Dinner with the Workuns, Dad's Birthday in Nashville, and Gwen's Shower

Recap of the last month or so..

Several Friday nights ago we had dinner with our friends the Workuns. They are from Oklahoma and we are so blessed to have met them very early after moving to Durham. Zach is in Dane's 1st year class and Karen is a teacher in Raleigh. They are the sweetest people and we love them. 

 We also love the restaurant El Rodeo. In fact, we ate there today for lunch. They have great outdoor seating and lunch prices on Sunday. Who does that? 

Two weekends ago I went to Nashville to attend an NDT course at Vanderbilt. The course was an excellent choice and very hands on including observing our lecturer treat 2 patients at Vanderbilt.

 The course was Friday- Sunday. Sunday was my Dad's birthday. I was thrilled that my parents were able to come for a visit so that we could celebrate our dear Dad. Beth suggested we try J. Alexander's for dinner. It is a nice American style restaurant.

 Vandy football stadium in the backround.

 Ross celebrated his 2nd Birthday Thursday night. My flight arrived around 5pm on Thursday so I was able to celebrate with Ross. Dane and I got him that blue bandana. :)

 We made Dad a yellow cake with chocolate frosting and had a little ice cream on the side.

 After the course on Sunday Beth and I grabbed a little of the best ice cream on earth - Hot and Cold.

 Yum. I truly treasure time with my family. I loved getting to see them and celebrate my Dad's birthday. Special thanks for my sister for being an excellent host during a very, very busy time in her program.

Wednesday of this past week my friend Morgan and I hosted a baby shower for our dear friend Gwen. The people at the shower were spouses from the Duke Div Spouse Group.

 It was primarily a diaper shower. Gwen wants to use cloth diapers with this child (her 2nd). We collected the money and gave her a gift card from her diaper registry.

 Gwen and Morgan (who is also pregnant!)

 Jessica, Karen, Vail (also pregnant!), and Emily

 Morgan made these adorable paper diapers.

Jamie, Amanda, and Karen

Emily, Grace, Yen,  Jessica, Ashley, Lorrie, and Morgan

 Anna (to the right of Gwen) knitted this adorable hat for Gwen's baby boy! We loved it!

 Me, Gwen, Anna, Lea, Tina

Life has been very full lately. Dane is now finished with his first year at Duke Divinity. He loves his program and often tells me how blessed he is to be here. He has two days of training this week for his summer internship. We are looking forward to a wonderful summer. Dane will be serving and learning in a church in Raleigh. 

We are also very excited to be headed to the mountains with Dane's family very soon.

Weekends in Durham.

Last weekend was a much needed restful weekend. Dane and I ate at Chili's on Friday night and then we watched 2 episodes of the best drama ever on televsion - Friday Night Lights. Saturday morning we slept in late and then went to breakfast at my personal favorite Cracker Barrel. Yum. Then we headed out for a hike at the Eno River.

 I could not get over the beauty of the Eno River. It is literally 10 minutes from our house.

 There were wildflowers everywhere. Oh and dogs!! We saw 2 Westies. :)

 My sweet husband enjoying the sunshine.

 After our hike we headed to Target and purchased these two cute red Adirondack chairs and two steaks for dinner. After dinner we finished the very last episode of Friday Night Lights. We have been watching the show since we got the first season on DVD for my birthday in October. 

I found this Iris blooming in my neighbor's yard. Reminds of my Gran. I love new life that reminds of her. It makes me feel like she is always with me.

We had a wonderful service at New Creation UMC on Sunday to celebrate Easter. For lunch we had dinner with the Dunlaps in Chapel Hill. Ham, salad, and sweet potatoes. :) 

Remembering Papaw.

My Papaw (Aron Roy Estes) passed away Thursday March 29. My Pawpaw was my Dad's Dad. He lived in Cave City on Matlock Rd my entire life. My Dad and his family lived in Kansas City when my Dad was going up, but they all moved to AR when my Dad was grown. Pawpaw was 88 years old when he passed away. 

 He loved wearing baseball caps particularly Arkansas hats (and now Vandy and Duke hats as well). He woke up very early every morning and went to bed shortly after Wheel of Fortune.

 He loved his family. He was very close to both of his children. My Dad visited with him every day for as long as I can remember.

He will be greatly missed. He had a sweet sense of humor. Dad was always trying to get him to buy a hearing aid and last Christmas when Dad couldn't hear into the living from from the kitchen he said under his breath, "You need to get a hearing aid."

What a blessing to have spent my entire childhood with all four of my grandparents. We all loved my Papaw. Dane and I were blessed to be able to go home last weekend to celebrate his life with my family. It was wonderful to see my parents and hug my Dad.

Spring Break 2012

Ok, so I obviously don't get a spring break anymore. However, Dane, Beth, and Corey all got one the same week. That's pretty awesome considering they all three go to grad school in different states. I was fortunate enough to get off of work for a week, so we headed west to Arkansas. We had a wonderful time with family.

 Julie and Sam came over on Sunday and we did a little reunion planning. Mom and Julie are planning the reunion for both the Webb and the Twilley family reunions this summer.

 Here is Ross hiding under the side table. He sat and played with us most of the time, but he sometimes needed his Ross time.

 I love this picture of the men watching tv. Love them.

 Beth and Ross.

 Dane

 Sunday night my friends Callie and Andrea came over. It was wonderful to see them. I hadn't seen either of them since August. That is too long for friends like these girls.

