A Quick Catch Up

I keep saying that one day I am going to blog on a regular basis. It just never happens, so I am not going to say that. However, school is out for the summer and we are on vacation, so I have slowed down long enough to type a few words.

I think the last time I blogged was about a possible contract on our old house. I can't describe the relief we felt after closing on that home on April 17th. After signing the million papers we had to sign, there were hugs exchanged between me and the new owner and our real estate agent. Our real estate agent, KD, goes to church with us and I think the world of him, his wife, and all of their family. I know he was just as relieved as us to finally sale the house. Even his wife has been praying hard for us to sale the house for those two years and two months. After we started the contract process, we had an appraisal done on the house that didn't turn out as well as we had hoped. I was pretty disgusted (so was Kevin) by the whole deal, however, that is the way the cookie crumbles these days due to the economy. After the closing was said and done, I was convinced that God was in it. The lady who bought our home is divorced with two young boys. They were so excited about the house and to be part of a neighborhood with lots of kids. I think there will be lots of support there for her and she won't have to worry about the boys. They will be out in the front yard playing with all the kids in the neighborhood, because the front yard is where they all come to play. I hope to go by one day and see how she's painted all the rooms. The one thing that I gave up with the sale of the house was my mirror above the fireplace. We left it there to help sale the house. The plan was to bring it to the new one and put it in the master bath. Guess I will be headed to Kirkland's to find another one!

Of course April and May are busy birthday months for us. Aaron turned 5 on April 1st. We had a family birthday celebration with a little Mario cake and played the Wii. Mine was next on April 24th. We celebrated at P.F. Changs, one of my favorite restaurants. It was a wonderful day for me and turned into an even greater day when we got a text message saying that a dear friend's mom had awoken from a coma. She and her husband had been hit by an SUV in New Orleans on Palm Sunday weekend. I am still moved to tears when I think about all this family has been thru and how they are still touching the lives of those who know them and even those who don't know them so well.

Well, May is a big birthday month for us, too. Alli turned eight on May 2nd and Kevin had a birthday on the 3rd. The night before Alli's birthday, we hosted a mother/daughter scrapbook night in our home. What a wonderful night we had together. It was a complete success and our next one is scheduled for June 12th. I have decided that with my girls helping me I might actually get caught up with scrapbooks for all the kids pictures before they leave my nest. We have no furniture in the front part of our house (formal dining and living room), so I just leave my tables up the majority of the time because we have scrapbook nite once a month for the ladies. Hannah and Alli continued to scrapbook on Saturday (Alli's birthday) and would scrapbook every day if we had the time. The night of the mother/daughter scrapbook we had birthday cake for Alli. She requested the strawberry cake I made her last year. It's a recipe from one of the sweet ladies in our church. I also made 24 cupcakes using the same recipe and used my cupcake stand. It was a fun weekend. We had plenty of cake for the weekend!

We celebrated Mother's Day weekend with a quick trip back home to see all the grandmothers. There was really not enough time to spend with everyone, but it was enough to last us till July. I did get to go to my favorite restaurant on Mother's Day; yes, it is P. F. Changs. I will have to enjoy Newk's next time because there wasn't enough time to hit that one. I think we will have plenty of time in July. Looks like I will be there for 10 days!

So, here, we are enjoying our summer vacation on St. George Island, Florida. It's our first trip here. We have friends that come here every year and they love it. It's our kind of vacation. Our house is on the bay. We are surrounded by palm trees and pine trees. We have an enclosed pool outside. It has to be enclosed due to the mosquito population. We drove down yesterday and arrived around five. Kevin cooked shrimp last night. Just a side note, out of the blue on our trip down, Aaron asked if he could have a green vegetable when we got to our house. This is shocking because he has wanted nothing to do with vegetables. So, Kevin told him that we bought the asparagus and the broccoli just for him. Aaron wrinkled his nose up at the broccoli. But to my surprise, he actually decided it wasn't so bad. After dinner, we all put our swim suits on and headed for the pool. The pool is heated, and this is a good thing, because Kevin is actually swimming with us. I think he really enjoyed it. Of course, Aaron went thru his "I'm scared" phase, but when it was time to go in, he wasn't ready to leave. I told him his name was "Nemo".

I am about done savoring several cups of coffee, so the kids and I are going to head towards the beach. We haven't got to see it yet. I hope to post some pictures while we are here, since I have my computer with me. Kevin is working on the schedule for he and his cohorts for July thru September. He will also have to study for his board exam. He's not much on sand and sun. He hasn't had any time to do these things, so he will have to work a little while here.

I have tried to arrange the photos, but blogger won't let me. These are pics taken on Mother's Day weekend at my grandparents' home. The first picture was taken at Bop's. We met my dad there for a few minutes and had some ice cream.

Time for some sun!