The past month has been killer; I can't even begin to describe it. It had already been scheduled to be some of the busiest months of the whole year, and when you add moving and selling the house on top of that...man. That would be CRAZY with a capital C. :p
When I last wrote, we had a down payment on a house in Chicago and were beginning the task of de-cluttering our hose in preparation for buyers.
Well, we have come a LOOOOOOOOONG way. Our house is so de-cluttered you wouldn't recognize it. ;) We got rid of a ton of furniture and re-arranged some stuff. I like how big and (mostly) clean the house seems now, but it's not exactly livable for the long run. We chucked a TON of stuff into the garage including kitchen appliances and one of our computers, and some of our dishes and our only trash can downstairs now lives outside when we are anticipating visitors. Not exactly easy to work with, lol! We also got rid of the big computer work-station in the boys room, so it'd hard to find certain things when I'm working...for example, it took forever to find our huge supply of blank CD's...they'd been packed away into the garage and we had to dig through many boxes to find them.
Now that we're past the initial stage of "GET EVERYTHING OUT OF THE HOUSE; IT HAS TO BE CLEAN!!!", we're now mid-way through a serious deep clean of various boxes and stuff. We chuck out more stuff every day; the thrift stores in our area must be making a fortune off of us. ;) It's funny to think of, really...we're getting rid of SO much stuff, but once we get to our new, large house that will actually fit our stuff, we won't have anything to put in it! ;) I foresee a LOT of thrift store shopping to replace our stuff once we get there...Chicago stores, you've been warned. ;)
So yeah...besides all of this work we've been doing which is a full-time job in and of itself, we've had a lot of events happen as well. The first was Mandy's wedding, which was a real pleasure to attend. :) It was SO great to see everyone, and Mandy and Gabe were one of the cutest couples I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot! ;) The Dortignac's really outdid themselves for this event...it was absolutely so well-planned and spectacular, and I doubt anyone who attended will ever forget it.
I have some pictures up
here, photos and videos courtesy of Mary. :)
Our next adventure was the 2007 ATI Sacramento Regional Conference...wow. That is a whole post in and of itself and I don't have the time to expound on it here, but can I say, wow? lol. That is the only way I can describe that whole week. It was SO different from any other conference I've attended...in some ways that was good, and some ways, not so good.
Really the thing that set a precedence for the whole conference was the fact that I was chosen to be a CI team leader instead of an assistant, which I had expected. I was
very surprised when I found out I'd be leading instead of assisting...I really didn't think I was ready for that yet! But, you know...the
Lord is Good. He got me through the week in one piece and in a sane mind, and I was continually reminded how utterly helpless and dependent I am, and how much I need Him to take control of the things that are just too big for me. Because honestly, this was REALLY big. :p
Anyway, it's not a week I will soon forget. There are some pictures
here , from various sources. :)
The latest big event that we've had was Shelby and Mike's wedding (for those of you who don't know, Shelby is the older sister of my good friend Jody from our church). That whole day was just filled with what I call "God-Moments"; little things that just show exactly how much God loves me and is total and complete control of the situation. Again, I don't have time to go into them, but they really were truly amazing.
The wedding itself was very, very, lovely, and I had a GREAT time connecting with my close friend Jessica, who moved to Oregon last year and I've only seen her twice since then. I'd post pictures from the wedding but unfortunately we neglected to bring a camera, so unless Jody passes some photos along, I'm afraid y'all are out of luck!
So, that's all that's happened so far, but I didn't say that's all that's GOING to happen! :D This week is shaping up to be really, really, huge. Lord willing, I'll be attending the Comic-Con convention in San Diego this Friday and Saturday, attending a Narnia/PIXAR panel and watching exclusive footage from the new movie Prince Caspian! :D :D :D You can't imagine how excited about this opportunity...it's my first and probably last year to attend, so I'm really stoked about going. It's going to be SO FUN! :D
So, there's my life in a nutshell...nothing much to report besides all that! ;) Please keep praying for us and our house that is for sale...things aren't looking too good. It's already difficult enough as it is to sell a house in our area, and that's for really, really great deals. And our house isn't exactly...the best house for sale right now. :p So keep those prayers coming; we really appreciate it!
God bless, everyone!
PS. I've started to email updates as well as post them on my blog(s) because it's more convenient to various people, so if you're receiving this update via email, it's because you're in my address book. If you already get these updates from one of my blogs or if you don't wish to receive them at all, just send me an email to that effect and I'll take you off the list right away! :)
The footage looks SO GREAT!
