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

Updates and lots of pictures

Grace Elizabeth at 9 months old - what a beautiful girl!
(c) Terry Sturman Photography



Our house on Wednesday, with the main floor almost complete. Looks like our house has a cap on it!



Our basement - You can see the floor joists in the 9-ft ceiling, and the supporting poles.



The view from the front of the house just one day later, Thursday. Those framers are fast! They have a good portion of the exterior walls up already!



The view from the back of the house on Thursday. It's really going quickly!


Today our excavator should have backfilled the garage, and the framers will finish all of the exterior and interior walls. Then Monday they will set the roof trusses. Tuesday is sheeting, and then the rest of the week will be finishing touches, including setting the windows and doors. WOW! It feels like it's going so fast!

I've been on the phone a lot today, scheduling our upcoming subs: roofers, HVAC, plumbing...I'm trying to stay on top of things so that they'll go as quickly and smoothly as possible. I'm ready to live in this house! Let's get it done!

Change of topic: I felt the baby move this week! I'm only 15 weeks along, but I've read that it's normal to feel the baby earlier in your second (or third or fourth...) pregnancy. It's amazing! I'm getting excited to have this little one in our lives. God sure has blessed us.

Wood and a picnic

Top view of the walkout basement, standing at the back of the garage.


Back view of the basement

Our house has some wood on it now! The framers were supposed to start a few days ago, but they were delayed (due to scheduling conflicts and rain). But, they started today! We went out to the land, and they already had this much done! It's the walkout portion of the basement. It's really starting to look like a house! YAY!




After we went to the land, Luke took Grace and me out on a beautiful date. We packed a picnic (sandwiches of Vienna Bread, cheese, lettuce, and deli meat; cheese and crackers; apples; Caffeine Free Diet Coke; and the yummiest cinnamon-sugar cake donuts), and went out to the Fallasburg Park just north of Lowell. We laid out a quilt in the grass next to the river, in view of the historic covered bridge, surrounded by beautiful trees and blue skies. It was wonderful. And it was Grace's first picnic ever! She was SO cute and did so well! We even fed her bread and ham, and she ate with us. It got a little cold out there, but it was still gorgeous. I like my husband.

-{lkr}

Flatwork finally happened!

Slowly, oh so slowly, we are seeing progress on the house. Today our concrete was poured for the basement floor. Now it really looks like a house!

The bad news is that the lumber got dropped off too early (my mistake), and it's blocking pretty much the whole front of the house, so the framers are going to have to start without all the backfill done. I hope it all works out! Seems like there's always a problem to solve with general contracting. Sheesh. Not my dream job, but it'll get us a house anyway.

Grace is such a sweetheart. Tonight Luke was doing a funny dance, and she burst into laughter! It was uncontrollable giggling...SO precious! We videotaped it, so if you ever want to see it, of course we'll show you!

I have a doctor appointment tomorrow for New Baby. It should be really routine. Grace will be with me, but Luke won't, because he has a real job now.

Yes, a real job! He started Monday as a true blue Steelcase employee! We're very proud of him. He's been there for over four years, and finally they've hired him. He'll be doing the same job, just with a salary and benefits instead of hourly pay. It's a HUGE blessing from the Lord. He's been good to us!

-{lkr}

Goose egg

Before


After

We just happened to take pictures of Grace today, before she whapped her head on the coffee table. Isn't she pretty? Yeah, then she hit her head, and ended up with a huge goose egg that was purple and blue. (Matched her outfit really nicely.) If you can't see it very well in the picture, it's a line above her left eye. (We didn't take the "after" picture until about 5 hours later, so it's not nearly as scary as when it first happened.)

On top of all that, the three of us have all come down with some sort of cold/sinus thing. Yuck!

-{lkr}

10 Months Old!

Guess who's 10 months old today!? That's right, it's our very own baby Grace. It's gone by SO very fast!

Also, she took a step by herself yesterday. True, if we weren't there with our hands out to catch her, she would've fallen on her nose. But she still did it! She's amazing! She's going to be a wonderful big sister.

-{lkr}

It's a basement!

The foundation walls are stripped, and now they look like real walls in our real basement! Yay! This one's a picture from the back walkout. The room with the door is a cold cellar-type space under our future porch.


And this one's of our beautiful future garage, where Luke will have a little extra space in the back for a workshop area.

