Here is my brother-in-law Tim Powell's website.

http://www.genesisch.com/home2.html

My brother-in-law, Claude Bethea, RallyPoint & Transformyx

Here is Claude Bethea introducing his new product called RallyPoint on demo.com . Sit back and enjoy the live video.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid10043444001/bclid14358335001/bctid14536676001

http://www.transformyx.com/

My life and places I lived.. this sums it up quite nicely!

Try to keep up with all the places we lived!

We moved so many times in my life. Believe it when I say I am grateful. I am Grateful to God first for my eventful life and awesome family. Second, I am grateful to my parents for all the wonderful places we lived and people we met through out our lives.

My older sister and I were born in Antananarive, Madagascar(1966 & 1968).

We moved to Barstow California where my youngest sister was born.(1969)

I began my elementary years in Port Tobacco, Maryland(1970-1972).

Our parents moved us to Quito Ecuador(1972-1980). I went to Academia Cotopaxi 1st-3rd grade. I changed schools and went to Alliance Academy for my 4th-6th grade. Those years are etched in my life so deeply! I will never forget the plane ride as we left Quito..we all had tears to fill an ocean! We were after all, leaving a beautiful place to live in little town of Scott, Louisiana. To say the least, we were horrified!(sorry fellow Cajuns..extreme culture shock was more like it!) I have nothing against Cajuns.. my husband is part Cajun on his Grandmothers side(The Brignac family)

We moved to Scott, Louisiana the summer of 1980. I attended Scott Middle School 7-8th grade.(1980-1982). I then attended Acadiana High School(1982-1986).

After High School I Moved to Natchitoches, Louisiana Aug.1986 (Band Scholarship from NSU)worked on Early Childhood degree. I met & married first husband 1987. Oldest beautiful daughter born July 1988. Left NSU, Natchitoches, la 1991.

Moved to Vacaville California, then Fairfield(Travis AFB), then on to Roseville, Ca(after divorce) I picked up Educ.classes in Sacramento, CA. (Sacramento State Univ.)I began my career in teaching. Worked as Pres-K teacher with Children's World Learning Center(1991-1994).

Moved to Rowlett, Texas(1994-1995). Continued to work for Children's World.

I then moved to Covington, Louisiana. Worked for Cedarwood Elem.School teaching 3-4 yr. olds (1995-1997). While there I picked up more Elementary Educ. classes at Southeastern State Univ. in Hammond, La(1995-1996). I was in an accident Aug. 1996 that kept me out of work till July 1997. I began working for Kinder Haus Montessori July 1996- March 1998. I was admitted to hospital for second kidney stone attack and diagnosed with ITP.(March 1998) After months of steroid (prednisone nightmare) and extremely low platelets, I had a splenectomy (July 1998), then began my medical career. I have been in remission from ITP since! Thank you LORD!

In August 1998 I began taking NCMA classes at Delta College in Mandeville, La. I finished my NCMA externship in the OB/GYN office of Dr. Albert Tydings. I went on to work there while his staff was on vacation.

The summer of 1999 I found part time work and moved back to Natchitoches, La. I worked part time as a National Certified Medical Assistant(NCMA...NOT CNA!!! people get confused on that one!) and went back to school full time at NSU. After changing my major 3 times back in 1996, I decided to go back and finish my Degree. I graduated May 2000 with a Bachelor's Degree in General Studies and Minor in Spanish. I loved college and probably could have continued to become a professional student if....

Anyhow, I continued to work for Women's Health in Natchitoches after graduation. I met my awesome husband online Nov. 2001. We met in person February 23rd, 2002. His family came up to visit Natchitoches that day, thanks to his Grandma Norma! We have been together ever since. We had Emily, July 2003. She was born very premature. Needless to say, I became a stay-at-home mom.

We moved to Prairieville the summer of 2005. (Found a place two days before Katrina hit and moved the night before Rita hit.. we camped out at Wendy's house that day!)

Yet another move! We were forced to move back to apartment living in Baton Rouge, La April 2006. After 2 years of house hunting we finally made the move to our HOME SWEET HOME in Walker, La. We have been through 1 major tornado(same day we received the keys to our home May 15, 2008), hurricane Gustov Sept.1st and the famous SNOW DAY Dec. 11, 2008. We lost some trees, branches, siding on our garage, and received a new roof. Bless our home!

