Timothy's first experience with Autumn.
Timothy's focus was a little off
I know I said the other day that I don't have time to blog, but I just have to share all my blessings... My mother shared with me today about a verse in the Bible that she found today that says if we don't give God glory for his blessings, He may take them away. Well, I have lots and lots of blessing to share. I hope that you have time spend a few minutes to read about them.
Big Blessing #1:
I posted a few months back about buying a new house. Well, it isn't exactly new - it's about 50 years old. Being that old, the house plumbing was done with galvanized pipes, so we had a plumber come and convert them all to flex pipes. The plumber did a great job, but he used a new kind of fitting that hasn't been on the market long enough to be proven tried and true. Sooooo................when Tom went to meet the plumber to do the walk through, they arrived to find 2 inches of standing water in the basement. One of the fitting's from upstairs had popped off in the night and spewed water out all night long. This is where my title "old into new or treasure in darkness” comes in. The damage was so extensive that we are having 3/4 of our house completely redone. Whoo-hoo! Except that, as usual, insurance companies don't want to own up to paying out their part. The plumbers insurance doesn't want to take care of it, so we had to have our home-owners insurance step in. This process of figuring who was going to pay for it has taken about a month and 1/2. It will take another month or so to do the work. We now have a contractor and the estimates are almost completed. In the end we will have had about $45-50,000 worth of work done. All new hardwood floors, two completely new bathrooms (we were going to have to redo the tile shower downstairs ourselves b/c of installation issues), new floors in the 3rd bathroom, new heating and air units, our basement completely gutted and redone, new doors and trim, paint... When we first had the plumbing redone, we were going to have to redrywall the ceiling downstairs ourselves b/c of the plumber doing his work. Normally, it's hard enough to do, but our ceiling has many turns and angles and parts that jutted out here and there. It was going to take us FOREVER to complete it and then taping, mudding and sanding....AAWWGH! NOW, WE DON'T HAVE TO DO IT. The water ruined the remaining part of the ceiling and so the insurance is replacing it. Because Andrew has asthma, we were going to have to pay to have the duct redone, b/c it was installed wrong and it was filthy. It is now being replaced by insurance. Our air unit is a 15 year unit and it was 11 years old, so its lifespan is almost up. B/c there was water damage to the heating unit, and new current heating units don't match the code of our old air unit, it also has to be replaced. God has been so good to have all these things replaced, and not at our expense. We could have never paid for all of this on our own. Now, we just need God do hail damage to our roof, cause it needs replacing. :)
Blessing #2:
Being that we haven't sold our old house, we are now paying two mortgages - OUCH! Since we have to remain in our old house until the new house is completed, the insurance is paying for our mortgage.
Blessing #3:
This blessing is so materialistic, but I had to share it. When the last owners moved out, they called and asked if we wanted them to leave their 52 inch projection TV. We said that that would be fine. After we looked at it, we decided that it was too big and that we would sell it. It happened to be the only thing in the basement when the flood happened. It is also being replaced, but since they don't make 52 in. proj. tv's anymore, it is being replaced with a 52 in plasma LCD . We couldn't have ever in a millions years, bought one of these. We figured it would be years before we could even get a 26 in. one. Can you believe it! We have decided that we are only going to get a 40 or 46 in. We don't want to look like we are too rich. :)
Blessing $4:
I told Tom just yesterday that I would love to have a mantel in my living room for decorative reasons. A few years back, we had looked for a mantel, but they were too expensive or down right ugly so we stopped looking. I went out yardsaleing today and guess what...at my first yard sale, there was a mantel. Can you believe that he only wanted $50 for it. What a bargain, but those of you who know me well, know that I don't settle for the asking price, so I asked him for his bottom dollar price. He told me to make an offer. Well, in my mind, I wanted to say $25, but even I knew that was insane. I just couldn't say it out loud. The next thing I heard was the man saying, "Why don't we meet in the middle. How about $25?" SOLD! :)
How could I not share all these blessings with someone? I do want to praise His name for giving me the unexpected and the undeserved blessings that He gives me each day. So many times, He gives me things without my asking for them. Many times, they are just the fleshly desires of my heart - nothing spiritual. He has answered many of my spiritual prayers lately as well.
I hope that you haven't fallen asleep by now. :) I promise the next post won't be this long.
