THERE'S A LIZZARD OVER MY DOOR!!!! .... and other changes of the last two weeks

So I knew this move was coming but honestly expected it to be more organized, relaxed, like I planned it... who was I kidding???

We were planning on moving Monday, June 7th, my parents were going to hopefully help, although Dad wasn't a guarantee since recent rain had him really behind.  During planning Dad decided he really wanted to help us move, which meant we would save a ton b/c a U-Haul was going to be much more expensive than planned... but that also meant we would be moving on his schedule, or the weather's schedule which determines his schedule.  So after some frantic packing Thursday and Friday we were on the road early Saturday.  Amazingly enough all of our stuff fit into my Dad's big stock trailer.  It was weird to see all of our worldly belongings going down the road in the trailer!  Even better, nothing was broken!

14 hours, lots of breaks and 1 sick cat later we made it to my Granddaddy's house to crash for the evening.  Dan and Hannah came with us this trip and the other two will come to visit later!   When we came to move in Sunday morning I was kind of disappointed.  We could smell smoke from the former tenant when we walked in, wallpaper was still up that we requested be taken down and there seemed to be dirt everywhere.  Chris and I were able to swim with the kids after everything was unloaded into the apartment and we decided it would be best to stay at Granddaddy's again that night with the family.  Dad left for Indiana Monday morning and Mom stayed with us a few more days to help us clean and unpack.  We were planning on both kids staying with us the whole time Mom was down but Hannah decided that she had swam and seen where we were going to live and she was ready to go home!  so she went back with Dad Monday morning.

While Mom was here we were able to visit the natural museum and butterfly exhibit on campus and take Dan to the Springs.  The Springs are still one of my favorite places to go in Florida.  There aren't too many people, the water is crystal clear (and way colder than I remember), and you are surrounded by peaceful nature.

With Mom's help we got the kitchen and our bedroom scrubbed down so that I felt comfortable putting away clothes and dishes.  It was really hard to see her and Dan pull out Wed. morning... yeah I cried.  Even though I have Chris it was really hard not to feel alone.  We were in a strange town hundreds of miles from anyone we knew and I had been used to being surrounded (almost smothered at times) by family for the last couple months.  

We didn't have much time to dwell on their departure though.  The morning after they left maintenance guys came to take down the wallpaper and another guy came to install out internet.  Chris was busy with school and setting up our insurance, and I was trying to set up house and continue to unpack.  During this we found out that the wallpaper people were going to need to repaint after removing the wallpaper and they offered to paint whatever color we wanted!  I was really set on yellow (one of my friends has a happy yellow kitchen and I wanted to copy-cat), but it looked really awful next to our dirty white cabinets :(.  The red we were going to use on the living room wall however looked really good and we decided that would work well to tie the rooms together... we didn't know we would still have painting people in our house though....

Thursday was our four year anniversary and even though we are pretty close to broke we had some money put aside to go to a sushi restaurant we found last time we were in Gainesville.  We had fun trying some new sushi and vegging out for the evening!

During the course of the week and weekend we have been changing addresses, checking on loan stuff, trying to get licenses and car transferred, and all the little things we tend to forget about when moving!

In reference to the title of this post, my major 'we're not in Kansas anymore' moment happened two nights ago when returning from a walk around the complex.  It was dark out and in the light outside our door I saw something scuttling very quickly over and around our door!  My first fear was that we had a mutant spider living in our door, but Chris pointed out that it didn't move right for a spider.  On closer inspection we discovered it was actually TWO lizards crawling around on the walls outside our apartment!  GAH!  Not sure why I'm so weirded out by them but I am...

Sorry this is ridiculously long post but I wanted to catch you up!  I may do some 'back posting' on things that happened before we moved but I'm sure your eyes are tired by this point!

