Moving On...

It is official. For my birthday my husband told his wonderful parents to buy me a .mac subscription, which allows me to keep my other blog. So, I will no longer be using blogger.

From this point forward, if you want to know about us, you should go to OUR .MAC ACCOUNT

New Posting

See the ".Mac Account" blog link to the right under "Blogs We Read"

Problem with Link

I'm not sure what was wrong with the links posted below. I believe they should be working now. If not, leave me a comment and I will work on it again!

Long List of Frustrations

I put a new blog posting on our other blog. You Should Go Here.

Spring Break

I'm sorry that I have not yet updated everyone on the productiveness (or lack there of) from my spring break. But, I will tell you that I did go home to Mascoutah (St. Louis) to surprise my parents for a day. That was a lot of fun. One of the perks was that my dad loaded the most recent version of the Mac operating system onto my computer. Along with it came and free 60-day trial to .Mac, which allows you to do lots of fun things, one of which is create your own website. At the bottom of this blog entry you will find the link for the other version of Eric and Kerri's blog (which has some other entries, and some pictures).

In building this simple .Mac website, my desire for a new camera has been re-kindled. My in-laws were very kind in giving Eric and I a digital camera for Christmas right before our wedding. That camera has since bitten the dust. I guess I shouldn't say that. It still works, provided that you always want to zoom in completely onto whatever it is you're taking a picture of. For close up shots, therefore, it doesn't work too well.

So, I think I may have decided that I want a new camera for my birthday. I'd really like to have something small, something that could fit into my pocket. But, I also would like it to take clear pictures. If I'm lucky, I'll be able to purchase a .Mac subscription, so that I can keep the blog linked below (because I'm really starting to like it). And the nice thing is that it is really easy to load pictures and videos onto. So, if anyone knows of a good camera I might want to have, send me some specs on it so I can check it out. And I'll be looking as well.

Well, it is time for me to retire to bed for today. Go check out the new blog. Nothing spectacular, but I think it's worth looking at :)

THE NEW ANKENMAN BLOG

Spring Break

Well, this week I actually get to sleep in. I love it. Even though I don't have school work to do, I still have IKEA work on Tuesday and every day this weekend. And, I'm going to try to get a lot done. Below you will find my to do list, or at least as it is right now. Although this changes on an almost hourly basis.

SPRING BREAK THINGS TO DO

Create OAT practice tests for each grade (4 for each)
Back Up Computer info
Make back-up cds
Take dog to get nails clipped
Bathe dog
Start packing up books, etc.
Update Blog
Fix Blazer
Apply for Jobs
Write parent letters
Clean refrigerator
Clean bedroom
Do all laundry
Get hair cut

I'll let you know on Sunday how I did.

Stuck on the Toilet

Just when I think I've heard it all, I find someone has a phobia of leaving the toilet. Really? I've heard of some strange things, but that's one I definitely thought I never thought I'd hear. This woman sat on the toilet/didn't leave the bathroom for 2 years. If you wanna read about it, follow THIS LINK

Eric and I start out IKEA jobs tomorrow evening. He works 4-11, I work 4-10. I'm a little nervous just because I still don't feel completely prepared, but hopefully I can wing my way through it :)

48 more school days until summer. I can do this :)

Bully: Scholarship Edition

No, the title is not referring to a new contact sport in middle school, or even a skill taught in P.E. Rather, this is my latest XBOX 360 addiction. During the Blizzard of '08, Eric and I decided we wanted to rent a video game to play while snowed in the rest of the weekend. After much searching, prayer, and contemplation we chose to rent "Bully: Scholarship Edition." Eric spent a great deal of time this weekend (while I was doing absolutely nothing other than watching him play--see previous blog entries) playing. I did not pick it up for the first time until yesterday. And I was absolutely hooked. So much so, I really want to buy this game. Alas, it costs $50, which would probably be better used on other things. But eventually I will get to the place where I really NNNNEEEEEEEEEDDDDDD the game, and then we'll break down and buy it.

