of endings

Woke up this morning in excruciating pain again. I get the feeling this is going to be a regular occurrence for the next few weeks. Ulgh. So. Not. Looking. Forward. To this.

In other news, one of my pain medications is also used as an anti-depressant. So, I might not be depressed in the next few months? Haha… interesting.

I stumbled around my room, bending over like an old pregnant woman. It’s depressing. I used to totally take it for granted that I could just bend-in-half to do, well, just about everything. Bending straight down from the waist is super convenient. For getting ready in the morning, cleaning your room, getting up out of bed, and numerous other things. You have no idea how much you use your abdominal muscles until you can’t or don’t want to because it causes pain. For me, I can use them, it just hurts a lot because it causes me to use the nerve that is affected by the shingles. It also hurts to slouch. Who knew.

Headed to church – I thought, on time, but I got there 5 minutes late for worship practice, for which I was kinda bummed about, but it wasn’t an issue at all. Still bummed though. Then after practice I walked around a bit and got some coffee at the coffee shop. Bud was really depressed. It was surprising. He was on the verge of tears the entire time I was getting my coffee.

Then I saw Kali, and she was already a mess. It was sad to find out that her Dad let her down and bailed on the whole song for the special offering that they were going to take for her to go to the Masters Commission up in Minnesota in a few weeks. So between that and the fact that I was leaving – this was my last Sunday at church, she was pretty down.

I found myself telling people not to be sad. I mean, I wasn’t crying. Did that make me a heartless person? (Or was it just that I’m on this anti-depressant/pain-killer? Lol) or is it because I know it’s foolish to get worked up over goodbyes? I have no idea, because it’s not like I don’t get worked up over goodbyes. I mean, I am going to miss all these people so much. Good gravy, yes, I am. It’s going to be hard going back to Oregon after having been here all summer. I haven’t been away from home and away from everyone I know in Oregon for this long since I went to Belhaven a few years ago. But even then, that was for school, and I didn’t really get to know a lot of people in the community like I have here.

Then during worship, I was supposed to play a solo of the chorus of a song… but I realized three notes in that I wasn’t supposed to play it at that exact time. Whups. But I just went with it anyway and finished it because if I stopped mid-way everyone would notice. Trick of stage performance: never let people think things happen unintentionally. The show must go on. haha.  Sooo I sat down at the back during announcements right after that feeling kinda like a dork, but oh well. The only people who knew were the worship team.

Then right as Pastor Dan was starting up his sermon, he gave a shout-out to me about how they have loved my playing and will miss me, as it’s my last week here in Shenandoah. It’s amazing how sweet all of the people here are. It’s one of the things that always manages to catch me off guard.

Then after church I passed around some bracelets that I had hand-made in the last few days for all of them. I’ll miss them a lot. Some of them had a harder time accepting my departure than others. They all wanted me to stay forever. There was a lot of hugging, and me consoling them that it would be alright, and then Danny wanted to give me something that he had been wanting to give me every day for the last week. His old guitar. Yup, this kid has the hots for me. I had to convince him that I could not take it because it was his instrument, and because there was zero way I could get it back home with me on top of everything else.

Before Kali left, I made sure to give her the package I’d assembled for her, which included a notebook/journal, some of my favorite pens for her Master’s program, and a really good book for her to work through.

I could really go for some chicken nuggets right now. Why I am telling you this, I have no idea.

Then after more and more and more goodbyes and hand-shakes, and hugs, Erica wanted to do something for lunch when she found out that I had no plans. So she, Ashley, Tricia, and her brother Michael, and I went over to El Portal (where everyone goes after church because it’s kinda the only restaurant in town) for lunch. We saw a lot (and I don’t just mean like two or three, I’m talking like 10-20) of people from church there.

Then after lunch, I came back home. Erica had handed me a box and I opened it when I got to my room. A hilarious Hoops and Yoyo talking card, and a beautiful scarf were inside. So sweet.

