#61 Catch Up, Again
8:01 AM
These past two weeks since coming back from vacation have been hectic--well at work hectic. We've been gearing up for camp, and well the only time I have to put towards writing the blog is during breaks at work--which I haven't had time for! So here is me getting up to speed on what happened the past two weeks.
We've had a lot of great moments with friends and family, and the summer weather is definitely in full swing now!
Friday after we got back from our coastal tour, as I'm calling it, we couldn't sit idly and let the vacation excitement die. So we figured that'd be the perfect chance to take advantage of our friend's Chris and Joanna's kayaks to take down the Saluda River. Sounds like the perfect calm, vacation thing to do. So we loaded up the kayaks in Hank, and I drove as slow as possible, because I was totally fearful they'd slide out on the road and we'd be paying for brand new kayaks to replace the crushed ones.
We got in the water down at Saluda Shoals, and started paddling upstream. Which was tough. Did I mention that it was like 63 degrees that day, ton of rain from days before, and they'd let water out of the dam recently? No? Okay well that was the case, and it made the current extra strong. We got about 150 feet upstream, and Stephen's arms were worn out. I was too, and was following behind him to go and rest with him. He found a log to rest against, and well the current made a mess of that. Instead of resting against the log, it turned into a ramp fueled by the waters, and flipped him completely out. The kayak filled up with water super quickly, and the paddle started floating downstream. Stephen thankfully grabbed the kayak, completely submerged at this point, and started floating downstream as I paddled to rescue the paddle of his and also rescue him. He floated down to another log, and finally was able to position himself to stay still while holding this completed submerged kayak. Stephen standing in the frigid cold water, tried to lift the kayak out of the water to empty it. With both of us, we still couldn't get it empty, but Stephen got in and I helped guide him back to shore.
That wrapped up our 20 minute kayak experience. Fisherman on the other shore enjoyed a full show; but he wasn't worried. :) We got back in the car, wet and cold, and headed back to the Joiners an hour after having picked up the kayaks. We couldn't help but laugh the whole way back.
The next day, Stephen tried to take me out to dinner on our 5th anniversary. We headed out for over an hour to Lake Wateree for dinner on the lake, but unfortunately due to power outage they had closed for the day. So we headed into Ridgeway and at at a cute local restaurant.
Since then we've had a lot of good moments at church lately. We've had our top attendance this past Thursday at around 60 plus! God is so good! Who would have thought a ministry of about 5 college and career people would be 60 strong one day, and still growing!?!
With the change in our dynamic at church, and the impact it has had on Stephen and mine's own life, we're having some moments of growing pains I guess you could say? These moments have been full of grace from God, because they could easily turn to selfishness and lack of understanding or desire to understand the other person, but instead God has given us peace in these moments and in our personalities to understand one another and just want to help each other. Lift each other up.
So I'm a pretty introverted person, always have been. But I enjoy people. I think it's taken a while for me to differentiate the two, and that being an introvert doesn't mean you hate people. It means I energize myself differently. Stephen is an extrovert through and through, he gets pumped being around people, and if he goes too long by himself he feels drained at the end of the day. I love being around people, but where Stephen feels energized, I get depleted if I don't allow myself some alone time. I've tried to explain this before to Stephen, but he didn't really get it. Not until about a week ago, when having people at the house after a long day, and a few longer days of being constantly around people had maxed me out! I kind of broke down, and instead of getting upset or moving on from it, Stephen took the time to talk with me and understand where I am coming from. He's taken the time now to assess how I'm doing and if we need to cut things short or avoid going to things. It's appreciated. I find more energy just knowing that things will not be 5 hours long, or that there is an end in sight, or that Stephen has my back. He's watching me now, and learning my limits. I don't feel so alone.
So all that has lead me to wonder, have I changed over the past few years? Does Stephen feel like he married someone else? Did I trick him into marrying me, when really I'm someone else? It just has felt like the past 6 months have been extra rough, and I don't know why. Before I felt like I had time to myself, like this wasn't an issue, but now it is. Stephen mentioned a good point last night, which made me feel a lot better about always having been me--which is that our life has changed a lot. We are constantly with people, from pretty much sun up to sun down some days, and at least 4 out of the 7 days in a week are filled with church activities and people. That leaves 3 days to myself, but not really--we work, we make other plans that aren't normally schedule things, and then we have our own things we have to get done. Life fills up quickly, and while it's all with great things, my personality gets exhausted.
We've had a lot of great moments with friends and family, and the summer weather is definitely in full swing now!
