Taking a quick break

Just a quick post and we're off to bed...

We got a few smaller tasks done after church and then we were off for our final 2008 trip to the Minnesota State Fair. Here are a couple of pictures from our day:

The Corn Dog Vs. Pronto Pup tasting challenge... Pronto pup made with flour, and corn dog made with cornmeal. The verdict was Corn Dogs - 3, Pronto pup - 2, and 1 undecided.Brian and Emily joined us for the day along with mom and dad Gafford. Brian and Emily joining in on the tasting challenge...

The fair in Minnesota takes pride that you can find almost anything on a stick to eat, and dad proved it today by finding thick cut bacon on a stick. I must admit the yummyness that we experienced.
And finally, in a nod to mom Liddick who convinced us that the Simpsons aren't completely terrible...A great time was had by all, and now it's time to rest up for the day ahead. Hopefully completion of the floor, priming of multiple rooms, and many other random projects around the house! More tomorrow. Good night and good luck.

Renovation update #1

Did we tell you that there was no floor in the master bedroom? The carpet had been ripped up, but they never got around to replacing the floor so it was left as just plywood. We've been working on remedying that problem today. (And when I say "we" I mean "they"). It's not completely finished, but I thought I'd post a couple of pics of the process and where we (they) ended up at the end of the day...

David and Bryan just getting started... Thanks, Jeff Habel for all your help teaching the guys how to do this right! And thanks Bryan for all of your help today! (Oops! I wasn't supposed to tell anyone that you now know how to lay wood floor. Sorry! )

Here's where they ended up at the end of the day. This is the doorway to the closet (It's BIG!).

And this is the bedroom. Pretty floors... :-)

Honey, I'm home!

We are officially home owners again! We closed late this afternoon and got right to work this evening prepping for the loads of painting that we have ahead of us. Tune back in to see before and after pics as we transform each room. Let's just say that the previous homeowners were not afraid of color. For example, the family room that we worked on this evening is orange-orange.

We met one of our neighbors this evening. They were very friendly and brought us some dessert and beverages as well as they're letting us borrow their sander. Other neighbors decided not to introduce themselves, but called the cops instead. David was on his way back from a run to the store, when I heard banging on the front door, followed by the doorbell. I was on the phone with David at the time, and when I rounded the corner to see who it was, I saw two police officers on the other side of the door. They'd had a report from some neighbors that the lights were on and people were coming and going from the house. This was unusual since the house was a foreclosure and had been empty for well over a year. I can see their concern, but honestly; all they had to do was come and knock on our door.... we were waiting for them... Can you tell I'm tired? It's time to go to bed. (My apologies if I got that song stuck in your head now. I know how annoying that can be.)

Allie's new boyfriend

Normally living in someone else's house is pretty tough for Allie. We're real strict with which rooms she can go in and are always really nervous about her sneaking through an open door and getting loose outside. But I think this stay at the Berg's might rank as one of her favorites now that she's met the neighbor's beagle, Bailey. Bailey has a nice big fenced back yard and they spent about 20 minutes tonight chasing each other up and down the whole length. Allie hasn't had a fenced-in yard to run free in for a couple of years now so she was in dog heaven. Bailey thought Allie was pretty hot stuff and was a little extra interrested in Allie, but she played hard-to-get quite well. She made him really work to keep up with her. I tried to take some pictures of them, but they didn't stay still for very long. There's only one picture that's not blurry, when they were walking away from getting a drink. Now every time we take her out to go to the bathroom, she looks over to Bailey's yard to see if her boyfriend is out. Puppy love is so adorable.

(By the way, if you can't tell who's who, Allie's the one with more black)

Host family gets to know our fiery personalities...

We've been living with the Bergs since Saturday night and thought it would be a nice gesture to make dinner for them tonight. So after some discussion, the menu we decided on was beer battered fish and chips. We've successfully made the fish two times prior and were trying the chips for the first time (homemade- not out of the bag). The problem is, you get used to your own kitchen tools and accessories; it can be a little challenging to cook in someone else's kitchen. Dinner was well on it's way. The first batch of fish and fries had come out of the pot and we were onto the next batch. The burner got a little too hot apparently, and the oil started boiling over. Fortunately it's an electric stove so it didn't start a fire. However, a few minutes later the smoke appeared. First it was just a harmless white, then it turned grey, followed by black, and suddenly flames were shooting out from under the pot. Tom put the lid to the pot over the burner and left it there for a while. Eventually the flame extinguished itself. We smoked up the kitchen something fierce. But nothing a box fan and an open window couldn't eventually remedy. Was it worth it? Was dinner so delicious that they forgave us for lighting their kitchen on fire? They claim it was.

