I have been so so so busy with work lately, so I apologize for the sporadic blogging.  I am starting to get really excited and really nervous!  Our final walk-thru of the house (prior to closing next Friday) is this Thursday.  Yes, 3 days away!  I know that I will have a million pictures to show after Thursday but here are a couple extra of the last minute touches to the outside of our house.

“I am grateful for the lawn that needs mowing, windows that need cleaning, and floors that need waxing because it means I have a home.”  ~Author Unknown

“May the Lord bless all who enter here.”

“Bread – So you never go hungry.
Wine – So your life is always sweet.
Salt – So there is always spice in your life.
And a Candle – So you always have light” From Hal’s favorite movie, “It’s A Wonderful Life”.

We’re getting close, very close.  It’ll be nice to have a house to make a home in and some roots to grow deep.

Sorry I’ve been so absent on the blog this week.  It’s been a tough week, but the Lord is sustaining me and bringing me hope.  Just keep praying.

Here’s some updates:

• Hal and I are having a much needed Date Night tomorrow night.  We’ll be going to “Date Night” at Dream Dinners and after that who knows.
• On Oct. 16 at 2:30 pm, Hal & I will have our Homeowner’s Orientation for our NEW HOME!!!  According to our builder, they are on punch-out work now and will have it all complete by the end of the week.  We are now so close to having the house move-in-ready that I am starting to get really nervous.  The orientation is for the builder, our realtors, and Hal & I to go through the entire house and make sure that everything is as it ought to be.  This will give them a week to fix anything prior to closing.
• Our closing will be on October 24 at 2:00 pm.  We’re still praying that we will have all the funds we need to close on our home and not default on the contract.  This is truly scary, except that we totally believe that the Lord has been part of this process since the beginning so we know He will have everything work out.
• I am in frantic mode for work stuff at this point.  We’re less than a month away from CFA’s Charity Softball Tournament and I am scrambling to get more teams registered to play!  Obviously the more teams the more fun this thing is going to be.  We shot video for our TV commercials to air on WMBF News (Channel 10 on cable in M.B.).  Yours truly is going to be a star!  As they were filming they decided they wanted to do some video of me and Brian’s son (playing a caseworker and foster kid), so now I am going to be in this commercial.  EEK!
• We’ll be inviting our families to join us for a Housewarming Weekend November 21-23.  Hopefully we’ll have all the major stuff in place by then that weekend (AKA: a refrigerator, blinds, lighting/ceiling fan in the living room, and maybe some paint).   After the family weekend we’ll be ready to have friends visit.

Hal and I are in for a busy couple of weeks.  Please pray for the things above.  Thanks, my friends.

As some of you have recently found out Hal and I miscarried again.  It’s been excecptionally frustrating and painful.  I have definitely been taking it harder this time around and I have found myself having a harder time with trusting the Lord in this area of my life.  Although deep in my spirit I am still in love with the Lord and know that He is still the same yesterday-today-forever, I feel disappointed by Him.  I feel let down.  It’s been harder to find my feet on solid ground again.  The Lord, in his faithfulness, has continued to woo me back into communion with him (for which I am thankful) and has humbled me yet again.  I was asking Him to simply remind me that there is a purpose He has in this and that He will remain steadfastly beside me as I walk out this journey.  And He did, through a song heard in a movie.  This song was played in the middle of the movie “Fireproof” that Hal and I saw on Thursday night.  It moved me to tears and I felt that all familiar stirring in my soul to listen up and take in what the Lord had for me in that moment.  I wanted to share the lyrics to that song with you.  This is “While I’m Waiting” by John Waller.  It’s on his CD “The Blessing”.

Beyond reading the lyrics you will definitely want to listen…just click the link below.

While I\’m Waiting

I’m waiting

I’m waiting on you, Lord

And I am hopeful

I’m waiting on you, Lord

Though it is painful

But patiently, I will wait.

I WILL MOVE AHEAD, BOLD AND CONFIDENT.  TAKING EVERY STEP IN OBEDIENCE.  WHILE I’M WAITING, I WILL SERVE YOU.  WHILE I’M WAITING, I WILL WORSHIP.  WHILE I’M WAITING, I WILL NOT FAINT.  I’LL BE RUNNING THE RACE, EVEN WHILE I WAIT.

I’m waiting

I’m waiting on you, Lord.l

And I am peaceful

I’m waiting on you, Lord.

Though it’s not easy

But faithfully, I will wait.

