Yesterday at church our pastor gave an excellent sermon. It was part of a series called Thrive and this week's focus was on kindness. Now I don't think I've suffered from the delusion that I'm a kind person in general. Sure, if I saw a person on the side of the road (good samaritan) I'd stop to help them if my kids weren't in the car. Probably. I'd at least call for help. But I wouldn't pay their way. Don't get me wrong, I am ridiculously empathetic (it's kind of a problem) and loving to the extreme, and I'm kind to those I love. But being kind to maybe 40 people out of 6 billion doesn't a kind person make. You would have to listen to the sermon here to really understand the rest of my reflections.
Kurt described 3 types of people: takers, keepers, and traders. I am definitely the first two. As far as being a trader, I don't think so. For those loved ones, I am unfailingly kind. And I don't keep score or expect a fair trade. I just expect love in return. Now this is the shade of gray. On one of those rare occurances when I do need that person to be there for me in some way, if they aren't, I cut them off. It's a defense mechanism learned after years of being taken advantage of. Part of me thinks I should try to change this. But the larger part admits that it has weeded out a lot of people who didn't really care for me as I'd thought they did.
It's not something I have really ever focused on or acknowledged, but I do want to be more kind. I've already added "Learning to Forgive" to my running list of New Years Resolutions for 2012. Why not now? A) I've got too many things on my plate and this is going to require a lot from me. B) I'm the kind of person that needs a blank page to start fresh if you know what I mean. It may only be psychological. I'm aware of that. That's just how I am.
I think that God has acknowledged this desire in me because I've seen some recent subtle changes that I wasn't even aware of until this sermon. On a side note, I have to say that I'm so thankful that He's always watching and paying attention and sometimes, shouldering the responsibility of difficult changes that I want to see in myself. But back to the sermon and it's effect on me. Kurt spoke about how you can tell if you're a kind person by how you use your resources: your time and your money. This is an excellent yard stick because that's what we value most. and you have to give both. Not just one. Many people have an excess of money, and they give it without a second thought, but they can't be bothered to give their time to those who need it. However, this is also why I've felt guilty- I don't have much of either of those things. But God spoke to my heart during the sermon and pointed out that "resources" are not limited to those two alone. When I have excess of either, of course I should give. But for now, I have other resources I can give.
For example, our new place is rather different from our last. Because it is so much smaller, there's a lot of stuff leftover. I've held on to baby clothes, maternity clothes, clothes I've outgrown, etc for years and years with the intention of eventually selling them or reusing them. This is just silly for a number of reasons: I'm not having any more kids, if I've listed them on ebay once and they haven't sold, it's really not worth housing them from years while I waste time and energy trying to relist them, many of these things were given to me to begin with! So I'm making my peace with it. So far, it's going really well. I feel a lot lighter.
Monday, June 6, 2011
Friday, June 3, 2011
Fresh start
So! After the last post, we went to look at apartments. Let me say, and this is a compliment, the first was a hole. The woman who showed it, showed up about 15 minutes late and we had to look at it with another couple, because she had left them waiting for over a half hour before us. If you are ever in a position to rent a place out, just know that the prospective tenants pay attention to your tardiness. Aside from being unprofessional, it shows them the kind of attention and care they will receive while living there. I know this seems hyprocritical because I am the queen of running late, but I would never be late for an interview and I am almost never late for work. Doctor's appointments? Yeah, my kids are unpredictable and they can sense my weaknesses. If I'm wearing my last clean pair of jeans, they just know, and find a way to destroy them as we're walking out the door. Lunch with my friends? You bet. I hate waiting by myself. Anywhere I go with my husband? Yes, because he's actually worse than I am at being punctual. But for a meeting to possibly enter into a rental agreement with an individual? Definitely not. And she didn't bother to vaccuum. It didn't go well. That place was rather disgusting and kind of falling apart. But I actually considered it. It was expensive too, but I was willing to make anything work and it just didn't look like we had any other options.
We only had one other apartment set up to look at. I scheduled it on a hunch; it had almost no information listed, and only had one photo of the outside posted with it. But it looked very similar to an aquaintance's apartment and I thought the inside of their place was beautiful so we decided to check it out.
