Spilling a few beans...

Some things seem to go so slowly and others seem to just fly by! We have the house in town under contract and we are just waiting for their bank to get all the paper work in order and then its theirs! We have been working our fingers and toes off ever since! We have completed just about all of the ground work on the new house. We have all the old walls stripped and moved, new walls and doorways up, and new sub flooring in place. As well, we had spray foam insulation put in the ceiling and the outside walls. The plumbing and electrical are all but finished, other than hanging the lights and adding the faucets after we put up sheet rock. :)

I have so many pictures that I just made a slide show for you.

A few things like the termite damage we found got left out due to time limit on the video but we got that fixed all up too. We have ordered all the sheet rock and once it comes in, were off to installing, taping, and mudding! We will also be working on the new floors. The wood you see in the video we bought unfinished from this super awesome company  and we are installing, sanding, and staining it ourselves. YEP were that crazy! We decide on a mix of two stains for an antiqued looked for most of the house and the bathrooms and laundry room painted white and sealed.

 I have the design finalized for the kitchen and cant wait to start work on it! Evan sure has a bunch of carpentry work ahead of him! Its all going really well so far with very few bumps and we are all so excited that we are so close to moving in!
Back to work now!
With Love,

Love from TX

Oh my! Its been a Month since I posted last! and So much has happened! Ill try and keep it all in order!

 First we laid new flooring in the living room and hall way

  Then we had a company lay some new carpet in all of the bedrooms! 

We decided its worth paying the extra from now on!

√ Check one more thing off our "to do before we sell list!" 

As for our new house- well after we bought it... it seems that the work just stopped! haha maybe because we had some other super important things to do like .... 

Going to my little Sisters Graduation from Hope College!!! 

My gorgeous sister and her friend Jamie

To understand why this graduation was so important to not only me but my mom, I feel that I need to share some history that I have hardly ever talked about but now Im about to post on my blog for the whole world to read... so here goes..

Now for all who don't know I was born Sept. 20 and then my sister Nov. 3 the very next year.  She was given away at birth because  (summed up version)  our father decided he only wanted three children total and told our mother she had to abort her. Well as you can tell she didn't. She gave Julie Ann up for adoption hoping it would save her marriage but later realized how strong and smart she really is and divorced him. One thing she couldn't get back was Julie Ann- when she was born my mother never even got to see her. So this graduation was more than just a graduation for us it was a huge day in all of our lives, especially our mothers, and it just happened to land on mother's day.. Pretty awesome!

 Now due to email and the wonderful word of Facebook (FB) my sister and I have been talking and getting to know one another for a while. I wrote her my first email July 13th, 2010~ and wow did we have a bunch in common! Including our looks! *we laugh the same!*

The first time I seen a picture of her I asked my self when did I take that?! I don't remember being there!
Jumping ahead in our trip~ We made it in to Holland, MI rather late but Julie Ann said it was ok to go ahead and come over, so OF COURSE we did!

This is a video of us seeing each other for the first time

*beware there is screaming!* :D

Our mother on the other hand was very quite and after we left for the night I asked her if she was ok and she told me something that made me cry... "It was the first time I had ever seen her with my own eyes" I cant imagine how she was really feeling but the next day she was happy and she smiled the whole time we were up there. It was wonderful seeing her smile like that, really truly happy. 

We had a wonderful trip and I will add more of it in a different post,  right now I need to get to making some dinner! 

A few more pictures....

Some of Julie Ann's adoptive family and us

From left to right:
Kathy (Mom), Jim (Julie ann's dad), Sue (her aunt),
Julie Ann, Me, Luke behind me, Evan holding him, Linda (Julie Ann's mother), Alex, and then Howard (Her uncle)

 She plays the organ beautifully!

 Sneak peak of the chapel 

and of course Alex being himself!

Hope you have a wonderful week! Love,

So I've been kinda busy lately!

I started a new business  (Love Bug Beautique) with my friend Jessi. Which is awesome because I get to sew and be creative!

We have been working our fingers off sewing up a good inventory, planning out holiday outfits and filling out legal forms and all the important tax stuff,  All up to April 1st when we opened!  We currently have over 2000 fans and would love for you to be one too!

I also started watching a friends child (Paiton), who is adorable! and thankfully the boys all get along really well!!~ he fits in perfectly! 

We bought a second house.... 

YES we bought a new house and have started the whole remodel / construction process all over again! 

The housing market here around Wheeler is very limited so as soon as word got out that we might be moving, we had 4 people ask when they could buy our current house!
AHHHH *She screams!*
Normally that would be a good thing but right now the house we bought is a MESS! The previous owners started to remodel so walls and ceilings are torn down, some walls need to be moved, there's no flooring anywhere and a ton of work to be done! So we are living here in town while we get the place all fixed up.

(this is what will become our boy's room)

But once we are finished it will be beautiful! 

Did I mention that this house is around 9 miles from Wheeler, which in turn is 2 hours away from the nearest home improvement store.... Hope we don't forget anything! 

We have all sorts of plans for an addition and a basement on which Evan has a wonderful (and yes realistic) time line. Ive been working in Google's Sketchup designing what its all going to look like so hopefully there are not as many surprises as we go. The program is in exact dimensions so as you create something you can see what it will truly be like! Ive already moved the basement stairs twice now.. but better on the program than running into it in real life! You can even add in your own products like stone, brick, or paint color! 

But back to the demolition which is everyones favorite part!

The first thing we started with was tearing down an old building that was in the back yard so we can move a storage building in. Nothing like a massive demo to get you ready for progress! 

What we started with 

Evan did most of the pushing so I did most of the stacking

but I did get to take down some of the walls! 

  

Just half of a wall remains

So now we just have to get a trash tailer out there and get rid of all the old junk that was left behind!

  Just having to be patient is the hard part! Our next project is putting up some drywall in one of the bedrooms! I will post pictures as soon as I can!

Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Love, 

Back to work!

Theres nothing like the warm weather sneak peeks to get you ready for Spring! and around here its been anywhere from 80 to 30 in the same week! Ok well maybe not that dramatic but it sure feels like it! So to help on the cold days we've started an early spring cleaning from the ceilings to carpets and all the cabinets in between and Evan has returned to his honey do list.. He started with the under cabinet lights! 

and wow do they work wonders! If you do not have any I greatly recommend them! These are on a touch dimmer and produce very little heat but tons of light. 

I've also started sewing again but this time its for a bigger project that I can not give away to many details on...

but lets just say it is full of sparkles and flowers!

(something to do with a boutique!)

Well im off to get some more work done. Hope you have a warm and wonderful week!