OK, kids...this update isn't as cheery as the others have been, sadly.
The J-Man found out today that he did not receive any financial aid from the U, so, unfortunately, that means he will be staying home.
My Dad called me to break the news and initially I was OK, saddened that I wasn't going to get to tackle next year's adventures with my kid brother, but OK. And, then...the attention got turned to me. My dad asked, "So, what does this mean for you?" Cue uncontrollable tear flowage. I could hardly get words out to answer him. I was thrown back to this near exact situation last year and simply felt over-whelmingly lost.
What does this mean for me?
Well...I have a few options, I reckon.
1) I can bite the bullet and move on the duplex in the hopes of finding another roommate (yeah, craigslist...!)
2) I can start over looking for 1 bedrooms again.
I had to "chuckle" almost immediately when Dad called and told me, because just this morning I put in my notice to vacate...haha, awesome. Fortunately, I do still have my current apartment until the end of September.
So...here we are again: square one.
Continued prayers in this area would be much appreciated. I will keep you posted as things develop.
Please also continue to keep Joshua in your prayers...it wasn't an easy decision for him to stay. Now he has the task of finding a place of his own back home and re-adjusting his mindset to make the most of his current situation. He will also need the Lord's provision regarding a job for this coming year.
Thanks so much for praying along with us with all of this.
Hope this post finds you well =)
Shalom,
~MW
P.S. - on a brighter note: 1.5ish days 'til my BFF gets here!!
Went to look at the duplex yesterday, and guess what!!
It's looking it will be a good fit!
- The landlord seems to be a very nice older gent' and we got along quite nicely.
- He dropped the monthly rent $30! (prayer answered!)
- He also allowed for a Sept 15 move-in! (another prayer answered!)
- Decent living space...bedrooms are a touch on the small side, but really...I just sleep in my room right now, so that's no biggie.
- Location is awesome...did I mention that??
- No fee at all for my critters...unheard of!
- OUR "OWN" WASHER AND DRYER!!!
- A yard....
- A garage space...
- Storage in the basement...
So, the unit is a go...but...one thing has moving forward on-hold: J-Man. He's still wrestling with some things. I'll be OK if he doesn't make it up here, but it would be helpful for me to know if he isn't coming so that I can switch back to only looking for 1bdrm places or else looking for a roommate to help with this duplex.
Please continue to pray with me as J-Man continues to weigh out things and make his decision.
Thanks so much for your prayers thus far - keep 'em comin', please!
I haven't officially blogged about the housing situation...like, why I'm moving, what I'm looking for and all that jazz, but I have talked to a number of you about it and I am so thankful for all of your prayers up 'til now - please keep 'em comin'!
Some quick updates on the situ:
- It is pretty much certain that my little bro J-Man will be moving up here in August!
- That said, it's pretty much certain that he and I will be living together this year!
- I'm locked-in at my current apartment until the end of September
OK, so I've been contacting some places here-and-there and I heard back from a seemingly awesome duplex (downstairs of a house that has been converted into a duplex - these types of places are all over up here, and they're pretty sweet).
- fairly affordable rent (I'm going to see if there's any chance they could drop the price $30-40 a month)
- landlord and wife are pet-lovers...so my critters are more than welcome!
- NO PET DEPOSIT/RENT!!
- super close to both the East Bank Campus (where Josh will most likely spend the majority of his time) and St. Paul Campus (where I "live")...we're talking biking distance for me, even walking distance for J-Man!
- would allow us to use the Minneapolis internet provider which is more than $30 cheaper than the internet providers in St. Paul!!
The list continues a bit.
Anywho, I'm taking a gander at the place tomorrow evening. The only potential hitch in the plan is that the unit is available September 1...that's a month before I can move out of my current place...
Will you pray with me about this?
So, how can you pray? A few ways:
1. That the landlord would be willing to allow a Sept. 30 (or Oct. 1) move-in date, or at the very least a Sept. 15 move-in.
2. That he would also be willing to drop the monthly rent a little bit.
3. That the Lord would move in this circumstance and make decisions clear.
Please also pray for Josh as he continues to work through the logistics of moving up to the Tundra from good ol' Tejas.
Alrighty, have to get back to work. Y'all are awesome. I'll keep you updated, fo sho!
I absolutely cannot wait to see my sweet, sweet Elaine. She emailed me a few weeks ago and pitched the idea of coming to see me the end of July/beginning of August...with a possibility like that I could hardly contain my excitement! A few days later she sent me her flight itinerary!!! I nearly peed my pants...like for serious. Ok, so not really, but I think the imagery helps to get the extent of my excitement across ;)
Elaine and I have been besties since college and I don't get to see her enough. The above picture was made possible by Mak and Wes getting hitched (you can see some pictures from that trip to Texas here and you can read allllll about it here.) - thanks, kids!!
