Bittersweet

Last night, Sam and I were rearranging clothes in the master bedroom closet, when Collin called out that someone was here.

It was Shannon!

I knew she would be in town and we had mentioned trying to get together, but we had not touched base in awhile.

After a big wet-eyed hug, she emptied her van, the kids all disappeared together, and we sat and talked for a while.

Andrew, her oldest, wasn't here. But all 4 girls were. Here are Laura, Sara Grace, Jessica and Margaret.

The happiness at seeing her for the first time in 4 years, was also a sad reminder that Matt wasn't with her. I haven't seen her since Matt's death two and half years ago. She has since moved out of Mississippi and is doing really well and we had some fun moments laughing and reminiscing yet some moments where we all fought back tears as well.

The girls are just beautiful and 2 of them look so much like their daddy!

Having been friends since high school, there is a lot of history there. Yet there is a giant hole there as well now. It was also like a big, painful scab had been ripped off of Sam as well. It hurt me to see him hurting.

It was a stark reminder that we are not promised days. We don't have a guarantee that we will live to be 87 years old. A reminder that God already has our days numbered, and we need to live each day conscience of the fact that it might be our last, being thankful for what He has blessed us with. Thankful for the security of salvation in Christ Jesus, and thankful that we can share that with others, so the only thing that really matters, eternity in heaven, is for-front in our hearts and minds and conversations.

Though Matt will ALWAYS be remembered and missed, there is a true comfort knowing he is rejoicing in heaven for eternity.

Aubie is home!

 

When Sam drove down to Mississippi in September to find a house, he drove off with Aubie, our cat, with him. Aubie was dropped off at his folk's house in Alabama (thank you Poppa and JuJu) for a long vacation, waiting for us to move and get settled.

When his parents drove over this weekend for the Installation, they brought Aubie to her new home. I expected her to hide for a few days. Normal behavior when you move a cat to a new place. She hid for about an hour, and then she decided she wanted some lovin'! She follows us everywhere, begs for attention, and is SO happy to be here.

Her new favorite place to be is on my bed.

I never noticed, but a friend commented when she came to see the house the other day, that Aubie matches the color scheme in my bedroom. That maybe she liked it in there so much because she felt camouflaged.

I just noticed looking at these pictures that the top two pictures look wrong. Using no flash, and just the ambient light in the room, gives the brown walls a mustardy yellow color. Those of you who have nursed your babies, well, that color reminds me of well, ..........never mind.

Here is the real color, using flash to get it right. And yes, Aubie is a perfect match!

 

And Sarah, I finally posted a picture of the picture, AFTER you have already seen it in person!   :) Better late than never!

Burn!

There is no question as to what to do with all the leaves. NO BAGGING them up, that is for sure!

Nightly fires from here on out, weather permitting.

Sam has told them if they will rake them up during the day, they can burn them after dark.

They are excited about that (as they love fire) and it is great exercise!

I had several visitors today. YAY! I really miss my adult company during daytime hours. One nice thing about living on base was the closeness of all your neighbors, anytime you needed anything, somebody was around. Of course that same concept also drove me crazy at times too! I love the privacy and the beauty here, but do miss being able to walk outside and go visit and talk with my friends.

As we are the only family in the church home schooling young kids , they aren't sure how that works. I need to make it clear that yes, they can call me any time of the day, and yes, with some notice I can have lunch dates and do things during the day. Yes, PLEASE COME SEE ME! The kids are having a few moments of missing friends, but on the whole, they are doing exactly what I prayed would happen. They are bonding closer to each other. Instead of running out the door as soon as school and chores were done to play with others, they are playing together, creating games, exploring the land and doing very well (I have to remind myself of that when they come in absolutely filthy every day). A little dirt versus a better attitude and more love and tolerance for each other. It shouldn't be a hard decision!  :)

Now that a week has passed since I received a certain letter, I can almost laugh about it now. But a week ago I was ready to knock some heads together, and that is putting it mildly! Yes, it has to do with the base house, and yes, I PROMISE not to bring up that house again after this. We tried to get the house condemned. Nobody really needed to be living there. It was denied, and we were told that so many families were just ready to move in. So we paid the cleaners, paid to have the carpets done, and paid Wal Mart for all the gallons of paint it took to Repaint everything. Lots of time, lots of money, and LOTS of stress. Then last week I get this letter. This letter from housing. That 5 days after we left it, they decided to condemn it. Nobody will ever be living in it again.

WHAT?!!!!!!!!!?????????????!!!!!!!!???????????

Now, my first thought SHOULD have been of thankfulness. Thankful that no other family would have to suffer the sewage backups and the gunk backups in the kitchen and the leaky faucets and walls. But, I have to honestly admit that wasn't my first thought. I wanted all that money back! I wanted all that time back! I wanted to do it all over again without all that STRESS!

But , as I am TRYING to concentrate on being thankful in ALL things this week, I am just going to be thankful that we are out of that house and even more thankful that nobody else will be in it. Thankful that I got to spend some quality time with friends who helped me to repaint. Thankful that I have learned how to clean blinds like an expert. Thankful that, well, that is all I can come up with right now, but I am only on day one of the study I mentioned yesterday.  :)

I sure would be thankful to get all that money back though!  :)

sorry. Sarcasm doesn't blend well with Thankfulness. I still have a lot to learn!

This is the time of year when we are reminded to be thankful. Several friends are doing an alphabetical listing every day of things they are thankful for. What a great idea! I think I will try and remember that so I can do it next year.

