and the waters keep on risin'

or maybe the rising part is just the gas prices.

Well folks, we're in our new place. "In" not meaning ANYTHING is in it's place, other than the bed cause we had to sleep there last night, but we're in at least. We no longer live in a mold infested apartment!!!!!!!!! WUHOO! Guess that's all there is to say about that really, Dave can tell you how the moving in process went and so on, considering I wasn't there for most of it :).

I do have a few comments to make on the gas prices however, considering we just paid THREE DOLLARS AND TEN CENTS PER GALLON to fill up our car, because everywhere else for the next 3 counties it out of gas and there is very little left! Yes, it may be up to a week and a half before there's more gas! So, we're gonna be carpooling alot, to say the least. I believe the apocolypse is coming when the gas prices in the US of A reach this high, or maybe we're just getting our due for having the cheapest out of the REST of the world for so long, who knows, but we may be seeing Jesus soon! lol I'm out to organize my house. Toodles!

P.S. pray for New Orleans considering the death toll is being projected into the 1,000's there because of the water levels.

just for the rush of it

We found an apartment this morning. We started moving in this morning. We have to be out by tomorrow. We ACTUALLY have to completely move tonight. I'm working till 8 pm. It's raining lots....remember that hurricane coming through? yup, it's hit. We stuffed a towel under the outside door of our old apartment last night so it wouldn't flood on the last night. Did I mention Dave and whoever he found from church is moving our apartment right now? K, just thought I'd tell you. By the way, for those of you who are wondering, we still have the same address and phone number. I don't like hurricanes--I would never live in Florida--I mean, what ARE those people thinking???? I'm done, gotta go back to work, then move for the rest of the night. OH! Pray for our landlord to let us out of our lease (the old apartment) and give us our deposit back, or at least reimburse us for the "carpet doctor" we had to rent all FOUR times it flooded.

additions

As you might have noticed, I've added a sidebar. The sidebar is a place just to leave me a note or whatever you want really. It's not a place to comment on the postings, it's just there so that you can leave random bits of info and we can correspond a bit more. We'll see how it goes. If no one likes it, or it just doesn't work for this blog, then I'll take it off. This site is now under construction and may be making more random changes in the next few days...the time has come for some change :). Talk to ya soon!

a tablespoon of salt

It's not quite a teaspoon of sugar, but I think it has the same ring to it, lol. The other night Dave and I were cooking my mom's lasagna recipe (which was very good inspite of everything mom, thanx), and Dave misread my my cooking directions. See, Mom had just been reading them out to me really quickly, so I had written down 'tp' for teaspoon, and 'tbs' for tablespoon. Yes, I realize those abreviations don't quite match up, but I was shorthanding it ok? Anyways, he thought tp was tablespoon and ended up putting a tablespoon of salt and a half tablespoon of pepper in the recipe instead of the teaspoon size to fill the quota. He didn't tell me he was second guessing the measurements, nor ask me if that was right till AFTER it was out of the oven. None the less, it turned out ok. We just had to drink a lil more tea w/ our salty lasagna, lol.
On a serious and GOOD note, we went and saw an apartment tonight. It's REALLY cute but slightly smaller than our apartment right now. I like the way the space is arranged though, even though the bedroom is pretty tiny (our bed will still fit in though, so we're good). Not sure if this is the one we will choose, but at least we're actively moving towards getting out of "the wetlands" as I like to call our apartment now.
p.s. Molly, we want to send you something--what's your new address over there?

long lost friend

A long lost friend called me the other day. He was an ex-boyfriend actually, but we were friends much longer than we were anything more. Our relationship ended badly, and I'm pretty sure we were both to blame; neither of us were the people we needed to be at the time. After a few months I missed that friendship really badly, and ever since I thought about him and wondered how he was doing. Well, he left a message on my answering machine...yesterday I think. He use to NEVER leave messages, he hated them, but guess that changed too, or it was just an important message. He called my parents house and asked for my number. My mom said he told her he was engaged! I'm SO extremely excited for him, and I'm so glad I'm gonna get that chance to "end" things well. We use to e-mail each other mutiple times a day during high school, and then...nothing really, for several years. I always called him on his birthday though. He always said I could never remember it, so I decided to annoy him after we broke up, and prove that I could....I've called him every year since :). Anyways, I haven't talked to him yet, but I'm looking forward to hearing about all the wedding plans, and the girl, who's gotta be something special, and how great his life is going. I love that, that an old friend is doing well, and I get to celebrate w/ him now. Thanx --to you know who you are, thanx for calling, it means alot to me. God has grown us alot huh? I wish you all the happiness a wonderful, Christian marriage brings, it's GREAT!