I kind of feel like these two places were a perfect parallel for my life: One is what I try to force to work, but it's a crushing black hole. It never lives up to my standards. I enter holding my breath and leave gasping for air. The other is what God graces me with. I don't deserve it. It's always better than I'd expected, better than I could have hoped for. It's always perfect. And it's always temporary. I think the biggest mistake I've made in accepting God's blessings is that I somehow feel like they're mine to keep. But they're not something I can acquire. This used to be so frustrating and, sometimes, devastating to me. But I have learned a lot of hard lessons these last 6 months, all of them reluctantly. The most important one is that all of the temporary gifts and hardships are a purposeful contrast to Him who is never temporary. I may not get to keep the things I love the most or the things that I feel like I've worked hard to earn, but I get to keep the one thing I could never deserve. Learning to rely on Him has been an incredibly humbling and beautiful experience. It's one I will probably have to work at for the entirety of my life, but that's okay. It's a lesson worth the effort of learning.
For those of you who don't know, we checked out the small but clean and maintained apartment and signed the lease almost on the spot. It's about half the size of our last place, has required a lot of money (rent, deposits upfront, ac unit, closets, more utilities than we're used to paying, carpeting, etc) invested in it, and has not been entirely smooth sailing, but it's home. For now. :]
I feel so blessed.
We only had one other apartment set up to look at. I scheduled it on a hunch; it had almost no information listed, and only had one photo of the outside posted with it. But it looked very similar to an aquaintance's apartment and I thought the inside of their place was beautiful so we decided to check it out.
I kind of feel like these two places were a perfect parallel for my life: One is what I try to force to work, but it's a crushing black hole. It never lives up to my standards. I enter holding my breath and leave gasping for air. The other is what God graces me with. I don't deserve it. It's always better than I'd expected, better than I could have hoped for. It's always perfect. And it's always temporary. I think the biggest mistake I've made in accepting God's blessings is that I somehow feel like they're mine to keep. But they're not something I can acquire. This used to be so frustrating and, sometimes, devastating to me. But I have learned a lot of hard lessons these last 6 months, all of them reluctantly. The most important one is that all of the temporary gifts and hardships are a purposeful contrast to Him who is never temporary. I may not get to keep the things I love the most or the things that I feel like I've worked hard to earn, but I get to keep the one thing I could never deserve. Learning to rely on Him has been an incredibly humbling and beautiful experience. It's one I will probably have to work at for the entirety of my life, but that's okay. It's a lesson worth the effort of learning.
For those of you who don't know, we checked out the small but clean and maintained apartment and signed the lease almost on the spot. It's about half the size of our last place, has required a lot of money (rent, deposits upfront, ac unit, closets, more utilities than we're used to paying, carpeting, etc) invested in it, and has not been entirely smooth sailing, but it's home. For now. :]
I feel so blessed.
Saturday, May 14, 2011
The Home Front
So we have been looking at apartments, condos, and houses for months and months now- about a year actually. After the last fiasco didn't work out, Jon and I decided to rearrange some of our plans and priorities. We're going to hold off on trying to own a home right now. We have gone back and forth over whether or not we were willing to relocate and whether or not Jon's masters would take priority over him trying to find a good full time job. If there is one thing I can be greatful for this semester it is that it really helped us prioritize our goals and figure out what we're willing to sacrifice and what we're willing to wait for.
I can't tell you how many times I've reduced what I wanted and expected in terms of what our home would be and the lesson I learned is that as long as we're safe and together, we can make our home comfortable, happy and stressfree (or as little as possible)!
As far as location, initially we intended to move from Cranberry back to Wexford, due largely to the fact that almost everything in our lives is here (my school, my work, the girls preschool, our church, and most of our family), as well as the belief that those 20 minutes would bring our family over more often. Now we know that it wasn't the distance, but everyone's lifestyles that kept them at bay. So we're not letting that weigh too heavily on the location decision.
I spent the better part of today researching apartment complexes. I am now of the opinion that good quality, fairly priced, clean, updated, safe apartments are not a reality. And no one will take a family with 3 cats. Currently, we have some appointments set up for next week to look at places to rent in Bellevue. Jon and I both have some friends in the area who love it there, its only 20 minutes away from wexford, and it's closer to the better Target (that is important). Here's to hoping it goes well and we find one we love!
I can't tell you how many times I've reduced what I wanted and expected in terms of what our home would be and the lesson I learned is that as long as we're safe and together, we can make our home comfortable, happy and stressfree (or as little as possible)!
