Interesting start to my day!!

Well, every now and again, I think the Lord tries to make things really bad to show us that things are not so bad after all....if that makes sense!! :)

Today I left the house a few minutes later than normal. I get several miles down the road and realize I have forgotten my laptop at home. That is my only computer in my classroom that I can use, so I must go back and get it. I already know that the traffic is bad the way I'm going. So, basically, instead of leaving about 6:35 like usual, I end up finally leaving the house at 7:00. Traffic is horrendous. I get to work exactly on time, 7:45. I get to my classroom, the lock is stuck. No one can get in with their key. Meanwhile, here come my kiddos, bright-eyed and bushy tailed!! Can't get in the classroom....someone (not mentioning names but an adult that works at school) said, do you need a key??? Duh!! They had to call the emergency maintenance person!! He finally got my door open at 8:45. Yeah!!

I hope tomorrow is less eventful!! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wow! It sure doesn't seem like it should already be time for another Thanksgiving! Where has the year gone?

I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! We will be leaving tonight for Alabama. I am truly thankful for many things this year. Above all, I am thankful that I serve a God that loves me and provides for me unconditionally. I am thankful for Stephen. He is the best husband I could ever ask for. He loves me for who I am. God hand-picked him just for me. I am thankful for my family. I couldn't ask for a more loving family. They love me too. That was very evident when they all traveled to Dallas this past weekend just to help us move. I am thankful for Stephen's parents. They are like my second set of parents. Some people are not lucky enough to have 1 set of parents that love them, I have 2! God has truly blessed Stephen and me this year. We have been through some really hard times these past 2 years but we were faithful to Him, and he has blessed us for it. I am thankful for my job, even though it is very tough. It allows me to be with Stephen, which I am truly grateful for! And....I am thankful for my house!! God provides!!! This has been our dream since we married and now our dream came true.

We're in....

I can't post much right now because I am at school but we should be back in business w/ our internet today so we'll post more. There are MANY interesting things that happened this weekend so we'll be sure to fill everyone in! :) I am at school right now resting!! This weekend wore everyone out!! We realized we have too much stuff!!

The house is wonderful and it is still weird! As of today, we are finally out of the apartment. Thank goodness!!

We're Homeowners!!!

From now until December 1, 2037, we're on the hook for a mortgage payment, or as my mom reminded me, we've joined the club. I'm glad it's over, and it's been a very nerve racking day. People were generally helpful, we just wanted and waited to see if there were any surprises - which there were none.

If you know what all we've been through the last 2.5 years, you'd say there's no doubt about it, we have been blessed and God deserves the glory for that house. I stood in the garage today praying a prayer of thanks for this opportunity, and afterward, remembered that 2.5 years ago I sat at a red light looking at what I considered a dream home in Muscle Shoals, AL almost heartbroken and apologizing profusely to Stacey that we couldn't have this back home. Strange how the Lord works, I looked online at those houses and realized that we have a much better situation than what we would have had there.

The fun begins with MOVING...we had our apartment flood just as we were loading the truck, just another mess with that apartment. Fortunately, there were a lot of people from Stacey's family came from East Texas to help us move the majority of the stuff on Saturday and that was a blessing. Then, on Sunday afternoon, we had to make our first warranty call as the washing machine had a back-up of our sewage into the yard and I had to stay at home all day yesterday while waiting on that to be fixed. It was great for getting stuff unpacked, but hated to lose a day of vacation at work. Thanks to a major glitch with moving our AT&T service, we did not get our phone and DSL hooked up on Friday as we first thought, so that has impeded our communicating. So, now it's the 20th, we've briefly returned to cyber-civilization before embarking on a trip to Alabama for Thanksgiving.

Tomorrow's the day...

Tomorrow is the day we have been looking forward to since July 22nd, which is when we put a contract on our new house. I am very excited about being in the house but Stephen and I are both a little uneasy (ok, down right nervous!) about the closing so please keep us in your prayers at 2:00. :)

I can't wait to walk in and know that I am in OUR house!!! We have always lived in an apartment and it will be awesome to not hear dogs above me, water trickling down from their washer/dishwasher/toilet!! Plus, I'll have my OWN parking spot....every time!!! No one else will park in my spot!! :) Living in an apartment, you're never guaranteed a spot!! Plus, I want to have neighbors....nice ones!! People in our apartment are just down right snooty!! You speak, they just look at you like you're dumb!!

