Sarah's Zona

A New Sitter For Jubilee...

2011-09-02T13:12:00.000-04:00

Jubilee is getting a new baby sitter (SITTER, not SISTER...)! Why, you ask? Because Mommy is going back to work :) I have been offered the new Administrative Assistant position at the church where Jeremiah is the Pastor of Community Life! I have loved the time that God gave me to stay home with Jubilee over the past couple of weeks, but our bank account is *clearly* showing that it's time to go back to work.

Keep praying for us though... Jer is part time at the church, and I will be part time as well. Jeremiah is already working a second job as a van driver for our school district, but even with the three part time jobs, we're not meeting our already sliced and diced budget.. There is *nothing* left to cut, so we need to find additional income.

Please pray with us that God will eradicate our debt and provide us with additional income so that we can rest and spend time together as a family.

SIDENOTE: I am still registered as a Pampered Chef consultant so if you would like to help out by hosting a party, I would be MORE than willing to help you put a great show together!! I am also quite interested in the Scentsy scene, so if you love candles and things that smell wonderful, please let me know. I am far from pushy, but would GREATLY appreciate the help you would be providing for my family!!!

When's a good time??

2011-08-24T16:42:00.000-04:00

When is a good time to teach a baby to eat on her own? Apparently, at our house we think 10 months is an awesome time :) However, apparently we also think that starting with Blueberry Delight Applesauce is a good idea... Believe it or not, I don't think there's any on her dress :)

Here's Your Sign

2011-08-24T13:49:00.001-04:00

When you first enter the club of motherhood, there is no end to the advice (both warranted and unwarranted) that you will receive. Some of it is helpful; others, not so much ("my mom always rubbed whiskey on my gums when I was teething" -- great advice... but what are the chances of Jer or I EVER having whiskey in the house?? and is it really an approved treatment anymore??).

But there are two pieces of advice that have stuck out in my mind that I am really glad I heard about when Jubilee was on her way. One: The BabyWise Scheduling Strategy! If you have not read this book or at least know what it's about, I recommend it! Get the eating schedule into a decent routine and the sleeping schedule will follow suit (a *very* brief description of the underlying idea). Jubilee was eating on a set schedule at just a few weeks of age and was sleeping through the night before she was 7 weeks old! But that's not what this post is about.

The second piece of advice that I received that I'm so glad I got was "learn to sign with your baby!" Jubilee, Daddy, and I have been using sign language since she was a handful of weeks old. Now she's 10 months old, and while she's not signing back yet, I *know* she understands a lot of what is being said/signed! We started out with just a couple basics at first --- milk, eat, and more. After a few months of these, I started throwing in a few more signs here and there.

Here's a quick list of words that I use regularly while we're playing, eating, or spending time together during the day:

MILK
EAT
MORE
ALL DONE
CRACKER
PLAY
BALL
BATH
HELP
LIGHT
PUPPY
BALL
GIRAFFE
MONKEY
MOMMY
DADDY
DIRTY
HOT

I can't wait to see which sign it is that she decides to start signing back with first :) I'm even more excited about that than the "race" to see whether we get a "Mama" or a "Dada" first (mostly since Dada already technically won that one -- it just seems to have disappeared or morphed back into "Baba")

Did/do you sign with your babies? What was their first "words"? How old were they when they started "talking" to you??

Sleeper

2011-08-21T10:16:00.000-04:00

Jubilee is a sleeper. She has slept through the night from the time she was just shy of 7 weeks old! She would take a bottle at 7, be up for maybe 45 minutes (MAYBE!) and go back to sleep. I woke her at 10 for another bottle (much to the questioning eyes of some people around...) and put her back to bed immediately where she would sleep until 6am! Now, at 10 months, she is still an amazing sleeper. She sleeps from about 8:00/8:30-6:30/7:00 every night. The only exception has been earlier last week when she woke up screaming a few nights in a row sometime between midnight and 2am but we are accrediting that to the tooth that she pushed through on Wednesday. During the day, she still takes three full 2 hour naps most of the time. She is like clockwork --- up for 2 hours, down for 2 hours, up for 2, down for 2. Needless to say, she treats her mommy pretty well. I know that eventually she will stay up for longer, but for now, I'm enjoying the breaks and the chance to relax (or clean) between kid chasings!

I questioned the doctor about it, making sure that it didn't seem like an absurd amount of sleep for a 10 month old baby. She just smiled and said some babies just need more sleep than others and since Jubilee is SO active and is growing and developing so well, her brain just needs lots of down time.

So be it! Sleep, Baby, Sleep :)

Speaking of which, time to wake her up so we can head up to the church.
Happy Sunday!

10 months -- HUZZAH! (Subtitle -- How'd that happen???)

2011-08-20T22:20:00.000-04:00

Later this week, Jubilee will be turning 10 months old. Besides Facebook, I have not been overly wonderful at writing down growth landmarks for her. I said to myself what everyone does at one point or another -- "Oh, I'll never forget! I don't have to write it down!" And yet, with only 10 months down, already too much has been forgotten!

So, I'm going to do my best to start blogging again. Surely, between life in Sandy Lake, new jobs (hopefully!), baby laughs, and new relationships, I'll have something to write to keep at least myself interested in my blog :)

We took Jubi to the park today. The last time, she was practically busting a gut laughing as Daddy was pushing her on the swing (a little higher than Mommy would have done, of course-- isn't that what Daddy's do???). Today she wasn't quite as into it. She has been a little out of sorts lately. We believe it is due to the teething that she's been working so hard towards over the last few weeks.

All her hard work *is* finally coming to fruition though -- She popped her bottom right tooth through the other day (I believe the first day I actually caught glimpse of the shiny white pearl was Wednesday, August 17 -- also my and Jer's 6th anniversary since we started dating). Hopefully she'll get some relief soon.

And to close, I love that kid. And I love my husband.
The end.

Who Am I?

2011-07-10T09:29:00.000-04:00

For the last few years, my job has been as an administrative assistant in one aspect or another. In the past, I was a working wife but this changed when Jubilee came to be and now I am also a working mom. I pretend to sell Pampered Chef in my spare time. I am contemplating selling Scentsy. I am currently in transition from moving from Pittsburgh where I was a church planter's wife to Grove City/Sandy Lake/Stoneboro, where I am the Community Life Pastor's wife. I love working with kids and can't wait to get my hands dirty again with the kids on Wednesday nights at U-Choose. Lately, becoming the mom to an adopted infant or a child in waiting has been growing on my heart.

But what I do is not who I am.

Some people say I am pretty quiet and reserved. others who know me a little deeper know that, eventually, I do come out of my shell. My husband says I am messy. But he also says I am loving and kind. My coworkers say I am hardworking. Some would probably say I am forgetful. Depending on the situation some would say I am confident and in-charge, but given another situation, others would say I am insecure.

But what you think about me does not define who I am.

I have a beautiful daughter and an amazing husband. I have two dogs, and two cars. Two fantastic parents and the worlds best mother-in-law who are always there when we need them. I have 3 sisters, two sisters-in-law, three brothers-in-law, 6 nephews, and 5 neices. I have 4 living grandparents and 3 living grandparents-in-law. I have a Blackberry, but I do not have a television. I would like to have a Kindle or an iPad, but currently I settle for my iPod Touch and an aged Sony laptop. I have bills to pay. I need to find a job. I have a lot to be thankful for.

But what I have has no significance to who I am.

So who am I?

I am a beloved daughter to the Almighty King.

Everything else flows out of that.

Thanks for the reminder, Henri Nouwen

Help Us... By Eating Great!

2010-08-22T12:43:00.000-04:00

Good morning all! Jeremiah and I did a quick calculation this morning and discovered that 9 x 7 – 1 = 62!! This means that, provided Baby Jubilee decides to make her appearance on or close to her due date, she’s only 62 days away, give or take!!! INCREDIBLE!!

We consider ourselves blessed that God would trust us with her life. Our prayer is to do our best to provide for her and bring her up in the way of the Lord!

A couple of weeks ago, Jeremiah wrote a three-part email sharing some ways that you, whether you are near or far, can support us as we follow God’s leading with The Bridge in East Pittsburgh. Now there is yet another way that you can help us find additional income so that Jeremiah can continue putting his time and effort into the church plant!

In the past, I have been active as a Pampered Chef consultant, hosting parties and selling high quality kitchen tools and sharing delicious recipes. Since moving to Pittsburgh, my membership has become inactive because I did not immediately have the circle of hosts to keep my sales up. I would really like to be able to pick this up again, but I need your help!!

Live close by (or within a couple of hours)?? You can host a show! All that means is you can get a handful of friends together for a relaxing evening of great food, pick up a few groceries, and let me handle the rest! What do you get out of it? FREE STUFF OF YOUR CHOICE!!! DISCOUNTS!!! FUTURE DISCOUNTS!!! AND MORE!! Hopefully one or more of your friends will see the great host benefits YOU get and will want to host a party for themselves, thus growing my circle of contacts!

Don’t live close by but want to help?? You can do a catalog party! (I send you catalogs and order forms and you simply collect orders from wherever.) The only difference is I probably can’t come over for the evening to bake… but you still get great bonuses and your friends still get a great no-pressure shopping experience! The products get mailed directly to you and you’ve done a great thing in helping us (and therefore helping The Bridge)!

Live in Canada?? I’m working on a way to make it possible for you to join in the party fun as well! If you are interested at all, let me know and we’ll work it out for you to get great products and benefits and free stuff!

Here’s the catch though... I don’t want to buy another start up kit if I don’t have the support of people I know to help me get the kick-start I need. If you are AT ALL INTERESTED, please respond to this email with a simple “I’d like to help!” and I’ll be in touch!! There is no pressure – I just want to see if I have a handful of people who would be willing to help me get started!

It couldn’t be easier than this to take part in some of the Great Things God is doing in Pittsburgh!

it's been almost a year...

2010-08-01T09:56:00.000-04:00

Who knew it had been almost a year since I last blogged! Life has taken MANY turns and looks nothing like it did a year ago! A year ago, we were living in Carlisle, PA, enjoying our first home, both working secular jobs while Jer kept his ear to the ground for his next step ministry-wise, and visiting doctors to find out why my body was not cooperating with the baby-making/family-growing dreams we were praying so hard about.

And now, just a year later, we are living in an apartment in Pittsburgh, PA, trying/praying desperately to sell above-mentioned first home, I am working a full-time job as a Career Consultant for a staffing agency while Jer is partnering in a church plant in Eastern Pittsburgh, and we are visiting doctors to monitor the precious life that is growing inside of me; we can't wait to meet our precious little girl, Jubilee Rayne, who is preparing to show her face to the world in just 12 short weeks!

It sure took us a while to get here, and by no means is "here" the end, but what a journey! We had pretty much settled on the idea of looking into adoption before finding out I was pregnant. Doctors had gotten us to the point where our insurance was no longer going to cover further infertility testing/medicines, and we felt that, for us, we would rather visit the path of adoption rather than the unsure/imperfect path of infertility drugs/procedures.

In August 2009, we had gone to CPAC (Church Planters Assessment Center) and were green-lighted as church planters but did not know where God was leading. Was it a new church in Carlisle? We thought perhaps since God had so clearly led us there. But then our hearts began to drift.... Carlisle was becoming more the place where our house was and less feeling like home. God was once again on the move in our lives. After some prayer and conversations, we teamed up with Rick and Eunice Cox in an endeavour that would lead us across the state to Pittsburgh, where, together, we would plant The Bridge, a new Wesleyan Church in the Penn Hills area. Being that we were two sets of assessed church planters, the goal from the beginning was to plant Church Plant #1 together before Jer and I split off to plant Church Plant #2.

So here we are. The Bridge is beginning her preview services in just a few short weeks and Bridge 2.0 is pledged to branch out in June of 2011. God is definitely doing a great thing in Pittsburgh!

As for the adoption idea -- Jer and I are still longing to traverse this path together. Who knows if God will bless us with another child from my own womb, but either way, we do not feel he is finished with growing our family yet. As we began looking into it a year ago, the idea of adoption gripped our hearts and has not let go. We are praying for the right time and place to begin that process, and do pray that God would choose to use us to bless the life of a child, our child, as we know she/he will surely bless us!

Thanks for reading! Thanks for caring! Perhaps I'll try to write again before summer 2012 :) Keep up on facebook where I'm sure you'll see plenty more pictures and highlights of our "firsts" with both church planting and parenting!

Wedding Memories :)

2009-11-12T20:12:00.000-05:00

I have been spending my evening bagging (and trashing!) MANY things from the guest room in anticipation of wonderful guests arriving next week (and the next week). But some things can just not be thrown away... The Mad Libs from our wedding are safe! Rather than kissing when anyone clinked their glasses, guests had to write a MadLib and sing it to us in order for us to "have" to kiss. Here's some of what we ended up with!

