Summer So Far....

     It has been forever since I did a blog post on here!! This has been a relatively quiet summer for me. Most of the time they are filled with yard work, lots of DIY projects, keeping my flower bed looking somewhat presentable, etc. Well, there hasn't been much of that going on  and I miss it at times. However, it is all for a very good cause.:)
    I have pretty much kept up with a normal life until it has just become physically impossible or unsafe to do some things. I don't think I could reach a weed if I wanted to. My balance has not been the greatest the past couple of weeks either, so we try to be extra careful around here. Michael's "Daddy Hormones", for lack of a better term, have set in and he likes to keep me on a "short leash" these days. Sometimes, I find it extremely frustrating, with being rather independent and all, but it is really sweet in some ways..... :) :)
    We have had a couple of really fun cook outs so far, and I hope many more will still follow. We were not able to go to either of our church conference's Youth or Family Camps this year, and really missed that. Our VBS at our church was tons of fun and we had a good group of kids.
    Here is the only project I  have done so far this summer. I did it back in May and have been enjoying it a lot.

 



     We have had a very wet and rainy summer and have not been able to enjoy the outdoors to much. The flowers are all looking a little sad and lots of flooding has been going on. Thankfully, we have not had any flooding that has caused any damage at our place. Well, we didn't quite get off free.....
    Our pool collapsed last weekend. It had a weak panel and was completely full because of all the rain. Also, the ground under it had become unstable. All of these combined caused that panel to rip all the way down like someone tore a piece of paper in half. We are so thankful that nobody was seriously injured or killed when it happened, but we are all going to miss the pool a lot!!

Well, I guess I should wrap this post up..... We are all awaiting the arrival of our little man any day now....The nursery if mostly functional, but not totally finished being decorated yet. That is why there hasn't been any pictures of it... :(  Hopefully the next post will be pictures of the fella himself! :)

A Post About Randomness.... :)

     I am so glad that nicer days have arrived, but that it hasn't been to hot. We had a little period of hot weather but those have not been seen for a while now. It has mostly rained and rained, for which I am getting rather tired of....My poor flowers outside have hardly had a chance to shine because they are always rather wet and limp. :(
    Another bright spot... Watermelons and Cantaloupes are out in abundance!! Something I can't seem to get enough of.... so glad Michael is a "watermelon freak" and shares in my nearly constant desire to eat it!! :) :)
    Last weekend we enjoyed a one night get away in Raleigh for a Friday night/Saturday morning marriage seminar called, "Laugh Your Way To A Better Marriage" by Mark Gunger. We had a great time and laughed more than is probably legally allowed and learned some thing in the process. I would highly recommend his seminars because they are some of the cheapest ones and filled with so much humor that you spend more time laughing than anything else. {He is funnier than most comedians} Just very refreshing over all.:)

Our Room

We went out somewhere nice Friday night.....

Amazing steaks!! :)



At the event.

     This past Saturday I also reached week 30!! We have started the count down..... 9 more weekends.:) :)

 

 

    It felt so good to finally get half of my windows outside cleaned {The only ones I could reach without a ladder:(}  and all the porch furniture cleaned ready for lots of summer use!! Looking forward to Memorial Day.....eating lots of amazing food and having fun with family and friends!! :)

Baby Shower & Mother's Day

     We had a busy weekend around here.... They had a baby shower for us Saturday then we all spent most of Mother's Day together! The shower was so much fun and turned out very nice... We got lots of nice gifts and cute clothes.
     Sunday started out with a very nice church service. Pastor Marcus preached one of the best Mother's Day sermons I've ever heard. It mostly focused on the fact that being a mother is the greatest privilege and responsibility anybody can ever have. We all went and ate at Pop and Mama's house and hung out most of the day. Michael also surprised me with a sweet card and a fern.
  
      Instead of trying to post a bunch of  baby shower pictures on here I will post just a few and then a link to where you can go to see more.

Click HERE to see more Baby Shower pictures. :)

 

Mama opening cards and gifts.

My fern from Michael.:) :)

 

Easter Pictures & 23 Weeks

       We had a wonderful church service Sunday morning followed by an egg hunt for the kids and a pot-luck church dinner. There was plenty of amazing food and good fellowship. We had people in from all over the State of NC it was pretty amazing.:)

I loved how this looked for Easter!

 

23 Weeks :)

Kylie ~ 3 Months

     These pictures are just way to adorable for this Auntie not to post....I'm so sad she will probably be close to a year old by the time I get to meet her in person! I am dying to hold this bundle of pure sweetness.:) :) She is a very laid back baby {I'm not sure where she gets that from:)} and content with life in the slow lane.... :)

PS. And I told my sister if I ever have a girl, she was going to have to pass this outfit on to me....I think it is adorable!! :)

Graham

     Graham, my town, is what I would consider to be "small town", historical, and quaint. While it is surrounded by growing cities and towns, every shopping center or store you could ever dream of, it somehow has maintained its historical buildings, old town look, and small local business mentality.
     I never get tired of driving around the Court House Square in the middle of town or down Main St. and seeing all the little local shops that fill the historic building... there's soda shops, a hard wear store, old theater, little specialty shops and consignment stores, lawyer offices, barber shop, flower shop, furnature store, banks, bakeries, and several churches. {At Christmas the town has some of the prettiest lights ever!}
     It was one of those little businesses on Main St. that gave me the idea for this post..... This past Wednesday ,the main local barber, Mr. Woods, died at 101. He had been cutting hair full time since 1953. He worked every day up until last August right before his 101 birthday. Everybody knew him and it was very common for people just to stop by just listen to him tell his stories...You can read the article in the local paper about him Here .
     I wanted to post several pictures of Graham, most of them are of Main St. and the Court Square. {I did not take any of these pictures:)}

Part of the Town Square, the Court House is to the left of this picture.

One of the Main St Shops.

One of the several churches on Main St.

A local bank.

 

The Court House.

 

 

 

 

This little shop is slightly off the main path so to speak but it is a local, family run business that has been around for years and has the best milk shakes ever!! :)

 

One thing you got to appreciate about the south is their love for football.... Even in high school people are so passionate about it. Graham has two high schools in town, and depending on where you might happen to be on a fall Friday night you can hear the crowds cheering. :)

 

Love my little town but also the conviniece of major shoping centers and cities nearby.... :)

Who Will Be Jesus To Them?

     Lately it seems like God has brought so many completely broken people into our lives and across our church's pathway..... Some of them used to attend, but have gone out and lived the roughest lives possible and now are on their death bed, turning to us for help. Others we never met but God used our church through the DVD ministry to reach them before they died. Some of the people have been going through some of the most horrific pain possible...
    So often in our humanity we want to pick and choose who we minister too, or who we think will be open to the Gospel, but that is not what Jesus taught us. We don't want to reach out to the ones who society would label as bums, outcasts, the ones who don't smell good..... It's not easy to walk into their home, a hospital room, or funeral home full of those people,  but Jesus would.....
     I don't use my blog to "preach at others" or  to "sound super spiritual", because those are not my intentions, but going through this "phase of life" or "time of growth", whatever you want to call it, has been an eye opener to both Michael and I, and I think for most of our church as well.... This song has been one I have been listening to often { not this exact version but it was the only one I could find on YouTube } and I wanted to share it on here.