We're SO excited for our future home. It's actually starting to look like a real house! Yesterday the underground plumbing was done. Today our wonderful, flexible excavator is backfilling our trenches. Tomorrow will be stone and tile (a drainage thing), and then on Thursday we'll get our concrete slabs (floors), so it'll really look like a house! YAY!

-{lkr}

Surprise!

Yep, that's right. Grace's shirt is true...She's going to be a big sister! Surprise! Baby Rumley is due March 23, which means we're just 12-1/2 weeks along. The Lord has blessed our family again. Praise Him!

On another note, I'm 23 years old today. When I think that I'll soon be the mother of two, I feel SO OLD! But Luke assures me that I'm still young. After all, he is 24. Old man!

Welp, more updates on the house to come this week, including underground plumbing, some excavation, stone and tile, and more!

We went to Celebration on the Grand on Friday night, and stayed for the fireworks. We got to see Emily and her roommates, which was nice. But here's my complaint for the day: smokers. I understand that some people are addicted to the nasty habit of inhaling tar and nicotine into their lungs, but they need to understand that it's really rude to smoke in a huge crowd. We sat down on the bridge to watch the show, and these 4 teenagers came and sat right by us and lit up their cigarettes. YUCK. Not to mention that Grace was with us - babies don't need to be inhaling their nasty smoke. And the one guy was blowing his smoke right into her stroller...Luke took Grace for a walk while I sat there and was mad...Anyway, if you smoke, try to be considerate of those of us who like healthy lungs.

Okay, let's end with a happy thought...Our pretty sister Erin is way cool, and she won her first volleyball game of the year this weekend. Go Erin!

-{lkr}

Construction update

Concrete walls were poured today, after an emergency morning meeting at the job site. I (Luke) was called at 6:50 this morning, which if you know me, is my favorite time of day (to be SLEEPING!).

The concrete crew wanted to meet at the land to discuss why the walkout basement was dug incorrectly, which caused the footings to be poured incorrectly as well. It all worked out though: the excavator came out and fixed the trench, and the concrete guys fixed the footings and poured the walls.

Here are the pictures of the progress (don't worry, the forms come off tomorrow):


View of the garage entrance


Side view of the concrete jungle and our neighbors' house


The walkout portion of the basement

Forms come off tomorrow; underground plumbing, waterproofing, and concrete slab coming soon; framing should start in the middle of the month. Woo-hoo!

Work is actually in progress!

We finally broke ground on our house! Here are some photos of the hole, and the footings that were poured yesterday.


It was a beautiful day when we arrived at the land! Most of our weeds are gone...woo-hoo!


The is the front porch (left) and footings to support the center beam (right).


A view from the back of what will become the walkout basement.

We are a little confused right now about how the final product is going to look / work, but we are trusting that the experts know what they are doing. We should have some concrete walls to look at next week, after the holiday. Have a good one,

--
Luke

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!

Unless the Lord builds the house...

Psalm 127:1a - "Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain."

Well, last Thursday, we found out the house was going to cost $15,000 too much to build. We prayed all week about what to do, met with our pastor on Tuesday night, had our church praying for wisdom for us, and sent some possible changes to our building consultants that should have lowered the quote by about $7000.

Then yesterday (Wednesday), we went to review the new numbers. Without losing very many features at all, the numbers had lowered $15,000!! Why do we even try to make things work on our own?!? God is amazing!

We are working on final loan approvals and some final details before the construction phase begins, but we are super excited to build and raise our family in a house that meets our needs. That is all for now, we will keep you up to date as things progress.


-Luke

We need wise counsel.

We had our meeting yesterday. Not so good news. We got the quotes and final budget number back. It was about $15,000 higher than what we were hoping. That's a lot of money. If someone could just give us $15,000, that would be great.

We have reviewed the numbers and can shave some off that cost. But what is wise for us to do? Should we streeeeeeeeeeeeeeetch our budget because it's a good investment? Or should we try to build a different house, again? Or should we scrap it, sell the land, and buy an existing house? (What I'd like to hear is #1, but be honest.)

Another thing to mention is that there will be about 25% equity in the house once it's done. That's not bad.

Okay, give us your opinions. We're ready.

-{lkr}

P.S. On another note, my mom, sisters, and nephew were here today. I loved seeing them! Kade is getting SO big! What a cutie! I'll get to see them again this weekend, at my cousin's baby shower in Cadillac. Fun fun!

We're back!

