Update Part #1 (Long Post)

So it's finally here, the update you've been waiting 3 months for! For those of you we weren't able to visit with over the holidays, here are some long awaited pictures of the new house.

This is the view driving up to the neighborhood. Gotta hate that right:)

Mi Casa

The kitchen

Great room - You can't see it in this picture, but there is a built in entertainment center with a 6 foot opening for the TV that we will be modifying very soon. The people we bought the house from actually had a rear projector screen tv stuffed in that opening. Weird...

The dining room before and after pictures. It is now blue, after painting it 4 times (it's a long story). This is also the DR table Jeff is building. I told him if he built the table I didn't wait to wait 6 months for it to be finished. I think we're going on month 3 ~ BTW - the people before us had very 90's taste. Maroon and hunter green.

The Man Cave aka Office

If you ever come and visit, this is where we'll put you up. Our main guest bedroom complete with its own private bath.

Backyard and patio

Master Bath - and yes the wallpaper is coming down.

So those are the highlights. The best part of the house is that directly under our obnoxiously high roof is 1500 of prime real estate waiting to be built out. We won't need the space for some time, but it's nice to know it's available nonetheless.

We had a wonderful but busy christmas split between MS and LA. We had christmas eve dinner at our house, dessert at Lana's house and Christmas morning brunch at mom's house. It was kind of odd not staying the night at my parent's house christmas eve like we have every other year, but we're just so glad to be here it didn't really matter.

Jeff and I exchanged gifts christmas eve. I gave him some tools he wanted, and he gave me the best and possibly my favorite christmas gift EVER. Drumroll please.......the complete collectors edition of the XFiles. All 9 seasons (170+ episodes) plus the first (and only one worth watching) movie. So guess what we've been doing every night since christmas:) For those of you who don't already know, I was a HUGE XFiles fan in high school...and am discovering my passion for the series really hasn't waned much (unlike some people's ahem Michael). Thank you wonderful husband for a wonderful christmas gift I will be enjoying for months to come.

Early Saturday morning we made our way over to DeRidder for Christmas with the Smiths. Some highlights of the visit were:

1. Visiting with our 5 nieces and nephews and learning another is on the way.
2. Earning myself the "Favorite Niece" title from my Uncle-in-Law Matt. To celebrate I cooked him a Chess pie - now known as Cuss Pie after a slight miscommunication.
3. Watched in shock and awe as my husband charged a charging mother cow. Ladies - there is not much sexier than seeing your husband in carharts charging a cow - especially when the cow turns around and hightails away. Little did I know that if a cow charges you (unless it's a bull), you're not supposed to run away. Good thing I was on the other side of the fence.

Here are some pictures...

My sexy cowboy

One of the 2 calves that was born while we were in. Both of them had to be "taught" how to suckle. Guess that doesn't happen very often, but it was neat watching my father-in-law working with the calves - until mama cow freaked out because she didn't like the way we smelled.

Cowgirl wannabe Courtney trying to coax the calf to return to her mama just around the corner. And no I did not intend to be playing with the cows when I dressed that morning, hence the fru fru vest (Jeff's description).

We spent a lot of time this visit playing games. Our new favorite is Quiddler - a mix between rummy and scrabble. Very fun for any gamers out there.

My beautiful nephew - look at those eyes

Jeff and his older (and taller) brother Eric, and me, my sister-in law, Ben and one of the twins.

Waiting for us when we drove back from LA on Wednesday were our good friends Brian and Gina in to ring in the New Year with us. What a treat having them in town was, and they were officially our first overnight guests in our new house.

New Year's night we went down to Vicksburg for an amazing meal at Rusty's on the river. We strolled around town while waiting for a table, and nearly froze our tails off.

Gina really liked these nightgowns. It took quite some effort on my part to convince her it wasn't worth driving back before they left (when the store was open) to purchase one when I was sure one of my grandmothers could hook her up:)

We hit the casinos for a little while before heading home for the evening, and were sorely disappointed with the lack of festivities for the new year. Jeff did win $18 in a slot machine, then promptly lost it all.

