Our blessing in disguise.....

So most of you know about our basement disaster...but if you don't I will explain. On June 20th Toledo had a terrible storm and our nice half finished basement began to flood. All of the sewer drains backed up on our street and actually in all of Lucas county. Our basement was filled with 8-10 inches of nasty drain water and we had to throw away our couches and our chairs. Luckily Adam's parents and brother had got there beds up on bed frames that day or their mattresses would have been ruined. It was a disaster! And a week before we left for vacation! I filed a claim and we couldn't get to it until after we came back from Colorado. We really didn't think that we would get much because we had a thousand dollar deductable but our insurance guy came to look at everything anyway. Before we left Adam tore out the carpet and we threw away the furniture. We had to scrape the floor because it had glue on it and we scrubbed in with bleach. It was a lot of work...but we didn't want it to start molding!

When we got back from our vacation we noticed on the news that Lucas County was considered a distaster area and we might be able to get federal aide for the things that our insurance wouln't pay for. So FEMA came out to look too. They both came to look on the same day and the insurance guy wrote me a check for $2000 and just yesterday FEMA deposited $3600 dollars in our account to cover the couches and valuables we lost!!! I am in shock!!! and I praise GOD!!!! He provides more than we could ever ask or think! Now we can redo and finish off the basement and get some new furniture down there. ISn't God Good!

We are back...

Our trip to Colorado was amazing and I can't wait to put pictures up on here... It will be a few days though and let me explain. We got home the 10th of July and had a pretty busy week of unpacking and such but we also had no internet until Thursday night. Adam left Friday for a wedding in Chicago...one of his good friends got married. Friday night I got deathly ill and I was running a fever and throwing up. ( I never get flu-sick like that!) The next day was aweful I couldn't even get out of bed and then my lower back hurt so I figured I probably had a kidney infection. I went to the ER Sat night at around 11:00 pm and they did a Cat Scan to see if I had kidney stones and I ended up having APPENDICITIS!! Aughh! So yesterday I had to have surgery of all things!!!! Crazy huh? I am home now and just a little sore but I could use some prayer for a fast healing. I found out that I have to have another surgery in about 3 months because my gall bladder is full of stones. He said it was like a coin purse. OH well! Anyway...that is why you haven't heard from me in a while. I hope all is well with everyone!!!! I will put up pics of Colorado soon!

The trip to COSI! (continued) scroll down for the first story....

I knew I forgot to download some pictures! Here is one of all the kids in a huge tire! It was so big they all could have hidden in it.

Josiah and Ellie sitting in a big tractor...

It is hard to tell but all the kids are sitting in a big shovel...

One of the first things they had was a whole display if different bubbles and how they come out of different shapes. It is hard to tell but the kids could stand in the middle and pull a rope with a huge bubble right around them. It was really cute.

Ethan and Levi.....cute as can be!

And the best and saddest part of the day....my baby Josiah lost his first tooth at COSI. It was so cute but I have to come to the realization that my he is now growing up and becoming a big boy... :(

Our Trip to COSI!

This past week we went to Cosi and took two of our Pastor's kids Levi and Dominic, Adam's brother Seth, and my brother Jon who is taking the picture. Adam was parking. It was a blast. It was "The science of BIG machines" month and it was so much fun! THe kids had a blast! They got to sit in the big tractors and outside they were actually able to operate the machines.

Ellie and Samuel had a blast too. THey got to sit inside the machines and then we mostly played in the preschool area.

Even Seth was able to check them out!

Ellie and Samuel had so much fun....we played with big squishy blocks...ellie got to ride in a fake ambulance and little kids hospital....and they had a sound room where you could band on everything from pots and pans to wheel barrows and hard hats. Samuel had a blast in that room. He made tons of noise!

Josiah was able to operate this machine. He got to shovel up a huge mound of dirt and spill it back in the pile. It was very exciting to see the big machine at work!

All in all we had a blast and can't wait to go again!

Samuel the comedian....

Samuel is just starting to really get his funny personality. He loves everyone and wants to be held by everyone. He is starting to make these funny faces at all of us...He raises his eyebrows and sticks out his bottom jaw....says "MMM" and than laughs. Here is a partial picture of what he does. He is so funny lately it is cracking me up! Definately the clown of the family this far....

Daddy's first attempt at giving Sam spaghetti to eat by himself....he looks like he has a beard! HA!

The Makeup Princess

My daughter loves to put makeup on! Every time I am putting mine on she is always right by me wanting everything that mommy has. Her favorite is lip-gloss or lipstick. Well all was quiet on the homefront when all of a sudden I hear Adam say"Jess come look at your daughter!" Ellie had an orange and a yellow marker in her hands and this is how I found her! Priceless!

Kids....basement...

Josiah is just getting to big for his britches! Everything he asks I just get amazed at how he is growing up! It is so crazy! A 5 year old boy going on 10.










Ellie and Sam are just precious in here....and Adam and Ethan looked so cute in this picture I just had to put it in here!


























THis is a picture of the basement. Eventually we will dry wall all the walls and finish it completely, but for now it does it's job. The big pole that is sticking out of the ceiling is going to be covered soon. It is at an angle so what we are planning on is drywalling around it and squaring it off and adding shelves to each side so we will have book shelves and toy shelves for the kids. To the right as you go farther down is the computer room and to the right....behind the wall...is the laundry room-storage-furnace/water heater room.



He is so cute!

Furniture....Dishwasher...

This is my furniture! Adam went to pick up the dishwasher...so when he got home he said he needed some help. I went out, and there was my furniture! What a surprise...I wasn't expecting it until late June. He is so sweet! The curtains I am putting on the windows are cute. They are cream color and they are going to have chocolate brown tie ups. I am also getting a different end table and lamp. I needed something to put there for the time being but the lamp does look a little small for the furniture.