Yay! We're finally back in touch with the world. Our DSL connection is working again!

Well, the last week or two have been hectic. Lots of appointments with people about the house, and lots of packing, moving, and unpacking. Fun fun. I'm tired!

We're getting settled into our new apartment. "New" is kinda a funny word to use to describe this one, though. I think the appliances have been here since 1980. They're yellow-ish on the outside, and the dinosaur of a dishwasher has a powder blue rack inside! Hehe. Really, we're doing okay. Definitely adjusting. It was hard for me (the sentimental one) to leave the apartment we brought our baby girl home to, but I know it's temporary. Hopefully the construction process will be a good, quick one.

Speaking of the house, it's staked out now! It seems huge! Of course, it's hard to tell, since the 2-foot-tall stakes are stuck in the ground amidst 5-foot-tall weeds. Anyway, it's one step closer to building our dream home. Yay! Now, PLEASE just pray that the quotes come back lower than expected, so we can afford it. Our next meeting is July 21 to find out what the numbers are. We hope it's good news!

Well, our girl Grace is getting big! Her third tooth poked out a couple of days ago! Yep, she's toothy. AND I swear she's saying "baby" when she says "bahbah." She says it every time she sees herself (in the mirror) or other kids. She said it today when we went to see Erik and Amy's little baby Grace. I think she's smart!

Speaking of the other Grace, what a cutie! Our Grace was never that small. (She was 7lb when she was born 5 days ago.) And she's long! (20 in.) Anyway, it was so fun to hang out with the Buskards tonight, and to see Erik and Amy being parents. I think they like it!

Well, it's late (as usual). Better go. We have the last two appointments of the week tomorrow. Both are for flooring. Hope they go well! We've been pretty good at being decisive so far, so that's great! (If you know us, you know that that's not our strong point!) Anyway, we would love your prayers, to get through this busy time and for the house to get on its way. It's been a LONG process, and we'd love to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Have a good day, everyone!

-{lkr}

P.S. Tomorrow is July 15. Luke and I started dating 4 years ago tomorrow. Wow!

I need a new butt hole...

So, I misspoke yesterday, and it made me giggle. My family came down to visit, and we spent the afternoon at Millenium Park, on the beach. Well, I'd been lying on one side for a long time, so I switched positions, and said, "I need a new butt hole." I meant that I needed to made a new spot in the sand for my rear, but it didn't come out that way! And my dad replied, "Usually one is enough." Hahaha...Oops.

So, we had a great day with my mom, dad, and Alonna. We had church, then a potluck communion meal after church, and then we spent the day at the beach/park. There was a bratty little kid beside us at the beach who was feeding the seagulls potato chips. And there were hundreds of seagulls flying over and flocking around our spot. THEN, a seagull POOPED on my leg! EWWWW! Stupid little kids.

Oh, happy Independence Day! We don't have any plans today, besides fireworks in Forest Hills this evening. Other than that, we'll probably pack some more and maybe go downtown for the "Family Festival." Hope you all have a great red, white, and blue day!

-{lkr}

As for me and my house...

Wow! Our meeting yesterday was LONG, about 3-3/4 hours. It made our heads hurt. Thankfully, Grace was with the Burrs (our pastor's family), so we didn't have to entertain her the whole time. (Thanks for being willing to come up to watch her, Mom Rumley. Maybe next time!)

The meeting went well. We made decisions about our entire house, from the type of floor joists to the pattern of doors. Lots of people know that we're not really good decision-makers. Or, at least, we're not fast decision-makers. Anyway, it went well, and UBI will send out bids for us on Tuesday or Wednesday. Our next meeting is July 21 to find out the quoted costs of everything. Until then, we have plenty to do! We have to make appointments and visit almost 20 different businesses to pick out specific windows, flooring, siding, etc! And all in the next couple of weeks! Yikes! We got our first appointment finished today, though, with a window company.

Not only do we have all that house stuff to do, but we also have to pack to move to our new apartment! We've barely begun to pack, and we're moving in one week. Yikes again! I think we're going to be busy bees this month.

Aren't these pictures of Graceful cute? In one, she's reading her favorite book (Five Litte Monkeys Jumping on the Bed). I tell ya, a 7-month-old reading a book? What a smarty! Then, in the other one, I just thought she was pretty dang cute in her sunhat! That's all! Just wanted you all to see my precious daughter!

Hope everyone has a safe holiday weekend.