Cool sign huh? It's right before you come into town, I love it. Dave took this pic. :) 

P.S.

Because I keep getting adds for other people's businesses on my blog, I have now added a word verification process where you have to type in a word that you see on the screen before you can comment. It's just so computers can't automatically post their crap on my blog. Sorry guys, I know it's an extra step, but I've been getting a lot of spam lately. Please still comment! I love all of them!

God's dry shower of blessings

"I have faith God, I have faith that it won't happen." Ten minutes later; "ok I DON'T have faith God, I just don't have enough, I have ALOT of hope though, does that count? I have VERY great hope, that this downpour, will NOT flood our apartment."

As Dave and I drove home today, I felt a sense of dread, but not as much as I do usually when I just KNOW the apartment was flooded. It was a peace sort of, that even if the apartment WAS flooded, even though the ropes course and the river WERE flooded, that God would help us get through it, no tears this time. Dave said if it was flooded, he would see it as a sign, that we WERE suppose to move. I asked him, "So you WANT it to flood??? You're just temping God aren't you!"

So we walked in, to our house, fully fearing that we would be waiding through, but IT WAS DRY!!! We praised God IMMEDIATELY! Because you know what??? The drain outside our apartment was TOTALLY clogged up, AND GOD STOPPED THE RAIN!!! I TOTALLY believe HE was the ONLY reason it didn't flood today, just to show us that He can and will take care of even the little things. We definately needed that miracle today. And Dave still thinks we should find a new place, so I guess the miracle was as good of a sign as the house being flooded :); it takes more to NOT flood than to flood(sorta like the fleece in the Bible w/ the dew and stuff, lol).

Well, Dave's first day at NOC went REALLY well, but I'll let him blog about that.
GOD IS GREAT! .....even on the rainy days :).

Drying out

The apartment had dried out and the smell is slightly less disgusting than is was a few days ago. We haven't found a new one yet, but we're definitely looking. It's still a possibility that we MAY end up in staff housing, but like I said, no definates yet.
Had my first Team Building Raft trip the other day, well, that I lead anyway, it went suprisingly well! I mean, I HOPED it would go well, but I was a lil worried. I had one of my friends who works in the outfitters store on he river w/ me, he'd never been on one either, but we had a blast. Since most of the summer staff that were still in school have left now, almost ALL departments are short staffed, so everyone's been working everywhere. It's a nice change to the monotony.
Dave is starting to train on the river tomorrow, to check out as a guide! I'm really excited about it, I think he is too,lol. He's also gonna get trained on the Alpine Tower and Ropes course, and guess who gets to train him? ME!!! I think it's HILARIOUS! Not sure he does though, lol.
Well, I'm off early today, and I'm just playing around on the computer, maybe I'll visit a few new sites, or just get on my regular (ebay and all the blogs I read). Or maybe I'll just go home and read my new Glamour magazine, it's the 800th edition special, so it's HUGE!!! I LOVE IT! It's my one REALLY girlie indulgence, and I look forward to it EVERY month.
Well, I'm off. Gotta hit the post office before it closes.

Screaming at God

Screaming at God

Today on my way home, I yelled at God while trying to drive through my tears. “Just ONE night w/ my husband God, just ONE night to relax and enjoy the time we have together. I just wanted ONE rainy night NOT spent sucking up the water that is pouring into our apartment!!!!! I know it’s not your fault, but couldn’t You have just STOPPED IT?!?” Dave was yelling at God about the same time I was, but something like “I PRAYED about this!!! Didn’t you HEAR ME?!?” That was just hours ago. Once again, our apartment has flooded. We’ve been here 4 months and it’s flooded 4 times. So, first thing Monday morning Dave is going to talk to our landlord, and see what we can do to get out of our lease agreement, considering OBVIOUSLY this has happened before, and they said nothing but “keep the drain clear otherwise your house MIGHT flood”. By the way, the drain was PERFECTLY clear this time, and the water STILL came in. The moral of the story is, if you find an apartment, and the price, size, etc seem too good to be true, it probably is. Anyway, as we are a bit calmer now and not screaming at God, we are still sucking up the water that is in the apartment, taking shifts w/ the Rug Doctor. But we realise this could be an opportunity, not sure what for yet, but maybe there’s a reason that it’s pushed us to move out, or at least start looking, who knows. Just trying to remember what I said to a close friend last night…hmmm…something like “it’s not the end of the world, there are other things you can do! I KNOW God has a reason for this, and He’ll use it in a great way, something you may not see right now, or ever, but at least someone knows what’s going on.” Well, guess I could take some of my own advice right? Gotta go, it’s my shift. Pray for us, to find whatever God is having us search for, or at least a dry place to live, if only temporarily.

