Going..going.. GONE!

Well, its been awhile since I've posted anything (again). Life was hectic there for awhile. I'm glad to say we sold our townhouse. Yayy! It was a little over a year to the date from when we put it on the market. At one point, I was beginning to believe it would never sell. We had a ton of lookers but no bite. But then one day, we had a lady look at it. Then she wanted to look at it again. When she came back for a third time, I held my breath. An offer was made shortly after that and we were estatic! Very soon after we accepted an offer we found a house that we reallllly liked and were going to put in an offer on it, but it went under contract right before we were going to make an offer. We were heart broken but, everything happens for a reason and I now believe that that house wasn't in Gods plan for us. So, it was time to look for a place to rent. I looked for a house to rent and other places to rent but we ended up back at the apartment complex that I use to live in when I completely moved to this town. The weird thing is that the appartment complex is kinda big and we moved into the same building I was in. It was the only apartment they had left so now I have some of the same neighbors I used to have 4 years ago.

     Moving day. I'm pretty sure we picked the hottest day of the year to move. No joke. I thought at one point I was going to have a heat stroke and that one of our guys was going to colapse on us. We had 5 trucks, 2 trailers and 4 manly men to help us move (including my husband). We had everything packed up and ready to move when the day arrived. We started at 8 am and finshed at 2 pm. Thankfully my husband is far from slack and was ready to get it done! He plays no games! I can't believe we practically had that whole house moved within 6 hours. We did have a few items to go back and get such as the groceries in the refrigerator and some odds and ends. Bascially one room in our appartment is considered "storage" due to the fact that we aren't unpacking anything that isn't nessesary to have out because we hope to be moving into a house sooner than later. Pray for us as we continue our journey into finding/building a new home.

Jovie. My loveable pug is really adjusting well to the new move. She loves going outside to go "potty" but I believe that she mainly loves to go outside to be nosey and to see whats going on. She wasn't a huge fan of going outside at our townhouse because she would mostly stand at the door or scratch on the door wanting to come back in. But now, shes always willing and ready to go out. Shes likes to sit at the sliding glass door and look out. One down side to living in an apartment is that other tenants have pets too. Jovie isn't crazy about it. She definately barks more now that she ever has.

Our neighbors. Luckily I have found that pretty much all of our neighbors are on the up and up. Which they should be due to the fact that the screening process for this apartment was complex. I'm surprised they didn't ask for a dna sample with our application. I'm not complaining here. That is a good thing. Like I said, a few of our neighbors are the same ones I had when I lived here years ago. The crazy thing is that they are from different countries. The lady beside us is British and the other lady near us is from Germany. The lady across from us is definately not from SC with her yankee accent which means she may be from somewhere northern which can be considered a different country. Hehe! Just kidding. Anyways, we were bombared with little old ladys the day we moved in which I thought was great. The little old German lady met me at my car the second day of our move saying "I know you, you lived here once before." She then got her British friend, who came out of her apartment in her hair curlers to greet me with a hug and smile. The German lady also went across the way to get the yankee lady to meet us for the first time since I had never met her before. Needless to say, it was a nice greeting back. However, the German lady is really making Jovie mad. She likes to sprinkle bird seed around a tree and in a bird feeder in a tree right outside our door. Jovie hates birds! This lady is asking for the birds to come and Jovie is barking for them to go away. In a way, I'm so jealous of these little ladies. They get up at the crack of dawn watering plants and chit chatting it up while I'm rushing out to go to work. The yankee lady is sometimes out on her porch drinking coffee, smoking a cigarette and talking with the German lady about what her day is going to consist of. Must be nice to be retired. Sometimes I'll get up to let Jovie out at 5:30 am and the little German lady is already outside walking around and checking things out. At least I know our apartment is always being watched after. She even told me when I moved in that I had fresh paint on the walls and new carpet in our apartment because she watched them work on it for weeks. Cute!