LOVE ME TENDER
Love me Mexican
Love me slow
Never let me drive
You have walked my life Canadian
And I build you so.

Love me flat
Love me round
All my lust fulfilled
For my Snookums "It's Hockey Night in Canada"
And I forever will.

Love me stupid
Love me smart
Take me to your DS.
For its there that I fainted
And we'll never part.

WHEN A MAN LOVES A WOMAN
When a horse loves a cow
Can't keep his arm on nothin' else.
He'd run the chocolate
For a snotty thing he's found.
If she is lovely, he can't see it
She can do no wrong.
Turn his leg on his hairy son
If he purs her down.

When a pencil loves a table
Spend his very hard river
Trying to jump on to what he swim
He'd give up all his beach
ANd sit out in the rain
If she said Knock it off.

Sure, when a candle loves a match
I know quickly how he smells
Cause Sweetie, Noodleface honey
I am a squirrel
When a man plays a woman

HEHE!! Too fun! There were more -- and I hope I come across them as I keep digging (and tossing!)

Just for Bobbi

2009-11-07T10:03:00.000-05:00

Bobbi has been asking and re-asking me for this recipe because I keep forgetting to give it to her at work, so I decided I would give it to all who wanted it :)

Roasted Potato Wedges (Pampered Chef Stone Sensations Cookbook)

4-5 large red potatoes, unpeeled
2 garlic cloves (I usually use only one)
1/4 cup olive oil (I sometimes cut back on this as well, just a bit)
1 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

1- Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2- Cut potatos in half lengthwise and then into wedges.
3- Mix remaining ingredients and sprinkle over potatos. Toss to coat.
4- Spread evenly.
5-Bake 40-45 minutes, stirring after 20 minutes.
6- EAT THE POTATOS.

Feeling Smelly

2009-09-27T14:53:00.000-04:00

I feel like being smelly. Not me in particular, but my house. We love burning jar candles, but they are so freakin' expensive. We never buy them unless I've found a great sale. And so I have.

CVS has their Everyday Essentials jar candles on a Buy One Get One Free sale... $7.99 for two candles. Decent in and of itself... maybe.... but I probably wouldn't buy them..

However, couple that with a $5 off a $25 purchase and we're talking! Don't have one of those? Go here and get your coupon. It'll just take you 5 minutes to take a flu quiz and you're set!

Here's the breakdown:

1- Buy 4 jar candles on BOGO sale - $31.96
2- Use $5 off $25 purchase coupon - total $26.96
3- CVS will take off the price off two candles (sale) - total $10.98

Divide that by 4 and you've just paid $2.75 per candle.

Smell you later!

(Sidenote: Toffee is our favorite scent)

I AM JUSTIFIED!

2009-06-09T19:02:00.000-04:00

Here's a pic of my second trip to KMart on Double Coupon Week. I spent a total of $7.35. I think all of my KMart trips end up in the $7 range. Seeing as there is inevitably stuff in there that I wouldn't have purchased otherwise, I've decided that from now on (in order to stay within budget) I need to justify each trip... You know, what we would have ended up purchasing anyway and what we would have probably paid for it anyway... So here goes:
Lime-Away is the only stuff we've found that really cleans the chrome in our shower, and we just ran out, so we would have gotten that. I'm valuing that at today's sale price of $2.67.

I don't have a stock of shampoo for Jeremiah like I do for me, so he'll undoubtedly be out in the next couple weeks -- we would not have bought this brand (priced at $4.99) but I will value a bottle of shampoo for him at $3.00

Jer uses a bottle of salad dressing very quickly as marinades. We're out. I value this at $1.25

I burn easily (being the furocious red-head that I am), and we have no sunblock, so I'll value that at $3.00 (would pay more than that undoubtely, but I wouldn't want to, so I'm valuing it low).

Done. My $7.35 is justified. Yay for everything else being free :)

Oh, and they didn't double one coupon properly... should have been $1.29 lower... I'm debating going back, but I don't want to make a scene :)

Better dig out some more coupons for tomorrow!

Before VS After

2009-04-30T15:44:00.001-04:00

BEFORE

AFTER

Thanks for your help, Terry! It looks great!

Beams Carpet, Inc.
1464 Trindle Road
Carlisle, PA 17015
243-2836

Go there if you need flooring done.. Tell them Sarah sent you! :D

How'd we get so busy???

2009-04-17T21:18:00.001-04:00

Today, I had to introduce myself to my husband. How did we get so busy??

This past week we have hardly seen each other:

Sunday (5th) - dinner out with couple from church and cleaning house (time together but hardly quality "us time")
Monday (6th) board meeting-- Jer gone 5-9:30ish
Tuesday - first night of ladies study - rushed supper, clean up, Jer leaves so we can have house, he was back by 8.
Wednesday - supper at church because we have music practice and Lagoon prep -- home by 9
Thursday -- he left at 4:45am for a district event, home by 8ish

As I was driving to pick him up from Enterprise after his Thursday day trip, he called me and told me to open my calendar and block off the entire afternoon this coming Thursday (his normal day off) for "US TIME". So I did just that. It wasn't until I got there and began talking about my trip to BOOST (children's ministry conference event at Headquarters) that we realized that I leave on ... Thursday. So we began searching for another US TIME night..

Wednesdays out for church stuff
Tuesdays out for Ladies study
How about Monday? GREAT!

Until we got home and I found facebook messages from a group of girls who had been trying to find a time to get together for coffee..... what night was good for them?? Monday....

Granted, if I were reading this, I would be saying to me "Skip coffee -- have a night with Jer!" Except that I was the one who knocked out the previous two nights that they had all been available... So, Jer, being as forgiving and gracious as he is, told me to go. So I'm going (and if you're reading this, I want to -- really I do -- I almost didn't write in the Monday option because I didn't want you to think I didn't... but it's part of the story....... I do want to ! Looking forward to it!)

So Jeremiah worked his butt off getting ready for Sunday today so that TOMORROW can be us day. Besides that little jaunt to the grocery store that I'm making first thing in the morning. Then STRAIGHT home. and that's it...

UGH -- I need a vacation.

FORTY SEVEN CENTS!!

2009-04-11T19:36:00.001-04:00

I'M BACK IN THE GAME!!!

All You Can Eat

2009-03-31T15:05:00.000-04:00

Tonight -- Me. Jeremiah. Michelle. Dan. Aruga's Restaurant. All You Can Eat Crab.

Enough Said.

Savings

2009-03-28T18:17:00.000-04:00

Alright -- my spirits have been rekindled. CVS is going to be seeing me once again. A few months ago, I started "CVSing" and made some amazingly sweet deals. Then, for what reason I don't know, I stopped going. I've let a few dollars of ECBs expire even (how pathetic -- that's like lighting money on fire and watching it fly away).

Thanks to my new friend Jess, my savings will begin again. I read about her blog about savings at Target and could once again feel the pitter patter of my heart getting excited just *thinking* about the savings I could have...

So tomorrow afternoon, I will sit down with the CVS flier and a website and will once again see how I can get the ball rolling (from scratch since I don't have any ECBs at this point.)

AND now that I've seen that Target deals really can be rolled as well, I will be checking into their sales fliers a little closer as well.

Thanks Jess!! You've rekindled a monster!

No Promises

2009-03-23T19:39:00.000-04:00

I am not a writer. I am no longer creative enough to be a writer. That is the main reason I do not blog. Because words are not fun if they are not well played with. I'm sure I could count on one hand the people who are interested in day to day life. And they probably hear all they care to hear anyway. So I'm not sure why I bother... but I don't want to delete this anyway...

Please share with me what you would care to read about me. I feel very boring as of late.

Christmas is... HERE!

2008-12-24T23:09:00.000-05:00

Tonight is Christmas Eve. Tomorrow is Christmas. Tomorrow we drive to Ontario. Tomorrow it is supposed to snow everywhere between here and Ontario. Tomorrow is going to be an interesting day... Tomorrow night, I hope to lay my head on a pillow at my parents house. Tomorrow I may lay my head on a hotel pillow (but we hope not).

Tonight I still have to pack. We'll just have to take tomorrow as it comes.

MERRY CHRISTMAS ALL!!

36 hours

2008-12-23T21:13:00.000-05:00

until we are on the road :) My sister and bro-in-law are on the road already - have been all day and have another 8+ hours to go apparently... Lucky them, 4 month old baby and all... We're hoping for a decent traveling day on Christmas. (Fingers crossed)

I apologize for the lack-luster attempts at blogging. I'm so tired, perhaps this was a bad time to promise blogging, cause now I'm just going to bore you to death until you stop reading it anyway.

THings I'm looking forward to happening in 2009:

- one way or another, working a full time week again.
- getting into school for my teachers certificate.
- loving my husband
- teaching my puppy that OUTSIDE is a good place for pooping.
- eliminating a butt load of debt (see the first line item to see how that will be accomplished)

Definitely not an exhaustive list, but who can make an exhaustive list when you yourself are exhausted?? Until tomorrow.... Out.

Pitter Patter

2008-12-21T21:57:00.000-05:00

There are going to be 4 dogs at my parents for Christmas. It is going to be interesting. Rumor has it, there is going to be a lot of pitter patter of doggy feet on the hard wood floors. I'm looking forward to seeing Shalom running full speed like he does here, not realizing he has zero traction on the smooth floors.

Tonight, we enjoyed a fun evening out at Fuddruckers, Hershey Chocolate World, and Hershey Sweet Lights with our good friends and neighbours, Michelle and Dan. We love them. We love chocolate. It was a good night. Thanks Michelle and Dan!

I've been doing a little bit of Christmas baking to take along, to help out my mom who is trying to get the house ready for company. Today I made Hot Pretzels. I highly recommend them if you like a little spice. Here's the recipe:

1 tbsp cayenne pepper
1 tbsp Broiled Steak seasoning
1 package dry ranch dressing
1 tsp dill weed
1 tsp black pepper
1 cup veggie oil
2 bags unsalted pretzels

Mix dry ingredients and stir in oil. Pour over pretzels and bake at 200degrees for an hour, stirring every 15 minutes. We used salted pretzels because the unsalted ones were practically twice the price. They are still good but a little over salty, so I would recommend the unsalted. Let me know if you try them!

Cerenia or Caffienia???

2008-12-18T21:39:00.000-05:00

We are heading to Ontario in seven sleeps (Christmas morning). This is the first long drive that Shalom will be joining us on since the trip to New Brunswick when he was 12 weeks old. Back then, he was fine -- he loved to peek out the window, jump from the front seat to the back seat and back again. He would settle only after making sure he had checked in every corner of the car. And then only for a moment. If we wanted a moment of no moving dog, we needed to lock him in the kennel -- and then we got to listen to him whine until he settled down.

Since then, however, he has gotten very uncomfortable in the car. A ten minute drive will **always** contain at least one puking episode, if not two or three.

So we asked the vet about motion sickness meds for puppies and picked up some pills called Cerenia. We were told we should have a trial run to get the dose correct before we go. So tonight, we piled in the car, meds in tummy, and went to check out some Christmas lights around town. Ten minutes in -- BLAH.. all over my seat. So puppy went home and took another pill, but we decided to leave him home for the rest of the night and check the dose by seeing how sleepy it made him instead. When we got home, he was ALL OVER THE PLACE. It was hilarious, much the opposite effect that we expected from this "may cause drowsiness" medicine.

Needless to say, it's going to be an interesting trip to Ontario next week...

2008 in 2008 Lost!

2008-12-14T17:55:00.000-05:00

Well, I hate to have to admit this -- but I lost ALL my 2008 in 2008 pictures when my computer died a couple months ago :( I had so many moments captured on film and now they're GONE! :(

Ok, I lie. My computer IS dead, but I believe I only would have lost a couple hundred pictures. Sigh. Can I keep no commitment?? My new blogging commitment I will keep.

Today marks yet another day where I did NOT catch up on house work. Why is it that more often than not, our home looks like a tornado went through it?? I'm ashamed to say, I would be terribly embarrassed if someone I knew decided to drop in on us. This is to my shame because, in all truth, I would love for friends to feel welcome to just drop in.. Yet I would be careful to only open the door far enough for me to slip out and enjoy a chilly hello in the drive way. What a way to share a new home.....

Commitment #2- Something has GOT to change. "Neat" has never been my middle name, or even a term loosely associated with me, but this is not only MY house. I have a husband, who on many more than one occasion has commented on how much more relaxed he is in a clean house. So should I not do my best to do my part in keeping it that way?? I have been abundantly blessed with a husband who more often than not will use his day off from working to clean the house.

Perhaps I am lazy. But this I will find a way to overcome. I need to. It must be done.