And as they say.. the rest is HISTORY.. in the making! God Bless those of you who read till the end! AMEN

(Family please correct me on my dates if I posted wrong.)

Cats, cats and more kittens.

Here are some of our feline visitors. There are plenty more next door. The neighbor kittens are starting to roaming our property. The cats run away when we go outside so I try to take pictures from indoors. The only one that stayed around was the little orange kitten. He followed the neighbor from the grocery store behind us. She went inside and the kitty saw us in the yard and of course ran to us. Poor thing was covered with fleas and miserable. I called Walker animal control and they found him a new home.

We have 3 cats of our own and just added another Siamese Oct. 18th. He was playing in his cage with a string. The SPCA of Livingston had their adoption day at Walmart and there he was waiting for us to pick him up. He was approx. 12 wks and very lively. He wasn't afraid at all. We named him Shiloh. He has had a clean bill of health so far and growing bigger everyday!

Miss Kitty our Himalayan is approx. 17 years old and hanging in there. She had some
close calls but seems stronger the last couple weeks. She will be with us for a little while longer. She tolerates the kitten but isn't ready to warm up to him.

Kitty our short haired cat has put on weight but is doing fine. She is just as friendly as ever. She also tolerates Shiloh. She mostly enjoys watching him play.

Tux our black and white cat above finally found himself a buddy. He and Shiloh enjoy wrestling and chasing one another.

Thank God for our warm and cuddly friends. Enjoy!

Tiff. Nicole

Closed on home, Inconveniences, Hurricane season.

We closed on our house May 15, 2008. I was thinking today how happy and blessed I feel to have our own place! I finally took down 5 out of 18 blinds on our windows. I am tired of the dust that collects on those things! They came with the house so they were pretty dusty. I am still looking for curtains to keep out the light in our bedroom. I put up temporary curtain for now.

The house hasn't disappointed us yet. We haven't had an major problems (Thank You Jesus!). We did have 4 small leaks. One leak came from a vent that dropped water into the vent pipe. It was taped up temporarily and didn't do any damage. Two leaks came from the sink pipe coming off. We are not sure why or how it came unscrewed. There was no damage either. The 4th leak came from our refrigerator water line. I woke up to a puddle of water near the master bed room. The neighbor helped me close that faucet behind the refrig. We aren't using the water or ice maker till we buy another water filter. I hear nightmares of the things that happen to first time home buyers. We have been blessed to overcome our small inconveniences.

The day we closed on our home will be remember forever! It was an exciting day and ended with a scary tornado passing nearby. We lost a ton of limbs that hit our gutters and broke cable and electricity lines. The sky went black and it was only 4pm. I remember signing papers with our security company using our cell phone lights. The electricity was scheduled to come on the next day but the storm slowed that down. Ryan was moving some items from the van when the storm began. He remembers pulling out of the covered garage and then realized how bad the weather was and backed up just in time for a huge limb to fall right in his path. The radio on our van hasn't worked since the storm! The security guys girlfriend called him on his cell warning him that a tornado was nearby. That is when we decided to look outside and saw limbs everywhere. The house held up fine during the storm other than losing some gutters. We officially moved in May 17th. My family and my sisters family helped us move most of our stuff that day. Ryan and I made another trip to clean the place and two trips to our storage unit in Prairieville. We still have items in boxes and realized we need to have another garage sale this coming December.

The past hurricane season left us with a windblown shingles, trees down or split in half, fence bent from fallen trees and the covered garage had siding blown away. We are blessed to have a new roof on both the work shop and house as of Sept. 2008. We had to put more out of pocket money to buy 30 year architectural shingles from Owens Corning. They back up their product if there is any defect what so ever and they will reimburse you for the problem. We had some aesthetic(black glue that leaked outside on some of the shingles) issues on  some of the shingles and they reimbursed us to live with it. They mentioned that it won't affect the performance of the shingles. After spending more money then we had this past hurricane season we feel very blessed to have received this reimbursement.

