8-10 weeks; 3-5 business days; your call is very important to us

Ah, Qwest, how I hate thee, let me count the ways...

1.  Whenever I call I wait far longer than an "important caller" should wait.

2.  The bills you send me have been wrong EVERY time.

3.  I had to call 3 times to receive the rebate check that was promised us in our bill because you sent it to the wrong address.

4.  I have been calling since September about our $50 visa rebate card that we have still not received.

5.  We had to change the name on the account because you made us and then we were charged the full amount of our bill because we didn't call in and ask you to continue to give us the discount that first time subscribers are supposed to get for a year.  (sorry, figured you would know that on your own)

6.  Now that we have changed the name on our account everything is completely messed up because you never closed my name.  Now when I call, the service representative wants to know why there are two different names on the same account and do I know a Justin Goodwin? 

Trust me darling Qwest if there was another internet server in Marshalltown I would have ended our relationship with you long ago.  Please try harder, I really want this to work.  Your representatives are so professional and kind, if only they followed through...

My little trouble maker.

So lately, Micah has been getting into everything.  I've been trying to take pics now of the funny ones so I can share them with everyone.  Here are a few. 

In these next two photos he had got into my makeup bag and since he had watched me so many times he knew right where the makeup goes.  Unfortunately the carpet got some lipstick too.

This photo he had pushed a chair up to the counter to the left of the stove.  Crawled across the stove, poured all my salt and a few sprinkles of pepper into the pan on the stove.  Unscrewed and sprinkled some of my oregano all over the counter.  And yes he's crying in the picture because he got caught, I never even got a chance to scold him, I was laughing too hard.

This next photo goes with the previous one.  I had foolishly left the dishwasher door open as well and he likes to help me put the silverware away.  Since I wasn't there to open the drawer for him, he simply put them in a pile in front of the drawer.  He did all this in 5 minutes.

One more, this one happened today while I was standing next to him.  I always wondered how long he'd wait before he climbed in here for the first time.

I'll try to post these as they happen from now on...

Sponsoring a child in Albania

I was looking at Bethany Christian Services' website today and came across this article about sponsoring a child in Albania.  Bethany is a Christian adoption and foster care organization.  I just now saw that they also allow you to sponsor a child.  I clicked on Albania just to see what it's about and this is the article.  I encourage you to check out their website to see if you would be willing to sponsor an international child or even look into foster care or adoption.  Here is Bethany's website... http://www.bethany.org/

Albania Sponsorship Facts


Being the hands and feet of Christ to children and to pregnant women at risk of human trafficking
Sponsor a child living in a Transitional Group Home

Bethany began its Albanian Sponsorship program in 1998. Children involved in the program live in Transitional Group Homes (TGHs) built in 1994 and 2000 by Bethany and Bethany supporters. The TGHs are located in Tirana, the capital city of Albania.

Although Bethany built the TGHs, they are owned and run in partnership with the Albanian government. Bethany Albania's home office is located in the TGHs, promoting direct involvement in childcare and program consultation. American volunteers live in the TGHs, applying their professional skills to further enhance child care and provision. Direct childcare is provided by Albanian government staff.



Each child living in the TGHs is waiting for his/her forever family. For some, this comes through domestic or intercountry adoption. Others are reunited with their biological families or are placed with extended family members. Unfortunately, when such options are not possible, some children will "age out" of the TGHs when they are 4 years old and will move to a home for older children.



Bethany is actively involved in a foster care pilot project through a partnership with the Albanian government and UNICEF. Our dream is for the children living in the TGHs and other institutional care locations to be matched with loving foster families. When this occurs, your International Sponsorship support will "move" with the child, helping the foster family meet his/her needs.



Sponsor a woman in Bethany's Shepherding Home Program

In the fall of 2005, we introduced the Shepherding Home Program (SHP) as part of Bethany's Albanian Sponsorship program. The pregnant women and their children involved in this program are primary targets of human trafficking, a danger that is sweeping through Albania at an alarming rate.



The SHP is designed to provide shelter, protection, and counseling to women as they live with local Shepherding Home families through the duration of their pregnancy. Our objective is to help these women avoid trafficking, abandonment, abuse, mistreatment, and abortion, while they work toward a life of hope and independence.



Thank you for considering sponsorship in Albania.