In other news, IKEA opens tomorrow. Thankfully I do not have to work tomorrow, or Thursday. But I do have to work Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, which I'm sure will be rough. But, that's what I get for signing up to work there.

And, I have to give props to the great author of the blog Seldom Wrong, Never In Doubt, one Dr. Jon Weatherly (one of our favorite CCU professors), for turning out attention to this hysterical Onion articles. Keep in mind, for anyone who may not know what the Onion is, these are all spoof news articles. That disclaimer stated, you've got to read this article about the Shroud of Turin.

Please keep my Grandpa in your prayers (my Mom's Dad). I'd really appreciate it!

The Epitome of Laziness

The following sum up my activities for this weekend: sleeping, playing video games, surfing the internet, and eating.

I should have worked on Saturday afternoon at IKEA, but the blizzard of '08 forced it to shut down. Nevermind the fact that Eric and I called about 5 times Saturday morning to see if it was closed, and they always reported that they were staying open. But, after Eric dug out our car, cleaned it off, and we braved the weather to get out to IKEA, we found a total of 2 cars in the lot, both covered in snow. We called again, and this time it had closed. We weren't bitter or anything...

So we came home. Eventually we ended up going back out that evening to get some Steak 'n Shake (we both had a craving), and to go to Blockbuster to get a video game. This morning, they canceled church, so we slept in. And we've played video games.

I'm amazed at my laziness sometimes.

No news on houses. We haven't really found any that we LOVED, but I think there's a couple we may try to look at some time. We'll see. But we have to figure it out by May 3rd, because that's when we have to be out of this apartment. Like I said before, one of our friends has very graciously told us we could move in with them until we find a place if we need to. So, we'll see.

The Blizzard of '08

I've been in school in one fashion or another (as a student or teacher) for 20 years now. And I never remember getting out of school early for snow. Sure, we had snow delays and snow days, but we never got out early.

I guess there's a first for everything.

They're expecting somewhere between 2 and 10 inches of snow today. Quite a wide range if you ask me, but since our weathermen can't ever seem to get snow predictions right, I suppose they need a window that wide. So, we were let out of school today at 12:20. It was great.

Now I'm wondering what will happen tomorrow. We're supposed to have family and friends day at IKEA. But it's not supposed to stop snowing until Sunday. I'd be amazed if they canceled it, but it might be a little dangerous out there on the roads. So, we'll see.

What a week

Sorry it's been a while guys. It was a very busy week. Not really anything exciting to write about, just busy. I worked on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday nights at IKEA. Eric officially started his job at IKEA this last weekend as well (he's doing cold prep in the restaurant). So we both worked on Friday night. Eric also worked on Saturday.

Met with the realtor on Thursday. She just kind of informed us a little more on how the process of buying a house works. Haven't started going out to look at houses, but have ruled a lot of them out online. Still not sure where we'll be in 2 months, but we know it won't be here since we're giving out 60 days notice today.

House sat for some friends this weekend. It helped me determine that I have no desire to live in Hamilton, or at least not anywhere except the eastern outskirts of Hamilton. Downtown is a mess to drive through. But, it made me want a house. It was so nice to not have to take Sadie out, but to just be able to let her out in the back yard. And it was cute to see her playing with the other two dogs. If we buy, I think we'll get a second dog very quickly to give her someone to play with.

So yeah, that's about all I got...

Ugh...

I need a better attitude about my job. I just keep hoping that when I get my own classroom, and a history teaching job, I will look forward to going to school. In truth, there is a part of me that looks forward to work. I do enjoy working with students. But man this job is hard. Very hard.

I know it will get better. It has to.

The Mortality of Life

About two and a half years ago, my grandmother died. When that happened, I realized that I had gotten to the point where having a grandparent die was not out of the ordinary. In other words, I was getting older, which meant everyone else was too, and the truth of the matter was (and is) that the older people get, the more likely it is that they could die. Being in my 20's then, unfortunately meant my grandparents are at least in their 60's if not their 70's...

