Philippians 4:8

A little over a year ago I posted a Facebook note about this verse.  I must admit, I have yet to conquer the charge I gave myself then, but I am continue to try.  I felt it warranted revisiting and decided to dig into the verse a little deeper.  I found a great website that uses Strong's concordance and through my digging I must say I gained a much more interesting understanding of the verse and ALSO learned of the existence of a word I had never been exposed to before except when referring to the month... august.  Who knew?  :)

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

                                                                                                                                Philippians 4:8
 

"Over here is my brother Ted, his wife Melissa, and their children Anita, Diane and Nick. Over here my brother Tommy, his wife Anzie, and their children Anita, Diane and Nick. And here, my brother George, his wife Freda, and their children Anita, Diane and Nick."

For those of you who do not know, I have a very large family.  And we are very close.  Many people may see their "extended" family once a year.  I do not understand this behavior.  My "extended" family is not the same as everyone else's.  Reason:  My mother is the last of THIRTEEN kids.  Big families always seem to stay closer longer.  By that I mean (instead of just siblings and maybe first cousins being close to each other) I have first, second, and third cousins that I am very close to.  Another reason for that is:  My mother is the LAST of 13 kids.  Because my mom is the baby of the family, some of her older siblings ended up being more like parents to her since some of them were married and having kids of their own (or about to) by the time she came along.  Which means for me that I have first cousins that are the same age or older than my parents and second cousins that are closer to my age.  I could talk about my family forever!  Ever seen "My Big Fat Greek Wedding"?  That's us, except not Greek.  :)  It's horrible because everyone is wrapped up in everyone else's business, and it's wonderful because everyone is wrapped up in everyone else's business.  I love it.

This was my first family reunion as a married woman!  And because of this I get gifts now!  My aunt brought all the married ladies these cute key-chain teacup tape measures!  I knew I got married for a good reason.  :)

This is the view from my aunt's lake house where the reunion was held:

And there I am in the lake.  I have decided I am a pool kinda girl.  The lake was fun, but I like clean water without animals in it better.

This was a REALLY good restaurant we ate at.  It has a museum right by it.

The Dinner Rules

My lovely husband was pretty full at this point.  You can see it in his eyes.  This is (from right to back) my mom, my cousin Ben, my aunt who I call Maw Maw Liz, and my other cousin Alyssa.

This was in the gift shop across the way.  I seem to have a lot of pictures of me in phone booths and cages.

My cousins Morgan and Bree went out on the lake and picked some really pretty water lilies.  Bree was too busy to have her picture taken.  ;)  FYI, water lilies are slimy.

My proud cousin Ben and his bass he caught.  I don't think anyone else caught a bass while we were there.  I tried using his lure after this, but alas, I still caught nothing. :(

These are some of my cousins (except my mom in the back).  Poor Bree was worn out and pretty sunburned.

The Beautiful Courtney  :)

My beautiful cousins with my handsome husband

Fighting over a kiss.  I can't blame 'em.

The Beginning After the Initial Beginning of the Second Beginning--Our House!

Our First House!  *squeals*  It is the cutest little house you'll ever see!  The following pictures show the progression of what it started as and what it has become... I actually do not have current pictures so lamps and my pretty bathroom stuff won't be in these but I might add pictures from the site I bought them from for now.  :)

This is our bedroom.  This is a weird angle so it looks teeny tiny but it's not.  They stripped all the wallpaper.

This is part of the living room.  Notice the floors for later.

This is a view from the living room to the kitchen AND of my "laundry closet" that was added on just for me because I have too many clothes. :)

Notice floor again.

This is the kitchen with the beautiful new floor!

This is the finished closet and cabinets that are over the washer and dryer.

I was too late to get a good "before" picture of the bathroom but this is partially done so it counts I guess.

Our bedroom again and......

Wow!  Look at those floors!!  They're shiny!  They're gorgeous!  Drew used a lot of words I didn't understand to explain to me what all had to be done to these floors, but basically it meant it was alot of work.

Living Room

The pretty-much-finished kitchen... and my daddy.

The "finished" bathroom.  Minus my decor...

These accessories aren't NEARLY as "ugly green" as they appear here.

Yay!  Back from the honeymoon!  Drew is carrying "us" over the threshold of our house.  The one of us going in the door is blurry.

To get a little sidetracked for a minute, these are the pictures from the snow.

Back to the house.  This is the first piece of furniture that went in our living room.  We had no where to sit for the first month or two but my desk was beautiful!  ;)

And finally our beautiful couch, sofa, chair... came in!

My parents wouldn't visit us for a while because they had no where to sit.  Sooo, we decided we better get some furniture.  That's my chair.  I love my chair.