Before and After...

I forgot to take a picture of the "before" of our entryway, but here's the after, or during, rather, of the chandelier-putting-up. It hangs above our front door and looks great!

Here's a "before" of the kitchen eat-in area, dark and sad.


And the "after" with its new schoolhouse-style lamp from Lowe's. Did I mention Brad was an electricity genius?

Here is Brad in the middle of installing our master bathroom mirrors and glass shelves.


And here is the after! We only have one finished, and I think we're going to scoot the mirror and shelf up a bit as the lights are way up high, and the mirror looks scrunched down at the countertop. But overall it looks good, we think!


This week we had garage door openers installed (thanks to Lowe's $59 special!) and we feel like grownups with garage door opener remotes on our car visors. We truly feel so blessed!

Saturday we'll have a washtub installed in the garage-- much needed, especially with the shelling we're doing. I keep forgetting to take a picture of our bounty-- I'll get to that sometime.

Phabulous Phlorida Phenomenon

So about a month ago Mom's boss and his wife came to Florida on business. They went back with a story about seeing fake fall trees as lawn decorations in an upscale Tampa neighborhood. I'd never seen such a thing until this past week, when I saw something like this in front of a house in Brad's parents' neighborhood.

Yes, it's fall in Florida, but nothing changes color which makes me feel like it's still summer. The temperature has dropped a bunch so it feels wonderful-- mostly 70s and 80s with drops into the 60s at night. Last night it rained so Brad and I laid in the hammock on our lanai and listened to the rain. Heavenly.

Anyway-- just wanted to show you a picture of what transplanted yankee fall-lovers do in their Florida front lawns.

We survived Wilma!

Edited to add this disclaimer: Brad did not authorize nor condone the posting of the following picture. However, since the purpose of this blog is to share with our friends and family our adventures in Florida, I felt it necessary in keeping with our purpose to share the following piece of Floridian culture.

Before we tell you about the storm, here's a little something not appropriate for the whole family. Apparently some people down here, namely men, are proud of their anatomy and like to brag about it. I've seen two pickup trucks with, um, anatomical replicas attached to the hitch. I'll just stop there. Remember, we live in the South, and Lehigh is 10 miles west of the coast, so consider downtown Lehigh a good ole' boys' town. Hence the adornments, I guess. They're usually found with a confederate flag on the window.

On Wednesday we were told that Hurricane Wilma was the most severe hurricane ever recorded. It pounded the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico (Cancun, Playa Del Carmen where we honeymooned) for TWO DAYS, causing unimaginable devastation. On Saturday Wilma left Mexico and headed for Florida. Due to Katrina, people began heeding the warnings and plywood began selling like hotcakes at Lowe's and Home Depot. About half the stores on US41, the main drag through Fort Myers, were boarded up like this Barnes and Noble store. The grocery stores were selling gallons and gallons of water and canned food. And at school my kids were showing signs of worry. Even native Floridian teachers were getting scared. After all, Charley passed through last year only a few miles north of Fort Myers in Punta Gorda.

On Thursday we were told we would not have school on Friday in order to prepare for the storm. That night Brad and I stocked up on plywood and bolts and we began boarding up our windows. On Friday we ran around to Lowe's and Walmart, stocking up on supplies and returning some things we had bought earlier in our settling-in (curtain rods, etc.). Then we continued boarding up.


As we continued boarding on Saturday this lovely barn owl sat on the driveway next door and watched us. For nearly two hours. At one point he flew from the next door driveway to ours and hopped around and squawked, and then flew back to the next door driveway. Saturday was my 29th birthday so we call this friend my birthday owl.

Here is what our house looks like all boarded up. It killed us to drill holes into her stucco. We sustained a few cracks from the bolting, but at least she kept us safe.


Saturday night we all went out to dinner and then back to Ralph and Chris's house with everyone for cake and ice cream. Although I miss my family and friends at home, it was a lovely time!

Sunday we didn't have church so we went shelling at Fort Myers beach and found a ton of great shells. They're sitting in bleach water for now getting the stink off of them. We must have a few dozen sand dollars, tons of little conch shells, and a bunch of large connected clam-looking shells. It was great!

We came home and napped, and then decided to board up the back of the house. We stopped at 11:30 p.m. with most of the windows boarded up. We went to bed about midnight, nervous.

