Filled up the Nest !

So I see that my last post showed us with an empty nest. How life changes. We now have a full nest again. Bo and his fiancee' Kerry and their little daughter, Olivia have moved in with us while they relocate here in Charleston. Bo passed the bar in Florida and now will take it in SC in July. Kerry is hoping to land a teaching position in the fall ...middle school science. While they plan their wedding for October and get on their feet from the move, we have the joy of having them here along with their 3 dogs...did I say 3 dogs...add that to my rotten bulldog and now we have 4 dogs in the house. It has been fun... different.... and unexpected.
As we look forward to bringing Kerry into the Roberts family, we are celebrating birthdays, Caleb turned 5 this month and today is Jim's 58th celebration of life. Hard to believe but Sunday, we will celebrate with Peter and Amy as they reach their first anniversary. All of the grands are growing fast and we are loving it as we get to see each milestone. I love that all of them are in Charleston now.
New pics to post soon. Life is good, God is good !

Genny with her Godparents, Uncle Phred and Auntie Mar

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OUR LITTLE BUNDLE OF JOY !

28 Days to "I do"

Just 28 days left until the wedding. What will we do without our Amy around every day???? No jammie time at night...no one to watch my chic shows with anymore. Empty nest will really set in. Our baby girl, getting married.
We are so excited to see all of our friends and family come in for the wedding. At last count we have about 260 people who are gathering to witness the event and dance the night away celebrating with Peter and Amy.
Just after the wedding, school will end and my 4 days a week with Caleb will also come to an end as Kelly will be an at home mom again. I am going suffer empty nest big time . I do look forward to having time to do all the things that have been on the back burner this year. Jim and I are going to try to get to Italy to see our wonderful Moore family and do a little touring. We also have big plans to add a deck to the beach house and redo the bathroom and kitchen out there. Our Ashborough house is midstream sooooo lots more paint and fabric there and we want to tiled the kitchen and bath in the garage so we have a lot to keep us busy. I am hoping to get the boat out a couple of days a week. Life is beautiful ! We are so blessed to be back in Charleston with all our loved ones and family. Charleston itself has so much to offer.
We are looking forward to a new pastor at our church and praying for growth and excitement about God's work. It does not look like we will be resting any time soon.
I will get to sleep in more though...with the bulldog potty trained and the grandson back home with mom and Amy at the farm and Bo out of school and living in Tampa... I can hear the alarm.........I mean cannot hear it !

Men Have it so Easy !

okay, all you men out there need to read this so you have some idea of what your wives are facing. I got up at 7:30 , tried to sleep in today since I could but no!!! The man who promised to do puppy patrol if we got a puppy did not get up to let the dog out at 4 so.... now I have cleaned the crate , washed 3 loads of clothes and puppy bedding and towels fom bathing her.... made coffee, cleaned the bathroom that was literally soaked from Jims attempt at bathing her...( after he felt guilty).. After I gave her a real bath...I have put all the clean dishes away and loaded the dishwasher...from dishes I did not use....put out the trash,, took a quick shower and shampoo ... and now when Caleb arrives at 10 ... I will load up the kid and the dog, head out to the vet for booster shots, bring the puppy home... entertain the grandson for a few hours while I continue the laundry and prepare a grocery list... then at 3:30 when Caleb leaves, i will finish folding and putting away the laundry,get some groceries , do some wedding details, fix some dinner and clean up from that and spend my evening doing all the regular housework that did not get done this morning.... All of the morning stuff done with no kid in the picture ( some of you have many) !! So for all of you who left the house this morning, in clean clothes that you ( just found in your drawer) odd, took a shower in a clean bathroom with clean towels, kissed your cute litte (self maintained) kids,enjoyed your jobs at a desk or car ( alone, listening to your favorite CD), chatted with co-workers and had lunch out...OMG you are amazing !

