Welcome

Hi there! Just dropping by to say hello. We have now been in our new house for about 5 months now and we are enjoying being in the country. Hugh, however, is not so enthused about his commute to and from work. We LOVE country life. There is so much to see and do here that you just can't do in the city. We have so much space to run around and enjoy the outdoors. There is so much wildlife out here, it is amazing. We have bird feeders so we can see a variety of birds up close. We have barn swallows nesting under the eaves of our side porch and the master porch. I've seen baby birds in the nest peeking out at us. So cute! There are Canada geese that stop by the neighbor's pond every morning, and now our neighbor has a little white duck that will just walk up to you to visit. There are Kildeers nesting at the edge of our driveway and they have 4 eggs in their nest. When the babies hatch, they are the cutest little things. They are born ready to run and will leave the nest right after hatching. They look like cotton balls running around on toothpicks. We had a box turtle wander up onto our front porch one morning and the girls were having a fit over it. I went out and picked it up so the girls could see and it pulled itself into its shell and all you could see were its eyes peeping out. Then there are the frogs in the pond next door. Bullfrogs and who know what other kids of frogs are in there, but we get serenaded by the frog chorus/jam session every night. Every once in a while the frogs annoy us, but it is so much better than hearing the neighbors sub woofers going up and down the street at our old house. It is so quiet and peaceful out here. There are people down the road who have miniature horses. I've seen guinea fowl, big African cattle with a new calf, chickens, and even emus since we've moved out here. My Dad has allowed some people to cultivate some of his land and so by summer's end we should be seeing soybeans growing and maybe even eating some edamame'. Daddy has also planted a garden, so we will be eating fresh vegetable from the garden. I'm growing some tomatoes in pots, and a few herbs as well as some sunflowers that have started coming up through the ground. There's just nothing like living in the country. Well, I guess that's about all. God bless- Julie

Hello All! Summer vacation is here and we are having a ball already. The girls are taking swimming lessons and enjoying it immensely. Hugh and I just got back from Paris last week. We had a great time and saw some great stuff. We got soaked in the rain walking around Paris the night Jennifer( another NSA wife) and I arrived. Who cares? It's PARIS! My white canvas flats I had on are no longer white(sigh)and I dropped chocolate ice cream on my shirt, but I was in PARIS. SO, because my flats were wet I had to wear sandals to the Louvre the next day.

Hello All, I was just looking over my last post on Easter and realized that I left a few things out. Let's see... Last summer I was supposed to go to Paris with Hugh on his business trip and then his boss decided to retire and everything came to a screeching halt and the trip was postponed.( Yikes! How's THAT for a run on sentence?) I now have a flight scheduled for May 26 to join him in Paris! He's leaving three days before I do, so this will be the first time I make a transatlantic flight without him. I will be traveling with another NSA wife so I won't be completely alone. In other news, Hugh, the girls and I will be making a trip to Nashville on May 4. It seems that the girls' art teacher at school entered some of her students' art projects in the TANAS state art contest and Sarah's art project won a prize! We have to go to Nashville to accept the prize. We are all so proud of our budding artist. And finally, the girls will be graduating from Kindergarten on May 14. The girls are at the head of their class and doing fantastic! Well, that's all for now, God Bless- Julie

Hello All! Yes, I know it's been awhile since the last update, and lots of things have been happening. The girls are now 7 years old, can you believe it? We had a great Christmas, although we didn't get to celebrate in the new house. It wasn't quite finished before Christmas, so we had to have it at the old house. We have now moved in to the new house. We moved the second weekend in January and it was FREEZING cold outside. We managed to get moved in spite of the cold, and all our friends were on hand to help out. My parents are thrilled that we are right next door and the girls love being able to see Grammy and Grandpa all the time now. I love it too. My family has always been very close knit and it's fun being able to be so close to them. We just got back here from my parent's house. It's Easter Sunday and we spent the day over there with Dad's family doing the annual Cook Easter Egg Hunt. What fun! I'm so glad the weather was beautiful and everyone had a ball! Well, on to other news. 3 weeks ago I was sitting up at the girls' school in the pick up line waiting for the girls to be dismissed from school. I had my knitting with me and was knitting away when I looked up to see Emily and her teacher come around the side of the building from the playground and Emily was crying. The teacher told me Emily had fallen off the merry go round and hurt herself. I took Emily inside the building to look her over to see where she was hurt. We got in the bathroom and I lifted her shirt to check her over, but she wouldn't let me raise her right arm. Hmmm....that's not right, so I asked her where it hurt and she pointed out her right collarbone. Oh, boy, this was sounding more and more like the time her cousin Hannah broke her collar bone several years ago.

Well, looks like it has been awhile since anyone has posted anything here so guess that means I need to step up to the plate. We've been busy with the girl's cheerleading, school, house building, work and unicycling.

The girls have really enjoyed cheering and they do a really good job. They have learned their routines well.

They have been doing well in school as well. They are checking books out of the library and reading them. They like to read which is something I hope they will continue to enjoy.

Our house is very close to being done, but we are experiencing a couple of delays. The countertops were thought to be on their way but turns out they are not even made yet. They've also discovered a leak in the geothermal system (apparently in one of the 6 holes they dug). They are trying to find it so they can fix it. Builder is saying we should be able to move in by Christmas, but a lot will have to go right for that to work out.

And as for unicycling, we have two parades coming up. The Bartlett Parade on Dec 5th at 5:00 pm and the Germantown Parade on Dec 12th at 2:00 pm. Check out www.memphisunicycleclub.org for more information.

Well that's enough for now. Hope everyone had a good thanksgiving and I wish everyone a Merry Christmas.

Hugh