So, on Tuesday morning, Adrian and Ben were walking me to work like they almost always do. Ben was being a neurotic idiot like he always is. If I haven't mentioned it, he has picked up several new bad habits since the move - namely jumping on the walls chasing lights and reflections, and barking and lunging at buses.
Living in the city, buses are a fact of daily life. On Tuesday morning, Ben saw one such bus and went crazy - to the point of tripping me as we all walked through a construction area. I thought I would catch myself but....I didn't. I hit the concrete. Hard. I hit the concrete hard right next to the bus that Ben had gone crazy after. Adrian said I was maybe a foot away from being hit by it as it turned the corner and as I rolled (unintentionally) the wrong direction toward it. I ended up with a swollen, bloody knee and scraped-up palms. Oh and tears. Lots of tears.
That was Tuesday morning. After work Tuesday, in addition to being sore, a migraine began. I ate Ramen noodles and drank a glass of wine and called it a night, hopeful that the much-predicted snow would hit and that the much-guaranteed migraine would not.
Wednesday I woke up to a snowy day and a splitting migraine. Back to bed I went for a few hours to sleep and ice it off.
Thursday, the migraine was gone and the knee was feeling better but I realized my ribs hurt pretty stinking bad from when I fell. They were tender to the touch and PAINFUL when I sneezed.
Friday night, as we were getting ready to go hang out with our refugee family, my back suddenly spasmed up and brought me to tears. A couple hours later, we were fed some traditional Nepali foods in honor of Deepawali - a big Hindu celebration they were having. Although tasty, it. was. freaking. spicy. I'm ashamed to say that though I consider myself semi-cultured and well-traveled, I most certainly was not prepared for the heat or the amount of food they offered, and well....I hid some in my napkin. That junk was screwing up my mouth, my stomach, my body's natural heating and cooling system....
Fast forward to a couple hours later and as I'm trying to, *ahem* get rid of the spicy food, my back spasmed up even more and left me hobbling from the bathroom into bed where I cried over the miserable state of my human flesh. My body is a temple that feels like it had a wrecking ball taken to it every day this week.
So, here I sit in Adrian's chair. I have the computer on my lap, a heating pad on my back, indigestion in my stomach, a throbbing knee and sore ribs. I'm feeling peachy.
Did I mention that on Wednesday, Ben jumped on Adrian's face while he was working out and scratched his eye? Needless to say, the dog has not been enjoying lots of praise and cuddles this week. Why should he, when we both suffered at the hands (paws?) of his neurosis?
So there you have it - THAT'S how my body feels this week.
I'm noticing a pattern to my life here in Denver. When we still lived in Raleigh, I blogged about the "rhythms" of life and not knowing what kind of beat our Denver life would have. To tell the truth, I don't know if there is a specific beat yet - but I'm beat.
Busy is the beat, which leaves me beat, which leave the VanderHouse messy and things not done and sleep not slept....you get the picture. On the surface, it seems as if things should be steady and sure. However, between work, church, City Group, date nights, missional outings, family and catch-up-phone calls....things remain crazy. What looked like a stable schedule has morphed into one that changes day-to-day. For example, I go in at 9, but do I actually get to leave at 6? Not usually. This week I stayed late 3 days, and worked Saturday morning. Goodbye schedule. Cooking - what should be a regular (and welcomed, relaxing) occurrence, has only happened maybe once this week. Between dinner with our City Group, date night with (a new couple) friends of ours (!) and Adrian cooking dinner because I'm not getting home until 7 or later, one of my most relaxing rituals has gone out the window this week.
I actually love coming home and making dinner for us. I get to work with my hands, create something and have a visible, tangible and tasty finished product. I like being able to stand and move around and not be sitting in front of a computer. And, let's be honest, I like being the chef instead of Adrian :) I miss cooking meals.
Walking to and from work leaves me beat too, although I'm starting to just walk 4-5 blocks to the bus and then grab it to the office. Leaves me less sweaty and frantic in the morning - a good thing all around. One day this week, there were lots of mini adventures on my walk. On my way TO the office I found an iPod Nano on the sidewalk. Judging by the kind of music playing and the 4 people who may have walked past that spot, I found the owners and returned it. On my way home, I lost a shoe and didn't realize it until a block and a half later (one of my heels had fallen out of my purse). By the time I noticed it was missing and turned around, a guy had just grabbed it from the middle of the street where it had been laying and thrown it to safety on the sidewalk. Miraculously - it had not gotten run over. Thankful for that little blessing.
Because of the late nights at work, travel (to my cousin Andy's wedding in St. Louis!) and random schedule....the house is a mess. The turtles want to eat, but in the meantime they're enjoying basking on the log Adrian set up for them. My laundry wants to go in the closet, but instead sits folded on various surfaces in the bedroom. I want sleep, but instead I woke up on MY ONE DAY OFF listening to the thumping of my neighbor's bass music through our bedroom wall....grrr.....
