snippets of Saturday on Sunday

The kids had TKD testing yesterday,

and they all passed.

Yay!!

So,

Lily is a red/black belt (what?!)

Lexi is red,

Jeremiah and Josiah have 5 (I think) midterm stripes on their (black) belts,

and Brandon,

Brandon

is now a 2nd degree black belt!

He is also an official,

full-fledged

certified TaeKwanDo Instructor.

I think that's a pretty crazy awesome accomplishment 

for a 17 yr old young man!

(and UAFS didn't think he qualified for a leadership scholarship. Hmph)

I am so appreciative for all that Mr Townsend

has done with and for him.

He told me last test cycle,

when we were talking about the next one being for the belt,

that it was silly, 

but he was as proud of Brandon as he'd be if he were his own son.

Really though,

he has poured into Brandon more than anyone else has,

besides Tyler and I,

so he should be proud :-)

~

My mom and Bill came down yesterday for testing,

and then took us to lunch at Cheddars to celebrate,

then came back to the house

 and played and visited and shot guns.

So it was a nice afternoon.

:-)

~

Corey and his crew came over to help us move the front door

from the garage to the porch,

so that's one little thing

that can be marked off the list

(of a million other things...)

I love it when our friends share our excitement!

We've actually had a few friends who've expressed some jealously,

which baffles me,

and makes me a little sad.

We've been working towards this for a long time...

You know - when we found this place,

Corey was a realtor.

Even though we were more acquaintances than friends at that point,

we called him instead of the realtor the house was listed with,

so he has been with us from the very beginning

of the journey.

Which made it especially nice to get to give them the tour...

Standing upstairs,

he asked,

"All those years ago, when you first had this dream,

is *this* what you pictured?"

Tyler and I both answered that it's more.

And we feel so grateful.