Christmas Eve and Day

Tamara Jones is having a WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS in her new house. Sitting by the fire, watching Christmas movies with my family. My kids baked a cake and cookies, we hung our new stockings (thanks Mrs. V) on our mantel beside our little tree and are waiting for our Lord's birthday!

December 24, 2009 at 7:43pm

Tamara Jones is thanking God for His Son Jesus, who was brought into this world to die for me. Happy Birthday Jesus and Merry Christmas to all my friends and family! Spent the day

Allowed the girls to wake us up an hour earlier this year (7am) to open presents. They were so excited. It was nice to see them get something after all that they have been through. Went to mama's for lunch and presents there. All in all a great Christmas!

Busy, Busy December Part 5

MOVING DAY, MOVING DAY

Tamara Jones is loving my Lord, my life, my family, my almost finished new house, my sweet new bed, ahhhh the joy of having a real bed and a real house! Oh, never underestimate the power of a new jacuzzi tub! More moving in today!

December 19, 2009 at 7:58a

Tamara Jones is loving my Lord, my life, my family, my almost finished new house, my sweet new bed, ahhhh the joy of having a real bed and a real house! Oh, never underestimate the power of a new jacuzzi tub! More moving in today! (repost from Saturday, same feelings today!)

December 21, 2009 at 11:27am

Tamara Jones is having a WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS in her new house. Sitting by the fire, watching Christmas movies with my family. My kids baked a cake and cookies, we hung our new stockings (thanks Mrs. V) on our mantel beside our little tree and are waiting for our Lord's birthday!

December 24, 2009 at 7:43pm

December 18-24, 2009

Busy, Busy December Part 4

Face book quotes....

Tamara Jones is wondering...Lord, I have tried to keep a patient and good attitude through this trial. But today I am wondering, is this just my life, or does others experience things like this?

This is my appliances being delivered, but the truck went off into the ditch beside my driveway. Two days from moving in, and I am experiencing the everything that can go wrong will go wrong phase. Lord, please be with me, keep my spirits up. PLEASE!

December 15, 2009 12:01pm

Tamara Jones is on my computer listening to my baby snoring in her room, which is about 3 feet from me. Part of me thinks I will miss the togetherness my family has shared in the box. Well, maybe just a tiny bit, not too much!

December 15, 2009 at 10:21pm

Tamara Jones is asking you to join her in prayer...PLEASE, oh PLEASE, Lord do NOT let it snow or ice tomorrow. My furniture is coming tomorrow and we only have limited power/water/gas in the box. Please, Please, Please, no precipitation.

December 17, 2009 at 7:07am

Tamara Jones Moving Day, Moving Day, I am moving into my new house today, moving day, moving day, the snow will not keep me away! Ha, we are moving into an unfinished house, and I am thankful! The men will be working around us next week, but they are happy for us that we can move in before Christmas!

December 18, 2009 at 8:59am

Tamara Jones

Snow and all, we were able to get all three bedrooms put together with furniture. The living room delivery truck is stuck in Rutherfordton, the delivery man had to spend the night at the firehouse. Moved about 1/2 of the stuff from the box to the house, until it got too COLD to go back outside. What a great life I lead thanks all to Him.

December 19, 2009 at 8:01am

So the week of the 18th came, the day our living room and bedroom furniture was coming. The men and women had stayed late on Thursday to try to finish, but could not do it. They were coming back on the 18th, but THE SNOW BEAT THEM HERE. We had two men come in and try to do some final clean up so we could move in. Jay and I picked up the girls from school around 11am and we came home to the bedroom furniture being delivered, lovely! Those two men worked all day while the snow poured down and finished putting our beds together so we could sleep our first night in the new house.. What a great group of men! Then around 7pm we found out that the living room furniture was stuck in the snow and would try to get to the house on Saturday.

December 15-18th, 2009

Busy, Busy December Part 3

Final inspection was set for December 14th......

Face book quotes....

Tamara Jones is asking for prayer! My inspection is set for Monday. If all mechanical passes inspection, we could have our CO (Certificate of Occupancy) on Monday. The house will not be done, but we can start moving stuff in and prepare to live there within the next week. PRAISE GOD, this is almost over and I thank HIM for all of the blessings He has shown us!

December 11, 2009 at 4:13p

Tamara Jones God is so Good, God is so Good, God is so Good, He's so Good To ME!!! Inspection passed! We are moving in by Friday! PRAISE THE LORD, PRAISE THE LORD, PRAISE THE LORD!

When we passed inspection, I cried and Jay hugged the inspector. It was a true look at all of the emotions that Jay had bottled up for the past five months.

