Isle of Palms Trip Pt. 1

We were so blessed to be able to spend a few days at Isle of Palms beach a few weeks ago. I know I had mentioned before the gorgeous beach house we were staying in...and it was indeed amazing.

We made the 2 hour drive after church, had a little nap when we arrived, had dinner, and then walked out on the beach as the sun was setting. It was glorious!

Of course we had planned for the kids to only get their feet wet. And, of course, that was absolutely reasonable. :) Our kids were soaked and sandy on the way home, but it was worth it. I will always cherish these moments with them even if they someday won't remember.

Kids Photo Shoot: May 2012

Last month I had an impromptu photo shoot with the kids and got some cute pictures of them. They are rarely this sweet to each other, but I'm glad I captured these moments. Now I just need to decide which I like best and put some on our walls!

These are the best days

Here's how we spent Thanksgiving morning...

Coloring on our bellies, watching the Macy's parade, and eating Goldfish in our pajamas. It doesn't get much better than that.

We had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner with friends and a long night up with our kids who apparently had too much of the festivities and forgot that nighttime is for sleeping.

I am so blessed.

A fast pace

We are running full speed ahead over here and I have had little time for blogging or much else (such as cleaning my apartment). :)

The Lord has been good to us. We are continually learning to rely on Him to work out the details of our lives in His timing. We feel very blessed here. It has been a HUGE transition moving to South Carolina, but we have really felt like God has heard our prayers and provided friendships, a church, a place to live, etc..

We have been through a very testing trial with our house situation and have really struggled financially with the impact of having our house on the market for a full year. Wow! It is so hard to believe. God has been gracious to us and we are currently under contract to sell. Albeit, at a significant loss, but we are grateful again to the Lord. Because we need a significant chunk of money to bring to closing, we have decided to enjoy having just one car for now. We have truly felt that it has been an obstacle at times, but we are learning to not expect any more than that and just thank God for the transportation that He has provided to us at this time and for the ability for Seth to carpool.

That being said, we are, as I write this, working to sell our car and purchase a bigger vehicle to allow a little more freedom and comfort. We have again been blessed with a buyer for our car and a good vehicle to buy. We will be negotiating to buy a vehicle today and may complete the transaction by this evening if all goes well. We feel blessed to be given the opportunity to have a bigger vehicle than our current one before our trip to PA (in 4 days).

We are traveling to PA in 4 days to visit family and then will be back home in time to sign our new lease on our rental house and move in just 6 days after we return from our trip.

Can you tell that I have been busy?

Aidan went to VBS last week and had a great time. I had signed him up for one previously that ended up being pretty far of a drive, and Seth lost his carpool that same week, so Aidan only went 2 days. This time, he went for the full week and had a blast! He has asked to go to another bible school since. Aidan has also been doing the summer reading program at our local library. He gets rewards for a certain amount of hours he is read to. This was something he completely initiated himself and he has been very excited about the prospect of earning a "medal" at the end. He asks us to read to him to help him earn his prizes and has enjoyed putting stickers in his little chart when he accomplishes each segment. We are very proud of him.

Aidan made this crown at VBS

I have started swimming at our local rec center to help with some back problems I was experiencing. It has helped a lot and has been great exercise. Seth and I have talked about running a 5K and then maybe training for a triathlon in the future.

Well, that pretty much sums up what has been going on with us. We are tired from lots of late nights making decisions and running numbers and figuring out what the future is going to look like. It has been very exhausting, but exciting at the same time.

Today we spent some time blowing bubbles and drawing with chalk outside because the pool at our apartment complex has been closed the last 2 days. It was nice to be out in the shade on such a hot day.

Because He Really Cares

I was kinda down yesterday morning. Just feeling sad because my very dear friend, and really first friend here in SC moved to Michigan on Friday. She was such a blessing to my life during these first 8 months here. Wow. I was so grateful that the Lord blessed me with such a wonderful friendship. And while I know that this friendship is not over, I just won't have the luxury of last minute play dates and Starbucks coffee dates with her anymore.


I was feeling kinda bummed too, because we wanted to go to the lake and watch fireworks with the kids and my first thought was to call my friends. So, after going through the list of other acquaintances, we decided to go alone. We drove out to a state park we hadn't been to before and took a nice stroll before settling in on our blanket and chairs. The kids were doing great, even after bedtime quickly came and past by us. Nora started going nuts about this puppy she could see, which resulted in us meeting a nice family that just moved here from San Diego. There was an instant ease to the conversation and they joined us to watch the fireworks. Their sweet little boy offered encouragement to Aidan as the first booms resulted in cries of "I want to go home!" And when all was said and done, we stood there talking together for awhile. We arrived home at 11pm. New friends, numbers exchanged, and a hope in our hearts of future relationship.

It amazes me sometimes that I so quickly become discouraged when change threatens my security. Security in friendship is important to me. And without having family near by, this has been even more evident in my life. And you know, He cares about this. I don't have to worry about finding those friends because He knows my needs, and He doesn't want me to feel lonely. What a wonderful assurance we have in the greatest Friend we could ask for, a Friend who knows us so intimately and wants to meet the deepest desires of our hearts.

I am blessed because He cares.

A glimmer of sunshine...

Life has been challenging, I'm not going to lie. But I keep catching these small glimmers of sunshine in my days.

I am grateful, blessed, hopeful, and living with expectation for great things. And that makes all the difference.

I got a full 6 hour stretch of sleep last night, and I woke feeling so refreshed this morning. I didn't even make any coffee.

I enjoyed my kids, colored with Aidan, had little conversations...

When it became apparent that Nora was on a morning nap strike we loaded up in the car and went downtown to Earth Fare (the nearest natural foods store). We slowly browsed, picked up some goodies, and listened to a young man playing the violin. Aidan danced to the music, Nora smiled at all the customers. We picked out a cookie to share and sat and enjoyed the music some more. I gave Aidan a dollar to put in the jar for the young violinist. He beamed and told me, "He said thank you!" We loaded up and drove to Target. Nora finally slept on the way. We browsed some more, playing in the toy aisles before picking up a few items on my list. The kids were sweet and happy. Aidan was super talkative (a norm for him), but it was delightful in every way to me. When we got home Aidan went down for his nap and Nora giggled and played and fussed and fought sleep until just a few minutes ago.

Today I am just really enjoying my kids.

I think sleep really helps. And knowing that the Lord is on my side. I have nothing to fear.

{Love}

Can I just say that I am loving my new necklace my hubby gave me for Mother's Day.....

Blessed.

About a year ago my Grandpa was diagnosed with a brain tumor. It was fast growing and in a difficult area of his brain and was causing a lot of complications with his normal functioning. In July 2010 he went through extensive brain surgery to remove the tumor and suffered major loss of memory and speech. It was like he walked in as my Grandpa and emerged as a completely different person. He couldn't remember anyone, not even my Grandma, and his speech was so erratic and slurred it was hard to understand him. He didn't make much sense most of the time really.

It was really hard on the whole family. I didn't see him after the surgery and have only talked to him on the phone since. The doctors didn't expect he would ever recover or regain anything beyond what faculties he had after the surgery. They also didn't have much hope in his life expectancy.

It has been 9 months since the surgery and my grandparents just came to visit us. They got to meet Nora for the first time. And my Grandpa was doing so well I wouldn't have ever guessed that he had brain surgery. He was the same man I remember and it was such a wonderful blessing to see how much has changed over these long months of recovery. It is truly a miracle.