Time Goes So Fast....

Here we are on our last week in Charlotte, and it goes to show that this last month just flew by. I failed to report our doings, so here goes a quick update, I say quick because now I need to spend my time getting the house in order and clean for our departure.

On July 18th, Jason and I went on a date to celebrate our 10th Anniversary. We had a great dinner and went to catch a movie "Batman, The Dark Knight". I thought it was a bit Dark, but needless to say Jason loved it!

On July 19th, Ashley and I had a chance to get a way with our friend Marci McKay to see the Biltmore House (the largest house in the U.S.). We enjoyed spending time together and the house was amazing, I didn't know that someone could find a need to have such a large space, so large you could get lost in it, if you aren't careful. The house itself is about 175,000 square feet, the land the owner has is 8,000 acres. The gardens are amazing, there are many beautiful gardens to explore and the owner had built his own winery, and River Bend Farm. This was intended on being a self sustaining home. Needless to say Ashley was amazed and so was I. That was an all day even with a 1 1/2 hour drive to Asheville and then the drive home, and to tour the house it took us about 3-4 hours. Wow, we loved it.

The week of July 21st, Ashley and Brady started swim lessons, and they quickly became fish out of water. We spent an extra amount of time at the pool and their instructors name was Brennan, he taught them at the community pool and that was rather convienent for me. I swam with Aimee and Brock while Ashley and Brady learned much about swimming. by the end of just 5 lessons that were 1 hour long, they were jumping off the diving board, swimming from wall to wall with out any help. They did a fantastic job.

Saturday July 26th, Jason took Brady on a boys day out, and can you get more appropriate than a trip to Lowe's Motor Speedway. Brady thought it was so cool to visit a real race track. They also got to take a bus/van ride around the race track to feel the tilt of the track and they got to go 80 miles an hour, not even half as fast as the actual race cars. But they loved it and Brady got to bring home a starters flag. Jason and Brady had a wonderful time together.

On July 29th, Mom and Dad Kirkham along with Cody, decided to come and visit us. They arrived late Tuesday night and by Thursday morning we all headed to Cherry Grove, a part of North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. It was only a 3 1/2 to 4 hour drive and the beach was a lot of fun. We were only going to be there for 3 days, so on the first full day there we spent the majority of it at the Beach. The second day we stayed at the Condo's in the lazy river and pool. It turned out that as excited as the kids were to see the beach, they weren't used to the salt and sand, and they prefered the cleaner feel of the pool. I guess going to the beach has to become a regular thing to be able to get used to the things that come with going to the beach. We had a good time and the kids were sad to see it come to an end. When we got back to Charlotte, my parents left the next morning, early. It was a bit of a whirl wind trip, I guess. We enjoyed having them come and visit, and share in this experience with us.

When we returned from our trip we had to get our Suburban into the shop, it turned out it needed a new starter motor, and a few other things, so after spending nearly 2K we hope that it lasts us at least 3 or 4 more years. That way maybe we will have time to save for a nice family vehicle and pay cash instead of financing another vehicle. I will say it has been nice to not have a car payment for a couple of years now!

On August 6th I got to go out on a girls night, we went to see 'Mama Mia', it was definetely a chick flick, and we all totally loved it! Dinner was great too at Firebirds.

Jason just started to get his Final Presentation put together on the 6th, and today he presents at 3:00, we are all rooting for him, I personally think he has done a Fabulous job, and apparently his boss thinks so too. I guess all we can do now is wait and see what happens. The Bank has said that they will be issuing offers on Sept. 1st, and so I guess we can wait that long to find out if Jason gets an offer. Life is strange, at the beginning of the summer, I was leaning to the fact that I could live without the humidity, and bugs, and I honestly miss the openness of the West, however, as the summer has gone on, and a lot has changed with the economy, I feel like we would be blessed to get an offer, and we would have to pray and see what feels right at that time. I really don't have my doubts, I think Jason will get one, I guess if we continue to pray, the Lord will continue to bless us in our efforts to do what he would want us to do, and be where he would have us be.