A Road Less Travelled

Oh, I am so behind on these things. I would have liked to have done seperate Happy Birthday posts, but I am late on all of them so they’ll just have to be lumped into one big post. Shame on you all for having birthdays so close together.

To Noah on the 25th- Happy birthday, my little man! I have loved watching you change from a little baby to a three year old. You have brought much joy and trial into my life. Thank God the joy far outweighs the trial. I love you!

To my dad on the 28th- Happy birthday, Dad! I’ve enjoyed the bulk of the twenty-one years you’ve spent being my dad. And the times I didn’t enjoy were my fault. I knew when I moved away that I would miss our conversations very much. I’m glad that you kicked me hard enough to set a time to call you every week. Thank you for being my dad and being proud of me. Happy birthday!

To Raquel on the 30th- Happy birthday, my friend! When I actually wrote down my first impression of you I realized how close we were to being amiable strangers. I’m glad we let the ‘r’ slide into the word ‘fiends’. Meep Mop Moof!

There! Now, I think you all should consider spreading your birthdays out a bit. Some of us just can’t keep up with this!

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True to form, my first day back is going to be full and crazy, so I’ll keep this short. For anyone who might be wondering, I survived my trip to Ohio. I arrived home safely last night, though my luggage did not.

Current theory is that my suitcase is making a run for Baltimore. Chances are good of making a capture at the state line, but it’s a wily one so it might slip between our fingers. Anyone found aiding or abetting it will be given twenty lashes with a wet noodle.

***BREAKING NEWS***
(January 29, 9:06 PM) 

When I say ‘breaking news’, of course what I really mean is that I finally got around to posting about it. My suitcase was recovered and returned safely Saturday evening. After a strict lecture I think it’s ready to behave itself now.

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coming home–
snowy cornfields
never looked so good 

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Today Crystal came home from shopping and said she’d bought something I would like. I immediately got childishly excited, bouncing in my chair and “What’d you bring me!? What’d you bring me!?” It turns out that Crystal bought me, us really, two things and both were better than I had hoped for. The first is a cast iron griddle. We have been griddle-less for some time since our last cheapy griddle finally died the final death. And the other thing was, drum roll please, a monster cast iron skillet measuring approximatly fifteen inches in diameter. I had to be careful when I washed it tonight that I didn’t let it slip and crack the kitchen sink. I set our two new lovelies on the stove and just sat back and stared. Oh, they sure are pretty.

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Yesterday I was IM-ing Raquel and we had a truly pathetic moment. In fact there were several pathetic moments. And of course I feel the need to post about how pathetic we are. It was really funny.

So yesterday afternoon I log on to Gmail to check my email and notice Raquel is online too. So I say Hey and she says Hi and soon we are chatting and having a lovely conversation.  After a few minutes my hands start getting tired so I suggest a truly brilliant idea. We have a fixed rate on our long-distance so it would be no big expense for me to call Raquel and we could have our giggly conversation  closer to face-to-face. There is a hitch. I don’t know Raquel’s sister’s phone number. And Raquel doesn’t either. She suggests I call the Lansberrys, but I was pretty sure they would both be resting and I didn’t want to disturb them. So I get the proper spelling of her sister’s last name after mangling it horribly and I go to an online phone book and try to find them. I find some people who rather inconsiderately share their last name, but none with the proper Bruce or Donna in front of it. I get the address from a D that could be theirs and ask Raquel if that was her sister’s address. She doesn’t know. And the people in Ohio who would know are resting.

It was about this point that we started commenting on how pathetic we are. Raquel found their phone book, but couldn’t find any listing either. She finally mentions her sister’s home phone is a cell phone. Well now, that changes everything. I hadn’t mentioned the idea that she could just call me and I could then get her number off the caller ID because I didn’t want know how her sister’s long distance was set up, but since it’s a cell phone. That’s different. So we figure out that it would be okay for her to call me and she does after I give her our phone number and we have a lovely chat about I’m not sure what at this point. We hang up so she can go to evening worship and so Seth can call Dad. And today Raquel popped up on IM and said that weekend and nights were free. So now I can call her at night and we could chat. Except that when I remembered to check the caller ID this morning all it said was Unknown Number. So I still don’t know her sister’s phone number.

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The “I’m fine, thank you. How are you?” version:

I arrived safely in Ohio late Saturday night. By switching flights in Atlanta I increased my supper from two tiny bags of pretzels to three tiny bags of preztels and a large oatmeal cookie, but my sister still insisted on feeding me soup when I arrived. (Aside on the oatmeal cookie: So I’m walking past Starbucks in airport, realizing that I would feel a sense of betraying One World if I stopped at Starbucks, even in a completely different city, and deciding this was logical, but also trying to figure out if I should stop somewhere and get something for supper. Next thing I know the cashier at Starbucks has my attention and is begging me to take a free cookie so she doesn’t have to throw them away. Being the obliging soul that I am… ) Yesterday an idyllic snow fell, and I am on my third day spent with six of my adorable nieces and nephews.