Party at the vineyard

So last night was the vineyard party, which was yummy, a little too much and fun by the way :) I chatted with two women, both are pregnant, one is 11 weeks and the other is 13 weeks. Both of their husbands work in Justin's group at work. One girl's husband has already mentioned to Justin about me taking care of their baby when he/she is born and last night the other lady comes over and says..."So I have this all planned out. Nicole you are going to start an in home day care for everyone in our group!!" Lol luckily they are the only two who are pregnant and the group is pretty small. But I kinda think she was serious. She's planning on working also after her baby is born. Can you see me having Micah plus 2 newborn babies in my house?? I can't say it wouldn't be fun/exhausting but um kinda scary?? Too bad Sarah or Adrian don't live closer we could start one together.

Big Present

I feel like I'm getting a really big present next week.  We close on Wednesday, I'm not sure when we move in yet though.  But how exciting to have a really big house in Marshalltown.  We looked for over two years, our house was on the market for 8 months and now we are down to days.  I'm so glad we found this house.  Everytime I've been there I don't want to leave.  It already feels comforting to me to be there.  I want to post pics of it so much.  Maybe during our walk through on Wed I'll take some so I can start showing it.  I hope Micah likes this big present as much as we do.

Living at Mom and Dad's

Well we're here.  Living at my parent's house...  It sounds so loserish to say it out loud to people.  Whenever I do I quickly remind them that we do own our own home we just have to wait a few weeks.  Their expression changes from "weirdo" to "oh phew."  Suddenly I'm a normal human again they can be seen talking too. 

Micah is doing very well considering.  It took him a few nights but he slept through the night without hugs and diaper changes.  I'm rather concerned he's going to want to stay here when we leave.  He's pretty enamored with his Nana.  He follows her everywhere.  She's very gracious and obviously loves him, it's very cute.

I hope Justin has fun in Mtown.  He's living there all week with one of his buddies.  I called last night and he missed the call because he was playing guitar hero on Wii.  I think he'll be fine :)

As for me I'm very sleepy finding a place to crash for naps is difficult in someone else's house.  I never know when someone is coming home or will need the room for something else.  (Micah naps in my bedroom during the day.)  Other than that I can tell the stress from the past few weeks is melting off, I'm so glad.

I hope to see a number of you this weekend.  Either at my cousin's wedding shower or at the ICubs game.  Sarah I still want to hang out with you while I'm in the area though.  Don't let's forget ok?

Finally some relief

So, $4880 later I have a new wall in my basement that no one goes down to and will not be mine starting Friday.  Ah the joys of moving.  Thankfully it is finally done, we will move out on Thursday and I can finally take a deep breath.  This is what my house looks like these days...

I really hate having a cluttered house like this especially with a VERY mobile 15 month old but we're surviving.  I'm just so glad my basement is finished.  My brother the mortgage lender got me a great rate on my new 30 yr mortgage.  And on July 2 or 3 we will move into our new house.  I just hope I can remember to switch my address twice to all the different businesses and that I can get everything packed by tomorrow evening.  Thanks to all of you who are helping with this whole process.  It is GREATLY appreciated.

Our New House

So I decided to make a list of all the things I'm looking forward to in my new house.  Just so you can get an idea of the vast differences between what I have now vs what I will have starting in July.

1.  NO TRAINS!!!!!  I cannot stress this enough.
2.  3100 sq ft.  We currently have 1200.
3.  3 bedrooms with possibilities in the basement.  We currently have 2.5.
4.  Master bath.  No more stairs in the middle of the night.
5.  Built in 1975, not 1910. 
6.  Crazy nice neighborhood.  No more dogs, orange houses or sirens.
7.  Creek running behind the yard.
8.  Our backyard faces a field, not an alley.
9.  Five minutes to Justin's work, as opposed to 45 min.
10.  Fire place, new carpet, a deck...
11.  Large finished basement with tons of extra rooms.
12.  The owners are leaving tons of furniture, some are antiques.  Granted, they are also leaving towels and bathmats but that's what garage sales are for right?
13.  Flat top stove.  COUNTER SPACE.
14.  Laundry off the kitchen.
15.  Attached, two car garage.  We currently have detached, almost one car garage.  It's too short for either of our cars.
16.  It is valued much higher than we are paying for it.
17.  Hall bathroom is large enough that Justin can sit on the floor and give Micah a bath.  The shower is also completely retiled, never been used.
18.  Master bedroom is humorphous.  Also, walk in closet :)
19.  Whenever I'm there I don't want to leave.
20.  Office/library in the basement.  With large antique desk.

