Life since vacation...

has been busy and blessed. 

Let's see... we got home on the 27th (Tuesday) and were joyfully welcomed by our "oldest children" Matt and Jennifer (& Landon, of course!)  They stayed here and 'house sat' for us and took such good care of things.  It was so nice, after such a long drive, to walk into a nice, clean, good-smelling home!  The animals were all well-tended and happy :)  They are such a joy to my heart and I am so thankful to the Lord for them!

So we spent the rest of the week in 'vacation recovery mode', ya know how that goes... While we were gone Danny and Brandy were blessed with the opportunity to rent a lovely large home that is only 20 minutes from us!  The children and I spent Monday helping them with a little of the moving.  The plan was to paint the new house and then move in room by room.

Meanwhile Danny and Brandy's son Evan had been having some concerning symptoms and they had taken him in for bloodwork on Monday.  Their doctor called Tuesday and said "Evan's platelet count is 8000 -- I want him in the hospital right now.  They are waiting for you."  (Normal platelet count for a child is 140,000 - 450,000).  Danny called and told me and then brought the other children (minus the baby) to us.  Matt and Jennifer were still here and were a huge help during this time. 

Wednesday Molly, Jennifer and Matt watched all the children and I took Caleb, Sam and Ashley with me and we worked on getting the kitchen moved.  Tony had taken Wednesday off and he and Carol (a friend from church) worked on painting the house.

Evan was discharged from the hospital Wednesday evening.  We spent Thursday painting and moving more stuff.  The Nissleys brought their truck and trailer over and moved some appliances.  It's Friday now, M, J and I are here with the children and Tony is helping move a small load.  We'll all go over tomorrow and spend the afternoon painting and moving stuff around. 

It's been a busy week but such a blessed one.  We are so thankful to the Lord that Evan's initial diagnosis of ITP is treatable!  I am thankful for such helpful children who don't mind hard work.  I am thankful for Matt and Jennifer being so willing to just step in and do whatever needs to be done.  I read a saying recently that said "Friends are the family that we choose for ourselves".  I think that is so true and I am thankful that the Lord has filled our lives with such good friends who are family to us!

Our Marianna Arts Festival craft booth

Pictures :)

The whole shebang

Brandy's "Sweet Marmalade" side

Our "Lewis Family Mercantile" side

a closer shot of LFM

a closer shot of SM

more LFM close-ups.  See anything you need?  LOL

All in all it was a lot of fun, I learned a lot and I know many things to do differently the next time! 

On the road again...

Tuesday morning... we are on our way back home :) 

We left Sunday before last and drove to MO to visit our friends there (we made a overnight stop in Lonoke AR).  We had a wonderful visit with them!  The time just passes too quickly.  Jaynie is the kind of friend that you can not see for a year and then when you do get to visit it's like it was only yesterday.  Their family is very dear to us. 

They live in very south west MO so Tony decided since we had never been to KS or OK that we would take a detour on our way home.  ;)  We saw buffalo in OK, that was fun!   We stopped in Alma AR for lunch and met an previously unmet but much admired friend Jennifer and her children.  It so nice to finally meet friends that you've known for so many years!

We just had a leisurely day of travel and planned to stop at Lonoke again for the night.  About seven miles out (it was raining) the driver's side wiper stopped working.  We made it to Lonoke and spent the night.  I have a friend who lives in that general area so I emailed her and she said for us to drive over to her husband's shop the next morning and he would help Tony figure out what was wrong and fix it :) 

Stacy and I have been friends for several years but had not met until Saturday.  She has the most precious family!  I am so glad to have finally met her!  Kent was able to fix the wiper, it was a very simple fix but not something Tony has ever done before.  Kent knew immediately what the problem was because they had to make the same repair on their van once!  :)

We hit the road and drove on to my hometown (Brownsville) and went to Daddy's.  We stayed in his living room because our original plan to camp was thwarted by the high winds and scattered rain.  :(  We do enjoy camping there a lot so hopefully next time the weather will cooperate :)

We went to Mama's to visit for a while, Rebecca (my sister) was there.  We met the birds.  My mother is now the Bird Lady!  She's such an animal lover! 

