Our life of camping

Many have stated how difficult it must be for us to be living in the situation that we have currently been placed. When I think about it - all I can really say is that God gives you the grace to live in any situation that He places you. While I have never thought of myself as super prissy and requiring all the amenities that life can often afford us I do know that certain things I had taken for granted. While we are in one sense camping our amenities haven't ceased to exsist, they just aren't as readily at my fingertips.
The Kitchen.
Well rather than being in my kitchen with a roof and four walls I do have a 'kitchen' of sorts with 2 walls and part of a roof. There is no ice hole where the milk gets stored or daily shopping trips to get the items needed for only one meal, nor even a pitiful ice chest.
I have.......
1.) a refrigerator with more room, unbelievably even to me, than I know what to do with.
2.) a kitchen sink that is hooked up to a hose - just don't drink the water straight it is quite gross
2a.) a water purifier not hooked up to a hose that makes water much tastier when wanting to quench the thirst...that and My Gentleman brings home water too.
3.) a water heater to heat water for washing dishes and other cleaning necessities
4.) a dishwasher
5.) a BBQ that is getting more use than it ever did before the fire.
6.) cooking abilities via an electric skillet that does way more than I ever gave them credit for; and a crockpot which I never really bothered to enjoy before hand either.
7.) a microwave for all the defrosting and explosive heating I can possibly imagine or carry out.
The only item that some would say limits me greatly is an oven for baking - something I shouldn't do very often anyway since rarely anything baked is good for you.
The Bathroom
While the bathroom does present challenges. We used to have 3 and now we have 1/2 of a 1/2 of a bathroom. The portable toilet isn't so bad since it came to us reallllllly clean and the only ones who use it is our family. It gets cleaned on a weekly basis by the company we rent it from and I have since purchased stock (or should) in Pine-Sol which I often bathe it in too. I don't think a 'Port-a-potty' has ever smelled so piney fresh before coming to our home.
The shower situation is a bit more of a challenge - but only for the time planning part. The membership to our local YMCA has been a wonderful blessing. The showers are nice and hardly used (at least in the ladies side). There are also the benefits of having family in town. ...on some days we just go over there. Tom takes his every morning at work since the company has a gym on site.
The Laundry
I can say 'Thank the Lord for family and friends' in a new light. There are multiple people who have been gracious to give us opportunity to use their laundry. Yes, it is inconvenient to pack all the laundry into the back of the truck and haul it over to people's homes but their gracious and willing hearts makes grumbling very convicting. There is also a very nice laundrymat not toooo far from us that has the biggest washers I have ever seen. 8 loads of wash in 1. Can I buy one of those when the house gets done? All my washing, that would take allllll day on Monday to sort, wash, dry, fold, and put away gets finished in an hour and 30 minutes. I may just do that every so often when the house is done.

updating the updates

I know that posts haven't been frequent and pictures of the progress even less, but lack of consistent internet at the property, the locating of the transfer card for the camera, and just LIFE should be pretty good excuses right?
January
The month of January saw the delay in getting the concrete poured for the foundation. First we had to find someone to do it. You would think with lots of unemployed people we could at least find someone 'unemployed in Greenland who couldn't even buy brandy' to do it. There were those who just didn't want to, those who never called you back, and those who thought to use our job as an opportunity to make up for all the lost months of not working. The Lord wanted us to wait, and to pray, and to wait...and then have dinner with the Feins before giving us our concrete guy.
The project was to start the beginning of January. God wanted it to rain, rain, RAIN so the job was put off till the middle of January. The footings were re-trenched. Then it rained some more.
1st inspection for approval to bury pipe and methane lines. - No Go.
2nd inspection - different guy - No Go for different reason.
3rd inspection - 1st & 2nd guys together - OK to bury lines. Argument over the size of the footings and the inspectors playing hardball rather than believing that the engineer knows what he is doing. A call by our engineer to the inspector to stop playing around with us.
4th inspection to approve the pouring of concrete - inspector ready to walk away all because of methane lines again - until the Lord knew my breaking point and allowed me to fall apart in frustration - 'and the Lord moved in the heart of the inspector' - job approved to pour concrete February 4th! Happy Birthday Mr. Cool! Today, Feb 8th the concrete guys came to remove the forms, pick up the left overs and trash, and get the final payment.
Wood list is being put together this week. We hope to have the list submitted to different companies this weekend and maybe start building end of next week. We'll just have to wait and see if our timing is the same as the Lord's. Pray that our hearts remain thankful even if it isn't.

