An evening like no other

We tried a new church tonight down in Naples.  I'm too tired to say much except that the folks there were like a big family and very welcoming.  The worship was great and we really enjoyed it.  Haven't heard a ram's horn in a while-- it was great to be reminded of what that sounds like. We were recognized as first-time visitors and were given gifts by the pastor-- Brad got a 2002 Bass Pro Shop fishing t-shirt and I got a hot glue gun with glue sticks.  The direct quote was, "Do you do crafts? Well, maybe you should."  The sermon was delivered by a mentee of the pastor's who was in desperate need of some adhd medicine.  The sweet man was terribly well meaning but not so much gifted as a teacher.  Midway through the pastor interrupted him and told him they'd make it a two-week series, so just finish half tonight.

We topped off the evening with dinner at a new Chinese restaurant where the kind server brought out hot towels at the end of the meal.  Now our hands reek of baby powder fragrance and we're a bit sick to our stomachs, despite asking for no MSG.

Truly an evening like no other.

I'm a sickie

After spending most of November through March congested and miserable, I've finally learned the difference between my new allergies and a cold.  Allergies are what cause the seven, eleven, and three-o'clock sneeze fests every day.  Sore throat and general malaise equals cold.  So for the last two days I've hung out on the couch trying to sleep away this cold.  And I think I've nearly won.  Tomorrow morning will tell.

In other news, there really isn't any other news.  We're still looking for jobs.  And that's about it.  Though life is a bit dull right now, I felt compelled to at least say hello to you, dear readers.  My sitemeter says 20 of you visited yesterday and had nothing new to read, and I'm so sorry about that. 

Oh, here's a story for you.  My sister teaches autistic elementary school kids.  Autistic equals "requires creative teaching methods."  Sis is perfect for this, as she's very intuitive and can tell what people need and can minister to them as they need.  One kid in particular is very tactile and his daily earn-able reward is "lotion time."  Last week said kid earned his reward of a dollop of lotion which he spread all over his hands and arms.  After enjoying the feeling he pressed his hands to his face, inhaled deeply, and sighed happily, "Girrrrrrrrrrrls."

You know you're on a new diet when...

...your kind brother-in-law who just connected you with quite possibly the coolest job opportunity stops by to borrow the lawn spreader, and when he says, "Mmm, smells good in here," you reply, "Don't even think about touching my plate."  Last night I made burgers for dinner as well as some scrumptious mashed potatoes-- red potatoes nuked in the micro, throw a little chicken bouillon and a pat of butter, and mash until most lumps are out.  Rico came over just as I was sitting down to eat.  Poor thing-- can't be fun to be the target of the hungry lady's wrath.

The rest of the weekend

After WW on Saturday we went out to Cape Coral to see a dresser Brad spotted on Craigslist. It fits nicely in out guest room closet, giving guests a place to put their stuff, finally. We moved the bookcase that was there into the living room, which meant the living room needed to be rearranged a bit. Which meant the books in the bookcases needed to be rearranged a bit. Which means I want to clean things out so I can feel like I'm a contributing member of society. The guest room closet is next.

Saturday night we helped Ralph and Chris with the landscaping on their and Aunt Kelly's investment houses. We went up to see Terry the plant lady who is just a stitch. She has more character in her little finger than, well, she's just the sort of lady you'd say was made of piss and vinegar, to use an old phrase. She's feisty, she knows her plants and her lands, and she'll size you up faster than you can call for Spanky the cat to come running. She told Ralph that he would never make it as a full time gardener, but if he wanted to come help her spread the chicken shit around he could do that. Ralph is the revered and respected patriarch of the family, and one does not a.) tell him what he can and cannot do, and b.) say "shit" in front of him. We all laughed heartily, and he was more than gracious.

Sunday we tried a new church, a little country church about 15 minutes north of us. We went to the traditional service, which I guess in country-speak means no-one-under-75-allowed. Everyone was very kind and the word that came to mind was "dear"-- they were all just very dear, even the sweet greeter-man who could not for the life of him figure out what came after the Kath in my name. Kath-RIN? Kath-GRIN? Eh? Kathrin, ok. The four person choir was made up of two elderly ladies, one man who I'm pretty sure was forced to be there by his wife, and Beverly, who reminds me of every stereotypical eager beaver I've seen in movies. Beverly is a large but timid woman who came out of her shell to share her special music, which the pastor nearly forgot. She had clearly practiced in front of the mirror so that her expressions and hands were held just so at the appropriate times, and it was all very dear. The service was very nice and reminded me a lot of the traditional church in which I grew up.

