Quickly Humbled

Today was a kind of a grumpy day. I have been a little frustrated today because I have been away from my husband for almost two weeks now, and lengthy conversations have been tough to come by the past few days. He's busy with stuff in Dayton, I am busy here with small children. And instead of being disappointed with the circumstances, I took it out on Nathan and blamed it on him. Yep, that was our conversation on the phone at 1:30 today. Much to my surprise, I received these when I woke up from a nap:


Obviously, I was humbled very quickly, and immediately apologized.

Fresh beginnings.

I hate to leave the depressing post up, and I feel more encouraged today.

Honestly, I have been distant from my Savior for the past few months. I have been rebellious and arrogant and thought I didn't need Him and that He was just too far away. Lately, just through the pain of the transition of moving and just the daily grind of life, I feel Him tenderly calling me back to Him. There is no one I need more than Him- and I pray I am convinced of this more every day. And still the wonderful, humbling thing about God is that He graciously accepts me back into His arms, because Christ has paid for all my rebellion and arrogance on the cross, and because He loves me.

I am beginning to be thankful for the trial, because I see that God has used it to call His daughter back. He'll use whatever it takes. Thank you for your prayers.

Random Rantings.

So, we moved into our friend's house this weekend, and it has been SUCH a blessing. Just to be able to walk into different rooms has made such a difference for Nathan and I. Hopefully, we'll only have to move one more time, and into our house! We're not sure about the exact date yet, but are hoping for the first week in September. I'm trying not to count on it though.

I feel like being real in this post- this season has been tough, especially for me. I'm really tired of just sitting around doing nothing. I have always worked, or had something to do, and watching Nate go to work every day and make money for our family, while I sit at home (our hotel room) and check my email 40 times a day is really no fun. When I have nothing to do, it just breeds this laziness in me. There are plenty of books I can read, plenty of friend's phone calls to return, But I just had no desire to do anything! Through much pride, I would often say, "I never get bored! It takes a lot." Well, I guess this is the "a lot" I needed! :) The other day, I sat in our bed and looked at Bed, Bath, and Beyond's 153 shower curtain choices. Can you tell whats been on my mind? But the Lord is so gracious to me. I am going out of town today until Sunday to spend time with family and friends. And then next week, He has provided two different babysitting jobs for me that will occupy most of next week. It will be so helpful just to have something to do, so I'm not sitting around being irritable at my husband and thinking about the house that I don't have the keys to.

Transition is hard! We had hoped to kind of relax this weekend and spend some time together, but ended up doing a lot of household projects with our new friends who are letting us live with them. They have been so generous to us. What a crazy weekend it was- we tiled a backsplash, took like 40 trips to Home Depot, hung new light fixtures, and assembled a grill. I was in charge of doing all our laundry. Have you ever taken 9 loads of clothes to the laundromat? I felt so bad for the people who walked in behind me. I swear this was the weekend that God said, "That Ashley needs a little humbling." Read on:

At the laundromat, I was pulling my friend's load out of the washer only to discover an ink pen sitting at the top. I thought, oh shoot. But did I check to make sure nothing had been inked? Oh no! I just threw it all in the dryer like a big dumbo. Sure enough, I pulled the same load out of the dryer only to discover I had ruined one of her Air Force uniform coats.

As we were changing the light fixtures, we had to turn off the breakers to that specific area. When we got done, I volunteered to go turn it all back on. Triumphantly, I marched to the basement, turned all the lights back on, and came back upstairs only to hear that I was not successful. So I went back down, checked my work, reset the switches, and to no avail. Nathan offered to come down and help me, but in my pride I insisted that I had done it all correctly and that he could come if he wanted to, but wasn't going to be able to do anything differently. He came down only to discover that I had indeed turned OFF half the switches. I was so mad at myself.

After the backsplash had dried, I tried to help my friend move her oven back in place. I pushed it instead of lifting up on it, and left a huge bubble in their new linoleum floor. (thankfully, it went away after we set some heavy things on it).

We are in the process of trying to find a new church, and I cannot tell you how hard it is to be the new person. Its so awkward to stand around after church kinda waiting for someone to notice that you are new, and then initiate a conversation with you. I just want to jet out the back door as soon as its all over, no matter how much I like the church. I hate feeling like this! So a little challenge to my readers who are a member of a church and love Jesus: TALK TO THE NEW PEOPLE! People would look at us, clearly noticing we're new, and not say a word. I used to do the same thing, so the Lord quickly humbled my anger. But I hope this experience as the new person will help me to strike up a conversation with someone I don't know in the future. It's so hard, and you can't just throw yourself into a group of chatting friends.

So anyways, we went to this church we really like last night. I was talking with these two women during meet and greet time, so happy to finally be in a conversation. I had a cup of lemonade in my hand, and while talking with the other hand, hit the cup and sloshed it all over the seat in front of me (right where one of them intended to sit). One of the ladies was super nice and said, "Oh this happens at my house all the time!" To which I remarked, "Yeah, but I'm sure you have a four-year-old too!" After it was all cleaned up, I'll be honest and say I had to fight back the tears. I couldn't take anymore!