Then I set to work cleaning my room and organizing things more (yes, I do continue to destroy it on a daily basis, thankyouverymuch). Then I vacuumed. I can’t do that enough, it seems. As it’s Sunday, there isn’t a whole lot of much I can do for the rest of the day. I visited with Jan a bit, watched a movie on my computer, tried to update my blog, but fell asleep for a few hours, and woke up only to find that I’d managed to type some garbled nothings while I was asleep.

Tomorrow is Monday. I’m hoping to do a few things tomorrow. I believe the plan is still for me to meet up with Susannah on Tuesday for lunch in St Joseph or something like that. So pretty much everything else that I want to do in Shenandoah has to be done tomorrow. Which, isn’t a whole lot, but still.

Weird how things come to such a close like this.


Recent updates:
August 17: "of an epic all-nighter"
August 20: "of roat tripping"
August 21: "of misery and a bowling adventure"

of road tripping

Soo… I worked today for a few hours and then talked with Susannah. Tons of facebook messages and posts later, we finally figured out a potential time for us to hangout/meet up. I’m so excited. I can’t even begin to say. How incredibly. Excited I am.

I ordered a book for Kali, but three weeks later, and it’s still not here. It’s too late to order another one online, and there are no, zero, zilch bookstores around here. The closest are in the big cities around an hour away. So, decidedly, I realized I still needed to go through with my plan and get her the book. I called Borders books up in Omaha. Didn’t have the book in stock. Barnes and Noble closed too early for me to make it there on time. So I started calling Christian book stores in the Omaha area. Parables. Had the book. Open til 9. Perfect. Deep in Omaha. Not so awesome. But at the same time, I wasn’t too worried about it. After getting permission to drive up to Omaha in the Buick, I quickly showered and headed out. Slightly crazy, yes, but basically just what I needed at the moment. A road trip. I love road trips. I don’t take long enough ones, or take them often enough.

So there I was, driving through a city I’d really never been in before (I’d been in Council Bluffs a few times, and the downtown area of Omaha, but there is a huge part of Omaha that I’d never seen in my life). I was in the Buick. On a five-lane interstate. Awesome. Probably the largest interstate I’ve ever driven on by myself. But I wasn’t too afraid. I didn’t have the use of one of my mirrors because it wasn’t working and only showed me the sky, but I didn’t let it bother me and just checked my blind spot when I needed to. All I had for direction was my open laptop with a google maps page still up, but no further internet access and no other map.

I just want to say: I got there without a problem. So, yes, I did not turn left when I was supposed to at 114^th, but at the same time, I will have to say that I was 3 lanes over (and there were two more to my right). So I just went up a block and turned around. No problem. It was an adventure for sure. Good gravy Omaha roads are insane.

I just want to say though; I was not expecting Parables to be such a massive store. It was awesome. My book was waiting for me at Customer Service (they asked if I wanted them to hold me a copy when I called up there). After getting my book, I walked around a bit and looked at everything. It was fun. Then I headed off back towards Shen, but before leaving the area, I stopped into the Target (and Panda Express: the most tricked out, huge Panda I’ve been in) and got myself a few things.

I really didn’t want to go back to Shenandoah. I wanted to hop back on to I-80 and go west. Back to Oregon. I wanted to drive the whole way. I didn’t care that I didn’t have any of my things with me, or that it would take me a few days. I wanted to drive it. But I knew that the car would not make it that far and that I also had a paper to write.

Maybe next time I come out this way I can drive? That would be so awesome. Maybe I could make a country voyage out of it. Dipping down even to Mississippi to visit people? I don’t know if my Subaru would make it, but I don’t really see why not. It’s worth the idea anyway.

Anyway, I will just have to say that this Omaha adventure is one that I’ll likely not forget for quite some time. It was pretty epic, even though I didn’t actually do much, I did it all by myself (haha: I’m a big kid now).

After getting back up to Shenandoah, I contemplated being an awkward creeper and doing my homework in the car in front of the library, but decided against it as the light from my computer would likely bother me after 20 minutes, and I still have to use other sources from my textbook and that would be difficult without a proper light.