This lady and I began our friendship at the very tail-end of my sophomore year at A&M.
Yeah, Phi Lamb Frush! I'm pretty sure this was the first time
we actually met each other
We were blessed to have a little time together before she went off and graduated and moved off to Baylor for her grad program. Fortunately for us, Baylor is about the half-way point on the trip to/from the Dallas area (home!) to Aggieland (second home!), so I got to see her just about every time I took a weekend trip home from Aggieland - blessings!!!! Our friendship grew tremendously during that time apart and I loved my pit-stops on that 3.5hr drive. During our friendship we have encouraged and prayed each other through numerous trials, "suffered" a spring break road trip to Colorado (from which I returned with a fractured arm...baller.)
survived (quite literally) some awesome New Year's Eve parties,
"endured" her engagement party (so fun!),
"survived" her wedding day (gooorgeous bride! I so loved being your moh, lovely, such a privilege.),
made it through not seeing each other and having super conflicting schedules that disallowed frequent communication, and so, so much more.
This girl is truly a for-life-friend. I am so blessed by her. She is an incredible daughter of the King, and her encouragement is something I cannot even begin to describe.
I can't wait to show her around the not-so-Frozen Tundra and introduce her to my life here. Hopefully someday we'll be able to do life together from not so far away :)
I came across this beauty a few weeks ago in my perusings and fell in love with it. While I haven't drawn up my own summer list, I have had quite the summer thus far:
- Trip to Tejas for a wedding, complete with lots of visits with my Texas loves, and LOTS of Tex-Mex!
- Cirque du Soliel - Ovo
- Went to a high school graduation and helped with the graduation party (all for SW's oldest kiddo who now works in the insect museum with me!)
- Helped run a successful, though chilly, BioBlitz
- Hosted an eggroll making party (AWESOME fun!)
- Played a departmental game of kickball, complete with bbq!!
- Big bday bbq bash for all of our June bday peoples, complete with fire!!!
- Went to a comedy club - haven't laughed that hard in a long time
- Canoed around the lake with my McQueen's and Meg...Jakers had a blast doggy-paddling around...it took him some getting used to, though ;)
- 4th of July parade and picnic!!! It was very Pollyana :)
- Rockin' 4th of July bbq over in Uptown and got to watch all of the fireworks shows all around town, sooo amazing
- Went on a canoe trip over in Wisconsin. Saw so many bald eagles!! It was incredible.
- Lab bbq at RH's awesome home...I could sit in that backyard forever, I'm pretty sure
- Strolled around one evening with one of my sweet friends and her sweet baby
- Made my way a little ways west to hang over at Kreutter's grandma's place on the lake. Had an absolute blast hanging out with her fam and Jakers looooved swimming and playing outside all day
- Have so loved hitting up the farmers market each week with Callie and anyone else who can make it
And, the summer isn't quite over yet!! Woohoo!
~-~-~-~-~-~-~
Sunday was way fun, because Kreutter spent the day with me and I got to introduce her to a few of my FT bugdorks. Everyone met up over at my place bright and early and we made our way downtown for some breakfast at a sweet little place just down from the market. Check out what was hanging from the ceiling!!!
That's right...that's totally a griffon skeleton!!! Baller.
The gang - they so make me happy :)
I love the market...it makes me incredibly happy and the produce is outstanding. Here's a little (un-edited) taste of what one visit will give you in the way of fresh, local, organic produce+ for just $10:
Left to Right, Top to Bottom: Lettuce ($2)! Half of a $5 bouquet! Decorative cabbage
(from the $5 bouquet) in a globe bowl! The other half of the $5 bouquet!
$1 worth of basil plants! A dozen golden potatoes ($2) that I baked up
with olive oil, pepper, cumin, and Parmesan cheese - yum!
Ahhh, the farmers market...I just love it :)
Ahem...for an example of just how much joy it gives me....I am going to allow you feast your eyes on this....as I cover my eyes in shame...I just get so excited!!
OK, so, in my defense...there was another picture being taken from above at this
point in time... See? Look at Mark, sitting next to me, he's making a goofy
face, too! ;) We were all sitting on the horse-drawn wagon riding back to
the parking lot. How much more fun could a trip to the market get?!
I have another treat for y'all!
A video of Jakers out at the lake!!
All-in-all, we had an absolute blast this weekend :)
And, this upcoming weekend should be just as stellar - Saints game tailgate party!
And then, the weekend after that Elaine comes to visit!!!!
This summer, while it's had its low points, for sure, just keeps getting better and better and I can't wait to see how the rest of it turns out.