don't count your chickens before they hatch

I had my very first corporate group that I hosted all by myself yesterday. I was pretty stressed about it at first, as they are some of our most high paying guests, but it turned out better than I could have imagined. The rafting trip was amazing, and some of the ladies on my boat gave me the most gracious compliments on my raft guiding skills, which REALLY made me feel good. Two of the ladies were very nervous about rafting, and they told me that I made them feel totally at ease and they felt I was very professional at my job--wow! I hosted their dinner last night too and they were a delightful bunch of people to converse w/, asking me questions about my job and the area, and telling little tidbits of their life too. All in all, I'm not so scared of corporate groups anymore.
On a personal/spiritual note: Dave and I have been reading a book called "Priceless" that we were given as a wedding present. It's a money management book, but it's REALLY good. It's written by a Christian, and I highly recommend it. Anyways, I'm trying to find ways to save money in small and big ways, and I think that's what God is pushing me to do right now, for reasons or purposes I'm not sure of yet. Also my devotions lately have gone towards really enjoying those priceless moments in life--like Dave's and mine first camping trip together, our walks in the evening (which are becoming more frequent), or our Sunday mornings when we get to go to church together. Please pray that my prayer life will become more fervent too--I desperately need to stop, drop, and pray more often. Well, I gotta get on the river! I'll update soon.

belated Rowling outrage

Yes folks, I am VERY mad at J.K. Rowling. If you don't know who this is, you OBVIOUSLY don't like Harry Potter, or at least haven't read them yet and found out how great they are...well...until recently. I won't blow the whole thing, but the ending to the last book, "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince", was AWFUL! I finished it around midnight one night and got a TERRIBLE night's sleep for the rest of it. As you know, I was SO psyched about the new book coming out (it came out July 16th just in case you forgot), but it ends TERRIBLY!!!! J.K. Rowling, I have half a mind to boycot your next book, if it weren't for the fact that I HOPE you redeem yourself and finish the series off right. Don't go the way of superman and spiderman Rowling, alienating the hero from their friends and killing off their "family" is just OVERDONE!!! Ok, I'm done now. Dave and I are going out to Yummi Yummi Chinese resturant in town for our 4 month anniversary. Yes I know you're not suppose to count it till a year, but hey, we like celebrating, and chinese food, so why not!?! Gotta jet!

they were the best of times, and the worste of times

camping was really great. We found a awesome lil spot right by a small waterfall. We built a fire and had smores, and swam, and then went to bed smellin like smoke (I love the smell of campfire smoke while camping). Then we lazed around the next day and swam some more and sunbathed at the top of the waterfall. In the afternoon we went kyaking; the first time we'd both done the whole Nanty since LDP. Last night we went to a Big Lebowski party, which was obviously a good time. Today was suppose to be my court date, strange you say, as it's on a Saturday, but I didn't think of that. Yes folks, the officer wrote down the wrong date, the court date was actually YESTERDAY. Now I'm gonna have to try and get MORE time off to go and deal w/ this stupid speeding ticket. But, the fact that he wrote the court date down wrong, could help me out alot. Who knows. I'm off to work in a few, but then there's a baby shower and staff goodbyes tomorrow. Well, talk to ya soon! oh, and pray for my family...they all just left on a Mission trip to Mexico today, and they'll be gone for a week.

