Thanks #1

I am thankful for a God who loves me.

Working Girl

I have another job! I'm a barista at Rachel's Coffee Shop (I start on Monday). As I was filling out the application I noticed something kind of funny. In the employment history section my job titles were as follows: substitute teacher, substitute teacher, substitute teacher, barista, barista.

Hmm... well, at least I've narrowed it down.

Quiet on the Set!

Sometimes I'm sad that I am not yet a teacher, but there are some perks to not having a full-time job.
Last week I was on set for a film by Christopher Munch. The movie is part of a PBS series called "Future States". It is a series of short (15-ish minute) films set in the future and just how life is going to be. He is directing one of the films and it is called "Return to Elektra Springs".

I am not in the film, but I was the "on-set teacher". Why? Well, there are two child actors (12-year-old girl & 13-year-old boy) in this film... and California state law requires a licensed teacher on set to make sure the children get in there "lesson time" and don't work too much. Basically I just get paid to hangout on set all week as an advocate for the kids. It was lots of fun. The kids were great!

Here are some pictures (you can checkout the rest on facebook):

me, Skyler, Terri-Lynn(producer), Amber, Monique(Amber's mom), Bisque-Kitt(dog), Tony(sound guy)

House Hunters: Take 3

We have looked at 13 houses and 1 condo in our search so far. These are the 3 from today...

This house is only one street over from where we currently live. It's cute and in a great location. It's been on the market this whole time during our search, but we hesitated to look at it because it doesn't have a garage and the backyard is all concrete (we still think that's kind of weird). It has three bedrooms and 1 bath which is great. It has a funny layout though... It's almost like there are two halves to the house. The price, location, and size are the most appealing things about this house.

This is a condo. Yes, a condo. It has two bedrooms and two bathrooms and a massive garage. It is really nice inside and we really liked it. There is an ocean view & a pathway to the ocean. One negative is that the garage is downstairs and the stairs are outside... weird. No, we don't want to go back to apartment living, but really most of them are vacation homes anyway. Also it could be a good investment (we have some more research to do). The realtor seems to think that we could buy it now (it's a foreclosure) and sell it for much more in a few years... then we could get a house we really really want.

Look closely at the left side of the picture. Do you recognize that bright green house? That is the house we put an offer on a while back. It's sold. This house in the picture is great too though! It just went on the market a few weeks ago. The listed price is actually above our price range, but this little old woman needs to move closer to her family... so she might be willing to go down on the price. It's very pink inside (I think it might be her favorite color). This is a little bit smaller inside than some others we've looked at, but it is still 3bdrm 1.5bath. It also has a really large yard and is in a great location.


So... there are some great options, and it just comes down to choosing what to do next.

Color it. Cut it. Curl it.

Hair.

Inspired by... Psalms

I was an RA in my dorm a few years back and lead Bible study for our hall. For most of the first semester we focused on praising God for all that he does. Each week we studied a few different psalms. One week the "homework" assignment was to create your own psalm. You could use the format of any of the psalms in the Bible, but it had to be your own words. I came across these on my computer today and thought I would share. The first one is the Psalm I shared with the girls in my hall, and the second one is another one I wrote around that same time. 2009 ~ Fall-ish.

House Hunters: Take 2

First of all I would like to apologize that I have not yet posted any pictures of our cute little rental that we currently live in. I might get to it sometime before we move... maybe.

Well, we are still on the hunt and have looked at another bunch of houses in the area. These are all "in town" and we've noticed the neighbors are closer when we look at houses "in town". Here are the top 3:

 This house is great. As soon as we walked in, we both felt comfortable and cozy. That's the thing though. It's not cozy until you walk in. As you can see the yard is quite small and there is a neighbor in the back of the house. What you cannot see is that there are two neighbors on the left side of the house and you can pretty much look into their backyards. This isn't the best neighborhood in town, but definitely not the worst. There are a lot of renters on this street so things would change over time (not sure if that's good or bad yet)... and this house is walking distance to both the elementary school and high school. We really love the house, but aren't in love with the small lot and weird neighborhood. And look, there's a flag pole! (Anthony likes it).