Sunday evening we visited with the Sheltons and Turners.  Miss Peggy and Mr. Floyd have been in my life since I was about four.  We were neighors.  I have so many happy memories of their home and family!  I've often said Miss Peggy is my "sewing mother" but she is really much more than that.  She and Mr. Floyd have always loved me and always been there for me :)  Their daughter Lora and her husband and son were there too.  Lora and I are a year apart and had many fun adventures as young children (involving potty training, eating a whole bottle of baby aspirin, one of us shoving the other of us off a porch on to concrete... you get the idea!  LOL)  Their whole family is dear to me!

We spent Monday at the Botanic Gardens in Memphis and then went to the Memphis Zoo after lunch.  It was a perfect day for the zoo, the weather was light jacket weather and we were practically the only ones there! 

When we got back to Brownsville we dropped by Rebecca's to meet Ronald :)  and then back to Daddy's for the night.

We are on our way home right now.  :)  Yes, I have lots and LOTS of pictures to share!

Marianna Arts Festival 2010 -- almost ready!

MaryVance and Luke are finishing up their knitted toy snakes...

Luke has been doing all of the painting on the displays Caleb and Sam have built -- in case you wondered why he has something brown all over his shirt!  LOL

Caleb is doing the finishing sanding on another set of building blocks :)  Pics will follow when he gets them done!

Here's what our goodies look like so far.  I'll take some pictures of the final booth arrangement tomorrow.

The goodies!  Still waiting on snakes and blocks and not sure where I'll put them!

Close ups!

:)

Come see us!

Yesterday's Sewing...

And eight more!

click here for pics

A Fun Friday Night with the Nissleys :)

Playing outside...

Looks like the competition was fierce!

Another game they enjoyed a lot.

And one of the reasons for our visit... going to the workshop to check on Caleb's progress...

The band saw :)  Caleb needed to use this to make cuts for a project he's working on.

Intent, isn't he?

And what is everyone else doing while Caleb works?

Lessons from Grandpa

Oohhh... looky at the pretty colors...

What have we here?

LOL!  Playing with magnets, I think.

And what is this?  A wooden circle mounted to a bicycle rim.  It's a spinnable screw holder!  How clever!!

Caleb's miniature duck decoys!  The basic cuts are done and now's he's finishing them up.  :)

We had such a great time.  Burgers and hot dogs on the grill and lots of good visiting all around.  God has richly blessed us :)

The new girls room... BEFORE

I don't know if the girls room will be phase 2 or phase 3?  Either way, this is what it looks like now!

um... yeah...

When we moved here they boys wanted a 'frontier' bedroom.  We were so excited to find this wallpaper.  The 'curtain rod' is a limb and the valance is burlap attached with twine (maybe jute?  yeah, I think it was jute.)

Um, just realized Luke's airplane creations are still in there... oh Luuuuuuke...

The girls, after much, much, much searching finally found bedding they like!

They are thinking the lightest sage green for the walls but we haven't been paint shopping yet.  Their room will be done in two phases also.  The first part will be cleaning and painting.  The second will be building a window seat, chests of drawers and bookshelves all around the window.  :)

Ready, set, here we go!

I'm calling it Done!

Even though we are probably, in reality only 95% done.  There is just a smidge of touch up that needs to be done on the walls and we need the flooring repaired (where the walls were removed).  But other than that... done.  Yep!

What?  You want pictures?  Well, if you pull my arm... lol

The shelf above Luke's bed, mostly some of his Lego creations.

Beds for Elijah (l) and Caleb (r)

Our lovely closet!  :D

Stuff, still not perfectly arranged...

Corner bookshelves, baskets of "stuff", that little chair was given to Sam by his great great grandmother (for whom he was named, she was a Locke).

This desk was made by either Tony's mothers dad or granddad... I can't remember?

In case you are wondering... I am not responsible for the room decor ;)

Looking south.

 

My lovely doors again... LOL

That wall will be painted to look like the fort in Boonesborough (from the old Daniel Boone tv series). In front of it will be a custom built twin over double toddler bunk bed. I just don't have it completely designed yet :)

There ya go!  Just a few finishing touches:

some paint touch ups

insulated Roman shades

floor repair

Then we'll be off to Phase 2 or 3!

Dare I say it...? The Bedroom Remodel Project Phase I is D.O.N.E.

Yes, I think in 'emoticons'!  Woohoo!!!

Pics coming soon!  I just wanted to say Woohoo!  with y'all! 

Phases 2 and 3 will be building the little boys a bed and painting their 'Boonesborough' wall and painting, etc... in the girls room.