Day Three

Yesterday was Day Three!! It was the first day I wasn't able to work with Ben....I had to go back to the real world of an office job. When Ben got to the house, he found that we had been the victims of our youth group....they put tons of political signs in our front yard and made a sign for us to keep....It says "Welcome to your new house. Hope every day is a New Day"--our church is New Day: The Church...so that is where that sentiment comes from. Ben was able to work with Brian (our youth minister) all day on demolition, then when he got the kids from school they were more than willing to help break down some walls! What kid doesn't want to swing a hammer into a wall and see it break into pieces? It was super fun for them! Ben also got the water turned on, and the electricity is now in our name. We have been advised to have Roto- Rooter come out before we start using the plumbing consistently...mostly because the house has been vacant for a year and a half, and there are lots of trees in the yard....we don't want to flood the basement with pipes that are blocked off from tree roots. So, I will try to get in touch with them today and see about getting them out there. Ben is moving the plumbing in the master bath and the extra bathroom upstairs....so I can have a bigger bathroom with a TUB, not just a stand-up shower. We are combining two of the upstairs rooms to make one big master bedroom with a walk-in closet and bigger bathroom. Annalisa's room is being rearranged a bit too....we broke out the existing closet to add area to the side of her room that will back up to our room....then on the other side of her room it is shaped a bit like an "L" and it is the perfect place for a walk-in closet for her. Mostly the guest room will stay the same. He also got the closet torn out of the basement to open it up more for the boys and he will be adding some shelving and half-walls for their clothes. All in all the work is going pretty quickly right now....when he has to run the wires for lighting it might slow down a bit though. There are no lights in the ceilings in the bedrooms or the living room. For some reason the contractors in CO think everyone wants to buy lamps and have those for their lighting purposes....what idiots!!

Be sure to check out the pics from each day under the Photos tab at the top of the page!

Day Two

We started the day off with Believer's Baptism at church. We had 6 people baptized, and it was awesome!! After church we changed into our work clothes, grabbed some tacos at Taco Bell, and headed over to the house for WORK!! Today we met some more of our neighbors who were very full of information about our new house. For instance, the house has been vacant for about a year and a half and the lady who lived there had 10 dogs that she kept locked up in the fireplace room. NICE! She also liked to feed any animal that would come around, so her yard was always full of raccoons....again, NICE! We got a lot of help from the youth group in the evening time. They are serious about demolition and they got quite a bit done in just a couple of hours. We worked upstairs and got all the ceilings scraped, all the carpet removed and wallpaper pulled off of walls. We also demolished a wall and downstairs removed tile from the bathroom and entryway. The students also began scraping the ceilings in the basement and that will probably be finished by Ben today. He will be working hard every day for a few weeks...until we can get moved in. Cole worked hard all day again and he is probably very sore today. I am sure he has some fun stories to tell his friends at school, though! Again, there are pics in the photos tab.

Day One

We closed on our house yesterday afternoon at 3:30 just as planned! It went really smoothly, and we are very thankful for that. Today we went over to OUR house :-) and started the work! We worked from about 11:30 this morning until 7:30 this evening. Jimmy came and helped us until about 3:00 or so, and he did a great job. Today we got all the popcorn scraped from the ceilings on the main floor as well as all the carpet pulled up. We also took the ugly gold cover off the fireplace and took the huge mirrors off the wall in the dining room. In the pictures you will see that there has been some water damage in some areas, but Ben will fix that. We found out the house has been vacant for about a year and a half....that's why the yard looks so horrible, but we will fix that later! Most of the pictures were taken by Cole because he wanted to be in charge of the camera, but I also took some of them. Cole was a huge help! He wanted to do some of everything. Jacob was happier just playing with the tools in the garage and skateboarding. Annalisa was upset that she wasn't big enough to help! Just click on the Photos tab to go to the photo album of pics. I will try to have more tomorrow!!

Good News and More Poetry

So, the closing on our house is set to be tomorrow at 3:30! We are so excited about this, and we plan to spend the weekend getting the house cleaned up. We have a few projects we need to complete, which will all totally depend on how much money we have left because the plans we had last year for buying a house (when we sold our house in Kilgore) have all changed for various reasons, and now we are doing our best with what we have been blessed with. We are hoping to paint, change all the carpet (HAS TO BE DONE NO MATTER WHAT), and add a few walls in various places. It will be so nice once we are finished! I can't wait!
I also stole Cole's poetry notebook again and will post a few of the poems he has written. The first one is untitled....he didn't finish it, and he wasn't really excited about me reading it--mostly because it is a very sensitive subject for him--the accident.

Family gathers around
jet skis in water
my dad gets on and
I get on too
We start to go
a bad mistake we
made as an
unexpected BOOM
comes over the water
paramedics come as we
are taken away with
broken jet skis still floating

This next poem is called Poetry Hides and I think he wrote it over a period of time in class. I like the descriptions he puts in it.

