**HOUSE UPDATE**

I can't believe how long it's been since I posted pictures of the house! I guess I didn't realize how much it has really changed/progressed until I looked at the last pictures on here. So much progress has been made! Actually even since these pictures were taken 2 Fridays ago things have changed. The roofers finished the shingles this past week, so I'll have to get some pictures of that soon.

Well, I hope you enjoy seeing the new pictures. No time to stay and chat...Autumn and I are off for a girls weekend! Hope you have a great time, and we will see you next week.

Is there Life?

Yes, I'm still here...just clearly not very good about blogging! I have some updated pictures of the house that I will hopefully post soon. I hope you all are doing well!

New pics

Well....they say better late than never....I say late because I meant to post this past weekend. Where does the time go? As you'll see there's been lots of progress since the last pictures were posted. Just a few more rafters and all of the roof will be done. The sheeting will begin next week if all goes as planned and then the boxing will follow. After that progress will slow down for a while - you know, that whole 'make a living' thing (LOL) - but that's okay because we knew from the beginning this would be a long project with a beautiful ending. I've never been good at being able to "see" the vision that Jimbo is able to see but I must say I can see it now and it's exciting thinking about the future in our new home!!

MIA

Yep - missing in action! You would think I could find some time for posting pictures of the amazing progress Jimbo has been making on the house but where does the time go??

We're at VBS evenings this week but hopefully by the weekend some new pictures will be up! It's really coming along nicely!

It's time for an update

I can't believe how much progress has been made on the house in the last week. All of the walls on the bottom floor are up and you can actually tell where everything is! Jimbo has made a few revisions as he's been building so as to maximize the space. With this heat I'm not sure how quickly the 2nd floor will go up and then the roof but it's amazing to me the guys are able to work at all. Hope you enjoy the pictures!

It's been a quick whirlwind weekend - seriously, don't they all seem that way?? - we got to see everyone at lunch after church today, which was great. Yesterday Autumn made a little progress on getting Alexa's room ready to move in to. Tomorrow Jimbo has to put the light up and Kerry will finish the painting - then she'll be moving in. I'm sure Autumn will share some pics on her blog once she's in.

We've got walls!

Last Thursday the first wood went down on our new house! It was exciting to get home and see the I joists down. On Friday Jimbo and his crew (Kerry & Mike) finished up the I joists and put down most of the subflooring. Saturday brought a long day for Jimbo & Jerry putting pipe under the driveway and marking out the driveway - it will be circular (really a pear shape) in front of the house with a turn out leading to the garage. And today they stood up the outside walls around our master bedroom suite!! How exciting!! The guys have been real troopers with these hot temperatures we're having right now.


This weekend was a good ending to last week and a good beginning for this week. Grace is doing well from her defibrillator/pacemaker procedure but has been having some difficulty with her left wrist. Tomorrow she goes to get an xray to be certain there isn't a fracture (or to ensure appropriate treatment if there is). Friday Pam and Tona headed to their respective homes and both arrived safely. It was so good to see them and get to spend a little time with them and it was certainly special for Grace to have them here.


We were pretty low key over the weekend - trying to catch up on laundry (really - does it ever end??), Jimbo working at the house site, and taking some time to sit out in the sun by the fish ponds. I enjoy the fish so much but we still haven't gotten our new filters installed so the algea continues to grow. The fish don't seem to mind it too much, though. Bridgett at work today shared a tip on battling algea - barley. She said it's available at any place that carries pond stuff, in a little bale, so I think I'm going to try that to see if it will help us get headed in the right direction.

Sunday our Church had a special service to honor our interim Pastor Wallace and his wife Donnie. They have been such a blessing to us during the time we have been waiting on God to bring us a new Pastor - we're looking forward with anticipation to Andy and his family joining us on June 15th but we're really going to miss Wallace & Donnie!!


Our daughter-in-law, Brenda, took her State Boards earlier today and I know she is waiting with anticipation to hear the news she's passed and is officially a Registered Nurse!! We're so proud of her accomplishment! I remember all too well how hard it is to balance school with a husband and work and am glad she's reached this point!!


And, last Thursday Walker and his parents came for a visit - we got a few pictures of Walker and Alexa at the house site - there's one below.


I'm looking forward to supper tomorrow night with Anne & Jackie. We haven't been able to catch up for a while so it should be good food and fun sharing what's going on with our kids and grandbabies & granddogs!