All in all, I'm thankful for how God is sustaining me in the midst of an exhausting period of life. I'm thankful he's given me a husband who cares for me so well and in so many ways. I'm thankful for reminders of why we do what we do. And I'm thankful that next weekend, Adrian and I will be celebrating our 2 year anniversary with a little mountain getaway. Right now, I may be most thankful for that - and the promise of extra sleep that it brings. Amen.
Blogging? What's that? Something I used to do when I had free time, you say?
Things are Cr-AZY around the Vanderhouse right now. Granted, we knew that once I got back from a work trip to Arizona, life was going to pick up, but I don't think I realized how much. With exactly two weeks from the time my flight arrived to the day my car would pull out of Raleigh, there wasn't a toooon of time to do what needed to be done, but there was enough. Right?
Wrong. Panic is beginning to set in just a wee bit. Our truck arrives Tuesday (a week from today), and I still need to pack up the guest closet, the bathrooms and the kitchen. And we need to go through the bazillion piles of stuff sitting around looking for a home.
All that would be fine and dandy, except that I seem to have created a harmful environment around me. Case in points:
1) About two weeks ago, I made the mistake of wearing heels to work for the first time in a while. This was a mistake because A) I did it on a day I had to get blood drawn so I was weak and B) because regardless of my blood levels, I tend to be on the clumsy side. Put two and two together (or is it three and three here?) and the picture you'll see is me falling out of my car after leaving the doctor's office. The initial scratch wasn't so bad - it was the bruise that covered my entire calf a few days later that freaked me out. Coupled with the post-travel massage I got, and the bruise had turned black a week later. That REALLY freaked me out. Thankfully, I seem to be rebounding, slowly but surely.
2) Speaking of rebounding from car "accidents", I wish my bumper rebounded as easily after it uhh, bumped, a telephone pole on Saturday. After the aforementioned travel last week, I rode w/ A up to the auto mechanics shop to pick up his truck. He turned my car over to me, and literally, within three seconds of sitting in the driver's seat for the first time in a week, I back up and into a telephone pole. In the parking lot of the mechanic's shop. Irony, you are a cruel mistress.
There was a lot of new bird poop on the back window that I was, unfortunately, focused on. When I stopped staring at the dung and got out to look at my bumper, I immediately burst into tears. Thankfully, my husband is a wonderful encourager and reminded me that it's just a car and hey - the back door still works.
3) Fast-forward to a few days later (aannnddd....now I have Alanis Morrisette in my head), and I'm in bed, trying to fall asleep and soothing my aching muscles. My legs were super-sore from yoga and zumba over the weekend, so I was laying in the middle of the bed on my stomach, with my legs stretched out like a frog behind me. Basically, I was hogging the bed - a role my husband normally plays. As he maneuvered into his spot, which was really close to my spot, somehow his elbow connected with my lip. I yelled. Blood appeared. Tears began. Did I mention I had been to the dentist that morning for some fillings and still had residual jaw pain on the SAME SIDE of my mouth?
After panicking, and rinsing my lip in a bunch of water, and getting a lot of hugs from A, I began to bawl. Big, fat tears for all the pain and frustrations and stress of the last few days and the next few weeks. I began to cry, not because my lip was that bad (although it was), but because once again, I am a mess in transition.
Although I have a history of being a bit of a clumsy, crazy mess, I thought I was growing past that phase of life. Ha. That phase is my life, I'm learning. The Lord is teaching me that this mess is me.
I can't grow so old, or move so far away, or become so mature as to not be a mess. It's what I am. It's what we all are. And while sometimes it's physically painful to be reminded of that fact, I'm learning that the most pain comes from learning that it's my spirit that is messed up. Those are the hurts that last. The bruises fade, the lips heal, hopefully the bumpers get fixed, but the mess of our hearts continues to flare up throughout our lifetime.
Thankfully, there is a cure for those of us who are a mess. It's called God's grace. His grace covers the fact that on my own, I am a mess. His grace enables the Father to look at me and see - not my screw-ups and my crazy emotions and my blunderings - but the perfect, graceful, flawless, beautiful life of Christ. So while I'm a mess in transition on this Earth, there is assurance that one day I will grow out of this phase, when I am given new life and a new body in heaven. Until then, I think I'm going to try to see these mishaps, not as wounds to my body and my stuff, but as reminders of the wound to my soul that Jesus has blessedly healed.
Yesterday A and I went shopping together.
That may be a bit of an overstatement, since we actually just went to the mall together and then parted ways. He sat in Barnes & Noble and read and tried to use a B&N Groupon I bought him for V-Day. I went down to Express to try and use a gift card my Mom had sent me for $15 off a purchase. Alas, we are B-R-O-K-E right now, so I mostly wandered around the store looking at all the beautiful things I would buy if we had $15 cash to spend, in addition to my $15 off coupon. They had a GREAT clearance sale going on, but I wasn't able to use the gift card on those items :( Sad day.
When I was giving up hope and about to buy a solid-colored t-shirt for $5 out-of-pocket, I saw they had some great scarves that were marked 30 percent off. Score! I chose a lovely, shimmery, silver tube of fabric they called an infinity scarf. After getting overcharged by the computer, walking out confused and afraid to say anything and then returning with A for moral support on getting the right price - I was the proud new owner of a silver infinity scarf. It was pretty, and I could get it for cheap, so that was about the extent of my thoughts on my new infinity scarf.
