Ooops, missed a week!

Yep, I missed last week's post. I do have a good excuse though. I was busy packing for the Women's Retreat. What fun! Nine of us ladies from our church drove to the ends of the earth to meet with lots of other ladies to spend the weekend in fellowship, worship, and study. It wasn't really the end of the earth, but it sure seemed like it after 5 hours of driving through the woods. I can honestly tell you that I have no idea where we were, but we had a fun time getting there. :o) The retreat itself was great, but being a newbie at church, I think I mostly enjoyed getting to know the other ladies. All-in-all, it was a wonderful weekend.

We are still waiting to hear about the house. We went to the Realtor's last week to resign the papers that they sent back. Right now, we're just waiting for them to sign and set a closing date. I am trying sooooooo hard to be patient, but it can be difficult at times. I would appreciate any prayers lifted on my behalf.

We took Angel back to the doctors today to look at her knee once more. There's still fluid there, and the pain is still the same. Thankfully, it only hurts when she kneels down, and that's something she can easily avoid doing. She will start physical therapy, and the doc drew 4 vials of blood to run tests on. Angel seems more concerned about her cat, Princess than her knee. Princess's eyes were swollen shut for several days with some kind of cold. They seem to be better now. Once we get settled in our own place, and away from all of the cats here, we'll take her in for a complete check up. Thankfully, we had her vaccinated for everything before we left Japan.

Mike has been able to get some extra hours in at work. He had his first substitute job last week, and he's teaching twice this week. His boss at the computer store asked him to work full time hours next week as they have a big job to do for a company. He's also had an interview and a few replies to applications he's turned in. I know God has something in mind for him somewhere, we just don't know where yet. Again, prayers for patience, and just trusting in Him would be greatly appreciated. It's easy to say, but oh, so hard to do!

Well, I guess I should close here. I think I might go work on some pages for Michelle's scrapbook. Till next week...

God's love and blessings

No New News Yet :o(

On the house anyways. We haven't heard back from the Realtor yet that the bank has signed the papers. We're waiting on that before we do any of the inspections. Maybe tomorrow....

In other news, Nick's permit showed up on Tuesday, and he drove us to school on Wednesday. He did pretty good considering he's never driven on the right side of the road. :o) For the most part, driving here is the same as Japan, except for the size of the roads (a one lane road here is a two way one there!) and there are a few laws that are different (i.e. right turn on red). We have to call and make an appointment for him to take the driving test some time next week or the week after to get his license.

We took Angel to the doctors today. She hurt her knee back in late October/early November. We saw the doctors about it in December because it was still bothering her. It was finally beginning to feel better when she fell at church last night. There seems to be a bit of fluid on it, and the doctor is a bit concerned about how long its taken to heal. They took x-rays in December that showed the bones were fine. For now, Angel has a knee brace, and when we go back in 2 weeks she'll decide whether or not to do an MRI and some lab work. The brace doesn't let her bend her knee, so she's feeling a bit like Frankenstein as she hobbles around the house. :o) Thankfully, she's not in any pain unless she kneels down on that knee, which, with the knee brace, I don't think she'll be doing.

Mike is still applying for jobs. He does have his first substitute teaching position on the 20th. He'll be teaching High School Science, so he would probably appreciate any prayers lifted up for him. :o)

As for me, I'm just schooling the girls. Michelle's work is pretty simple, so I'm really only teaching Angel, and we get done with our school days pretty early (when Angel gets up early, that is). I'm really looking forward to getting into a house of our own so I can start teaching craft classes again. Hmmm, maybe I'll start getting some projects planned now, so that once we're settled in I'll be ready to start. Let's see, should I do a card swap first, a scrapbook class, or maybe a stamp camp? (rubbing chin, thoughtfully)

Oh, sorry about that ramble there, I did mention before that I finished a gift for Michelle's friend and as soon as I get done here I'm going to upload the pictures of that and the ones I took of the house to our Picasa website. I apologize if you tried to use the link on the side and couldn't. I didn't realize the link was to my side (where I can edit things), and not the public side. Anyway, I changed the link, and I hope that it works. Please let me know whether it does or not.

Here's a sneak peak of the project. Actually, this is the one I made for Michelle. Helen's was purple, and obviously, said "Helen" on top. It's a set of drawers made to hold her hair bows and hairbands. The drawers are color coded to make it easier to find the accessory that best matches her outfit. It's made entirely of cardstock and chipboard (with some shrink plastic, brads, and of course, glitter for embellishments :o)

And, here's a view from the family room (school/craft room) of the house we're hoping to get. You can see the little bridge there that goes over the creek which, of course, is frozen solid right now. I'm so excited! Isn't that the most awesome view to look at everyday?


