Blessed by Fire

On April 8, 2008 our shop was completely destroyed by fire. At about 9:30 a.m. a spark went into a cup of lacquer thinner and the shop was ingulfed in flames. By the time the Fire Department showed up in 8 minutes the shop had already collapsed. They put the fire out after about an hour or so and they were able to keep the fire from reaching our home or any other car on the lot. At the time it seemed like it took forever for them to arrive and even longer for them to extinguish the fire but looking back at it they were AWESOME! They really did alot to ensure that the fire did not spread farther than it already had. As we watched our hard work and dreams go up in smoke we felt very depressed. We reached out to family and friends for moral support and received so much more. Within minutes the plan was set to rebuild. It almost seemed like no discussion, no thought, just the way it was going to be. The next 24 hours were hard. But by Thursday everything started to change. By noon, my father and my brother-in-law Brody were here helping us clean up the mess that was made. Jason's Dad and his brothers and sisters were there to help, too.

By Thursday night most of the slab was cleaned off and our entire shop was in a pile.

The rest of my family arrived Thursday night and by Friday it was getting harder and harder to remember what once stood there. An Amazing company, Top Knot Framing, ordered all the wood to frame the walls and the trusses for the ceiling and showed up Friday to frame the building. Now, we would like to pride ourselves in being a very hard working family that figures out how to do just about anything but having them there to frame the building was a BLESSING. They are amaxing at what they do.

FIRST WALL OF THE NEW SHOP

BACK WALL OF THE NEW SHOP

And yes, we had to take a moment to just look at what had been accomplished by Top Knot Framing in the short amount of time it took them and just say WOW!!!

I really like this pic because it shows the new shop all framed up and the old shop in a pile in front of it.

Then on Saturday Morning we probably had 30 people there to help with anything we need. So, we took advantage of their generosity and put up all the trusses and did some more cleaning.

Bill Nichols, Brody Robertson and Jason did Truss duty and we can not forget Jason Craig from Top Knot Framing showed up to help keep us in line.

Then by Saturday night, less thatn a week after the fire, the old building is down and the new building is up.

There are many times since the fire that I have thought back and cotemplated what has happened since. I am very comfortable saying that the FIRE WAS A BLESSING WRAPPED IN TRIALS. It was very difficult to go through but I would not trade what has come out of it for anything. There are a few lessons learned.

1. Heavenly Father loves us and does not give us more that we can handle. He also prepares a way for us if we but put our faith in him.

2. Family. I am extremely blessed to have an amazing family. Starting with our immediate family who dropped everything and came to our aid. And we also had some amazing friends who were there for us when we needed them.

So, the next part of the story is the progress since. We would have never made the decision to quit work and build a new building. But, we were able to build a beautiful, big new building in 3 weeks and be back to work. We were able to do it for a very reasonable price. The Lord has really blessed us since. Our business had never been better and beacuse of the new shop we are able to accomodate more jobs and do more things to expand our business. The lord provided a way for us to repay the debt that was incurred within 20 months. It really has brought us closer to our Heavenly Father in every way.

I would also like to add that Jason and I have sometimes wondered what if any impact this has had on any of the many people that dropped everything to come to help us. It has always been our prayer that each and every one of you were blessed in some way for your sacrifice. I hope you know that our gratitude is endless and could never be expressed with words.

Alma 38:5 .....I would that ye should remember, that as much as ye shall put your trust in God even so much ye shall be delivered out of you trials, and your troubles, and your afflictions, ane ye shall be lifted up at the last day.

Resolution #1 Lose Weight

SO, I have made my first of many New Year's Resolution's. Lose Weight! Every year I make this promise to myself that this year will be different, but I am really feeling it this year. I bought the P90 DVD's about 6 months ago and I have decided to put them to the test. This is my second week and it is HARD!!!!!!! I did not understand how out of shape I was until I started. But, this is the second week and it is getting easier, and I find myself looking forward to the evening when I get to exercise.

