This is my fairwell to "Southern Moms" blog. After giving this a great deal of thought I've decieded to no longer blog on "Southern Moms". Many thanks to Linda for sharing this space with me. I hope you all continue to exchange your thoughts and lives with each other and encourage each other in Godly living.

Blessings, Teresa Unger

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So much has happened since my last post.  Let me recap just a few.

June 11, 2006.  Aletheia Rose Barach passed the one year mark.  Happy Birthday lovely girl!!  What a blessing she is to her parents and grandparents.  We're so thankful to share life with her.

June 17, 2006.  Nathanael Boone Phillips and Naomi Andrea Sleadd were married.  We praise God for this wonderful match.

June 18, 2006  Happy Father's Day to the fathers in my life - Steven Myron Phillips the excellent father of my children.  Thomas Wesley Seagoe my own father, David Rolfe Phillips father of Steven.  May God's hand be upon your lives. 

June 28, 2006  Naomi Andrea Sleadd celebrated the passing of another year as well.  What a gem she is.  How we praise God for bringing her to Nathanael. 

What more can I say.  Please rejoice with us in these abundant blessings from Yahweh our God.

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Birthday greetings to our son John Barach this 5th day of June.  You're indeed a blessing to us all - Moriah and Aletheia, us [Dad and Mom P], the church.  May the grace of our Lord rest upon you now and forever.  We love you!

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Yesterday I helped my daughter pack up some things in preperation to leave home after she gets married. It's a very sad thought that I won't get to see her everyday or even once a week. 

Where did the time go? It seems like it was just the other day when I was teaching her to read and she was asking me to help her with her hair or dress her dolls with her.   

She has brought great joy to our home and though we are sad to see her go,  we are happy that she has someone to love and share her life with.

I think it's as painful as childbirth to let them go, but as rewarding as well. Our family will grow again, in a different way. We will be blessed with a son, who will love and care for our precious daughter.

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Complaints from the Mother of the Bride

"I can't believe how much stuff and time it takes to plan a "simple wedding" and how folks don't RSVP."

(Hint hint)

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Well,  this post comes a bit late seeing I've been home from beautiful Maui for several days - uh - 15 to be exact.  :o)

Anyway, a little bit about how it came about and what we did/saw while there.  My sister Sharon has two daughters - Alyssa and Kendra.  Alyssa graduated a few years ago from high school and was taken on a trip to Mexico for her celebration.  That was a girls only trip because her daddy does not care to travel one bit.  Well, Alyssa got married last summer, the year that Kendra graduated, so Kendra's celebration trip waited till this spring/summer.  I was invited to both, but because I like to take adventures and travel to new places with Steven I declined the first trip and also again in Nov./Dec. when plans were being made for this one.  In late Marchish Steven and I were talking one Saturday morning about upcoming commitments, goals, plans, etc. and I mentioned that we'd need to be keeping my mother for a week in May because that's when my sisters would be gone to Hawaii.  We discussed that some and then he asked if I had not been invited.  Well, yes, I was, but declined because I'd rather travel ....   with you.  We continued to discuss who'd be going, dates, etc. and then he looked at me and said,  "Linda, I think you need to go".  Well, it's not easily expressed in words just what that statement meant to me - even if I had not gone it meant sooo much that he saw my need for a respite.  But, my first thought and words were, "Well, yes, I might need this, but not nearly as much as you".  You see, our plates have been piled to overflowing for quite a while.  Anyway, long story short I phoned my sisters, plans were made, airline tickets purchased and I was on my way. ...

We departed Medford on May 3rd.  Steven took me to the airport (because of my late planning I wasn't on the exact flights as my sisters) at 6am.  My flight left at 7:30 - the others at 9:30.  We met up in San Francisco and travelled on to Kahului, Maui together.  A van had been reserved for us and then we travelled on down to Kehei where our lodging was.  On this trip then were my sister Sharon and her two daughters Alyssa and Kendra; sister Deanne and daughters McKenzie and Aubrey and myself.  Hopefully, in years to come my daughters (Heather, Moriah and Naomi along with their daughters) can come along, also our sister Sandra and her daughters (Ashley who is looking to return to bible college this fall and Amber who is currently in Africa working in an orphanage of AIDS infected babies and children).  

Anyway, I talked with a woman in the airport at San Francisco who is a Mauian and she gave us many tips as to how/where to find good shopping and restaurants.  Then while flying from San Fran to Maui I sat next to a young man who was also a Mauian and he added to our list of possible excursions.

Maui is beautiful!! I know now why my motherin-law loves Hawaii so much (they lived in Oahu for a few years [without Steven]).  Lush and tropical with warm rain most every afternoon.  Hibiscus flower hedges of either red, orange or yellow, plumaria of various colors in bloom everywhere, palm trees of numerous types along with all kinds of other tropical grasses and plants decorating the vistas.  Exotic birds waking us up every morning with their beautiful singing.  Fresh pineapple to eat everday.  Sitting by and swimming in the sea - being revived, invigorated, whelmed with awe and blessing from Yahweh our Lord.  We ate delicious fish tacos from a roadside vendor, shrimp caesar salad from the Pupu Lounge, Alexander's fish and chips, a most excellent meal at a Greek restaurant and crab stuffed shrimp at Bubba Gumps in Lahaina.  We went to a lua in the rain wearing colorful rain ponchos handed out by our hosts (option of money back or 'rain check' but we're from Oregon and thought we'd just enjoy things as they came), drank Kona coffee, fresh fruit smoothies or ChiChi's and Margarita's in the evening.  We did spend quite a bit of time at the beach - particularly for the sake of Sharon and  (Deanne and I are not such sunlovers as they [perhaps I would be more if I could be in the sun].  We drove as far south as the road goes into black lava beds where there is excellent snorkelling which McKenzie enjoyed doing.  One day we took the 'most beautiful drive in the world' on the Hana Highway, which takes you nearly all the way around the island.  We left 6am and got home 12 hours later - all day with Aubrey who is an 18 month old and sang and ate and slept in her seat nearly all day.  Scenery includes going through a bamboo jungle, numerous waterfalls all along the way, absolutely gorgeous terrain (part of Jerasic Park and King Kong was filmed here) even cattle rances on the southeast side of the island.  We stopped allll along the way at several old churches and gathered some of Maui's missionizing history.  We found out of the way shops along this highway - vendors just selling their wares along the road at say a waterfall where tourists would naturally be stopping anyway.  I bought things like baked coconut candy (slow baked shavings of coconut covered with Maui's own pure cane sugar) and various gifts for loved ones and friends back home.  I got Steven a 'rain stick'  made from a large piece (2-3" diameter) of bamboo cut to about 4' in length. 

I'm ready to go back - with Steven of course, in fact we're talking of going back next winter/spring for perhaps two weeks and maybe with a couple of other couples.  We'd be exploring other things like the volcano site, more trips and hiking into the Iaoan Valley, and just more of the same.  It was a fantastic blessing and I thank my Lord and my husband for making it possible for me.

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