Christmas in Iowa - 2007

Well the holidays are almost over. Just one more "holiday" to go, and Andrew's birthday (29.....he's almost old!) We went to Andrew's family for Christmas and spent the day with Grandma Shirley and all the cousins. Thought I would post some pictures for you.



Here's Grandma Shirley and Andrew!



And Nathan. If any of you remember him, he was the ring bearer in our wedding. My, what a difference 4 years makes!



Well I hope you all have had a wonderful holiday! Merry belated Christmas, may you know the reason for the season and have a wonderful New Year!

Oh my gosh, we are finally finished! :)

Ok so after two years, and a few soap operaish moments (ie Andrew trying to chop his arm off with the chop saw, instead of the piece of wood he was attempting to cut), our basement is finally finished! Unfortunately, I don't have any before pictures (bad me! I have an excuse. I didn't have a camera until July of this year!!!) So you'll just have to use your imagination as I describe how it USED to be.

When we moved in back in November of 2005, you would walk into the room and half of the room was just the cement wall and the other half was covered in the 70's most popular style of wood paneling! The stairs were completely closed in so you had about a doorway's amount of room to get into them and it was just one big huge dark, dirty room. The furnace and hot water heater were just sitting one side of the room, completely open.

So we decided to take the one big room and give us 4 smaller rooms. One room became a storage area. We moved the washer and dryer hook ups to a different corner and made the 2nd room a laundry room/utility area. The third room enclosed another small storage space while closing in the hot water heater and furnace. The largest room is now our third "living room." We already have a family room and formal living room upstairs. Our already large 1700 square foot house just became an even larger 2000 square foot house. Yikes. I don't know what to do with all the space! We already got lost in all the space we had before. We also knocked out half the wall along the stairway in order to make a nice bannister area.

Adding all of this space also allowed us to move the office from our third bedroom to the basement. So we now have two guest bedrooms! :) I am so thrilled. It looks wonderful. Andrew did the bulk of the work with help from my father, his father, our friends Mike, Paul and John, my mother and I. So... Here are some pics!

Snow!

We had our first snowstorm of the year on Thursday! Didn't amount to much, but I love inclement weather! Everything but regular boring old rain. That's just boring. Freezing rain is expected today. I'll post some photos if it gets to be anything good. Too bad it's cancelled our Christmas party for this evening, but oh well. A nice day to just sit inside and look at all the pretty snow and freezing rain!

I have to brag.

Andrew just landed his student teaching assignment! He begins January 7, 2008! I am so proud of him and know that he will be the best teacher! He will be working with a kindergarten class at a school near our church.

Yay!




My Hero.

So it's been awhile

Ok. I realize it's been almost a month since I last posted. But you have to forgive me, I've been incredibly busy!

To start, at the end of October and the beginning of November, I had a total of 2 weeks out of the office and away from home. So I get back in town, for the first full week in the office and at home and catch up. Then I have a half week because of the holidays. One day of the holidays was spent with my parents and brother, then one day with some of Andrew friends from out of town, then 2 days up in Iowa with his parents and to see his grandma who is unfortunately in the hospital. We found out that week that she broke her knee and had a softball sized tumor in that area! It also unfortunately came back that it was malignant. But at last word, they found that it was just localized to that area and have since removed the tumor, so the hope is that all is out now and she will make a full recovery! We are continuing to pray for her, but at this point in time it appears all will be well.

So I get back from that trip and then I have to leave immediately for Huntsville for business for 3 days. So that puts me to the end of November already! And immediately upon my return, I am working like mad in my family room and my basement! For Christmas, my parents have completely remodeled my old wood paneling room. (pictures will be posted as soon as it is completed!) And our basement is at the point of needing carpet so we had to do the last minor detail work (staining the bannister, painting the doors, painting the trim, covering the ugly poles in the middle, cleaning it out of all the junk that has been used to work on it).

And now, I have to find the time to sit down and write out a Christmas letter (We've been married coming up on 4 years and have yet to send out Christmas greetings) and create an invitation to our New Years party!! Oh and somewhere in the last month, I had to go visit friends of ours who just had a baby! Well I didn't have to go, but who can pass up looking at little ones?? I won't say it was easy keeping the green eyed monster at bay, because it wasn't, but was worth it in the end.

Yes I still struggle with the whole miscarriage thing. I keep thinking that I'd be 6 months along now and probably showing. Every time I hear of another pregnancy successfully carried to term, I want to just cry. But my day will come and I am determined to leave it in God's hands and rely on Him to provide us with the children we want when the time is right. There must have been some reason that I had to go through this and I am just waiting on God to show me why.

