flowers from no one?

so yesterday...



i received flowers from ftd. they came in a box. the card said "happy valentine's." that was it. no from, no love so and so. just "happy valentine's." and, of course, the husband says they didn't come from him. now, all signs point to yes, but regardless of the fact they came from my husband, or didn't, they are very pretty. now, barley, cotton, and even dave seem to think that jay sent them. just look at their faces...








these faces are clearly saying that jay is full of "it" and that the flowers had to have come from him. especially dave.
but i have taken some pictures of the lovely roses with the new camera. playing with the lenses a bit. enjoy their beauty. i am.

our house is covered!

ok. so lots has happened in a short time period on the house. they started the siding and finished the siding. our tubs and showers are in place. and yesterday i discovered the ducts were in place for the hvac. and we have shutters! things are just moving right along. not much to say. just some new pictures. enjoy! (we are!)

my tub!

the guest tub/shower

mine and jay's shower (it is to the left of the tub)

family updates

jay passed his first big nursing test. yeah!!! so that is exciting. i took a class at work yesterday, so i am now officially a "preceptor" and "validator." all that really means is that i can officially orient new staff to the unit and can also check people off on unit competencies. yes. a bunch of big words and stuff. but on the days i do that i can now get a bit of extra pay, so that is always handy. we are getting back into the swing of things and are getting back into the good habit of consistently going to church. it is the lenten season now so, of course, it is a good time to get back there. good times for reflection. we are still disliking our apartment and are excited every day when there is progress on the house, which now is pretty frequent. i am slowly breaking into studying for a course i am taking in legal nurse consulting. it is a self study course that i have a year to complete. it is interesting and reminds me of how much i enjoyed my business law class in high school. the animals are doing well. (just for those who wonder!) and i think that is about it for us. keep checking back for house updates. we should have more soon!

walls, wires, a roof- oh my!

ok. so we were out of town for about a week. when we left we had a concrete slab for a house. well, now we have a "house!" when we drove by on thursday we had a frame with wiring completed, the tar paper on the roof and the protective cover on the house. when i went back today to take pictures they had added the shingles and windows. and our tubs/showers are in the garage. so here is a look at our house so far.

here is a picture of the house from across the street. the first window on the left is a guest room. then the front door. then the next window is the dining room. and behind the garage is the master bedroom.

this picture is from in the kitchen, looking at the back door. we have a back door! and just to the left of it is where the fire place will be.

this is a picture of the back yard from the kitchen window.

here is the kitchen from the back door area

this is a picture of the dining room and foyer area.

this is the view of the den/living room from the front door.

the front bedroom. probably the office/work area. but who knows!

this is the back bedroom... and probably the guest bedroom.

this is the master... but you are looking at the bathroom (right) and the closet (left)

sorry it is so dark! but this is the rest of the master bedroom. (and you can see the garage too)

and one last view from across the street.

so, needless to say we are very excited to have so much done in a week. and with the windows in, i would say it is about time to put the siding and shutters on. so, of course, when that happens there will be more pictures.

courtney is ONE!

well, i can't say too much because i missed the big party, but my sweet little niece has turned one. her birthday was january 30. she had a big party on feb. 2. and from the pictures and stories i have heard, she had a wonderful party surrounded by good friends and family. i have a few pictures to share... from her first day of life and her recent birthday. :)

july 13,1917 - february 3,2008

mamaw conkin has passed away after a very long and good life. she was a wonderful mother and grandmother (and great grandmother) who never minded to cook or do anything for you. she was always happy to give and reluctant to receive. we will miss her very much but we know she is much happier than she has been in a very long time.

puppy love

tubing at cataloochee

so last monday, (mlk day), we decided to drive to maggie valley and visit cataloochee ski resort. jay tried to talk me into skiing, but i declined. just not quite ready for that yet. so we went tubing instead. and not like we tubed the previous time. it was well organized and a much longer run than the previous place we went to. so here are some pictures of our fun in maggie valley.

here is an upclose view of the tubing run. there are four "slides" and someone up top making sure the bottom is clear before the next 4 people have their turn.
here is the picture of the full run. and you can see in the left of the picture the "magic carpet" to take everyone back up to the top.
ok. here is stacie, kneeling behind her tube, ready to go. jay was a very good photographer that day. much better than stacie. (you will see soon.)
she is going, going....
going... going.... going...
and she made it to the bottom.
so right when it was almost jay's turn, they turned on their snow-maker. so not only did the sun make it hard to see who was up top, the "snow" didn't help much. but he is over here in the left lane, on his way down.
he made it midway... this lane was fairly slow. (the far lane on the right was the fastest.)
and he finally makes it to the bottom. we had a ton of fun that day and the dogs did too (they spent the day at sparky's.)

it's beginning to look more like a house (could be built here)

ok. so we are getting way excited about the progress being made on our house. before our last big snow we had our footing and pipes and were waiting on the weather to cooperate before they could pour the concrete. well, i guess that was last week because now we have concrete! woo hoo! next step is a frame, so life is good. here are some pictures of the slow and steady progress. and as soon as there is more, you know i will share them.

so this was when the house just had some lovely plastic and some snow inside.

and now we have concrete! yeah! a foundation!