Let's 'Tend Like...

AK's favorite saying these days is "let's 'tend like..." and you can fill in the blank with anything that she can imagine. What she is actually saying is let's pretend like...I am your age and I can drive like you, or one day she even pointed to her chest, and then pointed to my chest and said "let's pretend like mine are the size of yours!" It was hilarious! Anyway...

We are going to 'tend like it hasn't been almost two weeks since I last posted.

So, here goes...more quick updates and I will promise to do a better job.

**Thanksgiving: It was awesome! This was the first Thanksgiving holiday, or any major holiday that I actually cooked something besides a dessert. Brad and I were in charge of the turkey! Jaime helped me brine it (wow!) and then Brad and I cooked it. (I came down stairs from taking a shower that Thursday morning and Brad had both arms stuck up the turkey's rear. It was a sight, but I am so thankful that he did it.) It really was a great weekend spending time with my parents and getting to talk to Jordan and Ben! But I am sure all of you have heard all of the details from Jaime's blog. Since I am late posting about it, I will let you check out all the pictures she posted of our weekend. I feel a little sad that I didn't even get to do my Thursday Thirteen of things I was thankful for. But at least here is one Thanksgiving picture that my neighbor took for us outside my house.

**One of the reasons I haven't posted in a while is because I have been sick. I have had an ugly cold and my husband has had me doped up on some good medicine. I was a walking commercial for those medicines that make you feel like your head is a balloon. Thankfully I am feeling on the upside though!

**I LOVE LOVE LOVE my new job!! God has truly blessed more than I could have ever imagined, and in so many ways. I am working with some of the most precious children and some great families. Everything is still very new to me, therefore I am still a little uncomfortable. I am one of these people who wants to know everything ahead of time, and be prepared, and have everything laid out in front of me. Well, things aren't like that right now and its driving me bonkers! BUT, I know that God has a plan in this and that He is preparing me for future obstacles and He is teaching me things through this that I will be able to use later. (*Please pray that I will be able to catch on fast and absorb everything that I am supposed to learn) The thought actually crossed my mind the other day that it would be really neat to go back to school and pursue something in this field. However, I had to quickly erase that thought from my mind because we can only afford for one Brock to be in school right now. I am still shadowing the woman who I am going to be covering for her maternity leave. I have really enjoyed working with her and getting to know her. Her due date is Dec. 13th and she is still planning on working through the 14th. So please be praying for both of us, I might be with her when she goes into labor!

**Before Thanksgiving Brad and I were able to go two weeks and only use half a tank of gas. All of that is about to change because I am traveling for my job and some days I will have to travel about an hour just one way. Dear God, please let the gas prices go down, way down.

**Brad registered for classes today! We have been here for a month and haven't done much for this whole seminary thing. It finally feels like we are getting somewhere with this.

**Next weekend we might be making a trip back to SC. (I am now going to tell you a little story before I can explain my next thought.) When I moved to Anderson to go to school, the advisers or dean, or whoever it was at orientation told my parents and I that it was best if I did not come home for the first month. It was to help us get used to the new environment, meet people, etc because we wouldn't be able to do these things if we were going home every weekend. I don't know why they decided that a month was a good time frame, but nonetheless that is what they told us and I distinctively remember that for some reason. Anyway, it has been a month and I am ready to come back to sweet SOUTHERN Carolina for a visit. I miss my baby niece Kayleigh and everyone else!

**Brad just called and said he was on his way home. He also said that we were going on date tonight. So, I am going to get pretty for my husband, and I will post more for you tomorrow!

**Haley, thanks for trying to keep me in step! (Ha! I just made myself laugh!)

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Random Stuff

My sweet husband informed me last night that I was letting my blog readers down, and that I needed to write a new post for my blog. I then tried to convince him to post some updates for me, but as you can see, that didn't work out, so here I am. I think I am in a rambling mood, so if you care to follow along, here are some of my thoughts and a few updates from the Brock household.


I have no excuses why I haven't blogged in a week. I have devoutly read everyone else's blog, and I have even found a few new blogs to lurk upon. I just couldn't think of anything to post on. Actually that is a lie. I can think of plenty of things to post on, but I often wonder, who is going to be interested in reading this? I love how Haley , Terri, and Meredith can write anything and make it sound fascinating; and Jaime, Stephanie, Kelly, Alli, and Jessi all have beautiful children to blog about. I will attempt to write more thoughtful blogs in the future!

