Want a Puppy? You know you do!

Well, we've been working on the house non-stop, and these two cute little puppies and their mom wandered up. They hung around and laid on a sheet, so I don't think they belong to anyone. But they sure are well socialized, and the mom can sit and beg. They look like blue tick hound mixes and are girls, so here's some pictures of them and the mom. Please let me know if anybody wants one of them or if you know anyone who might.






I'll post pics soon of all the house remodel when we get carpet in next week.

Resurrection Day

Well, happy Easter everyone! I'm confessing to everyone that I did not spend as much of the day as I should have celebrating my Savior's death and resurrection. I spend most of the afternoon, along with my husband and very helpful parents and in-laws working on wallpaper and paint in the house. So I only reflected on this blessed day this morning. As someone brought up in a Christian home, I sometimes find myself going through my routine and taking my salvation for granted. I am so grateful for Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ to give me visual images to pop up in my head and remind me of what my Lord endured. I was reading on the Turnbull's blog the other day that the word excruciating was invented just to describe the horrific pain Christ endured. And then when I think about someone going through that for me when I take them for granted and only think about them when it's convenient for me, this makes me feel so many things - rightfully guilty, blessed, amazed, and unworthy. So I've challenged myself and hopefully everyone else to think about what our Savior did for us more than when it fits in our busy schedules.

Demolition: Day 1

Well, we made our first trip to our house today to start the remodel. I began the tedious task of removing the hideous wallpaper in our master bedroom (sorry if anybody has this wallpaper in their house).




This was very difficult because the glue was really really stuck! So I was very worried about the office that has a border, the kitchen, and the guest bath that have wallpaper. Here's the pics of them in all their ugliness.





We're also changing that countertop in the bathroom, even though it's such a beautiful color. Who even makes a pink countertop?! And here's the microwave that Joey and Wally installed...



This is the before pictures of one of the guest bedrooms, notice the awful Phil Fulmer color on the walls and doors. I guess that's what we get for moving to Tennessee.




And lastly, as I mentioned...I was fearful that Joey's similarities to "Tim the Tool Man Taylor" would begin to haunt us as we started remodeling this house. And sure enough, the first day we're there, all the sudden I hear Joey screaming and water running. So I run out to the garage, and water was gushing out of the hot water heater like Old Faithful. Evidently a shelf had fallen and busted a pipe. Joey said it was not his fault because he was no where near it when it fell. But he had to run all the way out to the road to turn the water off, so this is what I snuck a picture of...



I'll post after pics when we get everything painted and the new carpet in.

Request: Hawk Attack Story

Per request of Scott (see Rocky & Joey vs. Opossum post), I'm going to tell the hawk attack story. So the big thing that's funny about this is y'all need to keep in mind that my dear husband Joey isn't afraid of anything. He's like Steve Irwin; he walks up to snakes, steps on their heads, and cuts it off. So I guess he's crueler than Steve but definitely as brave (or stupid, however you want to look at it).

So this story took place back when I was still at Shorter. Joey was on his way to Auburn in his truck, and all the sudden, BAM, a huge bird flew up into his grill. So Joey stops on the side of the road, and as he got out of the truck, the hawk fell out of his grill, seemingly lifeless on its back with its wings out. So Joey leaned down to inspect it, and all the sudden (he makes it sound like a horror movie) the hawk opened its eyes, completely alert and definitely angry. If you could hear him tell this story, his description reminds me of the movie What Lies Beneath when Michelle Pfeiffer jumps up out of the bathtub. So this is when the hawk jumps up and attacks Joey's hand with his razor sharp talons which proceeded to go in one side of his finger and out the other.

So of course, this ticked Joey off to no end. He went to the bed of his pick-up (where of course he has more tools than most people own in their lives) and grabs a 2X4. When he tried to shove the bird out from under his truck, it grabbed the board with it's claws and started taking chunks out of it with its beak. But the hawk wouldn't hold on to the board long enough for Joey to pull it out from under the truck either. So now he's really ticked and decides to back up the truck so it would be him and the bird, without the truck protecting it. Well, the hawk was smart and flew off as soon as he fired up the truck.

It probably would have been really bad if the hawk had decided to fight Joey because Joey thought the thing couldn't fly and was injured, but obviously not the case. So from this point on Joey has mixed feelings when he sees a hawk - he shudders out of fear and awe of its strength and toughness and also out of anger and desire for revenge. Another funny thing is that Joey almost had another encounter when another hawk hit his driver's window in his work truck one day and would have gotten in the cab had the window been down a little further. So maybe he has reason to hate this bird, but I just think it's really entertaining that the only living creature my husband is afraid of is a bird.

Our Blog Title

Well, I guess I should give credit where credit is due. My mom and I thought we were being clever when we named this blog (I'm not very creative, so I asked for help). But Scott made me aware in one of his comments that Joey had been using this concept for a while. This now makes sense as to why Joey didn't seem impressed by my title when I showed it to him as I was creating the blog. After reading Scott's comment, I then asked Joey about his using the phrase, and he informed me that his dad had been using it even before him! So I guess I can go back to my low self-esteem in regard to creativity, and I'll just stick with maintaing generational patterns.

Rocky & Joey vs. Opossum, Rocky/Joey - 1, Opossum - 0

Well, tonight we were going about our normal routine, and letting Rocky out back to relieve himself before we all went to bed. Rocky walked off the deck normally to go take care of his business, and Joey turned around to talk to me. As soon as he turned back around to check on Rocky, he saw Rocky shaking the heck out of some creature. He called him, and brought him inside for me to see all the slobber and hair hanging out of his mouth. I was worried that he had gotten after one of the neighbor's cats, so I had Joey go out to see if the animal was injured. Sure enough, there's a opossum playing dead or actually dead in my parents' back yard.

So Joey decided to go see if the thing was still alive by poking it with a broom (even though the last time he did this to a hawk, he got attacked). The opossum bit at the broom, obviously it was just injured from Rocky's attack. So Joey decided to kill it himself. Mom gave him the option to shoot it with her pellet gun, but he thought it was a better idea to just give it several good whacks over the head with a board, then stuff it in a trashbag, nice. So as of now, together Joey and Rocky have diminished the opossum population by 1.

Home Sweet Home...soon

A friend, Amanda Owens has asked to see pictures of the house. I was going to wait until we started working on it to show some before and afters, but why not go ahead and put the befores up now, right?

So, our house is in Whitwell, TN (up there, they pronouce it whit-wool). It's about 20 miles west of Chattanooga. It has great mountain views and it's on an acre lot which we (and Rocky) love. It has a large master suite addition with an attached office, two other bedrooms and one other bath. So without further adieu...(when I asked Joey how to spell adieu, he said "a-do.")


These are ones the realtor took, we'll take some better ones when we move in. I want to paint the shutters and front door black, the garage door white, and of course do some landscaping.


The whole acre isn't fenced-in, so we have some woods in the back. Of course, my "Tim the tool man" wants to rebuild the deck.


The living room is open to the kitchen/dining, and we'll just paint it.


We love the wallpaper, just kidding! It's coming down, but we're keeping the beadboard and painting the walls.


Well, we were going to redo all the cabinets in here, but when we priced them we decided it was too much for this little starter house. So we're going to change the hardware, take down the wood at the top and add crown instead. We'll also install a dishwasher. And Joey's sweet dad is making us a beadboard island with a butcherblock top!

So that's all I have for now, but we'll take some more pictures as we progress!

Sorry some of the pics are small; they wouldn't get any bigger.