So Much To Be Thankful For...

So it has been quite some time since the last posting, but life has been somewhat busy...moving and all!

This year I am so very thankful for the simple things...

...no longer wondering if our house will sell or not...

...no longer having to keep my living space perfectly neat and tidy just in case the call comes that someone wants to come into your home and criticize it...

...no longer having to think where will I be calling home next.

You see after a full year of unknowns, God has finally shared His plans with us! 

 

We are now living in the country!  Five glorious acres all our own.  I will be the first to admit, that this was not my dream.  But after talking about it for about a year and then preparing for it for another year, I am completely on board!  Of course the idea of owning horses is still a bit scary to me.  But living in the country was equally as scary. And now I am really getting the hang of it!  I know more about wells, expansion tanks, and septic systems than I ever thought possible.  I understand the value of being able to finally find someone at the phone company who realizes where you live and is able to say yes, we can provide service to your area!  I am delighted that after seven phone calls to seven different utility companies one was able to turn on the lights!  But most importantly I am truly enjoying the solitude.  The quietness that exists that I never knew was possible.  In fact, the other day Ema and I were unpacking a few boxes, when we heard something we hadn't heard since we moved in.  A siren.  I know...crazy!  It made us both stop and pray that the people that needed help were okay. 

So I am sure you are wondering what this country living might look like.  You know we bought a dump!  Complete without a working heating system, very little overhead lighting, flooring that was a bit grungy, bathrooms that left little to be desired, and a smell that was--well let's just say it was almost worth walking out and never coming back.  But we did come back.  Several times.  And we did buy this dump.  And we are delighted with how it turned out.  Even though the past 3 months have felt like an eternity, we are so glad we waited it out! Of course there are many projects to complete, like caulking and painting all of the doors and trim, building shelves throughout, so we have some space to store all of the things we've collected throughout the years, and decorating galore!  Not too mention all of the outdoor projects that exist--repairing the barn, tending the garden, painting the outside of the home, repairing/replacing the barbed wire fence, pruning the trees, repairing and extending the deck, landscaping..the list goes on and on!!

It's a good thing we love projects!!

Anyhoo... here's a few pictures for you to enjoy.

the entry...

 before

after

the gathering room...

before

after

the grand hall...

before

after

the main bath...

before

 after

our room...

before

 after

The house is just under 2000 square feet and it's great for our family.  All one level living.  Just enough space for everyone to have a place whether together or alone!  It's a great home for hanging out and making some new memories!  LOVE IT!  Not too grand.  Not to small.  And of course, room to grow!

And one last photo of what we are greeted with each morning!

STOP!

So next week our little girl becomes a teenager.  How did this happen.  Hardly possible that our baby is turning 13.

So often I have told her to "stop growing up."  "Stop being such a big kid."  But now, I am done.  After seeing her next to her Nana this past week, I realized it was done.  She has officially crossed over the threshold and she is actually taller that both her mom and now her Nana.

"STOP!" I say to myself now.  Stop living in denial and realize she is going to have to grow up and you are going to one day have to let go. 

But not today!

A Little Schooling for Cabub

 

First day of school.  Hangin' with Mr. P.

 

 Learning about landforms of Colorado with a field trip to the top of Pikes Peak.  It was a bit chilly that day. A balmy 10 degrees!

While leading his own conference, he informed us that he received straight A's for the first time.  Way to go bud!  We are so proud of you!

Are You Kidding Me?

So yesterday was one of those days where you crawl into bed and think: Really, did that happen today?

I got up a bit early and headed to work to get caught up on some of the craziness that occurs just before conference time every year.  It turned out to be one of those days where you hit the door running and don't stop until you crawl into bed!

During one of my plannings I decided to see if I could get into the doc to have her take a look at my right ring finger.  It just wasn't right.  I couldn't bend it right, it felt strange and I haven't been able to wear my rings for over two weeks.  I was worried I might have broken it, but couldn't even remember hurting it. CRAZY!  Well they were able to squeeze me in with Dr. Clark.  I had no idea who Dr. Clark was, but I was willing to take anything to see if my worst fear was a reality.  Well, he was awesome!  Just might consider changing docs altogether.  Tender, caring and really felt like he was listening to me!  The result:  Tendinitis.  The cure. A little tape, some Aleve at night, and most importantly PATIENCE.  The thing I lack most in life!  Real funny, God!

 After the appointment and gathering up a bunch of kids for carpool duty, my mann informed me we had to run out to the property to clean up the mess he had to leave behind in order to get back to do carpool duty...which he forgot to do, of course!  Anyway, upon checking out all that had gotten completed today I noticed something strange.  The snacks I had in the cabinets for emergencies when we were out working on various projects were missing.  And so was the house warming present from Mr. Brian.  Okay the food I was okay with, but the bottle of blue I was not okay with.  You see I am a rare drinker. And when I notified Mr. Brian that this house would have something available everytime he drove out, he and Ms. Susan started the collection on the first run.  Well you can imagine the shock on my face when the bottle was gone.  (enter a sense of sarcasm here.)  Why did I think my belongings would be safe with a bunch of workers coming in an out for at least 6 weeks.  Uh...duh...am I truly that trusting?!!! 

Upon further inspection from my mann, the evidence was found in a giant trash can. 

Everything except for the bottle in the brown bag!

I am just praying they weren't tipping it back while doing the job...