As far as location, initially we intended to move from Cranberry back to Wexford, due largely to the fact that almost everything in our lives is here (my school, my work, the girls preschool, our church, and most of our family), as well as the belief that those 20 minutes would bring our family over more often. Now we know that it wasn't the distance, but everyone's lifestyles that kept them at bay. So we're not letting that weigh too heavily on the location decision.
I spent the better part of today researching apartment complexes. I am now of the opinion that good quality, fairly priced, clean, updated, safe apartments are not a reality. And no one will take a family with 3 cats. Currently, we have some appointments set up for next week to look at places to rent in Bellevue. Jon and I both have some friends in the area who love it there, its only 20 minutes away from wexford, and it's closer to the better Target (that is important). Here's to hoping it goes well and we find one we love!
Saturday, May 7, 2011
in a nut shell
Sorry seems to be the recurring theme to this blog this semester. I am sorry. I have actually been done with classwork since about April 25th, thanks to having to work six straight days to cover Erica's vacation at work, with the exception of one class. It was great to get ahead for once, but that one class was hanging over my head until today May 6th when the final was supposed to become available. I'm actually killing time right now, waiting until after midnight before I give up hope. This will definitely throw a wrench in my plans.
Things, of course, have been crazy chaotic. Not in a good way. It seems like I never leave work, which is pretty acurate. In April, Jon and I went on vacation to Washington DC (I'd never been) for long weekend. That was wonderful. The best part was being able to sleep in a bed, without two kids kicking me all night, uninterrupted by anyone crying, talking in their sleep, alarms, dogs barking or anyone falling out of the bed. All of these things occur every single night. I don't want to talk about it.
Almost immediately after we got back, I found out my Great Grandmother had just been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, on top of congestive heart failure. It only takes one family crisis to highlight just how much the communication sucks. Anyway, we went down to South Carolina to see her, the next weekend. This was the most disasterous trip. Our trip was delayed and we wound up driving through Virginia and North Carolina as 87 tornado touchdowns hit. We drove through two personally, which caused us to hydroplane off the road and almost into a tree. It was confusing, scary and memorable for sure. More on that another day. I had intended to see Grandma for 3 days. It was cut down to one short afternoon.
On the way back, I fell asleep and Jon got pulled over for speeding. The absurdity of this is that I could not get him to drive faster than 65 mph on the roughly 19 hour drive down (yes it took us that long) to SC. Did you know that driving 20 mph over the speedlimit or over 80 mph ANYWHERE in VA is considered reckless driving and is therefore a Criminal Offense? We didn't either. It's new. So we are now trying to hire a lawyer to fight his case at his court hearing to avoid having a permanent criminal record. Court date is May 19. I'd appreciate all the prayers you can spare. I am officially blacklisting Virginia from my map of places (states first!) to see in my lifetime. Forty-nine may not flow off the tongue as nicely as 50, but then neither does a criminal record. You're dead to me, Virginia.
Once we got back, I worked the next six days straight over Easter weekend. I got caught up in my classes, got ahead even. Then, a couple of days later, I found out on Facebook no less, that my Great Grandmother had passed away the morning before. It came as a shock to probably no one but myself; I saw firsthand how badly she was doing. but it was still surreal.
The funeral was a few days ago- Thursday.
I will try to write again soon, better, more in-depth entries about each of these experiences, but it might be awhile. Jon still has classes until May 18, so he is desperately trying to find time to get caught up. We are trying to figure out where we will be moving to come June 1st. I work 5 days straight, starting Thursday, so that I can have the following weekend (May 20) off for Lorelai's second eye surgery. I really don't have any details on that yet. Hopefully, she will be mostly recovered by the Monday or Tuesday. More soon.
I'm holding on rather tightly to hope and optimism, though to be frank, this year has sucked so far. A recent bright spot is that Osama bin Laden was finally taken down, so there is a little less horror and evil in this world. I have never been more appreciative that God demands justice. Amen!
Things, of course, have been crazy chaotic. Not in a good way. It seems like I never leave work, which is pretty acurate. In April, Jon and I went on vacation to Washington DC (I'd never been) for long weekend. That was wonderful. The best part was being able to sleep in a bed, without two kids kicking me all night, uninterrupted by anyone crying, talking in their sleep, alarms, dogs barking or anyone falling out of the bed. All of these things occur every single night. I don't want to talk about it.