And then Wilma hit. This morning Brad woke up about 4:30 a.m. and watched the Weather Channel. Wilma was beginning to get strong with lots of blowing rain and sustained winds of about 35 miles per hour with gusts into the 50 mph range. By the time I woke up at 7 a.m. it was pretty scary. The winds were whipping through the lanais and making howling noises. We stayed up for about an hour and called family. The storm was hitting the front of the house, from the north, so we went onto the lanai on the south side of the house to assess the neighborhood. The house next door to ours (the orange sherbet house) had its lanai door flapping in the wind, and its well water filtering tanks (they look like 5 foot tall scuba tanks) had fallen over and broken some fittings. They're still hanging by their power cords.

After two hours or so we went back to sleep to try to avoid the storm.



By the time we woke up at noon it was still windy but sunny! We checked in with the family and Ralph and Chris in Bonita Springs lost power and sustained some damage to the screen on their lanai, as well as a leak in the roof. Beth and Rico lost power but sustained no damage. Jeff and Shelley near Fort Lauderdale sustained some damage to their mobile home, but were one of the luckiest in their neighborhood. Most of their neighborhood was ruined and most likely will have to be bulldozed. Jeff had taken the kids to his office and camped out there, and Shelley had to work in the emergency room at the hospital. Their dog Lucy was in a kennel as they were over here for most of last week, and they still can't find where she is. The kids are upset that they can't get cold water as there is no power. We're hoping they come over to this coast for a while after Shelley's shift is up on Tuesday.

Since we're the only ones with power, Ralph and Chris and Beth and Rico came over for lunch and dinner and we've had a great time together this afternoon. I've gotten to break in my birthday present from Ralph and Chris, an indoor griddle/grill, as we grilled burgers for lunch. For dinner I'm going to make fajitas. I love cooking for a crowd, so this has been a blessing to me!

So, thanks all for praying for us and for our safety. Praise God we're all ok!

Friday morning

Here are a few more home pictures... It's Friday morning and now it looks like Wilma won't hit until mid to late Monday...

Here is Brad putting up our mailbox. You can see the empty lot across the street-- we're surrounded on three sides by empty lots which allows for amazing breezes and lots of quiet.
Then we bought our washer and dryer at Costco (thank you, Grandparents, for the wonderful gift!!!) and hooked them up ourselves. We couldn't use the normal flexible foil dryer vent hose but had to use a rigid metal one, so Brad had to squeeze behind the dryer and connect everything. We got the Whirlpool Duet front-loading high-efficiency washers-- super easy and they do a great job. We don't miss the days of slipping down the back stairway, hitting our head on the fuse box, and putting quarters into the washers in the basement of our apartment. We love these so much, we welcome you to pack only dirty clothes when you come visit and you can do your laundry while you're here.


On Tuesday we used the amazing Makita drill that my Uncle Allen sent us to fix the rickety chairs I had bought at a second-hand shop in Baltimore. They were in decent shape in Balty, but by the time they made a few moves and sat outside under my parents' porch for two years, they were coming unglued. We figured it was high time to get these in better shape, so we reinforced the joints with screws and voila! No more wobbly breakfasts. (And thank you, Uncle Allen, for the awesome drill. It is a great tool! And if anyone needs tools or woodworking supplies, check out Uncle Allen's store, Woodcraft.)

While Brad was mowing for the first time he came upon a lovely Wolf spider. They're harmles but nasty-looking and a little furry. We've killed two in three weeks, all outside. Not so bad.

This is our resident walking stick. He's harmless and visits us on the outside of our lanai sometimes.
The little frogs around here love to sit on the top of the window frames outside. They freak me out as I wonder if they're going to jump on my head when I go out the front door. But they don't move unless Brad pushes them off with the end of the measuring tape or a pole. Yesterday he went on a frog-be-gone streak while we were measuring for hurricane shutters and got 6 frogs off of the front door and front windows. They go flying through the air from a height of seven feet into the grass, waving their skinny flappy legs behind them. When we returned from Home Depot a few hours later, some of the frogs had returned to the front of the house and were hiding behind the coach light!

Here is our latest sky picture. As the bands of bad weather come through from the hurricane the skies are dramatic and breathtaking. The sunset yesterday evening was something to behold!

