Holding it in my heart

Saturday morning, drinking coffee, dog at my feet, hubby puttering around, boys chattering, "Happy" playing on the Mac......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6Sxv-sUYtM

I love these times. 

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Tastes Like Chicken

The best part of chicken for dinner: 

                     (Someone's getting their wish!)

The second best part of chicken for dinner:

                         (Freezer restocked with.....stock)

When everyone has to work this kid and I eat ice cream and read books. It's a pretty great life.

Twinsies

I tried to tell him it was embarrassing for teenagers to match their parents, but he wouldn't believe me...

 

It's March, and you know what that means....

Things are getting MAD around here! 

None of us are in the running (anymore) for the billion dollars Warren Buffet promised to a perfect bracket filler-outer. But things are still looking good for the gbattery March Madness bracket challenge! 

Thank goodness the sun is shining because, as late as we've had to stay up to watch basketball, we couldn't function without it!

And for your cuteness fix of the day: 

We had a little friend visiting this morning. One-year olds are the greatest thing on the earth. 

This week

It was a rough week for the Tar Heels but a good week for the gbattery! 

This week we had lots of company, lots of sunshine, and lots of fun. We all went out to dinner once and the Soldier even took me out to lunch, just the two of us! 

This guy got his driver's license! 

He made us go to Taco Bell right afterwards and said we could just get out if we didn't like it. A little piece of paper sure went to his head! ;) And, actually, I think he dropped us off at home afterwards, then screeched off down the street and we didn't see him for days....

The girl posted this beautiful picture on Facebook. It was taken in January by our favorite professional photographer, Kristin Guynn, with Hearth & Honey photography. Pretty amazingly gorgeous.

The married boy posted a picture of the new ACU's he got. Only a little over two weeks til his graduation!

And on Friday, some of our favorite friends (may as well be family) showed up from Virginia for a few days. Anthony and Zachary are Nick and Joshua's oldest friends. I love having them here-it's like more of my own kids are home. 

I just love these faces.

I did some more virtual house-hunting in Germany and decided that the views outside may be more important to me than the inside of the house-there are some GORGEOUS landscapes over there.

And tonight we had a full house! Some dear friends from Fort Campbell (4) came over, plus our pastor and his wife (2) , plus a couple neighbor kids (2), plus five of us......I am so thankful for my new giant dining room table! I wish I had taken some pictures tonight to add to our North Carolina bucket list album....

One other important item checked off the list: beach week is booked!!! 

On another note, I know of some people who are experiencing real sorrow this week. I am so aware that God is good ALL the time. And ALL the time, He is good. Not just when we're having a good week. It's choosing to trust that He is there and loves us that makes all the difference. I've been pondering the idea of FEELING loved, especially when things are not going so good. Ann Voskamp wrote an excellent blog on that subject, which you can read here if you would like:

http://www.incourage.me/2014/03/7-things-you-need-when-youre-overwhelmed-cant-keep-up.html

Radaph. What a powerful word.

Just a Thursday

Spent at a favorite restaurant with some of my favorite people.

Bucket Listing again

I feel like we were just doing this in Maryland, but it's time to start seeing the things we love one last time and getting to things we haven't seen yet before the Army moves us on!

Last night we got to go to the Dean Dome one last time before we leave, and boy, was it a doozy! The Tar Heels ended up winning by 2, after a nail-biting second half, but that was only part of the story!

It was an early game and that is difficult to get to, even when the Soldier doesn't have an incredibly busy week like he has this week! To make matters even more interesting, we got the bottom end of a winter storm that was making its way east and our temps fell about 30 degrees in the afternoon and brought in some icy rain and sleet.

We were not to be deterred, though. The Soldier got home in time, we bundled up, and off we went!

It was coooooold. 28 degrees when we got there, with wind chills in the teens. Nick did not bring a coat because he's super tough. It was actually snowing in this picture. Thank goodness our parking spot was close. And did we pay for parking? No. We. Did. Not. The Soldier has a personal rule against paying for parking in Chapel Hill and he always finds the best spots.

We arrived early enough to pick up some freebies and headed to our awesome seats on the mezzanine level, which we got for face value! Whoop!!!! (That's me bragging just a little....)

We got to see warm ups, the shoot around, and the presentations to the senior class and their parents, which was awesome. Did I mention it was senior night?

And just as we were settling in, we were approached by a staff member and told we had been chosen the Ram's Club Members of the Game! 

We had our picture taken and got this nice card with a $25 concessions gift certificate! This night was AWESOME!

The smiles on everyone's faces and the Tar Heel win (12th in a row) made the whole night great.
We headed back out in the cold and had a slippery drive home.
Made it just in time to climb into bed for a short's night sleep before the busy day ahead.

I will miss getting to go to games. It's so pretty in Chapel Hill and the game atmosphere is so great. Just enough yelling and cheering but nothing too crazy (we have no plans to rival Maryland or NC State on that front). A Chick-fil-a sandwich and some popcorn, the videos on the big screens, everyone yelling "TAR----HEEL!" It's a good time. We'll still watch while we're in Germany but the middle of the night on tv won't hold quite the same draw as being in Chapel Hill.....