Better Get Reading & Writing

You might ask what the picture is above...it is a suitcase and a shopping bag full of my grandparents love letters. My original plan was to scan these and put them into a book. But the truth is that not everyone wants the read every word of every letter. Also, some of the letters from Baxter to Dot were not as well preserved and have some water damage/age damage so all of the words can't be read. So, my new plan is to write a book based on these letters and their lives together. We'll see what happens out of this. I'm not very creative but I really don't have to be, their story is already written.

28

Today, I turn 28 years old. When I was a child, I thought so many things would have happened by now but I am beginning to realize that God has perfect timing. To be honest, the last year of my life has been the best year of my life for so many reasons - these are a few! 

I have a job that I like. 

I have a man that I love.

I have so many wonderful friends.

I have promise and hope for the future. 

Jonathan and I am spending the weekend with my family in SC and I can't wait to be with my parents, brothers, sister in laws, and nieces and nephews! I can't wait!

My Recent Reveries

WHAT IF...


These two little words cause so much grief in my life. Of course I sit around thinking those two words followed by so many others. I'm not going to reveal those here tonight but details will be coming soon. I know that there's no way that I can live my life by the "what if's". I feel like I could "what if" myself to death and still have no answers. I know that is why it is so important to give all to Christ. He knows me and my situation and what's going to happen and I can't do a whole lot about it but trust in HIS will. As hard as it is for me to wait for Him, I know that is the only right thing to do!


Regarding these questions: 


Wise thoughts from Jesus Calling - June 8


"I want you to be all mine, filled with the Light of My Presence. Hold back nothing from Me. Bring your most secret thoughts into the Light of My Love. Anything you bring to Me I transform and cleanse from darkness. I know everything about you, far more than you know of yourself. But I restrain My yearning to fix you, waiting instead for you to come to Me for help. Seek my face with a teachable spirit. Come into My Presence with thanksgiving, desiring to be transformed."

Anniversary Flowers

That's right...we've been together a whole year! Our first date was one year ago tonight. Tonight we went to Lakeside Tavern to celebrate and ate outside on this lovely Tuesday evening!

Vacation

This past week, I had my first real vacation in about 2 years. It was glorious! I had a whole week off!

• Friday, I left work at 3! Woo-hoo!
• Saturday, J and I went to Dollywood for Bluegrass & BBQ! It was so much fun! On Saturday we saw Ricky Skaggs & Kentucky Thunder. We also saw Daily & Vincent. Both of them were awesome! We have season passes so we basically went for free. We had to pay to eat (that's where you spend all of your money)! But we had a great time.
• Sunday, we went to church and then I laid out in the sun all afternoon. I had to get ready for the beach! We went bowling Sunday evening and then went to the Cotton Eyed Joe for some line dancing!
• Monday, we went back to Dollywood and saw Lonesome River Band, Russell Moore and IIIrd Time Out, and we also saw Kenny & Amanda Smith. They were all really good too! I liked Kenny and Amanda Smith the best. Ben gave me some recommendations on who to go see. He's my source for bluegrass listening so I of course sent him the list and asked him who we should go see. It's still going on but I dont think that I'll make it back up there. It's only about 45 mins from my house, but that's kinda hard when I'm working long hours. I'm trying to make up for being out all of last week.
• Tuesday, I slept til 11, laid around in my pajamas all day and packed for the beach!
• Wednesday, I got up at 5 and Anna took me to the airport. Jonathan and I flew to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida for a long weekend. We got down there Wednesday early afternoon and spent the next three whole days laying on the beach, drinking good drinks, eating good food and sleeping. It was absolutely glorious!! I loved every minute of it! There were drink carts that drove around on the beach, umbrellas, lounge chairs, a pool, cool CLEAR ocean water, restaurants and people to wait on you hand and foot! It was magnificent. We really lived like Kings for 5 days! Here's a few shots of our trip!

Enjoying some lunch at the Sea Level!

This is the view from the Hotel Room. Ocean View, 7th Floor!

Sunset on the last night.

A Life Remembered

A few short hours after I wrote the post below, my grandfather, Hambleton Baxter Carpenter, went to be with Jesus. Here is his obituary from the Greenville News, Greenville, SC.

