Ooooh's and Ahhhh's

Despite the fact that I've had a rather rough day, this past week was a VERY exciting and momentous week with 2 very big events.

Numero Uno:

I started and finished my first quilt!

I was invited to a small baby shower last week and I really wanted to give quilting a try..so I thought why not start with a baby size...perfect! I started by picking my fabrics. The gender is still a surprise, so it had to be neutral (but I didn't really want yellow & green). These were my choices (with the brown on the bottom). I also was originally looking for different patterns, rather than just different colors...oh well!

I have to be honest and say I got ambitious...okay tired when I was cutting the squares, but this was the beginning of my sewing adventure. I chose to use a patchwork style with alternating vertical and horizontal lines. That way A) it didn't have to match up and B) I really liked it :)

From there it was a lot more sewing straight lines. I didn't take any more pictures until the end. I wanted to do free-motion quilting, but it turns out I don't have the right quilting foot for that. So I chose to stick with the square shape and make a spiral square for my quilting pattern. After adding a brown border and beige dot binding I ended up with this. It's not perfect if you look close enough (in person) but it will hold together and at a glance it's really not that bad. The momma asked me to "autograph" it and add the baby's name once he or she is born. Of course, I said ABSOLUTELY! After all it could be the first of many to come ;)

In other news, another very exciting event happened.

Are you ready....wait for it...wait for it...

I got a JOB!! and not just any job...a TEACHING job. I had 2 interviews in a matter of a couple days and was offered the job in less that a week. I've been hesitant to share this news here, just because there is some family who does not know yet--they will find out tonight or tomorrow morning. 

So want some details maybe? I will be teaching preschool in the morning (3s & 4s) and kindergarten in the afternoon. It's at a semi-local christian school. I'm very excited to get back into the classroom. [sidenote: this means I don't have much more time at Rita's--WAHOO!!!]

And #3 (not so much a big event yet), but we have a moving date. The current residents will be out by noon on the 24th. So we'll start cleaning that afternoon and maybe start moving Sunday or monday...yippee!!!

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.

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.

Today's Accomplishment

I turned this...

(wrapping/packaging from our bags of sugar)

...into this...

a Hawaiian skirt for our counters. (fyi-the flowers aren't done yet)

I also spent a good amount of time counting & sorting these:

All because we are having a Hawaiian Night @ Rita's on Friday!

P.S. If you haven't guessed my What is It? post yet, check it out HERE.

And I would really love it if you played along! Maybe the answer will come tomorrow--maybe not. We'll see!

Monday Monday

Every weekday I update both sides of this sign. A job that I'm not a huge fan of.

Regardless...it's my job and I try to do it. But this is what it said this morning. That means this is what it said yesterday...

...when it was sitting next to the road.

Any ideas what it used to say?

Ironically, that jumbled mess of a board pretty much sums up my Monday. Hoping for a better Tuesday.

Thursday Letters & Day 1

Dear Misto Lady,

I know you really like your mistos on random days after you eat your lunch, but for one you could be a little friendlier and two I know it's you leaving your straw trash 2 feet from the trash can on our counter and on the ground today. Could you please consider picking up after yourself. After all you are a grown up and even though it's my job to keep the place clean...it doesn't necessarily mean you should litter.

Sincerely,

Irritated Ritas Manager

Dear Mystery Shopper,

First of all I want to say thank you for giving me my complete 100%. I've truly been worried about you. Asking myself all sorts of questions. What if you don't let me offer a sample? What if I can't easily offer you any add-ons? However, I do want to say that I know I usually look younger than I am...but 17?? Hmm. I'm sure I'll appreciate looking younger someday, but for now I would have preferred the early 20s at least.

Sincerely,

A slightly happier Rita's manager

Dear Jetta,

You really are a great little car. Even if sometimes I say things that sounds mean when all your little lights blink at me and beep at me. Deep down inside I really do love you. (Although sometimes I do wish you were taller. You know to make up for my lack of height). I'm glad your feeling better and that you didn't cost us the remainder of our income for the next few months.

Hugs & Kisses,

Your Driver

Dear Extended Warranty,

First I would like to apologize. Really I am sorry I was so frustrated with you for the past 2 years. But can you blame me? We paid a lot for you considering our current position and you never covered anything. I suppose you knew all along you would come in handy. Today you showed your true worth. You showed that catalytic converter and it's labor who is boss. I even did a little dance leaving the shop because of you--who does that?!?

Love,

A Very Pleased and Apologetic Wife (and her hubby)

Dear School Districts,

We are awaiting your call. Seriously. Any day now. I know it may seem early to you, but you know "The early bird gets the worm". {We are the worms, you're the bird...better eat us up before some other bird gets to us}

From,

2 Teachers slightly tired of living in the Unknown

Now onto my 90 Day Bible. Today was seriously a crazy day. My car went in to get inspected so I had to be driven to work and get picked up by my hubby. So that extended the day. We were supposed to go to small group but didn't make it because we had to pick up my car and we got stuck in construction traffic. When we finally got home I realized that I had yet to read my Bible for Day 1. 

