Bessies’s skirt..

Hey Kimba…it’s been a while since I’ve posted…and this project is the beginning of building Bessie’s skirt…and try to lower our energy usage/bills…

My dad called his friend and his friend said, “Come on!”

So we called our good friends and asked if we could borrow their flatbed trailer…I know, I know…we’re mooches…

They said, “Come on!”

So we drove to their house off Route 66, a beautiful ranch in the country…and while my husband hitched up the trailer I went inside and snuggled their newest baby…he is the cuddliest, happiest, cutest little guy you would ever want to see…they call him Baby Mac…and it fits!

After getting in some babytime…we were offered the use of their 2nd oldest son…he is a lot of fun to be around and he is a hard worker! Again…I think we should win some kind of award for our “moochiness” like…THE GREATEST MOOCHERS IN MOOCHIDOM!

(mooched from http://trophiesandawards.wordpress.com/2008/12/09/tough-turf-long-live-the-champ/)

We drove north of Edmond…somewhere between Waterloo Rd, I kid you not, and Danforth…we picked up my dad who pointed us back to Waterloo and to this guy’s place….

He has piles and piles of skirting freezer innards and just ripe for the picking…he pointed to several piles…explained the benefits of the different kinds, depending on what we wanted to do with it…and said to have at it!

We said how much would you like for it?  He said, “It’s for-eeee!” 

We said Come On? 

He said…”No, really, I should be paying you for hauling it away, it’s just my scraps.”  Well…one man’s scraps is another man’s propane bill going lower!

(disclaimer…he has done this and other’s have done this and they say it makes a world of difference on the warmth of the floors..Yay!)

We donned work gloves and Mr. I’ll~try~almost~anything~once started circumnavigating the piles…calculating in his head how he could place the most on the 18′ flatbed in one trip…and feel quasi~safe about it…

he mused…

(corner pieces…corner pieces…how cool is that!)

he mulled…(the borrowed son did too!)

we loaded…and tied down…

I froze…

I retreated to the warmth of the truck once we were done..

see…look at my red, cold hands…

     

icebergs…

(again…mooched from http://outdoorphotographermag.com/lowepro/landscape_scenic_gallery.asp?start=176)

toes are a little numb too!

On the way home, we stop at

  

and go in and eat the best burgers and fries in Oklahoma…

(yep, you guessed it, mooched again…from http://www.rwc.uc.edu/koehler/rt66icons.html)

we then drive on home and start laying them around Bessie…

1. to see if we have enough
2. to at least get a little protection from the wind while Mr. I~will~try~almost~anything~once figures out how he wants to install them

Wow…that looks…that looks…well…it leaves me kind of speechless…

But just wait…it will look mah-velous when the Mister gets through with it!  If we had purchased some insulated skirting from mobile home sites  it would have cost 2400.00 to start with, not including the stuff to install them with…also, they are only 1-2″ thick, where this stuff is 4 inches!

Come on!

Hey…wait a minute….in the comments…if you’re man enough admit how much your energy bill was for last month…I don’t think anyone could beat us!  Ours was close to 600 with electric and propane…so come on…’fess up…and say which part of the country you are from…I’m just curious here!

propane bills…

If there is anyone out there that knows the secret to making a mobile home more energy efficient would you please leave all kinds of helpful advice in my comments section…

(nature.com)

my dad knows a place where a man makes freezers for convenience stores, and he lets you have the scraps…4″ insulated walls…we are thinking of getting some of this material and building a new skirt for Bessie…

(taken from http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2007/04/twirly_skirt_tutorial.html)

Not that kind of skirt…this kind:

(taken from mobilehomeadvantage.com)

So come on please help me out here!

“The heartfelt counsel of a friend is as sweet as perfume and incense.”

Proverbs 27:9

Bessie’s renaming is coming soon…

Me and Mr. Thankful are prayin’  about how we want to go about runnin’ this here contest…so put on yer thinkin’ caps and hold on to yer horses…

thank ye…

sinking in…

I must admit that it is still all sinking in…

I am a self-proclaimed muller…I mull funks, I mull joys, I mull homeschooling decisions, I mull relationship problems, I mull…I am a muller…

Main Entry: ¹mull

Pronunciation: \ˈməl\

Function: verb

Etymology: Middle English, from mul, mol dust, probably from Middle Dutch; akin to Old English melu meal — more at meal

Date: 15th century

transitive verb 1 : to grind or mix thoroughly : pulverize
2 : to consider at length : ponder —often used with overintransitive verb : meditate, ponder

And it just follows that I would be stuck mulling what the Lord has done over this last year…I am still in shock and I am still sitting in amazement…