Anyways, that sums up my month and a half. As of right now, I can't think anymore to blog due to the fact that Big Brother is on and I'm addicted so I will have to blog more later :)

Not So Homeless Man

For the past several months I've noticed an older gentleman hanging around my office building outside, everyday. Sometimes he will sit in the lobby of our building (very rare), sometimes right outside the door, and sometimes on a bench beside the building. A few co-workers of mine have spoken with the man and asked if he was okay and he always says hes fine. He seems very content being outside our office "people watching" and chatting it up with an occasional person. At first, you would think this man was homeless 1. by the way he dresses (looks kinda bumish I guess) 2. and that he is ALWAYS at our building (seems like he has no where to go) but he isn't homeless. When I pull up at work in the morning, hes always sitting outside looking around and when I leave work, he is most of the time still outside checking things out. The reason I'm pretty sure he isn't homeless is because I've noticed several things that make me believe he has a home somewhere. 1. 90% of the time, he has a cup of coffee in his hand from a local gas station. 2. He smokes cigarettes (a lot). 3. He recently got his hair cut a lot shorter than it usually is. 4. He never has any bags to carry around. 4. Sometimes he catches the bus into town. 5. His clothes always seem to be clean. 6. He doesn't show up on rainy days. 7. He always seems to have a smile on his face. This gentleman is a friendly man. I speak to him every once in awhile in passing and he always speaks back. I've heard through office chit chat that he lives close to our building. The sad thing is that I have a feeling that he may be lonely and that's why he is outside our office building everyday. Apparently he has no other place he would care to go and sometimes I don't blame him, our office can sometimes be entertaining. I have a feeling that the people he runs into outside our office, may be the only people he sees/speaks to all day, everyday. Some people may be hesitant about this man hanging around and want him to leave, but he isn't hurting anything or anyone. Now if he was hanging around the employee parking lot or any back doors, yea we would probably have to ask him to leave but hes always at the front of the building away from the parking lot. Sometimes hes near the side of the building which is just a bunch of pine trees but could be a good place to watch traffic. I pray that this not so homeless man is happy and if hanging around our office is making him happy, then thats okay with me.

I'm back!!

I'm sorry guys.. I forgot my password and then changed it and then forgot the password I changed it to. Duh! Here's a summary of whats been going on in my world since the last time I blogged.

In April, my husband Michael ran in a mud run in Columbia SC one Saturday morning. It was an interesting day that started off by getting lost on the way to the Mud Run and showing up 3 minutes before he was to start running. Luckily everything worked out and his team was able to run right on schedule. The run was 5.2 miles and had over 30 obstacles. Michael said the mud run was probably the most physically challenging thing he's ever done and I could tell he was anxious about making it through the run but I knew that he would be able to get through it. He works out everyday and not just a little jog around the block, I'm talking about running on a treadmill with a 50lb backpack on his back for an hour. I was sooo proud of him and still am! The place where the mud run was held was very interesting. It was hard to find the place since the address wasn't on the website (so people couldn't get a sneak peak of the course). It was wayyyy out in the middle of nowhere on a farm. When we pulled up we were amazed at how many people were there. There was over 14,000 participants!! WOW!! It was huge!! I honestly didn't think it was going to be that big. I don't think he did either. Michael's team consisted of 4 guys. The team name was 3 Men and a Stay at Home Mom. The reason for the name was because 3 of the guys have careers and 1 of the guys stays home during the day and takes care of his kids. Their team finished in a little over an hour and a half. The team that finished in 1st place finished it in around 50 minutes. I'm pretty sure they were military. At the end of the race they were covered in mud from head to toe! One the way home, he smiled at me, and there was mud in his teeth! Here are a few pics from that day.

May has by far been the busiest month this year. The first weekend in May we celebrated our Godson's first birthday. I honestly can't believe he is one year old! He is the best one year old I know and the most handsome! Michael and I are in love with our Colin and are truly blessed to be his Godparents. His birthday party was soooo precious! His parents did an amazing job! I also gave Colin his first haircut which I was super nervous about doing. I just knew I would end up cutting him but luckily I didn't. It was also my birthday that weekend of his party so Michael and I celebrated my birthday by just relaxing at "the river". 

We also had a few weddings to attend in May. Both were beautiful weddings and we had a great time!

