Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

We made it back from Texas on Thursday after a 4 hour delay at DFW! UGH! Our plane was coming in from Denver, CO. Evidentally that part of the country was experiencing bad weather and therefore the plane was grounded for several hours. We ended up not getting home until 10PM Thursday evening. We were thankful for a safe flight despite all the delays. This Christmas was full of events both good and bad. As i think back on what all was going on at my house and at Shane's home I see the Lord's hand guiding us through. It is remarkable still to me after all these years as a Christian to think that Christ wants to be inovolved in every detail of our lives. I pray this new year brings everyone a year of peace, joy, hope and much love. I pray that God will stretch you and grow you in ways you never expected Him too. I am attatching a few pictures from our family Christmas. I hope you enjoy! Happy New Year!

Christmas Eve & the Gangs all Here

We have been in Texas now since 12/20 and today is Christmas eve. The house has gradually filled up as family members have made it home traveling in from all over. Shane and i decided to fly to Texas early this year so that we could have some down time before everyone arrived home. We are glad we were able to to that.

We had Christmas with my 90 year old Grandpa last night at the nursing home. All 12 of us gathered in his tiny room and sang Christmas carols. The great grandkids gave him a present and then one by one each of us were given a sweet card and gift from him (thanks to my parents help). My Mom helped speak for him (he had a mini stroke earlier in the fall) and talked about what my Grandpa had told her were his 3 biggest life regrets . I want to share them with you all and i hope they stir your heart and help you put life's priorities better in order. His first regret was my Dad's polio. The second regret was the death of he and my Grandma's baby when he was just week's old. His final regret was that he did not come to know Jesus until later and life and wishes he could have served Him earlier. As I think on this Christmas eve, what are we doing to serve Jesus? What can we say our biggest regret is? What are we putting our most time into thinking about? Merry Christmas!

Where Art Thou Privies?

We had a nice weekend and it was much needed after the past couple of weeks of family hardship. Karen had free tickets to the Renaissance Festival and we went on Saturday. It was the last weekend it was open. Shane and I had been wanting to go for many years now, but had not made the time. We had a great day walking around people watching, going to the shows and looking through the stores. It was not too cold when we got there around lunch time but it sure turned cold as the day went on. I am not one to use porta jons (privies) but i had to finally give in and 'go'. Let's just say it was not something i really want to do again. :)

Anything Out There?

We took these pictures of Abby and i thought they were so good! She was sitting on the dining room table (which she is not supposed to) because she thought she saw some birds in the bush outside. In one picture it is hard to even find her because she blends in so well!!

Good Friends!

This past week has been full of fun and company. We had our Sunday School class over Thursday night. I had a friend, MJ, come into town from Kentucky Saturday. Karen, Melanie, MJ and me all hung out Saturday. It was a great time together. For some reason as we get older we don't make the time like we should for good conversation and company. I was blessed by Saturday and look forward to the next time MJ comes into town.

OH, did i also mention that Karen also got Shane's 3rd wheel put on our Sea-Doo trailer for him?? See it is good to have friends!

Fall is HERE, or is it??

Fall is my favorite season. I love to see the leaves change, pumpkins, cool weather and the clothes, of course! This year fall seems to missing one key thing, COOL weather. We are still having temps in the upper 80's. I am trying not to let that stop me from keeping in the fall spirit. So, last weekend Shane and I went and purchased corn stalks, pumpkins and mums. My house now definitely looks like fall, now if we can just get the cold weather it will perrrrfffffffeeeecccctttt!

We are Getting Old!

We had a great time out on the lake the weekend of September 7th. Shane and I went out 'cruisin' on the Sea-Doo on 9/8. There was hardly any lake traffic and much of the lake was as smooth as glass. Then on Sunday 9/9 we went to the Davidson Lake Campus and met up with Karen and some of her friends. Karen's Sea-Doo ended up not starting so we used ours for tubing. We had 3 tubes going at one time! It was awesome! I realized as i rode the Sea-Doo and Shane drove how old we were getting. The average age of those we were pulling was about 20. I watched them fearlessly jump from one tube to the next as we were going about 40 mph. They tubed for hours. Then Shane tubed and ended up falling off hard hurting his head and neck. Let's face it, we are not 20 anymore! :)

Vaction, Day 4- Disney World!

We left our hotel early Wednesday morning and headed for Disney World. It was Shane's first trip and i had not been there since i was young. We started at Magic Kingdom then went to Epcot and finally our last stop of the day at MGM Studios! It was a magical day together. It was sooo cool to ride the rides from when i was child and the memories I had.

