Good news is finally here.

I know that some of my last posts have seemed pretty down and out, so now that I actually have some good news I thought I'd share it with all of you. Yesterday (Wednesday) evening I got a call from my manager saying that he'd heard back from the Border's in Beaverton and they now have a part time job open. I'm not sure what position it is or how many hours, but they do have an opening. He had also finally written to two of the other stores in the area on Tuesday and today he told me that the store in Tigard is also looking for part time work. I told him today that I'd prefer the Beaverton store and he said he'd contact them and get more info on the job. But it looks like I will have a job after all. I've also realized that it being part time might be for the best, at least for the summer. It will give Jennifer and I plenty of time to settle in and explore the city while still helping to pay the bills. I see this as a huge answer to prayer. I've been feeling pretty upset and anxious about the whole move lately, because nothing seemed to be falling into place like I thought it should. But things are starting to work out now, and I'm feeling much better about the whole thing.

There has also been another change in our moving plans. On Monday I talked my mom and she offered to drive a U-Haul for us to help us save on the cost of moving. We are so grateful that she is willing to do this for us. It will be a huge blessing and weight lifted off our shoulders. I know that everyone all along has been saying that we could have driven the truck just as easily as a car, but it's just not something I feel comfortable with. I drove one around town here when we moved into our current place and I couldn't stand it. And that was just here in town. The thought of bringing this huge truck onto the highway and into the mountains was worth the extra money to me. But now the plans our to load up the truck on Saturday the 9th and then head out Monday the 11th after cleaning and checking out of our place. I thought today that I might look into movers to help us unload once we're in Beaverton, but that's still up in the air right now. I'm just not sure how we'll be able to bring everything up to our second floor apartment. I've done some of this before and I still have the scars to go along with it. Let alone my body already feels like its going to give out. But we'll see about that. As I say that I realize that it's only 2weeks from when we'll move into our new place, but all the same, I'm just not sure about it right now. I'll have to look into it a little more before making a decision. Thoughts and comments are welcome and appreciated. I know that I need all the help I can get to sort out the random thoughts that float through my head sometimes.

Meanwhile, back in boxland, the packing is going fairly well. It looks like we might be selling our washer and dryer tomorrow or Saturday and for more than we thought. ***BONUS*** Plus, one of the guys at work is looking for a car and doesn't really car what condition it's in as long as it runs and is cheap. Both of which describe the Neon to a tee. This means that we'll probably get more for it than we were planning. ***ANOTHER BONUS*** Plus Jennifer is getting a little extra something from work that we may not agree with the whole principle behind, but are happy to take it, especially right now. ***TRIPLE BONUS***

Can anyone tell that I'm in a good mood? I know, I know... it's not what you come here for, but I do like to give good and happy news when at all possible.

Well, I think I'll sign off for today. Sleep would be a nice addition to this day.

Well... as those of you who read Jennifer's blog may already know, those computer problems I talked about before were not over with. Neither is the anxiousness about the move. I know that things will work out OK, but for right now, I'm just not too sure. Things seem to be going crazy all around us. We don't have much time left and we'll be on the road. Three weeks and we should be in our new place. It looks like we got the place that we wanted. The only problem is that my financial past and present is catching up with us once again. Isn't it great. We just have to pay a bigger deposit to get in, but we are in. Just another hurdle sent our way. I'm not sure why all of these things are adding up right now. But they are. In a big way. If everything goes to plan though, we'll be getting into Portland 3 weeks from today. I'm sorry about the frantic pace of this blog. I seem to be losing focus and my mind at the same time. I've spent the last few weeks going through my old things and whittling them down some.I've totally forgotten about the stuff upstairs though. So, while my stuff in the basement is done we still have the rest of the house to pack clean and ship in the next 3 weeks. I'm sure things will work out. I know that things aren't as bad as my mind makes them out to be. Once again I'm sorry about the randomness of this post. As you can tell, sleep is not coming easy or often.

~geoff

What's in a title?

Well, things have been interesting lately. Jennifer has graduated. My parents came down for last weekend. I've now gone to working only 4 days a week (there are many reasons for this, I'll talk more about that later). I'm still not feeling good. My computers been acting up. Now somehow it's working again. After all that I tried I have no idea what fixed it, but it works now and that's the important thing.

