5 Conversations for My Daughter

In less than 3 months my daughter, Sarah, will graduate from high school. Memories of her dancing and singing around our house and endless trips to Hobby Lobby to buy her paint supplies fill my heart.  In truth after watching my oldest son's adventures at college, I'm excited to see Sarah go as well.  But before she goes, I have a quite a few conversations I plan to have with her.  Here are 5 of them:

1. Wash Your Sheets at least once every other week.  I know that there are countless articles on how you should wash your sheets once a week.  But if I can get my now adult children to wash their sheets twice a month, I have accomplished something.  My oldest son went off to college and to this very day claims that he washed his white sheets.  However, he can't explain why they are not even close to that color now.  Wash your sheets!
   
   
2. Never Mix Household Chemicals.  Far too many people don't know how dangerous it is to mix household cleaning products.  You can cause a hazardous situation quickly by mixing household cleaners.  For example bleach and ammonia if mixed together can form toxic fumes.  So just don't mix chemicals.
   
   
3. Always Take a Buddy with you when you go anywhere at night.  We live in a broken, fallen world.  So we should all protect ourselves.  Be smart and take a buddy with you when you walk across campus at night or when you have to run to town.  One of the years I was in college there were multiple rapes on campus.  Many of them actually happened during the day.  So be smart and alert of your surroundings.  
   
   
4. Actions Speak Louder Than Words.  Not every guy that tells you he loves you does.  I remember when one of my aunts took me aside and said, "Remember this...guys lie."  I remember laughing because this particular aunt had had her fair share of loser boyfriends.  But I have never forgotten those words.  So watch what they do over time and how they treat you not what they say.
   
   
5. Don't Skip Class.  College is an expensive endeavor.  Very quickly you will meet new people, make new friends and be invited to participate in all kinds of new adventures.  I encourage you to have fun.  Enjoy this time.  True adulthood is just a few years down the road where someone else is no longer picking up the check.  But appreciate what you are being given and go to class.  You will learn things even in the most boring of classes.  Some of the people who influenced me the most in my life were my college professors.  So soak up every minute of the college experience by going to class.

Well this is a good starting point.  Seniors of 2021 are resilient.

Their junior and senior years were taken hostage by a virus. 

But these seniors masked up and marched forward towards graduation day.  

I'm excited to see all the adventures these seniors will have.  

I won't be one of those moms that cries at graduation.  

Because I learned long ago....

"Don't Cry Because It's Over, 

Smile Because It Happened." Dr. Seuss

Rear View Mirror

Rick and I have talked to all of our kids through the years of the many times we can see God's handprint on our lives.  I could list so many different examples whether it was a job, who I married, or even having babies.  But probably one that really stands out for me is getting my first corporate job which eventually led to me meeting a young man from Mitchell, South Dakota.  

When it was time for me to choose a college, I chose the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR).  I chose UALR because I had been awarded a chemistry department scholarship there.  Since I was paying for college by myself that seemed like the sensible choice.

My first year chemistry professor, Dr. Watson, just happened to be the chemistry department chairman.  He was a great man.  He and his wife often invited students to their house for a competitive game of Trivial Pursuit.  One of the senior chemistry students really stunk at Trivia Pursuit and always accused Dr. Watson of insisting on having us play the game at parties just to embarrass him.  Frankly, I don't remember being that great at Trivial Pursuit either but I still had a great time at the Watson's parties.  This is a crazy detail to remember about their home but they had this guest bathroom with black and white tile on the floor and this giant black and white, framed photograph of Mikhail Baryshnikov over the toilet.  At the time I was a huge Baryshnikov fan.  So I guess this is why this detail sticks with me after all these years.  If you're reading this and wondering who Baryshnikov is then it's time to Google.  

As a freshmen chemistry major, I had planned on being a pharmacist.  But Dr. Watson and I talked often and he liked to ask if I really wanted to count pills for the rest of my life.  I would always laugh but eventually when I took technical writing classes I really started to wonder if I was being led down a different path.  I had just finished up Organic Chemistry class for the semester when I went to Dr. Watson and asked him what he thought about me being a technical writer instead of going to pharmacy school.  He loved that idea.  He especially liked the idea of me writing laboratory research.  So we talked for about an hour and during that conversation I became convinced that was my new path and so it was.

