The Atlanta Girls: Eight Ladies Who Stole My Heart Last Year!!

I thought it was time to introduce eight wonderful and amazing girls who stole my heart in 2008. If I do this right, the picture will appear at the top:) Let me tell you who is who from left to right, top to bottom.

1. Kim, mother of Mary Grace. 2. Emily, mother of Miller Grace. 3. Karen, mother of Jacob Ryan. 4. Yvette, mother of Tristan. 5. Kristy, mother of Isaac and Asher.
6. Angie, mother of Poppy Joy. 7. Kenzie, mother of Maddox. 8. Chrissy, mother of Eva Janette.

This picture was taken in Atlanta at a conference where the eight met and spent precious time together, sharing the pain of loss after handing their babies to Jesus. The pain was fresh for all eight when this picture was taken. They met Beth Moore, face to face, and she prayed over them and they all cried together. Such sacred ground they shared. The events of this time was shared on their individual blogs last year and they each shared beautifully and from their hearts. I love each and every one of these eight girls and call them "my girls."

On this last day of February, 2009, I wanted to give an update on my girls. It is so exciting to my heart to tell you now.
1. Kim is expecting a new baby who will be her 4th, sometime soon:)
2. Emily is expecting her 4th daughter, Abigail Joy who will be here in 7 weeks:)
3. Karen is the newest mom to announce that her 4th baby is due this year:)
4. Yvette is working on adoption of a beautiful baby girl in her care now:) Praying.
5. Kristy is expecting her 5th baby, a "girlie girl" who has 4 older brothers:)
6. Angie is enjoying raising her 3rd daughter Adrienne:)
7. Kenzie is raising sweet Faith Clare who was born last November:)
8. Chrissy gave birth to baby boy Coppo yesterday morning and he is perfect:)

My heart is so full for these girls. Following their heartbreak and sharing in their hope and joy has been a lesson in deeper faith for me, walking with them. I love them all so much. They have taught me the faithfulness of Our Lord in so many ways and I am eternally grateful. I feel like they are my daughters as they are younger than my sons. It is a heart to heart connection that only the Lord can birth. I am blessed by these moms and their babies who made such a difference in my life.

This Post, my Sweet Atlanta Eight, is dedicated to you, full of love and hope and the promise of God's goodness to you. I pray His richest blessings over each and every one of you today. May your joy be full. I love you.

Love and Hugs, Laurie

Thanking God And Thanking You!

I am so thankful for your prayers yesterday and thankful for Gods answers. Corky's eye appointment went well. After being dilated, anything bad was ruled out and the spots he's been seeing are just a case of eyes getting old. They were afraid of the retina possibly starting to detach but it is fine. His eyes ARE fine, just getting tired. We are both so relieved and thankful. I told him you were praying for him too and he said "but they don't even know me" and I said "Soooooo?":) "They know me." I am so thankful for all of you praying. Before I started this blog, I just visited others and prayed for them. To be on the receiving end is quite the blessing and so humbling. Connections of the Heart through our Lord, I just love it. He never stops amazing me.

I have the kids coming today and if the weather cooperates, we are going to spend time outside, working off the cabin fever the rain has brought in the past few weeks. I will take my coffee outside, pull up a chair, smell the jasmine floating in the air and watch JOY in action as two of the worlds finest kids play and enjoy life. It doesn't get too much better than this. I hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday and know that you are so loved and appreciated by me. You are my treasures too.