This is really hard to write down ( mainly beacuse once it is out there I can't take it back) But, in the next year I would like to lose 50 pounds. It sounds like an impossible task, but if I keep up my exercising I think that I can do it. Plus maybe putting it in writing I will be more motivated to keep up the work and to document my progress.

Wish me Lots of Strength to keep up the Hard Work!!!!!

WE'RE DEBT FREE!!!!!!!!

Yes, it is true. As of today November 24,2009 we are DEBT FREE!!!! It is really hard to believe. We have worked really hard to get here and it feels great to have accomplished it. We are COMPLETELY DEBT FREE. We do not owe a single penny to anyone anymore. Wow , it feels good to say that. I thought I would take this post to tell our story of how we accomplished it and what we hope to accomplish in the future.

I guess our story starts about 5 years ago when we moved to Missouri to start our business. we knew that we needed to do it with as little debt as possible so we cashed out our 401K and bought our home and had it moved to Texas. (It was meant to be but that is a whole other story for a whole other time). But we never paid attention to what we were spending, plus starting a business is really hard and we basically lived off of credit cards for a while and the truck broke so we bought a truck with a hefty payment. It put us about 30,000 in debt.

About 2 years ago my mom kept telling me about Dave Ramsey. It took us a while to listen but once we did we were hooked. I heard what he was saying I believed every word. We knew that that was our destiny. We could be totally out of debt start building wealth, but we were still just not gazelle intense with it. We had paid off about 10,000 in 18 months. Then on April 8, 2008 everything changed. Our business was completely destroyed by fire. There was nothing left. Absolutely nothing. We had no business, no money and still about 20,000 of debt left. We decided that we did not want to give up on the business so, we rebuilt. It took about 3 weeks, alot of hard work from many different people and a 20,000 loan from family. When that happened we knew that we had to get Gazelle intense and never be in that situation again. So we worked and worked and worked. In the last 18 months we have paid off the remaining 40,000.

Now we get to work for ourselves for a change. It really does change your attitude in life. It feels like a weight has been lifted off. There is another way to do things. You do not have to have debt. Now we can focus on building our business and our wealth. We will never be in debt again and hopefully we are changing our family tree by passing this knowledge to our kids. They have known all along how much money we had to pay off and have been really rooting for us.

So, I just want everyone to know that it can be done and it is worth all the sweat and hard work. It will be worth every stressful day when you can say I DO NOT OWE ANYONE ANYTHING.


WE'RE DEBT FREE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Totally Rejuvinated!!!!

Okay, so I think I spelled rejuvinated right but I am not sure. Anyways, I am feeling GREAT!!!!! This last couple of months have flown by. Work has been really busy, which we are extremely grateful for, but on the otherhand it leaves me stressed and not sure where all the time went. But, last weekend we spend three glorious days with my family. I really needed some down time to relax and have fun. We were able to deliver a van that we built for Adam and Danelle. We felt really good about being able to do this for them and I think they are a Minivan family now.

We also got to celebrate Shelby's Birthday while we were down there. Her B-day isn't until the 23rd but she loves a party and we won't be back until Christmas so we celebrated and she cleaned house. She loves her new P.J.'s. She washes them everyday so she can wear them. She spends hours applying makeup. And we cannot forget the hours she spends listening to her new Taylor Swift CD on her IPOD. I know I can hardly believe that she has one but I have to say that she is doing very well taking care of it and I am thinking about getting one. I could really get used to listening to music while I am painting a car. Plus, We have the outside perimeter and one corner done on the 1000 piece puzzle. Jason says it is impossible but Shelby and I are doing pretty good. (It has taken over the table so dinner is on the couch, but it is really fun so we don't mind.)

So, That is what's new in our world. We are back home and back to work, but it is amazing what a little time off with family can do for the soul and attitude.

Love to All
Erika

Humpty Dumpty....Sick Child.... and Projects

Well, I will start with the most anticipated part. Bennett portrayed Humpty Dumpty in the school play last Thursday. He was PERFECT (if I do say so my self) He remembered all of his lines and everyone loved his costume. And in perfect Bennett fashion there were a couple funny parts. As you can tell from the photos he loved rubbing his belly. Also, he get a little tired holding all that weight and by the end he could barely stay awake. It was priceless. All the kids did so great. A Real Treat.