I have this awkward pain on my abdomen. I have no idea what to make of it. It’s hot, cold, itchy, and just there, but invisible. I have this epic bug bite on my back, but it’s almost like the bite hit me in the back, but then went through my body and hit on the inside wall of the front of my body. No idea… and not that you really needed to know that anyway.

…the Benadryl I took for my bites is starting to kick in. I know this because I’m getting tired and my typing skills have gone to pot.

Bed.

of missing alarms and watching movies with persons

Apparently my alarm went off at 8 like I set it for, but I honestly do not remember it at all. No recollection. None. Whatsoever. So lame.

So anyway, my attempt to get up early and do something with my life ended up in me missing out on the entire morning and then also missing out on most of my shift at work, and thaaat when on so far as to me calling in to work asking if they still wanted me to come in (my shift had been switched yesterday afternoon without even so much as a concern as if it would be alright with me to switch it like that) so I just said that I’d forgotten about my switch and stuff, and they ended up not needing me anyway (I was kinda surprised that they hadn’t called me earlier, but apparently they had not been super busy so it wasn’t really even an issue) it was Thursday after all, and those days aren’t super busy at lunch time.

Then, realizing I didn’t need to worry about going into work, I cleaned my room a bit (one would think it would be ok by now, but apparently I manage to destroy it on a daily basis anymore), and then showered before having Jan drive me down to ShenAG early because of her needing the Buick before heading off to Clarinda for her bi-weekly yoga class. Plus, I figured that I could at least attempt to whip out some homework before worship practice started. Which didn’t end up even starting on time because Erica had gone down to Maryville and had gotten stuck in construction on her way back. Not an issue though because we were all there. So then we practiced the songs we will sing on Sunday, and she included a few pieces for me to do solo work. They are mainly just the chorus line of a few hymns that I’m actually familiar with, so it shouldn’t be a problem.

After worship, Erica mentioned that she really wanted to see Dinner for Schmucks, so we met up with Tricia at the theater (Thursday = student id night special. w00t. such are the benefits of always flashing my student id at movie theaters). The movie actually wasn’t the greatest, but I suppose it could have been worse (somehow…) but the thing that made it all worth it for me was that Roy from the IT Crowd played a blind, French fencer. So ridiculous.

After the movie, I noticed that I had a new voicemail, so after Erica drove me home (since I drove my invisimobile) I listened to it. It was from Jim. He mentioned they were going to watch Princess Mononoke over at Nancy&Co’s around 9:30pm. I thought I had missed it, but it was only just after nine at that point. So, as I had walked through the majority of the house and seen nor heard anyone, I called Nancy&Co’s to see if the party had already started without me (which would be weird, considering both cars were still in the drive). No, she said she had expected them to be there by now, but no one was there yet. So I went downstairs, and it was like magic. People that weren’t present were there (lol). So, as I knew I was not going to get anything productive done, I might as well be social and watch the movie with peoples, so I went over. Plus, I hadn’t seen Princess Mononoke before.

When we got there, we had salad, and Robby vented to me about how he hates being a sophomore because it means he has to go to bed all the earlier and has a lot of homework and the work is harder. But I’m sure he’s doing fairly well, and well, it comes with school. Going to bed early… well, at least in high school. And sleep is always good… perhaps I should try to go to bed by 10.

Ha.

Like that would happen.

It’s a nice idea though.

Got back to the house and skyped with Kim and facebook chatted with Kali for awhile and generally bummed out on my computer for far too long. Tried to potentially get something together to meet up with Susannah before I head back to Oregon – which is like, 5 days away!!! How crazy is that? So crazy.

Its after 1. I should go to bed. But am I? no… dumb.

