Lynchburg Trip and a Diaper Incident

"Training champions for Christ" -Liberty University tagline

 I'm very excited to announce to the world that my wonderful husband is about to start his MBA through Liberty University's online program! I'm so proud of him for a) pursuing this advanced degree for the benefit of our family's financial well being and b) for choosing such an amazing Christian institution to do it through! While this is an online program, it is the same program that on-campus MBA students would be completing at Liberty, and, seeing as how we only live 2 hours from Lynchburg, we want to use the next few years to get as much of the Liberty experience as possible. Although I've spent some time in Lynchburg in the past for one reason or another, I'd never really walked around Liberty's campus, and David had never been to Lynchburg period. So, what better reason to take a road trip, which is just what we did a few Sundays ago!

 I think anyone that knows anything about Lynchburg, VA, or Liberty University, knows about Thomas Road Baptist Church. Started by Jerry Falwell, who served as it's pastor until his death, Thomas Road Baptist Church later went on to form Liberty University. I always knew that sometime I wanted to go there, just to say I'd been, because of it's great legacy. So we decided this was the perfect trip to do it! When we arrived at church, we were greeted by several very friendly members. It is a huge church, and we sat on the very back row in case Joseph got fussy. We hadn't been there 5 minutes when he did start fussing, and I slipped out of the row to walk around with him at the back of the sanctuary. Soon, a very nice lady approached me and told me they had a soundproof "cry room" at the side of the sanctuary if we were interested. It's a little room where parents with fussy children can go in, close the door, and hear/see the sermon from behind the glass, but those on the outside cannot hear the kids. We had a ball in there with the other parents...they were all so sweet and welcoming! Some parents were in there the whole time, and some drifted in and out to change their kids (they have changing facilities in there) or to nurse their babies. It was so cool. About halfway through the sermon, though, we decided that Joseph was too restless even for the cry room, and so we packed everything up and left. Hey, at least we made it halfway through! After church, we drove to downtown Lynchburg to eat at the Depot Grille. I had eaten at this restaurant before on some trips to Lynchburg, but David had never been. It was a lot of fun!


 Next, we drove just down the road to the famous "steps" that I've seen in Lynchburg before. Because of the terracing of the rolling VA foothills, there are 129 steps that lead to the old Lynchburg courthouse. My super strong husband carried Joseph up every single one of them!!! Wow!!! Every 10-12 steps there would be a landing that you could rest at. Most of the landings had a war memorial plaque, a fountain, or something else fun to see. One even had the entrance to a Unitarian church! I took pictures as we paused to rest at some of these landings on our climb to the top...

The climb was totally worth it, because the view from the top was very cool...

Next, we headed to Liberty's campus to explore.  So pretty and so much fun.  You can really feel the Holy Spirit on campus, and we knew David had made the right choice.  When we first got there, we went to the beautiful visitors center.  Everyone was so nice!

Sitting on the back porch of the visitor's center

Overlooking the soccer complex

Sitting on the seal in the visitor's center

When you look up in the visitor's center, the architecture if beautiful!

After walking around campus a little while longer, we decided to go see the football stadium. 

On our way, we stopped and took a picture looking at Candler's Mountain.  To the far left, you can see the "LU" logo, and to the right you can see SnowFlex, Liberty's year round ski slope! 

We had such a fun trip, and I'm so excited about David getting his MBA.  But our Lynchburg trip wasn't the ONLY fun memory of that day...

Every Sunday night, we eat with my parents and my grandmother for dinner. These Sunday night family dinners are a tradition for us.  We usually eat at their house, but, since we weren't 100% sure exactly what time we'd be back this particular Sunday, we decided to call them on our way back and meet them at K & W in Greensboro when we got home.  So anyway, we get through the whole meal, and Joseph is getting fussy, so I get him out of the high chair. He is standing up on my lap, facing outward, when I smell something. I do the quick diaper sniff and it's awful, but before I can say aloud "Oh no, someone needs a diaper change" I hear my mom and David simultaneously yelling "THERE'S POOP COMING OUT!!!" I look down and, not only is there poop smeared all over my arm and the front of my dress, but a  golf-ball sized, mushy BLOB of poop falls directly out of the leg of his diaper and is sliding rapidly down his leg. In a panic, I squeal, freak out, and look frantically around for the diaper bag (just wanting to grab ANYTHING that would cover up the large poop wad sliding towards my lap) and then remembered the diaper bag was in our car. Multiple people were staring at this point, and I'm pretty sure the man next to us totally lost his appetite. So, in panic, I use K & W's cloth napkin to stop it from falling any further and then get up and run outside while David paid. As I was running out at warp speed, people were staring at the poop mess that by this point was covering both of us and I kept saying in a frantic voice "Oh my gosh, I'm stealing a napkin! I feel terrible! I'll wash it and bring it back to them!" and David kept saying, "LISA! They aren't going to want THAT napkin back after this!!!"  David paid while I rapidly ran towards the car, and we were able to change Joseph there, although I still had to ride home with poop all over me.  We didn't get any pictures of this of course, but it was a very memorable fiasco.

All and all, a fun-filled Sunday!  ;-)