October

Well, I think I am finally going to be caught up! Hah. It's not that I don't like blogging or that I don't have time for it..... Au contrair! I actually have plenty of time for it. I just feel like.... Well, honestly, there's like NO ONE who reads it, and I post so much on my Facebook, I just feel like no one would want to re-read a recap of my life. I already get plenty of flak for posting so much of my life on Facebook, anyways. Well, I know there are plenty of people in my life that don't have Facebook or that don't use Facebook very regularly, so I figure I'll just keep plugging along and if you want to read, fine. If not, no worries. :)

So October! It was a rather fun month. The first week of October found us moving into a new place. We moved in with a roommate... someone we found on Craigslist who was renting out a furnished room with a walk-in closet and a full, private bath. It was close to where Frank's hospital is, and it wasn't that much further from our church. The guy even told us about how much he wanted this place to be a blessing to someone who needed the help. It's a fully furnished apartment in a really nice gated complex. He worked night shift Monday through Friday, and then on his weekends he supposedly was out in Garland, TX to spend time with his girlfriend. It seemed too good to be true. It would cost us almost $1000 less per month than we were spending at that point, living in the hotel. We had a washer and dryer to use, free internet, and complete access to a fully furnished kitchen (which meant I could cook again!). He told us about the church he attended and asked if we were Christians, saying that was very important to him (that whomever move in be Christians as well). Well, we agreed it seemed to be a great match and we left him some personal and professional references and the check for first month's rent. Well, I will say, moving in with him has definitely given me plenty of analogies to pull from, if I ever get back to youth ministry (currently our church does their youth meetings on Sunday mornings, which is when I'm in children's.... so I had to make a choice, and children's seemed to be the place God has me now). For instance, you know how Satan tries to make sin look fun and enticing? Like, it's all shiny looking and new and like nothing could go wrong? That was what this apartment was like! We started moving in and slowly, piece by piece, we found more and more wrong with it. First, the refrigerator was full of spoiled foods, and something that had turned mushy and hairy in the crisper draws. I won't even begin to describe the smell.... Let's just leave it at "it was bad". Then getting into the pantry, again.... all the foods were past their expiration date. I think the most recent date I came across (in both the pantry and the fridge) was something from Jan of 2012. Like I said. BAD. "Ok", I thought, "No worries. I can clean this out." We continue unloading into our room. Thankfully, the bed in there was a queen size, which is all we've ever slept on, so our sheets would fit just fine. So I start changing sheets. There is this white powdery junk that is coating the mattress. I mean, like, it just "poofed" into the air when I pulled the mattress off, and it Would. Not. Go. Away. So I pull out my trusty Kenmore vacuum cleaner and start vacuuming the mattress. Guess what! Apparently there were all kinds of body fluids that had been expelled onto the mattress. I can only pray it was only urine. (I know his son lived with him for 5 years, but when he moved in he was already 9...... seriously!?) So I flipped the mattress and put our cover on it, praying God would just make it go away. We finish unloading and getting settled in the room, then finally brave the staircase again (Oh yeah, this is a 3rd floor apartment, with no elevator. SUCH FUN! *sarcasm*) to go grocery shopping. My wonderful husband has decided he wants to make his infamous chicken-bacon-pasta (oh yes, the reason we have no utilities at all is because we arranged with our roommate to leave him a plate of food every time we cook a meal, and that I would take care of the household chores in the common area), because he thinks it'll impress our roommate..... and because he wanted to eat it himself. So we gather all the ingredients and make our way back up the daunting staircase. Frank begins cooking while I'm in the bedroom continuing to try and make it "ours" now. I start smelling something.... not normal, and as I come our of our bedroom and make my way to the kitchen, I hear my handsome husband going "Um.... Umm... UMMMM..... I don't think this is right!" Sure enough, there was smoke billowing out from under the pot he had set to boil the pasta. So I told him to move it off the eye, thinking maybe there was something stuck on the bottom of the pot. Hah, nope. As soon as he lifted the pot, flames start leaping up from the eye. Frank starts freaking out and trying to figure out what to do with it. He thinks we should smother it, which sounds like a great plan..... but we don't have any metal pots except the one he was holding, and all our lids are glass (what happens when glass meets flame? Yeah, like we need glass to explode over top the flames... Sheesh). So I begin to open the cabinets, looking to see if our roommate maybe had a metal pot or lid we could use. No sooner do I put my hands on the knobs than I realize this will not work out well. Everything was coated in a film of grease. Yeah, lets add a grease covered item to the flames. THAT'S gonna work out well. So. I blow the stupid flames out. Yup. I almost hyperventilated, but I blew those suckers out. So then we start looking. Hah, guess what? Our roommate apparently has no idea what it means to clean..... at all! The reason the stupid thing caught fire in the first place? There was about an inch thick layer of grease on the drip pan under the electric coil. So we let it cool down, and Frank lifted it out to try and wash it so we could at least finish cooking. When he did..... I almost cried. That area underneath the stovetop but on top of the oven? There was at least two inches of grease and something else that looked just nasty swimming under there. So before we could cook anything else (minus that dinner.... we were too tired to try and do anything else but finish the dinner plans), I was going to have to scrub the kitchen down. So that's what I did. The next day I hit Target. I invested in at least 2 sets of rubber gloves that would go up to my elbow, about 9 sponges and scrubbing pads, a dust pan (to help scoop all that junk out of the oven... cause yeah, it was bad too) and multiple de-greasers and cleaners. Took me two days, but finally we had a livable house. So. I start in on the laundry. I cannot for the life of me figure out why nothing will dry in the dryer. So I get the bright idea to check the lint filter. I had to pry that puppy out of its hole with a butter knife, because of how thick its lint was layered. I clean it off and whaddya know? The dryer dries! So then I think to myself "Self, we had better check the a/c unit's filter... likely that hasn't been checked either." Sure enough, it was NASTY. So off I go to find a place to get one to fit this very specific hole in our apartment (later I discovered the maintenance people are supposed to do that.... because they left a note on our door apologizing for how late they were with coming around to change it. Apparently they were short staffed, and were about two months behind in that particular chore. Well, I waited around the whole day they were supposed to come change it so I could tell them I had already done it and to please leave that filter alone... and they still never showed up. So whatever.) and then bring it home, douse it generally in some essential oils and put it in. That night, we try to sleep and it would NOT cool down.... So I get up to check the unit... Hah, the wall piece's battery was dead. So yeah, we basically completely renovated this place. Frank joked that God sent us to this place because we needed to keep our roommate from setting fire to the entire complex.... only the sad part is, it's probably true!

