Hello from Park City, Kentucky. Kristian and I have taken a few days to get away and he is having fun spending time with his dad, Melissa and Riley. We arrived on Dec. 28 and will return Jan 2. Here are a few pics of our first Christmas in the new house. We opened gifts in Kristian's room because the rest of the house is so dusty and dirty from the wall coming out. Also, on Christmas day Brooke, Kristian and I went to my Grandpa and Grandma Rupp's for the afternoon. We celebrated Kristian's birthday on the 29 he officially turned 10..wow can't hardly believe it! I had gotten him trick candles and he blew and blew and blew to get them out. Aafter a few min. the room was filled with smoke. You can see in the picture of Kris, Melissa and Riley (the good sports they are after Kristian insisted they wear the hats and blow the horns) how smoky the room got. Also, you see Kristian got another Newt that he fondly calls "Polly." He has also enjoyed hours of playing video games. We have put a 500 piece puzzle together (it will hang in Kris and Melissa's Camper) and a 60 piece puzzle that Kristian got for Christmas. We played a round of Disney Scene it and Kristian did great at getting questions right! It was lots of fun. Brooke and her boyfriend Jeff came down for Kristian's big b-day! Today we are going to Mammoth cave and then onto see a movie. It is about 50ish degrees here which feels wonderful! Maybe we can take this weather back to Ohio with us!! =) Happy New Year EVERYONE!! =)

Today we got the crawl insulated & the floor down. We were done working today by noon. Andy was here...of course, Kathy (my sister) and Scott (Andy's dad) was overseeing our work. Kathy helped me out getting the floor nailed down. Andy was nice enough to share his super duper huge hammer with her! (look at the grip she has on that thing...lets see I think they guys always tease me for "choking" it) LOL "Thanks Everyone!" Oh...the mosquito.....well yesterday I killed one and I told my dad that I had just killed a mosquito. He said something like... no, can't be it's too cold. Well, here is a picture to prove there is something that looks an awful lot like a mosquito still alive and well. Actually there are lots of them in my damp crawl and my house. Not fun getting mosquito bites in December! Merry Christmas Everyone!! =)

Today we, mostly Andy =) (I'll try to remember that "boss";) got a lot done. Andy brought the insulation and blower last night while we out to eat. ("thanks Andy") This morning we were blowing it in the attic by 9AM. I'd have to say Andy's job was probably harder, I've never done that part, BUT the job of loading the hopper was no treat. If you've never experienced it you may think what's the big deal. Let me tell you, insulation up your nose, in your mouth, eyes, ears and anywhere else it can go! Very icky. =) It took us about 2 1/2 hours to blow in about 65 bags. I ran the blower back to Lowe's around 3Pm to beat the 6:30 deadline. Andy stayed to work on getting the wall out. By the time I returned 4:30PM it was out and what a difference that makes. After getting the layer of powdery dry wall dust cleaned up I started making my bread for our Stickley Christmas tomorrow night. Andy will be back tomorrow and we will work on insulating the living room crawl, wall and getting the dry wall up in the living room.

This morning I got a call saying I had flowers to be delivered in the next 2 hours. HOW EXCITING!! Well, the card said something about me being the best mom and so on Love Kristian. I went and thanked him and he told me, "Brooke did it." I called to thank Brooke and she said she didn't do it. I'm guessing Amber or Ashlin did it. "THANK YOU" They are beautiful and what a treat to be able to share them at my mom's birthday party that evening. We all went out to eat first (Brooke snapped a few pics before her battery died, I had forgotten my camera) Then to our house for German Choc. cake and ice cream. I believe there was about 20 that gathered and as you can see we filled up my little house. It will be nice when the addition is done and we can gather in the living room and dining room and still be relatively close and within hearing distance of each other. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

Saturday morning the Carters truck arrived with our dry wall. With the help of Andy (who came long enough to get us going in the right direction then had a Christmas party to get to in Columbus) Scott, who picked up the dry wall lift, Brent, who was filling in for little brother Andy as "Boss" and my uncle Jim (we also can't forget the driver from carters) got all that dry wall unloaded. That felt like a days work in and of itself. (4x12 pieces of 5/8 for the ceiling and they come with two pieces together spells HEAVY stuff.) whew....Then after worship team practice my nephew Justin came and Joe got here a bit after him. Andy and Scott both had to leave and were gone by 10 so that left four guys to get it hung. They were my Saturday morning answer to pray. With A LOT of guy talk (that would make every mother proud LOL) and A LOT of hard work they had the ceiling hung by 3 PM. I had leave before 3 get Kristian from a b-day party (out of town) and the snow had already begun. " Thanks to you all for your hard work and for the guys that hung around long enough to get the garage ready for me to pull into and get the van out of the winter storm." It was nice looking at a dry van this morning while my car is snow covered! =)

Around 5:30 God put hanging drywall on two mens hearts and I got a call letting me know that they were interested doing some work. Imagine, it's a saturday afternoon and your hearts desire is to help someone after a long day of celebrating your sons birthday with 9 other little boys. About an hour later Roger and Sean showed up and we got to work putting up the ceiling in the living room. God never ceases to amaze me and he is always reminding me that His timing is perfect and He chooses the ways in which His work shall be done. "Thanks guys" for selfishly giving of your talents. We were at it until about 10:30 PM. During the night we got the snow that was projected to come. I'd guess we have 4-6 inches (I have not ventured out) and maybe another 4-6 to come yet today. The wind will be drifting it for some added fun. I should not have been surprised to noticed my drive cleaned up, my car brushed off and my porched cleaned this morning. Another example of how God faithfully takes care of us. "Thank you God for loving and caring for us."

I wish you all could have been here to see us try to put this insulation up over the sprayed foam. It is a bit frustrating because there are places that the foam is thicker so you have to thin out the insulation. Well, we found it worked best to take some off even before trying to put it in because we would have this big poofy thing bubbling out. Mom and I were about to go nuts and after about and 1 1/2 of work we weren't far. Mom had about three full pieces up. Well, they were up then back down then up. Mom said she was about to say a bad word. =0 She opted to shake her head a good one and go back at it! =) LOL Works every time! We were done by 11PM

Wow...what a shocker my brother Keith came to help with insulation. "Thanks Keith" for the helping hand!! My dad was here from 2:30 till 10:30 cutting insulation and keeping our messes cleaned up. He's also a good supervisor for those of us less knowledgeable, "thanks Dad." Also, mom came after a full day of shopping and put about 4 hours into hanging insulation, " Thanks Mom." I made it to bed after a full days work around midnight! Good thing I'm young!!! ;)

So today was the day that the lizard, newt, arrived at the pet store. Kristian has been waiting for months to get his new pet. He originally wanted a turtle but they aren't selling them now due to them carrying diseases. So Kristian opted for a newt. His name is "Newy". He wanted to name him Kristian so he could remember but I said it would be less confusing to have something different. He keeps asking me what did we name him. LOL He is cute. Kristian is sleeping on the floor tonight so he can look at him. =)