Did you ever have a neighbor who's back yard looked like Sanford & Sons? I mean crap everywhere!!! Looks like the never ending yard sale, except there is no sale. Isn't that soooo annoying??!!!!! Just ruins the view for all the other neighbors. You work so hard to make your back yard look so nice, then you're Junkyard neighbor screws it all up? Well folks, I AM that neighbor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm not proud of it, and it's NOT MY FAULT!!! I have a son who has to have every big boy toy known to big little boys, and cause he lives with Mommy, Mommy gets to store it all.
Can I sell anybody a boat? How about a jet ski? A Blow-up Boat? Some tires? Give me a couple of days and I might have a four wheeler to sell!! Sorry, the siding is NOT up for grabs, but I can't wait to get that out of the yard too!!
I have a better idea. Who wants to buy a big, strong, sweet young man? He comes with mandatory removal of all of the above toys!!! Any offers?
Rob built me a very nice patio a few years ago, and I had the back yard decorated so nice with lots of flowers and "Yard Stuff", but now I don't even want to go back there, much less decorate.
Patios don't need floor mats, do they?
Last week this area was a pile of "Dump" stuff
Soon it will be a pile of tomato plants, yay!!!!!
The River was soooo much fun this weekend! We went on a little "date" (our new weekly plan) on the way down, stopping at my favorite "Greasy Spoon" restaurant in Saluda. It used to be called the Oasis, a perfect name I thought. They recently remodeled and changed to a cowboy theme, and the new name is Briscos. The name is not as charming, but the atmosphere is much better. All the food has Cowboy Food themed names.
In spite of all I ate this weekend, by the way thanks Mom for the yummy Pound Cake that we made strawberry shortcakes out of (I had 3), I still managed to lose another pound, yay!! Must have been the daily walks around the whole campground that just about killed me!!
I took some pics of my new River decorations. Sorry to bore you, but here they are:
This boat was a Yard Sale Find!
Christmas Present from Mom
Hubby bought me this last week cause it says "Riverfront"!!
My favorite sign, cause everybody knows I call my camper Paradise!!!!!!
Saturday we just piddled around, cleaning and getting everything ready. I cooked hamburgers on the grill and Mom provided TWO desserts! We forgot our TV Box, so there was no watching TV this weekend. It was GREAT! I think TV's should be banned from the campground, except for when it rains (don't get mad at me Dad!!!!).
Sunday. Wow!! Sunday we went to our little Church of God at the River. It has changed so much, but it was AWESOME!! This is our interim Pastor Carpenters home church. Dad had to pick up some lights for our Church there, so we all went. The music was terrific. Very contemporary. Much more so than our Church! The new preacher is a biker dude with tats who preaches in jeans. His message was great! He mentioned several times how God made such a drastic change in his life, but didn't change who he was, just how he was. The people there were super friendly as usual. There is one other couple that we've met that also camps nearby.
This is the "Resource Center" located just outside of the sanctuary at our River Church. It is so neat! Visitors fill out their info sheet here, then they give you a gift for visiting. A great little book wrapped with ribbon. It's an awesome idea!!
Of course having worked in Children's Church, I had to check out their room!
It was too cute!!
Sunday afternoon, Rob did "Wifely duties" as he calls it. He put up new rope lights (tropical blue this time!), fixed a broken sign, and shampooed the living room carpet while I cleaned the kitchen and grill. Then we had to eat dinner on the bed cause it was so cold outside, and the carpet was still wet. It was great! Dinner in bed, you should try it.
Okay, I'm not bragging, but wait, yes I am!! My favorite part of the weekend was when we got home, and Rob gave me a pair of 1/2 carat diamond earrings to end the weekend on a great romantic note!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love that man!
If you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that you Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. Mark 11:25
This was a recent devotion for couples that Rob and I read. We've been going through a season of change in our relationship, and God has blessed us beyond measure!!
