Flag Day

So....did you celebrate Flag Day yesterday?? I can't say I ever have before this year but it is yet another one of those "perks" when you move to the country. Mayberry RFD is what Linda calls it. The elementary school that Kaleb attends celebrated their 40th Flag Day parade. It is a town event. The streets were lined with people, the roads were blocked off, a newspaper guy was there to document it, all the fire trucks were polished to a high shine and the flags were waving. They went with a 60's theme this year so every class dressed a bit differently. One grade made these great vests out of paper bags that they painted red, white and blue. The 4th graders wore red, white and blue tie-dye t-shits and headbands. They also got to carry the flags from the 50 states. Kaleb carried New Jersey's flag. The 5th grade band marched and played at the head of the parade.
They marched from the school up to the main 4 corners of town. Kaleb said the flag got really heavy, lol! He's the one in the last photo, carryign the yellow flag. Click the photo for a bigger view.
Dad was here for a couple of days and sadly worked mostly by himself this time. Greg was tied up with a church retreat. He worked on walls and said we are just one coat of plaster away from being done. Praise the Lord!! I am eating, breathing and sleeping dust. I am not sure how to reclaim my house once this is done. One room at a time I guess. I stopped in at the kitchen store and our order is scheduled to arrive on Wednesdays truck. She told me we could have cabinets by Friday or the following Monday at the latest. There are still many things left to do and decide. We have no clue what is going down on the floor. But there seems to be an end in sight. We are so grateful for Dad's help and expertise. There is no way we would have dared to attempt this without him!!
On a smelly note, the neighbor kid decided he would let off a stink bomb IN our house today. I have no category for this but I am most definitely NOT pleased!

Drywall and Birthday Boy

I am slackin'! We have had a bit of a heat wave hit us and the humidity combined with the heat is just taking the life out of me. That is NY weather, 50's one day, 90's the next! Dad was here again for a few days and they made more progress on the kitchen. They took out the sink and last bit of counter by the window. The insulation came out so they could wire more electrical boxes. Now we are ready for the dishwasher, microwave and stove to go in....eventually! One of the problems we face has to do with our hot water baseboards. One of them had to be removed and one needs to be made shorter. The one that needed to be removed was right in front of the sink. Pastor Bills brother has offered to help us but he is busy for the next several weeks. Apparently Greg called him and asked "if I cut these pipes can you fix it later?" Daring man!! Well, the heat units are drained and the pipes are gone, ack! I hope he can truly fix it later or we will be freezing here come October.
Once all the electrical was in they put up new insulation and started to hang the drywall back up. They started some of the mudding but that will require several applications.

In the mean time, Josh turned 12! Yesterday was his birthday. Where does time go? Mom and Dad came by after church and took us out to lunch to celebrate. We got him a new bike, I will have to get a picture of him on it soon. His old one was broken and getting a bit small and with the summer still ahead of us, it was time. Mom and Dad gave him some camping items that he will need when he goes on his first boy scout trip this summer. The teens meet on Sunday nights so Greg arranged for them to have a pool party at the Pastor Bill's house and they combined that with a party for Josh. I bought a cake and Linda, PB's wife, put the word out that the kids were to bring a present for the birthday boy, a dollar store type of thing. The kids made a banner to hang on the pool fence. There were tons of kids and they had a fantastic time. The weather forecast was for thunderstorms but they held off until right after the party! The lightening was like a birthday fireworks display. It was a good day!





Have a great day!!

5/30 Update

Hello! We are still here and making progress. Dad went home on Sunday and as soon as he left we took a nap!! That man is a machine when it comes to working. Much was accomplished with his help. The biggest task was probably the electric. I won't even pretend to sound like I know what all they did but they spent several days on it. I do know they wired a 3 way switch for a series of pass through lights. That was a big task. The above photo is of one of the switches involved. They wired new outlets, moved several outlets to better locations, added light switches, and a added a bunch of wires waiting to be put to use after the cabinets go in. Here is a shot of Dad and Greg next to their handywork.


Remember I told you how the boys and I spent several hours chiseling up the tile floor? I honestly thought that was the hard part of tearing out the floor. Boy was I mistaken!! Underneath was plywood with screws about every 2 inches in every direction, then some lovely gold specked vinyl and then fiberboard. In all the floor had about an inch of material on it. The cement from the tile covered most of the screw heads. I removed as many as I could but it seemed I hardly made a dent. It took Greg 3 days to completely get everything torn up. Crow bar, hammer, saw, and lots of sweat. At the end of the day he could barely lift a pencil! Not the kinda job a pastor is used to that is for sure, lol!
On Wednesday we ordered the cabinets and countertops. They said it would be 3 to 4 weeks so our schedule is set for moving forward. I imagine in 6 weeks or so I should have photos of our new kitchen.
We are off to the movies to see the new Indiana Jones flick.
More later...