In other news, this is my new favorite song. Who knew that Zac Levi from Chuck could sing? So tight.

of epic an all-nighter

Soooo last night, yeah, somehow I managed to stay up for the duration. I don’t know how it happened. But it just, well, did. I was up at 12 and knew i’d probably be up for a few more hours, but once 2 hit after skyping with Kim, and her wondering why she was up at midnight, I was up at 2, I wasn’t sure how much longer I’d be awake. I was hoping to go to bed soon, but my mind was still racing like crazy

(don't ask me about the lines, i have no idea why they are there... they're driving me crazy)


Then 4 came along. By this time, I had made the final decision to add more excitement and spice to my life by coloring my hair again. I kinda freaked out when I pulled off some of the highlighting kit after awhile, but the funny thing was that I knew that would happen. I mean, it’s what I was hoping for, it’s just that the initial shock is always there to surprise me with the: holy chamois: my hair is blonde. But I like it. Then I showered and skyped with kim while making more bracelets some more before cleaning my room. And then cleaning my room and then putting more things up on my walls, and then kim went to bed and I kept putting things up on my walls and kept cleaning, and doing random things on my computer, cleaning more, organizing more, putting more things up, bumming out on my computer more. It just didn’t make sense to go to bed. I mean, seriously, I wasn’t tired.

Then my alarm went off at 6:00am to get ready to meet Annette for our bike/chat date. Woah. 6? Already. How insane is that. I mean, I wondered if I might end up staying up the whole night, but I never really thought it would really, really happen, and I didn’t do it intentionally. I just wasn’t tired.

So I did my best to wrap up the cleaning, get… dressed? and head out on my bike to meed up with Annette just on the other side of the Nishna/Airport and Hwy 59 intersection. Of course, leave it up to loser me to stumble half way through that intersection with cross traffic nearing the signal. Fail. But thankfully I had my lights on, so I made it through safely because they saw me there.

Then Annette and I biked back over to the church and decided to just stay there as it might rain were we to bike around or sit at a park (plus, it was deathly humid). After a few hours of talking on the couches at the church, I biked back to the farmhouse. The whole way back I had started to feel the whole you’ve-been-up-for-too-long kinda thing and was quite nauseous. But I made it safely back to the farmhouse and went straight to bed. Napped for five hours before heading to work. I was so confused about what day it was and what time and all that when I woke up from my nap. It was around 2pm, but it was kinda overcast (very Oregon weather) and looked pretty much like it could just about be any time of day.

Worked 4-8 with Philip, Jenny, and Amber and we generally had a good time. Between Amber laughing at all my stupid sayings and jokes (surprises me every time), and Philip is awkwardly a high school football player, so everything is flirting from him. But we have a good time, between the laughing, jokes, fake-complaining, the occasional (and annoying) gossip about the co-workers and regular customers, making of set-ups, and rag throwing/hitting, it’s always fun.

Looking back on it all, I realize that I had slept in until noon the day before my epic all-nighter (my second on record), so really, it was no worse as if I had stayed up til 3 after getting up at 6 the same day. Which I’ve done before (more times than I would like to say). So the whole staying-up-all-night isn’t nearly as awful or epic as some might like to think.

of little work and an evening in Clarinda

Noting that virtually no work could be done in the garden and there was no further plan to put forth any effort into setting up the compost bin, and the chicks had yet to arrive, and everything (be it a pool) is already set up for that. So I slept in. Granted, it was only til 9, but then I bummed around and finished my most recent book. It was a good morning. Ha, though, I must admit that I woke up at my usual time of dark-thirty to go outside out of habit. Didn't actually get up though.

Cleaned my room - something that I was behind about a week in doing. It was sad how long it took me to pick everything up... I mean, I don't even have all that much stuff here, but it'd managed to find its way all over my room.

Worked on a bit of homework, but didn't really get to anything productive, which is kinda lame - just means I'll have to complete it all tomorrow, but that's ok, I can do that. Might go to the church to work on it. Cool, quiet, little distractions. Uncertainty of wireless = potentially very productive day ahead of me tomorrow.

Little known fact about me:
I've been keeping track of how many days I have left, by the ever dwindling quantity of gummy vitamins left in the bottle I got a few days after my arrival.

