This is the view from the kitchen to the breakfast room with chandelier.

Master bathroom with double vanity.
View from living room to breakfast room. 

This is the house on a rainy day. The water in the front is rainwater that we will fix.






The next picture is the living room with fireplace.
THis is the dining room with chandelier.
 

Funk Monster

My highlight of last week was going to Philadelphia to the Ham Jam and seeing Dr Zarr and the Amazing Funk Monster cover band play. My wonderful husband took me, God bless him, because I know he didn't want to go. We were one of like 12 people there. I enjoyed myself. We got home at midnight, which is quite late for this mommy.
Saturday was spent at a crawfish boil for Isaac Byrd, thrown by my husband and some of his friends. Kate did amazingly well for skipping 2 naps. She is learning to scoot, still loving to eat grass, and has fallen in love with Sophie, our one dog. Rosie is still missing. I put up signs around town today offering a reward for her return.
I've been having a babysitter come each day in Andy's absence this week. She really loves Kate, and Kate is learning to like her. I was able to go to walmart today by myself. That rarely happens. I kept feeling like, I gotta go quickly. I bet Kate's crying.
The van we rented, I must admit, is pretty awesome. It drives pretty well, the doors open by remote control, has a DVD player (i don't know if that's good or not because i have to drive around listening to the farmer in the dell and Kate can't even see the screen.) and the radio even tells you the name of the song that's playing. i'm not sure if my personality suits a minivan, i'm really an SUV girl. i'd much rather be in a tahoe. but i'm very thankful for wheels at this point.
um, i'm hating the theme on american idol this week. i think the theme is crappy songs. my man taylor sucked it up.
andy has been gone since late sunday night and won't be back until friday or sat. i'm doing really well, better than i thought. i think it's because people are praying for me. i'm still battling postpartum depression but trying to beat that sucker by reading books about it. brooke shields apparently had a bad time with it. i got her book from the library and i guess i'll see what she says.
one thing i hate about being alone. preparing meals. it seems so futile to cook for one. and i don't really like leftovers. the dog does, though.
well, that's all from here. thanks for reading! keep praying! we have one couple really interested in the house. i hope they buy it. we also made an offer on a house in waveland. i hope they let us buy it. i love that house. i'm already picking out colors and planning the rooms out. but i'm trying not to think about it too much because a hurricane could come and wash it all away. i don't need to put too much emphasis on it.

Weddings and websites

The wedding was so much fun. I got to hang out with Katie and Betsy a lot, as well as Austin, and it was fun. Katie has a fun family. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves at Monmouth, and I highly recommend visiting there. I'd go back in a heartbeat. It was a long way from Louisville but worth the trip. Andy's sister was a great babysitter and that took a lot off my mind.
Kate has been very fussy ever since we got home. She whines and whines. She whines while she's eating, she whines while she's playing, so i don't know what to do. Andy said, put her in her bed. so i did. and she went to sleep. it was amazing. i'm liberated.
I was really sad because I thought Andy was going to the Bay all week and we would stay home alone, but he ended up not going. Very happy to have him here with us. It relieves a lot of stress.
There's a new site on the web. It's sad to me, but it's a site to help us sell our house. 518EastMain.com We put the for sale sign in the yard today and the website was launched. This is really happening.
We found another house in the Bay that we like, well, I like, and I'm ready to move in. We have to actually buy it first but I really hope this works out. It's finished and landscaped now, it's move in ready. No redoing it. It's fabulous. Pray for it. 3 bedroom, 2 bath.

Bohemian Rhapsody

God, I love American idol. this is my first week this season to get into it. I've been into all the seasons, and i've predicted the winner every time. but man was i excited when they were doing Queen songs this week-one of my favorite groups, oddly enough. i don't know who to pick. any ideas? i tivoed this episode so i already know who got kicked off, and yeah, he sucked, but i don't know.
in other news, andy is at the coast and Kate and i journeyed home alone. shopped in meridian for clothes for the wedding. i will be returning some items that i didn't have time to try on because kate was crying.
we head out in the morning to jackson to pick up andy and head to natchez. i hope it goes well.
news on the bay st. louis front-i looked at the house that we posted pics and i didn't really like it. must keep looking. speaking of keeping looking, our 2 labs are missing and i am really sad because i think they have run away. God must have decided to take them away. they have never been gone this long.
kate has her 3rd tooth now. she's growing so fast. i love her so much. she is such a blessing.
God is so sovereign. I am glad He is taking care of me.

Well I did decide to go down to the coast this week. We had a long trip yesterday with kate, taking almost more than 5 hours. jean's wife kim is here for a few days, which made me want to come so i could get to know her. she's really cool. kate slept pretty well last night. we bought a sound machine to cover up the crying and her daddy's snoring, and wouldn't you think i would have a great night's sleep? well the noise from the sound machine kept me awake. my mind wouldn't rest. i felt like an insomniac. that defeats the purpose of the "soothing, relaxing sounds." oh well. i still had my earplugs in (standard) and could hear andy snoring several feet away.
i changed the comment thingie on here. so if you tried to leave comments before and couldn't, now you can.
i have no idea what today has in store but i'm here at the pastor's house with no tv, no carpet on the floor, no car. so this makes for not much entertainment for me or kate. but there is a big dog that she loves named jackson.

