wonderful weekend.

We have had a wonderful weekend here and I hope you have had the same too! 

Friday night is always pizza night at our house. I am especially loving it lately because there is a little spot in town where you can buy whole wheat pizza dough for $2. You cannot beat that! So, we have been making homemade pizza and I will be honest, I don't think we will ever be able to go back to store bought. 

Miss Scarlett is quite the pizza chef... Here she is rolling out the dough...

Giving it a little pat...

And spreading around the tomato sauce....

Finally our pizza was done and she was ready for a little taste of the crust...

Magnifico!!! 

Saturday morning we were up early to work in the yard. SJ said she needed her sun hat. 

Daddy and Scarlett :) 

We had to invest in an electric hedge trimmer because there is so much vegetation around our house. It took Mitch close to 3 hours to get it all trimmed! Whew. 

SJ needed a shady spot to do some reading with Bitty baby... she was a little bummed that her picnic table, which is what this umbrella is supposed to go with, did not make the trip. There were several items that unfortunately just didn't make the cut. Oh well.

Here is our pretty girl before church this morning. She was so excited to wear her backpack and go to "Bible School." 

 She did so well! I totally balled my way through the first 30 minutes of the service because I was worried about her. It was like everything hit me at once... we are in a new place, we don't know anyone in the church yet, SJ was in a new room where she knew no one.... all of that to music, you know what I mean? Sometimes worship time at church just causes my tears to flow! But God continues to be so near to us during this transition. I am so thankful. 

Now everyone is napping and the house is quiet... sweet Sunday afternoon :) 

Callie ate a bug. A big one.

I wasn't kidding when I said the bugs here in SC are BIG. Even Scarlett says they are :) 

And apparently we have our own little resident Pumba... don't you see the resemblance? 

From my front porch looking in...

Welcome to our new "South Carolina house" as Scarlett calls it. We are now accepting visitors (by application only, ha!). We already have our first bookings for October and November...yeah!! 

Here is our new home on the range... We are just stationed here for a year (as far as we know) so we are renting this house for the amount of time we call SC home. We really like this house. There is only one thing that we are not happy about and that is that they started building right next door to us the week after we moved in. It's not a huge deal, but it is pretty loud. Hopefully it will only last a few months. (Please excuse any boxes and or general messiness you might notice. As Mitch always says, our house is very lived in and there is nothing wrong with that!) 

Front porch 

(one side, the other side is awaiting our porch swing to be hung and had some construction guys standing right by it so I left out the shirtless, very tattooed men :) 

From looking out front door...

Just a nice empty "park" area in front of us. 

Foyer. 

 From foyer looking into kitchen. 

Laundry room off kitchen. (It is SO nice to have something with cabinets that is bigger than a coat closet!!) 

Dining. 

From dining looking into kitchen. 

From dining looking into family room. 

Family room. 

From bottom of stairs looking into dining and kitchen. 

Front hallway. 

Half bath in front hallway. 

Our bedroom. (We splurged and bought a new bed frame and bedding. Same mattress we had before. Our 1980's metal bedframe which was a hand-me-down from my parents was just not cutting it anymore. We are loving our new sleigh bed! Thank you, Mitch!)

This bolster pillow was a labor of love... made by my own 2 hands out of a pottery barn monogrammed shower curtain we were no longer using. Ha! It was a fun project to complete while Mitch was away, but I am glad it is complete. 

Our closet... I think a window in a closet is genius! Clearly I need to do some organizing though...

Master bath (please excuse the messiness...) 

 ----- UPSTAIRS -----

The landing at the top of the stairs.

Scarlett's bathroom (shared in hallway with guest room)

Guest bedroom.

Back porch (which wraps around house). Potting shed and patio in backyard. 

 One side of back porch (other side looks similar).

Screened in porch off of dining room... looking forward to enjoying this little spot 

in the cooler months :) 

Scarlett's room is not included in these pics.... She was napping so I will have to post those another time... never wake a sleeping babe, you know what I am saying?!?

Have a wonderful weekend! 

hello from the low-country!

Y'all, oh how I have missed you! Thanks for all the phone calls and texts and borderline harassment love asking for an update on our status here in South Carolina! It warms my heart to no end to know y'all care :) All is well on the Owen range. Thank you, Lord. We arrived safely and soundly on August 5th with the tremendous help of my parents. My dad headed home on August 7th and my mom followed on the 9th. Let me tell you, that was tough driving away from the airport knowing my mom was boarding a flight on her way back home to Kentucky. But, I have never been more sure of God's presence with me. He is so faithful like that! SJ and I held down the fort by ourselves for a couple days awaiting Daddy's arrival to our new home. We had a very, very sweet reunion with Mitch on August 11th (a day late) and the rest is history! We are soaking up lots of time with our little family of 3 (plus Callie girl!) and trying to settle into life as we know it in this new chapter of life. We really like our neighborhood and really like our house... 2 huge praises! Mitch jumped right into his position at Parris Island first thing Monday (the 13th of August). Of course I am his biggest fan, but I just have to say he has done amazing so far. He is working primarily on Marine recruits. It is so interesting how the Lord works because I think this is totally Mitch's niche. These young men and women are doing an incredibly honorable thing for our country and I think Mitch feels really honored to treat them.

There is much more to unfold as we begin to feel more and more like South Carolina is home... Thanks for reading along the way!

Here are some pictures from our trip down, time settling in and our sweet SJ.

the gorgeous North Carolina mountains on our drive...

South Carolina welcome center sign... home!

Here is the homemade chocolate cake our darling, little neighbor girls brought us... now that is southern hospitality!

Here is the back seat loaded up with babies as we drove Nonni to the airport in Savannah, Georgia...

Scarlett and I love taking walks through our neighborhood. Here is just a little glimpse of our beautiful surrounding.... this state is gorgeous!

Our view of the marsh from a swing along the bank.

The sweetest southern belle I know!

A little role reversal.... ha! I think Callie was confused.

My little caged animal grinning for the camera ;)

This is how Scarlett wanted to dress for our morning walk one day... Smocking, sunglasses and sneakers.

 
The pool has become our favorite spot and thankfully there is a lot of shade for me and my little fair skinned girl.

SJ has gotten really inspired to learn how to ride her bicycle (as she calls it). The neighborhood kids are always out on their bikes...

Okay, so a few things I have noticed about South Carolina in general, thus far:

- It is HOT. That is a no-brainer.
- BUGS. They are big and they are everywhere. It took me a couple nights to realize why my neighbors didn't turn on their porch lights at night.
- I sometimes find myself coveting the southern drawl some of the older women here speak with. Ha!
- The sound of freedom (that would be the Marine Corps Air Station!) is something that should not be taken for granted! Who knew you could fall in love with the sound of fighter jets flying over your house 42 times a day!

COMING LATER THIS AFTERNOON --- TOUR OF THE NEW OWEN RANGE!

Thanks again for reading! More to come... :)

See you in SC.

We are all packed up... hence my silence on here lately :)  I cannot believe we are actually moving away! Boohoo, but yahoo for the next adventure ahead. 

Mitch will arrive home in SC on the 10th of August. I covet your prayers over the next couple days... it's going to be a long trip and a lot to unload, but I am so thankful that the Lord promises that He goes before us. See you in South Carolina....