I finally got my camera to work (sort of).  Turns out that I was missing my memory card before.  Now I just need some new batteries.  Anyway, before the batteries died, I was able to take pics of my new place. 

This is my hallway as seen from my living room.  The door with all the purses/coats is the door to the stairs and the outside.

This is the hallway from as seen from the other side. The cabinet on the right is my kitchen pantry.  Across from the pantry is....

the kitchen.

Now we're entering the livingroom.  Notice the new futon....$150 on craigslist.  Ray was able to position it so that it's more like a loveseat recliner.  It folds down completely to be a queen-size bed.  It's VERY comfortable.  Oh, the side with all of the remotes....yep, that's "Ray's side" :)

I have 4 crawl spaces in my apartment.  Two in the living room and two in the bedroom.  The one pictured here is the only one I leave open because it's a great place for the liter box (even though I do have to crawl into it to clean it).  Ray built a wall to make sure the cats don't explore too much as well as stapled a plastic tarp down.  This makes it easier to sweep up liter and any "accidents" the cats may have.

Yes, my refrigerator is in the livingroom.  Please try not to notice the mess :)

In case you were wondering, I have hit my head very hard on several occasions on the low ceiling. 

This is my very unorganized pantry....it's a work in progress.

God speaks

through pastors and speakers;

In sermons and hymns

on a Sunday morning and midweek services.

God speaks

through the miraculous.

Doubt changes to unwavering belief;

powerful testimonies soften stone hearts.

God speaks

through glorious sunsets,

skies lush with stars,

and caverns carved out of mountains.

God speaks

through the storm;

A rainbow reminding us

His promises are sure.

God speaks

through a comforting presence

in the midst of pain and grief;

a gentle, soothing whisper.

God speaks

through the lyrics of a song,

the laughter of a child,

words from a close friend.

God speaks

Are you listening?

Summer Firsts

This summer has been one in which I've done an array of things for the first time.  These include:

1) Going on a carnival spinning ride (pictured above).  In case you're not familiar with it, this ride swings back and forth like the familiar pirate ship while spinning around.  I went on it at night with Ray because he loves spinning rides.  I think he has permenant marks on his legs from where my fingers dug into him and is now deaf in his right ear from my constant screams.  I survived though:).  I was, however, a little traumatized and refused to go on another spinning ride afterwards.  I think I could handle one a night.  Next challenge: a rollar coaster.


2) Driving to/through Long Island: I've been to Long Island a couple of times, but have never actually driven myself there.  I went for Ray's family's get-together.

3) Eating a lobster tempura sushi roll with chopsticks.  Best thing ever!!!  Once you get it in your mouth that is :).

4) Being in a healthy dating relationship.

5) Making coffee in a 12 cup programmable coffeemaker.  I know, I know....I should have had one of these a LONG time ago.  Previously I either went to Dunkin Donuts for coffee or I made it in a single cup coffeemaker - and not the K-cup kind either.  It had a reusable filter that I had to rinse out each time I wanted another cup, the water never got very hot, and it wasn't programmable.  My mornings have been much improved because of this new addition.

6) Not getting a sunburn and having an actual tan.

7) Being financially stable.  This isn't to say that I'm rolling in money, but this is the first summer that I'm not behind on my rent/bills.  I can't say for sure how long this will last, but for right now I'm loving not being overly stressed about my lack of funds.

Summer

I was really planning on taking pictures of my new place and posting them on here.  Unfortunately my camera's internal memory is full (whatever that means) and since I'm spending $150 to fix my car so that I don't lose control of it on the highway, picture taking will have to wait for a while. 

Instead I thought I'd tell you a little bit about what my summer has been like.  In case you didn't know, I spent the month of June living in a very run-down house in Haverstraw.  Ray worked like crazy - painting, rebuilding a window frame (with the help of our friend Michael), and fixing a ceiling fan.  I cleaned the bathrooms (they were disgusting) and helped remove paint off one of the bedroom floors.  It seems the last tenants didn't understand the purpose of using a drop cloth.  All of this was done to help the woman who owned the house either sell or rent the house again, as well as keeping my rent down to something I could afford to pay.  Even though the house was in bad shape, I actually really enjoyed my time there.  The house was built next to a mountain, so it was quite common for deer to come right up the driveway.  The neighbors were friendly and the neighborhood was conviently located by a Shoprite and CVS.  Plus, once I started seeing the house transform, I began to see its potential and I was rather sad when I had to move again.
The move to New City was hard on many levels.  The apartment was much smaller than I remembered and the hallway was so tight that I couldn't bring my couch.  There were ants in my living room, a screen missing in the bathroom, lightbulbs that needed to be replaced as well as fixtures that needed to be repaired, and another bathroom that wasn't cleaned.  We started moving at 2pm (I had been up since 8:30am) and I didn't get home for the night until midnight.  I was an emotional wreck.   It was also July 4th weekend, which meant that instead of working on my apartment, Ray and I decided to go to a BBQ/fireworks.  Not that the relaxation wasn't much needed, but I have to admit that I was less than enthusiastic to be relaxing when my apartment (and by extension my life) was in such chaos. 
Thankfully most of my boxes have now been put away and my apartment is slowly getting more organized.  It's been tough because this summer I've been working almost 40 hrs a week.  It's been a blessing financially, but it does make it harder to get things done.  Usually I'm up by 7:15am to be at Huntington Learning Center by 9am.  I generally tutor for 4 hours.  My "lunch" consists of running around trying to get whatever errands done that I can do.  By 2:50 I'm on my way to pick up the boys from camp.  Their bus comes in @3:30 and both kids are hot, hungry, and tired.  As soon as we get to their house we take the dog out for a little while, have some snack, and wait for their mom to come home.  Most nights I leave their house by 6:30pm.  Then I meet up with Ray for whatever we're doing that evening.

