My blogs have been very much ignored this past year! Sorry about that! So much going on and so little time to sit down and write. Writing more is one of my goals for the very near future!
I'll post pictures soon. The upstairs is mostly finished. We added 600-700 square feet in two closets, two bathrooms, and a laundry room. We were to start in March but had delays due to zoning. Thankfully, that was all resolved with lots of talking, pictures, and two big meetings! We have more to do (always!) but are so thankful to have the upstairs done. We will still add some to the laundry, but we are so happy with the results!
Our next projects are to finish the tile in the kitchen and finish the wallpaper in the hallway! Then we may move outside weather permitting. We added a fence for the dogs and need to paint it white. It sure adds to the charm while keeping an older dog and a young dog contained - but only when we are out with them!
Exciting news for the past year ~ We added little Blakely Wren to the family on May 14th. She is the most precious girl, and Will and Laiken are such wonderful parents. We love her so much! Andrew got engaged and will marry Kathleen this summer. We flew to see Peter and Julianna in Colorado and miss them even more when we leave! Sam is such a huge help and continues to work on the mountain packing rock pallets, down at the rock store some, and he helped put siding on the Isaiah 117 House. Dwayne even gave him his first rock laying lesson on the foundation! He's a natural!
We are in between churches as we left ours (long long story) unexpectedly in September. We have been visiting a church in Boone where we've attended before. It's an hour drive, but it's what we need right now. It's so hard when people are mean and others let them be mean. Even though his preaching on Sunday mornings and teaching on Wednesday evenings, his livelihood, his friendships and visits were all taken away abruptly, Pete still goes out every Saturday morning to downtown Abingdon and does evangelism - not in an easy way. We bought a Go Pro for him when he goes alone, so he can record and hopefully deter some of the hate filled people he encounters. He gets a lot of ugliness in lots of forms, but it makes those encouraging words mean even more. We had some former neighbors in Boone encourage him one day not even knowing who he was at first! It was a day I was there too, and they promised to pray for him; and that meant so much!
I am working at the rock store doing book work and trying to be a good and helpful salesperson! I have learned a lot about rock, but there is still so much to learn! I am mostly working on my fieldstone and flagstone right now! It's very interesting, and I have lots of help for questions I can't answer.
That's all for now! Thanks for reading!
"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Romans 15:13
