Pictures From This Week

Ready to eat our Thanksgiving meal

Our new house!

Ice skating with Nessa and Josh

At the lighting of the City and County building

WHEW--what a week!

(I had planned to add pictures but blogger is not cooperating. I will add them when able.)

It has been a crazy week to say the least--but a great week! Monday, we moved into our new house, and we love it!!! Things actually went pretty well. We went for our closing Monday morning, which took about two hours, and then the movers showed up to our apartment around 12 and moved all of our things. Movers may cost a lot, but it was well worth the money. I was able to do some things, like seal the grout, while they were working so it worked out really well. And most of our things made it in the house safely, so that was great. Then Monday night, we had some AWESOME help from some friends from church. They assembled our entire dining room table and chairs and then unpacked all the kitchen boxes and also carried in clothes. Thank you so much Susan, Whitney, Lisa and Andrea. You guys are lifesavers!

I went back to work Tuesday and Wednesday but Jason had the week off so did lots around the house. He had to deal with many phone calls but we think everything is about straightened out. There are just lots of little things to deal with when buying a new house but nothing major. He also got things all tidy for my family's arrival, which was so very helpful. He is a wonderful husband!

My family arrived on Wednesday early evening soon after I came home from work. My mom was so worried that it would stress me out, but we had a wonderful time. We ran and got some dinner and did a little shopping Wednesday night, and we did a little Thanksgiving cooking. It was so good to see them!

Thursday was a wonderful day. We didn't have to get up too early but started cooking around 9 am. We spent a good deal of the morning in the kitchen and ate our Thanksgiving meal around 3. It was very yummy and we just enjoyed each others' company (with the football game in the background). Watching the game was fun also. My dad was rooting for the Cowboys, but Jason and I were cheering for the Broncos. It was lots of fun when we won in overtime, but Dad took it pretty well. That evening we put up our Christmas tree while we watched Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving. It was a great day!

Friday we slept in and took it easy most of the morning. Jason had to work, and Mom, Dad, Josh and I went to clean the apartment. It was so disgusting--I can't believe we lived in that filth! But we got it cleaned up and now have one less thing to worry about. We are planning to turn in our keys tomorrow--it is nice to be out of there!

Friday night was lots of fun. We went ice skating at the outdoor ice rink in Cherry Creek and then went to the lighting of the City and County building. We squeezed in a Starbuck's visit, which is so fun around Christmastime. We had a great time!

My family left this morning, and we have been working ever since. Jason spent most of the day installing the garage door opener, and I have been cleaning and unpacking. I feel like I have done 100 loads of laundry and run the dishwasher 100 times! We are having fun meeting our neighbors, and everyone we have met seems so great! It is exciting and lots of fun that everyone is moving in around the same time.

We feel so blessed to have so many wonderful gifts in our lives. Thank you to everyone for all of your help and love. God is so good!

Moving day

Tomorrow is the big day! Leah and I have been busy with packing and have just about everything done. Now it is time for the computer to get packed so I thought I would send out a last post. I am not sure if we will be able to get on the internet for a while at our house so this may be it for a while. I will post pictures as soon as I can.

Tomorrow should be fun. We close at 9am and then get busy with moving in. Wish us luck and we'll talk to you all soon! In case I don't get another chance: Have a great thanksgiving!

And now...what you've all been waiting for...

...the poop-colored house! I don't think this
picture actually does it justice but you get the idea.

The second picture is the color the house is supposed to be, and it is actually the very same model that ours is. It is supposed to be repainted by the time we move in next Monday. We had our walk-through today and there were really no major issues. They forgot to install our blinds, so that and the exterior paint are the big things. But overall the house looks very beautiful and should be ready to go next week!

Oops!

Well, our house is nearing completion and we are scheduled to move in a week from Monday! We are excited--we visited on Friday and almost everything is done. The only thing really left on the inside is installation of blinds and touch-up painting. That is about it!

There is one big problem, though. They painted the exterior the wrong color! When we drove up on Friday morning, our first reaction was "Yuck! That is the WRONG color!" Jason put a call in to our sales rep, who called him back later in the day and confirmed that it was painted the wrong color. Right now, it is the color of baby poop (kind of mustardy yellowish-brown). It is supposed to be a different and better shade of brown. The painters are supposed to come back on Tuesday to repaint, so hopefully they get it right this time. Icky! We have our walk-through this Monday and are then scheduled to close and move in the next Monday. We have hired movers to make the transition easier on everyone, so hopefully that goes well. But if you are bored and want to come hang ceiling fans, you are more than welcome to join the fun!

Trip Wrap-Up

So, for the rest of our trip. Well, Wednesday we took Josh lunch at school (Taco Bell, per his request). Wednesday night, Jason went to church with my family and I went to Melissa's lingerie shower. It was fun, but Melissa was SO embarassed! And we were really pretty nice to her!

