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