Sunday evening we visited Beth and Rico and kiddies, who had received news on Saturday that some friends of theirs had lost their 16-month-old son to a seizure. We went over to hug them and hug the kids extra tight and thank God that we're all healthy and together.

Late last night I applied for two more jobs. Last week I applied for a youth librarian position at the library in our neighborhood-- oh, what a sweet 5 minute commute that would be! We'll see if anything comes of that. The positions last night are at schools-- one private, one charter. Rico knows a guy who said a local private school has an administration position open. That would be pretty cool. I just keep throwing my name out there. Something will open up.

Saturday we went to Weight Watchers

...where Brad earned Husband-Of-The-Year for sitting in on the meeting with me. The folks there are a little quirky-- actually, most of them are probably normal, except for the one person who has something to share about everything and sits in the front row. We all have those folks in group settings, and usually the leaders aren't trained to manage them appropriately, so we all sit and roll our eyes at the teacher's pet. Ah, well. The programs at WW have been updated and I'm thrilled with them. It's going to be a long road, but it seems very manageable.

The shopping/office center where the meetings are located has some really cool landscaping. We spotted these pineapples along the walk. I don't think I've ever seen pineapples growing naturally. They were smallish, maybe six or eight inches tall, but I really wanted to pick one anyway. I didn't.

And we saw this beauty attached to a palm tree-- I think it's called a Bird of Prey? Feel free to correct me. The indigo color was beautiful.

Friday night family night

Friday night was Family Night at Ralph and Chris's. We had a really neat time together, sharing our burdens and worries and praying for each other. It was one of the most meaningful times I've had down here. It seems all four families are in a bit of a bind in one way or another, and it was really great to feel like we're all in this together, and we all have each others' backs.

Afterward we played around with the kids and taught them how to use the camera feature of our phones. Chase took the one above.

Finally, here is what came first-- chips and salsa. The chips, like I said before, were very good. A little on the thicker side, and just very tasty. I loved that they were cut by hand and authentic looking as well as tasting. Tostitos just don't do it for me. And the salsa-- there were two, actually; one was a tomatillo salsa with garlic and spices and the other was like pico de gallo-- chopped tomatoes, onions, etc. Both were delish. And I was very proud of Brad for trying something new. We will be back for the chips and salsa, tacos, and tamales. Yum!

Here are the three little tacos, which I will crave for a while. The meats were not flavorful, but that was ok as the primary flavor was the fresh, homemade corn tortillas. Out of this world.

Here Brad is digging in to the Super Nachos. The chips were fantastic-- fresh corn tortillas fried up perfectly. The chicken flavor was bland, and the cheese was a sauce. I was hoping for a homemade cheese sauce, but bechamel is beyond some, I suppose. Did I tell you I conquered the bechamel? It's a bit daunting for a first timer, but I made a really good cheese sauce from scratch a while back. Bechamel is the fancy name for melt-some-butter-add-some-flour-cook-a-bit-add-some-milk, which is the base for most cream sauces, cream soups, cheese soups, etc.

Restaurant-Critics-R-Us

We tried a new place for dinner last night. It's called Cilantro Tamales, a homemade authentic Mexican kind of place. I'd heard good things on Chow.com, one of my new favorite ways to waste time. We ordered the little taco trio (chicken, pork, beef), the Super Nachos, and a cilatro tamale, of course. Here's my cilatro tamale with a side of rice. Tamale: 4 stars out of five. Rice: 1 star. Just yucky.

Boys will be boys

We stopped by Ralph and Chris's house last night to visit Shelley who had surgery on Monday. She's recuperating under the care of Chris, who is also watching the kids. Chase is nearly 5 and is at the stage where he needs a ton of rough-housing. After talking with Shelley for a bit, Brad took Chase out for a good beating. I thought for sure he'd hurt Chase, but Chase kept coming back for more. We swung him by his hands and feet, Brad swung him around by his feet, and then Chase played dive-over-the-uncle, as shown above. After hugging him around the neck, Brad would lean forward and Chase would flip over him.