Adoption Update...Again

Just a quick note to let you know that Mom and Dad's paperwork was accepted this week!!!! Praise God!  If all goes as well as it possibly can Mom and Dad could travel as soon July!  We were thinking Sept. or Oct. before... which it still could be that long but the possibility of it being this soon is crazy!  Thanks for thoughts, prayers and well wishes!

Adoption Update...

Just a quick note! All of Mom and Dad's paperwork has made it to the contact lady in Ukraine and is in the process of being translated. Their contact is planning on taking the paperwork to the AC (Adoption Center) in Kiev on June first. Please pray that they will just accept the paperwork instead of giving her a date three to six weeks out for her to come back and turn the papers in then (which they have done a few times in the past)! Thank you so much for all of your thoughts and prayers, one huge hurtle is past, the paper work is there!

Adoption update...

I just wanted to submit a quick update on Mom and Dad's adoption, which includes a praise and a prayer request!

Praise is that Mom and Dad recently received their INS approval!!!!  This is great news because it was the last major piece they needed to complete their dossier which is sent over to Ukraine.  

The prayer request is something that recently came up while Mom and I were in Indianapolis getting the documents apostilled (the last thing to be done to the documents before sending them to Ukraine!).  We just found out the morning we were heading to Indy that the lady who conducted Mom and Dad's home-study is not a licensed social worker.  This should not be a problem since this is legal in Kentucky and Indiana if she is overseen by a licensed social worker and the agency is licensed in the state of Indiana, which are all true.  The issue is that Kentucky has a ready made form explaining this while Indiana does not seem to have such a form... we are concerned that the AC in Ukraine want the license, or an explanation of its absence and we can't acquire either.  

This has been so stressful on Mom and Dad because it seems like our family will be the first to send a dossier like this to Ukraine and they don't want to be an experiment!  In addition, the agency should be responsible for thinking about and providing all of these things, but instead Mom and Dad have been running and calling around because the people at the agency have been apathetic to the extreme.  Please pray that this gets resolved quickly so that Mom and Dad can get the dossier sent the first of next week.  We have already been delayed at least three weeks due to previous mistakes and delays of this agency and this one may be one of the worst.  So please lift my parents and this process up in prayer.  Please pray also for Mom's stress level, she has worked so hard during this time and is getting exhausted.  

So, good and bad... we are so close to sending this over it is maddening at times.  We know that God's hand is in this adoption and we are praying that he will work super naturally through, or in spite of, these terribly flawed people.  Thanks for your support!

My New "Pet"!

I would like to officially introduce the world to our newest "pet", Demeter!  It is squishy, tan and terribly tasty when cooked up right!In case the picture didn't tip you off we recently acquired a sour-dough bread started! 

On our last trip to Bowling Green we stayed with some of our dear friends who have recently converted to making all their own bread!  They were wonderful hosts and made some of their bread for us, sent us home with more and gave us some of their starter!

This last week I tried my first loaf from this starter, unfortunately it did not raise as much as my friend's wonderful bread, but as Chris kept reminding me it was my first try and it still tasted great!  My friends felt that the reason their bread raised so high was that they were using a local honey which interacted well with the local bugs that work as leavening for the starter.  I used some local honey as well but I think my main problem was that I didn't allow the starter to "proof" long enough.  It was bubbly when I started making it but it didn't have much of a 'sour' smell to it.... what can I say? I was excited about eating it and pretty impatient!

Above is one of the loaves from my first try, it was kinda short and dense, but so tasty both loaves were nearly gone before nightfall!  Sometime I want to discuss some of the advantages of sour-dough over baker's yeast bread but for now I just wanted to share the joy of bread!  Hope you made something tasty this week!

Apartment Success!

The live armadillo we didn't see...

After much web-searching, prioritizing, budget adjusting, calling, and narrowing down we finally drove to Florida to look at apartments this last week!

We were able to stay at my Granddaddy's 'Snow Bird' home that is only about a mile away from Gainesville, which is where UF is.  In order to get the same quality of apartment that we had in Bowling Green, Chris and I decided to raise our budget almost $150/mo.  I wasn't too excited about this but there were some things we weren't willing to give up and it was just going to cost us more in FL.  

