It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!

We are so excited about Christmas! My Mom and Jerry's Mom are driving down to our place together to stay the 19th- 23rd. I have several days off from work, so we are gonna have a GREAT time! We are so happy that they get to see what we've done so far with the house.

We are working on insulating and wiring the house now. It really is coming together!

Hope you all have a WONDERFUL Christmas and a Blessed New Year! Be safe this Holiday season if you are traveling!

God Bless!

Billie

Merry Christmas!!

Well, it's not your traditional atmostphere for Christmas, but we are making the most of it, for sure!

The house is dried in "yeah!", the electricity and insulation is the project now.

We put up a Christmas tree in Brittany's room. It's the only room that had insulation done in it. We about froze putting up the tree!! Won't forget those memories, they are froze into our heads!! hee hee.

Hope all is well with everyone, and hope you have a WONDERFUL Christmas!

Cold weather is coming!

We have to get on the ball! Whew, it's getting cold!

New Pics!

Pics! Finally!

">" border="0" alt="" />

">" border="0" alt="" />


I finally made it to the library so I could upload pics to the site without it taking all day.

We are getting a lot done. We actually are getting ready to put up the roof boards today, and plans to get a lot done this week.

We had a little delay because the temporary tarp building got a rip in it and things had to be moved out of it. More reason to get the house done! :)

I also have pics uploaded on a building forum. Here is the link if you are interested...

http://www.countryplans.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1186025724

Thank you all for your prayers. We feel them, for sure!

If you feel frisky and want to work on your vacation time, come on down! We could use your help!! :)

God Bless!

Billie

Running Water AND Electricity, SWEET!!!

I am SO pleased to announce that we have some progress!! Praise the Lord!! He is so good to us! It set us back a little to get the well and electricity done. We don't have as much completed on the house as we'd like. But we will get there. Hopefully we can get it dryed in before it gets too cold.

Look great in 2008

Here is some information about the challenge...

The website is http://www.talesfromthescales.net/2007/09/index.html
What's the challenge? Look Great in 2008 Challenge.
Don't wait for New Year's Resolutions, start the year out looking and feeling great!
When does it begin and end? Wednesday, September 19 - Tuesday, January 11th
Can I join at anytime? ABSOLUTELY.
What do I need to do? Every Tuesday - weigh yourself. If you have a blog, write about your losses, gains, successes, frustrations. Then come back to Tales from the Scales and sign Mr. Linky, linking back to your weekly blog post. We all need a little accountability, this is a great way to have it.
Do I have to weigh in every Tuesday? Weigh-in on whatever day works best for you. Just report to Tales from the Scales on Tuesday.
Do I have to have a blog? Nope. You can type in your losses/gains next to your name every week. However, perhaps consider starting a blog. They're free and journaling while losing weight is awesome.
How do I get on your blog roll? Just e-mail your blog name and url to Beth at scaletales@gmail.com.(please note: if you find yourself not participating in the challenge, please e-mail me to have your blog removed from the blogroll. Thanks!)
What if I have information I want to share? Please share any thoughts, recipes, product reviews and meaningful blog posts with me. You can e-mail me anything. We'd love for this site to feel like your home, so get your running shoes on and get comfortable! More than likely we will share whatever you send us! Just keep it clean and pertinent!
Do you happen to have any advice for me for this challenge? Why yes I do. Take your before picture now. You will never regret it. When I look at mine, I throw my donut in the garbage and I don't even go back and get it later. Do I have to be on Weight Watchers to join this challenge? Oh goodness no. Do whatever works for you.

So, I'm gonna be starting this on the 19th. I will be posting my journey! :)

Do you want to do this challenge with me?

Hey out there. Anyone want to look great in 2008? Boy, I do. I am taking the challenge. I hope I am up to it! :)

It would help me a lot if I could get someone to do this with me. Let me know if you are interested. I am going to post a "now" picture soon. I'm hoping there will be an "after" picture soon! hee hee.

I think I am going to try "You on a diet", or maybe South Beach Diet. I am going to do some research on them, and I will let you know. If you know anything about these diets, please let me know what you think about them.

Let me know what you think!

Look Great in 2008 Weight Loss Challenge!

WE HAVE ELECTRICITY!!! WOO-HOO!!

I will upload some pictures soon. We were a little busy today. It is so exciting to be able to not have the sound of the generator going and have POWER! I haven't actually experienced that yet. They just got through with it before I had to go to work. But I am very excited. I came to work saying "we have electricity!" They were cracking up! Oh well, I know we will NEVER take having power for granted again! When you don't have it, you understand the value of it.

