It has been a while...

I am so sorry that we have not kept anyone updated, we have been extremely busy!  The house is going great, the Christmas parties have been a blast, we finally have internet up and running, and we promise to keep you in the know...soon!  Please be patient just a little bit longer...

House Update

We have our final walk through this Friday! Some of you are thinking to yourselves....WHAT!? So are we! We found out a couple of days ago that we are closing on our house November the 21st. The day before Thanksgiving. We were supposed to close in December sometime and be in by Christmas. If you are not doing your happy dance, you need to get up and do it right now. Go ahead. Get up and happy dance! We are so excited about being closer to being in our home and having all of you guys come and stay. Here are some pics of what has been going on lately at the casa.

Here is a picture of our brick color. The right side of the house hasn't been washed off yet, but basically this is what it looks like.

The counter tops are in! The color is a black with lots of tan in it. It will look great with black/silver appliances.

Here is what our fence looks like. They set the posts one day, and the next day the fence was built COMPLETELY! We have 6 trees in our back yard...the grass is soon to come.

Titus and I are showing off the new carpet color. Doorknobs were installed as well.

Mamma didn't raise no spelling bee champ!

I am a product of the spell check generation. Call me crazy, but there is something inside of me that makes my palms begin to sweat when I think about spelling bees. Then spell check was invented! Whoever invented that definitely needs to have a cookie bouquet sent to them. Lately I have been feeling pretty confident in my spelling, (maybe it is the teacher in me) until my friend Jessica called me the other day. She asked me, "How do you spell the word cabinet?" I immediately reverted back to elementary spelling bee days. Palms sweating I answered, " Cabinet. C-A-B-N-E-T." "She sweetly replied,"I think there is an I in there." Pine trees! My confidence had caught up with me. I hadn't been spell checking all of my posts and I had spelled the word cabinet wrong several times! Check it out. I left it in the posts so you could laugh with me. Thank goodness I teach science and math.

Holy Toledo Batman!

Clint and I went by on Friday(26th) to check on the status of the house...things are movin' and shakin' over there. They had framed out all of the doors and had hung most of the doors (except for the sliding ones). There was trim work and baseboards up, kitchen cabnets were in, all the walls were textured, bathroom cabnets were in, and shelving built in all of the closets. Oh my goodness! How in the world did they get all of this done so soon? When we were looking around in the house, we talked to a man that was working in the house and he said that tomorrow they were going to paint inside the house. Wow! I am not sure what is left. We are so excited! Check out the pics!

• These are the 1/2 bathroom downstairs cabnets.
• Our bathroom cabnets.

• Our new kitchen cabnets!!

• Part of our Living Room
• Inside of a closet.

Please welcome the newest member to the Ivy clan...

The motorcycle! I made you think that we were having a baby...hehe...nope, just a motorcycle. This week Clint bought something that he has wanted forever...a motorcycle. We have hunted for the best one, best color, and right brand for weeks. I felt like Goldilocks from the book Goldilocks and the three bears for a while there. The harley was too expensive, the honda was not the right color, but the kawasaki was just right. Clint has already ridden the bike several times and says, "It is so awesome." No babies, just motorcycles. Check out the pictures below.

Doesn't he look like a little kid on Christmas day?

I'll bet you...

That's right, the Ivy's having been doing a lot of betting lately. My status is currently 2 wins, 1 loss. There is no cards involved, no dominoes, no lotto tickets...just pure luck. Everytime we head over to the house, my husband looks at me and says, "do you think they have done anything?" I then give my overzealous answer of the crew having way more done than what is humanly possible. He then tells me what he thinks has been done...and the bet is on! Sometimes we bet back rubs, other times it is just the pride of being right, on Sunday the bet was over Mexican food...there really are no rules. All of this drawn out story of how to bet (when your not really betting) to say...we have sheet rock! For a while there, nothing was going on at the casa, but now things are moving. They have officially finished the electricity, plumbing, air conditioning, insulation, windows, and sheet rock. The word on the street is that once you see sheet rock going up, you know that you are 30 days out. 30 days! Yippee skippee! We are hoping for the first week of December to be when we close on the house.

House Update

The house is moving at a lightening pace. Pine trees! Siding on the house...check. House roofed...check. Shingles on the roof...check. Back windows in...check. Only front window broken...check. We went by on Saturday (the 6th) to check the status on the house. Things are looking good. There are two interesting things though...our only front window that was put in has been broken and I think we got an upgrade that we didn't choose. In our bathroom, there was an option to upgrade the bathtub/shower combo to a stand up shower (I don't know why they call it that, I don't know many people that sit in the shower) and garden tub. We chose not to upgrade, but when we checked on our home....they had done plumbing for the separate tub and shower. Interesting. We will see how that unfolds in the next couple of weeks. Here are the recent pics.

