A month of firsts and lasts

Lasts



last day in our old house

Ronnie's last day at Union (work)

Ronnie's last day at Union (school)

last service as Northbrook members

last lunch with Jamie and Marcie (just joking - you know its not the end)

last time to work in the old LDL office



Firsts



first time to stay at our new house

Ronnie's first day at his new job

first time to work at the new LDL office

first time to have small group at our new house

first time to meet Oscar - the little old man across the street

first time to watch TV at our new house (1 month after we moved in)

first time to try to mow our new yard (which at this point may be a three day project for Ronnie with a push mower)

Sorry for the month long sabatocal from posting. There have been many monumental events in our lives this month. I probably won't try to catch up on blogging. I'll just start with what's new. I will, however, try to post pictures of the new house for any out-of-towners, or I guess in the Bustrums case it would be out-of-countryers.

Happy Anniversary to Us

This past weekend was our 11 year anniversary. We celebrated by sending the kiddos off for a few nights and taking a trip to Atlanta. Ronnie (the greatest and most romantic trip planner of all time) planned another great trip for us. He is amazing. He covered every little detail. He even brought us a movie (which turned out to be the cheesiest one we've ever seen) to watch at the hotel. He bought me a sweet basket of goodies (lotions from bath and body, new toe rings - very cute, and a great CD). We stayed at the Grand Hyatt in Buckhead. Wow! It was very great. He booked it on priceline so it was only $60 a night. Friday night we ate at a restaurant called Twist. The food was great. We spent the entire day Saturday at Ikea buying stuff for our new (but old) house. It was overwhelming. I mean, have you ever spent 8 hours in one store. We only walked through one time. There is a cafe conveniently located half way through to nurish weary shoppers. We ate at California Pizza Kitchen Saturday night which was excellent since pizza is my favorite. The weekend was wonderful. It was wonderful to have lots of time to spend with Ronnie at such a crazy time in our life. We really needed the time. I am blessed to have Ronnie to spend many more years with.

Happy Father's Day!

I know, I know... it is not Father's Day yet, but we pretended that last Sunday was Father's Day because Ronnie and I will be out of town on the real Father's Day. So the girls were able to give him his present - some very cool new sunglasses. Ronnie is a wonderful dad and it was fun to celebrate him. Here are a few pictures:

Swimming Fun

Here is a look at what we've been doing for the past two weeks. Swimming, swimming and more swimming. My sister and the boys were in town for a week and we had so much fun.

Foster Falls

This weekend we went camping with our great friends the Autrys. Yes, I mean really camping - in tents, in the woods, where cell phones are out of range and the stars are beautiful. I must say that this was one of my favorite camping trips yet. The trails we hiked were beautiful. My kids had a blast. I love being outside and not having to worry about regular life. Here is a slide show of our trip .

OK, so I won't lie. There were a few mishaps along the way. We took a 40 minute detour to get to our campsite because people kept on giving us bad directions. Lilly vomitted from car sickness as soon as we reached the campgrounds - but she was still in her car seat so it was fun to clean up. There was some difficulty in lighting the charcoal to cook our dinner the first night. Marcie was injured while taking a picture of my kids and Lilly spiked a high fever the last night of the camp. But everything else was so great that these only seemed like minor incidents. We are blessed to have such great friends to share a camping trip with.

Here is a video clip of our picnic lunch right beside some cascading water. A little shout out to the Bustrums - we certainly would have dragged you along on our trip if you were still in Jackson.

Louisville, KY

Earlier this week the girls and I went to Louisville with Ronnie. He had a college fair (for Union - so the trip was paid for) on Tuesday night. We stayed at the hotel with an indoor pool while he worked. I know... this fits into my normal routine of watching soaps and eating bon bons while he works. We had so much fun! The girls really enjoyed the pool and staying in a hotel room.

Lilly's Playschool Program

Today was Lilly's end of the year playschool program. At the program the kids sing songs on the stage. Lilly was not so interested in singing (even though she loves to sing). I think she was just trying to figure out what was going on. She is really more of a solo performer. We did get to watch our friends Zach, Addison and Ella Catherine who were singing their little hearts out. After the singing, there were yummy treats. Yeah Lilly! We are so glad you finished a year of playschool.

Here is a video clip of Lilly (not) singing

And a solo performance