Fast forward to the end of my junior year, I received a call from Dr. Watson.  Alcoa had called him and asked him to recommend a student to work for them for the summer.  They wanted a chemistry student who could do some technical writing for their laboratories and their engineers.  Dr. Watson recommended me.  So that next week I interviewed with one of their plant supervisors and shortly after that interview I started working at Alcoa.  

That summer I learned so much about working for a large cooperation.  Most of the employees there at the time were my parents age.  So at times I was getting fatherly and motherly advice from every direction.  When the summer was over, Alcoa offered me a permanent job.  I wasn't really expecting that but since it worked out well with my class schedule I accepted.  I stayed at Alcoa for 2 years before the company had a major layoff.  The layoff took almost 1000 jobs and mine was one of them since seniority mattered in layoffs at Alcoa.  I was fortunate that my manager at the time arranged for me to work 2 more months then get a severance package.  So I interviewed quickly at Systematics Information Services in Little Rock, Arkansas.  I was hired and started at Systematics 1 week after I left Alcoa.  Systematics had an entire technical writing department.  Forty plus writers all in one department documenting all the different banking software that they sold at the time.  I started working there at their corporate office in June of 1990.  Coincidently, Rick started working for Systematics in June of 1990 also but he was placed at one of their data centers in a different state.  Several years later he was transferred to Little Rock where he met me.

I've heard it said that it's sometimes easier to see God in our rear view mirror than the windshield.  I can testify to how true that is when I look back over all of the moments and all of the people God wove into my life to set me on the path HE wanted.

5 Signs that Christmas Was Coming When I was a Kid

 

I grew up in the 70s & 80s. As a southerner, I spent weeks praying for snow. The moment my Halloween costume came off, I started praying for those beautiful, intricate flakes. Snow was rare in my hometown of Malvern, Arkansas. But I still prayed and I do remember having many snow prayers answered when I was growing up. A white Christmas was always on the top of my Christmas wish list but so were many other things. Now that I have children of my own, I realize how many special moments that I looked forward to as a child. Here are the 5 signs that Christmas was coming when I was a kid:

Christmas Catalogs

The day that the JCPenney's Christmas catalog arrived at our house was a day of pure delight.  My sister and I would go through that catalog page by page circling with different colored pens what we wanted.  We both dreamed big and circled far more things than our tiny house could have possibly held but I don't think we ever truly thought we would get what we circled.  We just enjoyed the wishful hope of circling toy after toy.

Christmas Decorations on Main Street

Malvern National Bank always kicked off the holiday season by putting a large Santa Claus in their window.  Actually, several of the stores on Main Street had large Santas in their windows over the years but I seemed to always notice the banks first.  The lamp posts that ran up and down Main Street were also decorated with Christmas greenery and ornaments.

Gaudy Christmas Decorations at Grandmother's House

My grandmother knew how to decorate for Christmas.  She had so many decorations that she hid all year long.  But once Thanksgiving was over she had us help her pull out all of her decorations and up they went.  She decorated doorways with plastic holly leaves and huge red poinsettia.  Her tree was always huge and had more tiny elf ornaments than you could count.  She also loved what my husband now calls decapitated Santa heads as ornaments on her tree.  You couldn't walk through her house without seeing some kind of Christmas decoration.  Yes.  She went way overboard.  Yes.  Many of her decorations were just plain gaudy.  But I sure have fond memories of those overboard, gaudy decorations heralding in the holiday season.

Christmas Parades

Malvern may be a small town but they always had big Christmas parades that my family went to every year.  I can remember being so excited as we waited on that last Christmas float...Santa Claus.  Everyone lined up on Main Street just to watch the parade.  Since Main Street ran the length of the town, there were always big crowds at the parade.  I can still remember being held up just to see floats when I was little.

Nativity Scenes

Nativity scenes were all over town especially those plastic, light up ones.  A few years ago my sister had her husband build her a stable and wanted to put one of the plastic, light up nativity scenes in it to display. I helped her look all over for one and as soon as one showed up in a store it sold before we could get to it. Those things are HOT ticket items now.  When we were growing up, they were everywhere and they were cheap!  