Anyways, that was the first week. Thank goodness we had a trip planned. The second weekend of October is always the Rice Harvest Festival back home in Katy. I had not been able to attend one since October of 2000, and since I was *this* close, I determined to make my way back there for it. I just couldn't miss another one! So, I talked about how excited I was about it with Shaela while I was over at her place one day and got a brilliant idea! We could leave Friday after her class, and head home Sunday before she had to be at work... why didn't she come too!? So she got excited about it. We planned it all. We would be staying out in Cat Spring with my relatives (some of my favorite relatives, I may add!) and then drive into Katy on Saturday for the festival. Well guess what.... It rained. And not just a little drizzle that we could work through. I'm talking the streets turned into rivers. So, we had speed-walked through most of the festival booths in about 2 hours before the torrential rains began, so we caught the shuttle back over to Katy Mills Mall and decided to eat lunch there in the food court and then walk around the mall for a bit, and see if maybe the rain would go away and we could head back. I think Shaela was in like, shopper heaven. Or maybe that was more like shopper shock... not sure. She was just in awe at how big the mall really was. So after the mall, we decided to show Shay our favorite bookstore.... Katy Budget Books. I think she was a little skeptical of it when we told her it was literally just floor to ceiling, rows and rows of books. Hah, yeah no. We walked in the doors, I heard this small gasp, and then like a flash, she was gone. Took me about 45 minutes to find her again! We weren't joking. It's a book worms haven, for sure. So we hung out there and got a few books, and then were kicked out... They were ready to close, haha. So we enjoyed our jaunt over to Katy, and I had such fun driving around my old hometown and getting to show it off to Shaela .... "This is the road named after my family... this is the park where I had my 5th birthday party at.... that's the fire-station my father used to volunteer with, and they let me have my 4th birthday there and get rides on the trucks and ambulances... that's the house that my family built by hand, over many years and with many prayers.... That's the old church we used to attend..." and on and on and on. I'm pretty sure she was ready for me to shut up by the time we left Katy, but I was just in hog-heaven. So that Sunday we headed back to Dallas/Ft. Worth, and were all pumped and ready for the week to get going. See, that was the 13th... Shaela's birthday was the 17th... and her sister Ali and Ali's boyfriend Daniel were scheduled to fly in for an extended weekend trip. I don't know if I've mentioned Ali and Dan before... but Ali has been like a sister to me for ages now, just like Shaela, and it'd been about 3 months since I'd gotten to really spend any time with her, and it'd been even longer since we'd seen Daniel. Frank always wanted a little sister, and yes, in marrying me, he got three... but in reality, he got more like 5, because he also got Ali and Shaela. He's become so overprotective of those two, it's not even funny. I'm pretty sure he'd walk through fire for those girlies. Anyways, he's also become attached to Daniel. And now that Ali and Dan have been together for almost 18 months, you almost can't even mention one without the other. It's not "if" they'll get married, it's "when" now. I think we've all accepted it (well, except for maybe her daddy... lol). So anyways, Frank and Dan have this great "brother" relationship thing going. Frank just absolutely loves to spend time with those two. So we were just giddy with excitement to see them (even though they really were just coming to Shaela, not us lol). So Thursday we picked up Shaela and headed to DFW airport to wait on them to come in. After much hugging and jumping up and down, we collected the single suitcase they checked and then hit the road. Ali was insistent that we find a place to take pictures, so we narrowed down that she wanted some done outside. I googled for parks in the area, and we headed off. Apparently Google doesn't understand what "parks" is supposed to reference. We ended up in the middle of some office buildings. Well, we can always make do with what we got, and there was a lovely field with a single picnic table across the street from the buildings (I seriously hope that's not what they meant as "parks" with Google.. that's just wrong). So we piled out of our van and began the half-hour photo session. Then we narrowed down where we wanted to go for dinner and headed out to Mi Cocina, a really classy Tex-Mex place. It was REALLY good, and surprise! it happened to be in the center of this outdoor mall. So after stuffing ourselves, we walked around this mall and into shops and got coffee (where I apparently ruined their fun and got in trouble by correcting the barrista when he called out their "names"... cause the girls had decided to give him fake names.. unbeknownst to me!) and then headed waaaaaaay across the way to Charming Charlies. We had fun hanging out and making the guys pick one piece of jewelry they thought their ladies would like, and then seeing if their choice went over well or not. Then we traipsed across the now-dark parking lot back to our car and headed back to Shaela's apartment for a movie. The next day, Frank and I got to hang out with Ali and DanDan while Shay had class, and then we headed back to our place that evening when the three of them got ready for dinner and their water gardens trip. Frank had to say goodbye that night when we left, because he had to work Saturday and Sunday, so he wouldn't see them again before they left. On the way home, he was very quiet and I'm pretty sure there was at least one tear. He even said (very softly and sadly) "I'm gonna miss them again." But Saturday I headed over to Shaela's, made a big 'ol breakfast for everyone (fruit, bacon, French toast, and my "special coffee" for Ali) and then we headed out to the Dallas Arboretum for some fun and lots of walking. (Dan is a horticulture guy.... so anything with plants and flowers is right up his alley!) We had fun walking around and taking pictures and seeing all the pumpkins (something like 50,000 pumpkins were on display there for fall). We also were enjoying the weather. I think DFW knew we had outdoor plans that weekend and decided to put her best food forward for us with some beautiful low 60 temps and a nice breeze (in reality, God was just holding up His end of the bargain with Ali... she has Him on speeddial when it comes to weather requests lol!). Then for "lunch" (which was really more like dinner, by nearly 5) we headed over to the food trucks in Ft. Worth and everyone got something different, and we sat and talked. Then I had to say goodbye and head back to Dallas area so I could pick up Frank from work.

