Moving

We have FINALLY sold our house and will be moving out on Monday! We are super excited to be moving on to the next "chapter" of our lives. We can't wait to see what is in store. On Monday, we will be moving in with a friend of ours for a few weeks, while we look for a place to live.

We will be staying in Florida for now...just moving closer to my work...and our friends. Right now, I have about a 40 minute commute to work. (Monday will be the last time, I drive that. YIPPPEEEEE!) We are looking into getting either an apartment or a townhouse. (We are wanting to for go yard work for now.)

Please be praying that we see clearly the home that God has chosen for us and that Jonathan is able to find a job.

I am off to finish all the last minute things in the house. :o)

New Haircut and some pictures of Yoda!

Okay...so the expression on my face isn't the best, but this in the new haircut that I got this last Saturday. It is rather short, but I am really enjoying it being short especially in the summer time.

I have two more days until I am officially on my vacation!!! Yah for me! We leave on Friday for California and then on Saturday we leave for Hawaii...Maui to be exact. We are definitely looking forward to our first REAL vacation probably since we have been married. :o)

Here are a few pictures of Yoda too!

Yoda "playing" Blokus with Jonathan. :o)

Yoda and his monkey, which just about now has NO more stuffing in him.

Yoda taking a nap on a Sunday afternoon. You would have never guessed that it was over 100 degrees outside and 77 degrees inside, the way he is all bundled up. :o)

Saying Good Bye

This weekend we are saying good-bye to some amazing people. Let me rephrase that, it isn't "good-bye", it is "see you later." We will see you again! They are moving back to Colorado. The Pacheco family is greatly enriched our lives with the Love of Christ. What an amazing family...not a selfish bone in their bodies.

We love you guys and we will miss you greatly!

More on Yoda!

I just thought I would add a few new pictures of Yoda. Here he is getting his first bath. He actually stayed in the sink and didn't even whine. We are going to have bath number two tonight, so we will see if that was just a fluke or if he is really a good bather. :o)

We went to stay the night at a friends house a few weeks back and we had put Yoda in his crate for the night. When we came back in to go to bed ourselves this is what we found.

Apparently, he was a little cold. :o) (or scared.) He has been doing really good. Last night we went to a friends house so that her dogs could meet Yoda since we are going to be dog sitting for them starting on Friday. Both of their dogs are small dogs, so after some intial...who REALLY is the alpha-dog time...they did really great. I also, brought Yoda into my class to meet three of my kids yesterday and he did great then too. These are one year olds, so they can be pretty overwelming, but Yoda let one of them poke him in the face and all he did was lick them and sit in my lap patiently while they touched him. :o)

In about six weeks, Jonathan and I leave for a family vacation in Hawaii. We are really looking forward to "getting away" and spending some time somewhere that neither of us has ever been. My dad, his friend Anna, my sister and her friend Mona and Mona's sister will also be coming. It should be really fun!

I am sad to say that garage cleanning isn't going to well....I think that it is almost back to the "state" it was in before we started to clean it out. (see previous posts, if you don't know what I am talking about.) There seems to be new clutter in there. How does that happen?!!

Sounds like another thunder storm is getting ready to hit. I can hear the thunder. Time to go give Yoda a bath and then eat some dinner.

Yoda is home!!!

Yoda has been home now for about 36 hours. He is doing great. He is almost completely house broken and he really likes his crate. When I put him in there, he might whine for about 30 seconds and then he is quiet. He is such a good puppy. We are lucky to have him. I mostly wanted to get a picture of him posted for you guys to see.

He is currently crawled up in lap...that is actually where he spends most of his time right now...that is when Jonathan isn't teaching him how to be the best Jedi out there!! :o)

It looks like we FINALLY are bringing home Yoda. We met this adorable Chihuahua a little over three months ago. He has come to our attention two different times as possibly taking him home, but each time we held off. The third time, we aren't going to let him "get away". He is going to be free to us. What a blessing. I will be picking him up on Saturday. I am so excited!!! Last night, I went and picked up some supplies for him. Jonathan got this lite saver for him. Ok...it isn't really FOR him, but Jonathan wants to take some pictures of Yoda with it. :o)

This is a picture of Yoda that was taken about two months ago. :o) Isn't he cute?

An Update!!!

I has been FOREVER since I have posted anything. Sometimes I find it hard to find something interesting about my life to post about. (I don't' have children...yet and I don't have animals...or live in an interesting country...okay the USA is interesting but most of you also live here, so you already now what it is like to live here.) I figured it would be good to come and post a "life" update and then I wanted to tell you about a book I just finished reading. :o)

Jonathan is still looking for a job...as any of you who know someone who is out of work or you yourself is out of work...it is really hard to find one these days. We have decided to put the house on the market. Jonathan's parents actually own our house and they have been helping with the house payments, but we are now at a place were we really just need to sell it. We are selling it in a "short sale" which means we will take any offer and the bank is who has to accept it. It is basically "one step" up from going to foreclosure and it doesn't quit effect your credit the same way as a foreclosure might. (Besides EVERYONE is doing it, so we just decided to give into peer-pressure! ) :o) We have had a few showings on the house so far and it has been on the market for about three weeks. We actually have another one today. At this point you might ask me, "Where will you go when the house sells?". My answer would be something like this, "I guess we will 'cross the bridge when we get to it'!" I would say that because I have no idea what the "next step" is.

For those of you who read my previous posts about the garage project. I believe it is safe to say that we have entered the next phase. We were FORCED to finish up the boxes that were still in house when we put our house on the market and we gave away a lot of the furniture that was sitting in the garage to a family that needed it. I haven't taken any recent pictures of the garage, but I will have to do that and let you see. It still has much work to be done in there, but there is more space. Our goal is to be able to fit one vehicle in there, probably about the same time we accomplish that the house will sell. :o)

Okay now onto the book review. I just finished reading this book. A friend of mine recommended it to us and it was a really easy and good read. The back of the book cover says this...."In 2006, Jim Henderson, veteran Christian and director of Off The Map, hired Casper to join him in visiting twelve of America's best-and-least-known churches, including Rick Warren's Saddleback and Joel Osteen's Lakewood. Week and week, this spiritual odd couple attended services at churches all over the country and documented their experiences at and reactions to each one. Along the way, they found the real value of their journey in the open and authentic friendship that developed as they talked, questioned, joked, and....most importantly...listened.

Following along with Jim and Casper on their visits, and eavesdrop as they discuss what they found. Jim and Casper's articulate, sometimes humorous, and always insightful dialogue offers Christians a new view of an environment in which we've become overly comfortable, the church. And it models an important transition from 'defending the faith' to 'defending the space'...relational space for authentic, respectful dialogue and friendship with nonbelievers."

I will only say this about the book because I don't want to say too much for those of you that might read it, but it was amazing for me to read the book and think that an Atheist (oh did I mention Casper is an Atheist!) could have a stronger understanding of who Jesus was and the mission that He called us to. Believe it or not...that mission wasn't to do church the best...the biggest...or anything like that....Jesus called us to love others with the love of Christ. How many of us REALLY do that...really reach out of our "Christian bubble" and love those around us regardless of their beliefs...love them the same way that Christ loves them...unconditionally?!!

Alright...time to go cook breakfast...I am thinking biscuits and gravy!! MMMMM....I can taste it already!!!! Enjoy your weekend!!!!