Lingering

I'm in the middle of a fight with my food processor and am waiting on Jeremy to come home so he can put an end to it.  So frustrating, my soup intentions have stalled and there is nothing I can do about it.  I even took a wooden spoon to it attempting to get the lid off and it wont budge. 

So while I wait why not post something meaningless about my day?  

I shall.

Today I treated myself to a little afternoon escape to Starbucks.  Jeremy is gone for a few hours refereeing a couple of soccer games and I needed to run some errands anyway.  So while I was out I decided to take my book along for the ride and venture to a quiet corner of the coffee shop where I could forget about school work, house work, and preparing for my lesson tomorrow. 

Forgetting...that's what I like to do best.  

There are few things better than a great book (currently reading the 3rd book in Jan Karon's Mitford series) and a FREE latte thanks to the many gift cards I received at Christmas from the kids at school.  

While I enjoyed my outing, I will have to say the best part about the afternoon at Starbucks is the reminder I was there when I get a whiff of coffee every now and then that tends to linger on my clothes.  

It's the simple things that bring joy to my day.  

Mrs. Mel(fill in the blank)

Who knew a simple last name like ours could be butchered so badly by elementary school kids? I do find the name a little awkward to say, but with having Jackson as a last name for 23 years I just thought it was me.

Here are a few that are my favorites thus far...

Various pronunciations by children who cannot say their r’s or l’s, or both…adorable!
Mrs. Melbourne
Mrs. Melbert
Mrs. Milford- she is another teacher but I “can't be her because she is old and wrinkly and lives where old people live" according to one of my first graders. She was a teacher there when I was in elementary school…I guess he might have a point.
We were on a field trip on Wednesday and while waiting in line one of the students was reading my name tag and said "Ohhh, it’s Melberg! I thought it was Melbird!"

And the grand prize winner...
Mrs. Melburp

Ava Cathrine

On August 16th my best friend gave birth to a beautiful, healthy, 9lb 5oz baby girl! The gang flew (I KNOW!) to Asheville where I had the privilege to meet Ava this past weekend. Let me tell you, I couldn't take my eyes off her! She is just wonderful.

Janice, I am so happy for you and Brian and I am thankful for the time we were able to spend together! Congratulations on your sweet baby girl!

And we're back!

Jeremy and I just celebrated our 3rd anniversary on Wednesday, the 10th. With that in mind I have been doing some reflecting and my...what a year it has been! It is safe to say the ups and downs will most likely not find themselves on the blog, but the Lord has used the good and the bad to bring us closer together. He has sustained us through the storms and has given us the desire to seek Him above all.

I love you babe and I'm excited to see what the Lord has in store for us!

Weekend Update

Ok, Ok. Let me first say that I am the List Queen. I guess that encourages my detail-oriented personality. I was merely making a point, Jeremy and I have very different communication styles, email or otherwise, as most couples do. You will be happy to know that he remembered everything I mentioned in the email, and if the truth be known I think he had fun decoding my message. He called me from work and said that he had printed out the email and was going home to gather the items. He sounded as if he was on a mission from W himself. However, when we arrived at the camp to meet up with the youth group, he noticed that he forgot his sleeping bag and tennis shoes. Thus, proving my point that he is forgetful! Fortunately this is something that we can laugh about together. Mars and Venus here, trying to make it work.

We had a wonderful time at the fall retreat. Jeremy and I witnessed the Lord working in the lives of the youth while we were there. My prayer is that they will continue to be sensitive to his voice as the weeks pass and desire him completely. The youth pastor asked Jeremy and I to come up with a game for one of the sessions. Jeremy’s game of choice when like this: 6 middle school girls had to fish gummy worms out of buckets filled with ice water and feed them to high school boys, using only their feet! You can take the boy out of Young Life…

Boys Speak in Rhythm...

Jeremy and I have an ongoing struggle with communication, or maybe I should say...my detail oriented personality struggles with his lack of memory. The following is an email from me to my darling husband. I guess I really shouldn't be surprised if he can't remember everything I tell him.

"I believe there is one shoe in my suitcase and the other is somewhere around the house. If you could track that down that would be lovely. Make sure my bright blue flip flops are also in the suitcase and it’s ready to go. The MJM tote bag by the dresser needs to be semi emptied. (you can leave the Real Simple and Southern Living magazines in there, there are also a few others on the island that I would like (they are in a stack closest to the coffee pot). Be sure to get my pillow (the one that feels cold to the touch when you touch it directly) a set of sheets, the quilt, and that sleeping bag. Don’t forget my makeup bag, it’s by my suitcase and needs to be put in the tote bag. I think that’s about all…make sure everything is turned off and the coffee pot and toaster oven are both unplugged. Oh, and get the cats ready for the weekend. Tonya mentioned buying hay and putting it under the stairs in the back yard so that they can stay warm at night…not that you have to do that today but it’s just a thought. Although I’m sure Miles and Jake (read: Search and Destroy) would have it ALL OVER the back yard in 2 shakes of a lamb’s tail. Be sure to put the cat’s food and water-lots of water-in the kitchen so if they turn it over it won’t make that big of a mess, or you could just leave it in the bathroom, but make sure the door is propped open in case Jerry or Macel close themselves in accidentally. Don’t forget to close our bedroom door and the guest bedroom door before you leave. Okay…call me when you get home in case I have forgotten anything."

