Interests:My husband Danny, coffee, Ryan Adams, pajama pants, Diet Coke, starburst jelly beans, Wilco and anything Jeff Tweedy, driving, daisies, stupidity, lame blogs, keeping in touch, airplanes, twizzlers, Food Network, shark documentaries, baking, working out Expertise:Eating cheesecake, sacrificing my dignity for the sake of humor, having awkward moments, waking up early to go running, shopping at Target, eating at Logan's, organization
I’m writing this partially to keep myself from looking at houses online. Craigslist, Remax…whatever. It doesn’t matter. I just need my fix and I’m going cold turkey.
I’ve been struggling with being happy where I am in life. Me and Dan want a house so badly, and sometimes it’s fun for me to look at houses, even though I know Dan needs a job (and then six months after that, so ensure job security). So, in an effort to help me help myself, I’m giving up the real estate market for now. It’ll make it so much more exciting when it’s legitimate, you know? So…on a slow day at work…I almost caved, but this is my crutch. Thank you, tween-ish online blogging.
How could I have not mentioned it until now? It’s fall. Hallelujah! We’re not supposed to be blessed with cooler air until this weekend (when, coincidentally, it’s also supposed to rain). At least today, even though the air feels slightly muggy, it’s overcast and from inside, one has the feeling it’s a crisp 60 degrees. Tonight…the fall décor goes up, the pumpkin candles come out and homemade applesauce will be the delicacy of the evening.
I hate expensing things at work. I’d rather avoid buying something if they don’t take AMEX, rather than buy it myself and get reimbursed. Today, however, that was definitely not the name of the game. I just spend $77.66 at Jimmy Johns for the work lunch festivities and paid for it on my debit card.
Once I go to the gym I feel so refreshed. But getting up at 5am has been irritatingly more difficult for me over the past month and a half. Why? I couldn’t tell you. Maybe I’m getting old and don’t have the energy of a teenager. My guess is that the 45 hour weeks are draining me. When Dan gets a job, it’ll be the happiest feeling I’ve had in quite a while to inform my boss that, yes, “I’m going to start leaving at 4 in the afternoons.” Ah, yes. Come sweet job, come. God is preparing you for my husband.
Apparently, reese’s pieces in the candy dish are quite a hit. One bag gone in 1 ½ days.
We’re going to see Wilco in 3 ½ weeks in Ann Arbor! (That probably means a Panera trip too.)
I think I could pass with flying colors on any online quiz about the Harry Potter books. Movies? Maybe not so much. But I think I'm reading Order of the Phoenix for about the fourth time. (Not to mention how many times I've listened to all the books on CD.) They're just so easy to read, dangit. I love it. LOVE it!
I'm also in the middle of reading an extremely poorly written book about Chet Bitterman. It's a painfully incoherent read, but I'm really interested in his story so I hope it'll be worth it in the end. Google him. I lived next door to his wife Brenda and his two daughters when I lived in New Guinea. See how it all comes full circle?
Tonight Dan's making us steak for supper! We're having fresh green beans too. Hallelujah! Dusty (who works for C.A. Hull, who happens to be leasing our back office) has been blessing me abundantly this summer with produce from his garden that he can't eat. I'd really like to have a garden in the glroious days when me and Dan are homeowners. But herein lies the problem - people always give us their garden leftovers. We can barely handle what people give us now. Ah, vell. That's a bridge for future Dan and Heidi to cross.
Lately I've had a lot of mental struggles with being content. I feel like Dan and I are "behind schedule" with our lives, compared to people I graduated with and where people "expect" us to be at this point. I feel like I want to catch up with everybody - buy a house, have a kid. But I've had to consciously remind myself multiple times a day that we're perfectly on schedule for where God wants us right now. Ah, the everlasting battle - my human need for control vs. God's everlasting faithfulness.
Today at work Kevin was telling anyone who would listen about how he stayed up way too late at some coffee shop in "East town" playing Lord of the Rings Risk with his friends. I mean...I like LotR as much as the next nerd, but come on. Don't broadcast that stuff.
Me and Dan are going to Traverse City on October 3rd for a semi pre-paid weekend getaway that mom (Schu) got us for his birthday! And two weeks after that...Wilco, people. Wilco. You will never rock alone.