We Work Hard For the Money

New town, New house, New jobs. When we moved to the Woodlands, we moved knowing what Clint's job looked like. Within two weeks; we had sold our house, found a new house and apartment, and found me a job. We were just thankful that I had found a teaching job a week and a half before school started. Here we sit in October...Clint is absolutely in love with his job, and I am wondering why the Lord has put me in this particular school and classroom. I know all of the Biblical reasons of why the Lord operates within His will and not ours in my head but, it is difficult to communicate that to my heart and emotions. To explain it quickly, I have a classroom full of children with lots of needs. From the autistic child who can barely communicate to the mentally retarded child who is in a regular ed classroom because she can tie her own shoes to the child who proclaimed he is involved in a gang at the age of 9, but is being abused. All of those eyes (plus others) look at me with needs that I know that only the Lord can meet. Kids like this can rock your world (in a good and bad way). Believe me, I am not asking for a pity party, but if you think of me, I would covet your prayers. On to something more positive... Clint's job is such a blessing and we are extremely thankful to be a part of a community of believers (the student ministry staff) at Fellowship of the Woodlands. To check out what is going on in Clint's world, the website for the student ministry is www.thestudentministry.com

Framing...Check.

The framing is finished! We went to check on the house Wednesday night...and the framing was done! The crew also had begun working on the siding and the plumbing inside. As we were looking around the house in the dark, (with flashlights) a contractor came by and began questioning Clint. When we told him that this was our house, he confessed and said that he thought we were stealing copper. I guess if ministry doesn't work out, we have a promising future in stealing copper. Copper stealing would never work out for us, because after the contractor left us alone in our dark house, I looked at Clint and said,"where would you find copper in this house?" He replied, "I'm not sure." There goes our shot a being word infamous copper thieves. We will just have to stick with ministry. Enough about copper...here is the latest picture of our framed house.

The Walls Go Up!

Excuse me....the framing went up! I don't really care what you call it; frame, form, walls...it is all good news to me! Our builder told us that when we begin to see the framing go up, we know that we are about 60 days out. 60 DAYS! I can't believe how soon that is. I can't believe how blessed we are. The guys had this much framing done in about 8 hours(in the pictures) and were still working.

Ladies and Gentlemen..

We have concrete! Pine trees! Yippee! We went to check on the house and the concrete had been poured. Clint said, "You can tell that it was recent because the concrete was still warm." My husband the builder...such a smart man. I would have assumed that the concrete was warm because of the Houston heat. Silly me! Yay concrete!

Lee Strobel rocks my face off!

This past weekend Lee Strobel visited our church. It was crazy good. He told his story of how he was an athiest, but through his wife and curiousity he became a Christian. It was very neat to see how he searched out lots of info to see if the Christian thing was true...well, it is! From his research he formed his famous book A Case For Christ. It was very refreshing to hear a honest view of Christianity.

Waiting is making us crazy!

Waiting for the concrete is making us crazy!...but we will be patient.

Concrete Please!

We are becoming very anxious about....concrete. I never thought I would say that I was anxious about concrete...but I so am! This week at our house, in one day they put up everything and are ready to pour concrete. So what happened the rest of the week? Nothing. We are waiting for concrete. I am sure there are logical reasons to why they haven't poured the concrete, but I am beginning to wonder. I am beginning to brainstorm about what I could do to help the process move more quickly...taking the workers some lunch...sending them a fruit basket...starbucks...maybe we will just have to wait and be patient.

Seeing into the future

I am by no means a psychic, or do I believe that it is biblical, but if you could see in the future..this is what our house is kinda going to look like. Here are some pics of the color of brick we chose and our future home.

The Forms Go Up!

Yippee! We are pumped. The forms for our house are up. I have no idea how these guys work in the rain. Our friend Jessica called us (they live in the neighborhood) to tell us the exciting news. We went over to our house that afternoon to find that the forms were up....but there was tons of mud everywhere because of the rain! Do you think a little mud kept us from walking our lot? No way! Titus even got in the mud with us...it was a family affair! Here are some pictures of our lot with the forms. Exciting!!

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Rain, Rain, Go Away, We Want to Build a House Someday! We are so excited about our new home! We really need it to stop raining so those guys can get to work. We were promised that we are suppossed to be in the home by Christmas. I am so pumped. We have gotten to pick out everything. Clint picked out the lot, he wanted trees in the backyard. I really don't care about trees, but they are pine trees...go figure. Here is a picture of our lot.

Little Cottage In the Woods

Ok, so maybe it is not a cottage, but it is in the woods! Maybe it is a 1 bedroom 1 bath apartment in the woods, but man is it cozy! Actually, our apartment is pretty nice to live in while we are building our new house. We are almost paying as much per month in rent for an apartment as we will for a house. Pine trees! It sure is expensive to be cozy!

Trees, Trees, and More Trees!

