Almost 11 Months, Where Have I Been?

Sorry little blog, i had to take a break for the summer. Another, more expensive, blog courtesy of the Apple chaps took me away; but alas, i am back.
To catch you up, i'll do a little review:
We have a dog now. Did we have a dog before? She might be my favorite.

Here she is in her most favorite place in the world... our bed. For all wondering, she is a Rhodesian Ridgeback mix; and her name is Adler, as in Irene Adler, from Sherlock Holmes.

Since I last wrote we've been New Orleans (BEAUTIFUL!)


and just a couple of weeks ago, we went to Los Angeles to visit our friends! (love it so much more than I used to!)



But most importantly, and most heartbreaking, we had to go home to Arkansas because my pappaw passed away about a month ago.

I don't know if many of you ever heard me tell stories about my pappaw, but he was a person I always admired. He was in WWII; so he had the chance to travel and see the world (which has inspired me to do the same). He always told great stories (luckily Jayson and i were able to tape a few), and he was a very creative man. For much of my life, he had a craft shop behind their house. I would go and visit them and spend what felt like hours (to a little kid) in their watching him create.

At his funeral, Marines honored him with gun fire and the flag folding. It was such a beautiful ceremony, and even more comforting knowing that pappaw had planned it out all himself. The area firemen came out because my pappaw started the fire department in Higginson, AR; and at city hall they lowered the flag to half mast.
The hardest reminder i've had over the last month has been in my own genealogy. I had been telling my pappaw that i was researching our family history. Being such a story-teller himself, he was really excited about it. I promised to bring him the few documents I had found next time I saw him.... I, instead, brought them to my father when I came into town for pappaw's funeral.

Even more, since then, I have traced pappaw's family back and I have even found the family member he always told us about that fought in the Civil War. It brings me heartache that I can't share this with him.

Here is one of my favorite photos of him:


So a lot has happened! Some happy, some sad; but so very thankful that the sad is tinged with joy, knowing that pappaw believed in Christ and is there celebrating with him now!