campfire anthems

i’m back from vacation.  sorry about my disappearance the past week.  its been a crazy ride moving into and setting up our new house.  i just want to say that i love it there.  i love the house, the neighborhood, the location, my neighbors - i love everything about it.  we stayed their for the first time on friday night.  we moved our bed over and some dirty laundry so that we could wash them over night and have clean clothes for the next day.  yes, that’s right.  we have our own laundry machines now.  no more laundromats!  tim and tabitha came over and slept on an air mattress so they would be there in the morning to help with the move.  saturday  morning i went to get the uhaul truck and start the process.  after nearly escaping death at the uhaul store (it was actually a gas station that was in the middle of the ghetto.  if there is a hell on earth i’m pretty sure it was that street corner.  tim can vouch for me.) i hopped in the 28 foot behemoth and drove to lakeland.  it was pretty fun driving such a large vehicle.

once in lakeland, our friends started trickling in to help load up.  it took us a couple of hours to load the truck with all of our stuff.  my legs were killing me after carrying sofas and other furniture and boxes down the stairs.  i’m glad its over.  when we go to the new house it took us maybe 15 minutes to unload everything.  the fathers came over and fixed the garage door opener.  it involved some rewiring work in the attic.  i helped and got to go up there for the first time and hang out a bit.  our garage door now opens, which is a huge win.  the rest of that day was mainly spent situating furniture and unpacking some boxes.

sunday morning was church, as usual, but we only live about 2 minutes away now.  its very nice to be so close when sunday morning begin so early.  timm talked about anger.  i usually don’t struggle with the long lasting anger issues and the building up of anger to become bitter.  i struggle more with rage - not like hitting people or putting my fist through a wall, more like verbal release upon people.  he did a really good job with describing how this affects our lives, mainly our relationships.  i can’t wait to see what he talks about this sunday.  after church i went to lakeland to get a haircut and swing by the old apartment to get some things out of the freezer.  during my hair cut bright house called to let me know they were 5 to 10 minutes away.  perfect.  i am 15 minutes away.  i finished the haircut and rushed home in hopes of catching the technician.  i didn’t.  with some careful wording, i called them back and got them to swing back by the house.  we now have proper working hd television and high speed internet.  very exciting.  sunday night we had a family group bbq for memorial day.  it was really fun hanging out and getting to know everybody better.  as part of our weekly routine, we finished up the night with some cards with travis and kfj.

monday morning travis, my dad, and i started painting the living room.  emily and tabitha arrived a little later and helped.  it took a few hours but we finally got it done.  it really looked great.  the rest of the day we just continued to work on the house and unpack more stuff.  tuesday may dad came back over and the two of us painted the kitchen and dining room.  it also looked really good.  i like the color a lot.  that night we got to babysit for gary and deanna while they attended family group.  the two of us, plus a 2 year old packed up in the car and went to orlando to go to ikea.  we walked out with a new coffee table, light fixture, to floor lamps, throw pillows, pillow covers, some sort of mountable rod for the kitchen that you can hang hooks off of, and 3 bar stools for only $160.  we dominated ikea.  when we got back home we assembled all of our new furniture and called it a night.  i don’t know if i have been sleeping so good lately because of the new environment or because of all the hard work i’ve been doing around the house.  probably the latter.

i woke up yesterday to a displeased look on my wife’s face.  when questioned about it she informed me that she no longer liked the color of our living room and we would be repainting it soon.  hooray!  not only does that suck, it also put a damper on my plans to mount the flat screen tv on the wall.  no sense in doing it until after we repaint the room.  i met the guys for lunch at outback for wingsday, you should be able to read my full review next week.  after lunch i headed to lowes to buy a grill. after picking out the one i wanted, i made the purchase and rolled the fully assembled cooking device out to my car.

it. would. not. fit.

i had to roll it back into the store and make them check to see if there was one still in the box.  after i loaded the box in my car, drove back home and set up in the garage i began to build my new charcoal grill.  it took 2 hours.  it wasn’t the hardest thing i’ve ever done, but it wasn’t exactly simple either.  i can’t wait to cook something.  that night i relaxed with a little halo and ufc ultimate fighter.  once again i slept like a rock.

this morning i woke up and got ready to go back to work.  i left the house around 8 because i didn’t know just how long, or what traffic would be like, to get the work.  it only took 10 minutes.  with the extra time i had i stopped and got some bagels for breakfast.  once at my desk, bagel in hand, i checked my email and caught up from my time off.  found out that i’m going to tennessee next month for 3 days.

its been a long and busy week since i last talked to you guys.  i’m glad the mayhem is beginning to die down.  see you tomorrow.