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!!