Why I question…

Why I question God I do not know. He is awesome and my sole provider. I have no idea as to why God loves me, He just does. I have been struggling with something major going on with my family and questioning why God wasn’t helping out. However, the day after I gave up on God and searched after my own understanding and help, He jumps in, majorly. Bigger than I imagine and more awesome than ever.

 I shouldn’t question Him, He is.

Until another time…

My first Blog … in a long time.

Hello blog readers! I converted my old blog and here I am. I is time to stop lurking around reading what everyone else has to say and record my own thoughts.

For introduction’s sake, Chad and I live in Augusta, GA and I teach 3rd grade (I taught 2nd for the last two years). He is a geek out at SRS (the nu-clear waste facility called Savannah River Site). We have 2 chihuahuas that have previously had 10 puppies, but not all at the same time. I love to make things like furniture, crafty things like quilts and scrapbooks, and we like working around our house. We bought our house and completely remodeled it to make it livable. We do not have any kids, yet. We seem to always have a house-guest. My brother lived with use for a long while, before that was a friend named Brian (our “famous” actor friend who was on TV!!!), and now Chad’s sister lives with us. So, once she moves out we may have room for a baby. But, I am just a vessel to be used by God how he sees fit. If that means my children are all older than me, then I can handle that.

See you around.

Our House

So many people - who won’t come see for themselves - want to know what our house looked like before we worked so hard on it and after we finished it. Well, the wait is over. Here it is everybody. OUR HOUSE! Before and after pictures are being uploaded currently.

Puppy Update

The puppies are doing great. This being a grandma is great. The mom does all the work and I just sit back and watch. I wonder how I can get this to work when we have our own children… huh. Well, here they are fat and playful. For all who are on the recieving end of these five… the weekend of the 30th they should be ready for their new homes!

Puppies!!!

Three weeks ago we had five new additions to our family. Here they are three weeks old. They don’t do much but eat and sleep right now, which is great. I don’t want to become too attached. We already have homes for three, maybe four of them. Who wants a puppy?

There are some new pictures on my pictures blog, too.

Great Things

First of all, let me say that God is really blessing us. Chad started his new job on Monday doing IT work at the Savannah River Bomb Plant. We are very excited. It does mean a 45 minute commute to and from work, but since he is working four days ten hours each day it could be worse. He is going to be paid for doing what he loves, so you can’t beat that. I love teaching, so I’m glad that now Chad can love his job as well. YEAH!!!

If you are holding your breath for more pictures of the house, breathe. To take those final pictures, the house will need to be clean and I’ve got other things going on right now. I’ll try to get it done before school starts. My sister-in-law is coming for a visit, so I’ll clean it for her to see it and I know Kimberly will love helping me take the pictures.

God bless you all.

Jenni

It has been a while since I let y’all know what’s …

It has been a while since I let y’all know what’s going on… so here it is. We’ve been working on the house. Okay, I know I’ve said that for the last 6 months, but we’ve done a lot of work and we are almost finished. We have planned a couple “house-warming” parties… so if you want to come to Augusta, let me know and I’ll give you the info… But, we want to have everything finished by then. We’ve only got one bathroom left to majorly work on and then a lot of little things. I’ll post all the before and after pictures when we get completely finished. Until then here is a preview. This is our master bathroom. Before, completely stripped, and after.

Amazing Change

My oldest brother is home for a visit this weekend. He has been living in Pennsylvania at the Teen Challenge “Mountain.” He is a completely different person than he has been in the past 15 years. I am awed by what God can do.

Last year, my brother hit bottom. He was addicted to drugs and the first two rehab centers did not rehabilitate him. He just hadn’t been ready for what God was going to do yet. I guess last July was the right time. He left for Teen Challenge Induction Center in Buffalo, NY. I remember buying the plane ticket online for my parents. I didn’t have much faith. I was very skeptical that this one would work.

Pretty soon after he left, I got a letter from him. In it he said a lot about God, going to church, and all these things that I never expected to come from him. I was still skeptical and unsure how much of this was my brother and how much was the training he was going through.

But now I’ve seen it. God has made a major change in him. Tonight he was sitting at the table using his two bibles that he carries with him to emphasize what we were discussing. The fact that we were discussing something in the bible at all is crazy, but that he knew where certain scriptures were is, well, wow. God is amazing. I can’t thank God enough for what he has done for my brother and my family. I am awed at God’s ability to create such a new person out of the mess that was my brother.

Now I know there is hope for every soul. If God can do this, I know that all things are possible.

Okay, so "Best Week Ever" might have been a little…

Okay, so “Best Week Ever” might have been a little ambitious. I did get a new house and a new job, but on a scale of stress, both rate at about a 9.5. This was a crazy week.

We moved into our house on Tuesday. My family and Chad’s family helped us move in. Then everybody started taking the house apart. The house we purchased is a “fixer-upper.” Chad and I love to complete projects like this. But we might have been a little more scheduled than the “demo everything” attitude our families had. There were three rooms with wallpaper, two rooms with laminated faux wood floors, one room with carpet, and two rooms with vinyl floor. By the time we went to bed we had all bare walls, plywood floors, and a truck load or two of trash. While I have been doing other things since Tuesday, Chad has moved the laundry room and the plumbing for it, completely gutted our master bath, and scraped all the cottage cheese off the ceilings. So, we are living in the two upstairs bedrooms and having a great time.

Tomorrow, we get to go to the home improvement store and spend thousands of dollars. I am very excited to get my new flooring, lighting, and tile, but what I really like is that we have an excuse to go buy cool new POWER TOOLS! I wonder if orbital sanders come in pink, what do you think? Before you answer that, you should know that I have a pink drill and other pink tolls already. I may like to build things, but that doesn’t make me any less girl.

I started my new job on Wednesday. I am going to teach second grade starting tomorrow. I had three days last week to set up my classroom, but the teacher who occupied it previously decided not to move out until 2:00 pm on FRIDAY. Also, I got my list of students at 3:10 on FRIDAY and my schedule for lunch and other things at 3:40 on FRIDAY. You may be wondering what I did for those three other days, well, let me tell you: I have two really great bulletin boards in my classroom! So luckily there is a church that meets in our school on Sundays and I was able to go and finish getting my classroom ready. Now it is 8:30 the night before I start teaching and I think I can do it. Yea!!!

Okay, that’s the latest. Thanks for all the calls, sorry that I haven’t been so good at returning them. Maybe by Wednesday or so we will have some free time. Until then…

Best Week Ever

Tomorrow, Chad and I will be home owners. We are very excited and already have the u-haul packed and sitting in front of our house to unload tomorrow after closing. Also, Today I found out that I am going to teach second grade starting Thursday. Yea!!! A new job and a new house all in one week. This week is up there with the post wedding week, not even, but up there.