 Ross loved Andrea.

 Monday night we ate at the Burger Center in Melbourne. My favorite restaurant of all time. Seriously.

 Tuesday we did some shopping with Mom. Mom took off work Tuesday and Thursday to visit with us. It was too much fun. We went to Sonic!! There are no Sonics in NC. At least not anywhere near the Triangle. I had no idea how attached I was to Sonic.

 Tuesday night was Corey's birthday. We ate at El Acapulo in Cave City with both sides of their family. The food was great and it was fun to see everyone at one time. I love spending time with Dane's family.

Reid and George

 With Mert an Vaughn.

 The birthday boy with Aunt Nancy. I love the "Cave City" words on the wall.

 Wednesday we visited with friends in Conway. I ate lunch with my dear friends and mentors Charlotte and Leah. I am so blessed to have both of those women in my life. We also visited with some of former parishioners and caught up with them. Saturday night we had a little Whole Hog BBQ at with our college friends. They don't have BBQ in NC. There is something on the menu that says BBQ, but don't be fooled.

 Very special girls.

I stopped taking pictures on Wednesday. The one major event that I did not have my camera for was my Mamaw's 80th birthday party!! It was at my cousins Deanna and Ryan's house. It was a great night with family.

 Unfortunately my Papaw has been the in hospital/nursing home since January and he went back in the hospital Friday night when we first got home. We were able to visit with him several times and it was good to spend some time with him.

Spring Break 2012 was a blessing. Time with family and friends, much missed Sonic and BBQ, and a road trip with my sweet husband. 

Life.is.good.

Beautiful Saturday in February.

 We have had a great weekend.  Friday night I watched the movie The Vow with some of my girlfriends and we grabbed some yogurt after the movie. Dane visited his friend Zach at the coffee shop where Zach works in Raleigh.

Yesterday we enjoyed a beautiful sunny day with highs in upper 60s. We ate breakfast with some wonderful friends at 10:30 at our favorite Durham restaurant. Foster's Market. The owner, Sara, writes cookbooks. We bought Angie a cookbook for Christmas because we love the food so much and we thought the Womacks would enjoy trying out the recipes.

 One of the great things about Foster's is that they have an entire front yard area with picnic tables and adirondack chairs. The weather was so warm that I took my jacket off.

 More of the front porch area.

Our friends Mike and Vail brought their sweet dog Topper out for the morning. He got lots of attention and even got to mingle with the other dogs. 

After brunch we headed to Target to get the groceries. We made it home around 3 pm and we decided that the weather was so nice that we should head out to the tennis court. I haven't played tennis in a very long time. It was hard to get back into the swing, but it was fun. We discovered that we needed new tennis balls so we ended up buying some last night after dinner. After playing tennis, we took a walk around West campus. There are great old houses that have been restored surrounding west campus. I had never walked the path and it turned out to be very interesting.

For dinner we went to Red Lobster to spend our gift cards that my parents got us for Christmas and my sister got us for our anniversary. Yum. We even had the stuffed mushrooms for appetizers. Nice. ;) After dinner we watched THREE episodes of our favorite show - Friday Night Lights. We are now on the 5th and final season. I am going to be so sad when the show is over. I'm glad that our friends Merritt and Adam got us hooked.

This morning we went to New Creation UMC for church. It really does feel like our new church home now. I am thankful for that. Part of the service is in Spanish so we are learning a little Spanish too. One of the songs that we always sing is really beautiful and it ends with Danos La Paz which means "Grant us Thy peace." We have spent the rest of the day taking a nap, cleaning the bathroom (Dane!), and working on gathering up our tax information while watching the Duke vs. Boston College game.

We are very excited that we are headed home to Arkansas in TWO WEEKS. We are driving from NC and stopping in Nashville to pick up my sister who has Spring Break the same week!! :) We also found out this weekend that Corey is coming home too!!! I cannot wait to spend some much needed time with our family and friends.

Here's to a much needed weekend of fun!

2012 Updates

I'm getting behind on updating this blog. January's weather was very mild here in NC. We had several days in the 60s. It has recently turned cold, but no snow yet.

Beth came to visit us the last weekend in January. Unfortunately I did not get any good pictures. We did get some good food and we were able to spend some time together. I love time with my dear sister.

Dane and I watched the Super Bowl at Zac and Karen's house with some of our other friends from Div School. 

Dan, Raygan, Allan, Christina, and Tim

Jason and Jenny (sitting on the floor) and Zac and Karen

I think that the biggest thing that has happened in the last month is that Dane and I started going to the gym after work every day. Tomorrow it will be 5 weeks. Dane read somewhere that if you can do something for 5 weeks it becomes a life change. I think that means we made it! We talked about making this important life change when we were in the Outer Banks. I am so glad we stuck with it!

We think we have finally found a church home while we are here in Durham -New Creation UMC. The church is a racially and culturally inclusive faith community and is located in the heart of Durham.

I asked Dane if there was anything that he wanted to remember from the last month. He said that we need a picture of the Duke win against UNC. Austin Rivers made a 3 at the buzzer and Duke won at UNC.

Here it is, the game winning shot. :)

 

Dane picked these before a freeze a couple of nights ago. I think they look beautiful in our kitchen next to my favorite picture of my Gran. I keep the picture of her sitting next to my grandfather and aunt in her kitchen above my kitchen sink. I treasure the days I spent in her home and in her kitchen. I also have the apron she is wearing in this picture hanging in my kitchen.