Our New House

We are so excited for this next season in our lives. Our new house.
It is so nice, and little, and Economical. That matters now-a-days.
We found out yesterday that it is ours. Yes!! Thank you Jesus - He
is always so faithful and I am always so faithless. There was a time
going through this process that I thought there is no way we can get
in a house right now. Jesus tells us to not lean on our own understanding
and I always do. How many times will it take me to learn this lesson?
Thank Lord - that you love me regardless.
Here is a link to our new house.

http://www.homesteadnet.com/advancedsearchresults.asp?mls=822875&mode=view

So Blessed!!

Well, we have been back now for 4 months and it was the fastest 4 months of my life.
We had the best summer!! We had our share of Darien Lake, retreats and picnics. Ashley and her best friend (along with her best friend's father) plunged 200 feet on a bungee cord over water. Yes, they are crazy!! Ashley must be the daring person of our family because she also got her friends to go tubing with her and they all survived. Watching my children laugh and
have fun this past summer was such a joy. It also brought along with it a sadness because they will never be that age again and I want to enjoy every second of my time with them. They grow so fast. We have made many memories these past 4 months and I treasure the friendships we have. From the oldest (Marybeth's grandma - who I love as my own) to the youngest (Nathan) they each hold a very special place in our hearts. The Lord has truly blessed us with the best friends a person could have. These are people who love to have fun but can be serious when need to be. They show the love of the Lord. We have accountability with each other. Thank you Jesus - you are soooooo good!!!!!

Home again

I feel horrible that I have not been on here in sooooo long.
We got back home to New York June 1st and are loving it.
It is so good to see our kids so happy. They have had so
many sleepovers in the last 2 weeks. They have loved getting
back to Koinonia - the church we love so much.
It feels like home. There is so much love and fellowship
there. Some great news...Phillip graduated!! What a great
accomplishment. We are so proud of him. We can't wait
to see what he will do next. I will put up pictures tomorrow.
Until then...bye-bye.

Wow, that was a tornado?

Tornado, hail, power lines down. This is just a couple pictures that I got off of the news website. We are going to take our own tomorrow. Yes, we are so oblivious. We were just enjoying the storm. We were not even in the tornado warning area and then we lost power. What we thought was just a constant rumbling of thunder must have been the tornado heading our way. Who knew? I was outside, under the carport videotaping because it was getting really dark and I wanted to try to get that sound on video. Everything got crazy after that so I didn't even check to see if you can hear it or not. We started getting hail the size of a quarter or bigger. It was hysterical. It was like someone was dropping golf balls from the sky. A little while later it all ended and we went on with our night, except we had no electricity.
Phil went to walmart and then I got the call. "Shannon, you are not going to believe this. There are buildings in rubble."
Me - "Come on - your kidding!"
Phil - "No, I am not kidding.
He came home to get us so he could show us the damage. I couldn't believe it.
You could see the debris trail. The direction the tornado went. I have not ever seen anything like it. (In person that is) It was too dark to take pictures. A church was ruined. A car wash had its roof ripped off. A 7000 square foot warehouse was brought to rubble. They say it was lifted right off of the ground. The middle school had some of its construction material thrown around and destroyed. Praise the Lord!! No one was hurt. Alot of trees down and no power for 6 hours now. I can't believe this happened right around the corner from where we were. God is so good - all the time. And to think, we didn't even pray. We really were just enjoying the storm. Yeah, we are a little crazy. Thunderstorms are the best!!
Well, Lord willing, this will be the last tornado we will be here for.

More family pictures

These are a few more pictures that we took while Uncle Brandon was here.

Yes, we were being goofballs again. The kids had so much fun just goofin'
around while he was here. Wow, in one of the pictures I think you can see
down my throat. By the last picture, Lauren was scared. We had gotten
really crazy. We had 3 cameras doing the self timers and we were running
back and forth setting it for 10 seconds and running back before the picture
was taken. It was so funny. I should have gotten the video camera out and
video taped us doing that.

Barbie's visit

Barbie, we are so glad to see you! Everyone, look who's here! It's Barbie!!

Yeah, we are a little desperate for friends lately. hahahahaha!!! But, that's ok,
we find ways to keep ourselves busy.

Ashley's new friend

Ashley was having fun with her friend, Barbie. I knew she would meet some good friends here in
South Carolina.