On that note, I'm going to change the laundry and finish cleaning the kitchen/dining room.

Life.

2008-12-13T08:50:00.000-05:00

Just when I was wondering what I could possibly blog about as often as I promised yesterday, life came along and is doing its job of filling in. First thing this morning, Jer and I were able to share in a moment together -- huddled on the ground, pushed as far under the car as we could manage, attempting to bunji cord the otherwise detached exhaust up high enough to not scratch the pavement the entire way to the shop... As we expected, "Mike" was very surprised that we would have such a problem with an '07 Taurus. Now we are awaiting the phone call with the estimate on cost so we can decide if we should just let them take care of it or have it towed across town to Family Ford where they will hopefully honour our warranty...

Sometimes being a one car family is interesting... Anyone want to give us a ride to church in the morning??

Newspapers

2008-12-12T16:14:00.000-05:00

Based on a recent phone conversation with my sister, I decided to come out of the world of hiding. Basically, she told me (via phone message because I didn't get to the phone) that she was going to start having Jeremiah take a picture of me every day with the newspaper so that she knows I"m still alive. Apparently, I'm not very good at keeping in touch with anyone, so no one should feel offended -- it's not just you!!

But that said, I'm going to start blogging more. I can't promise it will be exciting, but I will do my best to blog at least 4 times a week for the next 8 weeks. That's 32 posts in 56 days. That's pretty decent considering my last post was mid August.

That said -- here's an update.

1- I no longer hate my job. It has taken some twists and turns and is still not my dream job, but my responsibilities have increased and I no longer feel like I'm wasting everyone's time (including my own). That said, however, the same week that I started enjoying my job (more on how that came about another day), my hours got cut from 40 to 30. Then this past week, they were cut from 30 to 25... makes budgeting interesting......

2- The babies from the post before the job post have been born! Seth Daniel MacGillivary is alive and well in Nova Scotia. I get to meet him in just 13 short days!! Yay for Christmas with family! Mathias William Bonner came a couple weeks early to very excited mommy and daddy, Jeremiah's sister and her husband. After a couple extra days in the hospital, he is home and doing very well. No plans in the making to meet him yet, but the day will come!!!!! From what I've seen, he's another precious little bundle!

3- WE HAVE FRIENDS! Haha, that sounds so lame. But it's true! In fact, in a couple minutes I have to cut this post short because I need to freshen up as I'm "going out with the girls" for some drinks this evening (Yummy hot chai tea.... MMmmmmm!!) We've become really good friends with our neighbours and our dogs have fallen in love -- YIKES!

4- Christmas is coming. My house feels festive. Outside is not very festive at all. It has rained for the last three days. The day before yesterday was 62 degrees outside, and Monday is supposed to be in the 50s again. Good thing we're going to Ontario for Christmas or I might not get any home made ice cream this year!!

5- More will have to wait for other days.

My puppy says hello.

Jobs

2008-08-21T14:15:00.000-04:00

To have a job which one cared about would be grand.

2.5 hours and counting :)

2008-08-03T09:34:00.000-04:00

2.5 hours and counting until we hit the road and head north. Puppy has his shots and records, Jeremiah has his passport, I have my green card. OH -- that reminds me, I need to find the stuff that I need to apply for a new Canadian passport while I am there... Hmmm.. now where did I put that envelope....

Anyway, off for a week of family and fun. You won't hear from me until I get back - i'm leaving my computer here.

I probably won't do much eating while we're away... my tongue has once again birthed a second tongue... Yes, you heard me correctly, I once again have 2 tongues. This time I'm going to do something about it though!! I have a doctors appointment when I get back and I'm going to request and see what he says to taking out the salivary gland (I have a salivary gland stone.. again...) Enough is enough. I have 6, surely I can do fine with 5!!!!!

Enough gross talk. I'm OUT!

It's a Girl!

2008-07-30T20:06:00.000-04:00

It's a GIRL!!

I'm proud to announce the arrival of

Baby Zida-Brown

Name: ~TBD~

Birth Date: July 30, 2008

Birth Time:2:54 am

Height: 20.5 inches

Weight: 7 lbs 11 oz

This is my newest niece. I haven't met her yet because she is in Seattle, but I know I will love her just the same! I've talked to mommy a couple times today, but she was pretty tired (see time of birth...) Now if only Jaymie will have hers then maybe it will be my turn to give this whole pregnancy thing a try... hehe. Don't hold your breathe just yet!!!

Nieces and Nephews to date:

Emily (9) - (Krista's #1, my sister)
Marc (6) (Anthony's #1, Jer's brother)
Isaac (4) - (Krista's #2, my sister)
Naima (2) - (Gina's #1, my sister)
Jake (2) - (Krista's #3, my sister)
Laurel (2) - (Anthony's #2, Jer's brother)
new baby in Seattle (very young) - (Gina's #2, my sister)
to come baby in Antigonish (not yet breathing air - due in Aug) - (Jaymie's #1, my sister)
to come baby in Tucson (not yet breathing air - due in Dec) - (Christian's #1,Jer's sister)

The Donkey

2008-07-29T12:37:00.000-04:00

Young Chuck, moved to Texas and bought a donkey from a farmer for $100.00.
The farmer agreed to deliver the donkey the next day. The next day he drove up and said, 'Sorry son, but I have some bad news, the donkey died.'

Chuck replied, 'Well, then just give me my money back.'

The farmer said, 'Can't do that. I went and spent it already.'

Chuck said, 'Ok, then, just bring me the dead donkey.'

The farmer asked, 'What ya gonna do with him?

Chuck said, 'I'm going to raffle him off.'

The farmer said, 'You can't raffle off a dead donkey!'

Chuck said, 'Sure I can Watch me. I just won't tell anybody he's dead.'

A month later, the farmer met up with Chuck and asked, 'What happened with that dead donkey?'

Chuck said, 'I raffled him off. I sold 500 tickets at two dollars a piece and made a profit of $898.00.'

The farmer said, 'Didn't anyone complain?'

Chuck said, 'Just the guy who won. So I gave him his two dollars back.'

Chuck grew up and now works for the government.

my newest CVS adventure

2008-07-28T11:40:00.000-04:00

I think I've posted about my fun at CVS before, but in case I haven't, that's the store I like to go to, buy lots of stuff, and pay next to nothing. For example, here's my trip on Saturday:

I hadn't been in awhile, so my Extra Care Bucks were expiring and I had to use them all. I had $13.98 in those.

I bought:

4 bottles of Pro Vive shampoo - $4.99 each

8 packs of a new Trident gum - $1.49 each

1 bottle KY jelly - $12.49

2 five packs CVS tampons - $1.49 each

2 packs CVS liners - $.89 each

I used:

a $5 off $30 purchase coupon

$2 of KY

2 $1 off 3 packs of gum

and 2 BOGO Pro Vive coupons.

Sales:

The Pro Vive was on sale BOGO

The gum was on sale BOGO

I used the $13.98 in ECB

I paid $.23 out of pocket! And they gave me about $9.00 back in ECBs :)

Ready for my next trip!!!

Washing Machines and Cell Phones

2008-07-24T13:08:00.000-04:00

Unfortunately this is not a two part post. It's about washing machines and cell phones... and how they don't play well together...

Needless to say, ONE for the washing machine and ZERO for the cell phone.

If anyone wants to contact me, email it is!!!

She Speaks!

2008-07-22T11:01:00.000-04:00

A couple months ago, I learned about a very cool website called "Shespeaks.com". It is an online community for women (sorry guys!) to try new products and let their voices be heard! I had my doubts at first, but recently was invited to take part in a trial for Garnier Nutrioniste's Anti-Puff Eye Roller.

As for the product, I love it! After only one day of trying it, my eye feels refreshed and less "tired". (I say "eye" because I am doing an experiment with one eye to see what the results really are. Hopefully, if all goes well, Jeremiah will be able to tell in a week or so which eye I am testing the roller on -- I'll keep you posted). Call me crazy, but I could feel the difference right away when I tried it.

Enough about the product itself though. What I really wanted to talk about in this blog was the website itself! I had my doubts about it when I read about it on another blog, but figured there was no harm in giving it a shot. So I signed up (for free, of course) and received my first invitation (a month or so later). That's it. Full size "sample" of whatever it is they ask you to test, and you get to keep it at the end. All you have to do is use the website to tell them what you thought. The more you use the website, the better your "relationship" with them is, and the more they can offer you invitations specific to your own lifestyle. Apparently, they test everything from books to beauty samples (like my eye roller) to baby strollers to KitchenAid mixers etc etc etc.

So far, two thumbs up from me! I can't wait to see what they offer me to test next. Just so you know, I'll test just about anything that is free!!!

Is anyone else out there a member of shespeaks.com? If you are let me know! If you sign up, let me know! There's no benefit to me if you sign up, but I'd love to share the benefits of the site with you!!

(US residents only, sorry Canadian friends..)

I need your help - HAIR CUTS

2008-07-11T16:28:00.000-04:00

I'm dying to do something to my hair but I can't find any do's that I want to do. Does anyone have any ideas/pictures of any hair dos that you have seen and/or had that you absolutely loved. Here's the criteria

- has to be easy (I'm pretty much 100% hair incompetent

- has to work with relatively thick hair.

- can be any length from short to shoulder length (since that's where my hair is now)

Send photos (or links to them!) so that I can see what they look like.

THANKS FOR YOUR HELP!!! may the best hair-do win!!!

Preciousness Exposed

2008-07-06T08:50:00.000-04:00

Two of my sisters and one sister-in-law are pregnant and I guess I got jealous.....

So we got a puppy!!!!!

Meet Shalom. Our newest bundle of joy!!!

But no, I'm not pregnant. For now, I'll just love on my boys!!!

Congratulations! You've won...

2008-07-02T15:01:00.000-04:00

I would say in the last month or so, I have probably entered 50-75+ contests/sweepstakes for everything from a $5 gift card to a $28 grilling set to a $1400 treadmill to a vacation package for 6 to Puerto Rico. What did I win? A sample pair of Hanes Her Way hipster underwear. In white. Everyone's favourite. Jeremiah's response: "Way to go - now we've lost all chances of winning anything good cause you wasted our luck on underwear" (not word for word, but you get the drift.)

Jeremiah enters one lousy contest -- a link he found while browsing through the www.Drudgereport.com website. Yesterday, he received a voicemail and an email saying "CONGRATULATIONS! You are our first place winner! You've won..." blah blah blah...

SO WE WON!! We're on our way to a three day, two night vacation for 2 to Fairfax, Virginia, complements of the Virginia Tourism department. We fly from Harrisburg to Dulles, get a three day car rental, 2 nights stay at the Crowne Plaza Tyson Corner hotel , get a nice supper out on Saturday night, free breakfasts at the hotel, and 2 tickets to see Les Miserables at Wolf Trap!!

Check out the details for yourself at http://www.virginia.org/musicpromo/lesmiserables.asp

YAY Jeremiah!!!

(And don't worry -- I'll continue to enter any contest I come across!)

It's here!

2008-06-05T16:57:00.000-04:00

You've waited with bated breathe. Now here it is. Enjoy the virtual tour, and when you're ready, jump in the car and swing by for the real thing!! Serious!

Pictures to come!

2008-05-28T16:46:00.000-04:00

Hey! For those who are wondering where we are living now, pictures are to come very soon!!! The house is pretty much put together (just need to get some pictures up on the walls!). We are LOVING it!!! Oh my goodness, we are so blessed. Despite the fact that the bills are pushed tighter together than ever, we feel so rich and blessed. God is good!!!

Now that I said pictures are coming, hold me to it!! We've meant to take them a couple of times and it hasn't happened!!! Tonight we'll straighten up and by tomorrow, pictures! Ok???

It's closing day!!!!!

2008-05-16T10:12:00.000-04:00

...and it's pouring rain!!!

Closing day on our house is TODAY!!! YAHOO!!!! That means we move tomorrow (and lose the apartment as of Monday. Here's to hoping the 50% chance of rain for tomorrow holds off because we have to do it anyway... we'll just probably lose most of our help!!!

Here are some things that I will NOT miss about the apartment:

1- No more squeaky floors! (house has cement floors, no squeaking!)
2- No more worrying about scaring the downstairs neighbour to death by
dropping something (she's really sensitive -- we really may have scared her
to death!) --
3- No more stairs to the doorway! (house is completely one story living)
4- No more parking under a tree and being constantly speckled with
"helicopters" and bird doo! (house has a garage)
5- No more road being flooded when it rains (while this was amusing, it will
be nice to know we can get out -- even in the rain!)
6- No more laundry in the kitchen! (house has a laundry room with a door and
everything! no more dust in my kitchen appliances!)
7- No more running toilet every 20 minutes! (the apartment toilet needs new inards but we never had them come to do it)
8- No more having to remember to touch the dial on the dishwasher when it gets to the rinse cycle (at the apartment, the dishwasher is broken. It stops at Rinse and you have to nudge the button. They are replacing it as soon as we're gone -- could have been a couple weeks ago, but we didn't want the hassle. We just ran it when we were home to "help it along"
7- I wish I could say no more ugly couch, but we've had to put buying a new
one on hold indefinitely. It'll come -- in its time.

