Summer Post

I know I am a complete slacker since it's been a month since I last posted and I really have no excuse since it's summer.  However, our summer has been busy but filled with lots of fun!  So, where should I start?  I guess, where I left off last time would be a good place, which means get ready to read.

The House:  We were supposed to close on the house Monday, July 6th but we are still in the farm house so that means we didn't close.  Our new close date is July 21st but that is not a definite.  If it gets rescheduled, we will wait until after we get back from our mission trip in August to close since it would really be pushing things to do it all at once.   The carpet was laid in the house yesterday and we have our first walk thru next Tuesday afternoon.  Here are some pics from today.  

Outside front flower bed.

Mudd bench right outside the utility room.  

I'm so ready for this to collect stuff instead of my kitchen table!

Kelsie posing in her room.  We had the chair rail put in because the design for her room is that it will be dark pink above the rail with stripes below.  

We will have to paint this after closing.  She is super excited.

Outside back porch.  We are ready to sit outside and enjoy the view!

This is the breakfast area right off the kitchen.  I love all the windows.  You can see from the picture that we decided on privacy wood fence for the side yards and iron in the back so it makes the yard feel bigger and opens it up.

 

The view of the island and kitchen looking from the family room.

Family room, Kelsie posing on the hearth.

Powder bathroom

This is the front entry looking from the family room.

Formal dining room, looking from the study.

A close up of the study paint, wood trim and carpet - I love the way this room turned out.

Kelsie standing in the doorway of the study.

Media room upstairs.

Stairs leading up to bathroom, game room and media room.

Master shower - I love how the tile turned out.

Master bath vanity.

Built in drawers in master closet.

In addition to the house building, we started the first week of summer with VBS at church.  We had a great week going every morning on the "Boomerang Express."  I helped with first grade which was lots of fun.  We had a larger group every day and they were just such a sweet group. Overall, the kids donated over $500 to be used for our family mission trip to Lytle to buy t-shirts for the kids attending the sports camp.  God just blessed our week with new families and sweet fellowship.  

Kelsie has already spent two weeks away this summer.  The week after VBS, she spent 5 days in Waco with Wayne's family and had a great time going to the movies, visiting the museum, shopping at antique stores, swimming and hanging out with Mamaw and Joy.  The last week of June, she went to San Angelo to spend time with my family and had a blast there visiting Grammy, EE and Eddie, Hailey and Nana.  They did lots of craft projects, cooking, shopping and playing.  We picked her up on July 3rd, just in time to enjoy the 4th of July festivities with us.  We went to Bedford to spend time with the Griffs and see the Bedford fireworks from our usual awesome spot.  We had a great time cooking out, swimming and just catching up.  Sunday was spent celebrating Tom's birthday in Burleson and we had a great time with his family - especially the chocolate/peanut butter cake.  Yum-o!

The summer of golf - Wayne found a great deal to join The Golf Club at McKinney so we have been there a lot enjoying the pool as well as Kelsie and Wayne playing golf.  Kelsie has really progressed in her game this summer and moved up to ladies clubs because she kept breaking the US Kids clubs she had.  Our summer routine has been that about 2-3 nights a week, we go to the club around 4:00.  Wayne and Kelsie play 9 holes of golf and then meet me at the pool to swim.  We have all enjoyed the club and I even attempted to play a few holes when I went out with Wayne one night while Kelsie was gone. This week she is doing a morning golf camp at Gentle Creek here in Prosper and is doing well.  I hope it's something she and Wayne can do together over the years.  

So, next week the packing begins for the move.  Kelsie will head to Camp Copass in 2 weeks and may luck out and miss out on the all the moving.  We are all looking forward to our family mission trip to Lytle, Texas.  We leave Aug. 1st through the 7th and will be leading sports camp in the mornings and doing renovations (church kitchen remodel) and painting for FBC Lytle in the afternoons.  We are excited because our kids will be doing a lot of the Bible Story teaching, serving, teaching crafts, and just really interacting with the kids.  We have about 13 families going and we are anxious to see what God will do there as we seek to serve Him along side FBC Lytle.  Pray for us and keep up by looking at the FBC Missions blog (link on the sidebar).  

I will try and keep you posted on the move.  We are getting excited about being in our own home after living in the farm house for a year now.  We never thought we would be here this long but it's been a blessing and has been in God's timing.  Even if we have had the occasional run in with "wildlife" - I guess they will make for good stories to tell!  We all need those, right?  

