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Today Jacob had a Dr. appt. in Abilene and after that we met with our contractor.  He liked the plan mom and I came up with and said that he didn't see anything in the plan that we wouldn't be able to do.  I was so happy that he didn't tell me that I needed to change it up.  He is going to contact the architect this week so that we can meet up with her and give her the final details of where the plugs/lights/etc. will go and hopefully we will get moving very soon.  We are also waiting to hear some news on the land we are wanting to build on.  We should know something about that on Wednesday.  If the land deal falls through then we have 2 lots picked out and will just go with one of them.

It was a long exhausting day for all of us.  Tomorrow should be as crazy as well because we are getting a new dishwasher and I have to be out of the house for 3-4 hours.  I am not looking forward to that but I need to buy groceries so at least I can knock that out.

Someone was so tired from today that she fell asleep watching a movie right after supper.  She never does this!

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We are home!  (not that coming home to this house is anything special)  This morning I helped my mom move the furniture out of my old room to prepare for the new furniture she bought.  It kind of made me a little sad watching my bed get torn down.  The room has changed but my furniture has been the same since we moved there.  The bed is an old cast iron bed that was my mom's when she was a little girl.  It then became my bed.  I loved it.  Now it is going to be Jaci's bed.  I love that the same bed has been passed down 3 generations now.  We won't actually get the bed until our new house is built (Yay for our awesome plans!) but I am so happy to have it for Jaci!

The little kids each found worms today.

It was good to come home and see Jacob and Jackson.  I think he has missed the little kids.

Tomorrow we are meeting with our builder to give him our house plans so that he can hand them off to the architect.  I am so excited to get moving on this and even more excited to have a plan I love!  The fact that my mom and I created it completely from scratch makes it even more special!  It truly is our custom home that is the perfect fit for us!  I love it!  :)

135/365

Tonight we are still in Robert Lee because we didn't quite accomplish what we had planned on doing today.  The original plan was to take down all of the furniture in my old room so that mom can get a new bedroom set in there.  We didn't do that today because it was raining all day.  Instead mom and I worked on our house plans for 6 hours today.  SIX HOURS!!!  The good news is we finished them and I love them!  The one our builder had drawn us just wasn't working for what I wanted and it was about 100 sq ft. larger than I wanted.  It just had some wasted space and some odd areas that really were bothering me.  We sat down and didn't stop until we had meticulously placed everything in the house.  Oddly enough we took 110 sq ft. off of the house yet 3 bedrooms are larger than they were and one is the same size.  We also made the kitchen, living room and dining room larger.  We managed to get everything in the house that we wanted to get in and it flows well.  I don't know how we managed to do that and take sq ft. away but we did.  There is not a foot of wasted space in this house.  It is open with no useless space and it is just what we wanted.  I couldn't be happier that we now have this done.  I seriously feel like a huge weight has been lifted now that we have floor plans and now that the house is a reasonable size for us to build.

After we finished up the plans we went for a drive to see how much the lake is filling up from all the rain and went for supper at the marina.  It was a nice evening after a long day of working on plans!

We even saw some turkeys!

I guess tomorrow we will tear into the bedroom and then we will head back to Albany.

Hope you are all having a wonderful evening!

134/365

It has rained and stormed non stop most of the day.  We have needed the rain so it has been nice.  I went and had lunch with Jackson and talked to the school about Pre K for the little kids.  After I got Jackson we came home and worked on house plans and then I decided I better get on the road to come to Robert Lee to pick up the little kids.  There was a tornado warning one county over from Robert Lee and they were predicting that it was going to get worse as the evening went on so I hit the road to try to avoid the bad weather.  I managed to avoid the worst of it until right when I got to Robert Lee and then it started looking really bad.  The sky was green and there were little things hanging down from the clouds.  It was raining so hard and the clouds were really moving.  I haven't seen this much rain in Robert Lee in a long time.  I was so happy to get here!

I don't have my big camera with me and my little camera's card doesn't fit into my computer so I will have to update with pictures of the little kids tomorrow.

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He makes my heart happy...

Especially when he just randomly jumps up and starts doing dishes and wiping down the kitchen cabinets.

Never mind the fact that I am going to have to re-wash them tomorrow morning when he goes to school because he didn't really wash them good or rinse them AT ALL.  That's OK...the fact that he jumped up and did this without us saying anything just makes me blissfully happy.

On a related note...I am so ready to get our dishwasher fixed.  It was the one thing that actually worked good in this house and now it is out.

I also met with our builder today and we have a house plan but it needs tweaking.  I like it but I don't totally LOVE it and I think if we are going to spend that much money and live in it forever that I need to LOVE it.  Hopefully we will get it perfect soon.

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Today I met with Jackson's teacher to discuss his progress since moving here.  Unfortionatly it isn't quite what we were hoping for.  She actually suggested that we might want to consider holding him back.  We are  not on board with that plan.  The ONLY area where he has less than an A+ is in his reading/phonics.  We are working so hard with him and plan on having him in tutoring all through the summer (we are even prepared to cough up the money for Sylvan Learning Center if we need to).  We are extremely frustrated right now.  How he can go from a high A average in Lockhart to being held back here is just beyond us.  Compared to Albany's standards he is behind...but he is still within the average range and I am not going to hold him back because of that.  Especially when he is not struggling in any other areas.  I love the school.  I think his teacher is doing a good job but I am not willing to hold him back when he is average.

Tonight we went and looked some more at lots and really tired to make plans on where we want to build.  I am meeting with our builder tomorrow to get the house plans.  I am excited to see how they turned out.  After we make our final approval on them then they are off to the drawer for the final plans.  I am excited and so ready to be past this phase.

We cooked hot dogs tonight and Jackson helped Jacob with the grill. I think he is enjoying his time alone with us.

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Nothing much to report again today.  I worked out for over an hour today for the first time since I moved here and I am feeling it!  The house has been quiet without Jaci and Tyler being here.  Jackson's class is doing testing this week so he hasn't had any homework which is so nice!  We are enjoying the quiet time in the afternoon.  Sorry for the boring posts and lack of pictures.   Perhaps tomorrow I will have something more to report.