Cold Stone Insulation

Those moments in life that just make you sit back, take a sip coffee (or whatever else you might drink), and just say in amazement "WOW!"... they are priceless. This month so far has been full of those moments. My dad had the opportunity to come and visit Libby and I this past Father's day weekend. All of us had a blast! My dad's favorite things to do is just be with family, so we made sure there were plenty of times of just us being able to sit around and talk, all the while having a good time seeing the vastness of great things to do in Fort Worth. If I had to guess, I think my dad's NEXT favorite thing to do is going to Rita's Italian Ice and getting a Wild Black Cherry Misto Shake.

He loves Rita's so much, we went there at least three of the four days he was here. Not exactly healthy for us, but I digress. Unfortunately for him, Rita's is not available anywhere close to where he lives in Mississippi. So, it is especially a treat for him to not only come out here and have Rita's, but to have it and spend time with us as well. We loved every minute we had with him when he was here.

Just last Tuesday, Libby and I did the "pre sheetrock orientation" with our builder of our house. It was nice to be able to address a few concerns and also get some clarification on some of the items done to the house. Since that meeting, our house has been insulated and is pretty much ready for sheetrock to go up. Libby and I also had the opportunity on Friday to see them start the work on putting our stone and brick up! I have pictures below to show different progress points throughout this month. Last night Libby and I were out there and got to see a sample of what the outside will look like once completed. While we were out there, we had a couple of our neighbors come and introduce themselves to us. Thus far we like all of the neighbors we've met and our thankful to have such nice neighbors.

 Can lights over kitchen

Day our brick and stone were delivered

Livingroom insulation

Libby checking out the insulation

Our "flex" room

Looking at our entry way and garage entrance

Master bedroom

Worker placing brick around to be layed

House as of yesterday

Front of garage

 

Looking at the two extra bedrooms

Libby "acting" like she is laying brick...

In other exciting news, I had the opportunity to FINALLY fly as a pilot for an airline this past Saturday and Sunday... I life long dream! Flew from Chicago to Cleveland, Cleveland to Portland, ME on Saturday. On Sunday flew from Portland to Chicago, Chicago to Fargo, Fargo back to Chicago, then got to fly home back to Libby. It is truly an amazing career and am blessed to have such a supportive wife to encourage me along the way.

Doctor Doctor and A/C Windows

IS there a doctor in the house? Maybe not in the house, but there are TWO new doctors in our family as my sister and her husband BOTH just graduated from Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine. Libby and I had the opportunity to travel up to Blacksburg, VA on Friday to see the two of them accept their highly honored certifications. Our travels, as usual for us now, were quite adventurous. We left Friday morning with our first leg of our flight going into Chicago. We arrived there around 12:30pm to the surprise of it being only around 50 degrees Fahrenheit outside. Quite chilly compared to the 85 degree weather we left in Texas. Our next flight was supposed to leave at 2:15pm. Needless to say, the plane was down for maintenance. We didn't end up getting to leave til 6:30pm. During our six hour lay-over, we met an assortment of interesting people. One of those amusing people being Anita; a lady who later we would find would be sitting on our row. Imagine, if you will, a blond-in-a-bottle hair style, middle-aged, free spirited sanguine with an very low tolerance to alcohol. She, to our amusement, was offered an invitation to a local in-airport bar to soothe over her anger for being delayed so long for her flight home to Roanoke, VA. The guy who invited her to the bar, unfortunately, gave her just a tad bit too much to drink than she is used to, which opened up her personality vibrantly. When she met is, she instantly fell in love with our personalities and we became, in her words, "friends." She was sure to let EVERYBODY around her know that we were her "friends." She was a hoot and entertained us in her stupor on our two hour flight.
After arriving, finally, in Roanoke, VA at 9:30pm, we were picked up at the airport by my dad and sister, then drove to our hotel where we mingled with family who were also staying at our hotel. It was nice to see relatives again under happier times this time around. My sister and her husband were happy to see family too, but were even MORE happy to finally be graduating. On Saturday we witnessed the commencement of 180+ doctors receiving their hoods and certificates as they were announced across the stage. CONGRATS YOU GUYS! We love you and are so proud of you!

As far as the progress on our house goes, last Tuesday they had finished putting in all the windows in the house. On Wednesday, we went out there and they were working on finishing the shingles til 8pm that night. We had the opportunity to also meet one of our future neighbors that night too. They were a nice couple who just moved in their home in March. We just went out there this afternoon and they had finished putting in our Atrium door to the back yard along with all the A/C ducting lines and A/C itself throughout. Below are some updated photos of the progress.

 Dining room and Atrium Door to back yard

 Tuesday, May 29th, windows installed throughout

Wednesday, May 30th, shingles completed

Also to our amusement, the SPEC home next to us was being framed when we went out to check on the progress of our home.