I am avoiding packing by being on the computer, so I better go and get busy!! I am off from work until Monday. Yeah!!

Packing....

It should be against the law to own so much stuff!! It's no fun having to pack it...There's just not enough time to pack it all!! :)

By the way, Stephen has been a happy boy since Saturday!! His beloved dawgs defeated Alabama. I have never been so tired of hearing, "Who Let the Dogs Out"!!

Woo-hoo!!

With just a few exceptions, our home is complete!!! We close on the 15th and then begin moving in. I can't wait to get moved in and settled in!!

Light at the end of the tunnel....

Here is our house. Next Thursday (the 15th) we will be homeowners...for the first time in our married life...well, for the first time in our lives to be exact!! It's a pretty good feeling. The Lord has blessed us so very much!

As of last Saturday, there were just a few things to be done. Gutters, specialty paint, backsplash, and appliances.....I'm sure most of that is done by now. We have the official walk-through this Thursday. That will give them a week to perfect anything that needs some TLC.

We have begun the dreaded packing. For all who know the vast amount of "stuff" we have, you will understand why it is dreaded!! My sister picks on Stephen when she tells him that we have a Mississippi State gift shop. It's pretty true!! Thankfully, we are going from a 1000 sq. ft apartment to a 3100 sq. ft house!!

Have a good week and think about us next weekend when you are relaxing and enjoying your weekend and we are ......packing......

House Update 10/28

With Homecoming at Stephen F. Austin this weekend, we had two opportunities to visit the house - once Friday, and again today. The house is beginning to come together a little more each week. We're finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel (See the picture from the game room).

We actually started seeing trim work and finishing touches starting to show up on both the interior and exterior of the house. Countertops, baseboards, sinks/faucets, ceiling fans, light fixtures and outlets were installed. Sod was sitting in the front and the landscapers were finishing up the sprinkler system when we were there on Friday. The exterior of the house was painted on Saturday. Our backyard fence has been started as well.

House Update 10/21

Not one, but two trips to the house this weekend. Stacey and I went on Saturday morning to do our usual Saturday look while meeting Stacey's mom and sister out at the house. When we arrived, we encountered a problem, but not a bad problem. We weren't able to enter the house because the workers were installing (and grouting) the tiles in our downstairs area. So, we made another trip today to see the somewhat finished result. The downstairs is tiled except for the backsplash and it appears that the upstairs is completely tiled. Thus, once the countertops are installed on the cabinets (which were present), then they can complete the tile work. Trim and molding is underway as well as painting. Now it's time to start looking to see how the details are going together and start looking to ensure nothing has gone wrong. And yes, you can't spell analytical without anal.

So, now that we are less than a month from being in the home, our excitement is definitely rising. We also ordered our new sectional, breakfast and formal dining tables, and china cabinet this weekend. Praise the Lord we were able to get some deals.

House 10~13~07

coming right along!! We are so ready to move in!!

Back to normal.....maybe??

We are back from Alabama. We had a good time. We got to see Stephen's doggies play Saturday and they won..thank goodness. I told Stephen's mom and dad I sure was glad because with a 3 hour trip back to Cullman, it sure would have been miserable had they lost!! We got to play with the dog, Buster. He sure is pretty! We came home Monday, got in a holding pattern in the plane and circled DFW for a while. Then we landed and waited on the runway for about 30 minutes due to being backed up from the airport closing for an hour. NO fun! I went back to school yesterday for a staff development day and then finally the kids came back today. I could get used to these kind of weeks!! I don't think parents would go for that though. Have a good week, for what's left of it!

