Mother's Day Weekend

I'm going to try this blogging thing again. If you follow, let me know, so I'll have more of a reason to stay committed.

So much has changed, most of you probably already know from word or mouth or Facebook, so I'll spare you the long drawn out story and skip straight to current events. :D

Mother's Day weekend consisted of my mom and Ricky, and Blake joining us on "the farm" for some fun. Saturday we grilled out hamburgers by the pond, rode 4-wheelers, rode the paddle boat, and just relaxed. We had a lot of fun just relaxing and listening to music and eating some good grub.

Damari went to check on our puddle of tadpoles (We have a spot where the pond overflows that frogs laid thousands of eggs a few months ago. We have enjoyed watching the process. They are now fairly big tadpoles, we expect to see their leg buds any day now.). While Damari was looking at them, he fell in the mud. I'll admit, I'm a horrible parent, I laughed at him. Nonna was closest and she wiped his face off (while laughing). I knew he was okay and the look on his face was priceless.


We concluded the night with a firework show by Ricky and Blake. We celebrated Mother's Day like the 4th of July. I guess we'll have to celebrate Christmas on the Fourth. ;)

Sunday we went to church and grilled out again, we had chicken and zucchini. It was yummy. Josh offered to take us out, but we opted for a more relaxing atmosphere at home. It was sad to see my family go, but I know they will be back for more fun on "the farm" soon enough.

Sunday evening, Josh and I went to the homeless shelter to serve some food with our church. We decided that since we don't really have a baby-sitter (and the fact that it was Mother's Day and I wanted to be with my baby) to bring Damari with us. I was kind of nervous at first, but several of our close friends and other Sunday School members were there to help with him. I'll admit, I believe he was a blessing. At first we just greeted everyone as they came in, but then Damari wanted to be with Daddy and ended up taking over his job. He would grab "agua" (water bottles) from the cooler and hand them to people. The smile on his face melted my heart. He loved helping/serving the people and I couldn't have been prouder. Here is a picture of us after serving everyone right before going home. I had to get a family picture of our first time serving all together.


I hope everyone else had as much fun on Mother's Day and got to share it with their loved ones!

New (possible) House

Brooke and I are trying vigorously to purchase a home in the Forsyth County area, but to-date, it hasn't panned out for us. Not that we couldn't find any homes we liked. The problem is that our selection is immediately limited because we have to qualify solely off Brooke's income (because I'm self-employed), and since we haven't yet sold our home in Monroe, we are limited in what we can finance. We know we can't afford our dream property (which is a lot of acreage. IE - 20+) until we have our other home sold, so we limited our selection to homes that could provide a decent place to live, while ultimately showing a return on our investment.

Day after day we've search for homes. We looked online for hours, driven thousands of miles around the area, and met our realtor for a walk-through on many properties. Needless to say, we're getting a little tired. We're supposed to be out of the house we're currently staying in February, which makes it pretty stressful not knowing where you'll be living in a month!

MLK day, Brooke and I spent some time checking out homes in the area, when we ended up in a town called Lewisville, NC. It seemed like a nice town, and while driving down the road we noticed a for-sale sign. We turned around and ended up in the driveway of a historic home built in the 1900's... 1908 to be exact.

The home is called the JJ Marshall House. Here's a photo I took when we approached the entrance. Even though it's not what we were looking for, as an avid viewer of the show "This Old House" and a builder/contractor myself, I've always considered the idea of working on a historic property, restoring it to it's original character.

We walked to the back door, only to find some papers that mentioned this house going to auction. We took a look inside the home, and the home needs aesthetic work; at least one of the additions aren't historically accurate (which means I'd probably reverse it at some point), but overall, it seems like a sound home.

We came home, logged-onto the auction website, and found out the auction ended at 4pm today (Tuesday). The website is setup like eBay. There is a reserve price (which is unknown), and a countdown clock. Today, all we've thought about was what our bid should be, at what time we should enter it, and how high we'd be willing to go. You can imagine -- this can easily consume your day.

At the end of the auction, we were the high bidder, confirmed via a follow-up email. Now, we just begin the process of a lot of paperwork, making sure the home will qualify for conventional financing, and all that "fun" stuff. Not really looking forward to that, but we've passed the first test!

Here are some pictures of the home, taken from the listing website. The porch on the front is not original to this home. I think someone was trying to turn this Colonial Revival home into a Greek Revival home....

