It actually looks like a house, kinda...don't you think?!

After picking Sundance up from the vet last Friday (he has an ear infection and an eye infection, poor old boy!!), we drove out to our build site and there was lumber stacked up all around! Or, as I told Brother Sacker...there's wood everywhere out here!!  So...now I know the difference between "wood everywhere out here" and "lumber stacked up"!!
Then, today (Monday, July 1), I was driving home from Sister Taylor's house in Beggs and thought I'd do a drive by and see if there had been any progress and was I ever surprised!!  They started the framing work!!  I guess it's time to get serious about deciding what to keep and what to sell at my moving sale!!  Cuz, it really IS starting to look like our house!!  Yippee!!

See all that wood everywhere...oops, I mean see all the lumber stacked up?!

July 1st...framing has started!!  That window on the left is our dining room window
and the window on the right is my office/craft room window.

Wreaths, wreaths and MORE wreaths!!

I have just recently discovered that I love to make wreaths!!  I started making some for the many doors in our new house and decided that I will try selling wreaths on Etsy.  Here are some of the wreaths for our new house's naked doors!!


This is for our guest room, which is orange and white, turquoise, lime green and other bright colors



This is for my office/craft room, which is black and beige with a touch of red

This is made with very old sheet music and is for Brother Sacker's office

I made this wreath for my friend, Sister Taylor.  She asked for
a yellow with orange wreath!!

A Tale of Two Mothers

For the very few people who don't know it...I was adopted at birth.  I have never met my birth mother; her name is Mildred Lucille Sellers.  I love my birth mother, even though I have never met her or spoken to her or even seen a picture of her.  I thank her, though, for giving me to two loving, wonderful parents...Douglas and Marianne Clarke.  My mom, Marianne Clarke, was the best mom.  I simply adored her, loved her, and respected her.  She was so much fun!  She graduated from Indiana University (third in her class!!) when I was 19 years old!!  I helped her study while I was still in high school!!  My dad offered her anything she wanted for her graduation present and she decided she wanted to go backpacking across Europe with some of her graduating classmates!!  Which she did and she had a great time, of course!  She helped other families adopt babies, helped people get their citizenship, was always involved in United Way...the list could go on forever.  Yet, she ALWAYS had time for her four children, who were also involved in United Way!!  She thought it was more important for me to go to the opera, the ballet, the Art Institute, and any other cultural event than it was for me to learn how to cook!!  So...I love the opera, ballet and art and have taught myself to cook!!  Thanks, Mom!  She never spoke a bad word about anybody.   She was the epitome of a Southern lady...living in Indiana!!  She was smart, funny and always lived life to the fullest.  Even when she was undergoing chemo for breast cancer, she was still playing in bridge tournaments and helping deliver Meals on Wheels!!  She and my dad traveled all over the world, even while fighting cancer!  (She finally succumed to cancer after fighting it for seven years.  Even then, though her doctors told her she had six months to live, she lived seven more years!)  She hosted kids from several countries and so exposed her four kids to people from all different countries and walks of life.  She taught us that we should love and respect all people, no matter what color their skin, where they were from or how much money they had or didn't have.  Of all the women who have influenced me in my life...Marianne Clarke would be at the top of my list!! She taught me SO much and was my best friend for many, many years. Oh, and she taught me how to play a killer game of Scrabble!!  And, Mildred Sellers taught me that when you love someone more than anyone else, you do whatever you have to do to show how much you love that person...she gave me to Marianne Clarke to raise.  So...thank you to my two moms.  You both loved me and I thank you so much for that.

Whoo Hoo!! We have a foundation!!

I loaded up Sundance and Valentino yesterday (Friday) and drove out to our build site and boy, oh boy, was I pleasantly surprised!!  The foundation for our house has been poured!!  Whoopee!!   Nick, our fabulous Rauch Coleman rep, said that once the foundation was poured, we'd be really surprised at how quickly things progressed!!  I sent a pic to Brother Sacker and asked him if I should start packing!!  Which, of course, I have already started to do!!

Our driveway and foundation

This was one week before our foundation was poured

Please Pray for my Friend Pat C!

I have a wonderful friend named Pat C.  In fact, she is one of my bestest buddies...I love her dearly.  She is a Godly woman, a prayer warrior, a great friend, she is trying to teach me how to crochet and she has a horrible addiction...to nudging me on a game we play called Matching with Friends!!  I think she sets her alarm to wake up as soon as she can so she can nudge me to play!  I should mention that she beats me horribly at this game!  She also is a great on-line mini golfer...she beats me all the time at that game too!!  Bless her heart!  So...please add Pat C to your prayer list and ask God to PLEASE heal her of nudging me!!  We just might have to do a nudge intervention for her, otherwise!  I forgot to mention that she and I have been friends for almost ten years...she was one of my first friends when I started going to New Life Pentecostal Church (now known as The Lighthouse Church)!!!  She has fought and victoriously won many battles and is such an inspiration to me.  In fact, I want to be like her when I grow up!!  She is a sister of my heart!

Our New House!

We decided to rent our old house and look for another house.  I found a fantastic real estate agent...Jaybee Treat and scoured page and pages and more pages of houses for sale in Tulsa, Sapulpa and Glenpool, OK.  Then, Brother Sacker and I went through about 40 houses online and narrowed  our favorites down to about 15 houses, I called Jaybee and set up a day to go look at houses and the search began for our perfect house!  My friend, Judy, went with me to meet Jaybee and off we went!  First house we looked at was a definite NO!  Second house we looked at was okay, but I hated the carpeting, so it went on a maybe list!  The third house was a mess AND the owner stayed in the house the entire time we were there!  So, it was also a definite NO!  Then, we went to see a model home in The Crossing at Glenpool...I liked the house, but it was just a little small.  Then, we went to Bixby to see another model home and I loved that house!  Two days later, Brother Sacker and I met Jaybee at the model in Bixby, but he didn't like that house because of the layout, etc.  So, back to the model in Glenpool!  To make a very long story short...we chose the Hartford model home to have built!  It is 2000 square feet, four bedrooms, two baths.  There were two things I wanted in our new house...an entryway and a dining room...this house has both!  Plus an eat-in kitchen, which I also like.  Now, we had to choose which elevation we wanted (simply put...which style roof!),  interior colors, exterior brick, cedar shakes, rock style, wood floors, carpets, tile, backsplash tile, bathroom style, appliance colors...on and on!  We made a lot of upgrades, eliminated a fireplace...wouldn't really use it in OK!!  We signed off on it all, met our mortgage lender guy, signed those papers and now begins the wait to see our dream house be built!  We have a pre-construction meeting this Monday with the builder and they are going to "start moving dirt!".  Which means they are going to start building our house!  We are super excited!  I'll be taking lots of pics and will post a few to show progress.  Our builder is Rausch Coleman and they build houses...our should be done by the end of August/beginning of Septenber!

You CAN teach an old lady new tricks!!

Tonight I learned how to post to Craig's List!! And, I also learned how to crop my pictures so that they can be posted on Craig's List! Whoo Hoo!! Thank you, again, Brother Sacker for your help and immense patience!! My first listing is for our piano...we bought the old piano from the Beggs Pentecostal Church several years ago, while we were helping out in the Beggs church. Since that time, we have purchased a keyboard for Brother Sacker to use, so we decided to sell the old piano (and I want to move my antique china cabinet over to where the piano is!!). After Devin Butler mows our grass, I will be setting up the tents and other camping equipment we are selling and also the two backpacks we are selling and post those pictures on Craig's List. Slowly getting our garage cleaned out to have my garage sale...finally!!