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!

Guten Tag!

This summer has been a lot different for me. Generally I've taken lots of little trips or a few bigger trips & done lots of fun things. Not so much this year. The summer of '08 will be remembered as The Summer of the House. And we're still not done! But progress is being made...gotta remember that.

Anyway, I was feeling kind of restless the other week here at work so I started searching Kayak.com for tickets to Vienna. The prices were outrageous & the layovers were like 23 hours long. Definitely a no-go. The restless feeling hit me again last week. So I decided to hit Kayak again & maybe change up the dates a bit. Eureka! I found some flights for about half of what they were before (& about $400 less than I paid last year) & the flight plans had 2 layovers that were less than 2 hours each. I sent the info to Missy & waited to hear back from her.

I got to talk to Missy via her cool Vonage phone on Saturday & we decided the dates were good & the layovers should be workable. So I head out to Vienna on Tuesday, October 28th! I'm so excited! The Lord has provided me with another opportunity to visit Missy & Kai & He also provided a fabulous deal on the ticket. He really does want us to have abundant lives. I sometimes get caught up in thinking that He is glad to meet my needs but that's really all He's interested in. How wrong is that! The Lord continually blesses exceeding abundantly above all I ask or think.

I will be flying from Indy to Chicago on United, from Chicago to Dusseldorf on Lufthansa, & then from Dusseldorf to Vienna on Air Berlin. And then the way home is the same just in reverse ;-)

Gotta see if the library has any German tutorials on CD. Gotta know how to say, "where's my gate?" & "where do I get my boarding pass?"

Roadtrip!

This last weekend Mike & I headed out on a little road trip. His older sister Jackie, lives in Quincy, Illinois. Since Mike & Stew have sold their house, Mike is trying to do a little down-sizing in the furniture department. He has a really nice entertainment center armoire thing that Jackie really wanted & Jackie just happened to have an old car that Mike wanted to have as a gas-saving option (since he normally drives a big Dodge Ram). So, we rented a car transporter, hitched it up, & headed out. We arrived in Quincy without incident, made the swap, and headed over to Home Depot to do a little looking since we don't have one in our town. My oh my, how my life has changed. I used to hate going to stores like Home Depot & Lowe's. Now I'm getting excited when I visit a town that has a new home improvement store. We wandered around in there forever (incidentally, any of my readers have any idea of how I could make my own roman blinds? At over $100 a pop, I'm doubting I will ever buy them). Anyway, after H.D. we headed over the The Olive, a FABULOUS Greek restaurant. I enjoyed a Greek salad & moussaka. Just divine, let me tell you. Jackie drove us all around Quincy & I was totally impressed with the lovely old homes. I thought we had some nice old houses here, but they are nothing compared to the brick lovelies we passed by. I love old homes & I could have spent all day walking around the neighborhoods. We hit the road a short time later. We were both a little nervous about pulling the car, but Mike did a great job of driving & navigating gas stations. He has a dvd player in his truck (it's really cool with a flip out screen & everything) so I was able to watch a movie on the way home. I kinda made fun of him for buying it but now I have to say that it's really a great thing to have! We pulled back into town about 2 a.m. - a bit of a long day but we had a good time together & thank God for the journey mercies.

Gettin' Together

Each year there is a group of us Northland Girls that tries to get together for a few days. This year we were down in numbers (usually there are at least 7 or 8 of us with about 14 little boys running around). Even though we didn't have every one with us we still managed to have some great times. My camera went kablooey so this is the only pic I have (thanks Dellie for e-mailing it!). We slept in, went for walks, talked, ate, baked pies, shopped, talked, made homemade pizza, talked, & prayed. What a precious few days! We missed you, Chrissy, Rachel, Becca, & Angie! Here's looking forward to next year & praising the Lord for godly friends!

House Pictures Part One

This is me at the bank right before my closing. That little piece of paper in my hands is my down payment/closing costs check. Yowzas! It seemed like a biggie. Bye bye savings!

After the closing, Mom & I headed over to my house. I know it looks like I'm flexing my guns for you but I'm really just holding the key up.

This was the first step in renovating - removing the old wall paper. Beth & Brennan stopped in for a few minutes to help me peel.

Mike was on duty in the living room. We both took a couple of vacation days so that we could work hard on getting some stuff started.

I was trying to teach Caleb how to use a scraper.

My dad bought a Sam's Club cake to celebrate my house purchase. I promise you, any little occasion & that man is headed to Sam's to buy a cake. He loves 'em!

This is the living room after it was painted. The color of the walls is Lindhurst Mushroom & the ceiling is Quail Egg. I'm doing the same colors in the dining room since the area is so open. Thank you, Virginia for all your hard work!

Here's Mike standing in the doorway of the bedroom. I chose Cranberry for the walls, Flax for the ceiling, & Honeysuckle Bloom for the trim. Since I took this picture we have hung crown molding & it looks great! All that is left to do is touch up some paint, do some caulking, & clean. Yay! Thanks Mike, for all of your hard work!

I'm a little bummed because I thought I actually had a few more pics than this. Oh well, there will be more to come! We've started on the bathroom now so hopefully soon I'll have some finished pics of it!