"Occasionally in life there are those moments of unutterable fulfillment which cannot be completely explained by those symbols called words...

... Their meanings can only be articulated by the inaudible language of the heart."

~MLK, Jr.

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I had never been to Corvallis. Not until this weekend. And, may I say, it was a splendid little town and a very splendid weekend away. It was beneficial for me to be there. On so many levels that I can't quite explain or put into words. I had plans to see some friends that had been neighbors of mine and had moved back to Corvallis this past January. Then I was going to be staying with Tera, a student intern we had at work this past summer, who I had connected with and we became quick friends.
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The drive down was wet. Really, really wet. There was a lot of rain and water spray, and only car- length-in-front-of-me visibility, but I made it safely. I'm thankful that there wasn't more traffic on the road.

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The first stop I made was to see my dear, former neighbors. These are the kind of neighbors you want. Beth and Jorge and their two, darling daughters were my neighbors for too short of a time. I was sad to lose them as neighbors when they returned to Corvallis. I miss them so much. When I had decided to visit Corvallis I gave them a heads-up that I was planning on visiting and was hoping to see them. Besides Jorge being at a Men's Conference for the day, it worked well. I was going to get to "hang with the girls," as Beth said in a message. I got to their place and got the grand tour, got hugs from Nora and Carmen and then we whisked away for brunch. We went to The Broken Yolk. They had gluten-free bread so I got to have toast with my breakfast. It was yummy!!

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After eating we headed back to their place. Here are Nora and Carmen gazing at my from inside the front door. For Nora's birthday, I had sent an oh-so-cute tutu and ballerina book. Nora was gracious enough to model the tutu for me! Isn't she just adorable?!

Then she wanted a Stephanie-Nora picture.

And then another one...

And then another one...and another one...I will spare you those. Not that they are bad or anything, but they are basically all the same, yes, I quit at 5, I think.

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I neglected to get a picture with Beth, so I hijacked this one of her and Nora.It was great to take time with this family that I love. I had time with each of the girls by themselves while the other was napping and even had a great opportunity to visit with Beth while both girls were napping for a few minutes at the same exact time. It was wonderful. It made me want them to be closer again.

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After several hours with these great girls, I headed to the store for a few items and then made my way towards Tera's house and her church, where she was working the Men's Conference, that Jorge had been at. I conveniently got to the church just minutes after Tera had finished kitchen duty. I followed her to her house and got the grand tour of she and her roommates place. It is adorable. Absolutely.
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We had made plans to hike. As you may remember, it had poured on my drive down. We knew it would be muddy, my knee has been unhappy with me and we had spent some good quality time talking and talked a bit too long to get a good hike in before dark. We decided to pass on the hike and just go downtown and hang out. There are tons of cute stores in Corvallis and Tera showed me many that I love and definitely want to and will go back too. To name a few (so I can remember when I go back): Inkwell, The Book Bin, Living Earth Bakery (all g/f). I even scored a serving dish for my dishware set (which has been discontinued) at Many Hands Trading. Sweet! After walking all over downtown and the great debate of where we would eat, we headed to dinner at Cafe Yumm. And it was yummy! :)

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Then to the a few other locations Tera wanted to show me, including a 24 hour prayer room above a coffee shop and OSU's campus. I really love wandering around college and university campuses. It was dark, but we still made our way around. I will return sometime in daylight hours. The buildings were pretty phenomenal. My favorite was the Memorial Union building. It is a gorgeous building. It also has a gorgeous ceiling in the rotunda. I couldn't stop looking at this ceiling. I didn't even think of taking a picture, until Tera mentioned later that I should have. I found and borrowed the next two pictures from here. Thank you OSU blogger.

We walked up that staircase. I looked up at that amazing ceiling, a lot.

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The picture below is a close up of the recessed shapes in the ceiling.

Then we headed for gelato. More yummy goodness.

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Tera was making a mess. Her gelato was melting all down the side of her cup. She ditched the spoon and just started licking.

Then we made a few more stops to see a few more places she wanted to show me and headed back to the house and on to more quality conversation.
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After much late night conversation we had to take a few pictures of Tera's roommates cat, who, by the way, is not being tortured in the following picture. She rather likes being held like this...

Sapphire (the cat) slept in bed with me while I was visiting. She was a sweet cat. Ezme forgave me when I returned home.

Sunday morning we got up and headed for church. Tera is on staff for her church as one of the leaders/organizers of the girls groups for Real Life, their college age group. She is also attending the School of Ministry run by her church. It was such a blessing to see where she attends church, attends her SOM classes and see her at work answering calls/texts to assist in arranging rides for girls to get to church that didn't have a way to get there otherwise. I got to see her in her element. It was great.

After church we headed back to her place for lunch and then she headed off to go shopping for supplies to feed 30 girls a spaghetti dinner and I headed home...in the sun and in enough quiet to process conversations that had been had, time that had been enjoyed, and the blessings that these people, and so many others, are in my life. Thank you Beth, Nora, Carmen and Tera for a most enjoyable and refreshing weekend.