Lake Junaluska

My husband Michael has been involved with his church youth group for years now. He grew up going to youth meetings as a teen and now he helps as a leader of the youth group. A few weeks ago Michael and I went with the church youth group to Lake Junaluska, NC. Lake Junaluska is a Methodist retreat place. I'm not even sure how to describe it. This place consists of houses and hotels with like a convention center. Every year the youth group goes to Lake Junaluska to grow closer to Christ and to praise His name. They have been doing this for 20 + years. They do summer projects such as helping those in need, volunteering at local stores and helping build new parks. They also meet new people from different places and share their life stories. The summer sessions last about a week and what I've heard are amazing! The past 2 years the youth group has decided to go to the winter sessions at Lake Junaluska which last just a few days. We go to these "sessions" which basically consists of a christian rock bank and a guest speaker. We also go skiing all day on Saturday.

This year we loaded up the bus on a Friday for the winter sessions at Lake J.  It takes a good 4 to 5 hours to get to Lake Junaluska which is near Maggie Valley. If I am lying, may lightening strike me, but I swear Michael sang the whole way up to Lake J! 4 hours or more straight! It didn't matter what Bobby (another youth leader and the bus driver) was playing on the radio, Michael was singing it! From Christian to Country to Pop/Rock, it didn't matter. He has more energy than any of the young teens. He amazes me all of the time! Anyways, after Michael's live concert we finally made to Lake Junaluska around 8 pm just in time for the night winter session. We had a great time singing and praising Jesus with the Christian rock band, Bestowed. Most of their music I had not heard before but on Sunday they played popular Christian music that we all knew which was great. The guest speaker that Friday night was okay. I think she was nervous and she kept switching topics like crazy but her message was good especially for young teens. That night we were asked if our youth group would be willing to serve communion Saturday night to everyone at Lake Junaluska. The lady over the retreat knows the youth leaders and some of the youth well due to the fact that they had been so many times, so she knew the youth would do a great job helping with communion. After Friday night sessions, we went back to our hotel rooms and talked until about midnight. Saturday morning we woke up around 6 am to eat breakfast and to getting ready to go skiing. Lake J has a great breakfast and I really try to "load" up on it due to the fact that skiing takes alot of energy and is kind of work out, if you don't work out. To Michael its probably like a walk in the park but to me its like a day at the gym but better. The difference between this ski trip and last years ski trip is that this year we nearly froze our bums off! It was 8 degrees out compared to last year which I think was high 60's. It had start snowing early that Saturday morning which was beautiful.

The picture above is the lake that they had to drain for some reason. They do it every year and all I know is the locals make pottery out of the clay from it. Don't ask, I wasn't paying attention to when they explained why they did this. Anyways, we loaded up the bus in pretty much every piece of clothing that we owned and headed up the mountain to go skiing. Once we arrived at the ski place, the workers there wouldn't let the bus go anymore up the mountain so we had to unload our bus and wait for another bus with chains on the tires to ride us the rest of the way up the mountain. While we were waiting for the bus we took a few pics while we were standing on this place they called Windy Gap. The name spoke for itself and boy was it windyyyy!!!

We had to take our own lunch with was provided by the Lake J staff. The box lunches consisted of a sandwich, apple, chips, cookies and a drink. Just FYI. I think Bobby took most of the apples back home with him to feed his goats with. After we loaded the mountain bus we were off to go skiing. This year of skiing was so much better than last year. I believe it was because I knew what to expect and I was use to the heaviness of the ski boots. Michael didn't fall at all (wow!) but I fell once right when I started skiing due to the fact that I was somehow skiing backwards and couldn't figure out how to stop so I decided to fall in order to stop. Basically Michael and I and a few of the youth stayed on the bunny slope the whole time. Michael did advance to the next slope up but he didn't enjoy it because he said "he wasn't made to go that fast in the cold". Haha! He was hauling tail down that mountain! All together the ski trip was fun but it was just too cold! As my dad would say, "we got our core tempertures down" and stayed that way for several days. I felt as though I couldn't get warm for days! Here are a few pics from that day.

