Thanksgiving and Christmas 2016!!

Oh my goodness! Thanksgiving was so, so sweet! We hosted it here in our home, for the first time ever, and it was everything I hoped and prayed it would be. It was such a sweet time of eating and fellowship and love and laughter and kiddos running around and heart to hearts. It was totally presh! We ended up having our immediate fam of 4, my parents, my brother Cade, the Kellers, the Wilkersons, Ruth's parents, and Israa and Assad and their precious kiddos. We had tons of food, enough to feed the whole neighborhood, and we greatly enjoyed eating the left overs for days afterward. It all, from start to finish, was such a joy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Brody is at such a precious stage these days! We're really enjoying him a lot! One of our favorite little antics of his is that he always says "thank you" (aka "mink oo") after anything you say to him that's even remotely upbeat. For exampls:

The other day, I was roasting brussel sprouts in the oven, and Brody asked what he was smelling. I replied that it was brussel sprouts. He goes, "Oh, I WUV bwussel spwouts!" and I said, "me too!" and he said, "Mink oo!!!"

And the other morning, I opened up the blinds in the house and remarked on what a beautiful morning it was, and brody said, "Mink oo!"

He has such an upbeat, joyful, spunky, thankful little heart. And we're oh so thankful for him!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jasper, also, is at such a precious stage in life. He's gotten older. Not in the logical sense, per se, but in maturity and knowledge. He's such a little man. He thinks deeply, asks very thoughtful questions, and ponders the answers.

For example, this afternoon, after church, we were driving to Subway for lunch, and he asked me why he can see the exhaust coming out of cars on cold days but he can't see the exhaust on warm days. He asked why the temperature made a difference on being able to see exhaust or not. And, my classic answer, was to try to make an educated guess, and then I ended with my favorite go-to answer when J stumps me with his questions, "but let's ask daddy when he gets home!"

He loves and he's tender. He's kind and generally patient. He's a good helper and a kind brother and a loyal friend. He's getting a bit quieter, I've found, than he used to be a year or so ago, but I think it's because he's so busy thinking about things. Which is just perfect. He's such a joy and we love him so much!

Christmas!!!

so sweet

oh my goodness! these days are so sweet! Jasper and Brody are such joys and they're delightful to listen to while they have their little conversations together.

For example, whenever Brody gets something special (like candy or caramel corn), he always goes up for 2nds and says, "I gotta get some for my's best fwiend." and I'll say, "who's your best friend, buddy?" to which he replies, "My bwudda." And he really will get some for Jasper and actually give it to him, too.

Oh my word. It melts my heart!!

And this afternoon, as we were walking to the workout room, Jasper and Brody were walking in front of me, and Jasper said, "Brody, will you be my helper?" and Brody said, "uh-huh", And Jasper said "thanks Brode. Cause when I'm a man, I'll have to work to provide for my family, and I'll have a lot of little kids. And I can't take care of them b/c I'll be at my job, and mommy can't take care of them b/c she'll be cooking. So can you be my helper and just take care of my kids for me and play with them all day?" and Brody said, "uh-huh." and J said, "Thanks Brode. Thanks for being my helper." and B said, "you're welcome, Dapper." And we continued on our way to the workout room.

Oh my goodness. It was so incredibly sweet!

Jasper is learning tons and tons in school. He's reading now and can write really well, also. His teacher does a fantastic job of teaching them lots and lots of things on Tuesdays. For example, last week, we were riding in the car and Jasper said, "It didn't rain today, but maybe it rained in South America. And mom. If you see any indians, be really, really nice to them because they give us food. Don't be mean to them. Be really nice to them." Ok, buddy! ;)

Tomorrow is a big USA day at school, and Brody and I are going in to be a teacher's helper. There's class, games, snacks, a banquet, a flag ceremony, etc. I'm really looking forward to it.

We love our home and our neighborhood. It's such a joy to live here. We walk to the playground and workout room and prayer garden and basketball courts almost every day. And as I walk, I'm constantly thanking God for giving us such a precious gift in this neighborhood and home.

We're busy getting ready for thanksgiving and my parents' arrival. It's so exciting!!

