Got my first taste of "Southern hospitality" within my first 24 hours (not counting Chick-Fil-a)... the moving truck driver parked the truck in a way that it made it tight for people to pass by but it was definitely doable. We had no complaints.... except one. Twice. The first time the lady came through she passed by what looked like pretty easily, and then laid on her horn for about 5 seconds! Big trucks had passed through earlier with more problems than she had and no complaints. Her little car made it through easily in comparison! She came by again later that day and actually stopped her car and yelled at the truck driver, telling him how "inconvenient" it was for her to have to drive by so slowly like that. He said she was older and had big hair so I'm blaming it on the hair spray fumes built-up over her lifetime (fair warning, Megan Eshbaugh!)
But for the most part people are SO FRIGGIN NICE here! The grocery cashiers, the WalMart greeters (even though they are paid to be nice), the movers, the cable guy, the natural gas guy, the lady on the phone at the trash company, the mail lady, the girl at the burger place, the guy at Jason's Deli, my new best friend at Schlotzsky's who I talked to about poisonous snakes (he's lived here his whole life and only seen one).
Our neighbors are awesome - one has a seven year old boy who loves Legos! We've had several playdates so far. That neighbor's grandma lives with them (lucky!) and cooks for them (lucky!) and does the dishes and makes the kids' lunches for school (lucky!) and she's SO SWEET! She made us a meal, complete with TWO DESSERTS. I was in heaven. The other neighbor brought us cookies (again in heaven) and is so easy to talk to! I've asked them about 1,000 questions about churches, grocery stores, consignment stores, gyms, preschools, poisonous snake sightings....
The kid's consignment store is like a beautiful boutique. So nicely decorated (the STORE itself, not including the clothes!) and the prices really aren't bad!
I'm sure there will be more to come!
Sunday, August 24, 2014
Monday, August 11, 2014
Why am I ready to move again?
Ok. I'm definitely NOT ready to move again, but you wouldn't know it based on my obsessive behavior! The first two weeks we were here I was busy unpacking, etc. And I couldn't use my computer so I didn't really have a chance to look at homes for sale (online). But the weeks following I checked the internet multiple times a day, and when I saw a house I could envision CHANGING to what I'd want, I'd follow that up with google mapping (satellite view), tax assessor record check and drawing floorplans on how I'd change the house. PA-THE-TIC. And I REALLY don't want to have to pack/unpack again. There are so many things we love about this rental house - we need to appreciate them longer!
I know my "house" is my idol - everything about it occupies my mind, from redoing it to decorating it to organizing, etc. Plus all the home decor magazines and Pinterest and my draw-your-own-floor-plan software. It got so consuming that I sensed God telling me to stop. So after mentally arguing with Him.... okay, I give in without much of a fight. I can look at houses online once a week - Friday. It's actually kind of nice to do it this way - frees my mind!
So why am I panicking so much? Why can't I just REST and enjoy this awesome rental house God gave us! I don't understand a lot of the cause-and-effect things in my life - I don't sit and analyze myself - but besides the JOY I find in thinking about houses, I think it's b/c I'm an optimist and a planner. A planner thinks ahead to the future. I'm really bad at enjoying NOW. I'm an optimist so I'm always looking for the silver lining/hopeful and excited about something in the future. So both are "in the future, in the future, in the future". The other part of "why am I not enjoying NOW" is much bigger and much more nebulous due to my lack of soul-searching. It probably has to do with contentment (thank you, "STUCK" Bible Study!) Need to re-read that chapter.
Bob said he doesn't want to start looking at houses until November - enough time for us to settle in and get to know the area. I think that's very wise and I'm following that guideline in my heart (not wanting to "jump" on every home I like). He's good at slowing me down (and I'm working on speeding him up!) Of course two days ago the perfect house came online and I have to wait to see it in person but it's priced too high anyway and we need to make these people sweat by letting it sit there for a few months. I'm good at playing hard to get; I can do this :)) And yes, someone else can always buy the house before then and I'm really ok with that. I trust that God knows best what we want and what He wants for us. That's my whole view now with the house - God - how do you want to use this house? I'd love for it to be the teen hangout - lots of toys/entertainment things (pool! bball court! soccer field! gameroom, etc!) I'd like to think that I can keep a better eye on my kids and their friends if they're under my roof (and via the secret video cameras we will have stationed all over the house). And how can this house be used by the church we join? Will we be too far-out for it to be a convenient place to have meetings/kids events, etc? God knows how to make this work.
