House Update and Christmas Story

Well, now that the house is coming back together I think I can stomach putting some of the pictures up for ya'll to see. This is not the worst. A lot of work had to be done to the house to get it to this point. I had taken a lot of pics for FEMA and had them put on a disk. I have to locate that one to be able to show you where we came from. However here are a few to let you see some of the devestation but mostly the blessings of the Lord. He is so loving and kind!The above picture is what happened to our dining room floor. Yes that is a huge hole in the middle of a lot of hard wood. We have pulled out all the hard wood and now the hole is fixed and the floor is covered with ceramic tile. Below is a picture of our Living room. It is not at it's worst. This is after we had someone come in and put up sheet rock. It had started out with all the walls torn off to the studs! It also has a pile of sheet rock that stayed in my living room forever and is now in my hall. We had also used it as a place to sleep for almost two months as we toted our beds in and out of the house while they were working on our walls. that is our bed in the bottom left hand corner.This is a picture of the ceiling. We had it fixed and then stomped and painted. I just had to put it up but the picture doesn't show how good of a job they did!Here is my kitchen. All of the bottom cabinets came out and now have new ones in. We are still waiting to put in our top cabinets and David bought me a brand new stove. YAY!!! Our Dining Room table was David's office as he had to move out of his office. The computer is also new. Our old computer had been sitting on the floor and was on when it flooded. I had to unplug it while standing in water above my ankle YIKES! But as I said above the Lord blesses and we managed to get a brand new computer of which I had been wanting for a while. I did loose a lot of pictures because I didn't have back ups so if any of you have all your pictures on the computer I would suggest that y0u get them on disk soon.Ahh! Now it is starting to look like home. Here is a picture of the new computer desk. Not sure what David is thinking about but I wanted to show off the desk. The walls are a really pretty pumpkin butter color. I love it! That is the new tile on the floor. My wonderful brother Russell and several of his friends came over to help us put it down. Now here is a Christmas story for you. I didn't want to put the tree up until the floor was down and the walls were painted. I'm not sure why I was being so stubborn. Just that I wanted the house to look more normal for Christmas. So what does my darling sister do!!! She brings my brother Russell, my nephew Riley, and three of their friends from church and tells them that they can't goof off because she wanted me to have a nice house for Christmas. They worked hard until 10pm Saturday, December 20th and managed to get all the living room tiled and the walls in the living room, dining room, and most of the hall painted. We also put up curtains in the living room. The Lord knows the desires of our hearts and he hears and answers our prayers. Here is a picture of the walls and our wonderful Christmas tree. I hope you all had a very wonderful Christmas and know that Lord hears our innermost thoughts.
God Bless you all and Happy New Year

Merry Christmas

Well with everything going on I have neglected my blog. I am finally starting to see my house come together after the damage the flood made. We are putting tile in the Living Room, Dining Room, and Kitchen. Which I didn't realize would take us as long as it has. My sweet brother, Russ, has been helping us and he is coming today with one of his friends to get as much done as he can. David has tried to get some done at night but that is kinda hard with the kids here and him being tired. We haven't painted all the walls yet but I am hoping to be able to do that soon. I think that we will be getting some more of it done this Saturday. The boys room is the only one that I have put two coats on.
Anyway with all of this going on I haven't decorated for Christmas yet. It seems weird because I usually do it the first week of December. We will be putting the tree up Sunday and then decorating it on Monday. We are also going to do our anual Christmas caroling Sunday afternoon and then maybe again on Tuesday and Wednesday.
I want to say Merry Christmas to everyone. I love you all.

Another Late Birthday Blog

Big Family Birthday Party

For Bethany, Jared, and Jessica

Jared just loves to make silly faces!

Auntie Sandy made the cakes!

Thank you. We think their beautiful!

Jessica plugged her ears for the B-day song

Bethany held her hair and was soo cute and shy.

They all got cool gifts from their Aunts and Uncles!

Thank you everyone. We love our gifts.

Jared loves his Aunt Theresa!

Thank you for the Cool Tools!!!

