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)!!