And, then about a year ago, one of my closest friends from growing up lost his mother. She had battled illnesses since we were younger, but this once finally was too much for her to overcome. Once again, I had one of those moments where I realized that I was getting older. It could have been one of my parents or Eric's parents. In truth, over the last few years I have been very concerned about my own dad. I worried about whether he was taking care of himself. I wasn't the only one worrying about him. Thankfully, he has gotten better about taking care of himself, but I do still worry about him. I want him to be healthy, and I want him to be around for a long time.

Unfortunately, unless God comes back first, everyone will die.

And this week, I've really been struck with my own mortality. One of my good friends has been sick for about a week, and in the hospital since Monday night. He'd been having stomach pains, went in to the doctor, who then told him to go to the ER, and he's been there ever since. And despite the tests they've run, they have no idea what's wrong with him. Now, that I'm aware of, no one is really worried about this being a fatal thing. It's not a question of if he will get out of the hospital, but one of when he will. Obviously they won't let him leave until they can figure out what's wrong with him (and I don't know that he would want to leave the pain medications behind until then either). But, despite CAT scans, chest x-rays, colonoscopy, biopsy, antibiotics, etc., they cannot figure it out.

He is the same age Eric is. Which is only 3 years older than me. Our bodies will start to have problems. Stupid Adam and Eve. This was not supposed to happen to us, but now it does. And I'm not so young anymore :(

Life is so fragile. Doctors don't always have all the answers. And we can't fix old...

One Day of Work this Week

So, we had Monday off for President's Day, Tuesday off for conference compensation day, Wednesday off for a snow day, and now they've canceled classes for tomorrow too. So, I worked a grand total of 1 day this week at school. But man was it a doozy.

I don't know how many details I should put on this blog, but I'll just put it this way. One of my students stole my cell phone from my bag today in class, and he had to suffer the consequences. Legal consequences. If you wanna hear the whole story call me, and I fill in the gaps.

Eric is going to a retreat this weekend with other Ohio campus ministries. So I'll be alone this weekend. I hate it when he goes away. My dad always used to say that he didn't sleep as well when mom was gone. I never really understood that. I do now...it's weird when he's gone. Oh well. It's two nights...I can make it :)

I actually got to work with the cash registers tonight at IKEA training. That's much better than than all the paperwork I have been doing. I assume it's gonna start getting kinda hectic at work there with opening only a couple of weeks away.

That's about it for now. :)

Professional Wedding Pictures

Ok, after 4 hours of uploading pictures, I finally have all of our professional wedding pictures loaded onto photo bucket (well, not all of them, but a lot of them...I did some weeding out of pics).

If you want to see them, go HERE

Enjoy!

It's About Freakin' Time!

We finally have the digital proofs of our wedding pictures, which means that in theory we should be able to get our own prints of them soon. Very long story behind this (since we've been married 2 years and still don't have pictures).

But, I'm working on putting them in photobucket so people can see them if you'd like. I'll post a link up here when that's done!

In other news...I'm excited about the 2-hr delay today (especially since we had Monday and Tuesday off). I'm seriously not sure I'm gonna be able to get out of my parking lot, so I may have to call in a personal day. I think we must have gotten more snow here than they did in Colerain.

Have a great Wednesday (or whatever day you're reading this on).

So begins the long, arduous process...

We officially have a meeting with a realtor next Thursday. And, we've been pre-qualified for a mortgage. But, we're still not sure that buying a house is what we should do.

We have a lot more debt than we would like to have. Most of that debt is in student loans. Unavoidable, yes. Beneficial, yes. But still debt. And we don't want to have it. We want to get rid of all of it so that we can be generous. So we can have savings. So we can have nothing but a house payment--and really if we're being honest, I'd love to not even have a house payment.

So we're faced with a difficult decision. Do we significantly reduce the size of our living space (i.e., down to a one bedroom apartment), so that we can reduce our rent to $500-$600 a month, and dedicate the majority of our income to paying down debts. Or, do we buy a $80,000-$100,000 house, and continue paying off debt the way we have been. We just can't decide. I suppose it might come down to whether or not we can find a house that we really like, or even an apartment that we really like or can live with.

