if these walls could talk...

...encouraging words amidst the further phases of demolition.  Everyone is getting worn out, but it seems the farther they go, the more they realize they have to do.  Tore down some walls in kitchen to rewire the electrical and discovered that the plumbing needs work.  So, rather than tackle that too, they are bringing in a plumber tomorrow.   Yeesh, one thing after another, poor guys.  They are so tired and beat up physically.  Paul is going to miss his anniversary...sorry Paul.  And so goes week #3.  

Cooking and doing dishes remains a challenge... but just think how much I will appreciate having my kitchen back!!  I knew it would be rough, just wasn't expecting to be sick while we are doing it.    I'm glad the guys don't mind having pizza sometimes.  

Kyle left for Israel this morning.  Praying for safety and blessings for all of those who are going.  For daily updates I will be checking out Prof. Long's blog:  Reading Acts

Isaiah 41:7 The metalworker encourages the goldsmith, and the one who smooths with the hammer spurs on the one who strikes the anvil. One says of the welding, “It is good.” The other nails down the idol so it will not topple.

progress report...

The guys decided they will stay a bit longer than expected. I think they had sympathy on us because it is such a tremendous job!! And there is still so much to do. So, we are blessed and overjoyed at their additional help. I have been trying to feed them really well. Let's see, here are some of the meals we had: Pot roast, Enchiladas, Lasagna, Chicken, Steak, Baby Back Ribs, Meatloaf, Chicken Parm... uh I can't think of the others right now. But needless to say, we are all eating incredibly well, even without the the stove a lot of the time, and with my kitchen being spread out all over my house. It has been interesting, and at times overwhelming. I find myself walking around in circles just trying to prepare a meal because I can't find things.

Still smiling through it all

lots of crock pot and grilling

Today and yesterday I was sick, so I wasn't able to get a lot done.  Good thing the men are still going "strong" .... been praying for lots of extra strength and wisdom for them because so much of this is new territory for them, and they have been breaking their backs for 2 weeks already.  We are very happy with the way things are looking though.

Floor in kitchen - almost done

New Hoover vacuum... will I keep it?  TBD

I guess next thing is finishing laundry room, bathroom, grouting, and electrical... man, they have a lot to do!!

Psalm 73:4

They have no struggles; their bodies are healthy and strong. 

there is a river

The first call for help rang out early yesterday morning.  I attempted the rescue, but in the process, I am saddened to report that my faithful Rainbow of 19 years was sacrificed.  Having served me well, it finally laid down its life for the cleanliness of my home.

the first s.o.s.

more demo

sink gone, stove gone

cutting out the old hideous back splash

cheerful worker :)

cook wherever we can

washing dishes in bathtub

temporary sink hookup

makeshift kitchen table

laying down the river pattern

Isaiah 48:18 Oh, that you had heeded My commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, And your righteousness like the waves of the sea.

Ryan Vegh - Black Belt !!

We are so proud of Ryan for achieving the Black Belt level of Taekwondo. He has worked hard for the past few years!! Congrats to Ryan!

spoiler alert!

I changed my mind...so here is a sneak preview of the tile I picked. It is going to look so amazing.  I can't wait till we actually get it down.  It's so exciting!  When I was looking at it, it reminded me of a tranquil river, which will be just perfect for my foyer and kitchen.  It is very calming.  It will be wonderful to be cooking and be all peaceful.

foyer

Kitchen

In other news, Ryan passed his Black Belt test in Taekwondo today!! And he didn't even hurt his hand....so super congrats to him!! Pictures to follow!

the straight path...to the kitchen

Progress is being made. They finally starting laying the new floor material to get ready for the tile. Hoping the tiling begins tomorrow. This is a really big job!  Guess what. I still have my stove and sink! So today I made lasagna, and also enchiladas (for tomorrow).  We all ate so much!!

Panoramic view of living room

new sub floor

I think they are ripping out the base cabinets tomorrow too.  I think after that I need to start vacuuming the saw dust from the upstairs.