I hope you are having a good summer spent with family and friends.  I know we are enjoying our time together and with other people.  Keep us posted on you!  We love to hear from you any time.  More soon!

Summer is HERE!!!!

Yay!  Summer is here!  We were officially out of school on Saturday and we ended the week with the awards assembly for our last of school.  Kelsie received an award for being in Rucker Honor Choir, one for her whole class for participation in field day (her class came in 2nd place for 4th grade) and an award for A/B honor roll all year (maintaining all A's and B's for the whole year). We were very proud of her this year - it was a transition from private to public school but she did so well adjusting to new school and friends.  

The house is coming along so quickly and we are now scheduled to close July 6th.  We are super excited and starting to count down the days.  This week they have installed all the outside lighting (except for the one that broke), some of the inside lighting, the cabinet for the powder bath, completed the stone around the fireplace, poured the patio extension, installed the A/C units and thermostats, put in all the light switches and outlets, installed the garage door openers and keypads, put in the sprinkler system, did the first grade of the yard, and finished up all the tile.  We met with the landscaper on Friday and got the plan yesterday so we were very excited about the plants and trees we chose - lots of perennials and color like knockout roses, crepe myrtles, dwarf hawthorns, blue salvia, red salvia, texas sage, daylilys, loropetalum, boxwoods, dwarf yaupons, giant liriope, soft leaf yucca, chinese pistachio and maple trees.  Very excited to see how it all comes together.  Here are some pics of the progress but it's slower now so there aren't a ton of updates.  They still have lots of painting and tweaking to do but I know their goal is for most of it to be done by June 13th for inspections to be done by the 20th.  I will keep you updated!  

The coach lights by the front door.

Front elevation with the uplights installed.  Landscaping will go here.

Front elevation

Completed fireplace stone surround and mantle.

Pendant lights above kitchen island.

Cabinet for powder bath.

Front door entry.

Back patio door with coach light.

Have a great week!

Memorial Day and the Museum

We had a great Memorial Day weekend.  Saturday we went to see Night at the Museum 2, which was a pretty cute movie and like all sequels, not as good as the first one.  Sunday's worship was sweet and Kelsie had a friend over for the afternoon spent the night - they had a great time playing and we just had a relaxing afternoon hanging out at the house.  Monday afternoon we had our Bible Fellowship class out to the farm house.  Wayne smoked ribs all afternoon and everyone brought their favorite Memorial Day food which meant that we had WAY TOO MUCH food.  It was a blast to hang out with everyone and the kids all seemed to have a ton of fun just being outside and playing together.  The Jones' brought the go cart out and the kids just played on the $9 slip n'slide, trampoline and swing.  We roasted s'mores later in the evening and the ones who were left at dusk caught fire flies.  I didn't get tons of picture because I was either running around doing stuff or visiting.  Here are a few I managed to capture.

The go cart was fun at the farm house - the kids (and adults) took turns riding and driving it.

The slip n'slide quickly turned into a mud pit but was visited often through out the hot day.

Wayne, the grillmaster, at work.

The line waiting on the go cart.  They waited patiently in between the trampoline and the slip n'slide.  

The tree swing was fun!

So was the trampoline.

The girls had some girl talk inside to get away from the heat for a while.

Little Jillian - don't take my picture!

Today was Kelsie's 4th grade field trip to the Dallas Museum of Natural History.  It was a fun museum and we got to see the exhibits as well as an IMAX movie.  Some pics:

Kensey, Joy, Kelsie and Caroline waiting patiently to begin the tour.

Kelsie's classmates - Abigail, Alyson, Alyssa.  They had a good time.

Watch this.

OOOOoooohhhh.  This sneezed on me!

Lunch time before the IMAX movie.  A GREAT day!

House Update - we found out today that our closing on the new house will be Monday, July 6th.  We are very excited!  Over the weekend, they finished the stone on the fireplace and installed the front door.  Today they put in all the toilets, sinks, faucets and fixtures as well as the air conditioning compressors and thermostats, all the light switches, plates and plug covers.  YAY!  I will take some pics later in the week as progress continues to be made.  Hope you have a good week.  This is our last week of school and we are ready for SUMMER!!!!

