Its Been a Minute

It has definitely been a while since I truly updated my site. I could come up with a thousand excuses, but I think I’ve been in a bit of a fog since late last year. It has taken many hours of thought and prayer for the fog to roll out, but I think it has lifted for now.

Several months back I typed my thoughts, but never posted. Our family was struck with a tragedy that will forever weigh on the hearts of so many that I love, as well as myself. Here were my thoughts on that terrible day;

Today is election day. Today is also one of the most horrible days of my life. Today I am trying to process the sudden and unnecessary loss of someone who has been in my life since the day I was born. Today, while the rest of America is focused on the future of our country, I am focused on the future of someone so dear to me she is like a mother. There are people screaming that they don't know who they will go on should one man win vs the other, while my loved one is just trying to figure out how she will breathe today, much less go on tomorrow.

I'll never forget that phone call, or this day. My aunt has lost her only child to something that is so preventable. Suicide. I think that word is worse than any word in the dictionary.

What has happened to this world? COVID-19 has destroyed so much for so many people. How many are coping with the loss of a loved one due to a suicide that would have never happened if our world wasn't full of so much hate, anger, and separation right now???

I am so extremely blessed to be surrounded by so many amazing people. The outpouring of love and prayer is overwhelming. I wish my aunt could feel this. I know that from this darkness God will bring light, it's just so hard to understand that at this moment.

This sudden and unnecessary loss really shook me to the core. It was a reminder of how precious life is, how we must learn to show forgiveness, and to love one another more. It pushed me to seek God even more that I already was, and to value every moment with those that I love.

However, with all the dark, negative, disappointment, hate, and just down right bad that has made its way into my life over the past year, I have found that there was nearly as much good.

I have learned to show more grace, patience, and kindness. These are things that I have always strived for, but in today's society they are often lacking. I am still not always the most gracious, patient, or kind, but I have tried and will continue trying.

Also, I have learned to pray more, and not to pray for what I need, but to also pray for what I am thankful for. It is easy to pray in times of need, but when things are going well we need to remember to give thanks.

While the past year, and most recently the past six months, has tested me in more ways than I could share in one post, it has reminded me of what is important in life. It has reminded me to fear less and to have faith more. The last year definitely did not go as planned, and that's okay. God is in control!

Poor Squirrel

This is a story of how a squirrel met his fate in our rental car. There may be some graphic details, so if that bothers you please stop reading now.

We have once again tested Murphy's Law. If it can happen, it will happen to us. On our third day in Montana we hiked a beautiful trail that was about seven miles round trip. Afterwards, we checked-in to our new hotel and decided to head over the local farmers market for dinner.

When we got back into the car I asked my husband if he could smell the horrible smell, and he said no. The whole one and a half mile drive to the farmers market I kept asking him, and he kept saying he couldn't smell it. It was terrible, like someone smoking a bad joint! We grabbed some dinner off of an amazing food truck, walked around the market and then decided it was time to head back to the hotel and let our legs and feet relax. 

This time when we got back into the car and turned the a/c on my husband almost threw up the smell was so bad! It finally hit him! We decided to stop at the grocery store on the way back to the hotel and when we got out of the car my husband could tell the smell was coming from under the hood. So, he did what most husbands would do and he popped the hood. As he was leaning over the engine he all of the sudden yelled "oh my God!!!". This is when he realized that a rodent of some kind had died under the hood, and it didn't just die, it met its fate in the fan. 

I couldn't help but start laughing. I felt terrible for the critter but of all of the things that can happen, this happens! My husband went and broke a stick off of a tree to try and get the critter out of the fan, unfortunately this wasn't working very well. Due to the heat of the engine it was coming all apart. He even got his hand down in there enough to grab it and instead of pulling the whole thing out he ripped off a leg. At this point I am uncontrollably laughing, my husband doesn't seem to think it's near as funny. 

We gave up and just decide we will have to tough it out for the duration of our trip, that is for the next six days! 

The next day we just refuse to turn on the a/c and are grateful that it is fall in Montana and not summer in Alabama. We head out to do some sightseeing and just ride with the windows down, the weather is amazing so it's not a problem. 

As we are about to leave this little town in the middle of nowhere I turn on the a/c and we both turn about every color of green that you can! It smells so bad you can just smell it walking by the car. My husband asks a young man working at the little store in town if he has a metal coat hanger and much to my surprise he does. When my husband explains why he needs it the young man says "I've seen a lot of things out here but this is a first".

