I'm sitting out on the deck enjoying the beautiful sunshine, a perfect breeze, listening to the birds chirping and...the neighbor children playing Narnia! HeeHee! They are so cute! It's hilarious listening to their interesting combination between what they've seen in the movie and they're own imaginations. One of them is even trying to talk in an English accent!

Bits and Pieces

So, yes. We are back and have been for a week. I've just been too lazy to update. Nate and I drove up to Fairwood for Jan Hansen's memorial service. A truly moving time for a worthy woman. We are planning to plant a Dogwood tree in our yard in her memory. We will miss her.

I have to say that the highlight of driving up and home again was listening to Focus on the Family's dramatized version of The Chronicles of Narnia. I highly, highly recommend it! The hours flew by as we listened to the adventures of the Pevensies. While up north we had the chance to catch up with friends. We were extrememly busy every day! I even squeezed in a trip to RI to visit Mrs. L. and the H. family!

On our way home we took a couple of extra days to go to Savannah and Tybee Island. We love the ocean and have been feeling the need of a break from the routine of taking care of Grandpa. We love him dearly, don't get me wrong. He just takes a lot of extra energy and patience. We enjoyed Tybee Island so much that we are already trying to figure out when we can go back again!

Let's see what else has been happening...Grandpa put BBQ sauce on his salad the other day. Nate and I had all we could do to keep from laughing. I'm sure he though it was dressing, but he manfuly ate it all! Grandpa knows that I enjoy yard sales. When I came down stairs from doing chores and stuff earlier today, I found a note from him telling me of two that were in the subdivision. No big deal you might think, but writing doesn't come easy to him anymore, so to find this note from him was really sweet!

Claire and I went to IKEA in Atlanta yesterday and I found a beautiful picture to put up in our dining room. And, Nate began work this week! We are so thankful! God is good!

Nate and I are headed north, so I will leave you with this picture of one of my favorite things in our new house. See you later. 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

And in honor of this green holiday, ladies and gentlemen, I have mown a lawn for the first time in my life! Unbelievable, I know, but Brad always did it when we were growing up and somehow, I've squeaked through my adult life so far without doing it, and finally today, I did it! I'm so excited. I really enjoyed it, and I think that Nate's thanking his lucky stars that I enjoy it! I'm sure that our neighbors were applauding that we were finally getting the lawn done. It was starting to look a little rough around the edges. They were probably laughing, too, because I was out there in one of my shorter spring skirts and had a silly grin on my face! I'm sure they're saying, "Guess what our crazy new neighbor did today!"

Happy Birthday, Nate!

I've been meaning to write all day and now that his birthday is almost over, here I am. Better late than never, though. I just want the world to know how much I love and appreciate my husband. God knew what He was doing when He brought us together. Nate is perfect for me in so many ways. So, I win all of the jelly beans, folks!

Today we were shopping and this cute little girl showed Nate her candy and he kindly asked her if it was delicious. She said, "We believe in God, so we don't eat it." HeeHee!

When I looked outside this morning, I saw a great sea of white. White flowers that is, on the tree outside our bedroom window! I love spring!

Snow!?

Dan and Pari's 3 year old son Joshua is obsessed with Thomas the Tank. All of his playing and conversations are about trains these days. He's so cute! Pari told me that while she was on the phone the other day, Joshua was really quiet...uh oh. She went into his room and there he had taken a 5 pound bag of flour and poured it all over his train set table! He wanted snow, just like in his Thomas the Tank movies!

I wish you could smell them!

Nate brought me these beautiful roses the other day!

Sunshine

Oh, what fun it has been to have Melissa here. Friday night after she and Lisa arrived we went over to Brad and Claire's for a game night with a bunch of friends. Our brains were stretched with some of the games. What a lot of laughter!

We have had a week full of antique shopping, video blogs, outlet store shopping, reading, web surfing, laughing, etc...Today we are laying low, doing some laundry and cleaning and picking up the pieces from having our Master bath worked on.

I have to brag a little. It's in the 70's today with bright sunshine. Melissa is in fact eating lunch out on the deck wearing shorts, a t-shirt and bare feet! Woohoo! I stopped mid-swipe of the rag on the tub to go open all of the windows in the house. I was going like gangbusters flinging wide the portals to welcome in the fresh air, when BOOM! I stopped in my tracks. We have the kind of windows that can swing out at the top so you can clean both sides more easily. I forgot that one of them was broken and it came down and smacked me in the forehead and sent my glasses flying. I now have a nice purple bump above my right eyebrow. Ice has kept the swelling to a minimum and I am so thankful that it wasn't worse and that my glasses weren't broken and that it barely hurts now. I'm sure that it will be turning colors over the next few days, though!

More Rebekah!

Isn't she just adorable!