The chicks arrived today. I didn't really want to go down because I'm not really for the whole empty swimming pool idea... but anyway, managed to go out later and saw them. Yup, cuteness overload to the max. Wanted to name them, but there's just too many, and I don't want to get attached to them like that. It's sad, really. I'm going to try to care for them as much as I can, but other than that, I can only pray that they survive to full fledged chickens.

Jan went to her support group out in Clarinda -- I only know this because the car I was going to take into town to do some homework was gone. But it's not a problem, I mean, I can do stuff here, or take the bike.

Then around 4:30, I realized I should be heading over to the church for worship practice... going outside, the car was gone again. Jim was out getting some things at the feed/hardware store in town, and I didn't know when he'd be back, and considering how I'm still lacking the skillz to drive a manual (will anyone with a manual in Corvallis please teach me how to drive their car this next year?) I just took off with my bike; violin in tow.

Worship practice went a bit longer than anticipated, so Erica and I weren't ready to go to the Garrison House until 6:38, and Ashley was already in Clarinda waiting for us... kinda a bummer, but we headed out in that direction with Tricia anyway. Once we were almost to Clarinda, Ashley called saying that they'd changed their hours and were only open til 7... it was currently 7:02pm. Bummer. So, no cute coffee house, or fun music. But instead, since we were just about 2 minutes outside Clarinda, we went to J's Pizza instead. It was good pizza, and a lot of fun just talking with them. J's Pizza is really cute. Tacky wall paper, paneling, and oddly/obnoxiously pink tables and chairs. Not to mention all the people packed inside talking across tables and laughing amongst everyone. It felt like one big family reunion (who knows, anything might be in this area... kidding).

After pizza and talking about life, church, weather, family, and everything in between, we went over to McDonald's to hit up their smoothies. We sat outside, taking in the evening and continuing our conversations of the evening before heading home.

of homework, church, and growing corn

Today I spent a lot of time in my room, reorganizing things (apparently I do that a lot here), showered, did a bit of homework and sorting of what I'm going to do today.

Jim came in a bit later and said that if I wanted to, I could look into what it would take to redecorate my room. Ha. That's funny. I'd entirely given up on that. Time, money... things I don't have ready access to. It's not really a top priority anymore for me. I mean, if it's available, sure, I'd be down for it, but otherwise, I see zero point in getting my hopes up again. Spatter Disaster it remains.

However, the bed helps more than you can imagine. I can't even begin to say how awesome it is. I can't wait to crawl back in it. It's one of those things you never think about, but I feel like I've almost practically "arrived" now.

After that I went down to the library to return the first of the HP movies that I'd watched. Then I did a good bit more of homework and worked on my internship stuff. I really need to get in my graduate school application. I just have so much on my plate right now, I'm kinda going insane almost, I guess. It would be enough with just this class and all the reading for it that I have to do, but no, there's papers for it too, and I need to study for the CBEST and register and take it sometime in the next 5 months, same with the ORELA and another one of those big, expensive exams. Ulgh. So frustrating.

Came back to the house, talked on the phone with mom some, noticed that the guy was here to plow. I was kinda surprised, considering how wet the soil still is, but there he was. He knows a lot about gardening. He and his family keep one that's a bit smaller than this every year with help from other family and such. He said after his first year, he dumped 16 tons of sand on the land, tilled it in three times and then the land became more workable. It's not a super exciting idea, but it's what needs to be done.

Then I went to the Wednesday night service at Shenandoah Assemblies of God. Met up with Annette, the pastor's wife and we talked for a bit before going into worship. Afterwards, I met Trisha, who is quite a bit older than me, but still in her 20s, still single, and still living in the area, so we talked for awhile and exchanged numbers. She works a good amount, but she's still planning on going to the baseball game on Sunday. Then I met Erica, who is the worship leader, and another young woman from the area. She got super excited when she found out that I play the violin, and I'm scheduled to join the worship team practice tomorrow at 5pm. I'm actually really excited more than nervous, like I thought I would be. I really can't wait to get my violin out, tune it, and play.