So, yeah. I'll try and expand on some of those things here too, but who knows what I'll actually write on.

To start off with, I'm sooooooooooooooooooooooooo proud of Jennifer for graduating. Now she has more education than I'll ever have. It's also nice to have her back. It has been hard on both of us to spend so much time away from each other. And I also include time where she was studying as time apart. It's hard to be together when she miles away. But anyway. So, it's nice to see her relax a little, and I do mean a little.

On to the more stressful thing that closing in on us. We are both looking forward to this move. We both can't wait to get out there. We are so ready to just be out there and getting everything settled down. Right now we are about a month away from the move. It looks like we're going to try and have the truck loaded on June 11th. Then we'll either leave that day or the next morning. I'm not sure about the timing on that. There are a few things we need to get taken care of before that time comes. Some of them I'm really looking forward to. Anytime now, I'm planning on trying to have my car towed to a junk yard. I think it has officially died now. AS I was driving it in the other day, it died as I was pulling into our parking area. I coasted most of the way back to my parking spot and ended up having to push it for part of the way too. Oh well. It's been a good car for a long time. Now that I think of it. The guy that gave it to me said that he prayed over it a few years ago and prayed that it would make it until May. Well... need I say more. It made it several Mays since than, and I'm guessing this was it's last one. Oh well.

My parents were down here last weekend and we had a really good time. We went down to Union Station on Sunday afternoon and looked around downtown Kansas City for a while. It was a really good time.


I decided this week at work that I needed to go to working only 4 days a week for now. I haven't been getting enough time to pack and things are keeping me up at night and I'm just not being able to get over this sickness that's inside of me. Last night I couldn't sleep at all, and so when the time to go work came around this morning, I was in no shape to go in. So I called in and talked to the manager and then went to sleep. I slept for more time than I would have been at work. It was really nice. I'll be working Wed. through Sat. for now. I would actually love to keep that up after we move, but I'm not sure if that will happen. Actually, the way it stands right now, I'm not sure that I'll be working at all. I know that doesn't sound good. But we finally heard back from the Borders in Beaverton and they don't have any spots open. They said that could always change, but for now they can't do anything for me. So, now I have to try and get in contact with the managers at the other area stores.

As far as my computer goes. For a while now it hasn't been working right. It would just stop working sometimes and would just in general act up. So, I've been trying and trying to figure out what's wrong with it. It finally got to the point where I couldn't be on for much more that a minute or two before it wouldn't work anymore. A couple days ago I figured out that we could at least get our mail and do some small this while it ran in safe mode, but not everything worked and it was kinda annoying. The sound doesn't work in safe mode and there is an internet show that I watch every week. Well, yesterday I decided to watch it in the regular mode and see what happened. Well, sometime in the course of that 45 minute show, the computer worked out whatever kinks it had and is now working just fine. It's a little strange to have it working again now. Plus, to know that it was nothing I did after all of the things that I did. Oh well. Like I said earlier, it's working now and that's what matters.

Well, now that I've written way too much, I'll end this now. I should really try writing more so that I don't write forever when I do write.

Da Bulls!!!

I haven't been watching much pro basketball in the last few years and when I do I'm let down by what I see. My teams gets killed and there is no one to watch at all. So, I've been excited to see that my Bulls have made it to the playoffs this year and have tried to watch every game. I've watched some of games 2, 3, and 4. It's been amazing to see them play and play well. They have dominated the defending champions (Miami Heat). It makes it even better for me that Jennifer is a big Shaq fan and I'm not anymore. So, it's great to see the Bulls beat the Heat and to sweep them in 4 games. That was great. Now I can't wait to see them take on the Detroit Pistons next. Go Bulls.

Blah...

I'm sorry about the lack of posts lately. Life has been crazy lately to say the least. I've been in and out of it lately and I've been fighting something for the last few weeks. I've also been having problems with the medication that I'd been on. I'm now starting on something new, but it's been a hard time coming off the other stuff and getting onto the new stuff. Anyway... I could use some prayer as to my getting to work everyday. I've been feeling horrible for the last week or so and have been losing my voice and just generally been out of it. I think they are starting to get upset at work that I haven't been making it in all the time, and that's not a good thing.

