Trailer Royalty!

Well, we are officially living in the horse trailer!  On June 25th we moved the final necessities that kept us from being able to stay at the house another day. Our plan was to move a little at a time as we had the time so as not to be overwhelmed by it. After the fact it seems that we've been moving for 8 weeks! We knew the new residents would not be moving in until the middle to end of July so that gave us time to spread it out.

When I tell people we are living in the living quarters of a horse trailer I get interesting responses... mostly just smiles and nods! Ha ha ha! You see, I don't think it would be possible for us to do this with kids and the space is quite nice. We have a king size bed :-D, kitchenette with a sink & 2 burner stove-top, couch, TV, separate bathroom with a sink, toilet, stand up shower and closet! It's compact but we aren't lacking! We have some of our things in the back of the trailer where the horses ride when we travel. It can get a little cramped if we are up and getting showered/dressed at the same time but we manage. Macy, our 4-legged child, isn't too fond of the lack of inside playing space. She's not sure how she's supposed to play with her toys, or lack-thereof, in such a small space. But she does enjoy our new outdoor space.




After we got things moved in but not put away!
Looks like the Harrell House threw up inside the trailer!




Macy chilling on the bed!


The first few nights were an adjustment for us between getting everything put away in the space we have. One of the biggest things I have tried to do is organize it the best way possible to make it easier. I think it will all fall into place and get easier each day. All of the different organizing tools and tricks out there help a lot!

The pictures below are NOT pictures of our home but are pretty similar to it in order to give you an idea of our cozy living accommodations!



The entrance door is to the left, couch on the right, king size bed up top!




Stand-up shower on left, closet on right with drawer under!




From entrance door... bed on left, kitchenette on right. Couch will fold out as bed!





Pretty cozy and nice! We also have our full-size refrigerator outside, but covered, to hold our groceries which is very convenient! 

Now that we have gotten moved into the trailer, we are concentrating on getting the house ready for the renters to move in. Brandon has done a few things himself and we have carpet cleaners coming next week, etc. Once we get past this transition, we will concentrate on getting bids on our house plans so that we will know about how much land to look for! We will go from there! 

Have a Safe & Happy 4th of July!  





My house looks like a pig stye!

This past weekend was very productive! Well sort of... Saturday was planned to be a big packing day for us since Brandon was off work however, it was productive in other ways. We went to the gym, the grocery store and I'm not too sure what else we did but it wasn't packing! Actually I did get my clothes separated from what I was taking to the trailer and what was going to be packed. I got the clothes packed that I'm not taking to the trailer! Woo hoo! My sweet sister n law had plans to come over and help me pack but she didn't make it over until that evening and her fiance came as well. So we had dinner with them and visited instead of packing! Ha Ha! We had a great time and enjoyed it more than packing anyway. We needed an evening to chill and hang out.
So on Sunday I decided to skip the annual fish fry in Trinity with the Woodsons so that I could get some packing done since Brandon was at the fire dept working. Thankful that I was off work on Monday for Memorial Day, I went to packing! I had a room full of boxes packed and ready to move so on Monday morning after Brandon got off work we loaded up the trailer with the boxes that we had packed and took them to the storage. Since Brandon didn't have to work on Tuesday I took the day off so that we could pack & move more. We spent the whole day packing up most everything in the house that was able to be packed into a box. The kitchen took the longest with all the things that had to be wrapped up. We have a LOT of glass items! Since it took most of the day to pack boxes it was that evening before we got it all moved.
So now we are living on the necessities at our house. We are using the things that we plan to take with us to the trailer. I'm talking, plastic plates and bowls, 2 spoons, 2 forks, etc. Just the minimal. It's quite different! It's also a mess! There are so many miscellaneous items in our "back room", the entrance we use to the house because it's next to the carport, that are waiting to be boxed. These are items that are small pieces of furniture to oddly shaped items I haven't decided how to box yet. It's driving me crazy! :-) But not too bad because it doesn't seem as if I've at home in the evenings long enough let it bother me too bad.

So this coming weekend Brandon will be gone and wont be home until Sunday evening. He left early this morning for the fire dept and will leave this evening for Ft. Worth for training. I will be leaving the house early in the morning to run a 5k race in Sugar Land. Hopefully I will have time Saturday evening and Sunday to work on some more packing.

Next weekend, a week from today, we will most likely be moving the rest of the furniture that we have at the house that we are keeping. I am thinking by then we will be staying in the trailer. We've got to get it moved into place and set up still!