Christmas today isn't heralded in by store catalogs any longer.  Christmas lists are now emailed.  Most of the towns I've lived in since growing up don't decorate very much for Christmas.  Some of my grandmother's Christmas decorations were passed on to me and my cousins.  Truthfully....I believe I have a little gaudy Christmas in me.  Christmas parades are still heralding in the holiday and for the ones I've attended Santa Claus is always the last and best float.  Nativity scenes are still popular.  So much so that finding a plastic, light up nativity scene may require a large squad of people canvassing stores in multiple cities.  Even though many Christmas traditions have changed since I was growing up, I'm thankful that taking time to focus on Christ's birth is still the best way to herald in the holiday season. 

“Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall 
call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.” Matthew 1:23

We're Almost There

If you drive over to The Stables, you're likely to believe our house is finished.....from the outside it certainly looks finished.  The last couple of weeks the crews have really moved quickly.  In fact, the tile and hardwood flooring crew, Mr. Diaz, worked over 12 hour days 7 days a week.  I asked Freddie, the crew leader, if he ever takes a day off and he smiled and said, "Not yet."  Monday afternoon Freddie's crew finished up the brick pavers in my garage entryway, laundry room, and powder room.  They also finished up all customer tiled showers, bathrooms, kitchen backsplashes and hardwood floors throughout the house.  We have a checklist of things yet to do on the house but the house looks so close to being complete that we are really getting excited.  Here are a few sneak peek photos....pardon the sawdust in some photos: 😀

Kitchen

Kitchen (Appliances coming soon)

Laundry Room (Brick Pavers)

Master Bathroom (Mirrors coming soon)

Living Room (pardon the wood...rock is still drying)

Dining Room Entrance

Appliances, quarter round, mirrors, fans, and a few lights and then touch ups here and there.   We had our landscaping done a couple weeks ago and we've been watering our grass and plants on a rigid schedule ever since.  So moving into the house will make that schedule much easier.  More photos to come as move in day draws near....  

Building New Memories

COVID19 hit right in the middle of the building of our dream home.  So I haven't written an update on our house progress in a very long time.  I have been cleaning out every square inch of our current house and have packed about 100 boxes.  By the time the movers get here, I want the movers to just load boxes and a few pieces of furniture.  I've sold a LOT of furniture and a lot of tools and so much more.  My mother keeps saying I'm not going to have anything left if I keep selling stuff but I so don't want to move a lot of stuff.  We have lived in this house 15 years and it's been a great house with so many wonderful memories.  But we are ready to move on to our next house of memories.  Our kids are almost grown.  Luke is about to graduate from college.  Sarah is about to graduate from high school.   Jonah is about to start high school.  So we are ready for a new adventure.

Rick came up with the idea to leave a treasure chest hidden in our attic.  Something for the new home owners to find and open and learn about this house's previous owners.  So we each contributed to the treasures inside.  I added some family Christmas photo cards we had made from several Christmases as well as a Santa light up & a letter to the new homeowners.  Here is a look at the letter I left for the new homeowners:

Dear New Homeowners,

Our family moved into this house 3 weeks after our youngest son, Jonah Richard, was born.  Our oldest son, Luke Thomas, was 6 years old and our daughter, Sarah Catherine, was 2 years old.   We’ve had so many adventures in this house:

• All 3 of our kids made Jesus the boss of their lives in this house and were later baptized at our church.
• Birthday, Christmas and New Year’s Eve celebrations with family & friends 
• Banjo, Flute, Guitar, Saxophone, and a Trombone have all been played on this house’s porches.  If we could have drug the piano onto our porch, it would have joined the nightly show.  But alas the piano was played often inside this house.
• Nightly “Buggler Idol” competitions (nicknamed by Rick) where our kids performed a song, dance or other talent.
• Monopoly games where siblings just wouldn’t admit they were broke.
• RISK Board games that lasted over several days
• Snow days where we drove our kids all over the yard in a sled pulled behind our 4 wheeler
• Snake sightings in the yard that resulted in Jonah screaming and running faster than we had ever seen him run.  In his defense, it was a rather large copper head.
• Wii tournaments, XBOX tournaments & countless number of King’s Corner card games were played.