Look familiar, family?

We had these boot glasses when I was younger. Fun to see them again! I spotted them tonight while buying a ceramic chip-and-dip tray for $2.99 at Old Time Pottery.

Baking foible, or is it?

I got this adorable pan a while back at Williams Sonoma, otherwise known as kitchen-addiction-supply. It's marketed to be a crumb cake pan and each square has a removable bottom. Sometimes I wish I had removable parts... or at least shrinkable... anyway... it was half price and at $12 I couldn't say no. I made crumb cakes a few weeks back and they turned out smashingly. I thought brownies would be divine-- little portion-controlled servings. Because if one was to eat two of these, that would just be piggish. I hear guilt is a great motivator.

But I forgot that sometimes brownies get those hard, crusty edges. And these did. I forgot that that's desirable in crumb cake but not in brownies. So disappointing. I ate one just to make them feel better and put the rest in a ziploc bag, also known as cooking-foible purgatory. I just can't throw them directly away out of the pan-- that's too cruel. Ziplocs for a day make the pain more bearable.

And did you know, ziplocs keep the air in! And when things have crispy parts and soft parts and are put in a sealed container, the textures even themselves out over time! So last night, after one day in the ziploc bag, the crunchy edges had softened! Hooray!

Makes me smile

Last night I met Brad for dinner at Panera in Bonita Springs. Panera just made it's first appearance in southwest Florida a few months ago at Coconut Point, a new shopping center where a forest used to be. When Coconut Point was first finished we drove around to see what stores there would be (yes, there is an Apple Store, phew), and when it came time to leave we found that the genius who did the pavement painting, you know, ONLY with the turn arrow above it? He painted the N backwards. I wish I had had a camera-- it was pretty funny.

Anyway, we met for dinner and it's just such a comfort at the end of the day to see this handsome face. Can you believe we're going on three years of marriage in June? Feels like three weeks. (Edited: Brad didn't like this picture of himself. But trust me, he's a wicked handsome man.)

If you look carefully, in the back right corner sat a man who reminded me a lot of Ricky Gervais, the creator of and boss on BBC's The Office. It was hard not to stare or quote things at him. He even wore sunglasses the whole time, making it harder and harder to remember my manners.

The calories don't count since I didn't eat my sandwich.

Because the pork was so yucky, I don't feel bad eating this luscious piece of Rocky Road from the chocolatier we visited yesterday. Never had rocky road, but love the ice cream so it can't be bad. And it is delish. Good chocolate, marshmallows, and pecans.

Goodbye, slow-cooked pork

I had such lofty aspirations.

Next Sunday is my 30 and a half years old birthday. I said at 30 I would not spend another birthday this unhappy with my body, and now nearly six months has passed and I've done nothing. So I've decided to head back to old faithful, Weight Watchers. I've lost weight with them before and I can do it again. They now have monthly passes you can buy online, and I figure if I've paid for the month I'll go out of guilt. I hear guilt is a wonderful motivator.

Anyhoo, in preparation for next week's Week of Hungry Tummy, I'm trying to make some wiser food choices this week so it's not such a shock next week. I put a pork roast in the crock pot this weekend thinking I'd have pulled pork sandwiches this week for lunch. But it just tastes gross, like sloppy joes. I hate sloppy joes.

And speaking of commitments I declare I'm making and then don't follow through on, I just may be able to do that Take-A-Picture-Everyday thing now! We love our new phones and I'm just silly over the camera feature. Plus being able to blog by phone is just so cool. I'll work on getting more interesting subjects. Oh, and the pix look a little fuzzy on the blog, but if you click on them the bigger versions are a little clearer.

