It seems I have been gone forever but not really. ALL of my family, all four kids, one daughter-in-law, one grandson, one husband and me have been on vacation. This is not something we have done in a very, very long time. I don't have pictures up yet but soon will. We drove, yes I said drove with a 10-month old baby from Arkansas all the way to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. No we didn't stop and spend the night anywhere except for a few short hours at a rest stop somewhere along the way. That is 24 hours in a car there and 24 hours back home again. Whew! Next time, and I hope someday there will be a next time, we go anywhere that far away we will definitely be flying there. We went to the Outer Banks for a few days, drove up the coast to DC for a couple of days and back to our little beach house in Kitty Hawk for a few more days. I absolutely love the Outer Banks and I kind of think some in my family loved it too. It is so non-commercial there. None of the high-rise condos just mostly lovely little beach houses. Ours was right on the beach. In fact, the first night we were there because of Hurricane Bill some ways out in the Atlantic the waves were huge and the water came right up under our house. The kids said if we were anymore on the beach we would have to be a boat. We loved it. Got to see the house that was used in the film Nights in Rodanthe, got to see waves so large they were coming over the dunes and flooding some of the streets, saw several wonderful lighthouses and many historic sights in DC. Once I get the pictures up I will show you some of what we did. But for now just let me say we had a wonderful time but are very tired.

Wow this summer has just flown by. I can't believe it is almost over BUT we still have a little bit left and are going to take advantage of it. We will be leaving on Thursday night for the Outer Banks and DC. I can't wait. I will have tons of pictures to post when I get back.
Noah is feeling so much better. His Papa took him to Chick Fil A yesterday to play in their play yard and to have "brunch". Then they went to Toys R Us and Gary said his little eyes just couldn't hardly take it all in. Of course, Papa had to buy Noah something there. And they met another Grandpa and his grandson, Noah. Isn't that funny? Noah just loves to be with his Papa. What a fun time they had.
Saturday, Karen and I went to this huge garage sale...Bargains Galore on Highway 64. Wow, there sure was lots of stuff to sift through. We did find quite a bit of Fire King glassware and I bought a fireplace mantel that will be going in my new patio area after it is rebuilt. We had a storm about a month ago that ripped part of the cover of the patio off and left it on our roof. So now the entire patio cover will have to be replaced and the builders are supposed to start on that today. When they are finished I will post before and after pictures including storm pictures if I can figure out how to download them from my phone. Gary has been painting the exterior of the house and when the patio cover and roof is completed our house will look great. It should all be done by the time we get back from our vacation.
Well, of course I have to post new pictures of Noah so here they are.

Hasn't he changed in just a few short months? Wow. He is into everything now and he is not even walking yet. I can't imagine how much more he will be into after he starts walking. The first picture was when he was just 7 HOURS old and now he is 9 MONTHS old. Poor little thing has been sick this week with some kind of viral infection. This is the first time he has been sick.
BTW, I have found a great place to have my entire blog printed out in book form. This gives me a journal of the last two years including all of the pictures I have posted AND the book is great quality. I am so pleased with it. It is called Sharedbook. Tons better than me trying to print out the entire blog.

Yeah! Stellan has gone home and is looking great! Thank you God for your wonderful healing power.
Wow. How fast this summer has gone by. I can't believe school starts in just two weeks. I don't have any children of school age but I am involved with elementary age school kids at church. In the summer we do a VBS but with a twist. We take a 5-day VBS program and break it down into an every Wednesday night program for 10 weeks. It actually works out very well for our needs because of needing some kind of program for Wednesday night worship. My DIL has been teaching the same group of girls for about 5 years now and last night she was saying how some of them are going to be promoting up into the youth group this fall and how sad she was going to be to see them go.
Also it is just two weeks until we go on our family vacation. We haven't taken a vacation with all of our family in a long time. Everyone is really getting excited. We are going to Kitty Hawk, NC and then on up to DC. AW, the beach. I don't know what it is about the beach but my sisters and I absolutely love the beach. We don't really care about going in the water just being on the beach. And we love the Outer Banks which is where we are going this year. I can't believe I got my family to follow me out there. WooHoo.

I know not many people read this blog but for the few who do please scroll down and you will see a blog button for Stellan. He is in desparate need of prayer. He is the same age as my little Noah and so I relate more than normal. Especially since I just spent the entire weekend with Noah. What a blessing that was. I can't imagine what his family is going through and I know God is with them and will see them through this. I have been following MckMama's blog for a while now and my heart breaks for her. Please Jesus, look down upon this little guy and heal his heart. Heal it completely so he won't have to rely on drugs anymore. Give his mother and father supernatural strength and rest. You took stripes on your back for our healing and we stand on your promise of that healing for Stellan. Thank you and praise your Name for the healing.

Fathers and sons, Grandpas and grandsons, uncles and nephews. There is just something special about each of their relationships with this little guy. Jamie always said he didn't want any kids and now I'm sure he couldn't imagine life without this kid. Gary has always been such a wonderful father how could he help but be a fantastic grandfather to Noah and hopefully many, many more grandchildren. Josh loves kids and loves to play with them. He can get down on their level and has such fun. Noah, you are a blessed child to have so many men in your life to take care of you and to help you grow. And these aren't the only men in his life, there is also another grandfather, great-grandfather and other uncles. Noah, you also have a heritage of truly great Christian men in your great-grandfather Norman and great-grandfather Brown who you are named after. I pray you will follow in their footsteps and become the man God would have you become.

You know, I am really getting lazy about posting here. I enjoy reading everyone else's posts and somehow never get around to writing anything myself. I have gotten so many cool ideas, recipes and inspirations from the many different blogs. I love it. My DH thinks I've lost it but oh well. Right now things are pretty quiet, haven't done much because of surgery to my knee. BUT recovery is going very well and hopefully by the time our vacation rolls around the last of August I will be just fine and able to do all the walking that will be done in DC. This vacation is the first one in years that the entire family is going on together. As the kids have grown up and gone their own ways, it gets pretty hard to get everyone together for dinner much less a family vacation. I can't wait. I just hope we can stand each other for 10 days. Whew! We will just have to make sure everyone has their "alone" time at some points. Hope everyone has a great day and week.