Oh how I wish it wasn't so difficult and time consuming to upload pictures onto Blogger. You can only select one file at a time and upload a maximum of 5 at a time. Needless to say I'm only going to put a handful of the 270 I took in Tennessee. We had a great time with family meeting some for the first time and getting to know others much better. That was the first time I think any of us had spent so much time with each other, especially under one roof. The crew that went hiking, 16 of the 20.


My younger sister, Erika, and I near the top of the hike. I really wish I had the time to describe this hike. The rocks, the air, the scenery, everything. I wish I had more time to post the scenic pictures and breathtaking views but a mug shot of my little sister and I will have to do for now.

At times it was pretty steep. That's my oldest niece, Hayley, probably up higher than she should be.
Elyse and I on the day everyone kind of did their own things.
The crew that went rafting.

All 20 of us including 2 of my grandfather's children, 6 grandchildren, and 5 great-grandchildren.

My mom was such a wonderful help to us and watched Elyse for 2 whole days so Matt and I could enjoy hiking and white water rafting with the group. The other whole day we had we went into Gatlinburg for lunch and then did some scenic driving and a little hiking of our own, just the 3 of us. The other 2 days were spent primarily on travel.

The memorial service for my grandfather was incredible. I know I've mentioned in other posts that I didn't know him very well. My immediate family moved to Florida while much of our family remained in Iowa so I can imagine the long distance, jobs, 3 kids, etc. made it difficult for our families to remain close. There were visits and phone calls scattered here and there throughout the years but I didn't know him. My uncle did such a wonderful job talking about my grandfather, so much so that I feel like I know him better now. Stories of his qualities and character revealed so much to me about things in my own family. I did remember that he was rather quiet and kept to himself. I assumed it was because he was older and I was younger at the time and there wasn't much for us to talk about. Now I know that was very much his nature his entire life. He was a quiet server and didn't like to be "caught" doing good things. At one time he was awarded a perfect attendance certificate for his adult Sunday school class. Those are just small examples of the many things I learned. I was sad and a little embarrassed that this was how I learned about him but I'm thankful for it none the less.

On a back home note Elyse and I are still on the mend. We laid low the end of last week and throughout the weekend. Coughs and runny noses kept us away from church and my niece's birthday party. Today we're a little better and ran some errands. I look around me and there is so much I desire to get done and lately I've found myself not knowing where or how to begin. I have a surface clean house. You could eat off my floors at almost any given time but don't open a closet too quickly or you're likely to get buried alive. I desire to fix this but don't want to do the work. Organization in any shape or form has never been a strength of mine and the harder I try the more out of character and discouraged I feel. At the same time, I truly want to be more organized. I want that to be a part of my character. Why is it so difficult? Ugh.

Elyse turned one last Tuesday. I had planned on making a slide show of pictures from her first year and putting it to some sort of sweet, make you teary eyed song, but I was never organized enough to get it done. I wanted to describe in much more detail the journey God took me through during my pregnancy, delivery, and the months to follow. I still hope to do this so as not to lose the details over time because already thoughts in my memory bank fade and drift backward until they are gone as they are replaced by new ones each and every day. I'm so thankful for things like blogs, videos, and pictures. It's my best effort to clench and capture just a portion of life as it whizzes by and it isn't nearly enough. Here's the link to my first post after Elyse's arrival.

http://ursulaborrack.blogspot.com/2009/06/shes-finally-here.html

It still makes me cry.

Now she's crying.....I better go.