Motorcycles, Cracker Barrel, Garage Sale...OH MY!

Lake Atitlan, Guatemala

What a busy weekend, full of work and adventure! Sometimes I enjoy having a few days like that; other weekend I like to chill, know what I mean? We have enjoyed the past couple of years hosting a student from Guatemala, here in Tennessee for a cultural exchange experience, through the F.A.C.E.S. Program. This program was started by 2 Guatemalan ladies, who have become very good friends of mine. Sandy and her husband, Raul, were here with his Mother (who actually attended high school in the US) for a business/pleasure trip.

We had never met Raul or his mother, so they invited us to breakfast at Cracker Barrel Sat. morning for breakfast. I like absolutely LOVE Cracker Barrel!!! Know why? ‘Cause for a carb-o-holic, like me, it’s heaven! Speaking of “o-holics”….anyone know of a 12-Step program for carb addicts?!?!?! Not kiddin’! It’s terrible! (Now, Lynnette, I do NOT hide and eat real butter cream frosting…but if you were here and made it for me, I’d eat it. Only difference ~ I wouldn’t hide! I’d flaunt it!)

Beautiful veggies in Guatemala
Now, we went to and from Cracker Barrel on my husband’s motorcycle! Yep! That’s right! I am officially now a motorcycle Mama…or motorcycle Lolli! It was fun! That’s only my second time on it, and I enjoyed it!

Sandy and Raul on my husband's motorcycle; they took a picture of us with thei camera and we don't have it yet!









Now, after that I went to my Mom’s to begin cleaning her garage for a huge garage sale I’m planning for May 23 (Lynnette, you need to purchase a plane ticket and fly here for it……..just sayin’!) My parents built that house and we moved in 1974; IF ~ and that’s a BIG IF ~ it’s ever been cleaned out, I don’t remember it. It’s a 2 car garage that not one single solitary person has ever parked in. NEVER! And I’m not even exaggerating!

See what I mean?


My sister helped me and we wore long sleeves, long pants, socks, and still saw several “Brown Recluse Spiders”, mostly dead, praise the Lord! Not to mention mouse droppings (millions of them, literally) E-V-E-R-Y-W-H-E-R-E! Are you grossed out yet? And, there is a plethora of my grandmother’s furniture (she’s been deceased about 12 years), some of her clothes and mail; my other grandmother’s clothes (she’s been gone for about 25 years); my sister’s furniture, dishes, glasses, etc. when she lived in an apartment, oh, about 30 years ago, and boxes and boxes of stuff my Mother has put down there when preparing for some party and needed to “hide” things!

UGH! After about 6 hours of hard work, we stopped! I came right home, soaked in the tub AFTER taking an 800mg Ibuprofen, and still felt like I need to use a sandblaster to get all of the nasty off of my body!

Yesterday my husband went on a dirt bike ride with his buddies;


so, yes, I confess, I skipped church! I know! I can’t believe it either, but I did! But the Lord’s not mad at me! How do I know! Because I know Him, and besides that, He told me! So, please, don’t be a hater! (Laughing, but not out loud because my son is across the room taking a last minute snooze before leaving for school ~ ssshhhhh! He’s like a bear if you wake him up prematurely! But he’s such a good-lookin’ bear!) So, back to my Mom’s I went. My sister and I hit it hard again, and it was fun in some ways, bringing back lots of memories of days gone by. In other ways, it was emotionally very painful, as we found some things that reminded of us some sad periods of our life. Nothin’ like a good cry, doncha know! (Can you all understand my “Southern English”, like doncha?) If not, I’ll pray for ya’. Eventually you’ll get used to it!

The garage looked so good qwhen it was empty! My husband has already hauled off one full trailer load of trash. There are 2 more full trailer loads to be hauled, along with 10 Rubbermaid tubs of clothes + (2) 30-gallon garbage bags of clothes! There is also a pile of boxes for my Mother to look through and decide what to and not to sell; and a HUGE pile of things to definitely sell. Now comes the fun part of cleaning and pricing all of it…PLUS…we haven’t even started on my basement and all of my many things leftover that did not sell on Craigslist a while back, including several brand new, still tagged beautiful prom dresses/formal from a Dillards that went out of business here! I must admit I do not like getting ready for a garage sale; I love it the day(s) of and trading stuff for $. But the process of getting ready I do not enjoy! On top of getting it all sorted, we then had to move it all back into the garage, as rain is coming! WHEW! Are you tired yet, because I’m exhausted typing about it!

Again took Ibuprofen before hitting the hot tub last evening! If you could see my house right now of all the stuff junk I brought here from my Mom’s, either to keep or to clean before pricing it for the sale), you would wonder what is left for the sale itself in the garage. You need to know that I am a neat freak, OCD, or some label, I’m sure. Basically I like the house in neat order; doesn’t have to be clean (I detest house CLEANING), but I like it neat. So, right now, I’m all out of sorts, because there are piles of stuff everywhere. AND…to top it all of…Rodney and I leave Thursday to work at the Ky. Derby from Thurs. – late Sat. night; will be back home very late Sat. night; Sunday is church, I teach my community group from church Sunday night (still have to prepare a lesson from 3 chapters of Acts, that I am writing on my own), and on Monday evening I am having a “Pampered Chef” party at my house to raise money for our summer mission trip to the Dominican Republic (which is also why I am having the garage sale).
Homes in "The Hole" in the Dominican; a landfill where over 1,000 families live!


The chuch we are building in the DR


The precious angels I love so much in the DR!

How will I ever get it all done? By the way, if you like Pampered Chef items ~ they are awesome!~ and would like to order something to help us out, you can do so online at our my rep, Nancy's, website! Please just be sure to enter as hostess name: Lisa Syler. The order will come directly to you. Our trip this year is from July 14-21 (please see below for a few photos from last year’s trip)! This will be my 7th trip to a country and a people we have come to love so very much! (Also, please follow our pastor, his assistant, Anne, and our friend, Angie Smith ~ many of you follow her blog regularly. They are in Kolkatta, aka Calcutta, India on a mission/blogging trip with Compassion International, and seeking out a mission partnership for our church there, like the one we have in the Dominican Republic). You can follow them,through our pastor's site. While on his site, be sure to watch the video in the title "70 left!"

I also would like to ask you to please continue praying for precious little Stellan, who continues to be with his Momma, MckMama, in Boston Children’s Hospital. We are interceding for Him, asking the Lord to totally heal his precious body. Please go here to keep up with Stellan's progress!

Now, I’m totally exhausted from writing this entry, and I’m sure you are from reading it, so I must stop! Any prayers you want to offer on my behalf will always be welcome.

I pray each of you will be blessed beyond belief this week, and that you will be a blessing to many people, as well. Please check back on this post of mine and leave a comment, as I don’t have too many sentences yet for “our” story we are writing as a game. In other words, we are being creative while having fun, but we need lots more entries, so please encourage your blogging friends, or just email friends to contribute. Many thanks and much love,

"Lolli" (aka Lisa)


I am so blessed and grateful to be surrounded by my family members, the furthest being 10 miles away. Though it can sometimes have its problems, it’s a huge blessing! Thank-you, Lord, for allowing us to be close in proximity and close in relationship, even with our quirks, our disagreements, and our opinionated bad selves!