loving the old. loving the new.

yesterday i returned home from a short trip back to blacksburg. it was a wonderful trip filled with sweet reunions and remember whens. God planned it perfectly, as He usually does. i was able to barge in on several events and maximize the amount of people seen.
the BCM had an "end of semester" type banquette and it was such a blessing to get to hug a few graduating seniors one last time before they are whisked off into the "real world".

also, i got to see a lot of old friends at church. i got roped into singing a song during the service. so sunday morning i started learning it, then sunday night i got up to play. several things went wrong in the first few lines and then it was wheels off. so the only way to not make everyone in the room feel as awkward as i was feeling, i just stopped in the middle and joked about how i didn't really know the song... clearly. it seemed to be a relief for everybody, though i was still thoroughly humiliated... or humbled. same thing. 

blacksburg holds a lot of good memories and also a lot of great places to eat. i was fortunate enough to revisit several of them. like greens and gillies. i also got treated to a new little place where the pizza slices are the size of a small child...

my stomach shook its fist at me the rest of the day. but it was sooooo good.

between the bowling ball sized burger i ate at the airport on the way, the daily dose of carol lee donuts, this pizza and the myriad of christmas treats i enjoyed - i am actually very surprised they didn't charge us for an extra seat on the way home.

oh... yeah. the way home....

so we drove 3+ hours from bburg to raleigh. then our flight was delayed 5 hours. then we got to sit on the airplane for an extra hour on the runway in nashville... when we finally made it to houston we had missed the last flight to midland by about half a day.

we got to stay the night (a few hours) in houston before or 615am flight to midland yesterday morning.... it was a long 27 hour total. which, incidentally is the same amount of time it would take to drive to virginia.

but we made it. travelling with my new mother in law was great. i love it when people don't get riled up in situations that cannot be altered. and even on top of just staying cool, looking for opportunities to bless others along the way. very great.

all in all - it was a fabulous trip riddled with reminders of God's goodness and presence.

and it being Christmas time, those reminders sure do help to get a good focus and perspective on what it's all about.

but if you want to talk about Christmas presents. i am "so totes" (college kids rubbing off on me) going to brag. my darling husband was at work when i got home. i emptied out my bag and started laundry. before i geared up to go run errands i asked if he needed anything from town. he texted back "actually yeah. can you go b tractor supply and get a bag of large breed puppy food?"

WHAT? so i look out the back window and sure enough, he brought home an irish wolfhound puppy from his trip to missouri this weekend!

this breed has been on my doggie dream list for ever since i saw robin hood with kevin cosner, 

she is precious. i cannot describe the happy in my heart about her. we're still working on the name. the options are:

hazel

myrtle

lucile

what do you think?