Brodybug

Brody is such a dear! He's such a special part of our family and keeps us smiling and laughing and entertained. :o) We love him dearly! This week, we transitioned him to undies! It wasn't quite on my radar yet, but he saw his superhero undies and was so excited to wear them, I couldn't resist. He's done really well with being in undies; we're proud of him. :o)

He runs around, calling Jasper "Dapper", and mimics every. single. thing. that Jasper does. We call Brody the little parrot. :o)

He is learning and growing so much, I can't believe it. Tonight, I watched him play a Lego game on my tablet and he completed the whole game all by himself, multiple times. I feel like he was just born yesterday, and here he is, counting in spanish and playing games on my tablet and wearing undies and sleeping in a big boy bed. I can't believe how fast it has gone! Gracious, I love the little guy so much!

jadip

Oh my goodness. This last month has just been paradise for us. The boys are at a really sweet stage, we're all settled in the house, Andrew's getting more and more comfortable in his job, our doggie is such a sweet treat, and the weather is cooling off. Last night, we had some country music playing softly on the patio in the backyard, the boys were digging in the dirt, Charley was running around in circles, and Andrew and I were throwing a frisbee together. The sun was setting and there was a soft breeze. And we literally stopped, looked at each other, and said, "This is paradise. This is seriously perfect. This is just another day in paradise."

(a pic from earlier in that same week)

Happy anniversary, dearest love!

Happy happy anniversary, babe!!! I LOVE YOU!!! God's so incredibly faithful to us!! I'm so thankful for you and our marriage!! God's grace is so abundant!

sweet day

While I have the laptop up and running (it's rare these days), I just wanted to record what a sweet day it's been! We've had the chance to spend lots of time with dear family and friends today, school is going well, Jasper has been so thankful and joyful (something we've been working on lots with him recently), our dog is such a joy to us, Brody is continuing to talk more and laugh lots, a sweet friend got a bible in her own language, Andrew got home in good time, our house is lovely, our marriage is precious and tender, etc. All of these are gifts from the good, good hand of God, and I'm so thankful.

sweet life

Life has been full speed ahead with so many wonderful changes for our family. Jasper started kindergarten, we took a trip to Ohio, and we got a dog! These sweet changes, added to the previous changes we went through this summer like buying a house and andrew starting a new career and moving and such, have made life feel like it's blazing by in super sonic speed. But all of these changes have been sweet, very sweet, and we're very thankful for everything! Our dog is the sweetest dog on planet earth, Jasper LOVES kindergarten, the trip to ohio was a blessing in every way imaginable, andrew's job continues to be a huge source of blessing for our family (both in provision and in sweet ways like the close proximity to home and such), Brody just keeps  blooming and developing into a fun-loving joyful little boy, and our home and our neighborhood are just so precious to us! It's been quite the crazy summer, but I wouldn't change a thing. :o)

 our new doggie

first family pic in a looong time

J made a birdfeeder in class today

the beast

A few days ago, our sweet neighbor gave us a bag full of delicious, juicy peaches that he picked from Gregg Farms. And that's when it happened.

That's when the canning beast inside of me came unleashed. The beast comes unleashed each summer, it's just a matter of time. I knew it would happen. I could feel the canning beast rising up in me, yearning to be free. Every time I went to Sprouts or Aldis and saw all the cheap produce, I just yearned to let the beast out. I knew it would happen before too long. And on Sunday, it happened.

The beast came unleashed. And it's wild and free.

In other words...

I've been canning. A lot.

When I'm not canning, I'm dreaming about canning. When i'm not dreaming about canning, i'm searching for new recipes for canning. And when I'm not searching for new recipes, I'm running to the store to buy pectin or lids or I'm sanitizing my jars or searching for the rings.

The boys love to can, too, which has been sweet. So the last few days, ever since the beast came unleashed, the littles and I have been canning a lot together. Granted, it takes 18 times as long and it always looks like a bomb exploded in my kitchen, but it's worth every ounce of extra work when I hear Jasper, on his own initiative, explain to Brody that the reason he's adding a tsp of butter to the homemade blueberry jam that he's stirring is to reduce the amount of foam on top. Or when Brody knows, on his own, what the next step in the jam process is. Jasper made the last batch of homemade jam, almost completely on his own, measuring out the correct amount of smashed blueberries and sugar and pectin and butter. I, and the beast inside of me, love passing on the canning passion to the next generation!

So, farewell for now, b/c I'm yearning to find the bourbon vanilla peach jam recipe that dearest Mo made for us last summer.

cloud 9

oh my goodness! This kindness of the Lord astounds me. I wake up every morning and think to myself, "Is this really my life?!" and then I go around all day in a dream and then I go to bed at night thinking, "I can't believe this is my life!". Everything about our life and new home has been just such a gift from God. I'll try to mention a few, but my bed is going to be quickly calling my name...

