A time of waiting.

Yesterday Heidi and I took a walk down the Greenway to celebrate a 44 degree, sunny day in Minneapolis. We like watching the various runners and bikers pass us as we walk. I did wish there was a restroom somewhere on the route, but we are fortunate to have such a nice path so close to our house. Anyway, as we were walking, we talked about the odd place that we are in our lives. As we wait for our house to sell and the rest of our support to come in, we are in a place where we cannot move ahead with our lives in MN, but cannot yet start our lives in Africa. Don’t get me wrong, we are still enjoying being around friends and family and are involved in some things, but we cannot really start anything new right now. Once our house sells, everything will move quickly, but until that time, everything seems to move slowly. This can lead to feelings of frustration and helplessness. After our walk, I felt prompted to read from Deuteronomy 8. In that passage, the Lord speaks through Moses and reminds the Israelites about how He sustained them in the wilderness to prepare them for the entry into the Promised Land. I am sure that at the time the Israelites felt frustrated and helpless as they were stuck in the desert, even though the Lord protected them and supplied their needs. The Lord is sustaining us during this time and we are learning to have greater faith. When everything is in place and we depart for Africa, we will be better off for having had this experience. I guess that is how the Christian life works.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TIM

Today is Tim's 35th birthday! I am so blessed to have such an amazing husband. The Lord truly sent me a gift when He brought Tim into my life. I was independent, strong and secure as a single woman and I wasn't looking for a husband. But God knew what I needed and shortly after I entered into what has now been a very challenging 5 years of physical pain, the Lord brought Tim along. Just in time to be a tremendous support to and advocate for me. So I praise God for Tim and I love him so much. Happy birthday, baby.

Happy Birthday, Heidi!!!

Today is Heidi's birthday. Be sure to leave a comment to wish her a Happy Birthday.

I sure am blessed by my Sweet Baboo and we were not married, I would totally date her. Love you, baby.

Settlers tourney

Over the weekend, starting Friday night with two and ending Sunday with one game, Tim and I fit in 5 games of Settlers whenever we could and I am pleased to say that I crushed him 4-1. If you know how much Tim has played this game in the past 10 years, then you know what an accomplishment this is! He always tells people that his social life before he met me was pretty much comprised of playing Settlers with his buddies. And he was even playing pretty hardcore in this quest to beat me. It was fun. Well, it was probably more fun for me. I figure it's a compliment to him. With how much he has played, it's only right for his wife to know how to as well. :)

Back to the blog

It has been quite some time since I have posted. I have been temping and I got a full time assignment about a month ago and haven't blogged since. Well, I'm back!! The assignment is now over so I have a lot more time to blog. I was working at MyTana, a manufacturing company in St. Paul that makes equipment for sewer cleaning, like cable machines, cameras, jetter hoses, leak detectors, etc. I know all about it now! Ask me anything!! It was a pretty crazy job, I had some unique conversations with plumbers of all varieties to put it mildly.

So yesterday was my last day and boy did I get a wonderful send-off. My boss came to tell me at about 10:30 that it was going to be my last day and for the next 20 minutes everyone huddled around my desk to say goodbye, wish me well in Africa and say they would miss me while I packed up my desk. They even gave me a $25 gift certificate to a local restaurant! I was a temp! Crazy sweet of them. They also loaded me up with MyTana gear.....

In case you can't see that real well, the t-shirts say: "show that turd who's boss!" and "nice pipes!" A little plumber humor for ya. And then there's 2 hats as well. It was a really interesting place to work, the highlight was definitely the people. I am really going to miss them! Thanks MyTana!!

Tim's male bonding weekend

The Man Night on Friday was fun. We started with board games and moved on to Diaper Wars once the group using the Fellowship Hall left. Since there were six of us for Diaper Wars we did not have subs and played for over two hours without much of a break. In particular, I enjoyed the one on one game where the winner got to stay put and the other players cycled through. On Saturday I was really sore. In fact, I am still sore. It was worth it. Special thanks to Nicolas for opening the church for us. Robbie, Chris, Jer, Jimmie, and I had a great time.

On Sunday, the male bonding continued when Grant and Mark came over for a game of Axis and Allies: Europe. It is a board game where players assume the role of the countries involved in WWII and use the resources and weapons to defeat the other players. Grant played Germany, Mark played Russia, and I played England and the USA. The game is set so that when equal players match up, the Allies usually win. Grant played a masterful game and it looked like he might get the win when he made one crucial mistake and Mark destroyed his entire air force in one battle. At that point, the game was impossible for Grant to win and he conceded defeat. Heidi could not understand the draw to a game that took about seven hours to play, but we sure did have fun.

Heidi enjoyed seeing her friend Am this weekend and hanging out with girls from church on Sunday and I enjoyed my male bonding weekend, but my favorite activity is still anything that involves my Sweet Baboo. Spending time with Heidi is still my favorite pastime.

The 2008 Disc Golf season has begun!

On Friday, right after work, Eric and I (Tim) opened the 2008 Disc Golf season. The air temp was around 31 degrees and the wind was whipping in all directions, but we played. Neither of us had a particularly good round, but we did have fun. It was hard to get footing to throw in the snow and the wind wreaked havoc with our shots, but at the end of the round we agreed that it was good to be back out.

My niece, Christi, was in town the last few days for her Spring Break. While most of her friends were either at home or in a warmer climate, she came to visit her family in MN and WI. She spent a couple days my sister, Sally, and Heidi and I got some quality time on Saturday and Tuesday. Christi was blessed to get the Chase family sense of humor and she even writes a humor column for the newspaper at Grace College. We enjoyed her visit.

While Christi was here yesterday Heidi and I took her on shopping trip to Steve and Barry’s. It is a clothing store where everything costs $8.95. Everything from t-shirts and hats to jeans and leather jackets cost $8.95. Some of their t-shirts contain messages that communicate that you have no class, but I scored two pairs of cargo pants that will serve me quite well in Africa. It’s a good place for clothes if you live on a tight budget.

On Friday night I am putting together a Man’s Night. If you are in the Twin Cities and you are a man, you should come. We will start with board games and move on to Diaper Wars. Drop me a line for more details.

I sure do love Heidi.