Almost immediately after we got back, I found out my Great Grandmother had just been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, on top of congestive heart failure. It only takes one family crisis to highlight just how much the communication sucks. Anyway, we went down to South Carolina to see her, the next weekend. This was the most disasterous trip. Our trip was delayed and we wound up driving through Virginia and North Carolina as 87 tornado touchdowns hit. We drove through two personally, which caused us to hydroplane off the road and almost into a tree. It was confusing, scary and memorable for sure. More on that another day. I had intended to see Grandma for 3 days. It was cut down to one short afternoon.
On the way back, I fell asleep and Jon got pulled over for speeding. The absurdity of this is that I could not get him to drive faster than 65 mph on the roughly 19 hour drive down (yes it took us that long) to SC. Did you know that driving 20 mph over the speedlimit or over 80 mph ANYWHERE in VA is considered reckless driving and is therefore a Criminal Offense? We didn't either. It's new. So we are now trying to hire a lawyer to fight his case at his court hearing to avoid having a permanent criminal record. Court date is May 19. I'd appreciate all the prayers you can spare. I am officially blacklisting Virginia from my map of places (states first!) to see in my lifetime. Forty-nine may not flow off the tongue as nicely as 50, but then neither does a criminal record. You're dead to me, Virginia.
Once we got back, I worked the next six days straight over Easter weekend. I got caught up in my classes, got ahead even. Then, a couple of days later, I found out on Facebook no less, that my Great Grandmother had passed away the morning before. It came as a shock to probably no one but myself; I saw firsthand how badly she was doing. but it was still surreal.
The funeral was a few days ago- Thursday.
I will try to write again soon, better, more in-depth entries about each of these experiences, but it might be awhile. Jon still has classes until May 18, so he is desperately trying to find time to get caught up. We are trying to figure out where we will be moving to come June 1st. I work 5 days straight, starting Thursday, so that I can have the following weekend (May 20) off for Lorelai's second eye surgery. I really don't have any details on that yet. Hopefully, she will be mostly recovered by the Monday or Tuesday. More soon.
I'm holding on rather tightly to hope and optimism, though to be frank, this year has sucked so far. A recent bright spot is that Osama bin Laden was finally taken down, so there is a little less horror and evil in this world. I have never been more appreciative that God demands justice. Amen!
Monday, March 28, 2011
a quick update
A lot has happened in the last couple months since I last wrote! I'm sorry I haven't been keeping up with this- I've rarely had a free moment and when I stole one or two, this was the farthest thing from my mind. In 5 more weeks Jon and I will both be done with this semester and that should no longer be a problem. In the meantime, I'm going to work on trying to post updates, even if they more closely resemble twitter updates.
Since the end of January:
* We moved out of our townhome officially. It was really unemotional; Jon finished cleaning/packing the last two nights, so I didn't even say goodbye and the girls didn't care- they were too excited about living with grandma. We have driven over to the leasing office one time a couple of weeks ago and the girls didn't even recognize the place (they used to know Freedom and Haine School Road when we made our turns)!
* We had a fun debate with the leasing office as they tried to nickel and dime us over every thing possible and imagined. We are still in negotiations and we're currently on a payment plan. Fun. It left such a bitter taste that it has completely turned me off of renting, oh, for forever.
* Jon and I both have been spending a TON of time in class, studying, at church, doing bible study/CLC and at work.
* My bible study ends in two weeks, which is pretty bittersweet for me- I really need the extra time, but it was the one thing that I did for me and really helped focus my priorities when I felt overwhelmed.
*Jon and I managed to have a few dates! We've gone bowling and out to dinner twice! This may not seem like anything special, but we hadn't had a date in over 6 months, and considering our time restraints, this was major!
* We came very close to buying an auction property. It was a cute little house that would have required some work and upkeep, but we were getting it at a steal. The auction fell through at the last minute because it was so restricted that we essentially had to buy the home with cash. So we backed out. I was pretty upset about it for awhile, but I'm over it now. God provides, and it seems like he has some really exciting things in line for us (sorry for being cryptic, but I don't want to get attached to anything until things are cemented).
*I've had a ton of work drama for the last couple of months, which has really been consuming me. It's not been good. It's led me to the decision that I need a new hobby. Something else I can devote my time to that is positive and so I won't feel like my job and its issues own me. I'm looking for something silly or light starting as soon as this semester ends, and I'm taking suggestions!