New Hampshire was a blessing to us in many MANY ways. One of them is what it taught me regarding housing. It really changed the way I think. If we had come straight from TX I don't think I would see things the way I do now. I would be sucked right into this world. The houses down here can be HUGE. 7,000 sf including a finished basement. C-R-A-Z-Y and no thank you. I love having the perspective we have on housing thanks to NH. Houses that are too big and too gaudy here stand out in a bad way. But the practical contain-the-heat nature of NH housing also makes us thankful for the tall ceilings/open feel of our rental house. It seems so fancy to us but it's probably just NORMAL for around here! I'm so thankful to be thankful for something that's taken for granted! To see it with new eyes! I've also learned to relax decorating-wise. No one cared in NH - it wasn't a priority. I want to take that with me and be an example of freedom. To provide a relaxed, laid-back place where people can just be themselves and don't have to worry about measuring up/comparing themselves. Don't get me wrong - I want my house too look nice. But according to my standards, not the masses'. And I hope that when the time comes to buy/decorate, I will have the desire to pray that God cover me in that process and protect me from obsessing. I want the house to be used for HIS glory, not mine.
I know my "house" is my idol - everything about it occupies my mind, from redoing it to decorating it to organizing, etc. Plus all the home decor magazines and Pinterest and my draw-your-own-floor-plan software. It got so consuming that I sensed God telling me to stop. So after mentally arguing with Him.... okay, I give in without much of a fight. I can look at houses online once a week - Friday. It's actually kind of nice to do it this way - frees my mind!
So why am I panicking so much? Why can't I just REST and enjoy this awesome rental house God gave us! I don't understand a lot of the cause-and-effect things in my life - I don't sit and analyze myself - but besides the JOY I find in thinking about houses, I think it's b/c I'm an optimist and a planner. A planner thinks ahead to the future. I'm really bad at enjoying NOW. I'm an optimist so I'm always looking for the silver lining/hopeful and excited about something in the future. So both are "in the future, in the future, in the future". The other part of "why am I not enjoying NOW" is much bigger and much more nebulous due to my lack of soul-searching. It probably has to do with contentment (thank you, "STUCK" Bible Study!) Need to re-read that chapter.
Bob said he doesn't want to start looking at houses until November - enough time for us to settle in and get to know the area. I think that's very wise and I'm following that guideline in my heart (not wanting to "jump" on every home I like). He's good at slowing me down (and I'm working on speeding him up!) Of course two days ago the perfect house came online and I have to wait to see it in person but it's priced too high anyway and we need to make these people sweat by letting it sit there for a few months. I'm good at playing hard to get; I can do this :)) And yes, someone else can always buy the house before then and I'm really ok with that. I trust that God knows best what we want and what He wants for us. That's my whole view now with the house - God - how do you want to use this house? I'd love for it to be the teen hangout - lots of toys/entertainment things (pool! bball court! soccer field! gameroom, etc!) I'd like to think that I can keep a better eye on my kids and their friends if they're under my roof (and via the secret video cameras we will have stationed all over the house). And how can this house be used by the church we join? Will we be too far-out for it to be a convenient place to have meetings/kids events, etc? God knows how to make this work.
New Hampshire was a blessing to us in many MANY ways. One of them is what it taught me regarding housing. It really changed the way I think. If we had come straight from TX I don't think I would see things the way I do now. I would be sucked right into this world. The houses down here can be HUGE. 7,000 sf including a finished basement. C-R-A-Z-Y and no thank you. I love having the perspective we have on housing thanks to NH. Houses that are too big and too gaudy here stand out in a bad way. But the practical contain-the-heat nature of NH housing also makes us thankful for the tall ceilings/open feel of our rental house. It seems so fancy to us but it's probably just NORMAL for around here! I'm so thankful to be thankful for something that's taken for granted! To see it with new eyes! I've also learned to relax decorating-wise. No one cared in NH - it wasn't a priority. I want to take that with me and be an example of freedom. To provide a relaxed, laid-back place where people can just be themselves and don't have to worry about measuring up/comparing themselves. Don't get me wrong - I want my house too look nice. But according to my standards, not the masses'. And I hope that when the time comes to buy/decorate, I will have the desire to pray that God cover me in that process and protect me from obsessing. I want the house to be used for HIS glory, not mine.
