Out my Window

I'm loving having a real yard (despite all the yard work!).  During the day, I see lots of different birds (robins, blue birds, lots of assorted brown ones I don't know the names of), squirrels, and dragonflies.  Yesterday, I saw a gold finch on my deck, but he flew away while I was getting my camera.

Last night, while I was making dinner, Jason told me to come over to the window quickly but quietly.  When I did, I saw this guy:

Please forgive the poor quality pictures, but they were taken through my window.  I knew I stood no chance if I tried to open the back door without scaring him off.  We watched this deer eat in our backyard for about five minutes before he ran to the back of our lot and (safely, thank goodness!) crossed the road.

Goodbye, deer friend.  We hope to see you outside our window again some time.

Friday Letters

Every Friday, my friend Amanda writes a letter to things and people from the past week.  I thought I'd give it a shot this week.

Dear Bugs, thanks for finding a new place to live... or at least having the common decency to hide from plain view.

Dear Paint By Letters, thanks for reminding me how much I love to paint, as long as it's not painting walls!
Dear Pam, thanks for giving me artistic freedom.  I think your mountain-themed letters are turning out great so far!

Dear Ratatouille, sorry I had to puree you and add Italian sausage to you for Jason to like you.  Don't take it personally.  He's like that with all veggie-based dishes.  Thank goodness I thought you were tasty, because you made lots of leftovers!

Dear Bing Cherries, why are you so tasty?  I'm not a big fruit person, but I was in the fridge multiple times a day getting you for a quick snack.  Nom nom nom!


Dear New Hedge Trimmers, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.  Megan likes her some power tools!

Dear Jason's Coworker Paul, thank you thank you thank you for the FREE hedge trimmers, which saved us a ton of money!  I'm so glad you had a spare one and were willing to give it to us!
Dear Too-Tall, Touching-the-Outside-of-our-House-and-Giving-Bugs-Easy-Access-into-our-House Bushes, consider yourself vanquished.

On the Market

Ladies and Gents (or just ladies, since I don't know of any guys that read this), We. Are. On. The. Market!  It took three weeks (not to mention the weeks we worked on it before we moved), 19 gallons of paint, 3 new bathroom faucets, one new fluorescent kitchen light, and about a ton of elbow grease and sweat, but we got it done!

Here's the official listing: 8318 City Loft Ct

Please spread the word to anyone in the market for a townhouse and please pray that we sell quickly!

Meg's Bug Rules

Rule 1: Bugs inside the house get killed.  Let animal-lovers judge me all they want.  If you're inside my house and you're a bug, you get killed.  Sure, I'd love to get the "good" bugs back outside, but have you ever tried to move a bug somewhere?  They seriously resist you, and it really bugs me to try. (pun fully intended)

Rule 2: Bugs outside the house get to stay.  Bugs belong outside, so who am I to deny them? Take for instance this orb weaver spider I found the other day in our bushes by our mailbox.  He's just minding his own business, shedding his old skin.  Why mess with him?  What did I do instead?  Went inside, got my camera, took his picture, and named him George.

Rule 3: If you're poisonous or dangerous, Rule 2 does not apply.  I saw this spider when I was putting out the recycling.  What did I do?  Went inside, got my camera, took her picture, then squished her.  Sorry, Rule 3 trumps Rule 2 every time.

YM1 -- Friendship in Marriage

Today, I'm continuing to share from my Sunday School class's study of marriage in our current culture.

Part 1: Purpose of Marriage

Today, I'm talking about friendship in marriage.  Did you know our spouse is supposed to be our best friend?

"And the Lord God said, 'It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.'"  -- Genesis 2:18

"His mouth is most sweet, yes, he is altogether lovely.  This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem."  -- Song of Solomon 5:16

Without question, Jason is my best friend.  There's no one I'd rather spend time with.  He's the first one I want to talk to when something good happens or when I see something funny on tv.  He makes the most mundane tasks more fun.  Sure, I enjoy time alone, with my family, or with my friends, but at the end of the day, I want to be around him.

Though he doesn't show this side to everyone, Jason is one of the most fun, spontaneous, ridiculous people I've ever met.

We've had to make the most of the past few months, dealing with house-packing, house-moving, house-settling, house-renovating, and house-selling.  We've had fun doing it, but a question from our Sunday School teacher really startled us: "What's something fun you've done recently just to have fun?"  We looked at each other and realized that we couldn't remember the last time we've had fun just for fun's sake.  