First week of December through December 14!

Busy, Busy December Part 2

Face book quotes....

Tamara Jones is praying that I do not yell today. The flooring people are here and they did not order what we signed for, they brought a cheaper grade hardwood and I am so upset. Waiting for a return call to see how they plan on fixing it so I can sleep in my house Christmas Eve!December 1, 2009 at 11:38am

Tamara Jones

The flooring people have to order the correct hardwood and it will not be in until Monday or Tuesday so the contractor is trying to rearrange the other subs to come on different days. My cabinet man says he is coming to do the other cabinets tomorrow. We will see...

December 2, 2009 at 9:01pm

Tamara Jones is thankful that the flooring company chose to order the correct hardwood flooring although it will be another week before it is here and installed. ARRG, but the vinyl is down in the house, and I love it, I think it is beautiful! Things are still moving forward, hoping to have the rest of the kitchen cabinets tomorrow. December 2, 2009 at 9:13p

Tamara Jones All I want for Christmas is my house to be done, my house to be done, my house to be done. All I want for Christmas is my house to be done, so I can have a Merry Christmas!

Tamara got a new Red Theme Tree for their profile in My Christmas Tree.

December 2, 2009 at 9:23pm

The first couple of weeks of December were extremely busy. Floors were installed, painting was started, doors were installed inside, etc. The plumbers, heating and air, and electricians had to finish and get final inspection. Finishing touches were coming together, but it still seemed so far away. We were at Lowe's picking out things we had forgot to pick out, or things we had not been told to pick out and it felt like we lived at Lowe's a lot.

Emily's Room.Meredith's Room.

Kitchen cabinets, not done!

Busy, Busy December

Wow, I took a minute and looked at my blog today and realized that it has been FOREVER since I have blogged. So I will try to put the past month out here for all to see, short version...

We kept our tradition of buying a live tree for Christmas the week of Thanksgiving. We went that weekend and paid $15 for a three foot tree and then had Lowe's cut a 1 1/2 off of it. We took it to the box and had to cut another 6-8 inches off it to make it fit in our kitchen window. The four of us took to decorating it, like we always do, and it took about 3 minutes to have lights and decorations on it. We laughed and laughed, but inside, I was a little sad. Christmas is such a great time for me, I love the story of the birth of my Savior, and we usually go all out with decorating. However this year we limited ourselves to just a few decorations and were happy enough.






Last Week of November, 1st Week of December

A Voice of Thanksgiving

Psalm 26:7 that I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all thy wondrous works.

This Thursday is Thanksgiving, a day to reflect on things that we are thankful for. This year I am thankful for an abundance of things...I will try to list some of them here.

Tamara Jones is thankful for...

My Lord and Savior, who saw fit to save me. Save me from hell, save me from myself, save me from this world. He has seen fit to provide for us this past year while my husband has been unemployed. He has seen fit to save us from a house fire that took all our earthly possessions away. He has been gracious and allowed me to grow in His wisdom and love.

My Family

My Preacher, who has saw me at my worst, but still helped me to become a stronger Christian.

My Church

My Friends

My Box (because many people do not even have a box)

My Dogs, who have been so good to me!

My cars, which have chose to stay running (and are now both paid off)

My Breath

My Health

Green Grass, Wind, the Cold Weather that is finally deciding to come

Shoes, and hair bows, a toothbrush and toothpaste, a hair brush and comb

Water, electricity, hot water and non generator electricity

Fire and water proof boxes that saved some of my pictures from the fire

Fireman who worked all day to save as much of my possessions as possible, including pictures and dogs

Generous people who took time from their busy lives to make sure that we were okay and brought us food, plastic ware, towels, money etc when we did not have anything

Thanks be to God for the great things He has provided!

Looks like a house to me...

Since my last post, our house has really came together to look like a house again. The drywall has been put up, mudded, sanded, re-mudded, re sanded, re-mudded and re sanded for the third time. Then, they sprayed the ceiling with "knock down" which I love. On Thursday the painter came in a sprayed everything white. It looks very clean (compared to all the black soot colors that we had seen).

To keep on schedule, we need the trim work done by Wednesday before Thanksgiving. The 30th brings in the electrician, plumber and heating and air guys. The 7th brings our floors in, and the 14th brings the final paint jobs. Somewhere in all of this, our kitchen cabinets will be installed and appliances brought in. We are trying to be ready for furniture delivery around the 18th.

Everything is so close, that without God it will not all come together. But, miracles do happen and I am praying that I can at least sleep in my house by Christmas Eve. God is good!