After we were finished skiing we went back to the hotel rooms to rest for a bit and change clothes. That evening we ate dinner and went to our night session at Lake J. This night was real special for me and for Michael. Saturday night we rocked out again with the band Bestowed and had the same guest speaker. She was alot better Saturday night and talked about how we should make a change in our lives where others see Jesus through us and the way we live. I decided then to stop cursing because basically its really bad and it doesn't set the greatest example. During this session they also announced all the youth groups and where they were from. When each youth groups church name was called the group was supposed to hoot and holler for their church. Some of the groups were real loud when their church was called and others were not so much. Most of the groups were from Methodist churches, maybe a few Baptists but only one Episcopalian church! WOOT WOOT!!! When the Episcopalians were called out, Michael and I hollered for them as well.  I am Episcopalian so I had to represent with them! Shortly after the guest speaker and the shout outs, our youth group was asked to come forward to help with communion. There was only 9 of us total including adults so they broke us up into 4 sets of 2 to help with communion and asked Bobby to help direct people where to go. I'm not exactly sure how many people were there total at Lake J but I would say around 300 or so. Michael and I were asked to serve communion to the left back of the building. I was serving the blood of Christ (grape juice) and Michael was serving the body of Christ (a loaf of bread). One by one people came up to us, Michael breaking off a piece of bread and saying "the body of Christ" and then the person could come up to me and dunk their bread into the cup of juice and I was saying "the blood of Christ that was shed for you". We were givin directions to look each person in the eyes while saying each line. I've never experience anything like this. We both agree that this was a really humbling experience and really didn't feel worthy to do this. I could tell that we also served some of the Episcopalians communion as well due to the fact that some of them would say "amen" after we served them. Michael and I were the first ones finished serving communion to the congregation so we were asked to go on stage and give the band communion as well as the guest speaker. This was a moment I'll never forget. I never thought I would ever give anyone communion and I am grateful to have had this experience.

Once the sessions were over we went back to our rooms. We talked about our experiences that day and prayed together then it was lights out. The next day, Sunday, we ate breakfast, packed up the bus and then had our last session. About 11 AM we were finished and loading the bus to go home. On the way home we stopped at a mall to eat lunch and to shop. I'm pretty sure the girls were more into this than the guys. All together we had a great trip and a great experience. To learn more about Lake J follow the website. What a wonderful place to experience God at work.

http://myp.lakejunaluska.com/

Cha Ching!

Ok.. so I understand what this sign means but how do they determine the fine? Is it the bigger the "mess" the more the fine? All I know is if they find my pugs "mess" I'm going to owe the maximum fee,
(not saying that I don't pick up after her because I do). Just wondering...

Townhouse for Sale!!

So our little town home has been up for sale since July. At first we were getting quite a few lookers off and on for the first few months but now.. nothing. I'm very grateful that we have a place to live and a roof over our heads but I'm ready to move out of the city limits. I never thought in a million bazillion years I would say that, but I am. 1. Traffic is horrible before 8 am and after 5 pm. I know why but its getting aggravating. Sometimes I have to wait an awe fully long time just to be able to leave our road we live on due to the traffic. I don't think I could ever make it in a big city. 2. I'm ready to live closer to family due to the fact the crime rate is high and I have to spend 3 nights a week by myself at home. Whenever I lived alone, I never once thought about anything bad happening or was never scared but now that I've gotten use to Michael being here, I'm uncomfortable on nights when its just me (and Jovie).  If you knew the kind of man I married, you'd probably ask why in the world I would feel uncomfortable in my own home alone. We have enough here to fight the "bad" away. Anyways, that can topic could be a whole different blog. I guess I should just remember that everything happens in God's time and he has a plan for us.

Pinterest

Oh boy.. I have found a new love! Pinterest. I honestly could stay on that website for hours and I have! That may be why I hardly ever blog anymore. This website has awesome ideas, recipes, do it yourself projects, and just about anything (for women that is). Thank you to my friend Jennifer for introducing me to a new interest :)

Check it out!

http://pinterest.com/