Big Blessing #1:
I posted a few months back about buying a new house. Well, it isn't exactly new - it's about 50 years old. Being that old, the house plumbing was done with galvanized pipes, so we had a plumber come and convert them all to flex pipes. The plumber did a great job, but he used a new kind of fitting that hasn't been on the market long enough to be proven tried and true. Sooooo................when Tom went to meet the plumber to do the walk through, they arrived to find 2 inches of standing water in the basement. One of the fitting's from upstairs had popped off in the night and spewed water out all night long. This is where my title "old into new or treasure in darkness” comes in. The damage was so extensive that we are having 3/4 of our house completely redone. Whoo-hoo! Except that, as usual, insurance companies don't want to own up to paying out their part. The plumbers insurance doesn't want to take care of it, so we had to have our home-owners insurance step in. This process of figuring who was going to pay for it has taken about a month and 1/2. It will take another month or so to do the work. We now have a contractor and the estimates are almost completed. In the end we will have had about $45-50,000 worth of work done. All new hardwood floors, two completely new bathrooms (we were going to have to redo the tile shower downstairs ourselves b/c of installation issues), new floors in the 3rd bathroom, new heating and air units, our basement completely gutted and redone, new doors and trim, paint... When we first had the plumbing redone, we were going to have to redrywall the ceiling downstairs ourselves b/c of the plumber doing his work. Normally, it's hard enough to do, but our ceiling has many turns and angles and parts that jutted out here and there. It was going to take us FOREVER to complete it and then taping, mudding and sanding....AAWWGH! NOW, WE DON'T HAVE TO DO IT. The water ruined the remaining part of the ceiling and so the insurance is replacing it. Because Andrew has asthma, we were going to have to pay to have the duct redone, b/c it was installed wrong and it was filthy. It is now being replaced by insurance. Our air unit is a 15 year unit and it was 11 years old, so its lifespan is almost up. B/c there was water damage to the heating unit, and new current heating units don't match the code of our old air unit, it also has to be replaced. God has been so good to have all these things replaced, and not at our expense. We could have never paid for all of this on our own. Now, we just need God do hail damage to our roof, cause it needs replacing. :)
Blessing #2:
Being that we haven't sold our old house, we are now paying two mortgages - OUCH! Since we have to remain in our old house until the new house is completed, the insurance is paying for our mortgage.
Blessing #3:
This blessing is so materialistic, but I had to share it. When the last owners moved out, they called and asked if we wanted them to leave their 52 inch projection TV. We said that that would be fine. After we looked at it, we decided that it was too big and that we would sell it. It happened to be the only thing in the basement when the flood happened. It is also being replaced, but since they don't make 52 in. proj. tv's anymore, it is being replaced with a 52 in plasma LCD . We couldn't have ever in a millions years, bought one of these. We figured it would be years before we could even get a 26 in. one. Can you believe it! We have decided that we are only going to get a 40 or 46 in. We don't want to look like we are too rich. :)
Blessing $4:
I told Tom just yesterday that I would love to have a mantel in my living room for decorative reasons. A few years back, we had looked for a mantel, but they were too expensive or down right ugly so we stopped looking. I went out yardsaleing today and guess what...at my first yard sale, there was a mantel. Can you believe that he only wanted $50 for it. What a bargain, but those of you who know me well, know that I don't settle for the asking price, so I asked him for his bottom dollar price. He told me to make an offer. Well, in my mind, I wanted to say $25, but even I knew that was insane. I just couldn't say it out loud. The next thing I heard was the man saying, "Why don't we meet in the middle. How about $25?" SOLD! :)
How could I not share all these blessings with someone? I do want to praise His name for giving me the unexpected and the undeserved blessings that He gives me each day. So many times, He gives me things without my asking for them. Many times, they are just the fleshly desires of my heart - nothing spiritual. He has answered many of my spiritual prayers lately as well.
I hope that you haven't fallen asleep by now. :) I promise the next post won't be this long.
7 comments:
Hey April! I love your pictures! I am new to this blogging stuff...but I am enjoying it! Check out mine: praiseprayerandpatience.blogspot.com - maybe you can help me out - I don't know how to add links to others blogs on my page! Any tips?? Oh, hope to see you in December - Chad and I will be there 27th - 3rd! - Kim Lynn Strickland
Oh April, I have sat and laughed out loud reading this! I am so happy for all of your blessings. I just love how the Lord gives us more than we could ask or think! Enjoy looking "rich"!!:)
Even though I already knew about it, I still enjoyed reading about it. :) Yep, treasures in darkness. Love it! God is good.
GOD IS GOOD! Guess your house didn't sell yet because God knew you'd need it! Enjoy the handfuls of purpose.
So glad to hear about all the blessings - so are we having a super bowl party at your house?:)
To anonymous:
sure, but you have to let me know who you are first. :)
april
So the waiting has been worth it! I enjoyed reading about all your blessings! Thank you for sharing! ~jlw
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