A Tour of our New Home

David and I closed on the purchase of our second home on August 30th. The process was delightfully painless, but the moving experience was a whole different story. Though the friends and family that helped out were excellent, the move was sandwiched between two major trips not to mention we moved from a 4,000 square foot rental to about 1750 square feet in our new home. Believe me, I am NOT complaining about the size of our new home. It really is perfect for us. We just got used to the space-especially the closet space-of the rental. After we returned from our second trip, I felt like the boxes would be with us forever. Fortunately, we have settled in nicely, and the boxes that have been unopened have made their way to the basement, so I don't have to look at them!

I really LOVE our new home. After the initial stress of the move/unpacking, I have a peace and thankfulness about the home that the Lord provided for us. He really did orchestrate the whole plan perfectly as He always does. This home was meant to be our first home in Seneca.

Here it is:

Our home was built in 1964. A Furman professor and his family lived here until 2 years ago. The house was abandoned until our friends from church purchased it, gutted it, renovated it and sold it to us! Please note that since my last home, I have changed my decorating taste a bit. I don't plan on keeping the walls bare forever, but I didn't want to wait until I finished decorating to post the pics!

When you walk in the front door, you enter the living room. I am proud of the Karastan rug on the floor that retails for at least $2,000. My mother-in-law purchased it for us as a house warming gift for $65 at a yard sale!

You head out of the living room into the kitchen. Everything in the kitchen is new! They did a nice job with it.

We do not have a dining room, but are thankful for our large eat in kitchen.

The original owner added this den on to the back of the house. I LOVE it! We have no plans for this room. Right now, we use it for what we need it for...toys!

All of the bedrooms/bathrooms are down one hallway. We haven't painted yet, but I am thankful that the neutral colors work for now.

The guest bathroom

The guest bedroom

The boys room. There are no decorations because we will be removing the crib and double bed soon for a trundle bed. I figured I would wait to decorate until after I did some rearranging.

Though I haven't decorated our room yet, I am super proud of my new bedspread. I wanted simple and clean.

Here is the backyard. Though we are far from finishing this project, it has come a long way. There was NO grass three weeks ago. David has been tending to his "baby" diligently. I look forward to using this part of our home.

The basement is a basement right now, so no pics needed!

There it is! We pray that when people come into our home they feel loved and welcomed. Thank you Lord for your provision.

Hello Blog World! Have You Forgotten Me?

So, I know in past posts I have commented on my lack of posting due to busyness. Well people, I haven't known busy until the last couple months of my life. So, I thought I would catch you up with our family's goings on in a collection of declarative/exclamatory sentences.

1. We have had magnificent vacations in the month of August and September, but we are SO glad to be home.

2. The last vacation was to the beach to celebrate my mom's birthday, and thanks to mom, Aunt Jane and Abatha, it was so relaxing.

3. On August 30th, David and I purchased a home in Seneca, SC! It is amazing how good it feels to feel completely settled in our present season.

4. My foot has been broken for about 3 and 1/2 months now, so on October 27th, I will have surgery on my foot. This surgery will hopefully fix the bunion (which caused the break).

5. I may be in a cast for 6 weeks. That means all baths and no driving!

6. My arthritis seems to be "spreading" to my right hand, so after the surgery, I will be starting a drug to help keep my symptoms at bay.

7. Church is awesome! I will be starting up the Mom 'n Tots group in the next month or so. I am excited about the possibilities of this ministry, but also a bit anxious about how to help it become successful.

8. Gavin is a mess. He loves to sing "Baby" by Justin Beiber. He is addicted to juice and could play the guitar all day.

9. The boys share a room in our new house. Every one out of two nights is a disaster. I hope to increase our success rate soon.

10. Noah can write his own name and loves to color. He definitely enjoys playing outside and going to his class at Community Bible Study. He doesn't like to take naps. I have a battle everyday.

Hopefully I will add some pictures again some day...when I find my camera.

On the road again to St. Louis

Three days after we returned from Alaska the boys, mom and I packed up the car and headed to St. Louis. As always, we had a great trip. The boys get along so well and Scott and Abatha are the BEST hosts!

We spent time at the park,

played with Buzz Lightyear,

cooled off in the fountains,

went through about 50 sparklers, (Yes, that is my son holding something on fire! We thought the day would never come!)

and played dress-up!

WE LOVE FAMILY!

Alaska Part Two

Juneau was our second stop on the trip. We spent our time exploring beautiful Glacier Gardens and the Mendenhall Glacier. Glacier Gardens is located inside a national rainforest.

The flowers that they grow in this place are amazing. Everything was so green and lush. These are actually trees flipped upside down and flowers planted in the roots.

I wonder how much these hanging baskets would cost at Lowe's?

I can see why many people get married here!

We then headed to the Mendenhall Glacier. This was my favorite stop of the entire trip. It was hard to comprehend that this "piece" of ice was formed back in the Ice Ages.

The turquoise color was magnificent!

Our next stop was Skagway. We were all pretty much exhausted, so we spent our time in Skagway enjoying the town and the fresh air.

David seemed to enjoy this picture taking point of view on our trip.

It was a quaint little town with breathtaking scenery.

And of course, we ate!

We spent the next two days at sea. It was so nice to rest, read and...eat! The boat provided great entertainment and lots of things to do. I was so relaxed I have very few photos documenting these days. Here are a couple of me and the hubby all dressed up.

I loved our pizza makers!

We ended our port stops in Victoria, British Columbia. It was a short visit (4 hours), so we toured what we could. It is another beautiful place! Here is Parliament.

It cost a mere $360 a night to stay at the Empress Hotel.

Because of the rain they get, their flowers are BEAUTIFUL. David kept making us sit down in the flowers for pictures.

Victoria at night

On our last night, David went out with a bang and won the Princess Pop Star Idol!

What a great trip! I will be forever thankful to Gary and Rhonda for this opportunity. It so amazing to see God's beauty and majesty outside your everyday surroundings. He is so great and so mighty!

How lovely is your dwelling place, oh Lord Almighty!

Alaska Part One

Our trip to Alaska was absolutely amazing. It was so majestic and pure. I am going to attempt to trim down the trip to a few pictures. I will post as many as possible on FB in the next couple of weeks. Here it goes...

We began our journey in Seattle. What a great place!

On Sunday, we boarded our ship,

and the eating began!

We spent our first day at sea exploring the ship and...eating!

Our first formal night. Isn't my hubby handsome?!

Ketchikan was our first stop.

We saw totem poles, eagles and lots of salmon. This city also provided the best clam chowder I have ever had! Am I still talking about the food?

The next morning our boat did some scenic cruising through Tracy Arm. Here we saw beautiful mountains and a huge glacier. It was almost hard to believe you were looking at something real. This glacier was absolutely amazing! If you look in the middle of the picture, you can actually see a part of the glacier making its way into the water.

*Okay, that is only half of the trip, and I am running out of time, so I will post on the 2nd half by the end of the week! Hope you've enjoyed!

Alaska Post Coming Soon

David and I returned from our wonderful Alaskan cruise on Sunday. We had a magnificent time and took thousands (literally) of pictures. The boys, mom and I are headed to St. Louis on Wednesday, so my turn-around time for uploading pictures is a bit too short. Be on the look out next week...