Everything is moving right along!

The Joys of Moving....

I'm pretty excited to say that we have started the wonderful process of packing and moving!  I've had some boxes packed for a while but that was simply for showing purposes. Once we got confirmation of renters and a move-in date for them I stopped packing and keeping the house "show-ready"! Our renters are going to be moving in at the end of July so I knew I had a couple of weeks of being able to go back to "normal" living in our house before it got tore up with boxes and we started moving. I enjoyed not having to worry about it for a little while although I can't say that it still wasn't in the forefront of my mind. Mostly planning and figuring it all out on exactly when we were going to move what and to where, storage or trailer! Come the middle of May I started looking at the calendar and Brandon's work schedule. I realized that moving was going to have to happen a little bit earlier than I thought because of schedules and wanting to have time before the renters move in to clean up.
Today Brandon and a friend are moving our bedroom and livingroom furniture into a storage unit so we will be sleeping in the guest room. We decided to get the storage unit now because they were getting low on units. Brandon also spent the day before packing up a bunch of clothes on his day off.  So the house is officially looks and is in moving transistion!
This coming weekend is designated as my offical packing weekend. It's Memorial Day weekend and I'll have 3 days to get a lot done! From this weekend through the 8-9th of June we will be moving our things into storage and plan to be in the trailer by that weekend of the 9th of June. That will give us time to have everything out and the house cleaned up for the renters by the end of July!

I'm sure this will be me before it's all said & done!

Answered Prayers!!

So last week I posted on facebook a call out to anyone that was able and willing to take in my two outside cats temporarily while we are living in the horse trailer. I stated that Brandon and I would be moving soon and needed to start looking for arrangements for them. Of course everyone wanted to know about the moving part and I didn't really get anywhere with the cats. I have been thinking about what to do with them for a while now but I just kept my faith in God that something would work out for the best for them. Right after I posted the status on facebook, a really good friend of mine, Amber, sent me a text saying that she thought we were selling the house (apparently she hasn't gotten caught up on my blog here!). I then told her that we HAVE had it for sale for the past 6 months now and were about to list it for lease.   
So, she is texting me questions about our house, how many bedrooms, how many baths, etc. She said that she was REALLY wanting an additional room and in our house we have a room that can be used as another bedroom, living room, exercise room, playroom... you name it.  I told her that Brandon and I would talk about it that evening and also have them over to look.  Brandon said that we could try and work something out with them. We were able to talk to them that evening about it and I got a text from her the next day saying they decided that they wanted rent the house! Woo Hoo! She said the only problem was that their lease wasnt up until August sometime. I told her that was okay with us, God has this planned out.  We arent in a huge hurry to move, just needed to know if they wanted it so we would know if we needed to list it.
As of today she has told me that she has notified her landlord that they will be out by July 31st! This will give us plenty of time to get all of our things sorted out. We have to put things in climate control, non climate control and then what will stay with us in the horse trailer. It will be a job.

As I open the Bible to look for a verse that goes along with this post, it opens to Psalm 25 and these verses all jump out at me:

"The Lord always proves faithful and reliable to those who follow the demands of his covenant." Psalm 25:10

"The Lord shows his faithful followers the way they should live. They experience his favor; their decendants inherit the land. The Lord's loyal followers receive his guidance, and he reveals his covenantal demands to them." Psalm 25:12-14

This one really spoke to me for it is an issue I have dealt with during this whole process of waiting for step after step to follow through:
Wait patiently for the Lord! Wait confidently for Him! Do not fret over the apparent success of a sinner, a man who carries out wicked schemes!" Psalm 37:7


And everyone knows this one:
"For I know the plans I have for you,' says the Lord. 'I have plans to prosper you, not to harm you. I have plans to give you a future filled with hope." Jeremiah 29:11

Lucy

Cotton

My sweet girls will now be able to stay in their familiar home! <3 They were both rescues, Cotton from a neighbor of Amber, where she was weeks old and surrounded by numerous other animals, infested with fleas and eye infections; Lucy was rescued by the public works crew with the city of Oak Ridge North, placed in a box and put on my desk! It had been raining a lot and we were having some minor flooding. She was found by our water plant, holed up trying to weather the storm. She fit in my hand she was so tiny. They took to each other like a mamma taking in her own that had been lost.
We also know that things happen, things change... if for some unknown reason the cats can't stay or Amber & Jarvis aren't able to rent our house, God will work something out.

Where are Yall building???

