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RE: My First Blog (by Lisa Luper) - 7/2/2006 9:46:29 PM
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Consecrated2God
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Erick got a really good roofing job this week! It's a 150 square roof--the church roof--and it's going to make us $4000. He's going to hire my brother, so he won't make quite that much, but still it's going to be a really good job. I am going to be cutting my hours back to 10 hours a week so he can have the time he needs to do this. It's also going to be good because it will help spread around the fact that Erick does this kind of work, and work-of-mouth advertising is always the best kind (provided of course that you do good work, which he does!)
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Bonky
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RE: My First Blog (by Lisa Luper) - 7/10/2006 7:34:38 AM
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Consecrated2God
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The appraisal came back on the house we are supposed to be buying, and it underappraised. The contract we had on it was $45,000, and it came back at only $35,000. So we have to wait and see if the guy will take less for it. If not, there's another one we're going to go look at it.
Our house in Ozark also underappraised, but only by a couple of thousand dollars. Much better than $10,000! It appraised for $102,500. I wish we had gotten an appraisal before we listed it. It would have sold much faster, for one thing. I think it should be a requirment for people to appraise a house before they try to sell it. I wonder how many houses around here are overpriced. The realtors complain that nothing's moving around here. That's probably why.
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Bonky
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RE: My First Blog (by Lisa Luper) - 7/19/2006 8:42:02 AM
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Consecrated2God
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Well, we aren't going to buying that house. The man decided he didn't want to sell his house for only $35,000. I don't know what he's thinking--he's still got it on the market. He's basically trying to sell his house for ten thousand dollars over the appraised value and the buyer will have to be able to pay cash for it. It doesn't make sense.
We looked at some other houses yesterday, but we're going to run into the same problem. The first one they were asking $53,000 for, and it needs a lot more work than the other house. It's not difficult work, but it's a lot of it. The carpet stinks and it's threadbare. There are holes in the drywall and spots where it's been smashed in. The trim has been ripped off, the house needs siding (it's plywood painted blue!) and there is no toilet. Doors are missing off of counters. It could probably be made nice for about $7000, and if we were to buy it for about $20,000 it would be a good investment. But they are wanting more than twice that! There is no way a bank is going to lend that much money on a house in that shape.
The second one looked nicer, but it's got structural problems under the pretty paint and linoleum. The floors are bowing and some of th walls are buckling out. It only had three bedrooms. There might be potential to make a fourth but it would be a lot of work. And they are wanting $67,000 for that house! It's probably worth about $40,000.
I'm not sure what we are going to do at this point. I guess we're in no hurry to move. We'll just have to sit tight I guess and wait until something comes along.
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Bonky
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RE: My First Blog (by Lisa Luper) - 7/20/2006 4:22:02 PM
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Consecrated2God
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quote:
We looked at some other houses yesterday, but we're going to run into the same problem. The first one they were asking $53,000 for, and it needs a lot more work than the other house. It's not difficult work, but it's a lot of it. The carpet stinks and it's threadbare. There are holes in the drywall and spots where it's been smashed in. The trim has been ripped off, the house needs siding (it's plywood painted blue!) and there is no toilet. Doors are missing off of counters. It could probably be made nice for about $7000, and if we were to buy it for about $20,000 it would be a good investment. But they are wanting more than twice that! There is no way a bank is going to lend that much money on a house in that shape.
Well, we are considering buying this one. I called the listing realtor and talked to them, and it's a foreclosure. I asked if they would still sell the house if it under appraised, and they said they would. So we're really praying about this one. A similar house on the same street in nice condition was listed for $76,000, so I think we could make money off it if we got it cheap.
Here's the house: I think it could be cute with yellow siding and some flowers out front.
< Message edited by Consecrated2God -- 12/6/2008 9:22:55 PM >
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Bonky
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RE: My First Blog (by Lisa Luper) - 7/25/2006 7:22:03 AM
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Consecrated2God
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I am now an official SAHM! I quit my job last night.
I had been down to ten hours a week anyway, and this last week she forgot about me and didn't even put me on the schedule. So I haven't worked all week and I was getting used to it. Then I made plans to go on a trip to Lake Michigan with my sister Saturday, and then remembered that the new schedule would be up and I was probably on it. So I quit my job. 
