It may seem kind of strange to be thankful for appliances, but we are...very. It is good to have a stove and a dryer again. We can cook normally, and we can do laundry at our own house.
On Wednesday, Rachel and I went to IL to Mom and Dad's to get the stove and a bunch of other things. The Gateway homes each have 15 passenger vans. The green one is called The Pickle, but we drove the white one which is called The Snowball. Mark and Luke took out the four bench seats. We felt like we were driving a small house. Dad and Bruce loaded the stove, two bookshelves and filled in the extra space with lots of boxes. (We have both boxes of games in Leo now. Yeah!) Then we had lunch with them and left around 2:30.
It is a straight shot on long straight roads, so Rachel's job was to entertain me. She did a great job! We enjoyed coffee--black for me, iced hazelnut for her, and we chatted and listened to CDs. We had gotten a history series of CDs from Vision Forum last year and had only listened to a couple of them so far. We listened to one by Dr. John Morris, who is a geologist that has spent 30 years looking for Noah's ark, as well as defending science from a creationist point of view. (He is in The Mysterious Islands DVD that we gave to Mark's parents last Christmas.) It was fascinating tales he had to tell, about Armenian shepherds taking their sons up Mt. Ararat to see the Ark; soldiers of Tsarist Russia reporting seeing the Ark, but their documentation lost because the Bolshevik Revolution; a US airforce pilot becomes a Christian later in life and remembers seeing the Ark, but the mission was top secret, so the files and pictures can't be released...
We drove past a Shoe Dept store and just had to stop and Rachel got a couple of good deals on shoes. We'll have to post pictures!! Speaking of pictures, that is a little difficult lately because of having to use the library computers. (Can I just go on record here to say that it is annoying to have pop ups on the screen every litte bit telling you how much time you have?! Though maybe in life, if we had that we would use our time more wisely--you have 36 years, 4 months and 9 days left...you have 24 years, 6 months and 18 days left...but I digress--pop ups are still annoying.)
Well, as nothing at The Tippy has happened smoothly yet, neither did the stove. We put it in the kitchen--and it needed an adaptor. Mark bought one, but didn't have time to put it in, so when the appliances guys came, I asked them to put it in to surprise Mark when he got home from work. They put in on and left and the stove still wouldn't work. Then I remembered that they had to shut the breaker off when the last stove caught on fire, so Luke and I found the breaker box in the garage, but we couldn't get it open. I had to call Mark and spoil the surprise. He said it might have a certain catch or just be stubborn, so when I got of the phone, Luke and I pulled hard and it popped open. We flipped the breaker and WE HAD A STOVE and it WORKED.
The appliance guys put a new element on the dryer. They said it was ruined because the dryer vent was plugged up and we'd need to get someone out to clean it out. We knew that it didn't have a cover on the outside of the house, and on Wednesday, Miranda had had to call Mark at work because she could hear something in the laundry room. Mark opened the door to the garage first and then unhooked the vent from the dryer--and two birds flew past him. So, the vents still aren't hooked up, but we are running the dryer with the door to the garage open and the vent pipes pointed toward the door.
We got a different refrigerator too, because the one we had ran constantly and loudly and was beginning to put a puddle on the floor (which ran downhill, of course.) It is a different one, but not a new one. This one was in storage, and had been in a house fire, and when they plugged it in, it smelled like a...house fire. He said if it still smelled like that after a few days to let him know...I don't know if we've just gotten used to it or if it really stopped smelling burnt. Akshiklly, it probably smelled homey to my family since I tend to burn things regularly.
Our fenced in backyard got a serious haircut several days ago. Tim and Jenny Sauder's son, Andre, came over on their new lawnmower. It was big, like a 60" deck or something. It had a bagger on it, and he had to empty it after every couple rounds. Tim and Jenny said it was a housewarming gift, but it was also heartwarming.
The weather has been cold and rainy, which is what we left in GA for the most part. It was just starting to warm up down there, and I imagine they are having nice days now. These are good days to homeschool, time to read books and play games and try to remember what box the three hole paper punch is in.
An update on our GA house. Can't remember if I wrote this before, but our realtor and her assistant are going to paint several rooms in our house to help it sell. They said it is part of their services! Wow! She said there has been constant interest in our house on her website, so we just keep trusting.
I had kept out my scrapbooking stuff and a box of pictures, thinking that after we moved and weren't doing much socially yet, I might have time to work on Reed's baby book. (Yes, he's seven...and a half). So Lorelei told me that there was a scrapbooking retreat at the Fellowship Center last Fri and Sat. And I had all of my stuff in IN and I knew where it was. I got 10 pages done over the weekend and got to know some ladies from church better. The only bummer was that I started weightwatchers online and I couldn't eat much of the yummy food...but this summer it will be worth it. OINC OINC
We had our first guest over for dinner. Olivia is one of Mark's assistants at GW. She came over for dinner and brought some games to play. This weekend, David, Larisa and Yikealo are coming at Saturday and next Tuesday, James, Susan, ClintAbbyColeandQuinn are coming.
Sunday is our first Easter program. It is at the fellowship center and the kids have been practicing for it since we moved here. Then next Sunday is Easter Sunrise Service. After that, they do morning church and go home. (I wonder if they do that because of the kids at Gateway having family visits, etc.) After morning church, we will be leaving for our first GW staff retreat. It is at the Potawatomi Inn in Pokegon State Park. (I think I have that right!) It will be another opportunity to get to know GW people and a much needed getaway for all of us.
Oh, did I mention we have a Zesto only 15 minutes from our house? You're invited!
Our dishwasher hole ): sniff sniff