1. Andrew. Andrew and our proximity to his job is my absolute, hands down favorite part about our new house. I see Andrew all the time, and it's amazing. I see him in the morning for breakfast and deov's. Because we live 5 minutes away from his work, he doesn't have to leave home until 8:10ish, so he gets to run upstairs and see a quick hello to the boys before leaving for work. We see Andrew for lunch. And he gets home before dinner. We run out of things to talk about b/c we see each other all the time. And it's such a dream. He's our favorite, of course, so any increase in the amount of time that we get to see him is worth it's weight in gold.

2. The house is gorgeous. It's way, WAY more than we deserve. I love the layout and the floor plan, I love the windows, I love the paint color, I love the stairs, I love the woodfloor, I realllllly love the kitchen, I love the master on the main, I love the back door that opens straight out to the back yard, I love our furniture and the teal table and the china that's set out on the dining room table. I love the attached garage. I really love the keeping room where the boys hang out and play while I wash dishes. We super duper love the bar, where all 3 guys hang out while I cook. I love all the bathrooms and the spare rooms and the attic! We are really, really thankful for this blessing of a home. One of the things we really wanted in a new house was extra room so we can host Ohio visitors. Well, the Lord answered our prayer! We've been here for 2 weekends, and both weekends, we've had ohio friends and family come visit us. And this upcoming weekend, we'll have Ohio visitors again! We LOVE it! And when our company comes, we hang out here, AND we go to the pool! It just blows my mind with how the Lord gave us all our needs and also all our wants. He's so kind.

3. I love the neighborhood pool. The boys ESPECIALLY love the neighborhood pool. We truly go there every single day. And no, I'm not exaggerating. I make it our goal to meet 1 new neighbor every time we go, and as a result, we now know a lot of the ppl at the pool. In fact, as we walk up to the pool, I can tell who is there based on which golf carts are parked out front. It's so fun and truly lovely! I don't think we have ever eaten lunch at our house, bc we literally always eat lunch at the pool or at CFA where we meet andrew for lunch. We literally haven't eaten lunch here yet.

4. I love the neighborhood! It's nice and quiet and ppl are very friendly and lots of folks ride around on their golf carts in the evenings or going for runs or bike rides. I thrive off of people and general "energy in the air", so it's been such a blessing to live in a neighborhood where neighbors are always out, walking, going to the pool, whizzing by on golf carts, going to downtown Senoia, etc. The guys and I love, absolutely love, being in an active community where there's always something to do or someone to talk with. We love it! The little boys thoroughly enjoy watching the traffic out their bedroom windows in the morning while they wait for their alarm to go off and it's really sweet for me to listen to their running commentary on everything. In every single way, the Lord has blessed us huge.

5. We love working on the house. I'm sure at some point in the future, all the chores won't seem quite as fun, but right now, we're lovin' it! In the mornings before we head to the pool, I've been edging and trimming the yard and trimming bushes with this white trash saw thingy (Dad Meade, could I please borrow your power saw sometime?) and pulling weeds and working on landscaping while the little boys sweep off the driveway and sidewalks for me. Andrew and I cleaned and conditioned the leather couch the other night and we're hanging pictures and fixing little odds and ends and replacing shower heads, etc, etc. And it's all so FUN! We love working on our new house together! It's a blessing to be able to do so.

Someone at the pool asked me the other day how long we've lived in the neighborhood, and I thought about it and replied, "I guess we've only lived here for 2 and a half weeks!" They were COMPLETELY surprised, and asked if we've started unpacking yet. Yes, I have. lol! We've been completely unpacked since our 2nd day living here (I didn't tell them this). But they were so surprise b/c I knew everyone at the pool and they thought we'd been here for years. And it's honestly felt like we've been here for years. It just feels so perfectly and so completely like home.

There's so much more I could write, but I'll head to bed now. I mainly wrote this post for my beloved, who just teased me about not having a blog anymore. Haha! I told him I've been too busy playing with power tools and saws to bother with blogging. ;o) But, I, too, miss blogging, so I'll be on here a lot more in the future.

Stay tuned for what the boys are saving their money up for.... bwah hah hah.......

Hey babe

This is for you!

The Lord is so kind!

