Finally!

Yep, I am finally moved into my house! I closed on the house on April 18th (my niece Madison's birthday as well as the day we had an earthquake) so it had been a little less than 6 months ;-)
I got off of work a little bit late & Mike's truck broke down so we didn't get off to a promising start. I was also kinda worried because I hadn't packed anything at Mom & Dad's. I didn't want all of my helpers getting impatient with me as I stuffed boxes & ran around like a crazy woman. I got home & my grandparents were there, ready & waiting with their truck. I know it sounds awful for me to enlist the help of my mid-eighties grandpa, but he is such a great packer, tier-downer, & he insists on helping. My grandma is a great cheerleader so we had to have her along, too. I'm not sure I've mentioned it before, but I LOVE my grandparents. They are such a source of joy & wisdom for me. My mom was a huge blessing to me because she had stuffed several boxes full for me while I was at work. I started piling up what was ready to go, they started carrying it out to grandpa's truck & a little bit later Beth & Brennan arrived to help. Caleb & Madison even got in on the action by carrying out smaller things. Moving is a terrible pain (I'm sure you can all agree!) but it was wonderful spending those few hours with my family. We got it all moved in about 3 1/2 hours. Very little of it has been situated or put away, but it's all there except for my tv & a couple of other things. I've even been staying there the last two nights. Yesterday my family went to a pioneer/harvest festival thing & I even bought a pumpkin for my front porch ;-) I'd take some pics & post them for you all but I cannot find my camera anywhere. Imagine that! I work both jobs today but I have high hope for organization & unpacking for tomorrow & Wednesday. This has been a long & ongoing process. I've been a bit exhausted & exasperated at times, but the Lord has been so good to provide just what I've needed all along the way. I can't thank Him enough for the people in my life - my family, Mike, Virginia - who have been so faithful to encourage & help me along the way. I'm so blessed.

The Official House Update

As of today here is the rundown:

• the bedroom is DONE! Except for some touch up painting which shouldn't take more than five minutes.
• the living room is DONE! Touch up painting note applies here, too.
• the bathroom is DONE! All we need to do is reset the toilet, reinstall the shower door & then I need to clean.
• the dining room just needs the woodwork washed, the floor stripped & waxed.
• the kitchen is an utter disaster. We'll label it the current work in progress. ;-)

And for the BIG NEWS - I hope to move in a big way on Saturday! It's gonna be an interesting process because we won't be able to start until about 3 pm because I have to work my second job. I'm excited; I can't wait! It's gonna be a major mess but oh well! Roxi, I hope you're ready for some chaos when you come visit :-)

Terrible Tuesday Curse Broken!

I thought things were all lined up for Terrible Tuesday #4. The day did not start out in a promising way - I woke up for work WAY late. As in I had about 10 minutes to get ready & I was still late. Not good. Thank God for a kind boss. After work I headed over to my house to check in with the sewer repair guys. I have to say that I totally do not envy them. Not a very fun job at all. The men that were working for me were so nice. They let me hover & ask all kinds of questions about what they were doing & what I could do to help prevent this from happening again. Basically I have to totally replace the sewer pipes with plastic or cut the trees down. I don't think I'm going to do either at this point. So I'm going on a strict regimen of Root Kill down the drain. Anyway, they dug down to the pipe & removed a patch (evidence of previous work), put the snake thing in a pulled out roots that were woven together so tightly that they looked like a carpet. What a mess! I'm so grateful they were able to get it all cleaned out. I was a little anxious about the bill. I could only imagine it was going to be huge because they had come out to work on it two different days & they had to dig, etc. I was pleasantly surprised when the bill was only $335. Thank God - a direct answer to prayer with that amount. I had tried to brace myself for the worst because everyone kept telling me it was going to be a very painful bill. I am going to remember who I called for service this time so I make sure that if I have a problem again, I can be a repeat customer.
I am cautiously hopeful that the Terrible Tuesday curse is broken ;-)

This & That

Wow, that's a little picture! I uploaded it from my cell phone. I'm sure you're all dying to know that I cut my hair. It seems like kind of a dramatic cut to me. It's as short as I've had it in years & I'm wondering why I waited SO LONG! Excuse the expression on my face; I don't know why I'm looking so weird.

Recent Happenings...