After church, I went on a long bike ride around the Shenandoah area. It was really nice. Then just before I got back to the farmhouse, I stopped and went into the cornfield to listen to the corn grow. Yes, my friends. You can hear the corn grow. It's the trippiest thing. Love it, haha.

I'm hoping to do a bit more reading tonight so I can whip out my homework tomorrow afternoon before worship practice. Pastor Dan said that they're going to try to get either a carpool or a van going to AdventureLand on Friday, so I should plan to meet at the church at 8am on Friday. Woohoo. That should be fun :)

I'm also contemplating getting up at darkthirty tomorrow morning to work in the garden, getting some more tomatoes in the ground so I don't look like I'm completely useless - plus, it'd be a good thing to do now that the soil is actually somewhat usable now that it's tilled.

of updates and books

I really didn’t want to update my blog and go through with more detail about the last week or so, but I figured that if I didn’t’ do it now, I probably never would. So, if you are wondering, there are a lot more posts here and yes, I technically just put them up today, I didn’t actually write them all today, I had them in a word document, but I’ve been too lazy and lacking internet enough to go through the effort to update and publish them. I just figured that it’s been too long since I’ve really updated, and that if I don’t now, I never will. Plus, I’m getting tired of everyone asking me what I’m up to… lol. No kidding. I haven’t been updating you :P sorry…..

Got up this morning to goodness knows awful crampness. Took a shower, did some cruches, and lacking my awesome microwave flax thing, I did the next best thing. Outside. I went out on the sunken trampoline and read my book for several hours, just generally taking it easy and calming down too.

As I read, I would periodically get distracted by an airplane flying high above me and cotton fluffs floating towards the sky, wanting to float with them somewhere else. I noticed how loud it was here. It wasn't. I love it. With the exception of the slow, low rumble coming from the ethanol plant that is about a mile down the road, all you can hear is the bugs and the birds going about their daily business. 

After awhile, I was just contentedly ready and getting warm in the sun when I heard a growl. I looked up to see this little white dog sitting back on her haunches, fore-paws in the air, looking at me. "Jessie!" I called, and she loped towards me, super excited that I actually know who she was. She's our neighbor, Fred's little dog. She appears to be a Chihuahua/Jack Russell cross of some sort. She licked me when she got close and then proceeded to run all over me and around the trampoline about three or four times before stopping to get a few more pets and then taking off again towards Fred's garage. Soon, I could hear the faint sound of country music coming from Fred's Jeep Wrangler and before too much longer I saw him driving on the grass towards out soon-to-be garden with the disker in tow, little Jessie joining him in the passenger seat.

-------Newsflash-------

Internet is working at the farmhouse

PTL

(pray it doesn’t go out for any reason!!!)

I did some homework for my summer class, worked a bit on my paperwork for my internship, and then read more in my book. I actually finished it today. Heh... Then I cleaned and organized my room. I'm so much happier now that I am able to have My. Own. Space. Still no bed, but Jim did get slats for the bed frame today, which is a step in the right direction. He kept thinking it was a Queen size... it's a twin, lol. 

Then I went to the library and moseyed around there, looking at the books. Picked up a few that were for general entertainment to get into another world and away from movies or the reality that i'm in right now and then came back to the farmhouse. 

At one point today, apparently when I wasn't paying attention, Jan went out and got more groceries. She picked up some more cereal and a lot of veggies at my suggestion. I'm soo glad to have veggies again! I can't tell you enough how much I've missed them! We've pretty much just had cereal, pizza, rice, and meat for the last few days. Had a fantastic salad with my chicken kabob for dinner, and I've been up in my room, updating this blog ever since. Maybe now I can break out another one of the books I just got.

of libraries, and flooding rivers

I went out around 11 to the library to hit up the wifi there. I stopped at Walmart on my way to see if I could find a fun, plaid shirt for cheap. No such luck. They had some, but they were really weird, too small, or too hot. While I was at the library, I picked up a Nicholas Sparks novel. I’m not super into them or anything, but I kinda just wanted something to let me zone out into another world without having to watch another movie. It was interesting. They do use scanner barcodes with their Dewey Decimal System, but they stamp the inside of the books instead of giving you a receipt. I found it cute.