Today, I decided to see what kinds of tutorials are out there on how to wear this thing. It's a bit of a novelty for me, so like any humble wanna-be-fashionista, I began browsing fashion blogs for instructions on the multitude of ways to wear an infinite scarf. My impression? It's like any other scarf, except that the ends are sewn together. What I found? This scarf is apparently the answer to the earth-shattering issue of ends. While I see this as a bit of a fun adventure (much like my bendy snake necklace) on how to tie it and wear it, most of the blog world sees it as the answer to the burning question of, "What do I do with my ends?"
"The beauty of the infinity or circle scarf is that you don't have to mess with the ends (something that always secretly drives me a little nuts with traditional scarves.)"
"One of my biggest complaints in regards to the scarf is that it has ends. Do I tuck them into my coat? How do I make them stay around my neck when the wind keeps blowing them behind me? Do I tie the ends if I don’t want to fold it in half and stick the ends through the middle? As much as I love scarves, they can be quite frustrating."
Seriously? Are the ends of a scarf that big of a deal that a plethora of blog posts have been written about how the infinity scarf is the answer to this problem? Is this really a huge fashion hassle? Silly me - I always figured I'd either secure the ends by putting a coat on second, or let the little boogers fly (figuratively, obviously. Real flying boogers would be really gross).
I recognize I'm not a fashion guru. My style is last year's markdowns, so I am obviously open to criticism on my sense of style, so you tell me: Are the ends of your scarves that frustrating to you? Would you spend $30 or more (the going rate for most of the scarves) on an infinity scarf, just to avoid dealing with that dire question of what to do with your ends? I know I poke fun, but I really am curious!
Yesterday, I stayed home with a migraine.
Today is our sixteen month anniversary AND Benny's 4th birthday! We've been planning all week on celebrating Ben's birthday together (the first time as a family - A would never admit before how much he loves our little mongrel, and therefore wouldn't agree to any celebrations) and on having a good date night out. Also? It FINALLY feels like beautiful weather and I wanted to go out and enjoy it!
Instead, I have what feels to be the beginnings of a yucky sickness, complete with a headache, super-sore throat and mild fever. And Ben....poor Benny. He woke up with a spider bite, one eye swollen shut, a swollen nose and itchies all over.
So today looks like this:
Beautiful weather + anniversary + Ben's birthday = a great day
Beautiful weather + anniversary + Ben's birthday + me sick (again) + Ben sick + an unexpected trip to the vet = a disappointing, wish-I-wasn't-always-sick-on-fun-days day.
On the bright side - Ben has pills to pop and I can find some for me too. I'm going to salvage this promising day if it kills me. Which it might. It really, really might.
The old saying, "When it rains, it pours," seems fitting today. After a night filled with rain, the day dawned cold and wet, with no respite in sight for several days.
Yesterday, I had my second appointment at the dentist for some fillings. Far worse than the first, this appointment is proving to be one of the many raindrops in a storm filled with them. I recognize my culpability in scheduling the appointment in the midst of a busy time. However, I can't help but think that were it not for a swollen cheek, a constant headache and pain, the other "raindrops" that have been falling this week would not seem so significant.
If not for the pain, there would not be a propensity toward tears. If not for the pain, I would better be able to rationalize things that should be minor annoyances as nothing more than a steady drip. drip. drip. However, as it is, I'm struggling to see those things as minor when they feel so major. They feel like an onslaught of a storm against us, though in my rational head, I recognize we are all nothing more than sinners saved by grace, hurting one another and throwing ourselves on God's mercy.
For "if you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared." If the Lord sees Jesus' work on the cross in place of MY iniquities, why do I struggle to see Jesus' work on the cross in place of others' iniquities against us? Why, O Lord, can I not recognize that others' sins against us do not compare to the sins we have committed against you?
Far be it for me to cast stones - but I do.
Far be it from me to get hurt by others - but I do.
Far be it from me to punish them for their actions - but I do.
Far be it from me to forget Jesus already took the punishment - but I do.
Minor frustrations, they may be, but the consequences for those actions were major. The consequence was a cross. It was a crucifixion and a death and a pouring out of punishment on the One who is blameless.
So when I cry and complain and fret about life not being fair - please remind me that of course it's not fair. It wasn't fair that Jesus should die - but he did. It wasn't fair that he should take my place - but he did. It wasn't fair that I would be spared eternal punishment - but he did it.
"O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption."
Well, as many of you know, this weekend/week was supposed to go something like this:
Drop A off at the airport
Pick a good friend up from airport
Go to the International Festival w/ her
Go to Ocean Isle, NC for a high school friend's wedding
Have lunch with my parents
Fly to Haiti for the week
Instead, plans changed. The only thing that stayed the same was my friend coming in and my parents taking me to lunch. I started feeling bad Friday morning and by Saturday afternoon, was at the Urgent Care getting a diagnosis of strep. Thankfully, my parents were about an hour away, so while my friend had taken my car to go to the wedding, they came over to take care of me and hang out with me while I was sick and weepy.
