Design Team Assignment

I am currently working for Scrap Angels Design Team. We have layout assignments each month. This month I had to create a winter page, scrapbook make-n-take, and a paper bag album. Here's my paper bag album...yes it really is made from paper bags!

Relaxing....

We did go to Bush Gardens on the 26th of December. It was too cold. Rhett was sorry he wore shorts. We went with a couple of our friends. They only like to see the shows and not do anything else so we spent the whole day there and did three shows and we did squeeze in one ride on the Rhino Rally...the wait was over an hour. When we left they could not remember where they had parked. So we spent probably a good 1/2 hour searching through the parking lots. Rhett finally found their van.

Yesterday I was surprised by my garage door opening at around 11:30. Rhett had such a light day that he decided to come home early. That was a pleasant surprise.

Today I spent the morning with some fix-it guys that were doing touch up work on some of the things that were wrong with our house...Cosmetic mostly. I'm not sure that they did the best job even touching up. Next time we'll know not to move in until it is all satisfactory.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Family and Friends....

Our Christmas started out a little rough. A thunderstorm and no electricity. We were without power for probably 2-3 hours. Rhett's presents didn't make it, but luckily I did stop by a couple of stores to get him some last minute things Friday. He'll be having a belated Christmas.

We did end up having a warm and relaxing Christmas. We didn't get to Busch Gardens because of the rain, but we have plans to go there tomorrow. We'll upload pictures soon! Hope yours was happy.

Still Waiting

Got the photos taken...
cards made and sent out...
packages mailed...
plans made...
but I'm still waiting for Rhett's gifts to arrive.
If they don't make it in time...maybe he'll give
me his list earlier next year.
Seriously, I'm so stressed out about him not having anything to open under the tree on Christmas morning. He kept putting off giving me his list...no he doesn't trust me to pick anything out for him. I finally got the list during the second week of December which wouldn't be a problem if I could run down to the mall and complete my shopping that way. But....that would be too easy. Can't even do an online order through Amazon.com. This stuff has to be ordered from Japan. The order was placed on the 12th. Will it arrive on time? Who knows?

Toby...the miniature tiger

These are some of our favorite pictures of Toby...our miniature tiger cat. He is the friendliest cat we've ever met. The little guy just loves to be cuddled and always to play. He has not had the best of health. He has FIV which is cat HIV anyway, it is not something that we could get and our other cats have had immunizations against it. This little tiger also has asthma. He's been in and out of three different vet offices this year. He even visited an internal medicine specialist. But no one can seem to make him better. He deals with his condition pretty well, but loves to play so much he just aggrivates it and coughs a lot. He is so much like a dog too. He just rolls over and lets you pet his stomach. He also enjoys playing with his soccer ball and will climb the walls when you bring out his laser light. He's such a great guy. Just wanted to share these pics.

Ice Ice Baby

Where in Florida could it possibly be 9 degrees?
The Gaylord Palms Resort! Each year, they hire some
people from Northern China (who do this on a larger scale in their own city there) to create ice sculptures for the Gaylord Palms Resort.
This year we went with the Fetters and had a great time! The sculputres are bigger than life size. They have everything from a toy room with trains, cars, etc. to scenes of penguins sliding on ice to bears and churches, bridges and lamp posts. There are three ice slides you can go on and the final room has a huge sculture of the nativitiy. It is un-believable. They even issue you a bright blue parka...cause who in Florida has clothes for those temps?

The Holidays

We've been so busy unpacking, painting, hanging blinds, running errands, and just generally getting settled that yesterday when someone came up and told me that Thanksgiving was exactly one week away I found it extremely hard to believe. Somewhere in the midst of all the craziness at our home and school, I have completely lost track of time. I was thinking I still had two weeks. I am, however, grateful for the earlier than I though break. Rhett and I will spend Thanksgiving with my cousin in Orlando.

Our Thankful list this 2005 season

We have so much to be thankful for:

Each one of our family members
Friends
The three cats
Our house
Health
Freedom
Happiness
Great weather in Florida (ie- no snow...Sorry for those of you who will be freezing this winter)
The list could go on...

We are looking forward to having company in our new house so any of you who want to get outta the cold for a while, give us a call... :)

What a Headache!

Well...It's official...we will own a house in thirty years or so. Today after much confusion about if we were or were not closing we did sign our lives away on the dotted lines.(There were millions!)

We won't be moving in until next weekend. That will give us time to slowly move a few things at a time if we want and then take the truck in on Sunday. That way we will have some things already organized right away. Plus, we're thinking about adding a coat of paint to the downstairs. We don't want white walls anymore. It's too reminiscent of an apartment where you had no choice. There are still a few things that the house people are needing to fix for us. For one when we were in there today they informed us that they have discovered that there is a leak in the copper tubing of the air conditioning system. They are supposed to (PROBABLY) have to knock a hole in our wall to fix it. hmmmmmmm....good thing we're staying put for now.

Closing Day?

Are we closing tomorrow? No one knows. We were origionally suppose to close yesterday, but then when we had our final walk-thru there were so many things that were wrong. The guy told us that we would have to close next week or after. Well today they called to tell us that we can't close tomorrow...so we call all the people involved in our closing to cancel it. Then we leave for a couple of hours and come back shortly before 8...now they are telling us that we ARE closing tomorrow! Now all the people are gone for the day and every business involved is already closed. UN-BE-LIEVABLE! We'll see. We have to take off work early now and go to our second "final" walk-thru. If everything is on the up and up we will then rush to close by 4.