Florida Vacation, Day 4- Cocoa Beach, Just Chillin'

It is day 4 of our vacation. We have spent the day just relaxing at the pool and beach. We needed a day to catch our breath after all the traveling we have been doing. We woke up and went for a walk on the beach and then hung out at the pool.

Vactaion, Day 3- Kennedy Space Center & Cocoa Beach

Hello from the ever traveling Evatt's. It is Monday and we have now moved down the Florida coast and are staying in Cocoa Beach, FL. If the name sounds familiar it is where Jeannie used to send Major Nelson when she needed him to get out of her hair! :) We had a great Monday at Kennedy Space Center. The new 3D IMAX movies are amazing along with all the rockets and shuttle's you can explore. Cocoa Beach is only about 30 minutes down the way from the Space Center and is one of the most beautiful beaches i have seen. It is sparsely populated and is a big area for surfing, which is such a big part of our lives being the surfing couple that we are! :)

Vacation at Last! St. Augustine Florida

We continued our Saturday after touring the Castillo de San Marcos by going to the Ripley's Believe or Not Museum. We had a great time! There were so many querky things that we laughed at...one of them is the following:

Vacation At Last! First Stop- St. Augustine, FL

We left today for St. Augustine, FL. It was Shane's first vacation in Florida outside of boarding a cruise ship in Ft. Lauderdale. St. Augustine is a wonderful city and the oldest city in the U.S. It is built all around history. Our first tourist stop was Castillo de San Marcos- construction began in 1672 making it one of the oldest standing structures in North America. The Castillo was intially built by the Spainish to protect their empire in America.

Our Very Own Lake Fun!!

Well, we took the plunge today and purchased our own lake fun. We bought a new 2006 Sea-Doo GTI, 4 stroke!! We picked it up this afternoon and headed to the lake. We had a blast!! We are so thankful for our friend Karen who helped teach us so much. She is a pro with one of her own. So, i guess you all will know where we will be on the weekends through the summer! Come take a ride with us! It holds 3 people and we can pull others on tubes from behind. More pictures to come.

Just like Maybury

We had fun on Friday night. My friend Karen manages the Ben & Jerry's in Davidson and was having a free movie showing of "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" in conjunction with the downtown Main Street Book Store. So many families showed up with blankets and lawn chairs and sat outside in the parking lot and watched the movie outside. It was so much fun sitting outside under the stars, watching a movie and eating ice cream. After the movie was over everyone stepped over to the bookstore to get in line at midnight for the new book release. Davidson is such a quaint place with an awesome little downtown that still has a soda shop just like from the old days. The fountain drinks are amazing!

First Humira Treatment Shots are OVER!

Hi Everyone,
Well, we made it through Shane's first round of shots (4 of them) for his Crohns today. Shane did a great job administering them...they are no small thing to inject. Our prayer is that this will put him in remission. He was feeling not so well after he first injected but managed to rest and begin to feel some better. Please keep Shane in your prayers...his next round of shots will be in 2 weeks and he will inject 2 more. After the second treatment he will go down to one shot every two weeks.

New Sunday School Class!

Hi,
We had a great day on Sunday. It was our first day teaching our new young singles class at Main campus. We made about 10 copies of various items thinking that would be more than enough since we had no class members other than Shane and I. Well, as usual God blew us away....we had 26 singles show up in our class Sunday!! It was so amazing. Shane did such a great job teaching. The Singles Pastor, Brian Boyles, called us Sunday afternoon talking about all the positive feedback he had recieved on Shane and his teaching. We look forward to the coming Sundays and to what God has in store for us at Main campus. One funny thing, all the deacons at Main sit down front until time for the offerring..so Shane went down and sat with them. When he finished taking the offerring he came and sat next to me and asked, "did you notice anything different about me up there?" I grinned and said, "you were the only one not wearing a suit." We both agreed we were not at North campus anymore!! :) It will take some getting used to but have no doubt this is where God wants us right now. Shane will continue to dress as he always has and who knows maybe some others might join him! More to come...

Linville Caverns

We had a great day today. We journeyed about 2 hours up the road through the Smokey Mountains to Linville Caverns. The sun was shining and the mountain air was such a nice change. The caverns were amazing and suprisingly the only ones in NC. It was a cool 50 degrees inside. You will notice in one of the pictures there are mountain trout. They live inside the cavern and are trapped inside so racoons and other pests do not eat them. They eventually go blind b/c of the darkness. The staff at the caverns feed them daily. I hope you enjoy the pictures!

Lake Fun & the 4th!

We had a great time on the 4th of July. Our friend Karen Toney asked us to join her for some lake fun at Lake Norman. We went out on her jetski, went tubing, swimming and lounging in the sun. It left us wanting more...we will see if we end up with our own lake fun in the near future!

Our Family!!

Here is to our families!! We love you and miss you!