Other than the baby clothes I’ve used for decor in the nursery, I don’t have many family heirlooms.  Tom’s grandmother gave us her set of monogrammed silverware when we were married, but that’s about all we had.  I love the idea of family heirlooms, but I don’t like the idea of the loss a family usually must suffer in order to pass down such items.

Last month, we got a call that Tom’s grandmother’s health was quickly declining.  Just a few days later, Tom was getting ready to fly out to her funeral in North Carolina.  Sadly, this all happened about two weeks after his other grandmother’s funeral.  When it rains, it pours around here.

Grandmother Kuhlman was one of those wonderfully Southern ladies that you fall in love with upon meeting.  I didn’t get the chance to spend much time with her since we lived so far apart, but we exchanged letters and cards every now and then.  I will never forget when she first saw pictures of Zack’s room – she wrote me a 4-page letter wondering why I didn’t have my own TV show.  I got a good giggle out of that, as it was nice to have such a big fan.

Tom returned from Grandma K’s funeral with a heavy heart and a heavy gift for me – her monogrammed sterling tea set.  I started crying as soon as I saw it.  I am so thankful that we will have this gorgeous set (that I need to polish, I know) to remember her by.

I’m not sure where I’m going to store the tea set, but for now I’m using it as my center piece on the dining room table.  It brings a smile to my face every day, even if the method by which I acquired it breaks my heart.

I hope we don’t have any more heirlooms passed down to us for a long, long time.

We’ve been shipwrecked on a deserted island.  Thank goodness they have high-speed Internet.

Between dodging local wildlife and catching our own food, we’ve had a pretty busy schedule.  Our typical day sounds something like this:  Pool.  Beach.  Pool.  Beach.  Lunch.  Nap.  Pool.  Beach.  Shower.  Dinner.  Bed.  It’s a challenge, but someone has to do it.  You can see how those blog posts I planned to write on vacation just haven’t fit into that hectic schedule.

I’ll be back on Thursday with an awesome new giveaway and fun new posts.  Until then, I better head down to the pool.  Or maybe the beach.  I hear the rescue team is set to arrive tomorrow.

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I’m excited to announce the winner of the AWESOME Scentsy giveaway from Stephanie!  If you didn’t see this note that she posted, you’ll want to check it out:

OMG WOW you guys! I’m totally BLOWN AWAY at the number of responses this has received!

Hi all! I’m Stephanie, Independent Scentsy Consultant, hosting this giveaway with Colin! Thanks so much to all of you who have already placed an order with me!

For all who have placed an order and will be placing an order soon, I will also be sending you a FREE gift in the mail! Be looking for it! If you order once this giveaway ends, just shoot me an email at smclark3@yahoo.com letting me know you entered at LWL and I’ll also send you a FREE gift as well!

Thanks again everyone! I’m just in awe and shock! What a wonderful surprise to return to after being gone all weekend!

She’s awesome, yes?

Out of the 280 entries that were posted during the giveaway time period, the lucky winner is commenter #279!

Congrats to Hilary @ Katrinka Jane!  You’re the big winner!  I’ll be sending you an email soon so you can get in contact with Stephanie for all of your delicious goodies.

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If you sent me an email and haven’t gotten a response (or have gotten a response saying, “I’ll respond soon!”, I promise I’m not ignoring you.  I’ve just tried to unplug this past week while we’ve been on vacation.  It has been nice, and it’s something I need to do more often.