One step at a time

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.  I hope everyone has survived any storms that have come your way.  We are continuing to survive the storms that live throws our way by the grace of God.  It is time for me to update you again.  God is so good, isn't He?

We are making steady progress with the house.  It seems to us that as we take a step forward, there are about 10 others we need to take.  Not to mention things that need to be fixed and changed.  I mean, come on, there should be nothing to fix on a new house!  Not so.  For the last couple of weeks we have been working on little things we need to be ready for winter.  It is a fact of life that winter will come eventually.  I look out my windows and have noticed that the trees are a little bare.  Poor things.  They need some blankets :)).

Cozy dog

The most exciting news is that because Vermont really has not building codes (which could be bad if you are not a conscientious builder) we don't need a CO (certificate of occupancy).  This means that we can take occupancy of the house any time we want.  We have!  We have been sleeping in the house for about a week and a half.  It just got too cold in the cabin (demoted back to shed) and I made an executive decision!  We slept in the house and it was quite cozy.  Tom was up and down a bit the first night keeping the fire going but we figured it out in the end.  The dog is very thankful to have a little bit more space to sleep in, although last night he snuggled with me under my blanket (he is a bed hog!) and we were really quite toasty.  The kids love sleeping upstairs in their rooms.  Sean is sleeping in the wall between his room and ours, or in our closet, depending on if he is sleeping on his left side or right side.  Tasha and Logan are sleeping in Logan's room.  They love having their space a little more to themselves.  We can still see the blue light on at night when they are busy playing their DS games.  Sean just treated himself to a tablet and so of course he has been using that a lot at night.  Last night I was able to call a friend of mine, Sue, from upstairs.  It just happened to work.  It was very exciting and we talked for about half an hour and then we were disconnected.

We are waiting on our septic designer now to submit our paperwork to the state.  It can take a few weeks but in the meantime we need other things done in the house.  I am excited to report that we have basement stairs!!!!  That is a huge thing because we have been using ladders to get up and down from the basement.  It wasn't much fun.  We have been thinking and praying about these stairs.  For those who have seen the house, it is not very big and we really didn't want to give up a lot of space for the steps.  So, we were left with ladders, or really steep steps.  I am glad to report that the stairs are not as steep as we thought.  The dog has been up and down them quite a lot.  At first he was a little hesitant, because you can see through the back of the steps and they are rather steep, but I figure if the dog can make it up and down, so can we.  It is amazing how a little thing as stairs can cause such a great big excitement.  Logan insisted on being the second to go up and down.  I wanted to make sure the stairs were safe enough and beat him to it.  We were very excited when Chet completed his first successful ascend.  He got a treat and was made a great big deal of.

First phase

Sean testing the steps

The finished project

A week or two ago our wonderful homemade front door kind of gave us a lot of trouble.  It is really thick and a regular door knob doesn't fit so Tom had to ingeniously fix and bang a home made one together.  It broke, so we had to put a stop up to close the door and all that stuff.  Well, I am glad to tell you the door is now fixed (see we are already fixing things) and we now have a nice door knob.  I can even lock it!!!  Not that it would make any difference.  But it is really nice to have that knob. 

The house is really cozy.  We are happy doing our school, playing games, watching movies, and pretty much being back to normal.  I do miss not having a couch to lounge on and to relax.  The bathroom thing is a little annoying, as is the cooking situation.  But I can cook, I can use the bathroom, we have opportunities to shower and to swim at the same time.  Logan has become quite good at swimming.  It is wonderful of how everything we need has been provided for.

Sean was sharing a story with me.  He was pretty hungry the other day at work.  He doesn't make a lunch because it is dark in the house and he would wake everyone up.  So he prayed that his boss would take him out for a late breakfast (around 10 AM).  God answered that prayer quite quickly.  At lunch he was hungry again and again, he was fed.  It reminds me of Elijah and the ravens.  God provides what we need. That is our great God.

 Natasha and I were able to go to the Equine Affair in Springfield, MA.  It is a huge horse convention with big name riders coming and doing seminars and lots and lots and lots and lots of shopping.  I have not gone in a few years but the kids usually go with friends who were unavailable.  So Tash and I packed a lunch and followed friends of ours from here who were also going.  We had a blast.  It was wonderful to hang out with my daughter and I only lost her once.  Actually she lost me!!!  There, let us just make sure it is on record.  But God was good and we found each other again pretty quickly, which was amazing because the place is huge and there are usually thousands of people.  As I was walking around trying to get back to my daughter, who was watching a presenter, I heard someone call my name.  It was my friend Janice from Bristol.  It was great to see her again and we ran into each other often and watched some of the presenters together.  Tasha and I spent the day walking around and by the evening we were beat and ate at Paneras, which was a great treat.  I was pretty much stuffed with chocolates.  Every booth had candy, so one browses, and one eats. 

Silly Arab

I just celebrated my first birthday here in VT.  It was a very normal day but we did go out to eat, which was just wonderful.  A lot of people called me during the day and I was able to talk to my parents and my aunt.  My cousin's wife also left a message and that was a wonderful surprise.  So life is going on as normal as possible.  We are still trying to figure out how to cut our wood into floor boards.  We will get that done as soon as God wills.  Right now Tom is cutting a massive Ash wood into boards.  It takes a while to do, which is the problem.  But one thing at a time. 

We get to spend time with my sister over Thanksgiving, which will be great.  Sean and I are going to try to make a fool of ourselves and do a singing thing at church in a few weeks.  The church we are attending right now has an outreach every Friday night, kind of a coffee house but with different themes.  Pastor has been asking if we would sing.  Well, he is in for a shock.  Sean and I have been practicing and we have such a great time jamming together.

I hope we all give thanks for our blessings this season, such as running water.