Where are you guys living? (Change of Address!)

"Everywhere and nowhere"is the best answer! Everyone we know has been asking, and we don't have a better answer just yet. We have been so fortunate that friends have allowed us places to stay while we have continued to search for our next home. We've bumped around here, there, and everywhere this summer. We've written up and submitted 4 offers on houses. We've had sellers decide they didn't actually want to sell, prices go UP on houses after we submitted offers, and we've been outbid. God apparently isn't ready for us to settle down into our next place just yet. In the meantime, we've stayed at the beach, at Homewood Suites, at our choir director's house, at some friends' downtown vacation condo so far. We'll move on to my mom's house, a Disney resort for a night, another hotel, and on to another friend's house for a few nights until we land in our rental home on Aug. 15. Our new temporary address will be 700 Emory Dr., same town and state, 27517. The house is just a hair (200sf) bigger than our old one we outgrew and just mile away from our old house, but we are renting it month to month and can still buy as soon as the right house comes up for sale. It'll be great to settle in and get ready for school to start. The rental house is in between both schools, so it'll be great to walk to them as much as possible. Michael keeps on saying it's been fun to stay in these nice homes but it'll be depressing when we finally do buy and our house is nowhere near as nice! We look forward to moving in soon!

Station One has a pole!

We attended the 4th annual Touch a Truck event in April, and we'll add pictures from that event eventually. Thomas talked at length to Fireman Keith who attended Will's birthday party last year and was on the first firetruck that responded to our neighborhood fire last month. We learned that Station One has a fire pole to help the firefighters get to their gear and truck quickly. We had few minutes to stop and check out this pole, and we were given a very special tour by some very special firefighters. We ran into Keith at the grocery the next day, and he was pretty impressed with the chiefs' demonstration.

As we pulled into the station, Will and Thomas proclaimed, "We've seen their fire trucks at touch a truck, at school, and at the party already, so we really want to see the fire pole. We don't need to see the trucks this time." It's a good thing because the trucks were all out responding to automatic fire alarms on campus.

So....Here is what we saw! The 4 year old boys and the 2 year olds, Charlotte and John, really enjoyed our visit! (CLICK ON THE PICTURE to see the videos, then tap the edge symbol on the bottom right to go full screen!)

Thank you, Chapel Hill Fire Department! We appreciate all you do!

First Sleepover

This week, Amelia decided she wanted Thomas to have a sleepover in her room. As they were discussing it at dinner, John realized he would be left out, so he kindly let them know he would be sleeping over with them. We thought for a minute he may actually enjoy having his own room, but that was not at all important to him. He tried to tell them that he was going to sleep on the down-low (trundle) bed, but Thomas had already claimed it. We realized this was T's first time sleeping on the trundle. So, here they are, pajamas matching, with Nana blankets (made by Debra's mom, Nana) and Build-A-Bears from Grandmama (Monkey Monkey, Owen the Owl, and Rover the Dachsund) and a ton of love swirling about the room...


and here is how we found them in the morning. They slept until 6:45 - a pretty normal wakeup time.

Surprise, I made a kite!

Thomas is always putting together items to create something new. Michael usually discovers his "creations" by looking and listening to him playing. He made a pepper grinder the other day with some of our "cutting food" that has halves of produce that velcro together. He used a lemon half on top and a carrot half for the long part of the grinder. He was twisting the velcro pieces back and forth to "grind" the pepper.

When I was talking to our next door neighbor and her children in the yard yesterday, Thomas discovered the twine we used to outline the new mulched beds in front of the house. He asked if he could go make something with the string, which was, of course, fine. A couple minutes later, he comes running through the yard screaming, "Look Mom, I made a kite! Isn't it a great kite?"

Sweet Sixteen, Girlfriend!

Our dear sweet niece & cousin Allison turns 16 on Jan. 26th. She is a lovely girl in so many ways. Her smile and beautiful singing voice are just tiny little glimpses into the wonderful person she is inside. If you ask our kids, they'll tell you how she loves each of them, loves her pets, her whole big family, her parents, especially her big brother Grant in Afghanistan, and her billions of stuffed animals. God has grown her into a lovely and brilliant young lady. We all just adore her and look forward to spending time with her each summer. Sometimes we get visits with her during the winter as well.

She popped into town for a Duke BBall game earlier this month, and Michael invited her to come in and take a look at the kids who were supposed to be sleeping. I think we surprised her!


Congratulations, Brian and Marian, on your awesome little girl who is all grown up now!

Amelia seeks your help!

If you would like to read to or sponsor this Kindergartner in her first ever Ephesus Elementary Read-A-Thon, please let us know! Pledge amounts are due by Jan. 20th and the funds need to be turned in by Feb. We'll try to capture some pictures of her reading adventures!