Time for an Update

Hello loyal readers,

I guess it's been almost three weeks since my last post, and I apologize for that. Sadly, I have no pictures to post, but most of you have seen the house by this time anyway, so I don't feel TOO lazy!!

We had our housewarming party on Saturday - thank you to everyone who made the trip out to see it and celebrate with us! It meant to much to us to have everyone we love in the same place at the same time - I don't think there had been a party like that since our wedding!!

And now, we breathe. With the exception of the dining room and the small bedroom, the upstairs rooms are done with the major work. As I mentioned before, the dining room is in a holding pattern right now as we don't want to paint it without knowing what kind of furniture is going in there. It's not bad right now with the neutral tones, so we don't have a problem keeping it for now.

The small bedroom will eventually transform into the "someday" baby room, so we aren't touching that quite yet either. Let's not be too presumptuous.

There is a good sized room in the basement that is basically ready to be finished. Now that Brad is done with school for the summer (YEA WE SURVIVED!) that is on his project list. Don't get me wrong, it's not going to be easy or happen overnight, but it at least has the drywall up. It looks like someone started to finish it, but didn't complete the project. Anyway, once that room is finished, that will be his office/underground lair/geek room. It's really quite perfect for what he wants and needs.

The backyard continues to be a work in progress. Our goal is to at least make it look like it's clean. Next summer we'll worry more about the landscaping aspect of it....it'll take us that long to figure out what we want to do! Although, at the rate it's going, we probably could do the front yard at least....but for now, we're just breathing.

Apart from house news, we will be celebrating three years of marriage next week! It's incredible to think of all that has happened in the course of only three years. We've eliminated nearly all of our debt (only to come into more with a house!!), welcomed at least 11 new children into our family and circle of friends (not counting the ones who will be born over the next six months), despite struggles, Brad found a great job teaching, and knock on wood we have not yet had to say goodbye to anyone.

Thank you again for all of your love and support - we could not have gotten through our rough times or enjoyed our good times nearly as much with out you there!