I think I'm starting to stress out about the move too. It's seems so much closer than I thought it was and everything seems to be going so fast. I'm just nervous that we won't get everything done that needs to get done before we move. Things might be able to get a little bit more on track now. Jennifer had her last class on Tuesday. Now she just has to take the Praxis this Saturday and she'll be done. I'm sure she's feeling a little better now that that is almost over. Then she gets hooded the next Saturday, May 5th. The only bad thing is that I'm not sure how I'm going to make it to the ceremony. I'm hoping that they'll either let me take a long lunch or just give me the day off. The problem is that by the time we knew the date, 3 people had already gotten it off and we're only supposed to have 2 people off a day. So, I'm not sure how that happened, but it made it hard for me to ask for it off. So, I'm waiting to see what they will say. Then with them not being too happy with me doesn't make things any better. Oh well...

I still can't wait for this whole move thing to be over and done with. I can't wait to get out there and get settled. But this part of it is so stressful.

Well, I don't have much else to say right now. I hope things are going good for everyone out there.

Maker of the Universe

Here is the song I promised in my last post.

Maker of the Universe
By Phil Keaggy

The Maker of the universe,
As Man for man was made a curse.
The claims of Law which He had made,
Unto the uttermost He paid.
His holy fingers made the bough,
Which grew the thorns that crowned His brow.
The nails that pierced His hands were mined
In secret places He designed.

He made the forest whence there sprung
The tree on which His body hung.
He died upon a cross of wood,
Yet made the hill on which it stood.

The sky that darkened o'er His head,
By Him above the earth was spread.
The sun that hid from Him it's face
By His decree was poised in space.

The spear which spilled His precious blood
Was tempered in the fires of God.
The grave in which His form was laid
Was hewn in rocks His hands had made.

The throne on which He now appears
Was His from everlasting years.
But a new glory crowns His brow
And every knee to Him shall bow.

The Maker of the universe.
The Maker of the universe.
The Maker of the universe.

Easter Season and such

Well, that brings us to Easter. We were very happy to spend our Easter with both sets of parents this year. My dad was able to get off from work and they came down for the weekend. It was a really good time. They got in about 4 on Friday and then we went to the Good Friday service at Christ Church, where we met up with Jennifer's parents. It was a beautiful service and has really had a great impact on me in the week since. As a part of the service we were able to approach the cross and offer outward expressions of veneration in the way that we felt was right. For me, it was great to come before the Cross. I laid some things down at the foot of the Cross that I've been carrying for a long time. I'll just say that they are very personal things and may be fairly uncomfortable to talk about in such a public place as this, but if you would like to talk about them sometime I'm open to questions now. These are the things I asked for prayer about a couple months ago. Let's just say that I've been walking a little lighter and easier since last Friday.

It was also nice to approach the Cross with Jennifer by my side. It really meant a lot to me that she would come forward with me and stand with me in front of God.

One of the other beautiful things that they did during the service was to have our music director sing a song by Phil Keaggy called Maker of the Universe. It is a beautiful song and makes you think about the Cross in a different way. I'll try to post the lyrics up here but I might give them their own post.

Saturday brought another day of work for me while Jennifer and my parents ran around town for a few hours. They met me for lunch and then had a few more hours until I got off. Then we headed out the Mardel Christian And Education Store. It's a great store that we could probably spend a while in and usually do when my parents are in town. We all left with a few goodies. Some of us more than others.

Easter service was a bright and early 8am service at our church with my parents. Once again it was a beautiful service. We enjoyed a wonderful Eater Dinner with Jennifer's family in the area at her cousin's restaurant.

It was great to spend time with my parents. Monday morning I met them for breakfast and then saw them on their way home.

Well, now that I've written two very long posts and still have a third planned for that song. I'll end this here with some pictures of the Easter festivities.

The beautiful redbuds in front of our church

Jennifer and I getting our Easter baskets

Jennifer rubbing her new frog in my face

Me enjoying Buddha's new toy

Buddha enjoying his new toy

Man, look at those lips

The grandparents playing with the grandpup and his new toy

Buddha soaking up the love

My beautiful wife at Easter dinner