My husband then begins trying to dig the poor thing out of the fan. A few minutes later he emerges with the body of what was once a squirrel. I will spare you the rest of the details, but let's just say it was not pretty. 

I'm not sure that the a/c in this rental car will ever smell normal again. I'm just thankful it's not my personal car!

The Rapture on Easter

With everything going on in the world, the Rapture wouldn’t be surprising. As a Christian, I’m ready and waiting, and I was pretty sure it had arrived at 5:00am on Easter Sunday 2020. Every April seems to bring one good (well actually bad) storm through central Texas. In the past we’ve been caught off guard with high winds and hail in the middle of the night, but this time we prepared a little bit better for a storm that was coming with lots of rain, wind and possible hail. We made sure that all vehicles were under cover and nothing could blow away. We’re still living in our camper, since our home isn’t quite done. Riding out storms in the camper is about like riding on the front car of the Rattler roller coaster at Six Flags, seat-belts should be required.

Well, we went to bed late Saturday night knowing that the storm was coming, and we felt prepared. Then, at 4:47am the alarms sounded! The tornado warning alarms. Not a tornado watch, but a warning! The difference being that a watch means weather conditions are just right for a tornado, and a warning means that a tornado is brewing or has been detected on radar. I don’t think I have ever mentioned that tornadoes are my biggest fear. I don’t do well when I can’t properly prepare for things, and a tornado is always a surprise. I had also had two nightmares about tornadoes the previous week. So, when the alarms sounded and I realized it was a tornado warning, I bolted up out of bed like my hair was on fire. I flipped the TV on to our local news and then did what any sane person does when they wake up at 5am, I went to the bathroom. While I was in the bathroom, I could see through the window this flickering light, like a streetlight that was going out. When I looked out the window, I realized it was the lightening illuminating the entire sky. I then went back to bed and I could tell by the look on my husbands face that things were not good. Then I heard the meteorologist repeatedly say, people who were in Elm Mott need to seek shelter immediately. We were right in the middle of Elm Mott, and in a trailer!

My husband looked at me and said, what should we do? I’m pretty sure my face said it all, RUN!! However, this wasn’t that easy. We had two cats and a dog to get into the car, that was behind a fence. I jumped out of bed, wrapped our most nervous cat in a blanket and bolted out the door and into the car, while my husband ripped the fence from the ground and threw it to the side. I then looked up to see my husband running out of the camper holding the second cat in the air by his scruff and shooing the dog to the car. He opened the door grabbed the dog by the collar to help her into the car, tossed the cat in and ran around to hop into the driver’s seat. As we were rushing out, we noticed several other residence of the campground doing the same.

We headed south, away from the worst of the storm. The rain and wind were coming in so hard, and neither of us grabbed our glasses, we could hardly see. Both cats sat wrapped in my lap for a while, eventually going limp. After about 5 minutes on the road we were out of the worst of it. Finally, the cats went into the back seat and settled down next to the dog. I think them all being together gave them some comfort. This is about the time that I realized I had no shoes, no bra, and no pants! This was great, if we made the news I was going to be “that lady”.

We made it to a parking garage out of the tornado warning zone and waited about 30 minutes. The storm lessened, and we decided to head back to see if we still had somewhere to call home for the time being. But not before running through the Whataburger drive-thru, after all of that we were starving! Thank the Lord, no tornado ever actually touched down in Texas and all was spared. Louisiana and Mississippi were not as fortunate as we were. Later in the day tornadoes touched down in Louisiana and Mississippi killing 22 people and destroying tons of homes and businesses.

We are very lucky. Easter tuned out to be a beautiful day. The storm and darkness passed, the clouds parted, and the sun shone bright. We spent the day with our son as we celebrated the resurrection of Jesus. While it wasn’t the Rapture, it was definitely a symbolic Easter that we won’t ever forget. We were blessed that the tornadoes missed us, and we are now looking into having a storm shelter buried in our backyard for future storms.

It's the Bottom of the 9th

Our home is so close to being complete I can’t hardly stand it! With COVID-19 spreading rapidly within the United States over the past month, surprisingly construction has not stopped, and we are grateful that they are still working. Our hope was to be moving in this weekend, but it isn’t quite there yet. The electricity was finally hooked up yesterday, it only took eight weeks. That’s a whole mess in itself, but long story short is that they had to run an underground line from about one hundred yards away, and in the process they ran into a few road blocks.

