Weekend Woudup and Weview March 12, 2018

The weekend was busy and very productive. My parents, my brother Steve and his wife Karen and Kelly Jo helped on the house project and totaled a bunch of hours between them all. We laughed and had a good time but a great deal of work was completed too.

Inside the house we worked on nail guns, put the finishing touches on some trim, scraped and cleaned the floors, installed bathroom vanity lights, designed and installed and accent wall in the bedroom and several things I have forgotten.

The septic system company started Friday afternoon on the curtain drain to the back of the property. This helps drain the natural ground water around the septic field so that the leach lines work properly. They came back Saturday but had an equipment problem early in the day. I am sure they will continue today.

Oh yeah, we also had a trip OR two to Acapulco!

Saturday we had a little warmth with the sunshine in the afternoon so we cleaned up quite a bit outside. We had been stacking stuff in the garage. Some of it needed to be carried to the barn and some of it needed to be burned.

Dad burned the cardboard and paper, Steve and Kelly Jo carried the stuff and cleaned the garage again.

Steve also helped me pick up all of the scrap from the siding install a few weeks ago. The workers did a pretty good job putting it all in stacks and we moved it behind the barn. We also moved the unused siding that is still in whole pieces. That was a big project and now it is all completed.

Dad and Steve both worked on the thermostat trying to run the furnace remotely from our phones. They now know what needs to be done.

Saturday ended with another trip to Acapulco. It really was a great day and we could not have done it without the help of our family.

Sunday morning we sang and preached for Pastor Kevin Allen at Calvary Pentecostal Lighthouse in Middletown. We love Bro. Kevin and his family and we always enjoy preaching for them. We hope to have a City Reach in their neighborhood in 2019 by God's grace.

Odie was not very happy that a thief tiptoed in and stole an hour of her sleep about 2:00 AM Sunday morning. No, she was not happy about that at all. However, she did get the upper hand. Sunday afternoon about 2:00 PM she took back her hour of lost sleep and then took another one too! Father time should not mess with Odie. She will get even, plus!

Sunday evening we loaded up and drove to West Harrison, Indiana to sing and preach for Pastor Wade Hicks. They wanted us to sing a little extra so we sang about 30 minutes and then I preached about 35 minutes. We had a good altar service but we had an even better prayer line. I believe that most of the congregation was very encouraged. I know that we were!

It was midnight before we arrived home but it was a day well spent with God's people and in God's presence. We are looking forward to a great day today. We are expecting special friends to arrive this afternoon to install the flooring in the house. I will have more on that later.

Thank you for reading today.

Davy

View Out The Front Window March 11, 2018

Our view has not changed this week since we are still at the Lazy OD ranch but there are several things on the ranch that have changed. I will show you two pictures that prove it.

The septic system install has begun.

Also, the accent wall in Odie's bedroom is complete  except for some finishing touches.

Here are the links to our posts from the last week. Please take a moment to check them out.

Odie's Saturday Evening Post

A Sketch of Our Week

I'm Swinging My Way

Vintage View Vednesday

So Great Salvation

Weekend Woundup and Weview

Thanks for stopping in today. I hope you have a great Sunday.

Davy

See You Soon Papaw Bill

Hey Friends,

This is Odie checking in from home. We had to come to Ohio this week unexpectedly but it is good to be here. I was excited to see the progress on the house that is being built for me to live in. Pictures are awesome but it is super exciting to see everything first hand.

Dad has told you the reason for this trip back to Ohio. We had to bid farewell to a saint of God. Bro. Bill Houston was an amazing man of God. His ministry touched countless people through the years. Bro. Bill and Sis. Darien influenced our family greatly. 

I can not fathom the heartache of Mamaw Darien and their family. Please keep them in your prayers. 

Bro. Bill always had a smile on his face. He loved to laugh and make others laugh. He was a lot of fun to be around. His number one goal was sharing the love of God and he did his job well. 

One of my many memories of Papaw Bill happened when I was four years old. It happened at campmeeting in Georgia. I remember feeling God move on me while the people were praying for my healing. It was one of the first times I remember realizing God was touching me. Papaw Bill was one of the ones praying for me and I tried walking to him that night. He was always my encourager and cheerleader. 

I will always be thankful for the impact that Bro. Bill had on my life spiritually. He encouraged me to keep believing and praying for my miracle. He reminded me to never give up. Many times he told me, "Do not say if it happens but say when it happens."

