Our favorite local getaway

Bald Head Island is to us here what Santa Barbara was to us in LA. It takes about an hour to drive to the ferry and then about 20mins on the ferry and you arrive in paradise. A beautiful, quaint little island with no cars allowed (only golf carts and bikes) and yet so classically Southern coastal elegance in every way. Come to visit and we'll take you there. It is truly something you need to experience to understand. We have some dear friends that live on the island and so we go over even more often now.

The photos are from the kids 2nd Halloween which took place on the island on Nov. 1st.

It's snowing!

Ok, so it is only snow flurries, but it is still SNOW and we are thrilled!! Dane is so excited that he can hardly contain himself and his excitement is contagious to Beka even though she has no clue why she is so worked up! Mommy loves it too!

This week in Dane's world

Here is a glimpse into Dane's week. He helped mommy make pumpkin bread as part of our school work. We measured and mixed and tasted of course. He got his very own cool camo apron for his birthday. He built a castle all by himself without any grown-up input or help for the first time. We collected leaves on a nature walk in our neighborhood and made a Thanksgiving turkey for our cork board. We worked on subtraction from 13-1 down to 2-1. The boy loves math, especially when it involves Skittles and M&M's being subtracted from the plate into the belly!!! Oh, what fun it is to live in Dane's world.

Super Star

Look at me daddeeee. Little girl loves to talk, although you can only understand about 5% of what she is saying, but she has a lot to say. She loves to "talk" to her Teta on the phone. Loves to go to the library and most of all love to be out side.

Happy Halloween

Can we eat the candy now? . . .How about now? . . .Is it time now? . . . Can we eat it all tonight?

Happy Fall!

I love our house in the fall. I love the crisp breeze in the middle of the day that necessitates the use of a sweater. I love the frigid nights and clear star filled skies. I love the hint of smoke in the air from the few families who've started using their fireplaces already. I love the holly berries turning from yellow to orange and just starting to take on the reddish hue that will soon overwhelm them. I love taking the kids out to the back yard to play and then bringing lunch onto the deck and needing to sit in the sun to stay warm. Praise the Lord for seasons.

Dane's Party

We had a costume party for Dane's birthday bash. We did it at the clubhouse in our neighborhood which was a real blessing for clean-up. It was so weird to have our first party without any of our CA friends and family. So for those of you who couldn't be there here is what we did. We had pumpkin shaped sugar cookies for the kids to decorate when they first got there, then we played hot potatoe and then had a relay race. After that we had lunch and on the menu were worms on a bun, monster munch, putrid punch and worms in dirt cupcakes. Yum yum, thanks Sal! ; )

Then it was gift time and cake time. I had made this huge 3 layer spooky cake and thought that we'd have tons leftover, but the whole thing was gone and mommy didn't even get a piece. The kids had a blast.

Dane's 4th Birthday

Dane turned 4 on Oct. 20th. I asked him what he wanted to do for his special day. He said "I want Dunkin Donuts for breakfast and I want to go to the beach." So we picked up his buddy Jacob, got donuts and had a ball at the cloudy, cold (54 F) beach. I forgot my camera, hence no photos. In the evening daddy finished work early and they went and picked out some presents with the money that Teta, Sido and Yaya (my mom, dad and grandmother) had sent him. Then we had Dane's favorite homemade pizza and cupcakes for dinner. Happy boy.

Blue Shoes Charlie. The crab that Mr. Billy stretched to catch for Dane. Mr. Billy saved the day for Dano who squealled with excitement when the crab landed on the dock.

Looking to nab a crab

Dane and Daddy with our new net looking for blue crabs.

Lamya and Bekaboo on the dock. Smile!

New friends on Bald Head Island

These are our new friends from Cornerstone Baptist Church, Billy, Megan, Addy and Aiden Morris. We went down to visit them on Bald Head Island where the live. It was a chilly rainy day but we had a blast none the less. The rain stopped long enough for us to go out on the dock and see the beauty around us.

Heavy Reading

The other day Tonii walked into the bathroom and saw Dane reading "The Mortification of Sin" by the Puritan author John Owen. Nothing else really needs to be said. Enjoy the photo.

Sweet Toothe

There is a gourmet store in town called Pine Valley Market that has been using me to make most of the desserts for their catering events for the past couple of months. They asked me to come out last weekend and set up a display and sell cupcakes individually in front of their store so that their regular customers could get a taste of Sweet Toothe. They'd like to get people hooked so that they can start retailing my cupcakes in the store on a daily basis. We will see. My proud and sweet hubby took this photo and told me that it needed to be posted. Thanks Sal for pushing me to finally do some posts again = )

BIG girl

Beka has been above average in the height department since she was born (of course, look who her mother is = ) ). But when I took her in for her 18 month check up I was shocked when the doctor, her uncle Patrick (pretty cool) told me that she is off the charts for height! Yes, our Beka is in the 100th percentile for height. He said that she is actually the height of an average 2 1/2 year old. From these photos you can see that she loves her "bay beee" and her "da deee" too.