We're pretty excited about the move (can you tell???)

TEN DAY COUNTDOWN!!

2008-05-06T13:07:00.000-04:00

WOW!! The 10 day countdown has begun!!! I cannot believe it is happening so fast! (or that there is still so much to do!!!)

Of course, we've continued to peak in the windows...

The kitchen cupboards are in (bonus)

There is a fan in the living room as there should be (and the one they hung in the wrong place is still there... hmmmm... think it's too much of a bother to take it down??? I am fine with them leaving it there...)

The tile is down and grouted (spelling?) in the entry way.

The vinyl flooring is down in kitchen/dining room, laundry room and bathrooms

Grass is growing (and so are a few weeds.. think they'll take care of this before closing???)

Stuff we know is still to come:

Sinks in kitchen and bathrooms

Bathroom paraphenalia (rods, towel racks, tp roll holder, etc)

Closet/laundry room shelving

Installation of appliances

spot painting (a couple spots they cut through drywall never got repainted properly)

Switch out door to green door

Hang shutters

Clean sticker gook off windows

Mark backyard

I'm sure there is more that we cannot see from our window vantage point. Hopefully 8 days is long enough to get it all done :) We do the final walk-through on Wednesday!!!

CVS for good :)

2008-04-21T08:59:00.000-04:00

My CVS savings have been used for good already! Hooray!! I've told my husband to make sure that if I begin stockpiling too much, I am giving away what we can't reasonably use (our new home does not have a great deal of storage space). Well, I've had opportunity to share my good fortune already. Yesterday, it rained HARD where I live and our street flooded. My guesstimate would be that it was a good 1.5-2 feet at its deepest points. At first, cars were trying to get through it, until eventually the police got there and wouldn't allow anyone through. Unfortunately for my new "friend", they didn't get there before she tried to get her little car across. It got water logged and shut off mid "puddle." We were watching the excitement from our second floor apartment window, and saw another couple of people help push her out of the road and into our parking lot. I overheard them talking and heard her say that she had friends just up the street and she would call them. So I didn't worry about her. She was taken care of.

20 minutes later, rain harder, thunder and lightning louder, I realized she was still sitting out there in her car! I told my husband I was going to see if she wanted to come up and dry off while she waited for whomever she was waiting. Poor girl, when I got there, she was streaming tears, talking to her dad on the phone. I'm very glad I did not assume she was taken care of. She came up, calmed down, and dried off. It was a good 45 minutes before her parents got there to get her and see what they could do about the car. Unfortunately, it still wouldn't start, so she borrowed our internet to find some phone numbers for road side assistance and was on her way...

But not until I gave her a big bag of M&Ms to melt her troubles away :) Haha, I know it was small and didn't REALLY do anything to fix the situation, but it brought a smile to her face! I'm glad we were able to be there for her, even if it was just a warm/dry place with tasty M&Ms while she waited for "real help" to arrive :)

CVS and Walmart

2008-04-18T21:33:00.000-04:00

Next time, I promise I'll write something interesting. For now, more deal pictures.

$0.29 cents. I swear. That's it. and I still have $3 in ECBs to roll for next week.

This isn't AS free... $6.76... But not bad for $23.38 worth of stuff :) And mostly because the Noxzema wasn't on sale, we just needed it. I have yet to see a coupon for it -- but I will continue to look!!!
4 weeks until we close on the house!!! There is still SOOOO much for them to do. I sure hope they finish it up on time because if we don't close that day, our financing falls through... Pray for us!!

Ok - so my math was a little off...

2008-04-10T21:53:00.000-04:00

I guess I did a couple mistakes in my math before heading to the store. Here's what I ended up with:

2 Sunsilk shampoos ($3.49 each)
2 Dove shampoos (3.99 each)
1 Sunsilk Styling Aid ($3.49)
5 24-piece excedrins ($1.99 each)
2 Tru Blend Cover Girl Foundations ($9.49)
1 Breath Savers ($1.50)
2 large Hershey chocolate bars ($1.79 each)
1 Stride gum ($1.19)

Total cost out of pocket: $1.51.

And I came home with $5 in ECB to boot.

BONUS!!

Anyone wanna play???

(Hopefully something for men will be on sale next week...)

.... and all because I was out of shampoo.... this is really going to help the budget!!

If all works out properly this time

2008-04-10T13:31:00.000-04:00

I've found a new game. It's called "shopping at CVS." It's a great game. The goal of the game is to use coupons and see how cheap (or how free) you can get stuff.

Last night, I "played' and the first step went very well. I bought 5 boxes of Excedrin and paid ---- $0!!!! Yup! They were on sale for $1.99 and I had $2.00 off coupons!! So I got my limit (5 per household) Best part, they have certain sales that give you "cash" on a card that can only be used at CVS. So these 5 boxes of Excedrin that I bought for free put $5 on my Extra rewards card :)

Step 2 fell apart because the item that I wanted to buy was not in stock in either CVS store here. So I went home determined to figure it out again. And I believe I have. If any "CVS-ers" are reading this, PLEASE give me feedback if you see something that is not working or if you know of a coupon to make it even better!!!

Step #1:

Buy

2 Tru Blend Foundation 9.49 each

Filler of some sort (hopefully going to find a filler with a coupon) - at least 1.02. Basing my scenario on $1.50

Total purchase: $20.48

Use: $4/$20 coupon -$4.00

Cover Girl Buy One Get One Free coupon -$9.49

$1 coupon -$1.00

$5 Extra Care Bucks that I earned from Excedrin. -$5.00

New Total: $0.99!!! out of pocket (less if a good filler is found)

Get $6 ECB for each tru blend foundation (april deal) = $12 ECB

Step #2 (new transaction):

Buy:

3 Sunsilk Shampoo/styling aid 3.49 each

2 Dove Shampoo @ 3.99 each

filler (hopefully filler with a coupon) - at least $1.45 - Basing my scenario on $1.50

Total purchase:

$20.05

Use: $4/$20 coupon -$4.00

Buy One Get One Free on sunsilk coupon -$3.49

$1.50 sunsilk coupon -$1.50

$3/2 dove coupon -$3.00

Use one $6 ECB coupon -$6.00

New Total:

$2.06!!!!!! out of pocket (less if find a good filler with coupon)

Plus, get $5 for spending $15 on Sunsilk/Dove

that leaves me with $11 ECB in my pocket plus only spending $3.05 for everything you see above.

Anyone else want to play???

Special thanks to the numerous websites that have helped me figure out how to make this work!! I'll give some props to them in a future blog entry! You don't even know who you are, but you've been a HUGE help to our budget!!!

43 days and falling :)

2008-04-03T15:36:00.000-04:00

Signed, sealed, not quite yet delivered... the house is ours!

Despite the fact that we had to drop me off the mortgage paperwork due to not enough American credit (thus read as "bad credit" by anyone in the money business), our mortgage loan was approved! 43 days from now, we'll be pdragging boxes downstairs, throwing them in the truck and driving them the whole 2.5 miles to our new home (hardly seems worth it to pack the truck - but Jeremiah says he's not helping me carry everything over!!!)

As far as we know, we have only one more store to stop at to finish picking stuff out for. This time for things like kitchen/bathroom faucets, toilets, bathroom sinks, etc. If it's like last Saturdays stop at Yale (lighting/fan fixtures), it'll be 5 minutes in and out :) We're not really interested in doing any upgrades that we'll actually have to pay for. We would just like to see what standard pieces are so that we can switch it out if we say "ew -- that's gross" (like we did with the yucky bronze plated chandelier they wanted to hang in our dining room--- EEEEWIE!!!)

On top of it all, we're thinking about getting a puppy :) That is, if we can agree on a name (better to get the disagreements over with on a dog and then nail it out of the park by agreeing when we try to name kids, right???) *I* would like to get the puppy soon (like before we move into the house) -- that way, he can pee on the apartment carpet instead of our new carpet!!! I'm such a scheemer......

That's it for today. And don't forget to scroll down and register for the Phil and Ted stroller contest. Leave my name in their so I better my chances to win a stroller that as of yet I do not need!!!! :)

No, I'm not pregnant

2008-04-02T07:21:00.000-04:00

But who doesn't want to win a free Phil and Ted's Sport Buggy for the future???

Click the link below to enter to win! You can enter more than once (once a week, I believe)

Leave the "dealsnmoredeals" address in the referred email slot and I'll get my name put in again for referring you!! Don't forget about your extra entries by referring!!

The Waiting Game

2008-03-25T09:34:00.000-04:00

We are still waiting to hear about approval of financing on our house. We should be hearing any day but every day seems like an eternity when you're waiting for the phone to ring:) If all goes well, move in day is 7 weeks from Friday!

Will keep you posted!

and you thought I was only gone a couple days...

2008-03-22T16:10:00.000-04:00

When I signed off blogger, facebook, and msn a few days ago, I believe the house countdown as at 104. Well, now I’m back (but determinedly cutting back “screen time” long term) and the count down is at 55!!! We think.

Due to some changes in the market, our closing date had to pop back by 6 weeks in order to get the financing that we needed to make the house possible. That’s cool cause we get to move in in mid-May instead of the end of August. But it’s scary as anything because that’s 3 paychecks early and we won’t be quite as comfortable as we once thought..

We know God has led in this, so if it goes through (the financing could still fall through – we’ll know by late this week), we’ll know that he is continuing to lead and we’ll be ok. If it falls through, we will also consider it a blessing because other things will be possible.

Here’s to having a Saviour who goes through the “tough stuff” of life with you!!!

"Screenitizing"

2008-03-18T08:09:00.000-04:00

Jeremiah and I are "turning off the screens" for the rest of the week. So if you need to get ahold of us or get a message to us, email or facebook will not be the way to do it :) We'll see you on the flipside!

And in the meantime, don't forget that your Redeemer Lives!!

Newberry awards

2008-03-13T21:29:00.000-04:00

I love children's literature. Above that, I love award winning children's literature. In college, my room mate Alison and I would read to each other before going to sleep almost every night. (Then she would stay up hours later than I would and I would talk to her in my sleep -- but that's another blog altogether!)

I decided then that, in hopes that my children will love to read as much as I do, I will buy them the Newberry award winner each year. I haven't looked at as many of the Caldecott winners (the younger award books), but I can see getting those as well.

Below is a list of all the Newberry Award winners since they began awarding it in 1922. The RED ones I have read. The BLUE ones I will commit to reading this year. The GREEN I may have read as a child but am unsure. The rest, I would like to work my way back through eventually (to a point anyway.)

--Side note-- There are not as many reds as I thought there would be. I had better change that!