We have much to do to make this home more comfortable. We would like to organize the workshop so it is more useful instead of a place to store our unwanted treasures. As they say one mans junk is another mans treasure! We hope to sell these treasures and make some extra cash for much needed items around our home.

My next post will show pictures of our unexpected visitors and our newest member to our feline family.

Have an awesome month of November!

God Bless America! May the Best man win this Presidential Election! Please God Watch over us during this coming year! May we find comfort in YOU and You alone during this scary place in time! Amen

Tiff. Nicole

Inspection Passed..Thank You Lord!

We had the inspection Saturday 4/19/08 at 11:40 am. It passed with no major red flags! Now we are waiting to hear about the loan, going to set up a flood elevation survey and appraisal. Here are more pictures of the home. The first pictures were taken in the Fall of 2007 and ones we have taken during our visits. We will post more later in the week.

We Found OUR HOME Sweet HOME!

Here is an update on our house hunting. We are officially undercontract once again! We found a 2 bedroom 2 bath home on 1/2 acre!

This home was a 3 bedroom and 1 bath. The original owners opened up the master bedroom to make it larger so now it is a 2 bedrm home. It has a nice size master bedroom though. We hope to build in the carport or add on to the right of the house and make another room if I ever become pregnant and/or have a boy, or if we ever have to move... otherwise we are fine with this house being a 2 bedroom. It is 1502 sq. ft.

There is plenty of room in the master bedroom for a nursery. The house is very spacious, almost completely updated, and passed inspection that was done by another buying that couldn't get the loan for the place. It has a detached 800 sq ft concrete foundation workshop with electricity, phone, old woodburing fireplace in both the workshop and living room.
There is a one car garage in front of the workshop and an attached shed next to the workshop. The landscape is beautiful and there are mature trees and shrubs on the lot in front and back of home. The home has central air/heat, updated appliances, built in GE microwave, Jenn-air cook top stove/grill/oven, fairly new refrigerator and compact Kenmore dishwasher.

Almost all windows are mirrored and have special filter screens, flooring through out home is ceramic tile, and wood laminate in 2nd bathroom. NO Carpet.. THANK YOU JESUS ! Master bedroom has 2 separate closets, a large closet in bathroom, a extra long shower, 2 separate vanity areas, an attached laundry room that can be closed in, and an extra counter to fold clothes. There is a door in the laundry room that exits outdoors to the right side of the house and thankfully the water heater is also in the laundry room instead of in the attic!

The 2nd bathroom needs some updating. It has a separate old fashion wall heater, original tub/shower, sink /toilet, and a good size linen closet. There is a hall closet that is deep and has shelves. The duct work looks new, ac and heat exchange unit are 5 yrs old and roof looks good. Will know about those items when I read the last inspection report and compare it with the new one we will have done.

We are getting an flood elevation certificate done so we won't have to pay too much flood insurance. It is currently in an AE flood but next year Fema maps show that it will be a B area. The neighbors to our right pay about 400.00 and the seller pays 700.00 without having an elevation done. I forgot to mention the house is about 50 years old and is quite charming. It is made of brick, wood, and some vinlysiding where they expanded the bathroom/laundry room.

This is the 5th house we made an offer on and only 2nd one that was accepted out of them all. The first one wouldn't lower the price when we found out the addition was done very poorly and would need major work done on the roof and entire room. It also didn't have the major appliances, would have needed new flooring due to Ryan's allergies, had a very small masterbath, no landscaping, and smaller lot than this one.

The house is inside city limits of Walker, Louisiana , (Livingston Parish) but considered a rural tract( no subdivision). We will be applying for homestead exeption(only taxed on the first 7500), getting a grant(free money!) to pay for closing costs and 100% finance by Rural Development with a one time 2%(of the loan) guaranty fee which is financed instead of the usual monthly PMI(Private mortgage Insurance). There are a mix of older and newer homes in this established neighborhood.

We are excited once again! We will be ordering the inspection, flood elevation, and termite inspection.

If all goes well with the inspection and closing process we should be in our home May 28th, 2008!

God is GOOD! Will keep posting as I find out more.

Tiffany Nicole