A New Look For Church

After all the painting we have done in the past two months, I am beginning to think we should start a housepainting business. On second thought, maybe we shouldn't. :o)

But after two full days of painting, the church painting is done. The new roof was complete, the weather was ideal, a real blessing with fall quickly approaching.

I posted a couple of older pictures to show just how big a change it is...

the church in April

in July after the first paint job

new roof and new paint

we even got a new light to replace our "shipwreck" light

It's Finally Done!!!

The house is officially complete! We are now finished with all the painting and staining and it looks great!

It was a lot of work, but well worth it.

A "What Didn't We Do Weekend?"

This was a really crazy weekend! First we had the Annual Youth Group garage sale on Friday and Saturday. We had just the right amount of stuff and we sold almost everything! And all the money goes to our youth group for activities throughout the year. We even sold our ugly yellow couches! At the end we did a "buck a bag" deal and got rid of lots of stuff we didn't think we would. And to top it off, God blessed us with perfect weather!

On Saturday afternoon, we headed to the park to our friend Greg's Mongolian grill party. As usual, the food was fantastic! He and another guy and his son cooked for over 6 hours straight! Thanks Greg!

It was nice to have a good meal for going to work at the rest stop for the 8pm to 2am shift. We love working at the rest stop serving coffee, but 2am is WAY too late to be out on a Saturday night. Zack went out again tonight for the same shift to help out one of our elders with closing it down. I think we will all be sleeping in late tomorrow.

Today was just a nice routine Sunday. It's nice to have those sometimes. :o)

Almost Done

Before

After

The house painting is almost done. All is left is the chimney side of the house, the highest and most difficult side of the house. Poor Chris is going to get stuck climbing up the extension ladder and doing most of the touch-up.

I even painted our old ugly brass house numbers and porch light

It was lots of work, but it looks so nice!

Now we're going to do the deck...

can you tell where he's cleaned?

A Phantastic Phlop

On Saturday, my sisters, mom, grandma and I all went to see The Phantom of the Opera. It was so nice to get away from the disaster in the backyard. We had a great time together, had delicious crepes at this quaint little French restaurant by my sister's house, and I got to go to IKEA!

Unfortunately, the show STUNK!!! I would write about it, but my sister wrote a terrific blog that perfectly expresses my thoughts on the whole matter much better than I ever could. In fact, her blog was more entertaining than the entire show. Here's the link so you can check it out...http://roaringdesign.blogspot.com/2008/09/blog-149-phailure-of-opera.html

And to top it off, I had my camera with me but forgot to take any pictures. Rrrrrr!

Ditch Disaster

It has been a really strange week. Maybe strange isn't a good word, but I am not sure what is a good word for it.

It starts back in June when we came home from Bible Camp and found that they had cleared the lot next door that has been for sale for FOREVER! Well, actually it's just a giant wet hole in the ground on an ancient landslide.

On Labor Day, the excavating equipment was delivered and work started first thing Tuesday morning.

On Wednesday at about noon I looked out the window to see a giant cat digging a 25 foot long, 4 foot deep ditch ON OUR PROPERTY!!!

Needless to say, I was a little bit upset (can you just hear the sarcasim?) and called Chris, who came home immediately, and the city.

the end of the ditch about 18 hours after it was dug

36 hours after it was dug (remember this is the driest time of the year)

So for the past couple of days we have been on the phone with and meeting with contractors, geo techs, the neighbors, lawyers, and title companies. And of course everyone wants to point the finger at someone else and give us the run around. When we woke up this morning, we were thinking we were going to have to hire an attorney. But God is faithful and it looks like we may have reached a solution without legal intervention.

laying the french drain to OUR property

filling the hole (how would you like to be the house above the lot?)

still filling the hole

it is going to take 100 dump truck loads to level out this lot for their yard

We are still praying and keeping a close eye on everything they do and taking lots of pictures.