Sunny WON! ..A family trip...

Thank you for those of you that voted for our dear bird Sunny on Facebook. He WON the contest! YAY!!!
The wonderful artist Bill Muck will do an 11 x14 pet portrait of our bird for us to hang in our home. We are so excited! He does amazing work, what a talented artist!
I will be sure to post a picture of this finished piece when we receive it. :)

Our family took a 3 day trip away up to the Carolinas this past weekend. The weather was just perfect! Not sure where God will place us to live yet, (North or South) we have a lot of thinking and praying to do ..but know wherever it will be, it will be where HE wants us to be at that perfect moment. We already looked at some homes . The Carolinas are really beautiful. Lots of flowering trees at the moment so the scenery was really pretty!

As we drove around I took lots of pictures to share with you...These are some old houses ..not houses we looked at to buy! Just some houses that were very old looking. I just happen to see these houses as we drove around and thought you might like to see them too :)

 

Pretty streets we drove down:

 Flowering trees:

Clovers for Saint Patrick's Day!! :

A WONDERFUL quaint restaurant my husband and I dined in just the two of us for a candle light lunch! "The Jasmine Cafe and Gift Shop" This is the restaurant from the outside....

 

and....photos of the inside!

So beautiful and so quaint! We really enjoyed ourselves. My husband had a reuben sandwich and I had a salad with grilled chicken and raspberry vinaigrette dressing. It was delicious!
One of the houses that we DID look at, and was absolutely beautiful and amazing was this one....

So very pretty, on a cul de sac, and the landscaping was just gorgeous! It is lots of fun looking at homes!

We have lots more searching to do, not only homes, but for a hometown! We may have changed our mind again as to where we actually want to live. With my husbands job relocation and with him traveling, we can sometimes be a little bit flexible.

I hope you all had a wonderfully Blessed and Happy Saint Patricks Day...the day wouldn't have been quite the same without seeing a leprechaun...so, without further ado...here is what we ran into on our trip! ;)

Thank you again for voting for Sunny! With your help he won the contest! :)

So very thankful to all of you,

Louise

A Very Sad Day

This turned out to be a very sad day. Our dear Pet bird "Sunny" passed away today. He had just turned 24 years old. We are heartbroken :( We bought him when we first married. He has been such a big part of our lives. He whistled the tune "here comes the bride", he loved pizza, pretzels and chips.He gave us kisses and he followed us around the house. Sunny has seen many changes in our lives, good times and sad. He was with us when we moved many times from state to state.
Sunny has always been such a joy to us. He was a big part of our family.
He would eat dinner at the table with us. He saw our children grow up.
He saw us in happy and sad times. I never thought I could become so attached to a pet as I have with "Sunny", but I did.
I can't imagine life without our bird. His whistles, and his ways...
Things won't be the same for quite a while, I am sure of this.
My husband is out of town, and I was so sad to call him with the news of our loss.
There was silence on the other end of the phone, and I just knew how heartbroken he also was. :(
This bird meant the world to us!
We will miss "Sunny"..he left us on Saint Patrick's Day..the same day we lost my dear Father in law.

"Sunny" will forever be in our hearts, and we are grateful to have had 24 years of song and memories..

"SUNNY"

When we first married, we wanted to take in a pet.
After our honeymoon we settled into our apartment in Florida. I was home a lot in the apartment, and felt that a bird might keep me plenty company while my husband was at work.
My husband Patrick agreed that a bird would be a great companion for us, and a wonderful pet indeed!
So, off we went together to check out some pet stores....
The first one we went to, we saw just two cockatiels...
one of them we really liked a lot.. (which would turn out to be our pet bird) but left to go to other pet stores... we didn't want to rush with this very big decision! We wound up going back to the very first store and purchased what would be a wonderful choice for us.
We bought the bird, and a pretty green cage for him.
As we drove home, we picked a name for him..."SUNNY"..for the circles on his cheeks were as bright as the SUN!

What a wonderful choice we made that very day, all those years ago.
Our dear beloved "SUNNY" is now 23 1/2 years old and has proven to be the BEST and most WONDERFUL pet in the whole world. He has given us so much enjoyment and unconditional love! We taught him how to whistle...one of those whistles being the tune "here comes the bride". :)

Sunny is now getting older, and you can tell he is slowing down with age.
He doesn't like to be held as much anymore, understandably so.
He is an old man! He has seen a lot in all these years...the comings and goings of all the happenings in our lives, the introductions of our children into our family.
The happy times, the sad times. If only "Sunny" could speak..the things he could tell! We will always love Sunny, he will always be very special to us...
Not everyone might understand this...perhaps only someone with the love of a dear pet.

Raggedystitches,