Living in limbo...again

Two years ago, we shared our adventures of living in limbo as we transitioned from Michigan to Minnesota. For a quick review, David began his job here on the first of June, while I stayed behind to attempt to sell the house. Six weeks later, the dog and I joined him and we proceeded to live in temporary housing: one week on a mattress in a vacant house, a few days with a family from church, a week in a family from church's house while they were on vacation, another week in another family from church's house while they were on vacation, and eventually we reached our "final" destination in Woodbury. The family owning this house was being transferred to Poland for two years, so we moved in and cared for their home while they were away. But alas, two years has come and gone, and the Sampson Seven have returned from Poland (and for some strange reason they want their house back!). We've spent the summer shopping for a house; a chore much more difficult than we anticipated. We waited far too long with an offer on a short sale house, but with August quickly approaching, we could wait no longer. We would hunt for houses one more time, finding a record 3 in one night that we both liked. We wrote an offer on the least expensive of the three, and 36 hours later had an accepted purchase agreement. The inspection has been done (no surprises there- thank goodness), and the loan has been applied for. The only problem: we can't close on the house until September 3rd. Why is that a problem? We have to be out of our house by the end of this week to make room for the Sampson's to return home and settle their house before school begins. So we return to life in limbo. We've moved 98% of our belongings into an enormous storage unit (which embarrassingly can not hold the remaining 2% of our stuff...) and are currently residing in our house for a few more days with a few amenities: our mattress, a TV, his and her laptops, and four lawn chairs. At the end of the week we will bid our final adieu to the Sampson's house and move in with yet another family from the church. What do people without a church family do when they find themselves in our situation? Seriously... We'd be lost without the gracious and generous people that we've met here at Five Oaks.

I'd post pictures of our move-out last weekend, but something happened and all the pictures got corrupted on my camera... But you can imagine.... moving truck, two small trailers, a mini-van, several friends from our small group and church, David's parents, doughnuts for breakfast, Papa John's for lunch, etc. You get the picture...

Poor Allie

Poor little Allie gave us a scare this morning. I was in the bedroom packing and I heard her give a little half-cough. I looked over at her just in time to see her collapse on her back and seize up. I called for David to come up. After about 20 seconds she tried to get up but was having a difficult time walking. As soon as David rounded the corner, it startled her and she ran into the next room with her tail between her legs. He got a hold of her and she was shaking and acting very strange. So we loaded her into the car and took her to the Emergency animal clinic. She laid very still the whole drive to the clinic, which is highly unusual for her. We were there for a bit over an hour. By the time we left, her vitals were looking good, though she was still unusually calm and sleepy. The vet said that it sounds like she did have a seizure, but there's no way of knowing really what caused it. Apparently epilepsy is something that shows up in dogs around her age. Though it could be just some fluke thing. We'll just have to wait to see if and when it happens again. Oh goodie; something to look forward to. As soon as we left the vet, she proceeded to throw up twice in the parking lot, once in the car (on a rag), and once on the front steps of our house. Now she's just sleeping and resting. She does seem to have perked up a bit in the last hour or so. Now we'll be paranoid to leave her alone.

We really did not need more drama in our lives right now. We've currently got more than enough. I'm just relieved that she seems to be alright. She had us worried there for a while.

Feed My Starving Children

This week our small group did a service project at Feed My Starving Children. I took my students for a "field trip" earlier this year, and David went with the church staff a couple of months ago, but we hadn't been together yet. We had a great turn out from the group. Almost everyone was able to make it. Here's a picture of our group. We were pretty proud of our pyramid...


Basically, at FMSC, they have about 8 stations set up where teams of people work together to mix and package bags of food to send to starving children around the world. Each bag gets one scoop of vegetarian chicken flavoring packed with all the essential vitamins, one heaping scoop of dehydrated vegetables, one cup of soy, and one cup of rice. Then each bag is weighed, sealed, and packed in a box. Each box holds 36 bags (each bag provides 6 meals) and our group was able to pack 20 boxes in the hour and a half that we worked.


