Much progress made, despite the rain...

At 8:45am this morning...



At 5:30pm this evening...



We have a first floor!

Update!

So BJ was heading to bed last night around 2am... from the yard he heard a mysterious thump and a car speeding off into the night.... and the dear was gone!

The Cold Has Come!

Okay, so its officially cold. I should be used to it (coming from 'the bend') but I'm really just a big baby!! In other news... BJ and I went off to work this morning only to discover a dead dear in our front yard! Ew. And, :( for the dear. The county told BJ's mom that we just have to let it decay! What in the world?! Again, ew.

Yesterday BJ took a trip out to see the house progress - not much has changed. They did move the dirt a bit, get the groundwork laid for our driveway, and pour the basement floor. All of which doesn't look too exciting but here's a picture anyway...



It's about 7:30 now and I just talked to BJ - he's still at work getting in some overtime (so far he's been there for 12 1/2 hours and counting!). A bunch of his friends are all there as well, so hopefully it's not too painful. He's says he's working on paying for an upgrade in insulation (the best time to convince us to get a warmer house is right now) and another window (a transom above our front door). What a good hubby! :)

Me, I'm watching ANTM (America's Next Top Model) online and typing this. Want to watch stuff online? Check out this site - http://tv.peekvid.com - they have tons of shows!

Basement Windows

Well, the forms have been taken away, so we can now see our basement windows and door! We also have an i-beam! BJ went out there today to take a look and brought back these photos.

He also got our Christmas tree lights up (we put the tree up last night together) - which was quite a task! I think we used a total of NINE strings of lights! BJ likes to put the lights up and down every branch - which looks so pretty! :)

New House Photos!

Hope you all had a wonderful turkey day!!! BJ and I had a nice time with his family and really enjoyed our trip to the aquarium. Here's a couple of our favorite shots... Here's BJ with the birds.



Here are a photo BJ took of the jellyfish - one of my favorites.



Here's me with a shark...



In addition to our trip to the aquarium we also ventured out to our land to see how its coming along. We have basement walls! Here are a couple shots & videos of what's done so far (including our pond which is just about full)... Its so incredible that we went from having a hill to the shape of a house in two days!

A 360 view of our land and house from the pond...



A closer look at the house in progress...



Some still photos...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Okay, so its not yet thanksgiving - but I'm guessing we won't be online much this Thursday and so I'm posting this now. Tomorrow BJ and I both are off from work and so we are going to spend the day together - I'm so excited! We're thinking of going to visit the aquarium.... Our (okay, my) first choice is the zoo, but we aready got festival of lights tickets - so we'll be going there within the next couple of weeks anyway.

I can't wait for turkey and BJ's pumpkin cheesecake (he makes a mean pumpkin cheescake)! YUM! Hope you all have a wonderful holiday!

I'm not sure if we have a basement yet or not - I feel to bad to call and ask (again) - if they haven't been able to start yet. I guess we'll just have to go out there ourelves and see. :)

Sorry, we're not very posty...

I've been a bad blogger, but I have an excuse -- there really isn't too much exciting news to report! Heard word that we might have a basement dug on Monday - the weather and lack of building permits keeps pushing things off. Hopefully it will actuall stay dry this weekend (it should... if weather.com is correct as shown below) so the house can finally get started.

Seeing this online makes me happy...

Busy Busy Busy...

It's been a little while since I've updated this. No, we don't have a new dog... this is from CuteOverload, which I highly recommend. :) House Update: Monday or Tuesday of next week we should have a basement dug for our house, so we'll be sure to post photos of that (so exciting, I know!). :)

Yesterday I (Jessie) had a CAT scan done of my tummy (nothing big, just some stomach pains). The test went really fast, but the IV was NOT FUN! I'm usually pretty good about shots, but MAN!

Tomorrow BJ and I will be helping Jeremy & Jessica move. That deserves a big :( -- not because of the helping them move part, but the fact that they are moving part. We're going to miss them!!!

I've got some side projects done recently... in addition to Jeremy's church, I'm about done with Hope Inner City and I've got a logo for my latest client just about wrapped up. I think after I wrap up these projects I'll be taking a break from side-stuff for a little while.

As Promised...

Here's some photos from last weekend! Here's our nephew Aidan! Check out those teeth!

Here's a crazy sight, a dog in mom and dad's house!!! This is Julie's cute puppy Oliver. He's a really good dog. :)



Here's BJ holding Kate and Matt's baby Lilly...



Here's Kate (I miss you Kate) and Lilly...



Aidan and Lilly got to meet - they both made these strange revving sounds and reached for eachother. Adorable!

Wow! So much to catch up on!

Once have photos I'll post them, we've been pretty busy so there's a lot to share. :) We closed on the land and construction, so the building process has officially begun (although the amount of progress thus far is not great due to all the rain)! We'll have lots of photos to share in the coming months as we gain a basement, walls, windows, etc. :)

Last weekend we went to "the Bend" to visit with my Mom, Julie, Kris, and our cutest and happiest nephew Aidan. :) Again, photos to come soon. It was great to see them -- we only wish it could have been a longer visit. We also got to visit with Kate, Matt, and their baby Lilly, who is also quite the cutie! :)

In case you're suffering from a lack of photos in this blog, I have something to appease your multimedia appetite (you may want to hit mute and you'll find out why:



Here's another silly thing...