This question comes to me about as much as the question of when we're going to have kids... maybe more. And it usually follows this question "Have y'all bought any land yet?".  The answer is No and No. We don't know the EXACT location that we are going to build. We are interested in the west side of Walker County. We are not at the step in our plans to purchase any land yet therefore we are holding off on even looking because we do not know how long each step will take. If we would have looked right after we listed the house for sale, counting on it selling, we would have been sorely disappointed along with paying two mortgages if we would have found something we loved and bought it. If we would have found something we loved but didn't buy yet because our house had not sold yet then we took the chance of it not being for sale when the house sold. So, with that being said, I think we have made the right decision in being patient and waiting for a transition with our current house first, especially since it didn't sell! Also, we are not dead set on the west side of Walker County either. When the time comes for us to pick out some land, we will look at everything outside of Montgomery County. The reason that we are not planning on looking at anything in Montgomery County is the fact that it is SO expensive!! We wouldn't be able to afford the amount of land that we'd like in MC as we would in WC. Once we get renters in our house and we get moved into the horse trailer we will then take our time going and looking at land. We are also planning on purchasing our land/home construction in one loan. That is why we haven't just gone out and bought some land. Brandon hasn't decided how much land to buy either, but will be between 7 and 15 acres. We do have house plans drawn up though! We went to a referred architect a year and a half ago and had them drawn up. We thought we were closer to building than we were. We also have a look that we like a lot. We arent sure if we will be able to have the stone or not. Will just have to see when we start getting estimates and costs.

Right now we don't think we will have the stone all the way to the top, possible only around the bottom about 2' up. The rest will be hardiplank. But this is the vision we have in mind for our house. Ours will probably be a little bit longer.

Getting closer!

The horse trailer is ready to be picked up & we got the materials for the roof delivered this morning! Brandon and I are going to have a date night tonight and leave tomorrow morning to go pick up the trailer and on Thursday the crew will be at the house to put a new roof on our house! Yippee!

The roof has been about a 5 week discussion... It was a decision on whether to try and do it ourselves with some help or hire someone to do it. Brandon got three different bids to do it and he also went and priced the materials to do it. We thought it would be best to do it ourselves... we would have plenty of help and Brandon would have the time off and we would save some money. I was anxious to get it scheduled and asked Brandon a couple of times if he had looked at his schedule to see when the best time for him to do it was. Of course there was also getting other guys to schedule it too. One morning he told me he was going to go buy all of the materials for it, that way he'll get it done quicker. His words, not mine and I agreed with him... mentally. So later that morning he called me and was telling me that before he left the house he really sat down and figured up the numbers. He basically told me that he didnt feel like we would save all that much by doing it ourselves with all of the time that would go into it also. I had started to see the roof project becoming very stressful for us so I agreed with him and told him to just call the roofer he felt would be best and get it scheduled. He made contact with the roofer this past Saturday and said he would have the materials delivered this week and agreed to work with Brandon's schedule so that he could be there when they were there. The materials were being delivered before I left for work this morning and Brandon sent me a message later saying that they would be replacing the roof THIS Thursday! Woot Woot!

• Horse trailer repaired & ready to live in - Check!
• Bathrooms painted - Check!
• Roof scheduled - Check!

This past weekend I started packing up things that we dont use every day like the closets in our back two bedrooms. And, our realtor contract on our house expires is coming week so we can re-list it for lease! It's the first day of May and will be the perfect time for people to be moving since it will be summer time and in between school years! It has been a whirlwind of a year between Brandon graduating from fire training last April, getting a job, getting a nephew, and all of the progress on our house! Our blessing are abundant! Praise the Lord!

Our house, Another stressful step in this process!

During the Fall of last year (2011), Brandon's dad started getting busy again and work was coming in. Brandon had started a large land clearing job for his dad in October of 2011. After he went to work for the fire dept he continued working on the clearing job on his days off from the fire dept. Brandon continues to work for his dad on his days off . It is working out pretty good and I know he really enjoys to still be able to work for his dad like we planned on. In September of last year, the second job I was working decided not to renew the security contract. I was out of a regular second job. It was bittersweet because we would not have that extra income but was glad that I would have my weekends back! While Brandon was super busy working, working, and studying for work, I was spending time with family and getting into health & fitness which I will get into later. But we were both very busy it seemed throughout this holiday season. I lost my dear sweet grandpa, my mothers dad, a week before Thanksgiving. It is very hard to lose a loved one even if their health has been down for a while and it wasn't totally unexpected. He will and is greatly missed!