Seasonal Delights

I came across this free quarterly magazine and thought I would share the link. It's really cool.

It's called Seasonal Delights. Here's the link... http://sdquarterly.com/

Helium

I stumbled upon this writers website, and decided to write an article about Dad under the topic "death of a loved one". If you'd like to read it, here is the link.

http://www.helium.com/tm/584409/dreaded-phone-sister-calling

Joke

A young new preacher arrived in a small rural area. His first request as a preacher was to perform a service for a homeless man who was to be buried in a new, small cemetary even further in the country than the little village. He followed the directions to the best of his ability but got lost. He circled back and tried again and finally came on where the backhoe was idle and the crew was taking a break, about an hour late. He looked into the grave and saw that the vault had already been sealed but said some words over the grave, it being the least he could do. As he preached, the men began to say, "Amen." He preached more and the crew really began to get into it. The preacher poured everything he had into that sermon for that poor unfortunate man. The preacher said they could finish, now, and thanked them for waiting and being so supportive of his sermon. As he was getting back into his car, he heard one man say, "I ain't never seen anything like that, and I been puttin' in septic tanks all my life."

~Fall is Coming!!~

Fall

I am SO excited about the season approaching us. I love Christmas and Spring, and even summer, but Fall is SO beautiful, it has to be my favorite~

Think about it, the beautiful show that God creates around us with the trees, bushes, etc... WOW!

Then there is the pumpkin patches, the smell of fall in the air as you ride to the fall festivals.

There is hay-rides, apple cider, going to the apple orchard, caramel apples, etc... I just love it.

Here are some pictures I took last fall at Brown County State Park in southern Indiana.

Cute Puppies 4 Sale!!!

Isn't she sweet? They are 8 weeks old and as cute as they could be. We have them listed at buysell.com if you are interested.

Well, Well, Well......

Hee Hee.... The well is DUG!!! Woo-Hoo!!! 290 feet and we have WATER! Well, we don't actually HAVE water yet... but, we are on our way there. We are going to put the well pump in ourselves.

The electricity should be done within a few weeks too! All the paperwork is signed and we have done everything on our end, we are just waiting on the electric company.

We are so excited! Things are really starting to come together!

Here are some pictures of what we have done so far!

Star Bucks No More?

in the Cincinatti Post:

Under the heading, "The Way I See It", Starbucks published the following *[on the cup]:

"Why in moments of crisis do we ask God for strength and help? As cognitive beings, why would we ask something that may well be a figment of our imaginations for guidance? Why not search inside ourselves for the power to overcome? After all, we are strong enough to cause most of the catastrophes we need to endure." The quote was written by Bill Schell, a Starbucks customer from London, Ontario, Canada, (where else?) and was included as part of an effort by the Seattle-based coffee giant to "collect different viewpoints and spur discussion." A bit more digging finds the following quote from a Starbucks coffee cup in a related story on WorldnetDaily: "My only regret about being gay is that I repressed it for so long. I surrendered my youth to the people I feared when I could have been out there loving someone. Don't make that mistake yourself. Life's too d**n short." Starbucks has a disclaimer on its website that says, "The opinions put forth by contributors to “The Way I See It” do not necessarily reflect the views of Starbucks." Starbucks has evidently expanded into the deli business, since that is usually where one goes if one is looking for baloney. What do you bet that nobody will send me an example of a Starbucks cup that opposes abortion? Or one that discusses sexual abstinence outside of marriage? Or, horror of horrors, one that expresses a view that being gay isn't normal? The dictionary defines "normal" this way: "In behavior, normal means not deviating very much from the average." If even 10% of the population is gay, (a figure disputed as wildly inflated) then by definition, 90% of the population is not. If 50% constitutes 'average' then does it not follow that 90% vs 10% constitutes "deviating very much from the average"? Or is arithmetic to join language on the trash heap of political correctness? Orwell would have been proud. Starbucks also offers a place on its website where customers can offer up their own words of "wisdom" or, alternatively, render their opinion about the comments that Starbucks selected for publication. Make no mistake about it. Starbucks SELECTS the opinions that it claims "do not necessarily reflect their corporate views." They admit in their FAQ page that comments must 'fit within the scope of our editorial guidelines." What ARE their 'editorial guidelines? You can search their website in vain looking for the answer to THAT question. But I doubt rather seriously that the comment One person wrote: "Here's the way I see it. Your disclaimer that it isn't your opinion is meaningless. You wouldn't have published an anti-gay opinion on your cups. You wouldn't have published an anti-abortion opinion on your cups. But you DID publish an anti-God message by Bill Schell. Hard for me to believe. I used to buy Starbucks coffee every time I passed one of your stores. My wife used to buy Starbucks coffee at the grocery store. The operative word here is "used to." You clearly care nothing about offending ME. I will not only boycott all things Starbucks, I will encourage everyone I know to do the same. I am outraged. It matters not whether you publish my comment. I will never know. It's a shame. I liked your coffee. A lot more, evidently, than you liked my business." . . .
What he wrote is so true. You will never see a slogan on Starbucks that is anti-abortion, or anti-radical Muslim or any of the other anti-"far left" viewpoints, only those that are anti-Christian, anti-"right wing" and anti-traditional values. After all, haven't you heard? The only groups that are fair game anymore for attacking are the fundamentalist, Bible-believing Christians and the Jews. Everyone else is "off limits" but you might as well call us a piñata because the hits just keep on coming. So, it is a matter of principle to start this boycott on Starbucks because of this direction that they have decided to take in not caring if they offend someone like me, or Jack, or YOU. Taking a stand for your faith and personal beliefs is more important than any chilled concoction from a company who could care less about offending you. If you want to sign your name to the Starbucks Boycott or grab one of the Starbucks No More! icons.