Camping Coldness

So it was freezing for the most part, but we all had a lot of fun. BJ and I spent friday night hanging out with Tim and Erin. It was so nice to see them and we both wish we could meet up more often. On Saturday afternoon Chrissy, Chris, Kristi, and Cary joined us and we all froze, hung out, and laughed together. Here's some photos...

This is me in front of our tent. We were able to place it in the woods a bit so we were more secluded from the rest of the campers --- I think that everyone else "camping" must have thought we were crazy because we were not in heated campers (we were about the only ones not in a camper).



Here's the end of a geocashing excursion...



And here's everyone on a log... :)

This is so funny...

I about cried laughing...



BJ and I are heading off to Versailles this weekend to go camping with our friends Tim and Erin, and then with Kristi, Cary, Chrissy, and Chris! I can't wait to see them all and hang out around the campfire! Hopefully it's not too cold!

- Jessie

Samples samples...

BJ and I have been spending the last few weeks working to imagine small swatches of carpet, color, wood, counters, etc in full size... it takes a lot of imagination but I think we're getting there. Last night I picked up samples for bath tiles, shutters, siding, gutters, and shingles. The samples of shutters are really cute -- a bunch of tiny shutters that would have been perfect when I was eight for my Barbie house! Here's our current pile of favorites...

Patches the Horse

I think I'd want a horse if it was as cool as this horse!

More land photos....

This past weekend was really fun! BJ’s dad and his girlfriend Shelia came over with Shelia’s son Dylan and BJ’s sister Maria for dinner on Friday night – we grilled Steak and ate together, and also took them on a tour of our land out in New Alcase. : )

On Saturday we spent the day at the Bright Olympics were BJ competed in the Wiffleball tournament, the ice-cream eating contest, and the obstacle course. : ) I spend the day watching the games and helping to look after Luke (the son of our friends Dave and Michelle).

On Sunday we were pretty lazy, except for another small trip out to New Alcase to give Jeremy and Jessica the tour. It was cool to be able to see the posts that had been constructed for our future pond – and we also got to briefly meet some of our new neighbors.

Here’s some photos of our pond:





Here's BJ, Jeremy, and Jessica hanging out:



And here’s one of the preliminary steaks for our house:

My Famous Mom

I just thought I'd share this article from the South Bend Tribune - about the Breast Cancer Run/Walk & my mom (Susan Vance)'s story. :) I'm so proud of her!

Weekend Update…

We had such a nice weekend! On Friday night my parents arrived from Granger and BJ and I had a great time spending the weekend with them! I realize now that I didn’t take any pictures – I wish I had some to share. On Saturday we showed them our land and the developments of the road, our pond, etc., went to the Chateau Pomije Winery for lunch. After watching a very sad ND/Purdue game we went to Jungle Jims and ate Maggie Moos. : ) It was so nice to spend time with them! : )

After my parents took off on Sunday afternoon, BJ and I went back out to the land to dig some holes for our dock. The plan is to put the start of the dock in now – while the water is low and we can cement in a few pillars. Sometime in the future we will create the rest of it.

Our builder is putting in a few other docks in the neighborhood for his daughters (I think all of his children will be living in our neighborhood – actually almost the whole place will be filled with their relations – except us of course) and so he helped us as well. We just had to dig the holes…. We thought we’d be out there for just an hour or two, but we were there until sunset perfecting our two holes. The ground was really tough clay – so it took a lot of muscle to carve them out. Today I’m feeling it – I’m so sore!!!

An update on our first freshman night – we had a great time! The students are a riot and we can’t wait for this Thursday to get to spend more time with them. I think its going to be a really awesome year! : )

Calling all Freshmen!

This week we start our freshman small groups! We're looking forward to meeting everyone and getting started. :)

Human Clock

Click "view the clock": http://www.humanclock.com

Also, check out Cute Overload (My favorite is...)

And finally...

Water in the Pond...

BJ and I went out to the land again yesterday, and our pond is already beginning to fill with water. It's so cool to be out there now that you can really tell how its all laid out. Also, the land developer mowed the entire neighborhood (over 100 acres) so that also helps in getting a feel of the land. I can't believe that in less than a year this is where we'll be living!





Here's a funny photo of Sidney... she sleeps like this all the time... so lady-like. :) Right now as I write this, Sindey, Annie, and BJ are all cat napping. It's very quiet. :)

More Destin Photos

We finally got these off the camera last night. Here's some photos from our deep-sea fishing trip in Destin. :)

Before - After

I had forgotten how everything looked before the pond, so I went searching for one of my older photos... what a big difference!



Hopefully soon we'll have everything in order and will be able to start building! I'm really looking forward to that because all of the major stuff will be out of the way and we'll have more time for other non-house/land/financial stuff. :)

Land Developments...

The road is moving along... it's at the gravel stage now so we can really tell how the neighborhood will look. Also, our pond is about done! We went yesterday to check it out. Here are some photos of the pond from different angles.

Goodbye to Destin...

Well we got back safe and sound Saturday night, and are now heading back to work and normal life. We had such a great week! If anyone is planning on going to Destin, we'd highly recommend the house we stayed in. :)

Over the week we went deep sea fishing (bringing home three red snappers... BJ had to throw back two huge Amberjacks because 32 inches wasn't big enough!), spent time at the beach and the pool, went to Seaside Florida where they filmed The Truman Show, and went disk golfing. Here's some photos from disk golfing...



We made a friend who didn't want to leave us...

Destin Photos

We made it to Destin safe and are having a great time. The house is beautiful and just a short walk to a private beach. The public beaches nearby are packed, so we're thankful for the room to breathe. Here's some photos! :)