A Ferly Day

Since my last post a lot has gone on here. I'm continuing with classes and getting ready for a change, but I guess I have a while to wait until next semester.

Two weeks ago turkey was on sale at Kroger, we decided to buy one and have our own thanksgiving since I will be in PA and Tyler will stay home for real Thanksgiving. I did all my research, looked up recipes for traditional dishes, watched videos on how to cook a turkey, and even made homemade gravy. Everything turned out wonderfully, except, when I went to carve the turkey (something I did not look up how to do, I re-murdered it) I realized that although I had gotten the neck out, I left the heart and liver in. Who decided they should be in a completely different spot? That's silly. But our Thanksgiving was delicious, and we are still enjoying the leftovers.

We have been working around the house gradually to keep making things more homey. This past week I went at our couch with a knife to fluff it back up. It looks 10x better, except for the scars... but I figure one I get a cover on it, that wont matter.

This weekend was exciting for us. We went on a date night last night to Hibachi, a nearby Japanese Buffet. Picture an oriental Ryan's with way better food and that is what it was. And today, I went to a signing lunch in which people from the Deaf community and the ASL students had lunch together and signed. Pretty self explanatory, but that was really interesting and fun for me. I love watching the 3rd and 4th year students knowing that if they can learn the language, I can too.

Well sorry there are no pictures. I have been finishing the editing of our wedding pictures and cannot work up enough energy to look through more.

Our Jaundiced View

My mom recently "got on my case" about not posting the definitions to the words in my post titles. So here it is.
Jaundiced     1. exhibiting prejudice         2. yellowed
                                                                                                                                                                          

As you know, we have had quite the time finding jobs. At first, my ideal job was being a nanny and cleaning some homes on the side. Applying for a job at college was the last thing I wanted to do, but I gave in and did it. It turned out that I got an amazing job, working for great people who will go out of their way to do things for me. My boss frequently asks me how Tyler and I are doing, if we are having any problems with the house, if we need anything etc. For Tyler, he didn't get the jobs we were excited about, and as more exciting jobs come along, we try to curb our enthusiasm and not get our hopes up. But I was reminded yesterday as I scrubbed out some very nasty sinks, that God does has a plan for us, we just are too narrow minded to see it. If we would open our eyes a little, we would see that every job that turns us down, is one step closer to the one that will be the best fit.

Just a thought.

On another note, we got our delivery of flowers on Saturday. It was too late in the evening to go and plant, but we got a chance on Sunday. Here are the pictures!

Here is the right side of our flower bed under our living room window, before we worked. As you can see, no one did anything before we got there. So we got out shovels and broke up the soil, and then went through and pulled out all the grass and roots.

Here is the after, its a little sparse, but Vicki is going to give us more and we can fill it in. I also have a lot of seeds that I plan to plant in the spring and that will fill it in also.

 Here is the left side of the bed, below our bedroom window.



Before

After

Here is the side bed

And this is the pile of stuff we got out of the beds. Yes, when we moved here there was a bale of straw. We plan on using it to protect some mums that my supervisor is going dumpster diving for in November at a nearby retirement village.

We did this today. There was a pile of bricks in our backyard, and a little landing off the back porch. We thought it would look nice to put a little border around the flowerbeds. Also, that should give a clue to the grounds people that we will take care of our own flowerbeds. At some point we need to dig down a little and set the bricks in.

And, for the right side, there are some landscaping bricks down in the ground around the edge that we are going to dig up and make look nice...and by we I mean Tyler =)

 The next thing on the list is to make curtains and couch covers so we can have a nicer living room.

Vesuvian... something'erother

Well, it has been quite awhile since I have posted, sorry about that.

Woops! One of the stains we found

We did end up getting to stay in the guest house, it was really nice to have walls that weren't white and trim that was not painted. So we enjoyed our little vacation especially because while we were in the house we had an unlimited meal plan at the school. We made a couple unnecessary trips to the campus restaurant to stock up on fruit, sandwiches, chips, and the only pop we'll have for a long time. Every night we checked in on the house and watched the progress.

When we got back to our own house, we were delighted with the non-mildewy bathroom. My allergies are still not doing well, but they are a lot better than they were. We examined the house a little and noticed some stains that the maintenance men had left. I talked to the landlord and he told me to talk to the head of housekeeping, lucky me, I work for housekeeping. My boss was so helpful, and that night we got our entire carpet shampooed. Praise Jesus!

Tyler and I have both been adjusting to our jobs. I have been getting a steady 20 hours a week and everything is becoming second nature to me. My boss has been giving me jobs everywhere so that I can learn all the different things on campus, along with jobs where I lead and train other students. I was talking to my boss the other day and it sounds like I may have a student supervisor job for the summer which is 40 hours a week and I think a higher pay. Tyler's job is going well, but he would like to find another. A Salvation Army community center is opening up in the area, and Bethel is having a job fair hosted by the center so he is going to try and get a job there.