Andrew is still looking for a place to student teach. We are praying it will be this spring so he can start teaching his own classroom next fall. I am keeping up the hope!! Pray for him on that! He is down to his last "class" before student teaching so it is very exciting that he is just that close to being done!

Well I think I wrote a book trying to catch you all up on the King's. Next blog will be with pics of my new family room and basement!

New Orleans Volume 3, 4 and 5!!

Yes, I know. You can yell at me now, I can take it. But I have a good reason to have not posted the remaining reports until now. That is I was soooooooooooo exhausted from sanding, painting (well priming) and ripping up floors that the last thing I wanted to do at 9 at night was think! So please accept my sincere apologies. Here are the updates!

Well Wednesday, Thursday and Friday consisted of the same tasks as before. We began priming the house on Wednesday while Leanne and Dennis continued sanding and adding more mud to the already indecent amount that was currently on the walls. Of course, this was after Leanne took off the 3 inches of mud so that Dennis could add the final coat. Three of us went off to a different house to install cabinets, so that left 8 of us to finish up in the shotgun house. We finished by Thursday afternoon.



On Friday, since we finished early on the shotgun house, we headed to a different house that was right behind one of the canals that broke. Forgive me please, I don't remember which one it was. This house ended up being placed on cinderblocks to prevent further flooding should an event of Katrina's magnitude strike again. However, judging from the water line on the house, it seems that this area also received 6-8 feet of water before it was all said and done.



We spent the morning here pulling up the original subflooring. Boy was that fun! Destruction has an odd way of being much more fun than construction! :) Don't ask me why, it just is.













And last, but not least, here is a photo of most of the crew. This crew was the one that worked in the houses.




Linda's phone-dialing skills have been given a workout, as she's been spending most of her time contacting clients. She's heard some really heartening stories as well as some sad tales. Over and over again she has heard how much people appreciate the work of the volunteers who come to help them. It is good to know that we really do make a difference in the lives of people.

Peggy and Joyce served us just wonderful meals. They received a much deserved break on both Wednesday and Thursday nights as the church provided the meals that night. Neither one was as good as the food that Peggy and Joyce cooked up for us!!

We all arrived home safe and sound on Saturday evening. We were all exhausted but gratified by the experience of helping to return two more families to their homes. There is much to be done still, and we are looking at again going back next spring.

New Orleans Volume 2

Day 2 down! Today we spent the majority of the day sanding and mudding. Our goal is to get to the priming by tomorrow so that we can begin painting before we leave! We all arrived clean and spiffy and left looking like we had massive dandruff and Pig Pen's brother/sister.

Above shows a combination of mudding and sanding! What fun!

To the right, is more mudding. The house is what is known as a double shotgun. It is a duplex with the separate houses running side by side in a long and narrow passage. They appear to be one bedroom, maybe two bedroom houses with a kitchen and living area on either side of the bedrooms. We don't know too much about the home owners yet, we haven't had a chance to meet them, unfortunately. We do hope to!

After we did as much as we could do today (we had to wait for the mud to dry before we can move onto the next step!) we decided to take a couple of the newbies on a trip of the devastated areas of the city. There is still MUCH to be done, but we were very heartened to see that many areas are starting to come back. We visited the house that we worked on last November and were thrilled to see the homeowner is finally back in the house! It just made our day! I'll post a lot of the photos on my facebook site, but here are a few:












Linda spent a good part of her day talking to clients. She talked to one lady who is back in her home, and another who is close. It's so good to see that people are putting their lives back together.

Now we are waiting rather patiently (so I say, but I know I'm not waiting patiently!) for a wondrous meal of roast beef, potatoes and yummy chocolate cake. Needless to say, we are NOT going hungry. :)

New Orleans Volume 1

Well we made it!!!! After a grueling 16 hour or so drive, we arrived in New Orleans around 10:30 this morning. After receiving our marching orders, we headed off to a house on the eastern side of the city. Talking to locals, it seems that this area had about 6 to 8 feet of water. Our particular house is not far from the 17th Street canal, which if I remember correctly, was one of the first canals to fail.

So here's the house. 6-8 feet I would estimate is right above the window unit air conditioners. So this house had to be gutted entirely, from the ceiling to the floors. All of the electrical, plumbing and sheet rock hanging has been done, so we are doing the finishing work. This is a duplex, and our goal is to have both sides as far done as primed by the time the week ends.