Love and Hugs, Laurie

Please Pray For My Sweetie Today

Would you please pray for Corky's eye doctors appointment this afternoon? Three years back he had implants in both of his eyes after being diagnosed as legally blind. The improvement to his vision was a miracle. He has been having "floating dots" for the past two weeks and he is truly afraid. He hardly ever expresses fear but our eyes are so important. I would really appreciate your prayers for him and for peace in his heart today. I will update after his appointment this afternoon at 3:15pm. Thank you guys so much for praying for my biggest treasure in my life here on earth:)

Love and Hugs, Laurie

Flashback Friday

Click on picture for bigger view. This picture was taken at the beach in "1979". This my friends, is 30 years ago. Where has the time gone? The boys were 9 years old and we spent our days at the beach, since it is just down the cliffs from our house. The boys would be starting the 4th grade in the fall. (By the way, this picture was scanned into my computer and I haven't figured out how to manipulate size yet) As I remember, money was tight back then as I was a stay at home mom and hadn't started working in a stained glass shop yet. We had one car, a truck for Corky to go to work. We had been living here for 3 years. This June will mark the 33rd year here. The boys slept out in the backyard under the pine tree often in a make-shift tent and the dogs and cats kept watch all night long. Many sleepovers on the weekends with their friends here too. They spent hours upon hours on their bikes exploring the open spaces up here on the bluffs before all of the development took over. Year by year, lot by lot, their territory shrunk, but they had these years to adventure and I am so grateful for the "open spaces". Thirty three years has changed most of the area up here as beach houses are bought up, torn down, and huge houses replacing them have sprung up everywhere. Our house has remained a beach house as many others on the block have too. It is amazing to think that Corky and I were 27 years old when we moved in here. Now we are grandparents watching our precious grandkids play in the same yards and occupying the same bedroom their father and uncle did.

Thirty three years has gone by so fast. It seems like it was just yesterday. So much has changed yet so much has remained the same if this makes sense. This rented house holds our lifetime of memories except for the first 8 years of our marriage. If these walls could talk! They do talk to me these days as I look back. We have grown up together here and are still growing together in love through the fire and the good times. Through it all I am so grateful and blessed to be who I am today. When I look at that picture above, I realize I did not like myself as was the case for so many years. I ask myself why now, and I realize I compared myself to others and never measured up in my mind. Such a waste of time and talent. The Lord has showed me over the years that He wants me to love me for who He made me to be. That's a tough job but I have been learning to let go and let Him show me who I am and I can live with me:) Still working at it and learning after all these years. If I could offer up one word of advice to my younger sisters here, it would be to love yourself as God has made you, and don't compare yourself to others. It truly is such a waste of precious time. Time we can't get back this side of heaven. I love who each and everyone of you are, as much as I have gotten to know you, and I love you each just as God made you to be. No matter our ages, we are all sisters in the Lord who loves us. I feel like a big sister to so many of you too.

Have a wonderful Friday and leave me a flashback in the comments of something you remember and want to share. You know I love comments. They make my day SMILE:)

Love and Hugs, Laurie

4 x 4 Tagged On Friday

Isaac doing the dishes at home. He is about 2 1/2 years old here.
I have been tagged by Kenzie, one of my "Great-Eight Atlanta Girls", so here goes.

1. Go to 4th folder where you store pictures.
2. Select 4th picture (no exceptions!)
3. Post the picture with an explanation and link it back to tagger.
4. Tag 4 people (or as many as you want) to do the same.

FYI: I will probably end up getting this upside down while posting the picture AND trying to put a caption in, so bare with me.:)

I am tagging: Dee Dee, Dawn, Pam, Amanda, Lisa (Ready Aim), Rachel, Linds, Donna and anyone else who wants to play.

Sunny Wednesday

We are having a break in the weather after much needed rain, and it is going to be clear and sunny today. The guys are here working on the plumbing again and Isaac will be here in an hour. He will be so stoked to help out. Today will be a yardwork day again, trimming vines that have gotten wild. I have jasmine blooming all over the yards and they smell heavenly right now. Pure "nose candy" for sure. The grandkids will be glad to get outside and let loose too. They get cabin fever after a week or so.