My current excitement is all about plants. My boss and supervisors tend to adopt us students, and I have worked with one woman named Vicki the most. We have had a lot of conversations and after learning that I liked gardening she got very excited. She said that she will be thinning out her garden and would love to bring me flowers, so tomorrow she is bringing us daisies, lilies, black eyed susans, marigolds, mums, resurrection lilies, ground cover, and some other stuff. She has been saving clay pots that the school is throwing out and giving them to me, and likes to give me starts of plants that are all around campus. And, in the spring, she has promised to take me dumpster diving. =)

My cooking day last weekend. On the left is peanut butt and chocolate squares, and failed homemade potato chips. On the right is delicious chocolate chip bread and homemade tortillas (delicious and cheap).

The chocolate chip bread, we got two loaves out of the recipe!

Postprandial Adventures

Last week on Tuesday, both Tyler and I got calls for job interviews. Mine was with the school housekeeping department, and Tyler's with Kmart. Thursday I went in for my interview and they hired me, and I started working on Friday. On Friday Tyler had his interview, was hired, had orientation today and will start on the 25th. We are both so grateful to have jobs and be meeting people.

We've been keeping busy the last couple of days getting ready to move out. In order for the crew to come and do the remodel, all of our stuff has to be out of our bathroom and spare room. Also, we've been working at making sure everything in the house is put away so that we dont have to worry about the crews messing it up.

We get the keys to our temporary home tomorrow, and they will start working on our house at 6:00am Monday. I'm working my hardest to think ahead to all of the stuff we will need, including food and cooking supplies. Also, we need to be sure that I have everything I need for school. We will take some before and after pictures of the bathroom, but for now we have no idea what all they will do.

Our Own Chichi

Well, in case you were wondering about the title, I go to dictionary.com and check out the word of the day, and then I use it as a title. So, the definition of chichi is 'affectedly trendy'. Substrate was a much easier word to use.

Our house has been pretty normal recently. We've both been applying for jobs, I've done homework, and Tyler played games. In there was the official end of unpacking, and my random cooking adventures. I've found that most things I cook on a whim are fine, but every now and again I create things. Icky, nasty, things.

Boiled Bagels...BLEH

We haven't grocery shopped a lot because we weren't sure where we would end up financially, so we ran out of things to munch on. I decided that I REALLY wanted bagels. I looked up a recipe and got to work. The dumb things took 3 hours to finish, and were awful. They are the most tasteless things I have ever eaten, but I kept eating them trying to figure out what they tasted like.

On the other hand, some things turn out really well. I made pizza the other night and it was delicious. The crust recipe was different, but good. We didn't have sauce so I pureed diced tomatoes that had garlic and oregano in them. And then I topped the pizza with cheese, pepperoni, onions, venison sausage, and homemade bacon bits. SO yummy.

The other big news is that Tyler and I both have jobs. On Tuesday we both got calls to come in for interviews. So yesterday I went to the school housekeeping HQ, interviewed and was hired. The work limit for student workers is 20 hours a week, normally freshman can't do this much, but they have made an exception for me. Tyler interviewed at Kmart tonight and was hired, he will be working anywhere from 15-25 hours a week. Both are minimum wage jobs so we will keep searching, but the minimum wage here is a dollar more than in Wayne County.

Thank you so much for all of your prayers and encouragement, we really appreciate it.

Substrate of Mold

Isn't it pretty?? This is what greeted us from behind the toilet when we moved into our house. Mom and I were quick to discuss what we should do about it. After about a week, I had time to clean up a bit. I got my bleach water and sprayed the guts out of the little mold critters. I was so happy that the black mold came right off, unfortunately, what you see above did not. I also found standing water behind the toilet. =( I knew that our next step was to contact the maintenance department at the school so they could come fix the leak. (insert music of impending dooooom)

After I had gotten home from a crazy day of switching classes and transferring credits, I came home to find random guys walking all through my house and Tyler sitting in the office. (This never happens because the office is HOT) I soon found out that when Charlie went to check out the leak, the hose sprang off and started shooting water everywhere. It took them a long time to get it shut off because our shutoff valve is in a teeny tiny trapdoor outside (stupid).

 So the bathroom, hall, and part of the bedroom flooded. The maintenance guys worked for awhile, but sadly Charlie's son was in a car accident and he had to leave. Tyler and I hung around the house for awhile and tried to relax. The guys had set up a large blower and we had the air in our bedroom running. We got curious and did some investigating and discovered that the water had seeped under a wall and into our spare room too. Thankfully, nothing in there has any water damage. SO, we took a little stroll over to the physical plant and got ourselves a dehumidifier. They told us to keep the house closed up and it should dry.

In the meantime, our spare freezer started leaking, or something, but there was water under it. So we investigated that and just let it go to see if it still happened. Thankfully, nothing is wrong with it other than getting too warm between the hot water heater and dryer.

At this point we thought that we could finally just wait out the carpet, and it would dry. No biggie right??? Craziness done right??? Wrong.

We were Skyping Mom around 9 when we blew a breaker. This was something that was very common in our old house so we went to reset it, but it didn't work. Mom got Dad to come and Skype with us and after about 10 minutes we decided there was no hope. We were going to have to spend the night with power in only half of the house.