We had decided that logically, the best thing for us to do was to to sell or rent our house before we bought land and built a house in order to avoid having the double mortgage payments. We knew that Brandon had to get hired at a fire department first so that we would have two incomes instead of trying to eliminate one house and gaining another with just one and a half incomes. It was always one thing before the other! So once Brandon got hired with the fire department we were more than ready to list our house on the market to sell. Selling it was our first option. We briefly discussed leasing it but didnt really think that we wanted to deal with renters and everything else that goes along with having a rental house. Brandon started working for the fire dept on November 02, 2011 and we met with a realtor on November the 7th! "Chop! Chop! No time to waste!" LOL I was thinking that we may be hitting it at a good time with us coming up on the end of the year. Some people move kids during that time because it's not in the middle of a semester BUT then again it's also the holiday time and people may not be wanting the expense of moving during this time. So, it began to be a waiting game.... Then the holidays came and went without even one showing. Thank goodness for a few good distractions after the first of the year to keep me from stressing over it! On January 23, 2012 we all welcomed my sweet nephew to this big world!
A few weeks later I got to celebrate my birthday with a skiing vacation in Taos, NM with my family, minus Brandon because he had to work. We had an awesome time! My brother, Chris got to ski for his first time and my dad got to get a little more comfortable on his "ski legs"! Unfortantely the ski boots injured Kathy's legs the first day and she was unable to try again the second day. Still we had a great time! I missed Brandon terribly and was so happy to be home with him.

Mr. Grady has stolen everyone's heart!
Here he is on Valentines Day 2012

Me, Dad, & Chris on our last run of the trip.
It was snowing pretty hard (to us anyway) & thought it was the best run!



I'm not sure if it was in February or March but we got caught off guard one evening when a realtor called and scheduled our very first showing for the house! That kind of lifted our spirits a little bit where the house was concerned. It can really dampen your spirits when you have three full months of NO activity whatsoever... It has definantely been a time of continued support to each other. We would have to help each other stay positive and stay on track with what we have planned. It seemed when Brandon would get discouraged, I'd have to remind him of how close we are to what we are working towards and then there were times that I would get frustrated and impatient with the process and how slow things were progressing and Brandon lifted me up. To this date, we still have only had that one showing that actually came inside and looked at the house. We have had several showings scheduled but once they get to the house they don't come in because they don't care for the area or didn't like dogs and we have one in the yard.
During all of this we did find some spare time to talk about where we would live when we sold the house. A lot of people had asked where we were going to live after they found out that we were not going to build until after we moved out of our house. We had several different options and ultimately decided on living in the living quarters of our horse trailer, next to his parents house. This will definantely be an experience! Now that we made that decision, **insert additonal step here**, we knew we had to have some work done on the trailer before we started living in it full time. On March 10th we delivered it to the dealership in Georgetown, TX. and dropped it off with a list of things to check/repair. They told us it would be at least 4 to 6 weeks before it was ready. That kind of seemed like a long time but it felt good to have a date to look forward to! On our drive to Georgetown with the trailer we had a lot of drive time to visit and talk about our plans. While we were talking we decided to plan on leasing the house instead of selling it, unless we got a buyer with the right price before the contract expired.  He thought that in the long run, leasing this house would be very beneficial for us to have that extra income.  During this same time, Brandon was working with his dad on a job in Montgomery for a couple of days doing some paving. After the job was complete, he had the equipment delivered to our house. He surprised me by telling me that we were going to have our driveway paved! This was super exciting for me! I was just hoping that I'd be able to enjoy it before we moved! He said that it was something he wanted to have done if we were going to have renters living there. I didn't disagree ;-) He also said there were a couple of other things, like the roof & some plumbing, that he wanted to do with the house before we got renters so that we would have peace of mind knowing that these things were in working order. ***Insert addional steps here*** Now that we felt pretty certain that we will be renting the house instead of selling it, we want things to be in good shape so hopefully the renters will see that and take better care of it (HA!). On March 24th, our driveway was paved!! Hallelujah!! It makes the place look so nice! I just love it! Harrell Construction did an awesome job!

