What is That?

Look at this picture. What is that? Saturday night as I was ripping off wallpaper, I noticed this spigot thing. Frankly it was hard to miss with your face down there ripping stuff off the walls. I sit there for a minute looking at it. Was it a bidet? Was there like an elderly couple that need help washing? What is that? I go look in the master bathroom, its got one too!

Fast forward to tonight. Court and I are in the bathroom taping up edges to paint tomorrow. I get a picture to text to my sister of the toilet. I ask Court how the picture is. She doesn't like it. Here, let me hold it and you take a picture. So she holds up the spigot and smiles for the picture. I hold up my camera, and she squeezes the trigger. A jet spray of toilet water hits me smack in the face. I freeze. I'm completely grossed out. There's water dripping off of me. My hair, my face, my glasses, the wall. Courtney is looking at me, wondering what my reaction is going to be. She told me she thought the water was turned off cuz of some water problems in the kitchen. I explained to her as I'm wiping off my glasses that the water line to the fridge was turned off, not all the water. After the initial gross-out factor of being sprayed with something connected to a toilet, the only thing I could do was laugh. And laugh we did! It was hilarious.

Seriously though, what is that?!

Addendum: No one seems to know what this is... And that is awesome in its own right. Not sure its awesome enough to keep in the house, but it sure makes for a fun story. As does my inability to spell the word "spigot".

Wait, I'm Married?!

I don't want Jesus to be my husband. Now before you get upset and pray for my salvation, give me a minute to express my opinion...

Growing up in church I have heard a lot of analogies about the church. The church as a body, the church as a flock of sheep, the church as a bride and Jesus as the bridegroom. I have no problem with analogies, they helped me learn how important I was to Him and how He wants to care for me. I understand the mentality of Jesus being a husband. He wants to care for my every need, loves every curl on my head, and wants to provide for me. As a girl in church you are taught that you are delicate and your husband will want to treat you as such. But until you are married, Jesus is the Man in your life. (Yeah, not getting married has never been an option in the churches I grew up in... That's a different blog for a different day.)

I don't think Jesus wants to marry me. And that's more than fine. I wouldn't want to limit or water down His love for me by tacking on the tag of 'my earthly husband'. Let's take a walk into my psyche. I'm not a counting down till my wedding day kind of girl. I don't watch lots of sweeping romances where the girl is lovely and the guy is a knight in shining armor. I don't think romantic love is like that. I think relationships take elbow grease, communication, a heaping pile of grace, and a foundation in Him. And that's just my idea of dating. When it comes to my husband, I think he will be a gift from God. And the earthly example of His pure and true love for me. That doesn't mean I think he will be perfect, or not get frustrated with me, or ever make a mistake. I can nag, whine, and weep with the best of them. And I think he will still love me. Because when he looks at me, I would hope he would see a little of what Jesus sees in me. That's what I want my husband to be. Someone who loves me for me with all the quirks, randomness, and blushes that come along the way as I become the woman He's calling me to be.

So, if I don't want Jesus to be my husband, what do I want Him to be? I want Him to be my Lord. My God. My King. I want Him to have my heart. Yes, my husband will be the only man on this earth who has my heart. God will still have complete ownership. And somehow I think the both of them will be ok with that.

Blue Dog House: Fixin's...

I'm so sore. And my blisters have blisters on my hands. That's one of the things I remember most about my mom's hands growing up. They were just so soft! I try to take care of mine. I want to have a soft touch for my kids. And that means prep work. Lotion, grooming nails, etc. Speaking of prep work, my hands have taken a beating working on our new house for the past two days.

Ugh, they're ugly. I'm still bruised from an iv a while back, my palms are red from sanding drywall, blisters from gripping the lawnmower bar mowing the front and back yards, and nails chipped from peeling wallpaper. However, the wallpaper is off, the lawns are groomed and the holes we made peeling wallpaper are patched up and looking good.