R & R

Everybody needs a little r & r every now and again!! I have a 3 day weekend due to the state fair, so Alabama here we come! We fly out tomorrow evening and return Monday evening. We are both really excited! We will travel over to Starkville Saturday morning to catch some football by Stephen's beloved alma mater. We just hope we have better plane rides than the last time we flew and I swore off of flying forever when I thought I was going to die....literally!! There's turbulence.....and then there's TURBULENCE!! You know what I mean...

Have a good weekend. Check out a few more pics of the house on my flickr.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sfaalum2000/
There's not much to see, the work seems to have slowed quite a bit...too much if you ask us!! We don't quite see how we will be closing in 1 month, but crazier things have happened!

House Update 09/28

Sorry, no pictures this week!

While on our way to East Texas, we visited the site on Friday evening, and visually, there really wasn't much to see from the exterior of the house. We did run into the insulation contractors and they were still working on installing the insulation on the walls of the house. It appears that the remainder of the wiring was finished and "roughed in" as our builder calls it. It does appear that the house passed another milestone in getting past a preliminary electrical and HVAC inspection. Yet, in disappointing fashion, the sheet rock was sitting in the same locations as it had during the previous visit and the vandalized window hadn't been repaired.

Yet, to be positive, we had our hole in our backyard fence repaired, and there had been a large delivery of Mountain Red bricks placed in our yard, about 6-8 loads. At least we could take solace in the approaching of the house being bricked. We also were given a bracket of dates for home owner's orientation with the closing date in mid-November. So now, we're starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

please pray

http://www.ethanpowell.com/Encrypted.cfm?id=121
This is the same little boy I asked to you pray for before. He is the one with leukemia. He had gotten better but now the leukemia is back. It is very critical that we pray for the daddy's blood cells to attack the leukemia cells.

Ok, so we went out to the house today as we usually do on Saturdays. This time we took my sister Missy. We are walking up to the house and Missy asked if there was someone in there. She heard a loud crash. I didn't think anything of it. We get into the "kitchen" in the back and notice children in our backyard. (You can see them in the picture). They proceed to walking into our back door. The look on their faces when they saw me standing there was priceless!! I said, "Guys, what's up?" They started stammering. They said they were looking for their slingshot. I said what are you doing with a slingshot in my house? They gave some stupid answer and started going out the back door. I asked them where they lived and they told me. We went upstairs to find that their slingshot had hit our bathroom window and it was still cracking and falling. Thankfully it was a double pane window. At that time we saw the boy's mother looking up and then they split. She knew exactly what they had done and did not do a thing about it. How rude!! We went to the builder and reported it and she said she'd take care of it. We went back to the house and evidently the boys had come back when we left to check their "damage". So we'll see what comes of this.

Who Let the Dawg(s) Out?

Finally, I get out of the house and I'm feeling a little better. With excitement, Stacey and I headed out for the house instead of staying home to watch the Miss. State game. Nice surprise, they got ahead of schedule on the house. They were only supposed to be done with the framing, but started on the trim. So that was good news. We found a new BBQ place called Baker's Ribs and they had the best pulled pork I've had since I've come to Texas - Bulldog Slapping Good, as they would say back home. Oh yes, to continue with the Bulldog theme, MSU Defeats Auburn 19-14.

Too much fun, not!

Ever since I've returned to the south, I've suffered with some type of allergy in the fall of the year. Tuesday evening, I started coming down with something, thinking it was the run of the mill allergy problems. Suddenly, my throat starts hurting and I start running a fever - it turns into strep throat. Meanwhile, Stacey's been sick since Sunday. We both take off work on Wednesday and find out she has bronchitis. After another sleepless night, I stayed home again hoping to rest and get my fever to go down. Had Stacey not had a "meet the teacher day" today, she probably would have stayed home with me. Let's hope we get better by the weekend, we want to see if the framing has started, but haven't had the energy to do anything!

CEMENT!!!

I have never been so happy to see cement in all of my days!! We now have foundation!! We are scheduled to close on our house mid November!! Yeah!!

As for school.....keep me in your prayers. I pray every day that each day will be better. I know the Lord always puts us where He needs us. I pray that I can see that every day. It has been rough. BUT............. It's Friday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Wrighteous Disco..

Star in Your Own JibJab! It's Free!thanks to our friend Sara... :)