Getting Ready for a Visitor!

Georgie is working hard to shred any piece of cardboard she can find in order to build a proper nest for our upcoming visitor! I don't have the heart to tell her that Mom isn't going to stay with her in her cage.

Just in case you were wondering...

Georgie does NOT like her harness. Going outside with a leash is no longer an option. It was not a pretty sight.

She has also been making bad choices. Yesterday she hopped up on the couch and promptly chewed a button off of the TV remote control. We will have trouble using the Sleep function from now on. Remotes are now stored button-side down.

Ah, it's the weekend and I couldn't be more glad. This and next week are midterms and the material I'm teaching is just grueling. I'm super exhausted every night and have been crashing with CSI or Law and Order and vegging out. But next week I'll have some breaks as we don't have lab the week after midterms, and then spring break comes the first week of March. There is hope!

Tomorrow is a fun day of garage sale-ing as many neighborhoods are holding multi-family sales. We don't really have anything to buy as we're paring down, but it's fun to look, and plus, it's a high of 76. I owe it to you to be outside enjoying the gorgeous weather.

But I'll wear sunscreen, unlike my little reading break last Sunday. I went outside to catch a few rays by the pool since my white legs were matching my light khaki shorts. I was out there for one hour... and am still paying for it. The sun is just so much closer down here. I have been just fried all week. Lesson learned.

It has been a little bit of a rough day today. I only had to teach one class, hooray, but I think I just felt the weight of everything going on in our lives. Lots of uncertainty, yes, lots of hope!, but all the uncertainty gets to me. Heavenly Father is gently convincing me that he is, indeed, sovereign and good. It just is hard sometimes for me to let go and just let him work. And we got a bit of bad news-- nothing hurtful to us directly, but does the evil in the world ever just overwhelm you? That's where I'm at.

Our former pastor, who is our age and has four young kids, shared that his dear young wife has been given three months to live. Her breast cancer has spread to her brain. So unspeakably tragic.

This morning the news had a story about the top five most wanted fugitives in Fort Myers... one is my former student. I remember him so clearly as he was one of the primary reasons I left that school midyear. He would terrorize students in class, and one day I had had enough-- I made him call his mom on the phone in the middle of class. And she reamed ME out. I'm sad to see that at 18 he is right where I thought he would be. It really breaks my heart.

Chris and Ralph lost a friend last week and attended services today. Young guy, only 66, vibrant, in great health... so they thought. So very sad.

And this morning I finally heard back from my former second job-- the $4000+ that they owe me isn't coming. They just don't think they owe me anything. Whammo.

Oh, and that achy tooth where I got a crown last summer, the one that I haven't been able to chew on since July? Yeah, it's fine now, amazingly, as of two days ago. I can chew on it. But the pain has shifted three teeth down into my jaw. It's swollen and very painful to the point where I can't yawn or even tilt my head back without sharp pains. Joy.

Blech. It's enough to get me down. God, you have a big to-do list this weekend!

But in happy news, we sold the Passat. Yes, the same one we've been trying to sell for, oh, a year. And it went to just the perfect buyer-- a VW fan who knows the car inside and out. We got cash and deposited it today. Hooray!

Have a happy weekend, all, and remember to be grateful for the good things. Or maybe just remind me to be grateful.

Just a teaser... our new blog is getting ready for you...

Whoooo are you? Who who? Who who?

We've been watching CSI like crazy lately as it's always on cable. If I told you how many episodes I've watched in the last month you wouldn't believe me, so I won't. But it's a really fun show and is like crack for my problem-solving brain. We've even branched out and now watch CSI: NY, but not CSI: Miami. The Miami one is just too dorky.

Speaking of New York, this week I've been taking care of financial aid and housing details for this fall. In preparation I had to do our taxes, and I finally have them about done. We only owe about $1800. Boo. And I looked at the financial aid package they gave me last year (when I thought we were going last fall). It assumes a personal contribution of about $23,000. Not including the loans. I don't usually talk money here (or maybe I do), but whoa. One thing I am very grateful for about our time in Florida: I have truly learned to let God worry about money. He gives, he takes away. It's all his anyway. I'm sharing these figures with you so that when he provides for these things, we can all rejoice together. This is not a solicitation in any way-- just a mention so that we can praise God all the more when he does his work.

Also speaking of New York, it appears we'll be downsizing a bit. Our Lehigh house was about 1600 square feet; our current house is about 1400. We looked at the floorplans of the apartment options we have: the new building, with newer amenities, has apartments that are less than 400 square feet. That's not a typo: four hundred. Last night Brad said, "What's that thing, next to the kitchen?" I said, "That's the door swing for the front door. It's about the same size as the kitchen." And much hilarity ensued. The older buildings are much more spacious, nearly double the space of the newer building. Always being suckers for charm and history over modern amenities, we've chosen the older buildings. Now we actually have space for the rabbit.

And speaking of Georgie, she is now allowed back on the couch. Originally she was leaving us presents on the couch and was thus banned. But now she's tamer, more used to us and also to her surroundings, and has had no accidents outside of her cage. When she's happy she does these happy jumps where she jumps up and lands facing the other direction. They're quite funny. Her new trick is to test out the bounciness of the couch by patting the cushions with her front feet. If you watch this video a few times you'll catch her doing it: