Apartment Pics

Here are some pics of the new place, sans furniture. I'm still waiting for help moving the big stuff but slowly my things are making it over there, with Sandi's help. I'll post more once I'm settled.

Living room...the walls are actually a very nice neutral brown

Yay!!! I can do my laundry w/o leaving home!

As you can see there is plenty of counter space

A mirror over the sink. . .
so that I can still be a part of the conversation when I'm busy

View from the living room

Clustr Map 2009-2010

The total visits for 2009-2009 was 2649. Thank you to all who took the time to read my random thoughts. Readership went up by 1,116! And as you can see there were a myriad of countries represented:) There will be more to come this year!

Stranded....But Not For Long

Last night did not go as I had anticipated, but it was not without it's lessons.

I'm still in the throws of moving, which means that I need my car right? RIGHT! So it was not a pleasant surprise to discover that I was having car problems. Maybe I should start at the beginning.

The day started uneventfully enough, besides the fact that I realized I had grabbed the wrong phone charger, so I couldn't charge my phone at work. No biggie, I don't have anything major going on today I can do it when I get home tonight. I then went to see a friend reenlist, for his final time, in the Navy.



It was nice because he chose to reenlist at church and give glory to God for all that He had done for his career and family while serving our country. It was very uplifting. And later on Kali, Tim and Katie stopped by my work to say HI:), which was just the super charge that I needed for my Monday afternoon (that's a reference to the sermon that Tim preached on Sunday night). Monday's can be very wearing:P However, at the end of the afternoon, I remembered that I had a eye appointment in Burlington, which is about an hour away. Still I don't see a problem because I just had my car worked on and my oil is good so off I go.

Well, after picking up my contacts I had decided to stop somewhere else and when I got back in my car I couldn't get the engine to turn over. All I heard was a whir and then...nothing, Uh, oh!!! Now I'm an hour away from home, my car is dead, and all I have on my phone is one little red bar on my battery. Normally I really am more prepared than this, it happens to the best of us, and this is what bothers me more than my car actually not working, because I'm within walking distance to a couple of gas stations and the Super Wal-Mart (although it will be getting dark soon and walking at that point will not be fun). Argh, I was pretty much beating myself up but trying to remain calm at the same time. Think...think...think...who can I call that will give me the most amount of help, without using up the rest of my phone battery in case I should need it later. Voila, Kali's Dad. When I got a hold of him he told me "It's your battery." Sigh, OK now I need to find a jump, in a near empty parking lot...can you hear the crickets chirping? Offering up a silent prayer, I went to work trying to find my jumper cables in my trunk (I should probably clean this puppy out at some point).




PTL, an answer didn't take long at all! I was standing outside my car, hood up, and getting ready to text Kali back when a gentleman named Marvin approached me "Is your car dead? Do you need a jump?" I looked up. "Yes! Oh that would be great. Thank you." I replied. Soon after that he pulled his car around and whipped out his jumper cables, and with a turn of my ignition and a spark from my ignition...TA DA...I once again had a running car! Ahhh, my "Knight in Shining Jump Start" He really was a nice guy and definitely an answer to prayer. Sorry there's no pic (mostly the reason I didn't ask for one is because I think it would have been a little odd to ask some random stranger to humor me with a photo in such a situation). But he beeped his horn and waved as he left the parking lot as I sat there letting my battery get some juice in it before the drive back to the island. Loosing my battery again on a 2 lane HWY home would be even worse for me, since all my contacts, except for the Geists and Vaughns, at that point would have been in Bible Institute. And then where would I be, what with a low phone battery and all:/

So what are my lesson:
1) Sherri reproves me when I leave my phone at home, but having my phone on me without a charge to it is just as ineffective. So, ALWAYS keep my phone charged.
2) Always take time to pray, you never know where the answer will come from
3) It better to depend on the Lord for being taken care of than to fret over what might happen. Chances are something will go wrong the thing is to have the proper perspective.

New Apartment

I've started, and then stopped, so many posts over the past few months that I don't know where to start. So I guess I'll start with my latest exploit and just simply start over.

I AM MOVING!!!

I'm sooo looking forward to what the Lord has in store for me during this next stage of my life. Out with the old and in with the new! Seriously, where I live now was a good starting point for me after the Navy. I got to be separated away from the Navy town for a little bit and it was a place for shelter and warmth. The Lord provided it for me at a time when I was very uncertain about what the future held for me. After a long time in the Navy they like to brain wash you into thinking that you can't do anything without them, but I have a Saviour who says " for with God all things are possible." (Mark 10:27) Faith is believing what the Word of God says and then acting upon it, which is exactly what I've done, or at least tried to do over the past 5 years that I've been out of active duty. And so I venture to do the same thing now.