NOTE: I'm sure I will arrive at our destination to find one tennis shoe, every magazine that he can find, and my navy flip flops because the dear has trouble distinguishing different shades of blue.

Such is life.

Pooped Pups

Jeremy's birthday wasn't the only one we celebrated last week. His mother's was this past Sunday so we ventured to Sumter to be with her and the rest of the gang. We had John's famous schnitzel (but not with noodles) with German potatoes. This is Martha's favorite meal and might be mine as well! I regret not taking pictures while we were there, but Jeremy managed to capture this shot on the way back. Needless to say they had a busy weekend too.

Happy Birthday Jeremy!

Jeremy's 26th birthday (what a young'un!) was last Thursday and to celebrate we went to our favorite Mexican restaurant, Papas & Beer, along with my family. After we stuffed our faces with the most wonderful fajitas we went back to our house and had a carrot cake birthday cake...it truly is the World's Best Carrot Cake. Happy Birthday Babe! I love you!

Double the Chocolate, Double the Fun!

Jeremy and the boys stopped by for a visit while I was at work on Saturday. I was making up some hours before this upcoming weekend when we are going to College for a Weekend at Liberty Univeristy with a group of kids from our youth group. Jeremy had the boys shake for a treat, which is their favorite trick! (On the left is Jake, and Miles is on the right.)

Labor Day Weekend

Holly and Chaz surprised the family with a visit over labor day weekend. It was wonderful to see them again! We enjoyed a trip to the apple festival, breakfast at Tupelo Honey, and plently of time at our house just hanging out! Below are pictures of our adventures.



Mom was very embarrassed that she did not have on any makeup, how was she to know that we would have visitors joining us for breakfast?



It didn't take Holly long to return to her roots, who knew she had hippie tendencies?? Actually, this picture was taken while we were waiting for the Chocolate Fetish to open. I guess not everyone enjoys chocolate before 10:00am on a Saturday.


At the Apple Festival in Hendersonville, Jeremy couldn't resist the photo op with the H'ville Bears that decorated the streets downtown. Below are a few of their best shots. Our personal favorite is the middle shot, however we can't figure out why there is police tape. We hope Jeremy wasn't tampering with a crime scene!

What Were We Thinking?!?

Over the weekend Jeremy and I came to the conclusion that Jake, our 1 1/2 year old chocolate lab, was at the age where he would no longer need to be in his kennel while we were not at home. Saturday and Sunday he was wonderful, of course these were only short time frames of being free in the house with older brother Miles (our 3 year old chocolate lab). The true test was going to be Monday when Jeremy and I returned to work and would be gone 9+ hours at a time. When we came home after work on Monday his little halo was just glowing, they were both angels! Looking back I should have known, Mondays are their days to catch up on sleep from the busy weekend, as if 18 hours a day isn't enough.

Below is a picture of how I was greeted when I got home from work on Tuesday.

What were we thinking? No, I take that back. What was he thinking?! Was he protesting? Would he rather be caged while we are away? Was he bored? Did Miles talk him into it like sneaky older siblings do? Jeremy and I tackled the clean up duty, he collected the pillow fluff and other various items Jake collected from other parts of the house to bring into the den and utterly destroy. I had vacuum duty. Did you know that Styrofoam packaging torn into tiny pieces is incredibly hard to vacuum even with a Dyson?

The picture below was taken after our den was back in order. I managed to get the culprit and the victim all in the same shot. I apologize for the poor quality of this picture, both of these were taken with my cell phone and I guess the dim lighting didn't help.

Family Vacation

I am finally getting around to posting some pictures of our summer vacation. We had a wonderful time with my family in Hilton Head, SC.

We enjoyed burying Marcus in the sand,

beautiful sunsets on the pier,
our day trip to Savannah, GA to visit Mrs. Wilkes Bording House,



and of course the boys enjoyed the car rides in Chaz's Mini Cooper rental.

The end.

Biltomore Estate

We visited the biltmore house this past weekend right before it started snowing, and the wind was blowing about 30 knots! yes, we were freezing.



we are finally doing an update on the house, but unfortunatly it wont be a very exciting one. here are the lastest pictures. we had a couple inches of snow over the weekend.

Random House Stuff

Here are a few pictures from the Modular building process. We hope to be in by the end of August, and can't wait to begin this chapter in our lives.

Ground Breaking!