Family Updates

Okay, I keep meaning to put an update on here about my family members that I have asked many of you to keep praying for. Sorry it's taken so long!

I am happy to report that my Uncle Glen is doing well after having surgery to remove a tumor in his colon. Everything is healing as it should so far and results have come back that he will not have to have chemo or radiation treatments. My Aunt Mary is also doing well after her surgery a few weeks ago for an esophageal tumor and she is finished with treatments right now and was able to travel with my grandmother back to Tulsa to be here for Glen's surgery.

These are both my Dad's siblings!! After hounding him a bit (don't think it took much), we have finally convinced him to make an appointment for a checkup, which he has informed me will be November 10th, and from there he will probably be scheduled for some routine "maintenance".

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers for my family, please continue to pray for them that healing continues and nothing new shows up for anyone!

At the Pumpkin Patch

Cooper and I made a trip to "Pumpkin Town" today with Nancy (Nana), Marie (Aunt Re-re), Chloe (Cooper's cousin) and Linda (Grandma Rains). The kids got to go on a little hay ride and ride the ponies and play in the pumpkins. Cooper wasn't all that thrilled with the pumpkin part, but he loved the rest of it. It was a little cool, but we didn't stay long and we all had a nice warm lunch afterwards. We got four little pumpkins that I drew faces on to be Dennis, Cooper, Harry Dog, and me. I painted bigger ones that represented the four of us last year, but don't have the room for them right now, so went with the small ones using a Sharpie to draw faces. They still turned out cute and I have a good spot for them. Enjoy the pics, I may add some later of the hay ride, Marie and I both took pictures, so we have different ones. Enjoy!

At the "Cabinet"

I'm a little behind, so bear with me! Cooper was off at Kid's Day Out last Thursday because of Fall Break and it turned out, we were actually able to take a little break, so we visited Mamaw & Papaw at the "cabinet", as I used to call it when I was little, we stayed Thursday night and came home Friday. Actually, it's the cabin and Cooper loves going up there, it's about 45 minutes from where we live. We brought the wagon and he got Papaw to pull him all over the place, including inside in the evening. I think Papaw enjoys the wagon as much as Cooper does. We even pulled it up and down the road to help Mamaw pick up trash. Cooper loves to be outside, he is definitely going to love living in the country!

Sunday Drive

We returned my Dad's tractor on Sunday after church. They have a bunch of animals at their house, a huge petting zoo, really. They had a 1 day old baby llama we had to check out (didn't think to take the camera to the pasture for a pic). Cooper got a ride on Poppy's shoulders, which he loved and as you can see, the dog crate is a big hit for a play house!

Progress!!

Okay, we finally got the slab poured yesterday! It was too wet after all the rain last week, but the nice windy weekend did a great job getting it dried up quickly. Here are some pics I took. I got to add my own touch, too, by writing our name in the concrete.

Rainy Day

Our building slab has been rescheduled for tomorrow since it's pretty much been raining all day, but that's okay, because our building will not be delivered to the site for two weeks-it's all prepared, they just have to ship it here.
I took some pics of Cooper during play time today, he always makes me laugh! Enjoy!


The laundry basket is always a fun place to play, we did this for probably 15 minutes before he got tired of it.


I guess he's saving the book he's sitting on so Harry Dog won't read it- hehehe. He loves his books, they are in this bin behind the recliner, so it's kind of his little book cave.


We ran into town this morning, as you can see, Cooper is in his big seat now- yay! Although, I kind of miss the days when he was small enough to easily manuever in the infant carrier.

Happy 13 months to Cooper!

Cooper is 13 months old today! Wow, how time flies! I think 13 is our lucky number.

In the Trenches....

Dennis and the guys got a lot of work done this weekend. They had a few setbacks with rented equipment issues, but still managed to get everything done that they wanted to on Saturday and Sunday. Our slab is scheduled for Wednesday and our building will start going up in a couple of weeks. We will get our electric lines in, plumbing tied in, and a septic system set up in the next couple weeks, too. It's starting to look like we are really building there, as opposed to just moving a bunch of dirt around. Cooper and I had to go out and inpect the situation, give it the Cooper seal of approval yesterday. I think it passed :)

Poppy came out to play in the dirt!


Cooper is our job boss, checking everything out in the wagon


Our pad is ready for our slab to be poured on Wednesday!


Trenching is open and ready for the electric lines to be put in and buried

The water line is buried and ready to be tied in



Check out the chain on the trencher! I think they worked it too hard!

Building Progress

As you can see, it's at least beginning to look like there is something going on at our land. Hopefully, we will have a slab at the end of the week, that is if the weather is cooperative. It's a little soggy in parts still, we need some more dirt in the front by the corner, but we are mainly concerned about the building area right now. I think the pond work in the back and filling in the low spot up front will end up being a spring project.
I have a great idea for an old pickup truck Dennis has out there, it has no bed, but I was thinking if he made a bed for it, I could plant flowers in it and decorate it for all the seasons. How cute would a scarecrow be in the front seat with hay, pumpkins, and mums in the back!?! I know, I get a little carried away with the flowers, I really miss that about having a house.
Anyway, I'll keep posting on our progress, hope we can have Christmas there, if not Thanksgiving!

Vacation

We went on our first official family vacation last week. It was much needed and we picked a great time to go, the weather was perfect and no crowds this time of year. We went to South Central Oklahoma, stayed in Sulphur at an RV park and we got a great spot with a humongous tree that shaded us all day long, it was perfect. We always find nice people to visit with while we camp and this time was no exception.

We just did one thing a day and hung outside at the camper each afternoon. We went to Chickasaw Natl. Park and took Cooper in his wagon down the trails. They were wide and smooth enough for it and they led to a couple of really pretty springs and by a couple of spring fed creeks. Next, we visited Arbuckle Wilderness, which is a must if you ever go that way and haven't been. It has a drive through zoo, you can feed animals of all kinds, Cooper didn't quite know what to think about the animals sticking their heads in the windows for food, but he wasn't scared at all. The next day, we visited Turner Falls and enjoyed the scarceness of people (it's a big summer destination, but quiet now) and had a picnic lunch there. We made a trip to Gainesville, TX since it was only about 45 minutes away to do a little shopping one day. We took it pretty easy, needless to say, and it was wonderful!

We stopped to visit our friends in Edmond on the way there and on the way back, we stopped again for the twins birthday party, Happy Birthday to David and Grace! It was great to see you all two weekends in a row!

While were gone, Aunt Mary had surgery to remove part of her esophagus and stomach because of esophageal cancer and the surgery was successful, but she is not quite recovering as quickly as she'd like it sounds. So, keep her in your thoughts and prayers, please!!

Also, I'll be posting some land pics soon. We have footings, rebar, and some other stuff I don't know about, and the plumbing is stubbed in. We have an inspection before the slab is down, but should have it poured by the end of the week!!