Basically this is the house dreams are made of.  Granted the wood is all super dark, the backyard is not fenced in and the bushes in front of the house are like a mustache that has never been trimmed but I LOVE IT.  I cannot wait to start our new life in the beautiful new house.  Please come visit anytime.  We will be broke for awhile since we are losing so much money on this current house so there isn't going to be enough furniture and the wall paper throughout the house is hideous.  But you won't have to worry about waking Micah, we can cozy up in front of the fireplace.  Play some wii in the basement.  It makes me feel like I can take a deep breath, finally.

Thanks God.

Pictures will follow after we move in.

Baby Micah

I'm so completely infatuated with my little baby.  I'm so glad that God picked us to be his parents I feel so blessed by him.  He is so beautiful and sweet and funny.  Some days I just can't stop kissing his little squishy cheeks :)
Today while he was struggling with something new I was reminded how he used to hate holding his little head up, and then how he had a really hard time rolling over.  This morning he held a bottle in one hand a lid in the other and my heart just swells with pride as he placed it on top.  Amazing how fast he learns and grows.  How the things that seemed so hard before are completely natural to him now.  How the tricky things for him now seem so much more complicated the physical difficulties of being a baby.  I still want to help him or do things for him but I don't and it's so glorious when he does them himself.  I'm glad I get to experience this over and over. 

Starving!

My sister has been giving me a hard time lately because she thinks I'm getting skinnier each time she sees me.  I think it's mainly that she has a growing belly (being pregnant and all).  Also I think a large part of it is that I never get to eat as much as I would like.  I'm so hungry lately and Micah seems to be taking more and more of my food.  I know what you're thinking, that I should feed him first and then I can eat.  Well if you've ever met Justin and I, you know that in our younger days we never really were full.  We could eat 6 times a day and still have a snack before bed.  Well now we've created a mini version of ourselves.  Double the metabolism speed I swear.  Anyway all I want these days is to sit down at a nice restaurant, look slowly over the menu while I sip something sweet and fruity, maybe nibble on some appetizers or bread and then eat an entire bowl of pasta and find some corner of my belly for dessert.  I miss that...

After months of waiting and cleaning...

What a crazy day, I thought I would be bored today with no plans, no shopping, no nothing.  I had resigned myself to doing laundry but I never got a chance.  Something else happened.  We sold our house!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  FINALLY!  Man who knew it would take so long.  A big thank you to my parents and to our friends Eric and Megan for hording our things for us since we were too cheap to get a storage unit.  Just one more month and it will be gone.  God is amazing.  Everyone told us that He was biding His time waiting for the perfect opportunity.  Did He ever.  A week and a half ago we found the house of our dreams!  Then this week we sold our house!  Only God could put that together.  Just keep praying that the house we want takes our offer.  Justin just filled out the paperwork today.

I can't wait for everyone to see this house, it's incredible.  I have so many ideas constantly running through my head of what I want to do with it!  I have a feeling I'll have to wait and do one big thing a year instead of doing it all at once like we did with this house but that's ok.  We can stay in this house for years!  Anyway just wanted to share my joy with everyone.

Numbers 19, The water of cleansing

I randomly came across this chapter in Numbers today and decided to actually look a little further into it.  I'd love any other comments.  In order to make sense of my post though you'll have to read the chapter.  http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers+19&version=NIV

After reading it I wanted to know if God used the ashes to actually cleanse the Israelites.  I still can't quite put it together in my head but this is what I came up with.  In Chapter 17:13 the people complain that they can't go near the tabernacle, this is God's way of making them clean enough to come as close as they need too.  It doesn't actually cleanse them, it's seems to be more of a ceremony.  This is what I'd love more knowledge about.  My commentary doesn't explain this in language I understand.

This passage also has a deeper meaning which I found in Hebrews.  One example is chapter 9:13-14, "...the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean.  How much more, then, will the blood of Christ...cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death..."  I wonder if God put this in the Bible just so that His people could use it as an example later on.  Probably, God does everything on purpose. 

If they weren't cleansed this way after touching or being near a dead body then they were cut off.  If we had not been cleansed by Christ's blood than we would be cut off...

Let's try this again

As some of you may remember I used to have a blog but then I ran out of time. I put sleeping, nursing, and eating before my blogging. I'm back I now only eat and sleeping doesn't seem to be as urgent as it did a year ago. So here I am. I am the wife of Justin and the mom of baby Micah. We are super close to selling our first home and buying our second. This blog won't be just about Micah, as adorable and funny as it would probably be I'm just not that kind of person. I'm pretty self involved so I will probably mostly write about what I think is going on in my little world. Feel free to comment, critique, laugh, but no mocking please. I'm pretty sensitive...