Oh ya’ll, today I had a moment.

I bet you were wondering how long it’d be before the crazy person in me decided to jump out and surprise us all again.  Aren’t you glad you didn’t have to wait too too long?  Yeah…sorry to say I guess I’m a little predictable like that.  But the crazy person made an appearance today for sure.  This time instead of a mother bear though, it was more like this….

About the time I saw them backing over the curb into my yard and taunting my dogs, I thought it was time to, you know…take the gloves off and have a nice little chat.

Ok. So I wrote the post about the weather last night, but am making an addition now here with some interesting things I came across today.

Eschatology…is basically the study of end times, and this morning when I was having some time with the Lord I most interestingly (but probably not coincidentally) ended up reading about eschatology.  I started out with some reading in Psalms because our church is reading through the Bible this year.  Somehow a cross reference ended me up in Matthew, and then my eye jumped from the cross reference to some verses that I had underlined on the opposite page.  So I ended up in Matthew 21:18-22 which talks about Jesus cursing the fig tree and willing it to wither and die.  Then subsequently he tells the disciples that if they have faith and do not doubt, then they can do like he did to the fig tree, they can command mountains to fall into the sea and it will happen.  That the things that we ask in prayer and believing, we will receive.

I have a thing about figs.  I’ve posted recipes with them before and will do more when fig season is upon us later this summer.  And I started thinking about how often I’ve noticed that figs turn up in scripture, and I got to wondering.  “What is the deal with figs?”

So i googled “fig tree” and also searched it on BibleGateway (which by the way is a really great, FREE resource for different Bible translations, does searches…it’s awesome.)  I found 49 instances where figs were referenced in the Bible.  Many of those references point to figs being a symbol of prosperity in Biblical times.  And then i looked up figs on Wikipedia as well to learn more about them.  That ended me up reading about the Parable of the Barren Fig tree that I just told you about, and from that reading about Figs in the Bible.  Figs are mentioned in what is called The Olivet Discourse which is a biblical passage found in the Mark 13, Matthew 24, and Luke 21. Apparently it is sometimes referred to as the “Little Apocalypse” because it includes Jesus’ descriptions of the end times.  So you see how this happened?  Psalms to figs to end times?
 
I know…it’s a serious Biblical ADD…or maybe just what I was supposed to be reading today after posting about the weather and end times last night.  So then I started reading all around about end times and eschatology and tribulation and views on it all, and I determined something….

I don’t know about the rest of you and what the weather is like where you live, but it’s been crazy around South Carolina the past couple of months.  And from what I can tell on the news, across the rest of the country it’s been pretty crazy too.  There have been record numbers of tornadoes, floods, winds, and storms pretty much everywhere.  I have lived the majority of my life in the Carolinas and until about a month ago, in the Carolinas I have never seen THIS.

I was out riding bikes with my family for about 20 minutes last night and stopped to talk to a neighbor.  In about 5 minutes, the sky got dark and the wind started howling, and we got the heck out of dodge if you know what I mean.  Ride like the wind I tell you…and the wind was blowing seriously fast.

I saw this picture last night that a friend linked on facebook of the storm here in town.  It was taken about 10 minutes from where I live.

Ummm…. now listen, I don’t know a thing about tornadoes except what I’ve seen on Extreme Weather on the Weather Channel or on the movie “Terrible Tuesday” that I watched several times in school growing up, but isn’t that sort of how tornadoes start?  And whether it is or not, I’d just like to say that I live in South Carolina because we don’t have storms like people do out in places like Kansas and Oklahoma….and I like that about South Carolina.  But perhaps we do have storms sort of like that…actually, apparently we do.

Last week when I was in Montana there were storms in town with over 80 mph straight-line winds.  I’d never even heard of straight-line winds until a friend told me that they took out 17 trees in her yard and completely rearranged the furniture at her neighborhood pool.  Look what they did to my yard too.  I guess I’m lucky to just have one tree casualty….still, look where this thing fell. 

(Yes that is directly between the 2 play sets in my yard.  Um…. I’m a little uncomfortable with that.  And the fact that it was entirely uprooted.)

And then last night I also heard of a roof blowing directly off of a building into the middle of a major road.  This does not happen here.  Oh yeah, and when we were coming back from our trip the other night, there was a billboard at our exit that was bent into a 90 degree angle.  Just wrapped around the pole, like it was a piece of cardboard that someone flicked too hard.

All to say, it’s weird.  And did you know that apparently one of Saturn’s moons lost a ring recently too?  Yeah…random tidbit I learned from a friend who knows tidbits like that.  And I can’t help but really wonder to myself…how do you know when it really is the “end times?”  I mean, the Bible says we won’t know the exact date and time of Jesus’ return, but it does say that things can get weirder beforehand.  I don’t claim to know at all ya’ll, but I do wonder.  And in the end, what I do know is that however weird and weathery it gets here, when He comes back…I for one am going with Him.

PS. For fear that you all begin think I’m some freaky end times theologian or something…I just want to say “stop right there.  I’m not.”  Surely though, I’m not the only person wondering what in the world is going on with the world? And with the weather?

I’m home from Montana.