I've been wanting to quit for weeks. Erick has been hesitant to let me, but he finally gave me the okay. He kind of got used to me sharing the financial burden for the last four years, and to bear it all himself again was scary for him. He just got paid a lot of money for a roofing job, and he's got more lined up, so it's not like we need my income anyway. He was veiwing it as a security of some sort, something to fall back on if he didn't get work to do. I made it clear that I wasn't going to be homeschooling this year and working at the same time. I've done that long enough and it's time to turn my full attention to schooling.
I've had so much trouble with this Taco Bell anyway. I didn't enjoy working there at all. They don't even care about customer service. In our old store, if we ran out of hot soft taco shells (they take an hour to heat up) we'd steam them individually so the customer gets a soft, warm taco shell instead of a cold, tough one. At this store they just grab a pack off the shelf and use them as is. They don't care. If the customer complains they'll fix it, but they just don't care. They hand food out the drive-through window and don't say a word. No "Thank you" or "Have a nice day." The customer is lucky if they even say a word to them!
If you do bring back your food and ask them to fix it, you are likely to hear someone yelling with plenty of cuss words "What do you mean, they want a new Mexican Pizza? There was nothing wrong with that one!"
They would never water down the refried beans and they would get so hard and dry you could barely swallow them.
The employees just ate whatever they wanted and never paid for it. They wasted so much food because they made it wrong, and then wonder why food costs were high. They had no idea how to even interpret the labor scale, and our labor was always high and they didn't think anything was wrong with it. Oh, I could go on for a long time about all the problems this store had. I'm just glad I don't work there anymore.
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Bonky
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RE: My First Blog (by Lisa Luper) - 7/31/2006 1:05:27 PM
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Consecrated2God
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Yesterday morning (Sunday) we were eating breakfast and we looked out the back window and saw there was a dog back there with Pippen. They were lying really close. Jay went out to see it, and came back to tell us that the dogs were tangled together--someone had chained the dog up to our stake! I called my family to see if they knew anyone who owned a dog like that, and my sister (16) was the only one who was up. She told me that a neighbor girl didn't know whose it was and was asking Dad if we had gotten another dog, and that Dad had told the girl to tie it up with ours so it wouldn't go into the highway and get killed. I was confused as to why Dad would say that, but I told my sister that it would be better to tie it up to their stake since ours already had a dog on it and theirs didn't. If Dad was concerned about the dog getting hit, we would take it over there. So I sent my son over to chain the dog up on their stake.
A few minutes later, my mom called and she was very mad at us for sending over a dog to wake them up at 7:30 on a Sunday morning after they had been up until 2 a.m the night before. I figured they'd be up by then, after all, my dad is a pastor and had to preach yesterday. I told her what Susie had said, and she said that Dad did not tell her to chain the dog up here, that he had told the neighbor girl to go over and ask us if it was our dog.
Well, it turned out that someone had abandoned the dog at our house and had chained him up with our dog. The neighbor girl had seen the dog and had taken it over to my parents to ask whose it was. We were at Lake Michigan all day Saturday, so we didn't know about any of this until Sunday. Anyway, my dad had said that he didn't think we had gotten another dog, but to go put it back where she found it. Apparently he misunderstood it was tied up with ours. The poor dogs were so tangled they were neck to neck and couldn't get away from each other.
My mom called the animal warden, but he didn't work on Sundays. He was going to come get it this morning. Then last night some teenage boys were walking through the neighborhood and had stopped to pet this dog, and my mom said, "Hey, you can have him for $5." The boys were really excited and went to ask their parents. They came back to take the dog home with them, and asked if they could pay for it later. Mom and Dad told them they didn't have to pay for it, and they took the dog home. So the dog didn't end up dead on the highway or at the pound and got a home after all.
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Bonky
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RE: My First Blog (by Lisa Luper) - 8/15/2006 8:21:00 AM
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Consecrated2God
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Yesterday our water stopped working. Just stopped, right in the middle of filling up the washing machine. I called my dad and asked him to come over and look at it, since Erick was on a roof, but he couldn't figure it out. So I had to call down and ask someone to tell Erick that our water wasn't working and that he needed to come home and take a look at it. He worked on it for awhile, and even went and bought a $40 part to try and fix it, and it still didn't work. He went out to the well and listened, and could hear that the motor was running, but it's not drawing any water. At first he said maybe the well ran dry, but it was raining at the time. Kind of odd for the well to run dry in the middle of a rainstorm!
