Today's the day!

Well, I just spoke with our excavator, and our land is no longer just a bunch of weeds growing taller and taller...He said they stripped it yesterday, and they'll dig the hole today! YAY! We're super excited!

On a different note, Grace's 9-month check-up was yesterday, and they told me she's too skinny. She's 29-1/4 inches tall, which is the 90th percentile, but she only weighs 17lb, 14oz, which is the 25th percentile. I chalk it up to genetics - her dad sure is tall and skinny! But the doctor wants us to start supplementing with formula. Blah. It's expensive, and breastmilk is the best, but apparently it's not working for us...Darn. I'm thinking about weaning her and just switching to formula, but I'm not sure yet.

Tonight is our "Concert of Prayer" at church. It's usually Home Prayer Groups on Wednesdays, but tonight all the groups are meeting at the church. We're going to pray and have Scripture readings and sing relevant songs. Luke is leading worship on the acoustic, and I might play flute or pennywhistle. We'll see. Either way, I think it'll be fun.

Well, have a great day everyone!

-{lkr}

I accept!

I accepted the job offer from Steelcase today (my first real job!), and I am feeling pretty good about that. 'Bout time, I'd say. I even got up the courage to wrangle a little more salary out of them. That gave me the opportunity to go to Spectrum medical center, get a haircut (drug screening), and watch about 30 minutes of the destruction being wreaked on the gulf coast on CNN. Yikes.

Lacey is doing a great job of general contracting and setting up our schedule with the first few sub-contractors, and it looks like we will be starting framing by the middle of September (woo-hoo!).

Later,


--
Luke

8630

We had our first construction meeting with the excavator, the concrete contractor, and our construction consultants this past Friday. We are finally going to start our house this coming Tuesday or Wendesday, and we will post pictures of our hole in the ground, once we have it.

Our address sign and building permit are posted out on our land now.

Grace tried on my new basketball shoes and made us laugh. Here she is...

Later all...

Jobs and houseses!

Wow, today's a big day in the Rumley household!

First, Luke has a meeting with HR (that's human resources) today at 1pm. They're offering him a job! May I say, he's so amazing! I'm SO excited for him. I know they love him there at Steelcase and will treat him well, so I'm excited that he's (probably) going to be a "real" employee finally! After a whole 3 years! Yay for Luke!

Then, at 4:30, we have a meeting at the land with a bunch of people: two consultants from UBI, our excavator, and our foundation guy. Should be a hootin', hollerin' good time. No, really, we're so excited to get a start on this house! Oh, and we have a start date! Our excavator will break ground next Wednesday, August 31! YAY! I've been saying that I won't believe it's going to happen until there's a big hole in the ground, so let's get digging!

Oooooh, there's even more to our day, but I'll write about it later. Maybe tomorrow.

-{lkr}

Ahhh...debt.

Well, we closed on our construction loan on Friday. We still can't believe anyone would be willing to give us this much money, but then again, we are promising to be their indentured servants for the next 30 years. Not a bad trade.

The house has been staked out for a couple weeks. We should hear from the building inspector on Monday about the building permit, then get the excavator digging the basement as soon as he is available! Woo-hoo!

Grace is out of control cute these days: crawling around, pulling herself up on furniture, waving and smiling, etc. We like her. That is all from GR. Later,


-Luke

Happy Monday

Well, we're just about recovered from a good, busy, tiring, fun weekend. We went down to Indiana with Emily on Friday night, to see the family and meet our new "sister." It was great to spend time with everyone, and see Erin and Betsey before they go their separate ways (Terre Haute and Winona Lake, respectively). And our new sister is an exchange student named Hyo-Sun who will be living with Mom and Dad Rumley for the school year! Wow! She's an amazing Korean girl...She can speak and understand English SO well, and she is just a fun, respectful, God-fearing young lady. She's only 16, but there are so many things I could learn from her. I'm excited to have her around this year.

So, our house stuff is stalled again. Surprise. We were supposed to close on the loan last week, now maybe this week. We'll see. I'm not going to believe that the house is really going to happen until there's a big hole in the ground. Anywho, maybe we'll close on the loan this week and get underway soon. Sure would be nice!

Wow, seems like everyone's either getting married or having a baby. Must be the time of life. I just found out last week that my friend Grace is getting married in December. I wish I could go, but it's in Casper, Wyoming. Kinda far away! I wish I could be there, but maybe I'll get to see pictures of it. How exciting!

Well, gotta go eat some brownies and ice cream with my hubby. We're so in love.

-{lkr}

New pics posted!

We've finally posted some new pics on our website! Okay, they're not actually that recent, but they're new to the site. Hope y'all enjoy them! Maybe we'll actually put some recent ones up there sometime! (Don't hold your breath, though.)

On a different note, Rob Bell's new book is striking up some heated reviews on Amazon. I haven't read the book, but I've read the 50-some reviews. It's enough to make me not want to read it, that's for sure...But here are a couple of thoughts that may or may not be related to the book.

1. My faith does not need to change to be relevant to the culture. If my beliefs have to change to stay "relevant" and attract "seekers," then something is wrong. Call me a "brick" if you want to, but I will use what I learned at college and apply my UNCHANGING Biblical principles to the ever-changing world.

2. My faith isn't necessarily supposed to be attractive to everyone. Yes, I need to love others. Yes, it would be great if others saw something different in me. However, Christianity is and has always been offensive. Jesus didn't concede doctrines to please people so that they'd accept Him. And I'm not willing to do that either.

3. Homosexuality is wrong. When did Christians start making up the lie that it's okay? Have they read those parts of the Bible that deal with homosexuality? It sickens God. (And me, for that matter.)...That probably isn't in the book, but I've run across some Christian websites/blogs saying that homosexuality is not a sin. Crazy!

4. Remember that passage in the Bible (1 Corinthians 1:10-13) where Paul says, "One of you says, 'I follow Paul'; another, 'I follow Apollos'; another, 'I follow Cephas'; still another, 'I follow Christ.'"? He's talking about divisions in the church. But also, he says "Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul?" Sometimes--and this is an outsider's point of view--I feel like asking "Was Rob Bell crucified for you?" Because SO MANY of the Mars attenders I know just gush about Rob. When I was in college, so often I heard, "Rob was so amazing today..." Rob this, Rob that...And I can tell you, although I enjoy the messages at my church, I do NOT go there simply to follow my pastor. I go there to fellowship, to serve, to grow, to be a part of the church, to follow CHRIST...


Well, I'm sure I've offended enough people to stop writing now. The topic has just been on my mind a lot lately with the controversy of the book coming out...I'd be curious to hear what my dad-in-law would have to say about it if he read it...Let me know your thoughts if you read it, Dad Rumley. (Velvet Elvis : Repainting the Christian Faith by Rob Bell)

Welp, gotta go. Grace is waking up from her nap. Gotta go be a mommy!

-{lkr}

P.S. I got down to 155 lb today. That means I've lost about 50 lb since last November! Yay!