Yesterday I had to make another tough decision and decided that since I was still feeling so yucky, I wouldn't be going to Haiti. I was supposed to go to cover a mission trip for work, but with a 5am departure set for this morning, and an elevated temperature and sore throat remaining, decided to "bag it," as my boss said.
So, with that, I find myself with some time to sit and read, pray and study. A and I really wanted to make this week one of searching and praying and asking the Lord for guidance and direction on our future. We have been thinking about and praying about an opportunity for our ministry and our life, and really want to seek the Lord's face this week about that.
So with that, some thoughts from my crazy, weird and unexpected weekend:
-My husband is an unbelievable blessing, and I hate when we're apart
-I'm thankful for my parents, who urged me to go to the doctor and who came and fixed dinner for me, hung out with me, and took care of me when I was feeling so crappy
-A heartfelt "thank you" goes a long way
-I'm grateful for a job that provides opportunities like Haiti, but even more grateful for a boss who shows grace and understanding when I have strep
-Mostly, I'm thankful for my Lord who pursues me, loves me, showers me with grace, and has adopted me into his family. Jesus is my example of grace and through the Holy Spirit, I learn how to love others even when it's hard.
It's like two steps forward and three steps back with our home life. Seriously.
A finally talked to a different supervisor at Sam's yesterday who told us they have no idea where our new bed came from, only that our actual order is still in progress. Meanwhile, we have a more expensive bed than we ordered sitting in our room. If they don't ask for it back, I am not ashamed to keep it and sell it. We discussed it seriously, and then my Dad told me to not do anything that would make me feel bad, but after all of this, I won't feel bad about selling a bed they didn't even know they gave us. Not. At. All.
On the phone yesterday, A explained the situation - again - and the supervisor had no solutions, other than telling us we'd be getting our actual, ordered bed after the order finished processing.
If we get charged for two beds, you can better believe hell hath no fury like a woman pissed at Sam's. Amen.
In other home-news, we had to decide by yesterday if we wanted to stay in our mediocre apartment or figure out someplace else to live come October. After thinking about it and talking about it and contemplating moving in two months....we re-signed our lease for another year.
The wasps are gone, we have a new dishwasher, we haven't seen any arrests lately and the rent didn't go up at all. Plus - NO MOVING. Sounds like a deal to me! ;)
In anticipation of staying in our place another whole year, I am in a decorating fever. First - paint some art for behind our bed to serve as some color and a focal point in an otherwise blah room. Second - I want to buy some blue curtains to bring a pop of color into the blah room. Third, I would like to go through and clean out some stuff - organize, you know. We have too much crap. Fourth - I would really like to finish (start?) sanding and repainting the table I have had sitting, covered, on our deck since, oh, February. It would be really clutch to have a little desk for all our stuff, other than the dining room table. Fifth - curtains for the living room, to bring some more color and style into the space. Sixth - I may paint a wall. Who knows?
This is where my lovely lady friends are needed. You all have skills. I have seen them. Help me organize? Help me decorate? Pretty please?
I should have started a file months ago when we first had issues with Sam's. It would have helped me to keep track of all the ways they have screwed us.
Like sending us the wrong mattress set.
I was right to not fully believe they'd get the order correct. I just didn't expect this.
After the guys picked up the old, awful Sam's Club mattress set, the Fairmont Eurotop Firm, they proceeded to put down the new set, the Edgebrooke Eurotop Firm.
Oh wait. THAT'S NOT WHAT WE ORDERED.
I checked the online order. I checked the packing slip. Instead of bringing the set we ACTUALLY ordered - the Fairhaven Firm set, they brought us the exact same bed we just got rid of, only under a different name because of all of the bad reviews attached to the one we had.
Unbelievable.
So, sitting in our room is our deceptively, nice-looking mattress set, that is neither what we ordered nor what we wanted. And again, we are left without a comfortable mattress.
I am so over Sam's - their products, their customer service and especially their online ordering. Friends, where else can we buy a quality California King Mattress Set that is returnable (We're gun-shy now) for around $900???
Well, things are starting to come together, little by little. It's been a long, slow process, but it seems like things are looking up.
First of all. Tuesday I was home when maintenance at our apartment finally came by to look at the dishwasher. Although he blamed it all on our soap, he decided he'd replace our dishwasher "just in case." Uh-huh. Just in case you're wrong and the dishwasher actually does suck, you mean?
We arrived home yesterday afternoon to a hand-written note on our door that said, "I came to install dishwasher. -Ed" There was no indication as to whether or not he actually did install it, but we knew he had come by! Thankfully, as we soon ascertained by the bike in the middle of the living room (why there? We don't know. It wasn't blocking the dishwasher) he had actually installed a new one. We haven't run it yet to see if it works, but my hopes are high.
Also, after several more conversations with incompetent Sam's employees (and one competent one) our bed is scheduled to be delivered tomorrow. TOMORROW. That is super exciting for us :) Here's to our backs and our bodies waking up pain-free and refreshed! Although, the process included another several e-mails from Sam's saying our order was about to be canceled again, A talked to the one helpful supervisor, who assured us we were on schedule for delivery tomorrow. However, when we then called back (because of the order-threatening emails), we were told our order was for "a twin bed to be delivered to Illinois, right?" Uh......WRONG.
