Alysa's Awards

This past week, Alysa's school had an awards ceremony for the end of this 9 weeks. We were invited to attend, as Alysa received 2 awards....all A Honor Roll and Good Citizen. She absolutely loves her new school and her teachers and is really doing great! Her school ranked 5th in the entire state of Kentucky. We're just thrilled she is where she is and is enjoying it so much. Thanks to all those responsible for making her experiences so wonderful and memorable. We couldn't be more proud of her and her accomplishments. Keep up the good work, sweetie! We love you!

House - Week #12

These past 2 weeks have probably been some of the most exciting ones in building our new home, mostly because there seems to be SO much going on every day. At any given time, we can drive up to the house and see heat and ac installers, electricians, concrete layers, painters...........the list goes on and on. Just this past week alone.....the concrete driveway was poured, slabs for the ac and gas units and drive and walk for the back yard crawl space, the pea gravel sidewalk in front and the front porch, set the ac/heating units, ran the septic lines and system, grated the yard in preparation for seeding and landscaping, primed the inside walls, installed the garage and crawl space doors, installed the lighting inside and out, installed a good part of the trim outdoors (it rained all day Friday and halted a lot of scheduled work), built the base for the back deck, bricked the decking posts........that's about all I can remember. But that is a LOT!!! I'm sorry....I didn't take inside pics, as I said I would. I planned on doing that today, but the high was only 44 degrees and we didn't spend much time out there. I will try to do that this week sometime. Here's what we have of the outside.....

New Calling

Today I was "officially" given a new calling at church (sustained last week).....I taught my last lesson in Relief Society and am NOW the Compassionate Service Leader. This is exciting for me, as I have never had this calling before. It is a wonderful opportunity for me to get to know and love all the sisters in my new ward. Plus, it's an answer to prayer for me to be able to serve more and better and to grow spiritually. I feel this calling will really help me do all of that and get closer to my Heavenly Father, which is the greatest feeling ever!

House - Weeks #10 & 11

Since we were gone to NC to welcome Perry home, I did not get week 10 posted. So I'm playing catch up now with both weeks. Sorry. When we returned from our trip, we were astonished to see all that had been done while we were gone. To recap: the brick was completely finished, the roof was finished (except over the front porch, where the rock layers were working - but it was completed today), the rock was hand cut and laid, being completed, the entire house was dry walled and was sanded today, lighting was picked out and ordered, and appliances were ordered. There's just as much going on for this week, but I'll save it to go with the new pics, which will probably include the inside. Sorry about all the pics to come...

Halloween Fun!!

I know I'm late getting these Halloween pics up. Sorry! Friday, Alysa went to school wearing Halloween "dress", but not her costume. She promptly called me asking me to bring her costume to school, since she'd JUST learned she could have worn it. I did take it to her and was so glad I did because when I got there, the ENTIRE school was in an assembly where all the teachers and faculty were dressed up and doing various skits. It was a reall "scream" (pardon the punn). She quickly changed into her costume and went back to the fun. Later that night, we took pizzas to our friends, the Jacob family, and rode on a hayride around our soon-to-be new neighborhood. We had a great time and look forward to many more trick-or-treat nights out there.

Happy Birthday Wes-Wee (Wesley)!!! and Sissy!

Tomorrow (Nov. 2) is my Wesleys 25th birthday!!! I can't believe he's already 1/4 of a century old!! Oh my, what does that make me?? I can remember the day he was born as if it were yesterday. He woke me up @ 4 am, twisting and turning best he could, trying to get out. But he didn't actually make it until 5:22 that afternoon. It was a long day...but SO worth it. Wes has brought us years full of laughter and smiles and wonderful memories. It has been such a joy to watch him grow up and acquire a family of his own. And what a beautiful family they are.....we love them all so much. Seeing him interact with his own children is amazing. We visited them this summer (waiting on Briley to show up) and were so touched to see the love in their home.......just what a parent wants for their children. Happy Birthday, Wes!!! WE LOVE YOU!!

It also happens to be my sisters birthday, Jeri Ann. She's 2 years younger than I am and quite the clown. She's so much fun to be with....I really miss her. She has always delighted in the fact that Wesley was born on her birthday.....she got to get out of school to come to the hospital! She's always called him "her baby", being that they share the same birthday. Here's to you, Sissy!! We love you bunches!

Perry's Home!!!!!

After 7 long months in Iraq, Perry is finally back on US soil. I can't tell you how happy we were to see him. Mark, Alysa and I drove to North Carolina to see him in, along with Marks' sister, Lois, her husband, Mike, and their two teens, Nate and Margaret, AND one of our neices, Megan. Perrys dad and little brother, Jay and Tex, were there too. The weather was beautiful that day....good thing too because we were expecting him in at 10:00 am and he didn't actually make it in until around 3:30 pm. But we just enjoyed the day, watching all the other Marines seeing their families again, some of them meeting their babies for the first time. It was a very touching and humbling experience. It really made us think about and appreciate what these men (and women) are sacrificing to serve
our country.





Perry looked wonderful and it was fantastic to actually be able to hug him and know he was real and safe. We had a great visit with him. He was able to reunite with his buddy, Khris, from Louisiana, who is also stationed at Camp Lejeune. They even brought their guitars and gave us a private concert. It was just like old times. Of course, Perry was glad to get back to his "baby" (truck). I can't imagine what it would be like to not drive for 7 months - other than a Hummer every now and then. It was so hard to leave him again so soon. But the world keeps turning. At least we can keep in touch via phones a lot easier and more often now that he's home.




Thanks, Perry, to you and all that serve along side you. All our love.......