Finally Done with Some Projects

It has been a while since I've posted. We have been extremely busy as always. But, we have good news. The building/shed and the mailbox are finished!!! In fact, they have been finished for some time now! We finished both of these projects in the same weekend .... about 2 weeks ago. As you can see in the pictures, it has been a very hot summer and all of our grass is dead and gone. I think we'll be reseeding in the fall.

Here is the finished building. We are just going to stain the ramp but everything else is done. It is so wonderful! It holds all of our lawn equipment... both lawnmowers, rakes, tools,etc. We are excited to get the garage cleaned out and be able to park our cars in it!

The finished product! Good job E!

We also cleaned up the mailbox mess and rebuilt a new one. I think it looks great although it was very hard work. We were so ready to just be done with the whole affair that we set up lights outside and worked into the night. We only wanted to rent the wet brick saw for 1 day. But it's done! Plus, by doing it ourselves we were able to take the insurance money and apply it to our Dave Ramsey "Get out of debt plan" Woo hoo!!

The front...and some dead grass

The back


Me working hard... I'm hot, tired, and look like white trash :)


Erin working hard...He's hot and tired too

Busy Busy - More Later

Hey everyone! Sorry it has been so long since we've posted a blog. I promise we'll be back with a legitimate update soon. Next post we'll have updates, pictures, and the whole shebang! More later!

Bethany

Credit Cards and All

On Friday afternoon, I was studiously perusing my personal email, myspace account, and various other frequented blogs, while waiting patiently for the work week to end. As I was doing so, I noticed a new email pop into my work email account, but being that it was 4:48 on a Friday, I decided to ignore it. At 4:59, I checked my account (just to make sure) and found that it was actually an email from a girl I worked with about 2 years ago at CJ Advertising. It was titled "Did you lose your wallet this week?"

This peaked my interest. Valerie (ex-coworker: oh that sounds harsh) wrote to tell me that a man from a grocery store in Lavergne, TN found an old business card of mine in a wallet that had been dumped in their parking lot. He was calling to see if I had lost my wallet.

I immediately called the grocery store because I had in fact had my wallet taken (or I left it, one of the two) from a gas station in Smyrna. The man verified that all of my credit cards, gift cards, forms of ID, check book, and receipts were still there. I was so excited that it was found because it is a really nice leather wallet, and I would hate to have lost it permanently. Plus, now I don't have to stand in line for hours and take a day off work just to get a new ID. God is good! :)

When I went to pick it up that evening, I couldn't help but laugh. It was a pretty disgusting, trashy little supermarket. It was the type of grocery store that I wouldn't buy produce from, even if you offered me $$$$. After seeing the type of place that my wallet was dumped at, I think that the culprit was one of these 4 people:

Almost Done

E is almost done with the building. He has all the siding up now (even though the pic shows some missing siding at the peak...taken earlier).

He is now working on the door. Phew...he'll be glad to get this over with. Its been over 100 degrees every day for the past two weeks. He's hot...of course I think so...hehe :)

Tires

All I'm gonna say is "two tires in two days". We had another tire blow on the interstate today. We, once again, are thankful for the warranty.

The Adventures of Unlucky Bethany

It's official. I am the most unlucky person ever to grace God's green earth. Now, I know as a Christian that I am not supposed to believe in luck. I know that I am supposed to view all of this as an honor that God has deemed me hardy enough to handle all sorts of things with HIM at the helm. (this is true after all). I have also decided to view it as unadulterated comedy. I am also starting to view it as a major money making opportunity. For years, my friend Lindsey has told me to write a book of all the random things that happen to me. Like the time I got stuck in the tanning bed buck naked and had to have the worker girl cut my hair out of the hinges. Or how about the time the Arby's drive thru girl told me she was "Gonna Take My @#% Out! Most embarrassing was the opening number at Miss Tennessee where during my dance my halter top fell down exposing my skin colored Nu Bra on stage for all to see! hahahaha....

Anyway, this week has been another one of those unlucky weeks, or as Sarah would say, a "Bethany Moment" week.
1.) I left my wallet on the back of my car while filling up at the gas station. It was either stolen or I drove off with it still there. Not sure which.
2.) I realized that the Target gift card and Bed Bath and Beyond gift card from the wedding was in my wallet.
3.) Erin accidentally left $20 in cash at the Walmart self checkout register and realized it no more than 2 minutes later. He called the store where the receptionist put him in a never-ending phone loop so she could go take his $20 (nothing like innocent til proven guilty huh!)
4.) I decided to take a Starbucks break at work but went out to find a very very flat tire. Not to mention they were brand new tires.

But, at the end of it all, God has been so wonderful in blessing us despite our stupidity. I was able to get the balance of both gift cards reissued to the tune of about $500. The folks at Bed Bath and Beyond were amazing and went the extra mile to track down the gift card number for me. Also, we had a warranty on the tires and I paid $2.78 for a brand new tire today. GOD IS GOOD!!!

