handsful

We have a special guest in our home for the month of July. We’re the host family for Hayde’, a sweet 15 year old from Spain. She’s been with us for 5 days, so we thought it was about time to introduce her to Lake Norman. Properly.

Payton decides to join the girls…

They declined his request.

Notice that she’s smiling in every. single. picture.

She fell off a few times…they all did. Randy prides himself in being able to throw his kids off the tube.

But, she held on valiantly and kept right on smiling.

It was a great afternoon on the lake. Lots of tubing, swimming, and a little knee boarding. We finally left as the sun was setting behind the trees.

We hope Hayde’ enjoyed her first time out on Lake Norman. It won’t be her last :)

Not so sure how to “categorize” this one! Just a few photos to share…

My parents came down last Saturday and stayed with us, so they could attend the kids Testify concert Sunday morning. It went GREAT, and I think Grandma and Grandpa were impressed.

I made Randy take this one. A collection box in the fellowship hall. I considered whether or not my children were “gently used” enough to donate.

Same weekend, the day before…

We had 2 of Marley’s friends spend the night Friday night, and another friend of hers came over the next day. Somehow they talked the boys into makeovers. Attention from girls? Sign them up. The results were impressive.

The “goth” look suits them, huh? Scary. I didn’t get a shot of their black fingernails.

Mad goth scientist?

Anyone else see Marley in this shot? Ethan will love that…

Fast forward to Tuesday. Randy left to go out of town on Monday, so it’s just me and the kiddos for the week. I was taking Marley to horseriding and running a few errands, so the littles were with the other kids. When I left, they were planning on taking them outside in their bathing suits and squirting them with the hose (no lake or pool for us anymore…wahhh!!)

When I got back, the littles were all bathed and in their jammies. Wow! How sweet of the big kids to do that for me. After praising them, here’s the photo Abbey showed me.

Gulp. It’s a good thing I wasn’t here, cause I’m not nearly fun enough to allow this! I had to wash their clothes and Dylan’s prosthesis belt. There’s still a little clay stain in the belt (if you live in NC, you’ll laugh here), and I had to wash out the prosthesis itself. But the rest came clean. Later on, I found the bathtub. I should have taken a picture of THAT.

Life is anything but dull.

It’s been years since we had a garden. Like about 9 years when the big kids weren’t so big. We had a small area beside our house and grew lots of tomatoes, attempted cucumbers (heh), and managed to get a couple of cantalopes.

We’ve super-sized that garden here. The actual tilled up land is 25′ x 110′. Gulp. We decided to try half of that for this first season.

After measuring, we made a trip up to our local garden center and the nice guy there gave us a guide that tells us what we can plant this time of year, how far to space each plant, and how deep to plant. Just the right info we needed! We pulled out the graph paper, did calculations and drew out our garden. Last Saturday, we headed to the dirt…

We decided to be really geeky and actually put up stakes at each row of plants. Then, we strung twine across each so we’d know where to plant.

Beautiful, isn’t it?

Time to get our hands dirty.

The master gardener

Peppers. We planted 5 different kinds. We had a system…Payton dug the holes, and Randy (and Dylan) put the plants in. We were short-handed that day. Marley was with a friend, Ethan was sick, and Abbey was inside getting ready for the prom (see last post!).

Tomatoes. Again, 5 different kinds. We also planted beans and corn by seed (THOSE took forever…), cantaloupe, and watermelon.

Now that it’s all planted, we’re considering whether to put up a fence. We’ve gotten varied advice…you MUST have a fence or you’ll lose all your veggies…take your chances and see what happens. ?? We’ve never seen deer here, but we feel they must be around (woods all around us). We have seen bunnies several times…and we know they love gardens. We’d hate to see all of our work – and food – eaten up by woodland creatures. Randy has crunched the numbers and drawn out the design for the fence he’d prefer to build. We’ll see.

Have I mentioned yet how much we love it out here? Rural life is suiting me just fine.

She’d been giving us hints for years. Wanting to have her daughters in law and all her granddaughters out for an afternoon at the Tea Room in town.