-{lkr}

Dunk!

Even though the sun stopped shining, it was still 86 degrees outside, so we went to the pool today. It was nice. The water was pretty warm, and all three of us went in. (Sometimes Luke doesn't want get in because the water's too cold. Today it was warm enough!) And we decided to try to get Grace even more used to the water by doing something that our friend Angie did with her son Nathan. We blew in her face so that she'd hold her breath, and then dunked her under the water. She was a little scared, but we actually did it twice, and she did so great! I hope she always feels comfortable in the water.

Luke and I are playing music at church tomorrow. Yep, both of us! Luke will play electric guitar, and I'll play flute. Besides having to be at church at 8:30am, I'm excited! I think it'll be fun!

Well, it's definitely a great day. Grace slept in until 9:30 this morning! That hasn't happened in a while, so it was absolutely WONDERFUL for us. Then my amazing husband made us the yummiest, fattiest breakfast ever. (Eggs with bacon, onion, and cheese; plain bacon; and hash browns fried in bacon grease. MMMM.) Yum.

Now we're watching a cool car movie on TV and I think I'm going to eat some popcorn.

-{lkr}

Home plans and a tie.

So, our beautiful house plans are being drawn as I type, and supposed to be done on Monday. YAY! SO excited to finally be going somewhere on this house! So, we'll get the plans early next week and then have "the big kahuna" meeting at UBI to figure out exactly what we want our home to be. Then they'll send out the bids, and hopefully we can break ground within four weeks of that! Yay! We might actually build a house!

This weekend looks great! We are staying in GR (YAY again!), and we have absolutely no plans for today or tomorrow. We're definitely going to enjoy the pool a little bit, since it's supposed to be 92 degrees today. Yikes! Other than that, the only other thing we're going to do is go pick up Luke's free Father's Day tie. Fun! (I guess that's technically a plan.)...Then on Sunday we have an open house to go to in Dorr, MI (about a half hour away?). It's for Luke's coworker's son. It should be pretty fun.

Welp, that's what's going on here. What's going on in your neck of the woods?

-{lkr}

P.S. Also, I got pretty sunburnt yesterday. Ouch!
P.P.S. Does anyone want to come watch Grace during our UBI meeting? It's Thursday from 3pm until 6 or 7pm. Let us know!

It's a go

We met with UBuildIt yesterday, and our consultant (Dave) says the new print we drew is a go! So, we need to have someone draw up the plans, and then we can get moving on this whole process! Yay! I'm getting excited again, but it is hard because we've already had so many setbacks. I hope things start to go more smoothly! You can pray for us if you think of it - that would be great.

Have a good day, everyone!

-{lkr}

P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CHAELI!

Happy Father's Day!

Today was a good day. We had a great baptism service at church, went out to yummy Johnny Carino's for lunch, I had a quick nap, gave Luke his gifts, and went back for a sermon entitled, "What Wives Wish Their Husbands Knew About Women." Pretty interesting. All in all, a good day.

Now that Luke has his gifts, I can tell the world what they are...I got him a pair of khakis from ExpressMen, a great store. Very hip. And he always needs khakis for work. They came with a little coupon card for a free silk tie (worth $38...who'd ever pay $38 for a tie? Not me. Good thing this one is free). I also got him a new picture holder for his wallet with a wedding picture and two Grace pictures in it. And last, I got him a picture frame for his desk at work that says "Daddy's Little Princess" and has a cute picture of Grace in it. I think he liked the presents.

I should also say that on this day (and all the other days, too!) I really appreciate my dad, and my dad-in-law. They're great men, that's for sure. My dad is pretty quiet a lot of the time, but he's a great provider, a strong Christian, and a real softy, especially when it comes to his grandbabies. I love it that we're closer than ever now that I'm grown up a little bit, and out of the house. I'm still getting to know my dad-in-law (even after four years of being around him!), but I do know that he's a gentle, consistent, staunch Christian man...Add my amazing husband to this list, and I can say that I really appreciate the men in my life.

Hope everyone else had a great day!

-{lkr}

Two crackers and a smile

Luke, of course, wanted me to label this "crackas," but I thought that was inappropriate.

That said, today Grace had her first cracker! It wasn't the plain old saltine kind of cracker (like it should've been), but the yummy butter kind. She seemed to like it alright, and she didn't choke on it. I thought it went well!

