Where the sun comes up about ten in the morning and the sun goes down about three in the day.

“There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.” -- Nelson Mandela

For as long as I can remember, my family and I have visited my mom's extended family in Kentucky and Tennessee. We've always driven the some odd fourteen hours that it takes to get there, and with a family of six, that definitely has gotten interesting at times! Before the days of iPods and in-car DVD players (or at least before we had them), those hours were full of looking at the scenery (mountains aka hills to Texan kids are quite the sight to see!) and falling asleep to country hits on cassette (yes, cassette and not CD!). Restless Heart, Reba, Alabama....it's still hard for me to keep from yawning when I hear "Love In The First Degree"!

Although we've visited in the summertime before, our favorite time to visit has always been in the fall. You'll see more colors that God has painted the trees on all those hills than you thought existed! It's beautiful. And if you're lucky, maybe even a little snow.

And so, tomorrow we will take yet another trek northeast and experience all the sights and sounds that have become so familiar yet never get old. It's such a comfort, it's hard to put into words. Through the hustle and bustle of life and it's struggles, sometimes you can tend to forget who you really are. Situations and people change you and you may not even realize it. You're older, wiser, different, but inside really still the same. But it's like when I step into my great-aunt's house that has barely changed since I was in diapers, or bear hug my cousin and hear her signature laugh, I remember. The real me -- two and a half years old and decked out in a clown costume, running right into a stranger's house while trick-or-treating -- comes out. And she was always there, it just took a little reminder. It's amazing to me how much one can learn about themselves just by getting back to your roots...roots that you may not even remember or realize you had. I see my feistiness and sense of humor in several cousins, I meet other cousins I never knew existed, and it all starts to piece itself together like an heirloom quilt. The pieces were always there, I just didn't fully realize it.