Time on my hands

So here we are, waiting for Wilma. I made reservations at a hotel in Marietta, Georgia, about 12 hours away, but getting there would be a challenge since panic has set in for some folks down here. We're going to ride it out here. Please continue to pray for safety. It's still a bit scary.

I don't have school tomorrow, and probably nor on Monday as Wilma should hit Sunday night. Brad's Friday client ran away and drove up north (though she got only 80 miles in over two hours!), so we have a long weekend. Down here people bolt plywood or metal sheets over their windows and sliding glass doors to protect them from flying debris. There are a variety of things people use for "hurricane shutters"-- plywood and metal sheets like I said, rollaway shutters ($$$), corrugated plastic, corrugated metal, etc. Plywood is the most common as it is readily available and relatively inexpensive, but we decided to go with the corrugated plastic. It has been proven to be as strong and protective as plywood, but is much lighter and easier to install and store. Well, we called to get a quote tonight-- over ELEVEN HUNDRED DOLLARS. So we ixnay-ed that idea and just got home from Home Depot. We spent about $350 on ten sheets of plywood, nine 2x4's, bolts, and work gloves. Tomorrow we'll be cutting them to size and screwing them into our blemish-free house. Sorry, house.

Poor Maude-the-1988-Camry. She's carrying all the Home Depot goods on the roof rack.

Pictures I've been meaning to post...

Mom came for a visit a few weeks back, just before we closed on the house. We had a great time finding restaurants that serve good grouper and shrimp and also got to relax quite a bit. It was our friend Sam who said that we might feel more settled in to our new life when we had a visitor come see us in our new place, and he was right. Having Mom visit really made me feel like a Floridian, proud to show off my new surroundings and proud to welcome her to paradise (even if it rained a bit).



We went to see the beach in Bonita on Sunday afternoon and boy, were there shells galore. I'm itching to go back and get more shells. There were lots and lots of really great shells, like ones you'd see in stores. And being beside the water is more calming than I remembered-- have you heard the theory of the Third Place? That people need home, work, and a Third Place that feels like theirs? Coffeeshops and Barnes and Noble fill that need for some, but I think shelling at the beach will be mine. Heavenly.

We stopped by the Surfrider Inn where we used to stay on Sanibel Island. Here are Brad and me on the boardwalk from the pool to the ocean. The Surfrider sustained some damage in Hurricane Charley last year but has remodeled a bit and recovered nicely.

Here is Mom looking from the ocean toward the pool and condos.

Here is our pedestal sink which was one of the last things to be installed. It's in our guest bathroom and I think it adds a lot of charm. It's very cute.Just after Mom left-- three days later-- we finally closed on the house. As soon as we had keys we installed faux wood blinds in the office, guest room, and kitchen windows. Here is one finished product. We love them!
Just as we were installing the final shade I remarked, "I'm so impressed with us! Usually something goes awry in do-it-yourself home improvement, but this has gone so smoothly!" Well, about two minutes later we realized that I had mismeasured and the last blind was a half inch too wide for the window opening. Brad was particularly disappointed, it would seem.
We tried, er, Brad tried to secure movers with two days' notice, at the END of the month. Yeah, good luck. He did find some who were willing to move our stuff from storage to the house for, oh, about EIGHT HUNDRED DOLLARS. So He-man himself rented a truck and did much of the work himself. Ralph helped a ton on Friday, and Jeff and Rico helped on Saturday. We did it for a whole lot less than $800.

No go.

Dad's not coming. ATA is letting people change their tickets due to the storm. We don't have school on Friday (which means we have to come back a day early from Christmas break) so that people can prepare for the storm. Gas stations have long lines and Brad had to wait a half hour to get gas this morning. This evening they're busy as well. We're getting our money's worth with Wilma. Please pray for safety.

I have begun looking for another job. For a variety of reasons I need to get out of where I'm at. God, either change the job or change me! Please pray for an opening for me.

Thanks, friends and family, for your prayers and support!

Wilma

We've been meaning to post some pictures and get the blog updated, but our home projects have kept us busy. We've installed curtain rods, closet shelving, and last night we reinforced our rickety dining chairs with screws so we won't fall down when we sit on them. I have a few pictures to post and I promise I will soon.