That's about it for now, plus I'm way out of time.
Lots of Love!
Since the end of January:
* We moved out of our townhome officially. It was really unemotional; Jon finished cleaning/packing the last two nights, so I didn't even say goodbye and the girls didn't care- they were too excited about living with grandma. We have driven over to the leasing office one time a couple of weeks ago and the girls didn't even recognize the place (they used to know Freedom and Haine School Road when we made our turns)!
* We had a fun debate with the leasing office as they tried to nickel and dime us over every thing possible and imagined. We are still in negotiations and we're currently on a payment plan. Fun. It left such a bitter taste that it has completely turned me off of renting, oh, for forever.
* Jon and I both have been spending a TON of time in class, studying, at church, doing bible study/CLC and at work.
* My bible study ends in two weeks, which is pretty bittersweet for me- I really need the extra time, but it was the one thing that I did for me and really helped focus my priorities when I felt overwhelmed.
*Jon and I managed to have a few dates! We've gone bowling and out to dinner twice! This may not seem like anything special, but we hadn't had a date in over 6 months, and considering our time restraints, this was major!
* We came very close to buying an auction property. It was a cute little house that would have required some work and upkeep, but we were getting it at a steal. The auction fell through at the last minute because it was so restricted that we essentially had to buy the home with cash. So we backed out. I was pretty upset about it for awhile, but I'm over it now. God provides, and it seems like he has some really exciting things in line for us (sorry for being cryptic, but I don't want to get attached to anything until things are cemented).
*I've had a ton of work drama for the last couple of months, which has really been consuming me. It's not been good. It's led me to the decision that I need a new hobby. Something else I can devote my time to that is positive and so I won't feel like my job and its issues own me. I'm looking for something silly or light starting as soon as this semester ends, and I'm taking suggestions!
That's about it for now, plus I'm way out of time.
Lots of Love!
Saturday, January 29, 2011
One step at a time
So we are just about done with the townhome. It took way more time than we thought it would. I have been driving out there every night after working 12-13 hours and then staying there another 5 to pack and clean. These two weeks have just been the most exhausting. Katie (who was been my cleaning buddy for two straight days) made a good point: whether or not I get everything done that I wanted, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. One I can see. This will end one way or another in a couple of days. But for me, it's ended as of last night! It was 2 am and I ran out of boxes and I'd inhaled so many chemical vapors, that I just called it quits. Jon has taken over as Foreman.
I'm really looking forward to seeing my girls. I miss them like crazy.
Things have jumped into overdrive now that school has picked up again.
Just as I was embracing a shortage of hours this semester so that I could spend more time with my family, school work, and home projects, I find out the shortage is "delayed." I'm expecting that this is going to mean no actual change unless I change it myself. Which I do not anticipate doing any time soon.
It has been wearing us out a bit, and the days are really melting by, but I think I've been doing a pretty good balancing act. I've been keeping up with everything so far. Jon is still trying to get caught up, but in another week or so, we will have hopefully fallen into a good rhythm.
In about 2 weeks, we will be planning Lily's 3rd birthday! I cannot believe my baby girl is already so big. Usually we have a gathering at our place, but in light of everything, I think maybe this year we might consider going some place.
Once 90% of my waking time is free from cleaning/packing I will have more interesting things to share. I promise!
-Lyssa
I'm really looking forward to seeing my girls. I miss them like crazy.
Things have jumped into overdrive now that school has picked up again.
Just as I was embracing a shortage of hours this semester so that I could spend more time with my family, school work, and home projects, I find out the shortage is "delayed." I'm expecting that this is going to mean no actual change unless I change it myself. Which I do not anticipate doing any time soon.
It has been wearing us out a bit, and the days are really melting by, but I think I've been doing a pretty good balancing act. I've been keeping up with everything so far. Jon is still trying to get caught up, but in another week or so, we will have hopefully fallen into a good rhythm.
In about 2 weeks, we will be planning Lily's 3rd birthday! I cannot believe my baby girl is already so big. Usually we have a gathering at our place, but in light of everything, I think maybe this year we might consider going some place.
Once 90% of my waking time is free from cleaning/packing I will have more interesting things to share. I promise!
-Lyssa
Friday, January 21, 2011
pictures!
