Comings and Goings

I have been a VERY bad blogger of late! I have neglected to blog about the revolving door that has been happening here this summer. We have been blessed to have several of our children come to visit us and I have been so busy I haven't been able to blog about it! Because this is my journal of sorts, I better get to it!

As many of you know we have one of our sons living with us again. He is one of our twin boys - the other twin had decided to stay in Washington to live with his mom. They are the youngest of our 7 children - they are 16 years old now - my, how time flies!

Anyway, we have been enjoying BOTH of the boys this summer - they have both been here with us during the summer break which has been so much fun! I forgot how much teenage boys can eat! My food bill has doubled (tripled actually) since they have been home. I am definitely not complaining though - it has been lots of fun to bake for them as they LOVE to eat my homecooked meals! My son "A" who lives with us, is back in school now and the other twin doesn't start school until September. I can't believe our summer is almost at an end "P" will be leaving to go back home on Sunday. I will miss him so much when he leaves! It has been great fun to have them both here with us again.

Their older sister Ashley came to visit during this time too. Ashley lives in California. As you can tell - my kids are spread out all over the place. Three of them live in Washington, two live in California, one lives in Alaska and one now lives with us here in Georgia. (did I miss anybody? ~smile~)

Ashley was only able to stay here with us for a week and it flew by so fast! I feel like she didn't get much attention from me while she was here because I needed to work and go to school in the evenings - but we did manage to do a few fun things while she was here.

We spent one day at Stone Mountain.

I found this cool aerial view of Stone Mountain on Google images.

It has this beautiful carving in the side of it, but we were not able to get out of our car to take pictures of this side of the mountain because it was so crowded and we could not find a parking space! After driving around for what seemed forever, we decided to give up and try another day. This park is VERY popular year round.

Here is Wickipedia's description of this beautiful mountain:

"Stone Mountain is a granite dome monadnock in Stone Mountain, Georgia. At its summit, the elevation is 1,686 feet (513 m) amsl and 825 feet (251.5 m) above the surrounding area. Stone Mountain granite extends underground 9 miles (14 km) at its longest point into Gwinnett County. Numerous reference books and Georgia literature have dubbed Stone Mountain as “the largest exposed piece of granite in the world". This misnomer is most likely a result of advertisement by granite companies and early park administration. In actuality, there are larger exposed granite landscapes throughout the world including the Sierra Nevada mountain range in the Western United States. Stone Mountain is also a quartz monzonite rock when described in geologic terms and is therefore not technically granite. Stone Mountain is well-known not only for its geology, but also for the enormous bas-relief on its north face, the largest bas-relief in the world.[1] Three figures of the Confederate States of America are carved there: Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee, and Jefferson Davis"

We were able to go on a hike up to the top of Stone Mountain and see the beautiful view of Atlanta in the distance. It was a fun hike up the mountain although it was VERY humid that day! I forgot to bring some water, so thankfully there was a small store at the top that you could purchase refreshments for the long walk down. I can't believe I actually went on a hike.... in Georgia..... in the summer.... in the extreme humidity....AND FORGOT TO BRING WATER! ~Sigh~ Needless to say, I won't be doing THAT again!

I am sure this would be a beautiful hike in the Spring and summer- with all of the different colors of the flowers and the trees.










Beautiful Picture of my wonderful kids!


I had to say goodbye to Ashley before I was ready. I miss you already sweetheart!








Now - my OLDEST daughter - Brandy will be coming to see me for a week! She is arriving this evening and I am so excited! I am loving this revolving door!









Isn't she beautiful? Can't wait to see her!
Brandy has always been my child that has made me laugh. She has such a great sense of humor and when we are together we laugh so much! I have been so immersed in "life" lately, that I am looking forward to great belly laughs again!




She will probably hate me putting this picture of her here- but hey - it's my blog right? This picture was taken a few years ago at my son's graduation and we were trying desperately to get a good picture of the two of us. Brandy was "cheesing" for the camera and we had to take so many pictures to get a good shot because she kept doing this. By the time we were through we were laughing so hard! This picture has turned out to be one of my favorites because it shows her silliness. I Love it!

This picture was taken last year at the Georgia Aquarium while she was here visiting us. NOT my favorite picture of me - don't know why I have a double chin thing going on, but I LOVE the picture of us together. She is a lot taller then me and had to bend down to get closer to her "little mommy" as she likes to call me.

We will drive out this evening to pick her up, and we will drive out to the airport on Sunday to drop off my son "P" who will be leaving us and flying back home to Washington.


I HATE goodbyes! I will miss you so much when you leave "P"! Thankfully God has been so gracious to allow me these visits. Even though they seem so far and inbetween, I cherish the time that I DO have with all of them.

Somebody ELSE gets so excited to see the kids when they come. Ginger thinks they are coming JUST to see her. She will be dancing this evening when her Brandy gets here!

Blessings,