Too busy for words, or at least, for blogging!

Oh my - what a busy few days we've had!!! In preparation for selling the house, we've had guys in to do painting, replace a couple of appliances (oven and microwave oven) that were original from when the house was built in the mid 1980s, and replace a couple of light fixtures that are brass and not "current" looking. The guys who are working inside the house were coming close to finishing, so we knew that we needed to get the garage emptied, as they are going to re-seal the floor, and paint the ceiling and walls in there also.

So... our last week:

• Monday: doctor appointment in the morning, met with Jorge who owns the company (North Painting and Home Improvements) to go over what he would be doing, started working on the items in the garage, but got a call that they could use help at church, so headed down there to help move things into the new building.
• Tuesday: cats had vet appointment in the morning, then I had a dentist appointment for a painful tooth near midday. We got some work done on the garage in between these activities.
• Wednesday: Jorge had seen us working on the garage and Dwayne mentioned needing to get things from the attic. He said his guys could help us, so Wednesday morning, we met them over there and they helped us unload all the STUFF that was in the attic in about 1.5 hours. It would have taken us DAYS and we would have been so hurting from leaning over working up there. What a God-send! Wednesday afternoon, we headed back down to church to help move items that had to stay in place until Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) was finished using the space for their Wednesday morning meetings. Open house was to be held at church on Wednesday evening (we didn't go, we had seen the new space pretty well!!!).
• Thursday, Friday, Saturday: Work on getting stuff separated out between what would go into storage and what would be trashed or given away. We wanted to get the items packaged to go into storage here for the next couple of months, and then ultimately go into storage at my brother's farm in Virginia after the house sells and we head up that way. It might be in storage for years, so we want things well protected.
• Sunday: we were helping with outside greeting at church, and had planned a quiet afternoon. But... the weather prediction for Monday, when we were planning to get a truck and move the "keep" stuff to a storage place, was for very stormy weather... so... we checked and we could get the truck on Sunday afternoon and decided to get as much as we could done before the weather came in. Our neighbors Eddie and Elizabeth saw what we were doing and, unbelievably, spent several hours with us on the spur of the moment loading and then unloading the truck. Oh my goodness - we NEVER could have gotten it done without them!!!
• Monday (today): finish getting the things out of the garage. Some things that will be given away were moved into the Solarium so they would be out of the weather and out of the garage.

Even typing all that makes me tired! Here are some pictures...

Sunday a week ago - the sunrise was so beautiful when we got to church.

The view from the foyer into the living room - which was being prepared for painting. I need to do "after" photos now - everyone who has seen it has said they really like it - we do too, and I'm surprised! It is very bright and welcoming.

One of the things I was doing to prepare for items to go into storage was packaging framed art that we have so they will be protected until some "future" time when we might have walls to hang them on!

I was "building" boxes from other cardboard and lots and lots and LOTS of tape!

This Sunday morning, Grand Opening of the new building - this picture contains mostly the "original" building - sanctuary on the right, and lobby (though greatly expanded by the addition) to the left/center.

The lobby/atrium from inside. The part where the beam goes across and the columns are located is where the lobby used to end.

Looking down on folks enjoying the new tables in the lobby from the second floor balcony/overlook/study.

This is also from the second floor, looking down the hallway that leads to the atrium. The wall on the left side is the brick that used to be the outside of the building. The right side is new space.

I was greeting "up on the hill" - the place I used to greet before construction started (and all the sidewalks from these parking lots were not in use). The original building is to the right (sanctuary), and the part behind the large glass area (lobby/atrium), and then educational space that you can't really see (on the other side of the building). The new building is from the wall of glass all the way to the left. It is almost all children's and youth area. The former children's area is now just for preschool, and the area within the new space is for school-aged children, and then youth.

 Even though there are only 2-3 additional adult classrooms in the addition, there are a *lot* more adult classrooms available as the children were using space in the upstairs classroom space which is now all for adults.

Sunday was the first time that our whole church family was "on campus" since we first started leasing space at Ranchview High School 5 years ago. The youth and some adult classes had been meeting at the High School for that time, and then coming back to campus for the worship services.

You may be able to see Eddie riding on the back of the moving truck while Dwayne was turning it around in the driveway of the storage place. We decided it would be easier to unload facing the other way. Eddie also rode *inside* the back of the moving truck while Dwayne drove from the house to the storage place to make sure things didn't slip and slide around (we didn't secure things as much as we would for a longer distance move).

The empty garage! This is looking in through the 1-car door - the 2-car entry door is to the right.

 We are looking forward to having less busy days for the remainder of our time here in the DFW area!