Right now we have a little preparing to do for the storm this weekend. We stocked up on water and canned food yesterday and have been confident that it won't really affect us. But now that I'm at school and native Floridians are getting a little uneasy, I'm a little uneasy as well. Dad is supposed to fly in tonight for my birthday weekend, but I'm holding right now with ATA to see if they'll change his ticket. Even if the storm doesn't hit us directly, if anything happens around here he might not be able to get out of the airport.

Please do pray for us Floridians. It's a little scary when they say it's the biggest storm on record.

Love to you all!

K

Comcastic, Indeed.

Comcast has a new commercial out which I thought was a little catchy until our recent Comcast plight. Their new catch-word is "Comcastic!" with dancing actors and lights... but don't be fooled. I'd say their service is "Comhorrible."

On Tuesday morning we ordered installation of cable TV and internet access to happen on Saturday between 1 and 5 p.m. After no sign of anyone by 5 p.m. we called and were told it would be before 7. At 7 p.m. "Walter" called and said that they couldn't find their technician, so they rescheduled for Sunday between 3 and 5 p.m. Of course no one showed up, so after two conversations with "Cathy", (5 p.m. and 7 p.m.) we were told that they would be there before 9 p.m. At 9 p.m. we called again and "Maria" told us that the technician dispatcher goes home at 9 and there was nothing they could do, so they had to "write up a report" and we were told that a supervisor would be calling us first thing this morning. A supervisor would even come out and install it himself if need be.

Last I heard, they were supposed to come by 3 p.m. and Brad hasn't heard from them. He called and talked with "Cathy" again who promised someone to be there by 5 p.m. Not holding my breath.

So maybe we'll have cable service sometime, and maybe we'll just train ourselves some carrier pigeons.

On the good side, the mattress was delivered today, so you have a place to sleep when you come visit!

The house is in great shape-- curtains are up, hammock is set up on the lanai, the grill is assembled and ready to char, the dishes are organized and put away, and the office is efficient and ready for... cable. The garage is organized and both cars fit in (thanks to Tetris-master Brad). The lawn is mowed and beautiful. Things are coming together!

Housekeeping

So sorry, loved ones, that I haven't posted lately. We moved into the house on Friday and Saturday of last week. We did it ourselves after learning that movers would cost upwards of $600-800. Brad rented a U-Haul and with the help of brauny Ralph, Rico, and Jeff, the two and a half truckloads made it safely into our house. No injuries, praise God, and we have yet to find a damaged item. Great job, men!

Saturday and Sunday we spent getting basics organized--shower supplies, sheets and bedding, basic dishes. We got the opportunity to serve at church on Sunday-- Brad as producer (!!!) and I in the nursery. We're thrilled to be getting involved there.

Monday and Tuesday we spent (I took Monday off of work, and Tuesday was a holiday due to Rosh Hashanah) getting the kitchen and bedroom in working order. Chris and Makena came over on Monday and we got about 90% of the kitchen in place. Simply amazing. And I finished it on Tuesday. How good it feels to have the center of the house in order! Brad got the office in decent shape and ready for internet to be installed, which is why I haven't posted much lately. Comcast comes on Saturday.

We've made more trips to Lowes than I ever thought I would. The guy in hardware knows us and cringes when we come near, certain that we'll have questions. He helped us talk through options for curtain-hanging, as I can't stand the idea of spending $200 on curtain rods alone. We ended up-- eat your heart out, fellow bargain-hunters-- buying curtain hanging brackets from Joann Fabrics at their weekend half price sale ($1.25 per bracket) and bought electrical conduit pipes for the rods (#2.37 per 10 foot rod). Total cost: about $14.61 for two huge sliding-glass-door spaces, 108" and 154" wide.

Curtains in the master bedroom are the same black velvet ones we had in our bedroom in Evanston, perfect for blocking light and creating a dark sleepy cave. Curtains in the great room are just past cream into gold-colored and velvety, too, to absorb sound, I hope. We hung those last night after a long day of work, but unfortunately they're about a half inch too long. Rather, we hung them about a half inch too low. We're going to raise them tonight. Ugh. A word to the wise-- know when to say when when it comes to do-it-yourself home-improvement. Sleep enough.

