a hodge podge

We closed on our house yesterday. We are now official homeowners. (How did this happen? 2 kids and a mortgage!)

Even Emma seemed to understand and all day was so relieved to have “home”. I only moderatley panicked before, during and after closing. I can’t take it back to the store if I change my mind! BUT we are excited.

After the closing, Daniel and I first came to the house before getting the girls from my parents and THIS was posted on the windows:

What!? They were warning stickers stating the house was under surveillance and demanding that a Certificate of Occupancy must be obtained before moving in.

WHAT?!!?

The stickers were signed and dated for yesterday. Posted the day we purchased our first home. Talk about immediate stress. We literally only owned the home for minutes and there was already a problem. I called the number posted, and prayed in the Spirit while on hold. The unhelpful man told me to call a different number. No answer there. I call back to Mr. Unhelpful. Another number is given. They, also, are unable to give me answers but think the inspector who posted the signs might know something. He has one office hour per day and is unreachable. But where and who I question out loud, has my answers. What is wrong with my house and why weren’t we notified or red flagged in an inspection?

The inspectors secretary explains that he gets all of his orders from the city and it is the city that will have all the information I need. She offers me a phone number….it’s the first phone number that I called twice. To my delight, someone else answers. I explain my situation and she takes my name and address and the name of the inspector.

“Oh really? He just walked in for a meeting, please hold……holding…..He’s says it’s your lucky day. Take the stickers down. The city only wanted to start monitoring it because it has been vacant!”

Thank You, Jesus.

Once we were given permission to enter our own home, we photoed our first keys and unlocking. Daniel also carried me over the threshold and proceeded to walk around the house saying “That’s my toilet, that’s my light fixture, that’s my ugly kitchen floor”…and then he did “snow angels” in the carpet. (Why not!? It’s our house, right!?)

We brought the girls back took our first family photo and showed them their room. Emma was so excited she was jumping and dancing in her no-longer-gold room.  

We had a wonderful dinner last night with our families and our pastors. We had subs on a blanket in the living room floor and prayed for God’s blessing and protection over our home. Daniel also enjoyed his first game of pool with his brother.The four of us “camped out” together on the living room floor last night.

Today we were busy painting. We have a crew lined up for Saturday to help us move in all our belongings.

It’s good to be home.

A friend sent this to me. Isn’t it great? It’s on my desktop.

What’s on your desktop?

Note: Due to a lack of color on WordPress I will, from now on, be changing the color of my text and adding pictures with each post that may or may not be relevant to my writing…but is relevant to the addition of color. This one, unfortunately, is black and white but is too appropriate to not use.

I’ve allowed myself to lose my joy over the past couple of years. Overall, I have been fine day to day but every so often it would hit me and I would have a mini-crisis. I would be overwhelmed by the fact that I don’t have any close friends locally (closer than 45 minutes), that I didn’t have a car and I felt stuck at home, that I felt like we didn’t have a clear direction for our future but knowing it was something important.

As of late, it seems that I have been on a God-ordained, outside of my control, course of discovering what happiness really is. Some or most of this maybe seem silly, immature or plain old ridiculous, but I wanted to put this out there because it is real and because I am thankful. I thought that when I got a car I would be able to go places, have variety, see friends and thus solve my problems. Don’t get me wrong, having this car is great, but it has only reminded me of the friends that are not there. (It also reminded me of how much work it is to take two babies out to do anything!)

This is where I will sound shallow and misguided: With or without realizing, I would like to shop if I was feeling blue. (Disclaimer: I do not have piles of new items and hidden credit card bills…I’m not that far off center!). I recently became aware of this tendency and also of the lack of any lasting satisfaction (no kidding, right?).

I was flipping through a book today and read these powerful words spoken by Abraham Lincoln:

Happiness is a journey, not a destination. Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.

 I read these words and thought to myself:

Snap out of it!

I have a wonderful family, a loving and supportive extended family, incredible friends, a great church, many, many physical blessings…and Jesus who has given me salvation, peace and has promised promises that are more than I could dream up. There is nothing in my life to be unhappy about.

The other part of this quote really has my wheels turning as well: Happiness is not a destination. I, of course, know this. Although, I seemed to have forgotten. Happiness will not be when we are in full time ministry, more involved with missions or have the greatest friends living next door. I was suffering from severe greener grass syndrome. I remembered today the blessings from God. My girls will never be these amazing ages again. We will never have this chapter of our lives back…so we need to live this chapter with fullness.

