New Home, Flu and Day's of Our Lives

This is the exterior elevation we picked for our house. I love the front porch! Friday we met with the builder to go over the floor plan changes we made and to pick out brick, trim, where to put wiring for internet, cable, and phones. There are so many things to think about. We added soundproofing to a wall between the family room and master bedroom. Most importantly we are soundproofing the floor of the upstairs room which will be Jackson's bedroom. His room will be partially over mom's room, I think she will appreciate this!

We are all anxious "to get the show on the road"! They are hoping to start in about 2 weeks and have given us a 4 to 5 month completion time. Our next step will be picking out carpet, tile, paint, etc. That should happen in about a week or so.

I have been trying to focus on clearing out 26 years of clutter from my house and 31 years from mom's. This was going along smoothly until I got hit with what I am pretty sure is the flu. Friday I woke up aching all over. I went to work but felt pretty miserable all day. Yesterday I vegged on the couch dosing most of the day and watched 3 episodes of Day's of our lives, Heroes, and Medium that I had taped. It looks like today's going to be the same, every inch of me hurts. Yes, I did get the flu shot! They haven't got that formula right in years! Three more episode of Day's to catch up on. I can't wait for Sammy to find out Nicole has her baby! I really like Rafe too.

Surely this man can settle her down!

Bradford Pears and Spring

Spring is almost here. Bradford Pears signal the onset of spring in the Dallas area. These trees are a favorite because they are fast growing and are beautiful when they are in bloom. Their leaves are small but abundant and they make a great shade tree in the Texas heat. We planted two of them in the back to shade our house from the afternoon sun. They are also notorious for splitting in high winds. A couple of years ago a spring storm came through with high circular winds. I walked to the back of the house to look outside and one of the trees was split in three sections. One section on our patio roof, one on our house and the other still defiantly standing. It was a very large tree as it had been there for over 20 years.

Bradford Pears in Bloom

Workers slowly cut it down working from top to bottom. When they had it cut to a stump about 4 feet tall they split the stump down the middle. They asked me to come and take a look at what they found inside the tree. Right in the middle of the stump was a golf ball. They cut it out along with it's nest in the wood. Here is my little conversation piece.

Watch where you hit your Titleist please!

Volunteering and PTA

I was reading my niece Michelle's blog where she is talking about volunteering and saying No. It brought back memories of the days I volunteered at my children's elementary school. I was very fortunate to be able to stay home with them for those years and despite putting ourselves deep in debt and forgoing little luxuries like vacations, new furniture, etc. we were comfortable and I would not change one minute of it.

I helped out in the office, classrooms, was a room mother I think every year. When Molly moved on to middle school, Jackson moved in to elementary school so I spent 10 years at the same school. I organized the yearly school carnival a couple of years, did the "dreaded" fundraiser, spent a week at camp, and for two years I was PTA president. Personally I think volunteering comes with the package of having a child.

I was going through papers the other day that I have thrown in boxes and came across the school newsletter from May 2001. It was the end of my term as President and I wrote this article in the "Ranger Round-Up". It kind of sums up how I feel.

From The President

As PTA President for the past two years I have learned many things.

• That I will not faint if I stand up in front of a lot of people and lead a meeting!
• That my family will survive on Taco Bueno or McDonald's on meeting nights.
• That teachers, counselors, and principals work really long hours and some don't seem to ever go home.
• That schools have more paper work than the Government.
• That you should never do a fundraiser that isn't prepay!
• That there will be a lot of discussion at board meetings, even disagreement's, but it's okay as long as you are all pursuing the same objective - what's best for the children.
• That you can meet great people and maybe make some lifetime friends.
• That we are really lucky to have a diverse culture in our school. We need to take advantage of it and learn from each other.
• That education is never ending, we are always learning.
• That it takes the unity of both parent and teacher working together to educate a child.
• That children are extremely smart, sensitive and intuitive. They know when you care about what they do and when you don't, and it will reflect in how they do.
• That some parents do a lot, some do a little, and some won't do anything no matter how many times you call them.
• That you can volunteer to help at school even if you:

Work full time, part time, nights or weekends.
Have small children at home, or a 90 year old Grandmother.
Have kids in high school, middle school, or none at this school.
Are in charge of the elementary school, or teach all day.
Have other activities to attend such as soccer games, choir rehearsal, or Girl Scouts.
Have high blood pressure, a heart condition, get strep throat every year or just had major surgery.
Are bravely and unselfishly taking care of a parent dying of cancer.
Meet your PTA Board!
I dedicate this to you.

