Changes...

Way Past Due for an Update...sorry friends and fam :)

Where to begin.........????

Well, for starters the house has come a long long way since the last post and is really beginning to feel homey! We are truly enjoying the house! First and foremost...If it weren't for the help of dear friends and family, the house would not be in its current state. A special thanks to:
Mom and Dad Elbel
Aaron Mullins
Cal Benaglio
Brad Allison
Brad Bean
Michael Bruyninckx
Evan Michner
Matt Halsell
and of course.....Big D

Since the last post the following is complete:
1. dining and living room walls skim coated for smoothness
2. sheetrock complete in all rooms (walls and ceilings)
3. ALL floors refinished
4. trim complete in all rooms
5. crown molding hung in dining and living
6. ALL rooms (except hallway) painted
7. Kitchen almost complete! Such a sweet husband and dear friends we have, listen to this story...

So...a few months back D was planning on "finishing up some sheetrock" on the house over the weekend. Aaron Mullins was supposed to "go to Houston" to help his aunt and uncle build and shed and therefore "Shauna needed me to stay with her and kiddos to help out" since Aaron would be gone. I definitely wanted to help Shauna out and hang with the kiddos, but kind of felt bad that David was home by himself all weekend slaving on the house. The whole weekend went by and I believed all of our friends lies...Liars...all liars (in this case i ended up be thankful for the lies :) So, little, very little to my knowledge, Aaron Mullins, Brad Allison, and Cal Benaglio all stayed pretty much the entire weekend at our house working on our Kitchen!!!! The change that took place over three days was ridiculous. All 4 of those boys did ALOT of lying to me throughout the weekend, but I'm over it! I am soooo incredibly grateful for ALL of their hard work! It's ridiculous what kind of TRUE community we have been blessed with!! The lies and the fact that I believed all of the lies is hilarious (well...not too surprising though i must admit, thanks mom I get that from you:) The BIG reveal happened on Sunday after church. This is how it went down... I was taking a Get Trained (GT) class at church (classes they offer at church each semester, covering different topics) with Shauna. Shauna "had" to leave early from class because her little guy was "sick". So, even all the gals in our GT class were in on this. I stayed through the end of class then decided to go to the grocery store on the way home to grab a few things! And if you didn't know, I HEART the grocery story, so needless to say I was there at least an hour i believe. Clearly= still oblivious. I finally made it home, opened the door, initially saw D, then saw Shauna standing there videoing me and then saw the AMAZINGNESS of the kitchen! I was truly in shock. I may post the video at some point, but it is quite embarrassing!!!

What a truly blessed gal I am to have one amazing hubs and such dear dear friends who were such great liars and such HARDWORKERS that were willing to slave, even spending the night at our house, to bless us in this way! We love you fellas and your wives too! Thank you thank you thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We will pay you back with our labor soon enough!
{ side note: 2 out of 3 of those families (mullins and benaglios)are moving to the big T (aka Taylor) and we cannot be more excited!!! We are working on those Allisons ;) }

here is the list of what they complete in that weekends
• purchased counter tops, paint for cabinets, rented a sprayer
• leveled the flooring in order to install flooring
• installed almost all of cork flooring
• painted all lower cabinets
• placed lower cabinets Dave and Aaron made
• Installed the butcher block counter tops
• Made island counter top and placed the sink in it
• ALL This = ONE Surprised and Happy Gal



8. We unpacked some kitchen boxes and brought in our china cabinet that we bought at Roomservice Vintage in Austin!
9. Central Heat and A/C
10. Tore down a shed
11. Cleaned up backyard
12. Had the house repainted
13. Put in a vent hood (D found on craigslist)
14. Made stair railings for front and back of the house
15. Moved into the master bedroom so....
16. We could began decorating the.....KIDDOS room!!

So, more exciting and new Campise Family News!!! We will expand our family soon!!! We are beginning our journey of becoming foster parents! We became officially licensed as foster parents on February 15th! We are so excited and of course a little nervous as well to see what the Lord has in store for our family! We are licensed as a foster/adopt family through Caring Family Network, Handle with Care (we really love our agency). Basically, what that means is if the kid/kiddos (we are licensed for up to 2) parental rights are terminated either while in our care or before entering our care that we would be open for adoption. It has been a roller coaster thus far, but we are trusting in the Lord's Sovereignty! We have gotten a few calls from our agency so far, but a kid/kiddos has not been placed in our home yet. More as to how the Lord has lead us down this path to come! So, next post we could possibly be sharing that a child/children have entered our home! We will not be able to share pictures online of the children to protect them and their families (unless we end up adopting), but will be able to share a little bit of information with you all about them!

Here is a link to pictures of the house progress! I cannot figure out how to make it a hyperlink, sorry. You will have to copy and paste in into your browser. I'll add more soon and pics of the kiddo room!!

https://picasaweb.google.com/campises/HousePics?authkey=Gv1sRgCPHfku7NsKKh7AE#

We love you all!!!!