We had a fun night together, and it's always really satisfying at the end of the night when they tell you how many children you helped feed for a year. They always cook a sample bag of food for the workers to taste when they've finished. It's not bad. Basically.... it tastes like chicken.

Big disappointment...

I lost my job yesterday.

My administrator called me in to talk about a change in teaching assignment. The bad news was that due to low enrollment they had to cut my section of 4th grade for the coming year. The "good news" was that they had an 8th grade Bible class available for me to teach. If you know me at all, that was not good news. I've never been interested in teaching middle school. In fact, I've always avoided it like the plague. To top it off, this pastor's daughter never did very well in her college Bible courses. I believe I got C's, in fact. If I accepted that position, I would regret it every day of the week. So I declined. He seemed to be shocked. For some reason he thought that would be good news for me. I can't fathom why. I have no training whatsoever for that position.

So I am now unemployed and waiting for God to reveal why in the world losing my job is part of the plan.

Liddick reunion

My family is so spread out. My parents live in New York, my older brother lives in Arizona, we live in Minnesota, and my younger brother lives in Kentucky. To top it off, we've all been working in or pursuing ministry, which makes it difficult to get together on weekends and holidays. Needless to say, getting all of us together at the same time doesn't happen very often. In fact, the last time was exactly 2 years ago when we all gathered in Ohio for Matt and Brianne's wedding. However, we finally did it. It didn't last long; even shorter than planned due to David's and my flight getting canceled and us leaving a day later than we were supposed to. But there were about 24 hours when we were all together. Mom, Dad, Mike, Jen, Marlena, Jacob, David, Melissa, Brianne, and Matt.

Doesn't it always figure that there's always going to be one person making a funny face?
Sweet little Marlena had had enough of the pictures and was starting to get silly.

Here's hoping it won't be two more years until we can do this again.
I mean look at those two. How can anyone go two years without seeing those cuties!

Househunting

We've had the pleasure (and stress) of hunting for a house over the past few weeks. The family we've been caretaking for will be returning from Poland at the end of the summer, so it's time to vacate and find a home of our own. House hunting has been quite an experience. I never dreamed it would be so difficult for two people to find one house that they liked equally. In addition to the whole compromise aspect, we've witnessed some interesting houses over the course of our search. Most of the real "gems" have been the foreclosures that we've been through. Typically in those situations, the home owners will take with them all of the appliances, but in one house they also found it necessary to remove all of the toilets and several doorknobs. Most of the time the listing Realtor will hire a cleaning crew to remove any remaining personal property and vacuum the carpets. One house we looked at last week had not experienced that luxury yet, however. I have never seen a house so filthy. It appeared as though the home owners never even owned a vacuum cleaner. There was garbage and personal property left all over the floor throughout the house.

Apparently they owned a dog.
I was able to deduce that from the 3 inches of dog hair on the carpet.

So where do we currently stand in our hunt? Time will tell... We've put an offer in on a short sale listing (which often means the opposite of a short sale), so now we wait to see if the lenders will accept our offer. Pray with us that this truly can be a SHORT sale and not drag out. I'd rather not have to store all of our things and live in temporary housing while we wait to close. It's all in God's hands. We will trust and wait on Him.

A day and a half left...

Well, summer is so close I can almost taste it.

My students have been turning the stories that they just finished writing into books this week. There were a few that finished early, so I encouraged them to write a little biographical information inside the back cover. There was one in particular that made me laugh out loud.

"(Student's name) is the author of this incredible book: A Bully in the Neighborhood. This story will enchant your minds. Don't miss this spectacular book. (Student's name) was born on July 24, 1999. She has a family of 5. (name) started a picture of a flower vase. It took her about a month to finish it. (name) got the idea of this book from a movie she saw. She hopes everyone who reads her book will like it!"

This struck me so funny because everyone else wrote the standard "I am in third grade. Gym and recess are my favorite classes. I have a brother and a sister. etc." But, this girl is really trying to sell her book!

Oh, the Places You'll Go!

We've got 8 1/2 days of school remaining. To be honest, I think I'm more eager than my students for the end of the year!