Then, the following Thursday the 24th, I got invited by Shaela to come attend her school's chapel service, because the Duggar family (of 19 Kids and Counting) would be there speaking and signing autographs. I was so excited, I couldn't stop smiling! I love their family, and have for years. They're an amazing example of homeschooling, large families.... I just love everything they represent. Anyways, I enjoyed their singing and recitations. At one point, I was just in tears... And it wasn't the point when everyone else was. I started crying while they were reciting the "Armor of God" passage together. Why? Because I missed my family so much, and because their family made me realize how much I missed them and how lonely I felt. So, all 18 of their kids are lined up on the stage and reciting the Armor of God passage and the rest of the audience is clapping and smiling.... and there I sit, just sobbing. I'm pretty sure people thought I was pretty crazy. Oh well. Anyways, I bought one of their books and got them all to autograph it and got the chance to talk with them all. I had such a fun time!!

The rest of October passed without much fanfare. We lost power here in the apartment for almost an entire day.... Never did find out why. We discovered our roommate doesn't really spend all his weekends with his girlfriend.... And that he doesn't just have a girlfriend.... he really has 4 different girls that he filters through. He also smokes inside, which he swore he didn't do. And also, he got swapped to dayshift on his job... So it's been interesting getting adjusted to all of that. Anyways. That's it. All of our October adventures. Maybe sometime tomorrow (or heck, if I'm bored, maybe later today!) I'll get the first part of November up. If I start posting more often, the posts should be much shorter!