Hope everyone has a great week - it will be the weekend again before we know it, that's for sure!

This is a shot of the I-joists on top of the block foundation

Look at my two sweet babies!

Now this is the subflooring on top of the I-joists

YAHOO!!! Look at our future master bedroom suite!! I can move in tomorrow! :)

The view of my walls from the other end of the house

Post Memorial Day Musings

Autumn and I both had to work on Memorial Day and for me it was extremely quiet so I was able to get lots done on our current orders build for the new Village Hospital. And even with that I was able to take out a few minutes to remember those who have given their lives so we in the USA can enjoy being free. I think we often take our freedoms for granted because it's what we've known all of our lives. A great big thanks to all of those men and women who are currently in the Armed Forces and working to maintain our freedom!! We are so blessed!!

We had a great weekend, though it went by way too quickly. If you read Autumn's blog you know about our trip to Aiken to pick up my cousin (Pam -she's in town while her Mom, Grace, is having a biventricular defibrillator implanted - the procedure was done earlier today and Grace is doing great!! They're keeping Grace overnight in the hospital and then she has to keep her left arm immobile for the next 3 weeks as the surgical site heals) who was there for the wedding celebration of a good friend. The final event of the wedding was attending a Polo match so Autumn, Alexa and I got to go along! What fun....go on over to Autumn's blog for some pictures if you haven't already seen them.

Below are some pics of progress on the house. Jimbo says they'll start putting wood down later this week, most likely on Thursday. I'm getting excited at the thought of seeing the house go up over the next few weeks. All of these years of being a builder's wife it's always been exciting to see his projects come to life and completion but this project will be accompanied by lots more excitement as well as lots of responsibility for picking out finishes and making decisions. I hope to get to help some on the construction, too. We'll see how that goes!

Our bedroom is on the left end of the house - we'll have seperate walk in closets, a garden tub and our washer/dryer will be right in the bathroom - won't that be convenient. We'll have a screened in porch right off of our bedroom, too.

Alexa enjoys hanging out down at the house site - she spent about an hour playing in the dirt on Saturday. She's already telling "Pop" she's excited about "our" new house.

I never knew concrete could look so good!

We came home yesterday to the excitement of concrete footings!! The footings had been poured to the tune of 33 yards of concrete. And, even better than that, the masons came today. I got home too late to see their progress and it may be too muddy tomorrow (after the shower we received this afternoon) for them to work, but it's progress for sure. Hopefully I'll get to see the foundation and post pictures tomorrow.

You can't see it here but Autumn wrote the baby's names in the concrete and asked for God's blessings on them! I'm sure that picture will make it to Autumn's blog before long.

Hope you enjoy a few pictures of the progress at the house site.

On a sad note, I received a call from my good friend Janice today - she lost her Mom last night. I know from experience how hard it is to lose your Momma, my thoughts and prayers go out to her and her family during their time of grief. Please pray for them.

Our circular driveway...we'll have to come up with a landscape plan for the center :)

Two babies, twice the fun!!

Thursday evening we went to the Air Show at Champion AeroSpace where our son, Josh, is a product engineer. The weather wasn't conducive to flying so the show was limited to a formation of 3 planes flying over but it was exciting nonetheless because Josh designed the spark plugs for the planes!! Makes a Mama so proud! The food and fellowship were both great and both babies were there. Walker is spending a few days with us so he came home Thursday night and has been with us since.

He stayed with Aunt Sibby yesterday while Alexa went off to day care. When we got off work we went to Sylvia's go get him and she hosted supper for us. Walker really likes Chinese food so she made chicken chowmein and it was great!! We all ate a good supper, then home to baths and bedtime. My, where does the time go??

Today is a super busy day - first a bridal shower for a high school friend of Autumn's (thanks to Sarah for keeping the babies while we visited with friends)then home to spend time with the babies and catch up on general household chores like the never ending pile of laundry :)

After naps for the babies, which gave us a chance to have a short rest, we went outside and walked down to the house site. The grading is finished and the footings are dug and formed - so now it's inspection time and then on to pouring the concrete. It's great to see some progress. I know it's going to be a slow go, as it of course won't help with paying the bills, but that's okay!!

Then we took the babies to the fish ponds and are now watching the "Letters". It's a great video series for preschoolers. Autumn is going to be keep the babies tonight while we go to church for a reception to meet our new Pastor!! We are so excited! So, needless to say, it's been a day packed full of excitement and things to do.