We recently laid eight pallets of grass, and started building the fence around the property. The dogs already love it and know it’s home. Appliances are installed, plumbing fixtures are complete, flooring is 90% complete, and all light fixtures (with the exception of a few missing ones that had to be ordered) are all in! Just needing those finishing touches on paint, flooring and electrical to make this move-in ready.

Now realizing that we will be sheltering-in-place until at least the beginning of June, we are very eager to get moved in. We have worn out our welcome in the 200 sq ft camper that has been home for the past seven months. Praying everyday that we can move in before Easter, but it’s not looking like that’s going to happen. Here’s to hoping.

My Life During COVID-19

I’ve written and deleted three blogs about how COVID-19 has affected my life. I honestly can’t put my emotions into words right now. I ask you to visit my photography page, a picture is worth a thousand words.

https://www.eatprayphotography.com/photography

Back to School: Three Hours Down, Only 100 More to Go

I am fortunate enough to work for a company that gives employees off quite a bit of time during the winter holiday. I decided to take a minimester (one semester course done in two weeks) during this time, at our local community college. I’m not sure I was fully prepared for this class.

Study buddy Lucy soaking up some sunshine while I read.

The course I took was History of Religion, a required course for the university that I plan to transfer into to complete my degree. I spent 8-10 hours a day reading, and not just reading, but reading the bible and a text book. If you are a Christian and have read the bible, you will know that scripture reading can be somewhat difficult. Over the course of the two weeks I read nearly the entire Old Testament and half of the New Testament, along with most of a small textbook.

Almost on a daily basis I spent hours studying at one of the many local coffee shops. I found that if I removed myself from the home environment I was able to accomplish more. The great coffee was just an added bonus

Enjoyed the coffee and study environment at Fabled Bookshop & Cafe.

In the middle of all of this I had to have some fairly intense dental work. The course requires you to complete an entire “unit” in one day. This made me work even harder knowing I was going to be down a whole day for this dental work. It was definitely a struggle to stay ahead or caught up, but I did it, and finished one day early. I was so excited too when I saw that I finished with an A in the class!

I have signed up for the next required religion course (online), and the pace is much different. I almost think the minimester was a better idea. This course presents itself with challenges due to the lack of communication with the professor. I messaged him on the 17th, and here we are a week later and I have heard nothing in reply. For someone with my personality this lack of communication can be infuriating.

Here is to spending the next four months consuming way too much coffee, and attempting another A!

The Mothership is Half Way Home

We have hit the halfway mark on the building of the house, and thanks to the holidays I felt like we were at a standstill for a while. Fortunately, we are into the new year and have recently picked out the final touches for the house. We have hit a few minor road bumps along the way, but nothing that couldn’t be rectified.

Look. At. That. View.

Let’s back up for a second though and talk about these windows! We had originally planned for just standard windows and french doors on the back of the house. We were building this amazing patio with a fireplace, and our backyard is stunning, so I decided we needed to show it off a bit more. My husband was not totally on board with this idea due to the cost, but now after they have been installed, he is on the same page and thinks it is AMAZING!

Earlier this week they finished up the drywall, and delivered doors. Our next big thing will be having the cabinets installed, and then paint! We are projected to be in the house by the end of March or early April. We are really praying that there are no delays and that we can be in our new home even earlier than expected!

Drywall complete

Just before they installed the drywall, we went over to the house to write scripture and prayer on the framing throughout the house. This home will be blessed in more ways than one.

Update on The Mothership

Framing begins!

A few months ago one of our sons friends said that our home here in Waco will be like the Mothership. We told our builder, who has now named it The Mothership!

Just a little update. We are currently ahead of schedule, let’s just pray that is keep going in that direction because that camper is getting awful small. They should be done framing in the next week, and ordering windows is he next big task.

So, let’s talk windows. I think these are going to be the death of me with this house! We have considered so many options. The lot that we purchased has the most amazing trees in the backyard. I’m talking one so big that my husband and I can’t wrap our arms together around it. Our whole goal is to showcase the back porch, which we have built over-sized, and the back yard. This lead us to adding huge picture windows all along the back side of the house. This also lead to needing more of this $$$$$$$. Y’all, I think my husband may kill me before this is all over, and thanks to the people doing soil testing we have three large holes in our back yard that may make it easier for him to bury my body! Sorry, back to the windows. These amazingly beautiful windows which include a massive french door put us over budget by enough that it hurt a little. I think my husband and I both have stressed about this. So today I got on the phone with the window guy and we came up with a solution that cut the cost by just over a third. Yay me!