Well, have a great day!! :)

An even LONGER time in coming: August/September, part 2

Wow, ok. I procrastinated this. Now here it is, November 1st, and I'm only finally going to finish the "story" of our August/September. I guess the best way is going to be to try and summarize everything. It'll give you the general idea and update you (for anyone who actually even reads this) on what's going on with us.

Ok, so to wrap up that weekend in August. We helped settle Shaela into her apartment that weekend, the 16th and 17th of August. We took her, her dad Jack and her mom Traci to dinner and introduced them to Chuey's (you're welcome guys, haha) and then had fun wandering around Target searching for the items on Shaela's list to get her apartment livable.. and I discovered then that I would be spending many more days with Shaela helping her to "learn" how to shop; meaning I pointed out things like "acetaminophen" IS Tylenol, and its got twice as much as the "Tylenol" brand for $1 less, or that Target brand laundry detergent smells the same as the other stuff and is a couple dollars cheaper. I got a kick out of her initial reactions.... and then I felt a surge of pride when I followed her down the cereal aisle and she grabbed a Market Pantry (Target) brand of cereal instead of the Post brand. Anyways, we did what we could over those couple of days to help her feel settled and help her folks feel better about leaving their baby in a strange new place, over 700 miles from home. So August wrapped up with Frank working the last of his night shifts. The last week of August, we quietly headed out from Dallas to go Pensacola. Unbeknownst to one of my best friends, Angela, I had been assisting another friend of ours with planning a surprise birthday party for her. This was to be the first birthday without her mom here to celebrate with her, and she was feeling very disheartened and sad about that. So to cheer her up, we started the idea about the party. It worked out, because it was the tail end of Frank's day shifts, so we could drive out there and spend the time on days doing things, and then drive back and just STAY on days (finally!). So we went and stayed at Hotel Royalpappa in Pensacola and had the chance to visit with everyone. That Saturday, August 31st, was the surprise party. We managed to make it all work! Bill (Angela's husband) took her out for what looked like an early anniversary day of thrift store shopping. We were hosting the party at their church's fellowship hall, and Heidi and her crew got there mid morning to get things set up. I picked up the sub sandwiches we were using from WalMart, then rushed over to Angela's house to get her crew of 7. See, we knew it was likely she'd see all the cars (not alot of places to hide them all!) and figure out that SOMETHING was going on.... but I wanted to keep my presence there a surprise until the very end (I know, I'm sneaky). So I had to make sure my van wouldn't be at the church, so she couldn't catch a glimpse of it. So I arranged with Bill to let their oldest daughter in on what was going on, and work out for him to leave the keys to their 15 passenger van, and I would go over, take all of them in their van and head to the church. So sure enough, we get there, get everything set up, people show up, cars are hidden, and suddenly some little one (honestly not sure who) shouted "They're coming!" so we all quieted down as they parked and came in. As I suspected, Angela saw someone's car as they were parking, so she was already a little aware and opened the door with a smile, braced for the big "SURPRISE!" we all shouted. I was standing off to the side and waiting.... I still wanted it to be a surprise! So comes into the doorway and it happens... she saw Frank (who was standing more in the middle of the crowd with my phone, which was acting as our camera), so she started looking for me. Angela and I have been through an AWFUL lot together. She's as close to me as any of my real sisters could be. Before we moved, I spent probably 2-3 days a week doing things with her. So since the end of May, I had seen her twice. As soon as she found me and we made eye contact, it was all over. She was crying, I was crying.... We just hugged and cried. And then I got a smack for not telling her I was coming to town. (See? Sisters.) So we enjoyed our visit and spent Sunday with my brother and his wife, and then with the Royappa's on Monday where Frank got to spend some time playing a few tabletop games... and managed to keep us in Pensacola til nearly 7 that evening. So we made about half the trip.. Drove about 5 hours out of the 10, stopping right on the border of Mississippi to get a hotel and sleep for a few hours. As we drove out of Pensacola, I cried for probably 3 hours. I was emotional for various reasons, but the biggest was that I had lost the feeling of "home" that Pensacola had once had. I suddenly had ZERO attachments. Oh yes, there were tons of friends and people that are "like-family" there. But my HOME was gone. Even when we'd lived in our own place, my parents place was our "home", even to Frank. It held all our "home" memories with each other. And that place now sat empty. My big-little brothers weren't there to ask us to get sushi or play disc golf. My sisters weren't around to talk with or play cards with. My parents weren't there... no one was cooking in mom's kitchen. I had NO HOME. The enormity of that hit me. Right now, I still don't have a "home". But I've dealt with it better than I was dealing that night. I mean, I was "ugly crying". I think Frank was scared for me, honestly. Well we finally made it back to Dallas, to the hotel. We unpacked and we just relaxed, for the next day we'd be back to regular life.