Next, is Shelby. My poor little baby has been sick for over a week now. She came home from school last Monday with a fever. She seemed to be doing better by Wednesday and then Thursday she had a fever again, so I took her to the Doctor. She has Strep. So we got her some antibiotics and she seemed to be doing great until Sunday. By midmorning her stomach was killing her. A reaction to the antibiotics I think because she is feeling great today. We are going to start the antibiotics again so the Strep can go away but we will take it slow and with alot of food. It is really hard to see her so sick. She is hardly ever sick and she doesn't want to bother you (kinda like me) You would not know she was as sick as she was.

And Lastly, we are starting some much needed home improvements. I am selling my Lincoln and Jason sold his Mustang to make this happen. ( The Lincoln is still not sold so if you know anybody let me know. It is a beautiful car.) And to begin our improvements we purchased brand new kitchen cabinets. ALL OF THEM!!!! It is so exciting. So hopefully we will slow down here work wise in the next couple of weeks so we can get started. Can Not Wait!!!!

So, that is the update for now. Hope everyone has a great week!!!

We're Floating Away!!!!

So starting Last Thursday morning we got over 8 inches of rain in about 16 hours. These are pics of the front. The first two are at the Shop Driveway and the last two are at the other drive way. You can tell in some of the pics that the water was even higher than it was when I took those pics on Friday morning. The road was completely flooded and the water made it far up on the shop driveway side. Most of the water has receded now but there is still water rushing on the other side of the road. It is something. On a side not we also flooded in the shop. The fram stall and even a little in the paint booth. There was about 2 inches of standing water in the frame stall. When we built both of those additions we built in righ on the ground level and that area just happens to be the natural slope where all the water runs in the front yard. So we are going to have to build a trench to divert the water around the building for the next time we have a torential rain.

It has also become cold here already. Overnight lows in the 30's and daily high's around 60. Needless to say we have the heat on and we had Chili for dinner tonight.

Hope everyone has a great week!!!!

LONG TIME..... NO POST

I know, I know, I am terrible. I have been so busy latley it seems like I have not time to blog. Things around here have been great. Earlier last month was Bennett's 8th birthday and the whole family was here for his baptism. It was an amazing weekend filled with fun times. It was also very special for Bennett. It really meant so much that his family was here to share in his special day. He felt very important and loved.

Business has been great. Things have been really busy around here. We have lot quite a bit of cars and we have a lot of customer work. We fell so blessed to have work. At times it feels overwhelming but in a good way. Hopefully this work can keep coming through the winter.

Shelby and Bennett also started school. Bennett is in 2nd grade and Shelby is in 5th. She goes to the Middle School now. It is very weird. They are growing up so fast. Something happened at school today that I thought was funny. (Shelby did not think so) She has an issue with talking during class, I know what you are thinking it can not be true, yes it is true. HaHa! So today when she got home from school she starting writing on a piece of paper and when I came back in to check on her she was still writing so I asked her what she was doing. She said that the whole class got in trouble today for talking and they had to write the following paragraph 15 times:

I have to write these sentences because I think that I am more important than anyone else in my class and that the rules of coming into class quietly, sitting at my desk, and preparing to work do not apply to me. I do not need to use the character trait of self-control because I choose not to and chould not have to do anything I do not want to do. I do,however, understand that the previous statements are untrue and meant to be a deterrent for future unsatisfactory behavior similar to that which I displayed after coming into class room from recess. I apoligize for my behavior and will begin displaying much more self-control.

She was not happy about writing the sentences but I have to say that I do not feel sorry for her. Maybe that makes me a mean mom but I do believe that great good can come out of consequences for her actions. She needs to learn self-control. Also with the way she has been talking about the homework I do believe that her attitude about talking in class has changed. I do not believe that she will talk when she is not supposed to again.

I promise to try to keep a better blog from now on. Have a great week!