I’m thinking about riding my bike into town before I take my run and so that I can run in town. The idea of running along one long stretch of corn just doesn’t sound thrilling to me. Plus, it’s already hot, at least in town there are trees.

Got some more music while I was in town. It’s just pop radio stuff, but it’s fun, and it makes me happy. It’s surprising how life is different when you aren’t around people who are your peers all the time. It’s one of the few things that really remind me of my friends. I soak it up as much as possible.

And, good GRAVY, I’m sooo endlessly sick of people who are obsessed with Ron Paul. It’s driving me completely insane. They just talk about him like he’s this new fantastic potential leader that no one else in the entire universe can compare to, or something. I can’t stand it. He's not GOD, peoples!!! Stop making ALL of your conversations bend in a politically charged direction of exclamation about how amazing Ron Paul is while bashing everyone else in the world as ignorant of literally everything.

We went to Nancy’s house and picked up the bed frame (apparently no mattress), dresser and vanity. It’s Bowery heirloom furniture, so it’s super vintage. It’s awesome. Cleaned it and have it in my room now. I feel like I’ve finally arrived, it’s a good feeling to finally be able to unpack some of my stuff and get mostly up off the floor. Hopefully *fingers crossed* I’ll be able to get a mattress tomorrow.

For once in the world, Corvallis is 20% more humid than Shenandoah. When in the world does that happen?!?!

Rode my bike around and took some pictures of the flooding of the Nishnabotna River. I remember talking to DavidReeceandAndrewHartenstien (yes, it's one word... some friends would ask me who I was talking about, and apparently I said their names so fast it confused them) back in BA215 about the farmhouse out here in Iowa, and how inexpensive it was. Yes, it was not because it's a great house. It has acreage, yes, but it's actually a major fixer-upper. Also. Yes. it's basically on a flood plane. The 100 year flood line doesn't come up to the house, but the river went over it's banks yesterday, and the water started coming up pretty high considering how far away the actual river bed is from Airport Road.

EDIT: I edited some things out of this post because they came off a bit harsh and didn't want to seem like it was the-end-of-the-world. We were all just really hot because of the weather and stressed with the move.

It's not all fun and games here, it's still real life and people have real emotions, some less positive than others, which makes some situations more stressful, but by the grace of God I've been able to maintain my calm through everything.

slight change

So the move-in date has been set back some-what. This means I'll either be bumming it out on a couch, the floor or an air mattress for a few days (week, perhaps, more? who knows), or at another relative's house until the official move can take place. I'm actually ok with this. Maybe it's because I'm willing to be flexible about it all, perhaps it's because I really don't have another choice about it, I'm not entirely sure.

Regardless, it means I get to help my relatives and bless them with my God-given strength and can actually and completely be there to help them move their belongings from one house to their new home.

job...?

I'm switching between ultimate stress, fear, and excitement about the whole thing. I can't really do much about much right now in regards to the whole thing. I have a lovely pile of homework to accomplish tonight. Mostly referring to this stupid paper I have to write and an exam that is at 8am tomorrow (did he really post the 2010 key and think he posted the 2009 key??! hmm...).

I'm hoping to try to call some businesses in town tomorrow if time allows. *keeps fingers crossed* hope I'll remember to do so BEFORE 3pm, otherwise the best time to do so might be Tuesday morning. Ridiculous time difference, lol. Also praying hard that I can actually get a good job: one in agriculture, perhaps or even in a cafe or coffee shop (is there really only one?!).

I'm so stoked to paint and decorate my room! I'm not positive my budget, and I'm ok with only working with a little. But still... should I go modern? insane? country? other...?