And for the Weekend Update... we didn't go to church yesterday. We need to do a little soul searching on that one, and I welcome your honest input. I guess I don't know how picky to be. How does one go about choosing a church? Anyway, we were expecting a storm yesterday morning (hooray!) so we decided to drive out to Sanibel and buy a Venus flytrap. Brad had jokingly suggested that we use them for our landscaping, and then Mom and I saw them at She Sells Seashells, a sweet shell shop on Sanibel, when Mom was here. So we drove out there and along the way the storm started to roll in. Funny thing-- now that it's sunny all the frickin time down here, I looooove gray days. The overcast, the rain, the clouds, just soothing and comforting for some reason. The drive was wonderful and we made a few stops to pick up some coconuts that we'll try to grow. We stopped for lunch and a flytrap and some chocolates at a place that was actually started in Newark, Ohio, in 1911 called Gouma's Chocolates where a lovely woman shared the story of the family and how she thinks Florida is filled with crazies.

We napped in the afternoon and then ran out to buy some pipe to divert rainwater coming out of the gutter from washing away our mulch. Then we came home and cleaned up the kitchen from my failed cooking attempts (two batches of very very flat bagels and one batch of crunchy brownies) and then watched Nowhere in Africa, the movie I netflixed in early March and never watched. Turned out to be sort of interesting, and the scenery was really fun to see. I particularly appreciated hearing the sounds of the tribal people singing-- really brought back the memories of our trip.

Today is another slow day at the office. Boss hasn't come in and probably won't, as really there isn't a big need for him to show up more than once a week. Things are slow and we have no new contracts in, which means my position as contracts administrator is pretty much, well, unfunded. We have twenty houses in various stages, with four of those just being started this week, so there are little things for me to do like request draws or write update letters to the owners. But really, I earn my keep about one day a week. I'm praying for something else to pop up, for my sake and for Boss's. I have to admit to a little worry about being cut loose and having to wait tables. I guess there are worse things. I also think about teaching, and every time I do without fail I have a nightmare about teaching that night.

Brad is at his client's place today, and we're not sure what the rest of the week will look like for him. We're praying for something to pop up for him as well. We think we'll be here for a while. As Ralph and Chris have said, with all the prayers going up on our behalf, if God wants to move us, he would be doing so.

Along those lines, we got an email from our Realtor last week suggesting we drop the price of the house. At current market rates the difference between our mortgage payoff and our selling price would be $622. It's awfully hard to cram closing costs and a Realtor commission into $622. If we sold at current market value (about $249,900) and paid all those costs, we'd be in debt about $18 grand. So the house will sit on the market and we will continue to pray. I can't say this is my favorite season of life, but I feel like I'm finally accepting that I will live in uncertainty for a while. I'm also mulling over the fruits of "suffering", although I don't think I can call what this is "suffering." When times are hard, we grow, we learn, we do some housecleaning and are reduced to the core of us.

I hope when I get to my core it weighs about what I weighed at our wedding.

This is RC Otters, the lovely restaurant where we ate on Sunday. The rain was pouring pouring pouring, but we sat on the covered porch anyway and ate there. It was really nice, actually!

Brad is collecting coconuts on rainy Sanibel

Anyone know how to grow a tree from a coconut?

Mmmmm...cheesy

Tried a new place for lunch today.

Dad found it when he visited. The ingredients are imported from Philly (can you say imported if it's not international?) and were soooo good. I had the chicken cheesesteak and it was quite delish. Brad had a meatball sub that was so so. We had a few onion rings that were the best I've ever had. Super fresh, not greasy, and crunchy. Yum.

If you can't tell already, we're playing with our new phones today. We got the Casio G'zOne (geez-won? gee-zee-one? gee-zone? nobody knows) because it's virtually indestructible. It can withstand water up to a meter or something, sandstorms, vibrations, dropping, etc. It was tested by the Army! And it's my first camera phone EVER! The photos are really decent quality and I just figured out to post from the camera to the blog. You'll be able to tell when I do that because the text will be minimal. I'm not so good at text-messages. Maybe I'm missing out on some quick time-savers or maybe I'm just not talented at it. Anyhoo, I edited this post after posting the pic so I could explain things.

