I've been doctoring for many ailments since an end of June migraine that had me incapacitated, propped up in a hospital bed mumbling something about amnesia.
What's ailing me? My stomach, my head, my neck, my mouth, my mind. As a result, I've had an x-ray, a CT scan, an MRI/MRA, and an ultrasound. (I should be beaming with radio activity by now.) It was thought by the medical community that I may have gall stones. Great. This, following the kidney stones last year, and the overweight-with-high-blood-pressure the year before (hey, it was during pregnancy!). I am the oldest living 24 year old.
Anyway, it was a surprising relief to be diagnosed with a young person's illness - turns out Andrew and Oliver have been the beneficiaries of too many smooches from me - I have the 'kissing disease.'
O Mono, leave me alone; why must you drone on and on?
Friday, September 19, 2008
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Good, Charlotte
With so many things to explore around the barnyard, our most recent discovery was fascinating...right off the pages of a children's storybook!
In the upper left corner of the barn door, you'll spot a crafty little spider who's been busy spinning webs above the Froelich's famous pigs. Dear Charlotte is fuzzy in texture, orange in color, and the most peculiar looking arachnid I've ever seen.
A curious Fern..ahem, Oliver.. appears to be in conversation with the two survivors of an original trio of hams. Their names were Jess, Jonny and Joey after my brothers and their friend Joey Froelich. Perfect.
'Jess' has already met his fate, but if our eight-legged friend has anything to do with it, Jonny and Joey will be safe this harvest season.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Life as we know it...
My absence here at my blog is bogging me down. So much happens in life it's hard to pick the greatest things, then write about them.
Right now our family is in a time of transition. We're living in Deerwood, working in Brainerd, spending time in Pierz and Emily. Needless to say, my car looks like it belongs to a group of vagabonds. I know I'll look back on this time with an element of fondness...but right now, as I'm in the midst of the chaos, I sit dazed and confused. The horizon is bleak.
Wow, how's that for morose?
It's actually been a period of growth for me personally, so that's good, right? I've been able to more fully rely on God, as He's the only steady, unchanging part of my life. (Andrew's typically a rock, as well, but making house decisions has him rather wishy washy these days.) Encouraging other people to trust God through confounded circumstances is easier than applying faith in my own life, but I'm learning...I don't have much choice.
So as we continue to plod on in the reconstruction of our house, we're trying to focus on the Giver, rather than the gift. After all, the second cannot exist without the first.
"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. " James 1:17
Right now our family is in a time of transition. We're living in Deerwood, working in Brainerd, spending time in Pierz and Emily. Needless to say, my car looks like it belongs to a group of vagabonds. I know I'll look back on this time with an element of fondness...but right now, as I'm in the midst of the chaos, I sit dazed and confused. The horizon is bleak.
Wow, how's that for morose?
It's actually been a period of growth for me personally, so that's good, right? I've been able to more fully rely on God, as He's the only steady, unchanging part of my life. (Andrew's typically a rock, as well, but making house decisions has him rather wishy washy these days.) Encouraging other people to trust God through confounded circumstances is easier than applying faith in my own life, but I'm learning...I don't have much choice.
So as we continue to plod on in the reconstruction of our house, we're trying to focus on the Giver, rather than the gift. After all, the second cannot exist without the first.
"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. " James 1:17
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Two whole miles?!
Remember when I wrote about my brave, victorious sister Anna and our cousin Nicole running a marathon? That's 26.2 miles. Just wanted to let the world know that Andrew, some of our cousins, and I ran two miles on Sunday morning in the Pierz Oktoberfest Fun Run... at 8AM! Things wrapped up in about 19 minutes for me... Yeah, I've been training for this event. Andrew finished in 13 and some change. The last time he trained was at least two years ago. Sick.
Attached are some before and after shots. Enjoy.
A long short story "Houses and God"
I have a few moments at Mom's to write, so I thought I would paint a more vivid picture of God's gracious timing and hand in our house buying experience...
Ever since Andrew and I bought our first house (on Little Pine Road) we knew it was a great start for us, but our dream was to have an old farm in the country - a place brimming with character just waiting to be dusted off and appreciated again. Not knowing the imaginary ideal would or could actually exist, we talked about instead, renovating our small rambler and growing a glorious garden. Then we would wonder how much of ourselves we should pour into a house that could only handle so much of our creativity before it started looking like something from Hansel and Gretel.
We thought we received our answer from God around Christmas time in 2005. We decided we needed a little adventure in our lives, so we were going to move to Colorado. "Shake the dust of this crummy little town and see the world," as George Bailey would say. But, while we were out in Colorado Springs checking on apartments and jobs in June that year, we found out God had a much bigger adventure in store for us - name: Oliver Isaac. So, we turned around and started settling back into our lives in Brainerd.
