I Said It Before, And I'll Say It Again

Our house in Atlanta is up for rent. The sweet newlyweds who lived in it this year are moving to Charlotte for a new job. We're so pleased that they were able to enjoy it for their first year of marriage, and now it's someone else's turn!

Below is the same exact post I wrote last year about this time. Please contact me if you know someone who would be interested in renting our house. My AMAZING parents-in-law manage the property for us, so I can put you in touch with them to get more details.

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One of the hardest parts about leaving the US is leaving this house.  I would love to live in it for the rest of my life.  It's the perfect house for entertaining, raising kids, balancing life in the city, etc.  It has a mountain cabin feel with mature trees and a peaceful lake view, but it's 60 seconds from 285.  Our dream is to come back to it when we're done in England, but who knows what God has planned for us?  We hope to be able to rent it out fully furnished for $1200 a month while we're away.  Do you know anyone who would benefit from such an an arrangement? 

The "glass room," as we call it has a view of our expansive new deck as well as the lake behind the house.

This is the view from the other side of the room.

Dining room

Kitchen

More kitchen

Guest room

Guest bathroom

View from guest bathroom to guest bedroom

Master bedroom

Sitting area in master bedroom

Deck

View from deck (the light stuff in the background is water)

Our humble abode

It has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and an optional third bedroom or office.  It's in a quiet neighborhood 15 minutes from downtown, 20 minutes from the airport, 5 minutes from Whitefield, 15 minutes from Christ Church, 10 minutes from Westside.  Basically, it's close to just about everything.  If you're interested or know someone who is, please leave a comment, call me, or e-mail me and I can give you more information.  Thanks.

Sniff, sniff...

I Miss Our House

Tomorrow we are having a new couple over for dinner, and I've come up against a few frustrations in making preparations. 


First, I was going through some recipes I brought from the States, and I'm not able to use most of them because of 1) lack of available ingredients (frozen shredded hash browns, canned pumpkin, pre-made pie crust, Cool Whip, taco seasoning, etc.) or 2) lack of proper kitchen appliances and/or some other essential item (blender, food processor, 9 1/2 x 13 baking pan, jelly roll pan [which I actually don't think it would fit in our oven, to be honest], etc.). 


Then, I broke a cereal/soup bowl while doing the dishes last night, which puts us down to only three bowls. Sigh... I already had to ask our neighbor to borrow bowls when we had company before. I thought we should at least get our grand total up to six like the rest of our dishes, so I looked online for a replacement for the one I broke along with two more. It turns out that they weren't too expensive to replace (about 3 GBP each) despite being vintage, but the shipping cost about the same as all three bowls. Grrr... Oh well. At least they're kinda cute... very Anthropologie-esque. 

Anyway, the point of this post is that while possessions do not bring ultimate happiness and simplicity is freedom and I don't need lots of things to practice hospitality and blah blah blah, today I'm finding it frustrating to go without items that I already have... in Atlanta. I have perfectly good dishes at home with place settings for 12 for every day (the whites from World Market) or for special occasions (Grandma Bonnie's china). I have muffin tins and pie platters and a cake stand/punch bowl and Le Creuset baking dishes (the latter as a wedding gift from Mrs. Camell, which make me want to kiss her every time I use them). 


And while I'm at it, we have a large dining room table gifted to us from my church family in Bakersfield that would comfortably seat eight. We have a beautiful deck with a grill. We have the most scrumptious bed and heavy - and heavenly - down comforter (which Nathan does not miss at all... he's quite happy with our "summer weight duvet"). And there's the porch swing Nathan got me for my 27th birthday. 


And, and, and... 


And it's someone else's turn to enjoy our fantastic newlywed nest, and it's our turn to serve the Lord and work and study in England, so there's no point in fantasizing about having our English friends over for dinner to Elmwood Circle on a gorgeous spring Atlanta day when I would serve chicken enchiladas and black bean soup with cilantro and lime and cheese and sour cream and lots of avocado and then finish the meal with some chocolate chip cookies and milk on the deck while the fireflies buzz around, although I've been doing a lot of that lately.


Another sigh... I've been lingering over the post with pictures of our Atlanta house way too long. Is it a sin to covet your own stuff? 


N. B. We are confident that we are supposed to be here. We absolutely love the North Barn, our neighbors, our town, our church, our friends, etc. I'm just whining. Thanks for listening.


UPDATE: On a very related note, I read this post by Amberly that totally hit me between the eyes today. Thanks girl!

Random Summer Pictures

This is Camilla.  Camilla is a gorgeous Broadway star! :) We were in a pageant together in high school (for the scholarship money, people!), and haven't seen each other since.  I read on Facebook that she was breezing through town, so we got coffee at Starbucks and then got hit on in the parking lot on the way out.

This is Bria.  Bria is the saint who helped me pack.

This is Mary Lou's pie.  She made it with Splenda for me.  It was the most amazing peach pie I have ever tasted.

These are Nathan's new glasses.  We got them just before we left.  His feelers are down because he thinks he looks like a Sarah Palin look-alike or a nerd.  I think he looks studious.

This is our wedding wall.  I took a picture of it because I didn't want to forget how it was arranged.

And this... sniff sniff... is the Matrix.  It went to a good home in Birmingham a few days before we left.  Similar to me, the new owner crashed and totaled his first Matrix, walked out with just a few bumps and bruises, and wanted a new one.


England pictures to come, but I'm being timed by the library to look at "blogs and personal sites" and only have an hour total.  Stupid.

A Turtle in our Yard

The other morning I looked out our window and saw some sort of creature burrowing near a tree in our front yard.  I couldn't figure out what it was because it looked like a huge turtle, but I thought it would have been impossible.  

It was, indeed, a turtle, so I summoned Nathan and we went outside to check it out.

You can't really tell how big it is because Nathan is in the foreground, but it was just huge!

Here is Nathan harassing the wildlife.  I think the turtle was burying some eggs or something... or so I hope.

Hey turtle mama!

Rent Our House

One of the hardest parts about leaving the US is leaving this house.  I would love to live in it for the rest of my life.  It's the perfect house for entertaining, raising kids, balancing life in the city, etc.  It has a mountain cabin feel with mature trees and a peaceful lake view, but it's 60 seconds from 285.  Our dream is to come back to it when we're done in England, but who knows what God has planned for us?  We hope to be able to rent it out fully furnished for $1200 a month while we're away.  Do you know anyone who would benefit from such an an arrangement? 

The "glass room," as we call it has a view of our expansive new deck as well as the lake behind the house.

This is the view from the other side of the room.

Dining room

Kitchen

More kitchen

Guest room

Guest bathroom

View from guest bathroom to guest bedroom

Master bedroom

Sitting area in master bedroom

Deck

View from deck (the light stuff in the background is water)

Our humble abode

It has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, and an optional third bedroom or office.  It's in a quiet neighborhood 15 minutes from downtown, 20 minutes from the airport, 5 minutes from Whitefield, 15 minutes from Christ Church, 10 minutes from Westside.  Basically, it's close to just about everything.  If you're interested or know someone who is, please leave a comment, call me, or e-mail me and I can give you more information.  Thanks.

Sniff, sniff...

Spring Has Sprung

I know that "spring done sprung" in Atlanta, but I wanted to share this picture Nathan took of some baby birdies in a nest in our carport.  I think they've already flown away from home.  They weren't there when we got back from the family reunion yesterday.  Chirp!