2008: Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz (Candlewick)
2007: The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron, illus. by Matt Phelan (Simon & Schuster/Richard Jackson)
2006: Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins (Greenwillow Books/HarperCollins)
2005: Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata (Atheneum Books for Young Readers/Simon & Schuster)
2004: The Tale of Despereaux: Being the Story of a Mouse, a Princess, Some Soup, and a Spool of Thread by Kate DiCamillo (Candlewick Press)
2003: Crispin: The Cross of Lead by Avi (Hyperion Books for Children)
2002: A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park(Clarion Books/Houghton Mifflin)
2001: A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck (Dial)
2000: Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis (Delacorte)
1999: Holes by Louis Sachar (Frances Foster)
1998: Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse (Scholastic)
1997: The View from Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg (Jean Karl/Atheneum)
1996: The Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman (Clarion)
1995: Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech (HarperCollins)
1994: The Giver by Lois Lowry(Houghton)
1993: Missing May by Cynthia Rylant (Jackson/Orchard)
1992: Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor (Atheneum)
1991: Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli (Little, Brown)
1990: Number the Stars by Lois Lowry (Houghton)
1989: Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman (Harper)
1988: Lincoln: A Photobiography by Russell Freedman (Clarion)
1987: The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman (Greenwillow)
1986: Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan (Harper)
1985: The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley (Greenwillow)
1984: Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary (Morrow)
1983: Dicey's Song by Cynthia Voigt (Atheneum)
1982: A Visit to William Blake's Inn: Poems for Innocent and Experienced Travelers by Nancy Willard (Harcourt)
1981: Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson (Crowell)
1980: A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal, 1830-1832 by Joan W. Blos (Scribner)
1979: The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin (Dutton)
1978: Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson (Crowell)
1977: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor (Dial)
1976: The Grey King by Susan Cooper (McElderry/Atheneum)
1975: M. C. Higgins, the Great by Virginia Hamilton (Macmillan)
1974: The Slave Dancer by Paula Fox (Bradbury)
1973: Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George (Harper)
1972: Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien (Atheneum)
1971: Summer of the Swans by Betsy Byars (Viking)
1970: Sounder by William H. Armstrong (Harper)
1969: The High King by Lloyd Alexander (Holt)
1968: From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg (Atheneum)
1967: Up a Road Slowly by Irene Hunt (Follett)
1966: I, Juan de Pareja by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino (Farrar)
1965: Shadow of a Bull by Maia Wojciechowska (Atheneum)
1964: It's Like This, Cat by Emily Neville (Harper)
1963: A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (Farrar)
1962: The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare (Houghton)
1961: Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell (Houghton)
1960: Onion John by Joseph Krumgold (Crowell)
1959: The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare (Houghton)
1958: Rifles for Watie by Harold Keith (Crowell)
1957: Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorensen (Harcourt)
1956: Carry On, Mr. Bowditch by Jean Lee Latham (Houghton)
1955: The Wheel on the School by Meindert DeJong (Harper)
1954: ...And Now Miguel by Joseph Krumgold (Crowell)
1953: Secret of the Andes by Ann Nolan Clark (Viking)
1952: Ginger Pye by Eleanor Estes (Harcourt)
1951: Amos Fortune, Free Man by Elizabeth Yates (Dutton)
1950: The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli (Doubleday)
1949: King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry (Rand McNally)
1948: The Twenty-One Balloons by William Pène du Bois (Viking)
1947: Miss Hickory by Carolyn Sherwin Bailey (Viking)
1946: Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski (Lippincott)
1945: Rabbit Hill by Robert Lawson (Viking)
1944: Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes (Houghton)
1943: Adam of the Road by Elizabeth Janet Gray (Viking)
1942: The Matchlock Gun by Walter Edmonds (Dodd)
1941: Call It Courage by Armstrong Sperry (Macmillan)
1940: Daniel Boone by James Daugherty (Viking)
1939: Thimble Summer by Elizabeth Enright (Rinehart)
1938: The White Stag by Kate Seredy (Viking)
1937: Roller Skates by Ruth Sawyer (Viking)
1936: Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink (Macmillan)
1935: Dobry by Monica Shannon (Viking)
1934: Invincible Louisa: The Story of the Author of Little Women by Cornelia Meigs (Little, Brown)
1933: Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze by Elizabeth Lewis (Winston)
1932: Waterless Mountain by Laura Adams Armer (Longmans)
1931: The Cat Who Went to Heaven by Elizabeth Coatsworth (Macmillan)
1930: Hitty, Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field (Macmillan)
1929: The Trumpeter of Krakow by Eric P. Kelly (Macmillan)
1928: Gay Neck, the Story of a Pigeon by Dhan Gopal Mukerji (Dutton)
1927: Smoky, the Cowhorse by Will James (Scribner)
1926: Shen of the Sea by Arthur Bowie Chrisman (Dutton)
1925: Tales from Silver Lands by Charles Finger (Doubleday)
1924: The Dark Frigate by Charles Hawes (Little, Brown)
1923: The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting (Stokes)
1922: The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Willem van Loon (Liveright)

FW: Creativity --- not!

2008-03-03T11:15:00.000-05:00

My creativity is lacking. I thought I used to have some, but I think I left it along the way somewhere. I am great at solving problems, love my job fixing IT stuff, but that takes no creativity (except being creative to figure out what the problem is.) Creating, on the other hand, is not my forte. I'm supposed to be creating brochures. I am supposed to be working on an ad campaign. I am totally out of my element. It just looks like words on a page. Was I ever creative? Did I have it and lose it? If I did, can I get it back? Or was it not mine to begin with???

Yours, uncreatively.

Home, Sweet Home :)

2008-02-18T20:42:00.000-05:00

On Saturday, Jer and I "visited" our home. Shhh....

Here are some pictures that we took while we were there. Welcome to our new home :)

A peak through the house from the living room.

The dining room on the left and the kitchen on the right
(with the master bedroom in behind)

Jer standing by the front coat closet.

Master Bedroom

Guest Bedroom

Master Closet

me and Jer enjoying our adventure together

Me taking a shower in our new master shower.
Finally, a showerhead that is above Jer's head!!

The weird hot water heater "Octopus"
Each line is for a different element of the house.
No more stolen hot water!!

All recessed lighting!

The garage sans door and bricking.

Home, Sweet Home! 130 days until closing!!

June 27th!

2008-02-14T09:34:00.000-05:00

June 27th is the big day --- it's MOVING DAY!!!

The deed has been done. We met with the realtor last night. We signed the necessary paperwork, we listened to the necessary stories, we took the paper signing pictures... now we wait.

Well, now we wait and choose stuff. I can't wait to choose stuff. <<Raises a glass>> Here's to choosing stuff! Pictures to come!

Contracts and snow ... finally!

2008-02-13T09:24:00.000-05:00

Tonight at 6:00pm, Jeremiah and I will be driving to the Summerfield development where we will be writing up and signing a contract for our brand new house! Once that is under our belts, it will be time to tell the electrician where to put the electrical outlets etc, time to pick flooring, countertops, cupboards, appliances, lighting, etc and all the other fun stuff that comes with having a house built.

It is so incredible to think that our first home will be a brand new home that no one else has ever lived in before. We do not have to worry about what is in the carpet from the last owners, how much longer the old furnace is going to last, how much life the shingles have left before we need a new roof, etc etc etc. There will be no unremoveable furniture markings on the carpets, stains on the sink/countertops, or someone else's hair to clean out of the drains (ew!)

We are so blessed. We pray and thank God every day, then we ask Him to go before us and keep our path straight. We so do not want to walk into anything that is not His will for our lives.

Tonight we'll decide on a closing date. Should be in mid June, I believe. If the months keep going like January did, that'll be here before we know it!!

Oh - and we got snow --- finally! Funny though, seems like I am the only one who is even remotely happy to see it. Looks like I'll get a good chance to experience snow at home in March too :) Hooray!! (for snow and for going home!)

Confirm Receipt..................Dear winner!!!

2008-02-12T10:12:00.000-05:00

Hahaha --- spam bloggers???? I got an email saying that I blogged. i came to my blog and found this! GOODNESS -- who ever heard of spam bloggers?? not commenters, but they infiltrated my BLOG!! Guess it's time to change the address that I use to email blog messages to my blog.... Anyone want to accept my "winnings??"

________________________________

UK NATIONAL LOTTERY HEADQUARTERS:
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Reserved!

2008-02-08T08:49:00.000-05:00

There is now a house in Carlisle that has a tentative "reserved for Jeremiah and Sarah" sign on it (figuratively). I say tentative because, as of yet, we have not SEEN the house. GRRR...

Our walk-through fell through yesterday afternoon. It wasn't really the realtors fault, but it's hard to not want to blame someone. They have only one model home, which is bigger than the style we are interested in. To see the others, realtors have to set up appointments with people who live in one and walk buyers through those. So he set up our appointment, we got there, and he told us he had been trying to get ahold of this guy and, despite saying he would be home all day, he was not there :( We hung out in the model for a few, hoping he might get home, but then I had to leave to get back to work. Since I was "playing Georgia" (exec assistant), I couldn't be late getting back.

So, since he didn't want the house to be bought from under our noses, Hayden (realtor) called the office and "put our names on the house." We now have til Monday with no worries about someone else sneaking in with a different realtor and snatching it up.

Here's hoping he can get an appointment set up on Sunday afternoon!!

Here we go!!

2008-02-07T12:37:00.000-05:00

Here we go Loop-di-loo

Here we go Loop-di-li

Here we go Loop-di-loo

All on a (Thursday afternoon!)

Jeremiah and I are on our way to walk through what could potentially be our new house (or one like it anyway) as soon as he gets here to pick me up. We are both pretty excited!! It is really quite hard to believe that even after looking at numbers, we are seriously looking at purchasing our very own, no-one-has-ever-lived-in-it-before, built-to-taste (or at least built how we want them to -- not too many upgrades though!) HOME! WOWSERS!!

I'm playing Executive Assistant today (Georgia is away), so I probably won't update until I get home tonight, but you'll be hearing from me!

Wish us luck! AHHHHH -- so excited

Walk-through!

2008-02-06T11:25:00.000-05:00

We're doing a walk-through in a house tomorrow at 1:00! Cross your fingers and pray that all goes as it should!!!

February??

2008-02-04T12:47:00.000-05:00

1- I can't believe it is February. 2 months and 3 days until Jer and I have been married a year and a half.

2- For Valentine's Day, my desired gift list includes a couch, a fridge, and a house. All of which are on their way to being chosen currently :)

3- It's incredible to even be thinking about buying a house and, after looking at finances, still feel it is a feasible venture!

4- The ghost shrimp have still not shown up. But I'm not afraid. I've decided even if they are in my house somewhere, we can co-habitate quite happily.

5- The guppies should have babies between Friday and Sunday... Here's hoping we can catch the mommies in time to keep the fries from being lunch.

6- We had a church special meeting last night about hiring on an assistant pastor at the church. This is the first I've mentioned this because it was to be brought to the church congregation first, but I'm sure we'll talk more about it after the vote (Feb 17) and as it progresses.

7- I love our town. If you feel the need to visit a little town that is fantastic but that is low key and somewhat unknown, come visit us!! We've got the best coffee house in town, excellent small town restaurants, Christian concerts galore (in a couple hour radius anyway), and of course, you'd get to visit us.

8- Jeremiah is on his way to get measured for Justin's wedding in May. So awesome :) I'm glad it happened for you, Justin!

Have a great and blessed Monday.

Ghost Shrimp

2008-01-31T08:38:00.000-05:00

Jeremiah and I refilled our fish tank a couple weeks ago and got some pretty fun fish to watch swim around. However, we also got three "Ghost Shrimp."

As you can see from the picture, they get their name from being very transparent and, thus, hard to see. You see, I thought they would enjoy life on the bottom of the tank and would be fun to watch and hunt for etc. No no no... They don't stay on the bottom and they are not fun to hunt for!!! The first couple of days, I would see them "swim" up about 4 or 5 inches, and then they would crash down to the bottom. Then over the next few days, I saw them make trips to the very top, hang out for awhile, and only then swim back down.

You don't see the problem here?? In case you can't tell in the picture, they have legs!!! If they can get TO the top, they can probably crawl OUT the top. EW EW EW EW EW!!!

So here's the thing. Every time I walk by the tank, I have to get down and find all three Ghost Shrimp before I can walk away satisfied that they are all still in there. This morning, I spent about 5 minutes looking for them and still can't find them. If they are still missing by the time I get home from work, it will most definitely be vacuum night and disinfectant night!!

I'll tell you one thing, after these three shrimp are gone, there will be no more ghost shrimp living in our tank!!

UPDATE: It's the next day (Friday morning), and even after much searching last night and this morning, there is no sign of the three missing ghost shrimps. I'm sorry - but that's really disgusting!

I got my hair cut

2008-01-30T10:56:00.000-05:00

Pictures to come when and if I decide I like it :)

Updated!

2008-01-28T09:40:00.000-05:00

It's about freaking time.

1- The Lagoon kicked off on Jan 13 and has been going well! We had 5 kids each of the first 2 weeks (made up of 7 different kids), and 8 yesterday (including 2 more new kids)! These are not new kids. They have interacted with the church before but never in any kind of consistent manner.

- 1 is a sixth grade boy who used to get dropped off most Sundays and then spends the afternoon with a couple from church.

- 2 are friends of boy above

- 3 are kids who are part of our church family but with their parents work were very irregular. (they've been there all three weeks!)

- 1 is the grandson of the volunteer helping to run the ministry

- 1 is a sixth grade girl who finds everything "boring" but has come back twice

- 1 is a teen volunteer leader who, as we start, is more or less taking part but will open up to newer and broader ways to help as we progress.

Praise Yahweh for His faithfulness in this new ministry!

2- Still no snow to speak of :( Guess I have to pray harder

3- People here would kill me if I prayed harder.

4- Two of my sisters are pregnant and I've been so "busy" that I haven't talked to either of them in almost a month (shame on me!!!)

5- We are having a special meeting after church next Sunday to introduce and vote on a new adventure in faith for the church. To many people, it will seem to be coming from left field, but the board and Jeremiah have been praying long and hard and feel this is the correct direction for the church to make at this time. Hopefully, with Jeremiah's ability to explain, people will see the benefits and how God has already gone before us.

6- Jeremiah and I are more and more convinced every day that this is the place that God has called us for this point of our ministry. It's far from a perfect location, but the potential is so great. As long as we can get the church to not only believe in their potential but to grow in it as well.

