Bare Shelves and Christmas Decorations

Okay, so as you know, I've been packing like a crazy women since I lost my job. Well, the other day (Monday to be exact), I realized that the house was starting to look like we really didn't live in it. I guess the best way to describe it was that the house no longer had any personality. It contained all the things needed to "function" in it, but nothing to show the character or individualism of it's occupants. The above observations were confirmed as accurate when my youngest daughter came home from school and said, "Wow Mom! It looks like we're moving tomorrow. . .can't you just leave some stuff out so it's not so bare?". Now, being the wonderful, loving mother that I am, I couldn't continue to let my baby girl feel ill at ease in her own home. So, I did the only other thing I knew to do to make her happy. . .I PUT ALL THE CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS UP!

Our family has always waited until after Thanksgiving before we start the long process of "Christmas Decorating". Although I never really knew why we waited, other than the fact that no one wanted to climb into the attic to drag everything out. I decided that since this will be our last Christmas together in this house, I was going to make it last as long as possible. I will say that I held off putting up the main tree (I put up a second tree in my office), and I didn't put up any decorations outside yet. That's Bob's mission each year! I will wait until after Thanksgiving to do those two things. I have to admit, the house looks great! As I sit here typing this post, the Christmas tree in my office shines brightly in the corner, and it makes me feel like all is right in the world. My kitchen and living room are filled with Snowmen and Christmas candles and other bright, shiny "Christmasy" things. I love the glow that comes from the many candles I use and also the many "light up" decorations that I have. Oh, did I forget to mention the Christmas music that is playing in the background, hahahahahaha! I know, I know. . .I'm nuts, but I'm happy, and now more than ever I can say that I'm really ready for the holidays.

Go ahead, admit it. . .you know after reading this you want to go drag your Christmas boxes out of the attic and start decorating your own house. It's okay, I promise that your head won't explode if you plug in Christmas lights before you eat that last bite of turkey. Try it, and see if it doesn't end up being your best Christmas ever.

Weddings, and Lost Opportunities

This past Saturday, October 25th, the daughter of one of my dearest friends got married. I was fortunate enough to be asked to sing for the wedding, so that meant that I got to spend lots of time with the family during all the rehearsals, ceremony, etc. It was so wonderful to be together will all of them again. When you don't see people much you tend to forget how special your times together are. I haven't laughed that much in a long time. The giggles were in abundance I tell ya. The girls had asked me to sing a special song for their mom (my friend, Brenda). It was a song that she especially liked and they wanted to surprise her by having me sing it at the wedding. I knew it would make her cry so I didn't look at her. . .besides that I knew she was gonna be mad at me for making her cry. I told her it wasn't my fault. . .the girls asked and I couldn't tell them no!

After the wedding, while I was driving home, I realized how much I'm going to miss spending time with Brenda once I move to Ireland. Although we don't see each other as much as we would like, I always knew she was there, and the opportunity was always there to get together. It hit me Saturday that although Brenda and I will always be the best of friends, the opportunity to get together whenever we want will soon be lost. That makes me very sad! I wonder why we get so busy that we let important things like spending time with family and friends take a back seat to work and other less important things? I know it's a common fact of life, but it doesn't make me feel any less sad. I've been a "weepy" mess since Saturday. I think I will probably own stock in Kleenex tissues by the time I leave the states. I wish I could take all my family and friends with me to Ireland!

Cheryl, This Blogs For You

My friend Cheryl informed me the other day that since I was now a "stay at home women" she saw no reason why my blog was not being updated on a more regular basis. Well, Cheryl, this blogs for you!

I will try, from this point on, to update my blog at least once a week. I probably will never be a "daily blogger". My life is neither that interesting nor that exciting; however, there really is no reason why I can't come up with enough information to make an entry each week. Besides that, I would hate to think that poor Cheryl has nothing new to read when she logs on to my blog.

For all of you "blog followers", if you ever find yourself in Hartville, Ohio, stop in and see Cheryl at Crosswalk Christian Bookstore. She's there Monday through Saturday. She would love your company and your patronage. Tell her Marilyn sent you. You won't get anything free (well, maybe a smile), but the conversation will sure take a new direction, hahahahaha!

Okay Cheryl, there's your business plug. . .now where's my money???????

