Robin's surprise party

Happy birthday, Robin Vesey!!

Robin, one of the two girls that we've been foster-family for, is turning 11 next Thursday.  Since she won't be with us then, we threw her a surprise party Friday afternoon.

Susie took Robin and Rachel to a neighbours to swim while Mom and I prepared at home.

Mom decorated the cake I baked.

And she made pizzas.

I was head-decorator.

The first thing Robin saw, coming up the stairs was a banner, "Happy Birthday, Robin!"

The other photographer prowling around...

I'd say she was happy :)

Susie's haircut

Susie already favors our Aunt Cathy, but with her hair cut shorter like my Aunt's they really look alike!

Similar?

 

 

Steve and I have a cute Chief Chaperone :)

Fountain project

Amy gave me the idea to have a goldfish pond inside the reception area for my wedding...

I wasn't huge on the idea, but I did want to have a water fountain there, so Dad and I went to Lowes to see what we could see.

 Fountain kit---$15

...A pretty planter and some water...

Awe :)

I'm going to surround the base with small potted plants, and probably put 5-6 goldfish in the fountain as well.

Fun with Alyssa

Yay!! My Maid of Honor (and best friend), Alyssa, came over and spent the day with me.  We mainly worked on wedding decorations, but got a lot of talking and catching up in there, too. :)

We washed the sand and grit off of 6 big bags of river pebbles.

All clean and shiny

I got an armful of miscellaneous stuff and Alyssa started designing a photo collage for a reception decoration.  She worked on that while I made lunch.

We used some little log sections to make the frames different heights...

...My Promise figurine that Steve gave me in April.

She tucked some ivy in...

...Added some candles and it's all done!

Purdy :) Thanks, Alyssa!!

Surprise FL trip (again)

It's been a long week.

Last Thursday I was talking to Steve during my break at ChickfilA.  Steve had gotten heat exhaustion from not getting enough water, food, or sleep in the last few days.  When he told me he was closing on his house this Wednesday he was completely stressed out.  We had no idea how he and his brother, Nate, would get everything finished in time.

I called Dad and asked if I could give away my work hours and go to FL for the weekend to help Steve out and encourage him.  Dad said yes, if I took Mom with me.

So Mom texted, "I'll be packed by the time you get home from work".

We ended up leaving at 9 pm.

Yes. Crazy.

:)

We got to the Jackson's house at quarter to 5 Friday morning.

At 6:30 Steve called and Mom and I drove the 5 minutes to his house and surprised him.  I rang the doorbell while we were talking on the phone, then hung up right before he answered the door :)

I got up about 11 hours of sleep this whole trip, but it was soooo worth it!

 Our house

 Porch

You walk into the living room

 Taken from the other side of the room

Doorway to the right in the living room leads to a huge kitchen

The back door leads to a screened in porch and a fenced in backyard

 Other side of the kitchen

Door on the left wall in the living room is a hall, two bedrooms are to the left, a bathroom, A/C closet, and the master bed/bathroom is to the right.

 One project was spackling, sanding, and priming the hallway

 Nate built these steps at the end of the hallway.

I'm in Steve's room facing the master bedroom

 Another surprise, Steve is building a bedframe for us! It'll look really nice when he's finished

 From the corner of the bedframe facing the new steps

 Nate did a fantastic job and spent a lot of time on these

This will be the master bathroom, it was a tiny bedroom before Nate remodeled it.

Mudding, sanding, and priming this room was another Saturday night project :)

Aaaaaand...

Dad and Mom gave us an early wedding gift.

They bought us a Dyson Vacuum cleaner so we could clean up all the construction mess :)

Mom actually vacuumed for several hours Monday.

We left for NC about 2 pm.  Our house is now clean and full of good food for Steve to enjoy.

See you again in a month, Steve!!

Emily Spence's Salon

Emily and I walk about 3 miles every morning.  The other day I admired how she always looked 'put together' and asked her to do my hair and makeup for my wedding (in 78 days BTW) :)

She said to come on over.

I brought a picture of how I'd like it to look.  She did better than the picture.

 Emily!!  Her expertise is free, but it does take a while :)

 How could it take 45 minutes to look this natural?  Hmm

 An hour curling...

 Oh my goodness!!!

Wow, lets see what it looks like with the veil and tiara shall we?

She done good

My sister is so neat :)

I saw this on Susie's bulletin board a few days ago, and she just today put it up on her blog, Susie's Story, so I can now steal it for my blog. :)

Want to be free?

 John 8:31-32.

Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;

And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

 

So many times I have heard verse 32 by itself.  But today when I read it in context I was surprised.  Freedom always comes from knowing truth.  But the only way to know truth, Jesus says, is to continue in his word.  So don't get discouraged when your daily devotions seem to grow boring, or stale.  Just read God's Word every day and with the help of the Holy Spirit you will be continuing in his word. 

And you will grow in your knowledge of God's truth, and that truth will set you FREE.