Tied Together in Knotts: March 2008

Monday, March 17, 2008

St. Patrick's Day

I know that "luck"
is really not true

that green is no better
than red, pink, orange, or blue

No rainbows with gold
nor leprechauns are near

and if you forgot to wear green,
you have nothing to fear.

I just wanted to say
HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

With my Irish roots I didn't want this day to go by without some kind of posting. But on a more serious note I've included a quote from Saint Patrick that I feel speaks loudly of his deep faith in God despite a persecuted life.

"Therefore, indeed, I cannot keep silent, nor would it be proper,
so many favours and graces has the Lord designed to bestow on me
. . . our way to repay Him is to exalt Him and confess His wonders
before every nation under heaven."

No shamrocks, no lucky charms, just the wonderful grace of Jesus!
Leah McCoy-Knotts

Friday, March 14, 2008

New Do

It's going to be a quite a shock to many of you - especially my family - but Raegan's long locks of hair are no more! Yesterday we went to have it cut, not trimmed, CUT! We've been talking about it for a long time and we finally did it! Because she has so much hair, it's fine, and it's naturally curly it just leads to screaming matches when it comes to getting ready to go anywhere. In fact, that's where "Tied Together in Knotts" came from, ha ha......not really.

She wanted to do Locks of Love but the minimum was 10" and we could only spare about 7 or 8 inches. Well, here's the before and after for ya!

It reminds me of mine when Joel and I met and married. That's probably why he didn't want her to cut it.

Here goes the first snip!

This was just the initial chunk they took off, it still looks long here.

We took this home and gave it to Daddy as a keepsake.

Voila!

Raegan loves this new do and told me on the way home last night that she felt like a new woman! If only a hair cut could do that for us!

By the way, I've also had my hair chopped....again. No pictures of me yet though. I'll add them later. We are ready for spring!

Leah

February 23rd

I've had friendly reminders from some people (you know who you are) that they are waiting for some more blog entries. Well, I guess I am a bit behind but I DID say that I'm spending time getting my sanity back!
Anyways, 2 days before Grandma passed away we had an eventful day at our house (since then I've been too preoccupied to post the pictures.) Raegan finished out her first season of Basketball Fundamentals and we held her 7th birthday party!

Basketball Fundamentals Youth League

So it was up early and to basketball by 8 a.m. Raegan has really enjoyed playing basketball - her team was the Pistons. She loved having Daddy as a Coach, that will probably change one day! But they both had fun working on fundamentals at home together.

Each of the kids received a T-shirt and certificate of achievement

Team Huddle

Raegan and her friend Kayla. They also do gymnastics together & are in the same 1st grade class. Look at Raegan's hair - yep, we found basketball hair accessories!

Showing off their certificates.

Then it was off to the birthday party!

We held Raegan's birthday party at a local ice cream shop called B'loos. It is a really cool place with great food! It is decorated inside like a lodge, with a fireplace, flat screen tv and a tree made with real bark! Their ice cream is delicious - Raegan LOVES to go there.

Her theme was Hannah Montana - what else do girls these days like?! Joel's mom always makes the cake no matter what the theme. This year she "took the cake" with this Hannah Montana guitar!

The kids got to play the Limbo and sing Kareoke. Great entertainment for us adults!

Doing the Hokie Pokie.

Blowing out the candles on the ice cream cake. Yes, we had 2 cakes!

Olivia, Raegan, Marysol, and Jansen. Raegan looks like she's had too much cake!

Isaiah wasn't in the other picture and he's too darn cute to leave out.

"Hannah Montana shoes, Mom!"

Grammy & Pap with Raegan at the tree

Raegan and Olivia - both 7!

After the party we went to visit Grandma Charlotte. Raegan took her big bunch of balloons from the party to brighten Grandma's hospital room. We had a great visit, Mother and Daddy were there for a bit too. Grandma looked great, talked alot and joked around with Raegan. She loved hearing all about the party and the gifts. Raegan fed Grandma ice cubes with a spoon, not because she couldn't do it herself but because Grandma knew that Raegan loved to "take care" of her. Each time we would visit Grandma, Raegan would be sure to feed her ice cubes, get her tissues, arrange her side table, anything to pamper Grandma. It was such a great afternoon together, I'm so glad Raegan had that time with her before she passed away on Monday.

What a day!

Leah

Devotional

An email devotional that I receive daily ("Girlfriends in God" through Crosswalk.com) was ironically similar to what I had been writing about in my last posting. Thought I'd share:

Today's Truth
"...Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things." Luke 10:41

Friend to Friend
I've never heard any woman exclaim, "I am soooo Mary!" Indeed, we live in a world with our Martha sisters, "whipping up our meals for Jesus", serving Him in the church, running around for Him in the community, and knocking ourselves out for Him at home!.

Let me rush to say that Martha was loved and affirmed by our Lord. And she was passionate in her love for Him. She served Him with a heart of devotion and in keeping with the role of the Jewish woman of her day. Yet, we see in the scriptures that she was overly occupied and too busy and distracted with much serving. (Luke 10:40 Amplified)

The choice becomes ours -- to live our lives mostly like Martha, or mostly like Mary. I am beginning to understand the truth that Mary-Living, is the greater of the two. Each one of these lifestyles can get out of balance, but I am learning to put more energy into being like Mary, than doing like Martha. Jesus said that Mary had chosen that which was to her advantage. (Luke 10:42) He is saying the same thing to me:

"Cindi, it's to your advantage that you spend time with me..."

