Mississippi Memories

Well, we can officially check 2 activities off of our To Do list.

Last week Katie and I helped at our first night back in high school youth group. It's too soon to tell for certain, but I have high hopes for this experience. We also went to our first football game of the season... it was hot. And let's face it, watching football is just not as fun when you don't know who's playing. So... we ducked out early to grab some DQ before heading to our first 5th Quarter of the year.

Being around all those high schoolers, those teenagers... Well first of all, it's weird that I can call them teenagers and not count myself as one of them. I feel... old. You know, I was an AWANA leader to several of those high school kids. Now they somehow seem much closer to me in age, and yet we're still very far away.

Whoa, brace yourselves. I just got bored with this topic, and I feel like changing. I'm sure we'll come back to this some day.

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We went to Mississippi this weekend. Have I told you it's one of my all time favorite places to go? My grandparents have a fantastic, cabin-like home right on the edge of the woods. A narrow, driving trail leads down to Grandpa's fishing pond.

I wish I could explain every wonderful memory I have from Mississippi, but it's not something I can do with words. Isn't that frustrating? It's the smell. The sweet, fresh smell of a wonderful part of nature where the mud is red. And it's the smell of Grandma and Grandpa's cooking. It's the sound of hummingbird wings, and food sizzling in the kitchen, and the beep beep followed by the swish of Grandpa's alarm system followed by the door sliding over the carpet. It's the feeling of that soft, fluffy carpet in between my toes, the sloshing while crawling into the water bed, and the scruff of Grandpa's beard on my cheek when he kisses me goodnight.

But it goes beyond just sensory memories. It's memories of getting in trouble after taking rocks from the deck, of playing with My Little Ponies at bath time, of listening to Sesame Street tapes at nap time, eating homemade ice cream late at night, running to the deck to get away from Apache, relaxing, or more likely, playing in the hot tub on the deck, and catching my first fish- a tiny catfish that stung Grandpa and made his hand bleed.

Time passes, things change, but Grandma and Grandpa's house is still one of my favorite places. I still miss and look forward to pushing open a door, hearing beep beep, swish, and walking into a cloud of breakfast smells. I already can't wait til next time.

Love you Grandma and Grandpa. =)