Congrats, Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins!

Things are getting better. Last week was a very hard week with house stuff, and there's still some stuff that needs to be straightened out. But "the straw that broke the contractor's back" has been taken care of, which is a good thing.

Our gutters and downspouts will be put up this Tuesday, November 1. (That's my mom's birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MOM!) And then the outside will be complete, for now. (Sidewalks, asphalt, and deck come later.) Sadly, the inside takes forever. Electrical is what Luke and our friend Rusty are working on now, and it will be done by November 12.

We are SO tired from helping with a wedding this week. Matt and Stacy Jenkins are married now - yay! I'm really excited for them. They're a very quality couple...They love the Lord and each other with all their hearts. It's always exciting to see a couple get married that you know will truly be committed to God and each other...Anyway, I was the personal bridal attendant, which translates into "gopher." It was a lot of running, but I felt very useful. And then Luke was the MC at the reception, and RISEN performed, too. All in all, I thought the wedding and reception went really well, despite some complications of the week. (The maid of honor/sister of the bride got a really bad infection this week called infantigo and her face was really red and swollen, and then Stacy, the bride, got pink eye. The maid of honor's swelling went away, and she was able to cover the redness with makeup. And Stacy's pink eye was pretty much gone by yesterday. And THEN, Stacy's dad was the one actually doing the ceremony, and he's very allergic to lilies. Well, the florist did not know this and accented all the floral arrangements on the stage with beautiful white lilies. The poor guy had to take some good allergy medication before the wedding so he wouldn't have nasty allergies while he was trying to say "For better or worse..." Anyway, it was crazy, but it all worked out.)

Whew, weddings are hard work. I always thought it would be fun to be a wedding planner, but after yesterday, I've changed my mind.

Update: Grace can walk across the room, and she has eight teeth. Her birthday party is in two weeks! Can't wait to see you then!

-{lkr}

I quit.

Don't be fooled...

It looks like it's ready for us to move in, but we still need to do most of the inside "stuff!" The siding is done, though, and gutters will be done next week.



The strip of non-sided area under the slider is where our future deck is going to be. We just need Karl to help us put the ledgerboard up, and then we'll work on the deck maybe next spring. Help us, Karl!

Grace is getting her eighth tooth in this week. Crazy. No wonder she's so ready to eat all of our food. She's been eating like crazy at breakfast! She nurses, and then eats a bowl of baby cereal, and then a whole waffle and a smoky link (sausage). Crazy, huh? And she's still thin like her daddy. I wish I could eat like that!

Siding and more

Consumers finally came out and set our very own power pole. Then they ran an underground power line from that pole to our home. After quite a wait, we have electricity!



The partially-sided front of the house, with our pretty prairie siding and white trim. Sorry about the truck in the way!



The partially-sided back of the house. All the siding should be done today!



A line of recessed lighting housings ("can lights") in our hallway - placed perfectly in the right places by Rusty and Luke.



More can lights in the living room.



Sweet Grace in her new room. It's not quite ready for her to move in yet!



Grace likes to crawl around in the sawdust.

Wrong door, grrr

Welp, the front door is pretty, but it's not exactly what we were expecting, so now I have to try to get it changed. What a pain! I can't imagine being a contractor for a living - what a headache! I swear I'm going to get an ulcer from building this house. I can't wait for it to be done. I hope January comes quickly!

On a happier note, The Siding Guys started today. Yep, that's really the name of their business. Creative, huh? Anyway, we have a pretty prairie-brown color of siding. I was going to link to it on the manufacturer's site, but their rendering doesn't look like the real color at all. SO, you can imagine a nice, somewhat-dark brown color. A shade darker than the stone clay color that everyone seems to have these days. OR you can just come see it soon. That'll work, too. Oh, and I'm sure we'll post a picture soon, probably when they have the front of the house done.

Today Grace caught a fly. She's like the karate kid! The little bugger was standing on the windowsill in the living room of the new house, and she was trying grab it. Well, she did. I was afraid she was going to eat it (mmm, protein), so I made her let go of it. Poor, disabled, little fly.

-{lkr}

Windows and doors

Grace and I under the pretty red leaves at our apartment. Isn't she sweet? (And I don't look very pregnant, do I?)



The view from the driveway of our home. We have windows and doors!



The rear view with all of our many windows.



Our beautiful, huge living room window that looks out on the pretty fall trees.



The setting fall sun casts a beautiful light on our house, and the tree in the back is beautiful, too!

Beautiful!

We're getting excited about this home of ours...This picture is from yesterday evening (hence the darkness and the moon), and it's beautiful to us! The roof will be completely finished today, which we're excited about. And then we'll have windows and doors, heating and cooling, plumbing, and concrete (garage, sidewalks, porch) next week. Wow! Believe it or not, the house does have windows in the front (one under each gable), but they didn't cut the holes in the house wrap yet, so you can't really tell.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HYO-SUN! Her birthday was yesterday, and we weren't able to make it down there for the dinner celebration. We will be going up north this weekend, though, for Kade's first birthday party. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KADE! I'm amazed that he's already a year old (or will be this Sunday). That means our baby girl is almost a year old! AUGH! In fact, she's eleven months old today. Time really flies.

-{lkr}

Crazy weekend

Here is the latest...


Grace in Daddy's tie. What a sweetheart!


Friday, September 30 - Our beautiful, somewhat framed home - front view


Friday, September 30 - Our ginormous living room window - what a view!


Friday, October 7 - Our almost completely framed home! Yay! Isn't the roof huge?! They still have to finish one gable and put another one over the other bedroom window.


Friday, October 7 - Back view of our home. They still have to cut another window hole on the far left side, basement level.


One of the beautiful horses at the Belchers' house. We got to spend Saturday evening and part of today with the Belchers, and it was SO good to catch up with them. And Luke got to play with the rockin' praise band in church. It was so loud I thought Grace might have hearing damage. I miss loud church music!

Please!

So we have been trying to teach Grace to say please by doing a little sign language motion with her hand until she is able to talk, because we saw it work with one of the kids at our church. She won't do it, not for a million dollars.

We have also been playing games with her by sticking our tongues out, which she imitates and laughs about. Last night we got the brilliant parenting idea to teach her that sticking her tongue out meant "please." She picked it up immediately!!! It was really, really funny to say "say please" and have her stick her tongue out.

So we are bad parents.

--
Luke