Six Months

Yes, it has been that long since my last update! Thats what happens when you get a job after not working for six years!! I literally came home from work and took a nap every day. But now its summer and I have no excuse.
Here are some updates before I share some pictures:
Darrell is now working the midnight shift. He works all night and sleeps a lot during the day. We also are working on our church house renovations every day.
Our beloved property in Hillsville is now for sale. It took a lot of prayer, but we felt like its the right thing to do. The money we will get from that sale will be used for more exciting things. So much better than an empty piece of property.
Liberty will be in the 1st grade and school starts on August 22. We thought we might home school this year but we will be in school again. I will be teaching 3rd and 4th grade. We are both very excited.
As for our house, which was formally a school and then a church, is coming along very slowly. We have had issues with permits and it seems like the kinks are working out and we should be able to go full force very soon. For now we have only been able to just take down the 3 layers that were on the walls and just do small things. This will be such a great place when we are finished. Here are some pictures.





This is the great room that faces the front. We took all that wood paneling down to find drywall. Under the drywall we found tongue and groove wood.
Here it is before we did anything.
This is the room facing the back. The kitchen will be behind where Liberty is standing.
Another shot of the front of the great room. This is a typical old church. It still stinks like "old" even with all the wall layers down and the carpet out.
Here is a view from the outside. They blasted out the side of a mountain so there isn't much yard space. The back has a lot of gravel that we can turn into a yard. We have a lot of property on top of the hill and down the back behind. This is the wintertime view. Right now there are so many big trees on top and to the side by the road.
Here was the 2nd layer of wall.

Here is one of the bedrooms. There are two rooms side by side that are the exact same size.

This is what our wood floors look like at this point. When we took up the carpet there was so much thick glue. Its been nice right now because it is protecting the wood from the renovation. Soon we will have to deal with this mess. The floors appear to be in really good shape for 1950's.

And here is one more view of that last layer of wood on the walls. Today we finished with all the wood on the walls. It looks completely different. The next step will be to take down the same wood off the ceiling. Then the whole place will be completely gutted.
Its coming along. I hope you enjoyed the pictures. Hopefully it will be looking a lot better within the next few months.

2011

Its only the 3rd but already there is change in the air. I've got a job! And Liberty is enrolled in school! Who would have thought!

I told you God was doing big things here. He continues to surprise us with where He is taking us. We've only been gone 10 months and it just feels like we different people.

So, I have been subbing at our church's christian school and I guess they just like having me around. Ha, just kidding. For some reason the administrator wanted me to be here everyday just filling in around the school wherever I am needed. I love this place and was so excited to be here. Liberty is enrolled in Kindergarten with one of the best teachers ever. Today is her first day and wouldn't you know, she got stuck with me as her teacher. Wednesday will be the real day when I drop her off at her classroom and let her go. Well, not really because I'm in the same building. Well, in the same hallway. Lets just say I will be really really close. I love what God is doing here.

In other news Darrell came home early Friday after a major explosion at work. I mentioned praying for our safety in my last post. If you prayed, thank you so much. God had His hand on that place because Darrell said its amazing that the fire didn't reach the gas tanks that were in that area. The whole building would have went up in flames if that had happened. Fortunately nobody died in that explosion but two men were badly burned and were life-flighted in critical condition. Darrell was extremely shaken up. Needless to say that we had a sobering New Year.

I'll try to get more pictures of Liberty on here soon. She just grows and grows. She is such a smart girl and her artistic side has really taken off.
Hope all is well with each of you.
Happy New Year

Christmas and more snow

I didn't get one single picture at Christmas. We took all video. Thats what I get for handing the camera to Darrell. We had a nice quiet Christmas. We got a Wii from Darrell's parents. Needless to say that my arms have been very sore lately.
We did get a lot of snow on Christmas day and many days after. Liberty and a neighbor girl made a snowman. Darrell spray painted on the eyes and mouth. It looks very scary.

2011 looks like it could be another year full of changes. Hopefully nothing too drastic. I think we are still recovering from all the 2010 changes. This time last year I never would have thought God was about to turn our lives upside down. I can't even imagine what He is capable of this coming year.

We could always use prayer up here. We are so happy here but there are still some very hard things. One specific thing is safety. With each new snow there is more of a chance of an accident. We are still very wary of driving on snow and ice. They do a good job of keeping the main roads clear but there are a lot of roads that are still very slippery.

Hopefully by the end of January I can post pictures of a place we are trying to buy. It will need some work, but I think its a great place.

Here are a few pictures taken in the last few weeks.
Warning: Scary snowman ahead...

Snow!

Praise the Lord we made it to church in this stuff! There was one time I cried out to Jesus and we didn't end up in the ditch.

It was so beautiful coming down. But it just keeps coming down!
Back to church tonight. More sliding sideways down the mountain!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to a great Husband, Daddy and Man of God

Have I ever said how much I love living in the mountains? Of course these pictures are at least a week old. I've learned that the leaves change every single day. It had been a few days since I left the house this last time and driving down the main street I was blown away by the golds, oranges and reds.
I've heard that the leave change isn't as brilliant this year. Something to do with the very hot summer and dry weather we've had.

