Home Again

I am home this evening for Daynah's birthday. She turned 14. It's kind of crazy because next year she will be as old as I was when she was born! SCARY! This is not a recent picture at all, but it's Daynah before she grew a million feet!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAYNAH!

My apologies

Sorry I haven't posted in a week. I don't have Internet at the apartment yet, so I checking email at various places and haven't had time to blog. The apartment is great! I am all settled in and really starting to believe that it's mine : ). Emily and I have stayed up way too late most nights talking, so I have been really tired all week.

In other news, my brother graduated from the police acadamy on July 11. Congrats to him. Good thing I don't live in Georgia...how embarrassing to get pulled over by your very own brother : ). Really, I am excited that he is excited.

My mom was there for the graduation and to spend time with John, so I'll be getting a CD of pictures soon.

So, there's my super quick update!

Fully Settled

The move went extremely well. Everyone showed up at 10:00ish (Kari was early!) and we had everything unloaded at the apartment by 11:45. We ate a quick lunch of gondolas and then some people stuck around to help me settle in. Amy hung all of the stuff that needed hanging (she is AMAZING, by the way), Kari unloaded my movies, and Josh and Emily unloaded my books. I'm not sure what I did. A lot of running from living room to bedroom to "assist" everyone. But they were troopers. Once the big stuff was done, I settled down to put all the knick-knacks away. I was pretty much completely settled by 5:00. Then it was a trip to Target to get some odds and ends stuff. Then Kari and I watched a movie in my new living room! It was a very easy move.

Today I am off of work. I seriously thought I would still be unpacking today, so I took the day off. But, as it turns out, I have pretty much gotten to relax. Although I have to make another trip to the store to buy some other odds and ends stuff.

By the way, my posts my be rather sporadic until I get my own Internet. Right now I am "borrowing" the family's!

Last Night

My last night to tuck Josh into bed.
My last night to sleep with a ceiling fan on.
My last night to park in the driveway.
My last night to snuggle with the cats before I go to bed.
My last night to bug Daynah before she goes to bed.

My never-ending Thursday

Today has been a long day. There are very few towns in the tri-county area I was not in today. Here is a breakdown of my day...

I left the house at 8:15.

I drove to Washington, picked up a client, drove to the Children's Home, drove back to Washington to drop off my client.

Drove through East Peoria to Pekin, picked up a client, went to a park in Pekin, took my client home.

Drove to Creve Coeur, stopped at McDonald's for a 10 minute lunch. Picked up a client, drove to a park in Bartonville, dropped my client off at his house, drove almost to the Children's Home and saw that my client left something in the car, drove back to Bartonville, and then back to the Children's Home.

Whoo-hoo. I was at the Children's Home for 1 hour and 15 minutes of busy paperwork that had to get done today. Then I left to drive through Germantown Hills and Metamora to Washburn to meet with a parent. Then I drove home. I arrived home at 5:45. If I counted correctly, that was 9 towns and 150 miles.

I put my swimsuit on and jumped in the pool for five minutes before dinner was ready. Changed out of my swimsuit before dinner. Ate dinner with the family. Helped clean up after dinner. Proceeded to pack and organize boxes from 6:30 until 9:00.

Worked on next week's Bible study lesson from 9:00 until 9:35. Now I am blogging. Next I am going to crawl under my covers and read a book before I go to bed.

The end.

Bible Study

For the past two weeks we have been studying the history psalms. There are three psalms that record Israel's history--78, 105, and 106. It has been an interesting study because each psalm takes a slightly different perspective. Psalm 78 is more just a recording of the history. Psalm 105 highlights the many sins of Israel. And Psalm 106 focuses on confession of those sins and God's faithfulness through those sins. I have read through the Old Testament and have studied Israel's pattern of following after God, rebelling, turning away from Him, and then seeking Him again. But it is very different when you read that pattern within 50 verses. One thing that is very encouraging...our God is a faithful God, slow to anger, abounding in love. When we seek Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. And He is a covenant-keeping God! Praise the Lord!

A New Perspective

Sunday morning at church I had the privilege of talking to a visitor to the church. She was visiting Peoria for the weekend. I had actually met her earlier in the weekend and so she came to my care group during Sunday school. While we were taking prayer requests, we were also naming praises. My new friend mentioned what a huge praise it was for her to get to worship at Bethany and meet a great group of people devoted to following Christ. She talked about how she doesn't often get to visit other churches and what a neat experience it had been for her while she was away from her own church.

This really got me to thinking. I love Bethany and hate when I have to be away. But when I visit other churches, I don't think that I allow myself to grasp how wide God's love is. I don't often let that visit impact me enough to let me know that God's church is universal and I can worship Him no matter what church I am in. I don't often let the visit speak to me in such a way as to say, "Wow, these people are my brothers and sisters in Christ and therefore are also my church family." Even if I only visit once and never go back again. This new friend allowed me to get a glimpse of this through her eyes as she experienced these exact things and was even willing to verbalize them. What an awesome God we serve!!!

A Day in the Life

I moved my first pieces of furniture to the apartment. And got to use my key for the first time. Although, I called ahead to see if Emily would be there because I didn't want to freak her out : ). But I bought two bookshelves today and moved the boxes in. The assembly time is yet to be determined.