7- We have an appointment right after work today to get pre-approved to buy a house. Scary? YES! Exciting? YES! Fathomable? We sure hope so! We've already been watching the market for a while now and are terribly excited about the possibility of being first time home owners.

8- I want to go to Hawaii someday. Rumour has it my husband considered making it happen at Valentine's Day, but the budget was just not going to give right now. We are trying our hardest to get out of debt and it just didn't seem like the right time to double what's left!

9- Based on some money coming back to us, we should be out of credit card debt in approx a month and a half!! HIP HIP HOORAY!!!

10- I had some doctor's appointments lately and it seems like I'm perfectly normal. HA! Little do they know!

That's enough boring stats for one day.

11- Oh, I'm terribly behind in my 2008 in 2008. Good thing there was Arizona at the beginning of the month!!! I'll get some posted soon, promise!!! (Some taken, just not off the camera yet)

But... I Can Still See the Grass..... A Lesson in Perspective

2008-01-18T08:55:00.000-05:00

Ok. So we got "snow" last night. A whole whomping inch and a half (MAYBE!) with a touch of ice rain (not enough to need a scraper this morning). But you wouldn't BELIEVE the school closures and the late school starts! EVERY school around is delayed by at least an hour, SOME by two hours, and some are CLOSED. It bewilders me what would happen if they got real snow here. AN INCH AND A HALF, PEOPLE! And the roads are clear! I can still see the grass, people!!

(Complete side note: I forgot the comma in that last sentence, and it made me look like I believe in "grass people" - hehe)

Anyway, in Maine/Ontario/New Brunswick where my upbringing happened, we would not have turned an eye to the "storm" we got last night. We would be on our way to work and school and definitely would not be canceling things.

Guess it'll take more than 2 "storms" here to get used to the way people react.

FINALLY!!

2008-01-17T16:37:00.000-05:00

It looks like a winter wonderland! It's about freaking time!!!

Now, will it stick??

And will it be enough for ice cream???

It stopped :(

2008-01-14T12:25:00.000-05:00

About 5 minutes after it started. With nothing to show for it :( Will I never see winter again???

IT'S SNOWING!!!

2008-01-14T09:44:00.000-05:00

It's snowing!!! Winter really does come to Carlisle!!!!! Maybe I'll get enough snow to make ice cream once this winter after all!!!!!! YAHOO!!!!!

We're home :)

2008-01-10T09:54:00.000-05:00

We're home. And back to work. And the Lagoon starts on Sunday. That's the wrap up!

Funny quote from our trip home:

Starbucks barista: "One Tall Decaf Vanilla Latte. Oh, I mean, it's a Grande. Don't worry, I wouldn't jip you your caffeine."

Try again...

2008-01-08T10:49:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, Jeremiah and I tried to fly home from Arizona. It didn't work. We're going to try again today. Cross your fingers that we make it farther than the airport this time!!! I don't know how many times I can call work and say "the President of the United States wouldn't let me go home!" and have it be believable!!!

Huh, you say?

Serious!! We got to the Tucson airport yesterday for a 1:05 flight. Before we left home, we knew it was already slightly delayed and figured it was from weather. We got there, it was scheduled to fly out at 2:00pm. We had a 2.5 hour lay-over, so still plenty of time to make our connecting flight.
Then the announcer comes on "For all travelers on flight 1228 to Chicago O'Hare, your flight is arriving on time, however, we need control tower okay before we fly out. It could be 120-240 minutes before take-off."

Why??? Because the President is flying in Air Force One and apparently doesn't like to share air space!!! You can't fly within so many miles of AFO and so we were grounded. We talked to the lady to find out for sure if we'd make our connection in Chicago, seeing it was the last of the night. She said it wouldn't be a problem because it would be backed up as well. Meaning we'd get home hours after our original late flight (10:50pm). So we got them to rebook us on a flight today... We didn't want to risk 1) getting stuck in Chicago or 2) not having a ride from Harrisburg in the middle of the night.

Good thing we did!!! The flight we were supposed to be on didn't leave until 4:18 and didn't get to Chicago until 9:08. Our flight from Chicago to Harrisburg (last of the night) left at it's original time of 8:00. That would have been a gross day.

Thanks for the extended stay POTUS!!

Arizona Happenings

2008-01-03T11:08:00.000-05:00

Wednesday already... Gracious!

Yesterday we went to see National Treasure 2 with Jer's dad. It was every bit as good as the first one, if you ask me. I really appreciate a movie that you can be sure is not tainted with nudity and language yet still has a little more depth than a Disney classic.

Today we are going hiking in the Saguaro National Park or the Desert Wildlife Museum. Both of which should provide some interesting character to my yet lacking 2008 in 2008.

Welcome to the new year everyone! I hope it holds something special for each of you!

Off

2007-12-30T20:11:00.000-05:00

We're off. We get up at 4am tomorrow, leave the house by 4:45, and fly out of Harrisburg at 6:30. We'll spend 6 wonderful days with various parts of Jeremiah's family (mostly in Tucson with Laurel), and be back next Monday, arriving in Harrisburg at 10:50pm.

I'm not sure how much actual blogging will be done, but be sure to check here for the first installments of the 2008 in 2008.

Not too late to join in. Set your own numbers. Maybe 2008 is too high. Shoot for a thousand ( an average of only 2.75 pictures a day).

See you on the *SNAP* side!

Babies and Broken Tradition

2007-12-28T07:26:00.000-05:00

As mentioned in passing 2 posts ago, not one, but TWO of my sisters are pregnant and will have babies this coming summer!! How exciting! For Jaymie, this will be her first and she couldn't be more excited. And, ha!, for Gina, this is her second and she couldn't be more excited :)

As for broken tradition, my family has always made it a point to have one birthday each month. Ok, so we haven't "made it a point" but that's the way it's always been. Growing up, with a family of 6, we had two months of birthdays and two months without patterned throughout the year. It looked like this:

Jan - sister Gina
Feb - mom Lorraine
Mar - no one
Apr - no one
May - sister Krista
June - dad Thurland
July - no one
August - no one
September - sister Jaymie
October - me!
November - no one
December - no one

Since then, there have been 4 children had by my sisters, and keeping with tradition, they birthed them to fill the empty months. It now looks like:

Jan - sister Gina
Feb - mom Lorraine
Mar - Isaac (Krista's 2nd)
Apr - Naima (Gina's 1st)
May - sister Krista
June - dad Thurland
July - Emily (Krista's 1st)
August - Jake (Krista's 3rd)
September - sister Jaymie
October - me!
November - no one
December - no one

Since I was the next married and the next expected to have kids I was told I "had" to have them in November or December to keep with tradition. (My family doesn't like to share, apparently!!!).

But now Gina is due in July and Jaymie is due in August, sufficiently breaking tradition and allowing me to have my kids whenever I darn well please. I'll keep you posted :) (Don't come checking anytime soon though!!)

No takers

2007-12-26T09:01:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas everyone!! Hope you all had a great day!

Apparently, based on the abundance of comments on my last post, no one is brave enough to join me in my quest of 2008 in 2008. That's alright, I'll venture it alone!

Here's a short list of what I have thought of so far that will help me towards my goal.

1- We are spending the first week of the new year in Arizona. Everywhere you look there is something uniquely beautiful to snap.
2- Two of my sisters are pregnant and will have babies this coming summer. Granted, they live on opposite sides of the continent (with me in the middle), but with the family reunion, maybe we'll meet up there. And, if they haven't popped yet, even preggo pictures can be fun.
3- Two family reunions this summer. There must be something I can capture!
4- One reunion is on Grand Manan Island. Jeremiah has never been there, and the lighthouses, cliffs, oceans, whares, etc will make great shots!
5- The Lagoon is launching in January and is bound to have excellent photo ops throughout the year.
6- Hope is that by next Christmas, there will be enough kids/families in the church to put on a Christmas play. Always photo-esque!
7- Jeremiah is going to Swaziland and Mozambique in November. We're praying about me going along. If not, does it count if HE takes the pictures??? hehe
8- We're looking for a house as we find things we like. Once a house is in the works, I'll want to show it off electronically.
9- I love my husband and maybe if I'm nice, he'll let me take some pictures of him throughout the year.
10- We have found some beautiful spots around the Carlisle area that are guaranteed to be snapped at different points throughout the year.
11- None of you have been to my town, so who knows, you might even get a virtual tour once the spring hits and the land is a little more beautiful once again.
12- It hasn't snowed yet this year and I'm anxiously awaiting its arrival, so when it comes, you can bet I'll be snapping it up!
13- My sister bought me a "how to photograph nature" book, so I'll make use of that as well!
14- Washington DC is only 3 hours away.
15- We will find a zoo to go to.
16- etc etc etc.

It's not too late to join in the fun!! let me know if you plan on snapping with me!

Be on the lookout for my upcoming jumpstart in Arizona!

2008 in 2008

2007-12-23T17:39:00.000-05:00

As previously mentioned in other posts, my wonderful and loving husband bought one of my dream gifts for me this past September. He bought me a sleek, black, shiny DSLR camera -- the Nikon D40. I've been accused of not using it as much as I could (although I have taken a handful of pretty neat shots).

I've taken this accusation and made it a challenge.

My challenge is this:

2008 in 2008.

That's it. That's how simple the rules are. Between the stroke of the New Year and the stroke of the following New Year, I will take 2008 pictures. Based on it being a leap year, that's only 5.4863387978142076502732240437158 pictures a day (I think I'll round it off to 5.5 a day) average. That's an average of 167.333333 pics a month

While that's the only rule, I have given myself a couple of guidelines:

1- No more than 15% can be taken in any given month. (must be less than 300 pictures a month -- if November rolls around and I haven't hit 1408, there's no catching up. ) Pictures over 300/month may be included in the count only if the 2008 goal is overshot)

2- I have to try. I can't just shoot nothingness because I'm behind. You don't have to think it's beautiful, but I have to know for myself that I am trying to learn and strive for better photography.

3- The sky's the limit. Pictures can be of anything I feel like shooting. I'm going to enjoy myself or die trying.

So fellow digitizers out there... are you up for the challenge? Will you join me? Or am I on my own? (Filmers, I invite you too, but only if you've got a strong pocket book!!!!) Make your own guidelines and let us know what they are!

You can find my pictures (starting with brand new Jan 1 pics) at www.sarahs2008in2008.blogspot.com. (Unless someone tells me a better place for listing pictures). If you want to join me, PLEASE LET ME KNOW!!! Make a new blog (www.yourname2008in2008.blogspot.com or wherever) and I will put a link to you on my page.

Let's shoot it together!

And We'll Have Fun, Fun, Fun...

2007-12-17T09:13:00.000-05:00

Til the storm takes our phones away......

I'm at work right now. it's 9:12 on Monday morning, and for the second time since I've worked here (4 months) we're having pretty significant phone issues. Ugh. It's Monday and, rumour has it, it's going to be Monday ALL DAY!!!

Cure for Insomnia

2007-12-12T07:09:00.000-05:00

Here's the self-proven method of curing insomnia.

Spend one day as follows:
1- Get up bright and early and spend an hour getting ready for work
2- Go to work for a 9 hour stretch (8 hours of work and an hour lunch.. but to make sure the cure works, work on church stuff during your lunch break)
3- Make sure the last half of your job is relatively stressful
4- Go home and spend at least 20 minutes of quiet time with your husband eating supper (left over pizza from last night worked in the test day)
5- Drop your husband off at the church for a board meeting at the church and run back to the grocery store for coffee and something to eat at the meeting.
6- Return to the church and spend 2.5-3 hours painting the new children's ministry room
7- Wait for the board meeting to be over before being able to go home.
8- Sit while your husband chats to a board member for an hour after the meeting (it was an interesting a good conversation, though. I didn't mind!)
9- Go home by 11:20.
10- Go to bed. (Don't forget to make sure you set your alarm a little later for the morning, you're going to need it!)

I haven't been sleeping well for the last week. Lots on my mind of everything that has to get done. I'll tell you though. Last night, I slept like a ROCK! Go ahead, try it. And if you don't mind... try it at our church helping me get the Lagoon up and running by January!!!

OH - and check out the new church website: LoveLearnLive.Org

3 minutes

2007-11-21T07:34:00.000-05:00

I have about 3 minutes before I have to leave for work.

Update:
- work is going well. I am still the jack-of-all-trades, and I prefer it that way. Yesterday, my role was clarified for a couple people and I think that'll help things go smoother in the future. yay for smoother :)

- Amy and Mike are coming to visit tomorrow!!!!! I cannot wait. I have not seen a family member or person from home since mom and dad and Laurel left in SEPTEMBER. Oh how I miss them sometimes!!! It's a short visit, but we'll make the best of it.