The Lord is so kind!!! He's so incredibly kind to us, and keeps lavishing gift upon gift upon gift on us!! I don't have time to recount all He's done for us this past week, but the latest thing that He's done is to let the paint color in our new home be beautiful.

Painter Wayne started today, and I rushed into the new house to grab the pool key for Mom Meade and the boys and I kinda forgot that the walls might be newly painted. I turned the corner into the formal dining room and I lost my breath! In a good way!!! It was painted my Magnetic Gray and it's gorgeous!!! Painter Wayne had the dining room, kitchen, eat in space, and keeping room painted and I was in love with the new color and am so thankful!! I know that the fact that I love our new paint is nothing less than a gift from God's good hand. I prayed and prayed and prayed about the paint colors and was so nervous about picking out 17 gallons of paint for a house that I had barely been in... the last time I'd been in the house was a month ago, up until this weekend! The Lord is so kind!

Speaking about not being in the new house much, some guys from Best Buy brought our new fridge and washing machine to the new house this afternoon. When they first arrived, the guy came up to me and asked me to show him where the laundry room was. I took him to where I thought it was. Nope. Lol! So then I took him to a different place where I thought it was. Nope! Lol! So then he and I searched together and we finally found the laundry room. it was humorous... and slightly embarrassing and somewhat telling about how little I've been in the new house. I'm so excited to be in it!! I can't wait!! I wish my phone would let me upload phots to my blog- I would totally show you all pictures of the before and after paint.

we're closing today!!!

Oh my goodness!! I can't believe it!!!!! We're closing on our new home in about 1 hour!!! All morning, I was dazed and zoned out and stressed out by lots of little details on my mind. But then this afternoon, I got super hyper and just started screeching and squealing and dancing and yelping and I kept saying, "WE'RE BUYING A HOUSE TODAY!!!!" over and over and over again!! Finally, Jasper looked at me and said, "Mom, who cares about buying a new house?! You should be more excited that we get to go SWIMMING tomorrow!!!!!"

Good point, my son. :o)

All things about this house are perfect. Absolutely perfect. But then, the Lord so sweetly gave me even more confirmation that this house is INDEED perfect for us b/c it's within walking distance to the neighborhood pool! Jasper and Brody don't care about wall colors or the number of bathrooms or kitchen cabinets in a new house. They only care about 1. good places to hide for hide and seek, 2. having a tree to climb, and 3. being able to go swimming. I'm happy to say this house has all 3 for these sweet little boys of ours.

Now.... I gotta run... because....

WE'RE BUYING A HOUSE!!!!!!!!

Praise the Lord!!!!!!!!!!

Thoughtful hubby

My thoughtful husband left me a sweet card and Starbucks coffee in the kitchen table before he left for work this morning! How utterly kind of him!! I'm so thankful for him! ❤

Ah-hah!! It worked!!

I'm so glad!!! Our home computer is still dead and I simply don't have time to figure out the chrome book right now, so I'm really thankful my blog app is working again! Praise the Lord!!

These days have been incredibly sweet!!! We're busy packing and getting quotes from painters for the new house, spending time with family and friends, shopping for couches in Atlanta, teaching Puggles on Wednesday nights, line dancing, spending lots of time playing with the little boys and swimming in the blow up pool, etc. It's really, really sweet!!

Jasper worked really hard this last week or so, doing lots of money chores to earn money, all of which he put in the Coweta County Baby Bottles (which go to the crisis pregnancy center). His heart was so sweet and he really wanted to help the "pregnant mommies who needed money for their babies". He worked selflessly and gave sacrificially toward this ministry, and his sweet example strengthened my heart with grace.

Brody continues to talk and laugh and be spunky and bring MUCH joy to those around him! He loves to have fun and thrives off of any general energy in the air. The other day, I was changing his diaper with Jasper out in the kitchen, and Brody said, "I need my baber!!" I said, "you need your Jasper?" To which he replied, "yes." I said, "why do you need your Jasper?" and Brody said, "becuzz he my fwend." It was seriously so precious! Joyful little Brody bug is completely smitten with his"baber". Randomly, I also find a nickel in his diaper tonight while we were getting the boys ready for bed, and both boys thought was hilarious! They love to laugh and have fun, but it's not without some occasional bickering or head-butting (both literally and figuratively) from time to time.