I promised these awhile ago:
at a birthday party in... october?
making pumpkin rolls with me for thanksgiving
our kitten Turtle (we had her for about a month at this point, so shes 3 and a half months old here)
i love this picture
christmas morning with my parents
I guess I didn't get as good of pictures as I'd thought.
up in Ella's bunk
the two of them together
fluffy squirrely
I dyed my hair red. It's actually really bright. We couldn't get a picture to really capture its essence.
Sisters
Lily smiling next to a present that is almost as big as her.
Hope you're all doing well during this crazy winter season! Fill us in on what's new with you!
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
A blog makes you realize a few things
... like how you seem so busy and yet you can never figure out where the time went!
We've moved in with Jon's mum, as of last night, but still have a lot of work to do before we are moved out of our townhome. It seems like all I do is pack and unpack. I have to admit that I'm happy we skipped at least one set of packing/unpacking by not renting a temporary apartment.
My hours are getting cut for a least a few months at work. I am still trying to figure out if this is a blessing or a curse.
I started my bible study last night! I am super excited that I managed to get Erica to go with me and I feel so happy to be back doing it again. I do not have enough self discipline to keep up with one on my own but I was really craving some more God in my life. I just feel too busy or stressed or distracted most of the time to initiate it on my own. Isn't that ironic?
Of all the resolutions I made for this year and onward, the one I pray sticks the most is for my relationship with Christ to grow. A lot. I want to keep pace with Jon a little better and I want more peace. Something that I feel really pulls me back is that fact that I feel like I have to censor God out of most of my life in daily conversations. I do it to be respectful of other people (aka, being politically correct) or to avoid coming off as pushy/annoying. But more often than not, doing so only makes me feel uncomfortable and lately I've been wondering how many opportunities I've missed. Opportunities to be used for God's purposes and opportunities to make a deeper connection with the people I see every day, as well as new people that pass my way. This nagging feeling grows every day, so I pray that He gives me the courage and strength to change. I think surrounding myself with people I have Christ in common with (Bible Study!!!) is a good well to draw from. I already feel a little revived after just one night!
My classes start in less than a week. I'm happy to be doing that again with my free time instead of watching Teen Mom and playing online poker. While I can't help but enjoy watching to see if any of those girls have had similar experiences or made similar choices, I can't deny that getting my Associate's is a better use of my time.
There was a birth in the family this week! Happy Birthday shoutout to my newest cousin Nathan Joseph Perkins!
I think that's about all for right now. Things will (hopefully) be drastically different in about 2 or 3 weeks, so I'll have more to share then!
-Lyssa
We've moved in with Jon's mum, as of last night, but still have a lot of work to do before we are moved out of our townhome. It seems like all I do is pack and unpack. I have to admit that I'm happy we skipped at least one set of packing/unpacking by not renting a temporary apartment.
My hours are getting cut for a least a few months at work. I am still trying to figure out if this is a blessing or a curse.
I started my bible study last night! I am super excited that I managed to get Erica to go with me and I feel so happy to be back doing it again. I do not have enough self discipline to keep up with one on my own but I was really craving some more God in my life. I just feel too busy or stressed or distracted most of the time to initiate it on my own. Isn't that ironic?
Of all the resolutions I made for this year and onward, the one I pray sticks the most is for my relationship with Christ to grow. A lot. I want to keep pace with Jon a little better and I want more peace. Something that I feel really pulls me back is that fact that I feel like I have to censor God out of most of my life in daily conversations. I do it to be respectful of other people (aka, being politically correct) or to avoid coming off as pushy/annoying. But more often than not, doing so only makes me feel uncomfortable and lately I've been wondering how many opportunities I've missed. Opportunities to be used for God's purposes and opportunities to make a deeper connection with the people I see every day, as well as new people that pass my way. This nagging feeling grows every day, so I pray that He gives me the courage and strength to change. I think surrounding myself with people I have Christ in common with (Bible Study!!!) is a good well to draw from. I already feel a little revived after just one night!
My classes start in less than a week. I'm happy to be doing that again with my free time instead of watching Teen Mom and playing online poker. While I can't help but enjoy watching to see if any of those girls have had similar experiences or made similar choices, I can't deny that getting my Associate's is a better use of my time.
There was a birth in the family this week! Happy Birthday shoutout to my newest cousin Nathan Joseph Perkins!
I think that's about all for right now. Things will (hopefully) be drastically different in about 2 or 3 weeks, so I'll have more to share then!
