The end of 2010...

Hard to believe another year has come and gone. These last couple of months have flown...literally! I can't remember ever having been this busy. Hence the reason for very little blogging.

December was a great month! We've attended parties, had our Christmas concerts at church (which included lots of rehearsals), shopped, wrapped gifts, celebrated the birth of Christ, while still balancing job and home. I'm sure my schedule has been no busier than any of your's!

This year we were blessed, as most of you, of having a white Christmas. I can't remember ever having one here in the South. I've had the privilege of experiencing several of them when Scott and I used to travel to New York for Christmas when our children were small. Back then, there would be tons of snow and we would ice skate at his parent's house (they lived on a lake) and snow mobile through the woods. It was glorious!

We had a great time this past Sunday with snowball fights, sledding and even playing croquet. It was a very relaxing weekend and we are doing more of the same this week.
All that will come to an end soon when we head back to work and kids back to school/college...yuck!

I hope that all of you had a very Merry Christmas celebrating our Savior's birth!

Our 2010 Christmas picture

Christmas Eve Candlelight service @ church where over 10,000 attended. So hard to describe the beauty!
Heather still loves to put out cookies for "Santa"
Christmas morning!
Lindsay's gift to Max...his own hoodie!

A day at the Biltmore...

This past Tuesday, I was able to take my first trip ever to the Biltmore Estates in Asheville. Heather surprised Scott and I with tickets about a month ago and also let us know that she would be going with us :)

We had such a great time! I could not believe my eyes when we drove up. We enjoyed touring the house...especially at Christmas-time. Who in the world needs 101 bedrooms and 65 bathrooms? And Mr. Vanderbilt himself was only 27 when he moved in...and single!
We went in to all the shops and really enjoyed every sampling of food they had out...some of them we enjoyed 2 and 3 times :)

That evening, we went back into the house where all the fireplaces were lit and candles everywhere. They had choirs singing and dancing groups dancing. It was wonderful!

Thank you, Heather, for allowing us to be a part of your "bucket list"! We love you.

A VERY busy November....

It's been very busy around the Vail household. In fact, there were 2 weeks this month that we were only home in time to get in bed...and then start the day over again. We've traveled to a wedding; Scott's parents visited one weekend; my Dad and step-mother visited another weekend; my youngest sister, her husband, and youngest of their 10 children visited a weekend -had an amazing time with all of them; we completed our house renovations...for now (until spring '11 when we hope to put hardwood flooring in the kitchen).

This past weekend was heaven. We celebrated Thanksgiving and were able to enjoy 3 days of fun and relaxation.

I will close out with pictures:

Mr. and Mrs. Randy Prosser (my sister, Karen) 11/13/10

With my sisters, Karen and Kristi

Caleb with my niece, Nataleigh

Thanksgiving with friends

with my sweet friend, Debbie Our "raking leaves" party ;) Me and my girls!!!
the "real" workers (minus Lindsay :) Caleb was NOT excited!
My hard working man!

playing croquet!
Brad being hilarious with the leaf blower

Our kitchen with new granite countertops and backsplash

Charleston...

It's becoming one of my favorite places...and especially in the fall! Scott and I were able to get away this past weekend for one overnight. Some of our sweet friends invited us a couple of months ago and we have been counting down....

Friday night, we ate at a restaurant overlooking the harbor. The meal was fabulous and the scenery, beautiful. Saturday morning we ate a glorious breakfast (yes, I know, it's always about the food) and then walked the streets and shopped at the market. Saturday afternoon, we took the house and garden tour. That was awesome. We were able to tour 12 homes on Church St. The "over $1,000,000.00 homes"...WOW, is all I have to say! It was so much fun.

The weather was perfect and more memories made....

Our scenery at dinner!

Final review...

