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Our 7th Wedding Annivesary and a Busy Week

Greetings & Salutations Faithful Stapleton Blog Readers.

This week Jess & I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary. That’s it 7 years I am out of the pool. I guess someone else will win the pot now! I worked from home on Monday to finalize the financing on the house and I took Jess out to dinner. I was on the road the rest of the week; I had 40 hours in by Wednesday. After that, the rest of the week just becomes a blur it’s a good thing the Buick knows the way home. On Saturday we helped move Ricky (Jess’s brother) to Morgantown, he begins Dental School this fall. (see the pics on the pictures page) I am getting closer and closer to free dental care! That made for a long Saturday. Then Sunday Jess & I went to church and then just crashed. Not a very exciting update but the truth. Have a great day everyone.

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We have a new Stapleton Mansion Under Contract

Greetings & Salutations Faithful Stapleton Blog Readers.

Just thought I would drop a quick entry to let you know that we have completed negotiations on a new Stapleton Mansion. We have been offering and counter offering for the past couple of days and to be honest, Jess was the one that came up with the magic number. I just told her that I was getting way too Alpha-Male on this, just give me a number! This is the last offer we are going to make. The house is exactly what we wanted and exactly where we wanted it and the best part is the price was waaaaayyyyy below what we wanted to pay. It just makes my cheap little heart go pitter patter. (I sense a God thing going on here) So since we were already pre-approved we are at the home inspection phase that could still scuttle the deal. We really won’t know for sure about the house until the first week of August.

The house is located on Broadmoor Drive off of East Pea Ridge Road. The house has an attached garage and will be (before we move in) 3 beds 2 full baths and a big family room in the basement. The lot is rolling and with a flat piece at the top of the lot where the house is and a not so gentle slope down to the bottom part of the lot which is flat also. But compared to what Petey is used to, he will need a golf cart to do a complete patrol of the yard.

The house is about 3 minutes from the interstate I think it will cut about 10 minutes off of my commute. In addition to that, it is very close to Church and 3 roads and several hillsides away from my mother-in-law (yesssss)! Can’t get much better than that! Well we will keep you all informed. Have a good one.

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Boy have I let the Blog go stale!

Greetings & Salutations Faithful Stapleton Blog Readers!

Sorry it has been a while since an update but Jess & I have been busier than a one legged person in a butt kicking contest in need of a hip replacement!

Since the last blog entry, I have been working on site with a lot of customers. In fact since my last entry I have driven 6386 miles and only left the state once! That is just wrong! Jess has been equally busy, most weeks having her 40 hours in by Thursday. To be honest, I have spent so much time in Elkins lately that I think I have a property tax bill here from Randolph county somewhere. Well at least all the hard work seems to be paying off. Since the last, entry Jess & I both received 2 very good reviews at work.

We have also begun house hunting. We have looked at 16 houses and drove by countless others and the only thing that I can say is that people are very proud of their property. We are looking at property that is 3 times the cost of our starter house and we have yet to find anything as nice. People are flipping nuts out there! No updates since the 60’s (one house even had a fuse box) and yet they want 130K to 150K for it! But we are still continuing to look. It takes a lot of time out of our week, but I would like to have something lined up to where I can have about 30 days to work on what ever we buy before we move in. Our lease is up at the end of September but it rolls to month to month after that so we are fortunate to have a lot of fleixibility in our purchasing decision.

Last weekend was Jess’s 10 year high school reunion. Overall, not a bad evening. There was only one rule that I was given and that was “I am not going to my 10 year high school reunion in a Buick!” Hence we had to drive the Camry. We tend to take the Buick everywhere to save Jess’s car since mine can not avoid the high mileage. The evening was pretty entertaining from my standpoint anyway.

Jess & I have also been working on our part for the 40 Days of CommUNITY campaign at church. The meetings and website work for the campaign havw been keeping us busy also. I wish I could say that we have been doing more but that is just about it. We have just been busy and if we find a house I do not see the rat race getting any easier until about Christmas and we all know how much fun that time of year is. I would like to plan a cruise during the winter to decompress from the last year but we will see. I hope this entry finds everyone well. We will catch up with you all later.

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Uncle Sam has gone home to rest

Greetings & Salutations Faithful Stapleton Blog Readers

I am writing today to let you all know that Uncle Sam has passed away. He went home to be with Aunt Nancy on Fathers Day Morning about 7:00.

As I sit back and think about this I have some mixed emotions. I am of course sad that I won’t get to see or talk with him again in this life time, but I am more happy than anything. Uncle Sam always wanted to do for himself, he never wanted to be old and in need of help. As his breathing problems became worse he increasingly had to rely on his son Andy & his wife Laura who were always at his side ready to help. But I really think there has been such a weight on his heart since Aunt Nancy died that he really has just longed to be reunited with her again.

You see Uncle Sam & Aunt Nancy were more grandparents to me than anything else. Bobba (that’s what we called my dad’s mom) was 75 years older than me. Although we could talk and I visited with her regularly, I never spent a lot of time with her like my other siblings. I came along so late in life that my other siblings were there to babysit me. My Grandfather on dad’s side of the family died back in the 1940’s way before I came along. On my mom’s side I never knew my grandmother she died in the 60’s. Pawpaw (mom’s dad) lived about an 1 1/2 hours away and although we went to visit I never really spent a lot of time with him I was young and had cousins to play with. Since I had siblings to watch me I never went up and stayed with him like my brother and sisters. Pawpaw died when I was in the 8th grade.

So that brings us back to Uncle Sam & Aunt Nancy they were just right. Just old enough to be grandparents and up on current events enough to be fun! When I think about it that is what they really were to me. Going to their house was always free entertainment if you came out of the house not knowing where you stood with them or where they stood that was your own fault. If you did not know what they were thinking it was your own fault! If you ever left the house hungry that was most definitely your own fault! It was a house of hospitality that was always open, honest, & generally hysterical. Uncle Sam was always tinkering with something that was fun to help out with or just to watch. The man had more tools than most small governments.

I will always have fond memories of spending time up there. But I am happiest that Uncle Sam & Aunt Nancy are together again. I am glad they are both at rest and I am looking forward to seeing them again one day.