-Lyssa
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
New Address
Today I went to work getting a PO Box set up for us. We are officially out of our townhome at the end of this month, but we are intending to move out sooner. Where are we going, you ask?
After months of deliberation, tons of phone calls, emails, craiglists searches, open houses, apartment magazines, 2 rejected home offers, and lots of prayer... we are moving in with Jon's mom. We have been struggling with making the right choice for a while now and every time we thought we had it, it was pulled out from under us.
We really feel this is what God wants for us right now for a number of reasons. First, it will keep us from choosing our next home out of desperation. There are not a whole lot of people who want to move in the middle of winter, like us, so the apartments we liked were not going to be available until spring or summer. A home we wanted to look at was actually pulled off the market because the seller wanted to wait until spring. Secondly, this might give Jon an opportunity to increase his class schedule at RPTS. We're not sure yet. Spring semester doesn't start until March for him. Thirdly, Lyssa (and the girls) will get all the benefits of Kristyn's new puppy. Lastly, we are making this choice based on faith. We are waiting on God to make it clear what He wants us to do. There is comfort in knowing we cannot go wrong with that.
I already miss having my own home, as I'm packing everything up and planning how to organize our storage. But on the brightside, I will get to learn a lot of handy DIY and home repair tips with all the upcoming remodeling going on.
Almost all of our belongings are being put into storage. We are really sad to pack up the girls bunk beds and our new furniture. And really nervous, too. We have never used self storage before and reading all the tips is really making me afraid that when we go to move everything out, we're going to find it all ruined with mildew. I'm using every tip I can find to help prevent this, but any firsthand experience would be greatly appreciated!
As I mentioned before, we got a PO Box. This is because we are unsure when we are going to move again and would like to have something steady for friends, family, and bills. Check your email for the new address!
After months of deliberation, tons of phone calls, emails, craiglists searches, open houses, apartment magazines, 2 rejected home offers, and lots of prayer... we are moving in with Jon's mom. We have been struggling with making the right choice for a while now and every time we thought we had it, it was pulled out from under us.
We really feel this is what God wants for us right now for a number of reasons. First, it will keep us from choosing our next home out of desperation. There are not a whole lot of people who want to move in the middle of winter, like us, so the apartments we liked were not going to be available until spring or summer. A home we wanted to look at was actually pulled off the market because the seller wanted to wait until spring. Secondly, this might give Jon an opportunity to increase his class schedule at RPTS. We're not sure yet. Spring semester doesn't start until March for him. Thirdly, Lyssa (and the girls) will get all the benefits of Kristyn's new puppy. Lastly, we are making this choice based on faith. We are waiting on God to make it clear what He wants us to do. There is comfort in knowing we cannot go wrong with that.
I already miss having my own home, as I'm packing everything up and planning how to organize our storage. But on the brightside, I will get to learn a lot of handy DIY and home repair tips with all the upcoming remodeling going on.
Almost all of our belongings are being put into storage. We are really sad to pack up the girls bunk beds and our new furniture. And really nervous, too. We have never used self storage before and reading all the tips is really making me afraid that when we go to move everything out, we're going to find it all ruined with mildew. I'm using every tip I can find to help prevent this, but any firsthand experience would be greatly appreciated!
As I mentioned before, we got a PO Box. This is because we are unsure when we are going to move again and would like to have something steady for friends, family, and bills. Check your email for the new address!
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Promised Pictures
So it's taken a while, but here are the pictures I promised! We have taken a lot recently, but they have mostly been with Jon's camera and neither of us know how to upload pictures from it yet. The quality puts my pictures to shame though, so those will be worth the wait! To tide you over:
Ella with her friend Tayler (they've been friends since they were 18 months)
After the first snow of the season, Jon and Ella made a mini snowman
First night sleeping in big sister's big girl bed
Marking our progress- the Great Box Wall continues to grow and take over the office.
Cookie making party with Katie and Erica
From scratch!
Silly girl 1
And her partner in crime, 2
After the furniture arrived a week late
This is how our living room looked for 4 days (over Christmas) while we moved out the old stuff to make room. Pictures of our bunkbeds and the dining room table all set up, to come!
Taking Christmas pictures
Christmas morning
Tiana footie jammies
Opening presents
Daddy and EllaBelle
Daddy and LilyBug
Marshmallow pops from aunt Kristyn (I managed to get Lor mid bite)
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