Remodeling update (with photos!)

we have been tearing up our bathrooms in our house, but in a good way. we had started pulling down the wallpaper in our master bathroom. that came down MUCH easier than we thought. so today, i finally disassembled the old shower stall. that's where i'm standing on the ladder in the first picture. we have decided to remove that shower b/c there is a leak in the shower pan. it would cost an estimated $3,000 to get that repaired. we don't like the layout of the bathroom as it is right now, so we'll move stuff around. we'll put a shower head with the current tub, and move the toilet to where the shower is now. it already looks much better with those glass doors down. then, we started scraping off the popcorn ceiling in the master bathroom. that, again, is alot easier than i thought it would be. so we got that done.

then, we pulled off the wallpaper in the half bath downstairs and the full bath upstairs (the old cherry wallpaper). again, that came off REALLY easy. we were pumped. we wanted to keep working, so we started to pull the wallpaper off in the foyer at the front door.

big mistake.

that stuff is stuck on firm. as easy as the rest of the wallpaper has been, this wallpaper is that stuck on. so, we halted for the night. we'll have to score it, and soak it with wet newspaper to get it off. that will be a chore. but we got really lucky not having to do that for all our bathrooms.

so we've made progress. we can't wait to get all the popcorn off and the paint on the walls!

Happy Birthday Baby!

the love of my life turned 26 today! i'm so proud to be her husband. i tell her this all the time, but it's weird to think back when i was a kid about how i tried to dream of what my wife would be like. the funny thing is: in my wildest dreams, i never thought i could be this happy. i didn't think it was possible to love someone so much. i'm so thankful for her.

i hope you're birthday was great! i love you!

Thanksgiving weekend update

we had a wild weekend. we both had to work on Wednesday, so we planned to head to Montgomery to stay with my parents that night. well, plans changed. i developed waht i can only describe as "a headache from the dark side" late Wednesday afternoon. it knocked me on my back where i had to miss church that night. i can't think of the last time i've been too sick for church. it was bad. anyhoo, i woke up for about 30 minutes after brooke got home from church, just enough to try to eat some crackers, then back to bed. i was fine by the morning, thank goodness. brooke took such good care of me. i'm a pitiful patient. :)

we spent all Thanksgiving day at my mom's parents' house in Fort Deposit, AL, which is just a bit below Montgomery. we had a great time there seeing my side of the family.

we did get some bad news while we were there, though. that morning, brooke's grandfather, Marvin Pressnell or "Gandy", passed away. he was 80 years old. it was somewhat sudden, but his health and mind had been frail for years. he was a faithful Christian his entire life, which gives us more peace than we can describe.

so, we came back to work on Friday. after work, we drove up to Decatur for the weekend with brooke's parents. we had a great time there, too. we had the funeral Sunday afternoon. brooke's dad and her brother Chris conducted the funeral. it was a very moving service. he was a great man that has influenced thousands of people, either directly or indirectly.

one of the best parts of the weekend was the "Beatdown in T-Town"!!! i felt like Bama would win, but i was afraid that it would be a slobber-knocker. i'm so proud for JPW and the other 8 seniors. those kids came to Bama b/c they love Bama, and Saban has said they've been the ones who really deserve the credit in turning things around. it's great to break the streak. it's great to shutout Auburn. it's great to feel the pendulum swinging back our way. now it's gets really interesting. if we beat Florida, we can beat whoever else we face. i'm scared to death of Florida, but if we can sneak past them somehow, we'll beat Oklahoma/USC/Texas/whoever. i'll pull a "nicky pressnell" and just go ahead and call that. i might be wrong, but that's my opinion after seeing how this college football season has gone.

brooke has about 2 weeks left before she's done with this semester. then, she'll only have one more semester of classwork left! her senior year will be strictly clinicals. she has worked so hard for this, and i'm so proud of her!