Yes, I will wait.

I WILL SERVE YOU WHILE I’M WAITING, I WILL WORSHIP WHILE I’M WAITING, I WILL SERVE YOU WHILE I’M WAITING, I WILL WORSHIP WHILE I’M WAITING,I WILL SERVE YOU WHILE I’M WAITING, I WILL WORSHIP WHILE I’M WAITING ON YOU LORD.

Needless to say, the lyrics to this song almost literally brought me to my knees and have provided me with the ever important reminder that my God is greater than my pain and my sorrow, my fears and my doubts, even my joys and delights.  That even in the midst of my pain it should be and is my honor to worship Him, despite how I may feel.  That through the shared honesty with the Lord of where I am and how I feel that an exchange will take place and He will meet me in the trenches.  I love that about Him.  If you don’t know the freedom that comes through a relationship with Jesus Christ please ask me.  Blessings to you tonight.

I know I said I wouldn’t be posting until after the weekend, but I just had to!  Hal and I had another great date night tonight.  We ate leftovers from last night since we’re going out of town and needed to save some money for that.  We ended up going to see the movie, Fireproof.  We loved it!

I really enjoyed the fact that they took a good hard look at some pretty typical, hard core issues that unfortunately occur more often in marriages than I wish.  Issues like addictions, porn, lust, the desire to “cheat”.   I was really impressed at how they showed that the root of these issues comes out of a heart that is not in tune with the Lord.  For people like me who have a relationship with the Lord, it served as a fantastic reminder that He must be at the center f all our relationships.  Without Him we are destined to fail.  I appreciated how they gave some practical ideas as to how we can begin to mend and strengthen our marriages.  If you haven’t gone to see this movie yet I definitely recommend it.  It’s only playing in select theaters so be sure to check your local theater to see if they are playing the movie.

This movie definitely helped to affirm in my heart what a fantastic husband I have.  He daily strives to pursue me and love me and respect me.  He puts me first, second only behind his relationship with God.  I truly have a wonderful husband that I am so thankful for.  And although we have certainly had our share of our low points and “in bad times”, “in sickness”, and “for poorer”, we have always managed to work our way out together.  Love you, Hal.

And for more info on the movie you can go check out their website, HERE.

Hal and I decided that since this week is Fall Bike Week here in Myrtle Beach that we would be heading out of town for the weekend.  No offense to those of you who participate, but my ears can’t handle it and neither can my patience.  Most locals avoid the main roads into the beach if at all possible during these weeks, so we figured we could top that by simply leaving for a few days.

After Hal and I finish up work on Friday we’ll be heading to Greenville.  We’ll be staying with Hal’s parents, visiting with mine on Saturday, going to CRCC on Sunday morning, visiting with Hal’s family on Sunday…along with baby showers and visiting with friends.    There’s no such thing as relaxing weekends when you’re visiting for only 2 days.  But I can say that we are certainly both really excited to head home.

Long story short I won’t likely be blogging this week, so check back with me on Monday for new updates and pics from the weekend.   Talk to ya later…

Well, Hal and I had planned to spend the day at the beach, unfortunately, the weather wasn’t cooperating.  It was rather overcast and looked like it was going to rain so we decided to forego those plans.  And since it was rather early yet we decided to run by the house and see what’s been done.  We weren’t able to get inside because they had installed the garage door and locked all the doors so no pictures.  But they had all the painting and all the trim done, and they had cleaned up the flooring so it looks as though they are going to begin laying the tile and carpet this week.

After checking out the house we decided to grab some Chinese food from a local place.  Definitely a dive, but it had good food so that was a plus!  Then we headed back to the house after deciding to have a Game Date Night.  Now I must admit I am definitely not a big game person unless it’s something like Operation, Chutes and Ladders, Sorry, or Candyland.  (I haven’t been able to talk Hal into buying those yet).  However we do have Monopoly and Clue and this began the competition of the day!

Hal had to reteach me how to play Clue because it has been quite a long time since I last played.  Out of the 4 games we played, Hal accused and missed it twice, I accused and missed it once, and I won once!!!  So technically I won that tournament!  Haha!  Then we moved on to Monopoly…

Now I will be the first to admit that I have never been such a big fan of Monopoly.  Namely because 9 times out of 10 I lose and lose early.  It stinks to have to sit for an hour or two while everyone else is still in the game.  So, I didn’t exactly go into this game with high hopes.  Well I won the first game and I was pretty sure that was a fluke.  Until…

Yes folk….here I am with several thousand dollars, a ton of properties, hotels on all my properties that I could, and my dear husband had no cash and all his properties had to be mortgaged.  WOO-HOO!  I won again!  I feel like a Monopoloy Phenom, and certainly the winner of the Game Date Tournament!!!  And in the spirit of good sportsmanship……good job baby. 

