I bought a house

I bought a new house. Well actually it is an older house. Sort of plain and simple but it feels good. I am supposed to close by September 8, 2010. I bought new tile for it as well. It is a three bedroom two bath small home, just over one half of the size of my current home. Very bittersweet. Most of you know that I did NOT want to move to the house where I am now. Jeff insisted that we move...so we did. It was a wreck. No air conditioning, no heating, in horrible condition and the property had piles of trash on it. But we remodelled and made it into what we wanted. I learned to love the quiet and enjoyed feeding the birds. It was truly Jeff's dream home. But now I am alone and the thought of maintaining a 2700 square foot home on an acre and a third is really overwhelming. Just this year I have struggled to get caught up on the maintenance that we let slide over the last five years. I had the garage finished and put in an electric garage door opener. I paid to have the property cleaned up three times, including the recent grading of the back of the property. I took down the fence and moved the shed. I had shelves installed in the closets. I have had to rent roll-off dumpsters twice. I took the paint sprayer to a shop and had it repaired and have now painted the garage. I should paint the outside of the house. It seems like every waking moment I am either at work or home "working" on my house. I don't want to live like that! So look out Phoenix here I come! I bought a 1500 square foot house on a regular sized lot. I am having new flooring and cabinets put in. I will get it painted. Then I will be able to have fun fixing up the yard. I will be ten minutes away from my kids. Here is the google street map view of the house:

http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&rlz=1R2GPEA_en&q=26+West+Oraibi,+Phoenix&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=26+W+Oraibi+Dr,+Phoenix,+AZ+85027&gl=us&ei=KfhyTLmWL4X4sAPX99SLDQ&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CBMQ8gEwAA

I told you...it is a plain jane. I will miss the old house VERY much. All of the memories of Jeff and I fixing it up, all of the dinners and all of the fun! But I am trusting God for new memories and new fun. Please pray that I can sell or lease the other house. I will put photos on the blog when it is "really" mine. I love you all!

The Cat is out of the Bag!!!!!

What a crazy few months I have had! Jeff's mom passed away on the fourth of July and I drove back to Ohio with Jim and Vicki. We drove straight through-CRAZY! We arrived Wednesday at 12:30 and the viewing was at 5:00. I loved having the time with Jim and Vicki. We didn't talk as much as Vicki and I wanted, we were all too tired and stressed. This past Spring our Executive Pastor wanted me to take a class at Phoenix Seminary called Mending the Soul for Pastors. I did and really loved it. Plus I know that I would benefit from it. I ended up signing up to go through a program of Mending the Soul. It is a 14 week group and we go through a book. It is designed to heal people who have suffered mental, physical, sexual or spiritual abuse or neglect/abandonment. I have learned a lot about myself and I hope I have developed a tender heart for people who have suffered abuse. I know I have a VERY different view of abuse now, from when I started. I am praying for increased compassion and understanding. I also am learning to set healthy boundaries and to say no.

So why the title, "the cat is out of the bag"? Sunday our pastor announced to the congregation that I am considering joining a mission group to do social justice work in Uganda. Specifically I am planning on teaching reading and writing to abandoned kids, really young men and women who have lived on the streets and have been unable to go to school. Just read through some of my posts from Africa to get a feel for life there. I plan on going there for 4 months and then coming home for 2 and then returning. I am getting my house ready to sell and I am looking for a small one to buy. Jeff and I talked about this kind of work last year when he was so sick. He encouraged me to go, we both just assumed it would be to Mexico. So here I am! Scared, happy, excited, nervous...all together. We will see! I will write more later. GJ