Week 6 - Where is a good pair of ruby slippers when you need 'em????

Rain, rain, rain!  Not just a few tepid drops oh no...that would be far too easy.  We're talking thunderstorms like you've never seen with thunder that rolls on indefinitely, lightening so bright you'll need sunglasses at midnight and torrents, rivers, streams, floods and any other word for rain you can think of!  Yet through it all, we are blessed.  Why?  Because we are  here...this is our dream... and we live it proudly!

July 16th - house #1 arrival!  Yay!  This ladies and gentlemen is what 3 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths looks like...on the ground.  Yet optimism (or is it hope) springs eternal.  One day.....

Why on the ground you ask?

One word...PERMIT!  Still don't have one, don't know when we'll get one. 

We admit to flagging spirits...a house here waiting for willing hands which are currently tied by bureaucracy.  Even our workers seem to be slowing down.

On top of that we're getting a first real taste of monsoon season and what a doozie it is!

Witness the before picture:

Idyllic in an admittedly rustic sort of way....

Then many kabooms, unweldy gusts and much watershed later....man down, man down!

Let's rephrase that! "Men down, men down!"

The victims?  Our "kitchen" and the newly constructed school "house" and yes for you doubters they were BOLTED down. 

Soggy and waterlogged as unrescued artwork, we  wondered just what we were thinking!

And yet... no rainstorm is complete without a rainbow and a truly spectacular sunset.  Reassured by the beauty surrounding us we regrouped and re energized.

Our workers perked up...

And showed us rain or shine, that we go on!

 A school house absent the "house" became a stage and play area....

 With performances that admittedly could use honing but brought immeasurable joy...

 And at the end of it all, as we walked off into the sunset, we realized that rain or shine we still believe and our dream lives on.

Today's blog is dedicated to the newest little addition to our family.  Congratulations to Randy and Jen who have just welcomed a beautiful little girl.  Ironically, the newest gift from above was delivered to us exactly one year after we learned of our father's death.  A reminder to us that even in times of great sadness...life can bring us joy.

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Dream what you want to dream;
go where you want to go;
be what you want to be,
because you have only one life
and one chance to do all the things you want to do.

RIP Daddy - you will forever be in our hearts.