The insider’s view:

• My adorable nephew Benjamin walked off with the last jar of peanut butter, and I would hate to think what it would take to get my adorable nieces to eat anything but peanut butter and jelly for lunch. We scoured the entire house for it before we finally discovered it down the laundry chute. It was slightly dented but thankfully still edible.
• “I miss my oven.” Of the all the ridiculous thoughts to wander through my head, this one was of the least expected. First of all, it’s really Theresa’s oven, not mine, and it clearly knows where it’s loyalty lies. That oven hates me with a passion. But… I can’t close Donna’s oven with the back of my leg. I have to actually bend over and close it with my hands. Can you imagine that? Besides, come to think of it, it didn’t cook much better than Theresa’s oven does for me, because the electronic controls confused me at first. Plus…
• I think Benjamin turned on the broiler today. It had been on for a while when we discovered it. I’m just glad that I found the plastic “J” magnet in there and took it out yesterday. A whole new twist on alphabet soup…

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We have moved! Hooray! I’ve hung curtains, unpacked my books, washed my first (and second) set of dinner dishes in the dishwasher and helped relight the pilot on the furnace. Life is good here. We have unearthed most of the house and set it into something resembling order. There is a room that is still very much buried, but we keep getting closer to it.

I am very much enjoying the vast amounts of space we have now. It wouldn’t have been that much of a difference if we had moved here straight from the old-old house, but spending five and a half months in the submarine does a lot to change your perspective. We are all starting to learn that we can’t just stand anywhere in the house and yell for someone. And I am glorying in my beautiful walls and door.

Seth has forbidden me to post a tour or anything of the kind because he claims that right. I figure he owes the money for the house so he should have the right to call dibs. So you can just start bugging him if you want a tour. If he posts pictures be sure to admire the beautiful paint jobs and the fine floors. Chances are I had a hand in them. Oh, except for that spot. That’s not my fault. Really.   

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Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, cat and dogs, I just got off the phone with Crystal. It is official, we own a mortgage. And as a plus they gave us a house along with it! Hooray!

We have been caught up in the ups and downs of this particular house for the past eight months. And now it’s ours! I have a room that is blue and has four walls, a door and a closet! Praise God!

Thank you, Loving Father, for this gift You have given us. Please keep us thankful as we have lots of work to do and please give us grace to be godly stewards of Your good gift. Amen.  

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Well folks, life is proceeding at a pace. It happens to be a break-neck pace, but it’s still a pace. We are still slated to move tomorrow though there was a minor paperwork glitch that could makes things interesting. The seller is hoping to move out on Saturday, but I’m still kinda nervous about that. Also, the forecast is calling for snow and/or freezing rain. Please, please pray with us that the closing would come through with no hitches and that there would be no precipitation on Saturday. I heard someone say once that it was wrong to ask God to change the weather because the weather had been formed by all kinds of factors that had already been set in motion. To this I say Bah! and that if God wants to reach down out of Heaven and stop the rain well then I ain’t gonna say He can’t! So please pray that He would do that very thing for us. And hopefully next time I post it will be from our new house!

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There is a book that is a favorite of mine. In this book there is a quote that is a favorite of mine. The book is that wholly remarkable book The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. And the quote is as follows.

“Just this morning I was thinking I’d have a quiet day, do a bit of reading, brush the dog! It’s now just after three in the afternoon and I am already two million miles from the smoking remains of the planet Earth!”

There have been days when I sympathized with poor Arthur Dent more than others. Today was such a day.

Sometime around lunchtime I found out that Crystal was going down to the new house to meet Seth and our deacon there. They were going to look around and start planning on how our church could help us finish the house. Okay, this was fine with me. It was nothing unusual and it would put us that much closer to being finished. Now we were looking at moving somewhere between middle of February and early March. Crystal left and I muddled on through my day. When Crystal got back she was very excited. She said Brian the Seller was almost done. He was probably going to finish up tonight. Seth was coming home, they were going to scrape a work crew together and try to finish. We were going to move Brian out this Saturday and us in next Saturday.

I get ready to go pick up Seth with my head spinning. Cool! We were finally moving. There wasn’t much warning and we were going to have to pack like crazy, but that was okay. In just a under two weeks I was going to get my fourth wall and my door. This was exciting.

I’m about to leave when I find out that Crystal was trying to schedule the closing for this Friday and then we would move on Saturday. This Saturday. Four days from now. She called a bunch of people and they all said they can make it on Friday. So we have a closing scheduled and a bunch of people down there working and we are moving in four days!

I’m still a little sore from the whiplash, but this is such a blessing. Soon, incredibly soon, I will be able to unpack the rest of my books, I will be able to hang my skirts and dresses and our family won’t have to be on each other’s toes all the time. It seems God is really as good as He says He is. Fancy that.

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