So tomorrow, it's more of the same!

Linda is working at the Eastbank Station office again. She spent the afternoon contacting clients to see how they're doing, and if they need additional help. She's glad to report that one person told her that her family is back in their home and that her file could be closed. In the "small world" department, she spoke to a man who is handling details about his parents' house. He is a member of St. Matthews. Another client thanked us for coming to help, and promised to pray that we would arrive home safely.

Joyce and Peggy cooked a scrumptious meal of spaghetti and meatballs. With such good food, we are all bound to be adding a few pounds!

Stay tuned! New Orleans Volume 2 will be coming tomorrow, same place, same time!

Jam Session

Yay! Jam session!

Nothing new to report. Our church had a jam session the other night and thought I'd post some of the photos. It was a blast. I love music! Some day I'll be good at it! :-D






Awww look at the cutie pies! :)

Bored!

I'm bored and I have nothing to report. Just watching NCIS and half listening to Dave Ramsey. He's probably the only celebrity I'd want to meet. At least he's got his head screwed on straight. Trying to find out more about this guy I heard on his show today. Wrote a book for teachers and budgeting, etc. But of course it's on during the day when I can't really listen to him since I'm working during the time.

Spent the evening working on the church budget. Yes, somehow, someway I am doing things with MATH. Who would have ever thought that I would be working with numbers?!

These crazy kids keep riding this little motorcycle up and down the street in the dark with no lights. How can they do that? I'd be scared! :)

Ok I'll let you go now. This has to be the most boring blog ever!! :-D

Another class down

I just finished my Arizona Constitution Class. It was a very accelerated class, had to write several essays and answer several discussion questions. I am glad it is over. How on to the next class, U.S. Constitution. It seems like it is going to be just as much work. After that I have a few weeks off until I should be starting my Student teaching. From there it is over, finally I will have my Master's in Elementary Ed. Just hoping I can get all the Student Teaching stuff worked out.

Rainy Saturday

Ok so our daily blogging is severely lacking. Sorry!! I won't promise to get better, only because I know I probably won't be able to. I don't have enough to report on anyway, so you'll just have to live with once a week! :)

So another uneventful week. Andrew and I decided to have a date night. I can't remember the last time we did that, but it was definitely a good idea. Dinner and a movie and some shopping! :) We saw The Heartbreak Kid. Honestly would not recommend it. I felt it was a sad description of our society today. All about this guy who is over 40 and not married yet. Meets a girl who seems very nice, but after 6 weeks, marries her and they leave for their honeymoon. Now the entire premise of the movie is that she becomes a horror and he quickly decides he made a mistake. Now, with the exception of some questionable sex and grooming habits, nothing she does, in my mind, indicates a horror! She gets very sunburned out of stubbornness (ok who of us HAVEN'T refused to do something our spouse or significant other said we should out of sheer stubbornness?) She has a deviated septum, which he later finds out was from a previous coke habit and she doesn't actually have a job, but volunteers instead. And that's it! In my opinion, none of those are deal breakers! Those are the things you accept about a person when you choose to enter into a life with them! Ah well, maybe I'm strange. Maybe that's why my marriage will last? Anyway, the night was a good night and I really enjoyed it!

Today was a cool, rainy day. Very rainy. Probably around 4 inches of rain fell around our house today. Which stinks, because we haven't had the dirt work around our house done yet, so we had water in our basement for the 2nd time this year! We actually have a person coming to do the dirt work, but he must have gotten caught on a job he was doing this week so hasn't had a chance to get out to our house yet. I seriously hope that solves our problem so that we can finally finish the basement off! It will be so nice once it's done! On the upside, it's completely dry already.

I wanted to post the video below. When you get a chance, check it out. These children are extremely creative. I just bawled when I watched it. They really have the essence of it down. I remember well being their age and thinking I had it all figured out! :) Then life happened, but I certainly hope they do much better at hanging in there.




Anyway, enjoy! I wish all of you the best. Keep in touch.

Lisa

Another week down

Well hello there. I know, I know, it's been awhile, but hey! I've been busy. I had three days off to recover from AstriCon before heading back to work and during that time, Andrew decided to share his cold with me. You know, I understand the idea behind sharing, and I'm all FOR sharing in most cases. But this one? He coulda kept it.