I finally finished the book Calm My Anxious Heart (see post dated Aug 31st).
It will forever be one of my favorites. If you are looking for an excellent Bible study, you need to go no further. As far as heart changing, this ranks right up there with Seeking Him.
C.S. Lewis' mentor, George MacDonald, said "I would rather be what God chose to make me than the most glorious creature that I could think of; for to have been thought about, born in God's thought, and then made by God, is the dearest, grandest, and most precious thing in all thinking". This is a true prayer of contentment.
I think it was the final two chapters that touched me the most: Trusting God with the If Onlys and Trusting God with the Whys. The following (in green) are excerpts from the book:

• How much time do we spend in self-pity, thinking: If only my situation were different?
• There's an if only in every life - something God could have done differently if He had chosen to do so. He has all power, yet He often allows that if to be there.
• We cripple ourselves spiritually by going over and over the If Onlys. We "catch" the If Only disease when we dwell on what we don't have instead of on what we do have. We become discontented with what God has given us. When we contract this disease, we lose perspective.
• God gives peace and contentment; worry gives illness and misery.
• Are my eyes on Jesus or on a particular problem? Are my thoughts centered on the fact of God's Word or on my circumstances?
• God is in control of all the uncontrollables in our lives: What we can't see, what doesn't make sense to us, and what we don't understand.

If ever you want to read a book in the Bible on someone who had all the reasons to ask "why"...it's Habakkuk. And God didn't explain Why; instead He told Habakkuk to trust Him with all his Whys. Habakkuk was to trust God for what he didn't understand, what he couldn't see. He was to walk in the dark with God! Wow!

How many times I've complained about things not going my way, or not getting what I want, or not getting it in my time....complain, complain, complain.
This book has truly shown me what true peace/contentment is:

• Trusting God even though I never understand Why
• Trusting God even when it doesn't make sense
• Trusting God even when there is one more house repair :)
• Trusting God ALWAYS and REGARDLESS!

God wants us to trust Him, no matter what our situation is, no matter what our portion. God wants us to have a faith that perseveres through the times when we can't see what God is doing but we can see Him, and so we say, "Yet will I trust You because You are my strength".

Welcome to our humble abode...

It's now been 3 1/2 years since we moved to Charlotte. It's so hard to believe. The older I get, the faster time seems to be soaring.

To share just a little bit of our story...it was September 2006, our house in Wilson was not on the market and one day our phone rang. It was a couple who had seen our home 6 months prior when it was on the market. They said "would you still be interested in selling your home?" We really didn't want to at that time, but wondered if the Lord had something else in store. Little did we know He did...Charlotte!

It was just a week after we signed the papers that Scott was made aware of the opening here at Calvary Church. The Lord was at work and we knew we had to pursue what was ahead. We sold our home and the Lord made available a home for us to rent until we decided what we were going to do. To say the rental home left "a little to be desired" was an understatement. But we were VERY thankful to have a place to call "home".

Well, you know the end of the story: God did call us here to Charlotte. During our hunt for a house, we must have looked at 50 homes one weekend. This was during the time that homes were selling in two weeks or less. When Scott and I came back to purchase a home in April '07, all those homes had been sold. We had one day to look and find something and I was determined not to rent again. I wanted a real home for our family. There were so many changes going on in our life (after uprooting our kids from the place we called home for 17 years) that I wanted some normalcy.

God led us (or I "think" He did) to the place we now call home. We looked at our new home for all of 10 minutes and said "deal"...it had 4 bedrooms and a playroom. We must have had blinders on the day we looked at it. Trust me, I won't bore you with all the details. All we did the first two years is work and work on this house. And I don't mean just decorating it...I mean working! Things falling apart, air conditioning not working, ceilings falling in...you name it, we fixed it. I can laugh about it now.

But God has done a work in my heart. He has taught me another area of being truly content..and that is in my home. My "home sweet home". And I can honestly say that is exactly how I feel about it now. Thankful we have a roof over our heads, thankful we have a small mortgage, thankful that we have made so many wonderful memories in this home with our family, and thankful that we have turned it in to "our home"...a place where you can stop by anytime to visit (and have coffee with me :)

Believe me, it's all been the Lord. Over these past 3 years, I have griped, complained, cried, and been angry....all at the same time! God has so taught me that my joy is not in "things". My joy is in Him - and I have ALOT to be joyful about.