My hopes are a little less high for the ease of the bed transition than they are for a working dishwasher. Sam's has proven to be a slippery little sucker to pin-down, and to have horrible customer service, to boot. We shall see.
In other news: Thrifty Thursday! I'm all about finding some deals, so whenever I can find things I think would be helpful or of interest to thrifty people, I'll share. So, here's your Thrifty Thursday tips:
Next Thursday (7/29/2010) McAlister's is giving away free tea. Now, I don't care for tea myself - I think the stuff is nasty - but I have been told numerous times how magnificent McAlister's tea is. For my Raleigh peeps - the McAlister's I know of is in North Hills. Plus, on Thursday evenings, they have live music and shag dancing in the square at North Hills, so go get some sweet tea and then head over to the square for some dancing. What a lovely summer evening :)
Next Friday (7/30/2010) is National Cheesecake Day. Thus, the Cheesecake Factory is doing 1/2 price cheesecake all day. I CAN attest to the deliciousness of CF's cheesecake! Every flavor I have ever tried, in addition to their incredible whipped cream, is FANTASTIC. Anyone want to make it a date and hit up CF at Crabtree with me next Friday? I'm game!
This post could also be titled: I'm tired of dealing with everyone's crap.
I made the mistake the other day of saying I hated everything Walt Disney ever came up with, including Disney World, Wal-Mart and Sam's. One of my coworkers gently pointed out that Sam Walton was behind Wal-Mart and Sam's, not Walt Disney.
Duh. I had wondered where the name "Sam's" came from. Too much "Wal" going on. You can see how I would get confused.
Anywho. You all know about the Disney debacle. Here are the reasons the other two, in addition to my apartment complex - Falls Creek - are on my blacklist.
1) Wal-Mart is inevitably out of so much of my shopping list every time I go to the store. I swear, are things like skim milk that hard to stock? It's not the middle of winter with snowstorms looming, for goodness' sake.
2) Sam's has the worst company trainings I have ever witnessed. I can say this, because we have literally spent HOURS on the phone with at least 8 different representatives from Sam's Club - all of who have different "definitive" answers on solutions (or the lack thereof) to our problem. Train your people to HAVE THE SAME ANSWERS TO PROBLEMS.
"Our problem" is the defective bed they sold us in December. "Our problem" has since blossomed into a defective bed that we can't return without much screaming and gnashing of teeth, and a conspicuous absence of a new bed that we have tried, unsuccessfully, to order several times. After having been told completely different things by people at corporate, other people at corporate, at our local store, and other people at our local store, we hate the entire Sam's Club. If it wasn't for the fact that we talked to one sweet girl who is giving us a discount on our new bed (which we still have been unable to successfully order), we would totally take the crappy, defective mattress and sell it, and take the (finally) refunded $900 and go spend it on a bed elsewhere.
You can better believe whenever we do get the new bed, I will be leaving some very negative feedback about the whole transaction. Who knows when that will be.
3) Our apartment complex is progressively getting worse. In addition to never taking care of their buildings, Falls Creek is on the black list because for MONTHS we haven't had a functioning dishwasher. It takes over a week to get a maintenance person to come and look at anything. Even then, he only says he doesn't know the problem, but will talk to his supervisor and return. That was months ago. No return trip, and still no dishwasher-cleaned dishes.
After resubmitting a work order about it several days ago, now our shower inexplicably clogged this morning. Fan-freaking-tastic. That will probably be a problem for the next year.
Speaking of the next year, we got a note the other day saying we had to decide whether to stay or move within the next 2 weeks. They want a 60 day notice, but only tell us our rent increase amount with 2 weeks left to decide.
In addition to the dishwasher problems and drainage problems, we have also dealt with toilets that don't flush completely, a bathtub above us that leaks into ours and brings the ceiling down with it, wasps in the apartment for months, noisy neighbors and stairwells that are covered in trash and never cleaned. Oh, did I mention the cops that now patrol the complex because of arrests and people getting jumped?
The worst part is, we're actually thinking about renewing our lease because we're too exhausted to think about moving in two months.
*Sigh* Sorry about all the complaints. I think I just needed to vent.
As we're trying to get back into the swing of things, I am trying to get back into a cooking groove - you know, enjoying it and making things actually taste good.
Last night, figuring A would want something homecooked and being slightly hungry after all the stomach issues, I made what is normally an old faithful: tuna burgers with mashed potatoes and corn on the cob.
It was obvious to me I'm not quite back in the groove yet. The meal tasted OK, but it was just so-so. Kind of bland and kind of dry.
Tuna burgers are always a hit around the Vanderburg house, but last night was a bit of a flop. Blame it on my timing or my taste buds.
So anyways, at lunch I watched Hell's Kitchen, which always inspires me to be a great chef, and started trying to figure out tonight's dinner menu. I hit up my two favorite recipe sites, Kraft foods and AllRecipes. Although there are pros and cons to both, I favor one over the other, and always get excited about trying their recipes.