To Bay or not to bay

We had a fun weekend. we went to starkville on saturday and spent all day there. we went to the annual ruf crawfish boil and took kate in a great stroller, so great that it reclines and she even took 2 naps in it. i had to keep her moving because when in stopped she woke up. so i was on my toes all day but it was fun. didn't see too many alums but a few. hung out with andy's sisters and such. today we went to church and ate at church afterwards and then played with kate all day. i am trying to figure out if i should go to the bay with andy tomorrow, and i think we will. we don't sleep very well down there on the air mattresses, and kate knows she is out of her element, so she acts up a lot. there is no flooring in most of the house, just subflooring, so she can only play on the kitchen floor and the front porch. she gets bored. so do i. but i'd rather not be alone all week so i guess i'll go. we are leaving friday early to go to natchez for a wedding weekend. what a busy week! here is a cute pic of kate. i think it's one of her cutest ones. no, it's not the same as on her blog. it's a little different.

Don't let her fool you

I want you guys to know, she does cry. I know most of the pictures on here are of her smiling, but she does scream, wail, and pitch fits. here she is in the middle of one. and it breaks my heart as i try to figure out what she needs. this picture is sad, but it's the reality of my day at home with a 7 month old. i gotta keep it real. when she's crying, my job is to figure it out and it takes all my strength to do so.  

Yes, I am letting her eat leaves. Sometimes she just needs to experience the world on her own terms. I can't stop the world from hurting her or anything, so sometimes she just needs to eat the leaves. As long as I'm close by to pull them out of her mouth, right? 

My pride and joy

 

The New House in all its glory

Cleaning the Rubble

I don't know how the folks on the coast do it. Clean up the mess. When Andy comes through the house, and I do mean through, he leaves a trail of tears (mess) from one end to the other. I had the house very clean while he was in BSL, and now that he's been here exactly 12 hours, and most of those were sleeping hours, the house is a wreck. This is not good when you have potential folks coming over that might want to buy your house. So I will have to fast track all day to find a clever hole for each piece of junk.
Kate is so cute today. I heard her wake up from her nap, but I always let her talk for a few minutes before I go get her. She talks to herself and flips to her tummy and commences to do her bumps, as we call them. She gets on all fours and sticks her rear in the air and bumps it up and down. It's pretty funny. She entertains herself this way after each nap until someone comes to get her. She is watching me type right now.
I got a haircut this week. I call it my BSL cut. Andy said, "You mean a coast rat haircut?" No, I do not mean such. I am not, will not be a coast rat, as they call them. I will live at the coast but I won't be a rat. Well back to the haircut. It's an inverted bob, she called it. Angled from the back down to longer in the front. This after I read in the paper yesterday that "long, flowing curly layers are back in. Bobs are out." Uh oh. Too late. But if I had time for long, flowing curly layers, that would be something. All I have time for is the short hair. If I have long hair, all I want to do is put it in a ponytail and that doesn't look too swooft anyway. So this will force me to make it look halfway decent.
I am currently reading "A Million Little Pieces" by James Frey. It is about his road to recovery from alcoholism and drug abuse. It is a crazy book but now i'm sucked in so i want to know what happens. it has hard language and hard situations to think about. By hard I mean vulgar. Also about his struggle with God. He doesn't believe in God. It is interesting and sad to hear someone say such. I keep thinking in the end he will become a believer and it will end happy.
there was a big controversy with this book in the news, saying he fabricated some parts of it, but it's still captivating. i probably won't benefit any from the read but at least i won't be bored while i'm feeding the baby.
i need some good books to read. and i need someone to come clean my house.

Challenges

This past week has been challenging. From trying to get the house cleaned up to show it to a potential buyer, to contemplating the "new" house in BSL which is a wreck. Last weekend I did not feel well, I don't know what it was. On Monday, Andy left for BSL and Kate and I stayed behind, with no car because our car is broken. We had to borrow a car from a man that has a used car lot. We were pretty lonely without Andy and his help but we made it through. We went shopping, and Kate didn't even cry so that was miraculous. The time change has her schedule off and her sleeping patterns are a little different but she's hanging in there. Wednesday my mom came to visit, which was not too great, because all she did the whole time was drone on and on about how terrible the coast is and how NOBODY should ever move there. I know I'm supposed to go, but i think the devil uses doubts to make me not want to go. By the time Andy got home late last night, I was exhausted, drained, and depressed about the whole thing. He brought photos and videos of the new house, and although it is very large and spacious, pretty glamorous, too, it has no walls! no floors. trash all in the yard. "You have to have a vision to see it." I just can't keep from thinking about the next hurricane and the house looking like that again, except this time, all of our stuff was destroyed, from baby pictures to my antique furniture. But that's a risk we have to take.
I'm trying to be brave, faithful, and fearless. It comes in waves. Sometimes I feel good about it, sometimes I'm really scared.
I was also out of touch all week because my computer is in the shop and I didn't have one around. Andy is at a meeting now so I can work on the computer.
I am working on a destination wedding next weekend, so the travel with Kate will be cumbersome. We are bringing Christy, Andy's sister, to babysit, but I will still have to feed the baby so I know my mind will be in 2 places. when i'm working, it will be on kate, when i'm with kate, i will be thinking, is everything getting done?
i had my last junior auxiliary meeting this week. i had to take kate with me because i didn't have a babysitter, and she did fine. i was really sad-i've met some really nice people in JA and we have done a lot of great volunteer work for the community, but i don't think there is a chapter in BSL that i can transfer into. besides, since i won't know anyone down there, i won't ever have a babysitter.
That is very daunting-to know that i don't know a soul down there. when we moved to louisville, andy knew lots and lots of people. we had a church that took us as family and cared for us with meals and comfort week by week. but in BSL, there is no church. there is no group of people to welcome us. there is destruction, wreckage, brokenness, and heavy hearts.
My heart is very heavy for the people of the coast, and that's what makes me know that we are supposed to go. I can buy new furniture....