Maybe one day I'll write a book document all these moments for people to laugh at and for me to make back the money I have spent on all my unlucky or stupid moments!

exCELLent

I finally got a new cell phone! I have had this phone for almost 2 years and I was starting to get a little bored with it. But, my "new every two" with Verizon finally came up and this is the sweet free new phone I got:

But, family and friends, I am having to cut back on the amount of minutes I use. So even though I have this great new phone, I may not be able to call ya much!

I think Erin is a little jealous of my sweet phone even though for a while he had the newest sweetest phone. NOT ANYMORE... MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA :)

I LOVE BEING AN AUNT!

I check Travis and Reba's blog everyday. It is so much fun to see how Zion is growing. I just love her to death. Isn't she so cute? She is already walking and talking at just 9 months. Check out Trav and Reba's blog to see.

One on the way!

We were so excited to find out last night that Shawn and Jill are going to have a baby!!! We are so excited about this. I get to be an aunt again!!! Wow, this aunt thing sure is fun :)

We are just praying that the pregnancy goes smoothly for Jill. You know she will be such a cute pregnant lady!

Continued Progress

The roof is on now and the OSB walls are up. Erin is hoping to finish the rest of it this weekend. It even has a nice window. My husband is so good at everything. I mean...HELLO!! He is an incredible pianist/musician. He is a good dancer. He is a huge technology geek (in a good way). He is a seasoned business professional. He maintains and fixes all the cars himself. He is a black belt in TaeKwondo. And, thanks to the teachings of his dad from an early age, he is incredibly handy. If I were going to build my own shop/building (don't laugh!), I would make a floor, 4 walls, and a roof...right? Who knew you had to have air vent caps at the top of the roof? Or that you even had to plan how air will circulate through a building? Or that there would be so many steps to making those 4 walls, floor, and roof? Anyway, I'm very proud of my superman husband :)

Mailbox to Rubble

Erin built our mailbox himself. It is a beautiful big brick mailbox. It was built on top of a 6 inch thick slab of concrete burried just under the grass. It had a cinder block with poured cement center and had a brick exterior. It was 5 feet tall and about 3 feet wide. As you can see from the picture above, it was a sturdy little thing.

Well, this is what our mailbox looks like now....

Apparently a drunk driver hit our mailbox last night. Erin got up this morning to head to church early since he was playing piano this week. He walked outside and found this mess. We have no idea how the car that hit it was able to drive away. The thing had a concrete center! We can't believe we didn't hear it but we are both very sound sleepers. We are just thankful that Home Owners is going to cover it. It is about a $2000 mailbox if you have a stone mason build it.

The Building

Erin has decided that we have too much stuff and too little room. Erin just built a new master closet to fit my clothes. In fact, we have a list of building projects slated to get done. Erin first has to build a shop/storage building in the backyard so that we can move all of his garden and lawn equipment out of the garage. Once everything gets moved out of the garage, we can:

• Have a Garage Sale
• Begin Building the Bonus Room Addition so that we can have enough space for our stuff
  
• MAYBE park our cars in there!! :)

As you can see it is very important that this building gets done. Erin is doing a great job! It is not finished yet but will be soon. Here are the pictures so far.

Building the Foundation


Beginning of Wall Framing


The Walls are up!

Joists are Done!

I am so blessed in so many ways for the husband I have. It is nice that he is so handy! More pics to come.

Let's Get Rich...Slowly

Well Dave Ramsey is over. I'm thankful because I'm exhausted but bummed because the conference was so good! Erin got home last Sunday night and attended the conference every night with me this week. This week was about building wealth that lasts a lifetime. It was really motivating. Unfortunately we did not win the cruise drawing for the people that attended every night of the conference even though we were there ever night. Bummer.

But Dave Ramsey Said....

We love Dave Ramsey!! We've started the Dave Ramsey plan/budget already. We are doing the Total Money Makeover and are paying off ALL of our debt (including student loans...everything!). We are really pumped about it. Which is why we were so excited when given the opportunity to attend a taping of Financial Peace University taught live by Dave Ramsey for 9 nights in a row. Dave Ramsey decided to update his DVD's of FPU and we were given the opportunity to be part of the live studio audience for free. Erin couldn't go to the first week because he's been out of town but I have been every night and it has been awesome! This week he talked about getting out of debt. I am so ready to cut back the budget and Live Like No One Else so that later I can Live Like No One Else. Woohoo!

