Sarah's Birthday at School

An evening at the Grausteins'

Tennis

Playing in the dirt

Pool

View of evening sky from the driveway

Church in the Park--and a few extra photos

Our church had "Church in the Park" on Labor Day weekend. It was so weird to be singing "Blessed Be Your Name" with full accoustics, all the instruments and sound board and all, with this basically as my view. It was one of those moments that reminds me how much life has changed, and so fast. One year ago at this time, not an ounce of this was on my radar screen, yet here I am singing "You give and take away, my heart with choose to say, Blessed Be Your Name." This time, recounting the friends he has "taken away." But look at that view.

Here are just a few other random photos from the weekend.

Father Son Bonding Time

Grammy and Grampa were here for Labor Day Weekend. We celebrated Sarah's birthday together, and had a nice time. Grampa was itching for a project to do so they decided to build a deck next to our pool. They got started Sunday night by putting the posts in with cement which needed to dry overnight. After coming in from about two hours of work in the heat and humidity, Karl's dad said, "this is great, now I have something to look forward to tomorrow."

So early Monday morning they got to work. It was so hot, but the light cloud cover actually kept it slightly cooler than usual.

Getting in and out of the pool usually required climbing on this ladder, while wet of course, and one side of it was over cement. Needless to say, my mother's heart will beat easier when Tim climbs these steps instead of that ladder.

Love those steps.

And TA DA!! The finished product. $450, 11 hours, and several gallons of sweat. Thanks Dad, Thanks Karl! You guys are the best, I love the new deck!

Oh How He Loves Us!

It is only my second post and my "picture is worth a thousand words" is going out the window. I have a story to tell--so here come the thousand words, with a photo or two on the side.

There is more to the Turtle Story, and it is a story of God's showing his love in the minute details of our lives.

It begins when Karl and I came down to St Simons to interview for the job back in March or so. We went into one of the tourist shops down in what is called The Village. In that shop was a 50 gallon aquarium full of tiny (about 2 inches) yellow bellied slider turtles. I fell in love with them, and knew that Anna would love them too. Since we still lived in Maryland, and the 3 oz. liquids limit mandated by the airlines was hardly enough water to get one of those cute turtles home, I planned to return when we moved here to buy one. I could hardly wait to get one; I knew Anna would love one and they were so adorable and cool.

So we moved at the end of June, and after settling in I took the kids and went to that shop to get a turtle. Upon walking in the store I was immediately saddened to see the sign on the aquarium full of turtles, it read: "no buy, only look." Oh, I was so disappointed. I went to the clerk and inquired about the sign. He said the state had made a law that stores are no longer allowed to sell the turtles because several young children had put them in their mouths and choked on them. Oh, okay, we were disappointed, but we understood.

So fast forward to tropical storm Fay. The morning after the storm had cleared us, Karl was moving some tree branches out of the street. He was walking through the field next to our house to put them in the forest when he saw Turtle on some really tall grass, all by himself. Anna came running in the house to tell me. I went out to see, and sure enough, he is the exact same type of turtle they were selling in that store...Now he lives in our house, where he all regularly admire God's handywork anytime of day. He is so cool.

Yes, I feel the love. It is one of those infinite "little things" God does all the time, but I have a green and yellow little reminder just when I need one!

(My favorite quote from Anna in this turtle adventure was: "We wouldn't be very smart if we didn't have the internet.")

Last Sunday, church was a real blessing to me. The pastor closed the service with the "cardboard testimony" presentation that has been done at Hillsong. It was so powerful. Here is a link to the video of it:
http://www.sscommunitychurch.com/cardboard-testimonies

Make sure your volume is up, the song is very good too.

Gotta Start (Blogging) Somewhere

So if a picture is worth a thousand words, then I shouldn't have to write much. Except for the fact that there is a lot to tell. We have just made a major change in our lives and life couldn't be more different here in Georgia than it was in Maryland. But if I keep waiting until I have it all written well, this blog is never going to get done, so here goes nothin' (or as much as I can squeeze in between life with three young kids).










We play in the rain a lot here, I am not sure why, we never did this in Maryland.

We also play in the pool and ride bikes on our street a lot.

Karl found a turtle in the field next to our house and we kept him! The kids call him Turtle, but I call him Slider.

School started on August 13th. Anna in second grade and Sarah in Pre-K. Both girls love their teachers, and we do too!