Homes

It's been an eventful couple of weeks. Last Tuesday Amelia's grandfather passed away, which meant a sudden and urgent trip home. While the occasion was sad, the opportunity to see family and friends was unexpected and the trip overall was quite enjoyable. Her grandpa had cancer, but the passing was smooth and peaceful with lots of family around, so the atmosphere was much more one of celebrating life rather than just mourning death. It was really nice.

It also meant chaos. We closed on our house at 2:00 on Friday and flew home at 5:00. We didn't even have a chance to go to the new house first. Fortunately, that set the stage for an awesome surprise for Amelia. One of our friends and some of the Elders Quorum members from our church painted the majority of our house while we were gone. It was a huge blessing to us, and we really appreciated it. Pictures will be forthcoming as we get closer to moving in (we have until the 19th, so we're trying to do all we can like painting and laying carpets until then).

The 4th of July was great. After a day of painting and spending money (bought a new washer/dryer and a lawnmower as well as other supplies) we went out to eat with some friends and then went down to Jekyll Island to watch fireworks. It was great. We pulled into the parking lot at 9:05, walked forward and found a little patch of grass at 9:06, and before we even sat down the fireworks began. We were right under them--literally; we kept getting hit with little pieces of debris and the booms from the fireworks were setting off car alarms. But it was a pretty good show and when it was over we walked back to the car and got on the road with basically no traffic problems. Sometimes small towns with lots of money are nice.

Anyway, we're keeping busy with new house work, and I have to say I'm loving it right now. I know I'll probably get tired of projects, but for now I'm just excited to have our own house to do stuff to. It's been worth the wait!