Monday, August 4, 2014
The Great Church Search, Part 2
CHURCH #4. We may have found it.
It's not well-advertised. I saw its name on an office strip billboard as I drove by. They meet in the center of Athens, right next to campus. They have 90% 20-somethings in the service IN JULY (UGA's hasn't started yet). They are so similar in set-up and beliefs and the base denominational stuff as our old church - it's almost like it's our NH church but 10 years earlier. The people seemed so real and natural - not the "they are the greeters but they just seem too fake/sticky sweet". The kids area was really small, though, and the K and above kids sit in the big church during the summer. ??!! Have you SEEN my kids when they're supposed to act good/quiet??!!! That might eliminate US from the church, not the church from OUR search. :)) They provide crayons and coloring pages for the kids and make the sermon somewhat kid-relevant, so they're trying. The younger kid area W and Lauren went to (W was one week away from the "move-up" day) was in a large room with toys but not many kids. Later I asked a mom about the # of kids and it would be 7 kids K-2, 7 3-5. Small. How many families go to this church?? We didn't see many but heard that several were on vacation.
The music was AMAZING. The harmony was SO pretty and it had a slight country/bluegrass twang to it. We knew about half the songs (all songs we sang in NH). When the offering basket came by - it was silent. No music, no talking. It was reeeeeally awkward. But turns out they had some video glitch (they have screens up front for videos/song lyrics!) The sermon was a neat take on David and Goliath. My main takeaway is that you're not BRAVE/COURAGEOUS unless you are scared. You have to be scared first and then be brave enough to push through it. Wow.
When the pastor started his "pre-communion" talk, I looked at the communion table I'd been looking at off and on throughout the sermon and my eyes suddenly widened and it dawned on me that there were four big glasses up there with the bread pieces. Not the little plastic glasses I'm used to.... four big..... WHAT??!!! "AWW HELL NO" (with a southern accent so more like "HAY-ILL NO"), I thought. I quickly wrote a note to Bob saying "I will NOT go up there. I'm not sharing a cup. I'm sitting right here." And I mentally started to write this church off of my list. And then I tuned back in to the pastor who was saying "and when you dip your bread into the cup....." SHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Man! The RELIEF I felt. I'm no Megan Eshbaugh, but even I have a germ-sharing limit, and sharing a glass with 100 people is outside that limit!
Overall, this church may be the one. Its size is SCARY for us - we'd love the kids to have more kids in their classes, and more families to interact with (since we have to copy everything we did at our beloved NH church). This church would definitely challenge us. You can't "hide" in a smaller church. We WANT to take that next step in our spiritual lives - to be held more accountable, to be more visible, to be "pressured" to start a real, genuine, forever walk with God. Not a "salvation" walk - we're already there. But the "okay, you are fully in charge of us now, God. What is your plan for us? Why did you bring us down here?" We see this church as the type that will continue to grow, and it's kind of weird but it's so small yet so similar to our NH church that it's almost like we'd be "founders" of the church we just left. We still have one or two more to visit/re-visit but I kind of have that "recognition/knowing" feeling going on.
Church #5. The Southern Traditional.