So anyway, it's been a very uneventful week. The most exciting thing that happened was on Tuesday, when I went to do a load of laundry, the washing machine quit working on me. Of course when Andrew gets home and I show it to him, what does it do? Work perfectly. Figures. Oh well, we decided it was about time to get a new set anyway. Our dryer was probably 20 years old and the washer about 10 and missing a foot anyway. So Tuesday we bought the new set and it was delivered on Saturday. And let me tell you. We are a couple of dorks. You know what we did? We sat down in the laundry room and watched as the machine did the first load. And I mean watched. And walked out of the room and closed the door to see how quiet it was. And then back in to lift the lid to see what it was doing then. Yes, we are dorks. Ahh well, it's not like we get new things often, if ever. This is only the 2nd new appliance we've purchased, the first being our stove and then, how interesting is that???

So I'll sign off now. Back to watching "Hot Pursuit" and the dumb things people do when trying to run from cops.

Lisa

I'm FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!

So. It's over. Done. No more! Until next year anyway, but still. I can breathe!

The show went well. Only one hiccup, but it wasn't my fault so I'm not going to worry about it. I am SOOOO glad to be home. My week from, well you know what, started last Saturday when I flew from Kansas City to Phoenix. I met my comrades in arms at the hotel. These guys are the best. They make sure everything works and they do a wonderful job of it. If I need anything, they hop to it and make sure it gets done. They handle all the technical aspects of the show, the internet, AV issues, etc. Anyway, so we arrive on Saturday afternoon and get to the hotel. It's just gorgeous for Phoenix.



Yes, I know it's cloudy, and no it didn't rain. Anyway, Saturday evening was just a quick dinner at the Satisfied Frog. And no, I am not kidding.



So on Sunday, it was running around like mad getting all the supplies we would need. Things like Office supplies, etc. Leif's girlfriend, Paula, who was just awesome. She went out and dropped my graphics off at Fed Ex for me and did a wonderful job! She also cooked dinner for us!!! In fact, we only ate out two nights the whole trip! Between Paula and Bob (my logistics man. Bob makes my life so easy while I'm working these shows.)

Monday was more set up, along with Tuesday. Tuesday was so hilarious. One of my exhibitors sponsored a special area of the show and were trying to hang some signage in the room. Only problem was, there was no hammer. So the awesome banquets guys said, well we don't have a hammer, but we have a rock! So they hung the sign with some nails and, yes, a rock.



So anyway. The actual show consisted of 4 days. One pre-conference day, one tutorial day, during which the exhibits opened, and open reception for the exhibits (see below).



Followed by one and a half days of "conference." My main job consisted of running the registration desk, and making sure all rooms were set up right, speakers had all that they needed, and even that they showed up, exhibitors had all they needed, finding the right people when things broke and just making sure all activities went off as planned.

I'll post for you on my facebook sight, if you are interested, just some gorgeous nature shots from the resort. Just to give you a teaser:



I have no idea how to link you to my facebook sight. Hopefully you can find it! :)
And then home on Saturday again. And guess what, I get home and Andrew's not home! How rude! I'm gone for an entire week and he's not even home to greet me. The nerve! :) No really, he also had a trip to take, but his took him to Minnesota for a church meeting. Should be home later today, yay!

So anyway, I am going to go eat my dinner. Meatballs. Yum!

Another Wednesday

What did we do today? Let's see: I (Andrew), had to go to the Blue Springs school today to observe an Art teacher. I am thinking I should have went that route, become an Art teacher, as opposed to a Elementary classroom teacher. The kids were great, a lot of fun. Looks like it will be a busy weekend though. I have several things to get done for school, and Lisa has to go to Phoenix, AZ for a show for work.

Office Remodel

So I think I have finally figured out how to get the photos in properly! Yay! Go being bored on a Tuesday night and not wanting to work! So let's see how this works. Here is our office BEFORE we painted:




And now, after!



So go me! I will now pat myself on the back!! I even managed to resolve the wierd displaying that it was doing. By going between the HTML and the compose screens! Of course my knowledge of HTML is severely lacking, my last time working with it was in high school and that was 10 years ago!! (gulp)

Oh and before I go...I must shout out a Happy Birthday to Rob. Since he reads these after all. our one an only fan! :)

Lisa

The weekend is Here!!!!

Its the weekend, hold on though, nothing exciting going on, just sleeping in tomorrow. Need to finish fixing the celling that someone, not going to mention who, tried to fall through instead of taking the stairs down out of the attic. Another busy weekend with school though. Need to type a paper and get a resource chart finished. Lisa is getting nervous about her big conference that she set up,that is in Phoenix, ready for everything to slow down around here.

