I Had Forgotten About These Muscles

Yesterday morning I was in the Twin Cities. I left in time so that I would be back in Fergus with plenty of extra time before my work shift started. I turned into my driveway at exactly 1:00pm so I was pretty excited about my hour and a half until I left for work.

Then I saw my driveway.

Now, the space between the alley and the garage is only about 20 feet long but I've learned from experience that it's not always a good idea to just "plow though" all types of snow (for those of you outside the Midwest, yes there are different types of snow!). Because of this discovery, I parked my car by my neighbor's garage. Next I had to stomp though snow that was three feet deep. Well, probably only about 10 inches, but it seemed like a lot more! I finally made it to the garage where I had one of my shovels. Luckily, it was the shovel used for the heaviest kind of snow like was on the ground. Now my task was to shovel a path big enough for my car to get into the garage. About 10 minutes into this I realized the snow was REALLY heavy and I was getting pretty hot with my coat on, since it was a balmy 40 degrees. The coat came off.

I finally got my car into the garage, and then shoveled my way into my house, and walked through the door at 1:50pm. Where had the time gone? I realized I needed to shovel a quick path for the postman to reach the door from the front sidewalk, so I finished up around 2:10 and basically had enough time to unload my car and change for work. Whewww, I was tired!

Nursing ends up being a pretty physical job, with a lot of lifting, pulling, tugging, bending, etc. and by the end of my shift I realized there were a lot of muscles that I had forgotten about!

There are definitely things that I'll miss about being a homeowner, but shoveling is NOT one of them!


This picture is from my back door looking back at my garage. Today I finished cleaning up the rest of the snow that I ran out of time for yesterday.

Basketball Belly

Here's a picture from today. Our whole family spent the day together, in between dropping off my car to get my transmission fluid changed, and shoveling some of the many inches of snow the Twin Cities is getting. I think my Dad has tried to attack the snow three or four times today, to stay on top of it, and it still hardly looks like it's been shoveled!

Anyway, it was GREAT to see Julie again, and she sure has grown since I last saw her in December! The amazing thing is that she really does just have the basketball belly, and from behind doesn't look pregnant at all! Her belly is a little lopsided, with the baby favoring one side or the other. Since it's pretty active, it keeps changing sides! She had two more contractions tonight, but we're still all trying to tell ourselves that it won't be happening this weekend so we won't be disappointed if it's a few more days! Her due date is Saturday, so we know it could be anytime, but also that most first-time babies aren't early.

Thanks for praying for her as it's getting close, and for a healthy baby and delivery!

I Sold My House!!

Yippee, Yeah, Whoo, hoo! My house is sold! I have friends moving to Fergus who have agreed to buy my house. God is so good! It is SUCH a blessing that I won't need to pay the expense of a realtor, and that I won't have to put my house on the market. I knew I wouldn't want to have it ready to be shown at a moment's notice. This is such a relief! There is still paperwork to sign, and closing won't be until mid-July, but the worry over whether or not it would sell soon is all gone!

One of the biggest blessings of all this still goes back to God's goodness. Just when I start worrying that I'm making the wrong decision to move, God makes it abundantly clear that it's all in His hands. He has definitely had His hand in each and every aspect of this decision!

Julie

Here's the latest picture my mom took of Julie. I can't believe I haven't seen her since December! I'll be heading there this weekend, unless I get called there sooner! She's had a couple real contractions (tons of fake ones!) and is progressing as expected. Since the baby "dropped" a few days ago she's been feeling a lot better. She's able to breathe a little easier and has gotten all the extra energy people talk about right before the baby comes!

Please pray with me for a healthy baby, easy delivery, and that I can make it there in time! In a perfect world, she'll go into labor when I'm already around!

Happy Valentine's Day

Before:


After:



Pictures that you take of yourself aren't the most flattering, but you get the idea. The ten inches that were cut off are on their way to Locks of Love. Happy Valentine's Day!

Church Basement Ladies

Tonight I was lucky enough to attend one of the funniest shows I've seen, "The Church Basement Ladies". The show was hilarious!!! It's a musical about four women in the basement kitchen at their church, and the pastor that keeps coming into their terrain to visit. The show reminded me a lot of women at the church where I grew up, and also made me think of some of the conversations we have on Tuesday mornings at quilting. If you ever get the chance to see it, DON'T MISS THIS ONE!!

They hit on all the important subjects like lefse and lutefisk -which by the way, they said is the Norwegian version of the 5 loaves and 2 fish story in the Bible. Now I've never tried lutefisk, but I can definitely proclaim my love of lefse. They also reminded us that everything tastes better with butter. They talked about the fact that standard funeral food includes hot dishes, not casseroles, and don't forget the bars! They appropriately ended every important conversation with "this is most certainly true"!

Has anyone else seen this show? I've love to hear your comments on it!

Traveling Nurse update

Here's the latest update with my new life-changes. I have done LOTS of research with multiple companies, and have decided to go with Medical Express for my traveling nurse company. It's nice to have that decision made! I feel like I have a good connection with my recruiter, and it turns out that's pretty important. She'll be the one working hard to find me just the right job, and she'll be very helpful with all the other arrangements: housing, licensure, moving, etc. Medical Express provides free, private housing on each assignment, and will pay a housing stipend if I stay with family or friends. There are also lots of other good benefits they provide, so I feel pretty confident about my decision. You can check out their website at www.medicalexpress.com for more info.


The other update is that there's a couple that is considering buying my house. They are spending some time now praying about the decision, and I appreciate that they want to follow the Lord's leading with all this. I'm trusting that just the right thing will work out. If they don't decide to buy it, then I'll be contacting a realtor within the next few weeks.

At this time, I'm planning on staying here through mid-July. This will allow me to attend the Sunwall family reunion the end of June, using my current vacation days. Then, I'll leave Fergus mid to late July and be able to attend the Erickson family reunion the end of July. Then, I'll start with a new job just afterwards. It's amazing to see how the Lord is really working everything out!

View From The Window -During Snowfall

In an earlier post, I showed you a great sunset I saw out the front window. Here's a picture I took this week during a snowfall. It was earlier in the week, before our cold-front hit the area, when the snowflakes were big and fluffy. Very pretty!


This morning, as I got ready to leave the house at 6:35am for my day shift, I glanced at the thermometer. I was so surprised by what I saw (-18 degrees) that I snapped a photo!

Don't worry, though, fourteen hours later it's finally warmed up to a balmy -7! I don't know about you, but I think next winter in California sounds pretty great!