Hey everyone! I can’t believe it’s been over a week since I posted last. It has been a really hectic time lately and it seems I never get here to post – even thought I check back often to keep up with the tagboard comments.

I’ve posted some new photos of Blake in the Blake photo album. These are various pictures from the last two or three weeks.

Since I last posted, I celebrated my 31st birthday. It was a great birthday. My parents got me a couple of days at a place down at the lake so I had some time away by myself (which I always enjoy) plus a good friend of mine from college came up for part of the time. We had a good time catching up on life and spending some time together. The family celebrated on Thursday night. I got to hold Blake a lot which was GREAT!

Update on the kitchen: it is nearly done. My appliances are back in the kitchen and tonight I cooked on the stove and baked cookies for my c-group kids. This was the first time I’d use the stove in about two months. Crazy – I actually missed cooking. I just have a few more touches before I post pictures. But everyone who comes in loves it and thinks it is much better than the previous decor.

I’ll try and update more regularly. In the meantime, keep the tagboard conversations and comments coming!

Peace – Melissa

Forgot to post about the Hurricane. I was watching the aftermath and Ivan hit the area where we stay for our senior trip really hard!!! In fact, many of the place we drive by or go to each year suffered some serious damage. They showed the Romar Baptist Church which I’ve driven by each year and thought – hey, God, call me here to serve; I could suffer in beach ministry. The entire church was GONE. Ivan took her back into the sea.

I’m really curious about the beach houses in Fort Morgan where we’ve stayed. I hope they made it without too much destruction.

Here’s a quote from the New York Times. The “Down Under Dive Shop” (picture to the left)
is the shop that we went to this past year to check on snorkeling and we always stop by Souvenir City.

Water swamped the Down Under dive shop, lapping above the level of the plywood boards hammered into place to protect the building. White-capped waves crested in the parking lot of Souvenir City. One resident, Steve Horvat, joked that he now had beachfront property. “The problem is some people say it looks like a houseboat,” he said.