Haha, yep, that’s me…or NOT!  I am getting more and more excited and anxious about decorating our new home.  Hal and I have never really had a place to call our own.  Living in apartments sort of limits you to what you’re able to do decorating-wise.  And even though we are renting this great house from Hal’s cousin we aren’t decorating here either.  Namely because we won’t be here that long and 75% of our stuff is still packed.  But needless to say I definitely have the itch.  Unfortunately I don’t really have the money to buy much of anything.  We’ll be purchasing things like a stainless fridge, blinds for our gazillion windows, a washer/dryer, and ceiling fans.

However, over the course of the last few weeks I definitely have some ideas and have gotten a few things that have gotten clearanced or found on eBay.  You see, I have very definite ideas of what I want.  I want my house to feel open and airy and calm.  That’s why we are focusing on colors like: vanillas, light slate blues, sea greens…with a few bright dashes of colors like coral and turquoise.  We’re pretty much keeping that color scheme going throughout all the rooms in the house.  The only exception to all this will be the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.  I am really excited about being in my first home for the holidays.  I bought a few bright, bold things to use to celebrate.  Want a sneak peak at some of the stuff I’ve bought…all on sale or clearance??  Here ya go!

Here are the pillows that go on the couch in the living room.  The striped ones I got on sale at Target, and the other one is from Pottery Barn that I got on eBay (3 for $15)!  Can you see where we got our color palate from?

I love these metal work frames with candles.  This one is huge and will go over our mantle above the fireplace.  I want to get a few more in the rectangular style as well.

These will be our every day place-mats.  I got these at Tuesday Morning.  The blue matches one of the rings on my everyday plates.

Here are some random things.  Hal and I love candles so any time I find a fun candle holder I attempt to buy it.  These seashell holders were dirt cheap, as was the driftwood and shells stuff.  I have a lot of cool vases and bowls so I like to find stuff to put in them.  Both found at the clearance section at Target.  Then I bought seaglass at Tuesday Morning.  I like to put these in the bottom of vases with flowers.

Shower curtain for the guest bathroom.  It’s this pretty raw silk in sage green and a light turquoise.  We got it at Target, again, on clearance.

This is the bedding for one of our extra bedrooms.  It’s hard to tell, but it’s a pretty turquoise and cream.  I don’t normally like the whole bed in a bag thing, but I liked this one.  Because I had gift cards we got this bedding at Linens N Things for $7.  We saved $73.  Woohoo!  We don’t have bedding for our other room because for now it will be my office.  It’ll house my desk, a futon (to be used as a couch normally, but a bed if we need use of it).  That room will eventually be a nursery so we aren’t going too crazy in there.

And here is my first attempt at Christmas decor.  I already have a pretty green tablecloth that has gold thread along the edges, so I could use that or I could use this.  It’s a red table runner and red napkins with gold sequins and thread running along the middle part.  And then I got these gold, bugle-beaded, chargers to use as place-mats.  I’m excited to see how it’s going to look on our table.  Got all this at Tuesday Morning.

As you can see I love a good clearance sale!  If this decorating diva had her wish she’d be buying up the fun fall foliage and spice candles right about now…unfortunately, that has to wait until we close on the house.  Gotta save those pennies.  Hope you’ve enjoyed this brief glimpse into what will begin making up our home.  I’m so excited!!!

So today was another milestone at the house. I met up with Joe (our builder) and Ed (my uncle-in-law who is a contractor) this afternoon for the Pre-drywall Orientation.

This meeting is the second of four in the building process of our home. We got to inspect the exterior and interior of the house’s electrical, HVAC, plumbing, etc. this is really important because once drywall is up it is was it is. I’m glad we did because the electrician had not put in the lines for a light(over our tub) in our master bath, and the lights for our screened in porch.

Beyond that a lot has taken place. The brick work has been completed on the house and several other small things. They will be pouring the concrete for our driveway and patio in the rear of the house, laying the sod in our yard, as well as drywalling. Joe anticipates completion in 5-6 weeks. Hal and I are getting so excited!