When we fist got to Granddaddy's I got really sad.  The length of the drive and the quiet of the house reminded me how far away from family and friends we were traveling.  I admit I cried a little, but Chris was great and I was back to optimistic apartment shopping mode by the next morning.  Before heading to Gainesville every morning we had to stop by the local library to get directions and check mail, then the hour drive up and finding offices/ apartments.  After the second day we felt much more confident about getting around town and knowing at least where a few things were, but we hadn't found a place that we were excited about living at.  Yeah we had acceptable options, but either they were pushing the high end of our budget or they felt a little scuzzy.  We finally found a place we were excited about on Wed. it was our last option that had a washer/dryer hookup (which we desperately wanted), as a bonus they don't charge pet rent and since we signed a two year lease they reduced the monthly rent further.  Also we are going to be able to paint in this apartment, I know it will be a lot of work but I think it will feel more like home!  I'm super excited for once about this whole moving buisness!

The complex is called Tree House Village and is about a ten minute drive from the part of campus that I will be working at most of the time.  To see the model and complex you can go to www.treehousevillage.com . 

As a side note, during all of our driving I kept seeing dead armadillos along the road.  At first I thought they were opossums but got kinda excited when I realized what they were because I thought we might get to see live ones.... we never did.  When I told Dad about it he joked that they were all dead because I was on the road (I'm not that bad of a driving plus Chris was driving the whole time!).  So the above picture is as close to a live Armadillo I got on the whole trip!

Before we found our apartments Wed. my adviser, Mercy, took us out for lunch!  I was kind of nervous at first because I have only met her in person once, but she is awesome and really easy to converse with.  We found out that I can for sure start working in July (and start getting paid, which is important!), and some of her expectations for me and my research during this Fall and the next few years.  After leaving I was very reassured that she is going to be wonderful to work with and that she is the right person for me to work with. 

Beautiful Silver Glen!

Since we had secured our apartment, Thursday was a down day where we didn't have to drive so much.  It was wonderful to sleep in and relax, we also made a trip to the Silver Glen Springs.  It was a perfect day to enjoy the water and sun!  Silver Glen is about twenty minutes from Granddaddy's and is a huge natural spring that bubbles huge amounts of water every hour.  We had a surprise rain shower but it was over in a few minutes.  I am happy that we won't be too far from Granddaddy's place for several reasons, one being that there is plenty of room in case a big group (like my family) comes to visit, they can drive from our apartment to that house easily and have plenty of room to spread out.  Also it will be fun to visit the house and some of the more secluded attractions around it (like the springs) on the weekends!

So in summation, there's plenty of room if you ever want to come visit and enjoy the sun, and we will always have the room and the time!

When do boys become men?

I suppose this seems like a random question but it is one that has been brought to the forefront of my mind since my little brother just turned thirteen last week!

Most of us automatically think that a male is not a man until at least eighteen, when he is legally able to make his own way in the world.  Some (though most eventually realize this is wrong) don't think manhood is achieved until the individual has "scored".  Others have standards that should be met such as living on your own, purchasing a car, getting a "grown-up" job, graduating with the desired degree... the list goes on.  So which of these is right?  Are any of them right?  Are we setting our sights too high, or low, for the induction into manhood?

