Rich, Heather and Alana’s Blog

Rich and I will be spending Christmas in Fort Lauderdale with my family, and the countdown has begun!! Less than two weeks and we’ll be there for a full week! Mom, dad, and Shawnie, we can’t wait to see you!!!

I’ve blogged before about Jason and Kellie Dykast, good friends who moved from Corvallis, Oregon to Cleveland, TN this year to start Calvary Cleveland. We have continued to enjoy friendship with Jason and Kellie, with dinner dates and game nights, and Kellie and I both LOVE to scrapbook, so I enjoy hanging with her many Thursdays for that.

Recently, Kellie’s parents and Cindy, a good family friend, were able to visit from Oregon. I loved meeting them and putting faces with names and stories. Rich and I decided that would be a perfect weekend to visit Calvary Cleveland for the first time, and we loved it! After church, we all came back to Jason and Kellie’s for lunch and took this photo before heading out. It was such a pleasure to meet Kellie’s parents and Cindy, and I definitely hope to see them again soon. Have a GREAT time in Oregon for Christmas, Jason and Kellie!!! We love you guys!

Monday night home group on Signal Mountain has continued growing and we were so excited to learn that Dan and Becky Hickling wanted to visit the group. Dan and Becky moved from Fort Lauderdale to Chattanooga this year. I knew them just a bit from being on staff at Calvary Ft. Lauderdale . . . just well enough to know that I liked and respected them, but getting to know them up here has been a whole new experience! They are full of wisdom and fun, interesting stories. Dan has this hilarious, dry sense of humor and you get the feeling he’s going to pull some huge joke on you someday. Becky is so kind and approachable, and very encouraging. They have two of the cutest kids ever and we had the opportunity to babysit as well as spend some time at Dan and Becky’s recently. Here we are at The Engels home for Home Group before carpooling home.

Alison and Amber invited me to a “girls day out,” and I have to admit that pampering ourselves was quite nice. Actually, it’s funny to think about. Many girls grow up with moms who take them to get their nails done, or pedicures, or hair styled, or makeup done. My mom is not that woman, and I did not grow up doing those things. My mom is very practical and sensible, and while she maintains a beautiful femininity, she does not pamper or indulge herself! She has always been more busy buying her family what we have needed and I have never known her to spend much on herself at all. So, I just wanted to brag on her for a minute before I talk about how nice our girls day out was!!! I’m thinking I need to treat my mom to a girls day out really soon! She definitely deserves one!!!

The first thing we did was to get our hair styled while Amber took fun pictures. Alison’s looked great, but my hairstyle fell out pretty much right away. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted!

The magazine hairstyle I was supposed to have gotten! Didn’t turn out quite like this…

Then we had pedicures, and I had never had one before! Alison cracked me up when I told her that, she said “Are you kidding? Are you a girl?” I laughed and told her I was pretty sure!

Then we headed to The Mac counter where Alison and I had our makeup done. Again, I had never done this before, not even for my wedding day, since a good girlfriend of mine offered to do it for me! We had a great time, and we were stylin’ afterwards!

Here is Amber self-portaiting, since she took photos of me and Alison all day and wasn’t in any herself I guess that’s the sad part of being an incredibly gifted professional photographer!

Heather and Alison…

Super cute and beautiful Alison…

We were so honored to be invited to spend an early Thanksgiving with Liz and Terry Power and their amazing family, who Nathan and Amber have claimed as their “family away from family.” We had a blast! The entire Power family is kind, funny, easy going, easy to talk to, and easy to love. We felt SO comfortable, and I can see why Nathan and Amber love them and consider them family. What a blessing to share Thanksgiving with them!

Here’s Liz and Terry, affectionately called “Honey” and “Poppy” by the kids

The manly men! Rich, Keith, Nathan, Austen, and Terry…

The silly girls! Amber, Becca, me, and Liz. (Diana had already gone and Jessica was studying, but I wish we had pictures with them too!!!)

Thank you to the Power family who invited us into thier home and made us feel incredibly welcome! We look forward to getting to spend time with you again!

Thanksgiving Day we spent with my wonderful in-laws, but because Rich and I were both getting sick, we only spent about 4 hours with our family and then we came back home to rest without taking ANY pictures. We’re disappointed not to have any to share from the day, but we had a great holiday, ate great food, and enjoyed the company of people we love! What blessings God has given us!