First of all, let me say that I "heart" craigslist! I have a couch & matching chair that I inherited with my house. They are nice I suppose but not the style or color that I like. Plus they are not super comfortable. The chair isn't too bad, but the couch cushions like to slide right out from under you. It's not exactly relaxing to need to wrestle your pillow back under you every 10 minutes. So, I took some pics the other night & posted them for sale on craigslist. I've never tried to sell anything online before & frankly, I have never understood the phenomenon that is ebay. I didn't have high hopes that anyone would be interested, but I could have sold them three times over! I had them sold within 48 hours of posting. We still haven't ironed out pick up details & I don't have cash in hand yet, but I have 2 other buyers lined up if buyer #1 falls through. Yippee!
Now for the bad news. It would seem that my streak of Terrible Tuesdays has not exactly ended. The first Terrible Tuesday my car's computer went kaput. The second Terrible Tuesday I hit a deer. Last Tuesday was a Terrific Tuesday - I worked just one job, worked on my house for a little bit, then met my sister & the kids for dinner at Fazoli's. Yum. Then we spent the evening at their house - went for a walk, played some badminton, got the kiddos cleaned up, read to, tucked in, & then Beth & I had some chatting time. I've really missed those relaxing catch up moments for us. It was a great day. Then came Terrible Tuesday #3. I went to my house after work & Mike helped me get the lawn mower going & I tackled the yard. I'm ashamed to admit that it had been about 6 weeks since I had mowed. It was hard work, let me tell you & a mistake that I do not intend to repeat. While I was mowing Mike went to Lowes to get some stuff we needed. He forgot his wallet. Oops. He came back empty handed realizing that he left his wallet at his apartment (about 10 miles away) & my fueled needed light was flashing. Thank God he didn't get stranded on the side of the road! So then we decided to start hanging the crown molding in the bathroom. Thanks to lovely Virginia the bathroom is now all painted & just needs this last bit of trim to complete it. Yay! We got the crown all hung except for one piece that I still need to buy. We took a little break (by this time it's about 9:30 & we still haven't stopped for dinner). I went to the bathroom & noticed a major toilet malfunction. As in, it wasn't flushing & I could hear water running somewhere. Mike ran to the basement & told me not to come look. I went anyway. I shouldn't have. Water was coming through the floor. Say it with me people, NOT GOOD! Thankfully we spent some time rearranging things in the basement this last weekend & so nothing important got wet, but yuck! We realized that there was obviously an obstruction in the drain & since the water couldn't go down it had ruined the seal on the toilet. We went back upstairs, removed the shower door, removed the toilet & put it in the shower (it looks quite comical) & then stared at the pipe in the floor that was full of water all the way up to the rim. I wanted to scream. I wanted to cry. I wanted to go to bed & not get up until noon on Wednesday. Instead I decided to listen to Mike. He thought it would be a good idea for me to go get gas in my car & get some take-out for our dinner while he went & retrieved one of his many tools from his parent's house that would allow him to snake down the pipe & see what might be clogging it. Say it with me again, YUCK! That's what we did & by the time I got back he had already run the snake & come up with a big wad of little tree roots. I called the city yesterday & they checked their end of the sewer (of course it was fine) & I have some people scheduled to come check out my end tomorrow. It's a blessing I'm not actually living in the house yet b/c I would have no toidy & no shower. I'm praying that it's not a tremendously expensive repair. That will make me want to scream, cry, & go to bed early ;-)
Since this was the Third Terrible Tuesday hopefully now the trend will come to an end!

Toyota Trauma

Recently my car has been having a very hard time. A couple of weeks ago the check engine light came on & it started shifting really hard. My brother (who is an engineer for Toyota) instructed me to take the gas cap off & re-tighten it and also to remove the battery cable for 30 minutes to reset the computer. It worked like a charm. For a week. Then it started having the same problem. So I took it in to have the codes read. I took it to the garage where we get all of our company vehicles maintenanced so I know the mechanic fairly well. He gave me a call & delivered the bad news - my car needed a new computer. Yikes! So then I hauled it into the dealership (a place I hate doing business b/c of past experiences). Turns out, the computer was still under warranty. Thank God! I'm pretty sure a repair like that would have sent my finances reeling.
Fast forward to last night. I have been experiencing excellent performance from my little car - just like it had never had any problems. I was driving on a country road at dusk (& I'm sure you can guess what happened!). I whacked a deer. The damage is minimal - I hardly even felt the impact - but the bumper is all caved in on one side. No fun. So I called the insurance today & found out that this kind of claim is covered under comprehensive & I have no deductible! I also have rental coverage so when the work gets done I won't be dependent upon everyone else to get me to & fro.
These little difficulties are a bit trying, but I have to say that the Lord has been very faithful to take care of me. Since I bought my house & have been pouring every extra penny into it I tend to get a bit more disgruntled when things like this come up. He has definitely covered my every need & I'm so grateful!

It's A Small World!

Yesterday as I was sitting in the choir loft at the beginning of the Sunday morning service I couldn't help but notice some visitors sitting with one our church's families. There was an older couple & a lady sitting there with them. I did a double take because the lady sitting there looked just like Miss Wagner, my freshman speech teacher at Northland. Surely not, I thought. Why in the world would she be visiting my church & how would she possibly know the family she was sitting with? After the service I worked my way over to shake her hand & sure enough, it was Miss Wagner! We had a great time catching up for a few minutes when she told me about how the Lord had moved her from Northland to a counseling ministry in Denver. I got to tell her about how the Lord had led me to a job in pharmacy. It turns out that her dad is the pastor of the church that the family in my church had previously attended in Michigan (did you get that?). How funny. I was just thinking the other day that I had such great memories of my time at Northland but that it was very sad that it is geographically so far away that I don't get up there to visit & I never just bump into anyone from there. I'm sure the Lord was smiling, knowing that just a couple of days later I would get to see Miss Wagner!