Exit Husband, Enter Guard-dog

Erin is out of town this entire week in South Carolina. He is there on business heading up the technology and internet cafe portion of a several thousand person event. I am a very independent person and I enjoy being by myself to some extent, however, I will miss his company a lot. Apparently, our friends Brittany and Scott didn't want me to be alone in the house all week so they decided to go on an impromptu vacation and leave their Rottweiler/Mix dog with me. His name is Turner. To be honest, I was not looking forward to this at all. I am supposed to go attend a Dave Ramsey Conference every night for the next two weeks and just didn't feel like caring for anyone or anything but myself. But, I've only had Turner for 2 nights now and already we have bonded. He is such a sweet dog and his disposition is so friendly. I'm really glad I have him here especially since this is the first time I've stayed alone here since the motorcycle was stolen. We're going to have a fun week.

New Marriage New Job

Its been a few months since I've changed jobs so I figure its time for a new one :) hehe. Actually, Erin finally suggested that I quit my horrible job at Akzo Nobel the DAY BEFORE THE WEDDING! Fortunately, I was able to get another job working for Staff Management at Dell. We manage on-site workforces. I am a trainer and I teach classes all day. It is a very fun, laid-back job. It is the perfect job for me while I am adapting to a new lifestyle and to stay for a little while and grow professionally. I am really thankful for it. Plus, my boss is Rick Williamson...how fun!

The only negative side to my job? For some reason, I have become very very very very very photogenically challenged. I have to have several badges while I'm at the Dell facilities and they are terrible. One of them is the worst picture I have ever taken. Take a look.

Jamaica Mon

We are very relaxed and probably 5 lbs heavier because we just spent June 8 - 17 in Jamaica and Ft. Lauderdale. We stopped in Florida for 1 day on the way back and it was fun to hang out with Travis, Reba, and Zion and to see their beautiful home.

Erin and I had such a wonderful time at Sandals Whitehouse, Jamaica. What an awesome honeymoon.

On our balcony with a great beach view


The Zip-Line Jungle Hike: we zip-across the Jungle more than 500 feet in the air


At Rick's Cafe: With our friends Jesse and Jenn from P'burgh!

Passports and other such things :)

You may ask what I'm doing writing a blog just a few days after our wedding. Well, Erin meticulously and thoughtfully planned our honeymoon to Jamaica. He applied for his passport 15 weeks in advance. They promised 10 weeks max. Two weeks before the wedding we really started to get worried. So, we called the passport office and they assured us it would be expedited to us. One week before the wedding we got really worried and got the state senator involved. Unfortunately, no one was able to get us our passport. They thought it may come the day of the wedding but it did not :( So, here we are spending our honeymoon at the Smyrna pool! haha.

On Monday, Erin and I went back to work. It was hard to do but we knew we should save our vacation for when our passports got here. Erin was so upset about the whole passport issue and about the fact that the airlines and hotels charged us close to $1000 to change our reservations that he wrote all of the major news stations and papers about our ordeal. They were very interested in our story and came to the house and did an interview!! We were the 10 o'clock news story on 2 major Nashville networks. And what do you know? Our passport came the very next day, airfreighted and couriered to us at 10 p.m. !

The only bad thing about having news stations unexpedtedly come to your house to film 2 days after the wedding is that their is junk EVERYWHERE!!! I still hadn't finished unpacking from moving in and our parents had dropped all the wedding stuff off at our house. It was a disaster zone!

So, WE ARE GOING TO JAMAICA!!!!!!!!

Wedding Thanks

Well folks, we did it! We're married.

Our big day went off without a hitch, thanks to all the friends and family that worked their tail off to make it happen. We want to thank so many people: Rick and Kelly Williamson who did all of the invitations, programs, thank you notes, and videography. Ben Rigsby and Sarah Boster who did our photography. Jennie Ross, our wedding coordinator. Michael Smith, the minister. Susan, the pianist. Brittany, the florist and other wedding planner :) All of our bridesmaids and of course our wonderful family: Mom and Dad Schenk, Shawn, Jill, Travis, Reba, Zion, Jordan, Aunt Susan, Uncle Brent, Shari, Tom and Di, Grandma and Grandpa, Grandma Eash, Mom and Dad McAtee, and Jennifer. We love you all and appreciate everything SOOO much! :)

Shower, after Shower, after Shower

I've had lots of showers lately. It has been so much fun. I have such great friends and family. Thank you, everyone, for all that you have done to help E and I prepare for the wedding and for your generosity up to now. We love you.

Shower thrown by Andrea Metcalf:


Cheesy Games :)


The Decor


Brittany and I accidentally wore the same skirt :o

Shower held by Lisa Jones and Caroline DeLoache:


The Gals - Lisa, Caro, and Me

Shower held by Brittany Dickson, Shari Smedley, bridesmaids:


The Spread and Hot Pink Wedding Cake


I like cookbooks


Sniffing my new rug...not sure why :)


My Awesome Friends!

Lingerie Shower/Get together thrown by Brittany Dickson and Lindsey Tapper:


Erin Pabst, Brittany Dickson, Lindsey Tapper, and ME!


One..Two...Three...Pageant Pose!