Thanksgiving Day and other pictures

We're finally getting organized in our house. Yesterday, Mom and Dad Weinrich brought over our new quilt. It looks awesome on our bed, and goes well with our new paint! It's fun to look at and see all the old pieces of material. There are a few that came from clothes that were mine as a kid. Benjamin's first Halloween costume, maternity and nursing shirts, and old quilts are all included. It's wonderful!

Benjamin and Jack are ready for some football. Benjamin, on the right, is 9 months older than Jack. He may not be taller, but he does have more hair.

Kids enjoying our "Harry Potter" closet.

The first night the Martins were here, we celebrated Joey's birthday.

Thanksgiving Day - after many attempts to get the "men" to carve the turkey, Cindi and I were given the job by default. And we did a good job of it.

The kids' table. Jack and Joey are wearing their running shirts from the Thanksgiving 5K.
Joey

Jack

Benjamin, in a lovely pose.

Alexander
Jonathan

Katy

Moving in!

Monday was our official moving day. The movers arrived at the apartment about 8:30 and loaded everything up. We used the same company as we did last time, but this crew was not as careful as the other.

While Chris was at the apartment, I was at the house, letting the solar guys in to start their work.
John had finished painting the downstairs and had started working on the bedrooms. The movers just piled everything into the middle of the bedrooms, and we had to move it later, once the paint was dry.

Anything we didn't know where to put ended up in our back porch.

The first thing I made in our new oven - flappy. It was a bad batch of flappy. Sorry, Grandma.

After 4 days, here is our pile of boxes. I put them on freecycle, and some were picked up. The rest are going out with the recycling tomorrow morning. I am so sick of boxes.

Here's Alexander's room. He decided to de-bunk the bunk beds. He also chose the color. Not what I would have picked, but he loves it and that's what matters.

Jonathan chose "banana cream" as his color. He has plenty of room for all of his toys. We also attached the canopy to his bed.
On Wednesday, the appliance installer came and put in our microwave and dishwasher. They are wonderful!!! I don't think we've ever had a dishwasher that actually cleans. The others were just sanatizers - we had to almost wash them by hand before putting the dishes in the dishwasher.

Great fridge, too. We sure missed the in-door ice machine and water dispenser.

Solar Power!

On Saturday, the solar guys came and finished up all of our solar. On the right is the "inverter," which makes the electricity. On the left is the meter, which will be running much slower (and hopefully even backwards).
I was trying to watch them put up the panels, but our roof is too tall. I walked way behind the house to get this view. There are 20 solar electric panels and 1 solar water heater panel (on the top).

Close up

Close up of some of the panels before they went on the roof.

They had huge ladders to get up on the roof. They carried the 50 pound panels up the ladder. Not something I would want to do!!!

20 mile run

Sunday we have to do a 20 mile run!! I've never run that far. So I figured we should at least make it fun - we're going to run to the beach and back. Here's the link:

http://www.mapmyrun.com/route/us/fl/port%20orange/212125920448386668

Think of us on Saturday morning, when we're out running for 4 hours.

Lutheran Observations

Got this email from a friend - thought I would pass it on.

1. Lutherans believe in prayer, but would practically die if asked to pray out loud.

2. Lutherans like to sing, except when confronted with a new hymn or a hymn with more than four stanzas.

3. Lutherans believe their pastors will visit them in the hospital, even ifthey don't notify them that they are there.

4. Lutherans usually follow the official liturgy and will feel it is their way of suffering for their sins.

5. Lutherans believe in miracles and even expect miracles, especially during their stewardship visitation programs or when passing the plate.

6. Lutherans feel that applauding for their children's choirs would make the kids too proud and conceited.

7. Lutherans think that the Bible forbids them from crossing the aisle while passing the peace. (not true at my church!)

8. Lutherans drink coffee as if it were the Third Sacrament.

9. Some Lutherans still believe that an ELCS bride and an LCMS groom make for a mixed marriage. (For those of you who are not Lutherans, ELCS is Evangelical Lutheran Church Synod and LCMS is Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, two different divisions of the same Protestant religion. And when and where I grew up in Minnesota , intermarriage between the two was about as popular as Lutherans and Catholics marrying.)