One of the things I have realized over the years is that I am a vine finatic. I love them so much and have them planted all over the yards, front and back. But, if left unattended, they get wild and out of my control very fast. I am not good at pruning the vines, removing the old dead growth before the new sneaks up on me and starts to bloom. Jesus is such a perfect vine tender, always knowing the right time to prune me, so that the new doesn't get intertwined with the old (not too much anyway). It takes discipline to be a vine tender, something I am learning along the way, day by day. Maybe this is why I need vines in my life? To teach me. Just like my vines, I will always need pruning in my life; knowing the more of the old that gets cut away, the more room there is for the new growth to take hold.

Is there anything in your life being pruned away today, making room for new growth to take over? Share it with me here and if you need specific prayers, please leave them here and we can all encourage eachother in prayer. Have a wonderful Wednesday and know you are loved by me.

Love and Hugs, Laurie

The Past Few Days

Thursday night the phone rang and it was my dear friend from Maryland, calling to let me know she was leaving LAX airport and heading down to the house. Gosh I was so thankful that the plumbing was hooked back up!!! We stayed up till midnight talking and it was so good to have her here. She slept in the grandkids room and said she felt like a princess:) I woke up at 4:00 am to get Corky off to work and headed for the coffee pot. We spent the day catching up on all that's been going on with her "spooty" husband and it was so hard on my heart to watch a marriage of 23 years disentegrate before my eyes and only be able to listen and try to encourage her. We talked and laughed about good times too and that felt good. She is just trying to work her way through the years of memories and figure out how to let go of her dreams. ~sigh~ Corky made us a roaring fire when he got home from work and we had homemade spaghetti and garlic bread for dinner and just talked some more. I hope we helped her in some way. She spent Friday night too and left on Saturday to go up to L.A. to visit her mother in law. This lady could still use our prayers for her heart.

I caught up on the last of the laundry Saturday and it felt so darned good to see the bottom of the clothes basket.:) Tomorrow the guys will be back to finish the work on the front bathroom pipes and test everything out before beginning to close the huge hole back up. I am so excited to get the new floor down, wash down the walls, get the new tiles in the tub and put it all back together. It shouldn't take more than a week or so. Corky is as happy as I am, especially that he didn't have to do this himself. Our valentine's present to each other. We spent the evening watching a movie and just being in each others company. Slept in until 6:30am and it felt like half the day was gone. At noon, the first NASCAR race of the season at Daytona was on. Woo Hoo!! I love NASCAR, it's my sport and Corky's too. It got rained out but it was good and fast!!

So, that wraps up the past few days and tomorrow I get my grandkids. I haven't seen them since Wednesday. This coming weekend they get to do a sleepover here while mom and dad go to Disneyland. This will be the first time for Hannah so it will be fun. I am going to be spending some time this coming week learning how to post captions under my pictures so they make more sense. So if you visit and see something one minute, and then it's not there anymore, it is just me getting it right.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and "Love Day." We didn't do anything out of the ordinary because we try to keep every day a love day here. I really love your visits and reading your comments. They make my day special.

Love and Hugs, Laurie

Sharing A Few Closeups Of The Christmas Tree

Sharing More Coke:)

Sharing Coke And A Smile

Okay, here we go on the Coke collection. Now remember that it is 40 something years of collecting
and did not happen over night. This is what my grandkids faces have expressed as their "eye candy" since they first entered grandmas house. This is the bigger stuff, the smaller stuff doesn't show up well. I took these so I could keep them in a seperate file documented so when I am no longer here, the kids will know what they have. These too will be more than one post so I hope I don't bore you:)

Love and Hugs, Laurie

Sharing Five More

Third post of pictures.

More Love

The last picture of Isaac on the previous post is his "serious face" with ten grapes stuffed in his cheeks. Here are some more.

Sharing Some Love Today

Okay, I will try to remember how to load five pictures at one time and see how it goes. My pictures are not the best quality but the kiddos show up just fine. I still don't know how to caption each one so it's just pictures.

Little Man In The Hole

I just wanted to share a couple pictures of what's going on around here and a dream come true for Isaac. He's been dying to get in here and we finally got a few pictures. I just sent them to his mom and I am glad I won't be able to see the look on her face:) Hey, this is what this boy absolutely gets off on.