On the way home we saw this motorcycle on the main drag just outside our neighborhood. Never ones to pass up a bargain, we got mostly home and then decided to try to bring it home. Heck- nothing lost, and maybe we could sell it on ebay! So we got a tow rope and went back. We tried to move it off the curb and closer to the car... no dice. It's in sand, so movement is difficult, and it's flippin' heavy and well, a big fan of inertia. Brad got the idea that maybe it needs a jump. So we went back home and got some jumper cables. And went back to the motorcycle. No dice. So we gave up. The thing was nice back in its day. Even has the key in the ignition, but no life at all. Oh, well.

Can't pass up a deal

hmm

Test Post

we just got new phones! now i'm as cool as sam!

Edited to add:

Ok, I'm not as cool as Sam. How do I post pictures in here, Sam? When I email them to my own email account they come as attachments. How do you get them to show up on your blog?

...and after

They look great, smell great, and even taste great, but are flat flat flat. Slicing them is tricky.

I tried with a second batch, but they came out flatter. Maybe I didn't mix them enough...? I don't know much about baking bread and all the chemistry involved. I need to experiment with the kneading times and see if that helps the gluten develop more so they get taller.

Before...

Cooking in Florida is a mysterious thing. I was so excited to try to make my own bagels, and the recipe I found online (thanks, allrecipes.com!) seemed foolproof. Not so in Florida, I guess. But I've had other baking issues, so I shouldn't be surprised. For those of you who haven't made your own bagels before, they're made much like soft pretzels. Mix the dough, let it rise, shape into bagels, let them rise, boil, then bake. Here they are boiling in a pot of water and molasses.

Gettin' adventurous in the meal planning

Last night we tried something funky with our dinner. I saw the idea I
think on a Kraft email I subscribe to-- cheeseburger wraps. So sorry,
I didn't take any pictures. But they were pretty darn good. I made
the burgers into flat-ish hot dog shapes, seasoned them with our
respective favorite spices (Omaha Steak seasoning for me, Cajun
seasoning for B) and grilled them on ye olde George Foreman. I cooked
up some bacon in the micro and also sauteed some onions with a little
salt and pepper for a few minutes. Used the Flatout Lite wraps (only
one Weight Watchers point each!), slapped on a thick-ish slice of
provolone, two slices of bacon, the burgerdogs, the onions, and
wrapped it up. YUM! It was a welcome deviation from the usual
partner of the burger, the bread-heavy bun. So to make up for that
lack of starch, I baked up some fries as well.

There have been quite a lot of fires around here-- it's dreadfully dry
and lots of folks are experiencing dry wells. It rained last night,
and never have I been so grateful for rain. It was good to be
reminded that every drop comes from God-- our every breath is a gift
from him. Good to remember and to be grateful for. For which to be
grateful. Whatever. I am small and he is not. I am temporary and he
is not.

Hippity, hoppity, Easter was on its way...

This weekend was a lovely reminder of why we're on this earth and the sacrifice made for us to have that relationship with the Father. Easter snuck up on me, though, and I ended up feeling rather unprepared mentally for Sunday. Part of that was not going to church on Friday night-- I grew up going to Good Friday services and we didn't go this year. So Saturday hit and all of a sudden Easter was tomorrow!

Saturday I spent making lamb cakes using that fine mold from Great-Grandmother. It had gotten a bit rusty so I scoured it out on Friday night and seasoned it twice before making the first lamb cake. Not having a recipe nor instructions, I compiled a bunch from the internet and tried my best. The first cake came out incredibly tasty, but it had no face. I filled the back half of the mold, thinking it would rise to fill the front. Not so. So lamby number one went into the garbage and I made another cake, this time filling the front half. Success! And the secret to my success is Pam spray with flour. Best invention in the world. The lamb had perfect ears and facial features with no parts sticking to the mold. Hooray!

Saturday night we went out to grab a bite at the Fort Myers Ale House which we've never tried. When we walked in who did we see but Jeff and Shelley and the kids! We joined them for dinner and had a great time catching up. When we got home I iced the lamb cake and collapsed on the couch. Oh-- I neglected to say that I started cleaning out the kitchen while waiting for the cake to bake and cool. I am accomplishing just about nothing at work these days (more on that later), so in order to feel like I'm actually moving forward in life and not just standing still, I've decided to clean things out. Don't want to spend money on new projects or tools, so cleaning out is the next best solution. I got three cabinets done on Saturday.