You see, your time with your Heavenly Father each day, is not for your punishment, but for your blessing. As you quiet yourself before the Lord, you'll come to see stressful daily living in a new light. As you consistently come before Him each day in worship, scripture study, and prayerful meditation, your mundane, maxed-out lifestyle will be refocused, redirected, and refreshed!

Yes, your Creator-Designer who knows His plans and purposes for your life invites you to spend time with Him, capturing His thoughts and sharing His heart. When you do, He'll pour out His love to you in extravagant kinds of ways.

Yes, there are times when we need to be Martha and times we need to be Mary. Being Mary will give you joy for those times you must be Martha. That's the proper order of loving . . . and living.

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

My Current Perspective

Today is yet another anniversary – 5 months since Aaron went to be with the Lord. It was strange to not have him there for Grandma’s funeral. There had been many times in the past when her health would decline and we would mention her possible death and whether Aaron would be able to make it home for it. I wish he could have been there.
There has been so much death in our lives in the past 5 months that I’ve found it easy to slip into small boughts of depression. I’m drained – emotionally and physically. I’m sad yet I find joy, I feel separated from my departed loved ones and at the same time I feel my family stronger than ever around me. I’m exhausted but strength comes to meet each day and new task. I’ve lost track of what was “normal” and yet I’m redefining what my new normal needs to be.
My dad always says that adversity builds character. (If that’s the case, we have a family of real characters right now!) Honestly, though, I believe it only builds character if we are willing to accept it, learn from it and then apply what we’ve learned.
I’m looking at my life through new eyes. Eyes that see things much simpler. My new motto each day is “how can I make my life and my family’s life simpler to handle?” We tend to say yes to every opportunity, request and invitation that we lose track of our balanced way of life. Our schedule, family, relationships and sanity suffer because of it! This must stop – at least at this house. I need to be home, I need to be with my family and I need to weed through the many obligations in my life that deplete my energy and strength. I must have the fortitude to face the next event in our lives with an open mind and heart knowing the Lord will once again see me through.
Resting in His grace - trusting in His Word,
Leah

Monday, March 3, 2008 – Grandma’s Burial

We held a very private burial service at Hillcrest Memorial Park on Monday morning. It was absolutely gorgeous. The temperature actually got to the upper 60’s, the warm sun and the birds singing made it feel like spring had actually arrived. What a blessing to have such perfect weather to enjoy.
The view from the top of the cemetary, where Grandma and Pap are buried. This looks out toward Interstate 68 going east towards Rocky Gap.

Pastor Hollis shared some brief thoughts with us.

We all sang Amazing Grace

Daddy placed Grandma’s urn in the ground carefully. He was the one to always help her in and out of the car, the house, wherever and he was the one to gently lay her to rest. She jokingly called him her “favorite son”.

Aunt Judy and Daddy

We left the cemetary and had lunch together at Puccini's.
We had our own private room where we could enjoy swapping lots of memories and stories. Somehow we got divided my age. This is the "young people table".

and this is the "old people table" - don't know why Amy is sitting with them. Probably because they wanted the baby!

Sunday, March 2, 2008 - Grandma's Service

Grandma’s memorial service was held at 2 pm at Bedford Valley Bible Church – where she was a member. This is the church that I grew up in (my mom and dad still attend) and I consider my home church. There had been a pancake and sausage breakfast already planned for the day and since that is something Grandma would have LOVED to attend, they carried on with it. Everyone stayed after church, enjoyed a big brunch, then reconvened for the service to begin. A bit different since Grandma desired to be cremated. We had no viewing, no long hours of visitation it was still very emotional for us, of course, but very sweet and personal as well. Amy even sang! I couldn’t believe how well she held it together – wow. Mother had put together a CD of photos from Grandma’s life, that was great for everyone to see her in every stage of her life -- little girl, newly-wed, mother and grandmother.

This portrait was taken in late 198o's of pap and grandma (sorry for the picture of picture)

The flowers were beautiful. Mother and Judy ordered these for around the urn and they were exactly what Grandma would have wanted, classy, clean and with sticks!! She always thought sticks finished off an arrangement!

We had 8 roses representing each of her grandchildren.

Each of us took one and then one was left in honor of Aaron. (If you want this rose, Christina, I will send it to you).
Then the arrangement from the great-grandchildren (18 of them) was full of spring flowers and butterflies.

Sisters! Linda & Judy

Grandma's younger brother Tex from Ohio and sister June (a twin)
from Cumberland, Md. There were 9 children in their family - 4 still living.

Judy's girls - Sara, Shannon & Colleen

Cara was not able to make it in from Florida

Amy with Rebekah (2 wks) and Clarissa (our cousin's wife) with Lauren who is about 9 months.
Rebekah is absolutely gorgeous! I've been anxious to get pictures up on my blog for everyone to see her. So here she is - her debut on Aunt Leah's blog! Those lips are so kissable.

Chris, our cousin's husband, holding Rachel

Aunt Jo, Aunt Eileen, me and Chris

After the service and some visiting we headed back to mother and daddy’s for food and fellowship as a family. There was lots of laughing, kids running around, a screaming baby and a Nascar race on the t.v. - Grandma would have thought this was glorious.