handsful

But, I’m cramming it in anyway. As busy as we are, it’s gotta be done.

My dad turned 70 last week! Mom and Dad drove over to our place to celebrate…we hung out, showed them the house (they’d not seen it since moving day…) and garden, opened a few presents, and then went to a local place for a great southern-style lunch. We sent dad home with a slice of pecan sticky bun cheesecake from a nearby bakery. Hope he liked it! Happy Birthday, Dad :) Love you!

I’m keepin’ my eye on you, Granpa…

This has been a BIG week for our Lainey-girl! First, we discovered she had a loose tooth. She spent the next week or so wiggling and twisting, and sure enough yanked that puppy out a few days ago. She was rewarded with 4 quarters from the “daddy-fairy” (no toothfairy here…)

Last weekend, Lainey decided she was done with her training wheels and set out to learn to ride her two-wheeler. It’s not been easy, and she’s had a few frustrated tears for sure. But, she’s doing great and showing herself to be very persistent when she wants something. Marley has been a fabulous big sister-teacher.

Dylan watching the progress…imagine one day when HE rides a bike?!

A hard-working girl. We wrestled with that helmet…it was either too loose or too tight. And, you can see here that the tooth was still hanging on.

While she was learning to ride, Randy was beginning the fence for our garden. We went back and forth on this. Fence, no fence, fence, etc. In the end we decided to go for it and build one…better safe than sorry, I guess. He designed it himself (as is usual when he builds anything), and he’s doing it right. Payton and Ethan have been big helpers! I added another 2 rows of corn last night, while the guys got one side done, began another side, and started the framework for the gate. It’s a big job.

Yesterday, we called our neighbors to see if we could come and visit their donkeys. Yes, we’re in the country now. Mr. and Mrs. Fesperman are both 80 and the sweetest couple around. Just last Sunday, we were out in the backyard…we look up to see Mr. F driving down our yard in his golf cart. He was bringing over a whole bag of homemade mini pecan pies for us. Oh my gracious, they have been so yummy!!

So, Marley, Lainey, Dylan, and I headed across the street to have a little farm experience. Mr. F met us at the barn and drove us over to see his 4 “pet” donkeys.

Tom-Tom is the big white one…then there’s the family of daddy, mommy, and little baby. They came right over for head scratches and apple treats. Well, Tom-Tom stayed behind the fence and made a bunch of noise at us. The roosters crowed a lot (we regularly hear them at our house, they think the sun rises about every few minutes), and the cows pretty much ignored us. Mr. F used to run a very prosperous working farm, but now just keeps his animals for “fun” and for the tax breaks :)

Marley took a lot of the pictures in this post…thanks, girl.

You’re pretty much up to date on us, now…don’t you feel better now?

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.

Last Saturday was Abbey’s Sophomore prom

This is Abbey’s second year going, and she went by herself again. She was meeting up with several friends, so it was all good.

We snagged her dress from a consignment boutique here in town, and got it for a steal. Course, we then had to get it a little altered, but it was still less than the prices we were finding in stores. Yikes.

Honestly, this dress was just made for her. She’s stunning…

Went jewelry shopping on Saturday and found just the right pieces.

Some people just HAD to pose with her.

Including her goofy daddy. It’s a shame she doesn’t resemble him at all.

Abbey’s friend Kathryn came over to help her get ready. She tagged along with us to drop her off, (we were taking her home) and Abbey convinced her to join her in a shot.

Posing with one of her friends, Daniel. Her other friends were fashionably late and we weren’t able to get a group shot. She said she had a wonderful time, and couldn’t decide which she liked better…this year or last. She’s never been good at making decisions.

Can’t believe we’ll most likely have FOUR going to prom next year.

Wish I would have taken a “before” picture of it. Picture knee-deep weeds interspersed with taller, dead stalks of who-knows-what. Randy took his new (to him), beloved green tractor and mowed it all down. Then, we hooked up with a local homeschool dad who came with his big ‘ol tiller and turned it into this lovely patch of dirt.

We measured it tonight… 26′ wide x 110′ long. Gracious. The previous owners installed a sprinkler system specifically for the garden…we tested it out tonight. The heads need some tweaking, but Randy will get it working correctly.