I finally figured out to download my camera with my chip into my HP printer. Wow, so easy I can hardly stand it. So, tomorrow I will be posting pictures all over the place from before Christmas up to now. I will be caught up before I know it here if you can bare with me.

Have a wonderful night and I will be back tomorrow.

Love and Hugs, Laurie

Thankful Thursday Throne and the Queen

Just came back here in between "loads of laundry"and before I shower AND wash my hair, that the Queen has her throne back!!! Everything hooked up, brand new and working. Working perfectly.
Oh what a Valentines Day gift this is. No more "camping out". No rain today, sunny and breezy, windchimes (all thirty something) of them making music in the wind, and this girl is happy!!:) Just like Isaac, I just love new plumbing. The rest is getting done next week, fill back in the huge hole, new tile on the floor, new tile in the tub/shower and a few cosmetic touches to the walls. Life is good here at the beach!!

I hope your day was as wonderful in some way to you as it has been to me.

Love and Hugs, Laurie

Thankful Thursday

As I sit here and type, the bathroom pipes are starting to be hooked back up, one pipe and one joint at a time. It is music to my ears. If all goes well, I will be showering in the morning, able to wash my hair, catch up on the laundry and do some throne sitting.:) I'm feeling like an "almost" princess.:)

The grandkids were fun yesterday even though they both were under the weather a little. Hannah has her four molars bulging and coming in at the same time. She would chew on my car bumper if it would fit in her mouth. Poor girlie. When she was down for her nap, Isaac and I did some yardwork cutting back vines and plants. He is such a great help and walks around saying "we do great teamwork gramma". Well, before I knew it, he shrieked and I thought he got hurt. Nope, he screached through alligator tears that we smashed a "walking stick". At first I didn't realize what he was talking about and told him it was only a dead twig. "NO GRAMMA, it's a "walking stick"!!
Looking closer, I saw it was one of those bugs that looked exactly like a twig with legs and things.
"We killed it gramma!" Please Lord, make it move when I poke it gently. Two of its legs moved and I showed Isaac that it was indeed alive. I think it's rear end was flattened a little but it was moving. Still crying, he was laughing and yelling "IT'S ALIVE, WE DIDN'T KILL IT, IT'S ALIVE"!! You could hear him for blocks. We picked it up gently and put it on a plant where it could be safe and have a new home. Sheesh. This kid and his bugs. If it was dead, we would have had to hold a funeral right on the spot. As of this morning, the "walking stick" is enjoying it's new habitat and has walked around a lot. What a day! He tends to get very emotional when he doesn't feel so good. It breaks my heart to see him cry, his eyes are so danged sky blue and intense with tears. From now on we will gently tread when doing the yardwork. Having the kiddos here really puts me in touch with childhood feelings I had that I never could express because my childhood was not normal. I locked everything up inside. So, when I comfort them, I am comforting myself at the same time. Healing, it is such a strange and amazing journey. In my case, it will go on for a life time, but it is all good. Free therapy provided by the cutest kids in town.

And, on another note, guess who is on FACEBOOK? Yep, me. As if I don't spend enough time on blogs:) I was invited by a friend at Corky's work who is my age. I thought, "what the heck". No one will find me there. Ha!! Seven of my blog buddies have found and invited me. My "adopted since birth" neighbor sisters who are in their 20's now, have found me, their girlfriend in Romania who I just love, and a few others. Not being a girl of few words, I need to remember that the messages are short and sweet. It's not a blog. I have a hard time being short and to the point. ~sigh~ I still believe in spelling my words out and correctly, not abbrieviating :) At least I get an email when someone comments as I forget to check on the site. How many grandmas do you suppose are on Facebook? You now know of one.

