weekend wrap-up

Friday night the girls from the youth group at church went out to the country for a bonfire.  Well.  Really, it was a party where they took tons of pictures for two hours, and the bonfire was in the background.  ;)  Young girls love to take pictures of themselves!  It was so much fun, though, being with them and roasting hot dogs and marshmallows for s'mores.  Here are a couple of pictures from Friday night.

I have no idea what my eyes were staring at.  The sweet gal that took these (MK) is an amazingly talented photographer...she's one of the girls ministry leaders, and this was at her parent's home.

After the bonfire I came home and got packed for our trip to Nashville!  My mom, my sister Trish and I left around nine Saturday morning to steal my sister Debi away for twenty-four hours.  Debi lives in Colorado, and her sister in law, who lives near Nashville, is recovering from surgery, so Debi was there to help out for a few days.  When we found out she would be that close to us, we decided to go see her.  I haven't seen her in over a year, and I have no idea when I'll get the chance to see her again, so I jumped at the opportunity.

We were on the way!  My mom's smile in this is precious.  We arrived at Debbie's house (that is my sister's sister in law...how funny that they share the same name) to pick my sister up and stayed and chatted with Debbie for a bit.  She is the sweetest person ever and had gotten out some snacks for us to munch on while we were there.  I loved seeing her again~I don't think I've seen her since my sister married her brother twenty something years ago!  She's one of those people I feel an instant connection with, though, and I sincerely hope to get to see her again for longer sometime.

We left Debbie's house and headed into Franklin.  I don't think I had ever been there before...maybe near there, but not actually to the downtown area.  We had lunch at a place called Puckett's.

Then we browsed through all the shops afterward.  My favorite store was one called Philanthropy.  It's owned by Christian people and they work with different ministries all over the world.  For instance, the money they make off their canvas art goes to St. Jude.  One hundred percent of it.  They also provide clean water for kids in Africa and they help women learn to make a sustainable income by making things.

They had a prayer wall, where people write down their prayer requests.

I cried over this wall.  And then I bought a cross that is beautifully crafted by women from Cape Town, South Africa.  It's now hanging on my cross wall on the stairwell, and the kids spotted it right away.

I love historical buildings, so all of this town appealed to me.

After we shopped, we checked into our (beautiful) hotel and decided on where to have dinner.  We didn't want to drive too far, so we ate at Puckett's again, but this time at the location called the Boathouse.  It was really good.  Really.  They key lime pie I had for dessert might have been my favorite.

Sunday morning we had breakfast, went to the Walmart nearby, then took Debi back to her sister in law's house.  We stopped for gas before hitting the road, and this pulled up next to us.

It's not every day that a tractor pulls up next to you on the road.  ;)  We had a great time, and I was so glad to have seen my sister!  It wasn't for very long, but I will take what I can get.  I hope your weekend was wonderful, too!  I feel like I haven't seen my family much lately, so I am glad to be home again and am looking forward to spending a night at home with them.  My schedule has been a little crazy lately, and I need to slow it back down.  I feel like time is slipping through my fingers...and usually that feeling comes when busy-ness takes over.

Thanks for reading my blog!  Love to all.