The Copper Pot, Part Two

So, we knew what we wanted to do, and God was beginning to show us each step to take along the way. We spent a lot of time researching and testing out ideas to figure out exactly what we want. One of the steps we took was to go see a friend of ours who is the manager of a local bank. Among a great deal of good advice he gave us, he said two things that seemed unlikely to us. One -- we needed to find a coffeehouse in a downtown location like ours, with a traffic flow like what we expected. Then we'd need to interview the owners to see what it's really like. Two -- it would really be nice to find some older fellow who'd been in the coffee business and was retiring who would sell us all his equipment to us second-hand. Our friend said that with a little laugh.

Well, not long after that on a Saturday morning, we went up to visit Jeff's parents. They had told us about a coffee shop in Hartwell, so when we all went out to lunch we decided we'd stop by. We drove by the coffee shop, The Green Bean, on the way but we were hungry and decided to eat first. After lunch Jeff and I were anxious to get to the coffee shop, but Ken needed to go by Wal-Mart for a prescription. Anyway, we eventually arrived and Cheryl stayed in the car while Jeff and Ken and I went inside to look around. We liked what we saw immediately! After a bit, Ken went back out to the car only to come back in a few minutes later. An older couple had come in, and Ken drew Jeff's attention to them. Meanwhile, I was talking already with the owners of the coffeehouse, a young couple named Logan and Erin. I heard Ken telling Jeff that the man who had come in was the one who had recently purchased Jeff's Volkswagen Beetle. (Ken had the car at their house and handled the sale of it for Jeff.) So, Jeff went over to talk to him about it. Logan looked funny and asked me if we knew the man. I explained about the Volkswagen and Logan said, "That's the guy that roasts our coffee. He provides us with all our coffee beans here." Isn't God amazing?!

I love how God has orchestrated events in a way that we never could have! I'll share the rest of the story soon ...

Just Like Daddy

The other night while I was at work, Kaity captured this wonderful picture of Jeff and Joe. How unbelievably sweet!


This is what Jeff does at work all day -- in a nutshell!

Our New Car

Well, our poor old van died. We had a head gasket blow, and the mechanic was shocked that I was even able to drive it out to him! That happened about three weeks ago, so I've been without a car since then. Not that I ever took transportation for granted, but I certainly won't now! I am really thankful for people who came and picked me and the kids up to take us places.

The same day I took the car to the mechanic, I had spent the morning filing our taxes. While we usually use our refund to pay off any debt we've accumulated and to pay for school the next year, I found out within a few short hours we'd be buying a car with it this year! Praise God that He provided the money in perfect timing!

After a long search, and considering a lot of vehicles, Berk found a 2003 Taurus for sale in Thomson. We thought that was pretty cool since we used to live there, and we went to take a look at it on Saturday. We had been praying about it, and Jeff and I kind of knew that we'd know right away whether the car was right for us or not. It was! The price was higher than what we wanted to spend, but Berk graciously told us ahead of time that if we really liked the car and everything checked out, he'd pay the difference. What a blessing!

Here it is, sitting in our driveway!


Aren't they sweet? I think my parents like Jeff better than they do me!


Grammie and Baba and the little crumb snatchers.

More on the Cute Ones

Lily frequently takes advantage of my habit of piling the couch with laundry fresh from the dryer. I like to make a big pile, then put in a movie like (A&Es)Pride and Prejudice or The Music Man while I sort them out and fold them or put them on hangers.


Kaity is enjoying her Christmas present of Oregon Trail! Jeff and I both have fond memories of the game, which has come a LONG way, just so you know. I don't guess we sufficiently prepared her for how realistic the game would be, though. She absolutely bawled the first time she played and the character she'd named "Kaity" died! It was quite a shock. She gets the concept now, and loves to play.


One night, no one wanted to play Wii with Joe, so he decided to play by himself. Against himself! He had a remote in each hand! He bowled as Joe against a "Mii" he'd created (his alter-ego) named MuscleMan. It was hilarious. Even funnier though, was when he finished bowling and started a game of baseball -- pitching the ball with one remote, and swinging the bat with the other remote!

Marriage Retreat

Last weekend, Jeff and I went away for an overnight marriage retreat with our church. It was SO much fun! We were especially excited because it was held at the Georgia Baptist Assembly, which is where we met almost 14 years ago. In the summer of 1995, we went to a camp called Impact, and got to know each other a little. But the next summer was when I really got to know Jeff. We knew that God had something big in store for us, and within two weeks of dating we were sure that marriage was in our future. We got engaged in January of 1997, and married April 4, 1998.


Lake Louise on the campus of the Assembly


Me!


Jeff in the prayer garden overlooking Lake Louise.


Jeff and me in the elevator ... where we had our first kiss! (In 1996, not this weekend!)

Valentine's Day Preparations

Wednesday last week, we spent a couple of hours making valentines for our homeschool party. Kaity cut house shapes from construction paper, cut a door and added paper behind the open door. On the paper behind the door flap, she wrote funny puns like, "Valentine, I a-door you!" and "House it going, Valentine?" Joe and I made airplanes for his friends from smarties, lifesavers and sticks of gum. They had a lot of fun doing it! (We had to reschedule our party for this Thursday, so I'll post pictures from that later.)

Pitiful Kids

Well, a couple of weeks ago the kids and I all took a turn with a little tummy bug. We each got sick once, then suffered through being really, really tired for a day or so. That was the extent of it, and boy, was I thankful it wasn't more intense! The cats were quite loving during that time, and whenever one of us was laid out on the couch they'd climb up there with us and snuggle.

The Copper Pot, Part One

Back in November, Jeff and I were just getting the idea that a coffeehouse was the right choice for us. We knew we wanted the business to be in downtown, so one day we drove down there to take a look at a building that seemed a likely candidate for a location. Jeff wanted to get the phone number for the Realtor, and then we had some other errands to run. Well, we arrived at the building and we walked around the outside some, just checking it out. Then we walked up to the main street to get the phone number we needed. As we approached the front of the building, we ran into one of the people on our "List". (A list of local business people and contacts that we wanted to talk with about the coffeehouse.) Craig Fischer is a friend of ours, and he owns the local radio station. We stopped and talked with him for a while about the coffeehouse -- and man, was it cold! So Jeff asked Craig what he was doing and could we maybe go somewhere inside to talk! Craig was headed to lunch, so we just all went together to one of the downtown restaurants. We talked the whole time -- Craig giving us advice and suggestions, listening to our ideas, letting us bounce things off of him. One thing he told us is, "You've got to talk to Hasco!" Hasco Craver being the head of the Downtown Development Authority. After lunch, Craig said he bet Hasco would be in his office and he'd walk us over there to introduce us to him.

His office has to be the coolest in town! It's on a corner in what looks like a renovated old gas station. There's glass on three sides of the building. It's a great location. Anyway, Hasco is a young guy, which surprised us, and after the introductions Craig headed back to work and Hasco took us on a walking tour of downtown. Remember, it was COLD, and the kids were with us the whole time! The tour was incredibly informative, and we really enjoyed getting to see the downtown through the eyes of someone just as passionate (probably more!) about seeing it flourish as we are. He showed us several buildings that had the potential for a good location for the coffeehouse and we actually got to go inside the building pictured with the last post here. I fell in love with it right away!