Brad put up a mailbox and post on Tuesday and we're supposed to be getting mail as of yesterday. Nothing came yesterday despite the postman's statement that they were holding mail for us. Maybe today.

We also got a washer and dryer at Costco (GREAT PRICES!) in addition to a ladder. Brad bought contacts there last night in their optical department and saved $150 over what his optometrist's office would have charged. Megan B. and Jamie M., you've been loyal Costco fans for so long, and I'd like to finally join your crusade to evangelize the world. Costco RULES! Just don't get me near the tubs of biscotti or Ghirardelli brownie mix or I'll never fit in my jeans again.

Tonight we're going to hook up the washer and dryer-- oh, I forgot to mention that the exterminator/pest control guy came on Tuesday morning and sprayed. We should be bug-free for a long time. Hooray! Also, the water softener guy came back on Tuesday since the water still smelled like sulfur. After a long day of moving in the heat, taking a shower in sulfur-water is not really an improvement. The Aqua Systems guy came out and reattached the water softener and everything is sulfur-free now! We can actually drink the water, no problem!

Now that we're in the house, with clean water, without bugs, we're taking reservations for Chez Bressler. The queen-size mattress gets delivered on Monday-- come on down, folks! We'd love to have you!

WE ARE HOMEOWNERS!!!!!

We closed yesterday!

Praise the Lord! After many moons of "six more weeks," our house is ready and we finally promised to be in debt for the next 30 years of our lives. The closing was typical of every other step of this journey-- rocky and treacherous, with a dash of frustrating thrown in. Brad has handled all of the details of the closing process (BLESS HIM!), from getting insurance, to negotiating with the mortgage company, to scheduling the closing. Each step has been full of frustration and seeming dead-ends, which makes us confident that the enemy knows that God will use this house to bless people. That is our prayer.

After the four-hour-long closing, we celebrated at the Macaroni Grill and then went home and napped for a bit. We later had dinner with the family (Jeff and Shelley were in town for Jeff's interview) and enjoyed being around everyone. After dinner we went up to the house and installed blinds in two of the kitchen windows before the timer rang to clean up and go home.

I promise to post pictures soon. We're moving in on Friday and Saturday and will be a tad busy getting things in order.

Thank you all for your support in this process!!!

Wonderful Weekend

This weekend Mom came to visit! She came under the pretense of helping us get settled in our new house since we were supposed to have closed already (we have not), but we figured out soon after she got here that her sole purpose was to eat grouper and shrimp. :) Just kidding, Mom.

I'll tell more stories later, but here's a picture or two for your enjoyment. One of us on our future front porch, and one of Mom shelling today.

I promise more stories later. It looks like we might close on Wednesday, and Mom can attest to the fact that we are itching like crazy to get in that house.

Love to you all!

Wanna try again?

So it's Thursday evening, September 15th, and we haven't closed on the house. Nor will we for at least another week. At this point I'm so fed up with getting my hopes up that I'm just counting on Christmas. So, I love to give prizes, wanna try to guess our next closing date? We might be able to run this contest a few more times, but we might not. Get your guess in now! Leave a comment and if you win, you get a prize! (And it's not the picture Brad took of the dead snake around the corner. Nasty thing.)

Things are progressing and we're getting closer... here are the latest updates.

Last Saturday Chris, Brad and I went to the Home and Garden show in Harborside Convention Center in Fort Myers. We had a great time and got lots of ideas of things we could do on the house-- plastic hurricane shutters that are lightweight (instead of heavy plywood ones), various flooring options to cover up the uneven concrete of the lanai, screen door options, the list goes on and on. There were also various pest control agencies there, many of whom had drawings for a free treatment. Guess who won a free $75 treatment from Strategic Pest Control? Brad did! So the first thing we'll do after we sign papers is call them and get the place treated. Hooray! We also learned about a cool recycling place in Fort Myers where we can buy used and new home improvement items such as doors, molding, lighting, etc. I love finding a deal, and I'm excited to see what they have!

This is proof that we finally killed the nasty black widow that lived in our dryer vent. It survived the wind tunnel of '05 when Brad stuck the hose of the shop vac up the vent to try to get it. No luck that time. But we got lucky this weekend. Buh bye, sucker. And stay out.

