Cullums Under Construction

Happy Advent, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all!

The year 2010 has brough the Cullums "Under Construction".

September we began building our new house. The house is located on 102nd Ave in Seminole Florida about 5 minutes from our current house and 1 minute from Kyle's parents. It is the same land where Kyle lived with his parents from elementary school through high school. We are trying to do a lot of the work ourselves so we anticipate completion to be around Thanksgiving 2011. It has been an entire family project with Kyle, myself, all 3 of our children, Kyle's parents and Kyle's brother and cousin helping out. Isaac and Eli have loved playing in the dirt and riding on the backhoe with Grandpa Cullum. We are extremely grateful to have this opportunity to build a home that meets our needs and helps us continue with our goals for our family.

Kyle rode a 100 mile bike ride with his brother Sam in October and I am in the process of training for a half marathon on January 8th with my sister in law Amber Cullum. Both the rides and runs have pushed us past our limits but its always good to complete something you never thought you could.

We are so grateful that Florida Electrical Service continues to find work this year. We continue to hear of more and more construction based companies down sizing and closing in PInellas County. Kyle, David and Steve have worked long hours this year in hopes of continuing to find work for the company.

In May I was approached to direct our homeschool community Classical Conversations Largo. I took on the job and have been busy throughout the year making sure our school days run well and the community is healthy. It has been a lot of work and forced me to continue to strengthen my weak areas of leadership. We continue to be so thankful for the Classical Conversations community and how it holds us accountable to academic excellence and has brought great people into our lives.

Prema at 11 years old started middle school in the fall. She is in a self contained special education classroom for students with multiple disabilities. She remains in 2 joining classrooms most of the day and is fully supervised whenever she is mainstreamed with other students. In the mornings her curriculum focuses on academics and in the afternoons she is learning life skills. Prema is loving school this year. The new environment brings some challenges as she is the only deaf student and therefore a full time interpreter is required. On the positive side she is functioning at the same level as her peers so she is able to be instructed in small groups providing her the socialization she craves. Prema started her 2 year braces treatment in January 2010 and got her first set of glasses in September 2010. She is looking very mature.

The boys have kept us very very busy this year with their endless creativity and energy. Isaac at 5 years old continues to do well in his school work. He is really enjoying math this year. He is always leading Eli and other children in complex imaginary play usually pertaining to be Kings and Knights, farming, playing a Rocker baseball game, living in the land of Narnia, etc. Eli at 3 years old loves to join in Isaac's imaginary worlds as the comic relief such as the mascot at baseball games or the wild horse. Eli is still fascinated with living creatures such as bugs, insects, and other animals. He often tells us he wants a pet. He is a very deep thinker and asks us all the hard questions about faith and death.

Even though the letter seems to paint a really "beautiful" picture of our family, our character is constantly "under construction." We have 5 VERY strong willed people living together. We have been tested in our obedience, patience, acceptance, perseverance, compassion, forgiveness, kindness, orderliness, joyfulness, and faith. We pray that through the process we really are becoming beautiful for each other.

We look forward to what 2011 brings.

Blessings,
Michelle for Kyle, Prema, Isaac and Eli

Eli had been helping Kyle fill in the sides of the footer



Sam and Kyle working with the cement pump man and Chuck



Isaac proud he helped pile the wood


Prema pulling cut tree roots from the foundation sand


Eli riding with Grandpa Cullum in the Backhoe


Isaac and Prema riding on the swing in the backyard tree (interesting story we wanted to remove the tree but the city said we'd have to pay them $10,000 to remove the tree. So instead we changed up the house plans and are happier with the tree and house designs now.)



Frog Prema caught. She loves to spend time catching frogs and lizards and tame them to sit on her shoulder or arm.



Dirty faces we see often these days!