Today

Today I received the right graduation picture in the mail. This is funny, but about two weeks ago I was so excited that the photographer had sent me a picture from graduation. Imagine my surprise when I opened it to see a forty-something blonde and slightly heavy lady looking at me... umm ...what's going on here? I called the photographer and he apologized profusely. Today we opened the mailbox to find anther package from him...I was wondering if it would be the correct one. It was... in fact, there were two for all my trouble.

We drove up to our house today. It should be done next Wednesday. We have running water now with sinks and toilets. Even the air conditioner was running. And our tree and flowers are in. We measured all the windows for blinds. Can't wait to move in...hopefully in a week and three days.

Didn't mention this before, but Rhett has been asked by this Adventist recording artist to hear some of his songs. He is considering putting two of Rhett's songs on his album. This dude lives in Atlanta and has been working on a CD. His sister goes to our church and his nephew is my student. We'll see how it turns out. Rhett says he is not excited about it...how can he not be? hmmm...I wonder.

LOST

Our new favorite show is Lost. Last season, we mistakenly missed the first episode and had to wait until it came out on DVD. We just got the set last week and finished up season one in time for the beginning of season two tonight. If you've never seen it, we would recommend that you watch season one and two....we've gotten several of our church friends into it. It is kinda a take on the Cast Away movie, except this is a series and it is more mysterious...very good.

It's Closer Than we Think

We went to visit our house last weekend. It looks like we will be closing on September 28. There are still some minor things for them to take care of, but...the grass is now in, the stove, towel racks, toilet paper holders, etc. The major thing we want them to fix is the terrible job they did on the back splash tile in the kitchen. They said they might not be able to finish it in time for closing...we'll see. Here are a couple of pictures of our house in progress.

Above is our living room...the carpet is in!
This is our huge kitchen...can't wait to fix up some delicious meals in here.











The front of our house is not quite done being painted...the shutters are not in...and as you can see, the grass, although it is in now, was not in. We should be living here in less than two weeks.

Busy Weekend.

Labor Day

Labor day, though we're not "working" at our jobs has not been free from work completely. There's always laundry to do and errands to run. Today we went to the scrapbook store for the 5 and 10 cent sale, went to the beach to gather sand for James for his first grade class project about sand, paid a bill at the mall, and went to the fabric store to get some fabric for Rhett. Rhett is playing the devil...aka snake in our upcoming children's story this Sabbath. The story is about Adam and Eve and the fall. I have been elected to create a snake puppet. We found some great fabric there. It shouldn't take long to whip up a snake. While I was there I found the cutest pattern which I couldn't resist purchasing.
I was thinking about doing a fundraiser for my class and part of it would be to put on a play (that's not the fundraiser part...that would be free). Anyway when I saw this pattern I thought of the Rainbow Fish immediately. My kids love that book and can you imagine how cute they'd look up on stage in these adorable costumes. At least I only have 10 kids. I think these will be pretty easy to make.

After coming home, Rhett and I worked on uploading a Disney Princess scrapbook album that I made onto e-Bay. I'm just showing you one page of it, but we are hoping that we can sell it. I made it a while ago, but have not uploaded it until now. I think it turned out pretty well. Hopefully someone on e-Bay agrees.



Tonight we are going to Denny's house for a cook out. I'm not sure if we'll actually have a fire or use the microwave. It's been pretty hot around here so we probably won't feel like getting up close around a fire.

Prayers Appreciated

Rhett was on his way to practice with his singing group... The Sabbath Keepers. He got to one of the main intersections in Bradenton and it was blocked off. He was of course wondering what was going on, but figured he'd never know and just followed the detour. A few mintues later when he reached the house where practice is they got a phone call from the bass player's wife... Their daughter had just been in a car accident at that intersection. She pulled out in front of a motorcycle who then broadsided her. The motorcyclist was thrown through the air and killed. This girl is around 20 years old. This is a devistating blow to her and her entire family (She is an only child). It is even worse for the family who lost a love one. I just hope that this young lady is not charged with any crime or sued...she has a lot going for her right now as she works to finish up her nursing degree. I pray that she will be able to move on from this experience and succeed in her future plans. Please keep both families in your prayers at this difficult time.

Home Sweet House

At this moment in time, we are incredibly happy...and scared. We are weeks away from moving into our new house. A multitude of responsibilities awaits us. In our apartment we've never had to mow the grass, trim the shrubs, do pest control, fix things that break, pay the water bill, or pay a mortgage. And now, all that responsibility will be on our shoulders. We love the thought of having a place to call home...a place we can decorate as we want. We'll have space to spread out...space for our family to grow when the time is right. We'll be able to take pride in the fact that we are a part of the American dream...we will own property...ok...in thirty years or so.

Last week we were able to take a peek inside our house. It looks like it's almost done. The light fixtures and socket covers were already up. A dishwasher was waiting to be installed. The shelving was up in the closets. The baseboards, tubs, linoleum, cabinets, windows, and doors are all on. There's not a whole lot left to do.

When I think about moving, I know that we will love our new house. But...We'll have to commute to work which means and even earlier time to get out of bed every morning. The upside is that Rhett and I can travel together. Our working hours are now the same 7:30 -3:30. So he'll just drop me off and pick me up.

We're moving...and I just can't wait to... Invite friends over. We'll have a comfortable place to share. To have family stay with us and know that they will no longer be crowded into our tiny apartment. To watch our cats who won't know what to do with such a big place. It will be so much fun!

These photos are of another house...Not ours, but it is the same floor plan as ours ...Different color though.