It is official....

We have officially lived in Dalhart for 1 year!!!!  It does not seem like it was that long ago that we were telling our friends, our employers and our church family that we were moving. A year ago I was a mess telling everyone that we were moving. But we knew that God had a plan for us.

The differences between Lubbock and Dalhart:

We went from a city of about 250,000 people to a town of 8,500 people. 

A city where we had a wide variety of restaurants to choose from to "I think we will eat in and rent movies from Red Box."

A town that has a strong north wind and gets down right cold in the winter. 

A town where we will not see many 100 degree days, if any at all. 

But we do have:

Great jobs with great people.

A great town to bring up babies one day.

The house of our dreams.

A home that will be warm and inviting. 

A Texas Tech Alumni Association (for Jared of course!!)

Family close by and a great support system. 

Most of all we have each other and I believe that moving here has brought us closer together. We do not have all the distractions that we had before. 

We do miss our Lubbock friends, but we are making friends in Dalhart.   

We have been asked if we are liking it and the answer is yes. We are ready for things to slow down just a bit so that we can begin to look at churches.

We are ready to have a home and not just a house. Don't get me wrong we are grateful that we have a warm place to stay and a roof over our head. I just didn't realize the difference between a house and a home until now. I pray that we have a warm and inviting house that people can gather.

Hightower Haus

I am way behind on posting, but things have been moving pretty quickly on the house front!! It is so exciting, but on the flip side a little stressful. There have been so many decisions that have had to be made.... what type of flooring, where we want carpet, tile, wood, granite... what color of masonry, what color of stucco, bath tub sizes, where to place electrical outlets and light switches, do we want all the lights on one switch or multiple switches.... the list goes on!!

This is stressful but the end result will be great. We are so blessed to be able to do this.

So far, the things that we are most excited about are the front and back porches, I can not wait to just sit out there with a good book and relax.

Everything is moving along so quickly!!

I am not sure where I left off with pictures, so here are some!! Enjoy!! 

My Grandmother

We laid my sweet grandmother to rest August 12, 2014. It was a very hard day for me and the rest of my family. My grandma was the strongest, sweetest, most caring, enthusiastic, adventurous woman that I have had the privilege to be around.
Her and my grandpa both loved to travel, it was their passion, I can not even tell you all the places they have been. After my grandpa passed away my grandma began to travel even more. In the past 8 years she has been to Alaska numerous times, she had the privilege of traveling to England to visit the home that her father grew up in, Hawaii, and all up and down the cost, just to name a few. She was always ready for the next big thing. She was not a native Texan, but she loved this state, as well as this country and its history more than anyone I know.
The things that I remember the most are my grandparents packing all of the grand kids into the motor-home and taking us to Palo Duro Canyon, going to garage sales every Saturday morning, the holidays and all the family getting together, staying the night over there and building blanket forts in the living room,  my grandparents took all of the grandkids to every parade, going to Washington DC, my list could go on and on. I was able to spend so much time with my cousins growing up and I will treasure those moments forever. She was always interested in us and how we were doing.
As hard as it was seeing her but not able to have a conversation with her, I know that she knew I was there. I am so glad that I was able to spend those days with her and my family.
I know she is not here on earth with us anymore, but she will always be with us and watching over us. She left memories that are etched on my heart forever and I am going to try my hardest to continue to make her proud, speak of her and the legacy that she has left.

                                             

The verse that describes her to me is:

                               

         

Camping 2014

My family took a camping trip to Westcliffe, CO. It was so much fun. The weather was nice, the food was great and most of all we were able to spend time with each other without cell phones, email, work, or any other distraction there may be.

I have been camping many times, but this one was a little bit different... we did not have toilets or showers!!! There is nothing like squatting to go to the bathroom. I didn't realize how much i enjoyed having those 2 things.I am grateful that I have both!!

We hiked about 8 miles in one afternoon, needless to say we did not hike again while we were there.

There were a total of 15 of us and 5 of those were kids. 

It was very relaxing just to sit around a campfire, chat, not have to worry about doing my hair or putting on make-up.

Hightower Haus - Month 2

May 22- June 22

So far progress is starting to move along pretty well. It is so exciting to see all of this come together, and we have just began. We are so blessed to be able to build.

May 30, 2014

Getting ready for foundation June 4, 2014

We have a foundation. June 5, 2014

RAIN!!!!

In the past month we have been blessed with RAIN!! I have loved just standing outside listening and smelling the rain.
Thank you Jesus!!

Hightower Haus - Month 1

Digging has finally began!! We are beyond excited! Here are some pictures of the progress so far. I plan to only blog once a month about this. I could probably post every week, but I don't want people to
think I am crazy.  ;)  April 22 - May 22.

April 22, 2014

April 25, 2014

April 22, 2014
The Cellar

April 26, 2014

May 2, 2014

May 2, 2014