I am so happy for my husband and his new job! He loves it, and I love that he loves it! He is working at Hasentree, a private golf course. Almost everyday, Brad calls me or texts me to tell me who is playing at the golf course. Of course, I don't recognize many of the names, but they are famous people. Some one from the Atlanta Braves played last week, people from the Carolina Hurricanes have played, some professional football players, and really rich people from the community too. The membership fees and monthly fees to this place are outrageous! I would feel very uncomfortable there, but my husband does an amazing job!


Speaking of jobs, I FINALLY get to start today. I have kinda/sort of had this job lined up since before we moved up here; however we have had to make everything official, and that has taken three weeks. I am being hired to cover a woman's maternity leave and she won't be leaving until the beginning of December. BUT (and this is a big but) I am going out and shadowing another woman today so I can get experience and some training! Whoopee! We are finally getting this ball a rollin'! And I am getting out of the house, which is another Whoopee!



I am also enjoying living close to the Browns. Actually, I love it. They have really helped us in so many ways! Brad and I were also a little scared about moving so close, but things have been wonderful, and I am so thankful that we get to share this experience together.


Austin Kathleen Brown eats like a horse. She wakes up hungry, and asks for food constantly. It is a good thing that I am starting work so we can get more groceries to help feed this child. Since she has the energy of a tornado packed into her little body, she burns it quite fast. You must feed her, or she gets cranky. I might go as far as to say she probably eats more than Brad, now that is saying something.


Averie Elizabeth Brown cannot be only eight years old. She walks, talks, and acts like an eighteen year old. Where did my baby niece with the fat cheeks, plump thighs, and curly red hair go? She's growing up fast and her daddy better watch out. And her mother, well she is getting payback because Averie acts just like her!

I miss Kayleigh Brock like crazy. I talked to Amanda (her mother) the other day on the phone and she said that she had to go get her six month shots. I about hit the roof when she told me this. I am not ready for her to be six months old yet. I think in my mind, I am keeping her at about four months old, four and half at the most. Six months is half a year. HALF A YEAR. Does anyone else feel my pain on this? I miss her so much and I know that she is growing up so fast, and I am missing most of it! Here is one of my favorite pictures of Brad and I holding Kayleigh. This is how little I want her to stay.

Friday night my husband called me at 6:00 pm asking me what I was doing. I was folding his laundry and I was wearing my pajamas. He asked me to get ready because someone from work gave him tickets to the Carolina Hurricanes Hockey game. When does the game start honey? I asked him. 7:00 Sweetie, he replied. Oh poop. I was torn. Do I finish folding the laundry so his clothes are not wrinkled? Or do I throw on some clothes and put on make up for the first time that day? I chose the second option. In my frenzy of trying to get dressed, I forgot to grab a jacket. Did I mention that we went to see a hockey game? It was so dang cold because we had amazing seats. We were right in the middle (I guess you could call it the 50 yard line of hockey) and we were six rows from the ice. The face value of our tickets were $75 each! AND they were free. We got there a little late because we didn't leave the house until 6:30 because Brad had to come home and get ready, and the arena was half an hour away. We almost saw a few fights during the game, which was pretty cool. We had a wonderful time even though neither of us are hockey fans and we didn't really know what was going on.



Saturday I was having a rough day, and my precious husband could obviously hear it in my voice. He was called into work early, and I probably called him six times asking him since he got to go in early if he would get off early. He didn't, and I was sad. I was also extremely homesick. I think I have done great so far with the move, and the not working yet. But on this day I was just in the dumps. So, on the last of my many phone calls to Bradley, He just said relax, and don't worry about supper. He was going to take care of everything and let me rest. Guess what he brought home? Really, Guess...

I am so easy to please! He brought home my favorite....Papa John's pizza, flowers, and not one, but two bags of Hersey's Candy Cane Kisses. These things are wonderful! It is the perfect combination of two of my favorite things, chocolate and mint! I wait for these things all year long, and they only have them at Christmas time. Lucky for me, Christmas started early this year. I actually put them in my pumpkin bowl. Yes, I have Christmas candy in my Fall/Thanksgiving decor. Anyway, my husband is WONDERFUL and knew exactly how to cheer me up! I love that man!

This is getting kind of long, even though I can think of some more things to say but I am going to wind it up. Please pray for my job, I am getting a little nervous! Hope everyone has a fabulous day!

Happy Birthday!!

Happy Birthday Jaime!!!

It's my sister's 27th birthday today! Hope you had a great day of celebrating!

Here are some pictures from our childhood that I thought I would share with everyone!

Does this remind you of anyone?

The Layton Four

Happy Birthday Jaime! We love you!

