New Fireproof Blog

Nathan and I have just recently seen the movie Fireproof. If you haven't seen this -- I seriously suggest you rent it or even buy it! This was actually a very good movie with a great message about faith and love. Since seeing the movie, Nathan and I have decided to take on the Love Dare challenge. In case you are unfamiliar with this - it is a forty day challenge all about unconditional love. While this is intended mainly for people whose marriages are falling apart - and while Nathan and I are far from that -- we thought that we would give it a shot. I mean, why wouldn't you take on a challenge for husbands and wives to practice unconditional love! And just as the Bible states for us to do! It's never too late to give your marriage a jump start!

Anyway -- all this to say that the Lord has laid it on my heart to start a blog on this subject. For obvious reasons there won't be any "personal" information posted, but I did want to post the scriptures and the dares that the book relates. All quotes unless otherwise stated will come from The Love Dare by Stephen & Alex Kendrick. Maybe this will bless someone out there -- if only for a moment!

The blog is titled: Nathan & Lindsey: Our Love Dare Journey and you can access it here. I've also linked up some Fireproofing links that might be helpful as well.

Barnes Cookout

Saturday, Nathan's side of the family met up at Matthew & Missy's house for a cook-out and to catch up on holidays! It seems as though life keeps everyone so busy that we only get to meet up with everyone about once a quarter - but we enjoy the times we do get to spend together! M&M were great hosts and we all had TONS of food! We celebrated Alicia's 13th Birthday too!! (I feel so old...the first time I met Alicia was at her 4th birthday!!) Anyway - here are some pics from the day -- perhaps next time we will host the event...in our NEW HOME!! More on that to come!

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All the cousins...Zoe, Alicia, Eli, Madison and Zachary

There we are... Nate & Lyn

Mama and Jimmy
Byron, Alicia, Matthew and Missy
(The pic turned out funny d/t all the humidity - but hey, that's July in TN for you!)

Kelly and Eli

I love my little man! Look at those big brown eyes!!

4th of July

Did anyone see any fireworks this 4th??? :) We planned our annual Sheldon tradition for the 4th and all headed down to the Sounds Game. We all met up at Mom and Dad's house first for a summer cookout! To me, there is nothing better than that....grilled food, pasta salad, fruit trays, corn on the cob, etc. All the summer foods that just taste so GREAT during June and July! Thanks Mom & Dad! After the cookout we all headed to Nashville. Yep, if you saw the news with the crazy people sitting out in the rain...that was us! :) When we got there we all headed up to the entrance....in the POURING rain! We looked hilarious, but doggonit we were gonna see this game! When we got up front is when the lighteneing started, so we then all headed BACK to the cars. Thats when it was decided that Mom and Dad were gonna take the grandchildren home (along with Ashleigh and Sloan) and the rest of us went in. The weather really wasn't bad until the 4th inning when they called the game. Oh well, no fireworks this year. But we all still have our tickets and we are headed back to Nashville in August! No pics from the acutal game since I left my camera in the car - but here are some from the cookout! Somehow, I got everyone except Uncle Ben! Sorry bro!

North Carolina

Week before last we took off to North Carolina to visit with Nathan's family. We packed so much stuff into five days, but had a blast doing it! I took a lot of pictures, so sorry for the long post! But you know me...its all about the scrapbooks! I'll detail each day's events with the pictures below. Enjoy!

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Well, no pics from Wednesday...just narration! We took off Wednesday afternoon at 5pm and got to North Carolina at 11pm their time...so a total of a five hour trip! I fed Eli right before we left - he fell asleep within five minutes into the trip and woke up when we got off the exit to get to Mamaw's! Praise the Lord for that one! (And no Mom, I didn't Benadryl him!!) :) Zachary did great too -- he watched Charlotte's Web, Cars, The Secret of Nihm and then Charlotte's Web again...so he stay occupied the whole time too. All in all, the trip of there was very relaxing!

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Thursday was jam packed! We got up and had Mamaw's famous breakfast - then we took off to a peach orchard to buy peaches and blackberries! The blackberries were HUGE and tasted so good too! Later on in the week Mamaw taught me how to make blackberry cobbler - so Nathan was really excited about that! :) Here are those pics...

The orchards were BEAUTIFUL!

Smile Mamaw!

And all the homemade jams were just adorable! After the orchards, we stopped in at Mamaw's sister's house...Aunt Rosemary. Mamaw is one of 16 kids...yes, I said 16!! Bless her mother's heart! I was enthralled with all of the pics of the siblings that Rosemary had displayed...such a blessing to have a big family. We talked about what it was like for them growing up in the mountains, etc. I loved hearing all of the stories of how they each took care of a couple of kids...etc. And one neat detail to mention is that there are six of the siblings that are alive and living close to one another so they all meet up on Friday nights for dinner! Talk about family traditions!!

After we left Rosemary's...we dropped Mamaw off at home and took off to meet up with Nathan's mom's side of the family for a while. We visited with Aunt Lydia and cousins Jenny, Brian, Ethan, Riley and Kenny. Zachary was so excited to meet his cousins in "Norf Carwina" and they had a blast together! I just wish we could all get together more often!

Here is Ethan, Riley and Zachary

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Friday was more time spent with cousins! Byron's sister Janice, her twins Karen and Anita and Anita's daughter Allie came over for the afternoon. Plus, Anita brought over three other children that she keeps to join in on the fun! There was a lot of activity going on with all of the little ones running around -- and Mamaw couldn't have enjoyed it more!

Mamaw and Aunt Janice

Allie and Zachary

Karen and Eli

Allie and Zachary made salad for everyone...it was really cute!

Nathan brought out an old family tradition...the Ping Pong table!

We also spent a lot of time down at the creek throughout the weekend too.

Bringing out old faithful...how many pics do I have just like this one?? :)

Eli did good over the weekend. He had his 2 month shots the day before we left so we battled a fever and feeling bad...but everyone took turns trying to comfort him.

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Uncle Marvin worked his magic with Eli...

I held him a lot...

Mamaw held him a TON!

And even Zachary tried to comfort him!

He did fine with everything though...considering!

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Saturday was filled with more visiting with Uncle Marvin and Aunt Paula. Saturday night Marvin took us down to the creek behind his house to let Zachary feed the fish. It was so quiet and peaceful there!

On Sunday morning we went to church with Mamaw and then out to eat with Marvin, Paula, Mamaw, and two more of Nathan's cousins: Michael and his wife, Amber.

Disclaimer: Most of these pics were taken by Zachary - thus the focus issues!

And then it was off to TN! However, on the way home we stopped in Knoxville to meet up with Nathan's Uncle John and Aunt Wanda. Unfortunately, I forgot to get any pics of that one! I also missed out on a pic of Aunt Paula in NC...Next time for sure!

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Like I said, we had a jam packed week but it was good to see everyone! We head to Michigan in a few weeks for my side of the family - so until then...