Okay, I am done for now and going back to being serenaded by the sounds of my pipes being replaced and hooked up. Oh, it is a great Thursday and I am so thankful. Our "camping trip" is coming to a close. This HAS taught me a few things about "Third World" countries and how this is normal life for so many less fortunate than I am. Thank God I don't have to do clothes their way too. I have accumulated about eight full loads. We are ALL so blessed for the lives we lead, no matter the trials that come along. Life is Good because Jesus is in it!!

Have a wonderful day and if you feel like it, let me know what you are grateful for today. I love comments and prayer requests.

Love and Hugs, Laurie

Full Moon And A Full Heart

Last night after turning the lights out to go to bed, it looked like the patio light had been left on. I stepped outside and the most incredible full moon was glowing so bright. The rain clouds were clearing and it was heavenly to just look up into the dark sky and see the light and stars. Truly a God moment and my heart was full. He is my light in the dark nights of life.

I had such a great day with the grandkids yesterday. Hannah's personality is developing at warp speed and she just makes my heart laugh. I had forgotten how much you can teach little ones just by playing. First time around I was just busy 24/7 chasing after twins running in opposite directions and worrying about every little thing being perfect, which it never was. Now it is such a pleasure to play and teach. I follow Hannah's attention span as she goes from legos to dolls to stuffed animals and her stroller. We work on colors and counting of each thing and she loves it. We practice putting toys away and she loves to help. She's starting to talk and she is calling me mamaw. It is so much fun to have a little girlie girl around. I just love this little Bug!!

Isaac got here after preschool at lunch time with a bag full of valentine goodies from their party yesterday. He only goes once a week. He made me a valentine and when I told him I loved it, he got the sweetest smile and said "I love you gramma." Melt my heart. Then in a bag, he had a big valentine with his handprints in paint on the big red heart. Inside was a message to parents from their child pre-printed like an award. I melted over the handprints and told him how his daddy and uncle Eric used to make those for me and I have them all saved in a special box. He said "I want you to have THIS one gramma" with a big smile on his face and his big blue eyes sparkling up at me. I told him that THIS one was for his mommy and daddy because it had a message to parents. He looked at me and said "you are a parent too gramma". Yep, you are right my smart boy!! This boy just melts my heart to puddles every time I look at him. His little heart is so huge with love. We did painting up at the counter all afternoon while Hannah took her nap. They love it when Corky gets home early just to see them. He gets Hannah out of her crib and she just hugs him tight. He melts. He just loves having a girlie in his life. He has always felt that the first baby we lost was a girl. Though we will never know, his heart feels sure. So this little bug has stole his heart big time. After playing with her for a while, he takes Isaac out to the workshop in the garage to check out tubes and wires and tools. Manly Stuff and more man to boy bonding time.:) He scored one of grandpas old magnets yesterday and can't wait to start collecting treasures on the ground that will stick to it, pure magic!! It is such a blessing to have one of each grandkid to enjoy. They are so unique and different, and each one can be our favorite boy or girl. We will have a problem if a third baby comes. You never know. I don't ask:) We are both still in awe of how deeper the respect and love is from our grandkids. It is a whole new level of life and we are just loving it to pieces. I love seeing the LOVE OF MY LIFE being a grandpa. Oh, he's so good at it and it melts my heart with love even more for this man God gave to me.

The plumbing is still in progress. The hole in the main bathroom floor is now 4' x 6' x 4'deep. Yikes. It is burrowed from the bathroom to under the kitchen floor in front of the sink. The pipes have all fallen off in pieces as the clay is dug away. No bathtub or toilets or sinks can be used right now until they can hit a good spot on the old main pipe to weld to. I can still use water but have to catch it in a bucket. Microwave hot water in a bowl for washing up in the morning. Ah yeah, camping out at its best, and it has rained off and on all week. It is a race against time now. My girlfriend with the spooty husband will arrive on the 12th , and my niece from Michigan called and will be out on the 19th with her two kids and wants to arrange a playdate for the kiddos. Where will they potty? Laundry is backing up and sponge baths are really getting old. However, this house is OLD and when this is done, the plumbing will work wonders again. I can hardly wait! Thank God I am a low maintenance girl, seriously. Isaac checks out the progress each time he gets here and says to me "I can fix the pipes for you gramma, my plumbing books show how to do it". If only! He wants to get down in the hole and explore, NOPE. We are making memories here:) Not the kind I really want him to savor, but then again, IT'S PLUMBING!! And Corky and I aren't your typical grandparents. ~sigh~ Nothing normal about us.

