Those who made it possible

I am slowly coming out of the fog which is Moving And Renovating, and have been realizing lately just how many people helped us get everything done this past couple of months... including one very special MVP.

So I want to thank everyone who played various volunteer roles... some of which I have likely forgotten.  But here's what I remember...

Joanne, Debbie, Donna, Kathy, Wayne and Jo-Ellen, the Mitchell family, and Mom brought us delicious dinners that came at just the right times!

Alison "the saint" Nichols cleaned a lot, including ALL of the nasty bathrooms here before we moved in.

Mark and Deb came and helped us move (on a crazy hot day) after having only known us for TWO DAYS.  We met them at church and they immediately offered to help -- twice!  Unbelievable.

Katie and Hannah came and helped clean -- and brought beautiful flowers for my porch.  The Clarks also kept our boys for a few days at the height of the craziness -- such a blessing.

Mom came and ironed a bunch of curtains and offered all kinds of invaluable interior design advice.  (Pete loved it when she suggested moving the really heavy bookshelves from room to room, and then back again.  ;)  )

Scott, Joel, Graham, Dad, and Mark all helped move all of our incredibly heavy furniture in -- on a very hot evening.

Bud and Jane came all the way from Ohio.... Jane helped entertain the kids and Bud organized the garage and helped with a few other odd jobs.

....And the MVP of our summer award goes to DAD.  He designed, built, and installed all of the new shutters and window boxes for our house (my favorite features)!  Mor-Mor paid for all the materials, I painted everything, but Dad did the rest.  And I'm so thrilled with the results!

He also carried in all kinds of boxes and furniture, and performed many other jobs around the house, including hooking up a difficult chandelier.  Yay, Dad!

I have lamented a few times in this process that I want to be Joanne from Fixer-Upper and have a full-time "Chip," but my Chip (Pete) has another full-time job he has to do.  :(   Having Dad tackle some of the projects has been a big help, though!

(I still got more for you, Dad, whenever you get bored....  ;)  )

What a blessing to have such a supportive, helpful community around us!  We are so grateful.