RIP Grandma Cottle

"I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now...Come further up, come further in!" ~Jewel the Unicorn, from "The Last Battle", C.S. Lewis 

Grandma Betty Cottle

"The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning." ~Aslan, from "The Last Battle", C.S. Lewis

At our Michigan reception, showing us the doily she made for us

Dear friends, it is with great sadness that I inform you of the passing of Dan's grandmother, Betty Cottle. We will be traveling to Michigan this week for her funeral on Thursday. We mourn our loss but celebrate the Kingdom's gain as she is freed from her suffering and welcomed home into the arms of her Savior. 

"All their life in this world...had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before." ~the end of "The Last Battle", C.S. Lewis

Soli Deo Gloria,
Meghan

USPS: Fail!

So this might be why the United States Postal Service is losing money...

Oops...

Twenty cents due and they still deliver it? And they wanted to raise postage earlier this year?!?! Thankfully that request was denied. Think they might want to fix this problem before they try that move again :P Just to provide context, the envelope was square, which requires more postage to deliver than a normal letter...even if it only has a single page card inside like this one and weighed much less than all the junk mail we regularly receive. Glad it made it through to us though especially since it was a lovely Christmas photo card! :)

May your Christmas be white and all your cards arrive!

Soli Deo Gloria,
Meghan

More Progress!

Our Guest Bathroom wall plaque! Now on the wall!

So I had seen similar signs in friends' houses before but never knew where they got them. I thought it was such a cute idea but hadn't thought much about it recently until I found Wuslu. It's a home decor website that posts one deal a day at 10am Eastern. I scored the cute little towel rack for our guest bath (above) along with a cute countertop corner cabinet that we're using in our bathroom to hold a few knickknacks (below).

Small countertop corner cabinet (product image)

I love seeing our home come together and these little decor touches go such a long way towards that end. Even though I'd had the sign for awhile I just now got around to hanging it. :) Again, used the Hercules Hooks to hang it. I tried nails but it turns out that I'm much better at hanging things straight if I use the hooks instead. Go figure...

So here's to making progress in settling in. We're still working on some of the nitty gritty like cell phones and insurance but we seem to be making good headway. Loving setting up our home.

Documenting my handiwork :)

Soli Deo Gloria,
Meghan

Flowers

So I needed Dan to stop at the grocery store on his way home from work Tuesday to pick up something I forgot the previous grocery run. I got more than I bargained for :)

His reason? "It's a Tuesday!"

For those who don't know, I never saw Dan on a Tuesday when we were dating and I saw him only once on a Tuesday while we were engaged. So getting to see each other on Tuesdays now is pretty special to us. :)

Just thought I'd share and brag on the man I love ;)

Soli Deo Gloria!
Meghan

Moving In, Moving Forward, Moving Up

So Dan has lived in our apartment since July 10th, almost 5 months ago. We started gradually moving my stuff in shortly after that. We've been married almost 3 months now. And I am so super-excited about what I FINALLY did last night...

We put our first holes in the wall and hung up a picture!! :D This is the first item to go up on our walls. I've put out plenty of knick-knacks and photos on shelves and tables, but this was the first to require holes in the wall! I had the biggest grin last night after verifying it was level and getting off the step stool. :) The frame was given to us as a wedding gift from one of the families that I stayed with frequently while Dan and I were dating. I thought it was appropriate then that their frame would be among the first hung. :)

I actually used what are called "Hercules Hooks" to hang the frame. For those that don't know about them, you can check it out here. I found them at Bed Bath and Beyond and thought I'd give them a try a couple of years ago. While each one is supposed to be able to hold over 100 lbs. I've never come close to that limit. One of the things I love is there's no hammer or stud finder required which is great when you want to hang stuff at 10pm without upsetting the neighbors and/or when you can't find your stud finder (both in my case).

I love this feeling of getting settled into our new place and beginning to decorate. Don't get me wrong there are still PLENTY of boxes hanging around that needed to be unpacked and sorted through but last night's picture-hanging made it all worthwhile and helped me to believe that there really will be an end to the boxes at some point! The boxes still stress me out, but now I can point to that picture on the wall and claim that progress has been made...well, that and the small stack of empty boxes next to the door waiting to be taken out for recycling. :) Now to work on tackling the rest of this mountain of cardboard...

Soli Deo Gloria,
Meghan