Thanksgiving 2016

This year for Thanksgiving we were lucky enough to have 31 people for dinner! It was awesome. We had both sets of parents, Benjamin's brother Scott his wife Suzie and 6 of their children including  his married daughter her husband and their dog. Peter and Danny came. Aaron and his wife Jen and their 3 daughters, plus Jen's father and his wife. We had  Bekah her adorable pooch Jett. Later Benjamin's two other Sisters Amy and Melissa and their families joined us for dessert. We loved it!  Not a single picture was taken, boooo! Imagine a beautiful dinning hall with lights and fall decorations...it was beautiful. We managed not to have a children table either. The previous owners left 6 bar height barista tables. The kids loved sitting high and we managed to have six stools that weren't broken :)  Later we fired up the hot tub and the kids swam in the freezing pool that was at a cool 57 degrees and then they would hop into the 104 hot tub. This hopping and swimming went on for hours, hours. The littles spent the night at our house and the teenage girls plus Anna went to their cousins house to watch the premier of Gilmore Girls at 1 am in the morning, crazy kids. On black Friday we honored our Thanksgiving by being content with all we had and not chasing any deals, I'm just getting old :) The happiest people I know are the ones who are thankful for what they have. Like Corrie Ten Boom says be grateful in all things.

Ribbon Cutting on the New Preschool Room!!

Dreams come true people, dreams can come true! Sometimes when you are going through the trenches you think no way can this get better and no way will it get better anytime soon. I couldn't help but get extremely emotional for my preschool ribbon cutting ceremony. Encouraged by my mom to explain the conception of this preschool to my awesome preschool parents, I couldn't hold back the tears. Those who know us, know this story all to well :) I opened a preschool 7 years ago to help us get out of debt. Nearly 200 students later this idea born out of necessity quickly became a passion and an utter joy to me and a financial help to my family. Who knew that our dream house was in Tucson and it would contain a one room school house?! The Lord knew. We started construction the month we moved in, paying as we went. If being a software developer doesn't work out for Benjamin, home building will! He put in so MANY hours to make this happen, I have loved learning form him and I have learned many new skills. I will gladly work on his crew if the need arises:)  My Dads construction expertise was utilized to the max, when he would drive up to assist we would say here comes the cavalry. Benjamin managed to finish a week earlier than planned, what can I say he is an over achiever.

This is the "Tack Room" as it was listed when we bought the place. The first task was removing all the junk that got left behind from the previous owners.

Inside the tack room.

This shows you how bad the roof was. That was the first thing to go. Benjamin, Dad and I re-roofed that in June. Working on the surface of the sun was no easy task! 

Next thing the walls had to go! It was nice, the preschool kids had a open pavilion to play under.

Then we framed the windows. "We" means Dad and Benjamin.

Then we wrapped this futuristic wrap around the place to help with insulation which keeps the temperature even. The kids were so good with not messing with this! 

Then we put up furring strips to provide a beeze air flow between the walls.

This is a picture of  Dad helping to install hardy board.

Then we installed itchy insulation, working with fiber glass is fun... Benjamin managed to do all the electrical with out getting too severally shocked. Thank goodness for Utube and a laptop. We also dug a trench for the water, digging is serious work. 

When the drywall went up we could taste the finish line!  The true tricky part is the taping and texturing trying to get a smooth finish is really hard, really.

All white from the "mud"

Ceiling fans go up.

We painted a light blue and installed vinyl floors. That took forever. By forever I mean another date night in the school house. 

 The next day Saturday November 12th I was just going to move in some of the tables to see how it all would fit, but I couldn't stop! So we moved the preschool out of our living room. We will get to the base boards "later" realistically over Christmas break if I can convince Benjamin to go back into the school house.

We had our ribbon cutting ceremony of Tuesday November 15th, Preschool kiddos their parents and many honored visitors came (Grandma and Grandpa and Nate and the boys). We had a week without a toilet at school and my mom and I would walk the kiddos to the main house to go, that got old real fast. So we special ordered this toilet that Benjamin is posing on. 

Now I can kick back and enjoy another day at the office!

God is good. Never in a million years did I think we would climb out of debt as fast as we did and that I would find a job that I enjoy so much. The lesson for me is sometimes the best thing to do is get moving and the Lord will magnify your undeserving efforts.