Wii Fit

Aug 30, 2009 - Sun: Joe
After church we decided to play some Wii Fit together. It's been a while since Heidi has played and I'm not sure she understands the concept of it.


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Pick your own Fruit

Aug 29, 2009 - Sat: Joe
In an effort to do something fun that we haven't done before we decided to find an orchard and pick our own fruit. Hartland Orchard is about 30 minutes west of us and we drove out to pick some peaches. To our surprise we also found they had raspberries as well. We ended up getting about 10 pounds of peaches for $8 and 2 pints of raspberries for $8. We also got a dozen corn on the cob while we were there. It was a beautiful sunny day but pretty humid too. We've made a couple peach and raspberry smoothies and will enjoy the corn next weekend at a cabin in West Virginia.


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You can never have too much of a good thing

Aug 27, 2009 - Thu: Heidi
This is what happens when your grocery store decides to have a buy 2 get 3 free special.


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The Wedding: Full version

Aug 27, 2009 - Thu: Heidi
Everything about the wedding was beautiful and elegant. Heather (my sister) has always had very elegant taste so the Meridian was a perfect location for her wedding - a beautiful, historic mansion with winding staircases, chandeliers and floor-to-ceiling windows.

The event was black tie optional so everyone got to play dress up for the evening. Men in tuxes (Joey was an usher) and girls in long gowns. Our bridesmaid dresses which were a light mocha color with a champagne sash were long and tufted just like Heather's gown. Even the adorable little flower girls had long, tufted gowns.

The ceremony started off with a slight scare as I walked down the aisle, stood in my position as "Lady of Honor" (matron of honor just sounded so...matronly!), and almost had a panic attack as I realized I had managed to walk down the aisle without the groom's ring. I (hopefully) covertly looked to my older brother in the first row and pointed to my ring as I mouthed that I didn't have Chuck's ring. Christian quickly relays the message to his wife Nina and to Joey, who slyly slip out a side door to find the ring, as Heather is making her bridal entrance. They managed to locate the ring and after returning to their seats they passed the ring through the bridesmaids to me. Phew! The not-so-funny thing was that ALL day I kept worrying that we would get to the "Do you have the rings?" portion of the ceremony and I would have to hold up one finger to the audience and say "Excuse me one moment" and run to get the ring. So close!

Everything else from the night went pretty much without a hitch. The reception which was also at the Meridian was an hors douevres reception (catered by G.Elliot's Catering all the way from Florida, and who happens to be our uncle) accompanied by 18th Century English dancing (think Pride and Prejudice). The dancing was the perfect complement to the evening and incredibly fun. In the ballroom there were three musicians who played the grand piano, the fiddle and cello while a dance master dressed in 18th century attire taught guests the dances. It was so much fun and everyone seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves, including Christian who hates anything even remotely Pride and Prejudice-esque!

I will post more pictures as soon as I get some. I do have to say a HUGE Thank You to Holly, Carissa, Brianna, Hope and Kerry for all your help at the wedding. Yall were truly amazing and you have no idea how much you blessed us.
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The Wedding: Short version

Aug 24, 2009 - Mon: Heidi
My sister Heather got married Friday night to Chuck Paris at the historic Meridian House in Washington DC. The wedding went really well and we had so much fun with family and friends at the reception dancing 18th Century dances!


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My little Coulter sisters

Aug 06, 2009 - Thu: Heidi
I got to hang out with two of the greatest girls yesterday, Dominique and Rachel. We basically just hung out, acted girlie, ate Chipotle and wandered around an outdoor shopping mall for awhile. I always love chatting with these two sisters and love how they interact with each other. I can't believe this summer is almost over and they will be heading to college in a couple of weeks. Where did the summer go?! Rachel is already hard at work convincing us to visit her at Wheaton next year...she fears everyone is going to forget her and everything will change once she leaves! I assure her that isn't the case and some changes will be welcomed after being away at school for a year. Freshman jitters. Dominique and I got to sit on their front porch swing and talk for a long time which was so refreshing. I will miss you when you leave, Dominique! Love you girls!
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Big & Lil D's Diner

Aug 04, 2009 - Tue: Heidi
On Saturday we got to meet up with our friends James and Katie at Big & Lil D's Diner in Strasburg, VA for a charity event they were having. Katie's mom and her husband are the diner owners. We had good burgers for lunch and of course milk shakes for dessert! It was our first time visiting the diner and it was great getting to spend time with friends!


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Summer Camp

Aug 04, 2009 - Tue: Heidi
We've been back for a little over a week and I realized I haven't written an update on summer camp. I started off the trip in true "my bus always has the problems" fashion. Before we even pulled out of the church parking lot, we were informed that the air conditioning wasn't really working but we were going to try driving for a few miles to see if things would change. As things started heating up to sauna like temperatures, we realized we were in no way going to be able to make the 5 hour drive on that bus. So, our bus took a little detour from the other two to switch buses. I have to give kudos to the teens for making the switch in only 6 minutes! All in all, however, the switch added about an hour and a half to our time. Interesting note: our bus still beat the other two buses! They had tried to stall (i.e. take a break at a rest stop) and allow us to catch up a little more.

Once we got past the whole bus switch-a-roo, the rest of the week went well! The summer camp is at Appalachian Bible College/Alpine Ministries in Bradley, WV. Joe and I both loved being outdoors away from all of life’s busy-ness for the week and we both really enjoyed our small groups. Joe and I got to do white water rafting together which was great despite the fact that we were the only two that actually fell out of our raft. Wait…I take that back, one of our guides (who was tagging along in our raft on his day off) fell out too so we didn't feel so bad! White water rafting is always one of my favorite parts of camp and it was even better getting to raft with Joey!

One thing that was different for me this year was that I was asked to speak to the high school girls (juniors, seniors and graduates going off to college this year). Our theme this year was 'Direction Determines Destination' and how the path we are on now and decisions we make now determine where we are headed or where we will end up. I was asked to speak to the girls about (guy/girl) relationships and how our decisions in those relationships affect us down the road and even into our marriages. After talking through this topic with Joe and a couple other leaders, we were encouraged to do the talk together so that the girls could hear a guy's perspective in addition to anything I would say. So, Joey and I ended up doing the talk together and working through a Q&A session. We received lots of positive feedback and even had the opportunity to talk more personally with some girls individually throughout the week. We just pray that something we said will penetrate their hearts and make a difference.

After speaking to the girls I have felt a tugging in my spirit and have even been encouraged by Joey to pursue some sort of platform to continue speaking on the topic of relationships with teen girls. I'm not sure how or where that will lead but I'm open to what the Lord might do with that.
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