We went shopping today for jeans for me, and boy was that a headache! Grrr. Postpartum clothes shopping isn't fun (even if it has been 7 months already). So, I fit into size 12, but I couldn't find an affordable pair of jeans that fit well for the life of me. I found jeans that fit alright at Gap and Express, but of course they're so expensive. I think it's ridiculous to pay $60 for a pair of jeans (even if it is tempting to do). So, I found a pair of Express jeans to bid on on ebay. The bid's at $2.99 right now (plus shipping). Not bad, huh? I just need a pair of jeans to wear until I can fit back into my favorite size 10 jeans...Michelle, I would love to be mutual encouragers! I can tell ya, I suck at diet and exercise. I love food and I'm relatively lazy. SO, it might take me a while to get back into those jeans!

Tomorrow is Luke's first official Father's Day. Fun! We're celebrating him, because he's an amazing daddy. He's been so giving and patient, and great with Grace. She absolutely loves to play with him. She just beams at him when he comes home from work. I'm so blessed to have him as the father of my children. So, anyway, to celebrate, we're going to go out to eat and I got him a couple of gifts. (I can't say what they are now, or Luke will find out early!)

On another note (pardon the pun), we bought a bass amp and may buy a bass guitar off ebay. Luke's going to teach me to play, 'cause our church worship band needs a bass player! What do you all think of the bass? Any musicians out there that have an opinion? Let us know.

Welp, have a great night! We just had a lazy Saturday evening (eating pizza and watching Finding Nemo), and now we're going to play with Grace for a while before her bedtime. Good night all!

-{lkr}

Bah, bah, bah....

We went to visit my family in Manton on Monday, and Grace got to hang out with Kade for a while. He's a month older, so he's crawling and saying "dadada" already. So, we came home and she's babbling "bahbahbah" and trying pretty hard to crawl. What a girl.

We made it through the weekend (and Monday), and it was good to see everyone. Betsey's open house was a success. (Yummy tacos!) The party we came back to GR for was rained out, so we actually missed that, but we got to hang out with some friends from church. Then on Sunday we got to see the beautiful new Soper baby. Her name is Francis Fox Soper, and she was 8lb and 21 inches long. She has lots of black hair. So sweet.

Then Monday, I took Grace up to Manton to see my friend/cousin who now lives in Georgia and is pregnant. It was good to see her and her hubby, and her little belly. (She's 21 weeks along, so her belly's not too big yet.) And we also got to see my family (as aforementioned), which was wonderful! Hopefully next time we'll get to see my dad, who was at work. I'm sure he misses his daughter and beautiful grandbaby!

We spent all of yesterday working on house plans and grocery shopping. We are downsizing to a ranch (for those of you who weren't aware), so we actually drew our own based on the first floor of our two story. It's pretty darn cool. I like it. We'll find out today what the ballpark figures are for financing it. I hope it's good news!

Well, just wanted to update everyone. Nothing else exciting going on here!

-{lkr}

Pool

She did it! And she was great...It was SO cold, but we went in the water, and she got used to it pretty quickly. She even smiled and had a good time! Here's a picture of her looking so sweet in her new bathing suit. (It has strawberries on it.)
She's going to be like her mommy and love the water, I bet. I'm glad.

-{lkr}

Yay!

The pool's open today! Grace and I will definitely be going in it. I'll let you know how that goes...

-{lkr}

12...

...That's my size! I know, it's not as small as I once was, but it's a victory for me! I went shopping for jeans yesterday, and a size 12 fits quite nicely. I was wearing a size 14 since Grace was born. Maybe my hips are going to go back to where they used to be! Wouldn't that be nice? Anyway, I'd like to be a size 10 again, but I'm giving it time. For now I'm happy about where I am.

Today's a little nuts. I wanted to take Grace in the pool, but of course on a day when it's 86 degrees, the pool is not open yet. It's so wrong! It's supposed to be open by tonight or tomorrow, though, so I'm excited.

Other than that, I'm starting to organize and pack for our move - about a month away. I want to be organized enough to keep quite a bit in storage and then move it right into the rooms it all needs to be in in the new house. So, it's a bit of a project, but I have some time, so that's good.

Hope everyone's doing well, enjoying the summer weather. We'll be down in Indiana again this weekend for Betsey's open house. Fun!

-{lkr}

SPLASH!