House Progress and Other Pics

The house is coming along so fast! The last few weeks they have accomplished so much.  They have stained all the wood cabinets and handrailing/step of stairs, completed all the brick and trim paint, installed all the countertops, installed all the tile including the shower surrounds and kitchen backsplash, began the rock fireplace surround, poured the back porch patio, and did the first grade of the yard.  Our builder is saying first part of July- we are getting really anxious for it to all come together.  We have enjoyed many parts of the farm house but we're ready to have our own home. 

The front with the trim paint completed.

Downstairs tile before grout.

Kitchen cabinets, countertops and backsplash.

Partially completed stone surround for the fireplace.

Master shower tile before grout.

Rucker Rocks - I told you last week Kelsie got the Rucker Rocks award for the week.  We went to the morning assembly and took a few pics:

Kelsie being called up on stage from her class.

Kelsie and her friend Miranda who also got Rucker Rocks that week.

Kelsie's Texas History project.  She had to write a paper and make a guy from a 2-liter bottle.  This was completely Kelsie's idea to use clay.  We found this really light weight modeling clay that dries and hardens.  Kelsie did this by herself with the exception of drawing the shape of the tie.  She did so well on this, I had to share. She got an A on the project.

Field Day - Rucker had field day on Friday. The weather was beautiful, warm with a cool breeze.  We had a good time watching the 4th grade classes compete against each other.  

Kelsie's class taking a class photo right before snack and break.

Kelsie and Miranda

This was a hilarious game called the "team walk"  The kids are standing on a ski and they have to step at the same time to move forward.  They must work together and it is hilarious.  

Here is Kelsie's team crossing the finish line first.  They got the hang of it "One, Two, Three, Left.....One, Two, Three, Right"  Very cute!

Roughrider Game - our friends have season tickets to see the Roughriders at the Dr. Pepper Ballpark in Frisco. They could not go to the game on Friday night so they let us have their tickets.  The seats were super close to the field and we had quite a few foul balls over our section.  It was a great night for baseball.  Around the 7th inning, it started raining but since it was just a quick rain storm, they kept playing.  So, we stayed under the awning and waited for it to pass and then finished watching the game.  It was close but at the end, we lost by one run.  It was a cool night and a great fireworks show after the game.  We just had a great night at the ballpark!!!

A beautiful night at the ballpark.  Kelsie waiting in line for Dippin Dots.

A great fireworks show after the game.

Wayne and Kelsie enjoying the game.

Hope you have a great Memorial Day weekend.  We are looking forward to our last week of school.  We are squeezing in 2 field trips, end of year party and awards ceremony so it should be the most fun week of school all year!  I'll share pics soon.

Recognition All Around

It was exciting this week that Kelsie received Rucker Rocks award for the week.  It is basically a good citizenship award that is given to students who are nominated for something he/she did to make Rucker a better place.  So, Kelsie's teacher nominated her because she saw a classmate sitting alone at the playground and went over to ask her to come play.  So sweet!  We went to the assembly on Friday and it was fun to watch the kids get to go on stage and be recognized.  Wayne was also recognized this week at the Town Council meeting for his leadership in Serve Prosper.  He and several other people who lead out in this effort, got a certificate and appreciation from the town.  

The house has been pretty fun to watch this week.  They finished all the brick with the exception of a small space around the master bedroom but it was because they ran out of brick. More was delivered yesterday so hopefully, if it will ever stop raining, they can finish that part next week.  The garage doors are in and they have also completed the stain on the hand railing and starter step as well as the kitchen cabinets and study doors and mouldings.  It looks REALLY good and it is starting to look like a livable space more every day.  All the other door casings and mouldings have been caulked and are ready to paint - I assume this coming week.  I did see today that they were installing the stone around the fireplace so I am excited to sneak over there tomorrow and take some pictures. They also started painting the outside trim - they began in the back and it looks really good.  It's always a little scary when you are picking these things from small swatches.  I always hold my breath and hope we made a good choice - so far so good - I really like the stain color we chose as well.  I hope to post some more pictures - I need to dump them on my computer from my camera first but I promise I will share.

The rest of our week was pretty quiet in the evening for once.  I was completely buried in the Twilight series.  I began book one on Sunday afternoon and finished book 4 last night.  Those books are so addictive and I loved reading them.  I guess it's time to start thinking of my summer reading list, it was pretty ambitious last summer and I didn't finish everything on the list.  This was my last week to teach music, all that's left is leading a song and poem at the 4 year old "graduation" on Tuesday afternoon.  Summer is right around the corner and we will be busy the next few weeks at Kelsie's school with field trips, Field Day, and end of year luau.  I am ssssooooooo ready for summer - sleeping in, staying up late, reading by the pool, being outside at night enjoying the breeze and stars, casual time with friends, cooking out.  I hope you have some fun summer days planned.  I will try and post pics of the house soon. Have a good week.