Things I've Learned from Moving

I've moved many times over the years.  Seven moves in nine years to be precise (after college).  These last two moves, however, were by far the hardest emotionally.  Perhaps this was due to the fact that I didn't really WANT to move, but whatever the reason, here is a top ten list of things I learned about moving these past two months.

1) Realistically I only use maybe 20% of what I own on a daily basis.
2) I need to label boxes more specifically.  Looking through 5 boxes marked KITCHEN and finding the item I need in the LAST box I open isn't very helpful.
3) Moving is always far more time consuming and exhausting than I anticipate.
4) I need to take pictures BEFORE I move all of my stuff in.
5) Measuring the hallway width would have been beneficial.  If I had done that first I would have realized that my couch would never be able fit before moving day.
6) If my friends are less than enthusiastic about my new apartment I will have an emotional breakdown by the end of the night.
7) Don't agree to watch other people's pets during the moving process.  It is quite likely that I will completely forget this new responsibility and end up feeding the cats at 11pm (after my emotional breakdown).
8) Learn to take things one day at a time.  I can only do so much in any given day.  Eventually the chaos will become a distant memory.
9) Moving is stressful on a dating relationship.
10) Birds chirping right outside my window at 5:30am are noisier than a freight train.

Expectations

I should have...
           I thought by now I'd...
                     Why haven't I...?
                                You should...
                                          Why can't you...?
                                                     Why don't you...?

                                                              Expectations embodied in ellipsis
                                                                        of what we should have done,
                                                                                where we should be,
                                                                                     how others should act,
                                                                                            what path to take.
                                                              Bringing forth strong emotions
                                                                                                 and reactions;
                                                                         creating a chasm of pain
                                                                                   regret
                                                                                              anger
                                                                                                      disappointment


                                                                An unexpected
                                                                                       delay
                                                                           reaction
                                                                                      change of plans
                                                                           illness
                                                                                      loss

Expect the unexpected they say

and have no regrets.

Live in the moment.

Man makes plans

but

God directs his steps.

Don't let your dreams become idols.

Turn to Him for wisdom,

for forgiveness,

grace,

and the ability to live in the moment.

His ways are always better than ours.

The Apartment Saga

It is May. I have officially been living with a decent amount of my stuff in boxes for about a month now and while I'm pretty sure I know I haven't lost anything, it is still a mystery as to where some things have gone. For instance, the other day Ray was making dinner and asked me where the toaster was. I looked in 2 boxes labeled "kitchen"....still no toaster. Fortunately he figured out how to toast without one since I didn't find the 3rd box labeled "kitchen" until much later (it was in my bedroom closet). Such is my life at the moment. Fortunately most of my everyday necessity items have yet to be packed.

In case you're wondering why I still have things in boxes, it is because I thought I was moving to an apartment in Nyack last month. After a very long and drawn out process I was finally given the go-ahead by the landlady to move in. The Wednesday before Easter I gave her a check and she gave me the key. I started moving boxes. My mom and Ray came to help me move. While we were there, Ray had a question about the lock on the front door (previously he hadn't seen the apartment). He asked the landlady about it. Everything seemed fine until I got a phone call later on in the day from the landlady saying that if I wasn't completely happy with the apartment she'd be more than happy to return my check to me. I told her that while I was happy with the apartment that I would think about it and get back to her the next day.

She didn't even give me 24 hours before she called and said that she had been thinking and had come to the conclusion that the arrangement wouldn't work out. She asked if I could have my stuff out by Friday. I told her I was going away and that I'd have everything out by Monday. My mom didn't really like my stuff staying there all weekend, so she came up on Friday and moved everything for me. I went by on Monday to get my check and return the key. When I asked her why she had changed her mind she responded that Ray asking her a question was not direct communication from me to her (she likes to have direct communication with her tenants - I guess standing right there while he asked her wasn't enough) and he also had looked at the front door without her permission.

Ah ha...ok...I'm choosing to look at this as a blessing in disguise since this woman was obviously very controlling and would have given me a lot of grief had I actually become her tenant for longer than 12 hours. I'm thankful that she made her decision before I started moving my furniture and cats in as that would have been far more difficult. I'm also extremely thankful that I still have my old apartment to live in for now.

Where does this leave me today? Still looking. In the meantime there has been an offer on the house and an inspector came last Friday. There were only minor issues, so now I wait to see what happens. I've been told that I'll have at least 2 months before I absolutely need to get out. From what I've heard, the people making the offer want my apartment torn out and converted back into a garage again. My landlords don't have a place to move to either, so this should be interesting. They are looking to move into an apartment that will accept 2 dogs.

In the meantime I am trusting that God has the perfect place lined up for me. It has been far from easy though. I fight a daily battle of trying not to get too discouraged. This weekend was particularly rough because I spent a great deal of my time in bed with a migraine. However, I recently read in a devotional that when God tells you to wait you should:
(1) shift your perspective from "why me" to "what now?",
(2) count your blessings
(3) recall the past
(4) reach out
(5) internalize scripture.

I read this verse today "For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, 'Do not fear; I will help you.'" Isaiah 41:13