He brought us from this:

= large 30 year note

(we got to watch her be built, this was in 2007)

to this:

=HUD property paid in full

He delivered us from this:

(photo taken from http://www.thedigeratilife.com/images/houseonmanbyitulip.jpg)

in the amount of $183,000.oo which over the course of the life of the loan, a 30 year fixed at 5.5%  would have amounted to:

Mortgage Repayment Summary
$1,039.05 Monthly Payment		$374,059.39 Total of 360 Payments
$191,059.39 Total Interest Paid		Dec, 2039 Pay-off Date

LOOK AT THAT!  I’m not trying to bum anyone out…but just look at that…almost 200,000 dollars in interest over that time period…that could have been used in other ways or perhaps even invested….that is what Dave Ramsey calls Opportunity Costs…the loss you take when you spend your money in a different way.

If you saved $5000.00 a year the compounding interest would give you this much at the age of 70…(the following information taken from http://personal.fidelity.com/products/retirement/getstart/ira-center.shtml.cvsr)

 

opportunity costs…(this is a cool story about a couple that made some radical changes in their lifestyle)

slow economy=lower wages

big house=no money for college for our children

and He brought us to this:

Well, the truth is we are mortgage and credit card free…we still have one vehicle to pay off!  That’s our next goal…

and it’s strange how weights lift that you didn’t realize were there before…a different freedom comes into the picture and perhaps even a different type of reliance upon our Lord…afterall…it is ALL His money…how does He want us to spend it?

And I notice we are part of a growing trend of Americans that are taking a look around the WORLD and noticing, truly noticing the disparity between the have’s and the have nothing’s and that perhaps it is time to do something about it…past time…

that perhaps as Christians we are called to help the poor…with wisdom…His wisdom.

American Standard Version
Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.  James 1:27

and I mull…continue to mull….

winter~escape…

Rosie and Annie dream about chasin’ the birds…

little cardinals flit around, tantalizing our pups…

Do they go to a  home like this little bird?

Speaking of birds, are these adorable, or what?  Her designs blow me away…

Her name is Ann Wood and she has the cutest  tutorials…I have to try the horses and boats…they are scrumptious…

but the snow keeps fallin’ and its Narnia outside…

you don’t need a wardrobe to step into this white world…

girl and dog admire the warmth of the fire…

I enjoy lunch, homemade cheesy potato soup, goat cheese on crackers and one of James Herriot’s books…

mmmm-mmmm goat cheese…

good reads…

a cup of joe…

a comfy chair, with just right throw…

a toasty fire…

a white winterscape

Bessie’s all tucked in…doesn’t it become her?

Thank you, Lord.

WHEEEEEE!

“I love you, Lord; you are my strength.”

Psalm 18:1

Thank you for all your prayers!!!

Closing went through after 3-1/2 hours of working through a new HUD statement, the first being a 2009, which was the wrong one!

We felt like everyone was doing all they could to make the deal go through, but you never know…

then they handed me the check!

(image taken from google)

Then…I knew it was finished…the mortgage paid off!

(image from www.thedigeratilife.com)

The remaining balance after payoff was more than enough to pay off the small note we have on Bessie…(my dad and sister let us borrow the money against an account we have from Daisie’s trust).

All the improvements we have made on the property have been pay-as-you-go, cash only!

Mr. Mortgage-Free-By-His-Grace is wiring the money to pay it off today!!!

(image taken from www.townpages.co.uk)

Whoot!  Whoot!

Thank you, Lord!

After closing we arrived right on time for the Leeland concert to start.  He was here in Tulsa giving a free concert leading a free worship time…everyone was invited to bring canned goods for John 3:16, a local area food & housing mission to the poor and homeless…we gladly picked up canned items…

We met some friends at the concert worship time…it was wonderful….

a long day…a blessed day…a day to remember…

THANK…YOU….LORD!

“Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.”

Ephesians 3:20

And here…I must pause in the jubilation and think back to what has taken place, to recap:

• the Lord led us to attend a Dave Ramsey financial seminar at Brookside Baptist Church in Tulsa, Ok
• We start taking Ramsey’s baby steps to financial freedom, this felt like trying to turn the Titannic, shifting a weighty mass of metal with such a strong forward momentum…slow shifts in thinking, slow shifts in spending…and slowly…slowly…it turns…avoiding the iceberg
• Prairie Chick blogger/friend, shared about their property only costing approx. 55,ooo.oo (in Canada, I might add)
• I said to myself…that’s impossible….there’s no property that cheap around here…
• My dad finds a HUD property he encourages me to go look at, knowing we are getting more serious about the debt free business with the Lord
• we like the property
• by God’s grace we win the property for $45,030.00…this makes me smile…
• we have spent 5 months and around $6,000.00 in totally repairing the insides, with the whole family and quite a few friends jumping in to help
• after getting the property livable, we move out to Bessie…we love it….
• we ask our church family, Springs of Grace Bible Church, to pray and ask the Lord to bring a buyer in His perfect timing
• 2 weeks later, in December, the Lord brings a buyer…..in a recession…in the winter
• we are set to close January 21st….it happens!