Jessica giving Aunt Theresa a hug!

I love my mimzy dog and purse.

Jared and Jessica's 5th and Bethany's 7 Birtday Party at Keys Park

Iwas only going to post one picture of each but these of Jessica are just toooo cute!


Here is Jared! He is hanging from a moving handle! Just as happy as can be!


Bethany Playing on the bars! Wow I can't believe she turned 7 already. If you look close you might see her earrings that she got for her present.

We had cupcakes and juice with the few friends that we invited!

Alecia even joined into the fun!

Brandon acting weird. It is hard to get a good picture of him. He always wants to act funny!

Katie walking! I can't believe that I didn't get a better one of her.

Here is Alecia, Bethany, and two of the friends that came with them. They had a wonderful time!

Jared and Jessica's first day of school. Late!!!

Jared and Jessica's First Day of School, August 20, 2008! Oh my was that a hard day for me!!! Jared looks tired.
Here they are proudly showing off their new lunch boxes! They had to wait sooo long to get them!
Okay this picture says it all. Isn't he just precious.

Well this one justs adds to it! She is gorgeous!! I am totally a proud momma

Happy Thanksgiving

So I thought that it was time for me to post again. I want to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. This is one of my most favorite times of the year. The holiday parties start up and everyone is in a service oriented mood. What a great way to celebrate the end of the year. Hopefully our house will be put back together before it is time to decorate for Christmas. David and I have given up on trying to do it ourselves and have hired some help. Hopefully with time and effort we may have a nice place to have Christmas however even if we don't it will still be a great time as I looooove Christmas and the whole point of it is to celebrate Christ's birth. How can I complain about a messed up house when He was born in a stable!!
Anyway, I still haven't up loaded the pics that I wanted to share so it may take me a while longer to get some pics up. Enjoy the holiday seasons and know that I am thinking about you all and you are all in my prayers

Update

So life at the Alford home has been pretty hectic for the last couple of weeks. We are all doing well and the kids are enduring our crazy house pretty well. Many people have been asking me how the house is coming along so I will give a little update. My brothers Ron and Russell and my brother in law Jake came over last Saturday and patched my roof. So now we can get started on the inside. We only have to figure out when we will be able to start on it. I am hoping to have it all put back together by Christmas so we had better get a move on. Anyway that is the update on the house.

The kids are all doing well. They were all on the honor roll for their first 6 weeks of school. Alecia is doing great. She seems to love being in Highschool and has been enjoying a little more freedom while I on the other hand would much rather her stay my little girl. She went to the fair last night with and friend (the friends mom went with her). She also went to a football game with friends and NO PARENTS. Okay all of you moms out there with little ones wait until your little ones start flying the coop and then you will see the big deal of this step. I have never sent my kids any where that there wasn't some kind of adult supervision and I just about didn't let her go until I thought about the fact that she is getting older and in highschool and oh my goodness It was time to let her have a little space. Brandon is doing great in Jr. High. I was a little worried but he got all A's and 1 B on his report card and the B may be turned to an A if the 1st and 2nd 6 week grades average to be an A. He was moved around a lot during the first 6 wk period so he was 2 grades short and the teacher thinks that he would have had an A with the other 2 grades so we shall see. He is riding his bike to and from school and enjoying the freedom that gives him. He also is in band. He is playing the clarinet like his dad did and seems to be picking it up quickly. I am soo excited that he is learning to play a musical instrument. Katie is doing well too. She is a junior officer in 4-H and is a great help to her teacher. She loves to spend time with her friends and loves to talk. Her spelling grade has picked up and I am happy to say that she is doing a whole lot better this year than last. Krystal is still doing great and loves to spend time at activity days at church. Bethany, Jared, and Jessica are all enjoying school and are great fun to be around.

I am now subbing for the elementary school. I have been in Katie's and Jared's classes and will be in Krystal's by the end of the month. I am enjoying the work and love to be around other people. The house is soooooooo empty without the kids in it.

I have some pics I want to post but I have to get them on this new computer. So I'll try to do that later.