Seriously? I can't fail yet. I haven't even started. I even began to justify myself that I've read Genesis plenty of times. But even I know that's a terrible excuse. So while the boys were watching a mish-mash of Phillies, Flyers, and the NFL Draft, I pulled out my Bible and dug in. 16 chapters later, I'm glad I did it. Creation, Adam & Eve, The Fall, Cain and Abel, Noah & The Flood, The Sons of Noah, Tower of Babel, Abram, Lot, and finally Hagar and Ishmael. I thought about reading more tonight, but I want to make sure I HAVE to read tomorrow. I told Greg about my "plan". His response wasn't quite what I had thought. I thought maybe he'd join in. Not.so.much. His comment..."Isn't that just reading, for reading's sake?" Ohhh well. I'm going on my own. Maybe he'll join me sooner or later. (even if it does take me longer than 90 days)

I.O.U.

I owe you a post. It feels like it's been forever. I actually wrote a couple other posts but opted not to post them simply because they were written by a girl in a HUGE life funk. So while I'm trying to get past it here are some pictures to catch you up on the past week.

A Saturday walk @ the women's retreat during my photography lesson.

My view Mondays-Fridays

My "fr-enemy". The custard machine and I have a
love-hate relationship. It's learning that I'm in charge.

Saturday we left @ 4am to drive to New Jersey for
a half marathon. [more on this to come]

Me and niece #2
**dreaming & wandering when God will grant me
one of these**

The beginning of my Prayer Journal

Today I need to...

• pick up projector & screen
• copy kid pages for Sunday
• head to work
• count drawers
• change signs
• pump bucket and bucket and buckets of ice every 30 minutes
• not make a mess of the place like I did yesterday while serving customers
• make the next 2 or 3 weeks of a schedule only to have the girls all switch their days around making my job semi-pointless
• finish writing lessons for Sunday
• finish my photography presentation for the Women's Retreat
• Make sure I know what I'm saying on Saturday
• Pack for the weekend

all so that on Friday I can

• head to work
• count drawers
• change signs
• pump bucket and bucket and buckets of ice every 30 minutes
• not make a mess of the place like I seem to do when I'm busy
• Leave my hubby for the weekend :( for the women's retreat :)
• Hopefully successful give a presentation on photography. (praying I won't be nervous-I'm sensing nerves starting already...yikes)

Weekend Update...it's kinda long & picture heavy

This was one jam packed weekend. It feels so long, probably because mentally it started on Thursday. Thursday morning, Greg had to make ice for Rita's and I had to close the registers from Wednesday & prep for a really busy Thursday. Then we had a meeting with one of the owners about how things were going. So far it seems as though we are doing a good job. phew! We worked basically up until 4:00pm between the meeting and lots of customers. Then we came home and 15 minutes after arriving home, we got a phone call from the girls who were working saying that they were running out of ice. Sssssooo back down to Rita's we went. It's about a 20 minute drive for us, so it's not really that long but when you are on a time crunch and are driving back and forth multiple times it gets to be a little much. Finally by 6:15 we were leaving Rita's stocked full of ice for a busy night. We had to buy dog food and pack for New York. Thankfully we were not called again to make anymore ice for that day. 

Friday morning, we had to close the registers and make LOTS of ice for another beautiful Spring, hopefully busy Rita's day. We made close to 13 buckets/flavors of ice!! But by 12:30 we were off to New York. I was ecstatic...seriously excited to go to New York. We really thought that we would be able to see some things in New York. But sadly we didn't. We were too cheap to pay $21.00 to park our car for a few hours. Plus the whole point of being in Manhattan in the first place was to pick up the race packet--not sightseeing. Maybe another time..like when we hit the lottery, or have jobs. So these are the only pictures I was able to snap on the way & in the city.

I snapped this picture in the car. Greg told me not to take a picture of the projects...
I didn't notice until just now that the Empire State Building is right in the middle of the picture. I thought
I was just taking a picture of a skyline. HA!

As we realized we were driving through Queens towards the hotel, we realized traffic wasn't really moving much at all. Obviously we hit traffic, but this was different traffic. After half an hour to go a mile or something like that, we realized that a block party had broken out in the middle of the street we wanted to go down. So we said hello to a detour that turned out to be soo much faster! Praise the Lord. I will admit it seemed weird to be staying in a neighborhood where I couldn't read or pronounce most of the signs and stores I was seeing. But the hotel was fabulous--nothing special, but so much nicer than I expected. We stayed at a Holiday Inn. First of all--hello KING bed with luxurious sheets. It even had a restaurant downstairs so we ordered take out after a walk in Flushing Meadows park. Here's a picture of the room. Sadly we were only on the 2nd floor so there was no view other than the air conditioning unit and such, but it was dark most of the time we were there anyway.