Thursday Thirteen

OK, I will admit it, I am a little bit of a neat freak. My husband sometimes jokes that I have OCD; and that is probably a little bit true. So, for my Thursday Thirteen here are thirteen things that drive me crazy if they are just a little bit out of place!

1. My closet! I have to have all of my sleeveless shirts together, my short sleeve shirts together, my long sleeve shirts together...get the picture? I almost color-coordinated my closet one time, but I had to fight the urge so I didn't freak my husband out.

2. My pantry. I try to have all of the food separated into categories, and then they have to be organized by size.

3. Pictures. It was a small nightmare trying to hang the pictures up in our new house because I wanted them perfect. I measure once, do some math, then measure again, and then double check it, and then usually measure one more time after that to make sure things are centered/even/or just exactly how I want them. Brad started to get a little annoyed after the first room. It is a miracle we finally put everything up.

4. I am getting better about this one...but it really bothers me when I make up the bed and the pillows don't look straight. I usually get frustrated and end up leaving them alone.

5. I hate for there to be any "goop" (is that a word?) around the lid of a shampoo bottle or the toothpaste, or anything like that. I have to clean them off on a regular basis.

6. Rugs. They have to be straight.

7. My earrings are color coordinated. I have a jewelry box with five drawers: Silvers & whites, browns, reds & pinks, blacks, and blues & greens.

8. It bothers me when wires are showing and tangled up. It is a mess under my desk, and it really bothers me, I just haven't gotten around to fixing these.

9. I like for books to be organized by size. My book shelf isn't a perfect example of this, but it bugs me when I see a tiny book beside a huge book and there is this awkward space.

10. Papers & bills. I have to let Brad handle this one, or I would let this get way out of hand. I would make lists, and lists of lists, and have to organize and file papers daily! I am always begging Brad to "please file those papers!"

11. My cabinets. I try to keep these really organized. It is extra harder now though. When we lived in Lyman, we had excellent cabinet space, and when we moved here, our space was cut in half! So everything is jammed into places. I have been known to take everything out of the cabinets and reorganize it many times.

12. My pocketbook. I try to keep it neat and organized too! However, I have not found the perfect pocketbook yet. I have always said that I am going to start designing pocket books so I can make one that I really like!

13. Anything that is out of place. I can't sit down and concentrate if something is out of place. When I was in school, I would have to clean my dorm room before I could even study!

Now having said all of this, you probably think that my house is spotless. It's not, I promise! I just like to have things organized! You could come into my house and find a lot of things out of place, especially since I have two little helpers these days! But, I am working on not being so freakishly organized and trying to relax. I do know the perfect formula to get a picture centered on the wall though! ;-) Have a great day!

Science experiments, Story time, & Singing

This is what I have been waiting to see for a long time! This is Ave & AK walking from their house to my house. The Brown girls are finally back in town! There for a little while, I wasn't sure if they were going to come back home, but they are finally here. Ave & Austin haven't officially moved in with us yet like they said they were going to do, but they have shown many of the village children where we live (I will explain that in a minute).

Yesterday as Brad and I were driving home from church we saw that a huge house on Main Street (in the Wake Forest Historic District) was having a yard sale. I convinced Brad to turn around so we could check it out. It probably would have been a decent yard sale on Saturday, but since we stopped by on Sunday there wasn't that much left. We did find a cool microscope though, and I decided to get it for my Star Wars/Science loving, home schooling, yet still awesome nieces. Brad had to go to work later that afternoon, so after he was gone...this is what happened: The village children came over to do a science experiment. For this experiment, they used leaves. And then they tricked me, they all said that they were thirsty, so I brought out a pitcher of water (because that is all that I had to give them!) and the instead used that for their experiment. Leaves and water...a very interesting science experiment! THEN, they found a granddaddy long-leg spider. They wanted to use this for their science experiment, but Austin Kate was the only one brave enough to touch it. They quickly became bored with that and asked me for some paper and something to write with. Everyone decided to write a story, except for Austin who wanted to serenade us. Here are some pictures of her singing for all of the village children.



Later that night, I was running me some bath water so I could relax and have a nice bubble bath. Right before I got in, Brad ran upstairs and said that somebody was knocking on our door, and I probably shouldn't get in yet. So I went back down stairs as he was opening the door and two precious girls ran in the room! I waited to see if Jaime and Nate were coming in too, but then Ave said that they dropped them off and they wanted us to call them when we were really for the girls to come home. I didn't get my bubble bath, but I had a lot more fun anyway! I am so glad my girls are back! Here is a picture of Averie snuggled up to her Uncle Brad watching the Disney channel!