I would like to learn how to have a thankful heart ALL the time. To live in this world looking at it through eyes that are always focused on Christ and being thankful in ALL things.

I found this one week THANKFUL devotional today from Revive Our Hearts Ministries and I pray it will help me with that goal. I thought I would share the link with all of you. This is one we can involve our children in too.

http://www.reviveourhearts.com/topics/downloads/index.php?id=9519

I know I am thankful for you, for God putting such special friends in my life. I pray this next week is full of blessings for you all!

Much Love,

Installation Weekend

Wow, what a wonderful, amazing, busy and memorable weekend we have had! The Bowman's arrived Saturday afternoon, to the delight of of all! Collin could hardly contain himself waiting he was so excited.

What do you do in an empty den? Why, play football of course!

The Buddies. Friends since Collin was 10 months old.

I was able to squeeze in a few minutes to do some Bowman family pictures as well.  :)

I can not put into words how excited I am to have these type of settings to do pictures in on my own property!

They are both in the 6th grade right now, but are already talking about rooming together for college at Auburn. :)

Christopher wanted to be in one too.

Sunday evening the installation ceremony started at 6pm.  At 3:30, Sam's parents  arrived from their drive from Alabama. At 5:00, 8 friends arrived at the house from Louisville to check it out, then we all went over to the church. More Louisville friends were there, and several families that Sam worked with in Madison 7 years ago were there as well, which was a special surprise.

It is now official, as you can see by the sign.

Most of the installation committee. `It was a very special evening. The sermon and the charges were wonderful and well spoken.

The big buddies! Brannon and Sam.

Baby Trip visiting for the second time since we have been here from Louisville.

Kellynn and Kaebrie - totally inseparable.

Mrs. Montine playing Vanna.  :) More about the coolers at the end of the post.

Three incredible friends!!  ( I love you all SO much!!! )

Ms. Dale, Sarah, and Dawn

The arrangements one of the ladies did in honor of tonight.

Kaebrie took a break from eating for a quick snuggle with her JuJu.

The food was AMAZING!

When we got back, we put the little ones to bed, and sat down to visit around the fireplace. We pulled in the dining room table chairs and some outdoor furniture to have places to sit.   :)

Sam's parents, Jerry and Kay (AKA  Poppa and JuJu).

The whole gang!

2 days ago a delivery truck arrived. I told them they must have had the wrong address because I had not ordered anything. They insisted they were correct and delivered a full size freezer, a welcome gift from the church.

Wow. We were very surprised and very thankful. I was already planning to finally join Sam's Club so I could do bulk shopping and fill it!

The picture above with coolers? Well, the ladies of the church filled the freezer for us last night. I don't think I will need to cook until 2009!

What an incredible gift!!!!!

All the company is now gone and we are going to attempt to start school back up this week. Attempt being the key word in that sentence. When the packers packed up my classroom, they labeled the boxes OFFICE. When they packed up Sam's office on base, they labeled  the boxes OFFICE. When they unloaded all the stuff, they took everything labeled OFFICE to the church. Last night Sam brought back about 20 boxes of my classroom stuff, so that needs to be unpacked and organized. I was not happy to see more boxes being brought in!  But I guess they can't do their work without all the necessary stuff.

MUD

The kids have really been enjoying exploring and playing in the big back yard. After days of rain, they were anxious to get back outside. After 2 more days of them getting every pair of shoes they own muddy, I got them each a pair of big rubber boots to play in the yard with.

I let Tiff put his new boots on and told him, "Now you can play outside in the mud."

THIS IS NOT WHAT I MEANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think he actually went swimming in the puddles.

He looked like a brave warrior coming out from a hunt.

EWWW!!!!!!!

Collin POURING OUT Tiff's boot.

Thankfully, the new washing machine made it all look like it never happened!

:)

More pictures, finally! :)

 

Card reader: found

Old computer monitor stand: found

connector wires to monitor: found

a few minutes to finally post some pictures: found

Alrighty.............. here is moving day! (That was an entire 9 days ago).

Here is the first of 3 moving vans. Parked at the street after having decided there was no way they could make it up the driveway.

Kaitlynn caught 12 lizards that day.

Here is the same van, driving through the back gate

Turning around in the backyard so they can BACK UP to the house.

Backing up! Just had to show the latest picture of Beverly the trailer.

Backing down!

Opening up. Here is some of the crazy help I mentioned about in an earlier post.

And out comes all the stuff from all the crates.

Moving van number 2!

The big den has no furniture for it yet, so that is where a lot of the boxes were piled.

The EMPTY rubbermaids. That were once FULL. And now they are EMPTY. EMPTY with Missing Lids! No, no bitterness here. Nope, no siree, I have not been bitter spending the last 2 days REORGANIZING the previously organized rubbermaids.

Before.....

After!

Here you are DeeDee, the promised picture of the washer and dryer!

Yes, I LOVE LOVE LOVE them!

What are they looking at?

Mr.Turtle!

That trap was already here. Is it a Yazoo Turtle Trap?   :)

3 days ago I was still working and I realized how much I enjoyed looking out all the windows: so I introduce to you: My views from the windows!

Here is the little window above the kitchen sink.

This is the view out the front door.

This is looking out the computer room window.

This is out another window.

Around the side of the house looking front.

An uh-oh shot that makes me really dizzy, looking out the den window to the swing set.

I LOVE the green!!!!!!