So we've moved to Missouri, just south of St. Louis. There's several job opportunities here and some of my closest friends, so we're excited to be here. Excited to be near civilization again (read: malls, Target, Kohls, etc.). But already we're missing the friends we left behind and the rural landscape. Yet there are some amazing things to explore in St. Louis.
Isn't that the way of this journey called life? Bittersweet; good-byes mixed with hellos.
And hopefully I'll be grooving to my keyboard during NaNoWriMo. My progress should be showing up on the widget to the right. I've got some great ideas from the ACFW Denver conference that I want to put to work on my project. So I'm looking forward to that.
Lots of good things in store. I'll keep you posted.
Showing posts with label moving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label moving. Show all posts
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Do Hard Things
Which would seem to include, for me, updating my blog. I do have a good excuse. Right after Calvin's Festival of Faith and Writing I moved. Only about 30 minutes away and nearer my church but to a different time zone. And the kids are still playing soccer in the old time zone. Needless to say, most nights I'm not getting home until almost 8 and then scrounging around in boxes and cupboards trying to remember where I've put things.
So. Hopefully things will soon be better. Or I'll lose my mind. One of the two.
I recently joined the NON First alliance and I really enjoyed this first book by the Harris brothers. I'm about half way through it and found it had great things to say to teens and adults. I hope to post a more thorough review later, but needless to say, I'm going to be recommending this book to the teens I know and to our church youth leader. Below you can find a bit more on Do Hard Things and the Harris brothers and even a taste of the first chapter. And hopefully I'll be back sooner rather than later!
It's May 15th, time for the Non~FIRST blog tour!(Join our alliance! Click the button!) Every 15th, we will featuring an author and his/her latest non~fiction book's FIRST chapter!
The feature author is:
Alex and Brett Harris and their book, Do Hard Things:
ABOUT THE AUTHORs:
Alex and Brett Harris founded TheRebelution.com in August 2005 and today at age 19 are the most popular Christian teen writers on the Web. The twins are frequent contributors to Focus on the Family’s Boundless webzine, serve as the main speakers for the Rebelution Tour conferences, and have been featured in WORLD magazine, Breakaway, The Old Schoolhouse, and the New York Daily News. Sons of homeschool pioneer Gregg Harris and younger brothers of best-selling author Joshua Harris (I Kissed Dating Goodbye), Alex and Brett live near Portland, Oregon.
Click here (you might have to scroll down a bit) to read the first chapter.
So. Hopefully things will soon be better. Or I'll lose my mind. One of the two.
I recently joined the NON First alliance and I really enjoyed this first book by the Harris brothers. I'm about half way through it and found it had great things to say to teens and adults. I hope to post a more thorough review later, but needless to say, I'm going to be recommending this book to the teens I know and to our church youth leader. Below you can find a bit more on Do Hard Things and the Harris brothers and even a taste of the first chapter. And hopefully I'll be back sooner rather than later!
It's May 15th, time for the Non~FIRST blog tour!(Join our alliance! Click the button!) Every 15th, we will featuring an author and his/her latest non~fiction book's FIRST chapter!
The feature author is:
Alex and Brett Harris and their book, Do Hard Things:
ABOUT THE AUTHORs:
Alex and Brett Harris founded TheRebelution.com in August 2005 and today at age 19 are the most popular Christian teen writers on the Web. The twins are frequent contributors to Focus on the Family’s Boundless webzine, serve as the main speakers for the Rebelution Tour conferences, and have been featured in WORLD magazine, Breakaway, The Old Schoolhouse, and the New York Daily News. Sons of homeschool pioneer Gregg Harris and younger brothers of best-selling author Joshua Harris (I Kissed Dating Goodbye), Alex and Brett live near Portland, Oregon.
Click here (you might have to scroll down a bit) to read the first chapter.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
How I Spent My Summer Vacation, Part 1
Since fall is here, it seems appropriate to talk about summer. Go figure that logic. There’s a small thread of it, trust me. I am excitedly waiting to experience my first fall. I’ve never lived any place that had seasons. Already the leaves are beginning to change, the corn fields are being harvested. I even changed my blog banner to reflect one of local fields I drove by the other day.