Lost Jobs, Answered Prayers and Trips To The Dentist

A lot has happened since my last blog! I'll start with the event that at first seems to be the worst thing to happen. On Friday, October 10th, I was informed that my position was being done away with. . .I was being let go due to "cut-backs". Naturally I was a little confused as to why God was allowing this to happen. I really couldn't afford to lose my job right now and I knew God knew that! I was trying to tell myself that God had everything under control, but I have to admit, I was failing miserably in that quest. As I drove home in tears all I could do was pray that God had something better planned. Well, He did! Within two and a half hours of getting home I received a phone call that removed all doubt as to rather God was still in control of this situation. I'll skip all the details for the sake of space, but I will tell you that God has provided the money so that I am now able to stay home and concentrate fully on packing, and spending quality time with family and friends. He literally gave me what I wanted most. . .the ability to spend my last nine months in the states soaking up as much family, and friend time as I possibly can. Once again God has shown me that when we are doing what He wants us to do, He will provide everything we need (sometimes, He even gives us our personal desires). And to think I was concerned . . .silly me!

I had to go the the dentist today. Like most people, I don't find much pleasure, joy or happiness at the dentist office; however, sometimes it's necessary to make the trip. Today, was one of those necessary days. I had a crown that needed to be done prior to our move to Ireland, so like a good girl I spent two hours of quality time with my dentist this morning. . .great fun I tell ya. The really fun part was that when I made this appointment I was still working, so to insure that I wouldn't miss to much work, I made my appointment for 6:45 am! By the time I lost my job (on Friday), it was to late to change my appointment time, which meant I had to be up at 5:00 am on my first day as an unemployed person. YUCKY! Don't worry though. . .I plan on making up for it tomorrow morning, hahahahaha.

New Friends, New Key, Same Cold

I've taken a short break from packing in order to nurse my cold. Stupid cold! I hate being sick, it just interferes with everything. I stayed home from music lessons and choir last night to give myself some added rest. I do feel a little better this morning, so maybe I'm done with the worst of it.

I did get my new key made for my truck (remember, I threw my original key away, duh!). It works like a charm. The man at the Ford dealership told me had my truck been a year older they could not have made a key. Something about it missing a key code and the computer only stored these numbers back through 1999. Thank the Lord my truck is a '99. Another perfect example of small blessings that usually go unnoticed. I love the way God takes care of us despite our own stupidity.

We met new friends the other evening, which was great fun. God allowed our paths to cross with a young missionary couple who are on deputation to Ireland! The Bowman's have just started their "deputation journey", but we are praying that God will supply their support quickly. Although we had never met them before, it felt as if we were old friends just catching up again. We were able to spend Tuesday evening with them and their five sons, and let me tell you, the giggles were abundant. We talked about Ireland, about missions and shared many deputation stories. I look forward to the day when both of our families are in Ireland, and we can share our new friendship and our new ministries together. They are currently looking to start up in the County Kerry region, specifically the town of Killarney. Please add them to your prayer list, as they have a long road ahead of them. God is so good! He's already started supplying us with good Christian friends to share in our new life/ministry in the country of Ireland.

Boxes, Colds, and Thrown Away Keys

The past few days have been. . .hmmmmmmmmmm, interesting we'll say! Of course, there are the endless number of boxes that have been filled, taped, marked, weighed and taken to the storage unit in preparation for shipping. So far I have packed all the books from the living room bookcase along with the bookcase in my office, along with all the knic knack's from the bedroom, living room and kitchen. Bob and I moved a couple of bookcases along with numerous boxes to the storage unit on Saturday afternoon. Today (Tuesday), the movers came to move the piano to my middle daughters house for safe keeping. The house is slowly starting to look a little bare in places. Fortunately, it's almost time to put up Christmas decorations so that will help fill in the "bare spots". Yesterday (Monday), my youngest daughter and I were both sick so I kept both of us home for a day of rest, cold medicine and homemade chicken soup. Both of us are up and at it again today, but still feeling poorly. Then to top everything off, I couldn't find my keys this morning. So, after a frantic search of the house I remembered that while I was carrying a rather large box loaded with groceries into the house the other day, I had thrown them into the box so my hands could be free. After getting into the house I emptied the groceries out of the box and then filled the box with trash and proceeded to dump it into the dumpster in the garage. So far this doesn't sound to awful, right? Oh, just wait, it gets better! I didn't realize any of this until 7 am this morning. . .our trash was picked up at 6 am this morning!!!!!! Yep, I managed to throw away the only set of keys that I had for my truck and I was already running late for work. Fortunately for me, I was able to take my youngest daughter's car to work and my husband was in town so he was able to get my truck towed by AAA to the local Ford dealership here in town so they could make me a new key. I would like to blame all this craziness on the cold medication that I'm on, but I don't think the people who know me best are really going to believe that. Oh well, I'm still standing by that excuse. As they say, "that's my story and I'm sticking to it".