Moments

Beka

She loves to be outside and especially to swing. She will stand at the door and point "side, wee". She loves to play dress up already and is obsessed with shoes. She will find mine, Tonii's, Dane's or anyone else who may be visiting and try to parade around the house in them. She is also obsessed with the book "Goodnight Moon" which we must read every night and if she had her way every morning and afternoon too. Her favorite part of the book is the "baboon" which translated means the "red balloon".

Dane

He asked me the other day if I was married and I said yes. Then he said "Well who am I going to marry?". I said "Oh Dane, God will make that clear in His timing". Then he said "Maybe I can marry Meg (Terrell from LA). . . . or maybe Noah (Neri from LA). I got a good laugh from that and said "Well, Noah might actually be more submissive, but Meg would definitely be the more God honoring choice."

We were in the car on Friday and out of the blue Dane says "Mommy I don't want to go to college." You can imagine my surprise from not only the statement, but from the subject matter too. So I said "Well why don't you want to go to college?" to which he replied "Because I want to stay with you and daddy." Now come on how can you argue with such a sweet sentiment as that. However, I did assure him that if he truly felt that way that he could live at home while he went to college. I can't believe I am having these conversations already. He isn't even 4 yet!! Marriage and college, this is just too much for mommy to handle.

Waiting for Teta

My mom came to stay with us for 2 1/2 weeks while I was recovering from the complications from my oral surgery. Tonii had to travel for almost 2 strait weeks, so it was such a blessing to have her here. She just left last week and we already miss her. The night that she was arriving Dane asked if he could stay up and wait until Teta got here. I said yes, knowing how much he wanted to see her. So I set him up on our bed with a snack and drink and the movie "Lassie". I wanted him to be able to remember how special it is when he gets to see his grandparents. Well my mom didn't make it here until around 11pm and Dane was still up! In fact, as soon as she got here, he broke out the biggest smile I had seen in a long time and started jumping up and down. He asked her to take him to bed and then he was out!

Jenni and Brandon

My sister Jenni and her husband Brandon came to visit from Florida last week. I felt so bad that they had to be here while I was in so much pain, but God's timing was truly perfect. You see Jenni is in nursing school and already working part-time as a nurse in training. It was only because she was here that I went to the Emergency clinic when things got so bad and was able to get the more powerful antibiotic that I needed as well as the topical numbing liquid that finally allowed me to eat and drink. She was also the one to bravely apply the numbing liquid to my wound because I couldn't see it to apply it correctly. God's timing was perfect and I think that He drew us even closer together because this was one of the first times that my little sister was in a position to truly help her big sister in ways that were so needed. We still had a great time together and they had a blast with the kids too. Every night while they were here I would ask Dane at bed time what his favorite part of the day was and he would grin and say "seeing Auntie Jenni". That says it all. Above is a photo of Jenni and the kids coming in from the boat and the other is of Dane and Brandon on Bald Head Island.

Beka's Half Birthday

We celebrated Beka's half birthday on 8/6. It is so hard to believe that she is one and a half. As you can see she is very much a little girl and she LOVES her cupcakes! For those of you who don't know, we celebrate half birthdays in our family (for the kids only!) because life is too short not to celebrate every chance we get. Instead of a cake they get cupcakes and instead of receiving gifts they give a gift to someone in need. This half birthday Beka is giving 2 gifts. One to the International Rhett Syndrome Foundation and the other to a missionary family in Uganda. We want to help the kids to think about the needs of others at times other than Christmas. It'll be really exciting to see what needs they choose to give to once they are old enough to decide.

Complications

Please pray. I've had some complications since my oral surgery on the 7th. On the 11th I developed an infection on the roof of my mouth which is where the surgeon took a large piece of tissue to graft in another area. The infection has eaten away at the tissue exposing the bone on the roof of my mouth and leaving me in a tremendous amount of pain and unable to eat or drink a whole lot. Today (Sunday) I went in for an emergency visit with the surgeon and she has scheduled me to go in tomorrow morning to have blood drawn. She is concerned that I am not healing even though I've been on antibiotics for a week. She will be taking blood to try a procedure that they use in extreme cases. They will use my cells to create a membrane to place over my wound and try to jump start healing. Please pray that this works! Please pray for healing, reduction in pain and for me to be able to get enough nutrition. Tonii left today and will be traveling for business for the next two weeks, so please pray for strength both emotional and physical for me. My mother-in-law is here with me tonight. I am so blessed to have family close by.

As Jimmie Rodgers sings, "Why There's A Tear In My Eye" on the Hi Fi, Hollis looks for the faulty phone jack.

Abner and Hollis

Abner Meecham needed his phones lines fixed and Hollis Pemberton was the man for the job.

Totally Toddler

She pulls out her changing pad and wipes and lays them on the couch for me when I tell her she has a dirty diaper, she leans back when in my arms to gently play with the eyelashes and giggle, she points to the oven when the timer beeps and says "heis" (German word for hot, that is another story in itself). She is no longer my baby, but totally toddler!

