octolilly [through the years]

Friday afternoon brought strong thunderclouds and drizzly rain. It also brought my father-in-law and two of Daniel’s brothers, Tim and Steve. Tim was on his way home from his freshman year of college. They crowded in the living room (and I use crowded because they are all very Tall Boys) while I put on some taco soup and we whittled the evening away at the dining room table as we talked about the latest Apple commercials, wedding pictures, Georgia girls (and some from Tennessee), and much more. The rains came harder then so we opened the patio doors and let the breeze blow through as we had pecan pie and coffee.

Later, Steve and I made a trip to the local Bi-Lo (which we affectionally/oddly call Publix simply because it’s so classy) to pick up some ingredients to make rice crispy treats. Obviously, there was quite a bit of good food to be had this weekend.

A nice surprise was the gifts they brought along. Daniel’s grandfather does the most amazing wood carving I’ve ever seen and also has such talent in making grandfather clocks. We already have a lovely grandfather clock in our living room (that his grandfather gave him a few years ago) and it always receives such nice compliments. So I was quite amazed that his grandfather also had been working on a grandson clock for us! It’s beautiful and we have it sitting on our stereo cabinet at the moment.

Kevin, Heather’s fiance, was moving into our apartment complex on Friday night so we also went over to be their First Guests and then they returned the favor by dropping by our place and bringing the Pelfrey Clan with them too. I really loved having guests over. It was the first time that we have had anyone over other than family. We need to start entertaining more!

As the hours passed the evening grew longer, the guys started dying to get their guitars out. Remember, we live in an apartment and although we do not have paper thin walls – we can still hear the little boy or girl who runs like crazy upstairs, the guy who rocks out on Saturday night, and the little girl who practices piano in the evening. I am always having to tame Daniel’s wild keyboard playing and so when they began raring to go – I was slightly worried that our neighbors would vote us out. But I just kept quite, continued drawing on my wacom tablet and watched as they turned into an amazing band right before my eyes.

I was amazed at how they seem to read each other’s minds and do so well with impromptu playing. They played around for awhile, stirring my heart as I enjoyed the wild, crazy music and then they slowed down and Steve sang Well Done (a song that Daniel wrote), which is what he sang for the Festival of Life this year – and won 2nd place!

When I crawled into bed on Friday night, my heart was so content. It felt wonderful to have family here and I knew it must be refreshing everyone’s hearts to be together. It’s always important to not take family for granted. Especially when you have never had brothers before. 🙂

This morning was full of banana bread, scrambled eggs, cereal and sleepy-eyed boys. We said our goodbye’s soon and they headed off for Maryland and Daniel and I crashed. We had some leftover taco soup for lunch and then rested some more.

And then this evening, we had a Graduation party for our Pastor as he got his Masters degree from BJU this morning. 

Also, Things of Note:

1. I really appreciate the person who shared some of Jack Johnson’s music with me this weekend. 🙂 That’s all I’ve been playing this evening.

2. It is really funny that on Kevin’s first night at the apartment, he started a grease fire. It was probably the Lord trying to get his attention because WHO EATS CHICKEN GIZZARDS??! Hello. I live in the South.