Few people know the struggles we had early on in our marriage. I was so young. Graduated from High School one month, and married the next. I recently read Denise Jackson's book "It's All About Him", written about her husband, country singer Alan Jackson, and her journey to find a closer relationship with God. I could have written a lot of that book myself!! I saw myself in so much of her: married so young, letting Rob make all the decisions because I had no idea what I was doing, afraid of failure, trying to make myself into what he wanted me to be to make him happy.
I had this dream of Rob being my Knight in shining armor, taking me away to live in my very own castle that he had provided for us to live happily ever after in. My dream mirrored the way I saw my parents marriage, as happy and loving. Meanwhile, Rob had his own ideas of what marriage was like based on what he saw growing up. We never talked about our differences, and I never even thought to consider that he saw things so much different than me, but we both harbored hurt and resentment for the way things were going in our lives.
We also stopped going to Church, which was the biggest mistake we ever made. We now know that God put us together for a reason, and He meant for us to stay together forever. But those first years neither of us thought we would make it, much less be as blessed as we are today!
We eventually got back in Church, gave our lives back to the Lord, and God healed some of the hurts we had faced, and changed both of us. We went on to become very happy in our marriage and deeply in love with each other, something we never thought would happen in those early years.
Through the devotions that we have recently started for couples, we have started talking about past hurts and disappointments and really trying to understand why we did the things we did. It has been the best thing we have ever done. We've had a great marriage for many years now, and I couldn't have thought it would be any better, but these devotions have brought us so much closer, and helped us to realize that we want only the very best for each other, and never want to cause each other such pain again.
It hasn't been easy to talk about past hurts, and we've cried and laughed and scratched our heads at the things we've learned. We've learned things about each other we never knew. We've talked about feelings we never knew the other had (or at least didn't want to know back then). We've vowed to be there for each other no matter what, because we serve an awesome God who cares about our every need, and he knows we need each other more now than ever!! God has shown us through His Word how important it is to lift each other up, hold each other in high esteem, pray for each other and with each other, and keep our eyes focused on Him. He's given us a renewed faith, and scripture confirmation of His plan for our lives, and we want to serve Him with our whole beings.
One thing that had always been a huge source of contention with us was that I am the eternal optimist, while Rob has always been the eternal pessimist. I see the glass half full, he sees the glass half empty. I look for the good, he looks for the bad. We now know that it has a lot to do with how we were raised, and we work to help each other see the middle ground. If it were up to me, we'd have no worries, no money, and life would be an unorganized mess!! If it were up to Rob, we'd never do anything for fear it wouldn't turn out right, we'd never spend a penny for fear of being broke, and life would be soooooo boring!!
Rob says the best thing to happen to us in a long time was buying the trailer at our campground,
and the next best thing was taking Sarah back and forth to school when she was in Staunton.
Both of those things gave us much needed time together as a couple. For years and years Rob worked as much overtime as he could, allowing me to stay home and take care of our precious babies. When he wasn't working at work, he was working on a project at home. We never spent any quality time together without the kids. We went on one trip that I can remember without Sarah & Bobby, and that was a quick weekend at the beach.
Driving back and forth to Staunton, we had our little coffee and doughnut "dates", and driving back and forth to the River gives us time to talk and reconnect and share our dreams and plans with each other. It's been so great!!
We have also come to see the need for continuous planned "together" time. We sometimes get so busy, but we know that we need to take a break from the rat race and recharge together. It's been so fun to plan our "dates". We feel like little high school kids again, and take great joy in embarrassing Sarah and Bobby by holding hands and stealing kisses every chance we get. We consider it "payback" for doing it to us!!!!!
Some couples are really good at this "together" time, but for us, it's been a long time coming, and a great blessing. We have always been together and supportive of each other as a family, but God has shown us how great the "together" time can be for us apart from everybody else. The only problem right now is that we only want to be together, and have a hard time going our separate ways. I guess that's a great problem to have, and we're not complaining!!!!
If you have never done couples devotionals, I'd like to recommend it! The book that has changed our lives is called "The One Year Devotions for Couples" by David & Teresa Ferguson.
It seems like it was written just for us, and you may feel the same way. If you want to see your spouse as God sees them, and connect with them on a level you never thought possible, this is the book for you. I'm sure it will change your life for the better!!