Oh, I just have to say I am so proud of my sons!  Ryan is getting ready to take his black belt test tomorrow.  He has done so well!  Also, Kyle just received a scholarship for demonstrating exceptional leadership qualities.  Only 1 kid a semester gets this... so stinking awesome.  I love seeing how the kids are excelling in what they do.  Glad I didn't raise slackers!! They are both diligent hard workers taking advantage of the great opportunities they have at Grace Bible College.  Thank God for this time in their lives.

Proverbs 4:11

I instruct you in the way of wisdom and lead you along straight paths.

cluttered and dusty chaos

Today has been fun. So far the water heater broke and we had water pouring out on the basement floor...so the guys had to run out and buy another one. Hoping to get it installed and get water turned back on soon!! This puts us another day behind with the tiling. We are camping soon... stay tuned.

my panoramic view on life

I moved the keyboard up to my bedroom because the basement is totally messed up now with saw dust and tools and stuff all over because they had to rearrange some plumbing down there... and so just to be silly, I tried taking a panoramic shot of my bedroom while sitting on my bed. Pretty stinking cool, huh? Maybe tomorrow I will take some shots like that of the downstairs so you can get a feel for the chaos here.

So, I was able to practice songs on the keyboard for singing at church.  I will be shocked and amazed if I can really pull this off.  Personally I don't much like the way I sound.

I just have to say that God really surprised me today when I found tile that I liked WAY better than the stuff we lost....AND we got a MUCH better price on it.  It was a huge blessing all the way around.  No spoilers though.  You must wait till the job is done to see what I picked.  hehe...

I think tomorrow the guys are definitely taking out my sink and my stove.  Gearing up for some emotional eating.

You know how it is when people have a certain view of themselves due to past experiences, or things that have been said to them?  Like for example, sometimes people who are overweight still see themselves as fat after they lose weight?  Or people who have been ridiculed or called names still think of themselves as "stupid", or whatever they were called?  I realized how easy it is to have a certain mentality that we fall back into when we least expect it.  For me this happened recently when I found myself giving more thought to money than I should.  It took me a few days to understand what had happened, and this is it:  When I was growing up we had very little money.  There were not really any vacations to speak of (2 in my lifetime), very modest amount of clothing, etc.  Much worse yet were my 13 years of being a single mom.  I was broke all the time!!  No money, no food, no gas, no furniture, cruddy clothes...  I really can't begin to tell you how bad things were for me during those years.  I literally don't know how I scraped by.  Welfare and WIC tried to get me to take money from them but I refused it.  I had a great work ethic and I didn't believe in handouts.  I was the one who made a mess of my life and I wasn't going to make someone else pay for it.  In fact for the most part no one ever offered to help me except for the occasional bag of clothes.  Ok, well, point is, I had no money most of my life.  It is weird how living life a certain way makes us programmed to think certain ways, like only buying bargain items, or from thrift stores, or not going out to eat, but being frugal and pinching pennies wherever we can.  Being poor becomes the only way we know how to live.

So then fast forward to today.  I suddenly was in a position to be frustrated about a certain situation  involving money.  In retrospect I can see now why I handled things the way I did.  It was because my mentality has always been towards working, earning, saving, and fairness.  You get the picture, right?  But in my world today I don't need to worry about money because my husband is a good provider, and I no longer have to work a full time job to be able to feed my kids.  I am blessed enough to be in a position where I can be  the one giving instead of the one who has nothing to give.  I don't quite know why sometimes our old thoughts take over like that, but I guess it's because of years of being ingrained in us.  Life doesn't have to be fair.  It is possible to give more than you receive and still have a good attitude about it.  It's a decision that I have to make and thank God I am able to do that.

I don't know how many times this "poor" mentality will haunt me, but I think now that I've identified the culprit he will be less likely to cause trouble for me.

Acts 20:35 In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”

goodbye ugly kitchen!