Here is my dishwasher! YAY! Now I won't have piles and piles of dirty dishes! That is a miracle in itself! I have been waiting almost 7 years for this moment!! :)










~Some more pictures of the furniture~

Upstairs half bath...and samuel's room...

This is the upstairs half bath. See the closet to the right. It has another one on the other side that is even bigger. I put all of my linens and other stuff in it and it is still not full. I am going to keep this closet empty for my inlaws to put all of their clothes and stuff when they come to live with us for a little while while they look for a house! They will be here on the 24th! I am excited! They have been in Mexico for a few years and we haven't got to see them a lot. I am looking forward to it so much!!! God has given us an opportunity to work in ministry together! I am so excited about that!

This is Samue's room! I am not going to do anything in here until he moves to a big boy bed. Then I will probably decorate it in race cars...or whatever he is showing interest in at the time.
It is a cute little room, just big enough for a baby!









This is the other side to the half bath with the other closet that you can't really see. It streches all the across the whole wall and is about 5 ft deep. Really nice!











This is another pic of the other side! We haven't painted anything upstairs yet. We figured we would just wait until next year and do it little by little.

Living Room...Dining Room

This is the stair well...when you walk in the front door you face the dining room and the stairwell. Off to the right is a hallway. The door that is closed is our full bath. To the right of that is the boys room and to the left a little down the hall is Ellie's room. Upstairs is a very large half bath, the Mastor Bedroom and samuel's room.







This is a view of the dining room and far off the kitchen. As you can see the walls are painted a cappucino color and than I have one red accent wall in the dining room.










This is the living room. I do not have my furniture in yet...but will be getting it soon. I will put up more pictures as I get them.











Here is another shot of my deep chocolate wall. (I love that wall!) It needs to be touched up a little because of some scratches in the paint but other than that it is all done.










Another pic of the dining room....Anyway.... that is the downstairs of our house. The basement has the computer area, play area, family room, and behind a wall the laundry-water heater-furnace-storage room. It is the size of the floor above it. It is nice to have everything down the basement. The upstairs stays more clean that way! I put the pics in three separate posts.....so here are some more...

The Kitchen...

So Here is the messiest part of the kitchen so far but I wanted you to see where we will be putting in my dishwasher tomarrow! YAY! I need one so bad! Do you see that stack of clean dishes...they are from one day!! UGHH! Anyway, we took out two bottom cupboards and put in the little 9" cupboard next to the fridge. We moved the two cabinets to the bottom of the next picture, put in an 8 ft countertop and bought the matching top cabinets. Now I have a very nice buffet and countertop, with more cabinet space and we will be getting a couple stools to go in the middle for an eating place. We haven't painted the kitchen except for the back wall, and we still have to put up our base boards on the bottom but it's coming along.

This is a picture of the new countertop and cabinets where they used to have a table. You can see a little bit of our new wood laminate floor. It looks so nice now that the flooring is all done!












This is the new floor! It looks great and sweeps and mops real nice!












I forgot to tell everyone how God blessed us with practically brand new appliances! We looked on Ebay and found a brand new stove for 200 bucks and a $1600.00 fridge only two years old for 300. I was so greatful for getting such and awesome deal! Here is another pic of the other side if the kitchen.








This is our fridge! IT is so nice and BIG! It has so many compartments and drawers! It even has a drawer with humidity control! We also just got a dishwasher off of ebay for 75 dollars! And...they are all GE! God is Goood!

Kid's Rooms....Bathroom....

So this is the boys room...a Star wars room as you can see! It is very very blue. The wall opposite of this wall is black and I will be painting a mirale of Star Wars on it. Just to start I will be doing the stars and the star wars words on the bottom of the wall. They love their room!








This is the full bath....we have a huge half bath upstairs with 2 huge walk in closets. It is so big I am not sure what to do with all the space. I'm sure once it's completely organized I will figure it out! :)















This is Ellie and Samuel sitting on Ellie's bed while mommy is taking pictures! They are so funny. They just followed me around while I snapped the pics of the house. The boys had gone to the church with Adam, so I had a little lighter load that day!








This is the other wall in the boys room and their cool lamp with the blue light bulbs in it. They are so proud of their lamp and Josiah picked out the blue light bulbs!










This is Ellie's Room! It is very bright and she tells me everyday "Mommy, Ellie room
beautiful!" She is so funny!

Katelyn Ruth.....

I just want to make an announcement to the world! Katelyn Ruth was born on May 8, at around 5:30 or so p.m. She is such a cutie and I am so excited for Adam's sister Esther and her husband Dan. Congratulations!! Anyway here she is!!

PS. I got my digital camera in the mail yesterday!!! YAY! Now I just have to find the plug in cord to the computer which is in a box somewhere or buy a new one so pictures of the house are coming soon!

so this is what it looks like now...

There are two holes in the vinyl flooring. One is huge as you can tell and the other is smaller but right as you walk in. There are a few more dog pee stains than this, but the digital camera ran out. There is about 5 total in every room practically. The carpets are just really dirty and get this....we just found out yesterday that all down the basement stairs they dumped motor oil so now we have to replace the carpet and the vinyl on the steps. I am so frustrated....I'm trying to remain Christian about this but it's hard not to want to get even and make them pay....but I need to correct my attitude and pray for them in return...SO Father....I ask that you bless this couple mightily and help them. There I did it.







So Anyway, the floor needs to be replaced in the kitchen and the steps going down to the basement. The carpet really need to be cleaned and I pray that the stains come out. Everything is primed so all we need to do is paint and clean the carpets before Saturday. Pray that we can get everything done. Love to all! Jess