH had the afternoon off from lunch till about 6, so we took the boys to the nature center downtown. Ian was tickled pink! He got to see bears, a cougar, wolves, snakes, and all sorts of other animals. There was even a petting zoo! We hung out at the hotel the rest of the afternoon while DH went back to the conference to present his poster and do his fru fru supper with the big wigs. At least he brought me back leftovers!

Sunday morning DH had a meeting until 10. He came back and I had everything packed to go, so we loaded up the car and checked out. I had found a church I wanted to attend, and DH had been sitting all weekend so he decided to take the boys to a playground while I went. Here's the funny story from the weekend. The name of the church was Grace Tabernacle. It said it was nondenominational in the phone book. Well, we had a hard time finding it so I didn't get there until about 10 after 11. I walked in the front door and there in the narthex was a table. On the table was a menorah, a little arc of the covenant, and a horn of David. So my brain went into overdrive...."Um...is this a Jewish temple? The name IS tabernacle...but it said church in the phone book, I'm sure of it! But man that guy over there definately looks Jewish. But it's SUNDAY!" Total brain cramp! Anyway, I went on in and it was a WONDERFUL sermon! Just wonderful. The pastor talked about how Jesus kept trying to get the disciples to trust Him, but they kept being human and worrying...like in the boat during the storm. The pastor said don't fight the storm! Just make sure you have Jesus in your boat. Remember, the same waves that scared the disciples rocked Jesus to sleep. Talk about peace that passes all understanding! It was just wonderful! So after church we drove up the Parkway a bit and stopped at a campground. We pitched our tent and then hiked down a path to Crabtree Falls. I totally forgot to take my camera! I could kick myself! UG! Anywho, we got back, lit the campfire, cooked dinner and roasted marshmallows. It was Ian's first time camping. Monday we got up and cleaned up our campsite and then drove to a place called Gem Mountain in Spruce Pines where you can buy buckets of ore and sit at a flume with a seive and you keep whatever gems you find. We found TONS of stuff...rubies, emeralds, garnets, topaz, and all sorts of semi precious stuff like amethest and aquamarine. Just wish we could afford to get them cut! Then we made the 6 hour drive home with a quick stopover at my moms to eat supper.

This weekend, our friends Denis and Crystal and their kids Noah, Alek, and Mikayla came Saturday to watch the ECU/NC State game with us. We lost. *sigh* Another year of getting pecked at by Wolfpack fans. Alas! We spent the evening and night playing games: the kids in the dining room and us adults in the living room. Much dead cow was consumed. It was a great night! They slept over and this morning half the house woke up with a bad headcold. We missed church so as not to spread the headcold love. Tonight, DH and I are just enjoying some time alone. I need to prepare some more things for school tomorrow and he needs to keep himself sane as he heads back to work. He's been working 10-12 hour days recently, and also on Saturdays. I can't wait for this rotation to be over with!

Praises! We seem to be ok moneywise right now. We were able to pay off a couple of small debts from a reimbursement check. Praise God! We are just trusting God to provide for us.

Prayer requests: Ian, Zollie, and I all have a cold. Please pray that we get well soon (especially Zollie...he's so stuffed up that he can barely nurse) and that DH doesn't get sick. He's working so much this month, he really can't afford to feel bad.