So September! Frank is on dayshift, and I spend about one day a week out in Ft. Worth with Shaela. Then the second weekend of September, I managed to come down with the flu! Loads of fun. A fever that (I will neither confirm nor deny) may have been over 103. Upset stomach. Violent shakes. Nightmares when I could finally sleep. I had the works. And I was stuck in a hotel while Frank had to work. I was blessed enough that one of the front desk guys took pity on me. He used his own money to buy me a couple 20 oz Sprites from the vending machine and brought them to me. I of course paid him back. But the fact that he helped me out when I felt like I had no one was so awesome. Then after I picked up Frank from work that night (one car... I still had to do my wifely work), he went to Walmart and grabbed some applesauce, some sprite, the makings for chicken and dumplings, and some brothy soup. I was set for the next few days. I had to cancel my nursery shift that Sunday, and I agonized over it. I hated cancelling like that, and was so worried they'd think me a flake and kick me out of nursery (they didn't). Well, I managed that Sunday evening to make the chicken and dumplings. It took about three times as long as it normally does, because I kept having to go sit down, but I made it! I ended up missing the very first day of the women's Bible study I had joined at our church, because Monday afternoon I was still running a fever. I couldn't risk getting any of our ladies sick! (Side note, if you ever have a chance to do a Lisa Harper study, do it. If you get a chance to do her Malachi study, JUMP FOR JOY.) Anyways, I finally got better and was back to normal. The rest of September passed uneventfully for the most part. Car broke down and got fixed again, and we obtained our Texas residency. Then we started working hard with our budget, and decided to try and cut down our biggest expense: RENT. So to craigslist we went! We were unable to afford a short-term lease place, those cost more than the $1600 the extended stay place was costing. Plus we needed something furnished, since we own NOTHING. So we were looking for, ideally, a person with a house that needed someone to help supplement bills. We were praying for an older person, maybe someone who could use help around the house and with cooking and such, since I'm home most days. Well, we found a place. It's an apartment, and its not an older person. It's a middle-aged divorced guy, who'd had his teen son living with him until recently, so he had a fully furnished bedroom with a private bath and walk-in closet. Downfall?? It's on the 3rd floor, and there's no elevator. *sigh* Well, that SEEMED like the only downfall at the time. We moved in on September 30th, and started to get settled (btw, its saving us nearly $1000/month). That evening we were making dinner. Frank set the stove on fire! Not on purpose, and not through any fault of his. The stove top was FILTHY.. the drip pan under the electric eye was caked with grease and dried food droppings, and it caught fire when he turned the eye on "high". So we took it out to clean it off. The underneath of the stove top (you know, the place where you can normally lift up and clean out when you spill stuff?) was full of about an inch and a half thick layer of....... I honestly don't know what. It was black. Smelled funny. Looked like a lard or jelly kind of consistency. My heart sank. This was what was under the "looks like a great place" exterior.... what else would we find?? Well, over the next two days, we discovered the A/C unit needed a new filter, the floors needed vacuuming, the entire stove and oven combo needed a thorough cleaning (took me 2 days, a half can of that EZ oven off stuff, two pairs of rubber gloves, 2 4-packs of scrubbing pads, and LOTS of soap, hot water and degreasing spray), the cabinets needed cleaning, fridge needed cleaning and emptying (food that was 3 years old still in use), pantry needed to be gone through for expired items (in other words, everything needed to go into a trash bag), and the lint filter of the dryer had to be pried out of its hole and the 3-inch layer of lint needed to be cleaned. I felt so overwhelmed and like we had made the biggest mistake possible. But after the first week was up, it seemed to be ok. We have since discovered a few things that are mildly disturbing, but I'll save that for later.

Alright. Now we're at least caught up and all I have is October to talk about! So. I will hopefully get that up before the next month is up, and then we'll be all caught up! :) If you took the time to read all of this, I hope you enjoy keeping up with my life! And maybe reading about my life will help you remember to keep me in your prayers too. I promise I need them!!

Blessings to you and yours!