For Sale by Owner

Done!!!

We put our For Sale sign out on Friday night!!!

I am so proud of Bryan. For 2 years, off and on, he has been putting vinyl siding on our house. I think he has done a fabulous job!! It did take a long time but he did it all by himself and while he was working full time, completing his Masters, and for a few months preparing Sunday School lessons.

Here is the Before:

Here is the After:

We put 12 flyers in our info tube on Friday night and they were all gone Sunday when we got home from church and lunch! But we don't have our hopes up yet; our neighbors could have taken them out of curiosity!!!

Have a great week!!

If you know of anyone looking for a home in the Moore area, send them our way!!!

I Found Ty

Here is my very own Ty Pennington.........

(and a picture example of why I've not been posting/reading blogs much)

Bryan wouldn't pose with his shirt off!!! :-) :-)

I didn't dare ask him! I was afraid he would get upset and quit working!!

Bryan took 2 days off work to finish the trim on our house. I've been working/cleaning on the inside and keeping the yards up. We bought an edger this weekend. I have been asking for one for 7 years...the entire time we've lived in this house!!! And now that we are leaving, I get one. Our yard had not been edged in 7 years. We just "tried" to do it with the weed eater. It was hard work edging the first time! Bryan did it all so hopefully the 2nd time around, I can do it and it will be easier! I really hope our new house has a nice driveway and sidewalks so I can use this brand new tool!!

Since I first typed this post, Bryan has finished the trim and he has saved one small piece for he and I to hammer in together. I thought that was a great idea. Except...neither one of us have been home in the evening since Tuesday evening!!

I should have before and after pictures soon!

Graduation !!!

Bryan and I have experienced some of the best days of our lives this past weekend!!

(long post and lots of pictures. Remember this serves as my journal too!!)

He has completed his Masters in Civil Engineering and graduated!!!!!

Oh, Happy Day!!!!

I am so very proud of Bryan. I'm just in awe when I look at him. He is such a wonderful man. He is handsome, disciplined, and a great leader for me. I admire his perseverence over the past several years!! Yet, he is humble in all his sucess. Did you know my husband was inducted into an engineering honor society, yet he tells no one!! I will!!!!!

We have had a wonderful weekend of celebration! I took the afternoon off on Friday and attended 2 receptions with him and then he and I went to the university wide graduation at OU on Friday night. We had so much fun together, just he and I!!

This is Bryan and I at the OU Graduate College reception.

He also got a "free" t-shirt that says "Master" on it. I thought it was funny since I occassionally call him Master Haskins, even before he got his degree!

We had time to kill after the receptions so we hit up campus corner. I love shopping OU's campus corner. I found this plate for 50% off because it had a small crack. I love it!!! I will probably display it in our new house. I don't want to have it out in our current house in case an OSU fan comes by. It may deter them from buying our house!! :-) You know how those Poke fans can be!! :-)

Bryan also found an OU tie. Not too flashy. He needed a longer red tie anyway. He decided last minute to wear it to the evening graduation. Here he is tying it in the parking garage! It tends to take him a while to tie his ties!!

The ceremony at OU's graduation was spectacular. They even had a great fireworks display at the end. Here's a small video:

I thought it was great they played "Oklahoma" and parts of Boomer Sooner!!

Although we've paid them money to do so :-), OU has been good to us! We LOVE THE University of Oklahoma!!!

Bryan and I after the graduation Friday night. For some reason, I took my hair down. It turned out to be a sticky humid evening. I don't like these pictures all that well.

My face looks as fat and square as the tunnel openning in the background!!! In my defense, my lymphedema leg was swollen huge and had a heat rash. It had been a long day. But worth it!!

Saturday was the College of Engineering Convocation.

I love this picture of Lloyd Noble Center at OU prior to the Convocation. Bryan's Aunt took it! Thank you Aunt Cindy!!

The family who came:

Bryan and His Parents

My Granny and cousin James!!

Bryan's aunt and uncle drove from NW AR. We were thrilled to have them and appreciate the time they gave to us this weekend.

Katie asked to come to the graduation with me. She was so much fun!! She borrowed my OU necklace to wear to the graduation.

I love this next picture of Bryan and Katie!
We love her!!!

With Bryan's parents assistance, we were able to have a nice reception for Bryan afterwards.

Bryan and his cake! Do you recognize the plate?

This is a picture of Bryan and his childhood babysitter, Roberta along with her family. Roberta was a huge influence and encouragement to Bryan. It meant a lot for them to drive up from Ada. Bryan had told me on Friday she was a big reason why he is the person he is today.

Here are some additional snapshots of family and friends during the reception!

Although it is the back of Ava and Stella Gorton, I love this picture of the two of them looking up to the adults. They liked watching Bryan open gifts and cards.

The Gorton Family.....our dear friends and my boss!!



It was a spectacular time of celebration. We are so blessed!!!!

This is a shot of the next upcoming graduate!!! They came by the office last week and she wanted to practice!! I'm telling you....I love that our friends let me love their children!!! They warm my heart and make me happy!!!

I can't believe she is 5 years old!!!! I think her parents may have miscalculated her age!!!

Watch Brooklyn's blog. Ava graduates from pre-school this week!

p.s. Still working on the house: painting, staging, cleaning, and mowing. In the evenings we try to take advantage of the daylight and no rain. I hope to read and comment on your blogs in the next year!! Ha!!

Ready, Set, SALE!!!!!

