House updates!

Just one of the views on our property....lots of trees...some are now gone, this was last winter!

This is actually from the end of our driveway looking down the street! You can't see it here but there is a creek that runs under the road across our land. EEEK! :)

I promised pictures...here they are. But, lucky for us, they are already outdated! :) The framing crew is already working on the second floor today. We are still waiting to get our garage poured so they can frame up the garage too. But that should be poured tomorrow if the weather permits! (Knock on wood!)

We were kinda worried about Ike and his aftermath. Yesterday morning, we woke up at 2am to the howling wind and NO electricity. When it was light, we went to check on OUR house project. We had a hard time getting there because of down power lines and trees, but alas, we made it. We got to our property, and saw that we had two trees laying on the power lines by our house, and a HUGE tree that was laying across the driveway. But, the house was fine, except for the two inches of water standing on the INSIDE of the house! :) (We got rid of that later in the afternoon...thanks to some help from our church family!) When we tried to leave I got my car stuck in the mud. Luckily, our dirt guy, was driving up to check on our house (what a nice guy) too. So, he and his son in law helped to get me unstuck. No sooner did I get situated and we looked back down the drive, and the trees that were laying on the power lines were smoking. Yes folks, we are going to burn down the neighborhood! So, David called a friend that works for the power company and he came to kill the line. But, by that time, one of the trees had officially caught fire. I was a little panicked. Fortunately, the fire burned itself out and all was safe.

This is a picture of the tree as it was smoking....it's sideways sorry!

In the afternoon, we had a few of our church friends come help us cut up the trees that had fallen and drain the water out of the house.

We are blessed.

My funny kids!

Periodically, I hear my kids say or do something that just makes me laugh. I have already posted about their funny "words" for things, but today Tatum went as far as to make a song her own.

Inspired by the country song (have no idea the name, but I think it's called "Cleaning this Gun!")

Real words:
Come on in boy sit on down, and tell me 'bout yourself.
So you like my daughter do you now, yeah, we think she's something else.
She's her daddy's girl, her mama's world.
She deserves respect, that's what she'll get.....now ain't it son?
Run along and have some fun.
I'll see you when you get back, prob'ly be up all night....Just cleaning this gun.

Tatum's Version:
Come on in and have a seat boy, tell me all about you.
You thinkin' you like your mama boy....say she's pretty cute. (hahahahaha!)
I'm a daddy's girl, my mama's world.
Don't wanna pack, that's what I get....ain't it son?
Go have some fun.
I will see you when you get home. He'll be up all night, cleaning my gun.

Okay, so hilarious. She was singing this song while brushing her hair this morning. I was trying to be quiet so I could hear her, but I was having a hard time NOT giggling. I love when they make up songs.....

Old Friends really are GOLD!

Yesterday was the worst day......

From start to finish, nothing good happened. I was REALLY sinking in my comfortable little preacher's wife "pit." ( To quote Beth Moore!)

Anyway, I vented a little on my Facebook status update. Not even an hour later, I had a response from my "old" preacher's wife from my Teenager hood, Deb. (She's not really that old! )

She threw down a rope into my pit and convinced me to get out.

I am constantly amazed at how God puts people in our paths at just the right time. He knew that I needed some fellow "preacher's wife" support. And there it was. Pearls of wisdom, some tears, and even a laugh or two!

Thanks,Deb, for letting God use you! I love you! And yes, this is some kinda life!

Daddy Home School

Tonight while we were sitting at the dinner table catching up from the day's events, we were asking Eden how her day went. She got all excited and told us that she got 2 sticks in her envelope today. (She was sitting nice and "quiet-ed-ly"!) David asked her how many that made total...she went back and forth from 6 to 11...we still don't really know. David trying to play "home-school" asked if she has 11 sticks, how many does she need to get to have 20. ( The magic number for the treasure box!)

He was holding up his hands to count the numbers for her.....

(Now this is tricky to type!)

On the first finger he said 12, second 13, third 14....and so on.
Well, that threw Eden off. She was saying 1,2,3,4,5...yadda yadda.

When she heard "13" she busted out laughing in a full blown belly laugh.

"Daddy doesn't know his LETTERS!!!"

She couldn't quit laughing.

And neither could we.........

Hello again...

I have been SOOOO crazy. That is my excuse. We are in the middle of starting up a new curriculum that has, for some reason, fallen into MY lap. (I am still wondering where all the people that were "on board" are.) We start on Wednesday night so I have been spending day and night (Literally) on the computer looking for "stuff" for classes. I am excited to get started though.

Here's the latest:

Tatum started 1st grade. I can not believe it. She is doing pretty well. She went to a private school last year and they taught reading a little different than in the public school, so she is having to re-learn some things a different way. For this reason we are debating sending Eden to public school instead.....we will see how this year goes.

Eden starts school on Tuesday. She is starting her second year of preschool ( on purpose! :)) She actually starts school on her 5th birthday, so we will be partying! :) Nothing like kicking the year off right!

Again, I can't believe that Eden is going to be 5 years old. It just doesn't seem that long ago. I do still have a (very) little part of her that is still my baby. :) She is growing up sooooo fast.

We have begun our house!!! (Do I hear a cheer? ) We finally got moving. For MONTHS we have been arguing with our architect about house plans, only to fire him without ever getting them. I ended up drawing up our plans, and that seemed okay with the bank...Yeah for us. We had our footers dug and poured in the same day and a week or two later, our friend Adrian began laying the block for the foundation. He is almost done ( I guess..I don't really know what to look for! :)) and then our framer will be on his way to do his thing. I am PUMPED....more than you will ever know. We have been living in someone elses house since November....ugh. I am ready to have my own things and my own bed. I am so grateful for our friends that have let us "house sit" while out of town.....I have no idea where we would be otherwise! :)

I feel like I am rambling, so I will go.
Bye!

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E!!!!!

You HAVE to have this picture when you go to Disney World. It's a law I think. hehe!

Tigger and Darby stop for an autograph and a picture with Tatum and Eden.

This is my favorite float in the Night Parade...of course a picture doesn't do it justice. But close.

This was great. Belle won as the favorite princess at Magic Kingdom. I think it was the REAL one. :)

We had a great time ... all 10 of us! We were at the park from 9:3o am to 1:30 am the next day! Whew. We were all tired but it was worth it! I hope we can make it back in the next few years because we didn't even get close to seeing everything. The girls have a whole lot of wonderful memories now.....mission completed.

Bahamas

David is showing off where we took our daily naps! I love the Sundeck!!!

I have mentioned for the last few months that we were planning a trip to Nassau, Bahamas via a cruise. Well....we finally made it!!!

We left from Ft. Lauderdale on August 2nd. We headed out on the Regal Empress across the big blue. (And yes, it is Big and Blue...to quote Nemo!) I wasn't sure how I would do with the whole sea-sick part of the boat, but luckily Dr. Murphy saved the day and called in some patches for me to wear! They were lifesavers!! I recommend them to anyone!

We had a great trip. It was fun to relax and hang out on the sundeck. David and I took a nap two days in a row on the very top of the boat. Talk about relaxing....the waves crashing and a few seagulls...(they follow the boat!) squawking. Ahhh........

We arrived at Nassau Sunday morning. I have to be honest and say that I wasn't blown away with it. However, I LOVE LOVE LOVED Atlantis. If we were to ever go back to the Bahamas, I would go there. It is a self-contained city within a building. (We actually went back to the beach there!!) We saw Micheal Jordan's "suite"....that is more like a 5000 sqft house. I would love to stay there. And I can for the tune of $30,000 per night. So, I guess I will be wishing a while.