Have you met the latest model?

Meet Titus Ivy.  Model extraordinaire...for dogs of course.  He helped Clint show his progress of putting in grass with style.

The backyard with a little bit of grass in.

Titus modeling all of the grass that is ready to be put in.

Here is the backyard before grass.

After 12 hours of hard work, Clint finally finished!  All that work just for grass.  I hope it survives the winter and makes it.  

Takin' it back to Thanksgiving

That's right.  We are going all the way back to Thanksgiving to catch you up with what has been going on in our lives. Well, for Thanksgiving Clint and I decided to take our own vacation.  We needed a breather from crazy life!  The day after we moved to the Woodlands,  we both went to work at our new jobs.  So, it was very nice to be able to get away, turn off our cell phones, and just be us and be together.  So fun!  Our choice of places to go?  We chose Galveston...there is really no reason why we chose the location, but it was awesome.  We love the San Luis Resort! This is definitely a vacation repeater place.  The pics are soon to come!

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