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So things have been a little crazy lately. I tried to find a funny picture that describes how I'm feeling lately, and this was it. Poor little guy. He looks so confused.
Yesterday I had my 5th job interview. This time it was for the Coastal Community Credit Union. It was a nice jump from the last one, a dishwasher at a local bakery (yep, that's what that guy reccommended me for - thanks pal). I went downtown, walked into this spiffy office, met their human resources lady (lovely woman) and had an hour and a half interview. Yipes. I'd start as a teller (ahem, Member Service Representative) and could move up from there. The pay is great and you get full and extended benefits after only 90 days. This would be brilliant, and I'm supposed to hear back from them today or tomorrow.
However, the twist is that I've just been offered a job at Home Outfitters. I'd like the work itself, and the people there were fantastic, but the pay is minimum wage, and the hours are not exactly what I'd love. I'd do it, and be happy with it, if it was necessary, but I'd way rather have the bank job. I guess we'll see. The lovely woman from yesterday told me that I had a pretty good shot if my references checked out. They will. I'll keep you posted on how this all goes. Thanks to everyone who's been praying, I really appreciate it. The best news of today is that I have a job. Maybe not the one I'd love, but I have the security of knowing that Peter and I will be able to pay rent next month. Awesome.
I've only known Willie Barr for a short, short two years. I can count the number of times I've really gotten to talk to her, hear her stories and learn about the incredible life that she lived. But yesterday, when I learned she had gone to meet her Savior, I felt a strange sense of loss over someone who I had essentially, not known very well.
I remember some of the last words she spoke to me about her husband: "It's been 20 years, and I still miss him so much. I never thought I would be here this long, that I'd live to see 20 years without him. It must mean that the Lord still has something for me to do, and I know my Bill is up there cheering me on...I've always felt like I could do more than I believed I could because I knew he was up there watching me, and believing in me." I told her then how terrified I was of losing Peter, and living how she had these last two decades. That I didn't understand how she could be so brave. I said the only thing I really wanted from this life was to honor God and to grow very old with Peter. She sat quietly for a moment, thinking, and then said to me "I think you will. I bet that you will grow old together." And then she smiled at me with a knowing little look in her pretty eyes.
Yesterday there was a reunion in Heaven that she waited 20 long years for. I wish I could have seen it. When we learned in the morning that she was gone, that was the first thing I thought, "they're together again" and the joy I felt for her outweighed my sadness for me and the rest of her family. I know that she was more excited about seeing her Savior, than she was even about seeing her husband. Now she has both and I couldn't be happier for her, or more sad for us.
I know so little of her. In September when we were all in Minnesota, moving her out to Wyoming, we found an old photo album of her. Pictures of her as a little girl, a teen, a young woman. She came from a pretty wealthy family, I'm told, and her family was shocked when she decided to run away to India with a poor missionary boy. Then she further surprised everyone by having five children (I'm not sure if all were born in India or not, but Peter's mom was). She would be in the Punjab with five kids, while Bill would go on trips to the tribes that lived up away in the mountains. This woman was brave. She's seen Europe and Asia, pretty extensively and told me a funny story about getting lost in Italy, with no money when Bill was in the hospital there. She didn't even have enough to pay the doctors and get him out of the hospital so they could leave...and she laughed as she told me. It was an adventure, and they made it okay. After Bill died, she used to go visit her children in Indonesia, and make the trip all by herself, and stay for weeks at a time. She went to YWAM at about the age of 70, and learned to scuba dive. We teased her these last few months, because when we found her photo album, I learned something that shocked me about her. She was hot. Smoking hot. You couldn't even call her pretty, it would have been a sad understatement. She was stunning, beautiful, sexy even. She was a beautiful older woman, but as a girl in her 20's, she could have won contests, money, and no doubt, the heart of any man she'd have wanted. She laughed when I showed her the pictures and told her that I wish I could look like her, or at the very least have those gorgeous legs. I wonder what she looks like today, in Heaven. I wish I could see her up there.
I want to be like Grandma. Even though I've known her such a short time, I'm so sad that she's gone. I wanted my kids to meet her, to know her. To hear the way she told stories and laughed. We have a small book of her adventures in India with her family, and I'll treasure it always, and read it to my kids one day. Most of all though, I want to die the way she did. In a way that nobody who really knew her could mourn for her. We mourn for us. For the hole she'll leave in the lives of everyone who knew her. But every person I've spoken to, has said one thing in common about her. "Oh, how she lived." I hope I grow to be half the woman, the warrior, the light that she was to the world around her. I should be so lucky.