Last Saturday, she thought it was only Dee Dee and Anna Grace, taking her out for a birthday lunch.

She was so wrong. Dee Dee called us last week to see if we could make a last-minute trip to Raleigh. We pulled it together and hit the road.

Soon, all us girls were on our way to pick Ann up at her house. If only I’d gotten a picture of her face when she glanced in the back seat and saw all of us smiling back.

Next stop, the Tea Room in downtown Wake Forest.

Once we arrived, some of us enjoyed trying on all the interesting hats. Some of us look horrid in hats, and skipped that part. Ahem.

Abbey called this one her lemon-head hat

We talked, we ate yummy food, and drank lots of tea. Croissants, scones, salads, soups…Lainey had chocolate raspberry tea and strawberry soup! She was in heaven.

We also spent a good amount of time posing for pictures. In our hats…or no hats. The waitress graciously took shots of all of us.

Love that hat on her!

Ann wasn’t the only one in for a surprise. Dee Dee and I fully intended to pay for our own kids and Ann, but she wouldn’t hear of it. With tears in her eyes, she insisted that her birthday was complete…we had given her the one, best thing she’d ever asked for and wanted to treat us all. To see her that happy was such a blessing for all of us. Family truly is the best gift of all.

Happy Birthday, Ann. We love you!

Don’t normally go together, huh? But, last night they did.

Alan, Randy’s college roommate and the kids honorary uncle, sent us Carolina Hurricane hockey tickets for Christmas and the game was last night. Given it was going to be a long time sitting in seats watching a game they probably wouldn’t follow well, we decided to find alternate plans for the littles.

I called my friend Sandi, who now lives only 7 minutes away. Her daughter Hollyn is one of Lainey and Dylan’s bestest friends, and Dylan and Hollyn have a special connection with their (opposite leg!) prosthesis’. Sandi was thrilled to have them over for their first-ever sleepover!

I dropped them off at 3:30, and Sandi kept them busy! First stop, the park.

In the meantime, we were settled into our seats at the game. Awesome seats, by the way, lower level and end zone! Since we had 2 extra tickets, the kids asked their friends Kayla and Ethan P to come. I promise EP was there, he was just camera shy.

Sandi scored major kid points when she opted to grab Tac*o Bell for dinner. Lainey is being a stinker, peeking while Hollyn prays. Dylan keeps his eyes CLOSED!

Abbey and Stormy…she’s had him since her first hockey game years and years ago. The game was going great, Canes ahead. We were digging our $1 hotdog dinner…we thought about bringing home a box for later. Hey, that’s cheap eats for this family!

Just the girls…we sent the boys out for snacks :)

After dinner, the littles watched a movie and crashed in bed. Late, from what I’m told. Hoping them have a little rest time later on.

Unfortunately, the game ended abruptly about 30 seconds into overtime. Oh well, we had a wonderful time and hope to go back again one of these days. Thanks a bunch, Alan!!

And, the kids are already planning their next sleepover…this time, with Hollyn coming to our house :)

A month ago, we had three houses. One we rented, one we owned down in Florida, and another we were buying. Here’s a quick timeline on what’s happened since.

3/9: We bought and closed on the house we currently live in.

3/10: We thought we had our home in FL rented. Randy called our realtor to take it off the market, and she informed us a family had already scheduled a showing – we honored that and ended up accepting their offer soon after (the renter called just prior to this to back out).

3/17: We moved into our new home.

3/29: We closed on the FL house, and did the final clean-up of our rental home. Here are the kids on the porch, tired from all that finishing up…

Re-cap: Within 20 days, we were able to buy a house, move out of a house, and sell another house. Our FL house was on the market for almost 2 years. Only God could orchestrate all of this! And, even though we didn’t exactly come out ahead on the sale of the house, we’re trusting God and believing that we followed His lead on all of this.

So, now I’m gonna revel in that fact that we have one residence, one home to call our own. All of our belongings under one roof – first time in a long time. To God be the glory!