School Art Show

First Day of Soccer Games

The day started out chilly. we are all wrapped up in jackets & blankets. Gammy, Pappy & Uncle Jek were able to go to the games with us. Everyone had a lot of fun! There were so many little soccer players running around. You could not see any "leg" on any of them when they had their shin guards, socks & cleats on. Way too cute!

AJ was attacking the ball. He is located in between #9 & #13. He kicks well so the coach has him kick the ball in often.

Macey has been named the team goalie. She is the only girl who would get in front of the ball when it was coming at her. She is excited that she gets to get special gloves & a different jersey when she plays goalie.

Inside Grisham...

So here are a few pics from the inside of the home. It will be really great to get settled soon. We still have our home in NM so PLEASE pray hard that it will sell fast. We have a month left....

Fireplace in the Family room

(the mantle will be stained the color of the kitchen cabinets)

Kitchen

media room with my little brother, Nick being, well, being Nick!

Easter 2008

With all the craziness this past March, the kids spend 3 weeks (includeing Spring Break & Easter) with my folks. My mom was a life-saver & came & stayed with the kids so I could go with Billy to his mom's & get things in order. Here are some more from their east egg hunt at the FARM.

So Far, So Good...

Okay, so I have been totally nervous about the stone that we picked out last September. I kept thinking that it was more PINK than BROWN for some reason. I will not go into any details, but let's just say that I was having nightmares about having a PINK brick home. Billy was confident that we were okay on colors that we choose but I was quite nervous. The brick was dropped to the house on the day we left for San Angelo, so there was no way to tell what the color was yet. My mom was with the kids due to school so she drove by everyday & took a picture with my camera & her cell phone. For the first week, we were looking at our brick/rock combo on a screen of a Razr Phone so that was tough. We decided to get Vanilla & bring her out to San Angelo rather than leave her alone at home during Spring Break. I was able to go back to Rockwall & get photos to bring back to Billy. The brick & stone look great. Hopefully the outhouse will be moved when the home is done. :) We are so excited. Our home will be finished toward the end of April so we hope to be moved in by the end of May. I will keep you posted!

Calling for Prayers...

We received some sad news last Thursday evening. For some of you, you may not know the whole story. Here is a brief summary:

Jean (Billy's mom) was diagnosed with lung cancer in mid-January while admitted to the hospital for pneumonia. There was a stint put in to help her breathe while she recovered from the pneumonia & then the plan was to attack with radiation treatments.
Earlier this week, Jean was readmitted to the hospital because the pneumonia was back. Apparently, she had not recovered from it before the radiation treatments. Along with adjusting other meds, it has become quite draining on her body. On Thursday, her kidneys started failing & she was told that the cancer was spreading too rapidly. She was given 2 weeks at the most. She decided she had enough. We brought her home on Friday night with Hospice.

We are in the process of getting all her affairs in order & enjoying what time we have with her. She spends most of the day sleeping. Please pray for our family as we go through this tough but natural process. It is hard at times to believe it but everyday it becomes more real. Please pray for the strength to know what to do & when to do it. I will keep you posted as much as I can.

So, walls are nice!

The house is slowly coming together. We did our walk thru last week of where we wanted the phone, TV & internet outlets. The brick was being dropped Friday so this next week we shall see what the outside will look like. I am a bit nervous about what we picked out but hopefully the brick & stone will look as good as it did on the table when we picked in 4 months ago.

A might bit chilly...

At least there is walls. Okay, so I know that these are not the finished walls but the house seems to be taking shape. The bricks will be coming in later this week so hopefully the outside of the house will be looking pretty good in a week or 2.

More Showings.....

Okay, so we have had 5 showings in the last week so please keep prayin! 2 of the showings claim that our home is their top choice but neither has made an offer. All we need is to accept an offer & the relocation company takes over from there. Hopefully someone will make an offer soon!

Drop to your knees & start prayin'!