Among the things Brandon wanted to do with the house, I decided to do something as well! Not too many of you have been to my house (Mammies house) but the ones that have remember this! In both of the bathrooms was this hideous wallpaper! I'm sure it was great in 1975! So, I decided to paint the walls of the bathrooms. I thought it would be a huge help in attracting prospective renters. This kind of started out as my project that I started on a Saturday that Brandon was working at the fire dept. Well, it is hard to paint one area and have the whole area look good without painting the whole area. So... we decided we had to paint the trim AND cabinets also! This turned into a bigger and more time consuming project than I initially planned. It took several weekends and weeknights. We had to Kilz the walls with the wallpaper, remove drawers & cabinet doors, tape and re-tape, replace the hardware on the cabinets..... We almost got to the point where we wanted to poke our eyes out rather than paint anymore. But, the results were 100% better! It is hard to do one improvement without thinking about doing another improvement. The floors in the bathrooms/kitchen could be replaced, the appliances need updating but you have to stop somewhere right? Check out the progress pictures -

Career Change!

It's Monday... the start of a new week. I could always use one extra day!
Continuing on our journey....
Shortly after Brandon and I got married, I'd say about 8 months or so, the economy took a dive. A big dive. It may have been sooner than 8 months but it wasn't too long after Obama took office. And will not be soon forgotten for it was the cause of many changes in the United States. One change being with the newly married Harrell couple. Brandon was still working full-time for his dad but things got slow.... really slow. There would be a week or two that Brandon wouldn't even work because there was no work. He was still shoeing horses and that surely helped and thank goodness for the second job that I worked one and two nights a week. We didn't really quite start feeling the change in the economy until late 2009. After a very slow winter, the beginning of 2010 brought decisions for change. Brandon and I are workers and not the kind to just make it by. We currently had renters in the townhouse, which was barely paying that mortgage. Knowing that our ultimate goal was to have a house on some acreage, we needed to "unload" a mortgage! Since we were already in our house in Montgomery and were better off on it financially than the townhouse, it wasnt a hard decision to list it for sale. It only took a year for me to get to where I was okay with letting it go. I had come to terms with it and knew it was one of the first steps to reaching our goal. I tell ya, the good Lord was guiding us the entire time because looking back at the bills we had and the income we had coming in.... We didn't stuggle and were still able to save money! While we were very thankful for that, we also didnt know how long the economy was going to stay down like it was or if it would turn around and we needed to know that there was going to be a paycheck coming, something steady, secure and stable. During the month of January of 2010, we discussed a lot things. One being selling the house as soon as the renters lease was up, which was at the end of February, and what that would do for us. One of the other things that we discussed was what Brandon could do as far as work was considered. Two of the main things that we talked about was him building his horseshoeing business back up and doing that full-time or looking into fire training to be a firefighter. While the horseshoeing would be good money and Brandon could make his own schedule, we knew it would take time to build the business back up to where he would be full-time with it again. Also, through the time that we talked about it, I could tell that Brandon's heart just wasn't in to do full-time again. It is hard work and very hard on your back and knees. Knowing a change was something I felt the Lord pushing us to do, I did not want Brandon to be unhappy. He truly enjoyed working for his dad! So, we looked into the fire training and talked to one of Brandon's long time friends that had just completed fire training and talked with both of our parents. We thought that if he could complete fire training and go to work for a local fire department, he could still work for his dad on his days off. After looking into it, we decided that was the road to take. Looking back it seems like it was a quick, rash decision... but at the time I felt like we had talked and discussed it so much that it was clear that was what we were supposed to do.
We listed the townhouse for sale the first of March of 2010. We decided to list it by owner, no task too big for the Harrells! Praise the Lord for His timing because it is perfect I say! Because when we decided to sell, it was probably the worst time to sell a house. The housing market was so low and there was so many houses listed on the market I just stressed over it thinking we wouldn't ever sell it. That's not faithful thinking! But one thing that Pres. Obama did that worked in our favor was the home credit that was being offered to home buyers. We got buyers right at three months and right before the home tax credit expired! Date of sale was May 25, 2010! What a relief! I think I cried!
"The Lord's loyal followers receive his guidance, and he revels his covenantal demands to them."
Psalm 25:14
Among our discussions about the fire training, we talked about which would be best for him to attend and decided on one that was referred by one of his close friends; TrainingDivision.com .  We decided this would be best because all of the academic portion was online and at your own pace. That way Brandon would be able to work for his dad and study at the same time. This did work out for the best but let me tell you, it was trying at times! I was anxious for him to get as much done as quick as he could and I soon found out that Brandon HATES to study! I became his personal cheerleader, proder, pusher, organizer, study partner, etc. There were times that he got a lot done, and there were times that he didn't. There were times that he got distracted (rodeo) and had to be re-directed and then there were times that work was busy and he was working very long days and came home just barely dragging in. Those days I didn't even say the word study! This fire training was such a journey in the middle of our bigger journey. I remember specifically coming home from a rodeo one weekend in Ft. Worth and talking about this studying thing that was constantly hovering over our heads. Let me just say this first, I know that rodeo and calf roping is a part of Brandon, it's part of who he is are part of why I love him. I would never tell him that he can't rope. With that being said, on our way home and we were talking about the school and studying, I did try and talk to him about sacrifice and that for this short time that he has to do this studying, he may have to sacrifice some things he enjoys like watching TV in the evening or going to some rodeos. He agreed with me and already knew everything we said but I know he felt like, "Grrrrr... I hate this studying but I'll do the best I can even though I'd rather rope!" I totally agreed with that feeling too because I hated seeing him make himself do it. There were times that I wished I could have done it for him. There was a lot of invitations that were turned down because he was off work and needed to use the time to study. I figured out something that helped a lot by setting a time frame to have certain chapters completed by certain dates. It seemed that if he had a goal set, he had something to work towards. That was probably the only time it worked! But that's okay! :-)

