Long Time, No Post

I think most bloggers go through this at one time or another... I am a bad blogger.  Life really got in the way the last five weeks or so.  I am sure you have all missed me (ha!), and the good and bad news is that I will probably not be blogging much longer.

Because we close on the house on FRIDAY!!!!

About three weeks ago, we learned that we are closing on the house about 3 weeks earlier than our last estimate.  We are so excited.  I am nervous that this week will drag, but since we have work and school and other things going on, I think it will speed by. 

There is no way to chronologically catch up with what I have missed blogging about, so I am just going to post some pictures and tell some fun things.

 Wow.  Amazing right?  I know, I know... it's just a mailbox and not that fancy.  However, we are lazy and like going outside our door to get our mail rather than going to one of those metal mailbox thingies.  Every house on our street has a mailbox, BUT the newer houses in our neighborhood have the metal shared ones.  We have looked and haven't seen a metal one anywhere and since we were told we would have to use the metal kind, we were worried we were going to have to go to Timbuktu to get our mail.  Joe told them to build us a mailbox and we have one.  Friday at our walk-through, I asked about the mail and our super (who lives in our neighborhood) said they will deliver to us.  They may give us a hard time, but we should be able to get what we want!

I don't have the most current pictures of the outside of the house and I can't post the older ones now that I know that it looks so different, so hopefully we can run over there sometime today and get some new ones.  We have grass and a fence and some finishing details on the house and a flower bed and it is looking good!  You will have to just trust me for now.

 Just a couple of stories about walking through the house today (with pictures since it is looking pretty).  The picture above is obviously our master bathroom.  Don't worry, it is not open under the bathtub anymore.  This week when we walked through, the towel rods were all up.  The only place for a towel rod in the master bathroom was above the bathtub.  So there was a very crooked towel rod hanging above the bathtub.  I am not quite 5'2" tall.  There is no way I could get a towel without stepping into the bathtub every time!  So, the towel rack is now gone and we will add some hooks on the door instead.  Easy fix!

Above is our new master bathroom.  I can't wait to have my own sink again!  This is what we are all five sharing now...

If you look carefully, you can see my hand holding the phone in the picture.  I wasn't paying attention and almost had a shot of me in my p.j.s for you all :)

One of my favorite places is the kitchen.  One of my favorite parts of the kitchen is the pantry.  Can you believe this?

 We love to cook and can't wait to make use of all the space.  The two pictures below are a little messy, but you get the idea.  I can't wait to have an island in the kitchen!

 

See our double oven on the right hand side??  Remember our splurges from http://housethatbuiltus.blogspot.com/2012/05/our-splurges.html ?

And here was another fun surprise.  We knew we had a fireplace (of course), but we didn't know that we were getting the gas logs.  Of course, it makes sense once Joe told me that we didn't have a chimney.  I never thought about it.  Some people may prefer the real wood and the real fire, but I think with our family's allergies and asthma, we are just fine with the fireplace the way it is!

So now we wait.  The house was appraised on Friday and we should know something from the underwriter tomorrow (if they want something else).  They tell us everything should be fine, but I am trying hard not to worry that something will go wrong.  Once the papers are all signed and the keys are in our hands, then I will feel much better!

So Much Progress

This is the house this weekend.  We have a garage door and quite a few bricks!  I assume that it will be completely bricked and stoned (maybe not the correct term...) by the end of this week.  The inside has sheet rock and is floated (?) and there are doors, shelves and rods in the closets, and trim. 

The back has the most bricks and it is neat to see how what we picked out looks all in one place.

I took pictures on the inside, but the things that we think are really cool (like the ginormous pantry) are very difficult to photograph.  You can see this view from the living room into the dining room to get an idea of what the style of the house is.

In the midst of the difficult move, it is nice to see progress with the house and know that time is really going to fly now that the girls will be starting school soon and the pace at my work will really pick up with the fall semester starting.  More pictures to come soon as I just happen to know that more progress has definitely been made this week!

Goodbye...

Goodbye to all of this "stuff" that we think we need so much.  Saying goodbye is never easy, but it is easier knowing that we will see you again in less than three months (at least I sure hope it isn't any longer than that!)  I am curious to see how we do without you and how much we decide we don't want to come back into our new house.  Our 10x20 storage until is so full that there is very little room to put anything else (although a taller person than myself could have).  We will see you before we know it and hope that you all survive your time in the heat of the Texas summer.