Building Our Home and Upgrades

With building a new home comes picking out all the trimmings. I've been polling my friends for ideas, especially things that I might not think about. I decided to put this out to anyone who might come across my blog for suggestions. I need all the help I can get. I have only bought one house and it has been 26 years since I had to make any decisions like this and at that time I really did not know what I was doing. We fortunately have two awesome Realtors who are helping us through the whole process. (If you are in the Dallas area and looking to sell your home let me know, these ladies are the best!)

I don't know what my style is. It's a blend of traditional, cottage, country, Americana and I'm just really lucky to have this piece of furniture style. I won't be buying anything new except a refrigerator and window treatments. We will be mixing furniture from two homes, my mom's and mine.

In a few weeks we will be hitting the design center to pick out fixtures, hardware, paint, floors, counter tops, etc.

How does that hummingbird hold the soap?

It doesn't take much to overwhelm me these days so any hints, ideas and suggestions would be greatly appreciated. For the big picture I know what I want color scheme wise. It's the little things that I'm worried about. Tom and I plan on making some trips to some model homes and design centers to get a better idea of what we want. What upgrades do you think are the most important?

Here is some feedback I have had so far.

1. An electrical outlet on the fireplace mantel.

2. The larger the floor tile the better.

3. Upgrading the carpet pad is more important than the carpet itself.

4. Granite counter tops in the kitchen.

5. Soundproof the wall between the family room and the master bed room to block tv noise.

6. Under kitchen counter lighting.

7. Can you soundproof the floor between the 2nd floor and 1st floor? Jackson's room will be upstairs!

8. Do not put carpet on the stairs.

I would love any advice or suggestions you might have. Leave a comment.

A New View

Tom and I moved into our house almost 26 years ago. We picked out the lot and came out weekly watching it being built, slowly turning into what would be our first home together. Here is a picture of me standing in the soon to be kitchen. I do believe this was after a perm I had done on the spur of the moment. It fried my hair so bad I looked like Roseanne Roseannadana (Gilda Radner character from Saturday Night Live.

Here is Tom standing in the framed bedroom.

We have always enjoyed living here, raising our children, making friends and many memories. I think the view is what kept us here so long. We are halfway down the #10 fairway of the golf course and it was so nice to sit outside and watch the golfers go by and not have an alley or a house right behind us.

A few weeks ago we decided we would all like to live together. That being Tom, me, Jackson, and my mother. There will be an extra room for Molly just in case. Our house is not big enough for us all so we started looking around. On a Thursday we found an area we like. Saturday we found the lot. Sunday we talked to a realtor about our house. A few days later we sold our house to the realtor's husband who is a builder. The plus on this is we came out ahead of what we were expecting to get and we can stay here until it's time to move into our new home. Everything has fallen into place so perfectly, like it's meant to be.

So now we are moving on to a different phase in our lives that I am really looking forward to. I'll have my mother with us and she'll have us. She just has to promise to make me a pie every once in a while. She is the best pie maker!

Our lot is on a golf course again. This time we won't see houses on the other side of the fairway. Instead there is a creek with lots of trees. The picture below was taken on a cloudy dingy day. I am standing on our lot, soon to be our new home, new view and new beginnings.

I am soooo excited!

Dog Tails

Vote For Cash

Molly's friend Lizzy has entered her dog Cash in a contest. Bissell is looking for the most valuable pet photo. Weekly winners will advance to the semi-finals for the Grand Prize Winner selection. Cash is in this weeks selection. You may only vote once a week. I promised I would help and you have to admit he is a cutie. I think the winner's picture is used to promote "cleaning up after your pet products" that they sell. Cash kinda has that guilty look doesn't he? Click here or on the MVP site link to vote.

A Whole Lot Of Hands For Harper

Since the evening of January 16th until the morning of February 5th there were 11,691 comments on Kelly's blog and over "one million one hundred thirty two thousand" hits on her website.

Harper

Heavenly Father

Helping Hands

Healing Hands

Hands in Prayer

Hallelujah

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