New Year's Day we took the McVicker's to one of my families farms to play on the heavy equipment. Dad was nice enough to crank up the backhoe and our little red tractor. I think Brian really enjoyed himself...

Me and dad. He eventually wants to build a house at the farm in the spot directly behind us in the picture. What a view!

My parents and adorable niece Paige.

Me and my cowboy.

Before Gina and Brian headed back to town, we stopped for lunch at the Cock-of the Walk for the best fried catfish in town. Here were are freezing (again) and taking pictures on the dock. We'd been hiking earlier that morning - thus the casual attire.

Happy 2009 to all of our friends and family! I'll post more pictures later of our recent visit to Atlanta.

Merry Christmas!

And a Happy New Year. I promise I will update with PICTURES (Lisa and Suzanna:) after the holidays. We cannot find our camera battery, so we haven't taken any since Thanksgiving because our camera is DEAD.

We have a busy month ahead of us. We're spending Christmas Day with my family here in MS, then heading to LA the 27th for Christmas with the Smiths. Our good friends Brian and Gina are scheduled to come over for New Year's, so we're hoping that works out! January 10th we're headed to Atlanta (if I haven't talked to you about this yet, I will...we just solidified our plans a few days ago) and then the following weekend Jeff's parent's are coming to visit.

A very Merry Christmas to everyone!

Update

In the past three months...
- We packed up 5 years of marriage in Atlanta in one weekend (thanks to our amazing ATL friends) and moved to Mississippi
- Closed on our house in Atlanta (after listing for just over a month)
- Jeff was offered (and accepted) a transfer position with Wachovia
- I started my new job with UMMC
- We survived 2.5 months living in the bonus room over my parent's garage (I say this jokingly, but in all honestly can't imagine how it could have gone better than it did)
- I helped partially clean my first wild turkey
- Bailey licked even more of his fur off
- Allie has become an escape artist, along with her partner's in crime Maggie and McKinley (my mom's dogs)
- We looked at almost 60 houses in Rankin County
- Jeff now enjoys hunting (most of the time)

In the past three weeks....
- We closed on our new house in Mississippi
- Painted the 2 story dining room in the house 2x, along with most of the other rooms in the house
- Jeff decided to build our dining room table
- Have been lucky to get 6 hours of sleep each night

In the past three days....
- Painted the dining room for the 3rd (and final) time
- Moved 15 full truckloads of stuff out of storage and into the new house (thanks to the help our awesome new Sunday school class)
- Moved 2 full truckloads from my parent's house to the new house (don't ask me where we had everything stored - I have no idea)
- Have gotten much less than 6 hours of sleep each night

In the next three days
- We'll be on our way to LA to spend most of the Thanksgiving holiday with Jeff's family, and will be staying at his parent's 3BR/2BA house with a total of 20 other people. Yep, you heard me right, 20 people, 10 of which are under the age of 5. I don't think I can even imagine having that many people in my house for more than a few hours, and we'll be there for 3 days.
- Probably won't be getting much sleep again

Sorry it's been so long since my last post, but we still don't have a computer of our own. Plus we've been so busy the past three weeks I'm not sure I'd have had time to write anyway - although I try to get on and check everyone else's blogs at least once a week.

Although we're physically exhausted right now, we love our new house and neighborhood and feel tremendously blessed to have had the love and support of many old and new friends and our families during this crazy transition. We couldn't have done it without you guys!

I'll post pictures as soon as I can.

Do Facts Matter??

I copied this post from a fellow blogger because it sums up many of my current frustrations with the current political trend. My husband works for a bank, and we've been stewing over these same issues for months now. Why isn't anyone reporting about this??

For those of you who don't know, Thomas Sowell is black. "Thomas Sowell was born in North Carolina and grew up in Harlem . As with many others in his neighborhood, he left home early and did not finish high school. The next few years were difficult ones, but eventually he joined the Marine Corps and became a photographer in the Korean War. After leaving the service, Sowell entered Harvard University , worked a part-time job as a photographer and studied the science that would become his passion and profession: economics. After graduating magna cum laude from Harvard University (1958), he went on to receive his master's in economics from Columbia University (1959) and a doctorate in economics from the University of Chicago (1968)."