I LOVE DRYWALL......

I walked through my house Friday almost in tears. Why, you say? DRYWALL!! Ever saw a girl cry over drywall? It was funny, I was so excited, we have rooms now. Walls and rooms and it looks like a house again. Next week they will tape and mud it, and we have already picked out all of paint colors.

The contractor has been saying he hopes to have me in the house by Christmas. I am standing on my faith! God is so good, He can make anything happen.

Consumed by the Fire

Sometimes I think that all I think or talk about is the house. Whether it be the fire, the camper, the rebuilding, I feel like it's consumed me whole. I do not think that it is all bad, the Lord has taught me some valuable lessons through this trial that I know will and has made me a better Christian. In the near future, I will have my house back with a renewed sense of courage and love to be able to fight the next battle thrown at me! I will have a stronger family, because we have made it through this trial and done so with more love for each other than we had before the fire. And I will have the knowledge that God loves me so much that He notices that I need Him still, even when I thought I could live life on my own.

Sunday at church I felt led to pray a prayer of thanks to God for letting my house burn down. Doesn't that sound crazy? Preacher Glover says that is Christian growth. I hate that it took me 4 months to get to that point, but God works in His time, not mine. It was a strange sensation to thank Him for something that in the beginning I thought would break me. In those first moments after hearing the fireman tell us over the phone that our house was gone, I really thought, "HOW AM I GOING TO LIVE THROUGH THIS? What is going to happen to my family, did my dogs make it, oh no, all my pictures, my Papa stuff." Four months later, I can still feel the pain in the pit of my stomach that I experienced that day. However, there is no dwelling on it, just a remembrance. Now I know that God let that fire put me at a level that I needed to be, lower, lower, lower, so low that I had to reach up for HIM and HIM alone. Reach up and say God, help me, help me to be strong for my family, help me to live more for you, just help me be the way You want me to be not the way I want to be.

I am so thankful for Him. So thankful that God looks down on this huge planet called earth and narrows his gaze to a little part of Rutherfordton and sees me. That He sees that I need Him and then lets me know that He is always here for me!

Last October House Update

Front Door...check
Back Door...check
Windows...check
Walls...check
Insulation...check
Plumbing...check
Electrical Rough in...check
HVAC Rough in...check

Things coming...
Monday...inspection for insulation
Tuesday...drywall delivered
Wednesday...drywall being hung

So, we are starting to really look like a house with separate rooms now and I get really excited when I see things done. We could not find a solid wood front door at Lowe's that was prehung, but we were able to locate a beautiful door within our budget at Bargain Builders and the contractor took it to stain and seal. They hung it yesterday, but have black plastic surrounding it so the drywall/paint guys don't mess it up. Basically, I have a great front door, but I cannot look at it yet. HAHAHAHAHA They are hoping the painters can start painting in 2 weeks, so that is exciting as well. We have picked out the majority of the new stuff for the house, cabinets, flooring, outlet covers, light fixtures, ceiling fans, switches, vanities, appliances, the list goes on...but we have a few more things to pick out so we will be back at Lowe's more in the coming weeks!

Keep us in your prayers as we are happy to put another month in the box behind us. The Lord is good to us, keeping us safe, the power on, our phone working, selling our puppies to pay our bills. He shows us daily that He loves us and I am so glad he does!!!! Looking forward to November and what is in store for us!

House Update

Inside of house with stud walls up!

Not sure if you can tell, but we have shingles and the roof is on!

Bricking up the gable on this end to match the other end!

It has been three months this week since my house burned down. We are still living in our camper, had to cut the heat on this week, it works well by the way! Showers have gotten a little worse, the cold water running in the hose from our well to the camper is harsh!

Friday came and went today with no inspection. The roof is done, the electrician is done, I think the HVAC finished today also. So I hope that the inspection can be done on Monday and then the insulation can be put in on Tuesday. I am trying to keep in mind that this is the first step, and there are many more before I get my "CO". (Certificate of Occupancy) It is hard knowing that if things would move a little faster......... Its like I have waited this whole time to see a house forming and now I am getting impatient. What is up with that? I pray that God will keep me in check, take away my impatience and grant me the emotions I need to get through this until my house is done. I do not want to lose all of the valuable lessons that I have learned through this. I want to be the better person that God wants me to be.

Our puppies are starting to go home. I thank God for a great sister like Heather that has helped me take care of all our puppies. Without her, we would not have managed. She has had as many puppies in her room as we have had in the box. LOVE THAT GIRL!