Our goal this week: take time and do something fun and silly.

YM1 -- Purpose of Marriage

My Sunday School class is starting a new series on marriage in the current culture.  I've enjoyed the first two weeks so much I want to share some information from it with others.  (PS, the "YM1" in the title is the name of my class, "Young Marrieds 1")

"Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord... Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her."  -- Ephesians 5:22, 25


Marriage is an earthly model of Christ's (the groom's) relationship with the church (the bride).  In high school, my male classmates loved to quote "Women are supposed to submit to their husbands" before launching into their "woman's place is barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen" stance on male and female relations.  Meanwhile, I sat there silent but red-faced and white-knuckled.  I knew this verse was in the Bible, but I didn't know the Bible well enough to argue against them.  Only in my adulthood have I begun to understand what these verses truly mean.

Yes, wives are supposed to submit to their husbands.  Husbands represent Christ in the marriage relationship, and they are supposed to lead their spouse and family closer to God.  However, what my male classmates failed to quote was the verse a little farther in Ephesians.  Husbands are called to love their wives as Christ loved the church.  How did Christ love the church?  He loved the church unselfishly, humbly, with a servant's heart.  Oh yeah, and He died in order to save the church.  That's a tall order to fulfill!

"Speaking truth in love, [we] may grow up in all things into Him who is the head -- Christ."  -- Ephesians 4:15


One quote from class: "Regarding our selfishness and sin, our spouses do not change us as much as they reveal us."

So, so true.  You don't realize how spiteful, selfish, or sinful you are until you live with someone day in and day out.  You feel yourself speak out in anger, then think to yourself "Ooh, that wasn't very loving, was it?"  Then, you get to swallow your pride and ask for forgiveness.


We are both called to serve our spouse without grumbling, keeping score, feeling like martyrs, or expecting reciprocation.  I try to serve Jason unselfishly without expecting him to do the same.  Our culture balks at this, but when he's served, Jason in turn serves me -- not out of guilt or reciprocation, but because he loves me and wants to serve me.  This in turn makes me want to serve him, and the cycle continues.  (Not that we're perfect with this.  Trust me, I'm thankful every day that he cannot hear my sinful, prideful thoughts!)

"As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend."  -- Proverbs 27:17


"But we all... are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord."  -- 2 Corinthians 3:18


Like I said, we're not perfect, but we have a lifetime together to "sharpen" each other.  The transformation is slow, but we're in it together.  Tomorrow, friendship in marriage.

Makes Me Giggle

I can't remember if I've posted this before, but even if I have, it's worth posting again.  Really, watch it if you know anything at all about Star Wars.

Clueless Girl Breaks Down Star Wars

PS, this is my first time inserting a video rather than just posting the link.  If my attempt failed, here's the link.

Childhood Memories

I have a few blogs that I read on a regular basis.  Yesterday, Crappy Pictures, a woman's account of motherhood through "crappy" drawings, ranted about why she hated Cookie Monster (you can read it here).  She ended by sharing several Sesame Street songs from her childhood.  That's what today's post is about.

I was definitely a Sesame Street kid.  It helped that I grew up with only 4 channels, and PBS was the only one to have kid programming during the day.  Here's some of my favorite things from 'da Street.

Bert and Ernie Go Fishing

Just TRY not to say "Here fishy fishy fishy fishy!" after watching this video!

How Crayons Are Made

This video shows children how crayons are made, connecting them to things they use every day.  It motivates them to question things in their daily lives and not take them for granted.  Plus, pretty colors....

Counting Songs

Ladybug Picnic

Pinball Machine

Celebrities and Word Play

U Got a Hold on Me

Oh, too many to mention.  I didn't even get to the Oinker Sisters or Captain Vegetable.  What about the Singing Orange?  Or Teeny Little Super Guy?  If you're enjoying your childhood, I'd recommend this link.

What are your favorite Sesame Street memories?

Well, Hellooooo!

First of all, thanks to all of you for the encouraging comments, emails, and phone calls.  We're blessed that our biggest hardship right now is dealing with roaches... and that our friends and family are there to support us through our breakdowns. :)

Ok, back to the light-hearted stuff.  I found this guy on our deck one evening, enjoying a meal.  He actually let me get very close to him to take photos, but he never took his eyes off of me the whole time.

Being Honest

I learned a long time ago that public internet is not a place to air my dirty laundry.  However, by always being upbeat online, I don't get to be fully honest with what's going on in my life.  I learned a really valuable lesson last week, one too valuable to not share with those I care about the most, so that's what I'm going to do now.

