To Market! To Market! To Buy a Big House?

Well, i am writing to congratulate my parents on the great feat of getting the house on the market to sell. This weekend will be the first time ever that 101 Shady Creek has seen any other potential owners besides the Baker family. It has served its entire 27 years as the home of K,M,E,S,D,N&T and now the family base point too for B,T,W,R,G,O,D,JG,C&G. It is hard to imagine anyone else living in our house, or any other furniture in there. I came home from the hospital to this house and it is hard to imagine that our children will never know it like we did. But i am very grateful that my parents are taking the steps they need to now to ensure that they are not burdened with such a responsibility later in their retirement, and so that we don't have to fight them to move them later!
We love this place, but we love you more.

The Mountain House

Will and I are very blessed that his parents retired to such a beautiful and peaceful place, that is really close too! We love to go up to the mountain house to rest and spend lots of time here: on the back porch. As you can tell, creation literally proclaims God's glory all around us.

"This is what the LORD says—
the Holy One of Israel, and its Maker:
Concerning things to come,
do you question me about my children,
or give me orders about the work of my hands?

It is I who made the earth
and created mankind upon it.
My own hands stretched out the heavens;
I marshaled their starry hosts.

For this is what the LORD says—
he who created the heavens,
he is God;
he who fashioned and made the earth,
he founded it;
he did not create it to be empty,
but formed it to be inhabited—
he says:
"I am the LORD, and there is no other."

Isaiah 45: 11,12,18

A Baby Showering...

This weekend the mountain friends in Sapphire, North Carolina had a baby shower to honor Will and I and our impending arrival. We had a wonderful time at the Remey's house with these folks, plus a couple of friends from Greenville who made the trip up too.

Will, Lauren, Brad, Evelyn & Floyd enjoying the fire (yes, a fire in July... it was WONDERFUL weather in the mountains!)

The parents-to-be with both sets of grands-to-be. "Oma & Pops" Baker, and "Kaye-Kaye & Granddad" Gibbs.

Dee Remey (our wonderful host) and two of their children, Lunden & Grace

Lauren is 9 weeks behind me... and she's having a Boy...

The nursery bedding! Pillows for the daybed, the bumper pad, and crib skirt... Don't worry, i'll post updated pictures of the nursery once it is put together :)

Boat Weekend 2007 (a few more pictures)

girls riding on the front of the boat



our fearless leader, Captain David Goodman



The whole crew on the back of the Diversion showing off our bags: Captain Dave, First Mate Barb, Emily, Rubina, Erin, Beth, Danielle & Sam



The girls with Gary (next door neighbor boat owner)

business... or pleasure?

Well, i traveled up to DC last week for three days of work, but i was very careful to schedule a couple of extra days to scoot up to Maryland for a Girls Weekend. It was FABULOUS and wonderful and well, let me just show you what kind of pampering we enjoyed. Friday we arrived in Kent Narrows, MD to board the boat, "Diversion" docked in the local marina there.



After a boat ride to St. Michaels a few miles away, we returned to the marina and had an evening full of laughter and great food, with new friends and old. Below you can see me and Rubina enjoying the boat, and also a snapshot from the water of Perry Inn which is in St. Michaels. This is the site of the house on the movie, "Wedding Crashers" - Owen Wilson & Vince Vaughn played football on the lawn :)





The next day after breakfast we lathered up and hit the water again to ride up to Annapolis. We spent the ride lounging on the front of the boat talking and relaxing, then took in the sites of Annapolis. I love that town! It was so great.







That evening we just stayed on the boat and ate snacks and pizza and played a wonderful game of mafia. The boat friends around us were great fun to play with, and they were real troopers staying up for the games. We had a beautiful sunset too.



It was really sad to leave on Sunday, but i cannot wait to do this again... Barb and David were such gracious hosts, and made SC Girls Boat Weekend 07 better than any of us imagined! (See our cute tote bags?)

our nursery...

so, i just got an e-mail with pictures of the cutest nursery you ever did see. Funny thing is, the mom-to-be is due the same week we are expecting our child... So for contrast, i would like to post the pictures of our nursery. I'll call them "before" shots... in hopes that sometime over the next couple of months i can post one incredible transformation for you all. This room has been in one short year: master bedroom (temporary), office, music room, guest room, storage room, to now "junk catch all"... yes, i am ashamed to admit, we still do occasionally let a very close friend or family member crash in this chaos.



exhibit A (above) "a crib full of junk" - Right wall



exhibit B (above) "music equip., possible changing table, xtra tv" - Left wall



exhibit C (above) "anyone want an overstuffed recliner?" - closet & entry wall



exhibit D (above) "this really will be a great day bed... maybe" - far wall

Happy Belated Birthday Brother...

Thomas is a special guy... he survived his upbringing in a home with four older sisters, and no brothers. As a result, we sisters are incredibly grateful that our husbands are such good brothers to our one and only. Thomas, thanks for putting up with all our tricks: pushing you down the stairs in cardboard boxes, dressing you like a ballerina and parading you to soccer games, leaving you at church, leaving you just about everywhere else, never attending one of your bowling tournaments to see your "double life", etc. etc. You are the best brother we could have never imagined and we're so blessed to have you.

Dahlonega, Georgia

well, Evelyn & Floyd ventured off for several days to celebrate both our anniversary and the Fourth of July. First, our anniversary... June 28th. We have a tradition for the past four years of going to a bed and breakfast. This year we decided to visit Dahlonega, Georgia. See pictures below of the square... it is quite cute.


Several b&b's were already full, so we decided on an untraditional lodging at one b&b called a "yurt". They are semi-permanent structures, canvas walls, wood floor, with a/c and electricity... quite charming and fun for a change. And the hosts at the Inn were delightful. A picture of our "Yurt":


We filled our days with lounging, hiking, eating, tooling around antique stores, etc. It was wonderful. There are some great waterfalls in the area. Here are two we picked to check out on Friday and Saturday. The first was our Friday hike to Dick's Creek Falls. It was great because we were able to walk a long way in the creek and wade around in the water... loved it! The second was our Saturday hike to Cane Creek Falls in Camp Glisson. There was an enticing path on the otherside, so we decided to go for it... an hour later we were caught in a torential downpour on the otherside of camp without cover... it is a hilarious memory, both of us running down the road in the thunderstorm. I loved every minute.





and lastly, our favorite music venue and restaurant in Dahlonega is "The Crimson Moon". It is a really old house on the historic square with balconies overlooking the streets. We sat on the second story porch and took in all the sites and sounds of this lazy little town while the music drifted up from downstairs... i would highly recommend this place - and i really wanted to hug the chef because our meal was SO incredible!
Here is our view from our table: