thespicelands.com

Keith and I are off to Maker Faire in Austin, TX. As we are traveling, we will have a map that is being updated live as we drive. Click the link below to see our progress.

http://maps.google.com/maps?q=http://spiceland.org/makerfaire.txt

NOTE: It may take is a little while into the trip to get it working. If it isn’t working yet, try back in a hour.

I just wanted to follow up that we are back in Madison now. It was a nice visit, but two weeks is too long to be away from the love of my life! It’s good to be back. We drove Saturday night to Atlanta and spent the night at my sister Ally’s apartment. We got home on Sunday at about 2 PM.

My grandmother passed away about 30 minutes ago. We expected that it would be tonight or tomorrow, and we are relieved that she went sooner rather than later. I’m so glad that she is not suffering anymore. I know that she is praising God with the population of Heaven as we speak, and I like to think that my mom is welcoming her to Heaven and showing her the ropes!

Granny was an amazing woman. She was incredibly intelligent and a gifted musician. She taught piano and voice for years and served God her whole life. She raised four amazing children and has nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren to tell her story. She was always cheerful and pleasant. I will always remember her dedication to her family and the wonderful times we all had at her house. Whether it was a huge pot of macaroni and cheese, heaping bowls of “Magic Soup” when we were sick, or her famous caramel popcorn and spiced pecans, we always gathered at her house around a table overflowing with food and fellowship. She was adored by everyone who knew her, and we will all miss her dearly.

Shirla Shaw Pinder, 14 January 1930 – 10 September 2008

Hi, all! I’m in Jesup for a while with the kids. My grandmother is doing quite poorly and is not expected to be with us much longer. I would appreciate any prayers, thoughts, or karma, or whatever type of wishes your particular situation inclines you to give. Please pray for health and comfort for Granny and strength, peace, and wisdom for the rest of us.

I will be continually uploading new pictures here.

EDIT: Erin’s aunt and sister met her in Macon. She stopped calling with hourly updates so I stopped updating the map. I bet I was the only person tracking her progress anyways

Erin’s grandmother is sick so she is traveling to go see her. She didn’t want to be constrained by my work schedule so she left me at home. She brought both girls with her. She has a (probably) 10 hour drive ahead of her.

She just left (its 5AM). She is going to call every hour and give me new GPS coordinates. I’m making a map of her progress:

Map with Erin’s current location

Pray for her and the girls. Its a long journey and a long time for the kids to behave.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. If you are seeing this from facebook or some other site, click on the link to watch the video on our site.

[ download high quality movie ]

Mark took me on a ride around Hunstville today in his plane. This is just the landing portion. The video of just the landing is above.

The full flight (unedited) is here:

http://thespicelands.com/media/flight-with-mark-720p.html

Get the Flash Player to see this video. If you are seeing this from facebook or some other site, click on the link to watch the video on our site.

Here are some new photos from when we visited Papa and Nana’s lake house in Hot Springs. Enjoy!

Click here to view the pictures

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[ download high quality movie ]

So after a month and a half of no blogging, here is a video. We have no time (and I’m lazy) so the last month and a half’s worth of video will just sit on my camera for a while. Its easier to just start again now than to go back and edit all of that.

In this clip we went to nashville, tried to go to the zoo but it was too expensive, and ended up at the Opry Mills mall. They had some fun stuff to play with and a neat fatasy restaurant called “Rainforest Cafe” with animated robot animals, simulated rain, and lots of decor. Enjoy (we did)!

This past weekend we went to the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga with Grammer. Tru had a fabulous time! I never would have expected her to have so much fun. She loved the sharks and sting rays most of all. When both were in front of her at the same time she said, “Momma, look at the SharkRay!” She ran around naming all of the things that she could. She also loved the “water horses”.

Enjoy the pictures here.