At the same time, I can’t help but reflect on the season that just ended. It seems odd to have summer ending in September. Normally, where I’ve lived we don’t get cooler weather until November. But it’s been quite a summer. And since I didn’t often have time to blog about it, bear with me while we do a little retrospective…
End of May, beginning of June
The day after Memorial Day, Michelle flew into Phoenix to drive a moving truck containing all our worldly possessions and towing my Jetta to Indiana. Jenny came with me to meet Mich at the airport and to give us hugs and prayers for the journey.
Mich and I got a late start because we had to finish packing the truck in 90 degree heat. It was probably 110 inside the truck. The Jetta had the pet supplies and an ice chest, in addition to every piece of electronic equipment and anything else that we could stuff in there. The cat was in her carrier under the truck seat, and Charlie was supposed to sit on the floor. Supposed to being the operative word. The 85-pould Lab thought he should be a lap dog instead. I had the claw marks on my thighs to prove it. In between Mich and me was a box that held Red Vines, Sun Chips, trail mix, and a small cooler of Diet Coke and water.
Finally we hit the road and made the long drive up the grade to Flagstaff.
This was the slowest leg of the journey because we couldn’t make good time going up that grade. We had hoped to get to Alburquerque that night but didn’t even make it out of Arizona before crashing in the little town of Holbrook. We made about 300 miles in 8 hours. Ugh! Doesn’t this look like something that inspired Cars?
The next day was better. After we finally got Charlie to sit on the floor on his bed and look out the little wing window life was a lot more comfortable for me. We were basically doing Route 66 backwards. I tried to sing the song backwards but couldn't manage it. However, we did pass through every town mentioned in the lyrics, with the exception of Kingman, Barstow (been there lots), and San Bernardino (the town next to the one I grew up in).
Mich and I listened to Jeremy Camp and some other CDs, singing along. We talked about writing and God and listened to Stephen King’s Lisey’s Story. We also managed to stop somewhere in every state to get souvenirs for the kids. Other than the fact that Mich had a hard time reaching the pedals and I had to keep my feet propped up on the dash because the seat was so close there was no room for my legs, it was a fun, if tiring day.
Around 11 PM we pulled into Oklahoma City to get coffee, snacks, and gas before pressing on to Tulsa to spend the night. Mich got in a “discussion” with a truck driver about how far it was to Tulsa. Mich used to be a truck driver herself, so she had some issues with the fact that the guy didn’t know miles, just time and some other things. She muttered most of the way about how wrong he was. And she was right. She showed him!
The next day was the longest, 17 hours in the truck, but the final stretch home. We crossed the Mississippi.
Did I mention Mich doesn’t like bridges over water? I think the last 5 hours came close to torture for both of us as our backs were hurting from the truck seat and we were sick of the junk food we’d bought. We pulled into her yard at 3 AM. After letting the dog go pee, I fell into the sleeper sofa--fully clothed and sweaty--next to my kids, who, even in their sleep, cuddled up next to me.
I was home.
At the same time, I can’t help but reflect on the season that just ended. It seems odd to have summer ending in September. Normally, where I’ve lived we don’t get cooler weather until November. But it’s been quite a summer. And since I didn’t often have time to blog about it, bear with me while we do a little retrospective…
End of May, beginning of June
The day after Memorial Day, Michelle flew into Phoenix to drive a moving truck containing all our worldly possessions and towing my Jetta to Indiana. Jenny came with me to meet Mich at the airport and to give us hugs and prayers for the journey.
Mich and I got a late start because we had to finish packing the truck in 90 degree heat. It was probably 110 inside the truck. The Jetta had the pet supplies and an ice chest, in addition to every piece of electronic equipment and anything else that we could stuff in there. The cat was in her carrier under the truck seat, and Charlie was supposed to sit on the floor. Supposed to being the operative word. The 85-pould Lab thought he should be a lap dog instead. I had the claw marks on my thighs to prove it. In between Mich and me was a box that held Red Vines, Sun Chips, trail mix, and a small cooler of Diet Coke and water.
Finally we hit the road and made the long drive up the grade to Flagstaff.
This was the slowest leg of the journey because we couldn’t make good time going up that grade. We had hoped to get to Alburquerque that night but didn’t even make it out of Arizona before crashing in the little town of Holbrook. We made about 300 miles in 8 hours. Ugh! Doesn’t this look like something that inspired Cars?
The next day was better. After we finally got Charlie to sit on the floor on his bed and look out the little wing window life was a lot more comfortable for me. We were basically doing Route 66 backwards. I tried to sing the song backwards but couldn't manage it. However, we did pass through every town mentioned in the lyrics, with the exception of Kingman, Barstow (been there lots), and San Bernardino (the town next to the one I grew up in).
