Final Week of Construction

We are anxiously awaiting Thursday....  On Thursday the carpet guy is coming to install the carpet in our basement, which means everything else is done :)  Jim is putting up the rest of the trim today.  He did an amazing job on this project and I can't believe he was able to add a full bath and finish our basement with very little help.  He put the tile floor in the bathroom last week and it looks beautiful.  We are so excited to have the room down there and also have another bathroom.  We are also having our living room and Abbey's room re-carpeted on Thursday. We weren't going do those rooms initially, but after Jacob's room was done we realized how nice new carpet is so we decided to do all the rooms on our first floor.  We'll post pictures after thursday...

Sleepless Abbey

Abbey usually falls asleep pretty quickly without much objection to bedtime, but tonight she had a hard time falling asleep and she kept calling me in her room.  She has been wanting us to leave the small lamp next to her bed on each night after we tuck her in and after a little while, we go in once she's asleep and turn it off (Jim used to like the light on too until he fell asleep when he was little).  Well the last time I talked to her tonight I told her to ask God to help her relax and fall asleep.  A minute later I heard her talking so I peeked in the door.  This is what I saw... I had to capture the moment :)      

Fall Festival

Today we went to a small fall festival down the street from our house.  It is at a huge garden center and every fall they have a few weekends with things for the kids to do like a corn play area, jumpy things, crafts, coloring contests....  We went today for a couple hours to get the kids out of the house.  Abbey has been sick since last Saturday so we were pretty much homebound the whole week (except School for Jacob and work for Jim) so it was good for us to get out today and do something fun.  We had Abbey at the doctor two times this week because we were concerned that she wasn't getting better.  Yesterday the doctor said she has a sinus infection and he gave us medicine for her.  Today we saw a big improvement in her so we are thankful that she's on the mend.  Here are a few pics from our outing..

Construction Update

Here are some updated pictures of our basement construction.  We are eagerly anticipating the completion of this project.  This weekend I'm going to try and tackle tiling the bathroom!  Everyone I talk to says that it's easy, once you get started... I sure hope so!  Also, I changed our slideshow on the left with some new pics.  

Want a Superbowl Ring?

About a month ago, friends of ours, the Cherrys, attended a conference through our church.  During that conference, Je'Rod and Samua felt the Lord move in their hearts to make a huge impact in the world.  They wanted to help in the fight against starvation in Africa.  Just a little background, Je'Rod is a former NFL player of 10 years, and a few of those years were spent with the New England Patriots.  During his time with the Pats, Je'Rod was able to win 3 Superbowls!  Amazing!  Anyway, fastforward to now, Je'Rod and Samua felt the Lord speaking to them at this conference and decided to raffle off Je'Rod's first Superbowl ring from 2002 to help with the fight against starvation.  

So, here's the scoop.  Check out the video above... it will take about 30 seconds to get to the actual video... then you can go to netraffle.org and you can purchase raffle tickets for a chance to win the Superbowl ring.  Tickets are $2, but the minimum number of tickets you can buy is 5.  The Cherry's desire is to make this raffle go nationwide and hopefully raise millions in the fight against hunger.  (Be sure to pause the blog music on the bottom left to hear the video)

Great is Thy Faithfulness

As I watched Shelley and the kids go off to school today, I was thinking about my family and God's faithfulness to me.  After they left, I sat down and began to read a blog by John Piper's son and daughter-in-law.  They recently had a baby and are rejoicing in God's faithfulness to them.   One of their posts talks about the selection of their baby's name.  In that post Molly Piper talks about the hymn Great is Thy Faithfulness.  As I read through this I was struck with the line, "All I have needed thy hand hath provided." From an amazing wife that loves Jesus, loves me, and loves our kids, the blessings of 3 great kids, a great job...  the Lord has done nothing but provided for me and I praise Him and rejoice in His faithfulness! 

 You can check out the Piper's blog here.  For those of you who don't know, John Piper is the pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minnesota.  Our friends, the Gammons go to this church and were the first one's to write about the Pipers.

Back to Routine

Today was Jacob's first day back to preschool.  He will be going Tues, Wed, and Thurs, 9:00 am - 11:30 am.  He has been asking us the last few weeks when school is starting so he was very ready and excited to go today.  He had a good first day and told us bits and pieces of his day all day today.  While he was at school, Me, Abbey and Micah went down the road to another church where there is an aerobics class three days a week that I will be going to.  There is childcare for Abbey and Micah and they do a craft and Bible story with the kids.  We went today and Abbey loved her class (I told her that it was like her own little preschool class).  I very much enjoyed my aerobics class and am looking forward to getting some exercise a few times a week.  We all had a great day and are happy to be back in a routine.  

Abbey's Shiner

A few days ago Abbey was standing on a bag by a side table in our living room.  She somehow slipped on the bag and hit her eye on the corner of the table.  Her eye immediately started swelling and by morning it was black and blue.  It kind of looks like eye shadow so she thinks it looks pretty.  I think it looks worse than it feels because she hasn't complained about it hurting once, but we still feel bad that our little girl has a shiner. 

Geauga County Fair

Saturday we spent the day at the Geauga County Fair.  There was a lot to see and do.  We saw a ton of animals and that of course was Abbey's favorite part.  She actually fed a horse hay right out of her hand and she wasn't scared at all.  I was amazed that she kept doing it because the horses mouth and teeth were so big and she kept getting more hay for the horse to eat.  She is definitely our animal lover.  Jacob really enjoyed shooting the bow and arrows and fishing.  We ended the night with a few rides which is always fun.  We think this fair may be an annual thing for our family.  A good day for all :)