Mother's Day and other weekend events

Today is Mother's Day and I am a lucky mom - blessed to have Kelsie as my daughter.  She set her alarm and got up this morning to fix breakfast.  Wayne had already gone to church so she did everything on her own.  Blueberry muffins, coffee and grapes laid out on a plate spelling MOM.  So cute and thoughtful, she did this on her own and worked it out with her daddy the night before.  She made me a card at school and one at church along with the flowers and chocolate she gave me on Saturday afternoon.  Tonight, Wayne and Kelsie are cooking dinner and have not allowed me to do any housework!  What a relaxing day it's been. 

My Sunday Mother's Day Breakfast.  The grapes spell MOM - how creative.

Today we went to feed the ducks at Willow Ridge after walking through the house.

 

This weekend started out on Friday night with a surprise for Kelsie and her friend Allie.  They both love Tim Hawkins, a christian comedian they watch on YouTube a lot.  So, we got tickets to see him at Collin County Community Church.  We didn't tell the girls at all but at the beginning of the week they knew we were going to do "something fun" but they didn't know what.  We went to Chili's first for dinner and then we pulled up to the church.  They were stumped and we told them this was the place.  Their faces were WORRIED but we handed them their tickets with Tim Hawkins face on it and they were surprised and excited.  The show was HILARIOUS!  He is sooooo funny - we were all laughing so hard! After it was over, we purchased his new DVD and got his autograph and a quick pic of him with the girls.  So fun - they loved it and so did we. 

Allie and Kelsie with Tim Hawkins.

 

Saturday was a glorious day - nothing planned for once and so we slept in a little and then went to friends house for coffee on the back porch.  The kids played and we got to visit and just chill! Saturday night we went on a date to the Silver Fox.  This was our first time to go there and it was DELICIOUS, such a huge treat.  

House news - the house is coming along.  I was so disappointed all week because there didn't appear to be a lot of work going on except Friday and Saturday they got busy bricking but still did not finish yet.  I think they only have about 2 days though and it's been tough to complete because of all the rainy weather we have had.  Well, today we went over to walk through because we hadn't been through since last Sunday.  We were SHOCKED to see they did do a lot.  The walls are textured, most of the mouldings and doors/framing are in, and cabinets and built ins are there.  It is looking so good - I was so excited to see the kitchen cabinets and bathroom cabinets.  Here are a few pics.

The outside brick is coming along.

Kitchen cabinets

Family room mantle over fireplace (will be stone surround) and crown.

Study doors and mouldings.

I will keep you updated on the house progress.  We are 2 months away so a lot has to come together and it should be very fun to watch.  Hope you have a good week!!

National Day of Prayer

This morning a group of people from the Town of Prosper gathered in recognition of The National Day of Prayer.  It was the first gathering in Prosper like this and it was a sweet time of prayer and community.  Warren Samuel spoke briefly and various leaders and ministers in town prayed for people in our community, our kids, town officials, and our nation.  There were 2 things I noticed this morning.  One was that we declared our NEED for God as we raise our children, as our community grows, and for wisdom and guidance in our country.  Another, and more important, an admission and recognition that it's not about us in this life - it's all about God and His purposes, His glory, His agenda, His kingdom.  How refreshing!  In a world where it tends to be all about where we live, where we work, what we accomplish and even what our church looks like or whatever measure you choose to measure "success," we needed a word that it's all ABOUT God and FOR God. What a great way to start the day (and I'm not a morning person) to be with people in our town coming together and saying we love God, we need God and we want our lives to be about God.  

On a political note, it's sad that President Obama is not choosing to recognize this day - to take a little time out to pray for wisdom over all the problems in our country and world.  I know people say he prays privately and I can't judge that, but I think there is a red flag when you have a day set aside for prayer and you refuse to come together with others and ask God to give you wisdom, acknowledging and agreeing together that you need God.  He certainly had time to fill out the NCAA basketball bracket - could we take time to have a prayer time on National Day of Prayer?  Just a thought - I'm not usually political on this blog, I just found that very odd.