Great News!

I just received the call today that I will be working with the Shepherd Community Center as the K4 aide.  It's only 20 hours a week and working with little ones is always the most fun!  Now I just need to find the time to get CPR certified before next Tuesday (along with moving into my house!)

Here's their website if you'd like to check the many great things they do in the community!

Senior Pictures

 Our niece, Lexington is a senior this year and Ana managed (in typical Ana fashion) to worm her way into the photo shoot!  The pictures were great--lots of fantastic ones to choose from.  Here are the ones including Ana (the others haven't been "released" yet ;)

Blur...

Matt starts work tomorrow with an IT training session.  I'm trying to pack up our stuff in some semblance of order.  I did get a call about a job with the Shepherd Center, but they called my in-laws house--so we'll see what's happening with that.  (I believe they start school on Monday!!  I think Mitike will too.)  My kids have been asking some tough questions about birth moms and why bad things happen in the world.  We've been watching people's posts about going back overseas after their summer off--it does make us feel a little sad and left out.  This is definitely a high stress time in our lives--pray we get through it with grace and joy!

On a happy note...The owner has decided to leave several items in the house for free.  We now have everything we need for our house except a couch.

 

Quick Update...

-We close on the house this coming Wednesday.  After closing in the morning we hope to rip up all the carpet on the main floor, pry up tack bars, and begin sanding!  We're so thankful to all the family members (and a few complete strangers) that have volunteered to help get us in before school starts on Monday.
-Bought all needed appliances today at Sears.  They will be delivered in about a week. 
-We've been having gorgeous weather--amazing considering it's the end of July.  I haven't coughed once since coming back from China--the pollution had more of an affect on me than I realized!
-Canned some more pickles today.  We will have plenty of pickles, corn, and green beans for winter.  It's nice to get all this work done now and be able to pull things off the shelf/out of the freezer. 
-Did Mitike's hair in about an hour--pretty fast for me! 
We have so much to be thankful for!!

Options

Still no word on the house (they were getting another electrical quote last night)...hope to hear today.

Yesterday we went appliance shopping--just to get a feel for what we wanted.  (We hope to get the new appliances in before moving in--the fridge is from the 80's, very dirty, and the inspector stated, "It's on its way out!"--don't want it to die with all our food in it!)

It was fun.  For the past 12 years I had to take whatever I got.  When you rent, if the apartment comes with a peach and bright green leather couch, you've just got to live with it.  If you paint the walls any color but white there is a huge debate with the owner.  Here there are lots of options!  We just bought an older dining room set on Craigslist.  There are some amazing closeouts in the stores right now.  We found a mattress that I am so looking forward to sleeping on for 60% off.  (Part of my in-laws garage has become a storage area THANKS!!  We'll probably go back and get it before the sale ends.)

Sometimes there are almost too many options here, but today I am very THANKFUL.  The rest of the world often has very little variety (unless you have a lot of money).  It's nice to have a choice!

As If I Didn't Have Enough Stress In My Life...

(I already confessed to my sister-n-law!)

So I did another batch of pickles yesterday.  Because of the lack of counter space I decided to set the six jars on a doubled towel on her dining room table to cool.  When I moved them later and lifted up the towel what did I see?  Six WHITE circles (on her golden oak table).  First we tried a baking soda paste, then salt and water, then toothpaste, and finally an olive oil and vinegar.  NOTHING WORKED.  I was panicking--was I going to have to refinish her table?   Then we found another idea on the Internet.  Take an old t-shirt and iron it on top of the spots on medium heat.  It worked--circles completely gone and what sweet relief! 

-still no word on the house--agent said the owner was getting estimates on the electric and we should hear something today.
-Matt has to be at work next Tuesday--so this is putting us in a time crunch--pray with us that things move quickly from here on out!

Horrible Picture, But WOW!

This gigantic spider (one of the biggest I have ever seen) was first spotted by Ana.  She immediately informed everyone.  The cousins and aunt came to have a look and squeal on cue.  Then we tried to catch it.  It moved surprisingly quickly and hid under the couch (which I sit on EVERYDAY)!  We tipped the couch, trapped it (and it's egg sac) under a bowl, slid a piece of paper underneath, and released it in the woods. So glad there won't be hundreds more of those crawling around down here!

This was all after doing bags and bags of corn.  We picked it from the field, shucked it, fed the husks to the neighbors cows, cooked it, cut it off the cob, and put it in freezer bags.  A lot of work, but it will taste yummy this winter!  Didn't get a single picture of the huge mess it made, BUT we're doing some more on Monday!