"Graddy, Jan-Jan and Keddy's" Visit

We had so much fun with my mom, dad and sister this past weekend! They were the first visitors to the Beall home in Louisiana and man, did we EVER work hard to finish up decorating our new house. We were exhausted by the time they arrived and I must say, all the work paid off. We had a blast with them here and it is such a relief to have "a place for everything and everything in it's place."

We have done so much work on our new home - we have had painters, the security system installed, carpenters, contractors, you name it. And though the work has been hard and expensive, it feels great to call this our home finally. I especially feel like this is just where we belong - this house is perfect for us at this time in our lives.

We still have the blinds guy coming today to give us an estimate on installing some Roman shades and plantation shutters but that and organizing the garage seems to be the last hurdle we have to jump to be fully settled.

Noah is so enjoying his new "school." Well, once he's there he really enjoys it but when I drop him off twice a week, he clings to my leg like the other kids do with their moms. But, that time away from him allows me to do SO much. SOOO MUCH that I otherwise wouldn't get to do. We have a ton of things to do before Dan leaves in a few weeks and I have my class starting in about a month that I am busy getting study guides, notes and exams ready. I can't wait to be organized with all my coursework for my students - it will be a great experience for me.

We are making wonderful friends here in Louisiana. We live in a cul-de-sac fulllll of 23 other kids in just 8 homes. Most of us just moved in too so we are all enjoying getting to know one another and it is so much fun to have Noah outside playing with his new buddies at 5 pm everyday while the grown ups chat and fill one another in on our days.

And would you believe it that the friend I am growing the closest to is Tessa Anthony... we bought our house from them! We had a girls' night the other night and realized we were so much alike that it was scary. We laughed, shared our hearts, shed some tears and just realized that we were embarking upon a lifelong friendship - what a blessing (there's a photo of her in the mix of the album posted below.) She even sent me a message telling me that she feels like she's talking to herself when we are together because we are so much alike. That is a great feeling to meet another kindred spirit like that that you can feel so comfortable with and just BE YOURSELF!! Life's too short to have friendships that cause pain and sadness when there are other relationships that could be nurtured into some of the most meaningful of your life.

I promise to be better about blogging soon.... I have fallen off the blog wagon lately and I apologize! Here are some great photos from our weekend with my sweet family.