Do Facts Matter?
Thomas Sowell
Friday, October 03, 2008

Abraham Lincoln said, "You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you can't fool all the people all the time."
Unfortunately, the future of this country, as well as the fate of the Western world, depends on how many people can be fooled on election day, just a few weeks from now.
Right now, the polls indicate that a whole lot of the people are being fooled a whole lot of the time.

The current financial bailout crisis has propelled Barack Obama back into a substantial lead over John McCain-- which is astonishing in view of which man and which party has had the most to do with bringing on this crisis.

It raises the question: Do facts matter? Or is Obama's rhetoric and the media's spin enough to make facts irrelevant?

Fact Number One: It was liberal Democrats, led by Senator Christopher Dodd and Congressman Barney Frank, who for years-- including the present year-- denied that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were taking big risks that could lead to a financial crisis.

It was Senator Dodd, Congressman Frank and other liberal Democrats who for years refused requests from the Bush administration to set up an agency to regulate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

It was liberal Democrats, again led by Dodd and Frank, who for years pushed for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to go even further in promoting subprime mortgage loans, which are at the heart of today's financial crisis.

Alan Greenspan warned them four years ago. So did the Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers to the President. So did Bush's Secretary of the Treasury, five years ago.

Yet, today, what are we hearing? That it was the Bush administration "right-wing ideology" of "de-regulation" that set the stage for the financial crisis. Do facts matter?

We also hear that it is the free market that is to blame. But the facts show that it was the government that pressured financial institutions in general to lend to subprime borrowers, with such things as the Community Reinvestment Act and, later, threats of legal action by then Attorney General Janet Reno if the feds did not like the statistics on who was getting loans and who wasn't.

Is that the free market? Or do facts not matter?

Then there is the question of being against the "greed" of CEOs and for "the people." Franklin Raines made $90 million while he was head of Fannie Mae and mismanaging that institution into crisis.Who in Congress defended Franklin Raines? Liberal Democrats, including Maxine Waters and the Congressional Black Caucus, at least one of whom referred to the "lynching" of Raines, as if it was racist to hold him to the same standard as white CEOs.Even after he was deposed as head of Fannie Mae, Franklin Raines was consulted this year by the Obama campaign for his advice on housing!

The Washington Post criticized the McCain campaign for calling Raines an adviser to Obama, even though that fact was reported in the Washington Post itself on July 16th. The technicality and the spin here is that Raines is not officially listed as an adviser. But someone who advises is an adviser, whether or not his name appears on a letterhead.The tie between Barack Obama and Franklin Raines is not all one-way. Obama has been the second-largest recipient of Fannie Mae's financial contributions, right after Senator Christopher Dodd.

But ties between Obama and Raines? Not if you read the mainstream media.

Facts don't matter much politically if they are not reported.

The media alone are not alone in keeping the facts from the public. Republicans, for reasons unknown, don't seem to know what it is to counter-attack. They deserve to lose. But the country does not deserve to be put in the hands of a glib and cocky know-it-all, who has accomplished absolutely nothing beyond the advancement of his own career with rhetoric, and who has for years allied himself with a succession of people who have openly expressed their hatred of America.
Copyright © 2008 Salem Web Network. All Rights Reserved.

Brief Update

I'm blogging from work again, so this is going to be brief. But I wanted to fill everyone in on our life as of late.

First of all, we made a frantic trip back to Atlanta the week of the 20th to pack all of our stuff. I can't even imagine what we would have done without the help of our amazing friends. A HUGE thank you to Gina, Brian, Julie, Todd, Alison, Steven, Christy, Gary, Rob, Devon and Danielle for helping us pack and load all of our crap in the 27 foot moving van Saturday. Even though we sold our sectional, ottoman and dining room table and 8 chairs, we still barely fit everything in the van. And another thank you to Danielle for volunteering to clean our dirty house from top to bottom after we left - heaven knows how late we would have been pulling out Sunday if I'd had to clean. We were late enough getting in as it was. And thank you to Mimi and Pawpaw for lunch Saturday, what a treat! Whew I hope I didn't miss anyone!