This morning one of my parents handed me a package with a note that asked me to sign what was inside and return it to her later. School's over for the day, so I'm just now getting to the package. I just opened it up to find a hard-bound copy of Dr. Seuss' "Oh, the Places You'll Go!", which they purchased for their unsuspecting daughter several years ago. Each year they ask her teacher to write a message and sign the book for her. I'm suspecting that they'll give it to her for a graduation present several years down the road. What an amazing gift they're giving her! Once I realized what I held in my hands, I got choked up to think about what a special gift I was holding. And now I'm faced with the wonderful pressure of writing the perfect words, which she won't read for 9 more years. This is something I know she will cherish for years and years and probably even read to her own children some day.

I thought this was such a fantastic idea, I wanted to blog about it as a mental note for myself to do this someday, but also to share the idea with all of you who have little ones starting school in the next few years.

The big 3-0

I had another birthday this week. Like last year, I was blessed by students and parents showing their appreciation and making the day special. I received these flowers from two different students, lots of tea (my favorite beverage), chocolate, and even a special delivery of Coldstone ice cream with Reece's cups in it at the end of the day. Not too shabby:-)

My birthday was actually on Thursday, but since teachers don't like being out late on a school night and David had band practice all evening anyway, we decided to post-pone our festivities until Friday night. We were on a mission to explore something new for a change. You know how you get stuck in a rut, going to the same restaurants all the time... Pastor Henry recommended a couple of places in Minneapolis and St. Paul, so we ventured out last night accompanied by our good friends Bryan and Emily.

Our reservations weren't until 7:30, so we started the evening breaking in Mario Kart on the Wii (one of my birthday gifts from David). Then we drove through a terrential downpour to "Dinkytown" around the U of M campus where we found our first stop, The Loring Pasta Bar. What a fun place! There was so much atmosphere; these pictures simply won't do it justice.

Here, you can kind of see the stage in the middle of the room with a live jazz band playing. The decore was really eclectic.

Melissa's Chicken Marsala with orzo pasta and green beans.

David's Seafood spaghetti

After dinner, we made our way to Grand Avenue in St. Paul where we found Cafe' Latte for dessert. I had a slice of their famous Turtle cake. Delicious! It was a very fun birthday night out!

Grade hopping again...

I just found out (officially) that I will be back in fourth grade next year. While, grade hopping is certainly not ideal, there are a couple of pros to this one. First, this year's third grade class is a wonderful class to move with (my kids especially- but I'm partial). Second, I taught 4th grade last year, so I at least know what to expect and a lot of prep work is already done (not quite as much as for third, but that will give me something to do over the summer). Really, I've foreseen that this was a strong possibility since the beginning of the year, so I've felt an even stronger sense of responsibility (than normal) to prepare my students for fourth grade, knowing that I might be their teacher. I think it will work out well.

Best pet product ever!

Now that spring has sprung, we've been trying to get Allie out for walks as much as possible. It's been frustrating though, because it's like we have to re-train her on how to walk nicely on a leash (a skill she's never fully mastered). The beagle in her has her following whatever scent comes her way, and she spends the entire walk weaving back and forth, tripping up anyone who is accompanying her. Passing other pedestrians and especially other dogs has always been a challenge. Fortunately she's never been a barker, but she's so social that she always pulls like crazy, making it nearly impossible to control her. We've watched "The Dog Whisperer" and have tried several of Ceasar's techniques, but have found it difficult to cure her of this behavior. Until today. Earlier this week I took a trip to Petco to purchase a "Gentle Leader."


We have never taken an easier walk with Allie until today. Right from the moment we walked out the front door there was a marked difference. After only about a minute, she had adjusted to the fact that she could no longer pull and control us. Because of the position of the leash on the collar, she was forced to walk in the direction we chose, so she gave up trying. She calmly walked right beside us and there was slack in the leash the entire walk. We knew the true test would be walking by other dogs and people. That has never been easier. She clearly was more alert and interested in them, but did not fight to get closer. I was utterly amazed.

So for all you dog owners out there, if walking your dog stresses you out like it did us, I HIGHLY recommend this product! (End of commercial :-) )

A new addition to the pond

My bird-geek is showing again. Last year I reported my excitement when the great blue heron showed up in our back pond. Tonight David discovered a new duck out back. (It gets a little old seeing the same old Canadian geese and mallards, so it's always exciting to see something new. ) I quickly whipped out my binoculars and bird book to identify our new friends as Bufflehead ducks. We have a male and female. They're fun to watch because they dive under water in search of food. I hope they stick around through the summer.

The male Bufflehead


The female Bufflehead

(How come in wildlife, the males are usually the more attractive?
That doesn't seem quite fair, does it?)

