Thursday, November 1, 2012

Casa Rio Reno DAY 1

Here we GO!
I have watched enough HGTV to know that renovating a house is a super simple project that can be completed in between the commercials. HA HA HA HA HA!
The buying process for this house dragged on for 153 days. Imagine being on a roller coaster full of hoops and dips and drops and loops for 5 months...we are SO happy that this house is finally ours but it is all a bit surreal that we finally get to begin the renovations to make it our HOME.

First thing..NEW LOCKS! This baby is OURS!

This is a MERCER renovation so it will be a family affair... first things on the list: remove a wall, remove a fence, remove the popcorn ceiling, remove a sliding glass door and remove 500 paving stones of six different designs from around the yard.


Great Pop at work.
Going....going.....
GONE!!!
Grammy and Aunt Karen working hard.
Our lovely kitchen and the wall that needs to GO.



They make it look so easy.
This was ALL collected from around the yard!!! Today!

Testing my color ideas...it was really bright green so off to the paint store
for more colors to test!

Our first "family dinner" aroound the fire pit
after a long day or hard work.

SO HAPPY!!

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Casa Rio de Mercer

It's finally officially ours!!! We closed on our river cottage today!!!








Just look at the PRIDE on his face (not to mention RELIEF that it FINALLY happened!!)
 
Now the fun really begins!
 
 
 
 


Sunday, August 5, 2012

Olympic Fever

The Mercer boys have Olympic Fever!!! Swimming is their event of choice, followed by water polo, volley ball and track and field. But it is mainly swimming. They took their saved up money to Target to buy "racing goggles" and "swimmers caps" just like Phelps and Lochte wear...

Pnut wanted the mirrored goggles just like the Olympic athletes had..that was his goal before we got to the store. (Hallelujah that Target had them in stock!!) They always get to choose their colors and Spuds choices never fail to amuse...  bright kermit green? really? He LOVES his choice though, so that is ALL that matters.... and they worked!! Spud swam faster than his brother when he got in the pool!!

Just some views from the Olympic pool in our back yard... they crack me up, how detailed they are in their re-enacting, down to stretching just like the swimmers do, bending over and splashing water, positioning themselves perfectly on the starting block. So precise and focused on details! I hope they do their homework and remember their moms birthday with such attention to detail!!!


Saturday, July 28, 2012

MercerFest

Great Grammy and Great Pop had a house full this weekend... all 5 (yes FIVE!!) of their "kids" were together for the first time in a really, really long time. Here is photographic proof....



We actually had a professional photographer come to the house so that we could ALL be in the photos. I think Great Pop liked the results? Janet Powell at http://www.sgoosephotography.com/
did an AWESOME job working with this cRaZy family!!

As always, we had a huge table at meal times and shared a lowcountry classic, LOWCOUNTRY BOIL (better known as Frogmore Stew...I prefer this name now that I have visited the town of Frogmore and Gays Fish Company where the recipe technically originated.)



Sunday, July 22, 2012

Down to the River to Pray

I got to experience my first river baptism!! As you all know, the May river here in Bluffton has come to be a HUGE part of our lives. When I heard that my church actually did river baptisms in the May once a year I immediately put it on my calendar. Even cooler though is one of my favorite people and her two sons (both on my list  of favorite little people)  were going to be a part of the experience.

As I went down in the river to pray
Studying about that good ol' way
And who shall wear the starry crown?
Good Lord show me the way!

O sisters let's go down
Let's go down, come on down
O sisters let's go down
Down in the river to pray


Father Owens


O brothers let's go down
Let's go down, come on down
O brothers let's go down
Down in the river to pray...




It was such an amazing, cool event to be a part of. The boys enjoyed it especially since their friends were being baptised. The boys kept shouting out to each other, it was so cute. After the baptism, their one little friend hollered from the shore "Hey Spud! I got dunked!!"