Move is a Four Letter Word

This move was T.O.U.G.H.  We tried to be prepared ahead of time, we started packing early, we hired movers to help move the furniture to the storage unit, and still the move was not easy.  As I said before, I am not a good packer.  I get very tired of packing and overwhelmed.  Although we had lots and lots of boxes packed (and used every one that we got from our sweet friends) we still had things that we didn't put in boxes because we just didn't know how.  My parents and mother-in-law were super helpful with finishing packing and getting things to both the new house and the storage unit.  The movers helped for about 3 hours and got most of the things moved to storage.  My co-worker Paul came over and helped once they were gone and we still needed some muscle (I am sure he will be thrilled with that title!)

In case you are not from or have never been to Texas in July, it is EXTREMELY HOT.  With Joe's MS, he has problems with the heat and he struggled both physically and emotionally as he couldn't do all that he felt he should be able to do to help.  It was hard to watch him try to do too much and he actually ended up at the doctor on the Monday morning after the move because he could hardly walk.

We got the majority of the moving done on Saturday then Joe, Jessica, Laura, and I went back on Sunday afternoon to move everything else to the garage so that the person we were paying to clean the house could do it on Monday.  I worked on Monday morning and then went back to finish the garage on Monday afternoon by myself.  I'm not going to lie, I was terrified I couldn't get it done.  I took Tuesday off also so that I could do some other house things and didn't want to go back to finish the garage.  Well, I surprised myself and everyone else.  By 5:00, the garage looked like this:

I should have taken a "before" picture, but I think I would be embarrassed to show it to the world!  I was excited to be done at that house and I know that this part of our "house adventure" was probably the most difficult part.  We have vowed to get movers for our next move since they will get everything from storage and take it to the new house.  I have already got a few people lined up to help pack our little house when it is time and I will try to be better about asking for help (not one of my strong suits).

And I just keep trying to remind myself that it will all be worth it in two and a half months or so...

Transitions

Way behind on posting this post that I started a week and a half ago.  More to come soon about the actual move and house progress...

I work with college students with Aspergers and have a family member with Autism and people always talk about how transitions are difficult for them.  Guess what... transitions are difficult for me too!  This last week has been full of stress as we get ready for our first move.  We have moved lots of times.  I recently counted and by the time that we are in our new house in October, we will have lived in 11 different houses in less than 19 years.  I should have this down, right?  Absolutely not!  We are moving to our "twin city" so I would like to think of that as moving out of town given how much stress I am feeling.  Then I think about my friend Jenn (author of www.hobwas.wordpress.com... amazing blog that you should all check out) whose husband works for the State Department.  They move every few years and mostly out of the country!  If she lived a little closer, I would put her to work helping me :)

Anyway, we have started transitioning at our old house.  We put all three girls in one room on mattresses on the floor and it is working out great (much to my amazement).  We have started crating the dogs again since we will be in a small house with newly refinished floors and couches that don't belong to us.  They are still adjusting, but it has been MUCH better than I anticipated.  We are eating all the food from the freezer (okay, we got fast food last night because we just couldn't face the choices we had left... lima beans, yuck!).  Our packing is somewhat under control, although I turn one way and think we are doing great and then turn around and panic seeing how much we still have to do.  I am working most of this week, so I am trying to concentrate all the while thinking... "When we move, I will need to put the dogs on leashes every morning and take them through the front door since the back door would mean crawling across the girls" and "I wonder what day is trash day" and "If the movers come at 11, when do we need to get the truck and when should I have my parents come to help" and "How are we going to get the girls to and from school given that we live no where near where they are going to be going to school" and... okay, you get the picture.

And here is the picture that I am trying to keep in mind:

This is the way the girls like to go to get to the new house.  The roads are all paved, but there is one dirt road you can take and they love to go that way since it makes it feel "in the country."  I just think of this as the long road home :)

Packing Day

We are getting close to the big (or small) move!  Next Saturday we get the moving truck from the storage place and load it up with all of our things that we won't see for the next three months or so.  We have been packing here and there for awhile, but today was a big push to get a lot done.  I think we were pretty successful.