A year and a half went by with little or no action in our house saga. Our time was spent expecting, then experiencing our baby boy. Then in November last year, our neighbor called Andrew. His daughter was interested in buying our house. When Andrew told me we should sell I started crying, but in the end we knew it had to be God - we probably couldn't have sold if we tried, instead a buyer was sent right to us. We signed a purchase agreement in December, and started exploring the countryside for our new house...farm.
The search turned up one place we put an offer in on. It was good, not great. I'm now thankful that someone else snatched it up instead. We also came across a beautiful old farm that was abandoned, but quaking with potential. After hunting down the owners by way of the platte book and world wide web, we met with them, but they weren't willing to sell. We're also praising God that that didn't work out.
Then we found it. It was just about a month until closing on Little Pine, and we were getting discouraged. We even came to the conclusion that we were going to have to settle for just anything, because our dream didn't exist in reality. We were scheduled to look at two farms with our realtor, Joel. The first was a total bust. I tried not to get too hopeful as we drove the few miles to the second prospect. We passed a couple 'for sale' signs on 5 Mile that said "I'll be on the market forever." As we came to a clearing, there it was - pristine in the early summer greenery surrounding it. The house, the outbuildings (minus the barn), the towering white oaks...everything was just as we'd imagined.
Two days later we put an offer in. The farm had only been on the market a few days, but the owners and listing agent were reviewing six offers by the time we got ours in. We waited anxiously all that day... Andrew came home from work with the news that we were first runner up, but ultimately someone else got it. I bawled.
Then later that week Joel called us back to say that the deal fell through. The buyers, on the final walk-through before closing, found two inches of water in the basement. So, 'what Satan intended for evil [wet basement], God intended for good.' We had to reduce our offer because of the extra repairs we would have to make on the basement. We waited a weekend, which in its entirety felt like an eternity. Joel called. We got it. God is good.
And that's how we came upon our new little farm, a dusty one indeed.
Ever since Andrew and I bought our first house (on Little Pine Road) we knew it was a great start for us, but our dream was to have an old farm in the country - a place brimming with character just waiting to be dusted off and appreciated again. Not knowing the imaginary ideal would or could actually exist, we talked about instead, renovating our small rambler and growing a glorious garden. Then we would wonder how much of ourselves we should pour into a house that could only handle so much of our creativity before it started looking like something from Hansel and Gretel.
We thought we received our answer from God around Christmas time in 2005. We decided we needed a little adventure in our lives, so we were going to move to Colorado. "Shake the dust of this crummy little town and see the world," as George Bailey would say. But, while we were out in Colorado Springs checking on apartments and jobs in June that year, we found out God had a much bigger adventure in store for us - name: Oliver Isaac. So, we turned around and started settling back into our lives in Brainerd.
A year and a half went by with little or no action in our house saga. Our time was spent expecting, then experiencing our baby boy. Then in November last year, our neighbor called Andrew. His daughter was interested in buying our house. When Andrew told me we should sell I started crying, but in the end we knew it had to be God - we probably couldn't have sold if we tried, instead a buyer was sent right to us. We signed a purchase agreement in December, and started exploring the countryside for our new house...farm.
The search turned up one place we put an offer in on. It was good, not great. I'm now thankful that someone else snatched it up instead. We also came across a beautiful old farm that was abandoned, but quaking with potential. After hunting down the owners by way of the platte book and world wide web, we met with them, but they weren't willing to sell. We're also praising God that that didn't work out.
Then we found it. It was just about a month until closing on Little Pine, and we were getting discouraged. We even came to the conclusion that we were going to have to settle for just anything, because our dream didn't exist in reality. We were scheduled to look at two farms with our realtor, Joel. The first was a total bust. I tried not to get too hopeful as we drove the few miles to the second prospect. We passed a couple 'for sale' signs on 5 Mile that said "I'll be on the market forever." As we came to a clearing, there it was - pristine in the early summer greenery surrounding it. The house, the outbuildings (minus the barn), the towering white oaks...everything was just as we'd imagined.
Two days later we put an offer in. The farm had only been on the market a few days, but the owners and listing agent were reviewing six offers by the time we got ours in. We waited anxiously all that day... Andrew came home from work with the news that we were first runner up, but ultimately someone else got it. I bawled.
Then later that week Joel called us back to say that the deal fell through. The buyers, on the final walk-through before closing, found two inches of water in the basement. So, 'what Satan intended for evil [wet basement], God intended for good.' We had to reduce our offer because of the extra repairs we would have to make on the basement. We waited a weekend, which in its entirety felt like an eternity. Joel called. We got it. God is good.
And that's how we came upon our new little farm, a dusty one indeed.
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