Heading to Peoria this weekend! Can't wait to visit everyone!

In the meantime here is a look at our most recent decisions for the house. We've been working on the front door for at least 6 weeks.

Front Door:
It will have matching sidelights and a shoulder transom. It will also have two dividers in the glass to create three panes of glass.

Here's the tub:


The tub faucet:


The Master bath sinks and faucets:


Kids bathroom sinks and faucets:


They are pouring the concrete floor in the basement today and installing the septic system tomorrow and Monday. They also start framing on Monday. Hooray for progress!

So what's up in your world??

Love to all!
~Stacie~

We have walls!

100 Tons of gravel! They delivered another 20 tons a couple of days later. WOW!


The Basement walls!




The front of the house, basement walls! Yeah!

Yeah! We finally have basement walls! It took 120 tons of gravel and a couple of weeks between digging the footings, getting the gravel, compacting the gravel and getting the Superior walls in place, but they are in! Last week they finished up and the plumbers came to do the preperatory plumbing before the concrete floor is poured for the basement. That should get done this week and then they should start framing! Last week for me was also spent picking out plumbing fixtures. Fun!

I made a short trip by myself to B'ham over the weekend. Please pray for my brother Jared and his family. Especially his wife.

Well here are some new pictures! Enjoy! (For all of you in the PIA area can't wait to see you next week!)


My Older Brother Jared, He tells the BEST stories!!!


My Goofy Dad! Always has something to say :)



My oldest brother Bryan, he's a braniac, in a good way :)

Have a wonderful day!

Miscellaneous Pictures

Me and My hunny at the Daughtry concert!


The brick we chose for our house.


Lily doing what she does best, being goofy! Her last day of school they did a few songs for us and this is one of them.


Caleb driving the CASE with a little help from Daddy.


Lily riding the CASE with Daddy! She even got to help drive.


My fearless two older children.


Levi riding the CASE with Daddy!


Caleb petting a Kangaroo at Kentucky Down Under


Caleb being Caleb :)


My Hunny!


Me and my other best friend, My mom!!! She's the world's greatest!!! I Love You Mom!

Me and my favorite Cuz, Amy!


My Twin :) Love you Jonna! We were separated at birth LOL!

Me and my Princess! She was Shirley Temple for the day, or at least her hair was :)


A picture taken by my oldest, I thought he did a great job!


Lily getting her nails done by Aunt Ellen over spring break. She thought it was the best thing ever!


Levi and Dakota

Where to start?

So much has been going on it is hard to know where to start! Between house decisions, vbs and coupons. Not to mention the end of the school year and having three kids at home full time again. Oh and I can't forget the Daughtry Concert Derek and I went to. Things have been very very busy! But all is good. Things are definitely moving at a snails pace with the house. They finished digging out for the foundation and the driveway then we find out that we have to have the soil tested. It was part of the original quote from the Superior Wall company but none of us realized things would be delayed because of this. The Soil Engineer was supposed to go out there today to test the soil. I don't know if he has to wait to get the results back but I sure hope not. Hopefully, and I say this with as much optimism as possible, we will have a basement in two weeks time. However I am not holding my breath.

We have picked the stone, brick, Hardie Board colors. As well as decided on windows and the front doors. We've also met with the Cabinet Builder and decided on the kitchen, master bath and kids vanities. I have no idea what to do with the laundry room but hopefully I will be able to figure something out. I want all the spaces to be highly functional and organized.

Derek gave me tickets to see Daughtry for my Mother's Day present! We went Sunday night after services. One of the wonderful young ladies from church watched the kids for us while we went. Cavo and Lifehouse were the opening acts. I hadn't heard any of their music until the last song by Lifehouse, " Hanging by a Moment". They were good though. Daughtry was awesome! I have both of their CD's . Kelly Clarkson came on and did "Fast Car" with Chris. You can search on You Tube to see/hear it. He also did a Phil Collins Song. A famous one although I can't think of the name of it. He did another song with the Lead Singer of 3 Doors Down and yet another with the lead singer of Lifehouse. Not to mention singing most of the songs off of their albums. It was great but my ears were ringing all night and I didn't sleep much due to the music running through my head. :) Totally worth it though!

The kids have been having a blast playing on the enormous dirt pile at the home site. Filthy as can be afterwards but hey, their kids, right?

School has ended and both are moving on. Caleb will be in starting the SEARCH program. It is for the gifted kids. I believe it has a different name every where you go. He is excited about it as are we. We are very glad he will be challenged.

Our VBS is next week. We are studying the Parables of Jesus. I'm teaching the 12m to 3 year class with another young mother. I think we've got it all ready to go and the kids are excited about it. Last year was the first time we've had one at Skyview and I think it went very well.

Well I've got to go. I'll try to post a variety of pictures later this evening. I hope you are doing well. Please drop me a line or two and tell me what you've been up to.

~Stacie~

There's a hole!

Okay I promise not to break into song...... well maybe not promise. You can't hear me so I could be singing at the top of my lungs for all you know! :)

We have a hole!!!! Howbeit a small one it will be getting bigger!!!! Yesterday my little girl turned six and they started digging the basement. Actually where they started digging is under the front porch but still there are tractors and dirt and a HOLE! I'm sorry, you probably are tired of hearing about the hole already but what can I say, we've waited a long time for this small step in the home building process.