Can you say cold?

This past rain storm was a cold one for our area of Southern California. The following morning we saw snow on the local mountains and ice in the wheel barrow and puddles. The kids were awoken and given the opportunity to play with the ice. Then we turned it into the daily science lesson through observation on ice formation and melting speed.

Thankful for family

This Thanksgiving was spent in San Diego with the grandparents. It was such a wonderful time. Me and the kids went down on Tuesday with Mom and spent the days prior cleaning, cooking, and running errands. Thanksgiving morning My Gentleman, Dad, Micah, Dars & kids, and Shannon arrived. The afternoon meal was delicious - Grandma makes a mean turkey. It was delightful.

Digging is done

November marked the completion of the footings and slab formations dug and readied for re-bar and concrete. We also had the fun task of replacing our sewer line. Lots of crushed pipe and a tree growing inside it was the discovered reason for slow drains. We had wondered why the pine trees in the front yard never looked mournful despite never watering them. They had found a water source that provided for them on a daily and very regular basis - complete with fertilization.

Now we wait for the rains to stop and the ground to dry so concrete can be poured.

The Battle for .....

The other day I went into the back yard and came across this....

Bionicles vs. My Little Pony

complete with a vortex and hidden traps.

God's Gracious Hand

God's hand has been so evident throughout this whole housing process.
A few weeks ago I went down to Santa Ana and found doors for way less that what Lowe's and the other home improvement companies charge. I even found our front door for $400 vs. the $2,500 that we were having to prepare ourselves to spend. While down in Santa Ana I drove past a Habitat for Humanity store and decided to stop. I found 3 cases of this concrete adhesive that we were going to have to purchase selling for $10 a tube (retail is $30). I decided to ask if they would give me a discount if I bought all 3 cases. They gave it to me for $5 a tube! $250 for the whole batch. So many have said 'Oh that is so lucky'. Random doesn't just happen...
On Tuesday My Gentleman was supposed to meet with our engineer at Building and Safety, but Aldo's secretary called to cancel. We figured that it would be another week delay in getting in. On Wednesday Aldo called and said that he could meet the same day at 3:30. He ran home, got the plans, and headed down to the meeting. The last two pages of the plans and Title 24 were done in a few minutes. When Aldo worked up the permit tax sheet he decided that the amount was way to high ($12,590). He took it back to his desk and reworked the sheet. He handed it to My Gentleman. The new amount was $3,290. Aldo had removed all of the school tax from the total. When Tom took it to the counter to pay the lady was surprised to see the amount. "Ooh, you are so lucky" was her comment. This was so NOT luck.

God bless Aldo Udua!

Our plans are now approved and the building can begin!

First Swim Meet

After a fun and enjoyable summer in swim lessons and water polo we decided that this school year the kids would be in a swim program through County Parks and Rec. As a part of the swim schedule they each get to participate in swim meets throughout the semester. The first meet was held in down town LA. They both were in the 50m freestyle and 50m breaststroke. Mr. Cool got 3rd in his freestyle heat and the Lovely Daughter placed 1st in her breaststroke heat. Unfortunately, Lovely Daughter and the rest of the heat were disqualified because their kick was wrong. The coach has since been working on the strokes with the kids.

Outing with Friends

Before school started up again Lovely Daughter came to us and requested that we go on more field trips. "School was soooo boring last year. Nothing happened." (no, nothing exciting at all save our house burning) So, since school started we have made it a priority to be involved in more of the field trips when they fit into either our calendar, what we are learning, or both.

LA County Fair

Children's Hunger Fund
(we packed pretzels into smaller bags)

Hiking and Nature Center in Burbank

Leaving Beverly and going back to the Hills

The life of 'ease' is over. The insurance company believes we should be done with the house by now and have decided to stop paying for the apartment. Part of me is actually thankful to be leaving the posh place. The temporary living arangements with furniture and items that are not your own make for stressful times. If something spills - oh no! If something breaks - oh no! If something....was always at the forefront of any action that was made within our home. Granted, we didn't not take care of the things we owned but there is something to be said about not worrying when something did happen whether you would get your deposit back or have to pay extra for damage.

 

The two things that will be missed...the heated pool and the amazing view of the valley.

I do pray that we remain content with where the Lord has us and don't mimic the Israelites and wish to be back in Egypt.