We've been pretty busy these past few weeks. Darrell's hours have cut back a little. He still works pretty much 7 days a week, but only 8 hours now instead of 12.

Our living situation is going ok. Obviously we are ready to get out of here. The blessing is that this house is a very good size. We have the whole upstairs and we have a lot of space. Also, we believe that the Lord worked this out for a purpose. We can see small details come together to bring us where we are right now. Does that mean we like running out to the store every other day for this guy? No. We are a little tired of it. A lot tired of it.

But then things happen and we know we are here for good reason whether we like it or not. He fell yesterday on the hard tile kitchen floor. He has no feeling in one of his feet. Its hard for him to get around. Thankfully Darrell was here to help him. Last time he fell off the front porch and I was the one helping him up. Not fun. So, he needs someone.

He is also very lost, I believe. He will tell you that he is a Christian. But a lot of people believe they are Christians. Of course we can't know for sure because we don't know his heart. But he has some weird beliefs about science, the Trinity, creation and lots of other topics.

So, our season of living in this house has its purpose. But our human hearts have had enough.

But while I am here I will enjoy this view from my bedroom window.



The princess will be starting ballet on Monday. This is a huge answer to pray in so many ways. I am so thankful she will get to experience this. It is something we've been talking about for a few months and finally I just made the call last week. She is beyond thrilled as I'm sure you can imagine. I will be snapping pictures the whole hour.
I will not, however, be like the lady I read about who actually went in the studio with her daughter and did all the moves with her to make her feel more at ease. She must have gotten some special momma gene because NO WAY!

We have also been looking at houses. (If you don't know about this, scroll down to the previous post.) Well, we've only really looked at one house. We are hoping to put in an offer tomorrow! Then if that offer gets accepted we will be putting in months and months and months of blood (hopefully not), sweat and tears. Next time I post we will know if we got the house. Then I will tell you all about it. I don't know if I want to post pictures or not. Its not pretty, but it will be by the time we are ready to move in. Maybe I will just wait and post before and after pictures.

Autumn

I thought it might be time for an update. Who ever put me in charge of this blog anyway? I'm terrible at it!!
Its Fall here, yall. I have no words to describe the beauty of this season here. I tried to take some pictures on my way to church last week. They didn't turn out very good and I had to put it away since I was trying to drive at the same time.



Darrell's grandmother passed away last week, so we made the 3 hour trip over. It is some of the most beautiful scenery I've ever seen. We are headed in that direction later today so I will be sure to bring the camera.
I'm not kidding when I say I wake up everyday feeling so blessed to be here. The crisp weather and the crunchy leaves make me so happy. I'll let you know how I really feel when the snow comes!

Now this little, big girl...



She's quite the little student. After only a few short weeks of school, she has begun to read. She's not sure of herself yet, and I don't think its clicked in her brain, but she's reading. I am so proud of her. Her first day of school was spent in a real school. Our church's school needed a sub for the Kindergarten class and I was able to bring Liberty along for the ride. She loved it. Am I allowed to say that she was above and beyond the other students in that class?


Here is a side by side from last year. No tan this year! That is what happens when Margaret Vanaman's pool is no longer 5 minutes away!








Darrell's job is going extremely well. I can't remember if I mentioned that he did get hired on in a permanent, full time position. That makes things a little less stressful for him. He loves his job and says its very easy. But boy is he working. There were a few weeks that he got in 84 hours. He was told there would be a lot of overtime, and they were not joking. Its a blessing though. He will turn 42 at the end of this month and he's not very happy about it. Apparently it has hit him that he is indeed growing older. Wanna hear something funny? He's getting some of his hair color back. I don't know how, but the top is the same shade as the year we were married. I thought I had done my job in making him completely gray, but I guess I slacked off a little.

It seems that sometimes God's ways are not our ways. After much prayer and more prayer and a little more prayer it seems that we are taking a detour in our plans.

We have decided to buy a house in this area. We are holding onto the property because it will take a lot of prompting from the Lord to sell it.

Our property is over an hour away from our church and Darrell's job. We really didn't want to have to drive that far. Our hearts are still in Hillsville, but we have a peace that we are doing the right thing.

God is really growing us and working in our hearts and we believe that He led us here for a reason. We don't know if this was His plan from the beginning. We do know that we were so closed minded for so long that it took a lot for God to open our eyes. Our hearts are very open these days as we long to hear God's voice directing us.

It is a scary thing to move to a town where you don't know a soul. It is terrifying when you lose not one, but two jobs in the same year. And it is hard when so many little detailed things go wrong and you don't have anywhere to turn. Well, it should have been scary, terrifying and hard.
We don't know where we will end up. But we look back and we can see God's hand in even the smallest details. And He has brought us exactly where we need to be.

That is not all...

We have some even bigger plans in the works. Ok, God has some even bigger plans in the works. I hate to leave you hanging, but trust me when I say that won't wait a second longer than we have to.

But please, please pray for us. God has to move mountains to make this happen.

Love to everyone!
~Cindy