The dreaded VW drive. . .

Yesterday I successfully drove Jody's Volkswagen from Garner to our house, it did not die once, we did not get hit, we did not hit anyone and we all survived! I have not been able to successfully drive the VW since he's gotten it, about a year ago. It is a 4 speed, which is not the problem. My parents taught me how to drive on a stick shift and boy am I glad they forced me to (I wasn't at the time)!!! The first automatic I've ever had was our van which we've had l about a year and a half!!! The problem is it doesn't have ABS, power steering and the pedals come from the bottom of the floor instead of the top. I've been practicing driving around the neighborhood. I will add here that my very first car was a 1984 VW Scirocco (a stick as well), a german racing car. . .it was tiny, you couldn't get it into 1st gear ever, and it was just plain old. So you see I have had experience driving complicated cars. . .Jody tells me all the time I should have kept that car, but I traded it in for my lovely Ford Probe when I was 17!!!

Back to the story, we went to Garner to see my brother Josh, since he had shoulder surgery Tuesday. The girls picked out a card, some balloons and a stuffed dog to "cheer him up". We have to drive two cars since we can't fit in one. Time came for Jody to leave for work and I either had to leave with him or I could drive the VW home. After some coaxing Jody convinced to take the VW out for a spin around my parents neighborhood and surrounding neighborhoods. I felt pretty comfortable so I passed! I didn't have any trouble driving it at all!!! We even stopped at the grocery store on the way home where I was bombarded with questions from people about the bug, telling me how cool it was, asking what year it was, how good of condition it was in for the year, etc. All in all I do believe that I like the VW and it can stay!!! I've added a few pictures of the VW for you to see, these pictures were taken right after we drove it home, it hadn't been washed in a while, it looks much better now. . .

Jody bought this car with the intentions of completely restoring it. So far he's had to do a lot of work to the car to keep it running, and hasn't really been able to do any cosmetic work to it!!! He loves this car. . .

Memorial Day

We got together with some church members for an imprompt-to cookout Monday afternoon for Memorial Day! It was a great last minute invitation to our friends Sean & Amy Holderby's house! The girls had a blast. . .there were a lot of kids, water, squirt guns, large frisbees, big balls, games, etc. Jody and I had fun just relaxing, hanging out and talking! Two families in our church graduated this past week and will be heading away from Stony Hill, we will surely miss them. Davin & Alisia Benavides, their two kids Hudson and Naomi, whom our girls absolutely adore, and Corey & Amy Pass. I'm gonna steal some pictures from others' blogs since I didn't have my camera, so don't give me credit for them!!!

Chewey

Ok, so doesn't it always seem like I'm having issues with my camera? Last week I found Lizzy chewing on the cord that you plug into the camera and into the computer. It is trashed, hooray, another thing destroyed by my precious girls! I've been trying to fix the mangled mess, it will probably be a cord they don't make anymore and I'll spend hours looking for it on CraigsList, buy one and it not be the correct one! I have been writing entries, but without pictures who wants to read them??? I'm going to go ahead and post them since they are backing up (there are quite a few, so you might have to go through the archives). . .my mom has the exact same camera as I do, so hopefully I'll get to her house and borrow her cord soon! Till then use your imagination. . .you know before we had digital cameras!!!

Hartbroken

Our dear friends Matthew & Laura Hart found out yesterday that their precious unborn baby is no longer with us. Laura was 36 weeks pregnant, not much further to go. We grieve with them today and in the days to come, the loss of this child whom we never met, but was loved so much! It is hard knowing what to say during difficult times like these, often as humans we try to explain things that only God knows and can explain! I believe saying "We Love You" and "We're praying for You" is sufficient. We don't know exactly what they are going through, but we can pray for them and surround them in love. I've added a picture of us and the Harts taken a few months ago when we went to visit them.

Best Friends

My best friend Jessica was able to come by tonight and hang out with us before leaving to go back home to Florida! I have know Jessica since 1998, we met through mutual friends. The funniest thing is that our husbands are also great friends, they were best friends before we met! She has 2 girls, Kaitlyn (4) and Audrey (2), around the ages of my girls, so they had fun eating pizza and playing! Jess and I enjoyed just talking! We love the Braswells and wish they lived closer!!!