New camera, new pictures!

Pictured above: #1- The very popular "light sabers" from Ethan Blair's birthday party last year. #3- Eating with our friend David (another red head!). We had an impromptu dinner get together with his parents last Sunday night #4- One of our neighbors, Kelly, who just loves the boys (future babysitter?!).

Neighbors and friends

Confession: I wasn't too interested in getting to know my neighbors when we bought our house back in 2003. Mostly, I was annoyed by the problems caused by our neighbors (you might remember some of them: the 10 cars at the house next door, our mailbox murder, the deer killer, etc.)

I started to notice a few things out my window after Daniel was born- mostly, that I was the only stay at home mom with young babies/toddlers on my street. That felt a little lonely and I was jealous of all of my friends who had playdates with their neighbors, block parties with tons of little kids, and even vacationed with their neighbors to Destin. I thought, "well, we have tons of friends- just none of them will ever live on my street".

After Wesley was born, I finally started to come out of the "new parent" haze and tried to make some contact with my outside world on Fenner Court. Life had been going on around me and I hadn't even noticed. It was time to catch up. I slowly started to interact with neighbors, learning more about them, listening and observing their kids who had started to play in our driveway and yard.

I was amazed at what I found. I discovered the world's greatest babysitter (Erin) was living right next door to us. She is practically a part of our family and I love looking at the world through a seventeen year old's eyes as we discuss high school, college choices, and life. I've gotten to know a great single mom two doors down who is finding her way again after a tough few years of a long divorce. I found some pre-teen kids from behind our house who love to just come and hang out in our yard and talk (I'm often the only adult outside watching kids). I have enjoyed getting to know moms and dads who all have concerns and dreams for their children. At the very least we have those things in common.

So, it's been a few years in the making, but I have a real appreciation for my little world around me. On Friday evening, as Erin and I chatted outside and helped little boys play Mario Cart on the cul de sac with their battery operated (not very fast) cars, I thought, "I like living on this street". The next day, a small group of about 6 kids and myself watched as a next door "princess" and her date walked outside on their way to the prom. What a magical moment. I feel like I'm witnessing little bits of history every day. I'm so glad I decided to "tune in".

PS- An update on the 10 car house: they are currently down to 2- 3 cars, having sold 2 of them in the last few months. It almost looks normal over there. But we aren't planning a Destin vacation together....ever.

We had a great 10th Anniversary cruise.....

Yes, it's true, we had an incredible trip and we don't have a single picture to prove it. How funny is that? So, if you're just dying to know how it was, you'll just have to read about it instead:

We left the boys with my parents and Aunt Carolyn and Uncle Josh and left for sunny Florida last Saturday, where we boarded Holland America's Eurodam. This is our 7th cruise together, but it's been 2-1/2 years since our last one, so we have really been looking forward to it. The Eurodam is less than a year old and we had splurged on a room with a balcony (it was wonderful!).

We boarded and headed straight for the dining room (our room was not ready yet) and had a wonderful lunch. Then we explored the ship, our new home for the next 7 days. Our luggage was delivered to our room before dinner and after the lifeboat drill, we had a wonderful dinner with our new friends for the next week (we asked to sit with 6 other strangers, which is always a good way to meet people). There were a lot of families on board, as it is spring break up north, but our dinner companions all turned out to be Canadians (later we also sat with a couple from Ohio). We actually didn't meet anyone from the South the entire week. We went to the opening show and then ordered room service and ate a late night snack on our balcony.

Easter Sunday- There were lots of Easter festivities on the ship, but we chose to sleep late and eat Chinese for lunch at a specialty restaurant. It was a day at sea so there were a lot of things going on. We also watched a cooking demonstration and a movie and spent some time in the hot tub after dinner.

Monday- Grand Turk. There is not too much to see there, because it was hit by a hurricane a couple of years ago. We stuck to the shopping and the beachfront. I found a few Mothers Day gifts and checked email using some free wireless. We went back to the ship, watched "Valkyrie" and read on our balcony. Dinner was at the Pinnacle Grill, a specialty restaurant on the ship, and the food was similar to Ruth Chris. Yummy! Then we went to a show (musicians from Nashville, go figure) and went dancing. We went to the late night movie "Last Chance Harvey" and the late night snack.

Tuesday- San Juan. We had been there before, so we walked the island and to all of the forts. They were filming a movie with Johnny Depp and we tried to get on the set but were unsuccessful. Later I met someone who saw him (I guess that proves he was really there). I went to the public library and checked email. Dave patiently sat and read magazines. That night we watched most of "Slumdog Millionaire" and the show was a pretty funny comedian.