Here's what's been happening inside the house. The sinks are installed and water is connected. It smells realllly bad, but that should clear up sometime. We also have toilets, but flushing them wouldn't exactly be an improvement, olfactorily speaking. The water is quite sulfurous.

If you click on any picture it will open up larger, and if you look to the right in this picture you can see the dual controls for the master shower. They had been installed last week, but weren't at the same height. One was about a half inch higher than the other, and that's the sort of thing that's pushing off our closing date. Our mantra is now, "If they did it right the FIRST time..." If we had a nickel for every time we've said that we wouldn't need 9 to 5 jobs. Finally the can lights in the great room are all at the same height-- the bulbs were at different depths. Again, not the end of the world, but it's a brand new house! People!

We also have a spigot on the outside of the house!













And this is proof that we have carpet! It's a very light taupe color. Not quite white but still light. We like it a lot.

Our lanai was screened in the other day, and it looks fantastic. No more little frogs everywhere, thank goodness. Here's the back of the house and a few more views from the inside.

Floors, glorious floors!

We have floors!!!!! Brad and I went up to the house this morning after church... and we have floors! They put down all of the laminate in the entry, great room, kitchen, and hall, and linoleum in the bathrooms and laundry room. It looks awesome!!!

What's left to do? Quarter-round shoe molding, carpet, plumbing (sinks and potties), and appliances. There are also a few finishing details (taking the dents out of the front door, etc.) But not too much!!!
































And of course we have to have a wildlife update. We see these signs around, especially near the airport of all places. No one we have talked to has ever seen a panther, but they have their own crossing signs!















And here is a picture of the ugliest, wart-covered "duck" we saw the other day. We were in Naples at the Pottery Barn store (a little taste of home! real stores!) and on the way out of the mall parking lot there was a herd of these ugly suckers by the road. They look a little like a skinny turkey, but I think they're ducks. Really. Ugly. Ducks.

Hilarious.

www.stuffonmycat.com

If you need a laugh, check out these (unharmed) felines in various piles of stuff. Thanks a bunch to our friend Sam Seaver for the recommendation. Too too funny.

Quick update-- the tile is finished in the bathrooms and it looks grrrrreat! There was also a thermostat on the wall which should be connected soon. Flooring is supposed to start this weekend!

School is going ok. Tuesday was really rough, and I cried the whole way home. (Thanks, Steph, for listening to me and encouraging me! I needed that!) I'm just not used to this caliber of disrespect from kids. It's hard to pour my heart into a job like this and then be treated so rudely. Some days are just really hard. But then Wednesday and today have been better, and tonight I made dozens of phone calls home to ask for parental support. We'll see how things go. Keep praying, please. I need spiritual support! After hearing about all those who could not leave New Orleans for lack of transportation or funds, I couldn't help but think of my student population. Most of them would be in the same position, and it breaks my heart when I think about it.

Gasoline down here is about $3 a gallon tonight, with long lines at every gas station I saw on my way home. What is it like where you are? It made me wonder what society would do if we truly had a big gas shortage. Massive carpool programs? Seriously, what a change we could be in for if all the panic is warranted. Maybe I could quit my job and work from home...

Have a great Labor Day weekend, everyone. Grill something and enjoy your loved ones! Say a prayer for the suffering ones in the New Orleans area.

(edited to say that I don't mean to suggest grilling your loved ones... I just meant to grill some food item and then, separately, enjoy time with your loved ones... or grill food together, but don't grill each other... oh, you know what I meant. Brad, people understand me. No one reading this is going to grill a family member just because of my nebulous grammar.)

And so far, Jim P. has dibs on September 14th and Kath's Mom has dibs on September 15th. Anything could happen, folks. And the prizes are gooooood. We'll make the prize fit the owner... perhaps a meal of fried grouper, tickets to the Red Sox spring training... this ain't no plastic flamingo door prize.

:)

Weekend update

We stopped by the house on Saturday to see how things were going. They have the tile up in the master bathroom! It's going to be so nice!! Even the shower has a vaulted ceiling.

And we have house numbers! But they're glued onto the house. No kidding. Sometimes I wonder what people are thinking... hot glue-ing house numbers onto stucco...? Bizarre. But we can get mail sometime, I guess.