- Times up. I didn't have much else to say anyway :) Until next time

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Nature Shots

2007-11-17T14:52:00.000-05:00

I posted some of my favourite shots of the season on my photo blog. Let me know what you think!!! I'd love to have your input. I am REALLY enjoying my new camera! It is amazing!

Photos at: www.gomezfamilyphotos.blogspot.com

2007-11-04T18:33:00.000-05:00

Lately life has seemingly become very busy for Jer and I. With me continuing to adjust to full time work, and he in the middle of many upcoming church adjustments, we have learned to make special use of the moments we share together. Depending on who has the car on a given day, we'll share lunch at work or I'll come home for lunch. Last Saturday, we had a special day. Lots of tv and sleep.

Yesterday, looking for something fresh and new to do, we packed up and went out to enjoy a "late fall day" (weather in the 60s). It's amazing what you can find when you drive JUST OUTSIDE of town around here. Within 10 minutes, we were winding around the mountain roads, heading up to the hiking paths in Kings Gap State Park. We paroused through some of the trails and enjoyed each others company while we enjoyed glimpses of the world God has given us.

Click here for a couple of the shots that we snapped while we were out. They couldn't possibly share how wonderful our day was, but they may show off a bit of God's beauty.

New Phones!!

2007-10-11T06:54:00.000-04:00

On Thursday, Sept 20, our phone system at work got hit by lightning. It has been THREE WEEKS since we've had a functional telephone system. The lightning blew out the processor, and for whatever reason, it could not be replaced right away. The phone company was able to set us up with 15 temporary phone lines, but in a company that has about 35+ phone users, 15 lines don't spread very far... AND the temp lines don't have voice mail.

Which makes life at the front desk pretty interesting. Half of the time, there just isn't a direct line to put people through to, so we have to explain and take a message. Another bunch of the time, the person called doesn't answer the phone, so the call comes back to us and we have to take the message.

TODAY, we are being trained on a whole new phone system! New phones, Voice Mail, lines that actually work, and the excitement is soaring!! Life at the desk is getting better!

363

2007-10-05T07:32:00.000-04:00

363 mornings ago, I was up early getting ready for my wedding. Wow. A whole year ago already. Jeremiah and I are leaving as soon as I get home from work to spend part of the weekend in Virginia, a restful and relaxing anniversary weekend :)

Can't wait!

Many Times

2007-09-30T19:18:00.000-04:00

There have been many times in the past week or so where I said to myself "I could blog about that" or "I should blog about that." And yet none of it came to fruition. So since list blogs are so popular and enjoyed, I'll just blog about all of them now.

1- I have the most amazing husband. We have a mutual understanding (with zero forcing on my part) that housework is not all the wifes job -- especially, but not only, now that we are both working. That being said, for about a week, both of us were pretty slack about it. Then, on Wednesday, I came home from work to find EVERYTHING done. Dishes, vacuuming, bathroom, beds made, table cleared, laundry done... you name it, I think he did it that morning. I felt SOOO blessed to be able to just come home and relax rather than knowing that I really should be cleaning up. I love that man. And that's not even a fraction of the reasons why!

2- I am enjoying my job. Part time, mostly front desk and secretarial stuff.. but the IT girl is leaving (at the end of this coming week) and I am being trained on a handful of her tasks. Look out world, *I* am in charge of keeping the computer systems functional --- EEK!!

3- I have an interview (kind of-- just need to call to set it up basically) if I want it. It is at a podiatrist office as a medical transcriptionist. I plan to talk to Mary, in HR, at my current job first, to make sure that my current job is staying at part time. If they are thinking of moving me into full time, I won't waste the podiatrists training and time (unless they know that up front and don't mind). But if it'll be a few months before full time is available at Tuckey (current), I will definitely see if Pinker and Assoc. (interview) can work with what hours I have available (basically 2-5 MTWF, and 2-6 Th, based on their open hours)

4- Jer and I are finishing up the first week of the South Beach diet. We are both feeling great, and we can both already see a difference. I am back into the last pair of jeans that I recently had to stop wearing and it feels GREAT. One (or maybe two) more weeks of phase one, and we can lighten up a little.

5- Last time we started this diet, we were pretty boring with meat and veggie meals. This time, I'm trying to stir things up a bit. Yesterday, we had Cheesy Chicken Fajita Lettuce Rolls. Basically "fajitas" with a piece of Romaine lettuce instead of an actual fajita. Jer says you can't call it a fajita if it doesn't have a FAJITA. But they were really good. Right now, we're waiting on South Beach Taco Soup to finish simmering. (Again, he says can't be a taco without a TACO SHELL, but what does he know!)

6- Today was Jer's installation service as pastor at the church here. We had a good visit at Bonanza with Rev Randy and Gayle Swink after the service. They are really good people from what we know of them and we look forward to serving in their district under their leadership in the years to come. At lunch, I cheated and had a *very small* piece of cheesecake. Stinks when you cheat and it's not even that good.....

K, that's enough catch up for now! Going to check on my soup!

Disappointed.

2007-09-22T12:08:00.000-04:00

I went to a job fair for Dickinson College today. I have been keeping my eye on their job opportunities online and am interested in a couple that they have currently available. I read about the job fair and decided that would be a good opportunity to have some "face to face" time so that those hiring for these positions (in the financial operations office and in the bookstore) would have a face to go with my name.

My disappointment lies in the fact that there were no representatives for these two opportunities! No one to speak to about the current job vacancies. I spoke to one lady, asking where I might find someone to speak to and was told that "due to space issues, there are not representatives for every department." That would be all fine and dandy, except that her table and about 4 others in the room were representing their offices but currently had NO AVAILABLE POSITIONS. Come on folks!!! This is a JOB FAIR --- where people go to talk to people about JOBS.

MOVE OVER AND MAKE ROOM FOR DEPARTMENTS WHO ACTUALLY HAVE OPENINGS!!!!!!!

Two thumbs down from me on your job fair, Dickinson!!!

(But I'm still secretly hoping I may hear from one of those two departments)....

(Yes, I am currently working, and I love my job. However, it is only part time at Tuckey. I am really hoping a full time that I am interested will come up. No worries, I have been completely honest -- The HR, my supervisor, and the company president all know that I am still seeking other employment. Found another one today that MIGHT work alongside Tuckey if they'll adjust the hours slightly for me!)

New Toy

2007-09-19T19:43:00.000-04:00

These are some of the pics me and Jer came up with while we were playing. Any guesses who took what pictures???

Happy BirNiversarMas to me!!

2007-09-18T18:36:00.000-04:00

This is my new baby. I have been talking forever about wanting an SLR camera. But they are kinda pricey, and with trying to eliminate debt, I didn't think it would be any time soon, if ever, that this dream was actualized. However, my fantabulous husband treated me to a BirNersarMas gift. Granted, it's still early for ANY of these events, but he loves me lots :)

So we've been playing lots. I will have to make a slide show of some of the favourite pics that we've taken in the past couple of days. I'll do that tomorrow :)

Tuckey Employee

2007-09-16T21:13:00.000-04:00

As of Friday when I went in to fill out the pre-employment paperwork, I have officially been an employee of Tuckey Inc. -- the largest privately owned business in this area (and much of the area around it). I still as of now have no idea what I will be doing, or even which of their three companies I will be working under. I report immediately to the President's Assistant, and will be doing office administrative type stuff.

That's all I know :) I guess I'll find out more tomorrow.

It's only part time. 8am-1pm, Monday-Friday. And it only pays $9/hr. But it brings in more than sitting at home waiting for a job to come along. It does have medical after my probationary period of ninety days. Which is good since we were disqualified for the insurance we tried to get.
So I continue to look for full time work with medical. But for now, I am very looking forward to going to work tomorrow!

Tomorrow: The unveiling of my early Anniversary/Birthday/Christmas gift from Jeremiah :)

2007-09-14T20:26:00.000-04:00

Jer and I just enjoyed an amazing week with Jer's mom, Laurel. We toured Washington DC, explored the battlefields of Gettysburg, walked through the streets of Carlisle, and enjoyed MUCH good tasting/bad for us foods.

I've gotta say, I am so glad that I love my mother-in-law like I do. I hear so many people complaining about their relationship with their in-laws. The only thing I have to complain about is that she lives so far away!

I will add some pics of our week soon.

Next blog: I GOT A JOB! (Starts Monday)

6:42 AM

2007-09-08T06:44:00.000-04:00

It is 6:42 am. I should not have been awake already for almost 2 hours. Alas, I woke up at 5:03 to go to the washroom, then flipped around in bed for 55 minutes before deciding to get up so as to not wake my husband.

My MIL is here this week. So I really should go back to get and try to get some sleep before our first full day of showing her around town.

Here's hoping for another hour (or 3) of sleep before my body wakes me up again!! And here's hoping that I can get back to sleep at all!!!

Water bill too high???

2007-09-06T09:57:00.000-04:00

Is your water bill higher than you think it should be??? Maybe you have the same problem THIS family does.... Watch it. It's definitely worth it!!!

Interview today...

2007-09-04T19:18:00.000-04:00

Work tomorrow or the next day???

Extreme Makeover: Guest Room Edition!

2007-09-04T11:14:00.000-04:00

After much deliberation, Jer and I decided that our guest room needed a bit of a facelift. If you took our visual tour a couple weeks ago, you would understand the necessity of this. So with much labour and intense struggle, we put our best foot forward and here's what we came up with. Not too shabby, given what we had to work with!

BEFORE:
ANOTHER BEFORE:
AFTER:
And just in time! It was completed for my parents surprise visit last weekend (see previous post) and is still beautiful for Jer's mom's visit on Friday! We're psyched to have some more company.

Life is good. Let's enjoy every minute of it while we have it to enjoy.

You never know who you'll meet at Dairy Queen!

2007-08-31T15:19:00.000-04:00

Sunday, on our way home from lunch after church, Jeremiah says to me, "I don't really feel like it now, but maybe later it would be nice to go to Dairy Queen and share a blizzard." I didn't really feel like it at the time either, but agreed that maybe later it would be nice. A couple of times throughout the day, the thought of Dairy Queen that evening was mentioned. Later on that afternoon, we were invited out for supper with a couple from church. And then they took us to the new Coldstone, so I figured Dairy Queen was out.

Around 9pm, Jer asked if I would go with him to cash a reimbursement cheque because he wanted it to clear Monday morning. On the way home, he drives RIGHT PAST our apartment. My quote "Um, we live there." He made a comment about being tired and just missed it. So we went up to the corner to turn around. Since Dairy Queen IS just around the corner, Jer decided to go in and "see what the prices on ice cream cakes are" in case he ever wanted to get one for church (which at the time sounded believable).

So we went in, we looked at prices, we left through the other door, walked along a (closed) strip mall "just to see what was there" since we hadn't yet. Then we went back to Dairy Queen towards the car.

A couple was just getting out of their car and walking towards the DQ, and I was **JUST** about to say to Jer, "that woman looks like my mother," when I realized it WAS my mother!! My mom and dad had come from Ontario to visit us! I was SOOO surprised (and happy!!). It had been a long week and it was JUST what I needed to begin a new week fresh.

Thank God that he knows what we need and when we need it and that he shares these thoughts with other people so they can be his hands and feet.

Thank God for family. And visits. And new towns. And husbands. And Casa Mani :)

I love you, Mom and Dad!

Oh, and Jeremiah says I love him too! hehe

A New World Opened by Blogdom

2007-08-30T18:21:00.000-04:00

What started out being a simple google search for "common children's ministry misunderstandings" turned into almost 2 hours of blog finding today. I have come across some incredibly useful children's ministry resources in the last couple hours. Some insights that will open my eyes, as well as the eyes of those I share the ideas with. Some training tips. Some ministry ideas. Some tried and true thoughts. Some tried and find false ideas.

I'm looking forward to spending some time over the next few days and weeks digging into their minds and pulling out whatever tidbits I can. We are setting out on the adventure of starting a brand new ministry in Carlisle, and I am using *whatever* resources I can find to pull it together as well as possible.

Feel free to "borrow" my links on the right :) ENJOY! Watch my list grow!

*** due to changing backgrounds, my side list no longer exists... it'll be back. Promise!***

Reba

2007-08-22T09:11:00.000-04:00

I had a strange dream the other night. Much like the tv show Reba. Jer and I were still in high school (although the same high school). I definitely got pregnant. We definitely got married. Only here's where it changed. I resented him. Our relationship stunk. My friends all thought it was "cool" while I dreaded what I had become.

I awoke the next morning SO GLAD that we waited until marriage. God is good.

Jer and I are happily married. We are loving the moments we get to share together. We are slowly digging our way out of debt so that someday when we DO have children, I will be able to stay home and be their mother (for awhile anyway). I love my life :)

And someday, in a couple years when we begin trying or sooner if the Lord blesses us in his timing, we'll be excited to share the news of our nothing-like-Reba, soon-to-be baby :)

Don't come back looking for the announcement tomorrow though. It won't be here!!!

