A Beach Trip

Some Friends of ours from DC, Tommy, Mary, Teddy, and Emily, invited us to come with them to their beach house in Duck, NC (the Outer Banks) this weekend. Since we don't have our own house to work on, nor other big projects going on, we, and a friend of mine, Mary, decided to go.



We have had a fun and relaxing time here together. The weather has been perfect, not too cool, not too hot. The water was cold at first, but we got use to it easily. Unfortunately, the water was very rough from Hurricane Kyle out in the Atlantic, so the "No Swimming" flags were out. We could go into the water about 10 feet. We got knocked over by huge waves, then suddenly the water would get sucked out for the next big wave, sometimes almost pulling us with it, or we were were uncomfortably sitting on the sand in about 8 inches of water until the next wave came. It was a very different ocean than I have ever swam in before. We had fun playing Ultimate Frisbee on the beach, too.



Tomorrow we are leaving early to go by Kitty Hawk and the Wright Brothers Museam, then heading home to make it to Eric's soccer game and my orchestra rehearsal.

It has been a great weekend, especially visiting with old friends.

Kids enjoying the beach.

A sand crab the boys found.

Everyone enjoying the water.

Luke enjoyed his first time on the skimboard. He took to it very well, but the waves overpowered him a few times. Note how small the wave is that the skim board is in compared with how high Luke went. Yeah, those waves were really strong.

Teddy and Timothy braving the seas together while Eric stands by and Luke is doing something, I'm not sure what.

Mom waiting for the sunrise.

Finally, what they were waiting for appeared.

Group shot.

House Photos

Here are pictures of the house we are making an offer on.


The house and yard.

The barn.

The backyard and fences.

Update from Friday

We have had fun at our current home not far from where we use to live. It has been wonderful provision for us. Although Mom and Dad grew up in neighborhoods, we kids have never lived in one, so we had to get use to a small yard and close neighbors.





We decided to make an offer on the house mentioned in the last post. Considering we are all feeling ready to settle in somewhere we are willing to compromise on the commute. Everything else about the house and property is just what we have been looking for.
The offer will be considered at the bank on Monday.

Update

The week we spent out at Ashley's house was filled with fun, late nights laughs, cooking and eating lots of good food, some school and good fellowship. The whole family made us feel very loved and at home there. The kids had a ball, and everyone wished we had stayed longer. We miss our surrogate family. An older couple we worship with offered us their home while they travel for the next two weeks and we will be here through October 4th. We are very grateful that they have been willing to share their homes with us! We praise God for his provision, that we have a roof over our heads and our needs met.

This past Sunday we went to look at more houses. We found one that has 14 acres, 7 cleared with fences for a horse and pony and goats we hope to get. The house was huge, with plenty of rooms for a sewing/craft room, weight room, and more. It is a foreclosure, so the price was very good.
The only down side is that it is 20 miles west of Fredericksburg, making it an hour drive for Leif to work, a little farther than we have been looking for. We have not made a decision about whether or not to make and offer. We are praying about it and considering if this is where the Lord would have us. Prayers would be appreciated concerning this.

One BIG Party

With 10 kids doing school here, we could almost start our own school!

Luke being studious.

Timothy working hard.

Eric conquering Biology.

Daniel wishing his picture wasn't being taken.

Cutiepie Joshua

Cutiepie Samuel

Cutiepies waiting for dinner.

Dinnertime! It's quite an event around here!

Cute lil' Rebeckah

Friday-Finally Finished

We finally cleared out of the house Friday afternoon, just in time for the new owners to get there. We still had stuff in the yard we had to take to storage. It took many trips, but we are finally moved out and homeless.

Daniel and Hannah's grandfather brought a wonderful lunch that he and Ashley (Daniel and Hannah's mom) made.

Eric and Andrew loading up the HUGE trash pile.

Hannah cleaning.

Empty rooms. Sad, but we were glad to actually see some visible progress.

Just for the record, our beautiful toucan that has graced our bathroom walls for almost 10 years. Many thanks to Aunt Sallie for drawing it, then mom who painted it.

Thursday--Heading Out

I'm about to pack up the computer, so I don't know exactly when I will post again. Hopefully sometime this weekend. We have to be out tonight because tomorrow is the closing, so we are finishing everything up tonight. Its going to be a late night!

This weekend we are staying with some friends in the area. So Aunt Sallie, I will not be needing to stay with Prissy!!!!!! (Please excuse that, everyone who is not Aunt Sallie. That's for my crazy aunt who LOVES her dogs.) ;-)

We still are not sure where we are going after the weekend, so please continue to pray that we find a house, or for direction if we are suppose to do something else.

Me up on the roof chillin'.

Chris, Andrew, and James awaiting orders.

Gunther moving boxes around.

Gunther and Chris helping.

Dad and Mom up on the ladder trying to throw a rope over the roof
because we had to get up on the high roof to glue more shingles down.
They wanted to tie the person up in case they fell.

Eric trying to throw it.

Afterseveral tries, they could not get the rope over, so I got up on the
roof not tied in. But I got down all safe and sound. :-)

Wednesday's Events

One more day left to pack up! Andrew and James came again to help move the rest of the big furniture. There are still closets and rooms to pack up, but its getting closer!

One last futile attempt at shooting the tennis ball cannon.

Almost empty rooms!

Muscleing the piano. Whew! Those guys are strong!!!

Our beautiful house we have to leave soon.

Wait! I don't think that is supose to stay in there!

A stray tennis ball found Timothy's mouth and knocked out a somewhat loose tooth.
He didn't mind though, and proudly walked around saying he had now lost 4 teeth.

Finishing up projects

This box is getting quite full!
Uh-oh! I think there's a stowaway in there!