Goodbye 2008

Here's a month by month account of the highlights during our 2008.

January: Our new niece, Rachelle, came into the world.
February: Mark gave me an unexpected gift!
March: Our nephew, Frankie, was in town for a visit.
April: Spring arrived and we visited the Indianapolis Zoo with our niece, Avery.
May: We celebrated birthdays with a family cookout at our home.
June: We enjoyed a vacation to Gatlinburg, TN and attended the US Diving Olympic Trials in Indy.
July: Sheba turned 4 and we hung beautiful new drapes in the living room. (Thanks Peeper!)
August: We went to our final adoption seminar, decided on the agency we wanted to work with, and began the process.
September: We finally took the vacation to Montana that we've talked about for years! Plus Mark caught his trophy size fish. :)
October: We sold the Acura Integra.
November: We voted in the 2008 Presidential election.
December: Mark completed the bathroom project, we enjoyed a wonderful Christmas, and we are officially "active" with our agency.

We wish you all a Happy New Year!
May the Lord bless you in 2009!

The Reason...

In Sunday School today we were talking about ways to keep Christ the focus of our family Christmas celebrations. One person was talking about his 20 year old daughter's boyfriend. He is invited to their home Christmas morning and they told him they will read the Christmas story from the Bible together. His reply? "Cool, I've never read the story before." I think we take for granted that everyone has read about Christ's birth.

Below is the passage from Luke that tells the story of Christ's birth. I hope you enjoy reading it, whether it is your first time or your one thousandth.

Luke 2

The Birth of Jesus

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register.

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

The Shepherds and the Angels

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
"Glory to God in the highest,

and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

A Night Out

We attended our first party of the holiday season this week. Mark's work had a nice get together at Belle Vita at Geist. The appetizers were delicious!! Mark's co-workers are very friendly and it was really nice to finally meet them.

Here we are at home before the event:
I forgot that many of you haven't seen my "new" hair yet. New stylist = darker color + more layers.

Merry Christmas, friends!

The End is Here -- post by Mark

After working non-stop, day and night, for a mere 20 months, the bathroom renovation project is finally done. It seems like just yesterday that I started demolition. What started off as a nice little project soon blossomed into nearly a whole-house renovation. In addition to the bathroom itself I completed several other small projects along the way: wiring our master bedroom ceiling fan to the switch on the wall, installing a second ceiling light and a new wall switch in our upstairs hallway, installing a vent fan in our downstairs bathroom, insulating our attic crawl space, installing a new window which required taking down half of our vinyl siding, running a second HVAC duct to the upstairs, painting our pantry and installing new wire shelves, replacing the drain pipes for our downstairs bathtub and now I’m replacing two walls in the finished portion of our basement. Ah, the joys of owning an old house…

I’m really pleased with the way the bathroom turned out. I did everything you see (and everything you don’t see) in the photos of the bathroom including: framing, drywall, mud and tape, subfloor, tiling, plumbing, electrical, HVAC, wainscoting, trim, painting and installation of the cabinets, shower door, hardware and toilet. Out of everything, I vow never to tile a shower again. Everything else was easy compared to that.

Now, for my next project….perhaps our garage should be a little larger…

p.s. If you want to see photos of the original bathroom, check out this post: March 2007