Ladies, if you use these sites, do you prefer one? What are some of your favorite recipes I need to try from them? Also, let me know if you have any dinner suggestions as I keep searching ;)
I'm going to try not to use a ton of dishes, since our dishwasher is broken. Again. I don't know how many times now I have emptied the dishwasher and we have washed the dishes by hand, but it is one time too many.
Talk about whirlwinds. In addition to the (literal) strong winds that whipped my hair into all kinds of crazy knots while we were away, the past week and a half has been a crazy whirlwind too.
Since I already told you about the unsuccessful prairie dog hunting, let me recap the rest of the critters I encountered during the Wild West Trip.
On Monday, after finishing the final trash- pick-up of the rodeo, we joined one of the pastors and a few other guys to head into the mountains to fly fish. They fished. I read my book. As we drove back toward town, one of them spotted a black bear and we were all on the alert. We saw it in the brush to the left of the road, then it disappeared. As we looked for it, I happened to look back down the road and see it scurry across to the right side. I quietly motioned to everyone else the bear was on the road - thus provoking one of the men (the same who held my gun for me, incidentally) to yell, "He's on the road!" in a not-so-subtle attempt to help us find the bear again. Thanks, buddy. I got it.
The next day, A drove up from Wyoming and picked me up and we drove from Livingston, MT down through Yellowstone and into Idaho and then Utah. On the way, we saw more little "critters-" lots of buffalo, an elk, antelope, a cat riding on the side-view mirror of an RV (REALLY wish I had been quicker with my camera for that!), chipmunks/rodents of some kind, and lots of microorganisms that changed the springs in Yellowstone to all shades of pretty colors.
Yellowstone Day was probably one of my favorite days of the whole trip - it was gorgeous weather, gorgeous scenery, and absolutely wonderful to enjoy the Lord's magnificent creation with my magnificent husband, who I had been missing while we were apart!
The final creatures we experienced on the trip were those that attacked my stomach early Friday morning in Salt Lake City. I woke up feeling really restless and nauseous, and quickly started losing everything I had ever eaten. It was not a pleasant experience, let me assure you. Makes me re-think my "I want to be pregnant" thoughts! If that's what morning sickness is like, no thank you.
We're not sure if it was a mono relapse, the flu (I had a fever Friday), a stomach virus, food poisoning....Does it matter? It's not fun.
So while the trip, overall, was good, it was beyond tiring and brain-straining once we got into SLC. Needless to say, we are thankful to be home, in our own (still-defective Sam's Club) bed. I'd rather be sick and tired here than anywhere else right now. We're still seeking the Lord's direction on where he would take us and have us plant our lives. If we are called to move to SLC, I'll also be praying that whatever creatures I experienced this last time will be held at bay for the duration of our time there!
Thanks for those of you who have been praying for our trip - we know it would have been much worse, spiritually and physically, if not for the mighty hand of God protecting us. Thank you for interceding on our behalf :)
P.S. - Check the last post for the album link for pictures of the trip. More pictures have been posted!
You all probably remember me posting about our bed, with which we have had a love/hate relationship in the last 6 months since we bought it.
Initially, it was heaven, and we LOVED it. I still tend to think it's pretty great, but, thanks to the foam topper on it (part of the mattress), we're returning it. The top section of it has already developed dents and sags in it after only a few months. A has been waking up in pain every night pretty much since March or April. In fact, I found some reviews online, and it seems this is a recurring problem with this particular bed. However, for a bed that has crappy reviews on the website, has a no-holds barred return policy, and cost close to $1,000, you'd think we'd have a little more assistance getting it returned and exchanged.
Four employees of the particular place we bought it from have told me 4 different scenarios on what we can do to get it returned:
1) Bring it into the store ourselves and they'll refund us (it's a California King....). We will then have to order something new from their website, which will take approximately 3 weeks to get in, leaving us bed-less.
2) We can work out some kind of exchange where they bring us a different bed, pick up our old bed, and credit us/charge us for the transaction all at once (the ideal).
3) We pay shipping back on the bed, wait for a refund, then pay shipping on a new bed. By the way, on the website, it clearly states there is NO SHIPPING FEE. This same gentleman, helper #3, also never actually looked up my order or the beds we had been talking about - he only wanted to talk in terms of hypotheticals. Lame.
4) This was #3's supervisor b/c he was ticking me off. Supervisor tells me that what #1, #2 and #3 told me are all incorrect. Although the bed is defective and they don't sell it anymore, they can only do a straight exchange for the identical product which has been recently released with a new name and a clean slate. He then tells me if we want anything different, we cannot return it to the store ourselves, we must have Serta come pick it up, tell the store to credit us, and then order a new bed. In this scenario, we're looking at about 3 weeks without a bed. Fan-freaking-tastic.
I really just wish everyone could get their stories straight. That would be SO helpful.
So anyways, tonight, we're heading over to the store to ask them to order our desired bed to the store for us, without us paying for it, and we will then call for a pickup and refund of our old bed, hopefully leaving us bedless for only a night or two.