Progress

Each day more gets done but we are definitely in the "it gets worse before it gets better" stage! Dad and Greg have spent a lot of time in the attic shoring up beams, moving the access door, and prepping electric. Josh, Kaleb and I spent the night chiseling up all of the floor tile. Boy what a job. I hit my finger with the hammer no less than a dozen times! Josh stopped counting how many times he hit himself. We finally got the last tile up about 10pm.

Pastor Bill came over for a couple of hours and helped out prepping a few areas for drywall.

The last 3 days we have been blessed with someone bringing in our dinner. That has been such a huge help.

Today Greg and I are going to talk to the kitchen guy again. We still probably aren't at the point of placing an order yet, hopefully next week.
Back to work!

Sound the Horn!!

It's FINALLY time to do the kitchen! Greg took the week off of work and Dad has come to help. And he is not one to sit around so work got underway quickly. So quick in fact, I hadn't even taken one last picture of the kitchen in the "before" state. Here is Josh helping to take off some of the cabinet hardware. Dad had already removed some of the doors. The wall that Josh is standing in front of is the wall that is coming down, just to give you perspective. Don't mind our mess....we're remodeling ;).
Mom came for the day and helped me to clear out the contents of the kitchen and take it down to the basement. Say goodbye to all that wood paneling.
I had a stamping engagement in Rochester yesterday so I returned mom back to her house and spent the day running errands before my class. When I came home at 11pm, this is what I found....WOW!! These guys mean business. I didn't think walls would be down so soon! The cabinets, the appliances, the walls....no more! The space opens up so nicely. In a couple of days we will have the cabinet guy come back to measure and offer final words of advice before we place our order. It will take the cabinets 4-6 weeks to come in. In the mean time there are lots of electrical things to do, dust to clean, dry wall to patch, dust to clean, tile to rip up, dust to clean, wallpaper to remove, dust to clean, carpet to remove.... But there is no turning back now!
Stay tuned for more.

Tree Down!

What have we been up to?? At the moment, a big tree is messing up our yard and clean up is a long and hard task. I wish I had taken a before picture of the massive willow tree in our back yard. In many ways it was a beautiful tree and it was sad to cut it down. Greg figures it may have been 75' tall and the diameter of the trunk is probably 5'. Unfortunately, it was near our septic system and willows have lots of far reaching, invasive roots. We are hoping it hasn't already done damage. This was a case of sellers leaving a problem to the next guy. And we are next guy #4! The man who installed the septic system in 2001 told us he had advised the home owners to take down the tree then but they were moving so why bother?? Arghhhh!! We couldn't afford to have the tree completely taken care of so we just had someone come cut it down. As it was, we knew a guy at church who was willing to give us a break. Now we are working on cutting it all up and hauling the limbs and wood away. And then we still have the problem of what to do with the massive truck still left. Some of the suggested ideas include building a tree house on it, blowing it up, praying it will fall over on its own and some other equally unhelpful ideas. Greg and the boys made as much fun out of the work as they could. This was day one of clean up. They rigged a tarp to pull all the limbs up to the front of the yard. On the way back, they got to ride the tarp. I bet we could make a new rural sport out of this one, lol! The boys love getting to drive around the lawn too. This past week Pastor Bill came over with his chain saw and large trailer and we got a lot done. But there is much left yet.
I will be back in a few days with a special report!
Blessings and hugs to you!

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Today marks 14 years for Greg and I. Where did that time go? So much has happened in that time. Here is a short recap...

--Got married May 7th, 1994

--moved into our first apartment

--Greg was working for Wegmans, I was managing a group home for mentally ill adults.

--volunteered for Young Life

--moved into a 2 bedroom apartment

--Greg got his bachelors degree

--temporarily moved in with Mom and Dad Harp while we decided about a job

--had a baby, named him Joshua (June 8, 1996)

--moved to Ft Lauderdale to work with the youth at First Christian Church

--had a baby, named him Kaleb (April 14, 1998)

--moved back to Rochester to work at Parkminster Pres. Church

--Greg started working on a Masters in Divinity at Northeastern Seminary

--Greg took a Youth Pastor position at Pearce Memorial Church

--Sept. 11, 2001 happened

--we moved 5 miles down the road to North Chili to live in one of the church owned properties

--Greg graduated from seminary

--We bought our first home and moved a mile down the road

--Greg was ordained into the Free Methodist Church

--got "reorganized" out of a job and spent a year in turmoil (how is that for positive spin??,lol)

--Greg was called to be the associate pastor at Ransomville Free Methodist Church

--moved again, of course. Bought and sold a house in the process

Whew!! And those are just some of the highlights. In between there are missions trips, friends, raising kids, trips, brothers getting married and having kids, part time jobs, hobbies...Can't imagine what the next 14 years will hold.

Through it all , God is good and God is faithful!!