Where is Ty Pennington when you need him most!!! :-)

Bryan and I have been so incredibly busy. I don't even know where to start. I will spare you the in between and details and sum it up with...we are putting our house up for sale and looking for a new house!! We are very excited and most of the time, we have had a lot of fun together as we start this endeavor!! But we have also worked harder than I think I personally ever have getting our house ready and staging each room. I am spent physically and mentally. I've made trip upon trip to the storage unit (my attempt to declutter and make our house look bigger. Is that false advertisement?).

We hope to find a larger house on an acre or two. We have 2 so far we are considering but we want our house to sale first. So, we are trying not to get too attached to these in case they sale before ours does.

We are just about finished getting our house ready but Bryan is smacked dab in the middle of finals this week and it has rained 247 days straight in OK!!! small exaggeration. But seriously, you sink when you walk across our yard. Not good weather to put up and paint trim on the outside of our house!!!

Bryan's parents came up one weekend. His mom and I focused on the inside of the house and Bryan and his dad worked on repairing our back door frame as well as a frame in the guest room. With their help in one day, we got a lot accomplished.

Bryan's graduation is in a week and it is our hope we will be able to put out our For Sale sign very shortly thereafter!

I think of you often!!! Hopefully we will get done and I can begin commenting on blogs again real soon!!

Congratulations !!!!

Thursday was my Grandma's last night in OK before flying back to Oregon. I was glad to have one last goodbye with her before leaving. It has been nice having her here and I look forward to going to visit her, maybe this year.

My Sisters and I with my Grandma

My oldest sister graduated on Friday night from college with her Bachelors in Education. She is going to make a superb teacher! You should see all the posters, prep work, visual aids, and so many other things she has made to use as she worked on projects and did her student teaching. She is very creative and talented and I cannot wait to see what school and grade she teaches.

My new glasses came in Thursday and I wanted to wear them but I didn't even think of the glare they would put in pictures. On Thursday night, I dreamed the lenses fell out!!! In my dream I was stressed that my brand new glasses broke but excited I wouldn't have white lights in pictures! I'm a crazy girl!! :-) What is it about Bryan and I? We cannot find a good balance in picture taking!!

I am so proud of Jennifer! She has accomplished a lot!! She received her Bachelors of Science while being a wife and mother to 3 great kids!!

I was thrilled to sit with my oldest niece and her friend! I felt like I was so cool! It is so fun being with my nieces and nephew. I've said it before...I feel young and old all at the same time.

We had fun! After graduation we went out to eat and I got to sit at the kids table!!! I actually wanted to!

The food was delicious!!! I had chicken fried steak with double gravy (yes, I have issues). Check out the size of these chicken fingers. They were huge!!!

I hope you have a great week!!! Bryan and I are very busy and may have some excitement in the next few weeks I hope to share. If I'm out of touch with you, know it is because we are working hard. Just so you aren't stuck wondering or hoping....it does not have to do with an adoption.

Easter 2009

Bryan and I attended a Good Friday service at our church. It was the first time we did this, but I'm so glad we did. We had a previous pastor of Emmaus bring the sermon. He preached from John 18 and the last 24 hours of Jesus life before dying on the cross. It was an amazing sermon. The worship time was amazing and I loved singing (although I'm sure I sounded hidious). After the sermon, we observed the Lord's Supper. It was the best way to spend Good Friday. I hope our church does it again next year.

Easter Sunday was cold and rainy. My dress was sleeveless but luckily I was able to find this little half sweater (I'm not sure what the proper fashion word is because it is less than a cardigan. It's shorter than a cardigan.). There is at least one family I know of at church that always tries to coordinate colors at Easter and I decided a few years ago to do that with Bryan and I. Some may think it is dorky, who knows.

After church on Sunday we made a very quick trip to Ada to eat lunch with Bryan's family. It was a great trip. We were able to see Bryan's parents, grandma, aunts/uncles, and cousins. A great way to cover seeing all the family quickly.

I hope everyone has a great week!

Kickin' It

Last Thursday was my birthday and I was so blessed to have my Grandma stay at my house for a few days. She is in from Oregon and is taking a few days to stay at each family members' house. I was thrilled to have her on my birthday!! On Thursday the 3 of us went to Lakeside Grill to eat some great Oyster nachos and Seafood enchiladas! Yummy!My grandma doesn't even know what a blog was so I think she thought it odd that I wanted a picture at a restaurant! :-)

I took Thursday and Friday off to spend with Grandma.

We had such a great time! On Friday, we visited her sister, ate lunch at the place that is catering Bryan's graduation reception (I had to make sure the food tasted good!), and then did some speed shopping in Norman! I loved shopping with Grandma. I was able to find 2 dresses for myself and I bought her a dress for her birthday/Easter! It was a wonderful memory I will not forget! Plus it was just so rewarding to find dresses for myself. I'm trying to build up my dress inventory and finding cute, decent dresses is often challenging for me!

Friday night we zoomed out to my sisters since my niece was going to the prom. My grandma wanted to see her in her dress. She was 4 years old when we got married. That 4 year old is growing up before our eyes!!

I felt so old in this picture!!

She is a doll! I was her size at one time!!! :-( What happened to my metabolism!!??

Bryan went to a HUGE gun show on Saturday and I was blessed to get to go to our friends' first soccer game! We are so blessed to have our friends "share" their children with us and we love it, love it when they include us and invite us to their functions. Here are 2 of the stars of the game!!
Steven

Jackson

Believe it or not, these two are best buds. Steven was just trying to turn Jackson's head for the picture. After the game, we ate at Chickfila and I was honored to sit at their table! I love to hear these two talk!! They give me high fives and ask all kinds of questions. I love it when they give me hugs!!
Their parents are doing a great job raising these boys!