We'd heard about this church from so many people - nearly every person we asked re: church recommendations mentioned this church. It is a "denomination" so we were a little leery of that but had heard that this didn't follow the hard/stereotypical line of that denomination. It was more contemporary/laid back. So we show up this morning and there's a police car directing traffic into the parking lot, which seemed small but you go around the corner and it curves left and right and left and right and goes on and on and on. Not big and open like a shopping center parking lot would be (I guess they are landlocked). But there were LOTS of cars. And these people were dressed to the NINES. Ok, some had maxidresses but they had cute little matching sandals and hair and makeup were perfect, etc. Even the teenage boys were dressed nice. Bob probably should have tucked his shirt in. :))
We plowed on and went straight up to the information table and a nice-enough lady walked us to the opposite side of campus to drop the kids off at their building. Two story. With two playgrounds. The lady at the information desk was the nicest person ever and the VP of the school the boys are going to had contacted her and told her to be on the lookout for us (I love this VP!) We entered the downstairs area and everything was so cutely decorated/painted, like you were going into different stores for each room. It wasn't overwhelming/in your face like Church #3 though. When we dropped William off the teacher in there was his favorite lifeguard from the pool so he walked in shyly smiling and surprisingly not complaining about anything. They keep the same teachers all year long. Quite a "burden" for those workers but what great consistency! I guess it's easier to serve in that way when there are two sermon times, thus you still get to be taught every week. The church has THREE meeting times and for the two earlier times there are two services going on at the same time, just with different music - traditional or contemporary. The pastor switches which room he preaches in every week. We went to the contemporary service and it was PACKED. The music was good - not as great as the other churches and I only knew one song but I'm starting to get used to that now :)) The sermon was ok - it's wasn't much about the Bible - was more focusing on the changes coming up in the area with all the students coming back and the importance of all of us serving each other and the church. I didn't leave motivated or filled. We can give it a "pass" since it's not fair to judge based on one sermon. Upon leaving, the traffic out of the childcare area, parking lot and street intersection was CRAZY. Thus the need for the cop, I guess.
Overall, Bob and I agree that this isn't the church for us. It's too big (it really felt like a cattle call at some points), we didn't get much out of the sermon, and it just didn't "feel" right. I did sense the judging eyes of the women sizing each other up, which I am typically immune to. But I told Bob maybe that's what God wants to do is put me in the middle of that and NOT be like that. But SHOOO it won't be in this church. I'd like to be filled, not drained on Sundays ;)) I WILL say that the people we talked to were really nice. They were the greeters and teachers so they had to be but it did seem genuine.
So looks like we have some questions to ask about #4 before we decide. I know we should trust our instinct since we prayed heavily (as did our friends) re: finding a church. But I want to know more about their goals/5-year plan/financial info and budget (where do they spend their money)/focus on children's ministry, etc. Will get back to you!
It's not well-advertised. I saw its name on an office strip billboard as I drove by. They meet in the center of Athens, right next to campus. They have 90% 20-somethings in the service IN JULY (UGA's hasn't started yet). They are so similar in set-up and beliefs and the base denominational stuff as our old church - it's almost like it's our NH church but 10 years earlier. The people seemed so real and natural - not the "they are the greeters but they just seem too fake/sticky sweet". The kids area was really small, though, and the K and above kids sit in the big church during the summer. ??!! Have you SEEN my kids when they're supposed to act good/quiet??!!! That might eliminate US from the church, not the church from OUR search. :)) They provide crayons and coloring pages for the kids and make the sermon somewhat kid-relevant, so they're trying. The younger kid area W and Lauren went to (W was one week away from the "move-up" day) was in a large room with toys but not many kids. Later I asked a mom about the # of kids and it would be 7 kids K-2, 7 3-5. Small. How many families go to this church?? We didn't see many but heard that several were on vacation.
The music was AMAZING. The harmony was SO pretty and it had a slight country/bluegrass twang to it. We knew about half the songs (all songs we sang in NH). When the offering basket came by - it was silent. No music, no talking. It was reeeeeally awkward. But turns out they had some video glitch (they have screens up front for videos/song lyrics!) The sermon was a neat take on David and Goliath. My main takeaway is that you're not BRAVE/COURAGEOUS unless you are scared. You have to be scared first and then be brave enough to push through it. Wow.
When the pastor started his "pre-communion" talk, I looked at the communion table I'd been looking at off and on throughout the sermon and my eyes suddenly widened and it dawned on me that there were four big glasses up there with the bread pieces. Not the little plastic glasses I'm used to.... four big..... WHAT??!!! "AWW HELL NO" (with a southern accent so more like "HAY-ILL NO"), I thought. I quickly wrote a note to Bob saying "I will NOT go up there. I'm not sharing a cup. I'm sitting right here." And I mentally started to write this church off of my list. And then I tuned back in to the pastor who was saying "and when you dip your bread into the cup....." SHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Man! The RELIEF I felt. I'm no Megan Eshbaugh, but even I have a germ-sharing limit, and sharing a glass with 100 people is outside that limit!
