A Wonderful Memorial Day Weekend

I think we had a nearly perfect Memorial Day weekend. We cooked out with friends, went to the pool, rented movies and watched them in the dark together, enjoyed a beautiful day on the beach, cooked out again, ate out at a fun restaurant, went to church, and relaxed. And we didn't have to go farther than an hour away from home. We even got some important errands taken care of and managed to stay on top of the laundry and made it to ballet rehearsal this afternoon after spending a wonderful day at the beach with the Roberts family. We're all rested and ready for the week. And, wonder of wonders, I even got to sit on the sofa and read a book this afternoon while Elsie took a nap and Mary Grace and Stephen went to buy beds for the girls. It really felt like a vacation -- except for the times when I was signing warrants or going to the jail for bonding. But even being on call didn't seem so bad because the rest of the weekend was so wonderful. Sunday morning bonding went by very quickly and the policemen were flexible with me. I even had several of them meet me at the pool yesterday evening.
It only could have been better if we had had family in town. That's it! That's all we were missing! But we spent such wonderful time with our friends that it was okay! Now, the girls are asleep and I am going to turn in early. What a great holiday weekend!

Elsie's Prayer

This is what Elsie said when it was her turn to say her bedtime prayer tonight:

"Dear Lord, thank you for me. Thank you for Daddy. Thank you for my bedroom. Thank you for for for for for for for for ......... for Bake. Thank you for Bunky. Thank you for Gace. Amen.

You Know What They Say About Rainy Days and Mondays

They always get me down, especially when the rain continues into Tuesday and is forecasted to continue til Friday. I think it's some sort of tropical system, but it's not my idea of tropical, the temperature only got up to 60 yesterday and not much warmer today. The rain has been constant, literally, it has rained all day everyday since Sunday evening and it has been very windy. In that way, it is much like a tropical storm. I feel bad for all the vacationers who picked this week to come to Florida or Coastal Georgia. So for now, we're stuck inside playing board games and watching Okie Noodling on PBS (so long as the satellite doesn't go out).
Things are looking up for Memorial Day weekend, though!

Happy Apple Graduation Slide Show

Happy Apple Graduation

We had a big weekend this past weekend. We enjoyed the nice weather, which is good because now it's cold and rainy. We may even have a tropical storm come through mid-week. But, back to the weekend, it was great! On Friday night, we attended the Happy Appple graduation celebration. We were so proud of our little Mary Grace, who was awarded the "Tenderheart" award from her teacher. She did a great job standing up on the stage and waiting her turn to get her award and medal. She was the last one to go and, as one teacher told us, you know you're child's well-behaved when she's chosen to be the last one; that means the teacher trusts her to be patient and not afraid to be up there by herself! Her little class sang "The Lord's Army", which is one of our favorite songs at home. It was such a sweet celebration and we are so blessed to have such a loving, warm place for her to attend preschool. It's a little bittersweet, since this is the end of her first year at preschool, but we are excited to go back next year and for both girls to be in school together!
At first, I was a little sad and felt kind of sorry for our little family because, I thought, it was just us there for Mary Grace: no grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles. But then I looked around the sanctuary and realized that we were not the only ones there for Mary Grace. Miss Julie was there and Blake even came and sat with us. He came just to see Mary Grace! I also realized that there we were in our home church sanctuary surrounded by people who love us and our children, even if they are not "family" in the truest sense of the word. And after awhile, it felt like home.

Elsie's New Room

We're working on putting Elsie's room together. We've decided to stick with the yellow that's in there. When we got enough coats on it to cover the brown, it actually is very pretty, not so flourescent anymore! The other colors we're going to put in there are a sort of berry pink and a green (of course!).
Here's the palette:



Eventually, we're going to put twin beds in there and I'm planning to have some bedskirts and window treatments made with all three of these colors, if I can find a cute fabric.

A Silver Anniversary

This past weekend, we celebrated 25 years of Patti and Mike. It was also a celebration of 25 years of Patti, Mike, Tara, and Chatham. Family and friends gathered at Caswell Beach from all accross the US: from Wisconsin, to Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Maryland, and Virginia. They traveled near and far to gather for the celebration at Oak Island Golf Club on Caswell. Even the cake traveled for the occasion: Momo brought it from Edible Art in Raleigh.
It was a wonderful weekend for catching up with family and friends, some of whom we hadn't seen in years. It reminded me of how great God has been to our family; how he blesses us through relationships with other believers and how he reaches out to us, often in our most needful times, with people who care for us. For my mom, two of those people were Marshall and Jean Jackson. My mom had a very difficult childhood and was pretty much passed around from home to home to live with grandmothers, aunts and uncles, and others. She was smart enough and hard-working enough (and, truth be told, stubborn enough) to get herself into a first class college. When she was at the University of Virginia, Mr. and Mrs. Jackson, who have no blood relation to our family, would drive from Virginia Beach to Charlottesville to pick Mom up for holidays. This was where she went "home" to from college.
Mr. and Mrs. Jackson had a profound influence on my mom. God used them in her life to show her unconditional love and to comfort her in what was a difficult time. It was so sweet to have them at the party to celebrate with us.
Also there were Coke Man Davis and Pam and Butch Richardson. They are part of the family, outside my own, who has had the most influence on my life. Our dear Shir-shee passed away two years ago this past April 29th but her spirit lives on. She was a living Proverbs 31 and she had an impact on my spiritual life that no one else, outside of God, has had.
There are so many others who were there, including the wonderful family that mom and I "married into", the Fralixes and the Martins, our adopted "Momo", the Monahans, the Bolts, Uncle Barry and Alexis, and others who have meant so much to our little "step"family. What a blessing you all are!

"I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to the completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Philippians 1:3-6.

Growing Up

This person...




is a very big girl!

Elsie pottied for the very first time tonight. In true Elsie fashion, she overcame the more difficult obstacle first: she POOPED in the potty! She's been wanting to sit on the potty and wear panties (which we've been putting over her diaper) for the last several weeks. Up to now, she's just been taking off her own diapers, putting them in the trash, sitting on the potty for a couple of seconds, the getting up and flushing the toilet; nothing's been coming out.
Tonight, she told me that she had to go to the bathroom. As usual, I just said, "Okay". Off she went. I went in to check on her a few minutes later and she made me leave and "cose de doh-ah". I did and when I went back a few minutes later, she had pooped in the potty. She had already wiped herself and was standing beside the toilet.
She was very proud of herself so we had to call the grandparents and make a big deal out of the whole thing. I don't know how soon we'll be out of diapers but I'm just so proud of her right now!

Ballet v. Gymnastics v. Soccer

Mary Grace and I had a conversation this afternoon about the activities in which she may want to participate this summer and fall. Right now, she's in ballet but I don't think she's enjoying it so much. Stephen and I thought we may let her try gymnastics over the summer then soccer in the fall. I asked her what she thought about ballet. She said that she doesn't really like it because "you have to get stickers and do stuff and that's a lot of hard work." I hate to tell her that compared with ballet, gymnastics is going to see like a WHOLE lot of work! But she's asked to try "bymnastics" so I guess that's what we'll do over the summer. Then she can play soccer in the fall.

Good Times in South Georgia...

It's all about good friends, a cabin by a pond off a dirt road, a 4-wheeler, a boat, and some fishing poles.

Here are some photos from our weekend at the Roberts's cabin in Blackshear: