I am Still Here

Hi!

I just thought I would let my faithful readers know that I am still here...Just on holidays. I plan on sharing more about our trip when I get home in a few weeks. For those who don't know, we are in the Yukon and we are enjoying the midnight sun! What an experience but like I said I will tell you more about this journey later. We are Alaska bound here in a few days and then we are going camping with our good friends the Howards. So I will fill you in when I return.

I also wanted to let you know that when I get back my blog may look a bit different (content wise) for a while as I have accepted an interesting and exciting challenge from my friend Alison http://alison.blogsome.com/ again you will hear more about that when I return. Until then, I will "see" you later! Thanks for still following me. :)

Exciting Times Ahead!

Hello Blogger Friends!

I am sorry that I have been away for a bit but of course I have come back!!! Here is an update on various things:

Work: STILL loving it! It is challenging, exhausting, never the same and VERY rewarding. We feel blessed to be where we are AND I have wonderful news...Some of you may have heard me share about our Thrift Store. When we first arrived and looked over the budget we learned that over the years our store had incurred over $50,000 worth of debt which the employees did not not about. NOT good considering TSA owns the building and everything is donated. So right off the bat when we arrived we were faced with the possibility of having to close our doors. This is something we really felt we could not do so we gave it some time. I am glad we did! I am VERY pleased to report that by the end of this year we should have the store out of debt and actually MAKING money! :D GOD is GREAT! We have to give Him all the credit because he has given us the wisdom to know what to do. Here is a simple example of a change we made (there have been many): I was looking over one of the Thrift Store's phone bills and I noticed that there was a $9.00 charge for extra services so I went to the store to ask our staff about it and no one knew the reason. So the next step was to go to the company. The company explained that we are paying to use their phones!!! So I asked "Are we able to use our own phones?" "Of course you can." was the reply. It took all of 10 mins. to ask our staff to pick some phones from the store to use and to please pack up the money eaters! I returned the phones and on this last bill we saved $17.80!! Here is some perspective: $9.00/month may not seem much to many people BUT $9.00/month x 12 months ends up to be $108.00 and one of our employees who has worked with us for 10 years said that they have had those phones since she has been there soooo essentially $108.00 (for one year) x 10= is $1080.00 NOT including the taxes that could have been saved. Maybe there was a reason the store started with the phones but I see no reason now. Also we have had many new customers who love to shop in our store so that is great! I am sure you are sick of hearing about this so lets move on!

Personally: I am gearing up and getting so excited for this busy month! I am off to Women's camp this weekend and I am looking forward to fellowshipping with some great gals! Then on the 16th Mike and I are heading to Newfoundland for Congress!!! I am super excited about that! THEN we are heading to Whitehorse in July to hopefully meet the newest member to the Howard Family...MY new Nephew Matty. Please pray that the adoption process goes well and that funds will be raised for the Howards to bring Anesu (Matty) over from Zimbabwe. I am excited for all our adventures coming up. I trust you have many things on the go yourself and I hope and pray that you continue to walk with the Lord as you go! Until next time...

So here is the latest question Meg asked me while she was helping me put some books on the shelf in our office: By the way the book pictured is "I Kissed Dating Goodbye" by Joshua Harris and it is a GREAT book for youth!

Megan: "Mom, is that Michael Jackson?"
Mom: (Chin dropped, eyes wide, small chuckle) "Ummm, no. How do you know who Michael Jackson is?!?" No answer.

She is THREE people THRRREEE! Wow.

So the renovations are still ALMOST all done! Since beginning and almost completing the basement, we have now started on the upstairs bathroom. A man who is new to the Church is renovating it for us...On that note, in the beginning we couldn't find a contractor in town to help, now we have TWO attending the church who are SOOO willing to help out. Anyhow back to the bathroom. You know how the story goes...We were ONLY getting the tub replaced HA! Now we are getting a new floor AND vanity! It really needs it. After all taking care of the quarters (house) is part of good stewardship. It has been fun yet tough to make decisions that will be good for future Officers and their family's. I am glad that we can do this. We also have plans for the church! God give us wisdom!!

The basement is so close to being completed and it is super exciting! Don't worry, I will post before and after photos once we have it all done. We are planning to get new furniture and finish decorating first before we share the outcome. Anyhow, that is what we are up too. We are excited to have some dear friends from Lloydminster come and visit us. We have not seen them since we officiated their wedding last October. I am looking forward to a nice long weekend! Have a great weekend!! What are you doing this weekend?

Trading one Wave for the Next

Today marks a certain day of change. My family and I traded one wave for another. We have finally put away our microwave. I have wanted to do this for a couple of years now. Some right now would be thinking I am crazy and some may be asking WHY on earth would you do THAT??? Well for me it is simple. The main reason I put it away is because I hardly ever use it. The second and most important reason is because it just doesn't seem healthy to be cooking with the microwave. I can't really explain it well. The only way to explain it is to say that every time I used the microwave, it just felt unhealthy...I felt unhealthy. Plus I noticed that when recipes offered the convenience of using the microwave, I generally took the other route (stove or kettle). The only thing I think I may miss is quickly heating my butter up for my popcorn. BUT Like I mentioned we traded one wave in for another today so I am sure my new wave will do the trick with the right dish. For quite a while now we have been looking into getting an infra wave oven. The infrared technology uses light to cook rather than microwave radiation so it cooks the food much like a conventional oven does without the "microwave taste". With this system the cooking times are cut in half but the taste of the food is not. So far I am impressed. We have only had it so far for one meal but it really did cook fast and even!! I cooked chicken in it and it took MUCH less time and it was done just the way I like it. Yummy!!! Another HUGE bonus and part of the reason we made the decision to buy today was that this counter top model was $75 off the original price. So we paid $65 which is a great price! So this begins our journey with no microwave. I know it has only been one day but so far so good. If it can cook chicken the way we like it and in half the time...I am game! I feel better. Especially because my family's food is not being cooked with microwave radiation. That just sounds bad, cooking with radiation I mean. Anyhow, so begins another kitchen adventure! I will let you know a little later how I make out with this new wave of cooking. Take care my friends!!

New Look

Well...After much time and finally asking my husband to help me put this together... Here is my new blog look for now anyways. I really like it! I really like the whole "Life is Beautiful" thing...I actually have 2 shirts that say that!

Thank you for your input and I hope you like the new look as well. I do have some stuff to share with you but it is late and I will leave that for another day. Until then take care! :)