Windows to the World!!

This old lady of a house was in desperate need of new windows.  Many had cracks, several wouldn't slide up and down, some were falling out of their frames... OK bunches were, and to protect ourselves from the winter, we had to cover them with a pretty thick plastic.  Imagine our surprise when the new windows arrived and were installed and we could actually see outside!!!  Which created another project - window coverings!

All of the windows made a huge impact - efficiency wise, and visually.  However, the kitchen window was a very exciting moment.  We decided to go with a much larger picture window for this particular window.  With some of the big changes we are making in the layout of the kitchen we really  need to be getting natural lighting wherever we can get it from.  

Here is the hole they made for this bad boy!

 Window is in!

Enjoying the view!

This is a very serious game!

After the windows were installed, which happened within a day and a half, the tedious work of wrapping the old trim work began.  It took several days to finish, but as you can see it has made a monstrous difference to the exterior of the house!

Before

After!

Before

After!

The Christmas Season

Amid the chaos of house reconstruction we had a very exciting Christmas Season!!  Please enjoy the menagerie of photographs!

Spaghetti Works and the Airforce Band 

Ruth Ann's treat!  We braved the snowstorm and drove to Omaha despite the scary weather!  It was amazing!

Back to our old stomping grounds to enjoy an afternoon with the Blackburns.

Whitney performed in the Grand River Valley Orchestra and Choir

Amazing performance!!

Our ward Redneck Christmas Party

Our costumes - Cousin Eddie on the left... Me - all I could muster was a holey old camo T, then we have three old farts, compliments of Ruth Ann who raided her husbands closet for the boys... And Gracie Anne - well some sort of princess and patriotic, camo sweat wearing critter.  Avery won 3rd place for his costume!

Our Christmas tree - 8 strands of lights and three trips to the store later!!  I think they are making those 100 light strands a lot shorter than they did 15 years ago when we first bought lights!

We even put up our little tree that we've used for the last 5 Christmases!  We had room!!

Christmas Day

Not many pictures - I fell asleep...

But there was a lot of this:

And a lot of this:

Trouble!

'Nuff said!

Their A Fixin' Ta Build Me a Pantry!

Jacob and Susan's Wedding

We were thrilled to be invited to an Amish wedding!  We'd never been to one before so that was exciting.  But more thrilling was that it was little Jacob and little Susan... who somehow have managed to grow up in the last six and a half years!

It was a wonderful experience, even though we didn't understand a single word that was said.  After the church meeting and ceremony we joined everyone over at Joe's for the afternoon meal.  I couldn't believe all of the food!  And it just kept coming!  Baked chicken, mashed potatoes, fresh and canned fruit, home made bread, salads, fresh churned butter, cakes, pies...  It was so good!

The meeting and the meals are segregated, in other words, the men sit and eat with the men and the women with the women.  The wedding party has its place with the tables set for the men.  Gracie Anne and I got to sit with a whole bunch of Joe's older sisters, which could have been lots of fun if there hadn't had been so much food, because I fully intended to learn about all of the trouble Joe managed to get himself into and tease him about it at a later time!  Lucky for Joe that my plate was full and I spent the majority of my meal enjoying the food and light conversation!

After the meal I had a wonderful time visiting with good friends and neighbors and catching up on what everyone has been up to during our hustle and bustle in Nebraska.  It was a great time!  And a good thing we needed to get heading back to Nebraska, because the evening meal, I was told, was even better than the afternoon meal... And I really wasn't sure that if we had stayed, I'd have room to enjoy any of it!

There's a Hole!

There's a hole in the bottom of my floor...

There are actually a whole bunch of holes throughout this holy house, of which I'm wholly excited!

Someday hot air will be blowing through these holes and we will have warmth in the dead of winter!

My Lil' Helper

Isn't she great?!

She is also a filthy mess!

Progress in the south bedroom moves slowly!  But at least it moves!  And at least I have some great help!

We are working on taping and mudding the new drywall.  I'm also working on some repairs to an old wooden bed frame I found when I went antique-ing with some good friends!  I picked up this set for $10.00!  The veneer needs a little attention, and I've also stripped the orginal finish off of it since a lot of it was flaking off.