My weekly update

Thanksgiving is right around the corner and for the first time since we bought our home, it is going to be filled up. Amber, Adrienne, Ashley, Wydia and Stephen are coming for 4 days! I have my Holiday menu picked out and am going grocery shopping tomorrow...we are going to decorate the tree and get it all ready. Life is good.

Thanksgiving is coming up and in essence it is the time to be thankful, I found myself thanking God for several things this week. Below is the list with a short commentary on each one.

My husband- This week we went to financial counseling through our church and I was so proud of him as together we humbled ourself before God and our counselor asking for wisdom into our finances. We are learning so much together and I am blessed to be his partner. Learning to save and invest is our newest journey.

My Attached Garage = This week we got a foot of snow! I was so thankful for not only my attached garage that kept my car clean and warm, but for the HOA fee I pay every month so someone will come plow my road and driveway. Thank you Lord!! If I "get" to live in Ohio for a while than I am so thankful someone else is taking care of my snow.

Consignment Shops- I was able to buy a designer pair of pants, an Adidas fleece and two cashmere/wool sweaters very cheaply! Very nice and warm when it is 26 degrees out.

If my life were a movie...

This Sunday in our Adult Bible Fellowship we were asked the following questions to discuss with our small group.

"If your life were a movie, who would you want to play you, what would the title be and how often would Jesus appear in it"?

At first when we got in our group we all kind of looked at each other..terrified to begin. But as we went around in a circle people really opened up about their lives. There were some pretty interesting stories that came out. One guy was the oldest of 12 children who were born to a refugee family from Eastern Europe.

What did I say?

I would want Hillary Swank to play me. :) I love her pep and passion. Although I am not as buff or brunette as her it would still be my choice.

Jesus would appear frequently in my movie. Saving me from myself, looking out for me when life got crazy, helping me through school. I think my life would be an interesting movie!! Maybe one day after I write my book. :)

Hair and House

My blog postings are seriously veering away from anything spiritual. However with that in mind I still must tell you about my hair! I got it cut last night. I got it cut short. It is now blonde and short. I almost shed a tear. Because...I don't like it. I like the front. It is all angular and piecey. But the back is WAY tooo short. I took in my demo picture of Aeonflux and walked out with a different haircut. Not sure how it happened....
All this drama and I can't even post a picture. Our camera is broke. :)


Tonight we are having a small open house for my co-workers and a few people from our gym. I am hoping it will be fun! I have never had co-workers over like this but I think it will be a great group. It will be nice to fill up the house and have some action... Thankfully also we have a packed weekend with people from Church. The Agbovi's are making friends!!! YEAH!!!

Carpet Cleaning

I was so excited yesterday to finally have my carpets cleaned! Buying our first home stretched us so thin on money that it has taken me 4 months to get this done. Now was the perfect time....before we buy any more furniture and right before an open house I am having this weekend with co-workers.

I hired Sears who showed up and proceeded to sell us extra stuff... On top of the cleaning we are now fully deodorized and scotch guarded. For my mom friends...bring your babies over to crawl around on my floor!!

Last night I got home from work...heated up my left over linguine and proceeded to watch "Journey to the Center of the Earth" with Eman. At an intermission he was pulling the blinds down and as fate would have it- spilled my glass of red wine on our newly shampooed carpet. Poor guy felt so bad!! I thought it was kind of funny. I can't remember ever spilling anything our 2.5 years of marriage. The one day we have our carpets shampooed we spill the worst possible beverage! Haha...

Good news..it was behind a coffee table and after about 30 minutes of blotting, wetting, blotting, wetting, blotting, scrubbing....it is down to a dull yet tasteful pinky color.

When you come visit me I will show you the spot. :)

Happy Tuesday

What to do when you don't have kids....

Sometimes not having kids has certain disadvantages. Like when you go to the zoo and there is no one to get excited about seeing a monkey for the first time. Or when you want an excuse to go get an ice cream cone and there are no little ones around to take the blame. Or when Christmas rolls around and the excitement level is lacking.

I came across another such time. The Donut Man is coming to our church tonight. I LOVE the Donut Man and think he is such a talented singer/songwriter. I used to watch and listen with my little brothers and sisters.

I am a brave person...but certainly not brave enough to walk into church without a child. Haha...that would just be weird. So, I sent "invitations" to at least 4 people I knew with kids. I figured if any of them took the bait I could just tag right along and no one at church would know the wiser. My infatuation with the Duncan the Singing Donut would be my little secret. Did it work? Nope...no one has heard of him. (insane I know)

But then to my rescue comes my friend Allyson who also does not have children! We are borrowing her 4 neices and proudly attending the performance tonight. I will be in charge of two and she will have the other two. The best part....they will have a ton of fun, I will get to enjoy the performance, their parents get a night off and then they go home!

Angry Salad

My next post will finish up my side of the Rupert story...plus the cameo of 50 cent as well.

But today I wanted to share the fact that I am REALLY cranky. It started last night...continued throughout today and I see no end in sight. Why? Not quite sure.... It stems from a combination of boredom and impatience.

