Sleeping Stories

Sleep is something that has not been around at our house recently. Both Brent and I have had trouble sleeping the past month. However, this past week, we've both slept pretty well. Brent will sometimes talk in his sleep. It's hilarious! If I wake-up and here him, I try to talk back to him, just to see what he will say. A few nights ago, Brent had a nightmare - of sorts - about all the wallpaper we've been taking down. The wallpaper steamer is a metal box with a long hose connected and at the end of the hose is a metal pan. The water is incredibly hot and comes out of pan in the form of steam and sometime water runs out too. Much like an iron.

In the dead of night I hear Brent: "MARIANNE! HELP ME! I'M STUCK! TURN IT OFF!"
I rolled over and tried to find the light, when I turn it on Brent's arm looked as if it were stuck between the bed and the headboard. He was also pulling at our headboard back and forth with his other hand. He woke-up just enough to realize he was okay and turned over and went back to sleep. The next day, I forgot all about this, but he remembered! He was dreaming that the wallpaper steamer was stuck on the wall and he couldn't get it off and the hot water was falling onto his face!

OH! What a laugh!!

Not only does Brent talk in his sleep, he also snores. Sometimes both together! It's not so bad. We have a fan that we sleep with and I usually can't hear him. If I do, i will just poke or nudge him and he turns over and quits snoring. Well one particular night, in Texas, he was snoring pretty loud and when I poked him this is what he said: "if you poke me one more time, I'm gonna punch you in the nose!" I said: "you are mean!" and rolled over. Only about the time I rolled over, I realized he was still asleep when he said it! I told him the next day and he did not remember a thing about it!

It is never a dull moment with Brent around, whether he is awake or not!

The house that Brent bought......

I wish I had some pictures on this computer to show you! I can't wait for ya'll to see it! Especially the before and after pics! It has 2100 square feet and 6 acres of trees and a great front yard! The past 4 days we have been working and working. The house had wallpaper in 5 rooms! I don't know if you've ever had to take down wallpaper or not, but it is a long process! Our pastor came over on Friday to help and he suggested we rent a wallpaper steamer. We were able to rent one for the whole weekend, this little joy of a machine is such a time-saver! Please do not ever take down wallpaper without one! It took 3 days to get it all down and if we had not had the steamer, we would still be working on it. Some of the wallpaper was double! It creates a mess, but is easy clean up! Brent's dad has been spraying the outside of the house and it looks amazing! It is sided in white siding and I think that the people who lived there before were not sure how to take care of it b/c the house used be white with green tint, but now it is a lovely pure white!

Now we are waiting for the tile man and a painter or two to come this week and give a few estimates and then we will be painting and tiling. I think it will be a few weeks before we can move in. I've been trying to decide on colors for the rooms. It is a good thing that I did get a degree in interior design, b/c this is the most time consuming thing for me! I'm pretty sure it's because I don't really know what I want. Or it's that I do know what I want, I just don't know how to make it happen.

I was on IKEA's website today searching for a few things. We have enough stuff to fill 713 square feet, so that leaves 1387 square feet of space to fill! The closest IKEA is in Atlanta, so I might be taking a a little trip in the future!

We are excited about all the possibilities of this house.

Christmas Crafts

I love to make crafts! So this Christmas, Brent and I made 2 stools for our cousins' little girls - Molly and Addie. They were fun to make. They turned out pretty well. Although we messed up a little bit on the ladybug. I stole the idea from my friend Jen P. Thanks Jen!

The drying stage

Finished!