House Update

The house is starting to come along. The plumber was here this week, the contractor tells me next week will be a madhouse. Monday the electrician, the roofer, the brick mason and the HVAC guys are going to do their thing. They are supposed to be done so that all of them can be inspected on Friday. If the inspection goes well, the insulation and dry wall will start the next week. We have been told to start picking out all our indoor items so they will be ready for pickup when needed.

We have also picked out and paid for all of the bedrooms and living room furniture. Ashley Furniture was great for our living room suit, thanks to Joyce for that. Diane at Wes Bolick gave us a great deal on our bedrooms. Emily's getting a loft bed, Meredith a chocolate full size bed and of course, we are getting a cherry sleigh bed! We were excited to know that those 4 rooms will be furnished, but boy was it hard to spend out all that money and leave with nothing to show for it. (We have a tentative delivery date for December 18th for the furniture).

Please continue to pray for us. I am counting down the days I have to live in the box by how many showers I have to take with my 6 gallon water heater and tiny shower. I still have days that I shout at the tiny shower how much I hate it! hahaha

October House Update

The whole roof is on, the inside walls are coming this week. Roof shingles will be added after the plumber comes. We have been told to go pick out our tub/showers and front door! Windows are supposed to be here Friday. It is so dark inside the house now, it looks funny, I LOVE IT! Hopefully just 2 1/2 more months to go.

I thank God for looking out for us and keeping my spirits up throughout this hard time!

Last September Update

WE HAVE 1/2 A ROOF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

September Fire Update #2

The trusses are up. After over a week of NO work being done on the house, the trusses went up today and I am so excited. I will repeat my earlier posts saying, "Once the roof is on, things move a lot faster". So I am counting on that to happen now. It seems like the contractor has been telling me that for a long time. I know that they cannot control the weather, but it was very sad watching my house (or what is left of it) sit here with no work being done on it.This is the view from inside the house now. It changed the look so much to have the trusses on. It almost looks like a real house again. We are supposed to have a whole roof by the end of the week!
This is the LARGE crane that was used to put the trusses up. The crane operator got all the trusses on in 3 hours, it was amazing the transformation!

We still covet your prayers on a daily basis. We are about 60% done with inventorying our belongings. It does not get any easier, but we are hoping to be done soon, so that we can only look ahead instead of viewing what we have lost. Thanks to everyone who has been praying for our family. We love each and every one of you!

Stand Still on the House Building

You have to love the rain, we need it. Yet, I wish it would go away for now. I waited 3 weeks for the trusses to get here for the roof. They came last Thursday. The crane to put the trusses on was supposed to come yesterday, but they canceled because it was supposed to rain. So now, we are a week to ten days before the crane can come back out, and the work is at a stand still because they cannot do any more inside until the roof is put on. I just want to say that it has been a hard week for me to see NOTHING being done on the house. Pray for me!

Thankful Thursday

I have many things to be thankful for!

Today I am thankful for trusses!!

Thank you Lord for watching over my family on a daily basis. It occurred to me this week that I am 2/5th of the way through this trial! Only around three more months until my house is finished. I have been waiting for 3 weeks on the trusses to begin the roof and they arrived today. Please let the work continue at a good pace, and watch over and protect the workers here rebuilding my house for us! Please continue to give me the strength and patience to survive this!

September Fire Update

The house is coming along, the contractor says good, I still say very slow!!
We now have very few walls and floors, the roof is coming the end of this week, and they say that once the roof is on, things will move faster. I sure hope so!

This is my newest thing to think about. I have always hated shutters on houses. They serve no purpose like the old wooden shutters you could close way back in the day. So we have removed the shutters from the front of the house and I think that it looks fine without them, so I will probably not be putting new shutters back on. Let me know if you have an opinion on this.

Beyond Groovy!
Meredith's room had layers upon layers of flooring. This was the bottom layer, you want us to save it for your house? Jay thinks its groovy!

Just another dumpster being filled at the Jones home! We have counted that they have used at least 7 dumpsters in cleaning out debris and they still have a few more floors to rip up! This will be one thing that I will not miss in the yard when it is gone, oh yeah and do not forget the portapotty. (I will NOT show you a picture of that nasty thing!)

Our water went out for about 2 days this past weekend. That was a bummer, but the only setback or trial I had all week. God is good to us!

So, in closing, please continue to pray for us. I feel like every posting is asking for prayer, but we sure do need it.

Happy Anniversary To Me

Today is such a happy day for me.
It is my 15th Wedding Anniversary!
Such a milestone! I feel so blessed to have a great husband like Jay, I love him so much!