Here are some pictures I've been promising....mostly of the progress at the house site and a few of the babies on Mother's Day. Hope you enjoy!

Our land at the initial clearing a few weeks ago.

The driveway after it had been whipped in to shape by Jerry!

The car parked in the "garage" as I ponder the view

Where the house will be! :)

Alexa and Walker enjoying chunking rocks into the creek above the fish pond.

Wii anyone??

Where did that rock go?

Blocks to go.

Happy Mother's Day

Yesterday was such a glorious day to celebrate Mother's Day!! What started out as rainy and messy turned out to be beautiful and sunny. Isn't God so good? He always knows just what we need!
We enjoyed a time of family and fellowship at Jodi's Saturday night with my Dad & Grace, Josh & Brenda, Autumn & Alexa, Jerry and of course Jodi, Brad & Walker. We shared a great meal and then spent time outside in the beautiful outdoors by the fish pond. Jodi & Brad have done a great job landscaping the area. Alexa and Walker had great fun chunking rocks into the small stream and exclaiming "boom" with each splash.

Jimbo picked the winning number for my giveaway...and without further suspense...the winner is Denise Taylor!! Thanks to all of you for sharing tips and stay tuned for updates as we forge ahead with building green!

Have a happy Monday!

Talk about recycled....

Recently we had the opportunity to take a trip to Grand Canyon. Neither words nor pictures can do justice to the beautiful sites we saw of one of God's awesome creations!! An amazing area we visited was the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest about two hours east of Flagstaff. The Petrified Forest is absolutely amazing and captivating!! I fell in love with the petrified wood but it is against the law and punishable by huge fines to take any of the pieces out of the National Park. Luckily for me the gift shop area sold specimens in many forms. While there I bought a heart but didn't buy the bracelet I tried on. (Just a note - none of the petrified wood they sell in the shop is taken from the National Park but is harvested legally from surrounding lands.) For the remainder of the trip I kept hoping I would see the bracelets for sale again but to no avail. After we returned home I called the gift shop and ordered two bracelets - one to wear and one to take apart and use to make earrings. So - the give away is going to be a pair of earrings made from the petrified wood (made by Autumn). To qualify for the give away all you have to do is leave a comment sharing at least one tip for 'going green'. The contest will run from my post earlier today until Saturday, May 10th at 8 pm eastern. The winner will be drawn randomly by my husband. Good luck to all participants. And, yes, I will ship to an international address :) And, don't forget to leave me a way to get in touch with you in case you are the winner!

Going Green

Some of you may know we're building a new house!! Yes, I know, married to a builder and in our home for 31 years and yes, it's about time :) Anyway, with that said, I've gotten on the green bandwagon of late and one of the first things I have done is started (actually re-started) recycling. Years ago when my sister-in-law, Sylvia, cooked for us we recycled....or I should really say "Sylvia" recycled our stuff for us. When she stopped cooking for us the recycling stopped, too. A couple of weeks ago I decided to get started again and this time the effort is ours. Everyone in the household is getting in to it, even Alexa (one of the gbabies). I also am getting a compost pile started - that will come in handy when it comes time to start landscaping around our new place.

All of that to say I am also talking with my husband/builder about going green in relation to our new home. So, I'm asking all of you for suggestions and tips on what you have done to go green in your lives!

I'll be posting some pictures later of our house site. And, I'm going to be introducing a "give away" as an incentive for the going green tips....so, stay tuned!

Hello to Bloggerland!

Today is my blogging debut, at least on my own blog!! :) My youngest daughter took a vacation (to Hawaii no less) earlier this year and put me in charge of keeping her blog updated so she could see pictures of her daughter (we were babysitting) and keep up with what was going on "at home". So we (okay, she) set up my blog so I could have access to hers and I updated her blog everyday for a little over a week. Since that time I've kept up with several blogs, including both of my daughters', but haven't taken the plunge to get busy on my own. So, today is the day!!

So let me tell you a little about myself (without revealing too much). I'm a Christian Wife, Mom, Grandmother to two beautiful grandbabies that are the cutest and sweetest on earth (thus the "Two Babies & a MiMi"), daughter, Mother-in-law, Sister-in-law, Aunt, friend, sister, cousin, choir member, Registered Nurse, quilter, knitter and walker (but I haven't been walking enough for a long time, now).

So, join me on my blogging journey and come visit whenever you can (and don't forget to leave comments)!!