Andrew is doing exceptionally well at his new job!! He's doing positively great!! I'm saying this for several reason: 1. Because I'm totally biased and think he's the greatest man on planet earth. 2. Because his bosses told him so, and 3. He excels at all he does. I love him and I like him and I'm so thankful he's mine. The longer we're married, the better it gets. Don't get me wrong, over the past decade, we have had some rough times. We have had some pretty big communication challenges. And occasionally, it has been just plain hard. But that's OK, because it's in the "rough" that the grace of God shines through. It's in the big communication challenges that we talk with each other less and with God more. And the "hard" makes us love and appreciate both each other more AND the One who gave the good gifts in the first place. I'm so thankful and humbled by the grace of God in our marriage.

I'm doing well! Like one would expect, I'm experiencing a lot of emotions as we prepare to start a new chapter in life. I'm happy, excited, elated, sad, overwhelmed, nostalgic, weepy, awed, and back to elated again. And I typically experience all of these emotions... in the full realm of the spectrum... every single day. Have I mentioned how thankful I am for the grace of God and the patience of my husband?? Incredibly thankful. Also, in other random news, I've had fajitas for 4 meals in the last 3 days, and I feel like I've died and gone to heaven. I told Andrew tonight that if I get stuck on a deserted island with only 1 food for the rest of life, it must be fajitas. But as soon as I said that, I started second guessing myself and thinking that it might need to be Nutella instead. I haven't had nutella on a regular basis since we lived in Ohio, and that's a problem I plan to remedy this week. We had the Saturday night line dance party at the community center last night, and it was truly a blast!v one been researching interior design crazy and have found that I LOVE it. Like, I really really love it. I've spent countless hours pouring over my research and my Sherwin Williams color wheel, and after much prayer and thought and discussion and Pinterest-ing, I've made the "final" decisions on our new paint colors. Until tomorrow comes, that is. Hah! No, for reals. I think this is it. I've really, I mean REALLY, been enjoying my morning devotions the past few weeks. I've been reading through the book of Matthew and using a commentary by Charles Erdmun to help me think deeper and better about what I'm reading in Matthew. Yesterday, I read about when Judas made a deal to sell Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. Charles Erdmun said something to this effect: Judas wasn't a monster. He wasn't a crazy eyed creature with 2 heads stomping all around the earth. No, he was a dear friend of Jesus. He was close and in intimate fellowship with Jesus. In fact, he spent every day for years with Jesus, spending time with him, eating with him talking with him, listening to him. The only difference between Judas and the rest of Jesus' disciples was that Judas failed to renounce and master his besetting sin. Let that be a lesson to us, to take our sin seriously, to truly master and renounce our besetting sin, lest we, like Judas, be tempted to betray the majestic King of the universe for the mere price of a slave.

Does this work?

This is a test run to see if my phone will post my blog entrees.
#firstworldproblems

the Biggest Week

A week or two ago, we had what might possibly be the biggest week of our lives. hands down. for realz.

I've tried to blog about it several times, but I can't get our home computer to work at all (not to mention that the computer is completely blocked by Jasper's new and huge tent, about a million dinosaurs, a beta fish, 25 dvd's, 2 dump trucks, 2 Captain America shields, and 3 superheros) and the blogger app on my phone won't submit any of my blogs, either. Sigh. I was missing you, my dear blog, greatly.

But alas!! my heart! Do not despair. For about the thousandth time this week, my handsome husband came to my rescue and solved all my problems... Bless him. So now I get to blog on his school laptop-dual screen-docking station-thingy. I truly have no idea what this is. But it's working and I'm typing and all is well in my world again. :o) Oh wait! Shoot. I don't have access to any of my pictures. Oh bummer. I literally just thought of that as I'm sitting here typing. Oh well. This will just have to be a picture-less post. Which isn't nearly as fun, so I'll try to find some images online to intersperse throughout what's turning out to be a really random blog post.

But anyway... back to the Biggest Week.

It was the biggest week of our lives. However, the week BEFORE the Biggest Week was quite a big week in and of itself, just bc of all the preparation. That week, I said no to all playdates, serving opportunities, community get togethers, line dancing, and whatnot and just focused on loving my family and preparing for the Biggest Week. The boys and I had fun doing things like deep cleaning, laundry, making and freezing "mexican tortilla casserole" to have during the Biggest Week. Making and freezing lasagna for the Biggest Week. Making and freezing taco meat for the Biggest Week. Buying and wrapping presents for the Biggest Week. Buying birthday party foods and decorations. Buying Mother's Day gifts and gift bags, making Mother's Day cards, etc, etc, etc. I think you get the picture.