Now, the question is…what do we plant? I have a couple of tomato plants already, 1 strawberry plant, and 1 bean plant. They were all started in pots. I’ll admit, other than having a fairly small garden years ago that consisted mainly of tomatoes, I’m a newbie here.

Other questions…how much space does each type of veggie need? What CAN I plant this time of year? What fertilizers (if any) do we use? How do I keep the weeds at bay? (other than lots of hands working to pull them) Do we jump in and fill the whole garden this year, or start small? I feel like googling “basics of veggie gardening” and printing everything I find.

Thankfully, we’re told that the local mom ‘n pop garden center just a mile or so from us will help a TON. I’m hoping they take mercy on us :)

*Diversion* While taking the garden pics, I managed to catch the mama bird flying out of her knot-hole nest. She works hard, flying in and out all day long. Wish we could peek inside to see those little guys! We can sure hear them.

So, any garden experts out there? I’d love your tips and advice on this new venture of ours! I’m excited (and nervous) about getting started…

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!

Lainey, in all her silliness, taken last night on the back deck.

She’d been growing it for a little while.

But, then Marley started working on her to cut it short again. Back to a “bob length”, that she had several years ago. She even went as far as BRIBING her with 5 bucks. We nipped that idea, and told Lainey that she should cut it only if SHE wanted to. And, to our surprise, she decided to go ahead with it. So, we were off to see Miss Donna…

And, there it goes…

Looking unsure

And, done!

She couldn’t stop giggling and dancing around when we left. She danced to the van, danced into the grocery, danced IN the grocery, etc. I think she decided she was pretty happy with her new do. We sure are. Can’t believe she could get even cuter than she already was :)

It’s that time of year again. The time to remember the sacrifice our Savior made for us, and to rejoice in the knowledge that He is, indeed, risen!

Not nearly as important as that, but not to be left out…it’s the time to gather at Gram and Pa-Paul’s house for the egg hunt extravaganza :)

21 total people, lots of eggs, even more silliness, great food. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday!

Ready, Set, Go!

This year, all our big kids were “hiders”, so we only had the two “finders”.

And, they worked it!

The big kids were helpers…big bro Ethan shakes down the egg from the tall branch. See it falling?

Gram’s egg hunts are involved…she has exactly the same number of eggs per kid, and puts a certain color/symbol on each egg. As the kids hunt, they dump their finds into big baskets. Then, we all gather inside to divide up the eggs. Here, Dylan is emptying his basket so he can head back out!

A lot of what goes on at Gram’s involves laughing. Being goofy. Randy and Tony have this part down pat.

And, one of the best parts is hanging out with our family.

Gram always does a scavenger hunt for the big kids…a series of clues that leads them running around until they find their giant, treat-filled eggs. Here, Payton reads the first clue.

All the kids. We were missing Samara, she was still back at college. Caleb wasn’t supposed to be there, but he surprised everyone when he walked in the door.

As usual, it was a fantastic day. Caleb brought 3 friends with him, and our good friend Amanda enjoyed the day with us, too. Sadly, I got no pictures of us with her! Oh well, we were having too much fun to worry with posing.

Thanks, Gram, for a wonderful day! We know you put tons of work into it :)

We got a very special package in the mail yesterday…

We told the guy at the door what it was, and he seemed genuinely excited for the little guy jumping up and down in the hallway.

Lightening McQueen was the choice this go-round. See that cool knee joint?!?

Getting all suited up…

Time for a test drive. Right now, he takes big steps and then kicks it to make the knee joint straighten again. As he gets used to it, this won’t be quite so clumsy. In the picture above, he’s still sticking it out to the side, as he’s gotten used to doing with his stationery knee.

And, here he is doing the kick-thing.

He was very excited about trying it, and gave it all he had.

But, by the afternoon he was getting scared of it, because he fell once or twice…and, it’s kind of a violent fall. So, he’s gone back to walking by swinging it to the side. We’re giving him some time. He fell today because he didn’t think it would bend, but it did. We’re hoping he’ll come to the conclusion that practicing with it bending might be a better idea.

The foot on his other leg. Amazing how a very-well made (but man-made) foot can look worn down like this after 8 months, when our intelligently created feet last a lifetime. Had to put that out there :)

Comparing feet. Oh, like you don’t do this at home…

He still wouldn’t bend it much today, but we encouraged him to a few times. It’ll take some time for him to warm up to this. But, he will.

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!