He talked to my parents and they said they'd had the same thing happen, and that the screen on the pump had gotten plugged with rust. It cost them $700 to get it repaired. Erick said he's not paying someone that much to fix it, and he's going to do it himself. He said you have to have some kind of key that you stick down this pipe into the pitless adaptar to remove the pump, and then you can pull it up and change the screen. But the only problem is, only the pros have thse keys. He tried to make one from a piece of flattened pipe and it wasn't strong enough. He's going to try and hunt up a stronger piece of pipe today, but first he's got to get this roof on he's been doing.
I have to can peaches today. I have a bushel of grade B peaches I bought for $13 and they have to be canned today or they are going to go bad. But I have no water. So I'm going to take them over to Mom and Dad's and do it there. I can't take a bath. I had to haul water over from my parent's last night and heat it on the stove to do the dishes.
I hope he gets the water fixed today!
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Bonky
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RE: My First Blog (by Lisa Luper) - 8/15/2006 9:03:53 PM
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Consecrated2God
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We have water! Yay! It turns out the shaft was broken in the old pump. My father-in-law just happened to have a well pump in his garage that he let us use. It saved us $300 to use that. I am so thankful for running water!
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Bonky
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RE: My First Blog (by Lisa Luper) - 8/18/2006 8:57:57 AM
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Consecrated2God
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We got the appraisal back on the house we were trying to buy yesterday. It appraised for $53,000 contingent on $25,000 worth of repair. What on earth were they thinking??? They couldn't just give us an actual "this is what the house is worth" price.
It appraised in fair--poor condition. The bank won't give us a residential loan on it in that condition. The house is sold "as is". They aren't going to do the repairs needed so we could get a loan. The only way we could get that house is to have the cash for it.
The loan officer said that she's going to see if maybe we could qualify for a commercial loan and then tranfer it to a residential loan after we fix it up. My mom said they usually want 25% down on commercial loans, which would not leave us enough money to do the repairs needed.
I'm wondering if they would take the difference between the appraised value and the repairs needed--$28,000. But we still can't get a loan, because of the condition of the house. It's so frustrating because the house really doesn't need that much work. We could do the work ourselves for about $8,000.
They want it repainted, the carpet replaced, soffit repaired, the exterior painted, the drywall patched, one of the baseboard heaters replaced, trim put on the doors, closet doors installed, the sink cabinet in the main bathroom replaced, the shower and toilet replaced in the master bath, and the kitchen cabinets replaced before they would lend money on it. It's crazy. They had told us before that as long as the electicity was up to their standard and there were no leaks in the roof and it was livable, they could lend money. Now they are saying they can't.
We're going to write my great-grandpa and see if he would lend us the money. It doesn't hurt to ask. We would pay him back--we are very good about that.
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Bonky
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RE: My First Blog (by Lisa Luper) - 8/28/2006 3:43:00 PM
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Consecrated2God
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I suppose I should update my blog. I haven't done it in awhile, because we've sort of been at a place where we weren't really sure WHAT God wants us to do. I seem to have heard God whispering "wait" a few times, but that's one word that I'm not good at doing. Really, I love to obey the Lord. Whatever He tells me to do, I'll do it. If he wants us to buy a house, no problem! If he wants us to stay here, great! If he wants us to move out of the area again, I'd say, "Yes Lord, whatever Your will!" But the "wait" drives me crazy. I want God to tell me what to do NOW so I can hurry up and obey Him!
What does He want me to wait for? How long? What should we be doing in the meantime? I don't know. It's very awkward to have people ask me what our plans our and have to say, "Mmm, don't know. God hasn't told us yet." It's sometimes hard to explain to people, helpful people who send us job opportunities and houses for sale, because we don't know what we should do.
Over the last week or so, pondering all this, I'm feeling more and more that we aren't supposed to make a big commitment just yet to live here. I don't know if that means God is moving us on soon, or just that it's not time to buy a house. We decided for now to take the money we got off the house in Ozark and finish up Dave Ramsey's baby steps 2 and 3. We are going to pay off our student loans and we will be COMPLETELY out of debt (including the house, although we will not own a home) and then we are going to put the rest in the bank and finish the fully funded emergency fund. Then we will be on to step four, which I can't remember off the top of my head. ;) Been too long since I took the course. Of course, Erick and I are teaching it in two weeks, so we'll get a good refresher.
We're going to start putting back money and saving for a house. I don't know when we will be in a position to buy, or where, or what it is we are going to be buying, but if we can save money maybe we can even get one of these foreclosure that we've been trying to get a loan on with cash, and we won't have to worry about appraisers. If that's God's will, of course.