It is such an odd feeling to see my kitchen being destroyed before my very eyes. I am having trouble finding things so I walk around in a lot of dusty circles. There is a terrible smell coming up from the subfloor. It smells like the houses we tore apart with Samaritan's Purse that were flooded and had mold. It is a smell I'll never forget. It is nauseating. We are wondering if that is the mysterious thing that always made Kyle sick when he is here. We think that when the house was rebuilt after the fire, there was still a lot of bad wood that was left in the house and then just covered up. Can't believe what a terrible job the builders did when they put our house back together. So far, the floor in the foyer is up and mostly repaired. The closet, laundry room, bathroom floors are partially up. The floor in the kitchen is halfway done, and the cabinets are halfway up. The kitchen is shrinking as far as usable space. The rest of the house is also shrinking as far as usable living space. Stuff is everywhere, even worse than the pictures I posted last time. There is a lot of noise, and we all seem to be coughing, have headaches, and today my throat is sore. Whatever we are stirring up into the air is not good. Taking breaks outside has been a welcome relief. The men are somewhat behind schedule and there have been bouts of frustration, and some frayed nerves. But at the end of the day there was ice cream, so we are all still ready for another day. I fear I will lose my stove and sink soon. Trying to prepare myself for it mentally.

Oh, to top it off, the tile that I fell in love with has suddenly been sold out.  Some big industrial place came in and bought all of it! So, now we gotta try to find something else in a big hurry.  Everyone is trying to tell me that God has something better out there.. haha... yeah, we'll see.

ripping up the kitchen floor

foyer

strange being under the floor

patchwork

what's been removed

what remains

the floor below them opened to an alternate reality

Our floor in the foyer was a mess! They ended up having to cut a good portion of it out and replace the plywood before even thinking about putting the tile down. Didn't know they were going to have to do all that! And as expected, the dust is everywhere, even coating our upstairs rooms.  We have the same mess in the living room now that we had when we were having the hardwood floors refinished.  Clutter, dirt, dust, confusion, noise... great for my headache!  Gee, a whole month of this!  But so far, I still have my oven/stove, so my world still rocks.

Living room clutter

More living room clutter 

This is a certificate that Kyle made for us when he was little.  I had it taped to the inside of my spice cabinet so that every time I opened it I would see this, and it made me smile.  I finally removed it today so that I am sure it doesn't get thrown out.

more pics coming later.....I can't wait till they finish ripping apart the kitchen, laundry room, and bathroom.

Numbers 16:31 As soon as he finished saying all this, the ground under them split apart

and so it begins

Here we go...

1 down, a bunch more to go

I don't know how most women are, but for me, the kitchen is like my special place. I could spend all day in there, singing, cooking, dancing, dreaming, creating... but now look what we have started. Finally, after more than a year of going back and forth, yes we are finally doing it, as evidenced by these pictures of Darryl ripping out our old cabinets. Don't you just love my dust curtain? It is one of the sheets from the when the boys were little. I think it must be the Giants. haha! I am putting them to good use. But you know, with or without the dust shield, there is going to be dust in every inch of the house. I am already feeling a little queasy about all the MESS, and wondering how I will survive without my beloved kitchen. I feel like it is undergoing plastic surgery or something. We have to put it through pain and rip it apart before it can look beautiful again. lol

Darryl's brothers are coming this Sunday to help us to put a new floor in and finish the demolition of the kitchen. So, in case you aren't seeing the obvious, I have to figure out how to cook for all of us without a kitchen. It is definitely going to be a challenge. I plan to use my good old crock pot and the grill as much as possible.

If I am still sane, I will keep you updated on the progress. Hope I'm not cranky.

Giants blocking the dust

hmm... how does it come out?

the FORMAL

The long awaited formal has finally come and gone. Here are a few shots that I got off Facebook. The bottom picture is NOT from the formal, but it is a picture of Hilary wearing the mask we got her in New Orleans.

Hilary and Kyle

Ryan going casual instead of formal

Ryan being silly, enjoying the night

Kyle and Hilary

Who's behind that mask?  

Jazziness...

Here is a bit of a sampling of a few of the jazz bands playing on the streets of New Orleans. It was quite interesting and funny. We especially loved the mini parade consisting of about 10-15 people with a 2-car police escort. Where else would you see this? It is the top video, check it out. haha

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Jazz performers on Dinner Cruise