ZZZZZ

What a long week. You know that G.W. passed away a week ago today. Add in the visitation, the funeral, seeing family and friends one more time and the trip back home and the week got even crazier. We made it back this morning about 1:30. I started back to work today and so needless to say, I'm exhausted and am going to bed. On a bright note, I am actually kind of excited about school starting back. After going today and seeing some changes and meeting some new people I have a much better attitude about it all. I worked on my room all day today and will try and put some pictures up here tomorrow night. Goodnight!

A Hard One to Write

Last night, my dear friend G.W. passed away. I talked about him on here earlier in the week and how he knew he had much greater things ahead. We all knew that. I know that he is in such a better place. A place where his pain is long gone. A place he lived his whole life waiting for. I know all that but am still sad today. I can't even begin to tell how wonderful this man was. I can't even begin to tell you how special he was to me. How he was worried sick about me getting married and moving to Atlanta even though he was so sick with cancer. How he sent me a card almost every week to encourage me. How we didn't know if he could make it to the wedding because of his illness. How he surprised me and showed up and came back there right after I got ready. How he gave me a hug and told me he wouldn't miss it. How I framed this picture and sent it to him and he kept it in his living room. How he gave me a hug every single Sunday at church and how that became "our thing." How the last time I was able to sit by him in church he sang When We All Get to Heaven with such passion it made me stop and think about my own life. How I know he meant every word of that song with all of his heart. How every time I complained about anything he would say, "Well...the Lord said he'd take care of you." The next few days are going to be hard for everyone who knew this man. He has no idea how many lives he touched. I know he sure touched mine.

Cute Kids

I've been in LR since Tuesday visiting family and a good friend of mine from church. He is an older man that I have known for a long time. He actually baptized me and has remained very close with our family. He has battled cancer for years and has not been doing well lately. I was able to spend a few hours with him on Wednesday and am very thankful for that. It makes me sad to see him like this but I know that he has better things ahead.

For the past two days, we (me, my mom and sister) have been watching the two cutest kids on the planet. We started watching the little girl last year when she was only 3 months old. Now she has a baby brother and we get to watch both of them. I love these kids! I really do. The past few days have been great. I have to squeeze in all of my time with them before I have to go back to the ATL.

Tonight I'm going to a family birthday party my cousin and tomorrow I'm going to float the Buffalo with my dadio. As you can see, I'm enjoying my time at home. Enjoy the pictures of the kids.

A Lazy Monday

Meet Max. Max is crazy. Max likes to pull everything out of your bathroom trashcan, spread it all around your bathroom and come sit right in your lap like nothing has happened. A friend of ours is out of town for a few nights and so we are watching his two crazy dogs. We've enjoyed having them around but it has made me realize that I'm glad we don't have a dog right now. I'm used to living in the country with dogs where they do their business on their own time. Here in the city... their business is your business.

Besides taking care of the dogs, unpacking the occasional box, taking an extremely long nap and working on the blog I have had a pretty lazy day. Last night for our church small group, I made some cookies that might just be the best in the world. I stole them from a blog (confession: someone that I don't even know). Anyway, here is the link to her blog.Go make these cookies. Now. http://marriageconfessions.com/?paged=2

Wow... bad start.

Wow. I am off to a terrible start to the blogging world. A lot has happened since June 23, or whenever I did that first post. We moved and then left for NY three days later. I haven't really had the internet until now so I guess I have a good excuse. And now. Drum roll please. Let me fill you in.

First, we moved into a sweet house... an old house with a lot of "character". Now when I say old, I'm talking built in 1909 old. It's a duplex and we are on the bottom basement level. We have a great porch with a swing and a lot of room for flowers and hanging out. We just got a grill yesterday (thanks to my dear ol' man's parents) and have really enjoyed having people over. Along with the character of this house, have been a bunch of other surprises. You know, fun surprises like an air conditioner that leaked water all along a wall in our kitchen, living for two days without hot water, a leaky dishwasher, having a heck of a time getting internet because our front door is behind the house (and this confuses Comcast?) and... a little bit of a bug problem. Yeah, I'm not proud to admit it but we did have some "waterbugs, " as would rather call them. I think we are over that problem. Maybe.

Then,right after we moved we flew up to New York to spend some time with Seth's parents. They have a really nice house up in Binghamton which is super close to a bunch of fun things. I tried twice to witness my first lacrosse game (Seth's little brother plays) but both times it got cool and started to rain and my interest kind of faded. One day we all drove over to Niagara Falls which is about four hours from their house. We spent the day at the park taking a bunch of pictures just like tourists, looking at the waterfalls and taking the Maid of the Mist Tour. I have been there once before about nine years ago when my Youth Group took a mission trip up to NY and was pretty excited to go back. This time, we did a lot more looking around at these crazy impressive waterfalls. We spent the 4th at their house eating on a Low Country Boil. Now, if you have never had one of these... you are missing out buddy! Crab legs, shrimp, corn on the cob, a Zataran's crab boil bag and you got yourself a meal. I ate this sitting outside in front of a fire with a jacket on. Yes. A jacket. On July 4th. Is something wrong with that picture?

On Monday, Seth and I rode a Greyhound to the Big City. We wandered around the streets (and I of course took about a zillion pictures), made our way on the Subway and ate some so-so food. One thing I really wanted to do was go back to the World Trade Center. Back on that mission trip I was talking about before, we went inside the WTC and took the tour. It was an un-real feeling to watch the 9-11 events happening less than a year after I had been in there. Anyway, we rode the subway downtown to the site. It has a construction wall around it now, but you can kind of peek in the corner and see this massive hole in the ground where they once stood. We spent the rest of the day eating a hot dog in Central Park, walking through Times Square, having a drink in Soho and a quick stop in Sephora for me. It ended up being a pretty fun day!

So that gives a you a little taste of these past few weeks. Now, we are back in the ATL still trying to get unpacked and settled in our new house. We are watching a friend's dog for the weekend and I have found it to be much more fun to play with him...instead of unpacking, I mean. There are some pictures from the trip at the top. Enjoy!