We are parents!!!

No I am not pregnant, that won't be for a while, years! But we do have three kittens living on our front porch. Here's the story....we bought a house and the house came with a cat. The cat was from the previous owner. We didn't feed the cat at first cause we didn't want the cat. However, the cat brought 3 kittens to us. So we started feeding the cat so we could keep the kittens alive and adopt them out. Then the cat went off and didn't return. We're not sure what happened to her but we became parents to three little kittens. They're about 4 weeks old, or that's what we are guessing. They are playing with each other, running around and hitting each other with their paws, and being all around very cute. We now take care of feedings and loving for these kittens. Everything they need is on us...it's crazy how we didn't care about a cat but can't stand the thought of letting these kittens suffer?? They are too cute and lovable I guess, and we know they can't fend for themselves like a grown cat can. Here's some pictures of our kids, can you see the resemblance??

The gray and white one. This one looks exactly like the mom cat.

The black with gray stripes one...

The all black one

All three playing, they are becoming very efficient at climbing the bike wheels.

That's what has been going on at our house this week. Worrying about kittens...and getting no work done on the house.

AHHHH...The first mortgage payment came!!!!!!

The first payment came a few days ago, I think it's setting in we own a house, especially now! I knew what it was going to be but I still cringed when I opened the envelope and saw it! Guess it just became reality that Ross and I own something (I can't get my mind completely around that reality yet) and we aren't throwing money down the black hole of renting anymore.

Anyways, we have been working hard and.....*drum roll*.....the living room is done! It feels really nice to have our bedroom and the living room done. Ross and I finished it up this past Monday! We have moved furniture that night and just sat there a while making sure we really finished it. We can't believe it's been going so fast! But it's nice. :-D Here are some pictures of the process...

Taking off our cardboard molding.

Four rows in, this was by far the hardest part because of the fire place and two vents we had to deal with.

Moving along, fast at this point because there was one cut per row. GOD is good!

We put in a time capsule, well more like the news from that day. Maybe one day someone will find it.

Almost there!

This was about 11pm/midnight on Monday, we were so close we just finished it off.

Done! And GOD is awesome, we didn't have to rip any boards in a half for the kitchen or entry.

Finished!

We moved our stuff in, this isn't the places they are going but it was in and Ross could put the Jeep in the garage!

This weekend is more working on the house! My parents are coming in town this weekend to help up finish flooring the bedrooms, so by the end of this weekend you won't be able to see sub-floor at all!! *Does Kc dance* I'm uber excited and so is Ross. It'll be nice to walk around and not have to put your shoes on anywhere. The other good news is we over bought in bamboo so we maybe able to wood some areas we wanted to do wood but sacrificed for money 's sake, like the entry and hall outside our room! Which would be amazing!!! :-D

Ross and I haven't been doing much but working our jobs and working on the house. Although this past Thursday our small group had a Girls Night. So everyone came to our "house in progress" and we did a cookie exchange. They were all forewarned about how messy our house was and it's state. But they loved seeing it and being here anyway! It was fun just to hang out with all of them. All of our schedules are sooooo busy it's hard to get us all together. But, who can resist eating cookies and home made junk food?? That was a very nice break for me to not to have to come home from work to work on the house. Soon the major work on the house will be done and I think I'm going to miss it. GOD has really used this time of working to bring Ross and I together. He's used it as time to learn to work together better then we've done before (we did great before but improvement is alway a plus). And GOD's used it to slow us down from our crazy lives. Wood only goes down so fast and paint takes a while to dry!! I can look back on the month and see where GOD has truly blessed us; but at the same time taught us to trust Him more.

Here's what's left....
1. Wood the two extra bedrooms and hall
2. Use rest of wood to do entry and possibly other hall
3. Killz extra bedrooms and kitchen
4. Paint entra bedrooms, extra bath, hall, entry, and kitchen
5. Clean out garage so Ross can claim it as his.
6. Start putting holes in our lovely walls.... :-( to hang pictures.... :-) (It's good and evil thing!)
7. Look for tile because it's the next major project

One last picture for you, I forgot to put up pictures of the finished master bath so here they are...

Here's the double vanity and the master bedroom closet is on the right.

Here's the toilet and shower of our bathroom.

I took the plunge

Ross and I decided to start a blog, I resisted for the longest time but I was worn down. We did monthly updates for while but I always missed something so here's to not missing anything we do!! Hopefully I can keep up with this, pray that I do.

So here's a update on what we've been doing....

We've been married a little over a year and we're still loving every minute of it! I have finished my first year at Southeastern seminary. We have bought a house and moved. I have started working at the Twisted Fork again as well as a nanny for a 3 year old. Ross is still at Leith Honda and trying to change shifts. Right now he works 12-9pm, but he would love to work 8-5p. Pray that that happens soon. And I have taken and successfully finished my first 4 day summer class.

My first year at seminary was full of ups and downs. It was much harder than I thought it would be. But God taught me a lot about trusting Him. I learned so much about counseling, it definitely increased my passion for it. I got to take a marital and premarital counseling class, that made me want to go into that type of counseling. This year I also changed my major, (I know I got all the way through college without doing it why start now?) well I went from a Master of Divinity to a Master of Arts. I am still in the counseling program, I just found out I have to take a lot of classes that are not required by the seminary to be licensed by the state. All these extra classes mean I'll be here until 2011. God is teaching me patience along with a lot of other things in this journey.

The house we bought is a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1330 sq ft house. It was foreclosed on and needed work, lots of work. We are in the process of making it ours. Each room is getting painted and new flooring. Slowly new lights will go up and we will figure out our weird electrical system (some lights randomly turn off after a few minutes of being on without you touching the switch). While we were in the process of closing we bug bombed, actually flea bombed, the house for four weeks straight because there was a MAJOR flea problem. The day we moved in it smelled like cat pee and we are just now gettin rid of it 3 weeks later. Most of the house is sub-floor right now, some if killzed to get rid of the cat pee and some isn't. Right now the master bedroom is floored and painted. The master bath is painted (Tile will come later). And the living room is in the process of being painted. So hopefully this weekend we will be flooring the living room!!! Here are a few pictures...

The entry to our master bedroom. Yellow brick road walls and bamboo floors.

Our bedroom all finished and my very tired husband.

Our master bathroom which is a light blue and is done just forgot to take a picture.

Our living room, it's wet coral, goes on peach dries a orange-red.

So that's what we've been up to. If you want to see more pictures.... What it looked like when we started, Move-in/Bedroom progress, Living Room/Hall progress. So that's a little bit of an update, we'll keep you updated on our lives.