I am catching on to why they call this place The Woodlands....hmm...can any one say trees! Not only are there trees everywhere, but they have some kind of rule that all of their vendor signs have to be on the ground. The guy that founded this place was an Aggie...does that make me a dumb Aggie because I can not figure this place out? I am beginning to think that I am the Aggie that they are talking about in all of those jokes. Shoot! Pine trees could become a bad word in our house. They don't just make me sneeze, but they get me lost!

Sad Goodbyes

It is official. We are no longer Grahamites. The Lord moved so quickly that I don't think we truly had time to process how soverign and providental He is. The Sunday that we moved is when it finally hit me... we really are leaving Graham. It is hard for my mind to fathom how big our God is when I take a step back and look at the big picture. The Lord knew that I tend to worry, so He sold our home in 1 1/2 hours. My next thought was that it was obviously too late for me to find a job, a sure sign that we were not suppossed to move(I have been teaching 4th grade at Hirsch Elementary for a couple of weeks). Things just seemed to fall into place in a way that no one could explain. Throughout this hard process, God has been providential in showing us where exactly He has us. We are excited to be where the Lord has us, but it is still hard. It was hard leaving best friends, people that were our second families, and especially the precious youth. With the feelings of sad, lonliness, and excitement inside of you, there really is nothing you can do but cry. So I have. lots. We will miss you all tons and are thankful to all of you for sharing your lives with us.

Sad, Sad, and more Sad

It is official...brace yourselves...our digital camera has died. I know some of you are crying with us, while others are saying to yourself, "it's not that big of a deal." You're right, it really isn't that big of a deal and we will get over it, but I do have to apologize that you guys are not able to some of the pictures on shutterfly that I have promised you. For that, I am truly sorry. We will buy a new one soon and flood you with pictures. Mark it on your calendars people, today is a sad sad day.

Did you hear that?

Did you hear that? That whispering going on...can you hear it? That's right, there are whispers of dodgeball in the air! Last year Ignite Student Ministries put on a dodgeball tournament for junior high and high school students. This year...it's making a reappearance! There are rumors of t-shirts being ordered, the ESPN booth is being cleaned off, teams are starting to form and dodgeballs are being aired up. So get excited and stay rested because the date for the dodgeball tourney is February 18th. If you have no idea what we are talking about and are wondering what the maddness is all about, check out some of the pictures from last year on the shutterfly website . Just remember...the orange dodgeballs fly faster than any other colors.

A Year In Review For The Ivy's

I feel like yesterday we were deciding to move to Graham, but that was almost 2 years ago. It's crazy how life goes so fast! As Clint and I look back on this past year, many things have changed. Some of the things that have changed this year for us are:

• Making it an entire year without Clint having to have a surgery...yippee!
• We still had to pay the deductable...always goals for next year.
• Lauren started teaching 4th grade Science & Social Studies.
• We both have "beefed" up a little bit this year...check out our Christmas card.
• Clint finished his first year of seminary at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
• Lauren is actually starting to love being in Graham, Tx (it was a rough adjustment at first).
• Ignite Student Ministries has grown tons!
• Graham Bible Church moved into its' new building...it's growing tons also!
• We bought our first home...who knew we could learn how to texture walls!
• Lauren got a new car...poor Clint is still driving the brown truck.
• We have been blessed beyond what we could imagine.

This year has been full of changes and we are excited to see what is in store for next year.

Bigger or Better

Every year for the youth Christmas party we play a game. This is not just any ordinary game, this is Bigger or Better. The youth are split up into smaller groups (each has a driver) and they start out with an item of little significance. For example: a toothpick or a Q-tip. They must then take this item and search the town to see if anyone has an item "Bigger or Better" than what they have. The people must willingly give the students the item. At the end of the time period, the students come back to "sell" their item to the judges in hopes of becoming to bigger or better champion. It is amazing to see what comes back. Last year the group that won brought back a live possum(someone actually gave it to them...that's Graham for ya!). Due to that someone almost getting eaten, no live animals were allowed this year. This year's winner brought back a metal ostrich! What?! That's right...A METAL OSTRICH....Unbelievable! 2nd place went to a hospital gurney that was missing a leg. Every year I can't wait to see what will come back next! Ignite Christmas was awesome! Don't forget to check out these pics!

Updated House

After months of "figuring out" how to do all sorts of things, we have come to a stopping point. this stopping point is mainly because we ran out of money and willpower. With plenty of things still left to do, I find myself dreaming about doorknobs. I would just love to have them on my doors. While I am dreaming about this word, and Clint has begun to use it as a bad word. You never really appreciate a doorknob until you don't have one...or any. Even without doorknobs our house is beginning to turn into a home. I will be so excited when the day comes that we are finally finished!! I know you are probably thinking to yourself..."self, I wonder what project they will begin working on?" I know, I know, it is pretty exciting (not really). Soon the adventure of building a fence and tearing down a leaning shed will be what we will try to conquer. Do we know how to build a fence? Nope. Have we ever torn down a leaning shed? Nope. But do you really think that is going to stop us? Nope.