It has been too hot to even think about
sitting on our couches, we have been
"chillin" in the loungers

Now because we had the house closed, and it has been in the 90's the last two days, and we had no air conditioning, it was HOT. We spent the very warm night on separate couches in the living room. In the morning I got ready in the dark and headed off to class. When I got back later Charlie was back along with another man we had not met yet. We told them about the power and they called the electrician for us, Praise the Lord he got our power back on and helped us separate the circuits. We had air again.

As the guys were looking around and situating our fans (including the air, we are up to 4) I was doing homework and Tyler was with the electrician. Pretty soon the man in charge called us over, he wanted to have a conference with everyone. Oh no, what now?

This is what he said, "We've checked the walls, and they are pretty bad. Do you have another place you could possibly stay for a few days?"

 ..... seriously.....

It looks like they will have to replace the wall behind the toilet and vanity. We still aren't sure what is going to happen with us, whether we can stay here, or if the school has a place to put us up, or there was talk of a hotel. But I find it all a little humorous, and crazy. So much has gone wrong in the last two days, I'm just waiting to see what happens next.

I've decided I needed to take a few pictures to show you what else we've been doing.


They placed the blower so that is faces the toilet. We didn't think much of it until we walked in the bathroom and our toilet paper was flying around and unrolling. We've learned to tuck it behind the toilet seat to keep it safe. I say we need a Cottonelle roll cover.

In all of this, I was craving some kind of chocolate so I made no-bakes. They are wonderful straight from the fridge, we have been trying to find anything we can to cool us down. Pretty much, we've spent the day in bathing suits because its the coolest thing we have. Also, thank you Joe and Jen for the popsicles, I don't know what I would have done without them.

Tyler has used the time to clean up a bit, he cleaned up our porch and found a great way to hang the swings we got for Christmas last year.

Sorry this is a long post, it has been an eventful day.



Forefront

I've been trying to figure out what to blog about, and today it came to me -- forefront. I heard this word about 5 times today, and each time all I could think was "Isn't that word a little redundant?" Turns out, it is.
Fore-situated at or toward the front, as compared with something else.
Front- the foremost part or surface of anything.

So I decided today that I don't really like that word. However, it started my mind processes. What has been at the forefront of my mind and life recently.

1. Finances. Neither Tyler or I currently have jobs. We have both been applying and applying and applying but cannot get jobs. We've found some pretty exciting ones, but nothing has worked out. It is stressful, and unnerving having to pay bills and buy groceries knowing that we are overspending our income. I have been spending my time cleaning the house, yesterday I did the blinds. Tyler has been chilling, and going crazy. This being said, we are fine, don't send us money.

2. Friends. They are all elsewhere. This hit me square in the face last night when I took a little trip to Goshen to pick up a textbook. I got to spend some time with high school friends, and then some camp friends. Tyler has been stuck in the house so he hasnt really met anyone, and that is always annoying. For me, I have been at school but haven't spent a lot of time with people and don't have a ton of friends. We know that eventually we will meet some people, but it's always sad to think of the people we left behind.

3. Faith. We both knew that coming to Indiana would mean finding a new church and we were both pretty excited to do that. But I have been hit with the thought that not everyone believes what I believe, and that I need to process what I believe a little more. It's a good process, but a new one.

These are the three biggest things I have been thinking about. It's an interesting phase of our lives, but a good one. We are excited to see what is coming, but very very very impatient.

Moving On

A picture of the long road ahead of us

Hello all and welcome to our first attempt at blogging! It has always been an interest of mine, but I have never had anything interesting to tell others about. Not that I do now, but I figured a blog would be a great way for people to keep up with our lives and whats going on in Mishawaka.

The front of our new house, we plan to plant a flower bed next spring.

We spent all last week packing, and filled the trailer Thursday afternoon. After lots of sad goodbyes, we went to bed trying to get sleep before our moving day. Friday we woke up bright and early and ran some errands before heading out. Tyler and I left around 1 and Mom and Dad followed around 2. We arrived at our home at about 5:30 and were is shock. We really didnt expect much out of college housing for married students, but we were pleasantly surprised. As our landlord said, "It's no Taj Mahal", but it is perfect for us. We have two normal sized bedrooms and a midsized office. There is one bathroom, a living room, kitchen, large laundry, and back porch. I just found out today that we are the only married students with a backporch, what a blessing!

Our new pantry, hopefuly we can add to it soon!

We spent the evening moving everything in, and boy was there a lot. We were a little nervous about getting everything in, but only got rid of 1 loveseat, and put 3 dining room chairs back into storage. We have arranged the house into a nice, comfy home...filled with boxes.

Saturday Mom and I worked at getting the kitchen in order, while Tyler worked in the office and Dad got my computer set up, then we had some time to relax.

Mom and Dad left Sunday and Tyler and I were left with and overwhelming sense of being on our own. It was a great feeling though, and we are so excited to have a house. God has blessed us beyond what we imagined, and we are looking forward to making many memories in our new home.