November 12th 2005

November 12th Oops! Two Fridays have passed since the last update. Sorry about that. We delayed updating for the past three days because we kept seeing huge progress on the front of the house, and we wanted to post a picture of it. (We still will do a little more detail work, and rake leaves, and cut the grass, but we like looking at the house, and thought you might too.)

Dad and Justin

On Friday, the 4th, we were invited to a college basketball game because Wid's son, Wid III, would be playing. We had a great time, yelling our hearts out for Wid's team. They didn't win, but Wid played really well, and we all enjoyed the game. The next day we finally broke down and bought a basketball... :)We put an hour or two into the house late Saturday, after playing with our new ball down at the school.On Sunday we celebrated Annie's 19th birthday! We spent the day at the Naylor's place with the Naylor and Russell families. We had a precious time of fellowship around the Word of God, some sweet worship together and a great lunch. Then we stayed the night! not on purpose- we just did! It was past midnight before we finally left them alone... (See Picture Above.)Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday found most of our crew working around the front porch area, or on the roof over the porch. We were really motivated to finish what Wid had started before he came back to check up on us!On Wednesday five of us had the opportunity to do some outside work. We helped to paint the fence we had helped prime a couple weeks ago. When we got home, we spent the evening gazing at the front of the house. ;-) I guess hours and hours of scraping, priming and painting really do make a difference.Friday we did fun stuff. We mounted the mailbox, and the address numbers, and installed the porch light, and we moved all the tools around so we will be ready to start work on the upstairs when the time comes. Mandy also hung some drywall around the base of the entry hall, where some really wide baseboards had been. Meanwhile, we baked fifteen pizzas, made a few phone calls and cleaned up the house for company. Three families who had never been here before came over, and we had a lot of fun getting to know them better.Our neighbors are starting to see a pattern. Kim, from down the street asked if we had people coming over."Yes- three families, that we know of."She responded in complete Okie, "Do they'all have a bunch of kids?" Today we enjoyed a brief visit over lunch, with Brother Pushpan Pappu, missionary from India, to India, by way of Santa Clara, California. He came over with the couple who is hosting him here, and we hope to see them all again this evening at their church. Thank you, Sister Arja, for sharing Brother Pushpan and for the almond roca!

Heidi longing to go outside!