Monday night, with the help of my parents, brother Curtis, his friend Beau and Lana and Eddie, we unloaded into a storage unit here in MS - again barely squeezing it all in. I mean where did all of this junk come from? I thought I cleaned out before we moved the last time??!!

Friday the 28th (I think) Jeff took a solo trip to ATL to close on the house. I had to give him POA because I can't take time off from work just yet. He came back on Saturday with a big smile and small check in his pocket. It definitely wasn't as much as we'd hoped to make off of the house, but we're not complaining in this market. We were lucky the loan went through at all, evidentally the guy had a LOT of money in collections he had to pay off at the closing table, which explains why he had no cash to put down. We also found out he's looked at 200+ houses before deciding on ours, so that made us feel pretty good about the sale.

I guess you've all heard by now that Citibank bought Wachovia today, which means an uncertain job future for Jeff right now. Please keep us in our prayers as we navigate these difficult times - although I am very aware that an uncertain job future if very minor in comparison to what so many other Americans are facing right now. This doesn't mean he's going to lose his job, at least not yet, but his banking future has definitely become much murkier. I have to admit that as much as I miss our GA friends, I've been counting my blessings everyday that we're in MS and not GA right now. Today we both have jobs, we have a (free) roof over our heads and a wonderful family to come home to everyday. We are truly blessed.

I still can't believe....

Our house appraised for at least 249,900 and we're going to close end of this month. I've said all along that God's had His hand in this move, and the news we received on the appraisal today proves my point. The appraiser can't tell us what the exact value came back as, but my agent spoke to him and he said we have nothing to worry about, and that he went ahead and sent everything to the bank. The comps in our area are pretty low, I'm talking 230's even, so I was shocked we got all that we did. Did I mention before that I can't believe it appraised! I've been on pins and needles since the appraisal Monday. Last week was the inspection, but I guess the guy was okay with everything because we haven't heard any fallout from that.

I'm writing from work, so have to make this brief, but this is our official notice that we will be coming into town next weekend (20 and 21), so if anyone is available to help us move we'd be greatly obliged. I'll send out an evite tomorrow to get a headcount - we'll have food and hopefully make it as fun as packing can be. We will be pulling in late Friday night, and will probably spend most of Sat. morning/early afternoon boxing up stuff, then moving all the furniture later that afternoon when it cools off a bit. I hope we can get most everything out Saturday so we can clean and patch walls Sunday before we leave.

Thanks for all of your prayers, love and support during this crazy, chaotic time. You guys are amazing!

We're Here

But we don't have Internet at my parents, so this will be a short post. We also have misplaced our camera, so no pictures.

We ended up heading to MS a day later than intended, but it worked out perfectly because we got to sign the contract on the house as we were pulling out. It took us a little over 7.5 hours to get here - we had to stop several times to check on/resecure the load on the truck. I wish I'd had my camera - we started the trip with the entire back end covered in visquine - in case it rained, but by the time we pulled in there were literally just shreds hanging off. It was pretty funny looking, but since it didn't rain it didn't really matter.

Both Allie and Bailey made the trip like champs. I was really amazed at Bailey - he didn't make a peep the entire trip. I gave him a sedative from the vet, but everytime I checked on him he was awake. I guess he was just really happy we didn't leave him behind.

My parents made the room over the garage very cozy for us, but we're definitely looking forward to getting into our own place once our house in ATL sells.

Please say a prayer for us, as we both start our new jobs tomorrow. The nice thing is we'll both be working downtown, so we may get to carpool some.

That's all for now! And it's pretty nasty outside right now due to Gustavo, but not as bad as we'd anticipated. I don't think the wind gusts have bene over 25mph thus far.