Brandon signed up for the training in February 2010 and by January 2011 we were seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with the fire training! That month in 2010 we were invited by some very close and good friends of ours to take a trip to Steamboat, CO. After the past year of all the studying and working we thought it would be good for us to take advantage of the offer and get away for a couple of days. We had the time of our lives and skied for the first time ever for both of us! We were so thankful to our friends for giving us the opportunity!

Brandon completed all of the required academics for the fire training in February 2011 and was signed up for the required, hands-on, boot camp in April 2011. The boot camp was a 15-day straight skills training in Crowley, TX. (just south of Ft. Worth). We were both very excited and nervous for this training! Nervous for two reasons also, one being that we hadn't been apart from each other that long since we had gotten together and the other reason was because Brandon hadn't ever experienced anything like this before. After all of the sacrifice, this was the break or make time. This would be where we see if he really likes it and enjoys it after getting "hands-on".  It was hard not to worry or to keep it from being "nail biting times" but for those of us who really know Brandon, understand why! ha ha ha I was so darn thankful when I would talk to him in the evenings or get text messages from him with excitement over completing certain skills they had learned! Whew! Thank you Lord! At first I was glad to be getting the bed and the TV all to myself! To watch what I want and take up the whole bed! After a few days I told Brandon that he could go ahead and come back... I didnt need to whole bed after all! ;-) Brandon graduated from the Fire Academy at the completion of the 15-day boot camp! His mom, sister, aunt and myself drove up to see it! I stayed the night at a hotel and picked him up the next day when he was able to leave and we drove home while we started discussing his EMT training!

We were SO proud of him!!

Oh man he had a great time & loved it when they got into the "good" training!

It didn't take too long to make decisions on the EMT training. It was a 5 week course that he got knocked out quick! The final step was to take the National Registry Exam for his EMT certification. This is a VERY tough exam that took more, lengthy studying! And LOTS of flashcards! Once he sucessfully passed the NREMT exam, there was a lot of paperwork to do in order for all of the certifications to be valid, "in the system", etc. before he could be hired for a job. Even still, he started testing for different agencies that were hiring. When fire departments/police departments have postions open they schedule physical fitness test and written tests. No agency does it the same or has the same test either. Except they ususally start with the written test and either the top certain number of people, top percent, or all that passed get to move on to the physical test. Most every agency required you to have all of your certifications "in hand" when you test for them. Brandon still went and tested with several agencies before all of his certifications were "in the system" because we thought it would be good practice and we never knew what God had in store for us and how he had this planned out. We were just going with it and always thought, "You never know...". Among the agencies Brandon tested for was Lufkin, Copperas Cove, Conroe, Montgomery County - Willis, City of Montgomery, Montgomery County - South. He always checked the link for job postings and we had a certain distance we did not want to exceed past. When he went and tested for the city of Montgomery, he passed the written and moved on to the physical, and was scheduled for and went before the interview board. We were pretty excited and anxious however, his certification paperwork was still not complete. It was two or three days after he tested for Montgomery, he got a phone call from them asking him to come in. When he went in later that afternoon and met with the Chief, he was offered the job and asked when he could start. Brandon, being the honest person that he is, advised him that he did not have his certifications in hand but expected them in any day. Being a fair and honest Chief, he told brandon that he would have to talk about this with the main Chief and would call him. He got the call that they were going to have to adhere to the policy and could not hire him until he had his certifications. This meant that out of all of the guys that tested, only 6 of them got hired for the open positions and the ones that didnt got put on a list. Since they had to skip over Brandon he was placed number one of the list to hire if they had another position to fill. His next testing was for Montgomery County - South. The written and physical tests went good for the department and we felt pretty good about it. At this time I'm pretty amazed at my Lord! It brings tears to my eyes just thinking about where he has brought us in this time. We were following where he has lead us and were ready to go whereever that was, be it as far as Austin, San Antonio, Dallas... but here he was getting placed number one on the hire list for MONTGOMERY! A 10 minute drive from our house! Wow! A day or so after Brandon tested for Montgomery County - South, they called him to schedule an interview. We were just as excited about this as well because it is so close to his family and my job.  If I remember correctly, the same day that South Montgomery County FD (their actual name) called him, later that afternoon he got a call from Montgomery FD! What?!??! They said that one of their guys left (unsure if it was one of the new hires or someone that had been there) and wanted to know if he was still looking for a job.  ----- Yes please!--- We are now in October 2011. I think this was in the middle of the week, sometime in the middle of the month and they said that they wanted him to start that Saturday! Ha! We couldn't believe it! Of course he didn't start for 2 weeks because he was on a big job for his dad and wanted to get further along on it as he could before his schedule changed to something we had never known before. On November 02, 2011, the day after our 3 year anniversay, Brandon started work with the Montgomery Fire Department! And he has been loving it!
This is what the Lord, your protector, says, the Holy One of Israel: "I am the Lord your God, who teaches you how to suceed, who leads you in the way you should go." Isaiah 48:17  