I had the privilege of knowing Bro. Bill Houston as, Papaw Bill. Papaw Bill and Mamaw Darien adopted me before they had grandchildren. We shared a special bond that I will forever cherish. 

Papaw loved to tell this story about me. I was 6 years old when his daughter Stephanie was expecting her first baby and she told me that I was no longer the #1 grandchild. Well, Papaw informed me that I would not lose my #1 status. So each time I had Stephanie’s attention and I would hold my finger up telling her that I was still #1. ☝🏻Papaw Bill got the biggest kick out of that. 😀

This all does not seem true that Papaw is gone. I heard preach and sing about Heaven so many times. He made you feel as if you were almost there. Last week He reached that wonderful place. For Papaw Bill there is no more dreaming about Heaven. To him it is now a reality. 

I have tried to write a fitting tribute to Papaw! All of my words just feel hollow. It was an honor to know him. Below is a note from my heart. 

Thank you for stopping by today. It is always good to have you visit with us. 

Odie

Papaw Bill, 

I can not believe we had to say goodbye to your earthly shell. I am still trying to accept the fact that you have left this world for Heaven. I am thankful that you will suffer no more. You fought the fight and now you have finished your race

I was blessed to have had you in my life and every day I find another way that you impacted me. Thank you for allowing me to be your #1 granddaughter. I will always love you. 

Heaven is sweeter with you there!  I plan to see you soon! I know you are enjoying Heaven and I am anticipating enjoying it with you. We will run a race on streets of Gold!

Love your☝🏻granddaughter

A Sketch of Our Week

It has been a busy week on the home front but that is the expected norm when we are home for a few days. We have people to see, places to go, food to eat and a house to build! I will try to post more pictures later from this week's progress on the house, but I have a few interesting pictures today.

I also have big news about the house. The septic system installation is scheduled to begin this morning and the flooring installation is supposed to take place next week. These are exciting times and that means the end of this process is getting closer!

We had a bona fide miracle Friday and Saturday concerning the finances for the house. We should have had the septic installed months ago but it is a pretty big ticket item so we spent money on other house areas. It needed to be put in NOW so I made the call not knowing how I would swing it.

Friday and Saturday we received all but $500 of the money from completely unexpected sources. Three offerings in less than 12 hours and one week later, the septic is going in! Wow!

I will give play by play on the rest of the week as we look at pictures  pictures.

Monday was Bro. Bill Houston's funeral and we sang a medley of a few of his songs. Here we are in the Dryden Rd. adult Sunday school room practicing before the service.

Monday evening we stopped at Acapulco for our first taste of their salsa in a few months! It was all delicious!

Thursday we had several bouts of heavy snow during the day. Thankfully, not much of accumulation.

Thursday Kelly Jo and I had another lunch visit to drink some salsa.

One of the house projects was painting the block walls and concrete ceiling in the closet/safe room. The paint is a special block filler paint. It is about as thick as gravy and messy to apply. It sure brightened the room

Kelly Jo and Odie spent one evening below Hillsboro with some of Kelly Jo's family. They were excited to see the completed home of Kelly's parents. I am anxious to see it too.

Odie snapped a few great pictures at my parent's house this week.

I mentioned yesterday that we sang and preached at Dodds Wednesday night. Thursday night we were blessed to hear our Pastor preach. All we had to do was sing a little and enjoy the Word of God! It was nice to be home.

Besides painting the safe room, we have also been working on a few other house things. Kelly Jo brushed on a coat of polyurethane inside some of the cabinets. All the sink bases and any other cabinets that could be vulnerable to a water leak should now be protected from water damage at least partially.

We had a 32" vanity in the second bathroom. It was built especially for the space as it was designed. The plumber missed the drain location by several inches and the vanity was only 10 inches from the center of the drain. We measured carefully and the commode would fit but the edge would only be 1" from the cabinet.

We purchased a 24" vanity and sink for a very reasonable price at Home Depot and installed it this week. It fits perfect and looks great but the quality is a lot less than the custom built vanity. We will find another use for the larger one.

We also cleaned the garage and we are in the process of cleaning/scraping the floors to get them ready for flooring next week. We have more projects we hope to complete today and tomorrow and we have a bunch of outside cleanup as well.

Hopefully I can post more pictures of all that next week. Thank you for dropping in to sit a spell today.

Davy