Is This Real Life???

I was a little blue when only two people showed up for youth group tonight! But at least they were up for some fun!!!

Spelunking Otherwise Known As Caving

SPELUNKING: The hobby of practice of exploring caves

(http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/spelunking)

Yes, Yes...I know it has been quite a while since I have posted... And I'm very sorry!!! But as I recently had quite a bit of fun exploring the Clarksville Caves in Clarksville, NY I thought it would be fun to post the pictures from the experience! Hope you all enjoy!!!

This is the before picture. We're all still nice and clean and dry!

And here's the after picture. We're soaked and filthy and gross!

This is the hole we had to go into in order to get down into the caves. Only slightly larger than me I think.


Once down in that hole we were in the actual cave. The entire ceiling of the first cavern was all fools gold. Doesn't it look so beautiful!!! It was stunning and this picture doesn't even begin to do it justice...

This was a bit further into the cave. There was a little underground stream running down the middle of the cave for almost the entire way. At first we were able to hop on different rocks and avoid getting wet but eventually the rocks thinned out and we ended up having to just walk right through the stream. And boy was it cold!

Just another picture in the cave. The ceiling was higher here but at some points it was very close to your head...other points you had to squat and shimmy or crawl.

Joy and her friends Hollan (green jacket) and Vartan (blue jacket) in the cave.

This is actually a shot of the group walking ahead of me although it's hard to tell because of the fogginess. The fog/mist effect was caused by our breath. I was very damp and cool in the cave and there wasn't much air flow so whenever we breathed out it created a mist that did not quickly dissipate. It was kind of a cool effect though because your breath just kind of hung in the air and then slowly moved away still almost in formation.

So the story behind my hand is this. Bubba attempted to climb up a piece of the cave wall behind us and a massive clump (bigger than my head) broke off of the wall where he was holding on. After it broke off though, we realized that it was actually a massive lump of clay and that there was a ton of clay in the actual wall of the cave! It was super moist and got on my hand because I felt the need to play with the clay...What can I say, it's the child in me!

This picture was taken after we as a group decided to go further up the tunnel/underground stream. We knew that the water got pretty deep (about waist high) but we wanted to go for it anyway. We started heading into the water and by the time we got as deep as we did it hurt so bad. We were all yelling "Ahhhh, it hurts...Pins and needles...Go back...Go back!" So we turned around and headed back...Appearantly there was a new tunnel a bit further up but we would have had to be in up to our waists...We decided to save that for a warmer day and plan on going back in couple more months.

Please Pray

Well as some of you may already know, my mom is in the hospital yet again. She had an infection that started on her face and kept getting worse even though she was on an antibiotic. So she went to the doctor's after going to the emergency room twice in 3 days and they sent her over to a different hospital to admit her. Once she was there they took cultures of the infection site and it tested positive for staff...And the infectious disease doctor is really concerned with the fact that it keeps spreading, the fact that it is a staff infection and the fact that it's so close to the brain. So...they've put her in her own private room (which is a bonus) because she can't have contact with any other patients because of the staff infection...

So yeah, if you could just keep her in your prayers that would be awesome!!!

Thanks

Unexpected Disaster

I awoke at about 2:00 this morning to the sound of glass breaking outside and Tucker whinning to go out. I got up out of bed and as soon as I did I saw the lights shinning in the house and realized something wasn't right. I could hear people shouting at each other and quickly went to the bathroom window. When I looked outside I saw about 8 firetrucks surrounding Alteri's Restaurant. There was smoke pouring out of the roof and they were breaking the windows so that a backdraft didn't happen. As the night progressed, the noise got louder, the ladders on top of the trucks went up to get the flames pouring out of the top of the building and they needed to use loudspeakers to make sure the firefighters could clearly hear directions. They were also sawing the roof in places and knocking holes in the walls to be able to reach the flames better!!! Eventually though, the flames just overtook everything and you could see them pouring out of the restaurant. At one point I opened the bathroom window and could actually feel the heat from the fire across the street. They ended up closing down 9w and reopened it around 8:00 this morning. Unfortunately we've lost a locally well known business...

Here's to you Alteri's...Sorry to see you go!

Unexpected Delivery

Yesterday proved to be quite the stressful day at work! Nearing the end of the day we had an incident in which a consumers fingers got shut in a van door and at the very end of the day she needed to be taken to the emergency room for x-rays. In the midst of my stress and me calling family, service coordinators, day hab coordinators, etc. my desk phone beeps in and tried to get my attention. Unfortunately I was on my work cell with someone regarding the incident so I told the receptionist that I would just come out to reception. Still on the cell phone I make my way out to reception to see what Mary needs only to open the door to the lobby and see my sweetheart standing there holding a dozen roses and a very sweet card! I can't tell you how much better I instantly felt. Even though I still had to deal with the phone calls and emergency procedures the burden and weight of the stress lifted. Instead I felt incredibly adored and significant!

My Cubicle

Here's a little view of my cubicle...I know it's not exciting (at least not to me) but it's where I spend a good portion of my life! I do like to try and personalize it as much as possible by brining in pictures of friends and family. Oh, and at the moment...it's a little cluttered...You'll see...

We should totally play a game of I Spy with my desk!

Yeah...I told you it was a bit cluttered!!! I need to file some stuff...my goodness...

Guess what I was doing while I was at work... hehehe

The heart that is on my phone says Jessica and it was from the pins that we made as nametags for the first women's retreat that we had at Camp Pinnacle. Remember making them Suzanne??? And the piece of paper is the memory verse for bible study this week...Acts 8:15-17.

And woohoo...it's me in my cubicle...lovely florescent light blaring over my head! Well I suppose I had better get back to work here in my cubicle...

Coffee Craziness!

