Travels

We made it to Texas!  Yesterday morning we left our house 5:15 Georgia time (4:15 Texas Time) for our 8:20 flight to Texas.  We had to leave extra early because we did not want to get caught in all the Atlanta traffic.  Thankfully we did not.  Both of our flights were completely uneventful which is definitely a good thing for a flight :)  We made it out here to Lubbock, TX at noonish.  Andrew and I are both so excited to be out here and get to spend some quality time with family.  Last night we hung out with Andrew's cousin Adam and his fiance Stephanie, at Main Event playing shuffle board and bowling.  Neither Stephanie nor I had ever played shuffle board before or even knew how to play it but we beat the boys by a long shot in both of the games :)  Tonight we're heading up to Spring Lake, TX to speak at Andrew's Grandparent's.  Then back down here to Lubbock Thursday to pick up the brother and sister-in-law, Phil and Nina.  So much to do, but we're having such a fun time doing it!

Cherry Blossom Festival

For those of you in the Middle Georgia area, you are well aware of the world renowned International Cherry Blossom Festival.  People come all the way from Japan to celebrate with us as the Cherry Trees begin to bloom in the spring every year.  I still haven't figured out how they know exactly which week these Cherry Trees will bloom.  Occasionally in the past, they have gotten this week wrong and we celebrated without seeing any Cherry Blossoms, but this year they were exactly right and it was beautiful!  I remember when I first went to college in Virginia, I was talking about the Cherry Blossom festival like everyone clearly knew what it was.  It was then that I was struck by the fact that not everyone knows about this beloved Festival of ours and it's not quite as world renowned as we central Georgians like to think it is.  I was even more disgraced to learn that Washington D.C. has their own Cherry Blossom Festival!  The audacity that they would compete with our Festival.  I have never been to this so called Cherry Blossom Festival in D.C., but I know without even going that it is nothing compared to ours.  Do you think in D.C. they dye their poodles pink?  I think not.  Do you think in D.C. they have an International Food Fair with the best Greek food (the only international food available) outside of Greece?  I think not.  Do you think in D.C. there is at least one Cherry Tree on every street, even outside the city limits?  I think not.  And do you think in D.C. they give away Cherry ice cream, Cherry Coke and Carriage rides every morning of the Festival?  I think not.  These are just a few of the reasons I hold that the Macon Cherry Blossom Festival is the best Cherry Blossom Festival in the world (outside of Japan) and should be just as world renowned as we think it is.  If I have not convinced you by my very persuasive argument, just look at these photos and put your mind at rest that we do have the best Festival.

(I am experiencing a bit of technical difficulty...this Cherry Blossom outing, was my first with my camera.  I was excited to post some of the pictures that I took of the festival, but they are not loading properly. Andrew is out at the moment buying stamps, so I will have to wait till he returns to help me out.)

Toms Shoes

I got some toms for Christmas. And they are my favorite pair of shoes I have ever owned. I really like that they are global minded and that for every pair purchased a child who has no shoes will be given a pair of shoes.

So Toms Shoes has an event coming up this April the 8th that I am participating in, and hopefully my wife will too. It is called One Day Without Shoes. Its quite simple really. On April the 8th, do not wear shoes. Check them out at www.onedaywithoutshoes.com/

On April the 8th I will be shoeless. I hope you will be too. And be thankful just for having shoes.

Camera

For those of you who do not know, my husband is an excellent photographer.  Best in the world if you ask me.  He has a new website/photo blog called lightlyfocused.com, you should definitely check it out.  Andrew just got a new camera, it's very high-tech and professional.  I couldn't take a picture with it if my life depended on it because everything is completely manual.  Andrew's original intentions once he got this new camera was to make his old camera an infa-red camera or something crazy like that...but, I talked him into letting me have it :)  I think it's only right that a photographer's wife have a nice camera too.  So, this afternoon will be my first outing with "my" new camera!  I am so excited!  My friend Melissa and I are going downtown to the Cherry Blossom Festival.  Unfortunately it is not the sunniest day, but hopefully I will be able to take a few shots and at least have fun trying it out for the first time by myself.  Check back later and hopefully I will have posted a couple of my first independent shots :)

Little Blurb

This last week has been one of the craziest in a long time. So far this week has been a bit of a haze as we are recovering from last week. Andrew's mom and mir mir came into town just briefly for our service Sunday night. It was really great to see them and spend some time with them.

In the aftermath of last week, we have been attempting to get organized. We have now moved into my parent's house, where we will live for the reminder of our time here. In all the rush to get our stuff out of our old house before the estate sale, our things were a wreck here. For the past two days we have been running around with errands and in our brief moments here have attempted to organize our things. As a result, the past few days I have been a bit dressier than usual because the only clothes I could find were my hang-up clothes. Hopefully now we have gotten things figured out.

Well, we have two speaking engagements tomorrow. The first at 6:50 in the morning! We are speaking to a group of high school students in town. Tomorrow night we are representing N. Africa at our Wednesday night "Midway."

