Finally, an update!

Wow! It has been a decent amount of time since we lasted posted anything. There are a few reasons for this. One, we sort of forgot that we had a blog and 2) we have been busy transitioning. At least that's our excuse! The wedding was beautiful. We couldn't have asked for a more gorgeous day. Everyone said they had a great time and it went by soooo fast! Now here we are, about to celebrate 4 months of marriage bliss ;-) We are so greatful to everyone who was able to make it out to celebrate with us. It was such an amazing day! Work on the house has slowed drastically since there isn't much left to do. Also Austin and Laura cleaned our pool and got everything ready for us as our wedding gift (Thanks guys!). We are looking forward to (Liz) parents coming out around March to visit and help get a few more things on the house finished. The transition to married life has been fairly smooth and it has been fun getting to know each other in a whole new way. Russell just had his 29th birthday on Thursday and we had fun celebrating with friends and family this past week. We also were able to attend Catalyst again this year and we had so much fun! his year's theme was "Tension is Good". Boy did we put that one to the test while on the trip. I (Liz) sort of got left behind due to some miscommunication but we all made it back safely. On the way home we all stopped at the International Farmer's Market and it was a really neat experience, albeit really cold! We had fun looking at some of the things that you could get there. Since we have had the wedding I have been getting bombarded with baby questions so just so we are clear Russ and I have decided to try and wait at least a year or two. God may have other plans but for now that is what we are going with. We just want some time to ourselves to learn how to be married and live with each other. God has been so faithful and we are excited to see what He has in store for us over the next few months and years. We look forward to sharing it with you!

June!

Whew it has been awhile! We have been quite the busy beavers! The house is taking shape and we are so happy with the way that it has turned out. We were so blessed that Daddy-o could come and help. Now that he has been returned safely home we have been blazing forward to get the house ready to move in after the wedding. Only 18 more days left until our big day!!! I (Liz) have been in Oregon a week now to finalize all of the preparations for the wedding and Russell leaves the 19 with David and Jon to make their way out as well. We are so excited to get to share this special day with our loved ones. Counting down the days til our big day! That's the update for now and we will try to write again soon!

Checking In...

I think we may be working Dad a little too hard! ---------------->

Whew hey everyone! We know it's been awhile but boy have we been busy! The house is getting so much closer to being done now :-) We have started the process this week of primer painting and texturing! Woohoo!! Wedding plans have been coming along as well. We were able to get the outfits for our flower girls and ring bearer (so cute!). Time is starting to fly by and now we are just trying to get the last minute details down as we only have 93 more days left until the wedding! Sorry that pictures have been slow getting posted. That is a project that we are trying to work on. It gets a little hard to get to as we are both working now and all of our free time goes to working on the house and wedding details. This summer will be nice once we get to slow down a bit. Thanks for everyone's help with everything!

P.S. Shout out to congratulate Austin on his new job! Good job!!!

Liz got a job!!!

HOORAY!!! I (Liz) got a job this week! I have been applying around since I got here and I finally got a call on Monday to go in for an interview on Tuesday. God is sooo amazing! He always provides exactly what we need :-) That's why they call Him Jehovah Jireh! I had orientation later in the afternoon on Tuesday and then Wednesday I worked a full shift to be trained and Friday I go in at (gulp!) 5:30am for a few hours to be trained on giving meds. It's a CNA on call position at an assisted living facility. They do 12 1/2 hour shifts 6:45am-7:15pm or 6:45pm to 7:15am. The job is going to work really well for us because it will only end up being a few days a week and that gives me plenty of free time to still work on the house! And the best part is that they are going to give me the whole month of June off for the wedding!!! God knew what He was doing! Even though it's an on call position they call often...I already am working a shift for one of the gals in a couple of weeks and they called me in tonight to work but I'm not finished with my training yet...Russell and I are both really excited and I feel like getting this job is really going to help me adapt even more to being here. Thank you all so much for all of your prayers!

P.S.
Things with the house are starting to pick up again. For the past two weeks my dad and I have traded places being sick but now that we are both feeling better we have been able to get more done. We have finished all of the plumbing and electrical issues and now we are finishing up the drywall patches. It's all down hill from here as my dad says! We are so excited to see all the progress and Russ and I can't wait until after the wedding when we can just move in and relax! And it will be fun to get to have everyone over to show it off! Thanks to everyone for their help and support we really appreciate all that has been done!

Valentine's Weekend

We hope everyone had a great Valentine's weekend! We took my (Liz) dad to the Olustee Festival and we all had a great time! Dad can't wait to come back next year ;-)...We got to try funnel cakes and elephant ears and kettle corn. It was fun to see all the different booths and the people in their costumes. Just beware of taking pictures of the "signal" tent (booth) at the battle field because that guy will talk your ear off!!!! Russell took us all out to Fu King (West Coast peeps this is a REAL restaurant I swear!) and then to TCBY where poor dad dropped his ice cream on the sidewalk :-( All in all this weekend was very eventful and fun and it was a nice break from working on the house. We have gotten a good deal accomplished and now it's back to work!

Website!