Our Last Post

From Atlanta, Georgia. Tomorrow we pack it up and head to Brandon, Mississippi, where we'll start our new life close to my family and closer to Jeff's. It is a moment we have been planning for for many months, but still doesn't seem quite real. Our house still looks the same - we're only taking what we need this trip. It almost feels like we're headed on an extended vacation, and not moving for good.

I have to share that any reservations or second thoughts I had about this move evaporated this week. Many of you know that we took a huge leap of faith with this move, going into it 4 months ago without a job for Jeff, or any certainty we would sell the house quickly. Amazingly, in the past 2 days, Jeff was presented with, and accepted, a great offer from Wachovia to work in Jackson and we also accepted an offer on the house. It almost seems to good to be true. I realize the house deal is still in the early stages, and could easily fall through, but I still had to speak to God's amazing faithfulness in all of this. For months we have been waiting, and waiting, and waiting, for everything to line up and confirm to us that we were making the right decision. I guess God wanted to make sure we were really serious about everything because He waited until we both quite our job to fill us in on the rest of the plan:) Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining at all, it just never ceases to amaze me how He works, and how I just need to stop worrying and get out of the way and let Him do His work. What a great God we serve!

I've mentioned before that the hardest part about leaving Atlanta is leaving our dear friends behind. Two weeks ago three of our closest couple friends threw us a beautiful farewell party. It was the perfect send off and a great way to celebrate 5 years in Atlanta. Here are a few pictures from the day. I didn't get shots of everyone, but these cover a lot of ground.

What a great sign - thanks Brian!

Boy I'll miss that smile!

Lots of laughs with these two...

Thank you Gina, Brian, Julie, Todd, Mike and Suzanna for a beautiful evening we will never forget!!

A little over a week later, my coworkers threw me a center wide farwell party (the one from a few weeks ago was just our department). It was also a great send-off.

My wonderful coworkers and friends...

The amazing Alana Shepherd of Shepherd Center

To top it all off, a bunch of my coworkers chipped in and bought me a very generous Ann Taylor Gift card to buy some new clothes for my new job. What a treat that will be!

This was also a special month because we celebrated our 5 year anniversary. For those of you who know our story, you know that it is by the grace of God that we are still together today. Although the past 2 years have been great, our first 3 were far from that. Looking back, I can see and appreciate why things happened the way that they did, even though it was hell at the time. But the important thing is we are still together and going strong today, and I feel very lucky to be married to such an amazing man. He even planned a special night for our anniversary up at Glenn Ella Springs - a quaint little bed and breakfast 2 hours north of Atlanta down this dusty old dirt road (literally). It was a beautiful evening. '

Goofing around in the room - there are no tvs up there.

The view from the balcony outside our room.

The restaurant/inn

To top it all off, we wrapped up the trip with a 2 hour horseback ride through the north georgia mountains. I love horseback riding, and I love my husband even more for putting up with it to just for me. We did get a little scare though. On the way down one of the steeper inclines, Jeff realized his saddle wasn't cinched down when is slipped up over his horses' neck. She (the horse) danced around a bit, something I would have done to with 250 pounds hanging around my neck. Fortunately, Jeff was able to get his feet out of the stirrups and roll to the ground relatively quickly. He was a little sore after that, but thankfully not hurt, and like a good cowboy got right back on (after the saddle was tightened) and kept going. Way to go, cowboy!

This past weekend my friend Julie and I hit Whitewater - something I've been wanting to do for years. We had a great time, although I believe they've added one more ride since the last time I went, back in 1996. Here's our one picture from the day. It was a little chilly and windy, but the crowds were small so we weren't complaining.

In summay, it's been a wonderful and memorable 2 weeks. We will miss everyone dearly, but will hopefully be back mid September with the Uhaul, and see some of you again then. I will most likely have sporradic posts between now and the time we get a house in MS, as my parents don't have internet (I know, I know..). But I'll try to keep you all updated on what's going on, I just may not have many pictures.

