God in your mercy, hear our prayers

I know all of our prayer lists are pretty full these days, but thankfully our list of blessings is always longer!! Two of my family members will be needing prayers of healing for tomorrow as will the family of one of my dear friend's on Friday.

• My Aunt Christy has completed 4 rounds of chemo so far and has done great. She goes to Birmingham tomorrow for tests to see if the cancer has shrunk. She will also begin making plans to have surgery this summer. We are praying that the chemotherapy is doing its job, and that she will be cancer free very soon.
• Dylon, Matt, and Shelli are once again in Houston, Texas for a check-up. We are praying
  that everything goes well, that his heart is continuing to function efficiently, and that they will have a safe trip home.
• Marrianne's father, Buddy, will be having surgery in Houston on Friday. He will have a very long and tough recovery following the surgery, in addition to chemo treatments. I'm praying for a healthy recovering for Buddy as well as patience, peace, and understanding for his caregivers (the entire Harper/DuBose family).
• I'm also praying for Dave. He's stressed. Our house is getting wet....Very Wet! I guess some one else is needing the rain more right now than we don't need it. Hopefully tonight's rain will move on, and he can finish what he needs to do to the dirt. Once the dirt is packed on the front side of the house, David's crew can build the garage and finish drying in the house.
  

This is the back of the house. The left side of the basement will be a garage for Dave's boat, lawn mower, and hunting supplies. The right side will have a bathroom, bedroom, and game room that open up to a covered patio.

On the main floor, the part sticking out is our breakfast room. It has windows on all sides. To the right of the breakfast room is our coverd porch. There will be french doors from the living room and our bedroom(on the far right end) that open onto the porch.

Happy Birthday Chocolate Dog!

Reese turned 3 today. We took him to the new house and let him run around and explore his future home. He loves it there, and we can't wait to bring both of our dogs to live with us. We hope to get another litter of puppies by this time next year, and I can't wait!! We had so much fun with our first puppies.

Here are our puppies a couple of weeks after they were born. Fudge is on the left and he lives with the Nelson's at Camp Mac now. Lola, the only girl in the litter, lives in Montgomery with the Earnest family.

Reese and Lola

Dave and Fudge

At first, we picked the darker puppy as our own. We have tons of pictures of us with him. We learned our lesson when Graham Nelson picked that very puppy as his own. Dave thought I would cry all the way home that night, but I didn't. I knew we would love the other dog just as much. Now we can't imagine what we would do without him!

Happy Birthday Reesy!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Our first Valentine's Day as a married couple has been the best one yet! In the past we've done lots of amazing things to celebrate, but today topped them all.

Our lives have been sooo busy lately. This morning we got up to take care of some business on the house. Dave had to haul some dirt into our front yard, and I went to a meeting with David and a potential cabinet maker. Then our neighbors, The Castleberry's, invited David's crew and us to have lunch in their beautiful new home.

All I asked Dave for this year was a copy of Twilight. It comes highly recommended from everyone I know who's read it. I'm 150 pages in since lunch, and so far it's pretty good.
So that's what has made my rainy Saturday so perfect. After lunch we came home, and we've laid around all afternoon napping and reading our books. We woke up around 7:30 PM, called in an order to David's Catfish, and went to pick up our dinner in our pajamas. It was delicious, as was all of the candy my students brought me yesterday. We're stuffed and sleepy.

Good Night!

Since Everyone Keeps Asking....

what kind of house we are building, I thought I would try to answer some questions. I wish I could post a copy of the plans, but I don't have our exact blueprints downloaded on my computer. You can click here, and see one that is very similar to ours though. It's a craftsman style home, and one that took us a long time to decide on. One of the hardest aspects to picking the right plan, was the fact that this will be the only house we ever build. My grandma gave us the land, and we could never, ever sell it so it was important to us to pick a home that we could add on to or renovate easily in the future. Luckily, the slope of our lot is perfect for a basement. I had to give up part of my extra large laundry room to accommodate the staircase, but ended up gaining 2600 square feet of basement below! That was a compromise I could definitely live with. I did not however, anticipate just how high this would make my back deck become. You definitely don't want to be on it if you are afraid of heights!!

Our contractor, David Byrd, and his son Justin are wonderful! I can't sing enough praises about them. They are such hard workers, and have not taken a day off since they started. If you need a good contractor, let me know, and I'll put you in touch with David.

Today after church, we had lots of great help. David and Justin were there of course. Tamara and Erin picked up trash both inside and outside for us. Josh and Anna came by to help too. Then Mr. David and Ms. Carolyn stopped by and she swept the whole basement while Mr. David helped Dave. Thanks y'all!!

I'm attempting to create a house building blog. Mainly, Dave and I just want to document everything about the house for our own keepsake, but we'd also like to give credit to all of the wonderful individuals and businesses that have helped us out. Once I get it up and running, I'm turning it over to Dave to upkeep. Here's the link.

TGIF

**I owe photo credits on the last post to Aunt Kathy. Thank You!

I'm feeling bad about my whining last night. Surprisingly, when I got to work this morning I received the news that we could raise our thermostats to 68! I am very thankful for my job, and the fact that I am a tenured teacher.

Also, thank you Lori, Wendy, and Aunt Kathy. I know it would be A LOT HARDER going to school if I had children. I witnessed that first hand when my mom was in school. Have I ever mentioned that my mother was a nurse for 15 years? She went back to college when we were in elementary school and became a teacher. She's a great inspiration to me. Yesterday was her birthday. Happy belated birthday mom!

Here's the birthday girl with the brothers.

Wendy, here's the fourth picture in my fourth folder.

It's part of a wreath I made for Britton's baby shower.

Here's what the rest looked like:

I wish I was crafty, and try to be sometimes. The wreath is not an original idea, but I did come up with the plan to cover my tacky, gold wreath holders with cute ribbon. I have made several cute wreath hangers. Now I just need to make wreaths to put on them!

Have a great weekend!!!

We Need A Break!

First of all I have to complain.....Graduate School is HARD!!!! I have no time to do anything, but study or write papers. My poor husband and our laundry are constantly being neglected. I have no business blogging right now other than the fact that I think it will help to revive some of my sanity.

I am also COLD! Not so much at home, but at work. Due to proration, we are not allowed to turn our heat above 65 degrees. My classroom has felt like a meat locker the past few days. Brrr, I'm so ready for spring time to arrive!!

On a happier note, Dave has been building this pretty much on his own.......

Can you believe they just started the framing 2 weeks ago?