New House Pics

finished basement that will one day become the "man cave" or some other catchy name.




one of our out-of-date bathrooms that needs new flooring, wallpaper removed, painted, new toilet, etc.




yes, that is lime green shag carpet!




here's the prettiest view of the house. we can touch up the inside, but the brick was a big plus for us!


more pics will come later as the remodel progresses....

In the infamous words of Lloyd Christmas.....

"We're there!"

we have officially closed on both houses. we have moved 95% of our belongings to our new house. and we are wore slap out!

a big thanks to everyone who helped us this last weekend in the move (some both days): big red, ethan, jason, nolan, and rick's parents. things went great because of ya'll pitching in and helping. it's great to have good Xn friends.

email me if you need our new address, or check our facebook profiles.

we hope to post some pics soon. our internet hasn't gotten hooked up at the house yet (i'm posting from work between patients). so be watching for more updates as we undergo "the great remodel"!!!

Time is winding down....

it seems very strange to think about our last few days in our Alabaster house. we're planning to be officially out by the end of this month, but we'll probably be mostly moved up to Hoover before then. and the little things that we've grown accustomed to at our current house will be missed. there are a few things at our house that we wish we could transplant into our new house.

like our built-in bookcase in the basement. or our crapemyrtle by the mailbox. i'll even miss our old clunky oven and stained carpets. mainly because we put alot of our lives into that house.

for the first time in my life, i laid tile in our kitchen (at an angle no less!). i fixed the squeaky steps going to the top floor. i replaced our garage door. that house is where i came home after i graduated optometry school. that house is where we found out that brooke got into pharmacy school. that house will always be the house where me and mark and david and big red played scattergories till 4:00 am the night of the Skynard concert. that house will be the house we spent night after night playing cashflow and nertz with ryan and kelly. we've had halloween parties, Christmases, hurricane parties, and Bible studies there. and in 15 days, it will all be just a memory.

our kids will never toddle up and down the steps we climbed a million times. they'll never play in the backyard i dreaded having to cut. they'll never know what our monster in the fridge sounded like. we'll just have to try to describe it.

but we get to make some new memories soon. we're unimaginably excited about this new house and all it offers. but it's bittersweet to realize the piece of ourselves we have to give up to get it.

We have a closing date!

we're set to close on our current house on October 20th! woohoo! this is the same family that made the offer we accepted back in late September. they did get approved on Monday of this week. so, the wheels are turning. we are so thankful that God has blessed us in this move.

as it stands, we're going to try to close on our new house the same day. hopefully the attorney can get everything done at once to save everyone some time. we will have some time to get everything packed up and moved, but it will be a whirlwind 2 weeks!

please continue to keep us in your prayers as we tie up all the loose ends with this. things look great so far, but it's hard to predict if everything will go as planned.

ps...if you're in the B'ham area, let me know if you're available on a Sunday afternoon or a Monday to help get some big stuff moved up into Hoover. :)

Freaky Eye Friday

no pics this time! just some information about vision and sports.

there has been a wave of eye injuries in sports. Phoenix Suns star Amare Stoudemire got poked in his right eye during practice yesterday. now, his iris is torn. sounds like angle recession to me.

next, former Florida Gator star Joakim Noah also got poked in his left eye. his was forceful enough to cause a blood leakage in the eye. sounds like a hyphema to me.

finally, Tampa Bay Rays slugger Carlos Pena left yesterday ALDS Game 1 with "blurred vision". i was instantly intrigued. from some research, i found out he had scratched his eye the day before, and it hadn't healed completely yet. the classic corneal abrasion.

3 finely-tuned, highly-trained athletes. all 3 in great, physical shape. but one false slip to the eye, and they are incapacitated. i think we all take our sight for granted until something goes wrong. Stoudemire and Noah may develop glaucoma or a traumatic cataract. Pena could develop recurrent corneal erosion or have resultant scarring that prevents him from competing at the highest level.

take care of your eyes. wear appropriate eye protection, even if you think you look stupid. if you injure your eye, seek help immediately. so much can be treated if it's addressed in time.