The Kitchen Continued

So after making the decision in less than 6 hours to go from updating the old to installing new, we spent the rest of  Saturday evening making 2 trips to the Home Depot and carting the 21 cabinet bases we needed to the new house.  By the time we crawled into bed at 11:00 we realized we didn't have access to our table saw that we would need in order to get the cabinets to fit.

On Sunday morning around 8:00 we called our friends Tom and Shelly to see if we could borrow their saw.  Not only did they let us use their saw, they let us use them.  They so graciously gave up their Sunday to help us remove the old and install the new cabinets.  Wow!  Who does that?  Great friends do that!  Thanks Guys!!

Here's a few photos to give you an idea of what we went with.

In just 6 hours we managed to remove and replace all of the cabinets except for the island.  We decided to let our contractor handle this part since the sink is located in the island and we have no idea how to install over all that plumbing.

Can't wait to see the finished product!

By the way, the trip to the hearing doc went great!  While I have loss in both ears, it is not significant enough to warrant aides!  Yeah!! That would feel a bit awkward at 40!

Craig and Caleb just headed off for the annual hunt.  The road to the main spot they hunt is not drivable this year, so they are going to their back up spot--along with everyone else that usually went to the original.  Craig is a little skeptic about bringing home the family's meat for the year, but I have enough faith for both of us!

And the construction begins...

Grab a cold one...this is a novel today!

Never in my wildest dreams did I think my life would be on the path it has been on for the past several months.  I am overjoyed with the ability to trust in knowing that God's plans are so much grander than I could ever envision.

Closing has come and gone and we finally have a move-in date.  After many discussions with our contractor, we have agreed that the weekend of October we can get our furniture and possessions into the garage and actually be able to unpack and arrange the first weekend of November.  Happy Birthday Ema!  You get your own room back!!

Since we closed, we have spent both weekends at the property.  The first one we spent changing locks, painting a coat of kilz all over the walls to get rid of the odor and removing wallpaper from the entrance.  It really worked wonders. 

That is until our contractor and his crew came in an demo'd the joint the during the week.  When we purchased the place, we knew that everything but the drywall and the kitchen cabinets would be removed.  The place had seen better days and we wanted to make sure everything was up to parr.

Upon removing the countertops a new odor was detected...

Ughh the awful smell drove me nuts.  I could see some remains of mouse doo-doo on top of the lazy susan cabinet, but I couldn't imagine this stench was caused from a few mouse droppings.  It was atrocious.   My loving Mann decided to spend the second weekend removing the bottom cabinets to clean underneath them and determine what we needed to do to bring them back to proper working order.  Many of the drawer glides were broken and even some of the shelves were falling apart.  Upon closer inspection, I started to realize that what I thought were quality cabinets, simply was not true.  They were just your oridnary over the counter cabinets from the 80's.  Not bad, but not great.

There in lies my dilemna.  When the first cupboard was removed and I saw a trail of mouse droppings along with the original flooring from the when the house was built--only covered in a layer of grease and grime, I must admit that I had a moment of sheer panic.  Ugh...what have we gotten ourselves into?  I froze.  My loving Mann continued to scrub and clean and remove cabinets, but I froze.  Complaining the whole time.  Pleading with him to find the 14 grand our contractor quoted us to remove and replace the cabinetry.  It didn't work.  I knew that was a ridiculous amount, but I couldn't imagine ever cooking in this room.  I was having difficulty moving beyond what I was seeing.  But I had to get over it.

So, I joined in and started scrubbing as well.  That is until we got to that infamous Lazy Susan.  Who knew.  What a crazy, disgusting shock we found.  After removing this cabinet from the wall we looked down and saw a 3 foot square 2 inches deep of insulation, drywall and paper shreds.  It was a mouse mansion.  I can't even describe how utterly grossed out I became.  How could this be?  How could my new home have an infestation of little brown and gray rodents no bigger than my key ring.  Yuck!  I can't even imagine how many mice lived in this section of our kitchen.  Of course this was my breaking point.  I was done.  No longer could I contain my ability to be calm and try to imagine these cabinets painted, with new knobs and new counters.  I just couldn't do it.  But my Mann was not giving up.  He pressed on.  He took out the remaining cabinets and continued to sweep and clean.  Gotta love him!

Upon driving home that afternoon, we decided to stop by the home depot to pick up some mice poison and ammonia to prevent future mice and rid the kitchen of the smell forever.  I was dreaming of that home baked chocolate chip cookie smell by the way! 

When we walked into the home depot I noticed that their in stock cabinets were 20% off this weekend.  WHAT?!!  Could it be?  Could we possibly be able to make this work out?  After a few calls to the contractor, a call to our brother-in-law to see if we could borrow his truck and a couple of hours mapping out if the new cabinets would be easy enough to install, we made the decision to go new!  Yeah!!  I was doing the happy dance!  The best part was that in only cost $3500 to replace them.  Our ideas for refinishing we going to easily exceed $4000. 

All I can say is God knows me so well.  (Why do I even act surprised at this?  He knew me long before I even arrived for this journey.)  He knows I am a clean freak and that having new cabinetry would ease my mind.  For this all I can say is THANK YOU LORD!

So, I am sure you are wondering how they turned out...well....for that you will have to come back because right now I gotta boogie to the doctor.  I am getting my hearing checked because I failed the test at school last month.

Oh the drama!!!!