The pool is up and running. The fence is complete. Now we just have to wait for that grass to grow. I actually went outside yesterday and discovered green water in the pool. I decided not to ask questions (the pool and yard have caused a little bit of stress at our house). But today, the water is clear and everyone was swimming. I didn't have time between church this morning, shopping this afternoon, and church tonight. Maybe one evening this week before I move...

Awww...how sweet

I just looked at my birthday countdown. And it's wishing me a happy birthday today : ). I wonder what it will say tomorrow...

The Life of a 29 Year Old

As it turns out, so far 29 hasn't been much different than 28 : ) Granted, I have only experienced 29 for about an hour and a half, but still. So far, it has been an uneventful birthday. I woke up too early but refused to get out of bed until 9:00. Then I paid bills. Yes, on my birthday. They needed to get in the mail. The life of an adult never really stops. Then I decided to check my email. Actually, I got online to transfer some money and got distracted. Then I decided I should post a blog on my birthday. Oh, and I just heated up some apple dump (not dumb) cake for breakfast. Which totally reminds me of a birthday from when I was in high school or college. My mom and I were in Illinois that year. We had celebrated birthdays on the 4th because the family was together (I have two cousins who were also born in July--one on the 4th and one on the 22nd). So, when I woke up on my birthday I decided that I wanted chocolate cake for breakfast. For some reason, I decided that my mom would not allow this, so I approached grandma and told her what I wanted. She said, "It's your birthday. You can have whatever you want for breakfast. If your mom says anything, tell her to come talk to me!" You gotta love grandmas...

Two posts and two sets of pictures. It must be a record. Just don't get used to it. I celebrated the 4th with friends. We went to Kari's for fun and games. While everyone else played volleyball, I stayed in the cool inside and talked to Ginger and played with Taylor. Then we had dinner. We headed downtown for fireworks at about 7:00 (actually, I didn't have a watch on, so I don't know when we went). We staked out a spot and then settled in to play some games and hang out. Here are some pictures.



I love this picture because absolutely no one is looking at the camera. In their defense they didn't know I was taking the picture!

Storm was so excited to be downtown that he took a nap.
And then when he woke up, he decided to tattoo his wife. Nice picture of a monkey!
Katie decided she could do a better job herself!
Kari and I attempted for the umpteenth time to take a good picture of the two of us. Thanks Storm, for making the picture so great!

And the fireworks weren't too shabby either. Kari timed them at about 30 minutes. There were a couple of loud booms that I totally felt the whole ground shake. And some that were so big they filled almost my entire vision of the sky. The fireworks are timed to music played on one of the local radio stations, which makes them even more fun (although sometimes I think the music is just distracting). The funniest part of the fireworks display was when a song was playing (for the life of me I can't remember the name) but the line says "and I thank my lucky stars" and as it said stars a firework in the shape of a star went off. It was just a little cheesy. I didn't think to try to capture any of the fireworks on my camera until halfway through, but then I didn't want to look away to go digging through my bag for my camera. So, no pictures of fireworks. I'm sure my camera would not have done them justice anyway.

Pictures as Promised

I finally got around to taking some pictures and uploading them to the computer. Here's what I came up with:

This is a picture of the sand pit that was the pool. The guys came out last Tuesday evening to put the pool up and ran out of daylight. Of course, it rained the next day and the next day, and then it was too wet the next day....and so on.
This is the half-full tank of water they brought with them to put into the pool after it was put together. The funny thing was, the guys pulled it into the yard when they started, but then after it rained it was too muddy to move until they emptied it. It kind of put us on the top of the list to finish since they needed the tank for any other houses they worked on.
Last night before I left for church, this ladder was just a dream in the making. Lots of miscellaneous parts with no rhyme or reason. I looked outside today and Tada! here it is. Everyone must have worked hard on it.
And here is the pool : ). Just waiting for a warm day so we can actually swim. There is bubble wrap over the water. I asked Dad why and he said that it is a solar something or other. Interesting because I really thought it must be bubble wrap.
The guys were back to work on the yard now that the pool is in. This is the final stage. The weird teal spray that eventually sprouts grass. I forgot to take a picture of the grass out front. It really is coming in well. Dad is hilarious because he will look out the window and say "I just saw another sprout come up!"
This is where the tank sat just under a week ago. In the background you can see the poles for the fence and one lonely piece of fence that is waiting to be attached.


And onto another subject:

It's official! This is the key to my new apartment. I don't move in until next weekend, but Emily gave me my key last night. How fun!
Here it is up close in case you missed it in the first picture!

If I don't blog for a couple of days....HAPPY 4TH OF JULY! And HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

We're up and Running

Well, sort of. We have a pool. It even has some water in it. And an insurmountable amount of dirt that surrounds it. So, they're about halfway there. They still need to get the fence up and the grass finished. And some other stuff. It is definitely still a work in progress. And sometimes strange to see the pool sitting there.

I think that's my news for now. Sorry, I keep meaning to take pictures, but then I forget until it's too dark. Eventually you'll be able to see the completed projects : ). Until then, Storm, just use your imagination. And stop complaining about no pictures.