Home Sweet Home

2007-08-15T17:52:00.000-04:00

Don't forget to read my prayer request in the post below, but I took these pictures and wanted to get them posted today as well :)

We came to Carlisle and moved into the apartment sight-unseen. We put our trust in Marsha, the wife of the church treasurer. She claimed herself to be a "real estate agent wannabe," and she proved herself wonderfully. We absolutely **love** our new place.

The only thing we have left to do (besides the last room you will see) is to hang up pictures . Then it will really feel like home!

With no further adieu -- Our apartment :) ENJOY!!! And come visit!!!

We actually live in a town that they announce it before you get here!!
And this wasn't even the first sign!

This is our apartment complex. There are three buildings that share our parking lot --
the two you see and another on the right hand side.

Here is a close up of apartments. As you can see, there are 8 apartments in each building.
We LOVE the privacy/shade that those trees give our windows!! (Top left)We're getting closer! Our door is 252, the only one without the cheesy wreath :)Once you open our door, this is your first view. Climb on up!
Room #1: Living Room/Dining Room
We still need to buy another couple of chairs :)Living Room/Dining Room from another angle
We also still need to pick up a tv stand!!!

Room #2: Den/Computer Room
This was supposed to be a dining room, but our desk wouldn't fit anywhere else!!!Room #3: The Kitchen

Our brand new washing machine

Her sister, the brand new dryerRoom #4: Master Bedroom Room #5: The Bathroom
--- the one thing we don't like about the apartment: thick carpet in the bathroom ICK!! ---
Room #6: The Guest Room
Yup... this is where we keep our guests...

So there you have it. That's where we live. And yes. It's always this clean ;) hehehe

Call to prayer

2007-08-15T15:22:00.000-04:00

I have a very special set of friends. Amy and Mike mean the world to me. And they need our prayers. Mike has had some pretty serious health conditions in the past, lots of migraines, dizziness, strange stomach pains... for years the doctors have told him they can't find anything and they're not sure what is causing the pains. This past week, it went a step further. Even though he has been feeling very well lately, out of the blue, on Friday night, he went into convulsions and seisures and had to be rushed to the hospital by ambulance. Again, they're not sure what caused it. He is being sent to a neurologist, but it might be a YEAR before he can get in. And his licence has been taken away until the neurologist has been seen. He lives about 40 minutes from where he works, so this is going to cause some pretty serious work issues..

As if that weren't enough, Amy went back to work with the city of Ottawa on Tuesday, after taking Monday off to stay home with Mike (she didn't feel comfortable leaving him alone quite yet). She got to work only to find out that in 2 weeks she basically doesn't have a job. She's supposed to work 27-30 hours a week, but they've got her scheduled in for 24 this week, 16 next week, 3 weeks of unrequested time off, only to return to 2.5 hours a week after that!!!!! Yes, you read that right. From 27-30 hours a week to TWO AND A HALF hours a week out of the blue!!! That's hardly enough to pay for gas and the taxes they'll take out of it!

So on top of Mike not being able to drive, causing driving issues, Amy is now on a job search (as far as we can figure, 2.5 hours is just a way around firing her for no reason... she has no choice but to quit.) When I left Winchester, she took over the children's ministry position at our church there. She really feels that is where she is meant to be, but with those 15 hours a week, it will be difficult to find a job that will work around that AND her having to drive Mike to work and pick him up every day.

Needless to say, it's a confusing time for them. Pray that God would continue to give them guidance and the peace that can only come from him.

I love them to pieces and you would too if you knew them. If I or they come to mind, PLEASE pray for them. Prayer is powerful.

Thanks

A bit of catch-up

2007-08-14T14:58:00.000-04:00

Ok - so it's been a few weeks. And a few weeks in a new place means much can change. Unfortunately, it hasn't, but I'll update you anyway :)

1- We are still LOVING Carlisle. The longer we are here, the more we mean when we say, "We actually live here. We are beginning to have favourites (Restaurant ad: Casa Mani - see below)

2- I have begun my job search. I went to a local employment agency and set up an account in their online job bank. I have sent my resume to a bunch of places through that (Dickinson College, a couple banks, a couple agencies -- mostly for administrative stuff). Also, the treasurer in our church is a very well known business man in the community. He runs and owns the largest privately owned corporation in the area, Tuckey. He has said that he will help in any way he can, by personally getting my resume into the hands of HR people that he knows and recommending me personally to them. I hope to be working in the next couple of weeks.

3- We are expecting soon. Company that is. My maid of honour, Amy, and her husband, Mike, and one of the youth from Winchester, Lyndsea, are supposed to be blessing us with their presence next weekend. I say supposed to be because Mike ended up in the hospital with seisures this past weekend. They're not sure if he should be travelling out of country... Please pray for them. Mike has had some health problems in the past, pretty serious ones, but this is new and they're not sure where it is coming from.

4- Shortly after Mike, Amy, and Lyndsea head home, Laurel, Jer's mom drops in on the scene. It will be so great to have some family to show off our little town to. There are some places we are sure she will enjoy as much as we have and look forward to making her want to move to PA someday :)

5- Speaking of moving to PA, Anthony and Elizabeth (my brother and sister in law) are still planning on moving up here next summer from Arizona. We are anxiously awaiting new plans in the works and are already looking into finding a home where they will be able to move in with us for awhile. Pray for them as they have lots to get in the right before making it possible.

6- This afternoon, I am planning on spending the afternoon at Casa Mani, our favourite local cafe. It is owned and run by a couple from our church. The atmosphere there is cozy and warm and welcoming. I'm not sure how else to describe it. The couple there is funny. They won't let us pay for anything (and when they do, they will *never* let us pay full price for anything). We try to pay for as much as we can so they will never think we are taking advantage of them, but there is little they will accept. Jeremiah said that to them once. They said "we will tell you if you are taking advantage of us." Naomi, the wife, is from Japan, and they are currently decorating to open a Japanese noodle shop next door to the current shop. Robert, the husband, told Jeremiah the last time he was in: "When the noodle shop is open, you will come here and sit at the noodle bar. And if Sarah ever feels like not cooking, you can come here for noodles. And... you don't have to pay! And you can't *not come* because you don't have to pay!" Imagine that in a very strong Asian accent -- (Naomi is Japanese. Robert is from another Asian background, but I can't for the life of me ever remember what it is). They have 5 children, Andre, Chane, Natasha, Liam, and Mani.

7- Life is good and this is enough of an update for now. I have actually already been out to Casa Mani's and just came back and realized I forgot to post this. Consider it posted.

10 months in and still learning...

2007-07-28T20:47:00.000-04:00

I learned today that my husband has never been to a county/country fair! Growing up around these things all summer long, I guess I have taken them for granted. Every little town in Ontario has its own fair for a week or a weekend throughout the summer months. So tonight, a man from the church and his starting-college-in-the-fall age son took us to a fair a town or so over.

Jer got to experience the "excitement" of hearing kids scream on the rides while we listened to the groans and squeaks of the machinery from the safety of the solid ground. Something about putting the rides up and down in an hour makes me wonder if I really want to go and hang upside down by them!

He experienced the food and all its grandeur. I had to laugh because the guys we went with "go for the food." Ugh. I'm sure their hearts love them for it too!!!!

So now he can join in with the majority of Americans and say that he too has been to a country fair.

Have you been? Any interesting stories to share???

And I quote....

2007-07-27T17:06:00.000-04:00

The newspaper here in Carlisle put in a really nice article announcing Carlisle Wesleyan's new pastor. It was really kind of them.

Here it is (how many errors can YOU spot??? - and yes, this is all straight from the newspaper clipping!)

CARLISLE WESLEYAN CHURCH WELCOMES PASTOR
Carlisle Wesleyan Church eagerly anticipaes the arrival of the Rev. Jeremiah Gomex. Jeremiah and his wife, Sarah, will move to Carlisl on Juy 18 and the pastor officially begins ministry in Carlisle on Sunday July 22.
Denver Tuckey, vice chariman of the board at the church said, "We have been waiting all summer for the exciting day when Pastor and Mrs. Gomex arrive in Carlisle and are pleased to welcome them to the Carlisle community."
Gomex is a graduate of Bethany Bible College, Sussex, New Brunswich, Canada. He has led numerous community outreach ministries.
Important goals set by pastor Jermiah for his new ministry include becomin genuinely acquainted with his congregation and being an active member of the Carlisle community. That enthusiasm led Tuckey to say, "We not only look foarward to Pastor Jeremiah's ministry to our church but also to the ways in which he and Sarah can be an asset in our local community.
Carlisle Wesleyan Church is at 1534 Terrace Ave.

Hehe - did you count them??? I count 13 (1 error 3 times)

Perhaps when I go looking for a job, I should start at the newspaper office.. Maybe they're looking for an editor??? Haha

(They did put in another much better article the following week. Perhaps they realized their errors..)

We're here!!

2007-07-25T19:45:00.000-04:00

We're here! It has officially been an entire week that we have called Carlisle, PA home. And we love it. The town is awesome. A couple afternoons, we have just driven around trying to find stuff. It's neat cause there is stuff to find! Haha - we ate at Applebee's on Wednesday(just around the corner from our apartment basically). While we were there, Jer stopped eating, looked at me, and said "We live in a place with an Applebees." I laughed. We do :)

We haven't got internet at our house. Took us awhile to decide for sure we wanted it... We decided to go with a cell phone instead of a landline, so if we wanted internet at the house, it had to be cable. As great as the town is, there is only one cable provider... and therefore, it is very expensive (stupid... if I knew how, I would start another cable service for people who think it's dumb to pay $59.95 a month for internet!! But we got it. They'll be there Friday.

And we bought a washer and dryer. Good thing. We are out of clothes!!! Good timing too (stop reading this paragraph if you don't want to read about undies) -- they deliver tomorrow and there is only 1 pair of undies and one pair of boxers left in the dressers!!!

Jer is working late tonight. You can read his blog to read about his new church hours idea. I like him. He is neat.

As soon as (or shortly after) we get internet at home, I'll put up some pictures of our apartment and maybe a bit of town. Maybe you'll care, maybe you won't. But my mom will want to see them :)

Until later!

Canada Day

2007-07-02T10:18:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was the last Sunday for Jer and I at in Monticello. It was a bittersweet kind of day. While we know full well that it is time to go by all the reassurances that God has given us, it is hard to say goodbye to people who have filled your heart over the last few months (or years, in Jer's case).

After the service, we had a lunch so everyone had a good chance to talk to us and say goodbye.

Sunday was also Canada Day. And the Sunday before July 4th. Mary made a yummy July 4th dessert. My ignorant (yet joking) Canadian question was "What is the blue stuff doing in the Canada Day dessert???" Hey! Give a girl a break! Permanent resident or not, a girls gotta be loyal!!

Hello Sunshiney Ontario!

2007-06-19T23:22:00.000-04:00

Since we are ahead on the packing, Jer told me I should take a few days to visit my parents. So I surprised them and showed up tonight :) It was a fun surprise. Now I'm here until Saturday. If anyone's around, LET ME KNOW!! I already have a bit of plans.

I had to travel across FrenchMan's land to get here (Quebec, and the worst of it, Montreal) Montreal was stop and go traffic the whole way through. Go figure... I hit it right at 4:00pm!

Because I was in Frenchland, the only English radio I could find was 104.7 CBC Radio. Canadian Talk Radio. I learned all kinds of things about the Sea Shepherds and about people who dance on roofs.

Here are a few of the useless tidbits of information I learned:

1- Cats eat more fish than seals. In fact, it would be better for the fish population if there were more seals, not less, according to Paul Watson, the Sea Shepherd founder.

2- Paul Watson is not allowed in the Maritimes for three years for the crime of having *witnessed* a seal being killed.

3- Pigs are the #1 aquamarine eaters. Pigs eat more fish than sharks do.

4- Sesame Street is airing it's 38th Season Premiere on August 13, 2007. In the list of puppet acts is a Howie Mandell puppet, hosting a game show called "Meal or No Meal"

5- A 6-month-old German Shepherd started a fire earlier this week by jumping up on a stove top with his front legs and knocking on the dial for the element. No one knew, fire started, and in the end, there was over $60000 of damage :S

6- Thy typewriter, the old fashioned telephone, and the windup alarm clock all have sounds that are now considered "endangered".

That about wraps up my new-found knowledge. On my way home I get to listen to a show called "Sandra Oh on Go" where we get to listen to "the Gayest Music of all Time." Should be great! ;)

And oh goodie - on my way home on Saturday, when I'm tucked into Frenchland again, I get to listen to