Nearly two years ago, Shawn and I decided we needed a bigger home here in Clarksville. After extensive searching and many rejected offers, we found a bank-owned fixer-upper that we fell in love with, and we knew we were supposed to be here. As usually happens with these things, this house has been WAY more work than we dreamed possible, but also highly educational. As our time in Clarksville comes to a close, and we prepare for our next big adventure, we are frantically trying to finish up our projects so that we can get our house on the market. I'd love to be able to show you before and after pictures, but, well, it'll be a few weeks. However, enough people have asked about the progress that I thought I'd share a few before and during pictures. Since this project is consuming so much of our time and energy, we'll probably have a whole series of posts over the next couple weeks, so everyone who never got a chance to visit us here can still see our house. (and we can brag a little bit about all we've done.) This is the "before" in some ways, it looks better in this picture, because the grass and trees are green, and it's not an obvious construction zone. What you can't see in this picture is the holes in the siding, the dilapidated and rotting windows, and the fact that the roof has no underlayment and therefore leaks... This is the most recent "during" picture-- new roof, new siding, new porch columns, new front windows, and a few other improvements. Sadly, it still looks like a construction zone, but we're making progress. This is Shawn in the attic on the side of the house ripping out the old wood ventilation and the last of the old siding (on this side), so he can keep going with the new siding (which you can see at the bottom of the wall) A close-up of Shawn in his eagle's nest...

Traditionally, Shawn is the Updater in Chief of our family blog, but we're going to break tradition a little bit, and I'm going to actually post. Several people have asked about my jewelry business, and specifically about my store here in Clarksville... My store is doing GREAT, and I couldn't be happier. I share my booth space with another jewelry designer named Pat Jones, who is awesome! We get along beautifully, and our work is different enough that we don't feel as though we're directly competing for customers (people typically either prefer her style or mine, and it's a pretty even split.) Several people have asked to see a picture of my booth, since they live too far away to ever ACTUALLY visit, so I'm posting a couple here. SINCE these pictures were taken, I've done a few things to improve the look/lighting-- there is now a matching sconce on the other side of the mirror, there is overhead track lighting that shines on the whole thing, lighting inside the curio cabinets, and the room screen has some fabric on it to make the pieces actually stand out. If I ever get new pictures taken, I'll post them.

Ethan is a very smart kid. He knows how to count and say his ABC's. We are so proud of him. He gets bored at home when Sarah is at school, so it will be good for him to start Pre-School. In March he will be starting a Pre-School which is twice a week. Pre-School has been so good for Sarah. She has learned so much and has so many friends. She talks about all her friends by name and has so many important social skills. We are hoping that Ethan has the same experience. Here is a video of Ethan saying the ABC's. In the video he was being a little shy, but still does a good job. All day long he will sing the ABC's over and over and over. It is the cutest thing in the world. For the most part, he is accurate. Enjoy the video.

So Sarah had her first Valentines Day at school. Her and Becca worked on her Valentines for her class mates for two evenings. Becca would write the name of the classmate that it was going to. Sarah wrote her own name on all twenty valentines. Towards the end, she wrote her own name so well. We are so proud of her. Here is a little video of her on the way out the door Friday morning to go to her party at school.

For Valentines Day, I gave Becca breakfast in bed with rose petals on the tray. I made the kids breakfast as well (just not as fancy). We then decided to go to the Rain Forest Cafe at the Opry Mills Mall. We wanted to go for lunch to beat the crowd. Beating the crowd didn't so much happen. We arrived sometime after 3pm. There was a three and a half hour wait. We told them we drove about an hour to get there. There just happened to be an empty table next to the bar that are not part of the reservations that they gave to us. We basically walked right in. The kids loved it. We were next to the rain. Ethan would wash his spoon between each bite. Becca and I thought the thunder storms inside the restaurant were fabulous. The kids had to cover their ears. It was quite entertaining. Below is a video that has nothing to do with what I just described. It was actually that morning. Sarah had her bag of Valentines from her classmates that of course included a bunch of candy. I had to film her green tongue. Ethan, of course, had to be in the video. I hope you enjoy.

After we ate dinner, we walked around the Opry Mills Mall. This mall is one great big circle. Rumer has it that the circle is about a mile, which is probably faily close because is takes a long time to walk all the way around. We had lots of fun. I hope you all enjoyed your Valentines day.