It was so nice to meet friends and family
from each side.
Friday, August 8, 2014
Showers of blessings
I must go back in time for just a bit. I forgot to tell you about the shower. Arranging the shower was tricky timing. My folks live about 6 hours away, and would come to town about every 6 weeks, to check on us, and check in on Grandpa. I also knew they would be coming because of a nieces birthday, so we set the date for March 16th. My cousin Barb held it at her house, with the help of my other cousin Rhonda and her daughter Aimee.
It was so nice to meet friends and family
from each side.
It was so nice to meet friends and family
from each side.
Saturday, August 2, 2014
Busy, Busy, Busy!!
A couple of weeks before the wedding, a midst packing, and unwrapping, and planting, and excavating, we were also trying to pull the closing of our house together. We had a visit home from Dan's cousin's for a baby shower, and graduations galore.
Jennifer has also wanted some kind of arbor for her reception area. We were planning on making the reception hall into a backyard. Our idea was an outside reception inside. All the homey, fun elements of an outdoor reception without the threat of rain and NO bugs! She had been talking to Grant and Dan about this for sometime so one Sunday afternoon we went down to the property and gathered up some nice branches, and smaller trees from some of what we had to take down. Dan, Jen and Grant then put the thing together at home in the garage. They worked on it for a couple of hours and then asked me to come out and look at it. I wish I had taken a picture of the arbor then. But I snuck by and grabbed a few of it now. I will post more of it at the wedding soon.
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| Jessica's baby shower |
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| at Aunt Cocoa Beans |
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| Wallace made a few new friends |
Jennifer has also wanted some kind of arbor for her reception area. We were planning on making the reception hall into a backyard. Our idea was an outside reception inside. All the homey, fun elements of an outdoor reception without the threat of rain and NO bugs! She had been talking to Grant and Dan about this for sometime so one Sunday afternoon we went down to the property and gathered up some nice branches, and smaller trees from some of what we had to take down. Dan, Jen and Grant then put the thing together at home in the garage. They worked on it for a couple of hours and then asked me to come out and look at it. I wish I had taken a picture of the arbor then. But I snuck by and grabbed a few of it now. I will post more of it at the wedding soon.
I should have mentioned in an earlier post that we celebrated my Grandpa Shore's birthday in early April. He was 102. Although a little frail, he was still so sharp and quick witted. A week or two before the wedding he suffered a minor heart attack that landed him in the hospital for a little while. When he was released we were told that he would need to go to the nursing home side indefinitely, so they moved him from assisted living into the nursing home.
Monday, July 28, 2014
Making room for the future
April and May were so completely crazy for us. We were all running a million different directions. Jake turned 21 at the end of April, and also moved out of our home and in with a couple of friends at the same time. He was nearing the end of three years of school, and looking for his adult job. Jen working full time, at a difficult time in her clinic, and was consumed with her wedding, Grant was interviewing his jobs, Dan was consumed with clearing the land for our home, and well, I was in the center of it all, and trying to do my full time job at the same time.
Dan's co-worker brought a bulldozer down, and any time that Jake and Grant had they went down to help Dan.
I wish I had some more pictures of clearing the land, but I got voted to help with the wedding.
I wish I had some more pictures of clearing the land, but I got voted to help with the wedding.
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| Flowers for Jen's wedding |
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| Looking for items for our new home |
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| Clearing our home site |
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| Jen taking a break to check her phone. |
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| Hay Hook Dan has plans for |
Saturday, July 26, 2014
Exploring
In April Dan had found an unusual rock down by the small stream that runs though our place. He took Grant and I down to show us and to get it out. The rock was fairly heavy, and he could not bring it out when he found it as he had to many other things he was carrying. Later he took me down to the creek with Grant. I had not been down into this portion of the property yet, but was amazed at all the rock in the creek.
Friday, July 18, 2014
Moving on
After the holidays my life pretty much consisted of three things.
1. Preparing to move, and building
2. Jennifer's wedding
3. Work
We had been in contact with our builder from time to time, but we became much more diligent about things. Dan's plan was to use reclaimed barn wood for our great room, so that it appeared like the inside of an actual old barn. While he was looking for barn wood he ran across Iowa Barn Savers. IBS was started by a gentleman in northern Iowa who searches out sound barns. He photographs the barns, numbers every piece and then blueprints them to be put back together. We contemplated this for a long while, purchasing an old barn, and just using that for a home. We started talking to builders and architects and engineers about using an old barn. And although it was totally doable, not in our time frame and probably not in our budget. So we moved on. Dan's co-worker Andy does dirt work on the side, and we hired him to help us start taking down trees for the home site. Although taking down trees broke our hearts in some ways. It had to be done.
Jennifer's wedding- Fortunately we had pretty much everything set for the wedding. And although she did change caterers on me just a couple of months before the wedding, the big stuff was done aside from suits for the guys, and dresses for the flower girls. Jen had asked her grandpa to build her a fence to go behind the back drop and her grandma to make some squares of different pastel colors and patterns. Jen wanted her wedding to 1 Feel like you were in a backyard, and 2 Look like she had gone into any of her grandmothers/great grandmothers kitchens and grabbed everything from the cabinets and threw it on the tables. More organized of course. We researched flowers and flower arrangements from Google to Pintrest.
For work- Well, I was gearing up for what is one of my biggest projects of the year. A summer school project for student with education accommodations known as Extended School Year or ESY. This project requires me to build a small program for students and staff it. To accomplish this, I have to communicate with just about every department through out the district and several staff members so that we can meet the needs of students. Thankfully- the putting together of this is now behind me, and I can move on.
1. Preparing to move, and building
2. Jennifer's wedding
3. Work
We had been in contact with our builder from time to time, but we became much more diligent about things. Dan's plan was to use reclaimed barn wood for our great room, so that it appeared like the inside of an actual old barn. While he was looking for barn wood he ran across Iowa Barn Savers. IBS was started by a gentleman in northern Iowa who searches out sound barns. He photographs the barns, numbers every piece and then blueprints them to be put back together. We contemplated this for a long while, purchasing an old barn, and just using that for a home. We started talking to builders and architects and engineers about using an old barn. And although it was totally doable, not in our time frame and probably not in our budget. So we moved on. Dan's co-worker Andy does dirt work on the side, and we hired him to help us start taking down trees for the home site. Although taking down trees broke our hearts in some ways. It had to be done.
Jennifer's wedding- Fortunately we had pretty much everything set for the wedding. And although she did change caterers on me just a couple of months before the wedding, the big stuff was done aside from suits for the guys, and dresses for the flower girls. Jen had asked her grandpa to build her a fence to go behind the back drop and her grandma to make some squares of different pastel colors and patterns. Jen wanted her wedding to 1 Feel like you were in a backyard, and 2 Look like she had gone into any of her grandmothers/great grandmothers kitchens and grabbed everything from the cabinets and threw it on the tables. More organized of course. We researched flowers and flower arrangements from Google to Pintrest.
For work- Well, I was gearing up for what is one of my biggest projects of the year. A summer school project for student with education accommodations known as Extended School Year or ESY. This project requires me to build a small program for students and staff it. To accomplish this, I have to communicate with just about every department through out the district and several staff members so that we can meet the needs of students. Thankfully- the putting together of this is now behind me, and I can move on.
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| Jennifer |
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| Sunshine |
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| Removal of thorns from a thorn tree |
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| Lots of brush |
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| Pulling out old fence posts |
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| Waiting on Dad-trying to look cool |
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| Grant |
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| 4 wheeler selfie |
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