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“All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.”

~ from The Fellowship of the Ring

“I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.

“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

~ from The Fellowship of the Ring

March 25th was chosen to commemorate the fall of Sauron in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Because we are huge fans of C.S. Lewis, I was pleased to also find some quotes from Tolkien about his friend.

“Friendship with Lewis compensates for much, and besides giving constant pleasure and comfort has done me much good from the contact with a man at once honest, brave, intellectual–a scholar, a poet, and a philosopher–and a lover, at least after a long pilgrimage, of Our Lord.”

“The unpayable debt that I owe to him was not ‘influence’ as it is ordinarily understood, but sheer encouragement. He was for long my only audience. Only from him did I ever get the idea that my ‘stuff’ could be more than a private hobby.”

“So far I have felt the normal feelings of a man of my age–like an old tree that it losing all its leaves one by one: this feels like an axe-blow near the roots.” ~ on the death of C.S. Lewis

This image is used by permission from Wikimedia Commons.

Josh posted this photo of snow outside his apartment building in Aiken, South Carolina, this week.

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Fresher than ever.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 5,100 times in 2010. That’s about 12 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 33 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 128 posts. There were 38 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 15mb. That’s about 3 pictures per month.

The busiest day of the year was June 5th with 132 views. The most popular post that day was The Memorial Day Weekend Mashup: Part 1.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were stumbleupon.com, networkedblogs.com, mikeandsus.wordpress.com, facebook.com, and mail.yahoo.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for cocoa beach, mike sus, god told me who i would marry, does god know who i will marry, and cocoa beach pictures.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

The Memorial Day Weekend Mashup: Part 1 June 2010
2 comments

Cocoa Beach weekend February 2007
1 comment

God Knows Who You Should Marry April 2008
2 comments

When Your First Child Leaves Home for College September 2007

The Memorial Day Weekend Mashup: Part 2 June 2010

We hope to post pictures and a blog entry when she gets back home.

The Ocean Grill in Vero Beach, Florida

I definitely want to go back to Vero Beach!

We arranged to meet friends at The Ocean Grill in Vero Beach, Florida, for dinner three weeks ago. (It’s less than two hours down the turnpike from Orlando and then you take route 60 from Yeehaw Junction until it dead ends at the restaurant.) The Ocean Grill has very tasty food (pricey, though) and a fun, eclectic interior. It was full very soon after it opened at 5:30. I’d put in a reservation for the restaurant and be prepared to pay $22/dinner, but there’s a few lower-priced items or even a tasty soup and appetizer. I had Chicken Oscar. Their lunch menu is definitely cheaper (under $10.)

I felt like we were in “another country” just because Vero Beach was so different from Orlando. You could park near the restaurant and do shops and walk the beach. There’s plenty of beach access points along A1A north and south of Vero Beach. Disney has a resort north of the restaurant on A1A.

We arrived in Vero Beach well before dinner, so we stopped at the McLarty Treasure Museum. It takes less than an hour to do this museum and only costs a few dollars. It was fascinating to learn about 1,500 survivors stranded here when a fleet of Spanish treasure ships sank off the coast in 1715.

Pelican Island NWR

I can’t guarantee you would see dolphins, but if you want to try, go straight in past the first parking lot in the Refuge and then turn at the next right into the Centennial area. It’s an easy walk to the observation tower overlooking the Indian River. We saw a pod of dolphins feeding in the river.

After dinner, we drove past a large home with lots of Christmas lights in a huge front yard off of route 60 not far from the restaurant. If you’re in Vero Beach in December, read this article first and then this article to learn more. Apparently you can drive around the outside of this large home, at least, to see hundreds of thousands of Christmas lights. (Maybe we should have stopped.) They also have special times to see the twenty decorated rooms as well.

Here’s a good list of things to do in and near Vero Beach; most of the things in the second half of the list “within an hour” are south of Vero Beach.

We’ve driven on I-95 from Maine to Miami, so I plan to write different posts about things to see, restaurants, places to stop for a few hours, and more.

One of the headaches on I-95 is south of Washington, D.C. We discovered Route 1 as an awesome detour after one of the worst snow storms came through. Read more.

Georgia was also very slow until the extra lanes were added. We’ve frequently detoured around the Brunswick, Georgia, area using Route 17. Hopefully, though, the last of the new lanes are now open on that stretch and Georgia should be much better.

Follow this link for posts about traveling I-95.

Where do you stop for a few hours for a scenic spot for a meal? What is a great weekend getaway? We don’t travel north of D.C. very often, so if you have tips going north from D.C. to Maine, please add your tips!

Bonnie is on her two-week mission trip to Brazil. We hope to post pictures and a blog entry when she gets back home.

Although this is Bonnie’s sixth mission trip (fourth international trip), this is her first time as a co-leader of a team. The team of eleven are from Ben and Bonnie’s church. The mission team will be visiting schools and holding events for children in association with Open Arms Brazil.

Most of the kids they will be working with come from broken homes or are orphans. The children often get involved in crime, drugs, and prostitution at an unthinkably young age. Pray that God would rescue them and they would give their lives to God (as many have in the past and are now working with Open Arms).

Pray that God would guide Bonnie and Joe (the other leader) and their decisions. Pray that the team would be unified, safe, and healthy. (Bonnie had a cold before she left.) Pray for safety in traveling and that God would prepare the hearts of the children they work with.

Thank you for praying for her.

NOTE: This photo is from a mission trip she took to Ethiopia in 2008.

We’re very happy to announce Ben’s engagement to Bonnie Jones.

On October 23rd, Ben took Bonnie around to all the places that were special in their relationship. Then, as they were cruising down the Potomac, he got down on one knee and presented a beautiful engagement ring to her. Ben took this photo right afterwards with his phone with Bonnie happily showing off her ring.

This past week, they asked Josh to be the best man and asked Jenn to be a bridesmaid. We’ll all be heading to Virginia for a beautiful wedding on May 14th next year.

So… you’ll obviously be seeing more about Bonnie and getting to know her on our blog! She’s a pediatric nurse and is going on a missions trip this December. This will be Bonnie’s sixth mission trip (fourth international trip). We’ll post pictures when she gets back from Brazil.

We’re delighted to see how God has answered prayers and brought a lovely and godly woman into Ben’s life.

Last month, his church had a cookie contest and the Bible study group he’s in made over 200 cookies and entered three cookie recipes. All three won. When he gives me the recipe for the White Chocolate Macadamia cookies, I’ll add it here.

Follow this link for the Pumpkin cookie recipe and for a photo of Ben and his Bible study friends. They struck this pose last May at the wedding of one of the guys from their group. Ben is second from the right.

And speaking of weddings… Stay tuned for our next post! (There’s a hint on this page).