Never in my life did I imagine being a person with a blog, but here I am... and here is my blog. I figure I can make this first post a time to share a little about myself...who I am, what I like, what my favorite color is, etc. or I can just cut straight to real life. I'm going with option two. (:
This past weekend was absolutely wonderful and filled with many extremes of every sort.
And the only hope of just slightly putting how awesome my weekend was into any amount of words is to break it down in to the coolest, best, greatest extreme moments.
The best first impression, without a doubt, goes to Rebekah's dad. It was the first time I was meeting nearly all of her family and I really didn't know what to expect. On the way to her house, in southern Virginia, Rebekah told me, er rather warned me that her father loves to make jokes, and boy did I learn that! Luckily for me, he has a good sense of humor. Now, I'm a Yankee. There's no denying it. I grew up near Chicago, have a tinge of the famous Chicagoan accent, I enjoy deep-dish pizza on any occasion, I am truly a northerner, and Mr. Hill wasted no time on using this as joke ammo. And he did a great job. One of the my favorite and most reoccurring joke was when he'd ask, "Ya ever been to the United States before?" He would then follow it up with a "You sure have picked up the language realll well!" Hilarious? I think so.
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| (Pay no attention to the girl (Rebekah) in the green shirt :P ) |
The most terrifying yet beautiful moment was definitely our five mile hike, and it was kind of more than just a moment. Saturday morning, Rebekah, two of her brothers, her sister Abigail, one of her (Rebekah's) nephews and I went on a hike in Damascus, VA. The end goal? To reach the double waterfall. The path? Five miles up the mountain crossing the same creek over and over again. We were up for the challenge. The first parts of the hike, on nearly flat-ish ground just crossing the creek, went great! Abigail and I learned that it was way easier to take off our shoes and wade through the creek rather than jumping on rocks or walking across logs. But, it was getting to the second waterfall that was going to be very difficult. Why difficult? Well we'd have to climb up the mountain on what seemed to be a rarely-ever taken path, and for someone (cough me) who deeply fears heights, this could be problematic. I think the only time I was ever so terrified was yesterday giving my speech (no one in their right mind enjoys public speaking). Climbing rocks, finding footholds on a small ledge for your slightly huge feet, dodging branches, making sure to avoid any possible snake hideouts, that's all what stood between me and the safety of the second water fall...most importantly flat ground. It may have taken me a little longer, a few more terrified breaths along with a loudly beating heart, but I made and it was totally worth it.
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| David Greer is a very talented and very true folk artist. |
The most interesting and new experience I had was meeting the mountain people. Rebekah's brother wanted to go get a few paintings from a local artist (he happens to be a pretty great at what he does) who happened to live in the mountains. I should have known it was going to be an interesting experience the moment we turned on to the mountain road. Think gravel, narrow, bumpy divets, foreboding (yet beautiful view) over the edge which seems to be a little too close, and then you will have experienced the mountain road. On this road, that never seemed to end, Rebekah and her brother were light heartedly joking about how mountain people don't like outsiders very much, but at the time I didn't know they were joking. You can imagine the thoughts running through my brain, something like "Oh, great, I'm an outsider." Then one of them would again, jokingly say "Stephanie you better pick up a fake accent real quick." Yep, you guessed it, silly naive me thought "I am not going to say a single thing to anyone on this mountain no matter what they ask me. I am surviving." I had prepared myself for the worst, and in the end it was all unnecessary. We got to the artist's house, met him and his mom and got to look at his amazing artwork. (Obviously they were nice people.)
The first full day we were in town I got to experience the Bristol Mall, where I had one of the weirdest experiences. No, it wasn't with how the mall was or any of the people, but in realizing how much I look like Kirsten Dunst. I've been told that for the longest time, but never actually believed it until Rebekah showed me this picture she took. I think it is safe to say that I do slightly resemble her. The Second day we also spent some time at the mall, with Rebekah's best friend. We were on the hunt for Easter shoes, sadly we didn't find any, but what we did find was man outside playing the banjo! You would not believe how excited I was! I've seen people playing guitars, saxophones, violins, and even a puppet show (one of the beauties of being from the Chicago-area) but never had I seen a banjo! Checked that one off the bucket list!
We were constantly doing things all weekend, it didn't seem like we got much relaxing veg time. But, the best veg time we got was at Rebekah's sister's house. We went over to Summer's to watch some of The Office. One of my favorite shows, and luckily for me the Lord blessed Summer and Rebekah with this good taste in television, too. :P Summer was oh so nice and made us coffee and let us eat her left over cake (which was super yummy!) We all sat down, fell a little bit more in love with Jim Halpert, and laughed hysterically at Michael Scott. I think the way you can tell if someone has a good sense of humor is by whether or not they like the Office...
It was great to spend a weekend in an actual family, and not just a dorm or college with a bunch of college kids. We got to spend time with actual kids, I mean four years old and under, the ones that love you when you're just being plain silly, which for some of us is nearly all the time. Summer's boy Oscar, is in the running for cutest, most smooth talker of the year. When all us girls went to get our toe nails done for Easter, Oscar and I got to spend some quality time together playing the coolest little game gadget thing ever! At one point he turned around and said "You pretty girl" (but in his adorable two year old voice) and then put his necklace around my neck! Definitely the sweetest moment of the weekend, even though shortly after he jumped off my lap and tried to create havoc with the nail polish stand.
We ended the weekend on Easter. Woke up early, got all prettied up (which means wearing a dress) and went to church. Church was great, topped with an inspiring Easter message that reminded all of the sacrifice Christ made. After church, we made our way back to the family house to prepare for Easter Lunch. Now, my family doesn't have nearly as many people as Rebekah's so I wasn't quite sure what Easter would be like. I learned real fast (about as fast as I learned the local language) that it was great fun and filled with the most amazing food. Everyone had prepared a side dish (my contribution was putting the marshmallows neatly in rows on Summer's sweet potato dish) while Rebekah's mom made the main dish of chicken dumplings (which was AMAZING). We all, nearly twenty of us, gathered around the table and completely devoured everything, while drinking sweet tea (which this weekend has given me a new appreciation of). One of the best Easter lunches I do believe I've ever had the pleasure of consuming.
The funniest moment of the whole weekend was with Rebekah and Rebekah's sister Anna Kaye. We even took a picture to document it. All weekend Anna Kaye, Abigail and I would tease Rebekah about her "bossy-ness" which in reality is just her ENTJ, get-it-done personality. Every time she would ask us to do something we would rub our upper lip as if there were a mustache there. It caught on like wildfire.Lucky for us, Rebekah has a great sense of humor and knows how to take a joke. Did you know Hitler was an ENTJ, too?
You're probably wondering what the overall best moment of the weekend was. That's easy, the entire weekend! There wasn't a single moment that was better than the other. I mean what couldn't be great about having adventures with awesome new people like this?
Now, who ever said extremism was bad?
