Alaska Bound

On our way to Alaska tomorrow. I have decided not to take the computer with me and take a break and vacation from that addiction. So you will have to wait till after the 20th to see the pictures and get an update. I know you will be waiting with baited breath :) I can promise you that I will not be missing this heat while I am gone. Hope we will return home to all things being well with you and yours.

Maryville, Tennessee

So if you Google "places to retire in Tennesee" you will find the number one recommendtion is Maryville, so we checked it out today.
Nice town, still a little larger than what we think we are looking for but it definitely had some pluses. Major one is that it is only 30 minutes to the Great Smoky Mountains. It has everything you would want, including my number one requirement. We are blessed to have a Garmin and that has helped us to find a lot of things including a church of Christ. So we were pleasantly surprised to find this church looked fairly modern and not that small.
So then we found the 2nd church of Christ which was more like what we expected.
They must be looking for a minister, because one was not listed, just the youth minister. Oh yes, we turned the corner and found out we were mistaken the sign was just in the yard of the house, here is the actual church. Wow! I am pretty sure it was bigger than R.E.


We then headed to the Great Smoky Mountain Scenic drive.

77 degrees, sunroof and windows down, 18 miles along the river. It was beautiful!

Tomorrow it is on to Nashville and the wedding. We got a great deal on the Sheraton Downtown on Priceline....woo hoo!

Trucks, Trucks and More Trucks

Boy have we been seeing the 18 wheelers on this trip! And numerous police suv vehicles, sometimes 3 or 4 at a time. Never have to worry about that with Steve driving as he ALWAYS goes the speed limit. Anyway...just thought I would post a few pictures of the trucks. I have been taking lots of pictures with our new camera so that I can be in good practice for our Alaska trip.
Our Avalon was excited to see so many relatives.

Some carrying interesting loads.

I had no idea that trucks could run away from home :0

I was amazed to see this one, because I did not know Fruit Stripe gum still existed. I loved this gum as a kid.

There were even flying trucks.


Finally today we took a ride on an Incline Train. It was a 72.7 grade built in 1895. It was interesting but definitely not worth $14.00 a piece for 30 minutes.


Tomorrow it is on to Knoxville.

On The Road Again

Steve and I are on our way to a wedding in Nashville. The wedding isn't until Thursday but we decided we would come early and just spend some time exploring Tennessee. We have both thought it might be a good place to find our "small town America" to retire. After talking on our trip today Steve is thinking maybe he would like Ohio or Wisconsin because there would be more opportunities to enjoy aviation events. We have heard that Ohio is one of the lower cost of living states. But most of all we want to go where God can use us...we realize that He can use us anywhere, but we are feeling called not to just be involved in "church" but to be more missional in the community where we live. We said maybe we should just stop at little churches on the way and ask them what they are doing and how could they use us. Just kidding...but it does bring up the question "how do we know where God wants us to go?" So for now we are just open. Today we are in Jackson with no plans yet of where we are heading tomorrow. I think we probably should have stayed in Memphis and then we could have taken the southern route. Guess we can still go south from here, but came a little bit out of the way.
So stayed tune to see where we end up next.

We were creative today and besides spending time talking about retirement, we played a singing game. We tried to see who could come up with the most Beatle songs. We could only think of four so we then decided to try songs with a city or state in the lyrics. Steve won this one. I didn't keep track but we came up with a bunch. We then went on to songs with numbers in them and songs with names of birds. I then said songs with people's names, but by this time Steve was "songed" out.

Contemplating Death

You can't be a part of what has been going on the past couple of days and not think about death. Makes me wonder what my legacy will be when I die? Have to admit I can't help but wonder if Michael Jackson did not like being considered weird why he didn't do more to change his image. Okay and am I the only one whose favorite MJ song is "Ben"?

And Farrah Fawcett?? Hopefully after I die I will have contributed more to the world than being famous for my hair. Actually...I did find this picture of my Farah Fawcett hair that I cut myself.

But today I went to see "My Sister's Keeper" and there is a seen where a 17 year old is dying and her younger 12 year old sister asks her "are you afraid to die?" and then asked "where do you go when you die?" She said she was not afraid to die and then replied, "I don't know, but where ever it is I will wait for you."
It just made me think that if I didn't know that death is actually our victory and that life after death is so much more than we can ever imagine then how would I face death? Without God and His love facing death has to be scary. I am so thankful that when my time comes that I will be able to die in peace. However, I do think it is worth thinking about what kind of legacy I will leave when I die. I hope and pray that it will be one that glorifies my Father and causes other people to want to know Him better.

Il Divo Part 2

When Il Divo sang this song I could not help but wipe tears from my eyes.

A Night With Il Divo

(our first attempt to download pictures from Steve's Blackberry)

Last night Steve treated me to a night of Il Divo for an early birthday present. If you are not familiar with Il Divo, Simon Cowell (yes from American Idol) had an idea of putting together four men who could sing classical music but not opera. He searched for two years before putting together an international group: Spanish opera and zarzuela baritone, Carlos Marín, a French pop singer, Sébastien Izambard, and two classically trained tenors, Swiss Urs Bühler and American David Miller.

Each of them have amazing voices on their own, but put them together and they are just bone chilling. Even though 90% of the concert was not in English, I still really enjoyed it. But here is the problem. Since it wasn't in English I had no idea what they were singing. My favorite song was one called Hallelujah. Listen to it and then read the rest of the post.


I thought it was so beautiful and had to research today to see what the lyrics actually said imagine my surprise when I put them into a translation service and discovered this:

A soldier home today returned
and a sick boy he was cured
and today there is not I work
in the forest of the rain
The deserted was saved because
of a good deed and today nobody repudiates it
Hallelujah
[Chorus:] Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah
An atheist that managed to believe
and a hungry one today has to eat
and today they donated to a church a fortune
That the quick war will be finished
That in the world to the end will reign the peace
That there will not be any misery
Hallelujah
[Chorus:] Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Because the norm be the love
and govern not the corruption but the good thing
and the best of the pure soul
Because God protect us of a badly final one
Because a day we can learn
Because to put an end to so much fury
Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Because a day we can learn
Because to put an end to so much fury Hallelujah

Have to say though I was glad they changed the lyrics from the orginal ones of Leonard Cohen.

Now I've heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don't really care for music, do you?
It goes like this
The fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah

Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you
She tied you
To a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah

Baby I have been here before
I know this room, I've walked this floor
I used to live alone before I knew you.
I've seen your flag on the marble arch
Love is not a victory march
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

There was a time you let me know
What's really going on below
But now you never show it to me, do you?
And remember when I moved in you
The holy dove was moving too
And every breath we drew was Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

You say I took the name in vain
I don't even know the name
But if I did, well really, what's it to you?
There's a blaze of light
In every word
It doesn't matter which you heard
The holy or the broken Hallelujah

Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

I did my best, it wasn't much
I couldn't feel, so I tried to touch
I've told the truth, I didn't come to fool you
And even though
It all went wrong
I'll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah

Lesson learned? Just because the lyrics have the words Hallelujah, doesn't mean it is a religious song.

For their encore they did come out and do an amazing rendition of Amazing Grace. And yes, it was in English.