We'll post more as we know it, and we'll surely let you know if/when we have it as completely ours.

This is one of the bedrooms, although with that awesome fireplace, I'm thinking this might be my home office. I could just imagine a fire burning behind me as I write something really important down on parchment.

This kitchen was added to the original structure. Not bad, but could be freshened up. This will probably be the 21st century part of the house.

This room was added to the original structure. I think it serves as the living room. We only spent about 10 rushed minutes in the home, so I'm not completely certain as to which function each room serves.

This is a shot of the front from Google Streetview. It's not too clear, and it's probably pretty old, but you get an idea of the front of the house. The right portion of the home was the addition.

BIG BIG News

Well, last weekend we moved to Kernersville!! It was very sudden and chaotic, but we did it! Josh and I have always said we wanted to end up closer to his side of the family. We tried to live here when we first got married, but couldn't find jobs. I wouldn't trade the last nine years in Union County for anything! We were there for so many things and getting to watch Will & Grace grow up was fun. We've known for years that our house on Luther Lane wouldn't be our 'forever home.' As far as mom, she isn't planning on staying where she is and we're pretty sure she will come closer to us, or closer to Damari. =) We were a little over an hour from her in Monroe and now we are right at 1.5 hours, so not a huge difference.

Josh's grandmother is getting older. Also, Josh's dad has 7 acres of land and Josh, as the oldest male, feels obligated to help. I totally agree. What about my family, you ask? They are ever precious and dear to me and while I've been excited, I've had moments of fear and great sadness. I'm leaving a lot, my dad, brothers, and sister. Not to mention a wonderful step mom and her family. I've had to keep what I'm gaining in sight. And realize that Concord Mills is about an hour away for my dad as well as us and we can meet there. Also, my dad and family are more apt to travel, so all in all I think everyone wine. I'm the oldest, but not the oldest male. My dad has a wife and two grown sons who can help with him and I'm never more than two hours away.

About a month ago we began to take the steps to make our dream a reality. We were looking for and applying for jobs and left the rest in God's hands. On October 14, I had an interview at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center for a night position as a pediatric nurse. Tuesday I was offered and accepted the job.

Tuesday of last week, was a busy day followed by an insanely busy week. Tuesday I submitted my resignation to my current PRN position and began packing boxes. I packed and packed every free second I had. Damari tried to help by pulling the items out of the box as fast as I could put them in, so my packing was done during nap time. :) Thursday night, Josh and Blake went and picked up the UHaul and loaded a desk someone gave us. Friday Ricky and Devin (along with Kim and Braxton) came over to help and got the washer and dryer loader as well as the couch. Saturday Devin, Caleb and Drew helped get most of our stuff loaded, while my mom kept Damari at her house and we hit the road at 3 to head to our new home.

Side Note: Josh's cousin Caroline and her husband, Mark had recently relocated to Charleston, SC and their house in Kernersville was sitting empty. They graciously offered to lease it to us.

We had extremely smooth travels and arrived to our new house around 5 on Saturday evening. We were welcomed to the town by a crew of friends to help unload the truck. Seth (UNCG student) and Tay (NC State) were former Parkwood students Josh ministered to and befriended showed up. As did Steve and Shelly. Not to mention Josh's dad, sister and uncle. We had the truck unloaded and the kitchen 80% set up by 7:00 at which time we slowed down for some fellowship and pizza.

Tonight is my second night in our new home and Damari's first. We have had numerous visitors and have spent time with Memaw already. I've also already taken my first trip to Walgreens and Target, all of which are in town!

I'm not sure how I'll adjust being 60 seconds from a grocery store! :P I do believe I'll enjoy this.

Feeding the Ducks/Geese

We took Damari to feed the ducks, but there were mostly geese there. He wasn't so sure about what we were doing and the geese were crazy! They swarmed us and we were afraid to put Damari down. He just watched. He wouldn't share his bread with the geese, he ate it!

I really enjoyed this outing; it is something I remember doing in the same exact place with my grandpa and great grandfather years ago!

I'll continue to take Damari and maybe one day he'll share his bread with them!

Damari is ONE!!

Well, actually he's been one for half a month now! He's growing so fast. He is walking now and is very smart. He says several words, "Dada," "Mama," "Nonna," "Gigi," "Grace," "yes," "no," and "stinky." There may be others that I can't remember right now. We enjoy everyday with him. He is a very sweet child full of hugs, kisses, and laughter.