We Found OUR House!!!

Here are some more pics of our house (pics added 7/18/09)...these owners love deer heads... we will knock this wall (the one with the computer desk) out at some point and add a bar so the kitchen and great room will be "open concept"

love the woodburning stove!!! and that's the door to my amazing back porch!!

I love this porch...

Brick house with gorgeous lawn with acreage...check

formal dining room for holidays...check

Huge family room with hardwoods and fireplace...check

Screened in porch with brick floor, huge deck and inground pool...check check check!!!

and a Koi pond and it's in Lexington Ward boundaries!!!! and it was UNDER our budget!!!

Pete and I were there yesterday for the inspection and took the following pics in the rain of the fruit trees, garden area and detached garage...



(We didn't even take pics of the play area and wooded area)

The pictures do not do it justice...it is gorgeous with 5.42 acres...FENCED!!! with a bonus room and an attached garage plus a detached oversized 2 car garage and workshop plus a fabulous screen porch and a deck and a country front porch and a playground area with a wood playset and a seperately fenced inground pool...we are under contract and the inspection is Monday so PLEASE say a prayer for us that all goes well...this is truly our "dream home"!! It is not fancy...just an old country home that has everything we want (or will have with a few tweaks here and there)!!! We are sooooooo excited!!!

I Love Those Myrtle Beach Days...

The ever increasing Sheridan Family...

We spent two weeks at the beach...with tons of family. I just got home and am about to go to sleep so I can work tonight and have no time to edit or talk about these pics (that I stole from family's blogs/facebook) My camera is packed somewhere and we also had 2 professional photo shoots so much more to come..and many of these are tiny fuzzy cell phone pics...sorry! But my sweet friend Christi tells me that pictures tell their own story and that is true...hope you can "read" that my huge extended family LOVES each other and LOVES to be together and that cousins were mixing with everyone, we ate ALOT and EVERYWHERE (4 condos and a campsite and a beachfront grill and Logan's Roadhouse!!) and also that Steven and LaNelle were constantly making children laugh...oh yeah and on a rainy day, LaNelle did everyone's hair...and on July 6th, we gathered on the beach and released 20 yellow smiley-face ballons in Noah's memory...he will always be with us...especially at the beach...we love you Noah!

Here they are in absolutely no particular order...

I Love Those Myrtle Beach Days...

Where is my GRANDADDY when I need him????

Ok. I am a law-abiding citizen. I BELIEVE in the law and I BELIEVE in proper authority and obeying the laws of the land and all that junk...seriously, I DO!!! Half my family and Pete's are law men and I hate it when they get bad press or are disrespected...BUT tonight I am reminded of the scripture about "giving a man a little authority and he will ursup unrighteous dominion"...and I'm ticked off too. So SO MAD it's a dadgum good thing I am in Raleigh and it's a really good thing Grandaddy IS NOT around or some punk highway patrolman would be in the unemployment line TOMORROW!!!! (Seriously, the first half of my life really truly no exaggerating had that kind of "pull" and it was intoxicating and every single day I miss the perks of my Granddaddy's heavy hitting political friends...it is the reason I have no fear of anything or anyone and never ever ever feel intimidated by anyone or any situation...but I have to remind myself constantly to behave because those good ole days are G-O-N-E..GONE! :( :( !!)

So where was I???? Oh yes. My son..the cleancut non smoking non drinking doesn't even drink COFFEE...LDS kid was pulled tonight. By the SC Highway Patrol (did I mention my great uncles were some of the very first Hwy patrolmen in SC and my granddaddy was a SC HWY PATROLMAN when my Dad was a boy (pre-magistrate days, pre-President of SC Sheriff Assoc days, pre-politics). We LOVE the Hwy Patrol in SC but one of them is a P-U-N-K PUNK!!!

No, Peter wasn't speeding nor did he break a law...although he was given a ticket for not having his seatbelt on (he had it on but the punk insisted he didn't when he passed him. whatever! let me see the camera footage you big stupid bully!!) He was interrogated..asked "Why do you look nervous..do you have drugs in here?" He was held over 20 minutes and then threatened with being arrested because his motorcycle insurance would expire in 2 weeks (A. he sold his bike and B. the ins hasn't expired) and told again..you look nervous, what have you done? (he should have said, Nothing but my Mama is liable to bust your chops!!)

I JUST told someone today that I try not to interfere in my adult children's lives and that I work very hard to control my waspish tongue and Irish temper...how am I doing so far???? Yeah..never say what you don't do...so I guess I'll do nothing since Peter is an adult completely capable of handling himself but I am NOT HAPPY and that punk better hope he doesn't stop me...I still know a senator or three...

25 years...and counting

Ok so I don't have any pics on my computer of my wedding...but 25 years ago, in Summerton SC, my granddaddy walked me across the lawn of Summerton Baptist Church as twenty of his deputies saluted...one right after the other as we passed them...it was beyond cool. I wore a lacy white "Southern belle" wedding gown with a chapel length train and a big picture hat with a veil. My Dad performed the ceremony and Granddaddy "gave me away". The sweetest moment of my life was as we entered the church, he winked at me and whispered, "You'll always be my girl". I cried. I miss him more than words can say.

After an awesome reception both inside and on the porches of the antebellum home of my grandparents' friends, we left for Atlanta and then flew to Hedonism II in Jamaica. We loved it and vowed to return for our 25th anniversary but our lives and values are so different now, we wouldn't have fun if we returned...at least I don't think so...too much drinking and partying and nudity...(not that we liked nudity even then...we had no idea until we were there...)

So Pete gave me a much more appropriate gift for our anniversary...and it blew me away...he gave me a 24 inch strand of real 8-8.5 mm pearls. They are gorgeous and I wear them constantly. Thank you Pete for such an extravagant and gorgeous gift. what did i give him?? remember that very expensive metal detector??? and i gave him a new shovel/sifter tool. ok...so not as cool as pearls but he wouldn't have worn them anyway..haha

We have had so many experiences together during this quarter of a century...five deliveries with six newborns...one miscarriage...and one teenage adoption...seven awesome children, one grandson, two fabulous sons-in-law...two weddings...Pete's baptism, our own temple sealing, going to the temple with three children, sending two sons on missions, fabulous highs and heartbreaking lows...graduations, success and failures...times I've loved him so much my heart about burst...and times when I wanted to shoot him...and even times when I was nuetral...those were actually the scariest of times but even during those, deep in my heart, I knew we'd get through it together and I NEVER have doubted our love for each other. It is an incredible thing to have that rock solid love and trust in another human...to know that there is nothing on earth that can divide you...to have grown to be one person...for that's what we are...just as every individual has different facets of their personality, we have different opinions and different likes but in everything important..we are of one mind, one heart. So I say to all you newlyweds...hang in there through the early years and the not so early full-of-stress-and-want-a-ticket-out-of-here years and even the who-cares years...pray together, have fun together, stress together..and always remember why you married him and in the end...you'll find you have the greatest treasure of all for you will have become true companions...I know I adore mine!! Happy Anniversary Peter Gerald Francis O' Sheridan Jr...so glad you asked me to dance all those years ago...

so so so SO VERY happy that we have been sealed for time and all eternity in the house of the Lord...that anniversary is September 25th...