 

Is anything to big for our God…is there anything?

No…and amen…no…there is nothing to big for Him!

closing time shifted….

from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

please keep praying…

We’re baaaa-aaack!

“Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.”

Ephesians 3:20

Hey there, ya’ll…greetings from the winter wonderland of Oklahoma!

Today our phone was turned on…and after a little fixing by Mr. Undaunted the interior phone lines work!  And….we….have….internet….AND….it’s faster than at the town house….hah,hah….I thought it was going to be so slow!

Later today…snicker snort..yep, it’s after midnight….we get to close on the town house…

hopefully at 10 a.m…..Lord willing…

I am so wound-up and excited that I can’t go to sleep…yet…smile…

So much has happened since our last post…

on the not-so-nice-side:

3 water leaks in the laundry room…the gasket on my washing machine, the drain hose on my freezer and the connection from the water into my washing machine within the wall…all at once mind you….no giggling, Pam!

a snow thaw that allowed me to get mired in over a foot of mud with my Sequoia, which up til now, i thought could handle anything…i was wrong!

 ( Hey, it survived a 13 hour trek to the wilds of salty Dauphin Island…what’s a little mud?)

On the bright side:

three leaks in the laundry room that were easily fixed, which also meant we decided to install a tile floor…seemed wiser since it is easily becoming our “mud” room as well…pics to come soon…I promise!

a stuck Sequoia in over  foot of mud that necessitated an urgent call to my good friend Julie, to find out how to build a dirt driveway that can withstand snow and rain in our fair state…

“Here’s what you do,” she said:  “Order a truck load of 3″ rock…let my hubby come over with his “toy” and move it around…

(sniff, sniff…my friends ROCK…literally this time…hah,hah)

…then after it has settled well, bring in some 1-1/2 ” rock and he will come spread it around…and then have them bring out some smaller stuff that fills in all the cracks!”

And that is exactly what we did…that day…did I mention that these friends ROCK!

Here he is in action:

Yay!!!!

Thank you, Julie…for helping to get me unstuck from my spiritual rut! 

Thank you, Stephen, driving on our driveway is now a SOLID experience!

Here’s the sweet allegory behind this experience…

Stay on the Rock and you won’t get stuck in the mud!

Christmas delights…

I know these are a little late, but technically we haven’t celebrated all our christmases yet…we still have one left to celebrate with some of our Edmond family!

Jacob slicin’ the air….

paper flakes from http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-3D-Paper-Snowflake

gifts for the females in my life…inspired by Him…

part of my mil’s collection of snowmen she passed on to me…

cards of love and thanks hung on joyful ribbons on the window…photos of dear families taped to the panes…

tree…gifts….

snowman to match “my little house”…btw, JR…I glued it!

sweet stories read by Mr. Undaunted to his people…

evidence of the blizzard that passed through…it….WAS….BEAUTIFUL!

and here…

part of the dining room:

more of the same…the throw on the chair is a wool blankie my grandmother gave me when I was a wee bairn…she lived in Australia then…one of the few things I have kept from childhood…

the hutch fits just right…

our schoolroom:

the blizzard left plenty of building materials for new family members…

snow…a good dog…hot chocolate…it doesn’t get much better than this…

Thank you, Lord!

We have a buyer…

Our latest great news is that our town house has a verbal offer and we are waiting to go sign the paperwork for the house!  The offer came in Thursday while I was out Christmas-ing!!!!  The offer will cover the cost of Bessie!

We are happy!

We believe they have received a good buy as well and I am happy for them!

We are loving living at Bessie and I will post after pictures as soon as I get all our pictures hung…all our boxes are unloaded and most everything has its home!

WHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you, Lord!  Only YOU could sell our home…in…..December!

Thank You, thank You, thank You!

Here is one before and after just to wet your taste for Bessie’s upcoming photos:

the little angel from the burn pile behind the shed…

before:

after:

Isn’t she cute?

I gave her to one of my oldest buddies in the whole wide wonderful world!  We spent Thursday together doing our Christmas shopping…I was behind…I wonder why?

Blessings and cheer!

Merry Christmas!