A Perfect Day

[I didn't get a picture of the second cart...but there was one-a big one]

It held the boxes that will eventually become this:

and in the process of looking for this picture, I found something else on sale on Saturday, so we might be taking ANOTHER trip :)

New Endeavors

Now that we are moving, I'm getting excited about doing all those wifely duties again. Okay, well one to be exact...cook. I've always had the option while we've been here to cook whenever I want. However, I very rarely (if ever) chose to use that option. I think I've also enjoyed not having to decide what I was going to make and I never had to take the time to make it! I've decided to try to learn how to cook. Not just reading recipes, but to really cook. You know, be able to look at your cabinets & refrigerator and just throw things together and have them come out delicious.  I want to be able to do that

However, along with learning to cook, it means we will actually have to purchase our own food again--all of it. That means endeavor #2 is to do some serious couponing. I hear of people that save TONS of money through coupons. I want to be one of those.

Hopefully I'll be able to actually make progress on both of these things and share the journey with you! I'm excited to say the least :)

Round 2...on a Friday

This mornings post was unexpected, so I thought it would only be fair to finally and fully fill you in on what the true big announcement is.

Sadly, and I'm sorry to disappoint but it is no baby. No pea in a pod...yet.

My big news is nothing that we are purchasing...it's more or less as opportunity that God has provided for us. A family in our church is moving and was unable to sell their house. Knowing that we would be interested in moving out, they offered to rent their house to us.

Sadly though, we couldn't afford it. [insert much sadness here] With no real jobs on the horizon, it doesn't lend very well to paying rent along with other bills. 

Despite this my official announcement is....

we are still moving! :)

In order to help them and help ourselves, it's been decided that we will split the house and the rent with Greg's younger brother and his new wife (they are getting married a week before we move). [this is where you will kindly keep all rude and un-nice comments to yourself please]. We all know this isn't an ideal or normal situation. We know it's bound to have some issues. BUT we have had enough of living in an attic with 95% of our belongings in a storage unit 2 miles away. 

We are moving to this house:

and yes...this house has an awesome garden, full of growing zucchinis, cucumbers, tomatoes of all sizes, mint, raspberries, dill, parsley, rhubarb, green beans, etc.

We are house sitting while the owners are on vacation, so I am already benefiting from the oh-so-plentiful garden.

I'm sorry this has taken so long, lots of stuff has been going on around here. Like how on earth we are going to replace this car when our money is already going to that house up there.

**Us trying to unload all of my hubby's "stuff" from his car to mine

We are praying that God led us to this position because He has bigger plans for us than we can see. While he hope and think we are making the right decisions, there is no way to be sure. The next month or two could be great, bad, or a little bit of each. I guess we'll see what happens...

My Day Yesterday

note: You might want to pause the video below until you get there. It starts automatically.


I thought yesterday was just going to be your average day. Work, followed by Greg's dentist appt, home to do grad work, etc. HOWEVER, as we were leaving work things got hairy windy DARK and rainy....REALLY windy, REALLY DARK, and REALLY RAINY.

This is where we where...sitting in a car, in a parking lot.

Watching sheds fly through the parking lot at Lowes into parked cars.

Feeling my car shake and wobble as the winds tried to pick it up...yes pick it up.

You can find the WHOLE story here. Basically we've heard it was a tornado...and I was in a car. I've never been anywhere remotely close to a tornado, and I would prefer to never do it again. I was scared...no terrified. I had visions of my car bring picked up and spun around and flying through the air. or rolling across the parking lot like the sheds. Had I been able to focus for a mere 30 seconds, I would have got out my phone to take pictures and video. But I couldn't focus for even 5 seconds on anything other than the hail that was hitting the car, or the trashcan that was blown into us, or the wind that was whipping around us, or the dark of night that occurred at 3pm in the afternoon.


The only picture I thought to take was after the storm. (I think the video shows ALOT more)

Basically, from here on out when I hear "Severe Thunderstorm Warning..or Watch" that is what I'm going to think of and it won't be pretty.

The Real Thing

Here's the real..full size..picture.

It's Time

for my big announcement


I know, technically this announcement should have come last week.

Please accept my apology because I only waited so I could have at least one picture to give to you. However, I'm still not going to make it that easy. I figured that I would do another What is it? and let you guess. So I know it's been awhile...too long in fact, still I ask that you at least humor me and guess...maybe?!?

P.S. If you would like to join in, link up with yours. Plus you can add this linky tool to your post too. (I made it a BlogHop)

Not a Simple Saturday

Today started off like most other Saturdays...waking up and heading to Rita's after a quick shower to make ice and get the store ready for the day. Only this time things didn't go quite as planned. I'm not sure any of you know this, but it takes us about 20 minutes to drive to Rita's by using our local highway. Yes 20 minutes going 70 mph. (It technically includes 5-7 minutes of town driving, but still).

Anyway, we were driving down the highway and all of a sudden, I hear Greg say "Wow!". I'm not sure if this means something is coming from behind us, or I wasn't paying attention to the sports radio that he was listening to. I of course think the worst possible scenario (a car is flying up from behind us and about to hit us) so I ask "what?". A few moments later, he says "my temperature gauge sky rocketed". Sure enough I glance over and the guage is ABOVE the red. yikes! So we pull over and call Greg's dad who used to work for a car dealership. He confirmed our suspicions that it probably wasn't good. So my in-laws came and rescued us.