Hambleton Baxter Carpenter, resident Of Rolling Greenville Village, formally of 6 Trails End, Greenville, husband of the late Dorothy Tourtellotte Carpenter died Friday, May 4, 2012.Born in Greenville, Baxter was a son of the late Fredrick Garrison and Mary Hemsley Carpenter.A communicant of Christ Church and former member of the Vestry and Sunday School teacher. A graduate of Presbyterian College he worked as a CLU with Prudential Insurance Company for more than 45 years until his retirement in 1983. He also served as a past president of the Greenville Life Underwriters Association and the S.C. Association of Life Underwriters and President of Estate Planning Council. He was a member of The Cotillion Club, St. Andrews Society, Poinsett Club and past president of The Tarantella Club. He served in the U.S. Army as a Lt. Col. during WWII with tours in Germany, France and Czechoslovakia. Surviving are his children, daughter, Dorothy "Dusty" C. Brownell and her husband I.O. Brownell, Jr. of Greenville; Vicki C. Waters and her husband B.B. Waters III of Greer; son, H.B. "Bud" Carpenter, Jr.and his wife Mary Stewart Carpenter of Mt. Pleasant; 9 grandchildren and 5 great grandchildren. He is preceded in death by his sister Helen C. Brady and brothers, Richard H., Davis F. and Walter B. Carpenter.A memorial service will be held Tuesday, May 8, 2012 at 2 o'clock at Christ Church Episcopal with The Rev. Harrison McLeod and The Rev. Bob Chiles officiating. Interment will follow in the churchyard.
Special thanks to Baxter's Caregivers Doris Acosta, Rosa Torres, Tonya Johnson, Tracy Welchel, Carol Cole, Hospice Care of SC, especially Pam Campbell and the Nurses at Rolling Green Health Care Center.In lieu of flowers donations may be made to Christ Church, 10 N. Church St., Greenville 29601 or to Presbyterian College, Clinton, SC

I am so very sad. At the same time, it's hard to be sad. Baxter lived to be 94. He would have been 95 in July. He is home. He's been ready to go home for so long. He lived a full and wonderful life, which can be seen from the few words above that sum up his life. He had the pleasure of living abroad, marrying a wonderful woman, having three wonderful children, spending his retirement traveling all over the world. He was able to accomplish so much during his lifetime. He lived a long and wonderful life. We are blessed to be able to have him this long.

Baxter was cremated and buried in the same box with Dot. She passed away almost 6 years ago and nothing was ever done with her ashes so they were buried together.  At the burial site, my uncle Bud was allowed to say a few words and he spoke of how Baxter loved people. People who knew Baxter spoke of what a great man he was and how much he loved people. Bud went on to talk about how we should live forward Baxter's legacy of love. He loved everybody. That can be seen from the names of his caregivers listed above. They were all at the funeral .He loved everybody - no matter their social status, color of their skin, or where they worked. He is a wonderful example to me of how I should live my life.

It has been a sweet time of remembrance and hearing stories about Baxter and the life that he lead.

A Love Story: WWII Style

Here's the story:

My grandmother, Dorothy, was married to a man named Victor Miller. They were married in January of 1944 when she was 22. They were together approximately 3 months when he was shipped off to war in France in early 1944. In December of 1944, Victor was reported as "Missing in Action". His death was not confirmed until February, 1945. He was buried in Belgium.

My grandfather, Baxter was a friend of Victor's. When he heard of his death, he wrote to my grandmother and told her how sorry he was of her loss. Well, they started writing back and forth and a little over a year later, they were married. My grandmother would say that they never went on a date before they were married in June, 1946. They celebrated their 60th Anniversary in 2006, the year that my grandmother passed away.

My mother and her siblings have been caring for my granddad for quite some time. He's been bedridden for probably well over 4 years. It's been 6 since his Dot passed away. In January of this year, they moved him to a nursing home. This was a down the hall kind of move. He was already living in an apartment in a retirement community. He moved there with my grandmother about 8 years ago. They were still fairly active but definitely slowing down when they moved out of their home on Trails End - the house where they had lived for 50 years. When Dot passed away, I think my mom, aunt and uncle realized how bad off Baxter really was. And when they realized that they could not provide all the care that he fully needed, they moved him to the nursing home for better care.

In January my mom came up to visit me and brought me one of the most awesome things I've ever been privileged to read. It's my grandparents love letters. My mom just brought me a handful of these letters from Dot to Baxter. And the next time that I went home I got the rest of the letters from Dot to Baxter. They begin in September of 1945 and go through September of 1946, with May and June missing because they were together and were married then.  Mom mentioned that Dusty might have some of those so I emailed her so that I could get them. She has all of the letters from Baxter to Dot. She has had these letters since my grandparents moved from Trails End. She hasn't even read them yet or done anything with them. I do not have these yet but will get them, probably this weekend.

My plan is to scan all of these letters and print them into a book. That's going to be my summer project. It's going to be time consuming and maybe expensive to print this book but I am so excited about reading all of these together. They're folded up in the original envelopes that they were mailed in with date stamps so they'll  be easy to put in order. They have also been pretty well preserved. 

I've been thinking about my grandparents A LOT lately. It could be that it's been 6 years since Dot passed away and Baxter is quickly declining. He may not be with us but another few moments but I'm not sad. I know that he has lived a good, full, long and wonderful life. He is and always has been a wonderful man. And I know that he is going to be with his Savior and to be with his Dot. And I know that is really all he wants. So, as Baxter's life comes to an end, I want to be able to celebrate his life and the love that my grandparents had. That's what Baxter would have wanted. He loved a good party!