 I am too tired to try to get better pictures.  You get the idea.  These are all boxes going into storage (along with most of the furniture).  I never knew we had so many books (along with lots of other stuff!).  We decided this week that we are going to have a moving and storage company come get the piano and store it, so that is one less thing we will have to move next week.  We also have several things on Craigslist mostly hoping to get someone to come get them rather than us move them!  We had great help from my mom, Joe's mom, and our friend Ms. Gracie today.  We never would have stayed motivated without them!

Along with packing, we decided to get the girls ready for the temporary house (or "wee house" as my mom likes to call it).  They will all be sleeping on mattresses on the floor in the same room, so we moved all the mattresses to Jessica's room so they could get used to it before we moved.  Here is their set up for the next week:

Wait, where are the girls?  They went to stay with Gram and Grandy tonight.  So much for getting used to the new arrangement!

As Promised...

So I felt a little bad posting my blog post last night given that we went to church on Sunday and Blake preached about gratitude.  In general, I think that I practice gratitude pretty faithfully.  I still have jealousy over things that I wish I had or frustrations about things I think aren't fair, but in general, I have a pretty positive outlook on life and try to look for blessings in every difficult situation.

It is actually easy to be grateful given our current living situation.  After I posted on Facebook a couple of weeks ago about looking for a place to live, I had a response from a friend who told me about a friend of hers who was going to rent out their house.  I contacted her, but they were really looking for someone more long term.  However, she talked to another friend of hers who was interested.  It turns out that this friend is actually a sweet friend of mine!!  (Did you follow all that?)

I had gone to lunch with a wonderful group of friends a couple of weeks ago and my friend Carmen was telling me about her dad's house and how she was going to manage it and rent it out for home football games while her parents were in the North and then they would come down and live in the house during the winter months.  Neither of us thought about my family moving in instead of renting it out for football games until her friend mentioned it to her!  This is the house that we are going to move into in a little less than two weeks...   

What is so amazing for us is that Carmen's dad is just finished renovating the house.  It is incredibly cute on the inside and my girls fell in love with it when they saw it, even though all three girls will be sharing one bedroom!  Carmen (and her dad) are giving us a wonderful deal which will help us with our down payment and moving costs.  It is not in the right school district, but since we have a contract on a house in the new one, we should be okay.  The house is furnished and we will be moving in clothes, bedding, kitchen items, and personal things and that is about it.  Everything else is going to storage!  That should actually make our second move easier as there will be very little to pack.

I can't lie, I am a little nervous about all of us being in a two bedroom/one bathroom (!) house together for three months.  I have friends who did it, though, and said that there were things they missed about it when they had a little more room.  I think we will enjoy the house and when we move into a house over twice the size, we may miss the closeness a little bit (okay, maybe not too much).

And just to keep us inspired through the closeness, we will keep going to visit this house...

Rough Week

I'm having a little blogger's apathy here.  I was trying to be good at writing and there actually is progress on the house, but it has been a rough week. As a matter of fact, I started writing this a week ago, didn't finish, then left for a conference for work and am just now getting back to it. 

There have been a few issues with the design of the house and they are having to make some changes to accommodate some extra duct work (or something... I let Joe handle that stuff).  When there are changes, plans have to be drawn and approved and that takes time.  Time is not our friend right now.  The good news is that we are going to have an "architectural detail" in our game room because we have to put a column-like extension on the wall to accommodate the extra duct work.  This is Joe's drawing of what it will look like...

There is a reason he is not an artist.  I think it is all a scam so we will have to get a large screen TV to hang on the wall (the rectangle in the middle).

Anyway, our floor plan isn't a common one and they want to make sure that it is done correctly (which I appreciate).  I call this the octopus...

And here is where it comes out into the game room...

There has been quite a bit of work on the plumbing and electrical work and the roof was finished in time for the rainy week that we had this past week, so there are many things happening to get closer to the house being done.  Tons of sheet rock are sitting in the house and it will hopefully be time to put it up soon.  The rock and brick are both sitting in the driveway and I will blog pictures of that soon.

The biggest reason for the rough week had nothing to do with the house building, but the need for temporary housing.  We move out in two weeks and as of the time that I left for the conference last Sunday, we didn't know where we were going.  And to find out what is happening with that, you will have to read my next post...

Running the Race

I have never been a runner in any phase of my life.  I tried to do the Couch to 5K and gave up after a week and a half.  Never say never, I may do it again, but that isn't the point of this post.  If I had to choose cross-country or a sprint, I would choose a sprint hands down.  I am great with working under tight timelines.  I don't like projects that hang on for a long time (like my dissertation!)