Thursday Mom took the day off, but we didn't get to spend as much time with her as I had hoped. She had quite a bit of stuff to do for school and also had some shopping to do. We had lunch with Dad at Subway. Thursday afternoon, we picked Josh up from school and took him shopping. He bought a cool pinstripe blazer at American Eagle. Then that evening, we had a bunch of people over for a yummy dinner! We had brisket and all sorts of "fixins." Our guests included: Mamaw and Papaw, Mamaw Chrissy, Aunt Maggie and Britney, Uncle Joe and Aunt Phyllis and Morgan and Jake, and the Beavers (I am sure I've forgotten someone). It was so fun! Mamaw Chrissy's birthday was Saturday, so we had a little celebration that evening for her. She was surprised and had a good time! Oscar loved Aunt Phyllis, because she would let him sit in her lap while she pet him. He is such a spoiled pug!

Friday we took the pugs to my mom's class to visit her kids. We dressed them in their Halloween costumes, which they did not appreciate. But they looked pretty cute! One of these days, I plan to redress them and take a picture to post on here. On the way to school, we stopped at Starbucks. I got my favorite-white chocolate mocha with raspberry. As we were driving to the school, I picked it up and the lid popped off and it exploded all over me! Thank goodness we had some towels in the car, and thank goodness I was wearing a pink sweater and black pants!!! You couldn't really see it all that much, but I felt so sticky. We went on to school and then went home and changed. We went and helped Melissa decorate the church building a little and then went home to get ready for the rehearsal dinner.

The rehearsal went well, and we went to Luby's for dinner. There was some sort of mix-up (we were supposed to be served a specific meal), so we ended up going through the buffet line. It was kind of fun, because we picked anything we wanted, as much as we wanted--so of course we pigged out. I love Luby's! We went home full and happy!

Saturday, of course, was the wedding. I went to Holliday early that morning to watch the band march through their show before they left for Area contest. Then I did wedding stuff the rest of the day. The wedding went well, and Melissa looked beautiful! After the festivities were over, we headed to Casa Manana for dinner with Nessa and her friend Lindy. Nessa came in for a weight lifting meet on Saturday, so we had fun with them. The band, who marched at Hurst-Euless-Bedford stadium (Pennington Field) advanced to the State contest Saturday evening, so the rest of the family arrived home very late (or early).

Sunday morning we woke up early and left around 8:30. We had a fine (boring) trip home. Shame on us--we only brought 3 CDs for the entire trip, and those got old fast! We ran into some rain/snow between Denver and Colorado Springs but overall it was a great trip. We were exhausted and glad to be home!

Pictures from our Trip

Sorry it is taking me so long to post about our trip....life is busy these days! Here are a few pics...
They are of me and Nessa at ACU, us with the nieces and nephew, my grandma's birthday celebration, Jason and me at the rehearsal dinner and the bride and bridesmaids. Enjoy!

Tuesday in Texas

Tonight my baby brother Josh is marching with the Holliday High School band in the State Marching Contest in San Antonio. They are in the finals and are acutally marching right this moment. I am so proud of him!

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Sorry it is taking so long to post from day to day--things are crazy around here! We are moving in two weeks and not close to being ready. But we will get there. The house looks great! The only things left are blinds, appliances, and exterior paint and landscaping. It looks like a real house someone can really live in!

Tuesday was a fun day while we were in Texas. We left early in the morning headed for Abilene to visit Vanessa. We got there about nine thirty, just in time to see her before her class. We were trying to park our car and she called us--her class was cancelled. Yippee! So we were able to spend some time with her we weren't expecting. We stopped and said a quick "hello" to several people we know who work on campus and did a little shopping in the campus center. We then went to chapel, which was fun, and ate lunch in the Bean Sprout (yum!) with Nessa and her friend Aundi. We then checked out her dorm room (she lives in the new dorm--nice!) and then went to get coffee at Java City, which was pretty good. It was then about time to head out, so we dropped Nessa off and said good-bye. It was a quick but very fun trip!

We then headed for Ft Worth. We got there around 5:00 and woke Sharla and her girls up from there nap. We chatted a while and then Michelle and her kids came over, so we all hung out and then had dinner. Tuell came home just in time for supper, so we all crowded around the table and had pizza together. It was so fun! All the nieces and nephews are getting big so it was good to see them--we don't see them often enough. And we also got to meet Melaina, the youngest niece for the first time. She is really cute! So Tuesday was another fun-filled day!

(I tried to post pictures but blogger is being silly. I will post them later!)

Trip (Part 1)

Well, as you know, we are now back safe and sound in Denver. We arrived Sunday evening and have been totally exhausted since. I think I caught a stomach bug or got some food poisoning along the way, because I have felt awful the past few days but am better now.

Our trip was great! There is so much to tell that it will have to be broken down in to segments. So I will tell about Monday. While we were home, we were able to go to Josh's district cross-country meet. It was really special for me, because I really miss going to things like that. We loaded the family and the pugs in the car and headed for Seymour. It was fun, and the team advanced to regionals! Go Holliday Eagles!

Monday night, we had dinner with Paul and Virginia, my neighbors from home, and then I went to pick Josh up from band. That was our Monday!