If you are still with me here, I hope you all have a wonderful Tuesday and remember to find things to be grateful for in the mundane of every day life. They are there if you look in the right places. I love you guys for visiting me, no matter what I post. My life really is all over the place on any given day. And I am okay with it!!

Love and Hugs, Laurie

A Quick Post For Prayer

Please pray for Benji and Rebekah as their precious daughter Gracie was born stillborn on Friday February 6th. They were expecting complications of Trisomy, but she came early and I don't think anyone's heart is really ever prepared to lose a child. She is a beautiful baby and they shared pictures on their blog The Benjamites on my blog roll if you wish to leave a word of encouragement. My heart is heavy for them as they begin this journey so many others have walked and continue to walk. I will do a post in the morning. Hope everyone of you had a great weekend.

Love and Hugs, Laurie

My Birth Into The World Of Blogging

Three years ago, my son set me up with my first computer here. I know, I am a late bloomer. Everything was new and came with all the bells and whistles, doing everything but serving me my morning coffee. For the first year, I used it to keep my checking account posted, and reconcile each month and know exactly where I was at. This was enough for me. Then someone who saw my coke collection asked if I had ever been on ebay. I was scared to venture out on the internet up until that time. Too many horror stories of smutt and debt. Then I found ebay and what a trip!!

Two years ago this May 4th, a horrible traffic accident happened five miles from here and in an instant, a tractor-trailer rig ran over a family van, killing three babies under the age of 4 within moments. Three babies air lifted to three different trauma centers, the mother and grandmother taken to another hospital, and a father called out of a company office party with the news. He frantically tried to be in four separate places at one time as he kept getting calls telling him another child had just died, all three gone in under three hours, and having to tell his wife who was injured and in another hospital. They were together when the oldest, who had just turned four the day before, died in their arms. Hell On Earth. This was the Coble family of Ladera Ranch. It was all over the news everywhere. The chaplain Roger set up a website for people to leave comments and encouragement. Communities came together like never before and it was amazing. As I visited the website, I read comments and found one that led me to Elliot Mooneys video and story. A beautiful baby boy who lived for 99 days, diagnosed with Trisomy 18. I discovered if I clicked on the commenters name, it took me places. It was there that I found Mandy-Madaline Grace's mommy, then Boothe Farley- Copeland's mommy, Emily- Miller Graces mommy, Angie-Poppy Joy's mommy, Karen- Jacobs mommy, Yvette-Tristans mommy, Kim-Mary Graces mommy, Kenzie-Maddox's mommy, Christy-Eva Janettes mommy,
Kristy-Isaac and Ashers mommy, and the list goes on and on. I have always loved babies, always, and my heart just broke for all of these mommies as I prayed for each one as they waited to meet their little treasures. I prayed for them to have more days than Elliot, and I felt as if each one of these were my grandbabies. My first grandson Isaac, was only a year old at the time and it hit me hard. God gave me a burden for Trisomy babies and all babies who were born and left in a moment of time. And I have Annabel and Mallorie, who are living with this diagnosis and amazing me to trust God more and more. They are my warrior princesses and I love them.

My blogging experience has branched out during this time of being a commenter only, but my heart is still for the babies. I was too chicken to start my own blog, who wants to read about a grandma and her adorable grandkids? Or read about some boring ramblings of someone who tends to be all over the place like I am. (I see my ratings going down at times:). But I was coaxed into starting my blog and I am glad I did. I have made many wonderful ladies here and some have lost their husbands, older children, some are very ill and in need of healing, and some are grandmas like me, younger mommies raising their families, and it is all good to be a part of a sisterhood of women. In the world, women tend to pull eachother apart, but here, we all come together to encourage and lift up in prayer to the One and Only Lord that we all serve. It is refreshing to be sisters with all ages. I love it.

