Too sore to move

It started snowing at around 2 am this morning; it is now 5:30 in the afternoon and it hasn't stopped - I guess there's about a foot of snow out there right now.  My brother John and his family stopped by for lunch on their way home from a ski trip... our first out of town guests!  Sure is nice to look out of the window at all that snow, and be in a nice, warm house.  This picture is the view outside of our basement door.


I am worn out!  We've been working almost non-stop for the past 9 days to get our house "in order", and we're almost there.  My nephew William Myers flew over from Birmingham, Alabama the day before we closed on the sale to help us with the renovations - and it's hard to believe what we've been able to accomplish in such a short time.  We've also had a bunch of guys from our church who gave a huge amount of time over three or four days to help us move, and one of them (who has experience in construction) told me that he's never seen anyone change so much on a home before they actually moved in - or right after they move in.  Just to give you an idea, in the past week we have:
1. Converted the laundry room into a new guest room
2. Built a new laundry room where the wet bar used to be
3. Carpeted the entire downstairs - a living room, and two bedrooms.
4. Removed the fake wood siding downstairs and replaced it with real aspen-wood paneling
5. Painted the kitchen, dining room, living room and Nicole's bedroom upstairs
6. Covered the red brick fireplace in the upstairs living room with new stone

All this probably doesn't seem like much unless you can see it for yourself - so here are some pictures: The picture to the right is how the bar and paneling used to look, and the picture below it is how it looks now.  The next picture is what the fireplace used to look like, and then how it looks now with the new stone facing. The last picture is how the basement looks with the new aspen paneling.  We are soooo grateful for the incredible church and friends God has given us since we moved here to Conifer.  It's hard to imagine what we felt like back in August as we were driving around this area, contemplating this move - and we didn't know a soul up here.  And now we're surrounded by friends who are willing to jump in and get their hands dirty (and their muscles tired) helping us to move into a new home.  God is so good to us.

I am working with my advisory board and some friends from church to create a new website for our Storm Guides organization, and we have some encouraging leads from a couple of very large churches who may be interested in receiving training in security.  The process of getting established and "legal" as a non-profit organization is slower and more involved than I imagined, but we're making progress.  I will complete my certification as a hostage negotiator by the end of next month, which will add another level of validity to my resume.  One step at a time... I just need patience to hang on until I'm able to start doing training and consulting on a full-time basis.  

The snow is still piling up outside, so I guess I'd better get into my ski suit and go plow the driveway one more time...