So what's the point?  Isn't this supposed to be a blog about building our house?  Yes, but the house building isn't the cross-country part.  The packing is what I dread.  We are moving out of our current house in a little less than a month to move into our 3 month temporary house until our new house is done.  We have never been good at moving (although we have done it plenty of times).  This time we are trying to do it right.  We have already started packing and are having a garage sale next weekend.  But I HATE the packing! 

I found these two shoes (not a pair) in Emmalee's closet.  They have been there two years without us noticing!

I decided that I need an App like runners have on their phones where you can encourage them as they go.

 "Way to go, Kristie, three boxes packed!"  

"Wow, Emmalee's clothes are all sorted and ready for the garage sale!" 

 "You can do it!" "Just do one more box!"  

Those are the things I need to hear right now.  I am tired and achy and feel that there is so much more in front of me than behind me. 

My first box!

There isn't as much progress as I would have liked, but here is part of what I have done:

My big goal is to get as much done as possible so we can have a wildly successful garage sale and earn some money for the move! 

 "You can do this, Kristie!"

We're a little bit country...

Here is the sight that greeted us in our new neighborhood when we went to check on the house this week...

Did I mention we live in Texas?

My Christmas Tree Window

When we decided on our floor plan, we were most concerned with the number of bedrooms and bathrooms and the set-up of the kitchen.  We liked the layout of the living room/dining room and having a study was nice too.  After we chose our plan, the girls realized that we had a feature that we I always wanted: 

Isn't it awesome?  Okay, I know that it isn't that impressive right now, but come December, I plan on it looking something like this:

I know that it won't be quite so grand, but one of my favorite sights when driving around at Christmastime is seeing Christmas trees in the front windows of houses.  It looks so homey and welcoming.  Our window is in the study at the front of the house.  We should be able to put our tree in that room (and shut the door to save it from the dogs) and turn the lights on every night to welcome our friends and neighbors to the Christmas season.

If it weren't June in Texas, I might just make some hot cocoa and put the Christmas tunes on in anticipation...

A Solution to Homelessness (maybe)

You may remember (if you have been reading all my blog posts) that we have a little dilemma that is not too far away.  Our lease is up at the end of July and the owners aren't willing to extend our lease until the end of October.  The cyclical nature of renting houses in a college town means they want us out so they can try to get someone in before the semester starts at the end of August.  We will be ready to move out, but one small problem.  

Our house currently looks like this...

and won't be done until sometime in October. I just had to put this picture in because it is so fun to see the house changing.  The bathtub in the driveway isn't ours.  They delivered it to the wrong house.  Strange how it can sit out there for a couple of weeks and no one bothers it.

Anyway, back on topic.  We have had several different options for the time that we would be homeless.  The solution that we came up with at the end of last week is a great one.  Our good friends and former neighbors are moving to Ft. Worth for a job.  Their house has been on the market since March and they haven't had much interest.  They are moving out at the beginning of July and aren't really interested in renting it out, but they are interested in renting to us to cover their mortgage.  The house is bigger than the one we are in now, is in the school zone we will be moving to with the new house, and the rent is great for us.  We have talked about most of the details and feel really good about signing a contract at the beginning of July.

So where does the (maybe) come in?  Since we talked on Friday, they have shown their house THREE times!  Of course, we want them to sell their house and it will continue to be for sale while we live in it, but SERIOUSLY???  If they don't get an offer, we will sign the contract and move in at the end of July.  We will both be able to terminate the contract with 30 days notice so that they can continue to try to sell their house and we could become homeless again.

Although I am a little bit nervous, I am trusting in God's plan for us.  It is comforting to know that He knows exactly where we are going to be moving and it will all work out the way it is supposed to.

Now I just need to get serious about packing...     

The Handwriting on the Wall...

Thanks to blogs and Pinterest, my children find lots of great ideas of things to do.  Of course, most of them never get done, but it is fun to think that we will do them!

One of the ideas that they came across that we loved was the idea of writing on the frame of the house before the sheetrock goes up.  This afternoon we went to the house and wrote Bible verses on many of the walls.  It took longer than we thought it would, so we hope to do more this week.  It was fun choosing what verses to put in what locations. 

Jessica was probably the most into it and definitely has the most written in her room right now.  Dad made sure she was secure on the ladder as she looks at her Bible to choose a verse for her ceiling.