Our wedding website is up and running now thanks to Russell's brother and sister in law Austin and Laura! Hooray! There were some issues going on but we are sooo happy that they were able to do it for us :-)... You should check it out when you get a chance! www.ourweddinginoregon.com Thanks so much guys!

The house is still moving right along and I will try to get some updated photos posted in the next few days!

A "Stinky" Situation

The house remodel is still in full swing and since Liz's Dad has gotten here lots has been done! We have been very fortunate to have someone who knows what they are doing. This past week Mr. Kevin and Liz have finished drywalling the 1/2 bath and laundry room and now we are working on re-wiring downstairs to make things more practical, useful, and SAFE! The upstairs bathroom toilet has been giving us problems from the get-go and it has had a consistent "run". So after buying kit after kit to fix it we finally took it down to a plumbing store where we were informed that our "custom color" toilet from 1965 would take a special ordered part to fix that would end up costing more than the amount to order another "custom colored" toilet...Needless to say we went to Lowe's and just bought a standard white new toilet :-) aahhh yes, it's the little things in life that begin to make you happy! I (Russ) had fun taking out the old and putting in the new this morning. And now we look like total rednecks with a toilet on our front curb waiting to be picked up from the special trash pick-up man. We are so excited that the house is coming along and we can't wait to move in! On a side note...we also found three turtles out back in the pool this morning...don't worry though...that's on the list too!

**Gma update**

Grandma Hart had her surgery yesterday and we are so thankful to all of you who were praying for her! She did really well and has been able to come off all the machines they had her on at first. She will spend tonight in the CCU and then they are going to transfer her to her own room tomorrow after making sure that everything is still going smoothly with her. She has to stay at least a week or so in the hospital but the family in Oregon is taking turns staying with her. PTL!!!!

House Work

My (Liz) Dad got here Tuesday safe and sound! We are very excited and blessed to have him here to help out with the house. There is lots of work to do and we are so happy that we have someone who knows what they are doing so that we have confidence in living in our new home! Previous owners had done their own "upgrades" to the house and now we are trying to fix them to make them a)legal and b)safe. We have already completely torn out the downstairs bathroom and it already looks tons better! We have to pix some shoddy plumbing issues and redo the walls but it was definitely fun to tear everything apart! We are so excited to see all of the transformations in the house because it has so much potential. My Dad is really enjoying helping us and showing what needs to be done and just dreaming up things to do in the future and how to make things more accessible. We will be keeping you posted with pictures and updates I'm sure so be watching out for them!

Wedding Woes/Frustrations

As most of you know we are both in Florida now but we are still having our wedding in Oregon. This has been a bit of a challenge along the way to make it workable for as many people as possible to be able to attend. Having Liz work on wedding details while being on the opposite side of the country has been a little crazy. Most everything has been planned out which has made it a little easier but there have still been a few snags here and there. We had originally found the perfect rental space for all of the wedding party and their spouses on Russell's side. Yesterday when Liz called to check up on when they wanted us to pay them we found out that they shorted us our weekend days to give to someone else. Big let down and now we are stuck looking for another place with only 5 months to go. We are hoping that this is a blessing in disguise as that rental was fairly far out of the way. God knows what He is doing but sometimes the things people do here on earth can be quite frustrating! Everything else is a go though and we still have each other. 148 more days until we are married and we are super excited. We can't wait to share that day with our friends and family from all over! We can't say for sure if we ever thought wedding planning would be quite this stressful but we are definitely learning along the way and it has been good to learn how do deal with life's little surprises together.

The Beginning

Well as we only have 5 more months until the wedding we decided to start a blog. Being as how we have family on both coasts we figured it would be a good way for people to see what is happening with us. We got engaged in June 2009 when Russell flew out to Oregon and we have been having so much fun planning for the wedding in June 2010. God saw fit to bless us with our first home (in Florida) and we closed back in Septmember/October but boy has it been a whirlwind since then. It was a forclosure and was sold "as-is" but we got an amazing deal on it. Needless to say we have pretty much been working on it since. It's a split level 4 bedroom 2 1/2 bathroom house with a semi-detached mother-in-law suite that adds another bedroom and bathroom. There is a small pool out back and it's in a great neighborhood. Apparently Russell thought we would need the extra room for all the visitors we would be getting haha! It has already changed so much just in the last few months with what work we have been able to do on it with Russell working full-time and me being in Oregon. Being on opposite coasts was starting to take it's toll so we decided that I (Liz) should move out to Florida early. So I have been here since about mid-December staying with Russell's parents who were nice enough to open their home to me :-) My Dad is going to be coming to visit and help us get some more work done at the house (I pick him up in the morning) and we are so excited to have him here! We are very thankful that he will be able to help us get the house move in ready so that it will be ready for us to move into after the wedding. Having the wedding in Oregon and planning partially from Florida has been interesting but we are super blessed to have a great team including Liz's good friend Nikki. So with 5 months to go, wedding plans to make, jobs to do, and a house to prepare we will certainly be busy! We will try our best to keep you all updated :-) If you are interested we have a website for the wedding and that address is www.ourweddinginoregon.com you can also find us both on facebook! We want to start putting up pictures soon of the house project process so we be looking for updates on that as well. We love you all and God bless!