Overall, this church may be the one. Its size is SCARY for us - we'd love the kids to have more kids in their classes, and more families to interact with (since we have to copy everything we did at our beloved NH church). This church would definitely challenge us. You can't "hide" in a smaller church. We WANT to take that next step in our spiritual lives - to be held more accountable, to be more visible, to be "pressured" to start a real, genuine, forever walk with God. Not a "salvation" walk - we're already there. But the "okay, you are fully in charge of us now, God. What is your plan for us? Why did you bring us down here?" We see this church as the type that will continue to grow, and it's kind of weird but it's so small yet so similar to our NH church that it's almost like we'd be "founders" of the church we just left. We still have one or two more to visit/re-visit but I kind of have that "recognition/knowing" feeling going on.
Church #5. The Southern Traditional.
We'd heard about this church from so many people - nearly every person we asked re: church recommendations mentioned this church. It is a "denomination" so we were a little leery of that but had heard that this didn't follow the hard/stereotypical line of that denomination. It was more contemporary/laid back. So we show up this morning and there's a police car directing traffic into the parking lot, which seemed small but you go around the corner and it curves left and right and left and right and goes on and on and on. Not big and open like a shopping center parking lot would be (I guess they are landlocked). But there were LOTS of cars. And these people were dressed to the NINES. Ok, some had maxidresses but they had cute little matching sandals and hair and makeup were perfect, etc. Even the teenage boys were dressed nice. Bob probably should have tucked his shirt in. :))
We plowed on and went straight up to the information table and a nice-enough lady walked us to the opposite side of campus to drop the kids off at their building. Two story. With two playgrounds. The lady at the information desk was the nicest person ever and the VP of the school the boys are going to had contacted her and told her to be on the lookout for us (I love this VP!) We entered the downstairs area and everything was so cutely decorated/painted, like you were going into different stores for each room. It wasn't overwhelming/in your face like Church #3 though. When we dropped William off the teacher in there was his favorite lifeguard from the pool so he walked in shyly smiling and surprisingly not complaining about anything. They keep the same teachers all year long. Quite a "burden" for those workers but what great consistency! I guess it's easier to serve in that way when there are two sermon times, thus you still get to be taught every week. The church has THREE meeting times and for the two earlier times there are two services going on at the same time, just with different music - traditional or contemporary. The pastor switches which room he preaches in every week. We went to the contemporary service and it was PACKED. The music was good - not as great as the other churches and I only knew one song but I'm starting to get used to that now :)) The sermon was ok - it's wasn't much about the Bible - was more focusing on the changes coming up in the area with all the students coming back and the importance of all of us serving each other and the church. I didn't leave motivated or filled. We can give it a "pass" since it's not fair to judge based on one sermon. Upon leaving, the traffic out of the childcare area, parking lot and street intersection was CRAZY. Thus the need for the cop, I guess.
Overall, Bob and I agree that this isn't the church for us. It's too big (it really felt like a cattle call at some points), we didn't get much out of the sermon, and it just didn't "feel" right. I did sense the judging eyes of the women sizing each other up, which I am typically immune to. But I told Bob maybe that's what God wants to do is put me in the middle of that and NOT be like that. But SHOOO it won't be in this church. I'd like to be filled, not drained on Sundays ;)) I WILL say that the people we talked to were really nice. They were the greeters and teachers so they had to be but it did seem genuine.
So looks like we have some questions to ask about #4 before we decide. I know we should trust our instinct since we prayed heavily (as did our friends) re: finding a church. But I want to know more about their goals/5-year plan/financial info and budget (where do they spend their money)/focus on children's ministry, etc. Will get back to you!
Sunday, August 3, 2014
What is the deal???!!
OK, this will be a boring post but....
WHAT IS THE DEAL WITH THE PLUMBING IN THIS HOUSE??? I swear everything that has water going to it has had a problem.
We've been here a month and:
1) Two toilets have overflowed TWICE
2) The ice maker and water part in the fridge door doesn't work. Since we've been married, we've never had an icemaker, so we were SO excited about having easy access to water/ice (so was William... could be a problem but I guess as long as it keeps him drinking water!) Have to call the repair guy.