ON WITH THE WEDDING PLANS

So now that the holidays are over and Bo's graduation and new puppy are old news... WE are on to the wedding plans. Before Christmas we felt we had plenty of time to pull it all together but now with only 84 days until the wedding...we are feeling the crunch....
The invitations are sitting on the dining table waiting to be addressed and as a constant reminder that the time is near.
Saturday , Amy and I set out on a mission to find the wedding dress. It did not take us long to find out that the perfect wedding dress consultant was invaluable in finding the perfect dress.
De Borah at De Borah's Bridal is that Saint for us. She was wonderful. She listened to Amy's vision and brought in 4 dresses that were really beautiful on Amy. We narrowed it to 2 after about an hour and then called in the troops for votes. Aunt Cindy and Kelsy, Kelly and Sophia and of course the male vote, Caleb. Caleb exclaimed how much he loved the dress she settled on and told her she was beautiful. That was the sealing vote. It is stunning. Now the big issues are taken care of and we are on to find the perfect cake baker and florist. Internet orders have been flying each night as we find items we need to make this the perfect wedding for Peter and Amy.
Peter has been wonderful and supportive and has asked Amy to marry him every day since the engagement. Now if God grants beautiful weather for April 11th...it will be the icing on the cake.
( providing we find a baker) . If you know a baker you would recommend, email me.
We are just a week or so away from bringing our little bulldog, Genny home. She will come to us when she is 6 weeks old. Bo is loving having his little Penny with him . Jim is already making big plans for our little canine. It remains to be seen how much "fun" this will really be.
Have to go for now so I can snag the tv that has the box and watch my tape of "The Bachelor" .
Tomorrow night American Idol begins again which means Amy and Kelly and I can give our critical spirits a work out. ( working on that)
In June, the graduation will be done, the bar will be done, the wedding will be done and Kelly will be home so I won't have my little buddy every day.... WHAT WILL I DO????? I guess I will just have to retreat to the beach for a long summer !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! woooooooohooooooooooooo
That is where you will find me so get your chair and sunscreen and come have a cool ice tea with a little umbrella and watch the waves with me.

Welcome "Penny" to our family !!!!

Christmas was wonderful. We had many gatherings of family and friends and all the trimmings.
On Dec. 20th, Bo graduated from Stetson Law College and we all had a wonderful time celebrating with his friends and their families in Florida. We rented a wonderful house there on the water and had a little buffet for everyone after the graduation. Now he is enrolled in a bar study course and will take the bar in late February. Pictured above, "Penny" his new puppy .. she is our graduation gift to Bo. He has wanted a bulldog for many years but was never really in a place to have one . Now with graduation over, he will enjoy having a study buddy and little friend to move on his journey with him. She is only 8 weeks old !!! It took us over a month of constantly searching the internet and many phone calls....lots of scams ...to find her. Is she the cutest little thing??????

Thanks Scott and Cindy

Again this year, my sister, Cindy and her husband, Scott hosted Thanksgiving. Their hospitality is overwhelming as 30 to 40 people gather there each year to give thanks to the Lord for all the bounty of life and to fellowship with each other. The feast is always a spread of southern dishes, everyone brings their signature dish. My contribution each year is a picnic shoulder ham and my broccoli salad. The salad is a mixture of bacon, broccoli ( raw), red onion, pecans, cheese,and golden raisins. My son, son-in-law and my nephew , Robby will not let me get away with a new dish. Usually, I make a plum cake although this year, I did not. I will save that for Christmas dinner. It was a beautiful day , crisp air and sunshine. We were blessed to have all of our children with us there this year. Bo was home from Florida, Kelly and Tom with the two children came and stayed until they had to move on to the other grandma. Peter and Amy joined us and all of Cindy's kids were there as well. My 83 year old aunt came for the first time in decades to be with us and my mother and her husband were there . Several other friends from church and our extended family, the Vatters were able to join us as their children were all out of town.
We spent the rest of the weekend eating turkey sandwiches and Christmas shopping ...putting our box together for our loved ones in Italy. In the evenings we just hung out together at the house. Now , I will start packing away all the fall decor and replacing it with my treasured Christmas decorations. Hopefully, by the weekend, the house will take on a Christmas flavor. Tonight it smells like gingerbread because I did some early baking for Bo to take back to Florida tomorrow.
The rest of the month will be dotted with Bo's graduation, family gatherings, Sophia's 8th birthday, my brother-in-law Scott turning the big 5-0 and Bo's 28th birthday , an office party, the JOY party here at the house and of course, Christmas Eve buffet and Christmas Day at Cindy's house. We are blessed and though all of the family imperfections are here ...we won't focus on them but rather on the blessings we have through Jesus, the health we enjoy, the liberty we are afforded in our great country and the blessing of living in my beautiful city, Charleston. We will look past all of our failures and celebrate our victories knowing that God is a redeemer and our closest advocate and friend . He will be the focus of our holidays, his birth and his Lordship over our lives. We pray that you and yours will be blessed with His presence and that you will make wonderful memories in the next few weeks for all of your loved ones.
Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Roberts family.