Easter 2012 -  The only picture I have of him (in uniform)
since starting work at MFD

Now with the sale of the townhouse behind us and Brandon a job with a fire department, we are ready to move on to the next step!

Having Kids Yet???

Happy FRIDAY! One thing I did not cover was our "catch-up" when Brandon and I got re-connected. He had, during the years since we had went our separate directions, created his own horseshoeing business until about 6 months before we got back in touch. At that time he moved his business back to part-time and went to work full-time for his dad's construction company. I had gone to the police academy and went to work for the Oak Ridge North Police Dept. in Jan. of 2003. I started out working on patrol for the first two years. In April of 2005 I was offered a position working in the office covering all of the administration, including the property and evidence room, walk-in's, and fingerprinting.
I just have to say how proud of Brandon I am. I know there may be things about him that are not perfect but one thing about him is that he is the hardest worker I know! He knows that his work reflects himself and therefore tries to always do the best job possible. I love to see him at work whether it's trimming a horses foot or running job equipment.
Also, while Brandon and I were talking about out future, what we wanted for our future, and when we were talking about getting married, we tried our best to go over as much as we could. We are two people that are serious about marriage and we both knew that there were important topics that needed to be talked about before we promised to commit our lives to each other. Our religious views and our faith and relationship with God was not much to be discussed about, although it is one of the biggest topics I think a couple looking to get married needs to agree on, we already knew how each other felt. Some memories that I have of our dating relationship from the past are of me and Brandon going to church together. We were both raised in a strong Baptist background. We both very much believe in the Lord and that He has to be the center of our marriage in order for it to have true joy! But one of the biggest things that we, as a married couple, get asked about is having kids. That was also one of the most important things we talked about when we were talking about getting married. Brandon was firm on the fact that he did not plan on having kids. I felt so blessed to have God bring us back together that I accepted how Brandon felt, knowing that I was happy just to be getting such a wonderful husband, a life long best friend and maybe that's all that God wanted for us. Yes, since we have been married for 3 1/2 years now, we do discuss having a baby but we are not in a hurry and will try when we feel it's the best time for us and that God is telling us it's time. That is the best answer I can give right now. I have been asked a lot, I have told a lot and I know that people are curious but I suppose that couples will have kiddos when they are ready. No need to ask, right? They will have kids when they announce they are expecting. Some couples have them before they are ready, and that is something that they have to go through and handle because we know that having kids is not any easy task and changes your lives forever. Brandon and I don't want that added stress to our marriage of having kids before we are ready, if we decide to have them. And yes, everyone has their own opinions of "being ready" to have kids. Those that have kids that were not planned will firmly say that you can never be "ready" and those that plan kids will say that yes, you can be ready in your own ways before you have them. No, you can not have enough money saved up just specifically for a baby but you can be better financially set before you introduce kids to your marriage like having items paid for or paid down so that that you as a couple are not struggling as much as you would otherwise. There are definitely times that I have "baby fever"! I am in my 30's now and naturally have the desire to have a baby. My biological clock is ticking! I believe that God instills the desire to have babies in every woman.... but does He not also cause some men and women to be infertile and sterile? I am then reminded very strongly that there are things that happen in our lives that sometimes we will never understand or ever have all of the answers to. So, while I may have the natural desire to have a baby right now, I don't feel that is God telling me and Brandon to get pregnant "right now". I do believe that we will try to get pregnant in the future and it will be the most amazing and exciting time of our lives because it will be God's timing for us! And that is the answer to so many questions I get, "So when are y'all going to have a baby??"..... When God is ready for us to! I mean, who am I to question why He waited 7 years to bring us back together when I worked ONE mile from where he lived? Why did it take seven years? Well, because that's when the Lord had it planned for us to. And it was perfect as I believe the rest of his plans for us will be! I have to give MANY thanks to our awesome parents; for these are the people that are hoping & waiting for our children more than anyone else and have NOT been over bearing or pressuring at all! I hear of couples who have parents that are constantly on their kids about having kids and it makes me all the more thankful for ours and their patience! I suppose that is what you get from parents that know that this is in God's hands. And dont get me wrong, I do have the desire to experience all (well, maybe not ALL) that comes with having kids. I want to experience pregnancy, labor (that certianly is questionable!), the love that everyone says you could never imagine, giving our parents the joy of grandkids... etc. We just arent ready... yet.
I do ask myself sometimes, "What if it isn't in God's plans for us to have a baby?" .... Well, He hasnt led us wrong and I dont believe He will, we trust Him and will accept whatever his plans are for us.

