Savannah, GA... Here Come The Bucklers!!

It is official!
Brad has signed the final contract to begin work in Savannah, Georgia next summer, after he finishes his Neonatology Fellowship.

We are so excited about our decision to move to Savannah! God is so good!! He answered our prayers to show us His plan for us, and we are very much at peace that this is what He wants for us and where He wants us to be.

Brad will be working mostly at Memorial, but also at Candler/St. Joe's. His fellowship will end on June 30 next summer, and he will begin work in Savannah in mid-July.

We are lucky to have some good friends who are already in Savannah. The Lewises, Moodys, and Moretzes have moved there in the past year. We are planning to move into a subdivision in Savannah called Herb River Bend and are lucky that the Lewises and Moodys live there, as well. It will be so nice to have good friends right at our fingertips! Pray for us, as we are planning on building a house, as well....

As for other Buckler news.... We definitely have a lot on our plate. We have our other house (the one we used to rent out) on the market, and we are finding out that it has a lot of serious problems with it. We plan to fix them prior to selling so it will be in good shape, but that is going to put us in a rough position. It is stressful, but we know that God is watching out for us and does not ever give us more than we can handle. Your prayers are much-appreciated at this time. At the same time, we are preparing our current house to be put on the market. I am trying my best to get it cleaned out and ready, which is very slow-going with two busy little ones at my feet! :) So that's what is going on here. We would love to hear from all of you about what is going on in your lives, as well!

Thanks for your prayers all along the way. We are shown time and time again that God answers our prayers, and that His timing and His answers are the perfect ones, so we have absolute faith that will be how all of this turns out, as well.

Summer Activities

We have been having a fabulous summer!!

As we do every summer, we have spent a lot of time at The Family Y. With several pools, 2 baby pools, a slide, and a water park area, there is plenty to do, and it is relatively easy for me to take the girls by myself. Brad has been able to join us a couple of times, so that is when I have been able to take some pictures. As far as Alli Lane is concerned, this is "the best summer ever!" at the Y, because she is finally allowed to go down the slide. She LOVES it!! Boots, of course, just runs around busily and very happily does her thing.

We have been busy doing other things, too. Alli Lane took swimming lessons, and she is doing great! We did Vacation Bible School earlier this summer, and Alli has had two week-long day camps at EDS: Shake Rattle and Roll, and The Deep Blue Sea. She had a blast at both of them! We have made several trips to the park, including the one down by the river, which we often forget about but love when we think about it. We have enjoyed dates to get ice cream, early morning walks, building forts in the living room, dancing in the rain, and playing with friends. I have several great pictures of some of those activities, as well, but will have to add them later.

Here is a picture of Boots and Stanley in the den, just hanging out early one morning. For those of you who don't know, Stanley went blind about a month or so ago ~ literally overnight. It is a disease called SARDS, which apparently can attack the retina of any breed of dog without so much as a warning, and there is nothing you can do about it. The good thing is that it is not painful for him. We are all adjusting to life with a blind dog right now, and it is going pretty well. He is figuring everything out, which is pretty amazing. I guess once you run into things a couple of times with your face, you try your best not to make the same mistakes again! :)

Alli Lane has enjoyed playing with her "older friends," April and James, who live across the street. One afternoon after her nap, she snuck off to her room to dress herself to go out and play ~ and this is what she came up with: Her daddy's Masters tshirt from when he was a little boy, pink play pants that are entirely too short, Christmas socks that blink red lights, and her white sandals.

Great job, baby girl!!

As I have done for a few seasons now, I hosted a children's clothing trunk show: Brinkley's Berries, which is now owned by Hannah Kate. There were some darling clothes in the trunk, and as always, it was a lot of fun. Clothes, fabric boards, swatches, and friends covered the living room and dining room for nearly a week.

Brad and I agree that one of the best additions we made to our house was building a new deck last spring (2008) and covering part of it. We have lots of "at home date nights" out there after the girls have gone to bed, and we also have been eating supper with the girls out there a lot. One night, while enjoying margaritas outside, we became obsessed with watching a spider weave her web. It was incredible and lovely. These pictures do not do it justice, but it was truly nature at its best!

We have been having a great summer and will enjoy the last couple of weeks before the girls begin school. I can't believe Alli Lane will be in Pre-K this year, going 5 days a week!! How quickly the time has flown.... It was 5 years ago today (well, just before midnight tonight) that I found out I was pregnant with her in the Flowers Hospital E.R. in Dothan, AL after having shattered my wrist. I was headed back to surgery when the nurse announced, "By the way, congratulations! Pink means you're pregnant! We'll be back to get you in about 10 minutes to head to the O.R." My goodness, how the time has flown....

I will post more pictures at a later date. We have been in Nashville for Elizabeth's wedding and had an amazing time with good friends! And we have had such fun with the girls all summer long. Hope you all are having a great one, too!

CHICAGO!

Back in June, Brad went to a medical conference in Chicago; he got to go last year, as well. This year, however, I got to go with him! We were only there for a mere 48 hours ~ literally ~ and with Brad needing to attend some meetings and awful weather while we were there, to be honest, we didn't do much ~ but what we were able to do definitely made us feel like we had "been" there and were able to get a small taste of the city.