3) The toilet in the basement runs and runs and runs. Makes for a high water bill (more on this later). Bob will fix the stopper after he gets over the "it's awesome to not do any work on a house for a change" approach to life.
4) Now the master toilet can't be used. Will call the landlord after we address the water bill issue. Ha.
5) The dishwasher. It's new. We LOVE that (have never had a new d/w). But the buttons on the outside are also supersensitive so almost every time I reach for a dish in the upper cabinet, my hip turns on the "Drain" button. I know, it would be less of a problem if my hips were smaller but Bob does it, too, so HA!
6) The kitchen faucet. It goes from drip to POOOOWERFULSPRAAAAAAAAY and water bounces off the sink, walls, puddles on the counters and onto the floor. Just another weird water thing going on here.
7) The NEW washer we JUST GOT has leaked onto the floor twice now, and one time there were even bubbles coming out of the back. It's a front loader, I've had a front loader for years, I used HE soap, AND this says it's LOAD SENSING. Maybe the load I put in was too small for the amount of soap I put in? But what about that LOAD SENSING part? Also - lately I've noticed that the soap compartment has had water just sitting in it the past several times I've used it. Like I pour the soap in and it might overflow b/c there's water in there, too. WHAT IS GOING ON?
AAAAAND last.
8) Ha. Our first water bill. Haha. We've been on a well for as long as we can remember, and have never had a sprinkler system. So we don't really know what is a "normal" water usage amount for a house with a sprinkler system. But 43,000 gallons in 21 days seems like a lot. 2,000 milk containers PER DAY. Either there's a leak somewhere or the landlord has the sprinkler set to "typhoon". Will investigate/ask for permission to at least water EVERY OTHER day.
I'm not complaining - this is a great house and we really do like it. But for a "new-ish" house we expected fewer maintenance problems! Maybe God is telling us we should stick with the renovation thing.
WHAT IS THE DEAL WITH THE PLUMBING IN THIS HOUSE??? I swear everything that has water going to it has had a problem.
We've been here a month and:
1) Two toilets have overflowed TWICE
2) The ice maker and water part in the fridge door doesn't work. Since we've been married, we've never had an icemaker, so we were SO excited about having easy access to water/ice (so was William... could be a problem but I guess as long as it keeps him drinking water!) Have to call the repair guy.
3) The toilet in the basement runs and runs and runs. Makes for a high water bill (more on this later). Bob will fix the stopper after he gets over the "it's awesome to not do any work on a house for a change" approach to life.
4) Now the master toilet can't be used. Will call the landlord after we address the water bill issue. Ha.
5) The dishwasher. It's new. We LOVE that (have never had a new d/w). But the buttons on the outside are also supersensitive so almost every time I reach for a dish in the upper cabinet, my hip turns on the "Drain" button. I know, it would be less of a problem if my hips were smaller but Bob does it, too, so HA!
6) The kitchen faucet. It goes from drip to POOOOWERFULSPRAAAAAAAAY and water bounces off the sink, walls, puddles on the counters and onto the floor. Just another weird water thing going on here.
7) The NEW washer we JUST GOT has leaked onto the floor twice now, and one time there were even bubbles coming out of the back. It's a front loader, I've had a front loader for years, I used HE soap, AND this says it's LOAD SENSING. Maybe the load I put in was too small for the amount of soap I put in? But what about that LOAD SENSING part? Also - lately I've noticed that the soap compartment has had water just sitting in it the past several times I've used it. Like I pour the soap in and it might overflow b/c there's water in there, too. WHAT IS GOING ON?
AAAAAND last.
8) Ha. Our first water bill. Haha. We've been on a well for as long as we can remember, and have never had a sprinkler system. So we don't really know what is a "normal" water usage amount for a house with a sprinkler system. But 43,000 gallons in 21 days seems like a lot. 2,000 milk containers PER DAY. Either there's a leak somewhere or the landlord has the sprinkler set to "typhoon". Will investigate/ask for permission to at least water EVERY OTHER day.
I'm not complaining - this is a great house and we really do like it. But for a "new-ish" house we expected fewer maintenance problems! Maybe God is telling us we should stick with the renovation thing.
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