Thus, after a stressful day of phone calls about our bed, we decided to take advantage of the fact that we now have a pro ball player living with us, and get some free tickets to go see his game and watch him pitch. However, after dinner, we drove to the ball field, only to find out the box office had some sort of problem and didn't set aside the tickets for us :( Sad day. He definitely threw, too, and we missed it because we were too cheap to pay to get into the game. Ha. We salvaged the night by walking around downtown Durham in the old tobacco factory area, looking at the fountains and hanging out. Right before we got in the car, I was admiring some pretty flowers and A went to cut a chunk off for me.
Whoops - turned out they were roses with some pretty nasty thorns. He laid a finger right into a big thorn! Sorry, babe :( So, no flowers, no baseball game and no comfort in sleep. I'm glad the Lord is sovereign and that these are INCREDIBLY petty issues in the big scheme of things. I'm thankful that even when our backs hurt, our plans are foiled and our fingers are stabbed, that the Lord is who he is and that we are his.
I often complain on here about little things that go wrong, and I shouldn't. Although they may be funny, I should spend more time talking about the blessings the Lord has given me and how I evidently see his hand working in my life - for my good and his glory. So, a few little things that happened recently:
1) We had gotten a $700+ bill from the lab that did my blood work and diagnosed me with mono. That was not good. I was fretting about it and quite worried we would have to pay it, but resubmitted it with my insurance provider. Yesterday I got the new bill, post-insurance. $81. God is good. I am so thankful for taking care of that burden and enabling us to continue paying off debt!
2) Last night I also realized God has provided for me providentially, timing-wise. I have doctor's visits once a week, usually on Tuesday afternoons. The other day, A realized next week's visit was on Thursday. I was initially irritated at the interruption to the normal schedule, but last night I realized that Monday and Tuesday, A and I will be at the Advance the Church conference at our church. Praise the Lord, we don't have to leave the conference early to go to my appointment - we'll be able to attend the whole conference!
3) We have been planning to visit SC and go see a former member of A's youth group who will be home on leave for a couple of weeks. After A got home Sunday night, we realized how financially strapped we were this month after the week away. Monday morning, the pastor at A's old church called and asked if A would preach the next two weeks. They'll pay our expenses as well as pay him, so a trip that was going to cost us even more is now taken care of, plus A gets to preach. Plus, we're going to go to the beach and eat some seafood. Praise God ;)
How has the Lord been providing for you?
"It is good to give thanks to the LORD, to sing praises to your name, O Most High; to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night." - Psalm 92:1-2
"Lonely, I am so lonely....."
I have a feeling that song will be playing in my head a lot this week. "Why?" you may ask. Well, first of all, I said goodbye to my sweet husband this morning. He left for work in SC until Sunday, so for 5 whole days I'll be by my lonesome with just me and our gnarly, snarly dog (see previous post). It's our first time of any length away from each other - I think we've only been apart for a night (maybe two) since we got married. Speaking of getting married, Sunday is our 6 months anniversary, and our one year engagement anniversary. So, it's even more sad that we'll be in two different states.
What will also make me lonely is the absence of my computer. I know lots of people live without computers, especially laptops, on a regular basis, and millions of people have zero access to computers. However, because of my stupidity and sickness, I'm now joining the ranks - for at least a little while it seems.
This morning, I was struggling a lot with dizziness and not feeling well, and as I stumbled over at one point, I knocked my computer off of the counter - causing it to land on the linoleum. It busted it up and made me freak out. I sat on the bed and got really upset. So, it was the trifecta of a yucky morning: Not feeling well, breaking my MacBook and saying goodbye to my husband. Throw in some hormones to that and you can probably picture how it went.
In good news - my friend and co-worker Courtney happily attacked said broken computer and is trying to fix it for me, since my AppleCare probably won't cover it. He's a whiz with Macs, so I'm hopeful.
In other good news, we paid off half of my credit card this morning, which feels good. Another $1,000 to go and we're halfway out of slavery to debt. Excellent. Also excellent? I beat my all-time high score at solitaire with a whopping 9,731.
Hey - it's the little things.
The other night, I suggested that A trying petting Ben, our dog, while he was eating. Ben has lately gotten quite psycho about his food - something he hadn't ever been before. His attitude toward food used to be a "take it or leave it" mentality. Notsomuch anymore. Lately, he's really fixated on you when it comes time to fill up his bowl, will sit and wait perfectly for you to release him to eat, but will whine and warble if you make him wait too long.
So anyways, a couple of days ago, A tried to pet him, and Ben got growly at him. He became stern with him and popped him a little, and Ben calmed down, but continued wolfing his food. Last night, as A was walking a movie back to the store, I was feeding Ben and decided to try to pet him.
Just like the night before, he got growly at me. I told him 'no' and continued to pet him as he ate, and he got even worse. I grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, and he went nutty on me. After throwing him to the ground, and grabbing all four of his legs, he snapped at me. I picked up his food and made him "sit" and "watch me." Once he started to behave, I put his food back down and tried again. Again, he got snarly at me - worse than I have ever seen him before. Enough so that he scared me. I put him in the dark bathroom and waited for A to get home (not without a slightly-hysterical phone call that left my husband really afraid we had a rabid dog that would have to be put down).