We have accomplished a lot lately, but we still have a lot to do. I am so thankful for the moments that I get to go to Starbucks with my Mom and sneak out to the Cherry Blossom festival with Megan and Melissa. Not to mention that Carrie and Zeke are always a spirit lifter! Love you guys! I'm sure I would go crazy without you.

Just a few Big Events

The past several days have been extremely busy!  Thursday morning the crating people came and loaded up and took off with our crate:

Friday morning there was a line outside our front door waiting to get in for our "estate sale."  Saturday, there was no line, but yet we were up ready for day two.

I guess I should just start from the beginning...This past week Andrew and I have been frantically trying to get all of our things together and ready for the crating people to come Thursday and for the estate sale Friday and Saturday.  I of course being completely overwhelmed with everything, have now finished book two of Mark of the Lion series by Francine Rivers.  So, Thursday morning we woke up bright and early ready for the crating company to arrive between 8 and 10.  Naturally, they did not show up till 10:30.....that's alright, Whispers in the Wind kept me occupied.  In anticipation of their coming, Andrew and I had written up a complete detailed list of everything we were packing.  As the men packed up the boxes, we kept up with which items went into each box numbering the boxes as we went along.  We had papers everywhere, numbers written all over the papers and the boxes.  It was craziness, but it all made sense to us.  We got the crate loaded and heading off successfully.  Now the enormous task of preparing the rest of the house for the estate sale.  Andrew began throwing all of our stuff we are keeping into the cars and making runs to my parents' house while Mom and I began working on the rest of the house.  After several trips and a few hours later, Andrew asks me if I have seen all the papers with the numbers and items we packed. Nope.  Couldn't find it anywhere in the house.  We ran back over to my parents' house to see if it's there.  Nope.  Couldn't find it there either.  We think over worst case scenarios, and then decide not to worry about it, hopefully it will show up.  

Back at our house, a little later, I get a phone call.  It's "the big guy," head boss from our crating company wondering if the guys are still at our house, he can't seem to find them.  Um...they left several hours ago.  He says it's no big deal, they had another stop to make after they left our house. (Sure).  This was just the comic relief Andrew and I were looking for.  I mean clearly the obvious answer is that the crating guys have ganked our packing list and made off with our crate.  We laugh about this for the rest of the night, secretly hoping it's not true. Friday morning, line down our front porch waiting to get into the estate sale, our crate is the furthest thing from our mind.  Later that morning when things slow down a little bit  we're all standing around talking and the crate comes up.  We figure it has been long enough, so Andrew gives "the big guy" a call.  Putting us all at ease, he confirms that the guys did return with our crate and they have it, although still no sign of our packing list.  Hopefully once we get all of our "we're keeping it" things sorted out we will find it.

As far as our estate sale goes, it was a huge success!  We sold just about everything.  We still have an oversized chair, end table and coffee table left that didn't sale.  If you're interested let us know ;)  Along with some other "stuff."  All in all though, we really sold a lot.  We were really blessed to be able to sell as much as we did, and we definitely could not have done any of it without my Grandparents, sister Angela, sister Carrie and my Mom and Dad.  Thanks!!  You guys mean so much to us and all the time and effort you put in to help us out really does mean more than you know or that we could fully express to you. Thank you so much!  We love you!

Andrew's Mom and MirMir came into town this afternoon as well.  We are excited about getting to spend the next couple of days with them and appreciate them coming all the way out here to see us.  I know this was an extremely long blog today.  A lot as been going on, and hopefully you enjoyed reading about it!

Crazy weekend

This past week as you know, we have been busy packing, sorting and throwing out.  I haven't quite figured out what my life in a suitcase looks like yet, but I have had a chance to see what my life in a yard sale looks like.  Thanks to my sister Angela, Grandpa and Danease and my Mom and Dad, we have gotten most of our belongings that we plan to sale in yard sale order.  We have spent a crazy day sorting, arranging and pricing all the possessions that Andrew and I consider part of our lives.  Here is what we have to show for ourselves:

The top two are before photos, and the bottom two are after photos.  This is our lives on about seven tables...We still have a bit more stuff in our office, bedroom and the kitchen that we still have to sort through and label, but the most of it is done.  The crating company comes by on Thursday morning to pack up our things that we will be taking with us in boxes and load it into our crate.  That will be the moment of truth.

It was hard today looking and pricing all of our things.  It was hard not to grab everything and say I'd take it with me.  Don't tell Andrew, but there were a few things I had to take out of the sell pile and put in the we're taking it with us stash. :)  As tough as it is getting rid of just about everything, it is also kind of refreshing and invigorating at the same time.  It feels very cleansing.  We will definitely get a fresh start when we move...but did we really need one?  I guess He thinks so :)

Well, if you're in Macon this Friday or Saturday from 8 am to 4 pm, come on by.  "We give you good deal."  Thanks everyone for all of your support!  We couldn't do it without you!