We window shopped up and down "The Miracle Mile," and we took a double-decker tour the morning before we had to leave. We ate some amazing deep dish pizza, and we went to the top of the Hancock Building, which was right across the street from where we were staying. I must say, Chicago is a beautiful city. There was some sort of regatta going on, so there were sailboats covering the lake. Several pictures are below; although we didn't go up into the Sears Tower, we did get some pretty neat pictures of it, including the mailbox-shaped entry down below.

Personally, I had two favorite parts of our trip. One was getting to see a very special, dear friend of mine while we were there. We were so lucky we got to see Dugan and his girlfriend, Kristina, since it was all so last minute! (He saw my update on Facebook that we were there and contacted me immediately.) We went to dinner at a fabulous restaurant, followed by drinks on a rooftop terrace. So beautiful and such fun!! It was wonderful to see Dugan!! The other thing we did that I really loved was to walk to Navy Pier. We people-watched, enjoyed the gorgeous (although hot!) weather that we had for the moment, and sat at the end of the pier while we listened to music and ate ice cream cones.

We really had a nice trip. Thanks to Gigi and Dede for keeping the girls. Brad and I really enjoyed our little escape for a couple of nights, and the girls had a blast with y'all!

Thankful Thirds for July

I am extremely late with this.
Obviously, it is well-past the third of July ~ it is the tenth of July.

I got distracted last week and to be honest, blogging was the last thing on my mind. I found out ~ on facebook, no less ~ that a friend of mine had taken her own life. She was a sorority sister of mine from Vanderbilt; she was in my pledge class, and we met half-way through our freshman year. Laurel was a very sweet girl, and I can't think of any memories that do not involve her beautiful smile, which literally covered her entire face. The whole thing has been very sad, and it is very tragic.

For this month, I have one thing that I am truly grateful for:
this wonderful LIFE that God has given to me and to all of us!
Even with the ups and downs, the triumphs and the pitfalls, I am grateful for life and all of the beauty and blessings in it.

The RR Memorial Golf Tournament and Our Beach Vacation

As I say every year: WHAT AN HONOR!! I am so proud of my Daddy and the legacy that he has left, and I am so grateful to everyone in Dothan who puts on and participates in the Ronnie Randall Memorial Golf Tournament! THANK YOU to all of you! It is a wonderful tribute to him and a special way to raise money for various charities. Every year, there is a fabulous turnout! And this year, I especially enjoyed getting to see so many of my childhood and high school friends participating. Thanks, as always, to Annette for letting us stay at your house. We missed seeing you!

Boots, checking out the flowers

Dede and Boots

Oh, how I love little tippy toes!

Alli Lane had a blast with Keith! She especially loved "playing soccer" (kicking the ball) with him!

When we left Dothan after the tournament, we headed down to the beach to stay at Grandmommie's condo. THANK YOU, Grandmommie, for letting us use your place! It is such a special time for our family each year. Brad is able to take vacation days so little, and this is the one time each year he takes off a week at a time.... We look forward to this time with our little family each year. It is especially meaningful to me because I grew up there; those beaches are my home, and I get so homesick for them. It is a blessing to be able to visit each year. As always, it is an emotional time, as well. I miss my Daddy so much, and this was his favorite place, as well. And of course, it still hurts my heart to drive past where our house used to be, before the fire took it 3 years ago this past March. I still thank God that we had left the house and were safe, but it still seems surreal that our house is gone.

We had a wonderful time! We ate at Boondocks, got to visit with some of my Randall/Alabama relatives that we rarely get to see, walked around Seaside, got donuts from Thomas' Donuts, and played hard on the beach!

We had beautiful weather for most of the week, even though thunderstorms were predicted every day. Our first day on the beach, we did get caught in an awful storm, with sand blowing and swirling so hard that we were all sand-burned. Poor Alli Lane is still a bit traumatized from the experience. My little girl who used to love watching storms with me on the porch is now terrified. We are working through it, though ~ keep praying for us! Besides that one little blip, our vacation was fabulous!!

Brad and our girls, Alli Lane and Elizabeth (Boots); my cousin Amanda's husband, Jeremy, and their girls, Malley (Moe) and Mimi.

These next 2 shots are "typical Alli" shots!
Lounging in the "pool" on the beach...

...and dancing at "Groovin' on the Green" on the Carillon Lawn.

Alli Lane and Boots dancing

As our regular blog readers know, I am obsessed with our annual beach pictures. We get the girls up early and trek down to the beach, with them in their white dresses. Each year, we bribe them with Thomas' donuts! :)

Our beautiful, sweet, precious little girls!
So, so happy!!

Daddy and his little girls

Daddy and Boots
I have a similar picture of Brad with Alli at this age; this one will be framed next to it. So sweet!

The girls

Dinner at Bud 'n Alley's in Seaside

Boots stayed busy, as always.

Alli was busy, too, and often wanted to read a book, as her Daddy and I would attempt to do from time to time.

For those of you who always ask if Alli Lane's hair is still curly ~ YES!! And this is what happens in extreme humidty!

We ended the week by driving to St. Simon's for Brad's cousin, Katie's wedding to Jason. We had fun with his family and at the wedding and all of the festivities. Here is our family at the pool.

Thank you, God, for our safe travels and a wonderful, special vacation! We "toured" the southeast ~ got to start our vacation with my family, have time with just our little family, and end our vacation with Brad's family. It was truly a special time.

By the way, keep checking back! We have already been having a very busy summer! Brad and I went to Chicago for a conference, and I have had the girls at the Y several times a week ~ not to mention the library, Vacation Bible School, and summer day camps for Alli at EDS! More posts to come....