Wisdom and beauty

"To everything there is a season, 

a time for every purpose under heaven...

A time to weep, and a time to laugh,

a time to mourn and a time to dance...

He has made EVERYTHING beautiful in its time

(I love that!) 

Also, He has put eternity in their hearts,

except that no one can find out the work that God does

from beginning to end.

I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice,

and do good in their lives,

(enjoy some sunsets!)

and also that every man should eat and drink 

and enjoy the good of all his labor 

-it is the gift of God."   

Verses from Ecclesiastes chapters 3, 5 and 7

Have a great weekend!
~Becky

Great fun with great friends

Andrew spent most of the summer of 2015 in CA with his brother and his best friend. When he went to a nerf gun war party he met S.
She and her family have become great friends of ours and this week, she and her mom came to visit us!
And we had THE best time.

There was segway riding

and lots of rain!  -Californians get really excited about rain since they don't get much! ; )

A beach night

Alligators sightings

A double date

Comfort food

Games

Church

Golf

Boba tea
(and a contest to see who could keep their legs elevated the longest)  😂

And the highlight of the trip was a surprise date in which Andrew asked S to be his girlfriend.

(with the permission and blessing of all of us, parents)♥️

It was a really fun week!
Super thankful for all our BEAUTIFUL friends! Near and far!

~Becky

Birthday Surprise!!!

Saturday was my birthday! And I'm pretty sure it was the best one ever!

I walked out of my room at seven in the morning and I saw Andrew in the living room.
(I'm not sure I've ever seen any of my kids at that hour on a Saturday before!)
I had a feeling it has to do with my BIRTHDAY!
I heard a MALE voice in the kitchen and I looked at Andrew and mouthed the words "WHO IS THAT?!" Because it sure wasn't Joy.
LOL
He tilted his head like "Come and see." And then he started filming!

OH MY GOODNESS!!!
NATHAN was in our kitchen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He DROVE 36 HOURS to surprise me on my birthday!
I was overwhelmed and in a daze!

Zac was there, too. He'd taken off work to be apart of the surprise and he was cooking us all breakfast!

My scream woke up Joy, who was just as dazed as I was.

We have a cute video of both boys sneaking in our house earlier that morning and our dog went crazy over Nathan and almost woke up everyone! Then Nathan woke up Andrew and said, "Andy, get up and let's make Mom breakfast for her birthday." And then you see Andrew's hand reach out to touch Nathan and to make sure he wasn't dreaming! (too cute!!!) Then Nathan says, "I'm real."
It is so sweet!

I can't even describe how sweet and special it feels to have us all together! : )

I had to fill out a survey recently that asked me what my absolute favorite thing in the world is and my answer was "My kids and guacamole!" LOL
At this moment, I had both! Yay!

We had lunch together, hung out at the house and talked and then went to see the Hillsong movie: Let Hope Rise. It was great!!!!
Then we came home and our former next door neighbors brought me flowers and tiramisu! We had fun chatting with them until late into the night.

Then Sunday we went to church and then to the beach!

Best birthday ever!

THANK YOU, Nathan!
What a sacrifice!

~Becky

Feeling all the feels

Yesterday turned out to be a wonderful day. Oh my goodness! I was so overwhelmed with the outpouring of love extended to me by so many friends, on what would have been my 25th wedding anniversary. 

Wow! My love tank is full to overflowing. LOL

Of course, I did some crying. Then I went to the attic and found a stack of old anniversary cards in a box up there. Reading those actually made me feel better! : )

And there was breakfast in bed and I was taken out for lunch! My sweet kids spoiled me!

Then the kids and I headed to the beach. -That was a major sacrifice for a couple of my non-beach-lovers. Bless their sweet hearts! 

Nathan, who was on a road trip to TX called and all talked to him for most of the drive on speaker. So, it was almost like the 5 of us were together chatting. (I can't wait to have him home for Christmas!) 

It was a gorgeous day at the beach!

This picture cracks me up! 

It should be entitled: Entertaining Sister Trying to Enteract with Pokemon Playing Brothers! LOL

That evening, we all went to Cracker Barrel, which was kind of sentimental because we spent many anniversaries there, when our kids were really little and bringing them along to eat off the kids menu was actually cheaper than paying a babysitter to watch them all. LOL 

What a sweet day!

~Becky

25

So, today would have been our 25th wedding anniversary.

Hubby was always excited about making it to this milestone. He talked about it a lot.
When he was in high school, his parents celebrated their 25th anniversary and he and his older brothers threw them a huge party. And gave them an engraved silver something or other.

He always told our kids that they would be throwing a party for us on our 25th too.
-Then at some point he decided that he was perfectly open to the idea of them sending us on a cruise instead. ; )

They were pretty young when this discussion first started coming up around the dinner table. The oldest boys would shrug their shoulders and say "OK, Dad."
 "If we have any money by then." LOL
It all sounded pretty daunting to a bunch of kiddos who didn't even receive an allowance. ; )



I'm not exactly sure what I'll do today. But I did take the day off  from work, just in case, I'm a hot mess! I think that was a good call.

Remembering,

~Becky 

A little celebration

FROYO selfie!

My temporary job turned into a permanent one!!!
So grateful and excited!

Not to mention, any chance to hang out with these two is always a good time! : )

~Becky

I really love electricity

So, last night, Andrew and I "battened down the hatches" and then picked up our tropical storm supplies

Along with one gallon of water not pictured. ; )

In case this isn't big news where you live, the name of the storm is Hermine. (pronounced her-meen) Which has everyone, of course, thinking of Hermoine in Harry Potter.
Fiona must have been a no-show
and next up is Ian. Were there really not any better H names?

During our movie, we heard/felt a tremendous THUD! And our power went out. A branch of an enormous, old oak tree belonging to our next door neighbor came down and knocked our power line to the ground.
We went out and joined all the neighbors to see what we could of the damage, but it was dark. Somehow I missed the memo that one of their cars was UNDER the branch until I went out this morning! Oh my goodness!

Joy or I usually park here, but I felt like she and I needed to park far away from the trees last night, (thank you, Jesus!) and we did.

I'm embarassed that I was pretty whiny when I found out that we were the only ones on the street without power. And I may have even pointed and said "But, it is their tree!"  Oh my word, THAT was not my best moment! ; )

Because the wire was live, the police, the firemen and the electric company all came out. It was better than TV!

Then we went inside and listened to an audiobook on my bed by candle light.
One that included Hermoine.  ; )

~Becky