Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Letters from WW2

One week until we leave.

Today Michael and I had lunch with his great Uncle Harold and Aunt Betty. Harold was in the army during WW2 and had a whole bunch (70) of letters he had written home during the war. I borrowed them and sat at Chapters all afternoon and read through them all. Fascinating! He kept saying that they were nothing, but to me, there was a lot of rich history and so many stories.

Tomorrow morning early we find out if we got the apartment we applied for. We are hoping and praying, as I learn to be patient.

On another note, Michael's sister and I went to the brand new Ikea that opened in Portland yesterday. I had never been to one and needless to say I am sold! I always assumed they were expensive but was really pleased with the prices, and all the stuff they had. I wasn't sure if there was one in Philly, but Amy emailed me today to tell me she found 3! One is 10 minutes from Michael's college. I can't wait to shop for our new apartment, especially at Ikea.

Monday, July 30, 2007

"It wasn't tragic, just really, really terrible"

That was our motto at the end of Tween Camp.

That, and "No one Died."

I haven't posted in a while because life has been crazy. Michael and I directed Tween Camp, the junior high camp at Twin Rocks. It was one of the most exhausting, tiring weeks I've ever experienced. We had to deal with everything from a head lice break out, to kids piercing themselves, many calls home to parents, pink eye, and so much more that I can't even list. Needless to say, we came home from the week so tired we slept for two days straight!

I was also really sick during the week. One day I skipped beach day to rest, and my phone rang. I listened to the message and it was an assistant principal from PA. I called her back and she asked if we could do a pre-screening interview over the phone. I sounded like a FROG! But, it must have gone well because I received an email a few days later and have an in-person interview set up for when we get to PA.

We just got back from Michael's family reunion in Newberg. It was fun to hang out and meet some new faces, and reconnect with old ones. It was a good time to share with family Michael and my next step in our journey and to receive encouragement.

We leave one week from today. The latest stress has been housing. Most of my young adult life I've realized that I am an impatient person, and God is constantly trying to teach me patience. This is yet another example. We're having issues finding housing because we have to have income verification, which is hard to do when I've been in school all year, and Michael's been working two part-time jobs, and he won't be working and I will be. I got my hopes up a lot about one place, and that door got slammed shut. We found another place, and will find out on Wednesday morning if we meet the minimum requirements. It would be really nice to have a place to live so we could have an address to forward our mail to.

We have a long to-do list to finish in the next week. Here's a sampling:

-Pack
-Buy a hitch/install hitch on car
-Sell Jetta
-Figure out route to PA
-Pick up Trailer
-Pack
-Find an apartment
-Switch utilities
-Forwarding address
-Change oil in car
-Michael finish school work
-Michael finish editor job
-Pick up diploma from Willamette
-Pack up car and trailer
-Clean the house