Okay, so I just got a call from our realtor in NM. We had our first showing....the thing is that that our house was 2nd on their list. Well, their first choice is already gone & they are coming back for another showing on Friday. We are getting down to the wire with the house that we are building in Rockwall in accordance with our contingency. We basically have till the 2nd week of March to get a contract on our home in NM or we will lose the home in Rockwall. So we have been praying hard & long for this stress to go away so please take an extra moment to pray that we will be relieved soon, whether through this buyer or the next. I will keep you posted!

Framing up!

They have been framing this past week & putting in the windows. It is really neat to watch our home take shape. We have had decent weather so far so hopefully we are still on the Mid-May move-in date.

Vday Lovin'

So the kids all got animals for VDay & wanted to show them off! Enjoy!

A Before & After Valentine Suprise!

Okay, so I wanted to something special for Billy for Valentine's Day but he is yet out of state for the 3rd year in a row for VDay. Since he was gone the whole week, I decided to do an project that I had never done before. Staining a piece of furniture...

Not just any piece of furniture....HIS USAFA blue trunk!

I personally did not know this could be done, but a friend of mine had mentioned that she knew someone who haad done it before. She & Iwere visiting last Sunday afternoon & she was telling me about it. The top of Billy's trunk had started to peel & was ripped & torn from al lthe moves in its lifetime. We started peeling the blue "vinyl" off. If you take an exacto knife & run it around the edges, it leaves a nice clean cut line next to the metal.

This picture is after the vinyl has been peeled away. I sanded it down & the proceeded to put 3 layers of American Walnut stain from HD . Then I sealed it with polyeurathain.

So, not too shabby for my first staining job if I do say so myself!

Foundation is a GO!

The foundation was poured on Tuesday & looks really good. They were to start framing today but with 80% chance of rain for the 3-day weekend, the are hoping to drop lumber on Monday & start framing then. It will actually start looking like a house soon!

School Valentine Parties

The kids had their valentine parties at school the last 2 days. I just wanted to share some pictures with you. Unfortunately, I have no pics of AJ or Avery's party because my batteries died. Gotta love technology! :)

Leah & Mommie

Mrs. Lee & Macey

We have PIPES!

This are moving along on our home. The foundation will be laid this week. Completion date of new home is mid-May at this point. By summer, (hopefully) we will be all moved in.

Darn Toe! (again)

You would think after multiple broken toes, I would know how to avoid additional ones. NOPE, wrong again! I have yet again kicked the couch & broken my toe. This time it is the one next to the baby toe on the left foot. I did this on super-bowl sunday (it honestly had nothing to do with the game) & I am still taking Motrin so I will be heading to the doctor on Monday to see if I broken anything else besides my toe. Wish me luck!

Macey Turns 8!

So I can not believe that my baby is 8! As many of you know, Macey is mini-me. Besides the fact that she is a lefty & a blonde, she & I have alot of common traits. She has been in love with horses for a while & has been asking how much $$ does it cost ot buy a horse. Billy& I have tried to explain the depth of this concept but alas, it is not getting thru. Although we did not run out & buy her a horse for her birthday, we were able to make arrangements to ride for an hour last Saturday afternoon.

We headed to Uncle Brian & Aunt Staci's home for an afternoon cook-out of brats & hotdogs requested by the birthday girl & then an afternoon ride on horses, Jade & Moose. She really enjoyed riding the horses as did all the kiddos. Of course, she has been really interested in guitars as well so we got her a starter guitar to start learning on. ( I am sure that we will regret this later) She is very excited about learning to play an instrument & has already put on atleast a dozen show since last Saturday.

Daddy's Birthday

Daddy's birthday was Monday. With the weather being a bit chillier than we hoped for, we spent the evening in the family room with a fire blazing in the fireplace while we snuggled on the couch & watched movies. It was a great evening!

getting started...

Well, we are finally getting started on the new house. We have our first meeting next Tuesday with the builder to get started with customizing our home. We have picked out our colors already & we are so excited. When it is all said & done, each kiddo will have their own room, Billy will have his own study & I will get the additional bedroom that is downstairs for my office which has an extremely nice walk-in closet. Keep checking back to see updates.