Hopefully by the end of today the whole basement will have been dug!

Well on another subject my little girl is 6 now. It is very hard to believe! She is growing like a weed with fertilizer! She is a very dramatic child and cries over everything. Opening her presents last night she was freaky hyper and almost cried over the Bride Barbie my mom gave her. I don't know what to do with her most of the time. But I love her. She brings plenty of life to our lives. Happy Birthday Baby girl! Momma loves you!

We had a small party at the house yesterday afternoon. 7 girls in all, although one was only able to stay for about 30 minutes. Caleb did really well considering he was the only big boy there. Levi wound up watching Nemo to keep him out of the girls and Calebs hair. We had Little Ceasar's Pizza, Ice Cream cake and brownies. All in all it was a fun and tiring evening. After that Derek and I settled down and watched the season finale of FRINGE! Can't wait till next season!

I hope you are all having a wonderful day! What are your plans for the weekend? We have a congregational singing this evening and a few odds and ends to do tomorrow.

Later today I'll try to post pictures of all the house decisions we are trying to make. Front Door, stone, brick, hardie board...... lots of decisions. Not complaining though.

~Stacie~

Today's Shopping Trip

Target:

2 Big Boxes Huggies Diapers
2 Bags Hershey Bliss Chocolate
2 Hershey Bliss Bars
6 CFL GE Energy Smart Light Bulbs
1 Pack Nexcare Kids Bandaids
1 Pack Bandaid Brand Kids Bandaids
5 boxes Market Pantry Fruit Snacks
1 Bag Nature's Valley Nut Clusters
1 bottle Air Wick Spray3
3 2 Liter Cokes
3 Small Haagen Daz Ice Cream
1 Small Eucerin Daily Skin Care
1 Roll Bounty Paper Towels
1 Bottle Dove Shampoo
1 Bottle Suave Kids Shampoo
1 Small Bag Tidy Cats Liter
1 Bag Welchs Fruit Snacks
1 Tide 36 oz Stain Release
1 Large Pack Huggies Wipes Refill
1 Up and Up Childrens Liquid Tylenol
3 Packs All Beef Oscar Meyer Franks
__________________________
Total Before coupons and earned gift Cards: $172.41 (includes tax)
Total after coupons and redeemed gift cards: $111.00 (includes tax)

Total savings: $61.41

Gift Card Savings comprised (earned by purchasing certain products) $15.00
Coupon savings comprised $46.41

Publix:

This was not by any means the best I have done at Publix but still a good savings.

1 Birthday Balloon
1 Publix Milk
1 Hillshire Farms Kelibasa (5 pack)
1 Hillshire Farms Smoked Sausage (5 pack)
1 Silk Soy Milk
2 Betty Crocker Supreme Brownies
1 Wesson Oil
2 Ruffles Potato Chips
1 Publix Whole Fryer Chicken
2 Motts Apple Juice
2 Fiber One Bars
1 Land O Lakes Spreadable Butter
1 Publix Salted Sweet Cream Butter
2 Right Guard Total Defense Deodorant
1 Publix Wheat Bread
2 dozen Egglands Best Eggs
2 Bordern American Singles
1 Knorr Mexican Rice Side
1 Off Skintastic Spray
1 Athena Canteloupe
1 Welch's Grape Jelly
_____________________
Total Before Coupons: $91.89
Total After Coupons: $57.50

Savings of: 34.39
Vendor Coupons comprised $10.20 savings
Store Coupons comprised $3.75 Savings
Special Price Savings comprised $20.44 savings

If you have any questions I'll be happy to do what I can to help. I'm still learning but it is definitely paying off!

~Stacie~

Hmmmmm

What's been going on? Well we've been very busy. Especially last week. The kids were out of school for two days after the flooding. Thankfully I am not aware of any major damage here in our town. I've seen some in another area nearby though and Nashville and Bellvue are in bad shape.

The house is still coming slowly but I think it will be picking up soon. Due to all the septic/house placement issues we had to change the structure of the basement. The side of the house we thought would be under the ground won't be and vise versa. The Superior Wall company we are using to build the basement will also be doing the excavation work and I hope will be starting on it this week. I'm optimistic. Hopefully once the basement is in things will really start to pick up. I've been looking at Hardie Board, brick and stone as well as front doors, windows and interior doors.

Derek has gotten a 31 year old Case lawn tractor from his parents. They've been saving it for him. They still have the original receipt! He is excited about fixing it up. I guess there are plenty of people who devote time to restoring them. He won't be doing too much work on it until the house is finished mainly just making sure it is running good.

Caleb had a field trip last week to Kentucky Down Under. It was really neat. He was able to pet a Kangaroo!! We did lots of other interesting, educational and fun things. I was very glad I was able to go with him. I was also able to go to a mother's day "tea" held at the school for the moms of the kindergarteners. Lily did a great ob singing her song and on all her crafts she had made for me. It was precious!

Well I guess that's all for now. I've had quite a few successful shopping trips lately. I'll try to post about them soon.

What have you been up to?

~Stacie~