I mentioned before that the first week of homeownership was about 95% fixing up old house and 5% living in new house.  Last week was the second week of homeownership, and it was a rough one.  We've been living in limbo.  Afternoons were spent at the old house, and nothing seemed to go right.   Then we'd come home, and nothing would go right here either.


To keep this from being the world's longest post, I'll sum up some of the events of last week.  

~Tried to replace faucets at the old house, which turned into a three-day struggle where at one point, Jason considered taking a hacksaw to the pipes
~Every task at the old house took about three hours longer than expected, largely because something we needed was at the new house instead of with us
~Tried reprogramming the programable thermostat, which then reverted back to its default settings (85 degrees during the day) for some reason
~Bought a tv console that weighed 160lbs (really fun carrying into the house...) and was premade, but none of the screw holes were where they were supposed to be, so Jason had to drill new ones
~Dishwasher wouldn't clean dishes, even though I put detergent in the right place and it sounded like it was washing
~Sewer gases leaked from our half bathroom, which resulted in lots of online research, emails to the former owners, calls to the septic tank people, and me squirting water into a secondary drain of the toilet with a turkey baster (which reminds me... I need to buy another turkey baster...)
~We discovered that we have a flying ant problem... and a roach problem

Everything kind of hit rock bottom on Thursday.  We had been spending so much time at the old house, but there were pretty serious problems (like the sewer gases and the bugs) that really needed addressing at the new house.  At one point, Jason looked at me and said "Why can't just one thing be easy?"  We were at the the end of our ropes, and that's where the lesson was learned.

We were trying to do this by ourselves, and all our efforts weren't enough.  So we cried out to God.  Jason said he was so overwhelmed with house stuff at work one day that he just stopped what he was doing and prayed.  At home, I was doing the same thing.  As Christians, we are not promised a life of ease -- quite the opposite, actually.  It's through the hard times in life that we cling to Christ.  Once we realized the God was in control and that He would see us through all of this, our attitudes improved, and so did our work!  If you're struggling right now, I hope that these verses will be an encouragement to you as they have been to us this past week.

"My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience."  -- James 1:2-4


"And He said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.'  Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." -- 2 Corinthians 12:9 (one of Jason's favorite verses)


"Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."  --Matthew 11:28


"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus."  -- Philippians 4:6-7 (some of my favorite verses)


I leave you with a great quote from Mother Teresa that really sums it up:

        "I know God will not give me anything I can't handle.  I just wish that He didn't trust me so much."

Wake Up Call

Jason took off the whole week after our move to help us get settled in (which turned into "work at old house").  I was sooooo glad to have him around!

One morning, I woke up to my phone ringing.  I rolled over and looked at the caller ID.  It was hard to see without my glasses on, but I thought it said Jason was calling...

"Breakfast is ready!"

He had actually CALLED me on the phone to let me know he had cooked breakfast!  When I walked downstairs, I was met with the delicious scent of bacon.  He handed me my plate of eggs and bacon and said "A house is not a home until it smells like bacon."  Well, I guess this house is now our home!

Fixin' Up "Old House"

Our first week as homeowners wasn't what I expected.  We ended up spending nearly every waking hour at the old house fixing it up to put on the market.

We estimate it will be up in less than a week (yay yay yay!).  We got there early each morning and stayed until 7 or 8 each night.  I packed us PB&J sandwiches each day for lunch, which we ate on our living room floor (since there's no furniture there anymore!).  Here are a few shots from the days I remembered to bring my camera:

Living Room -- fresh coat of the existing paint color, Brown Teepee.  It's kind of hard to get an accurate picture of the wall color, so here's the color from the Behr website:

Kitchen: We had plans to paint it the same blue as the half bath, but our realtor suggested we use the brown teepee in there as well.  We now call our house "tan house."

Upstairs: We went with a lighter tan called weathered sandstone.  Here's the paint color.  It's very deceiving because it's sometimes tan, sometimes cream, and sometime (gulp) peachy.

Vaulted ceilings + husband on ladder = very scared (and very prayerful!) wife

Sooooo glad to say we're finishing painting!!!!

I Get By With a Little Help from my Family...

Ok, a LOT of help from my family!  After getting some moving quotes and finding out that we had free access to a moving truck, we decided to move ourselves.  After some phone calls, we had recruited several family members.  Then, our friend John actually volunteered to help us move!  Awesome!