I know this post is long, but I wanted to give you a little understanding as to why I haven't posted much in the recent past, and give God glory for working miracles in our lives. He is the one true and constant hope we have, and the reason we have the freedom to forgive!!
Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you,...forgiving one another just as God in Christ also forgave you. Ephesians 4:31-32
Here's a quick update for those of you asking about Phillip. We did find out that his body is intact. That's a huge relief considering what was going through our minds about what all happened.
As the platoon leader, or whatever he was called, he had gotten out of his truck to check on an IUD bomb on the side of the road. He told the others to stay behind while he looked at it. They think it detonated by remote control as he hadn't touched it yet.
He had a piece of shrapnel go deep into his head through his cheek. That's what caused his death.
They told the family that as leader, he didn't have to be the first one out to check on those things, but he often was. He was a very upstanding soldier, and was very decorated. Rob saw all of his stuff last night, and said he had a lot. (I don't know what it all means, I just know he loved his job and did it well!)
There's still no word yet about a Memorial Service. Keep the family in your prayers. Of course they are just worn out. Rob said the phone rang over and over the whole time he was there. The military is very good about keeping them informed of every step in the process too.
The funeral is Monday, April 27 at Arlington National Cemetary.
I wish I had more time in my day. I haven't had time to blog or eBay or clean house, or anything lately.
I could really be in trouble if I had a real job! My laundry would be to the ceiling, every dish I own would be dirty, and I would be on antidepressants for sure!!
So far this week I got a $700 bill for lab work my insurance didn't cover, I had something show up on my mammogram so I have to have an ultrasound (that will be just fine, I have faith!!), our friends son was killed in Afghanistan, my cuz Jeff wrecked his motorcycle which resulted in a 3 day hospital stay, and we were worried about him so we had to visit to see for ourselves that he was gonna be okay!! Despite 5 broken ribs, a concusion, and chest tube, he will be just fine eventually. Can't talk him into stop racing though, I guess it's in his blood :)
There's so much going on with Phillip's homecoming. The city of Hopewell wants to do some sort of Memorial Service for him, which would be great for those who can't go to Arlington for the funeral. I hope it works out. Robert is with Phillips Dad right now, so I should know more about what's going on tonight.
It's just so unreal that he's been all over the national news. Who would have thought the first fallen soldier to be covered by the media would be Phillip? I just seems so strange, but so sad :(
Dreama and I went to Breakfast this morning, and a bunch of soldiers came in and sat near us. It was all we could do not to cry, it's just so scary to think that any one of them could suffer the same fate. We wanted so bad to go talk to them and thank them for their service, but we knew we'd bawl our eyes out so we didn't. I felt really bad for that!
Dreama's nephew Chris had 5 members of his platoon killed, and if he hadn't been out for back trouble, he would have been driving the truck that was hit. We are all worried for him and Amber's husband Josh. Seeing all this on TV is sad, but it doesn't really hit home until you know somebody personally who dies. Then it's a whole new deal!
I'm ready for some good news! Anybody got any? Anybody? Oh yea, I do. Going to the River tomorrow baby, for 4 days!!!!!!!!! Yahoo!!!!!!!!!!
I don't care if it rains or snows, it'll be nice to get away for a little while. Bobby and Katybug are coming down on Thursday for the day, but Sarah won't budge. No cold River adventure for her, thank you!!
I made a deal with Mom, if she would keep Sarah for 4 days, I would do her job later and she can go to the River during the week whenever she wants to. She was all for it because that's the best time to be there, when there's not a crowd!!
Well, I should shut up now. I'm supposed to be exercising while Rob's gone, but I just ain't feelen it. So I had an ice cream sandwich and blogged instead, but don't tell, K?
Can I sell anybody a boat? How about a jet ski? A Blow-up Boat? Some tires? Give me a couple of days and I might have a four wheeler to sell!! Sorry, the siding is NOT up for grabs, but I can't wait to get that out of the yard too!!
Patios don't need floor mats, do they?
Last week this area was a pile of "Dump" stuff