Is this post long enough yet? Last night, Nathan and I decided to go on a date since I am going out of town this week. The movie was at 7:40. So I made us some popcorn and got ready to walk out the door at what I thought was 7:00. Nathan then informed me that it was really 8:00. The clock in the house was wrong! So instead, we went to buy some authentic Mexican food, and planned on going to see a later movie, but just got in a fight instead and went home. When we got home, we discovered our friends sopping up the water that had leaked from their washing machine! So for the next two hours, we took a trip to Walmart to buy more towels, and soaked up water out of the floor.

Can I say this was an exhausting, yet humbling weekend? I don't know what normal life is anymore. I know this will all be funny in about 3 months, but for now, it just wears me out.

Interesting signs along the way

At random times during the summer, I've seen a few funny things I thought I'd share with you all.

Must say I've never seen this written on a car before.

I was driving in Dayton looking for a place to live, and passed this store. So if you're interested in adding some bling to your teeth, looks like this is the place to come.

This is a horrible sign on I-65 between Montgomery and Birmingham, AL. Not a very effective way to bring people into the body of Christ. Notice the picture too... priceless.

So we drove by the house today! :)

We met with our realtor again and are just blown away by how blessed we are to have gotten this house. We saw the inspection report, and are just so amazed that they are going to fix everything- from inefficient basement windows to a noisy dishwasher! And we found out our offer wasn't even the second best, but they gave it to us because he was familiar with our realtor and felt more comfortable working with him. We are blown away, and so excited! God has been so gracious to us.

What a Surprise.

Yesterday was a wonderful day. We had Nathan's very first work picnic, so we got to meet and talk to some new people. Then last night, we met some friends from our church back in Louisville at a concert here in Ohio- it was refreshing to be with people who we knew, after kinda being on our own for a few weeks now.

And I called my realtor last night during intermission to see when we would go look at houses today, and he said, "Well, I have a bit of good news for you." Evidently, the people who kinda beat us out of the house we offered on backed out. And we were second in line! Better yet, a company is in charge of selling that house, and as part of their stipulations, they have to fix EVERYTHING (minor and major) that showed up on the inspection that they've already had done and already paid for. Our realtor said he'd never heard of anything like it. So, if everything in the next month goes as planned, we will be moving into a near perfect home. I'm so excited we don't have to go look at houses anymore. Thanks for praying!

No Go for Launch.

Well, we didn't get the house we offered on. But it's okay. The house had been on the market since April, and got 2 other offers the SAME DAY we put ours in. It's no coincidence to me, just the Lord telling us that wasn't our home. He's faithful. And so now, it's back to the drawing board. Pray we find one soon.

Feeling like Grownups.

Well, since the last post, we've moved into a much cheaper weekly rate hotel. It's okay. The first day we checked in I almost cried- the smell of smoke and the kind of people I saw staying here freaked me out a little bit, especially since I will be here all day by myself. But as we've been here for about a week, it really hasn't been that bad. Sure our room is small, we don't have an oven (lots of skillet dinners!), and we have to supply our own toilet paper, but this could be much worse and much more expensive. Hopefully we'll only be here for another 2 weeks or so, and then move in with some good friends we've met here. Could it be that the Lord is trying to teach me to be content in whatever the circumstances??

We continue to enjoy our realtors. They've shown us a lot of houses and taken very good care of us. They took us out to dinner one night at their favorite restaurant in Dayton. And they got to hear the interesting story of how God brought Nathan and I together. It was a lot of fun! Last Friday, I went to get a haircut and it turned out horrible!! I guess that's all I needed to release the emotion from the past month, so I just lost it. I was crying, and letting out all the stress of moving around, not having a home, fighting a lot with Nathan, and feeling ugly with a bad haircut! This has been a tough season for us- and some days realizing that we will be without a place to settle for at least another month is discouraging. I really just needed something fun to do. That very night, Larry gave us two free tickets to a Dayton Dragons baseball game. Every single game is always sold out- but even better, we got to go to a party deck! Our seats were wonderful, we got free Dragons visors, and even free food and drinks! It was a lot of fun, and just what I needed to destress a bit.

So over the course of a few days, we looked at houses, and narrowed it down to about 4. Some needed a lot of work, others not. But two nights ago, both mine and Nate's Dad came up here to help us out. It was wonderful! We showed them all 4 houses, and their perspective and insight helped so much. I ended up not liking so much the house that was originally my favorite. It's just so tough- with every house, there's something you like and things you don't like. You have to think about location in terms of resale, and what you can afford and how it will pay off down the road. It's a bit overwhelming, so having some older wisdom here helped a lot! That night was funny, because both of our dads ended up staying the night with us in our "suite". Sleeping in the same room with 3 other men was quite interesting. I haven't slept in the same bed as my dad in years! AND, both of our Dads are LOUD snorers, so I was braced for the worst night of sleep I've had yet. Actually, it was fine. Not much snoring, and another funny memory! This has been quite the adventure.

So, we just put an offer in on a house last night (see picture). We love it. It's a little more expensive than we wanted, but not out of our ability to pay, and the best value in terms of current price and resale value. The houses in the area are selling for a lot more than this house is- and all it needs is some paint to update the inside. I am trying not to count on it being our house until all is said and done (this process is so long)- but just to trust the Lord. We prayed that God would mess up this whole process if this wasn't the house for us. We really do want to honor Him with such a major financial decision. If you could just pray for us and this whole process, that would be wonderful! Pray that God would give us good perspective as we face more time in a hotel, and just a stressful season of our marriage. Nathan goes back to work tomorrow- so pray for him as he starts a job too. We will keep you updated!