Here are a few shots from moving day.  Special thanks to my aunt Carol who took my camera and documented for me, and my apologies to anyone not pictured.  Usually they were doing scary stuff (like maneuvering my dresser down a flight of stairs), and we didn't want to distract them with telling them to smile for the camera.


Packed up house:

Family freebies -- items we didn't want anymore, but were too nice to goodwill or throw away.  (PS, this is where Jason's cordless phone ended up):

Loading up the moving truck:

Lunch at the new house (some of the best-tasting food ever, we were so famished!):

After lunch:

Done!

Life Lessons from Moving

Back in June, I wrote about life lessons learned from painting.  Well, we also learned quite a few life lessons from moving recently.  Here are a few:

Life Lesson #1: Start Early
My last day at school was June 12th, and I pretty much started packing then, two weeks before moving.  That said, we were STILL frantically packing things until the last minute.  How in the world was so much stuff in our teeny tiny townhouse?

Where did all this stuff come from?!?

Life Lesson #2: Expect Some Conflict
Jason and I get along really well.  We rarely have any conflict at all, so I was surprised when we had several, um, discussions while packing.  We had very different priorities when it came to moving.  I wanted to pack up boxes and prepare for the move up to three weeks in advance.  He wanted to patch up holes at the old house up to the night before we moved.

We also surprised each other (and maybe ourselves) with the things we wanted to hold onto.  I refused to throw away a $15 MDF storage box that he deemed too "college" to keep.  He balked at my suggestion to throw away (or goodwill) a cordless phone that we found in the guest room.  He thought it was something good to keep (even though we don't have a landline!).

Life Lesson #3: Expect the Unexpected
My husband is a closeted box-collector.  It turns out the majority of our attic was full of empty electronics boxes.  Who knew?

We knew unexpected things would happen on moving day, and we just needed to roll with the punches.  Here's a few of those unexpected things:

1. Our dresser drawers didn't come out of our dressers.  Trust me, we had three engineers and three other people look, and they are definitely screwed in.  Did we freak out?  Nope.  We got extra boxes, and the contents of both our dressers were packed in about 10 minutes.
2. The screws to our bed frame disappeared.  I put them in a labeled ziploc bag in my nightstand along with a bag of screws for my dresser mirror.  We looked all around the old house, checked the other nightstand, and emptied (and inverted) my nightstand to see if they had ended up behind the drawer.  We still to this day don't know what happened to those screws!
3. My dad was abandoned and locked out of the new house.  After the first truckload, the old owner came by to pick up a few remaining possessions.  My dad got to talking to him out in the backyard about ham radio and he said the next thing he knew, everyone had left to go get the second truckload.  No biggie, he'll wait inside.  Oh, except we had locked up the house!  Thank goodness we have a shady yard!



Life Lesson #4: Plan, Plan, Plan 
A week before moving, the weather prediction was 99 degrees.  After groaning and moaning, I took action and bought lots of water, gatorade, and soda, and put some in each fridge (old house fridge and new house fridge).  We also had towels set aside if anyone needed to wipe sweat.  Thank goodness, since it ended up being 105 on moving day, not 99!

Other ways we planned -- we took all our food and clothes over to the new house before moving day.  We knew the trip would be faster those days and that we were more likely to forget these things if we waited until the craziness of moving day.  We also talked about what order we wanted to move things, labeled the boxes with their destination and contents, and labeled all our belongings (especially cleaning and painting supplies) that were supposed to stay at the old house.

All our planning really seemed to pay off.  No one died of heat exhaustion (thank goodness!) and we had all our stuff in the new house (2 truck loads) by 1:00.  Score!


Life Lesson #5: Don't Sweat the Small Stuff
Since I was home during the day (yay summer vacation!), I did that majority of the packing.  I was fine with this, until it came to drinking glasses.  I have no idea why (I had no problem packing breakable dishes), but packing the glasses (especially our four wine glasses) filled me with dread.  After putting it off for weeks, I expressed my anxiety to Jason.  Then Jason told me that the 4-pack of wine glasses had cost him $6.  All this stress over glasses that could be replaced for $6 if they got broken?!?  Ridiculous!  I packed those bad boys up with confidence and went on my merry way!

I'm now a wine-glass-wrapping expert.  Loosely stuff newspaper inside the glass and around the stem.  Wrap in bubble wrap like a burrito and tape it securely.

We did it!  Plus, we learned some life lessons along the way.  Tomorrow, photos from moving day.