Welcome....Here's a glimpse of our happenings!

The verses that have REALLY spoken to me (Sarah) lately....



"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock." Matthew 7:24-25



Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. I Peter 5:8-9



From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being. As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.' Acts 17:26-28



May the words of my mouth and the mediation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my Rock, and my Redeemer. Psalm 19:14



So be careful to do what the Lord your God has commanded you; do not turn aside to the right or to the left. Walk in all the way that the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days in the land that you will possess. Deuteronomy 5:32-33



God, our God, will take care of the hidden things but the revealed things are our business. It's up to us and our children to attend to all the terms in this Revelation. Deuteronomy 29:29 (The Message)

About the Friesen's....

We are Marc, Sarah, Luke, and Kate Friesen. We were married June 5, 2004. We have one son, born July 21, 2008, named Luke Andrew -- now 4 years old. We also have a daughter named Kate Christine -- born June 6, 2012. Marc is working at Cessna as a Senior Accountant, and Sarah stays home full-time with Luke. Sarah also gets to work very part-time at home for Graber Backhoe -- an excavation company AND VERY part-time at our church. We LOVE being a part of Grace Community Church here in Newton, KS. We lead a Community Life Group of other wonderful couples. Marc thoroughly enjoys long-distance running and Taekwondo. Sarah thoroughly enjoys walking -- especially when the weather is nice to take Luke and/or out in the stroller. Thanks for reading our blog!

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

A Couple of Things New....

To you readers who are homeowners out there --

Do you ever feel as if home repairs seem to hit all at once?

This summer, in the Friesen household, it seems like it -- at least a little bit.

We purchased our house 7 1/2 years ago. We like our home. It has A LOT of potential as far as decorating and such. We LOVE the neighborhood it's located in. We LOVE our neighbors.

Somedays, when I fall into comparison mode (which is NOT good and a VERY dangerous place to be -- especially when it comes to spiritual growth), I think to myself, "We really haven't done much to this house compared to what some of our friends have done to their homes."

Then, God reels me back to reality....we've actually done quite a bit in this house (all without ANY debt AND we've still been able to manage my staying home full-time over the last two years -- which wasn't originally planned when we purchased this house)....

**Had one of the bathrooms almost completely gutted and redone
**New carpet throughout almost the entire house
**New water heater and sump pump
**New oven
**New dishwasher
**New refrigerator
**A few new light fixtures
**Added a couple of ceiling fans
**Stripped wallpaper and painted in front living room, hallway, my office, and Luke's room

SOOOOOO, quit complaining, Sarah....

*****

Anyways, recently, our kitchen faucet started leaking. So, we knew we needed to replace that faucet.

At the same time, Menard's opened in Wichita.

To our benefit (and many others'), they had some great deals.

When we went to purchase a faucet, we found one WAY UNDER our budget.

Between that price and the price of a new sink, we were able to purchase a new sink and a new faucet.

Our old sink (in all of its glory of being porcelein, off-white, and VERY stained)....







Getting the new sink in properly proved to be a process, however....



Once the fabulous plumber had the old sink out, he tried out the new sink -- to see if it would fit.

Nope -- it didn't....we needed a bigger hole in our countertop.

OUCH!

(And just for a brief interlude -- here's a photo of Luke -- "supervising" this project)....





I LOVE people connections that we have as well as other people have.

With this little sink problem, our plumber had a connection.

He called a friend of his who was a carpenter. That day, this carpenter happened to be very close to our house and was available for a short period of time.

Within an hour of the discovery of the problem, the carpenter was at our home. He completed the task of cutting our countertop.

Then, he only charged us $25 to complete this countertop cutting project!

YAY!

At that point, the plumber was able to finish installing the new sink and faucet.

It's stainless steel, and it looks nice! I LOVE it.

(Sorry I don't have one close-up)....



THEN, in the midst of all of this sink fiasco, our dining area chandelier developed a short. We knew, for safety reasons, we most definitely needed to have it replaced.

So, Menard's once again came to the rescue.

I don't have a photo of the old chandelier (as I forgot), but you'll have to trust me that it wasn't the most "dated" chandelier. Also, it was VERY dim lighting.

Fortunately, the day after the sink installation, the chandelier exchange went very smooth. It took less than an hour.

Luke once again supervised.





Then, in the midst of ALL of this, several weeks ago, it hailed pretty hard here in this fine little town we live in.

We knew our roof needed some repair (thanks to some strong winter and spring winds we've had here).

We found out within the last couple of weeks that not only do we need a few repairs on our roof, but we NEEDED a whole new roof.

As always, God has been faithful with His provision.

Not only did insurance come through on a very old roof, but we were able to find a VERY trustworthy company to redo our roof. AND, they had availability in their schedule to get it done NOW.

Sooooooo, we have a nice mess going on this week here at our home.

And, Luke has once again done some supervising.....





Stay tuned....I will have quite a few more pics to post with this new roof process.

But, my heart is filled with such gratitude this week over our roof. We're getting a nice new roof which should (barring a major hail storm) last a long time. The four guys who have been working on our roof have done it in this extreme heat we're having in this state this week. Luke has done VERY WELL about staying out of their way as well as staying out of danger (old shingles are flying off of our roof this week).

In the meantime, Luke (and I possibly) will be hopefully napping a bit this afternoon. Because of the heat, Marc told the guys they could start this morning at 6:00 A.M. (which I didn't mind). But, Luke definitely woke up quite a bit earlier than normal as a result of the banging on the roof. And sadly, there were tears involved. Luke was a bit scared to wake up to banging.

3 comments:

More than just okay said...

Good grief, Sarah. When it rains, it pours. You've had an incredible run of repairs.

We're putting in a landing for, eventually, another set of steps off our back deck. And that's enough in itself.

That and trying to keep our new trees alive.

Love you.

The Sieberts said...

love the new sink!

Allen and Debby Graber said...

Maybe Luke will want to be a supervisor when he grows up!

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