BLUE NO MORE

The smaller bedroom upstairs at 1040 is blue no more. I painted it a nice neutral color by the name of SESAME. My goal tomorrow is to make the orange bedroom the same nice neutral color of SESAME.

Wairimu and I tore out the paneled wall in the smaller basement room along the outside walls so that the contractor could inspect the damage. We found an ugly red painted wall underneath the panelling that had lots of cracks, mildew and faded shades of red from the water seepage. There were plenty of spiders too.

I am so sore tonight. Wairimu said that I was in good shape. I guess she thought I could tear out a wall with gusto. Wairimu has been staying at 1156 the last few nights after spending the days in Detroit at a conference. She didn't need to be there until later today and thus was able to help me with the work for an hour or so.

We met with our new realtor and he wants us to fix the basement wall and to clean up more inside and repaint some rooms. I came home and promptly got a migraine. "His grace is sufficient." Pray that I will rest in His strength and get through this time.

Also, Pseudo had his little operation yesterday. He seems fine but woozy and a little sore. This morning he is more active but still untrusting so doesn't want me to pet him. He probably thinks I am taking him away again to that awful place.

Wairimu is here for a short visit while she attends a conference in Detroit. It is good to catch up with her again.

I speak tonight on campus about Amani. Such a busy time but fulfilling (except for that 1040).

It took a birthday to get me to blog.

I wish Justin a wonderful, fun-filled birthday. I wish we could be with you to celebrate. I'm sorry you're Edwardsless there for the day but we are with you in spirit. Pseudo wishes you a happy birthday too (he would if he could).

I have a meeting at 1040 today to talk about getting the basement fixed. Wished we had done it a year ago but it would have been hard to do before we moved. I have been stressed about this and just want the house to be sold and be done with it. Do you think I will get spammed from basement remodelers? I never notice the pop up ads so it won't do them any good.

New Joan Amani Blog

Check out this new one for Joan's Amani Blog.

Birthday greetings to Matt on this day when he was born 31 years ago. Wow! That day started out with a stomach ache (I thought) which turned out to be labor pains. I had never had a baby before so I called the doctor and said I had pains so bad that I couldn't stand up. They told me to come to the hospital. It's a good thing we did because he was born about 30 minutes after we arrived. This quickness of Matt's arrival caused his dad to miss it because he had gone back home to get our insurance papers. After waiting two weeks past his due date he was ready to come into the world. His grandparents and great grandparents from Akron had come for Christmas, hoping he would be born while they were there but alas had to go home because Matt was tarrying. They eventually made it back to welcome their first grandbaby with love and kisses.

Matt, I'm so glad to have you as my son and I'm proud of you. Have a happy birthday. MOM

MISSION ORGANIZATION. First, it is mission disorganization because you have to first sort through all the stuff and have piles all over the place before you can put away, discard or otherwise do something with all the STUFF! It's the week after new year's day and I am trying to sort through all the stuff we had left in the garage from our move. This week is big trash pickup so I am motivated to get it done and also put away the Christmas stuff. I still in the midst so there are piles of organized stuff that still have to find a place to live. I made a trip to goodwill so some of it found a home away from home. Yahoo!

We had a great Christmas break with Matt and Tracey here a few days and a one-day trip to see Grandpa and Matt and Tracey one more time before they head back to San Diego. New Year's Eve we had a get-together with about 20 people and enjoyed WII and SceneIt games.

November Memories

Days of cleaning, shopping and cooking. I did the first really thorough cleaning of 1156 on Monday and then went to Krogers at 10 PM in order to evade the crowds. Tuesday and Wednesday was filled with cooking in my beautiful new kitchen where everything has a convenient place and I have plenty of counter space.

Grandpa came on Wednesday and we had Swensons for lunch and a ham for dinner. Today I have a turkey in the oven and will have the usual trimmings. I'm trying a new recipe for the sweet potatoes that has apples in it. We'll see how it turns out.

We're enjoying beautiful sunny days and peace in our hearts.

Pseudo says "Happy Thanksgiving!"

A Shining Home Set on a Hill: Ready for Thanksgiving

Photo by Justin Edwards

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04 November 2006

Yes, it's me finally blogging. It's somehow wrong to enjoy everyone's posts when I'm not putting in my two cents worth.

Bruce and I have been enjoying rainy Portland. I've walked everywhere and learned to nagivate the free transportation available in the "free zone." I come back to the hotel every day with sore legs (from walking so much) and frizzy hair (from the rainy weather). I found a nice quilt shop but it wasn't open even though the door listed it as supposed to be open. So, the next day I traversed the miles again to find that it was open on the next day. I looked around but in my irritation about having to come twice I decided to punish the shop and NOT buy anything.

We're heading out today to go home but with the time difference we are up about 6 hours earlier than we need to so decided to get Starbucks. Well, the Starbucks isn't open on Saturday so we're taking advantage of the internet offered to the conference attendees and checking up on mail and blogs.

I am ready for some extended time at home getting more stuff put away and enjoying cooking in my new kitchen.

North Carolina On Our Mind

And here's Joan with her friend, Jesus.

Alaskan Vista

Mare, Mom, and Dad, close to Mt. McKinley (well, 500 mi. away).

I see in the previous post I mentioned the peacefulness of the new house. And it is much quieter here with much less traffic noise. I hear the wind rustling the leaves of our "forest" and because we are the only house at the end of a cul-de-sac there's not much traffic. We practically have everything out of the old house but a garage full of stuff here still to sort and put away. Most of the things we need for living though are away and the rest will need deciding about whether to keep or not. That work will wait until we return from our trips.

I put together Ikea bookshelves the last two days and now Bruce can get his office in order. I must say that it looks very nice.

The old house will have an open house while we're gone and hopefully will sell soon. It looks much more worn out empty so if we have no interest while we're gone I plan to spruce it up with paint. I need to get an electrician in soon because there's a live wire where we took out a basement wall heater that is dangerous.

I look forward to days of working in my studio and having classes here. We had a great get together for Harmon and Teri and I greatly enjoyed using my new kitchen.

I'm sitting in the new house just enjoying the peacefulness of it. We had our washer and dryer delivered yesterday and I am doing some laundry so I brought a camp chair and am knitting while the cycles go on the laundry.

Dad got the internet going here so I'm just trying out the blogger site. Have a good day.

See the Greenery of our Backyard Meadow

Happy birthday, Bruce. 54 years ago, a few months before I was born, there was a cute little boy born in Akron, Ohio. Little did he know that our paths would meet and we would spend a wonderful life together and have a wonderful family. I am so thankful that God brought us together. Hope your day is fun and stress-free. See you soon for our celebration!

The Pictures Don't Do Them Justice

Still Praying

We have an offer on the house but we countered and they accepted with an addendum that we felt was too open-ended so we are still negotiating. Hopefully we can work it out or perhaps get another offer from someone else. We have another open house this Saturday.

I hope to post some new pictures. I'm waiting for the mantel to be put up on the fireplace. The rock part looks amazing and I love it. They have to stain the mantel but that shouldn't take long.

The builder thinks we may get in September 15. I told him to hurry up, the sooner the better because of our offer. He knows we're still negotiating but the buyers would like to move Oct. 1 so if we close on the new house by Sept. 15 we will have time to move before then. Also, we have plans to travel the end of September so we NEED to get moved in before that!!!

Pseudo went to the vet today. We haven't heard anything so that means no problems with the surgery. We can get him tomorrow after 1 PM. Last night he went to sleep on my lap with much purring. He is so sweet.

Closer to Home

The Next Stages

Doors-arama

They are painting our doors and getting stuff ready. Here are some monotonous photos of the same.

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