That's the sound that Grace will make when she jumps in the pool in her new swimsuit! Yep, today was so gorgeous after church that we stopped by WalMart and got her swim diapers. They didn't have a suit I really liked, so we went to Babies R Us. I bought her a suit there that was okay but I wasn't in love with for $9. But then I had Luke stop at Old Navy, just to look, and I found another suit, which I thought was on sale for $8. So, just for fun, I took that suit to the register, and it rang up for $1.97! Isn't that great?! So, we're going to take the other one back and enjoy our $2 purchase. SO, Grace has her first swimsuit! We tried it on her when we got home, and she is absolutely adorable in it. We'll post a digital picture when we get one.

Grace Mackenzie Buskard is due in 5-ish weeks. We spent yesterday evening with Erik and Amy. It was SO good to see them and spend some time with them again. Amy's doing well; feeling uncomfortable, of course. I'm so excited for them to have their own little Grace! It will be so soon!

Also went garage-saling with Emily yesterday at the hugest garage sale ever. Bailey's Grove (the neighborhood by us) was having neighborhood-wide sales, so we went and power-walked/drove through the neighborhood and hit about half of the sales. She found some great stuff for her house. When she was done, we stopped. Then I dragged Luke back to the sales in the afternoon. In all, I got Luke 3 brand new t-shirts for $2, 2 preschool workbooks for Grace for $1, a maternity shirt for the future for $2 (not to be used for a while), and 7 cute outfits for Grace for $8. That included a Ralph Lauren dress, a Tommy Hilfiger dress, and a red velvety Children's Place dress. All in all, I'm satisfied! I love good garage sales!

Welp, better go. We were going to go to Millenium Park and play in the water, but now there are thunderstorm warnings and tornado watches in effect. Darn! So we'll probably stay home and watch a movie. I like lazy Sunday afternoons. Hope you all have a good rest!

-{lkr}

Congratulations, Betsey!

I know this sounds sentimental (and it probably is), but it seems like just yesterday that I met quiet, little, 14-year-old Betsey. And somehow, over the past 4 years, she grew and blossomed into the most amazing, beautiful young woman.

Her graduation was last night, and she was valedictorian of her class. The ceremony was great. Everyone that spoke seemed to convey that every memeber of this class was a great kid. That's so nice to see. But most of all, I'm SO proud of Betsey! She gave an amazing speech that definitely made me teary-eyed, and definitely showed what a great girl she is. I can't explain it (probably because I'm still SO tired from the late night that I can hardly put together a coherent thought right now). But, like her dad said, I'd like to be more like her.

I really like those Rumley girls...Ha, well, I'm a "Rumley girl" now, too. I like that.

-{lkr}

A tooth and some nails, again!

Well, we're having a pretty good week, I'd say.

Monday was vacation day, and we enjoyed a day at the park with the Rumley clan. SO fun. Big families are a riot. I'm so glad Grace will get to grow up with so many family members to love her. Anyway, Luke and I (the pasty white ones) both got a little sunburnt. But it felt nice, like summer's finally here.

Then Tuesday was great. Grace and I went to our first "Park Pals." It's basically the summer session of our young moms group at church. Instead of meeting at church, we meet at a park and the kids play. Well, the other kids play. Grace and her friend Noah just sit there, look at each other, and steal each other's toys. But it's still fun to be outside and fellowshipping with other women.

Later that day, we had our first UBuildIt consultant meeting! (Hence, the nails.) We met Dave (the consultant) out on our land and talked about the land and the house and the budget...It sounded pretty hopeful. He's going to take all the information we gave him and pull together some numbers for us. So, hopefully we'll meet again sometime next week. We're excited that something's finally happening on this house! Yay!

And THEN, today, Grace cut her second tooth! Grace and I were lying down, and I happened to look in her mouth, and there was another little tooth poking through her gums! So now she has her bottom two teeth! What a cutie! And she didn't do too badly with it, either. She has been a little fussy recently, especially yesterday, but nothing to call home about. And she only woke up once last night, and I think it was around 5:30 or 6:00 am. Not bad! So, anyway, our little girl is growing up!

Hope everyone else is doing well. It's SO warm here. (Or at least it was yesterday, and it's supposed to be today.) Too bad the pool's not open until next week. I'm roasting!

We'll see you Rumleys tomorrow for Betsey's graduation! I'm so proud of that girl! Valedictorian = smarty pants! :-)

Have a great day cleaning out your locker and writing your speech, Buzz.

-{lkr}