Gramma Myrtle Thursday, August 09, 2007

Yesterday morning, my precious Grandmother died, peacefully, after a long 2 weeks in the hospital fighting a bad infection in her lungs. There's so much that I could say about what this special woman meant to me. She was an artist in the truest sense. Her talent for painting and drawing was passed on to my Mom and my sister...regretfully, however, it skipped me! I always appreciated the way she saw the world. Beauty to behold around every corner, especially in nature. Capturing God's creation on a canvas was her passion.

Her love and dedication to our creator is what spoke to me most. After she had to go into a nursing home about 3 years ago, I was really worried about her spirit...we didn't want her to be lonely! Being the amazing woman she was, she never complained, but met each day with a new joy and positive energy. I hope I am every bit as joyful and loving as she was when I reach that age. I'm so thankful for my gramma Myrtle and what a beautiful soul she was.

These pictures were taken back in November at her nursing home in Clinton, TN.

It's been a really hard couple of weeks. Sadness, exhaustion, and joy that she will be escaping her frail little body, and continuing on to a beautiful life in heaven. Her funeral is tomorrow night. I am excited to honor the life of such a wonderful woman.
Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers!
-Sonya

Fun with Mark Saturday, July 28, 2007

This past weekend, my brother Mark came to visit. We had the best time while he was here, hanging out in Downtown K-town, hiking and engaging in stimulating conversation. The above picture was taken out of the sun-roof of "The Love Boat" while we were driving around Cade's Cove to Abram's Falls. We leisurely hiked the 2.5 mile trail to Abram's Falls, taking pictures and falling in the creek. Mark was videotaping us out in the water and completely slipped off of a rock, which sent him reeling into the water. He had his video camera on the whole time and I'm hoping to get the video to post here. It was hilarious...I mean...I'm glad he was alright. Below is a picture of us at the water's edge near the base of the falls.

We also got to talk a lot about faith and God's purposes in our lives. Mark's growing and vibrant faith is so refreshing, we were encouraged just by talking to him. I'm so thankful to God for the work that He's been doing in Mark's life through his job, his friends and his girlfriend Jess. (Yay for Jess!)

Technological Disaster Friday, July 13, 2007

Ok, so last week I completely ruined my cell phone by accidently submerging it in water (some of you may remember an e-mail from me begging for your phone number). But the awful truth is that not only did I ruin my phone, but myiPod Nano as well! They both were in the console of my Volvo where a leaking water bottle had it's way with them. A sad, sad day.



You see, I LOVED my iPod. It was green, it kept track of all of my runs (thanks to Nike+iPod), it had become a part of me! I was so mad at myself for being so careless. Then, on Monday my wonderful husband announced that he had bought me a MacBook of all things. We have been using his work computer (a MacBook Pro) for a while now, and have been completely won over by it's slick-ness and ease of use. The point of this story is that the MacBook he bought me came with a FREE iPod Nano! Yes! Today, I shall resume my love affair with my Nano. The best part is that he got me another green one...

The only question remains, "should I be trusted with such technology?" My track record isn't very good .

So Long .Mac Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Our 60-day free trial of .Mac is up and we're back on Blogspot! "I'm tired of you guys changing your blog every other week!" you may be saying. Well...so are we!!

It's been fun playing with WordPress and iWeb, but there's not much that can compare to the beast that is "Blogger"! Google really has a corner on the blog market. Especially with their integration of Picasa to host images for free and the fact that it ties in so nicely with our Gmail account doesn't hurt either. And the best part about it all is that it doesn't cost a penny! With WordPress we were paying for hosting and .Mac would have cost us about the same at $100 a year.

Well, I apologize for all of the changes, but at least you've had the same URL to visit so you don't have to update your bookmarks! Right? You mean to tell me that you DON'T have http://luchauer.com at the top of your bookmark list?!

We've brought over all of the posts that we had on .Mac, but the comments had to stay *sniff*. For the 2 of you who commented...we're sorry. Heheh! Anyways, thanks for your patience with us...well...with Erik that is!

Good-Bye Aaron & Amy Monday, July 02, 2007

About 2 weeks ago our totally rad friends, the Etheridges, came to stay with us for a few days. Aaron & Amy are getting ready to move to Oregon for the rest of the summer, then they are on their way to Vancouver, BC. We were honored to be able to snag them for some quality time as they are touring the Southeast saying their goodbyes to family and friends. We are so excited about the work they will be doing in Canada, and we ask that you pray for them as they answer God’s call to work with University students at UBC. Click here to read more about what the Etheridges will be doing in Vancouver.

Our time with Aaron and Amy was shared with some other dear friends that we met up with in Jellico, TN. We headed up Last Thursday to be with Will and Shawna and their youth group, while they were there for Mission Camp as a part of GoodSoil Ministies. They worked so hard painting the church building and building a deck for a family in the community. We were so happy to meet the Meeks and hear about the amazing things that God is doing in the community of Jellico through GoodSoil Ministries. Steve and Donna were gracious enough to let us stay with them. It just so happened that another Missionary Famiy, Marty and Louise Koonce (and their 2 youngest boys), were staying with them as well! It was a full house, but we had an amazing time, drinking authentic African Chai, and listening to Marty and Steve tell stories about their time in Africa. We were just drinking in the richness of the evening! Erik and I could really identify with Steve and Donna’s stories of some of the things they see here in East Tennessee (Appalachian slang, if you will).

Above is a pic of some of us at the local coffee shop, Common Grounds. Below is a picture of the Meeks’ house. Steve and his 2 oldest sons built it with their own hands! (I just realized we never got a picture of Steve and Donna)

Saturday night, Erik and I introduced Aaron and Amy to...The Melting Pot! CRAZY good. We ate (or should I say grazed) for 3 solid hours! I had to unbutton the top of my pants(don’t worry, NOT pictured here).

We finished our time together by heading to Atlanta, where we watched David and Andrew Scharff compete against Ben and Aaron Etheridge in the Muddy Buddy race. It was a great time once we finally got there (the poor Volvo over-heated in the middle of a traffic jam right as we reached North Atlanta). Don’t let this photo fool you. We were actually dripping with sweat - 90 degrees Hot-lanta style! Sorry, I don’t have any pics of the muddy buddies, but take my word for it, they were dirty!