Oral Surery Success!

Many thanks to those of you to whom I remembered to tell that I was attempting oral surgery again. This procedure was attempted and failed twice in LA, but today it was successful in NC! Praise the Lord! I am swollen, in some pain and very tired, but thrilled that it worked. Please continue to pray that I will recover and heal quickly so as not to be a burden to my family and that it will truly "take" and truly be a long term success.

My Sunshine

My little boy is growing up. Mom, these photos are especially for you. Do you recognize the shirt that Dane is wearing?? It is my shirt from when I went to pre-school at the Sunshine School! I never imagined my child one day wearing it. Thank you for saving it and giving it to me and making me mindful of saving special things like that to give to my kids for their kids one day. I can hardly believe that he is almost 4! Just yesterday we got a newsletter from Scotts Hill Christian Academy where he will begin attending pre-school in the fall. I started getting all fluttery inside as I realized that he'll be leaving home, in a sense, for the first time in just 4 weeks. As I read over the scheduled events for the next 10 months I realized that life is about to change in a big way. He'll only be in school 2 days a week and then at BSF with me for a third day of structure, but I know that it'll be a major change in his little world.

Coast Guard Day

We decided to go to downtown Wilmington for the day since we hadn't done that since we moved here. Well we picked the perfect day because it just happened to be Coast Guard day and our boat loving boy was in for a real treat. Tonii and Dane got in line to go into the ships and Beka and I strolled through the farmers market and boutiques. I picked them all up a long chocolate dipped pretzel and we met up again on the waterfront. It was a fun, relaxed way to spent a Saturday. My sister and her husband are coming to visit next week and I think that we will take them downtown too.

In Escrow!

Praise the Lord, we are in escrow with our townhouse in Santa Clarita. Lord willing we will close August 15th or sooner. We have learned not to take anything for granted, so please continue to join us in praying that this will close successfully. Things are progressing very smoothly and it will be such a blessing to have that burden lifted.

Ode to Sally

This is for my dear friend and sister Sally on the occasion of her 32nd Birthday.

An ode to my friend Sally

so faithful and so sweet.

Excellent wife, encouraging mom,

her friendship is such a treat.

Often I sit and wonder

how can others go through

this life that God has given

without a friend like you.

I LOVE you Sal and hope that you are having an awesome day!

A Dress From My Mom

Mom, here is a photo of me wearing the dress you sent me. I wore it one evening while celebrating our anniversary. I love it because it is comfy and can be either casual or dressed up. Thank you so much.

Our Anniversary

July 14th is our 7 year wedding anniversary. As a surprise Tonii took me away for the weekend to a small beach town called Southport. We stayed in this great old southern mansion on the water built in the 1800's that is now a B&B. We ate at a couple of fantastic restaurants and really enjoyed exploring the town and sitting together on the porches at the B&B and just taking in the water. On Saturday we took the ferry over to Bald Head Island and spent the day riding bikes ALL over the island. We even parked the bikes in the sand and spent some time splashing around in the warm waves. It was an anniversary trip that I will never forget.

Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease

Although it may sound like a livestock disease my precious little girl has come down with it this week. Much to my surprise it is a totally normal virus that many kids get. In fact, she caught it from her cousins when we spent time with them on the 4th of July. She had a high fever for 2 days and then when the fever broke she developed a red rash over her hands, feet and sores in her mouth (hence hand, foot and mouth disease). The saddest thing is that she is just miserable and won't eat or drink because it hurts her mouth. Please pray for her quick recovery.

Moments of Innocence

I don't even know how appropriate this is to share, but it was just so cute and innocent that I had to. Dane woke up from his nap (a rare occurrence anymore) and was rubbing himself in the groin as if he was in pain. I asked him what was wrong and he said "mommy my wee wee is strong, ouch, ouch". I had to stifle a laugh, but discerned that he meant hard and assured him that it was OK and that it happens sometimes so he didn't need to worry. He looked at me and said "mommy does your wee wee get strong too sometimes?" Oh, how I wish I could freeze the innocence and sweetness of those moments for later use.

4th of July

What a great 4th of July we've had! We can hardly believe that we've been here only 3 1/2 months and we were invited to 4 parties this weekend and none of them were our family. We are so grateful and humbled to be so included and accepted so quickly. The above photos are from the party that we went to the evening of the 4th at a historic home on the Cape Fear River built in 1855 and beautifully restored. The people who live there are parents of some friends of ours and they have an amazing view of the river and the battleship. We had perfect vantage point for enjoying the fireworks display. On the 3rd Beka was terrified of them because of the loud booms, but on the 4th I was able to stay inside with her and watch them through a large window, which she loved. She would point and say "peety" (meaning pretty). Dane had a great night "fighting the Philistines" as he put it (playing rough with his cousin and the sons of our friends).