We spent countless hours looking and playing with I think just about every major brand of windows out there. We kept coming back to Pella windows. We finally signed off on these last week (insert deep relaxing breath). But then, when we went to see the beginning of framing we noticed that they didn’t frame for the right size windows on the back where these beautiful picture windows will go. There were a few other minor irregularities that we noticed, but after meeting with the builder today we have a piece of mind.

I know that there will be minor thing that happen along the way, and I’m just so thankful that our builder takes the time to explain things and ensure that they will get corrected. Next big item on the list will be to finalize framing and get windows installed. I can’t wait to see these windows that I have lost so many hours of sleep over, I better like them!

My Crazy Life: I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry…

Good morning world! Well, I hope it is good for you because for me it is just morning and right now I am just feeling blessed to be to the right side of the dirt. I decided to start blogging because my life tends to be a series of unfortunate event that is constantly unfolding. Most days I just exhale and pray, but today I wanted to cry. Instead I laughed and decided to blog! So, here it goes.

My family and I are currently in limbo as we relocate to Waco, TX and build our dream home. We are very blessed just to have the ability to make this happen. But let me back up, when I say family I mean myself, husband (Daniel) and our zoo. We have a son who is 20 (or will be in less than a month!) and is already living in Waco, so it is just us and the zoo relocating. We have chosen to try to save as much money as possible and live in our travel trailer for the 6 months that it takes to build our home. This was a good idea several months ago. I know this too shall pass, but right now it definitely feels like it is passing like a kidney stone.

So now lets come back to why I decided to start blogging and to the events of the past 24 hours. After what was an AMAZING weekend, I was exhausted on Monday. I drug myself into my new job with a smile and a headache. The day was long, but I made it through! My mom had decided to go back to our old house (currently for sale) and gather the last of her things so that she could move into her new place this week. I was looking forward to a relaxing evening alone, just me and my fur babies, some junk food and a movie. It all started when I got home and I set my to-go box on the outside table because my hands were full and I needed a hand to open the door. I opened the door, let the dogs out and walked inside just long enough to set my bags down. When I turned around Squirrel was eating my dinner! I wanted to be mad, but I couldn’t help but laugh. I sucked it up and said oh well I’ll just throw some pizza rolls in the microwave after I feed all the fur babies. As I am feeding everyone I noticed an excess of water coming from the back of our camper. My first thought is that our outdoor kitchen sink sprung a leak. I soon realize the water was coming from inside the camper. I went to the other side and opened the outside door to the bathroom only to see a completely flooded bathroom. You would think this was when I started crying, but no, I held it together. Turned out that somehow the bathroom sink was accidentally left running just enough to fill up the grey water tanks throughout the day. I gather towels and begin the clean up. I get it all mopped up and think I can finally relax. But no…

I then realize that the toilet is over flowing somehow and me being out of sorts I try to flush the toilet which in turn causes it to explode! This is when I cried! I used the wet towels and the last of the dry ones to clean the mess up, as I cried my eyes out. Little did I know that the grey water can over flow into the black water tank when the grey water tanks get too full. This caused the black water tank to over flow into the camper from the toilet. Once it was clean I bleached the whole camper!!!! I am a germ-o-phobe so this was a necessary step. FINALLY, everything is clean and I can find a new dinner and relax. Wait, it is almost 8pm! I have a strict bed time of 9:45pm, I know that may seem early to most but I need my sleep. I still had to make something to eat, gather my clothes for the next day, shower and then try to read before bed. Once in bed, I fell asleep mid prayer, and slept all night (first time in over a week that’s happened!).

I woke up thinking this was going to be a good day. I was determined to make it good! I did some more praying while driving, no I didn’t fall asleep this time! It is a rainy yucky weather day, which is fine because central Texas needs the rain. I order my coffee from my favorite local coffee shop and grab it to go. As I am pulling into my parking spot in the parking garage my coffee somehow comes out of my cup holder and begins its deadly decent onto my floorboard. I didn’t even try to stop it in fear that I would be wearing it the rest of the day had I tried. I backed into my spot, took a deep breath, looked down and saw the pool of sugar-free vanilla latte on the floorboard of my car. Nothing I can do now except go to work. As I type, the latte is still on my floorboard and will remain there until I get home and can get it cleaned up properly.

I did make a trip back to the coffee shop and showed them the photo of the devastation that had just occurred, and the amazing young men working gave me a new latte! So, now that we have that all behind us, today will be GREAT!! Stay tuned for the next adventure.

The death of my latte