Boxes, Boxes Everywhere

My mission tonight, if I choose to accept it, is to finish cleaning the remaining Precious Moments. I was able to get approximately half of them cleaned the other night, but still have a large box that needs to be done. The plan is to finish them tonight and then move into my office and start boxing up books, knic-knacks, etc. We are hoping to have the Precious Moments and the piano moved to their new "homes" this weekend. We were able to finally find a storage unit that had enough empty space in front of it for our shipping container to set. That means that I can now start weighing and moving packed boxes out of the house and into the storage unit in preparation to ship. The hardest part right now is trying to decide what to ship, what to sell, and what to store and where! Although there are times when I don't think we will ever get all this done, I have to tell you, it's quite an exciting challenge!

Our youngest daughter doesn't like the idea of us moving things out of the house already. She would rather we just took our house to Ireland with us. She has never known any other house, and this is a lot for her to process right now. Time will make this transition easier for her.

Let The Packing Begin

Well, as of last night, the packing has officially begun! My Mom and my youngest daughter were gracious enough to help me sort, check and catalog ALL my Precious Moment figurines. I knew I had a large number of them, since I've been collecting for years, but I didn't realize HOW many until I started pulling them out of my corner hutch, off shelves, bookcases and out of every room in the house (except the bathroom)! By the end of the evening we were more then tired of looking at Precious Moments. . .in fact, we had experienced all the "Precious Moments" we could handle for one night, hahahahaha! We did, however, get all of them done. . .go us! Now I have to clean them all and then decide which ones I will be taking to Ireland. Since over half of my collection has been retired or is currently suspended, I will probably leave most of them here. No reason to risk them getting broken or stolen during shipping. Our oldest daughter has volunteered to become the "guardian" of the Precious Moments after we move to Ireland. I told her to guard them with her life if she and her sisters wish to have an inheritance!

As we went through each of the figurines last night, I found myself remembering the reason I'd received some of them. For instance, when we got to "Baby's First Haircut" or "Baby's First Steps", I was transported back in time to when the girls were little, and my mind was flooded with happy memories. There is an entire lifetime of memories for me in those figurines. I was happy to be able to share some of those memories with my youngest daughter. Now that she knows the stories behind some of those Precious Moment figurines, those memories will continue on for another lifetime. That's a good thing!

A Little About Me

For those of you who just happened to "stumble" across this blog, let me tell you a little about me. I have been married to my husband Bob for 29 years and have three wonderful daughters. Our oldest daughter is married, our middle daughter is in Nursing school, and our youngest daughter will graduate from High School this year and then off to college she goes. I'm not really looking forward to that day, however I know it's part of the growing up process. . .but I still don't have to like it. I have never been one of those mom's who couldn't wait for their children to leave the house. I have always been the opposite. . .why can't they just stay home forever?

This year will hold many BIG changes for our family. Not only is our "baby girl" going to college, but Bob and I will be following our dream of missions work and moving to the country of Ireland in July of 2009. We were originally heading to the country of Mongolia; however, due to health issues, the doctors in Mongolia and those here in the states will no longer give Bob medical clearance for that country. After praying for God's direction we found the doors being opened for us to travel to Ireland for two weeks in June of 2008. Soon after arriving in Ireland we both felt that we were at "home". We just seemed to "belong" if that makes sense. Needless to say, we are very excited, and a little nervous about this new adventure in our lives. We will be leaving our children, along with the rest of our family here in the states. As a mother and daughter who comes from a very close family, this is a concern for me at times; however, I know that God can take better care of them than I can and He, more than anyone, knows how much I'll miss them. I also know that God will take care of the "homesick" issues and the "nervous belly" that I'll face as the time to leave draws closer and even after I arrive in Ireland. I'm excited to see what He has planned for us in that country and how He will use us to reach the Irish people for Him.

First Blog Entry

Well, I have decided to join the "techno" world and try my hand at blogging. We'll see how this goes, hahahahaha! I'm sure the page will change frequently as I learn via "trial and error" best.