As we all know, some things in life just make me happy. A clean house, fresh sheets, an evening with Peter in front of the fireplace with some good coffee in pretty mugs...
So here's the thing. I adore food (as evidenced by these darned 20lbs I'm trying to lose). It's not even just the eating aspect of it. I love it all. I love dishes, I love kitchen gadgets, I love appliances. I love to cook. I love trying something new, just to see if I can make it, and how good it tastes. I'm a pretty good cook, I rarely burn things, and most of my recipes come out pretty well, if I do say so myself. I love good wine and pairing it with good food. I love eating out. I love having others cook for me, just to see how they make things. I love cooking shows on TV and watch the Food Network all the time.
This, for example, is Mario Batali's new cookware line, which I love. It's all porcelain plated cast iron, and I'm dying to try it out. It's rather pricey, however, so I'm not sure when that chance will ever arise...Just to be silly, I went to this site, and re-did my kitchen. Dishes, cookware, all the things I love to look at and would love to try or have one day. In about a half hour, I spent a total of $17,350.28 pretend dollars. Don't gasp in shock, you go try it. My wine glasses alone set me back a total of about $4,000...I didn't even know you could spend that on wine glasses, maybe they come with wine?
Anyway, as most of you know, I've been handing out resumes like crazy, trying desperately to get a decent job. Yesterday I had two interviews...the first went badly simply because it apparently takes them three weeks to decide if this overqualified applicant (aka: me) should start working at their grocery store, and they made me get up insanely early to tell me that at my first interview...morons...
The second interview of the day went really well. It's at a -get this- specialty cooking store. It's so pretty, in Qualicum Beach, and I could just browse in there for hours... It would just be the two people that run it, and me if I get hired, and they're pretty much wanting someone to give them some time off. It's only about 20hrs a week to start, but they expect to give me more if I'd like it (umm, yes please!) and they are just such nice people. He instantly reminded me of Mario Batali himself, and I tried not to call him Iron Chef in the interview...
They asked if I'd be fine working alone, doing some light cleaning (do these people know me?) and if I was creative enough to use their products in making table displays and things like that...The hours are great...I want this so badly. The interview went well, they said how impressed they were with my resume and cover letter (apparently nobody does those anymore), and that they were doing five interviews. I was number two. They're supposed to call anytime now and I'm nervous. So I sat here to try and distract myself, and I did this, which has got me thinking about it more and more, and drank a huge cup of coffee, which means I'm nervous and caffeinated.
These are the glasses, by the way. They don't look like $4,000 to me, though they are really pretty...and would match that black and white dish set really well. I may start pretend shopping at a lot of places, it's like window shopping, only in your housecoat. If I get the job, I'll put it in the comments section of this post. If I don't say anything, it's because I'm too depressed that they gave it to someone else...Even the thought of it makes me want to cry a little. If you read this within the hour after I post it, please pray...
We haven't had a good long post this year yet, so voila:
I love housework. Love it. I like doing it alone, I'm not really a big fan of having help around the house, probably because I don't have kids. Peter cleans the bathroom occasionally, and very often cleans up dinner if I cook, but as far as a good day of cleaning up, I like it on my own. I'm too bossy, I'm constantly showing Peter how to fold a sheet or telling him that the cheese grater goes in the corner cupboard, not the drawer. Or I tell him to just watch TV, which I'd rather him do, and then he feels guilty for not helping. Much of this is made up to me in nice long backrubs, which I'd rather have any day.
Today though, I especially love housework. This week (to make a long, complicated story short) I found out that a job I had been thinking I would be able to do for the last two months, is pretty much out of the question. I will soon be going to hand out my resume and hoping for a secretarial position somewhere, or maybe a bank teller job. Either way, due to this recent development, Peter and I were figuring we'd have to move from our beautiful little suite. We're driving to Parksville all the time, and our expenses are pretty high right now. We even found a little basement suite in Qualicum Beach that wasn't too bad, and would save us about $200-$300 per month. By "not too bad" I should clarify: everything but the bathroom and the kitchen were not too bad. Those made me want to cry. Especially the bathroom. Anyway, we pretty much told the lady we'd take it, pending a talk with our landlords.
I can't really describe the disappointment here. We love the people upstairs not to mention where we're living now. We got a Christmas gift from them, they give us stuff all the time (like beautiful lawn furniture), take our garbage out if we forget, and are simply wonderful people. Peter and I went upstairs to help her out with her computer, and with great sadness eventually told her the situation. "We simply can't afford to stay here." We'd have barely been making it, and it just didn't seem like we could do that just because we loved the place. She asked us what we'd be saving by moving to Parksville, we told her and that was pretty much it. She promised to talk to her husband and get back to us.