Well, I'm off to upload photos to Picasa. Till next week...

God's love and blessings!

I'm a day late.

I am late, but I have a good excuse. I was waiting to hear from our Realtor so I could update you on the house. He called this afternoon (yeah!) and told us everything looks good. They haven't signed the papers yet, but they asked for a copy of the earnest money check and the pre-approval from the bank. So, if they want us to put the earnest money down, they must be willing to agree to our terms and pay the closing costs. Woo hoo!!!! We're going to go see the Realtor tomorrow with the check and letter and then possibly stop by the house and take some measurements for the new carpeting we'll need to get.

Another blessing this week, Nick passed the written portion of the driving test, and they waived the 6 month waiting period for the driving portion. He'll get the permit in the mail, and they said he could come in a week or so later to take the driving test. It's good news for me, but Nick says he's not looking forward to driving to school and eating lunch by himself twice a week. I have to say I will miss the chats we have on the drive.

I took pictures last week at the church snow soccer game, but Nick still has my memory card so I haven't downloaded them to my computer yet. God was really nice and dropped a few inches of snow for us the night before, so we had plenty for the game. It was a lot of fun. Mike was supposed to take pictures of the Lippizan stallions for me that day, but they wouldn't allow him to take the camera into the building. Oh well. Angel said it was a neat show and that they had a good time. Grandma was a bit disappointed that they weren't the stallions from Austria, but some place here in America.

Well, it looks like the next few weeks will be our chance to help stimulate the economy as we shop for things for the house. We will need a washer, dryer, stove, and, as I mentioned before, carpeting. I'm sure there's a few other things we're going to need, but those will have to wait a bit.

I guess I should be going. I was working on a cake I'm making for church Sunday, which required kneading blue food coloring into some fondant. This is not a neat process, and my blue stained fingers and nails are driving me crazy. I think I'm going to go soak them and see if I can find a way to exfoliate it away. Till next week...

God's love and blessings!

God is so good!

Someone mentioned last week at church that it is a good idea to be specific when you pray, so that's what I did this week, and God was so good to answer. First off, we made the bid on the house, and my prayer was that we would hear back quickly from the bank as to whether or not they accepted. We heard back the next day! They didn't drop the price as far as we wanted, so we counter bid. Again, I prayed for a quick answer and that it would be within our budget if it was His will that we have this house. Mike did the paperwork for the bid yesterday afternoon, and we heard from them this morning--and it seems to be within our budget. We dropped by the bank this afternoon to make sure and got our pre-approval letter so Mike is going to the Realtor again tomorrow to give our final offer and see what happens.

Secondly, we were concerned about $5000 we had put down on the modular home we originally wanted to build. Our paperwork said that this was non-refundable. We fretted about it for a while, but we finally prayed and gave it to the Lord. If it was His will that we get the money back, He is more than able to take care of it, and He did! We're getting the entire deposit back! God is so good!

In other family news, Mike, Angel and Grandma are going to St. Paul on Saturday to see the Lippizan stallions. Grandma is so excited she can hardly wait! The rest of us will be going to the church that morning for some snow soccer. Yes, you read that right. Apparently this is a yearly thing at our church to play a game of soccer before the snow melts. It seems that the snow kind of equalizes the playing field for everyone. It sounds like fun. :o)

I spent several days this week working on a Birthday present for Michelle's best friend Helen. I designed a set of drawers for her to organize all her hair bows and barrettes. I made one for Michelle as well. I'm hoping tomorrow to get my camera out and get some pictures of it to post on my craft blog.

Well, I just heard Darlene call us all for supper, so I better close. Till next week...

God's love and blessings.

This is Going to be a Long Post.

Wow, what a week! Yes, I missed posting on Thursday, but I'm making up for it now with lots of news and even a few pictures. :o)

I'll start with the pictures. The library that the girls and I hang out at while Nick is at school was hosting a Fancy Nancy party this Wednesday. For those of you who are unaware, Fancy Nancy is a story book character who does everything "fancy". Michelle was so ecstatic to go. They fancied up the children's section of the library with lights, tulle and ribbon. They had pink lemonade in fancy cups, and of course, lots of accessories. The girls even got to have a little make-up put on. I will post most of the pictures I took on our Picasa page tomorrow, but I wanted to post a few here. I love this one. Notice the pinky...
And doesn't she just look marvelous? That's her Fancy Nancy doll she got for Christmas.