Enjoy the Memories & Be Blessed,

Rick & Amanda Wagner

Now on to the new memories....here is the first sneak peak of our new house.  

Inside photos to come soon!

From the Ground Up

Walt Disney once said, "You can design and create, and build the most wonderful place in the world. But it takes people to make the dream a reality."  In the last several weeks a lot of progress has been made on our house and a lot of different people have certainly made that happen....from foundation guys to framing crew...these guys work hard.  It took weeks for our house to finally make it to the front of the line for these guys.  The rain and general bad weather had thrown off everyone's schedule but once they got started they have worked continuously.  I did laugh one day when after weeks of hearing how they don't work in rain I drove out to the property and there they were working in the snow.  

Framing and Paint Colors

So far the framing of our house has been the most fun to watch.  As soon as they finish framing, we'll do a walk through with the cabinet maker and electrician.  We've driven all over the Bryant area trying to find just the right siding color.  At first we were going to go with an all brick house but because of our porch the builder recommended that we not have brick above the porch on the top half of the house.  We didn't want to have a half and half house.  So we decided to have a brick skirt and siding on top.  I finally found a house with just the perfect color of gray.  So I took a color fan from Sherwin Williams, Behr and one from Benjamin Moore over to this house and matched one of the colors on the painted brick.  

Secret Door

When we started working with the architect, Rick had two requirements for the house. It had to have a game room and the garage had to be a 4 car garage. These are Rick's two rooms in the house and we both agreed on this stipulation. But when it came time to set aside attic space, Rick got the "brilliant" idea of hiding the entrance to the attic with a secret door that only we would know about. Honestly, I rolled my eyes and quickly said, "uhh....no." But Rick really wanted that secret door. So I told the architect who did exactly what I did but she laughed before she said, "uhhh...no." Since he didn't get his secret door, I compromised by losing my vaulted ceiling in my living room and letting him have 2 rooms upstairs that are all attic space. Our downstair's ceilings are already 10 feet tall...so I didn't think the vaulted ceiling would have given me much more.

Windows to the World

They started putting in windows today and they look beautiful. The last several weeks have been a lot of fun to watch what they get done each day and take photos. I think doors & shingles go on next and then we meet with the electrician and cabinet maker and a whole list of other people to pick our wall colors, trim colors, flooring, and so on. Thanks for following along on our journey!

Building Our Dream House

I believe Rick & I started planning and saving for our dream house the day we got married.  Over the years I've clipped more photos out of magazines of house features I liked and in the last couple of years my Pinterest board has exploded with ideas for every feature of a house that you can possibly imagine even down to cabinet door handles.  Our plan was to build our retirement home once our kids were out of college.   But about a year ago I called Alan Schrader to see if he minded sharing with me the house plan of a house he built that I loved.  On that phone call he mentioned that he was about to start building in this new gated subdivision that was going to be called "The Stables" and that most lots would be 1 or more acres.  He gave me the address to where the new subdivision would be and I drove out there immediately.  Beautiful property!  So Rick & I drove out to the property and started dreaming.

Choosing Our Builder

We decided to go with Schrader Homes as our builder.  So we met with Alan Schrader and he had us create our wish list for our dream house.  I think I worked for two straight weeks on every detail I could think of for our wish list.  Then we sent that list to the builder and he made a first draft of a contract for our dream house.  Since we didn't have a house plan Alan suggested we meet with Andra Felton, who draws up house plans.  We went through every room on the inside and even how we wanted the outside of the house to look.  Andra had the first draft of our dream home ready for our review about two weeks later.  After countless numbers of changes we finally got the house plan finished and were ready to see how much our dream was going to cost us.


Signing the Contract

Alan Schrader took our wish list and all of the features we had added to the inside and outside of our plan and wrote up all the details and the final cost.  Once we had everything in the contract we signed and waited for ground breaking day.


Waiting Patiently

In the weeks to come I'll update this blog with our progress.  I'm mainly doing this as a way for Rick & me to capture the fun we have while building.  Hopefully we will have a lot of fun and very little hassle.  Thanks for coming along with us to watch our dream house being built.