New Things

Well it's ours! We signed the papers on the 23rd! Brent and I are now home owners!! Hooray!! We are moving in the 2nd week in January - most likely! We plan to paint some and start working on part of the floors after we return from camp next week! Also, we now have 2 black lab puppies! They are so cute! Brent got me a puppy for Christmas - his name is Hurley and he is 6 weeks old today! He's such a chunk! Cody was given to us by April, Brent's sister! Cody is 12 weeks old! They sure are a hand full! I think they will be great dogs for us. Cody is named for the Alabama lineman and Hurley is named for the character from the TV show LOST, it is also in honor of our time in Texas! I'll have to post pics later! It was crazy yesterday at our house - there were 5 dogs and a 1 year old baby! My parents have two dogs and our two and my brother and his wife spent the night and brought their little dog!

I hope everyone had a very enjoyable Christmas!

December 22

That's our closing date! Well, projected closing date, I should say! It's so crazy! We are getting closer to owning our own house and 6 beautifully wooded acres!!! All though takes an act of Congress to buy a house, it really has moved along quite quickly! Brent has been fabulous and has done EVERYTHING! I think the only thing I have had to do is make a copy of my driver's license and sign a few papers!

We probably will not move in until January. There are a few things that need to be done to the house. Some of the flooring needs to be repaired and it needs a good face-lift in paint. It's pretty exciting!

I'll keep you updated on what happens and post a few pictures, but probably after the 22nd!

2 Things:

One:
We might buy house!!!! Yep. No kidding!! Brent found this house yesterday. It sits on 6 acres and needs a bit of work and paint, but it's still nice. Well that's what Brent says. I haven't seen it yet! He said he might could take me by tomorrow! It's being foreclosed on, so it is a good price. The family has already moved out. Brent filled out the housing application or loan application this morning. I know that the economy is on it's way down hill, but the Lord owns the cattle on a thousand hills right? So maybe He will sell a cow of us? We have learned though to wait and be patient. God has the right place for us to live. I just hope this one is it!! Trust me, if we were not patient, we would have already bought this other house that is way, way above our price range!! haha!!

Two:
Some of you may or may not know that Brent and I are hoping to adopt a child. :)
And last Thursday our fingerprints from the ABI (Alabama Beauru of Investigations) came back! They approved our background checks. Now we have to wait on the FBI. They take a little longer. Then if we are able to move in to this house, we can start our home studies!! Although I have to send in some paper work first.

We are using an agency in B'Ham. www.lifelineadoption.org
It is a Christian agency, which I did not know until the day before we went down to talk to a social worker. We are planning to do a domestic adoption, however it is possible that we could do international, but we really like certain aspects of the domestic adoptions that the social worker told us. China is out of the question though, you have to be at 30 when you go to the child and make $80,000 combined income.
Lifeline just began a partnership with Uganda. So maybe we will have a child from Uganda! The social worker said this is a little different from the other countries in that when you travel to Uganda, you go the orphanage and "pick out" your child. Like picking a puppy.

So if you would like to pray with us in this process, we would appreciate it!

Have a happy Thanksgiving!

Facebook Troubles

Hello Friends,
Marianne here, as of yesterday my facebook does not work. In fact, I'm pretty sure that I am going to have to create a new page. So if you would like to go ahead and delete my page from your friends, go ahead. So this is not the most urgent matter in the world, but if you are wondering why I am not responding to you, that's why.
Well I'm off to GA for the weekend and Brent is in TN. See you next week!

Destin Turns 1

Brittany did a great job on the party! There were about 22 people in their house! It was so crowded. Destin got a ton a gifts! It's a shame we don't get that many gifts for our birthdays when we are older!

He was giving the bow a kiss. Which was funny b/c as his mom says:

"He has texture issues."


Then came the sugar high! :)

Love This Room, Don't you?

What is white on the outside and grey on the inside?

Our new car!! Yep, we are a two car family again! Although I would still rather ride with Brent. A family friend of my parents was selling his 2001 Ford Tarus for $1,500! So we got it! It's so clean inside! It's very nice not to be driving my dad's truck around anymore. I have the Malibu and Brent drives the Tarus. I'm so glad we were able to get the car. Especially b/c we do not have any car debt! That is a HUGE blessing!
Thank You, Lord!