The Longest Day

Ben and I attended church this morning at Beltway Park Baptist Church. I already just love it. It's got the small-townish feel of FBC Moore with the style and set-up of Saddleback. It's more than we could have hoped for! I'm even signed up for a Beth Moore bible study starting on Tuesday and I plan on signing up for MoPS too. We're hoping to find a Small Group soon.

After we left church, we started towards Ft. Worth to eat lunch with Nick and Lendy {and celebrate!}. Halfway there, look what made us late:

Yep. That's right. A flat tire. Fun times to be had by all. But, I've married Mr. Homeowner, who also happens to be pretty handy with a car jack too, and am pleased to say that with just a little frustration {and no cussing}, we were back on the road. Noah enjoyed the stop because he got extra food. OH! And notice his big boy car seat! :) He loves it and so do we... though we do miss the ease of just taking the infant carrier out of the cars.

We finally made it to Ft. Worth and, once there, got lost trying to find the restaurant! All in all, we were originally on track to be there 30 minutes early and we ended up being an hour late {though, not bad for having to change a flat tire AND getting lost!}. We ate a Cattlemen's Steak House {which I had thought was only in Oklahoma City until yesterday!} and enjoyed some quality time with Nick and Lendy.

We started heading home after a couple of hours... here's a bad picture of the beautiful sunset on the way home:

Once we got home, we traded out the Jeep for the Dodge and headed to Wal-mart to buy paint so that tomorrow I can paint the bathroom. And now, Noah's in bed and we will be soon too.... hopefully!

Too many boxes...

Our garage:

enough said.

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Ben purchased a lawn mower today and finally mowed the front lawn for the first time.

And of course, he had barely gotten it put together, mowed one strip of grass, and it started sprinkling! {He did finished it after it stopped.}

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And, while we were continuing to unpack and continuing to get the house in a livable state, Noah was stuck in the playpen {or, as Michelle calls it, the Baby Jail}. Here's the pouting boy:

A Mini-Photo Tour

Here's the photo tour I promised! The house is still a wreck and the photos don't really do the house justice. I'll take a few outside and in the garage later today.

***

Walking in the front door, here's the living room:

To the right/east of the living room is the dining area and the kitchen:


{I love our new pantry... anyone who had been to our townhouse in California knows how nice it is for us to have all of our food actually in the kitchen! AND, the light automatically comes on when you open it!}

Around the corner from the kitchen is the laundry room:

When you turn around, the hallway leads to the master bedroom:


Which has a walkway to the Master Bath:

Which also leads to our closet {with another one of those amazing open-the-door-and-the-light-comes-on doors}. This is just Ben's side:

Going back to the left/west side of the house, on the other side of the living room, is another hallway. Looking left/south down that hallway is the guest bedroom and bath:

Bathroom number 2:
Guest Bedroom:
This is the first bedroom you come to when you turn right/north down the hallway. It'll be the "big boy" bedroom:

The last bedroom is the nursery:

And, look who just woke up!

A Meal at Home

We've finally prepared our first meal at home. Ben used his new grill {I told you he loves Target's clearance section} to prepare a couple of steaks and potatoes. It was delicious!

***

Tomorrow I plan on giving everyone a "photo" tour of the house and once we finish getting everything settled and put up, I'll do a more formal "video" tour.

Un-packing

Look what I found when I was unpacking in the kitchen!

It's a little more difficult to unpack and organize when you are working around a baby's schedule. Good thing Daddy is so good at helping with him too.
We've almost got the kitchen in working order....
well, almost.

And Ben is becoming quite the proficient homeowner... look what he installed today:

I love this dishwasher and the man that installed it! :)

Delivery Day

We have our household goods! All the rest of our stuff was delivered today and now the real fun begins: unpacking and organizing the house. There were a few things that I had been a little concerned about since the movers took them {like my telescope, etc.}, however, it was other things that I should have been worried about {like the couch}. We've heard horror stories from older military couples {who have had many more moves} about things being damaged or lost, but since our move to California went so well, we expected that this one would be smooth too. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Our couch now has a smashed bottom beam on the frame {GRR.}, one of our end tables is missing a nice little chunk, we need to buy new pegs for all the bookcases, and the list goes on. And that's just from what we can SEE right now!! I'm sure we'll find even more things as we actually unpack. The companies on both ends will be getting an ear full from us.

On a much different note, look what the first thing was that Ben unpacked and put together for us:

He already loves it!

I love a man that sweeps. :)

Our new refrigerator and dishwasher was also delivered today. Here's the fridge and once Ben gets the dishwasher hooked up, I'll share it too.

Electricity!!

Noah and I were having a great time in the hotel room this morning. Ben had to go check in at the base, so we took our time getting ready before heading over to the house to work. He thought my little song about how we needed to get dressed was pretty funny:

***

We finished painting the kitchen and dining room today! I love it and can't wait until our things are delivered so that we can start decorating and really getting settled in.

Projects-a-plenty

Today we're still working on a few different things around the house {with no electricity, blah} before the rest of the family heads back to Oklahoma. There are so many different projects to do that everyone was helping us get as much done as possible.

Daddy-Man was helping us prep the lower portion of the dining room for the texture.

BB was cleaning the mantle and living room. Ben was replacing the door knobs and locks.

Even Noah was helping by putting on the spackiling!
{Well, almost everyone was helping..... haha, just kidding Jessie!!}
Thank you so much for all your help - we wish you could have stayed longer! :)

Saturday's To Do List (It's a mile long)

(Sorry it's a little picture heavy. And I promise that I'll get more shots of the house itself up soon.)

We have the keys to our house! And we have water! But NO electricity. Evidently in Texas, you have the right to choose your own electric company... which means that while it is as simple as "flipping a switch", it's not quite as simple and they are not in such a rush to do it either. So, the earliest we can get electricity in the house is MONDAY. So much for using the weekend to get the house completely ready.

However, even without electricity, we got a lot of things done today. Mom, Daddy-Man, BB and Jessie all came down with the girls' pick-up truck beds filled with our things that were in storage (THANK YOU!!!). After we unloaded it, we split up - Ben and Daddy-Man to go get the washing machine and dryer and the girls {plus Noah} went to buy paint and other necessities. We all met back at the house and the real work began. Here's our to do list:

1. Install washer and dryer {with no electricity, which meant that Ben and Daddy-Man had to use flashlights in the laundry room.... which also meant that it was pretty frustrating... therefore, no pictures of it}.

2. Take down the wallpaper in the kitchen {no offense to those who like it, I just don't}.

3. Wipe out all the cabinets.

4. Line said cabinets with shelving paper.

5. Remove the tree/bush from in front of the door.

6. Take a break from the insane heat of the house and all the hard manual labor your wife/daughter/sister is making you do to smile for the camera.

7. Keep the baby happy {and as cool as possible} so that everyone can work.
8. Enjoy a nice evening out to dinner once it starts getting dark in the house and you can no longer work {because there is NO electricity}.

9. Sleep like a baby.