Okay, I just had to post this:

WHAT A GAME!!! i haven't posted about Alabama all season long (other than that video before the season even started), mainly b/c i didn't want people to think i was one of those crazy, outlandish, typical Bama fans that only saw things through Crimson-colored glasses....even after the Clemson game. but, man, what a game! i never envisioned us dominating UGA like that. as the game was getting started, i realized, "this is the same way we beat Clemson: keep the ball on offense, and stop the run on defense." i'm so proud of our team for playing so consistently so far this season. we have faced every challenge with tenacity and confidence. and so far, it's paid off.

so, now Bama is #2 in the AP poll, but #4 in the coaches poll (which is the one that counts in the BCS rankings). like i told brooke today, all that matters is we need to keep winning ballgames. i don't like that LSU is ahead of us in the coaches poll, but if we keep winning, we'll get a chance to change that.

i sure do hope Saban can keep the players hungry and focused for the Kentucky game. i'd hate to blow a great wave of momentum on a let-down conference game.

RTR.

Good news on the house

we had an offer on the house over the weekend, and we have accepted it! the only remaining hurdle is for the prospective buyer to obtain financing. but, things look to be going great! continue to keep us in your prayers as we tie up the loose ends on our current house and transition to our soon-to-be new house. we'll let you know of any other updates when we get them.

also, jennifer and jarred crow came to visit this weekend. brooke and jennifer are BFF from way way back. it was great to see them. here's a pic of the girls before they had to go back home to Arkansas.

More Funny Cats

that last one about the jawbreaker OWNED us tonight!!!

www.icanhascheezburger.com

Haven't had one of these in a while....

first off, whoa! it's been "4-eva" (forever) since i posted last. sorry about that.

so, i had a "first day at the new job" on Monday. it made me think back to when i got my first job back in Macon, and when i had my first day at Sam's as a REAL doctor. but things went well. i'll only be working at this new job part-time until my contract with Sam's runs out (my last day there will be October 4th).

so, i had a day full of learning. their way of doing things is similar to when i worked up in Cullman, but maybe on a grander scale. in the morning, i worked at the Hoover office, which happens to be the biggest/busiest office. i got to shadow the doctor there some, as well as see a few patients myself. the biggest difference for me will probably be record-keeping. Dr. Schaeffer's offices are completely electronic, so there are no paper files....just computer data on a program called "Exam Writer". it's really nice, but i'm still lost in it. it's tough enough learning a new exam form when you work with another office, but it's much more difficult learning a computerized exam form. i kept going to the wrong screen, or not knowing how to find the right screen, or not knowing where something should go. i think that will be the biggest acclimation for me.

in the afternoon, i worked at the Colonnade office off of Hwy 280. the doctor here helped me learn the computer programs better. i will be splitting most of my time between this Colonnade office and an office in Roebuck. i'm very excited about working there.

so, i'll stumble along for the next few weeks, trying to get my bearings in this new job. i'll work there 2-3 days a week for the next 3 weeks until i completely with sam's.

we're doing well here. still waiting on one of our house-lookers to turn into a house-buyer. keep praying!

Tallahassee, Rivalries, and Mushrooms

we had a great Labor Day weekend. we took advantage of the long weekend to visit Mark and Jennifer Butts in Tallahassee, FL. this was the first time either of us had been to Tallahassee. Mark and Jennifer have been there for about 2 1/2 months now. he's working with the Timberlane church of Christ as their youth minister. here's one of their better pictures of the weekend.



on Saturday, we took a tour of the town. we went to Wakulla Springs (where the water was ICE COLD!). we drove by Doak Campbell stadium on the way back into town. Mark and I decided to do "the chop" in honor of FSU.



most evenings involved coffee and Rook. we played probably 5000 points of Rook throughout the weekend. it was great. i can't begin to tell you how much we laughed. i'm beginning to suspect there was something in the coffee. anyhoo, we got to taking funny pictures with the built-in camera on my computer. here's the best shot we got:



brooke couldn't even open her eyes for the picture b/c she was laughing so hard! it was too much fun. we had such a good time with them. that's the most we've gotten to see them in years. their son Brock is about 14 months old, so we had a good time playing with him. he's a really good little boy.

on the way back home, we stopped and visited with my sister Kristi and her family in Coosada. true to form for the weekend, we played some Rook. it was great to see them. Kristi even agreed to wear my Bama hat for the picture, as long as i wore her ugly Auburn visor. it was so worth it!



so that was our crazy weekend. on to the mushrooms. brooke pointed these out to me last night when we got home from church:



these things popped up just overnight in our yard! and they seem to follow a path leading from our house, through the natural area, and into the front lawn. weirdest thing i've ever seen! does anyone know what might have caused these to pop up in a row like that? how should i get rid of them, other than just knocking them down? any suggestions would help.