They brought coolant and water along to see if we could quickly diagnose and remedy the situation. While re-filling the coolant, we hear splashing...and look under the car to see it quickly gushing out of the car. So of course, not good. Greg's dad notices that a hose wasn't connected, hence the leaking and therefore why the car was overheating. Without the proper tools we could properly re-attach the hose, so I went on to Rita's in another car while Greg went home to make sure our broken car got home and then he joined me at Rita's later.

We were all pretty sure it was just the hose that needed reconnecting. We were so glad and hoping that would be a quick & cheap fix. Greg and I finished at Rita's and a couple hours came home to find out that the car made it straight to the repair shop to have it checked. However, the other words we heard were...

"It's not good news"

"The car didn't survive"

"I think it's time to call it quits with this car" (from the mechanic)

Turns out the car needs AT LEAST a new head gasket (aka $1,000+). Now normally for people who drive a 14 year old car with 224,000 miles on it, that would be exciting because that means a new car. However for people without real jobs, that isn't at all the case.

So we are now a one-car-family...just not by choice. And trying to figure out what to do next. Thank the Lord school is over and it's summer, so Rita's is really the only place we got separately right now. I wonder what else God has up his sleeve for us.

Not today

I've decided to hold off on the big news for a few more days. I want to think of a way to share it with you. So instead I'm going to share something else that I've just recently discovered. First the back story:

Somehow a few years ago, Greg ended up with this subscription service unknowingly to a TON of magazines. The plus side is that he got a lot of sport ones, but I ended up getting to benefit from a Better Homes and Gardens subscription. I braced myself because I expected it to end after the first year, but they have just kept coming. So this past weekend, I was sitting on the porch on a beautiful (albeit hot) spring June day complete with a breeze and a mint tea...mmm. Anyway, I was reading through the magazine I had just gotten and they had a whole section on where to find deals. This, of course, caught my eye. I started perusing the lists and descriptions and came across one that tickled my fancy.

www.onekingslane.com

Here's their description:

"At One Kings Lane, we believe that living (and giving) well is more than just a fantasy. That’s why we bring the world's best designer décor and home essentials, entertaining and travel needs, fantastic gift selections and more to our members – at up to 70% off retail."

Now I know as much as the next person that it won't always be 70% off and even at that discount could still be well out of my price range even if it is "designer". But I signed up (for free) and started looking. I instantly fell in love. Every day they offer different new deals. The first day I fell head over heals in love with Love Plates:

But of course, not only were they out of my price range at $45 a piece, but they were thankfully sold out so I didn't have to worry about the price anyway. phew! :) Anyway, I've been semi-dilligent in checking back for new deals and on Tuesday I found this:

A 14-piece Bamboo Kitchen Utensil set for $19.00. They also have bamboo cutting boards, 2 for $10!! I almost got them too, but the hubster talked me into a trip to Ikea instead. Boy does he know a way to this girl's heart. So I totally recommend you sign up...in fact I would really love to send you an invite so that I can get a $25.00 credit or just tell them that Katy Linsky sent you ;)

10 days later...

bad blogger I am...I know. But so much has happened in the past weeks I don't even know where to start. Some things I'm definitely not up for sharing right now as I'm still trying to wrap my head around it. But here's your super fast fly by of the past month--with pictures of course.

A month ago I did my first wedding. In fact it was so long ago I don't even remember if I posted anything about it. I finally finished editing their pictures in between everything else in my life. Here's a teeny tiny peek!

So what took so long to edit these pictures? Well first of all I gave one of my future sister in laws a shower and you can read and see all about that HERE. But then 2 days later, another brother came home with his fiancee. Soo that meant I had 2 future sister in laws to hang out with. This was the first time I was meeting her, and honestly I was a little worried. You know, would we get along? would she be easy to talk to? Let me tell you I LOVE this girl. In fact, I'm quite sad that the next time I might see her won't be until the wedding...in September. Then after that Christmas.

While they were in town for a week, there was lots of fun to be had. Lots of laughter and talking. The main reason they were home was for a cousin's wedding. I got to have LOTS of baby holding time. :)

Hopefully this is what our future holds...

That would make me soo happy.

Anyway, that was part of Saturday. Our house quickly filled to 8 people, plus 2 extra guests (but we didn't have enough rooms, so they had to sleep elsewhere). Sunday morning was spent at church, followed by a big family & friends lunch compliments of Wawa.

After lunch the hubs and I went on a day trip to Philly with my brother in law & future sister in law #2 (Steve & Holly). Our first stop was in Valley Forge Park where the boys charged a hill with their bayonets (I think). 

Then we headed into Old City, Philly to view the sights. We had a slight detour because of a closed road, so we didn't have time to get everywhere Steve was planning, but it was still well worth the trip! We had dinner with my nieces, their parents, and my in-laws. It was an awesomely fun day.

On Steve and Holly's last night in PA (they were here for a very short week), we took the California girls mini-golfing.

I might add that it was much more fun than that picture might show ;)

So we said goodbye to Steve and Holly, and tomorrow we say goodbye to Eryn. Then the house will be back to its quiet self and life will really return to normal. 

At least for a little while ;) ... I'll save that announcement for tomorrow.

oops

I'm just dropping in to apologize for my lack of posting in the last 7 days. seriously?? 7 days! Lots of stuff is going on at our house this week. Also lots of pictures are headed your way. I promise.