I’m so ridiculously excited for fall. I can’t even tell you. In Michigan it seems to get cooler later, but stay colder longer in the year’s early months. Today is the coolest it’s been in a while and the high is 71°. It seems that every year I live here, I have this irrational fear come September that fall and winter will never come. And every year Dan gently reminds me, cold will come, snow will come.
Over the past few days I’ve thoroughly enjoyed re-reading my old xanga entries. Discovering and perusing through them always draws me back in, reminding me that two years from now, I’ll enjoy reading this just as much as now, I enjoy reading posts from two years ago. A ready-made journal, if you will.
Quick update: In the past year, Dan’s lost his job, I’ve become Catholic, started working as many hours a week as I can, seen my family once for a week and unveiled, once again, the power of Shark Week.
Dan got laid off from a Tier 1 auto supplier in December. He’s working his little butt off, sending out resumes, making follow-up calls and the like. God hasn’t opened the right door for us yet. The key is yet. We know He has a plan for us, and right now as we seek Him, even though we’re not where we planned on being, we’re right where God wants us for the time being. Dan’s itching to get back to work (as a Mechanical Engineer…if anyone has any leads) and we’re ready to be home owners! But to find peace in God’s provision and plan has been an exciting challenge thus far. Sometimes discouraging, but we take none of our blessings for granted. (“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” James 1:17)
I’m pretty much obsessed with the Marley & Me soundtrack right now. It’s perfect to listen to on a melancholy drive or a bath after a long, hard day. That movie slightly invigorated my love of Eddie Bauer because of the house they live in when they move to Pennsylvania. So rugged. So Eddie Bauer.
I cleaned out my closet last night and am giving away two bags full of clothes to people who need them much more than I do. Mysteriously, my closet doesn’t look any emptier. Just more organized.
My eyesight has gotten ridiculously worse in the past year. I still blame my high school A.P. English teacher for this rapid deterioration. Thank you, Mr. Nelson. Would you like to pay for my year’s supply of contacts? That’s what I thought, Niel.
I need to start updating this more, and on a regular basis. That way there won’t be so much to say every time I decide to start ‘er up.
“Square one, my slate is clear. Rest your head on me, my dear. It took a world of trouble, took a world of tears. It took a long time to get back here…”
Maybe even as a semi-adult I can't fight it. (And "semi" has nothing to do with age. I'm an adult straight-up.)
But still...there'll always be things to say and things to feel.
Always, always.
Yesterday I was in the bathroom at work and a spider ran across the floor and stopped under the exposed underbelly of the "vanity." (I hate spiders and their creepy, unpredictable movement. It's like a stand-off every time I see one.) I grabbed the Febreeze lavender/vanilla scented air freshener and went crazy. Well, lesson learned. Apparently air freshener doesn't kill spiders. I watched the fine mist land lightly on the creature. It didn't run in fear or spaz out and curl up like I played it out in my mind. Oh, no. It turned - slowly - and faced me. As it stood there, I can only imagine it was plotting its revenge. At that point, I aborted the mission and ran out of the bathroom. I don't know where it is now. That's the scariest thing out spider killings gone wrong. You never know where they go.
In marriage and outside of the sheltered, Christian-college world that I'm used to, I'm finding how much effort it takes to be a Godly woman. To continually grow in Christ in a non-Christian environment is something I can honestly say I've never faced. I have to give myself credit and say that I've been doing really good with my morning devos. Save for this morning...when the thought of a 30 minute nap on the couch with the heating pad sounded much more inviting than reading and fighting sleep. I caved.
I love that Dan loves the supper of baked potatoes and chili so much. It makes me feel like I'm succeeding. And plus...it's dang good. (Especially on those mighty wintry nights. Throw in some bacon bits and green onion...mmmm, mmmm!)
We're going to Seattle on August 29th. I couldn't be more ready for a get-away vacation. Ready in oh-so many ways.
Well folks. I think that's officially it. I'll never be able to shut this site down because of sentimental value, but I never update enough for it to be relevant anymore.
This is how I met my husband and I'll never forget it, so I'm leaving all of these memories in tact for visits in the future.