Five minutes later she was downstairs and offered us rent for $200 cheaper a month, for a three month period. We'll talk to her in April again about whether or not we can afford to go back to the regular rent. They really like us and don't want the trouble of possibly getting terrible tenants in here. She left and two seconds later I was just in tears. As far as I know, these are non-Christian people, with no reason whatsoever to do this for us. We're not the only quiet couple in Nanaimo looking for a place to live, they'd have found someone, I'm sure. This is money straight out of their own pockets. They've essentially just given us $600 and the time to get on our feet again.
The thing was, we weren't being ripped off before. We have a brand new suite, full cable (especially upgraded for us for no cost), we have high-speed Internet and bc hydro (power and water). We have a natural gas hook up so that in the summer, we can barbecue without using propane. We have a beautiful view, and we are literally a 15 minute walk from the mall, the grocery store, Tim Hortons, and a bunch of other great places. It was a great deal to begin with. We're now paying less than the rent would have been at the "Place With the Depressing Bathroom" which would have also had more bills to pay. I loved cleaning my bathroom today. I love my washer and dryer more than ever. I love my pretty floors and cupboards, and cleaning out my fridge.
A little while back, a couple of months ago, I talked to someone about something that was really important to me. (Stop fussing, it's none of you). I was pretty vulnerable, and really needed some reassurance and a little encouragement. Just someone to listen. I got the opposite and I was really surprised and more than a little hurt. This was someone who I thought would absolutely come through for me. It would have cost them nothing at all to do so and they didn't. They were a bit too wrapped up in their own lives and their own issues to worry about mine. I was rather blown away. I've been feeling like that a lot lately, and occasionally feeling it about God. "Help us out here, we only want a little more money to get Peter a visa, pay off some debt, and go into ministry! Where are you? Don't you care?" I know it's wrong but things have been difficult lately, and up and down, and scary for me. And then this happens. Sacrificial kindness from virtual strangers. You know God is up there shaking his head a little at me...
I think this is one of the most beautiful parts about being alive, maybe second only to falling in love. Having someone come through for you in a way that you wouldn't have even thought to expect. In a way that costs them and helps you, and in a way that you know you don't deserve. We could have lived in the Ugly Bathroom House, lots of people live in much, much worse. But we're here. I get to clean my pretty little suite, and know that I'm being taken care of by a God that really doesn't care what means he needs to use to show me his love for me. Lucky, lucky me. I'm an idiot if I ever think otherwise. Gotta run, my laundry just beeped.
Hey everyone. I know it's lame that I haven't blogged in so long. Becky is putting me to shame. I was waiting for some pictures, but now that I think of it, Peter and I didn't take any at our Christmas - only really at the family Christmas, and most of those are of Luke.
Our Christmas in a nutshell (or maybe just because I love using point form, it looks so organized).
~Christmas Eve - Peter and Melanie go to the grocery store and pick up some yummy goodies and make a nice dinner of little snacks. They open their Christmas Eve gift to each other (p.j's) and get into them and sit on the couch and watch "It's a Wonderful Life". Melanie has never before seen this, and she cries her eyes out, through most of it.
~Christmas Day - Peter and Melanie sleep in and have to rush a little in opening their gifts to each other, in order to be at the family Christmas on time. Peter gets a snowboard from his amazing wife. He's as happy with it as she thought he would be. Melanie gets some pretty earrings, a dress she'd been wanting, a spa gift certificate (her mom got one too so they can go together), a bunch of bath stuff from Lush and some games for her Nintendo DS that her mom and dad got her. They also bought her some tall black boots, hooker boots, if you will. She doesn't care what they're called, they're pretty. They spend the day at her parents place, playing Settlers of Catan and eating.
~New Years Eve - Peter and Melanie go to the ferry to pick up Melanie's old friend Raeleen and her husband Mark. They spend the evening at Melanie and Peter's house eating snacks and watching a movie and playing games. They have a wonderful time together and the boys get along great while the girls catch up on the last five years. (Yes, it had really been that long)
~New Years Day - All go to Moxie's for lunch. There is much talk of slaughtering buffalo, and a heated debate on whether women should deliver babies naturally, or go for the drugs straight away. (Seriously?!) Melanie and Peter drop their friends off at the ferry with promises to visit a lot more soon.
So folks, that's about it. There was a very funny date night between Christmas and New Years that Peter and I had, which I will post more about later. Hope you're all having a wonderful new year.
So things have been a little crazy lately. I tried to find a funny picture that describes how I'm feeling lately, and this was it. Poor little guy. He looks so confused.