Poetry hides in the cotton ball clouds as they soar like eagles in the sky
Poetry hides in raindrops as they sky dive into puddles
Poetry hides in the running of a river as it sings a beautiful song
Poetry hides in the glimmer of the moon as it reaches down the road
Poetry hides in the wheat fields as the wheat dances with the wind
Poetry hides in the laugh of my sister as she has fun
Poetry hides in the strict voice of my dad as he tells me what to do
Poetry hides in the thump from my brother as he stomps down the stairs
Poetry hides in the glimmer of my nana's eyes as she says good-bye
Poetry hides in my mom's smile as she tells me good job.
Poetry hides in the voice of my papa as he says "Come here."
Poetry hides in my great-grandma's soft hands as she wraps around me like an octopus
Poetry hides in a waterfall diving into the life below
Poetry hides in the aroma of a daisy as the smell dances around my nose
Poetry hides in the rumble of an earthquake as it cracks through the road

The last poem I will share is the one he wrote for Nanny. I just think it is so special that he is old enough to know her well, and has had the opportunity to get some of those thoughts on paper.

Flour color curly hair
Flour color curly hair
Flour color curly hair

board pieces clack as I
get "kinged"
cards smack down as we play
Uno
scrambled eggs hiss on
the pan as they are cooking

Happiness flows through me
as I go to her house
she is another mom
to me

Sparkling glasses hide behind
pages
Clean ironed pants dance as
each step is taken

Flour color curly hair
Flour color curly hair
Flour color curly hair

I will write more about the house as we get in, and I will post "before and after" pictures of the work as it progresses. Thank you to all of you who have prayed with us over this summer that we would find a place. We are definitely blessed to have such good friends. May God bless you as He continues to bless our family.

Poetry

It's hard for me to believe that my firstborn child is growing up so fast! Cole is now in the 5th grade,10 years old and impressing me more and more every day with his abilities. His teacher is making them keep a poetry notebook this year. I think I was in 5th grade when I wrote my first poem. I wrote all through high school, and still have the book with all of my poems in it, but I stopped writing when I went to college. Some of the poems in Cole's poetry books are poems they have to copy, and some are poems they have written themselves. He wrote a poem about Nanny (Ben's grandmother) that brought tears to my eyes. He was glad I was crying because he told me, "Mrs. Alden said our poetry is supposed to bring about emotion in people." This morning he showed me a poem that I thought he had copied from someone else. He didn't. He wrote it on his own. He was supposed to write from the viewpoint of a tree that was close to where he lives. Currently we are living in our pastor's basement and in their backyard is a Blue Spruce, which is what Cole wrote about. I was impressed that he even knew it was a Blue Spruce!

Blue Spruce

I am always blue
As I look upon you
I will remain here
No matter what

I tower above you mortal man
For I will live forever
You can trust me
I will not lie
Or let a secret out
No matter what

You can touch me I will not hurt
I won't flinch I won't cry
I won't even die
No matter what

From seed to birth
I remain here
Until the end
No matter what

I just wanted to share it because I thought the language shows how mature Cole is getting and the thoughts he is able to get onto paper and convey to others. There are more poems that I am sure I will share at another point, but this is the only one I could steal away from him this morning before he left for school!

Another Setback

So, even though the court date for our house has been set for the past two weeks, when the attorneys got there today they decided they weren't ready to deal with our case. Therefore, no signature is on our paperwork. They have now moved our court date to Sept. 18th. The bank has said they will accept our offer on the house through Sept. 26th, which means we have to close before then. HOPEFULLY the attorneys will have everything in order by the 18th and can sign the piece of paper they need to sign so we can get a house! We were thinking we would be closed by the end of next week, but that won't be happening.

Photos Tab

Just a small post to let you know the "Photos" Tab at the top of my page now redirects to a site I created through Shutterfly for you to view all the photos I upload. Check it periodically to see what new photos I may have uploaded!

Getting Closer!!

So, for those of you who are interested in what is happening with the Newton's house hunting adventure......we are getting closer to closing on a house!! Tomorrow is set to be the court date for the house. Apparently whoever lived in the house died because it is now owned by the city, and they have to sign off on the paperwork. That has been one thing that has taken a long time in this whole process. Well, tomorrow is supposed to be the day!! Then, we have been told we can close very shortly after that!! The only thing that could stop us from being able to close is if the FHA inspection does not go through. So please pray with us that everything goes smoothly with that. It is scheduled to be done either this Friday or early next week. Before we can move in, though, some minor things must be done. The carpet has to be replaced, but since we like paint on the walls we will paint before the new carpet is put in. Ben is going to do a little remodeling also before the new carpet is put in, so even if we close next week we may not get to move in for a few weeks after that, but either way it should be soon!! We have been living in the basement for 3 months now, and we are ready to be able to send the kids to their rooms again! But, when we say we have been in the basement for 3 months, we know that means we are 3 months closer to getting our own house! This has been a good learning experience for our children, though and they know that God will provide for and care for His children even if it is in ways that we didn't expect. I have posted the few pics of the house that I could get off the internet in hopes that everything does work out and we do get this house.