One of the things that kept running through my head as Court, Carla and I worked on the house, was the reminder of God's blessings. How different they look sometimes. The house needs some fixing up. Especially the puddles in our dining room from the leaking water line connected to the fridge. But there's a still a blessing in that. None of us have moved our stuff in, and we'd moved the fridge to pull off more wallpaper. The repairs will not be our responsibility financially. And that is so big for us.

I think sometimes in my life, God's blessings take a little work. He wants to give you, me, all of us, exactly what we need in remarkable ways and proportions. In my life, the things I appreciate the most, are the things I can put a little work into. I love that God gives me blessings right out of the sky that I never see coming, but I also love when He gives me a blessing I can be a part of in the making. I love that He wants me to be involved in blessing others, including myself.

That being said, I am so tired, its unbelievable how exhausted I am. But I'm about to go to church, and the thought of it just makes me grin. There's rest there. And people I love there. And not one piece of wallpaper that needs to be peeled, or one blade of grass that I need to mow...

So Far Away...

My sister has surgery this week. I can't be with her. That drives me crazy. I remember when we were little how we couldn't wait to grow up and do adult things together. Now that we are "grown up" we're hundreds of miles away from each other. I don't see her face for months. MONTHS! Sigh. I ache that I can't hold her hand through this. Yet I know she's cared for. Her husband is there. More importantly, I trust God with her. I know He's got her in His hand. He has big plans for that young lady.

How the Blue Dog House was found...

So I've been bragging about how unbelievable God has been with the whole house thing. I'm a firm believer in telling of how amazing He has been in peoples' lives so this is practicing what I preach...

Here's what happened. Carla, Court, and I were talking about how we needed to find some place to live. We just started driving around. Carla really liked her old neighborhood, so we went and drove around there. Courtney was spotter, Carla was the 'write down the number' girl, and I drove. We saw the house where our worship leader lives with his wife...

We saw a ton of for sale signs in the area, but none for rent. We keep driving around, up and down blocks. Then out of nowhere, Courtney's eagle eye sees two on one street. We go down it and there's a cute little blue house for lease. We squeal like the girls we are at how precious it looks and that its for lease, not purchase.

We pull into the driveway. Of course we get out and snoop around the place. The back gate is open but all the blinds were closed so we couldn't see anything. Carla is scoping out the back yard for the dog she wants, Courtney's already thinking paint colors and I'm wondering what my morning and evening commute are going to be like to work.

Not having one iota of a view of the interior of the house, we knew we had a long way to go before this could even be a possibility for our home. It'd have to have 3 bedrooms/2 bathrooms, be affordable for all three of us, and be in a good neighborhood where three sets of parents won't have to worry about their girls in a home by themselves. As we are parked in the driveway talking about it, we decide we are going to definitely call the leasing office.

As we are leaving the driveway I say, hey! let's pray over the house. Court says, huh? I explain my weird random comment. Well, if this is the house for us, I want God to be involved throughout the whole process. Including us just looking at it. They agree. Court says, you wanna lay hands on it? Nah, we'll just pray in my car for it. So that's what we did. Asked God to be in control of this and if He wanted to spoil three of His girls with a pretty blue house, please feel free...

We talk to an agent and saturday was open for us to view it. We go see it. Ask the leasing agent to give us a few minutes, and then discuss. We love it. Yeah it needs paint. But its perfect for us. I mean really. Carla had a washer and dryer we were going to have to find a place for, however, we walked in and the laundry room is empty. Fridge, dishwasher, stove, microwave, everything BUT a washer and dryer are included with the house. Any maintenance questions I asked were always responded with a, just call the rental agency and we'll send a maintenance guy out. They are on call 24/7.

We'll do the paperwork this week. And maybe even get to go in and paint before we move. Which is wonderful. I still want God involved in all of this. That includes paint swatches and calling in favors to help three girls move and paint their new home...