Joe and I had to take turns writing the verse in our bedroom.  My hand was getting cramped and I thought it was nice for both of us to write.  Our choice was obvious: 1 Corinthians 13:4 "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."  Joe's brother read this passage at our wedding and we try to live by it in our marriage. 

Laura is standing in her closet looking out her window.  We all think it is cool that her closet has a window in it.  She says she is going to grow her hair out to be Rapunzel.  For all of you who are getting nervous about my almost teenage daughter having a window in her closet and playing Rapunzel, don't worry.  The window won't open.  My favorite verse that she wrote was in her closet. 1 Peter 3:3-4 "Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight."  How awesome that she chose that passage to put in her closet to remind herself that her character is more important than her clothing.  

Emmalee wasn't with us, so we hope to go back one evening this week and write some more.  When I told her that we were planning on doing this, she said "we could write thank you to the people building the house."   How awesome that she realizes that people are working really hot in the Texas summer heat to make our home for us.

Even though we are not doing the labor on the house, it is nice to feel that we are all a part of making a home for our family built on a strong foundation.  

Moving On Up

The view from the landing

When I was a child, I always wanted a two story house.  I think it is one of those kid things- two stories=big house.  We lived in a two story house for a couple of years when I was pretty little, but after that we lived in just one story houses.  Back when our oldest daughter was little and our middle daughter was born, we lived in a two story house.  We loved that house, however, my husband ruptured his Achilles' tendon three weeks before our second daughter was born and both girls' bedrooms were upstairs.  It was a very difficult time in our lives for lots of reasons and being in a two story house at that time in our lives was difficult.

As my daughters got older, they really wanted a two story house.  We weren't sure, but when we found out that it is cheaper to go up than out, we decided up was the way to go.  One of the reasons that we weren't sure is that last September, my husband was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.  MS is not curable and can produce lots of different symptoms for different people.  Joe is on really good medicine and has done great, but he does have some balance issues so we knew that one non-negotiable for our house is that the master bedroom had to be downstairs.

Me on the "landing" on our stairway

As we start to see the house take shape more and more each day, I really love the fact that it is two story.  I think it is that kid thing again.  The two stories make it seem big.  Our kids are older now (16, 12, and 9) and will have the upstairs mostly to themselves.  Although we love to be together as a family, the thought of sending them upstairs (especially when they have friends over) is very appealing! 

A Room with a View

I love the fact that we have a bay window in the master bedroom.  It isn't large, but I just like how it is a detail that makes the room different and I love windows.  So I was at the house last week and noticed what I would see looking out our bay window.

I thought this would be cool to share.  Luckily, before I wrote this I realized that my view out my window will be a little different.  (Besides the fact that the construction stuff won't be there anymore).  We are going to have a fence.  Duh!

Today when we were at the house (I love saying "house" not "lot" anymore).  I realized that we still have a room with a view.  This is the view from the game room upstairs.

 Again, minus the wood.  We will have a fenced in backyard that we look at, but I love the green space that goes on outside of our fence and the wildflowers and woods beyond.  I know that some of that could change eventually, but at least for now, it should stay the way it is and we have a little bit of country (with the convenience of a neighborhood pool, playground, and great sidewalks). 

It's a House!

Sorry for the cliffhanger and the the delay. Somehow Laura's volleyball and dress rehearsals for the musical she is in, Emmalee's art camp and swimming lessons, Jessica's art history class, cooking, cleaning, and laundry (oh yeah, and my full-time job) have interfered with my blog posting.  I know it hasn't been that long, but I left you hanging.

The good news is....

Saturday at lunchtime

Saturday late afternoon

Monday at lunchtime!

We now can see where the rooms are and get a better idea of what we only saw on paper before.  It is so cool to see it finally taking shape.  If you are observant, you will notice that the last picture has some dark clouds.  That's right, a HUGE storm blew in late this afternoon. Wouldn't you know that with our house all exposed and naked like that it would finally rain!