I’ve been on this journey before to differing degrees but am so thankful that Jesus desired to guide my journey of happiness and do a deeper work in my heart.

I didn’t forget.

D: this is the driving, direct, demanding, dominant, get-things-done kind of person; can at times be dictatorial and callous towards others. They would say “Give me a job & get out of the way”, “Do it now, my way”. D’s fears might include thinking “Don’t take advantage of me.” D’s are extroverted (need / want to be around people) yet are task oriented.

I, for example, am a “High I” meaning I is the only one above the midline on my graph. In small groups I am an ID. The High I properly illustrates my need for people and my need for fun.

My wonderful husband understands this and allows for my “I”. Last week, he got home from work and I had been working on several projects all week and had not had any social time…which led to high amounts of stress and a feeling of being overwhelmed. I felt weak, crazy, ineffective and…dumb. He gently reminded me that it was okay for me to be feeling that way since…I am an I. I had not been around people and my work-to-fun ratio (as we call it) was out of wack. Through understanding my personality we were both able to logically process behavior.

We use this ALL the time. Almost as soon as we meet someone, we will observe and “label” (for lack of a better word) them. This is extermley helpful. My brother is a C…it is helpful to remind myself that he does things differently than I do…because we are opposites in this DISC spectrum.

Recently, we had a meeting with a person we didn’t know too well. She was very direct, demanding and almost cold. It would have been very easy to become offended. Instead we thought, “Oh, she’s a D…she’s not being mean, she’s a D”.

Now for all you:

Andi : IS

Matt (my brother):high C (not the juice)

Mandy : high I (With CSD just below the midline…so are you a forced extrovert?)

Natalie : DC

Angie : ICS

Annie : SIC

Debbie: IS

Becca: SI

Alece: CIS (with D just below the midline)

Daniel: S (at work…D)

So, what do you think? Are your results accurate? Do the descriptions fit you? What personality stories do you have?

First, we must come up with some nickname for Daniel (Li, any suggestions? That’s really your department). Second, we had a wonderful weekend with the van Renszy’s. Even now Emma is crying to see ” ‘Lece and Noewl” (I know how she feels!) Here are the pictures (including the pictures from last night when my camera was highjacked by a shutter-trigger happy missionary).

our third annual cheesecake

I’ve emailed each of you a DISC personality test. If you didn’t get it or have questions, let me know. I don’t think I can post it online. I’m curious to know about some of you so if you would take the test and post your scores in a comment. Once all the results are in, I’ll post again explaining. Thanks. This will be fun!

What are your thoughts on this?

i feel pretty close to my blog friends but every so often it occurs to me that i don’t really know basic, get to know you, friend stuff. so if you would please help me bridge this gap…you know so then when we do see each other i can have your favorite ice cream on hand or we can laugh and joke about things like we’re as close as we feel. i’ll start. feel free to add your own facts if you like.

favorite color? in general, lime. also orange, red, aqua, pink, brown, periwinkle - basically as long as it’s colorful, i like it.

middle name? allison

favorite movie? pride and prejudice (with colin firth), the bourne movies, how to lose a guy in 10 days

favorite icecream? chocolate or chocolate chip cookie dough

favorite indulgence? coke slurpees, little debbie brownies and dove chocolate

favorite verse? phil 1:6, jer. 29:11, mark 16:15

favorite pop? cherry coke, dr. pepper

favorite bible story? gideon, the beginning of acts, joseph

last book / current book? no cry discipline solution, introduction to the new testament

most desired place to visit? south africa, botswana and victoria falls, moscow, china and great wall

collect anything? books and movies

favorite thing to spend money on? books, garage sales :), clothes, i tunes

do you like any sports? i like going to baseball games - the experience is fun.

dream car? honda odyssey

what color is your bedspread? brown

thanks!

this question might seem silly but it is one that we have asked each other countless times. the question is taken from gary chapman’s book five love languages and is partially given credit for our happy marriage.

since many posts lately seem to be about learning about each other, i thought i’d ask about my friends as well (this doesn’t just apply to husband and wife).

here are my results (in order): Receiving of Gifts, Quality Time, Words of Affirmation

these have changed a couple of times in different seasons of life. i used to be first in quality time but that seems not always possible right now so i have shifted a bit, although i tend to get crabby if i don’t get quality time with daniel. so i guess i’ll settle with gifts! {in this test, gifts don’t necessarily mean big gifts, but even a note or a token that shows you were thinking of me)

what about you? take the quiz. and if you’ve never heard of this, here’s an explanation. we tend to love others in the languages we are strongest in.