Sunday we slept in and went to late church. The church we've been attending rents out the local convention center and has their Easter service in the ballroom, so we went to that. Ugh. I won't go on and on being negative, but let's just say it was topped off by off-key singing (and lots of it) and a giant inflat-o-tomb which white Jesus walked out of at the end. And dry ice. And a sermon based on the phrase, "Now that you've heard the message, don't be irresponsible and not make a decision. Irresponsibility is wrong." I think we'll be church shopping again.

After church we went down to Ralph and Chris's for family time, and it was a blast. I think I understand why people have kids-- it's for the holidays! They get soooo excited and it's just so much fun. Here are Bethany and Chase all dressed up.


After we ate, Chris distracted the kids with the Happy Feet movie for a few minutes while Brad and I did our Easter Bunny duties and hid the eggs outside. Bethany thought she saw something out the front windows, hopping past "just like this-- vroom" and so the hunt began. Kena got super excited and even baby Kaya got in on the egg action.

Then we went inside and vegged for a bit before cutting into the lamb cake. But not before Jeff and Rico had a little fun with it. Here's a good shot of lamby. I poured a glaze over the face and then piped a buttercream icing with a star tip all over. It turned out terribly fluffy-looking and I was pleased. I also painted the ears with pink icing and the eyes and nose with brown food coloring.

Lamby want some greens?

Phone call for lamby? What's that you say? Please come rescue me before they eat me?

Living la vida clean-a

Oh, so happy to be clean today! It rained last night-- a complete rarity in this dry season. Didn't take long for the rain to replenish the well, so this morning we had wonderful showers! No idea how long that will last, so I'll keep showering at night just in case. Too bad, because showers wake me up so well, which is not desired at 10 p.m. Ah, well. At least we have showers. I am thankful.

In other news, I finally get to use a prized possession tomorrow. Long ago my great-grandmother Bertha used a cast iron mold like this to make a lamb cake for Easter. Mom gave me the mold a while back and I have yet to use it. Until tomorrow. I get to bring the dessert for Easter. I can't wait to make a lamb cake! And yes, Mom, I will remember to put the toothpicks in the ears so they don't fall off.


I think I'll also bake some bread, because I have been missing baking lately. We ate out a ton in March and I'm feeling a little distanced from my kitchen. Last night I made crumb cake, thanks to an old stand-by Martha recipe which is about half cake and half crumb. So yum. And the most fun thing about it was that they are individual square crumb cakes. I bought the pan about a year ago half price at Williams Sonoma-- couldn't pass it up. Ooo- might stop there after work today to see if they have Eastery things on sale.... Anyway, the pan has twelve little square muffin cups with separate bottoms-- like there's a hole in the middle of the bottom of the muffin cup, and a separate square piece of metal that is the size of the bottom of the cup, making removal of the individual crumb cakes super easy and very rewarding. We each had one last night during Whose Line Is It Anyway and also for breakfast. Yum.

Takes me back to my days in Baltimore when I cooked for fun all the time. I so enjoyed those times. I was just out of college and had moved halfway across the country with three weeks' notice to take a job teaching middle school math using a curriculum I hated at a school of only girls taking over for a teacher who was usually drunk and therefore was fired. Not what I had envisioned for myself, but it was the best thing that could have happened to me. For that first semester I taught under perhaps the finest administrator ever in the world, who taught me that it was perfectly acceptable to make mistakes. Novel! She moved away at the end of that school year, but her impact has lasted. Anyway, during the week my days were filled with planning, prepping, and grading. But weekends were for cooking. Saturday was usually a run down to the Farmer's Market for fresh flowers, fresh produce, and then a stop at whatever garage sales or second hand shops I could find. Then I'd thumb through the lastest Martha Stewart Living magazines for recipes or projects to try. I got quite a few little treasures from those mags. Kills me that I threw them out before moving down here. We all have at least one regret, right? The crumb cake recipe is one of those treasures. When I used to make it on Sunday night and bring it in to school on Monday, the other teachers would say that they needed to find me a husband so my cooking would be appreciated. It only took three years and quite a few crumb cakes for Brad to catch a whiff of the cinnamon-y scent...

