Let’s see.  My parents came to visit in May and I had a blast spending time with them.  We bought lots of plants and flowers to plant around our new pond and front of the house.  Everything looked so beautiful.  I love doing that sort of thing.  It makes me happy to know that I got that from my Dad.  He has always loved working with plants.  He really loves tending to his african violets in the house the most though (wink wink Mom hehe).  We worked a lot outdoors but we also had time to enjoy Amish country and just being together.

Dave and Jessica Mast came for a visit.  It’s always a good time when those two stop in.  We wish they lived in town so we could hang out more.  Jessica and I went shopping and found an awesome deal on an ottoman (I’ve been searching for one forever). Dave spent time with the GCC IT folks.  Then we bought a ton of nerf gun supplies (thanks to Laura Gekeler’s inspiration) and had a blast modifying the guns and shooting each other.

Justin’s parents also came up for a visit recently and Justin put them right to work.  He and his dad worked long hours on rewiring our garage electric adding a new breaker box and discovering that there was little to no insulation in the walls (more fun projects).  Justin’s mom headed up a yard sale to get rid of some old college mismatch furniture.  She made a killing and we were able to go celebrate at Texas Roadhouse with the funds.  I enjoyed getting to spend time one on one with Lorraine just talking.

Hopefully my sister Kelly and Justin’s sister Stacey will make the trek up here this month or next for a visit.  It’s so nice to get to see family.

Justin and I are heading to Grand Haven, MI this month for a long weekend getaway (our first on our own since our honeymoon almost 6 years ago).  We are bringing Java and are staying at a really cool apartment down town.  I am really looking forward to it after a long summer of book prep for the Fall semester at Bethel. We also plan to head to Florida to watch the second to last shuttle launch ever in November.  Justin was lucky enough to be selected to go to the NASA tweet-up and have up close access to the launch, tours, interviews, etc.   Unfortunately I was not selected to join him but I’m super stoked he will have this once in a lifetime opportunity.  I will watch from the hotel or somewhere a few miles away.

Life at the Bethel Bookstore has been busy but fulfilling.  We launched online textbook ordering for the first time this semester and it has proven to be very successful.  It definitely cut down on lines and made things much easier for students.  We have heard a lot of positive feedback from this feature.  We now have a new touch screen register system and love it.  That also made rush much smoother.  The returning student workers learned the new system very quickly and so far all of them seem to love it.  A lot of behind the scenes work has gone into the success of this fall semester and we are excited for what the future holds for our store.

If you are still reading this long blog entry I would like to ask you to sincerely pray for me about an opportunity I have been given at GCC.  I have been asked to lead a financial course for MC3 at the beginning of the year.  I’m excited about this but very nervous to be creating, leading, and possibly teaching this course to adults, teens, and kids.  I have been praying for awhile now for an opportunity to get more involved and to follow God’s will and then this popped up.  I could use all the prayers I can get.  I’m trying to jump out of the boat and out of my comfort zone in hopes that I will expand my comfort zone and continue to be obedient to whatever God brings my way.

Well that’s it for now.  Hope to blog again soon and more often.

If you guys have any questions or want to hear more about our journey to get out of debt, we’d be more than glad to help out

Justin’s mom had surgery yesterday.  I was able to get off work early and ride with Justin to do see her in Rutherfordton.  She seemed to be doing as well as possible when we left last night.  Justin has gone to see her tonight but I couldn’t get out of work.  I hope she is up and feeling much better soon.

Have a grand day