And then on Sunday we celebrated Makena's first birthday. She is a doll with the most fun and easy going personality. Everyone who sees her loves her! We all ate at Longhorn Steakhouse and opened presents after some other tables cleared out. Ralph and Chris bought her a foam chair covered in Elmo fabric and she looked like a queen on her throne.

Sunday night we went to the newcomers' dinner at Summit Church-- and loved it. We sensed that it is a church that is truly governed by God and not by man's agenda. As a result, it is growing like crazy and has a history and scrapbook of stories to make your hair stand on end. It was encouraging to hear how surrendered the leadership is to God's direction, and we're excited to get involved. We feel really fortunate to have found a church home so quickly. Now for those of you who know Brad's and my theological beliefs, don't be surprised when I tell you that it is affiliated with the Southern Baptist convention. Their doctrine is not dictated by the Southern Baptists-- instead, they support the Southern Baptist convention because of the convention's incredibly well-developed mission strategies and network. Summit is a church which is committed to missions in word and deed, so they plugged into the Southern Baptists since they're the best around. So we might see prophecy and healing, and maybe even a woman preach sometime. They're not against God moving. Yet another reason we're excited to get involved.

That's all for now. Love to you all! And vote for your favorite closing date! Leave comments! We love to hear them. (Seriously, Kath comes home from school and checks the blog first thing to see if any lovely visitors have said anything. Please? Please?)

Are you working today?

I bet YOU didn't get the day off today! Due to dear Katrina threatening the state, I have the day off of school! Yay! Fortunately the hurricane moved across the state south of us, so the most we've had is a light wind and some wimpy sprinkles. Almost makes me feel guilty for having the day off. But not quite.

Brad is off at work with Ralph, dealing with the accounting for our builder. He might have more information regarding a closing date when he gets home tonight. Last night we went up to see the progress, and things are coming along. The grass was finished and was being watered-- the sulfur water is going to be something to get used to-- pee yew. But it's a lawn, and for that we are grateful! Also, the lighting fixtures in the bathrooms were installed and the walls are nearly finished. They had had to cut some holes here and there to move wires, etc., and those holes are patched and finished. We also have a doorbell! I think that's all so far.

Yet to do: flooring, appliances... and I think that's about it! Oh, and another set of sliding glass doors. If they don't replace those too-big doors we're going be overrun with little froggies. I don't like things that go squish in the night.

Oh- we also killed another black widow spider in our bedroom yesterday. Which reminds me, I need to research exterminators. There's a company down here called Truly Nolen whose technicians drive yellow cars and trucks with ears and antennae attached so as to look like various pests. I might look into using them.

Speaking of pests, yesterday I had two more wildlife encounters before school even began! As I was walking from my classroom to the main office through the courtyard, I was raced to the door by a rat! He was a little smaller than the size of two fists and ran like the dickens toward the door. When he saw me he turned around and ran down the hallway the other way. A second later a janitor down that way saw the rat running toward him, and began stomping his feet like a sumo wrestler, causing the scared rat to turn around again and run back toward me. So I started stomping my feet, but since I'm not a large black man he wasn't scared of me. Ack! I kept stomping and finally it turned and ran into the courtyard away from me. Then, as I was walking out of the mailroom, I encountered a dried lizard on the ground. Yuck. I've had about enough of the wildlife. Man, the things I never thought about in Chicago!

Tonight is dinner out-- Brad has been treating me like royalty lately, taking me out to dinner often and coming up with date ideas left and right. For a non-planner, he is amazing and serving me so well! So I've made reservations at one of his favorite restaurants for tonight to try to treat him a bit.

Tomorrow the men of the family (Ralph, Brad, Jeff, and Rico), have plans to go to a Miami game-- Dolphins, maybe? If the storm isn't still going on in Miami they'll head out in the afternoon and get home late. Then on Sunday we have a lunch birthday party for cute Kena who turned one on Wednesday, and then a dinner for newcomers at Summit Church where we've been going lately. Makes for a busy weekend, full of fun and family!

Keep the bids coming in for closing dates! Brad and I are having fun coming up with fun prize ideas!

Don't feel so good...