Boxes

We have moved many times in our married life.  Nine times in 18 years!  Counting the move to our temporary (TBD) home and then the new house, that will make 11 times!  No, we are not in the military or any other job that would mean moving frequently.  The moves were for a lot of different reasons and some were more pleasant that others.  The last few moves have been really stressful and we haven't been completely ready on the day of the move.  Sorting, organizing, getting rid of things, and packing are not my strong suit or my husband's.  This time, things are going to be different!  I can say that confidently, because we are well on our way.  Yesterday morning about half of our garage looked like this:

Today, our garage looks like this:

Pretty much all we have left to work through

Things going to a garage sale (minus the minivan)

Things that are moving with us

I spent a total of about five hours in the garage yesterday and feel like I made it past the point where I thought it wouldn't be possible to get it all done.  I wish it was all done, but we are going through every box (and a few have been with us for the last two houses or so).  And, do I even need to mention that it is HOT in Texas?  However, we are vowing to not have unpacked boxes in our new house.  What is the point of having "stuff" if you can't enjoy it?

Stay "tuned" later today or tomorrow for a very exciting post with fun pictures!

The Best Laid Plans...

That is the blog title that has been rolling around in my head for the last several days.  Sadly, I can't think of what the rest of it says.  I think we always just say "the best laid plans..." and you are supposed to just understand that the rest means that things don't always go the way we thought the would.

I guess you are probably seeing where this post is going right now.  This week we have had two great "plans" that have not worked out the way we wanted them to.  The good news is that not only do we have a foundation, we have a driveway!

Ready to be poured

And the finished product

I am sure you wondering what the plans were that went astray.  The first had to do with the driveway.  We thought we would put our hand prints in the driveway before it dried.  Guess what?  The driveway dries REALLY fast!  Unlike the foundation, the driveway was fairly simple and two men poured it while we were running errands on Saturday.  We came back in the late afternoon and it was way too dry to make our hand prints. 

The other plan was to take professional pictures once the framing was done or in progress.  I thought it would be a cool backdrop for the pictures and a lot of fun.  Unfortunately, it is getting hot in Texas and even though we postponed the pictures once to try to wait until the framing was done, we couldn't wait any longer and took them nearby in a cool country setting this Monday.  We will still try to take pictures, but it won't be what I pictured.

As of today, the supplies are at the house for the framing to start, but it hasn't started yet.  And guess what is in the forecast for the next few days... RAIN!

What this week has taught me is that whether we put our hand prints in the foundation or not, whether we have our pictures taken just the way I pictured, or whether the framing is delayed this is still our house and when it is all done we will be living there and raising our children and making memories.  Life isn't perfect and plans rarely go just as we thought they would.  Fortunately, God has a plan for us and He knows exactly what will happen and His plans are perfect.  And those are "the best laid plans." 

The Wise Man Built His House Upon the Rock

I don't know why, but that song has been going through my head off and on since we started this process.  Maybe it is because I sometimes worry we made a foolish decision to build a house right now.  Of course, when we started this process, we didn't know that my daughter was going to be sick much of this spring and end up with lots of medical bills or that my husband would have his fourth eye surgery (today).  I am hoping that this song is going through my head because this is the right thing to do and we are providing a firm foundation both literally and figuratively for our girls.  And speaking of foundations...

WE HAVE ONE!

 

Notice the dark looking sky overhead?  That is not the lighting on my camera.  I am not sure of the timing, but it did rain at some point in the process.  When Joe and I went to check it out around 12:30, there were two men there finishing up and getting the water off the foundation.  (I am sure the man above would be thrilled to be in my blog)

They started the foundation around 7:00 this morning (you are welcome, new neighbors) and since Joe and I had to be at the hospital for his eye surgery at 7:30, we sent in our helpers.  Joe's parents, Laura, and Emmalee went before school (on their last day of school) and watched the beginning of the process.  They loved it and everyone was really nice to them. I think someone got a finger in the picture below :)

Laura took most of the pictures in the morning and they said a total of six cement trucks delivered the cement to our house. I had no idea it would take so many.  You can see two of them below.     

 Apparently they started moving a little fast at one point and one of the workers got cement all over his hands and made a big deal about his hands being cemented together. The girls got a good laugh at him.  I think this picture might have been right before it happened.

Joe and I left the hospital, picked up food, and headed to the house.  We are thankful his surgery went well and hope for good news tomorrow.  I was going to take a picture of his eye all bandaged up, but I think he will appreciate this one better.  You probably can't tell, but he has house shoes on in the mud :(

Everyone has been friendly when we go by the house and I think (and hope) they like that we are interested and excited about our house.  I don't know much about house building, but I am pretty sure this is the part where things start moving really fast before they slow down again so it should be a fun few weeks!