Eric is at this moment is interviewing for a part time job at IKEA. If he gets it, then both of us would have 2 jobs--one full time and one part time. I just wish this decision was easier to make. We both stress about it. We just don't know what to do.

If anyone has any advice, please feel free to share it. We would greatly appreciate it...

Soooo Tired of Moving

I had all day training on Saturday for IKEA. The morning part was ok (even though it started at 8...ugh), but after lunch it just tanked. It was amazingly boring. I felt like I was in high school again--sitting there listening to a series of lecturers talk at you, repeating things way too many times, about things that you just really feel like you'll ever use or need to know. But, that's the life of a new employee. I don't work again until next Tuesday (the 19th).

We started a new series at church on Sunday. One of the bigger churches here in the area--Crossroads--(which incidentally is where Andrea works) every year puts together a 7 week all church journey. Every single part of their church shuts down (in the sense that it abandons all of their own topics/programs) so that the entire church talks about or focuses on the exact same thing. This includes all the kids stuff, college age stuff, etc. Along with that they demand (or ask very forcefully I guess) that every single adult in their church join a small group only for those 7 weeks. After that they can quit.

At any rate, Crossroads also provides their materials to any of the local churches that would like to do the same thing in their church. So, LifePoint is doing so. The series is called Consumed and it revolves around money. Thankfully, it's not one of those "sell all your possessions so you can give it all to charity and live the life of utter simplicity." Instead, it focuses on the fact that God desires for us to be blessed and to have nice things (although not necessarily everyone with the same amount unfortunately). What that means is that the goal is to learn to enjoy the blessings you have rather than being consumed by them. Learning to be free of the bondage of money and finances so that we can truly enjoy them and enjoy life.
As a part of that, we decided to host one of the small groups. But, we must have cooties because only 2 other people signed up--Chris and Dawn Owens, our worship minister and his wife. We are actually really enjoying getting to know them.

(Small side note--on the topic of cooties, everyone must view THIS VIDEO)

And finally, as the title of this blog suggests, Eric and I have decided to move once again--although thankfully not far this time. We had been contemplating moving this summer to be a little closer to Oxford (to cut down Eric's drive time). But we decided for sure it was time to move when our apartment complex decided to raise our rent. Unfortunately, that means we need to find a new place to live and be moved out of here by the beginning of May. We'd like to find a house to rent or something like that. And, on a couple of different occasions the topic of buying a house has been brought up. That thought scares the crap out of me. On the other hand, we're having a very hard time finding a place to live with cheaper rent that will allow us to keep out dog.

So...if you think about it, please be praying for us. That we find a nice place to live--be it renting or buying--and that we make wise decisions...

It's Official!

Well, I am now officially an IKEA employee. I went in today and took my drug test. It was the most interesting thing. When I think of drug tests, I think of peeing in a cup or having blood drawn. Instead, I scraped the inside of my cheek with what looked like a small piece of white cardboard, then put it between my cheek and my gums for 3 minutes. It was weird.

Then, I got the tour. That place is like a small city. It's not completely built finished yet. The exterior is completely built, but there are some parts of the inside that they are still putting the finishing touches on. Most of the walls haven't been painted, and there's still a lot of display stuff that needs to be built, arranged, priced, etc. I think that's a lot of what I will be doing over the next month besides training to do my actual job (cashier).

I'm actually really looking forward to it. I'm not necessarily excited about working, and having to choose carefully my time off. But, I'm excited about the extra income, and I'm excited to work at IKEA.

In other news, Eric and I are really starting to take a larger role in our church. We're on a couple of creative teams, we're both on the set up/tear down team, as well as a couple of other teams. It kind of feels like life is about to get very busy and interesting. We'll see...

Be praying for us. I swear we get more grown up all the time!!!

Sorry...

Felt very tired and lethargic lately....haven't felt like posting. Will do this weekend. Over and out :)