Summer heatstroke

it's a bit warm here, very warm, the salt deposits on my face would show you that if you could see me right now. I just got off the ropes course, and it was HOT! Dave and I have a day off together tomorrow, so we're heading out tonight to go camping, just overnight though. We're going up to a little river where there's some really pretty waterfalls and things, should be a good time if it doesn't rain :). We went to a place called the "Fun Factory" in Franklin the other night w/ some friends from here. It held it's name well and was good fun. We played laser tag and lots of video games. At the end of the night we had lots of tickets and we put them all together and got LOTS of pointless little things that kept us amused for at least 5 minutes. However, I found out something new about Dave in those 5 minutes. He's terrified of Chinese Finger Traps. you know those lil paper/straw tubes you stick your fingers in, and if you pull on each side your fingers are stuck in the middle? Yeah, he REALLY hates those...and I just CAN't stop laughing over it! I told him I was gonna wake him up one morning by putting those things on his fingers then tickling him...wouldn't that be a RIOT? Well, I thought so anyways. Just thought I'd blog and say hello! I miss all you guys, and for those of you in Canada, Dave and I hope we will be seeing you this January!!!! More details on that later, gotta go meet Dave for dinner. Miss you all!

just gotta do it

Well Dave's home, and it's SO good to have him back. I'm sleeping better now that he's back and today is our day off together! As an NOC employee I get some pretty good perks, one of them being getting into the Bilmore Estate FREE! So, that's what we're off to do today.
It's been REALLY hot here, and I've been working SO much, I haven't had a day off since mom and B left; I worked almost 60 hours last week! I almost got heat stroke the other day I was out in the sun so long, but water is the key for overexposure to the sun--so drink up!
I lead my first raft trip all by myself yesterday. Which means it was just me as a staff person on that trip. My boat, and one other self guide, which I had to lead. It was fun! It felt good to be trusted that much, when I'm not even a trip leader, but it could just be that we're majorly under-staffed right now, but whatever.
Another thing I did yesterday, was I FINALLY got back in a boat in whitewater. I mean, I've been here since the 3rd week in April, and I've only been in a boat twice (and once was in the lake)! I don't know why I've gone back to being so scared of tipping over when I KNOW I can roll! So, one of my friends finally dragged me out to the river and helped me conquer my fear of it....I even ran the falls, AND I DIDN'T FLIP! That was only the 3rd time I'd run them, the other 2 were w/ the LDP and I flipped over both times. So, it was good to get that off my chest, now I can just enjoy kyaking...cause I really missed it, I just was scared of it to! Well, that's all for now. I gotta go wake Dave up and take a shower before we head out. I miss you ALL! And Spicer, I deserve and E-MAIL...fully loaded that is :).

weekend w/ the girls

The weekend w/ my lil sis and my mom was GREAT! We had an awesome time on Saturday going down the big Nanty w/ our lil mini me raft, we even bought the picture! Then Sunday they really like our church, which is good, I was sorta nervous they wouldn't. Then we went tubing! It was a blast, tubing in Deep Creek is the most exciting tubing EVER! We laughed all the way down--twice! Then that night we played Monop0ly, and I KILLED them...I've never won so big in my life! I think I landed on Free Parking like THREE times! Yeah, they're bad losers...jeez...but I'm not good at losing at Monopoly either, or anything for that matter, guess it runs in the family. Monday I worked all day, but then we went to see "Herbie" that night. It was actually pretty good! We enjoyed going to the movies together. Then we took a trip to Wal-mart and all overspent a bit. But I got the new Harry Potter book!!!!!!!! So it was all good. Tuesday morning we rode the Great Smokey Mountain Railroad. It was a pretty nice ride, and we got to chat for a long time and see some stuff we hadn't before. Then they rode the train back to Bryson and I worked for half a day. By the time I got home, they had all my laundry done, the house cleaned, and supper was in the making! Mom, you guys should come over more often!!! That really helped out alot, THANX MOM AND B! We had coffee and ice cream at the lil coffee shop in front of our house, and just chatted for a long time. Then we watched "dear Frankie" which is a REALLY good movie, I highly recommend it. It was a really good night. Good stuff.
Today was a long day w/ "Camp Barney." Great name hey? We mountain biked all day and had an awesome time, until a kid fell off his bike and had to go to hospital and get stitches...ugh. But all in all it was good stuff, aLOT better than the last group they brought. Ok. I REALLY stink. I'm headed to the house and a shower. I might head to a Princess Bride PJ party in a bit! lol Goodnight!