Much love to all!

Two Weeks

To pack up 5 years in Atlanta. It doesn't seem like very much time, but in reality will probably end up being about 2 days, as I have a tendency to procrastinate when it comes to moving. I just can't stand the sight of an empty, boxed house, so I know I'll put it off as long as possible - just like I've done for our other 3 moves. This one is a bit unconventional because we won't be taking our furniture with us - that stays until we sell the house because 1. Houses show better with stuff in them and 2. We'll be living with my parents until we sell, so we don't have anywhere to put anything anyway. The good news is we're guaranteed back sometime in the next 6 months (hopefully sooner) to pack up the moving truck. But we still need to get the garage in order (yikes!), clothes boxes and the kitchen packed up before we leave. And those of you who've seen our house know that the garage alone will take at least a day.

I've spent a lot of time over the past three months pondering our decision to move, and whether or not it was the right choice. We possibly picked the WORST time in 20 years to sell our house, and Jeff finding a job in banking is not going to be any piece of cake either. But even though things aren't falling as quickly into place as we'd hoped, somehow I still have this unwavering peace in my heart that MS is where God is leading us. Don't get me wrong, leaving our life here is not going to be easy. You can expect many tears between now and the end of the month, so just get ready. But aside from the normal fears about starting a new job, I'm surprisingly calm about the whole ordeal, which is very unusual for me.

It all started about a year ago, when we both started to experience this growing desire to be closer to family - a far cry from the "We're never moving anywhere close to MS or LA" motto we had a few years ago. So we decided we'd move after 5 years in the house, which would have been 2010. Makes much more sense, right? But that never really felt like a good plan to us, and earlier this year, while dining with some of our wise friends and mentors, they posed the simple question "Why are you waiting to move to MS if you know it's where you want to be?" Well we couldn't stop thinking about that question, and why they posed it. And WHY DID THEY, for crying out loud. It's one of the worst times in the century to move and find a job, aside from the Great Depression of course. But again we couldn't stop thinking about it, and once we started down that path we knew there was no going back. Then I got a job offer, and our minds were made up. MS here we come!! Yes, I'd feel a whole lot better if the house were sold or if Jeff had a job, but my parents have generously opened their home to us, so at least we don't have to worry about 2 house payments. It will all work out, I have complete faith of that. It just may not be how we'd envisioned it ourselves.

Looking back on our 5 years in Atlanta - I'm really pretty ambivalent about the city. It's hot as #@$$ here and the traffic is just as bad as they portray it. My daily commute is 45 minutes one way - typically an hour. That currently amounts to $80 a week in gas for the Volvo. Ouch. I do love where we live, but I've come to the conclusion that I'm just not really a city person. I love visiting the city, but I don't like spending a lot of money on food our entertainment, so that pretty much rules out most of Atlanta's activities. Give me a fun-filled evening at home with friends anytime. And oh our wonderful friends here - that's what's going to kill me to leave. When we first moved to Atlanta, we befriended 5 of the most amazing couples in our newlywed Sunday School Class that we've somehow managed to keep around for the past 5 years. These people know pretty much everything about us, and still love us anyway, which is pretty amazing if you know our story. For the past 5 years we've really done marriage together. And through these 5 couples we've met some other amazing couples that have just made our time here oh so fulfilling. We've also been blessed with great coworkers that are really great friends too, and some of the most amazing neighbors you could ask for. We are so blessed. And why are we leaving you ask?? Good question! Granted I do have some dear, dear college friends in MS that I can't wait to start hanging out with again, and Jeff has connected with some old college buddies in Jackson as well, but it will be a completely different experience because all of these people knew us before we were married. When we moved to Atlanta we knew no one, save my grandparents and their 70+ year old friends, so everyone who knows us here knows us as The Smith Couple, not just Courtney and Jeff who got married. And like I mentioned before many of these people know more about us than our families - all the blood, sweat and tears that come with trying to make a marriage work. I'll be perfectly honest in saying that I'm really nervous about moving back to a place where people don't know us as well as they think. I know God is going to use our marriage, and our testimony, in a great way in MS, but it's scary thinking about that right now. There is a certain level of vulnerability that comes with transparency, and we've been very lucky that we've been so graciously accepted, loved and not judged by our friends here. I hope there is never a day when our candidness pushes someone to say we don't want anything to do with you anymore, but I guess there's always that risk, even here. It just seems like much more of a possibility as we move out of our comfort zone.