Last night some people from the church went to the Annual 2009 Gospel Gala in honor of Black History Month and for some reason I was not thinking and I parked my car at the church and rode up to the Palace Theater with Pastor Mike and his wife as well as one other. At the end of the show one other person had jumped on board for riding home with the Frati's. Now I probably wouldn't have minded but that would have been three people in the backseat...and none of us were tiny! So to fix the situation in my head and have a little more room, I asked Mrs. Smith if I could ride home in her car since she only had an Natalie and Shyvonne. Well, she said yes and that's where our adventure begins...

Once we were in the car and on our way she mentions coffee...Well anyone who knows me at all knows that I LOVE COFFEE!!! But at this point it was about 10:00pm and were weren't sure that anything right near the Palace would be open besides somewhere like Dunkin Donuts. Well none of us really wanted that anyway...Mrs. Smith wanted real "coffee house" coffee. So we decided that I would show her the way to The Muddy Cup...good coffee.

We arrive at The Muddy Cup where the adventures officially begin...It took us somewhere around 10-15 minutes to order 4 drinks...mine being ordered first. Thankfully I know what I like and stuck with something I knew I would enjoy. So we get the coffees, find a couch and plop down for some conversation!!! Then...the coffee kicks in...and the conversation turned into about an hour of hysterical fits of laughter!!! So much so that Mrs. Smith has to use the ladies room. Well...unfortunately the one at The Muddy Cup isn't in the greatest condition, as far as cleanliness is concerned. So she decides we'll just leave and she'll hit up the restroom at the Price Chopper next door on Madison Ave.

Somehow, on the 50 foot trip in the car ride from The Muddy Cup to Price Chopper, Shyvonne brings up chinese fire drills. So when Mrs. Smith pulls into the parking lot at Price Chopper, she stops right in the middle of the "road part" of the parking lot in front of the store and gets out. She proceeds to tell us to pull a chinese fire drill and she walks into the store leaving us parked in the "road part" and people staring at us yet again, laughing hysterically.

She comes back out a few minutes later unsuccessful in her search for a bathroom and comes around to the passenger side of the car where I was sitting and insists that I get out and drive for her! At this point I do and she decides to go back to The Muddy Cup. So we loop back around and she jumps out for round two of The Muddy Cup's bathroom. It's too horrible...unbearable even...she can't do it. Mind you we are all sitting in the car still and we see her walk out of The Muddy Cup with a look on her face and saunter over to the Madison Theater next door. A few minutes later she comes out looking happy and having successfully been able to use a clean restroom.

Finally, we get on our way back to Ravena and I'm still driving. Appearantly people in the Smith family get very easily lost because we went about 4 miles down the road and they see another Price Chopper and all of a sudden I hear Mrs. Smith say, "Hey, how'd we get back to this Price Chopper??? This is the same Price Chopper isn't it???" To which I am unable to respond at all because of the fact that I'm laughing so hard and can't spit out a comprehensible word!!! Shyvonne seems to second the idea of the same Price Chopper in the back seat. All of a sudden Mrs. Smith realizes that The Muddy Cup is missing from the picture which only makes me laugh even harder!

Several minutes of driving and hysterical conversation pass on the way back toward Ravena. We got as far as Glenmont when Mrs. Smith decided that she needed to stop at the Price Chopper in Glenmont to pick up a few things since it's 24 hours. I drop her off at the door and us girls stay in the toasty warm car to chat it up. Tick...tock...tick...tock... The minutes are passing by and Mrs. Smith has been in the store for a while! I decided to pull up into the fire lane and wait for her there because at this point the three of us ladies are thinking that she's got to be coming out any minute now...since she'd been in there for forever. Tick...tock...tick...tock... Still no sign of Mrs. Smith so I decided to turn the car off so we didn't waste gas. Tick...tock...tick...tock... Still no sign of Mrs. Smith and now it's getting pretty cold in the car so we decide to forget about saving gas and start it up again...

Or so we though...but the car wouldn't start. We tried 4 more times and prayed but were still unable to start the car. Now we all begin talking at the same time. "Oh no, what do we do?" "We need to go find your mom." "I didn't leave any lights on did I?" "There's nothing on, what happened? How come it won't start???" Well, Shyvonne decided she would go in and get her mom. The two come back out and now we get to try and figure out what we're going to do at 1:00am in Glenmont! Finally it's decided that we will go in and warm up and I will call Bubba. So I call his trusty cell phone figuring he had fallen asleep since he hadn't answered my last text.

Ring...ring...ring...ring...voicemail. Okay, well he's got to be sleeping. I'll call back and wake him up.

Ring...ring...ring...ring...voicemail. Wow, he must really be out...

Ring...ring...ring...ring...voicmeail. "Natalie, he won't answer his cell phone! Should I call the house number??? Are you sure??? I don't want to wake up grandma... Okay, I'll just try the house phone."

Ring...ri-"Hello???"

He was awake downstairs and had left the cell upstairs. So I quickly explained that the car was dead at Glenmont Price Chopper and we needed him to come and jump the car so that we could get back down to Ravena since I still needed to get my car from the church parking lot so that I could go back home to Glenmont. He told me he was on his way and would be there soon. In the meantime we decided to waste a bit of time in the store.

10 minutes or so later I get a text message..."I'm here." So I tell everyone he's here and we head outside. Wait...where is he...I don't see his truck anywhere... I texted him back..."Where?" And the response I got was..."You're at the Glenmont Wal Mart right?" Wow...he finally made it to the Price Chopper and got the car jump started for us. We made it down to Ravena A-Okay. I got my car and made it home around 2:00am... Unfortunately the coffee craziness had worn off by then and I simply passed out upon arriving home.

And that my friends is the latest adventure!