I woke up Sunday with a scratchy throat, but after yelling at kids for two weeks I didn't think much of it. Well, by this morning I was convinced that it's time for my annual bout with bronchitis. Scratchy and tight throat, hacky cough, congestions... I could feel it getting worse. And since I'm new and haven't had much by way of orientation, I didn't know how to get a substitute. So I went in to school, but by the time I got there I was convinced it wasn't a good idea.

Here's how God blessed me today:
1.) There's a sub that works at our school part time, so she took most of my classes and they pawned the rest off on two other teachers.
2.) I called my doctor in Skokie who has seen me twice before for Fall Bronchitis, and he called in a prescription for a Z-Pack (Zithromax, the amazing 5-day antibiotic that kills my bronchitis.) No need to find a doctor or clinic down here, saving time and lots of $$$ since I'm uninsured this month. Health insurance kicks in in a week.
3.) After being denied by Walgreens (they said there's a Florida law stating no prescriptions can be filled from out-of-state doctors unless its a refill), CVS accepted my prescription.
4.) Brad picked up the prescription and it only cost $12! I thought for sure it was much more-- I seem to remember it being a lot, but it wasn't!

Such a relief. I remember a few years ago missing a week of work, seeing a doctor, and paying for my prescription while I was temping, and the whole shebang cost me about $500. I feel blessed to catch it early and pay so little this time. Thank you, God!

After sleeping most of the day and also looking at home-improvement / decor websites some of the afternoon, I'm ready to go out. We're going to get a gourmet meal of Pizza Hut thin crust and then go see the March of the Penguins, or as my sister used to say, "pink-ones."

It looks like we'll close around the 15th of September, maybe earlier. I hope earlier since Mom, our first visitor, is coming that day. We were hoping to get in and paint for a week and then move stuff in before she got here to help organize, but no luck. Thanks for being flexible, Mom. And since the closing date has changed three times and the newest one is a maybe, we decided to have a contest to see who can guess the correct closing date. Submit your guess on a comment and if you're right, we'll have a prize for you when you come visit. Key lime something, or your very own frog to take home. Just kidding-- we'll make it good. To help you win, I'll let you know that as of last Wednesday we were told 30 days. So there. Good luck to all! And no fair calling our builder to fix the contest. Unless it moves the date closer. Then you get double prizes.

Also-- news flash-- Southwest Airlines is beginning service to Fort Myers airport October 2! It's another option for low-cost visits! They have promotional fares right now for $115 round trip if you travel midweek. That's amazing. Dear readers, be thinking of times you might like a break from the cold. Our only visitors scheduled so far are Mom in mid-September, Dad for my birthday October 22 (that weekend), and Steph for two weeks over Christmas. We'll be coming home, er, north mid-January for Mom and Steph's birthdays.

If you're thinking of coming down here, check your schedules, check out the low-cost airlines, and give us a holler. Y'all come down, ya hear?

Out of O'Hare:
Spirit Airlines
USA3000 Airlines

Out of Midway:
AirTran Airways
Southwest Airlines

There are others-- as I think of them, I'll add them.

Mortgage, Mac Grill, and Mucho house improvements, and some wildlife

Saturday has been full of adventures. First we met with yet another mortgage guy. Gomaa happens to be a friend of our builder and as it turns out, may be our best deal yet. We'll hear more on Monday about what the interest rate will be, but regardless he had more options than we've seen with our Wells Fargo person. We're both hopeful that this will work out well.

Afterward we went to Macaroni Grill for lunch!!! I haven't been to a Mac Grill since I lived in Baltimore three years ago, and no one beats their chicken parmagian. Brad found something he liked on their eye-talian menu-- a filet. My man loves his meat and potatoes.

After lunch we stopped by the house. We heard they were putting sod in this weekend, and lo and behold, they had! We have grass, at least on most of the lawn. I think they ran out as our side yard is bare. It looks good, though, and screams for a good watering and mowing. It's called ba-HEY-ah grass-- no idea what that means, but it's one of two kinds of grasses you can get down here. Believe it or not, the upgrade was St. Augustine grass which gives a lush grass appearance, but in reality is just a big old lawn of crabgrass. And that's the upgrade. We opted for the poor people grass, and we're happy with it.

We also have gutters now! The soffits were put in under the eaves a bit ago, and the gutters finish the look. They also ensure that we won't have a lake in our front porch when it rains.