I couldn't ask my husband to be a better uncle to these two girls. I love to see them together, it is precious! And, I am so glad that we were able to live close enough for the girls to be able to walk over. I am sure this is just one of many fun days getting to hang out with my "Brownies!"

Getting Settled

I can't believe that it has only been one week since last Thursday, it seems like so much time has passed since then! Wow! I don't even know where to start; actually let me start by saying *HURRAY* for the Internet. It has been a very long seven days with out the Internet, not including everything else that we have done that has made the past week seem like a month!

Besides my roller coaster emotions and the torrential rains last Friday our first moving experience went amazingly effortless! I tend to make a bigger deal out of things than I need to, what is that saying...I make a mountain out of a molehill? Anyway, here is a quick overview of how things went...

Friday morning we left beautiful (and sunny) South Carolina, and crossed over into the black clouded skies of North Carolina. Literally, we crossed the line, and the skies turned an eerie dark gray. Not long after that it began to rain; sometimes it was the type of rain where you have to turn your windshield wipers on high speed, go 40 MPH on the interstate, and you still can't see anything in front of you! Luckily for me, I was following a bright yellow moving truck. God really heard our prayers because the rain let up to a slight drizzle so we could unload the truck! We didn't mind the rain too much because we knew that this area needs the rain very badly! We were able to get everything off of the truck, and all of the furniture situated fairly quickly! We had a lot of help. Jon Durham showed up not long after we did, and he came to help us unload. Everything fit perfectly! Amanda & I started to unpack the kitchen stuff while the men unloaded the truck, since about 85% of all of the boxes landed in my kitchen floor!

Saturday morning we woke up at 6:00am to see Amanda & Josh (Brad's brother & his fiance) off. They are saints in my book! They followed us up here Friday to help us move, and had to leave bright and early Saturday because Josh had to be at work at 11:00am. They were SO MUCH help! In fact, I really couldn't keep up with Amanda. If I had been by myself without her help, it still wouldn't be all done. I would have probably stood there, looking at everything trying to figure out where I needed to start. She jumped in and got us going! When they left, I got really emotional. It was so hard seeing them pull away! We have gotten so close in the past year, and it is hard knowing that we won't be able to see them whenever we want. Brad was such a trooper though. My dad, ("Paca" Mark) came up to help us also, and he stayed through Sunday morning. All day Saturday we unpacked boxes and ventured out on the town for a while to get a few groceries and necessities. My dad was a really big help too!

Sunday we got to go visit Richland Creek Community Church. This was a little bittersweet for both of us. We have grown to love Wellford Baptist, and it has become like a second home to us. So, the thought of starting over and finding a new church is a little discouraging. However, we know that this is all in God's plan, and that he is going to use us somewhere special. We finished unpacking that afternoon and finally collapsed from exhaustion that night!

Monday & Tuesday we got to hang out and find our way around town. Brad is doing better with this than I am, but I am figuring it out. He tries to quiz me when we are riding down the road about where we are. I am getting a little bit better though! If he would let me drive somewhere I know I would have to figure it out on my own. (Hint-hint, Sweetie)

Wednesday, Brad finally started work, and he loves it! This is a huge answer to prayer. I am going to get him to post and give you all the details though. And me, well I am still sitting at home waiting. I have talked to the woman several times at the place where I am going to be working. And everything seems to be going well, as far as I know, I have the job. BUT, I am waiting on her to send me a background check, and an application. I am being hired to fill in for a woman while she is gone on her maternity leave (at the beginning of Dec.) but hopefully I can start before then. I am getting a little bored. I don't handle sitting at home by myself well. (*Please pray for that!*) The ironic thing is, if I was working right now, I would love the chance to be at home with nothing to do! Why does it work that way?

Anyway, this is getting a little long, so here are some pictures from move-in day! I haven't taken pictures since everything has been put up, but I will post them as soon as I take them!

This is my kitchen where a lot of the boxes were placed. Don't you like the green painter's tape that we used to close up the boxes? I wonder where we got that tape from? ;) And if you can't tell, most of the boxes are from Bed, Bath, & Beyond. We definitely utilized our resources when we were packing!

This is a shot of my living room before all of the furniture is moved in. If you look through the window you can see my dining room table is out on the front porch. There wasn't enough room to bring it in because of all the boxes.

This dresser was a beast to move! Look closely, and you can tell that everyone is soaking wet from the rain.

The tired Brock Boys!

I didn't get a chance to take as many pictures as I wanted, but it just wasn't the most opportune time to take them. I promise I will post the "after" pictures soon!

Special thanks to Amanda, Josh, Daddy, Nate, & Jon for all of your AMAZING help getting us moved! We couldn't have done it without you!