If you've read some of my past posts you've seen the issues I've had with windows, and stoves, and mold (oh my)! The last thing that happened was a few weeks ago as I was getting ready to wash my face the faucet on my sink busted off. You guessed it. Water everywhere! Not FUN! I made my trouble call on a weekend so I knew it wasn't going to get tended to until Monday, but that came and went, and then so did Tuesday and Wednesday (in fairness to the property manager he did say that the plumbers would be around one of those 3 days and that he would have them stop in and fix it then). However, once Thursday came that was it. I didn't mind using my kitchen sink for teeth brushing and what not, because I did have water, it was just a major inconvenience. So when I called the prop manager he had already thought it was done, so it got to it. But after that I started praying about how I could get a new place. I didn't have the $ to start over yet by myself, and as far as I knew no one else was in the market for a room mate (see if I'm going to be living with anyone else they have to share the same faith that I, which is not an easy prerequisite to fill). Meanwhile, the Lord had me make some really hard decisions, or at least they felt like that at the time, about the direction that I was going in my life. Things just seemed to start piling up, I was ridiculously tired all the time, and the joy that I was previously experiencing in my ministries was waning. Something was seriously out of whack with my spirit and it had to get fixed. Through a series of seemingly non related messages that were being preached at church, the Lord showed me what was wrong, which was not what I wanted to see. I was in denial, but I knew that as long as I stayed there "my fruit" would start to rot and that's never any good for a Christian's growth. So I handed it over, begrudgingly at first (I'm not that spiritual), but as I started to gain encouragement from my friends and my devotions,since they were finally starting to get through to me, the more settled I became in my, or rather His, decision for my life.

Which brings me to the past few weeks. Last month Sherri, Steve, Sandi, and myself were the last once standing at the VIP fellowship, when I heard Sandi mention that she had put in a chit for her housing allowance, which meant that she would be moving out of the barracks and out in town. Hmmm, wonder if she wants a roommate? So I volunteered to drive her to the base since he car was inop so we could talk. The conversation was casual at first. Just basically what do you think and lets pray about it. Well nothing more came of it until last week, when Sandi got her approved chit back and sent me an email asking me what's up with being roomies? Well my initial inclination was that since there was a 2 bedroom over in another part of my complex that was open that we could just roll over my security deposit to that place. Ummm, NO. We looked at it on Monday and it was to small. Seriously, my bed would have been my room and in any other home these days Sandi's room would be a walk in closet. Time to start from scratch then. Since Sandi had the day off she sent to work and I told her to go talk to Ginger, a friend of ours that does property management in town. So she did and not an hour later I get a very excited from Sandi telling me that she found 2 places for me to look at when I get off of work. So I looked them up online during a break, both seemed OK, she liked one and I liked the other. Turns out she was right. The place we're moving into has, drum roll please. . .

1) BRAND NEW CARPET (I can't remember the last time I had the joy of brand new carpet. Shoes will definitely be coming off in this place)
2) A washer and dryer (I've been living off the kindness of my friends for the past few years using theirs, but they all have their own families and so I feel largely like I'm imposing most of the time. Ahhh, no more of that)
3) 900ft2 of space and an immaculate bathroom to-boot. And the counter space is more than adequate, complete with an open counter space so at to look into the living/dining rooms.

I'm sorry, but you'll have to wait for a couple days for the photos because I wasn't thinking of that when I went to look at the place, because frankly I wasn't planning on being wooed by the carpet. The next day Sandi and I put in our applications and were both approved. She'll be moving in first, because I still have to give notice to my current property manager on moving out, but my stuff will slowly be matriculating over there. . .to my new home.

When the Lord answers prayer He really answers! And His blessings don't miss a beat either! All in His timing of course. But it seriously helps the process if we are willing to be obedient to His directions. I mean what Father enjoys rewarding a disobedient child? None that I know of. When I was disobedient a spank or grounding was swift to follow. No, dear readers; Trust and obey for there's not other way, to be happy in Jesus, than to trust and obey.

Wonder what other blessing lay around this years corners?! Only time, and a mailable heart, will tell.

The Caucus

In my previous post I made mention of the fact that I might be attending my county's Caucus this past weekend. Well it took place on Saturday and yours truly did decide to go. However, it wasn't quite how I imagined it to be. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it was definitely eye opening as to the lack of political participation that goes on in my community, and many others as well. It's no wonder why America is in the condition that it is right now.

Caucusing, in case you've never partaken of the event, is really very easy. Although intimidating the first time up. Let's face it people I have a lot going on and my interest in all things political has been waning lately so I could have felt more prepared if I had the time, but still it's not anything that if you hold to your party's, and communities interests that you can't figure out. Basically you show up, sit with your precinct and discuss the issues that you want to have addressed and how you'll pick a candidate to back in the upcoming election. That's it in a nutshell.

So what happened? Well I ended up being the ONLY person from my precinct that showed up. Now I know I live in a small town, and a liberal state, but really people that was a little sad. So here I am a political novice, albeit "enthusiast" and the only one in her precinct to show up. . . "Coupeville we have a problem."

So I got to decide the plank points that we stand for and want to have brought before the Island County delegates in April. Oh yeah, because I was the only one that showed I got the added enjoyment of getting to be a delegate too. And because BBC was represented well there are 5 of us that will be going as delegates there's me (obviously), Tim, Bro. Dolan, Sherri, and Vicki. Levi will be a delegate as well, but he votes in a different county so he can't be counted for us. However, some of the precincts are small and had we had many more members present BBC could have easily had more than half of the delegates at the county convention. Why do I say all this? Because the principles and values that America was founded on are being lost and even ignored because those with religious and, more importantly, Biblical principles are not getting involved. Whether you like it or not America was founded by men who believed in the Bible and had values that held to the fairness, betterment, and justice of society and apathy is the cancer that will cause us to loose this country and the values that have been its foundation for hundreds of years. That's not a political slight at the opposition that's just fact. People need to get involved otherwise those in positions of power will run rank and file over the rest because they see that people don't care. They will set their agenda and there will be nothing that we can do about it. I can't speak for the rest of you, but I'm happy to have lived in this country and value the freedoms that I've been allowed to have just because I was born here. Ladies and gentlemen know this, if you don't show up you don't get a say in what happens. And if you'll pardon the pun on GI Joe "Showing is half the battle."