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| Cul de sac on a summers evening |
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| Cul de sac on a day where we added like 10 cars to the neighborhood |
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| It looks so pretty; was pretty tasty too. First try at potato soup |
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| Best smelling cleaner! |
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| Anniversary flowers from parents |
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| Flowers for Kayla. Trader Joes, amazing! |
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| Emeals is my new best friend |
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| This candle. Mrs. Meyers is the best. |
Friday after we got back from our coastal tour, as I'm calling it, we couldn't sit idly and let the vacation excitement die. So we figured that'd be the perfect chance to take advantage of our friend's Chris and Joanna's kayaks to take down the Saluda River. Sounds like the perfect calm, vacation thing to do. So we loaded up the kayaks in Hank, and I drove as slow as possible, because I was totally fearful they'd slide out on the road and we'd be paying for brand new kayaks to replace the crushed ones.
 |
| Loaded up |
We got in the water down at Saluda Shoals, and started paddling upstream. Which was tough. Did I mention that it was like 63 degrees that day, ton of rain from days before, and they'd let water out of the dam recently? No? Okay well that was the case, and it made the current extra strong. We got about 150 feet upstream, and Stephen's arms were worn out. I was too, and was following behind him to go and rest with him. He found a log to rest against, and well the current made a mess of that. Instead of resting against the log, it turned into a ramp fueled by the waters, and flipped him completely out. The kayak filled up with water super quickly, and the paddle started floating downstream. Stephen thankfully grabbed the kayak, completely submerged at this point, and started floating downstream as I paddled to rescue the paddle of his and also rescue him. He floated down to another log, and finally was able to position himself to stay still while holding this completed submerged kayak. Stephen standing in the frigid cold water, tried to lift the kayak out of the water to empty it. With both of us, we still couldn't get it empty, but Stephen got in and I helped guide him back to shore.
 |
| Saluda River |
That wrapped up our 20 minute kayak experience. Fisherman on the other shore enjoyed a full show; but he wasn't worried. :) We got back in the car, wet and cold, and headed back to the Joiners an hour after having picked up the kayaks. We couldn't help but laugh the whole way back.
 |
| Cold and afraid. Haha |
The next day, Stephen tried to take me out to dinner on our 5th anniversary. We headed out for over an hour to Lake Wateree for dinner on the lake, but unfortunately due to power outage they had closed for the day. So we headed into Ridgeway and at at a cute local restaurant.
Since then we've had a lot of good moments at church lately. We've had our top attendance this past Thursday at around 60 plus! God is so good! Who would have thought a ministry of about 5 college and career people would be 60 strong one day, and still growing!?!
With the change in our dynamic at church, and the impact it has had on Stephen and mine's own life, we're having some moments of growing pains I guess you could say? These moments have been full of grace from God, because they could easily turn to selfishness and lack of understanding or desire to understand the other person, but instead God has given us peace in these moments and in our personalities to understand one another and just want to help each other. Lift each other up.
So I'm a pretty introverted person, always have been. But I enjoy people. I think it's taken a while for me to differentiate the two, and that being an introvert doesn't mean you hate people. It means I energize myself differently. Stephen is an extrovert through and through, he gets pumped being around people, and if he goes too long by himself he feels drained at the end of the day. I love being around people, but where Stephen feels energized, I get depleted if I don't allow myself some alone time. I've tried to explain this before to Stephen, but he didn't really get it. Not until about a week ago, when having people at the house after a long day, and a few longer days of being constantly around people had maxed me out! I kind of broke down, and instead of getting upset or moving on from it, Stephen took the time to talk with me and understand where I am coming from. He's taken the time now to assess how I'm doing and if we need to cut things short or avoid going to things. It's appreciated. I find more energy just knowing that things will not be 5 hours long, or that there is an end in sight, or that Stephen has my back. He's watching me now, and learning my limits. I don't feel so alone.
So all that has lead me to wonder, have I changed over the past few years? Does Stephen feel like he married someone else? Did I trick him into marrying me, when really I'm someone else? It just has felt like the past 6 months have been extra rough, and I don't know why. Before I felt like I had time to myself, like this wasn't an issue, but now it is. Stephen mentioned a good point last night, which made me feel a lot better about always having been me--which is that our life has changed a lot. We are constantly with people, from pretty much sun up to sun down some days, and at least 4 out of the 7 days in a week are filled with church activities and people. That leaves 3 days to myself, but not really--we work, we make other plans that aren't normally schedule things, and then we have our own things we have to get done. Life fills up quickly, and while it's all with great things, my personality gets exhausted.
For the past 4 years or so, Stephen has had to adjust his extroverted self to fit in the realm of introverted--as life just didn't really allow him to be otherwise. We had a lot of down time. His friends were far away. We only had each other really. It's changed, and with that comes some growing pains and adjustment--just on my part this time. Just so very thankful for an understanding man to be married to.
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