There is a quote I found on Phil Vischer's website (the Veggie-Tales guy) and I thought it was great. I've been using it as my e-mail signature for about month. I tried to put it as my sig here but it was too long. It's a good reminder for me, and I need to heed it.
quote:
To be a Christian is to give Christ “lordship” of our lives. That’s what it means. He’s Lord, we’re not. And if we’ve given Christ lordship of our lives, where we are in 20 years is, frankly, none of our business. Where we are in 5 years is none of our business. What is our business, is what God has told us to do today, and whether or not we’re doing it. That’s it.
--Phil Vischer
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Bonky
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RE: My First Blog (by Lisa Luper) - 9/15/2006 10:03:42 AM
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Consecrated2God
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Our church does a dinner theatre every year for Christmas. This year they are doing "It's a Wonderful Life", the musical. CLICK HERE to see the one we are doing.
We had auditions a couple of weeks ago, and I tried out. I've been waiting on pins and needles every since to see if I got a part! I was so surprised yesterday evening to find that I got the part of Mary Bailey! I'm still just in shock. I have a lot of singing to do, and some of the songs are really high. I am a low alto, so this is going to be a challenge to squeak that high! I don't have an overwhelming amount of lines, thankfully. George Bailey has more lines that everyone else put together I think. The guy who plays him looks like he's about 6'5" or so. We're going to look kind of odd together.
The first thing I asked the director was, "I don't have to kiss anybody, do I?" She assured me they will cut out the kissing. That's good, because Erick would not be happy if I had to do that. I wouldn't do it, either.
I have talked Erick into being Potter's Goon. She needed someone to do that, and I didn't exactly volunteer him, but I did mention that he might be willing to be in it if all he had to do was push around a guy in a wheelchair.
So as you can see, we're going to be busy. We're already busy teaching FPU and Erick's been working on an investment house for our pastor. He's going to be applying for his license to preach pretty soon. We had to get our membership switched over, and that's nearly done. We should be official members either this weekend or in a couple of weeks.
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Bonky
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RE: My First Blog (by Lisa Luper) - 10/4/2006 10:51:05 AM
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Consecrated2God
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Erick and I have decided to save everything we can and try and either (1) buy a house outright in the spring or (2) put down as large of a downpayment as we can on a house in the spring. By spring we should know more about whether we are going to be here awhile or move on. By spring we also need to be moving, because the owners of this house are most likely are going to need their house back. The husband was in a car wreck, and his insurance had lapsed and this license had expired, and their car was impounded. They are now stuck owing $4000 and have no vehicle. They are afraid they are going to lose their house they are attempting to buy, and if they do, they will need this one back. They own this one free and clear. She said we could stay until spring, and she also said that there is a possibility that they will have resolved their money issues by then and not move back after all, but it's given Erick and I a sense of urgency that we need to save our money.
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Bonky
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RE: My First Blog (by Lisa Luper) - 10/15/2006 3:35:30 PM
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Consecrated2God
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We got to meet Garsy and her family Saturday. Her husband, Tysdaddy, had originally wanted to set it up as a surprise, but his wife saw over his shoulder while he was PMing me about it, so it wasn't a surprise in the end. It was fun, though. They brought over some donuts and our kids played outside on the trampoline and upstairs and they visited for a few hours. It was neat getting to know them better. Rachel about wore poor Garsy out, though! She's a very affectionate girl who demands undivided attention from everyone. She wanted Garsy to herself the whole morning!
After they left, we went to a local park with trails and hiked for about a mile with the kids through the woods. They really enjoyed that. It was the perfect fall day--a little on the cool side, but plenty of leaves to swish through.
Today at church the pastor was teaching about gentleness and self-control (the last two fruit of the Spirit in the series he's been teaching) and he'd read a verse about how how women should put on a gentle and quiet spirit. There was a couple in front of us. I saw the man nudge his wife a bit when the pastor read that verse, and I heard the woman whisper loudly, "I have a gentle and quiet spirit!" as she smacked him on the leg. 
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Bonky
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RE: My First Blog (by Lisa Luper) - 10/25/2006 8:40:23 AM
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Consecrated2God
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The house that is pictured two posts up in post #116 is catycorner to where we are living. I took that picture from our front porch because it was snowing. Well, the day after I took that picture a "For Sale by Owner" sign appeared in the front lawn, so I called about it and we went over and looked. I don't know if we're going to get it, but it certianly is an interesting old house. It's the biggest house in town, and was owned by some very wealthy people. The roof on that house is original--100 years old. It's slate. It needs a ton of work, especially on the outside, though. It could be a very nice house if it were fixed up.