Obviously, I'm not a man, but I am married to one, the daughter of one and I hope to be the mother of one someday and so I think this is something I am qualified, if not required, to think about.  My Dad actually started it all when my Bro's B-day was approaching.  This is the first teenage boy my parents have ever had and Dad is taking the responsibility of making sure they understand manhood and its responsibilities.  As such he has decided that 13 will be "The Year of Man", with the goal that at my brother's 14 birthday we will declare him a man.  He doesn't have it all planned out yet but has been thinking about and planning for this year for a while now.  He has been doing some background research on what ages boys were considered men in the past and found some surprises.  One, teenager is a new stage of life that has recently been added to our ideas of development.  Previously males were either boys or men, there wasn't much of an in-between time.  While 'young men' were expected to respect their elders, they were still considered men and held responsible as such.  Two, boys were often considered men at a much younger age than we think of today.  Boys as young as 14 chose to fight in the civil war and fathers from WWII wrote home to encourage their 13, 14 and 15 year olds to 'play the man' and 'be the man of the house' in their fathers' absences.  Third, following the revelations above, children were expected to grow up much more quickly and take on more responsibility at young ages than most adults think them capable of.  Dad already kinda had this one down even when my sister and I were little.  Being on a farm exposed us to many more dangers than children in other environments and as such we had to learn at a young age what was safe and what wasn't.  In addition, everyone must contribute for the welfare of the family, so we were in charge of animal care, tractor driving and other high responsibility chores at a young age.

So all of these things explain my Dad's choice for the age of transition to be 14, but not what is expected of my brother when he reaches that age, what it means to be a man.

Part of this definition is going to be controversial and seem politically incorrect, but I agree with my Dad on most of it.  I also agree with him that the reason it seems so politically incorrect is b/c our culture has been fixated on emasculating men for the last forty years.  Characteristics that used to be hailed as manly and honorable in men are now seen as chauvinistic, domineering and demeaning to women.  In addition to this society has been striving to deny the differences between men and women, saying that aside from hormones men and women are essentially the same.  Accepting some of the definitions I am going to present assumes you agree with the fact that "God created them male and female" and that that distinction means something.  So with that preface below is a list of what makes up a man with some explanation where it might be needed.  I by no means think this list is complete, but I do think it is something to consider and seriously think about since it so intimately touches all of our lives.

A Man is:
~A Warrior/ Doer/ Risk Taker: He is always ready to take action when action is called for, even when that action is difficult or dangerous, he is willing to act on what is right regardless of the opposition.  (Counter part to the fact that a woman tends to be the nurturer and nester.)

~Decisive: Prepared to make decisions and accept the consequences.

~Intentional: A man does not let life happen to him, he plans as best he can the course he wants his life to take and then pursues it.  When things derail the plans, he considers his options and chooses where he will go from there.

~A Protector/ Provider: This attribute requires accepting that your wife and family need protecting in both physical and emotional ways.  This also involves making distinctions between what are truly needs and what are wants, inescapably this will mean making some unpopular decisions as well.

~ A Counter-part to a Woman: This involves recognizing, accepting and respecting the differences between the sexes and remembering that both halves are needed to form 'one flesh' in marriage.

~Self-sacrificing: (even when it goes unnoticed and unappreciated)

~Self-controlling/ Long-suffering: Involves remembering that your responses and opinions mean so much more to your family or wife than anyone else's opinion (at least until your kid is a teenager).

Well that's our list for now.  Do we expect my brother to have fully understood and practiced all of these in the next year?  Of course not, that's why he is still at home and learning.  Does my Dad hope to introduce him to all of these qualities and what is expected of a man in the next year?  Yes.  Is he going to get it perfect?  Of course not, but it is a start, it is a beginning to addressing and correcting a great void and need in our culture for mature men.

Dad and Mom are still trying to decide how the year will end, how formal this transition will be and what different expectations and treatments he will get once it is finished.  While I am still processing through all of these ideas I am so excited about their decision to take this on.  I love that they are leaving an example for Chris and I, and even if they don't get it right, or if I think they make a mistake, it is still an example.  Something for us to learn from, whether that means emulating them or avoiding their choices.  After all that's part of what parents are for, teaching us through example.

So what do you think a man is?  When you picture a good man, what qualities stick out?  Dad gave Chris and I some Bible Character studies to look at for good examples when we feel at a loss for modern examples, they included Joshua, Caleb, Elijah, Job, and, of course, Jesus.