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... :)

Latest Ramblings: School, too.

School went back into session yesterday. Even as I write this post, Stacey is sound asleep on the couch. I think the nerves of a new school and the start of the school year has just worn her out. I'm sure once she settles in, she'll be updating you about it.

As for me, I'm enjoying not having to hear about being able to sleep late and getting up whenever, so the tables are turned, at least for the moment. Yet, it will surely reverse once we move into the new house and the longer commute through downtown Dallas ensues. My job has been riding a different wave as of late, our unit manager left and now we are adjusting to a different reporting scheme.

We went to the house this past weekend, they have started, but haven't done much. Basically, they had forms in place and started connecting to the underground utilities. My excitement is beginning to turn to impatience, especially after all the rain and crazy weather we've seen since the first of the year. Maybe I'm jaded, but after the experience we had with the construction of the duplex in Alabama, I'm not in the mood to have plenty of good weather days (like we have been seeing) pass us by. I'm really ready to see concrete, hammers/nails and wood, if you know what I mean, instead of dirt and pipe.

I will survive!

Whew! I made it through my first official week of school! Yeah! I do have to say, I haven't been this tired in a while! I feel like I could go to sleep now and sleep for 24 hours!! ( Just kidding!)

I do have to say, working for a huge school district is so nice, already! There are plenty of perks that go along with the job. They have fed us every day for lunch. We got our laptops today. Pretty nice.

Now I will go and rest!

update, etc.....

Well, I just found out that my younger sister, Missy, just landed in Managua, Nicaragua. She will come back next Saturday, just in time to start school. Please keep her in your prayers this week.

Stephen and I just got back from E. Texas. I got a call Friday afternoon that my dad had been in a car accident. Praise the Lord, he is ok! He was leaving work about 12:30 Fri afternoon and a young kid ran a red light and hit his county truck that he was driving. The kid was probably doing about 70 miles per hour and never even tried to stop! There were no skid marks. He claimed his brakes failed but the police officer got in the car and said the brakes were working fine. Dad's truck faired pretty good but the poor kid's car didn't fair so good! He was really sore and went to the hospital to get everything checked out. Today he was doing much better.

God is good!

Fun, fun, fun....

I have started working on my classroom. It is very hot for the moment!! They won't turn the air on until right before school starts. It must be something all the big schools do here. My sister is in Frisco and it is the same way there. There is still so much to do but I'm taking it one step at a time. As the old saying goes, you can eat an elephant, one bite at a time!! :) Next week, mom, my other sister and my niece and nephew are coming and they will help me.

Not this Saturday but next, my younger sister, Missy, will be going on a mission trip to Nicaragua. Please keep her in your prayers. From what I understand, it is a medical mission trip. In order to receive free medical care and dental care, they must attend a worship service. While the parents are in worship service, the kids will have like a children's church, which is where Missy comes in. I believe that is what she'll do. She has had to take so many vaccinations. It is a little scary going into a 3rd world country!! But, the Lord sent her on this trip and He'll protect her too! He has made every way for her to go.

Stephen is getting the true meaning of the words teacher's husband!! Never since we have been married has he had to live with me while I'm teaching full time. This could be interesting!! He told me yesterday that he wouldn't mind if I just stayed about 30 min after school to get my stuff done so that I wouldn't have to bring it home!!!!!! HA!!! I didn't break it to him that I might still have to do some work beyond 3:30, but he'll soon learn!! :)

here we go!

We got the approval for the loan so here we go! I'm very excited!

we finally pull the trigger....

After being married 4 years and finally feel settled, we have pulled the trigger today to be homeowners. Pretty scary!! We signed a contract today to build a house!! Yikes!! But, it will definitely be worth it and we are to close on the house sometime around Thanksgiving. Now the fun begins with picking out colors etc. The waiting will be the worst part I believe! But, we are extremely excited!!

They say we will be doing 2 of life's biggest things all at the same time. I will be starting a new job and we will be building a house.

By the way, Stephen is very excited because the study will also be the "Mississippi State" room. Also, the gameroom will be the "sports" room!! Don't think I got left off....one of the bedrooms will be my craft/scrapbook room!! I do believe there might be purple walls (Go Jacks!). :-)

It's really official now!!

I can breathe a sigh of relief! I signed my contract today with Richardson ISD! I had my little orientation and learned tons of new stuff. I was so eager this morning that I left 1 1/2 hours before it was to begin and I got there and I was the only one in the parking lot. So, I went to eat breakfast. (it only took me 30 minutes to get there! :) )

Now I can't wait to get into my classroom and get busy!

ethanpowell.com

Most of you probably have never heard about this little boy. I don't even know him, but one day I ran across this (I can't even remember how!) and I would like for you to visit this site (click here)
and pray for this little boy. I believe he just received a bone marrow transplant from his daddy and he is in a medically induced coma so that his little body can take this cells into his body. If you want to see someone with faith, just read some of the daddy's updates. It is awesome! The way the updates are posted, the most recent are at the top, so to get a good feel for what they have been through, start at the bottom. Through all of their trials and triumphs, this family BELIEVES in prayer and you will see that all throughout the updates. God is good!! This little boy needs His healing hands!