Mich and I listened to Jeremy Camp and some other CDs, singing along. We talked about writing and God and listened to Stephen King’s Lisey’s Story. We also managed to stop somewhere in every state to get souvenirs for the kids. Other than the fact that Mich had a hard time reaching the pedals and I had to keep my feet propped up on the dash because the seat was so close there was no room for my legs, it was a fun, if tiring day.
Around 11 PM we pulled into Oklahoma City to get coffee, snacks, and gas before pressing on to Tulsa to spend the night. Mich got in a “discussion” with a truck driver about how far it was to Tulsa. Mich used to be a truck driver herself, so she had some issues with the fact that the guy didn’t know miles, just time and some other things. She muttered most of the way about how wrong he was. And she was right. She showed him!
The next day was the longest, 17 hours in the truck, but the final stretch home. We crossed the Mississippi.
Did I mention Mich doesn’t like bridges over water? I think the last 5 hours came close to torture for both of us as our backs were hurting from the truck seat and we were sick of the junk food we’d bought. We pulled into her yard at 3 AM. After letting the dog go pee, I fell into the sleeper sofa--fully clothed and sweaty--next to my kids, who, even in their sleep, cuddled up next to me.I was home.
Monday, June 4, 2007
Route 66 in Reverse
Hey, I made it to Indiana safely with kids, animals, and stuff mostly intact. Three 17-hour days in a moving truck with Michelle, a 75-pound black Lab, and a 16-year-old cat. No Internet service yet. I'm at the library using theirs. So, this is a short post.
I found it interesting that we basically did Route 66 backwards. Or at least backwards according to the song. I have pictures to post later when I figure out where my camera dock is.
I'll post more when I can.
I found it interesting that we basically did Route 66 backwards. Or at least backwards according to the song. I have pictures to post later when I figure out where my camera dock is.
I'll post more when I can.
Monday, May 28, 2007
The Caffeinated Cat
Seems like a good title for something, doesn’t it? I don’t know for what, but you’re welcome to use it as long as you give me credit.
This is my cat Duchess. She’s 16. And apparently has developed an iced tea habit in her old age. I had brought my tea and my computer upstairs to get all comfy on my bed and get some work done. I set the tea on my nightstand, but when I went to reach for it, um, someone had beat me to it. Some cat. Duchess had her whole head buried in the glass.
I thought she’d take a drink, taste it and realize it wasn’t water and stop drinking. Of course she’d ruined the whole glass for me. But no, she kept drinking. Then she stopped. But came back a few minutes later. She drank half of a 24 oz glass. Which made me wonder what caffeine would do to a cat. I mean, would it keep her up? She tends to be nocturnal anyway.
I guess it made her chase flies. Out here, the flies seem to sense the cool air inside the houses and they wait in ambush by the door. Soon as one opens, wham!, they sneak in. And with two kids, they get lots of those opportunities. So I have flies in my house. But Duchess managed to kill at least three the other night while I was watching. So guess she can have all the iced tea she wants. Just not out of my glass.
Should be interesting to see how she stands sharing the cab of a moving truck with me, Michelle and the dog. The adventure starts Tuesday. Stay tuned.
This is my cat Duchess. She’s 16. And apparently has developed an iced tea habit in her old age. I had brought my tea and my computer upstairs to get all comfy on my bed and get some work done. I set the tea on my nightstand, but when I went to reach for it, um, someone had beat me to it. Some cat. Duchess had her whole head buried in the glass.
I thought she’d take a drink, taste it and realize it wasn’t water and stop drinking. Of course she’d ruined the whole glass for me. But no, she kept drinking. Then she stopped. But came back a few minutes later. She drank half of a 24 oz glass. Which made me wonder what caffeine would do to a cat. I mean, would it keep her up? She tends to be nocturnal anyway.
I guess it made her chase flies. Out here, the flies seem to sense the cool air inside the houses and they wait in ambush by the door. Soon as one opens, wham!, they sneak in. And with two kids, they get lots of those opportunities. So I have flies in my house. But Duchess managed to kill at least three the other night while I was watching. So guess she can have all the iced tea she wants. Just not out of my glass.
Should be interesting to see how she stands sharing the cab of a moving truck with me, Michelle and the dog. The adventure starts Tuesday. Stay tuned.
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