We had to check out before the race, but they were kind enough to let us keep our car in the parking lot for a few extra hours--which was super helpful. The race didn't start until 9:15 which was late compared to the races in Philly that were starting at 7ish. We walked the 3/4 mile to the race and it was a beautiful day! Here are some pictures of Flushing Meadows & my hubby running :)

Flushing Meadows Park

Flushing Meadows Park

Flushing Meadows Park

Mile 2

Mile 4

Mile 5.5

Tickets @ Arthur Ashe Stadium

Mile 10.5

Finisher Medal

Finisher w/ Arthur Ashe Stadium

Finisher w/ CitiField

Flushing Meadows Park

Overall, he finished at 1:32:12, which is a great time! 41st finisher overall, 39th male, 9th in age group. Such a proud wife am I.

ohh..and Happy Easter of course. I will leave you with just this song that is in my head.

"There in the ground His body lay, Light of the world by darkness slain. Then bursting forth in glorious Day up from the grave He rose again! And as He stands in victory sin’s curse has lost its grip on me. For I am His and He is mine; Bought with the precious blood of Christ."

So thankful to know that I have been saved by grace and that Jesus Christ died for ME and for YOU.

A Moment in Time

Monday-

On Monday it was time to face the inevitable. Greg had to go to school, followed by track, followed by Ritas while I went to Rita's. After essentially one looong day of speed training it was time for us to work on our own. We were stressed, terrified, and felt completely unqualified. After a terrible night's sleep we were both semi-ready to face the day [ready as in dressed and out of time]. Then the moment that I carry with me every time I leave for work. We had the.best.hug. It was a hug that signified that we really are in this together. A hug that meant more than I love you. A hug that was completely understood as "I know how your feeling". A hug that made me cry out of pure comfort and love. A hug that felt as though time had completely stopped and nothing was going on around us.

I really have no idea how long that hug really lasted. For all I know it could have been 3 seconds [though I'm sure it was longer]. We left at the same time in different cars, headed down the same road. It was though we were even conquering it together. It was in the car as I was trying to compose myself and control my tears, that I realized even though Greg can't be with me and the sense of that hug will rub off, I know that God, my Lord, my Savior, is with me. He will always be there to share every tear, every fear, every frustration and if I give them over to Him I will be free from them. I don't completely remember driving down the highway because I was totally immersed in talking with God.

Giving Him my fears, most definitely my worries & tears, and just asking Him to help me to feel His presence with me that day.

Needless to say, I made it through the day. No more tears, still some fears and worries, but I am going to try to daily give up those worries and fears and someday I know they will be gone.

2 Days?!?!?

Really? Is that even possible...that it's been 2 days since my last post? I feel like I wrote that last one earlier this morning. Yesterday--ohh that's right it was Sunday. Here's how my day broke down.

7:00am-alarm goes off, turn off [notice, not even a snooze]

7:15am-Greg's alarm goes off, turned off [again, no snooze]

7:30am-should probably shower, roll out of bed

8:30am-arrive at church

11:35am-leave church head to Granddad's

12:00noon-lunch with family @ Granddad's

2:30pm-continue to visit with family

3:30pm-leave for Rita's day 2

4:00pm-start shift

10:00pm-end shift and brain-mushing [aka trying to learn more things when you can't comprehend what you already know]

10:30pm-arrive home, realize that the house is getting new windows tomorrow and one room should be cleared--clear everything in front of the windows and smush it all into a temporary home.

11:30pm-in bed

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Now today was my first day working all by myself. I think that the hardest thing about a new job is knowing that there are bound to be things you learn just by doing it. Like today, I learned that Lemon Ice is actually called Alex's Lemonade, simply but very important. I also learned that sugar free cherry ice is juicy, so when you are pumping it every 30 minutes close your eyes and prepare to be splattered--or pump carefully, but still close your eyes just in case.

Greg is there as we speak, and I'm worried because I know he is crazy stressed and crazy overwhelmed and has very little to no prior experience working a register and dealing with situations that you come across there. Me? I have a little. So tonight, from 4pm when I left there until he gets home, or I hear from him, I'm going to be praying for him to have a smooth uneventful evening. Please God....make it smooth and bearable---without a migraine.

**also I want to apologize for any and all grammatical errors or typos that may have made this message difficult to read. I was going to do a Not Me Monday, but just couldn't muster the creative juices.

Crazy, Crazy Saturday

Woke up to find that my e-mail was hacked into.

But we were running late for our first day of work, so I could do nothing except send an e-mail of apology to all my contacts for the vulgar e-mail that they received.

Spent 7 hours learning the ins and outs of Ritas...well some of the ins and outs. Ice making, and all the different techniques to making Rita's concoctions. 

My mind is pooped.spent.done for. Now we are reminded that we lost an hour to just relax before it's church tomorrow, my nieces are coming, lunch with a granddad, and then back to Rita's for Sunday night. goodnight all.