Dry season

A little more news on the drought can be found here.

Good thing we took showers last night. For some reason the water was working fine in the afternoon and evening, and we got a load of laundry done as well as good showers. Ah. Which is good because this morning the water was at a trickle.

Instead of doing our taxes last night, we did two fun things: one, we went fire-hunting, one of our favorite pastimes. When we see smoke in the sky we go drive until we find the fire. It's kind of fun, especially because there aren't a lot of roads where we are, making it a challenge. When we got home we watched a taped episode of Planet Earth. Have you seen that? The miniseries on the Discovery Channel? The footage they have is just amazing. Last night we watched the one from Sunday about deserts. If you haven't seen it yet, check it out on Sunday nights. Really amazing.

The opposite of "my cup overflows"

The well has run dry. 

 

I'm not speaking figuratively.  Due to the water table lowering and lowering, our well is no longer deep enough.  Our showers this morning-- and we're grateful to have had them!-- were short and of the trickle variety. Only the necessary parts were washed, and nothing was shaved, as that would waste precious drips. 

 

Seriously.  I think we need to be reading the book of Job.  I am beginning to remember God's promises, thanks to a sweet reminder from Ralph and Chris and inspired by Ruth Jackson, I am choosing to praise him.  Even though I just want to collapse and throw a temper tantrum and cry big alligator tears and pound my fists into the floor. 

 

Thank you, dear friends, for praying for us.  We feel it.  Words cannot express the gratitude we have for you.  I feel like a big loser-- we've been here for nearly two years and still have no friends. Thank you for remaining by our sides in our complaining and ugliness. 

As many smiles as we can get...

When I was very young I used to refer to the evening news not as "The News" but as "The Bad News." Which is true. It's all bad, shoot-em-ups, dirty politics, selfish people, violence and drugs. So not friendly to fall asleep to. Today I found this. It's good news. We all need as many smiles as we can get.

Back to the blahs.

We worked our fingers to the bone this weekend and got the house looking goo-ood.  We washed all the windows-- what a difference that made!  We scrubbed floors, counters, even made stainless steel gleam without fingerprints!  That's no easy feat.  We baked cookies, set out a zillion signs all over tarnation (the technical name for our town), blew up balloons, and... we had one visitor.  Now, one is all we need.  We don't need a zillion people to buy the house-- only one.  But these folks apparently were just browsing around, looking in case dear Mother in Bradenton decides to move down here sometime. 

GAH!

We're sad and disappointed, and truly feeling really lost.  Brad's paycheck is running out, our mortgage is going up, and we both feel just... lost.  A little forgotten. Quite disconnected. The worst versions of ourselves.  What lesson haven't we learned, God?  If we truly believe that God loves us and wants the best for us, THIS is the best??? If THIS is the best, what am I not seeing?  Yes, we have a beautiful roof over our heads.  Yes, our marriage is really great and we're not struggling there at all, praise God.  But the rest of things just are so... swirly.  What lines of work should we be pursuing?  Should we be looking here or elsewhere? 

Friends, we need a breakthrough.  Just like we did when I was going nuts teaching, two Novembers ago.  We needed a breakthrough, so we rallied the troops and asked for prayer, and just like that, I got a new job.  Now we need another breakthrough.  Would you please pray for us right now?  Please pray for guidance.  More than anything, we need guidance.  If you have another minute or so, pray for the house to sell and for our paths to be made straight.  Which is, I guess, guidance.  We need you, friends.  We need some troops beside us.  Thanks for praying already, as I know you have been.  Please keep doing so.  When we get our guidance we'll all praise God together.

Oh- one more thing.  My Nissan has decided not to function properly, unless you consider stalling at random a proper function.  It's in the shop where it's been in and out of for a week now.  We could also use a bit of prayer there as it seems to be stumping the mechanics.  Anyone smell the Honda situation?  It made for an interesting weekend, as Open House signs don't fit in the front seat of a Miata.  Open the trunk, close the trunk.  It was probably pretty humorous for anyone watching.

Thanks for being there, friends.  I do check my sitemeter and see that you're reading from all over the country.  Thank you for being out there and for praying for us.