splashes and squeals

Today, for the first time, I did three raft trips down the river. I barely had time to eat lunch! But it was fun. The water was REALLY high today, so it made it alot faster and some of the rapids (especially Nantahala Falls) aLOT bigger. Now I'm probably gonna go home, take a shower (for the second time in a week, ewww I know, but hey, ya just don't have the energy after work--I even had a joke made about me today; "how do you hide a 10 dollar bill from Leigh?....you put it under a bar of soap! lol), cook something for dinner, or not, maybe I'll just pop in a frozen pizza, and watch the 4th season of Dawson's Creek. I think that's the one Candice and I ended on last summer. Yes guys, I like Dawson's Creek, but hey, ya gotta get your drama fix from somewhere right? Maybe I'll even read some of my new Glamour. Should be a relaxing night. Well, I'm off! Soap suds here I come...Lord knows I NEED 'EM!

out and about w/ some amazing thing

Well, I fell out of the blogging world for a bit, sorry about that, but I'm back for a catch-up. Here's what's been going on the past week. Last Monday, the 4th of July, was really great. I had to work that morning, but when I came home there was the big 4th of July festival on the next street over! So, we spent that evening eating hot dogs from the street vendors, listening to the street band (country of course), practicing a little kyak rolls in the river that ran through town (we had an crowd watching us, it was a lil intimidating), and ended the night watching the fireworks. It was a really great night. Then on Thursday, I had to drop Dave off at the airport, and I wouldn't see him again for over 2 weeks. That was hard, but we got through it, and I even got home in the POURING rain without getting lost. Also that day was a lil worry-some because that was the day London was bombed and we were both worried about Helen and the rest of the family in London (they were all ok though, thank God). That afternoon at work, I had THE most inspiring day of work in my whole life. We had the ACT group there, which is an amputi group. Those kids were TOTALLY and COMPLETELY amazing. Most of them didn't have a leg or an arm, but some didn't have either hand, but they still CLIMBED the Alpine Tower AND the Ropes course! Those children were the biggest blessing I have had in SUCH a long time. They were just kids that day, surrounded by lots of other kids just like them, who were determined to do everything, and they did! By the end of the day, I was almost in tears just by their courage and positive outlook on life. I wanted to take a few of them home. The rest of the week pales in comparison with that, but I have been having a good time, even though I've missed Dave alot. Sunday one of my best friends got to come over--I'm SO glad I got to see you Sheena, I really needed to. Then Sunday night I spent w/ some of the staff girls. Last night a couple of the girls came over and we cooked and then watched Jaws, and just hung out. So, I've been having fun and working hard. Hope you have too! I'll try to keep ya updated more often, sorry. I'm off to work now! Maybe I'll play ultimate frisbee tonight...if it's not raining to hard...but then again, that might make it more fun!

when it rains it pours

Well, this week was my birthday, not that I would let your forget, but just in case ya did, it was on Tuesday. So, Tuesday I happened to be working, which I have known for some quite some time, so that was ok. Wednesday night we had planned to have a few people over for my birthday. I even cracked out a new recipe from my sister-n-law, her enchiladas (THANKS BRANDY!). Yep, I cleaned all morning, relaxed in the afternoon, and started cooking about 5:30. Well, it started to rain around the time I had put the enchiladas in the oven and cleaned up the mess. Rain is fine, it rains all the time here, but then it started to REALLY come down. Well, there's a drain outside our apartment, and it got backed up. So where does the water go when the drain is backed up? Straight through the kitchen! Yep, about an inch of water came in in less than 10 minutes. It actually came in in WAVE form, no lie. As I was screaming and yelling that we were 'takin on water', Dave had the sense to jump outta the shower and run outside (in a towel no less) and unclog the drain. Yes, my husband can think on his toes. So, our guests understood about the water, and we called it an early evening. I was extremely stressed over the situation by then, and Dave wonderfully said, "you go out to the pub w/ everyone, I'm gonna rent a 'Rug Doctor' and suck up all this water, go have fun." Isn't my husband WONDERFUL! He stayed there and sucked up the water for 2 hours, and let me get my heart rate back to normal and enjoy my evening. And even though our house is still quite muggy (we're borrowing a dehumidifier tonight), it's SO much better because Dave can think on his feet. I love you Baby, thanks for all you do for me.

my watering can--part of my birthday present from Dave. ISN'T HE CUTE!!!