And let me tell you what a welcome we got… we had to get our car jump-started in the Charlotte airport Sunday night at 11:45pm, got home at almost 2am to a broken upstairs A/C and 83 degrees in all the bedrooms, storms for days that had uprooted a 90ft pine in our backyard and debris everywhere.  I spent the greater part of the day yesterday having to get a new car battery and new tires (the tire part was overdue) and then had to have a heating and air guy come fix the A/C in the afternoon.  Turns out that it had been damaged from a giant tree branch falling on it during the storms while we were gone.  WOW!  All to say…that’s why you didn’t hear from me yesterday.

So, I’m rapidly back in the swing of things and have a bridal lingerie shower to plan for this coming weekend.  Whew…it’ll happen, but I sure do already miss the pace of Montana.

Which brings me to something I’ve been dying to share about our trip.  First I should say that for our entire family, this was our most favorite vacation we’ve ever taken all together.  It was perfect for our kids, gorgeous everywhere, and we spent some really special time with extended family and also some old friends.

The friends part though is what I’ve been thinking about the past few days.

I wish I could find at least one really old picture to share with you.  But they’re old and I’m pretty sure that my mom has the bulk of the ones from when I was a little kid.  When we were in Montana we had the chance to get in a couple days visit with a super old friend of mine and his family who live about 4 hours from where we were staying.  The last time we all saw one another was at my wedding almost 8 years ago.  We’ve kept up… but it’s been a long time, and we’ve never met one another’s kids.

My childhood friend, Jeremy, and his amazing wife LB, came to visit along with their 3 adorable children.  They spent Thursday and Friday nights with us in my aunt’s cabin, and Saturday night they stayed in Polebridge (in the cute cabin I’d featured on the blog the other day nonetheless) since my family had to leave Sunday morning.  We adventured over to the east side of Glacier on Friday and hiked, and ate, and in general had the best time all together.  Our kids got along so well that they were actually crossing into being really annoying, LB and I could have talked for days and still not run out of subjects, and the guys honestly seemed to have an almost identical sense of humor.

Here we all are in the rain before we headed out to Polebridge for part of the day on Saturday.  I’m kinda covering up my Hubs’ head, but do you know how hard it is to get a decent picture with 9 people (5 of which are all ages 5 and under?!)

And here is perhaps one of my favorite pictures from our whole trip…all 5 of our kids together.

Sorry I didn’t post yesterday. We went to the east side of Glacier with some friends and had a fantastic and crazy day with 5 kids ages 5 and under.  Yeah…it was an adventure.  I’ll write more about that later.  I did want to announce the winner of the Polebridge Mercantile giveaway thanks to Random.org.  Next time I do a giveaway, I have to figure out a better way to number the entrants and need to get all of you guys to leave separate entries for each action…it was tricky to appropriately number your comments based on the time they were left in multiple locations, but my friend who’s an accountant and good with numbers helped me do it properly.  Anyways…the number that won was #17 and that means that winner is…

Today has been an absolutely incredible day!  My aunt treated Tid Bit, the Hubs, and myself to a helicopter tour over Glacier National Park.  It was another one of those kinds of experiences where words are insufficient.  “Magnificent” is such an understatement.  I could go on and on for days about it and still fall short in my description…get a load of this picture to the left though.  Just breathtaking….

The present day Polebridge Mercantile boasts a bakery, general store and cabins, serving the most adventuresome families, floaters, fishers, hikers, bikers, artists and “lifers”. Nestled up to the primitive west entrance to Glacier National Park, on the Wild and Scenic North Fork of the Flathead River and in the North Fork Valley is where you can find them. 35 miles from pavement, electricity and “civilization” you can find fabulous baked goods, spices, t-shirts, prints, books, etc. from Polebridge artists and complete separation from the everyday grind. No street lights. No cell phone service. Unbelievably serene views.  We ate the most melt in your mouth homemade sandwiches and literally bought every last one of their famous huckleberry coconut macaroons.  The food alone is worth the drive out there, but if you don’t stick around longer than that I promise you’d be missing out!  And, for just $35 per night you can rent one of their adorable cabins and take it all in even more. 

The next time we come out here, it’s on my list of things that absolutely cannot be missed!





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Unless… like my mom did this morning, you see one walking by the kitchen window.

This is not the actual wolf we saw.  We didn’t have time to grab our camera and I wasn’t about to walk outside to get a closer view.  As it was, the wolf was literally 15 feet outside of the window over the kitchen sink.  The wolf we saw was scrawny, shedding it’s winter coat, and very hungry looking.  The Montana animal book says to keep a close eye on small children and toddlers when wolves have been sighted.  Yes thank you…I think I will.

I’m a fan of wildlife sightings and all…elk, moose, deer, eagles, ground squirrels…you know, the non-predatory types.  But I’m gonna be honest and say that the idea of sighting a bear on the property, or maybe…a wolf just outside the kitchen window…not on my list of most favorite encounters with wildlife.  I think I’m perfectly happy that I was inside the kitchen and not camping out in the teepee.

Off for more adventures now…hopefully these involve more far-off animals, mountains, and rivers.

– Logan