Being a good wife I did warn my husband that I was cranky. Being a good husband he proceeded to apologize for all the things he could think of in the last 24 hours that he might have done or said. Sweet right?

Until I asked him how his lunch was. I packed him a salad. I got a message from him saying his salad was angry. Is this even English? His logic....since I was angry while making it...the salad was therefore angry upon eating it.

That did not help my crankiness.

Rupert the Goat part 1

We had some friends over this weekend and were telling them the story of how we got our Beta....

The story of our fish all starts with the story of a goat. My Step-Mom tells the story best so here is installment one.

August 22, 2006

It was, hands down, the funniest practical joke I’ve ever seen.

A few days ago a Chinese person called us, speaking no English, and asked where we live. I told him I didn’t know him and wouldn’t be telling him where I live! He asked if any Chinese people lived with us, and I assured him they did not. The rest of what he tried to say was lost on me. After I hung up, I said aloud, “I hope that wasn’t a package delivery company.”

Yesterday afternoon I received another phone call, this time from a gal who spoke fair English. She said she had a package for “Mr. Garry” and wanted directions to our apartment and to know if we’d be home between 7 and 8 pm.

At 7:30, we all heard a funny cry outside our apartment door. I went to the door, but the sound was so pathetic, I was afraid to open the door. I was afraid something was injured in our hall. Garry came to open the door, and at the same time the phone rang. Manda answered and a gal told her, “Your package is outside your door.” Oh.

Garry started to laugh, and Manda ran out with him. They brought in, on a leash, a goat. A kid, less than a foot tall and bleating for all it was worth. Around the little darling’s neck was a cardboard sign tied on with a bit of green plastic bag: “To Gary Shultz, From Emmanuel Agbovi. Note: Payment for my wife.” On the reverse it said, “Give me milk 6 times per day for 2 months… I eat grass!” With him was a pet bottle.

We laughed till we cried. Nicole looked on the Internet for whether a goat can drink cow’s milk. I alternately sat and paced, realizing that there was no way we could keep the goat. We live in an apartment, with no outside space and very thin walls. By now all of our neighbors knew we had a goat! In order to have a cat in the house, we had filled out a lot of paperwork, gotten permission from the apartment owners, and paid a hefty deposit. What would they say about a goat? Manda called her friends to come and see it. Garry called people who might know someone who would want a goat. Nicole tried to feed the baby. It drank a little and fell asleep with her petting it. Manda’s friends came by to see it.

Who sent the goat? Oh, we knew quite well who sent it: our new son-in-law! For over a year, Garry has been teasing him that if he wanted to marry his daughter, Mary, he would need to pay a dowry. Since he was a poor college student, Garry said one goat would be sufficient. I asked Garry this morning if he had learned his lesson about saying such things, and his reply was, “I’m thinking about Christmas…”

Now for the glory part of the story, the part where Father’s amazing hand shows through it all.

My friend Kristen called asking if it were true that we had a goat. I said it was indeed true, and she laughed to hear it bleating in the background. We talked about what we could do with this little treasure, whom Manda had now named Rupert. Options included finding a friend of a friend out in the country who would be thrilled with a goat or driving along the freeway until we saw a goat herder and giving him a gift. As we talked, between us we came up with a possible family for the goat – the Vanderlaans. They have been known to raise pigs and chickens in the past, so just maybe… I called them. They were excited! They said it was an answer to their recent Thoughts, and that their daughter is allergic to cow’s milk and they have been contemplating learning to raise a goat to provide the milk they need. They were willing to take the little fur ball within the hour! So we bundled it up in a towel and all of us got in a taxi for the end of this fun story.

We passed the bundle off to the Vanderlaans successfully, and everyone involved was happy. Their goat was delivered to our address!

August 24, 2006

Today, Garry spoke to Elizabeth Vanderlaan, who says they think our goat is a female sheep, but that it is certainly well-loved by her children! The little girl is taken for walks five times a day and cuddled and played with in between. A home-schooling family appears to be the perfect place for the little darling! Yeah!

DC Trip

I have never gone to DC without coming back full of life and energy. There is something about being there that makes me feel invincible,accomplished and ready to take on the world. This trip was no different. Besides a horrible plane ride from Cleveland to Phillie and the fact it made me miss my sister Holly.....the trip was great.

Thanks for your prayers that my awful week would end up better..
Besides alot of boring legal networking there really isn't anything exciting to blog about my trip. We were in conference all day but did enjoy a nice dinner out on the city Thursday night. The topic was all about a new toy legislation that Congress thinks will make children safer..but the reality is it won't. :) Good news I know for you Mom's who read my blog...

Anyway it is back to real life. Went to a free pilates class this morning and really enjoyed it. Went to get some laundry soap so I can do my laundry while I bake a batch of chocolate chips cookies and watch the first season of Alias. Oh and I also picked up the third book in the WICKED series so will enjoy that this weekend. So I am headed home to multi task in all of the above areas. :) Have a great weekend...