Wednesday- St. Thomas. It took 2 taxi drivers, but we finally convinced someone to take us to Coki Beach. I snorkeled for 5 minutes and Dave swam around most of the morning and said there were even more varieties of fish than he remembered. He knows all of their names thanks to Wii's Endless Ocean game. We did some shopping to look for the kids presents and made it back to the ship (more taxi drama). Dave had a perfect signal on his phone from inside our cabin so I checked email.

Thursday- It was a day at sea, so very relaxing. I read an entire book on the balcony and Dave went to a lecture on the environmental efforts of the cruise line (do they know he is LEED certified?). We had a formal dinner that night complete with lobster, steak and baked Alaska.

Friday- Half Moon Cay. Holland America's private island. They've upgraded the tenders and a lot of things on the island and it was every bit as beautiful as we remembered. It was a little cool when we first got there at 9am, but by lunch it was hot and we were really enjoying the beautiful beach. Then we started burning- our pale skin can only take so much beach action- so we had to leave around 2pm. We had a wonderful dinner, went to the farewell show and a late night movie, "Yes Man". This is where the camera went missing (we think, because we didn't notice it was gone until the next morning).

On Saturday we had the mad scramble of looking for the lost camera, retracing our steps, and trying to get off the ship and to the airport. I befriended a nice couple on our flight home who are going to send me a link to their pictures so I'll have something to look at (and we will photoshop ourselves into them!).

I told Dave, even with the lost camera, this was the best trip we've had in a very long time. It was like a 2nd honeymoon since we were away from the kids for so long. I did start missing them by Thursday, but I think they had a great time while we were gone and I know they were in good hands. I felt truly relaxed by the time we came home. The cruise ship, the itinerary, and our balcony room were all wonderful choices by Dave. And we had such a great time together. I feel like we were able to fully celebrate 10 years of marriage. I would gladly do it every year if we could : )

One little addition, in case you are shopping for a cruise. We've cruised HA, Princess and Royal Caribbean, and Holland America is by far the best in terms of service and food quality and variety. We didn't see any type of cutbacks in any area, only improvements on this ship (maybe because it was newer). And we didn't see any increase in "extra charge" items. Room service, ice cream, etc. are all still free and are excellent. The one extra charge restaurant we chose (The Pinnacle Grill) was worth every penny because we would have spent 3 times as much at Ruth Chris for a comparable meal.

Service Project

On April 25th, we will be participating in a service project on a team led by our friends Steven and Mandy Reutter to do major repairs on a local widow's home. We are currently seeking sponsors, so you may have received a letter from us detailing the event and what we'd like you to consider. If you didn't receive a letter, here is a link to Steven and Mandy's blog with the letter.

We are excited about this project because we wholeheartedly support Steven and Mandy in their adoption later this year and we want to serve this needy widow in our community. I wish I could show you pictures of her house- basically she is living on plywood floors in a plywood framework structure that has no outside protection- there is no insulation, no siding, no brick. The county recently approved her home for emergency assistance to meet some of the structural needs of her home (which is beyond our group's expertise). Also, the Nissan Corporation has 20-30 employees who will also be helping us that day. We have a long "to do" list for April 25th, but what a huge difference we hope to make for Francis!

I hope to post a link to some pictures when we are done. Let me know if you have any questions, would like to help, or need further information from the letter you might have received. Please pray for April 25th, for great weather and that everything will go smoothly!

Change at Home

Finally, the long overdue painting has commenced (the original paint was flaking off our walls). We are enjoying some color in our lives!

Eggs!

We picked these eggs up at the Family Life conference and we have been using them to do a "countdown" for Easter. Each night we read from "Benjamin's Box" and then open an egg. Daniel and Wesley cannot wait to go to bed and open the egg for that night. Then they each want to sleep with an egg!

The first day I hid them up on top of the entertainment cabinet in the playroom, so they wouldn't open the rest of the eggs. During rest time, Daniel walked downstairs with the carton of eggs. I was shocked. I thought he had climbed our bookshelf to get them, but he showed me how he used his light saber to knock them down. I'm going to have to get better at hiding things.

The reason I really like these eggs is Daniel can basically name each of the objects in the eggs and tell how they relate to the Easter story. We don't make a big deal about the Easter bunny, because we want the focus to be on Jesus, and these eggs are perfect for sharing the story together.