Moving to Atlanta, away from everything and everyone we held dear, was possibly the best decision we ever made as a couple (even though the whole reason we moved never played out - to attend law school). For anyone out there thinking about getting married, I would highly recommend getting a few years under your belt in a new city where you really have to rely on God and the people you meet TOGETHER to get you through things. I don't think we'd be together today if we hadn't ended up here.

Ok enough of the sappiness for today. Since I haven't posted in weeks, here is a brief summary of what we've been up to.

#1 the house - surprise surprise. But the even bigger surprise is that we are finished - save just keeping things clean. We finished up a few porch final touches 2weeks ago.

Jeff hanging the final straps in the rafters (The brown metal pieces).

He also put a sharp looking toe board around the baseboard that matches the swing, and I finally got the grout on the tile sealed.

The first weekend of August was perhaps the busiest one we've had in years. Friday night we enjoyed a delicious meal and fun filled evening with friends Amy, Michael and Bryce. Amy always says she can't cook, but we've yet to have anything less than delicious at their place.

Saturday morning I had the pleasure of hosting a shower for my friend Lisa, wife of my friend and coworker Josh, in honor of the baby girl Lindsey they are expecting in October. It was a very fun girly morning.

Saturday afternoon we worked like madmen to get our house ready for our 1st open house Sunday, knowing we wouldn't have time to work on it that evening or much the next morning

Saturday night my boss hosted a lovely dinner at her house for myself and Jeff, my coworker Nancy and Lynzee (a coworker and honorary member of the Quality department) and her husband Alex. Sue, my boss, is quite the host, and she served more food than I've ever seen - all in honor of me and Jeff. It was a very special evening that I will never forget. I do love my coworkers!!

We didn't get home until after midnight from the dinner, and opted to go to bed and get up early Sunday morning to frantically clean for the open house. As usual, we didn't get up early enough, and barely made it to Dunwoody Baptist in time for Caroline's baby dedication. We were 10 minutes late, walked in during meet and greet, then sat down and she was dedicated. Whew - I would not have forgiven myself if we had missed it! God was certainly watching over us because I didn't get a ticket for driving 75mph down Roswell Road to get there, and normally the baby dedication is 1st on the agenda, but because of a baptism it was pushed back a little. And as an aside, it was a great sermon too - just what we needed to hear. Just as I was sitting there, looking at many of my friends gathered in one place and feeling sorry for myself because none of them would be with us for our baby dedications, the speaker got up and did an entire sermon on moving to Italy. And not just any move, he is a lawyer, his wife is a nurse practitioner, and in 2 weeks now they will be leaving everything and everyone they love and taking their 4 month old daughter they prayed for for 4 years with them to Italy to work with a ministry they feel God is leading them in to. So you see, our little move to MS to be closer to family seems very easy compared to what they will be facing in the next 6 months. Like I said, it was a great sermon and definitely gave me some good perspective on our situation.

And here I am with Madeline at the church. Me and her mom are the best of friends, and often meet for breakfast on Saturdays when Jeff works, but Madeline has been pretty ambivalent about me until lately.

We spent most of Sunday afternoon at the Trices, celebrating Caroline, but headed back to our place for dinner with our old neighbors, Jenny and Jason, that evening after our open house ended. Like I said, it was a very busy weekend.

This past weekend was our first free one in months, and I'll have to say we were a little at lost as to what to do with it. We ended up hiking Stone Mountain and enjoying the lasershow with our friend Karen Saturday, then had my grandparents and friends the McVickers over Sunday night for dinner.