I had a whole blog post I was going to write-up tonight for y'all...but in playing catch-up with some of the blogs I follow I came across the above video over at The Blair Affairs and all of my plans went out the window. I've loved getting to know Jennifer through her blog the last month or so, after she stumbled upon my little bloggy and so, naturally...as we bloggers do...I ventured over to her lovely page and fell in love with her heart for the Lord and pure honesty in her postings. Take a few minutes and check her out if you aren't familiar with her already. {Plug: she's going to Ethiopia! Help her out by purchasing one of her super adorable headbands.}
Anywho, back to the high-jacked post. I was talking about my plans for this post just totally readjusting.
Last week was...well...hellacious, to put it lightly.
It started out with general life stresses regarding moving. Where will I call home come the end of September? How am I going to cut rent and still have enough room for my critters. How am I going to find a place that will be affordable enough to allow me to take on some other financial weights as the fall approaches (ahem...like buying a car...and a new computer...)? OK, so stressful, but normal. Everyone downsizes and cuts budgets at some point. Everyone moves at some point. It's always a little stressful, but God has never failed me and has always, always, always provided for me in an incredible way. Sometimes I just forget His faithfulness...how fickle we humans are...
Then came the torrent of emotional heartache as I watched a friend go through a very difficult hurtle in his life. He's coping well, but it was extremely difficult upon first hearing the news. I'd share more, but what I've said already will suffice.
OK...so, life is stressful and friends go through hard times. We've all been there. We've all survived it.
Remember how they say "things come in 3's"? Or, "everything happens all at once"? Well...call it coincidence, or whatever you want to call it, but it held true for last week.
I got news Friday that a friend of mine high school was on a 50 day trip through the Middle East and he passed away last week while over seas. I was speechless when I found out. Thankfully my dear friend Skate (she takes such good care of me) called me so that I didn't have to see it on facebook first, but could hear it from a loving friend - I love her. When I got the news I didn't know how to react, how to respond, what to think...or to even believe it, initially. Justin was one of those people who you could have met only once, but would have been forever impacted by. He was such a vibrant, outgoing, brilliant, fun, loving, person. I didn't really start processing his death until about an hour after I found out. I was talking with my lab mate, and she had suffered through my multiple break downs last week, and told her what had happened and she dropped everything and dragged me out of the lab to go get some frozen yogurt (Robin, you're the absolute best, just for the record!). Robin is excellent. She has a remarkable way of calming people. As we were making the trek down the hill to her car we were chatting about death and loss in general and then she says to me, "So, tell me about Justin." It was nice to be able to think back on some of the fun we'd had in high school...from football games to knitting, to random shenanigans. It was good to remember him. To remember the life and zeal he had - to remember his faith. We didn't do a great job of keeping up with each other after high school, but he had still been a part of my life. Robin made the comment, too, that it's sometimes the most difficult to grieve for those we might not have known as well, or have fallen out of touch with. I couldn't have agreed more. I almost felt like I didn't have the right to mourn him, or to feel loss in his death. But, at the same time I couldn't stop thinking about it and found myself falling into tears much of the weekend.
Needless to say, I spent much of the weekend thinking about loss and death. Thinking about Justin. Thinking that it isn't fair that he was taken so early. Feeling angry. Feeling confused...simply wondering, "why?"
But then my thoughts began to shift.
While I was (and am) still feeling the loss of Justin, and grieving that, I was comforted. I was reminded of his zeal for the Lord. I was reminded that I should be rejoicing that he is with the Father - I should be borderline jealous of that! I should want that! I shouldn't be thinking about how it's unfair that the collective "we" of earth were "robbed" of him. I should be rejoicing that he is walking in glory - that he had fulfilled his time on earth to the Father's satisfaction and that He saw fit to call Justin home. I should be rejoicing, in the midst of death.
And then, because God is so good and works in such wonderful and mysterious ways, He directed me to Jen's blog and where she had previously posted the video at the opening of this post. What a mighty and awesome God He is. He never ceases to amaze me in the way that He cares for His children. That video was just the spiritual reminder that I needed to fully remember what death in Christ means - VICTORY!
Christ is risen from the dead
Trampling over death by death
Come awake, come awake!
Come and rise up from the grave!
Christ is risen from the dead!
We are one with Him again!
Come awake, come awake!
Come and rise up from the grave!
Oh death, where is your sting?
Oh hell, where is your victory?
Oh church, come stand in the light!
The glory of God has defeated the night!
Matt Maher
Oh death...where is your sting? Oh grave...where is your victory? These are the questions I should have been asking from the beginning. We are the risen church...Our God is not dead...He's alive. And we live in Him - forever. Glory!
What a blessing it is to be able to find comfort and joy in death.
And with that I'm going to close. The week is nearly up and I'm off to WI on Saturday for a canoeing trip with friends! Can't wait to get out on the water and take in my Daddy's beautiful creation.
