Under Construction

I feel that our house is a war zone right now and we are only really working on one room. I don't want to give away to much, but I will tell you some frustrations. The contents of that room are in many other rooms of the house right now. We changed paint colors after one gallon of paint. We are now through two gallons, 3-4 coats on each wall, and we still need more paint. We definitely should have primed, but I thought starting with such a neutral color we would have been fine. Somehow, we have wound up with no electricity in the guest bedroom (we are having guests on Wednesday). We tried all the circuit breakers, including the main, and that room is still dark? We are having to return the lighting that we chose and both loved due to a club like feeling in the room. Needless to say, we have gotten to know the people at Lowe's and Home Depot (yes, both) quite well. More to come, hopefully really soon.

In addition to working on the room, I am also working on a masterpiece ;) Here is a peak at it.

Wedding Weekend

This past weekend, Zach and I drove to Fort Worth, TX to experience Jessica's wedding. The wedding was beautiful. The bride was beautiful, the colors were awesome, the ceremony was very meaningful.

In addition to the wedding, Zach got to see TCU and the house I stayed in my senior year. He got to eat some TexMex and Braum's. I really enjoyed showing him a little bit of my past.

We stayed with Heidi and her puppy, who we named Oliver because we didn't know his name when we first got to the house. I didn't think I was going to like him, but he was a really funny dog.

Overall, a great weekend!

I Survived

Yesterday was an interesting day.

I started out the day working at Vandy for the first time in a year. It took a lot of work to actually start working. I was a little nervous about doing things correctly, but I survived.

Then I was off to run some errands. I got a phone call from Zach (from work) while I was at the gas pump at Sams Club telling me I needed to seek shelter that a storm producing tornadoes was headed my way. I headed back into Sams just in time to be ushered into the break room to wait out the storm. This is the second time I have had to seek shelter in a store this year because tornadoes were headed toward me.

Next on the list was a haircut. This was no small haircut. People, I now have true bangs for the first time in my life and my hair is much shorter. I am very unsure about my decision at this point, so I can't say I have survived my bangs yet.

Mission Accomplished

We had great weather for the rest of our time in KS. The sun only came out for short periods. Just enough to remind us that we did not want the sun to be out. I believe that the cooler weather was one of the main reasons we were able to finish the whole roof by breakfast this morning. We completed an entire church in less then 3 1/2 days. The captain of the roof is Pete, who is a professional roofer. He reported to my mom yesterday that we laid down more shingle in one hour than guys on his professional team can do. and I might add that I think we had way more fun than they do as well. Not surprisingly, I am tired, bruised, and my hand is slightly swollen with a lot of small cuts. It has been a wonderful week, but I am ready to head home:D

This is a picture at the end of the day on Thursday. You can't really see, but we still had a few little places to work on this morning.

Update on the Trip

What a day today, but I am going to start with yesterday.

Yesterday, things started out slow as they usually do. Our shingles did not arrive until around lunch time. Despite only having the afternoon to get shingles down, we were able to put down more than half of one upper level of the roof. The weather was great, overcast and temperature in the 70s. There was even a nice breeze. I think the breeze is the reason that I didn't realize I was burning. Oops, I am feeling that mistake today. The only downside yesterday is that my fingers stopped working. I was hammering and using the nail gun and my hand would not open up to release the objects. I would have to physically open it and work my fingers out.

Today we got started out great. We worked hard up until breakfast. We took a break for some good grub and then it was back up on the roof. This is when we took notice that some storms were coming in. We tried to stay on the roof as long as we could. 3 of us stayed until the lightening got too close for comfort. We got down just in time for the downpour. And I mean downpour. There was about 2-3 inches of water in the floor of the building by the end of the storm. We all were wearing garbage bags as raincoats. Oh, and there was even hail. When the storm finally passed over, over half of the group left to return to hotels to get dry. Our church and parts of other churches stayed behind to try to sweep water out of the church, put more felt on the roof because another storm was coming, and a few other odds and ends. This only lasted about an hour before the sky opened again. This is when the rest of us headed back to the hotel.

I decided to go to the hot tub upon my return. You will never believe what happened next...the power went out at the hotel. Thankfully the lights eventually came back on, but what a day!

Made It

We (mom and I) are safely in Kansas City to help build a church starting tomorrow.

Yesterday, we got into town stopped by the mall for lunch and then it was on to the hotel for rest time since we were all up by 4am. I managed to convince myself to go workout for a while before my much needed nap. We woke up to go to dinner at a barbecue restaurant and then back to the hotel for bedtime. (extra note that meals take hours when there are 19 of you to be waited on).

Today, we woke up and went to church at the current church which has no room left in it. They had 2 extra rooms in the church where people were able to watch the service on a screen. Then off to lunch at a great chicken place with unbelievable cinnamon rolls:D Next, some went out to drive around Kansas City while a couple of us headed to the building site to get ready for dinner. I spent my afternoon making some good sweet tea and some other odd and end jobs. Dinner and then back to the hotel to wake up tomorrow and get started building at 6:30am.

Out and About

Currently I am in Birmingham visiting my family. I have been fed very well over the last few days as always when I am home. It has been great to spend time with everyone and catch up. I love my family so much!!!

I have 2 more days at home before I fly out to KS with my mom for a mission trip. I will have my computer with me, so I am hoping to update you but I might not have the energy needed to blog (or do anything but sleep for that matter).

Pray for Zach as he is left at home without me for 2 weeks:(