Construction Update 11/4

Yesterday I walked around the addition and inside to take some pictures. They put the stucco wrap on the outside, insulated the inside and have begun to put up the sheet rock. Here are a few pictures of the progress.


This is our old patio with the new patio next to it. The area on the right use to all be roses, so we ripped them out, now there is a floor made with pavers and wall going around it. The wall will have stucco put on it to match the house and a stone cap.


The bedroom part of the addition.


The arched door going into the bathroom.


These are the stairs going up into the loft. It is very hard to get an idea of what they will really look like from this picture. The runners are stained, but are covered with paper, and the treads are just temporary treads, the real ones are stained and a lot thicker.


The little nook in the loft that has the sheet rock already.


The is on the side where the addition is joined with our house. The window is our new window in our family room. I call this new area the courtyard because it will be a patio with building around 3 sides of it. There will be a walkway around to the front yard on one side and a walkway around to the backyard on the other with a fence closing off the 4 side of the patio. The family room and kitchen will have a window looking out to it. There will also be two doors going to it.

Having a Little Fun

I cut everyone's hair in this house. So sometimes I like to have a little fun with the clippers.
Here is Drew's reverse mohawk.


Don't worry, I shaved the rest after he showed it off to the whole family and I got him to pose for a picture. He did look pretty tough with the new look and his tattoo that his tattoo artist sister gave him.

Just a little fun for us.

Fall Decorating

Well we finally decorated for Fall yesterday. Yes, October is practically over, but atleast November will look a bit like Thanksgiving in our home. I love Fall, but I like my house the way it is everyday, without the clutter of extra things laying around. With the construction, I felt like adding one more thing inside our house was going to put me over the edge. But then the kids asked me last week, "when are we going to decorate our house like (then they named all of their friends whose houses were decorated)?" Well I gave in without me naming all of the people that I know have not decorated. So, out came all of the stuffed pumpkins, the scarecrows, the Indian corn, the turkeys and every other orange item that was in the boxes marked "Fall". Now that it is done, I am glad that we did it. It is nice to have a touch of Fall at our house. Considering outside doesn't look like it. (We do not rake our tree that loses its leaves until December!) As the years go by it does get a lot easier decorating, now that Paige can unpack everything and the boys can set the item where it belongs. And I have loosened up over the years about having everything "in its place." I have come to realize that the window clings are not going look like a beautiful Fall scene when the kids put them on. In fact, half of the little Fall critters will be upside down and there will still be 3 of the clings stuck together, but that is alright. It is not about perfection.

Happy Belated Birthday Clay!

I feel that Clay has been a little shafted on his birthday this year. Wedding the day of, sick people all around including him and now having his celebration that was suppose to take place at Chuck E Cheese postponed until further notice. But you know what? He doesn't seem to mind in the least. I guess in his eyes the festivities are just going to last longer this way. Sunday we did do the presents. Here are some pictures of his goodies.

Clay opening his gift from Paige and Drew. Star Wars figures.

The fun thing about Clay is that he gets excited about most anything. More legos!

The gift of all gifts a Transformer. This is what he has been waiting for!
The kids with sick Daddy. What a party!

Hopefully I will be able to post some Chuck E Cheese pictures soon!

H1N1 (aka Swine Flu)

Well, it is here. It has unofficially been confirmed that Jathan has the H1N1 virus. The doctor said that the test takes about 2 weeks to get the results in so he didn't bother doing the test. Based on symptoms, he believes that it is safe to say that is what it is. Now my job is to keep Jathan in bed. Not an easy task, considering this weekend, with a fever of 102 he performed a wedding and still preached on Sunday. Now that he doesn't have much of a voice left nor can stand up straight, I think he is giving in and resting a bit more. The kids have all had fevers this weekend too, so I am hoping they got through their mild cases and we can move on. I am doing everything in the book to prevent contact with the virus and all the preventative measures that I know of to prevent proliferation. (new word I just learned) We will see how it goes.

Please Pray

***Edited: I wrote this post this morning. This evening another family in our church received a call that their youngest son died this weekend. He was in his late 40s or early 50s. It seems that it keeps coming. But we do have a mighty God who is with us. Who loves us. Who comforts us. Who gives us strength. Even in times like this when we say 'What is going on?' 'How much more can we take?' We know that he will not give us more than he will give us the strength to handle. But please pray for us. Specifically the families that are directly touched. ***

This month has been amazing. Not a month I would like to repeat, but still, I have seen God so clearly. A friend from church and I were talking earlier last week. It seems like our little church is a lot like Job. We are a small church and have been hit very hard with pain. But if I look at the story of Job, I know that God is right there. To give you a little background, in the last month we have had one of our three elders diagnosed with brain cancer, a family in our church take their 10 month old son by ambulance to a children's hospital for several days, not knowing whether he would live, once that trial was mostly over and they were able to take him home, they came home to their 6 year old needing to be taken to the ER. On Monday, another family in our church lost their 25 year old son suddenly. That is on top of a few ongoing trials that other families are facing. It has been hard. But I have to say, we have felt God's presence through it all. I would be lying if I said we aren't tired, but God has continued to sustain our church family and the leaders as we face these trials. And through it all I think we are all still rejoicing in God's goodness. I am praying for God's glory to be magnified through all of this. And that we would continue to lean completely on Him as we face each day.

Please pray for the families that I mentioned above. Please pray for God to continue to give them the strength that only he can give and the comfort that passes all understanding. There still is hurting. Also, pray for the Elders as they lead and care for our church family. As you saw in the post below, Jathan is sick, the bug is in our house, but he has gotten run down, so please pray for healing for him so he can minister with full strength.

Please also pray for my sister, Mandy. Right now she is in the hospital, unable to walk and in a lot of pain. She has been sick for over a month, the doctors still do not know what is causing all of this. Please pray for healing and strength.

Lamentations 3 verses 19 through 24 says, 'I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, "The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.'" Praise God! He is everything, He is all we need. Those that are called by his name can look to Him with confidence and know that he truly is our All in All.

Dropping Like Flies

So we are dropping like flies around here. Last Sunday, Clay woke up with a fever and began vomiting that day. The next few days were fever free, but you could tell he still didn't feel well. Then on Thursday, the fever came back with a cough. Friday the fever was gone, but still had the cough. Yesterday, Paige and Clay had a soccer game, I kept Clay home because I wanted to make sure that he was recovered. Then right before leaving to do a wedding yesterday, Jathan began coughing and started a fever. As I was about to take the kids over to the neighbors to watch during the wedding, Paige began a fever. Our neighbors still wanted to watch the kids so I could go with my sick husband to the wedding, they said that they would quarantine Paige. So we go to the wedding, Jathan's voice lasts just long enough to get the couple married. He goes home, I stay. He gets the kids, our very kind neighbors had thrown a little birthday party for Clay, oh yeah, it was his birthday! Don't I feel like the mother of the year, my neighbors take care of my sick kid and throw a party for one of my other kid's birthday. Jathan gets them home puts them to bed. I come home to a now sicker husband, then go to kiss the kids goodnight and now Drew has a fever. So this morning, there are still three with fevers. Jathan is at church preaching (he is coming home as soon as he is done), I am praying he makes it through. I stayed home with the sick kids and Clay. I am the last one standing, praying that it moves on out of our home very, very soon! But as a friend told me this morning when he called "the writing is on the wall" It isn't looking too good for me.