I wanted to share some pictures from our "transformation" over the years :)

Before

After

Before

After

Before
After

Before

After

Before

After

Wonderful Labor Day weekend....

It was our second annual Labor Day weekend with our friends from Wilson. Once again, we had a great time. We went to the mountains. The weather was absolutely perfect! We walked up lots of hills, ate, talked and laughed alot, and relaxed....lots of relaxing!

It's always great catching up with great friends. 17 years we spent in Wilson, so there are tons of memories. Thankfully, even after being here 3 1/2 years, I've been able to get together with them usually every 3-4 months.

We arrived home Sunday afternoon to having all our children here for dinner. That sure is a rare occasion. I fixed their favorite dinner, we played games and then went to the Knights baseball game with Brad and Lindsay. There were fireworks that night, so that was an added bonus.

It was a perfect weekend!

Shantia, Heather, Amy and me (we missed you, Stacy!!!) me with my man!!!!!
Eating....again :)
my blessings!

Brad and Lindsay with "Homer"
The hilarious thing about the above picture is that "Homer" was off-duty and not anxious to take any further pictures for the evening. Well, that didn't stop Lindsay and Brad. They followed him around and waited for him to come out of his dressing room. They stood posed and waiting (if you look closely, you can see him closing the door and ready to walk ;)

Calm My Anxious Heart....

This is the Bible Study I'm presently studying. It's exactly what I need at this point in my life. From the title, you would think I'm anxious, fretful, worrying, etc. And some days I am. But what I'm finding out by studying this, is that all these things come from one issue: discontentment.

"Most of us base our contentment on our
circumstances, on our feelings, or on other people. However, true contentment is separate from our
circumstances. Contentment is a state of the
heart".

I have to admit that I used to struggle with contentment - the way I felt depended on my circumstances for a particular day; how things went. But the older I get, the more I realize and know how truly blessed I am. Blessed just to wake up and have breath to breathe; Blessed to have a husband who loves me unconditionally, a husband I can cook for, clean up after, and love; 3 children who love the Lord; a home; a job... I could go on and on...very content, and this book reminds me that God is totally in control. He's even in control of my "beauty"...and each morning I look in the mirror, I see more wrinkles, more sun damage, more gray hairs that are very wirey, more "dimples" on my skin, hot flashes are on the rise, and more! But God made no mistakes for He's also teaching me to be content with "me"...Psalm 139:14 says that I am "fearfully and wonderfully made". He fashioned me with awe and wonder...Wow! He sees my heart. He doesn't focus on what I see...the outward appearance.

He is the Blessed Controller of my life. He wants me to surrender. He wants me to accept His timing. He wants me to accept His ways. He wants me to accept His outcome. He wants me to trust in Him and Him alone.

Prescription for contentment:

• Never allow yourself to complain about anything - not even the weather.


• Never picture yourself in any other circumstances or someplace else.


• Never compare your lot with another's.


• Never allow yourself to wish this or that had been otherwise.


• Never dwell on tomorrow - remember that tomorrow is God's, not ours.

Our eyes should be fixed on eternity. Our tomorrows belong to God.

A quiet heart is content with what God gives!

16 years....

That's how long I've been driving my children to school. It was August, 1995. That's the year Heather began kindergarten. Well, the driving ended this morning. Our son, Caleb, begins his junior year of high school today and drove himself. It was sad...and happy, all at the same time.

All good things must come to an end!

Last night....

This past Friday night we were preparing for Lindsay's trip back to UNCG. It was a great night for all. As I blogged this past Friday, the kids were all out and I was home enjoying "quiet" :)
Scott, Heather, and Caleb were at the Nascar speedway enjoying what Heather said was "one of the best nights of her life". They were zooming around the racetrack at 190mph...glad I didn't know that speed before they left!

Lindsay and Brad were out celebrating their 15 month anniversary.

I attached a recipe for Heath bar cookies to that same post. You must try them! THE BEST cookie I've ever had.

Lindsay's move in day on Saturday went perfectly. She begins classes today.
I've attached a few pictures....

(always matching :)