Way back up in the country, back in the hills
Down in the hollows where the folks are real


Living with the crazies and the old outcasts
Sawed off shot guns and coon skin caps



Thats where I'm from and I'm proud to say
I'm from the country and I like it that way


Everybody knows everybody
Everybody calls you friend
You don't need an invitation
Kick off your shoes, come on in
Yeah we know how to work and we know how to play
We're from the country and we like it that way


All day long we work in the fields and bring it on home to a home cooked meal
We love you like sunday and treat you like saturday night
And when the beds get full we can sleep in the hay (hey)
We're from the country and we like it that way


Everybody knows everybody
Everybody calls you friend
You don't need an invitation
Kick off your shoes, come on in
Yeah we know how to work and we know how to play


We're from the country and we like it that way.

we are off to the land of simplicity. that's right, no target. no starbucks. we can only handle it for about ten days. (just kidding, grandmother :)
here is a list of things i hope to do:

1. sew some curtains and shams for my mom's guest house
2. eat soft icecream 2x a day
3. fish
4. scrapbook with my grandmother, aunt, and mom
5. paint some furniture and some walls in the guest house
6. front porch sit with my grandfather
7. hang out with my brother
8. poke around in some antique shops
9. visit the cemetery
10. go paddle boating with my kids

summer is going by so fast! i hope you are enjoying it.
i have got some news for you when i get back. see you then :)

as far as i know, i do not have cancer. i hurt for anyone who does, but i am especially sad to see a young mother fighting such a horrible disease. it is the most unfair. if you have been reading my blog for awhile, you know i am a christian. in fact, some may even call me pretty radical. i am not one to have a 'jesus lives' bumper sticker or anything like that, or even one to have the (sort of) subtle fish sticker for that matter. i don't really advertise my faith in any kind of way, because i have never been comfortable with that and also because, honestly, i usually find it obnoxious. i feel that faith is a private matter and not a show and if you have to tell someone who you are with a bumper sticker than maybe you need to work on who you are. okay, maybe that's too harsh. i'm not saying you shouldn't have one of those bumper stickers. if that is you, well then be you, but it is not me. when i am in a real conversation, i think people see who i am and what matters to me and that is how i like to share things like faith. lately i am feeling it is something i want share more loudly. (i don't know, maybe i am on the road to getting one of those aforementioned bumper stickers? yikes :) this year i have certainly learned that it is your beliefs that define you...yes, that is what i think...i think you are defined by what you believe. when hard times come, the real you, your depth, your heart is revealed. i think it can even surprise you to find out who you truly are, and it may surprise the ones around you too. do you know that on the night my nephew died unexpectedly and unexplainably in his sleep, i talked to my brother on the phone? right in the middle of our conversation he just stopped and started yelling at God. i was surprised, but i didn't blame him. he was experiencing every parent's worst nightmare. but what shocked me and what still shocks me is what my brother was yelling at God. he was screaming, "thank you." he said it over and over again. "thank you, God. thank you for giving me a son." i know my brother really well, but that is not what i expected to hear him say that night. he kept telling me how grateful he was to God for blessing him with such a beautiful little boy. whenever i think about that i cry. i will be forever amazed by those words at such a tragic moment...thank you. that night i found out who my brother really is and i am so proud to be related to him. and i wish attitudes like that were genetic. a few months ago i began reading a blog and found another person who has blown me away with a positive attitude and impressive faith. her words are so raw and so real that i wanted to share it with anyone who hasn't yet heard of it, and you know, it is over the top "jesus lives," but it is not a show, it is not hypocritical, it is not obnoxious, it is the true heart of a mom who has brain cancer. her name is heather. i hope you find her as amazing as i do. she and my brother are such inspirations to me. i only hope my own faith is big enough.

especiallyheather.com

here is one of those mirrors i told you about. they are huge and i realized you can't get a great picture of a mirror, can you? you just would have seen me taking the picture of the mirror. so this is the top. they both still sit on the floor in my bedroom. someday they will hang in the bathroom. it is looking like someday in september.

one more thing, thank you all for blogging with me. i really appreciate your company. have a great weekend.

these houses really exist. a whole street of them. with palm trees. on the harbour. i don't know what to say. it is ridiculously perfect. i told my husband, i think they knew i was coming by and just to really rub it in, they put out that bike.

i tried to take some pictures of my children while we were visting nature's perfect backdrop. my daughter has no teeth right now, seriously, the poor thing, i don't know how she eats. and my son is going through a goofy smile phase. so trying to get two good smiles was WORK! but then i get home and upload my shots to find that it is the spontaneous things like this that become my favorites anyway. so why was i trying so hard? let kids be kids, and there's your masterpiece. :)

was so not us! we tried our very best, we had fun, but the competition was tough. really tough. things have changed in the five years since we had last seen the cart parade, people really take this much more seriously! some floats looked like they took months to create. so darn. but we are all committed to making next year our year.

the losers would like to remain anonymous:

in my "year to remember" class with heidi swapp, we were to do a page for the month of june that represented a change in our lives this year. i wanted to share my page with you.
today is jake's birthday.

last night. we had such a nice week. my children cried because they wanted to stay! i felt their pain. on the drive home i was nervous nellie and about drove my husband crazy...slow down...he's braking....watch out! life on an island with golf carts makes the real world really seem hectic. i guess i wasn't quite ready for the fast pace yet :) but here we are. and i know...you are wondering about the cart contest, right?