Another Monday

So another Monday has come and gone. And you know what, it wasn't half bad. Can't say anything particularly good happened, but in an effort to remain optimistic and positive, I'm not going to focus on the bad things, just the reality! Main points of interest were a doctor's appointment for Lisa. All should be ok, just trying to determine if recent going's on are still from the miscarriage or what. All we've read says it takes a while for a woman's body to get back to normal after an event like that, but it's been almost 2 months already! So just trying to make sure all is ok. Then the only other thing of interest is we dropped off loads of STUFF for a church garage sale. Stuff we no longer used, needed, whatever. Just stuff and it's better off going to a good cause, such as a church fundraiser, than sitting in my closet or basement in a box not being used. So blah. :) That's all I have to say.

Lisa

Eventful weekend

Lets see what did we do or get done this weekend? I stopped at Westlakes and bought a roll of Radiant Barrier for our house. Attempted to get it installed and stepped through the ceiling while in the attic. Never fear though, managed to get it repaired and the mess cleaned up. Now we need to finish the sheet rock work for the hole and then get it painted,
On a good note: Saturday my wife Lisa and I and couple other people from church were able to pick up 3 bags of groceries for the Community Services League.
Today after church we invited my wife's parents over for dinner and dessert to celebrate my wife's dad's birthday.

Wednesday

Well nothing new to report today. Down to 2.5 weeks till the big show and feel like I could scream. Don't know how to get it all done. If anyone has perfected a technique to make two of me, please let me know so I can borrow from it!

Lisa

As requested

Well, as a friend has insisted on having daily updates, here is our update. We had a busy weekend painting our 3rd bedroom, which serves as our office at the moment! We also got some more work done in our basement. Just need that dirt work around the back yard done and we can put carpet down! Yay!

Well, I tried adding photos in but for whatever reason, my computer just doesn't like me, so it keeps wanting to put it in sideways...note to self...don't take pictures in ways that aren't the normal way for the camera...sigh. So check back in a couple of days and hopefully I'll figure it out by then.

Otherwise, at the moment, I am sitting in my office eating my lunch and wishing away the day. One of these days, with God's help, I will learn to be satisfied with where I am in my life right now rather than always wishing for tomorrow.

Lisa

First blog!

So we are getting started with this whole blogging idea. As we are sitting here, debating what to post, it suddenly occurs to me that it's late! So what's new with the Kings? Let's see.

We were married almost 4 years ago! That is a crazy number to think about. Certainly doesn't feel like 4 years! We bought our first house 2 years ago even! Loving it. We bought a fixer upper and have been working like crazy to get the house to where it once was. We've renovated one of the bathrooms, landscaped the front yard, painted many of the rooms and are almost finished with "finishing" the basement. We are just waiting to get the backyard fixed before we finish entirely by putting carpet in the basement. Boy will the extra space be nice! As if we manage to spend enough time in any of the other rooms in the house, but hey, it's the thought that counts!

So Andrew is just one class away from completing his Master's in Elementary Education! All that stands between him and an actual teaching certificate and a classroom of tiny brains is two silly classes (Constitution classes, gag! Thought we finished with those in high school!) and student teaching. He's excited to begin the next phase of his life and be a positive influence on many of our local children.

Lisa is just frustrated! :) She's been working as an Event Planner for the last 2 years and suddenly finds herself 3 weeks away from the yearly conference. Boy how time flies when you don't WANT it to move. So, no fun relaxing time for Lisa until AstriCon is over at the end of September. Things are very interesting at the moment. There are big decisions to be made. Oh well. It's in God's hands, right where it should be.

So some of you know us pretty well, but you may not be aware of the most recent happenings in the King household. Unfortunately, not all of it is good. Back in early July, we were shocked to discover that we were expecting our first child. It would have been born in mid to late February. And by the time we finally got used to the idea (our own plans for having children were to start trying in about 2 years), Lisa flies to Alabama on business, and ends up in the hospital. Unfortunately, we lost the baby at only 3.5 weeks along. So just when you get used to it, and begin to get excited about it, you suddenly find yourself with out it. It's funny how something that you didn't necessarily expect to be having at the time, and then lose it as suddenly as you received it, then becomes the thing that takes up most of your desires. There is now a huge hole in our family, and all we can think about is trying to fill it (or probably more accurately, all Lisa can think about is trying to fill it!).

So hopefully we'll be able to keep up with a steady stream of blogging!