After a stern talking-to, A let Ben out and gave him the rest of his food and tried to pet him some. Ben got a little vocal again, but A just told him "No" and he seemed to stop. Later, so I could go to bed and not be afraid of the dog I have had for 3 years, I hand-fed Ben another scoop of food and worked mightily on obedience with him between every bite. We both did OK with that :)
So....any thoughts? Have any of you had a food-aggressive dog that you had to deal with? Other than hand-feeding and re-establishing my "alpha-ness," any suggestions? Ben needs to know I'm the alpha (he understands that A is....but I think he thinks I'm lower in the "pack pecking order" than he is), so I try to assert that all the time with him.
Other than this, and some on-leash anxiety about seeing other dogs, Ben's turning out to be a decent dog. Last night's little episode just really scared me. So, any suggestions, other than continually messing with him while eating, establishing my dominance and hand-feeding for a while, what can you recommend?
I don't want to live with a crazy dog! Especially this week - It will be just me and Benny for a few days as A has a job at a tennis tournament. Meanwhile, I'll be running around like crazy, covering all the fun events happening at SEBTS this week - BOV/BOT meetings, special chapel services and global missions week activities, to name a few. Then, Lord willing, I'll be heading to the beach for the day on Saturday with a couple of girlfriends to enjoy some sunshine and seafood! Hello spring :) You're crazy, but I love you.
Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work I go.
Today is the first "full" day of work for me in a long time - like two weeks. Considering that my Tuesdays are short b/c of doctor's visits each week, I guess it really can't be considered a full day. Even yesterday, after over-doing it cleaning on Sunday, was too difficult for me and I lasted a grand total of about 11 hours - from 10:30 to 9:30. So technically, tomorrow (if I last all day!) will be my first really full day at work in 3 weeks. That. is. crazy.
If you aren't aware, I got bitten by the mono bug a few weeks ago and have been down and out for a while. (I'm kidding - there is no bug that gives you mono. Don't freak out.) In all of my free time, you may be asking, what have we been up to? Not a whole lot exciting going on here, that's for sure.
I would sleep most days until 10:30 or 11, and get up and take my time getting ready in the morning. I'd read, spend some time in the Word, eat lunch and take a nap. Afternoons brought A home from either the bookstore where he studies or his new job at Bruegger's, which he goes to at 4:30 a.m.
We'd hang out, eat dinner (I haven't been cooking well for him lately though, it feels like) and then watch TV. About 10, I'd be ready to crash again. Thankfully, the Lord blessed me with mono during March Madness, so there has been a lot on TV to watch, basketball-wise. We've also rented several movies (had a mini-Bond marathon) and eaten a lot of junk food.
I'd take the opportunity of being at home to clean a lot and sometimes cook something new and different. Thus far, we've seen a Funfetti cake, fresh guacamole, chocolate chip muffins, banana bread and more grace the tops of our counters. Add to that the fact that I am a slug and haven't been doing hardly any physical activity (unless you count taking out the dog) and I am packing on the pounds again. Ugh.
So yeah, there's our March recap, I guess. The fever hit hard and strong on the 11th, after following days of stomach issues, so it really has been the entire month almost. I miss spring-time :( I miss feeling healthy and romping in the sunshine. Dear Lord, please help me feel 100% again soon.
So there you go. Sorry for the blog silence, but I didn't want to overdose you all on "boring". Hope you've all had a good March and enjoyed the basketball, sunshine and good health!
I was pretty perky yesterday, although it was Monday. I had had a good time in the Word, a visit from my friends Courtney and Laura and new baby Gavin, and enjoyed the giggles from my trip to the store. Despite the good things, I did have a headache, but that's par for the course for me after a day in the office.
When I went to Wal-Mart for the weekly grocery-shopping trip, all was going well until the bread aisle. I was squatting down, looking for the price on the whole-grain tortillas I wanted to buy, when I suddenly felt a pile of bricks hit me on the top of my head.
Ok, ok, it wasn't bricks, but it sure as heck felt like it. An apparently impatient woman couldn't wait for me to move and reached up from behind me to grab a bag of tortillas. An apparently huge bag of tortillas. 200 to be exact.
So after it hit me, I just sat there and started to cry. She said "Sorry!" and ran off. Her daughter giggled at me from behind the end-cap.
After I got up, called A and cried, I went back to see exactly how much the 200 tortillas that hit me weighed.
4.6 pounds. Nearly 5 pounds of corn and oil combined that whacked me in the head. Wow-sers.
To say it hurt would be an understatement.
Why do these things happen to me? I thought being a Crane meant I was clumsy. I have more mishaps as a Vanderburg than I ever did before. Gracious. When I got home though, a sweet surprise awaited me.
The night we first met, creative little me told A I liked to eat tortillas like this - making them into a face first. It was only one of the many quirky and endearing things I do that won his heart ;) I'm so thankful for him, how he cares for me, and the little things he does that make life with him oh-so sweet, even when things are painful.
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