March 3, 2012 Greetings my Friend, Thoughts at large; Junior has started putting the ceiling up in the kitchen. We have liked the bead board look and feel it fits in with the age of our home nicely. At first junior took some planks of wood and hung them up as is. Then we found some cherry wood stain so junior planed the wood and put the stain on it. That looked real nice…as we thought on it though we thought it might be a bit too dark for a ceiling. So Junior found another stain with a hint of red in it and he has hung that up. So at present we have three looks going on at one time. We like the last look the best so Mr. Wonderful will finish up the ceiling with the planed light red stain and then he will go back and take down the boards up to that point and re-do the ceiling. One of our goals as Junior finishes the house is to make it easy for us as we get older. For me I am allergic to paint and he is putting up paneling and wood etc. so we don’t have to paint much if at all. Junior has the bedroom done with actual boards as opposed to paneling and it is real nice. With the stain on the ceiling we won’t have to paint that either. In the bathroom we would like to have a tin look ceiling. The ceiling is actually plastic but looks like tin. The huge holes in the kitchen ceiling are finally covered up as well. He tore some plaster down to do some work etc. Junior is also putting insulation in the attic which will help keep cold out as well. Some of the work is so behind the scenes so pretty isn’t something I get to see much of yet. Slowly though the house takes shape. Slowly pretty appears and it is exciting to see. I continue to marvel at how much I love this house. It is a whole lot of work. It is comfortable as well. I can’t imagine living anywhere else. Junior is more than likely going to need to be in a wheel chair someday so we are preparing the house for that day. Part of the fun of renovating is decorating. Once the inside is done then I am excited to decorate the porch. It won’t have a lot to it and yet I find that since the porch is on all four sides then I can set up different types of areas. I think it would be fun to have a small table on the porch with an oil cloth checkered table cloth. That way we can eat outside. The back of the house faces the woods and I think I want to make this area like a sitting area. The front porch is partially screened in and I hope eventually it will be enclosed. This faces the street and across the street are more woods. I would like a stove out there and use that as a quiet place. The front of the house faces the neighbor’s house so I’d like to put a swing or glider out there. Junior also wants to put up some ceiling fans to keep the bugs from bothering us. Our dreams continue to grow as we move through the renovating process. It is fun and our dreams have changed. With the kitchen we are having an island built. We will have a spot to eat at and I like that idea. We will have a built in stove so I can visit people while I cook as well. It is so much fun dreaming and changing our dreams. My friend B has had a lump in her breast for a few years. The lump has grown and is now painful. She has not had it looked at until recently. We are going for the mammogram in the next few days. Her sister died of breast cancer. Her mom had a lump but died of a heart attack before the lump was looked at. I am concerned for her. I have walked down the road of breast cancer myself. Mine was caught very early and I only needed radiation. She also hopes that this may be the end of her life. Life has been very hard for her. She has had severe back pain due to a car accident and has not been able to work for most of her life. Money on assistance is tight. So life has been a huge struggle for her. Her home has fallen into disrepair because she hasn’t been able to finance all the repairs. Our church is looking into getting her some help with some mission teams. The process is slow. Junior and I have decided that if B has the dreaded ‘c” word then we want to have her stay with us as she needs. We want to make her comfortable etc. Sometimes those in the most desperate types of needs are right in front of us and somehow we don’t see them. They seem different and so sometimes we don’t want to be bothered with them. B has not always been accepted by the people in her community. I think sometimes it is important to reach out and be a friend to those who are a little different. The reason I have fallen in love with Jesus is because he reached out the people who were on the fringe of society. I myself have felt this way a whole lot, on the fringe and I am grateful that even the strange people in the world’s opinion are wanted by God. May God bless you and keep you, make his face to shine upon you. Love Janet