Rebekah Coronetta Pass

...and her big brother Joshua!

She arrived yesterday just before 7:30 in the evening to Dan and Pari Pass.

Claire and I are taking care of Joshua until his family comes home from the hospital. When I went to pick him up yesterday when Pari went into labor, I told him, "Mommy and Daddy are going to the hospital to get your baby sister!" He said, "Yessir, Penny!"

Happy New Year

I haven't seen my husband yet this year! He left Thursday for New Hampshire for the Year End Convention and will be home tonight. Every once in a while I get taken by surprise by how much I miss him. Wow! I guess the longer you are with someone and the more your relationship grows, the more you miss them when they are gone. Okay. Enough sap.

We are having our Master Bath worked on, so we are being temporarily forced to use the guest bath in the hall. Life is tough.

Melissa is coming!!! And Lisa N. is coming, too!!! Woohoo! I miss my friends. As much as I love living here in the sunny south, I'm envious of the time that Nate has had with family and friends in the frozen north.

Well, I must flee. I need to go shopping for gas, groceries and cat food. I'm trying desperately to come up with some funny anecdote to make this post more interesting, but I'm coming up empty.

Sorry.

At least you know I'm still here.

Merry Christmas! 

Yum!

Here is my gingerbread house! As you may have read on Claire's blog, Pari and I went to her house to build these yummy creations. We did a little graham cracker house for Joshua to decorate, but he was more interested in eating the candy than putting it on his house!

The most popular joint in town. 

Nate and Brad (Yes, they are wearing aprons...)

Behold Bountiful Blessings Below

-God's everlasting love and patience
-Nate (of course)
-Our new house!
-books
-our cats
-a guest room (come one come all!)
-a family room with a tv
-a living room without a tv
-a fire place
-candles
-the ocean
-friendships
-Blogs
-snow up north (and not here!)
-coffee (and creamer to make the coffee good.)
-good movies and music
-letting myself listen to Christmas music before Thanksgiving
-my pillow
-forgiveness
-colors
-wind chimes
-cat paws and purrs
-this list instilling a thankful heart in me
-my wedding ring
-my family
-inside jokes
-clocks, but not always having to live by them
-pictures and memories
-the Bible
-the Truth
-God's grace
-roses (my favorite flower!)
-the hard times that come along to make us stronger
-answered prayers

A Peek Into Our Windows

As far as settling in goes, sometimes I feel like I am swimming in a sea of boxes and junk with my head barely above water. There are items that I have even unpacked and wondered why I bothered packing it and where in the world I am going to put it! Every once in a while Nate will holler out in frustration, "Let's throw away all of our stuff!"

Grandpa has been a happy resident of our basement for almost two weeks now. He's incredibly easy to please for meals. Partly because he puts either vinegar or BBQ sauce on just about everything and then compliments me on my cooking ability. He has done some raking for us and he loves being outside in this GA weather. Being a lover of children, he's been walking the street introducing himself to some of the local urchins, carefully writing their names down on a pad of paper he keeps in his pocket. He's getting a little deaf though, so when we are reading Friday emails together WE HAVE TO YELL! YES, WE HAVE VERY PEACEFUL SABBATH MEETINGS!

It has been so very fun having my family less than two hours away. Mom and I went shopping together this week, as did Claire and I. Claire even popped over to borrow some flour! What I love is that after we are all done being together there isn't a long drive at the end for someone. Hooray!

Have any of you seen the new nickels? There is one that I love. On the back, with a view of the ocean it says, "Ocean in view! O! The joy!" Hmm. Now that's a cheap Christmas idea for me...!

We're Home!

Let's see if I can remember how to Blog. It's been a while!

We are safely moved into our new home. I love it more and more every day. The cat's love having two stories to race around in, too! I love having my own laundry room. I love having four bathrooms. (I might not, though once I've had to clean them all over and over.) I love having a master bathroom and a walk-in closet in our room. I love our garage door opener, too!

We still have boxes piled up everywhere, but I'm taking my time opening them. I should be hard at work now, but this is the first time in more than a week that we've had internet access, so here I am, being lazy.

So, yes, we are still in the land of the living and loving the Georgia sunshine and warmth. It's still short sleeve weather down here! Yeehaw!

All I Can Say is, "Wow!"

After a busy week of driving south with Brad and Claire and going house shopping, we seem to have found a winner! After a little negotiating, we've come to an agreement with the owners on a reasonable price. The next step is the inspection report this week and then closing in a couple of weeks. We are so excited and overwhelmed by God's leading. His timing and guidance are perfect as always.
The icing on the cake is that we are in the same neighborhood as Brad and Claire and less than a mile away from them and 15 minutes from church! Woohoo!
We have lots of room for guests! Come on down!

God is good. Yesterday. Today. Forever.