It has two balconies (both are on the opposite sides of the house, though) and this lovely curved porch out back. It had it's own tennis court back in the 50s. The poles are still there, with ancient looking lights. The man who was living there had strung ropes across and hung laundry on them. The familiy used to entertain state politicians out there on their propery.
It would be neat to get that house, but he's asking too much for it. He wants $89,900 for it. It needs too much work for that price. It's got an acre of land, four bedrooms, a sunroom, 1 1/2 baths, a full basement, a 2 story carriage house, a full attic, and has both baseboard heat and a forced air gas furnace. The owners were so wealthy that they could afford both.
It needs siding and a lot of exterior work. It's full of junk. The inside needs some basic paint, but it's not in bad shape really. It's a shame how run down that house is. It has such historic value. One thing that's really fascinating is the murals on the basment wall. There are ladies painted on it, that look like they are from the fifties or before, in provocative poses. I saw three of them, and the owner said there's a fourth down there somewhere. Erick and I were wondering what we would do with them if we did buy that house. On one hand, it's not exactly appropriate for a pastor-to-be to have on his walls. On the other hand, to paint over them would diminish the historic value of the house.
Speaking of which, Erick has finally sent in his application for licensing. We are members of our church now, we've got our background check sheets filled out and notarized, and it's in the mail with his fee. Yay! We also have been invited by our church to be on the Vision Team, which is a team of people that will help set the direction of our church. We're pretty excited by it. I looked at the list of things we're expected to and I haven't got a clue, but Erick studied that kind of thing in school so he's got a better handle on what they will be doing than I do. I guess I'll just get to listen and learn this time.
In other news, Abby lost her first tooth!
< Message edited by Consecrated2God -- 12/6/2008 9:26:35 PM >
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Bonky
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RE: My First Blog (by Lisa Luper) - 11/6/2006 12:43:13 PM
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Consecrated2God
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We have had some pretty busy days lately.
Friday we had a Dutch cook-out for school. We're doing early settlers, and we've already done Jamestown, the Swedes and Finns, Quakers, and Dutch, and we're moving on to Puritans and then Pilgrims for the next few weeks. We've had fun sewing costumes for the kids. We cooked in dutch ovens over an open fire, but I got the fire a little too hot and burned the peach cobbler to charcoal.
Yesterday after church we went to an anniversary party for some old friends. Their oldest daughter is my age. We used to be in 4-H together, and were always in fierce competition with each other. She was the 4-H Rabbit Queen one year and I was runner up, and then we went to the State Fair together and I placed above her. I have a lot of fun memories. She's married now and just had her first baby. Her mother homeschools now, although my friend wasn't homeschooled.
After the party, my husband had to go to a funeral at church--the mother of another girl my age. They joined the homeschool group right after my husband I left it, so I didn't know her growing up, but she has gone to our church for the past several years. She's always taken such good care of her mother, and now she's left with her mother's medical bills.
I had a casting to go to, so I didn't attend the funeral. I went to my mom's house so we could cast parts for the Thanksgiving play we are putting on. Most of the girls have boys' parts, though. There were only two girls' part in the whole play. Sarah is going to be Miles Standish, Jay is going to be William Bradford, Joy is going to be Squanto, and Abby is going to be a sailor who has one line: "All hands on deck!" They have quite a few lines, but my kids are pretty good at memorizing.
After the casting, we had a Vision Team meeting. Then we taught Financial Peace University in the evening. That was all one day! This next week is going to almost as busy, but at least there is only one major things on each day.
I have drama practice tonight, then tomorrow is election day. Wednesday is church, Thursday is choir and then drama practice again. On Friday and Saturday we are going to go to a 2-day Vision Team retreat. My mother-in-law is going to keep the kids overnight. This will be the first time we have ever left the kids overnight with someone. I'm excited. We are going to probably stay with my sister-in-law and her husband overnight, since they live in the same town. We don't want to spend the money on a hotel--we're still saving every extra dollar we can for a downpayment on a house.
I'm loving having so much time to be able to do things again. Life is so wonderful now that Erick is done with school and I'm not working anymore.
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Bonky
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RE: My First Blog (by Lisa Luper) - 11/7/2006 3:54:41 PM
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Consecrated2God
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My sister-in-law posted here today! Her handle is theColonelswife, so if you see her around, tell her hi!