My brother Brandon.

We had such a wonderful couple days with my brother, Brandon. We laughed so hard.
It was so nice to be around someone with a sense of humor like ours. We just had a ball.
I miss laughing so hard that you can't breath. I was able to spend some time alone with
Brandon and actually have adult conversation. We went to lunch and walked at the outdoor sandhills mall. We even went into the furniture store and looked at everything we would like
to have. It was such a blessing to have that time with him.
I love you Brandon!

A Beautiful Day in South Carolina

Wow, this was just another sunny day here in Lugoff, South Carolina. I will truly miss the sunshine. But Jesus is the sunshine in my life. No matter what the weather, He is what moves me. He is the one who gives me joy along with the many blessings in my life. My husband, who is so wonderful. He always makes me laugh and I love how our relationship continues to grow through the seasons of life. My children...yes they are a gift from the Lord and I treasure each one. What great memories we have made over the years. I can't wait to see all that the Lord has planned for us in the future.

Selling our house

We have officially put our house up for sale. Please pray that it sells and
that we will have patience through this process.
Here is the link to see it. The pictures are blurry or something. It was
also a very gray day. We are trusting that the Lord will sell it in His
timing.

http://www.russellandjeffcoat.com/PhotoViewer.aspx?id=ee19e230-6965-4e08-b320-392a2dff8d74

p.s.- if you look closely at the last picture - you can see Millie on the right side

A Night at the Circus

What a fun night we had! Thanks to Uncle Brandon, me and Phil were able to take Karah, Hannah and Lauren to the Ringling Bros. Circus last night. It was such an exciting night. It is so wonderful as a mother to watch your little ones so excited about what is going on around them. Elephants, tigers, clowns, popcorn and dippin dots. Yes, they were excited about the food, too. As long as there is food involved, they are happy. Is it just mine, or is every other child like this? Our girls had never been to the circus before and they ended up having an awesome time, truly a night to remember. Phillip and Ashley must be getting too old for the circus - they had better things to spend their money on.
Thank you Uncle Brandon for giving us an opportunity to make some great memories. I still remember going to the circus when I was little. It really meant alot to us for our kids to share the same memories.
We love you!! xxoo!! Oh yeah, can't wait to see you in a week.

We love New York!!!

This is our prophetic "yee-haw!!!!!" before we knew we were going to head back to New York.

Who knew (except for the Lord) that a week and a half later the Lord would be showing Phil that we need to move at the end of the school year. We are all so excited!! This experience has been awesome. The Lord has taught us sooooo much. We have grown and are so excited to see all that the Lord is going to do in the next year. We will freeze our butts off because we have totally climatized to South Carolina weather but we will adjust. We plan on buying all sorts of winter gear and learning to do everything possible in the snow. Like skiiing, snow shoeing, sledding, snowboarding, ice fishing. Some of those things might be a little dangerous. But, you know what I mean. By the way, it is the middle of January and it is in the 70's. Wow, the weather is really beautiful down here!!

We will just have to take a vacation down south.

OOPS! Somehow I got 2 pictures on here and I don't know how to get rid of one.

Oh well, twice the fun.

Our New Turkey Fryer

Phil went outside and cooked a turkey in his new turkey fryer. It is actually for inside use but he did not want to smell up the house. The table is ready - bring in the food.

Christmas Morning 2007

We woke up Christmas morning. Read the story of Jesus' birth, prayed and then immediately hit the living room. Lauren was excited to get crabby patties. Did you ever try those things? The kids love them. They are little hamburgers that are actually gummies.
Phillip was getting something for his computer. Don't worry - he got crabby patties too.
Karah got a sims pets game for the computer and Ashley looks very excited about it.
Then there is Phil. He got exactly what he wanted. A toy helicopter that flies around the house.
He likes to buzz peoples heads with it. It already got stuck in my hair once. Lauren's too.
We had a great Christmas! It is always a wonderful day to spend together. I am hoping that we were all reflecting on the Lords birthday. But I have a funny feeling the kids might have been having way too much fun with their stuff. Not to mention daddy too. I am glad the Lord knows our hearts and we are so thankful that He came to earth to die for us on the cross.
That our sins are forgiven and that it is a free gift to all that accept it.
Merry Christmas!