The week AFTER the Biggest Week was huge in and of itself because my house was a wreck. My laundry piles were sky high. My dirty dishes were crammed on every counter and in every corner. Toys were everywhere. Birthday party decorations were everywhere. Mother's Day gifts were everywhere. Andrew's graduation party decor and gifts were everywhere. Trash was everywhere. The boys were exhausted and sad that their dear nana left. I was exhausted and sad that my dear mom left. Poor Andrew was just plain exhausted. Nothing was in order. Nothing was normal. Nothing was organized. I needed to be at the top of my A-game to get life back to normal for my family... but before I could even start... I got sick.

Like, really sick. Like, I-can't-get-off-the-couch-so-I'll-just-lay-here-and-cry-or-die type of sick. Like high fever, aches, chills, strep throat, and an ear infection sick. So with me sick and the house a wreck and the boys a mess and my husband exhausted, the Lord, in His constant kindness to me, sent an angel (aka my mother-in-law) to help get us through this rough period. We would NOT have made it without Mom Meade, and I'm still brought to tears by how she came in and served us selflessly and in so many different ways. And then after I got better, Jasper got sick. So the week after the Biggest Week was huge, too.

So... to recap everything so far..
- I haven't been able to blog
- the week before and the week after The Biggest Week were huge huge huge weeks
- we miss my mom desperately (so much it hurts)
- and my mother-in-law is an angel

But despite how big these other weeks were, they truly pale in comparison with how big the Biggest Week was. It was probably the biggest of our lives so far, but it was truly wonderful in every way and the Lord just lavished and lavished His kindness on it all.

Although I would love to write in depth about everything that happened, I'm just going to sum up the Biggest Week because today, we've had a pretty big day and I'm really tired and nap time is almost half way over and I really to go lay down before I need to get up to make dinner... so...

My mom flew in for the week. Bless her! I would NOT have made it through the Biggest Week without her! She was amazing! It was amazing having her here and her visit added such an element of excitement and special-ness to the week.

Also, during this week, Andrew was brand-new at his new job, Panasonic! What a special blessing Panasonic is to our family. The Lord is so kind to give Andrew such a wonderful job straight out of school.

So these two things are pretty big in and of themselves, but...

Tuesday, we picked mom up and had Kings donuts, a picnic lunch, played at a playground, a special dinner, homemade cookies after the boys went to bed, and a movie night.

Wednesday, my mom and I had a date, just the two of us. We did bingo at CFA with some friends (the boys were there for that), shopping at the Avenue, lunch at Due South, just for fun we went to see a few houses with our Realtor Mike Robinson, then a coffee shop, then we came home and had dinner with the kiddos and our babysitter, then we all went to Wednesday night church together. Somewhat unexpectedly on Wednesday, my mom and I saw a beautiful house with our Realtor. We fell in love with it, head over heels. It was pretty amazing, it met all 4 of our requirements, it met all of our preferences, it was perfect. We call it "our Renwick House".

Thursday, we had Jasper's 5 year birthday party. It was dinosaur themed, and when I asked Jasper who he wanted to have come to his birthday party, he responded, "Everyone." So we had everyone. :o) 49 precious friends came out for J's birthday party. We ordered 12 Papa John's pizzas and had other side dishes. Mom Meade made an awesome dinosaur cake that knocked the socks off of everyone. Jasper's party was so fun!! And so big! I'm so thankful for Jasper and Brody and their lives! Also, on Thursday, my mom watched the boys so I could go with Andrew and our Realtor to see our Renwick house. Andrew hadn't seen it before, houses are selling crazy fast down here, this house was perfect for us, so we were taking this quite seriously.

Friday, Andrew graduated!! He had to take work off, and Mom and Dad Meade, my mom, me and Jasper went with Andrew (brody stayed home with a sitter) for his MBA brunch and graduation ceremony in Atlanta. It was so sweet! Afterward, we went to Antico's Pizza and sublime donuts to celebrate. Then we did something fun and bigg-ish Friday night, but I can't remember what. Friday evening, we also called our Realtor and asked him to make an offer for us on our Renwick house.