10. Lutherans feel guilty for not staying to clean up after their own wedding reception in the Fellowship Hall.

11. Lutherans are willing to pay up to one dollar for a meal at church.

12. Lutherans think that Garrison Keillor stories are totally factual.

13. Lutherans still serve Jell-O in the proper liturgical color of the season and think that peas in a tuna noodle casserole add too much color.

14. Lutherans believe that it is OK to poke fun at themselves and never take themselves too seriously.

And finally, you know you're a Lutheran when:

*It's 100 degrees, with 90% humidity, and you still have coffee after the service;

*You hear something really funny during the sermon and smile as loudly as you can;

*Donuts are a line item in the church budget, just like coffee; *The communion cabinet is open to all, but the coffee cabinet is locked up tight;

*When you watch a 'Star Wars' movie and they say,"May the Force be with you," you respond, 'and also with you';

*And lastly, it takes 15 minutes to say, "Good-bye".

May you wake each day with His blessings, Sleep each night in His keeping,And always walk in His tender care.

Move-in Time!!!

The day has finally arrived!!!!!!!!!! Yesterday we closed on the house. It was not without trial, though. When we arrived in Maitland (45 min away), we found out that the title company gave us the wrong closing amount and we were short $1600. You can't, by law, just write out a personal check. Instead, we had to find the closest bank compatable with our credit union and get a cashier's check. We found one 5 minutes away, returned with our extra check, and walked out with the keys. Needless to say, I won't recommend this title company to anyone else. Her response was, "I didn't mean to send you that closing statement. That's the wrong one." As if we were supposed to know better.

So, finally at 4:30, we returned to Port Orange with keys in hand. Here we are, opening the door for the first time.



The Wedges stopped by with a bottle of Brandy that we can open when we pay off the mortgage. Hmmm...we'll be 70 by then!

John the painter arrived at 5:00, ready to begin the dining room. He'll be back on Sunday to work on the family room and whatever else he can get done before the movers arrive on Monday.

Front door

More front door

We had a ton of boxes to unload in the kitchen - but finished all of them. We need to leave all the counters clear for painting tomorrow.
Right on time (!!!) the appliances arrived. They installed everything but the dishwasher and the over-the-stove microwave, which will be put in on Tuesday.

A bunch of our friends helped us move everything out of Chris' parents' garage. We took over one whole side of it. It only took two trips with 6 cars.

In this picture, we're about 1/3 of the way done.

IT IS DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Move-in time draws near...We walked through the house yesterday and it is 99% done. It passed the last inspection while we were there. Now they pay the impact fees, and the city issues an Occupancy License. Then on Friday, we take a huge check to the closing company, and it is ours!! We move our storage things into the garage on Saturday, the small stuff from our apartment on Sunday, and the movers come on Monday for the big stuff. No time to blog...instead need to pack!!!

We now have a yard! And electric!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On our way to Target, Jonathan and I took a look at all the work that was done today. I knew they were laying sod, but I did not realize the landscaping was here, too.
Of course, they left their trash. All of the workers leave their trash everywhere. It's disgusting.

Side view

I was very pleased to see that they laid sod a bit past our property line - this area was full of dirt, which I thought would run off. So they gave us a bit of extra sod.

Our backyard now looks like a backyard. Jonathan went and checked out the back porch.
Here they laid some extra sod, too, probably about 2-3 feet worth.

The air conditioners were RUNNING!!! Yea!

Yup, this house will be officially sold in a little more than a week.

I took this picture to show the electric is ON!!! Boy, are we excited and relieved. You can also see the carpet, which they installed today. Now that the electric is going, final inspections can commence. Yahoo!!

They had accidentally put carpet pad in the family room portion; today they removed it and it's waiting for flooring. Notice the LIGHT above the oven!

The doorbell is even hooked up and rings. Jonathan got a kick out of ringing it over and over. Good thing all the workers were gone.

Here it is - the meter box we were waiting for. Once our solar panels are on, it will be replaced with a different kind of box that runs backwards when we create electricity and forwards when we use it.

Yesterday, FPL ran a line from this box, which is across the street, under the street, and into our yard.