This is the sister-in-law that got married way back in post 10 in this blog. After she started posting here I went back to read what I'd said about her wedding--and I described it as "The Longest Wedding in the World".  Oops. Christa, if you read this, I apologize for that! It was a lovely wedding, honest. I really do enjoy weddings, or at least I did before I had kids. It's not as much fun when you are trying to keep little kids from misbehaving, and when my kids were acting the way I was and I was very pregnant, it sure felt long! I don't know if it really was all that long or not, it just felt that way at the time. So again, I just want to publically apologize for disparaging your wedding in any way. It was a beautiful wedding and you looked really pretty. 
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Bonky
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RE: My First Blog (by Lisa Luper) - 11/22/2006 11:01:18 AM
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Consecrated2God
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I am trying to stay out of the kitchen. My kids are doing a KONOS activity in there for school.
This is the activity they are doing:
Corn was the main grain in the Pilgrim's diet. One man said, "My bones are made of corn" because he had eaten so much corn. Eat corn as your mainstay for a week. What can you cook with corn and how many variations can you create? Remember, you do not have eggs, milk, wheat flour, sugar, etc. You have salt, salt pork, water, fat, molasses, beans, squash, pumpkins, and sweet potatoes. Don't consult any cookbooks. Let your children discover ways to cook the corn and cornmeal--boil, bake, fry, fresh, pop, ectc. Let them experiment in the kitchen. "Are too cups of salt too much in the corn mush?" Try it and see. You can bet that mistake won't be made again!
Well, we aren't going to it for a week by any means, and I didn't let them cook with beans and squash, etc., but I am letting them make their own recipes with corn meal and molasses and oil and salt. So far they've made corn meal pudding, corn meal pancakes, and corn meal muffins. They are now trying to clean up the kitchen. It's been interesting, to say the least. I hope they didn't use all of my corn meal and molasses. They actually liked the pancakes they made, and ate them with maple syrup without my knowledge or consent. I didn't try any.  The muffins have an odd texture--they used yeast in them. I didn't tell them they could have yeast, either.
I remember doing one of those "experiment in the kitchen" KONOS activites growing up. It was about the Congo, I think. I remember adding food coloring to everything and Mom telling me that I wasn't supposed to have done that.
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Bonky
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RE: My First Blog (by Lisa Luper) - 11/24/2006 8:42:20 AM
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Consecrated2God
Posts: 5145
Joined: 4/4/2005
From: Formerly Jesus Land
Status: offline
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We were supposed to have gone to my husband's grandparent's house yesterday for Thanksgiving, but Grandpa wasn't feeling well. My mother-in-law called me the night before to tell me that Thanksgiving had been cancelled.
The problem both of us had is that neither of had any thanksgiving dinner items purchased to make Thanksgiving on our own. I had an abundance of peanut butter and jelly that I had bought to fill the gaps between Thanksgiving dinners, and she had some deer meat that someone had given them, but that was about it. She was telling me that her kids were upset because they don't like deer meat. I told her that I love deer meat, but I hate peanut butter and jelly. Of course, peanut butter and jelly is their favorite! So we had the bright idea to get together and her house and share what we have.
It's amazing what you can come up with when you don't think you have anything. I decided to make some dinner rolls, too. After all, I still had flour and eggs and yeast. I also made a huge batch of oatmeal cookies. I found some rice and cooked it up, made a cheese sauce with Velveeta, and put some cooked broccoli that I had into it. I also had some carrots and celery, so I cut them up and brought them. I talked to my mother-in-law on the phone Thanksgiving morning and found out she had baked eight pies the night before, so I brought a container of Cool-Whip we had left over from apple crisp. She had three potatoes and I had seven, so we took them all and made mashed potatoes. She made a meatloaf from ground venison, and some of her daughters pooled their money and bought some hamburger to make meatballs since they don't like venison. She had also made deviled eggs and sweet potato casserole to take to her mother's house, so she still had those, plus some more cookies she had baked. My mother found out that we were having to come up with an impromptu Thanksgiving dinner and sent over a bag of chicken quarters. We ended up having a LOT of food!
You don't need to have a turkey to be thankful. Just being content with what you have is plenty. We enjoyed a day spent with family after all, and had plenty of reason to be thankful. Besides, we'll get turkey today, as today is Thanksgiving with my side of the family. We also had turkey on Sunday with my husband's other grandparents. Who needs turkey three times in a week, anyway? Venison is actually pretty traditional, and I love venison. That was some of the best meatloaf I've ever eaten!
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Bonky
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