Saturday, Andrew had his huge graduation ceremony with all of GSU in the Georgia Dome. It was really sweet and special! Afterward, Andrew and I went to Googie Burger in Cenntenial Park to have a sweet little date to celebrate (the kiddos stayed home with my mom). After we all got home from Andrew's huge graduation ceremony, we had a small graduation party for him with all of us plus Nate and MB and Henderson. We had yummy lasagna, garlic bread, salad, and peanut butter pie. Saturday morning, our offer officially got submitted for our Renwick house and Saturday evening, the sellers officially accepted our offer! There was no counter offer or anything!! What kindness of the Lord! We were all floored and stunned and super excited! Saturday eve, mom and I were going to go line dancing, but instead, we left the boys with Andrew and drove to our Renwick house and looked in the windows and dreamed about how to decorate it. Then we went to a coffee shop and looked at paint colors on-line. It was so sweet!

Sunday was Mother's Day! How sweet for me to get to spend Mother's Day with my precious little kiddos, who made me a momma, as well as my own momma and mother-in-law. It was a really sweet day! We all went to Chopstix for lunch and the guys made us a great Black and Bleu Salad for dinner.

Monday, my dear momma left. We were all bawling and oh-so-sad to see her go.

On paper, this week doesn't look so huge. But it really was so huge. I constantly was feeling like I was running in circles. I couldn't sleep at all at nights bc I was always thinking about what food or gifts I needed for the next day or what babysitter I needed to call to confirm with or what Andrew needed for the next day or if I remembered to get the casserole out of the freezer, etc, etc. Also, if you've bought a house recently, you know there's tons and tons of paperwork and prayer and phone calls and spousal discussions and prayer and more paperwork and more phone calls involved in buying a house. This whole Renwick house thing was so unexpected but so literally perfect. It is just so special and so kind of the Lord to let my mom see the house and fall in love with it... with me. It was so neat to have her apart of the process and sharing in all the excitement!! Also, the boys got babysat a lot. Madeline watched them, Summer watched them, my mom watched them thursday during the house viewing and all day Saturday, Andrew watched them Saturday night, I think my mother-in-law watched them, etc. The whole week was one big party-after-party and it was awesome!!

The Lord continues to bless us so much more than we deserve. The sale of our Renwick House is sailing through (pun intended) with no problems at all. The inspection went well and the sellers agreed to do EVERYTHING on our "request to remedy" amendment. They didn't make a counter offer or anything. We keep getting invoices emailed to us by contract workers that they've had come in and fix stuff. We don't have to lift a finger for any of it! We are simply floored by the Lord's sweet kindness to us.

I'd love to write more, but I'm so sleepy and am craving an afternoon nap...

Until next time, dear blog.

Last day!!

Today is Andrew's very last day of school- he has a huge final/presentation tonight (doesn't he look HANDSOME?!)! Oh my goodness, I can't believe this!! As I'm typing this, he's just about to walk out the door to go to Buckhead one. last. time. It's so surreal. I feel like I just need the world to slow down for a moment so I can catch my breath and process the huge, wonderful changes that we're going through this week. Yesterday was his first day at Panasonic, today's his last day of school, tomorrow he goes back to Panasonic to work, we contacted our relator today to schedule some houses to go view next week, and graduation is next Friday. Not to mention that my momma's flying down for all the festivities and Jasper's turning 5!! Oh my!!

Andrew's a stud!

This last Wednesday, we had a sweet chance to celebrate Andrew and the wonderful work he's done in his MBA program. He got nominated by faculty for an award and Wednesday was the Honors Ceremony for all award recipients. Not only am I so proud of his academic accomplishments, but I'm also so proud of his integrity and reputation, especially among the faculty. He's such a great guy!

Also, he can totally pull off a suit! He's such a stud!!

After the Honors Ceremony, mom and dad Meade came back and took over babysitting duties for the boys. Madeline (aka one of our most favorite people on planet earth) had been watching the littles up to this point. Mom and Dad M took over the littles for the rest of the day and Andrew took me out on a romantic date in downtown Atlanta for the rest of the afternoon and evening. It was so dreamy.

We hit up his workplace to say hi to Tracy, we went on a sweet walk down a few romantic streets close to campus, we had coffee and shopping at Kog street market, and we ate a romantic dinner at Agave. I loved every single minute of it.

spring break, part 2...

Another super fun thing we did on spring break was to go down to Orange Beach for 2 days. It was SOO, sooo fun! It was such a blast, and we all hope to do it again soon!!

Again, he's a short recap of what we did, accompanied by pictures...

- we swam
- we looked for shells on the beach
- we swam
- we looked for more shells on the beach
- yes, we swam again
- we dug a huge hole
- we buried Jasper in the hole, much to his delight
- we swam
- we left