I welcome any questions any time and I am pretty much an open book. I have shared a condensed version of my life here, but there is so much more between the lines of what I have shared. The purpose of my life is to share what I have learned in the struggles with others. I have seen many miracles in my almost 61 years of life and God has showed me many personal things that make me smile, because they were just between Him and Me. He is so personal with each one of us where we are and I am so thankful for this. I will have to share some of these moments with you as time goes on. He has taught me that miracles are everywhere and usually the biggest ones come in the smallest packages. Just me breathing this morning is a miracle:)

I hope you all have a wonderful day and remember that my comments are always an open forum. You can talk about anything here whether it goes with the post or not. No structure on this site to speak of.:)

Love and Hugs, Laurie

Copy/Paste? I Can't Get The Hang Of It!!!

The last two posts were my feeble attempt at copying Katie's button to my blog. I just can't get it down, no matter how I try. But they are both here in "my form". Katie is Brenham's mommy and she is doing something very special to celebrate his one year birthday in heaven. If you are creative with crafts of any kind, hop on over and see what she is planning and read her story. It is amazing what God brought them through last year and what He continues to do now.

I will post more later, but I just wanted to explain the last two entries.:) Have a blessed Tuesday.

Love and Hugs, Laurie

Helping A Friend

When Hello Means Good-Bye: want to help me?

When Hello Means Good-Bye: want to help me?

Monday Morning P.S.

I forgot to mention that for all you Steeler's Fans, congratulations on your win yesterday. I am not a football fan but realize so many of you are. My condolences to the Cardinals Fans. I am a NASCAR junkie so this month is my month when the races are back on. I love me some NASCAR, and best of all, I GET IT!!!

Okay, on with my day.:)

New Month, New Choices, New Outlook

It was a really good weekend around here as the new month is here. Friday was great because I got to hang with Hannah and just do girl stuff. She is so much fun and her personality is developing at warp speed. Isaac was at MOPS with his mom and we have discovered that we all stay well if we keep Hannah out of the nursery at church. She has the run of the house except for the rooms with the doors closed. She is such a breath of sunshine.

Saturday and Sunday were "veg" days here. It's the first weekend that Corky has not had to work and so we watched movies, ate popcorn, napped, makes us sound "old". He just deserves days of doing nothing to catch back up on life. We slept in until 6:30 am both mornings. That's late for us since we are up at 4:00 am during the week. The weather was beautiful, in the 70's and sunny and breezy at times. Life was good this weekend.

I am waiting for Hannah to come this morning while Isaac goes to preschool. The guys are coming to continue working on the plumbing. The hole in the bathroom is huge enough to bury a full grown adult, if someone was inclined to do this. They are burrowing under to try to avoid digging a hole in the kitchen floor. It is going slow but steady. Our ground is solid clay, the kind they built adobe buildings out of that are still standing to this day like the Mission in San Juan Capistrano that is 15 minutes away. When it is done, I will get a new bathroom floor and tiles around the bathtub that are falling down. I am a patient girl and it will all be worth it when it is finished.

I am making new choices this month to try and let go and let God handle what I cannot, as much as possible. It is a learning process for this "control" girl, who really controls nothing! Life is too good to let a few things kick my butt. I am so thankful that God is patient with me and knows me so intimately.

When I was saying goodbye to Corky this morning outside in the dark, we could really hear the ocean pounding at the bottom of the cliffs. It was beautiful and I am thankful to live so close to one of His huge wonders that stretches for as far as the eye can see. My outlook is full of HOPE.

I hope you all have a wonderful day in this new month and remember that we have so much to be thankful for. I will post more pictures as soon as I teach myself to unload them from my camera into the computer. How hard can it be, right??:)

Love and Hugs, Laurie