Living Accomodations

While Brandon and I were talking about getting married and the things that we wanted and planned, one of the things we both agreed on was buying acerage with a house or building a house. We frequently looked and talked about different things we could do. We also had to decide what to do with my house. One thing was for sure, Brandon wanted to get a place set up and live for a little while before we got married (He didnt give himself much time!). Well, Brandon's grandpa heard that we were looking at property and different places and told him that he had just listed a house for sale out by Lake Conroe. It was the house that Brandon's great grandmother, Mammie AKA Bess Penn, lived in for many years before she needed to be closer to the Oak Ridge area and 24-hr in-home care. Brandon and I went over and looked at the house one evening. Being built in 1975, it was not necessarily the "dream home" you hope for when you are about to "live happily ever after" :-) But I must say that this house definantely had character, not to mention all of the stories and memories his family had with this house! I mean, this house was moved in from the Heights in Houston, it had custom cabinets with pull-out kitchen drawers! Oh! And "roll open" windows! (I'll have to take a picture of those) They are probably one of my favorite things about this house! But... it also had some awful 1970's wallpaper in the bathrooms! So, we had to think about it and it didnt take me long at all. I knew that we had to live in this house and give up my sweet little townhouse so close to everything. I knew that I couldnt ask Brandon to reside in a townhouse in the city. If you know my Brandon, you know what I'm talking about. Well, I wasnt quite ready to say goodbye to my first house that I purchased myself and made into home, so we decided to rent it out for a year or so and see where we were then. "Mammie's" house was much bigger, and a MUCH bigger, fully fenced yard for my 4-legged kids!

It will always be "Mammies House"

My "Quaint" little townhouse! Now could yall really see
Brandon "confined" in this? ha ha

The Begining...

I should start from the begining... Brandon & I started dating in high school. We dated for about 4 1/2 years until I was 21 and he was 20. There were a few times it was on and off but you know how high school romances can be. All and all, I loved him very much and he loved me! The problem arose when we became adults (20 & 21 years old'ish) and we had to make some decisions and take some responsibility. He was not ready to take on the responsibility of a wife and I really didnt know what I wanted in life! I'm not sure that he knew either so that left us with the decision of going seperate ways. It was then that I chose to enter the career(life) of law enforcement and enrolled in the Police Academy at UofH Downtown and Brandon went all the way to Washington State for horseshoeing school to start his own business of being a ferrier! SEVEN long years later... and might I add, many experiences, obstacles, paths later, we got re-connected! It was a whirlwind of a time and happend fast but 3 months after we got re-connected we were engaged and 3 months after that we were married! It was all in the hands of our Lord and what he had planned for us... we just had to stop long enough to listen! 


Us for my senior homecoming in 1998

 

7 years later! May 2008
This was the day after we met up after seven years



 


             

 May 2008    
   

The happy couple - November 2008