This house is the opposite. We like the location (just up the hill from the elementary school), but the house is kinda "eh", for lack of a better term. This is the most expensive house; it's a bigger house with a bigger yard, and a little bit of ocean view, but the layout of this house is not our favorite. There is a really long narrow hall down the entire house which makes it remind us a little bit of dorm life. We like things a little more open. It's really not that bad and we wouldn't mind living here.

This house looks quite interesting doesn't it? It is. This house is actually in a great neighborhood and has a fun backyard with a creek that runs through it. Also the inside is quite unique. It has the "vacation home" feel and it's just really interesting. This is actually the least expensive of the three houses... and here's why: This house needs A LOT of work! It needs a completely new roof, all new siding, and the upstairs bathroom has a leak that's causing damage. There are some other fixes this house needs as well, but those were the 3 big ones ($ and time). I think this would be a really fun house to raise kids in and have family come visit, but with all the work it needs we most likely won't be pursuing this house. It is also smaller on the inside than it looks.

Well... this is round two and we are beginning to run out of options. Gold Beach is small, so there aren't many houses that fit our "requirements" and our budget. Our Realtor has been great and is helpful in showing us houses we wouldn't think of. Wish us luck as we prayerfully consider our next steps.

House Hunters: Gold Beach, OR

We finally settled into our cute little one-bedroom rental house next to the park... and we decided to look for our own house. We have been pre-approved for a home loan and looked at our first set of houses today. We looked at 5 different houses in the area; we have eliminated a couple and have a few we like.

This is our favorite one so far, but also the most expensive. It has three good size bedrooms, 1.5 baths and a big kitchen. Some other positives are new wood floors, updated kitchen, new wood stove, and double car garage. The back yard is small but the front yard is quite large... and it's really close to the beach. The color of the outside isn't our favorite, but we could live with it :)

This is a cute, little house. It looks white, but it's actually light green. This is the least expensive of the ones we like so far, but it is also the smallest. It has two very small rooms (if you took out the wall between it would probably be the same as our current 1 bedroom) and a small kitchen. It's in a more woodsy/outdoorsy area with lots of trees in the back yard. It is on 1/3 of an acre of land... so even though it is small, there is room to expand in the back!

This house has the best ocean view and is similar to the bright green house in size and location. It is a little bit older, has a smaller kitchen and needs a bit more work than we would hope for, but it's do-able. Anthony loves that it has hardwood floors... they look really bad, but could be sanded and refinished. It also has a good size back yard with a shop.


None of these houses are really "in town" quite like where we are right now... but really, not everyone can live in the center of town right next to the park. Right? We do really love where we are now, but realistically we can't live in this tiny house forever. AND it is the perfect time to buy a house because it is a buyers market right now. So we have decided to take advantage of the low rates and we have started the hunt. We may look at some more houses soon... Wish us luck and keep us in your prayers!

A Day in the Office

 Today I've been hanging out in the office with Anthony... I made this youth group logo. Basically it is just our church logo, but a little different...

Run for the Hills

Since we moved to Gold Beach we have heard that if we ever feel an earthquake that there will be a huge tsunami to follow and that we need to go inland and to higher ground.

Well, last night around 9pm we felt our house move. Anthony and I stopped what we were doing and looked at each other. "Do we need to run for the hills?" I asked, somewhat jokingly.

Anthony went outside and looked around. "Well, no dogs are barking and there aren't any people outside. I think we're okay... maybe it was just a tree that fell somewhere."

Well... it was actually an earthquake. Obviously not even big enough to signal the tsunami warning, but an earthquake nonetheless. Our first coastal earthquake. It was only a 2.3 magnitude and was about 3 miles away from Gold Beach

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted... we don't have internet at our house. Soon I'll post pictures of our new little house and the things we've done.