On Friday, our girls enjoyed a fun day in the park with Grandma and Grandpa M., Uncle Troy, and their three cousins, Brooke, Cassidy, and Bradyn.  This is the 3rd year in a row we've found a day in July for them to play in this park and take some pictures.  Grandma and Grandpa brought a yummy picnic lunch for us all.  Thankfully, the weather cooperated and we had perfect temps and not too much humidity. 

 

Then on Saturday, we went to a wedding and reception near where my parents live.  Jeff was the pianist for the wedding, and I sat in the back row with the girls.  I was very surprised (more like shocked) that Lucy was quiet for the whole thing and I didn't have to take her out!  Ella had a ball dancing at the reception, and Lucy loved the balloons and the bubbles.

 

Now this week, we've been spending our time at Outrigger Island.  For those who don't know where that is, check back next week!

 

House Update:  We now have every room except Ella's and the kitchen done, complete with pictures on the wall!  Only 8 days til Jeff goes back to school :(, so we have motivation!

When we moved, we were given money as a very generous house-warming gift to buy a new mattress.  It was about time we made the change.  Jeff checked the tag on the old mattress and it was manufactured in May of 1978!  Literally 30 years old!  (We don't think the sales people really believed us.)  After shopping around and lying down on many mattresses, we chose the Simmons Back Care mattress from Mark's Mattress Outlet.  It was delivered on Thursday.  The biggest thing we noticed was how TALL it was!  With the pillows on our bed, you can't even see the headboard anymore!  Our former mattress was handed down to me from my grandmother when I got my first apartment in 1999.  It has always been well taken care of and was in great shape for its age, but the new one is so much softer.  We've really been enjoying it!

 

This weekend was also the culmination of Jeff's summer job.  He has spent the last seven weeks working 4-5 nights a week for 4-6 hours a night as the accompanist for a local production of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat."  There were four performances (Thu-Sun) and huge crowds!  We went to see it at the dress rehearsal on Wednesday night and then again on Friday night.  It was absolutely incredible.  I wish I had pictures and words to describe what a fantastic show it was, but pictures were "strictly prohibited."  I did manage to get one after the show of Jeff in his costume.  Even the orchstra wore biblical costumes!  This has been a great way for Jeff to earn money using his musical abilities and to network with other musicicians in the area, but we are very glad to have him home with us in the evenings again.  Only two weeks left til school starts. :(

 

House update:  We have 5 pictures on the wall!  There are still many more to go, but each one we get up without having a fight is an accomplishment!  For some reason, hanging pictures is a very stressful process for us and we have always joked that it's the closest we come to divorce.  Our master bedroom and bathroom are all done now!

We are still busy unpacking and setting up our new house, but I wanted to take the time to post pictures from the past few weeks before I get any more behind!

 

Most of the pictures are explained in their captions, but there are a few events I should describe.

 

1.  There are several pictures of our wonderful family members helping to paint and clean our new house during those crazy 5 days!  Of course, there are no pictures of me, but believe me, I did my share!  Unfortunately, I also didn't get a picture of our friend, Ann, who came one day to help me put up the border in Ella's room and paint.  We greatly appreciated all the hard work, time, and money spent on us during this move.  We could not have done it (this time or any other) without all their help!  We are so blessed!

 

2.  Before that "work week," we got several free tickets to see the local minor league baseball team play.  The game was Wednesday night during our week of house prep.  Wednesday was the day we found out about our moving day being moved up two weeks!  Consequently, I was a bit stressed to take time off from the house and packing to go to a ballgame at that point, but we did it as planned, and it was a nice break for everyone.

 

3.  This past weekend, the girls and I got to see my niece, Brooke, in a community production of "Back to the 80's."  She did great!  Then on Saturday, Jeff picked us up at my parents' house and we drove to his grandmother's 80th birthday celebration and stayed with his parents til Sunday afternoon.  It was a busy weekend, but it was kind of nice to leave all the boxes behind and get away for a few days.

 

I am hopeful that we will have everything unpacked and pictures on the walls before Jeff goes back to school (which really isn't that long!).  I'll be sure to post pictures when it's all done!

Well, we did it!  With God's help, as well as the help of our wonderful families, we moved to our new house.  We are loving it.  We continue to be amazed at how God provided a way to buy this house and now here we are living in it!  It is all freshly painted and cleaned and we are so much farther along in the unpacking process than we were at this point after last summer's move.  We are even parking one vehicle in the garage already (and that didn't happen for a month last year!).  We've been joking that this was our version of Extreme Makeover-Home Edition.  We totally redid a house, packed up our old house, and moved in 5 days!  (And we thought 9 days to a new state was crazy last year!)

 

After initially being told that DSL was not offered in our area, somebody from at&t came out today and got us hooked up, so our internet withdrawal has happily come to an end.  It was probably for the best that we didn't have that distraction these first few days anyway. 

 

I have several pictures to post once I finally get them onto our computer, and I will also post pics of our new house once we get done unpacking, hanging pictures on the wall, etc.  Thank you to all of you who prayed for our move.  It all went very smoothly and the girls have had the smooth transition we were praying for.

I'm sorry I haven't been able to post anything this week, and it looks like it may be a while before I do!  Our planned moving date of July 18 was moved up yesterday to July 5!!  That's right, this Saturday!  So we're working like mad to finish painting and cleaning our new house (we just got possession on Monday) and do whatever packing we can before Saturday when our world COMPLETELY turns upside down!  (Somehow, this is all very reminiscent of a year ago!)  Please pray for a smooth move for our family and a pleasant transition for the girls.  God's timing is usually different than our own, but His is always better!  I'll post more when I can.