Thursday, May 27, 2010

New Signs at Church

Barron and our Associate Pastor, Wesley, drove to Roylston, Georgia last week to pick up some new church signs that were made by a BFC friend, Travis Rigdon. On the way home, Barron stopped at the local Chicken Express and introduced Wesley to some good cooking!! Sure wish Nate would open one for us here in Cullman.

This past Saturday and Monday, Jay Maze, his son Terence, and Barron put them into place. I couldn't resist showing off the pretty daylilies and beautiful rainbow that greeted us at church last night.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Extraordinary Women Conf 2010 (Birmingham, AL)


A group of ladies from Spring Arbor Baptist Church attended the E-Women Conf on May 14 and 15. We had a great time of worship, teaching, and fellowship!

Update on Garden and Yard

It's amazing how fast the garden grows with a little rain and warm termps. All of Barron's hard work is paying off as all the trees, shrubs and flowers are growing and looking so good!The gardenias are fully decked out and smell so good!




Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Mother's Day Weekend


Fun at the Cabin on the Backwaters!!!



Our Gang - looking at pictures on the Wii!
Kids enjoy playground after Hunter's ballgame.
Welcome, Christina and Brooke to their first Benton Gathering at the Cabin. Hope you join us again!

Mother's Day 2010 & May Family Plans

Eliz/fam gave me two hanging pots of "double impatiens" to put by the back patio and I am waiting for my amaryllis to bloom. The iris' from Wanda Scott Williams yard are beautiful and varied colors. Daylilies aren't ready yet and we keep having cool nights so it may be a while. It obviously rained in Huntsville overnight and still somewhat gray skies.

Barron and I drove down to Phenix City Friday afternoon and went first to Eliz house -- to see the kids of course. They are really growing up, getting taller! Julie and Mark are kind enough to let us use their spare bedroom and usually Mark cooks us a delicious breakfast. On Saturday Barron, Caleb and Julia drove up to Atlanta to pick up Nate from airport while Eliz, Julie, Abigail and I did some shopping in Columbus. We picked up lunch at Mike & Ed's BBQ which was one of the places on Nate's list that he wanted to eat over the weekend. All of us enjoyed going to Hunter's ballgame -- which unfortunately was one-sided - but it was a beautiful day to be outdoors. Kids enjoyed a little time on the playground at the park. Then Scott, Patti and Hunter and the 9 of us had dinner at El Vaquero -- we all love salsa and queso!! Sunday morning as Mom and Dad had stayed over at cabin, opted out of church (some went to SS -- I cooked food -- and then the Benton clan gathered at the cabin. Mom and Dad have added a covered deck to the cabin which extended the amount of people we can "sit" so needless to say we all had a great time and ate well! Terry and Clara Grimes joined us too. Some enjoyed fishing, some boatriding, some of us just enjoyed visiting, and eating a little more!!

Eliz/fam and us watched "the Blind Side" late Sun night at their house and then we returned to Julie's for sleeping. Eliz prepared breakfast for us, and then Nate came over. Chris had to go to work at 1:00 (does church after-school care), and Barron, myself, Nate and Ferdie met up at Dinglewood Pharmacy for their famous scrambled dogs. We said our goodbyes to Nate and went to visit with the folks for a while at the cabin, Eliz/kids drove up to visit for a while longer. Then we said our goodbyes to them and headed home. Eliz picked up Nate and dropped him at Groomes Transport in Cols for his ride to ATL airport. Talked to him before he got on the plane to advise about tornado warnings in Dallas. He hasn't checked in so assume all is okay. It's just 8:00 am here (I get to work at 7:00) so I'll put off calling him for a while longer.

Hope everyone had as great a Mother's Day as I did! Thanks Nate for the Mother's Day gift of your presence. Just don't know why we didn't make a family picture!! I do have some pictures I'll post later.

David is finished with school this Friday. Elizabeth has been packing up their household - and will continue to do so - and they will drive their moving van to Cullman on Sunday, May 30, and store all their belongings as they begin a 4 month fundraising tour of the United States. They have lined up speaking engagements from Alabama to Wisconsin to Texas, and all states in between. They will also spend a few days with Chris' parents in Kentucky.

This weekend may have been our last one together -- meaning Nate, Eliz/fam, us -- so it was a very special time!!