Day by day

July continues to fly on by.....lots going on and this far I have been unable to slow time down! 

Here is a little of the last week....

Alyson and I went on a girls' night out with some of our sweet friends from church...

Nick took a little trip to Maryland to see a friend and while he was gone the rest of us went to Fourth Friday downtown. We participated in a scavenger hunt on the hot and muggy evening and ended up being about 3 minutes late from winning a prize, which was a bummer....but the night was still fun! Followed up with Sweet Frog, which I forgot to take a picture of because we were all so tired.

This weekend Joshua and I went to Virginia to see our good friends, pick up Nick, and take him to an appointment. We started the trip out all smiles...

After driving below 40 mph for two hours in pounding rain, we weren't that smiley...

But we made it, met up with the boy, and had a much better drive back home yesterday. There was an incident involving swarming yellow jackets that put another little damper on the trip, but we made it back and things definitely could have been worse! :) Bring on the last week....

Romans 8:28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.

I want to ride my bicycle....

And now that you are humming that classic Queen song, we can continue with the rest of the post. :)

I need a bike. I do. I am moving to Germany, the land of bike lanes and farmers' paths, and little roads that lead to little markets. It's practically a requirement of living there. 

But not just any old bike. A cute bike. A girly bike. With a comfy seat. I do not plan on Touring de France on my bike. Just looking cute riding around my town. 

I finally found the right bike at www.beachbikes.net.

The Firmstrong Bella, in baby blue (hereafter known as Carolina Blue).

Perfect.

I ordered it and it came in less than a week. In a very large, very intimidating box.

I wasn't even sure what some of those required tools were. 

I had a short, panicked, "I need my husband!" moment but then determined I could do this. I dumped the contents out and found the manual, which I read from front to back. I'm like that.

There are several videos on the website detailing the assembly of the different parts. I watched them all. A couple times. Found the tools, got some water (it was HOT out), and set to it. 

One of the videos shows a girl in a dress assembling her bike in ten minutes. Ok, first, her bike didn't have any gears to figure out (mine is a 7-speed). Also, her bike started out more assembled than mine. And it was obvious she had assembled bikes before and probably already knew how brakes work and how to attach a chain. SHE WORKS FOR THE COMPANY. Not fair. It's like photoshopping perfectly arched eyebrows and skinny arms on magazine covers. Those aren't real people. That girl probably just stays in that little room assembling bikes all day long. Let's see a real person walk in off the street and do it! Let's see some sweat dripping off her nose-let's see her try to figure out what a "fork drop off"  is! Let's see some tears and several rest breaks....that's real, foks. 

So....we skip ahead a couple of hours and voila! 

I

Now I just need a basket......

Wrapping up...

The last of the boy birthdays this month belongs to the Big Boy. Who's actually a man/husband/soldier/soon-to-be dad. But he used to be my boy....

25 years old now, with a new job and a little family. What a blessing to get to watch my children grow up...

To celebrate, his Wifey planned a little trip to the Aloha Zoo on Sanford. It's a small, back-yard-ish zoo populated with animals who have been rescued from bad situations. It was really pretty cool! I'm glad Rachael hooked us up because I don't think we would have gone there on our own.

The Birthday Man

Everyone got to feed Stretch the giraffe, who was rescued two years ago from a garage in Ohio!

Rachael was the cutest giraffe feeder, though...

6-week old Luna having some lunch.

The alligator cage cleaner was sporting the signs of the dangers of his job...

There were 4 tigers, a bunch of peacocks, assorted farm animals, TONS of ponies, foxes, skunks, tropical birds, and an awesome bear, none of which I took pictures of. Why? I do not know. But it was fun!

Then back for presents and pizza!

Off to bed early, because the next day was moving day! Jarrett got a great job last week and they moved to Greensboro! We were so sad they had to leave, but so excited for the way God opened the doors for this opportunity. He made it obvious that was where He wanted them so they got ready to go!

Getting ready to pack up the trailer...

Soooo glad the Army pays people to do this for us...

And off they went! 

Now they're all moved in, getting settled, he's working, and they are finding their way around Greensboro. Yay for sweet young families starting their lives together! <3

The Middle birthday

Well, I wasn't very timely with my posts-today is the Last birthday but I haven't posted about the Middle birthday yet! 

Here goes:

Nick turns 20. (Which is so weird to type.)

Generally on birthdays I ask the birthday boy/girl what meal they want to have and what kind of cake. Nick couldn't make up his mind this year so he left it up to me. He has a number of favorites but we decided on lasagna and garlic bread and it was yummy and just right. 

The cake was another matter. What kind of cake to send this man off on the beginning of his world adventures? 

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty to the rescue! That movie has quickly become one of our favorites. Clementine cake was the obvious choice! (Rent the movie if you haven't seen it to get the cake reference)

An internet searched helped me find just the right recipe and with a couple hours of prep, the cake was on its way...

Church in the morning-

We had lasagna after church, then opened presents. 

From Alyson and Nick's best friend, Anthony. (So glad I kept my Shaun Cassidy records!)

Birthday with the World Cup Finals...

Then time for cake. 

Sooooo delicious. Rich and moist and citrus-y. Not wrapped in a shoot itenerary, but still awesome.

Tuesday we continued the fun with a trip to Wet n Wild in Greensboro. Super fun day which got rained out a couple hours before closing. The best part of that is that we got rain checks to come back for another full day free!!

And the countdown begins to the day that sweet boy/man leaves home. What a bittersweet day that will be for me. He is a joy to our entire household, a sweet and gentle spirit, compassionate and loving. He is so funny, as any of you who are his Facebook friends know. Every little kid loves him to death and pretty much every big kid, too. And, let's face it, every adult, too. ;)

Letting him go may be one of the hardest things I've done. My heart beats with the remembrance of what the Lord brought him through and I know He will be with my boy through all the rest life will bring. He has plans for Nick-and Nick feels that calling upon his life. What a precious measure of grace to be able to feel God's comforting hand as I let my son's hand go....

Birthday Number 2-our nation!

Happy birthday, USA!

This is the first year we've gotten to experience the famous Independence Day celebration at the home of the 82nd Airborne and XVIII ABN CORPS and it did not disappoint!

We started the day with a sweet fellowship at our church, People's Baptist Church. Many of our members were on vacation so we had a small but hearty crew there to enjoy some barbecue and visiting. I will definitely miss these southern church dinners when we move....

 Afterwards we headed home and walked over to the main post parade field for the big celebration. We had heard stories of the nightmarish parking and traffic lines so we felt especially blessed to have the party going on right in our neighborhood.

Free barbecue

Several concerts (.38 Special, the 82nd Airborne band, and Josh Turner)

and lots of fun!

You know what I really love? I love that people in the US go all out when celebrating our country. Maybe other countries get a little rush of country pride for the World Cup, but no other nations wear their colors quite as proudly as we do here.

Don't forget fireworks! This was one of the best shows we've seen-definitely worthy of the occasion and the location! 

Happy Birthday, America! You may be showing your age a little, but you can still put on a great party!