 Ok, a little background info... Have you ever seen the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? It came out waaaaay back in the year 2000. On the soundtrack there is an old song sung by Allison Krauss called "Down to the River to Pray" (here is a link to a worship video version on you tube http://youtu.be/cvYadad-x5Y ...the photos are cheesy but the song is the purpose. Or you can go here and just listen to the song... http://www.last.fm/music/Alison+Krauss/O+Brother,+Where+Art+Thou%3F )

So that song is on my "favorites of all time" list and it was sung today as everyone was being led down to the river (which is why I quoted it in between all of the photos above :o)  It has been on a continuous loop ever since so now Little Spud knows the song by heart.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Pool Boys

Who would of thunk that I would of ended up with a couple of pool boys??? (Background story...I went through a phase where I dated the lawn boy, then the cabana guy, then a pool boy, etc. and for some reason I have never been able to live it down? Anyhooooooooo.......)
The Mercer boys LOVE the pool...any pool....they just love to swim. So here are a few photos of my little swimmers....




Me and my boys in Grammy's pool.

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

AmeriCAN not American't

Happy Birthday America! I am so happy to be living here.
The boys took part in the Bluffton Children's 4th of July Parade today...just a nice, small town way of starting out a holiday day.
Pnut was thrilled to be able to ride his bike down the middle of the road. Spud needed a lot of pushing and coaxing to get him down the road...not too fond of peddaling. Aunt Karen ended up pushing him most of the way!




The spanish moss, the sweltering temperature...ahh I love the South!!! God bless America!

Friday, May 25, 2012

Heartfelt Apology

A few days went by and I figured I would catch up with the blog on the weekend, then a few weekends went by and then a month and now it is almost TWO months later with no posts...I will apologize now!! To my two faithful followers (Hi Mom! Hi Tina!), I am truly sorry and I will make a better effort at sharing the Adventures of the Southernmost Mercers in a more timely fashion. :o)


Sunday, April 1, 2012

Nanna's Birthday Surprise

We did it!!! We were able to keep a secret and SURPRISE Nanna for a Birthday celebration!
I think it was one of the most difficult things to NOT tell my momma that we were coming for a visit but I kept it a secret! Walter did a GREAT job of having her cleaned up and ready to go out to dinner with friends (HA!) but instead we all drive up in a 5 car caravan together, honking and hollering. (3 cars from Stuart FL, one from Bradenton, FL and ours from SC.)




Dinner, presents and fun with family followed.....







"The Cousins" stayed the night...in fact, everyone stayed the night and it was a big ole' slumber party!!  It was really great to be together!


Thursday, March 29, 2012

Escape to....Charlotte?

Usually my escapes involve the destination EDISTO but not this time! I was lucky enough to spend the weekend with my fabulous friends/college roommates/youth soul sisters in Charlotte NC. (The Mercer boys stayed in SC for a guy weekend full of fishing and tooting and other testosterony type stuff.)

My original plan was to stop in Columbia and visit the museum of art exhibit called Painting America The Beautiful: Masterpieces of the Hudson School Painters http://www.columbiamuseum.org/exhibitions/hudsonriver/  but the traffic gods had other plans. I-26 was a parking lot at one point which led to a lovely drive through Cameron, SC and the back roads and that ate up my museum time...also, by the time I got to Columbia I was just ready to be sitting on Lauren's cute balcony, flipping through a magazine with a glass of chilled wine in hand. Kind of bummed I missed it though.

Speaking of wine...after staying up late Friday night, eating amazing pizza and catching up we decided to spend Saturday in NC wine country. AWESOME! First stop was RayLen Vineyards http://www.raylenvineyards.com/about-raylen They had an event with music and an oyster roast so it was a little crowded, but the wines were wonderful and it was a great way to start our day.



Next destination was Laurel Gray, Lo and Tiff's favorite. http://laurelgray.com/ I did not know the history behind the company, land or family until now (I just read the web site that I linked to above) but I love this little winery even more now!!  The grounds were lovely and the porch was cozy and the wine was fabulous!!








I love these girls and I am trully blessed to have them in my life!!