Nick took this shot on the way home. Our Marvelous Michelle pooped out. :o)

As for other news. After going through tons of floor plans, and getting bids on the well and septic, and talking to I don't know how many people about different types of houses, we decided to put in a bid on the house next door. It's the property adjacent to ours, and it's been foreclosed. We had taken a look at it back in November, and I wasn't real thrilled with it then, but the longer we are here, the better it is looking. The listing says it has a walk-out basement, but apparently they forgot to dig a hole for it, so it's actually the first floor. Which means the kitchen and living areas are upstairs. Not sure why they did this, but on the bright side, maybe I'll lose a few of these extra pounds lugging groceries up stairs all the time. :o) It's definitely not my dream home, but the price is pretty good, and it will work for us. Maybe once Mike gets his teacher's license and gets a full time job we'll be able to pay this one off sooner and build the big house on the hill. We'll see. So for now, we're waiting to hear back from the bank on our bid and we'll go from there. Please pray that we'll hear back soon. There is a bit of work that will need to be done before we could move in. The carpet will need to be replaced, and some of the rooms need painting. The listing also stated that it has a fireplace, but apparently the previous owners decided they should take that with them, so we'll need to get the hole in the wall fixed as well.

I spent all of today working on a cake for our church banquet tomorrow night. I would love to have a double oven so I could bake more layers at once, but I think by the time we can afford that, my back and hands won't be allowing me to make cakes anymore! Oh well. Here's a picture of the top of today's cake. I'm going to try and get a picture of the whole thing tomorrow, but it was so big that I couldn't get high enough to get a better shot. I don't like writing on cakes and, par for the course, I ran out of room and had to scrunch the last of the reference on there. Oh well.


One last thing, if you are reading this before Valentine's Day, please pray for Mike and I. We were asked to do a skit at the banquet tomorrow night and we're still trying to memorize our lines! Thanks!!

I better get going. I'm tired and need to get Michelle into bed. I believe I'm going to be crawling into mine shortly after that. Till next week...

God's love and blessings!

Blame it on the Floorplans!

Well, Mike and I stopped by the bank yesterday and got an idea of what we can afford, and the banker really frowned on the idea of a manufactured (formerly known as mobile) home. I guess there's a bunch of additional fees the banks put on those, and they don't have a very good resale value. So, she sent us off to a custom home place where we were given even more floor plans to look through. I've seen so many floor plans the last few weeks my head is beginning to spin, and that's my excuse for not posting yesterday--because I had my head buried in house books all evening. :o)

The girls and I have been busy with school work. Grandma didn't have to work at Meals-on-Wheels, so Angel went with Michelle and I to take Nick to school and we got a lot of her stuff caught up. Sometimes home schooling can be so frustrating and we get behind, but then there are days like today where everything just clicks, and we zoom right through the day. I also enjoy the opportunity to talk with Angel. We have conversations about all kinds of things during the course of a school day.

As you can tell by the fact that I'm still taking Nick to college, he still doesn't have the bank statement, so he still doesn't have a license. :o(

Well, Mike will be home from work soon, so I should close for now. Till next week, don't tell God how big your "storms" are, instead, tell your "storms" how big your God is!

And He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, "Hush, be still." And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm. Mark 4:39

God's love and blessings.

Where did Thursday go?

I didn't forget to post yesterday, I simply forgot yesterday was Thursday!

We've made a tough decision this week. I've been dreaming of my big house on the hill for so long, but it looks like that just isn't going to happen-not anytime soon anyway. :o( So, we've decided to go for a manufactured home next to the garage that is already on the property. It would save us not only on the house itself, but there's already a well, electricity, gas, and of course, the garage. We're also not going to put a basement on this one, so that will save us some money as well. We're trying to do this based off Mike's retirement pay alone so no matter what the economy and his job situation is, we should be OK on the bills. I think we've all got mixed feelings about the idea. We were all looking forward to the house on the hill, but the idea of being in our own place soon is REALLY exciting. We'd also be able to fix up the apartment that's on the back of the garage which would be a great place to teach cake decorating and craft classes and if company comes, they can have their own little apartment to stay in. Mike and I will go and talk with the banker on Thursday and we'll see where we go from there.

Nick is doing pretty good in his classes right now. He's started thinking about getting a job back in Iwakuni and moving there, but I don't think it's likely that he'll be able to find one that will support him-not without a college degree and some experience under his belt. We've also discussed the military. It's not an option he likes, but there just doesn't seem to be anything else available.

Angel worked with Grandma a couple of days this week, but she needed to catch up on some of her school work, so I took her place for a couple of the days. It was fun, but I'm so not used to getting up early and now, I'm exhausted!

Mike seemed to enjoy his first full week at work. He's only working 3 days, but they keep him pretty busy the whole time. He says for such a small company (4 employees) they sure get a lot of business. He said today as soon as he finished up the 3 computers he was working on, someone else showed up with 2 more. He's enjoying it and learning some new tricks as well.

Well, this lady is about to fall asleep at the keyboard, so I better close this for now and get to bed. Till next week,
God's love and blessings!