The strife is o’er…

One of my favorite Easter hymns is The Strife is O’er by Palestrina.  We’ve been singing it regularly at church since the Easter season started…..it’s a good one, so it has stuck in my head….back to this in a moment. 

Yesterday, we finished the deck, and I have re-written the previously mentioned hymn for the occasion….

The strife is o’er, the deck is done, the work of building with tools is done.  The Chapman’s summer has begun, Alleluia! 

Google the hymn to hear the tune, it works, I promise. 

And now, the finished deck:

 

Re-Charged

I apologize for the long break in blog updates.  Our camera died halfway through a wedding we attended a few weeks ago and we just got around to re-charging the battery yesterday morning. 

Speaking of that wedding, two weekends ago, we traveled down to Ft. Myers, Florida to attend the wedding of our friends Andrea and Chris on Sanibel Island.  It was a beautiful evening, and we couldn’t be happier for the newlyweds! 

Hanging out on the beach in Ft. Myers:

The Jenkins Wedding:

it was perfect.  after this monsoon--

this handsome fellow:

and this stunning lady:

became Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins. 

like in the storybooks, only better. 

Deck in a Day

Yesterday we spent the entire day outside working to build the lower portion of the deck.  Around 8:30 last night, Shane and Kyle laid the last piece of decking.  We still have to put the stairs on (and the entire upper level), but we are in homeowner love with it.  L.O.V.E 

trevor was a little helper all day with his toy drill!

shaner and kyle putting the last piece of decking on

Finished product:

who wouldn’t want to spend all their time sitting on this deck enjoying the view :)

our week in photos…

we’ve been keeping busy here this week…

the weather has been great, so we’ve broken out the summer clothes and spent a lot of time playing outside. 

On Thursday, Shane re-enlisted in the Navy for five years.  It was a nice ceremony, and it was nice to go meet some of the people that he works with. 

Shane’s cake for the event…we figured the last eight years were pretty awesome, so the next five will hopefully follow suit!

On top of that, we’ve been working on the newest edition to what my dad calls “The Chapman Estate.”…a deck on the back of the house. 

 

and just like everything else around here, we’re building it ourselves! (with the help of a friend who actually knows what he is doing)

Here’s the plan:

The footings and posts you see here, are for the lower level deck, that is going to be the main sitting and dining area.  The two posts are where a set of steps will go to an upper deck, which will be level with the pool, providing pool access and an upper sitting area so you can see better when people are in the pool.  Once finished, it is going to be pretty sweet. 

Parish Easter Egg Hunt

Last Sunday, we took Trevor to the Easter egg hunt at Sacred Heart.  He had a great time running around and trying to find eggs in Stockley Gardens!