Take a stand for your rights as a conservative Christian, or as someone who feels that your right to believe in God and proclaim it is being threatened by the increasingly hostile anti-God, anti-Christian, anti-traditional values sentiments embraced and encouraged by major corporations/companies out there who pander to the loud minority voices such as Starbucks, FORD Motor Company, Disney, AT&T – the list is endless. Ever notice that it's progressively only a free speech right when it's not a conservative Christian espousing their beliefs or talking about their faith?Take a stand for your beliefs! Let them know that they can't silence us just because they don't like what we have to say. Change in the world starts with one person, then catches on to two, then four – and so forth and so on. If we put our collective efforts behind it, together we can be even louder and make our voices HEARD! Note: If you want to share your opinion with Starbucks, here is the link: http://www.starbucks.com/retail/thewayiseeit_comments.asp

Hey there!

Well, I don't have any pics to post today, but we do have some more things done. We didn't get a lot accomplished over the holiday weekend. We had company over. But, our well is dug, and we have progress on the loft! Woo-hoo!

We are so excited that God has allowed us to get this much done. It takes a lot of time and money when you are doing it yourself without financing. God has blessed us immensly!!
Most people would look at our situation and how we are living now and think just the opposite! hee hee. But, we are indeed blessed! It is beautiful where we are building. Every day when I get up and look around me, I'm reminded of God's grace and the beauty He created.

We have progress!!! :)

Can you believe we are actually seeing signs of a house coming together? How exciting! I tell you what, we have been tested with these 100+ degree plus heat index days! Whew. That heat just zaps your energy and can make you sick!

Anyway, we had a few friends come out...THANKS GUYS!....and help one day, and that helped a lot. We have continued going with it. Everything is coming together, we are soooo excited!!

We also heard from the Electric company, and we are close to getting some electricity. I'm also pretty sure we are gonna get our well dug next week! Woo-hoo!

Thanks for your prayers. We definately appreciate it.

Brittany turned 17 !!!

Can you believe it? Brittany is 17! WOW! Isn't she beautiful? She is such a blessing. She had a great Birthday, she said. She was able to go to Springfield with some friends, and her friends from church got her a Birthday present and took her out to eat. It was really sweet.

I made her a book for her poems, using some of her senior pictures and her poems she has written over the years. You can check it out if you'd like...

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/invited/51146/5c92922ba91b671b79ea8c2163667691

She really loved it! It actually gave her a copyright for her poems too. Her Birthday was August 11th. She was born in 1990.

Love you BeeBee! Happy Birthday sweetie!

19th Wedding Anniversary

Well, Jerry and I are getting ready to celebrate our 19th wedding anniversary. He suprised me a few days ago with an early present. It was so sweet, I just had to share it with you...

He got me a diamond journey necklace and diamond earrings. They are really beautiful! He really suprised me this year! I was hoping for a bottle of perfume, and he got me that too! :) He's so sweet!

We have some more progress on the house, we are soooo excited. I haven't been able to take any pictures because I've been working so much, but I will soon and get them posted so you can see what we are doing, and how much God is blessing us! We had two helpers yesterday and all our outer walls for the first floor are UP!!! PRAISE THE LORD!! That is encouraging!!

Well, be blessed. I will post more later!