Thanksgiving '08! and sorry for so much verbage!

Thanksgiving of '08 will be one to remember for our family that's for sure. Doug and I got to close on the house, finally, on Wednesday the day before thanksgiving. By 4:00 that afternoon I was painting the upstairs bedrooms, Beth Ann and I had taped and cleaned the Sunday before we closed, so that we could hit the ground running.....we had so much to do, or I should say so much to paint! Anyway, by 1:30 in the morning, Doug and I had finished the three bedrooms upstairs and put a coat on the stairwell. the next morning, off to Mena we went to enjoy Thanksgiving lunch with the Hasley and Costner crew. We had great weather for the kids to play outside; I love Thanksgiving's that aren't too cold! We traveled back to the Fort and began painting around 4:00 Thanksgiving day. Doug and I tackled the rest of the stairwell and hallway, guest bath and part of the kitchen. We stopped working around midnight. The next morning we were painting by 8:00 and enjoyed listening to the Hogs actually win a game while we finished up the den, kitchen, and dining area. Pretty much the only room that wasn't painted in our 2,500 sq feet was the master bedroom and bath, oh and the laundry room. My favorite part of the painting was accenting the fireplace with red against the gray walls. thanks for the advice, Dawn and Delbra. It just makes the room look great. As Friday drew to a close, Doug and I had completed the painting and were ready to move in furniture, boxes, etc Sat. and Sunday. We got all the boxes unpacked by Sunday night, so we slept there for the first time! My favorite memory of the whole move was the time I had with Doug, just the two of us, painting our hearts out on our new home!

What were we thinking moments?

1)Buying a fridge that doesn't quite fit the space.( but I love it, so we are adding a cabinet to make it work)

2) ordering the wrong size wall oven/microwave and being told that the correct size won't be ready until the 18th of December!

3) replacing all the outlets upstairs and thinking that was a quick job! thanks Daddy! hope your hands heal!

4) to do yard work the first Saturday we occupied the home! Why weren't we resting? We filled 25 bags and the front yard still isn't all raked up with one tree still hanging on to all it's leaves.

5) letting the kids throw wiffle(sp) balls up and down the stairs. If I hear that ball bounce on the tile one more time.

6) hanging all my Christmas decorations before they do the heating and air work that will probably be the equivalent to the dust bowl in my home.



I just can't believe what a blessing the space is....Doug asked me this morning if I was going to actually pick one of the sinks in our bathroom, or was I just going to continue to use both. I told him, both! Isn't that fun.



So here is a big shout out to both sets of our parents. Doug and Delbra let us pretty much take over their house for almost two weeks. The dogs totally destroyed the patio, sorry about not cleaning it up. You were very gracious to let us move in and make us feel comfortable. How could I not thank Daddy Doug for all the moving out and moving in you did for us. I kept my sanity while Delbra watched the kids, too.

Thanks to mom and dad for all the unboxing, moving, etc you did for us and I didn't even get to cook you a meal! We worked you guys from sun up to sun down. Hopefully the next time you stay, I'll have a full functioning kitchen:)



Thanks to all our family that prayed for us to find this house, that means the world to us.



WHAT WOULD WE DO WITHOUT FAMILY!

that's a wrap on our excursion into the new house. Now the real fun begins as we begin LIVING there. I'll post pictures after this week. It will be messy all week because of the work they are doing inside.