A little excitement coming home

Last weekend we went up to Andover to attend an Avalon concert at our friends Dan and Angie's church. Afterward, it was about 10:30 when we were passing through the town of Blaine, heading down the highway and we heard some sirens. So we looked all around us and noticed 2 police cars racing down the oncoming lanes. I remember saying out loud, "Oh, I wonder where they're headed." Coincidently, they took the turn around about 20 yards ahead of us to join our lane and then we couldn't see where they went from there. Seconds later, from out of nowhere about 8 more police cars appeared, completely blocking off our two lanes, beginning with the car in front of us. A couple of seconds later there were probably 15 cops out of their cars with guns drawn. At that time we could see that they had pulled over two cars on the side street, each carrying 2 people (I think). At first we were like, "Wow, we get front row seats to see what goes down!" But then we were like, "There are a lot of guns out right now; our position could be a little dangerous." We kind of ducked down in our seats a little (our lanes were completely blocked by police cars; there was no escaping...), but once we realized that the people in the cars were surrendering without a fight I got a little brave and pulled my camera out. You can't see a whole lot, but if you look carefully you can see a couple different officers with their guns drawn. I waited a week to post this, hoping I could find out what that was all about, but no luck. Incidently, when we finally were able to move on, we could see that those first two police cars had pulled two additional cars over that were just out of our sight. In all, they pulled over 4 cars and arrested at least 6 people, I think. I'll always wonder what happened there, but at least I know why I was stuck in traffic for 1/2 hour at 10:30 on a Friday night. There were other people in that traffic jam that probably have no clue.

Spring Break in Denver

We just got back from a spring break trip to see David's sister Julie and her family in Denver, Colorado. Our first day there was beautiful and sunny so we drove to Colorado Springs to visit Balanced Rock at the Garden of the Gods. It was a gorgeous day and such a blessing to be able to spend some time outside after being trapped inside all winter.


David's mom and Dad were able to join us for this trip, so the family was all together for the first time since Thanksgiving '06! We had a great time together and it was lots of fun spending some time with our nieces!

Emily's first time bowling

Here's a cute clip of our niece, Emily's first time bowling. Little ones have it made bowling these days! I'd never seen the bowling ball launcher before; it helped so much that we had to really work to keep up with her score!

Old friends...

I was thrilled to be able to meet up with Kayla, my el. ed. buddy from IWU while we were in Colorado. We haven't seen each other in about 4 years (when oldest Lamb niece, Emily was born). Thanks f0r driving to see us, Kayla! It was great catching up with you!

Blasts from the past

Happy new year to you all! I hope your holidays all went well. I, for one enjoyed a very relaxing Christmas break.

My parents just sent a CD of family slides they'd just converted to digital. I just browsed through them and got a real kick out of them. I thought I'd post a few for your enjoyment. Some of you may recognize some other faces in these pictures...

Little Me on a beach somewhere... Great tans came so easily back then...

My very first trip to Disney World. Winnie the Pooh made me a little nervous.
Older bro, Mike doesn't seem too shy, though!

I just thought this picture was hilarious. I'd like to know what was going on that put those expressions on our faces! My first guess was Christmas morning, but those are no warm footie pajamas we're wearing... It's got to be spring or summer.

Little me with my favorite cousin, Kristen (VanHarken-Hofer).
We were two peas in a pod back then.

I'm sure all you ladies remember the pink foam rollers.
It makes my head hurt just looking at this picture.
This was a Saturday night ritual for us.

Allie's Winter Workout

Minnesota winters can be pretty harsh. Long periods of time pass without being able to get the dog out for a little exercise. When we took Allie in for her spring check-up this year we discovered that she'd gained a whopping 5 pounds in only one year. So, we've been more intentional at trying to get Allie walked regularly and have switched to feeding her bites of apple instead of the normal dog treat.

A few days ago we tried something new. We'd seen Ceasar Millan do this on "The Dog Whisperer", so we thought we'd give it a shot. We had Allie walk on the treadmill. It took some bribery. She needed some motivation to walk towards. But she's been putting in about 1/2 mile each time she does it. Not quite as much as our normal outdoor walk, but better than nothing!

Enjoy the video!

Family Photo Shoot

It was VERY cold, but we managed to get some pretty great family pictures taken. Wish we had Mike, Jen, and the kids there so the family could have been complete!

Liddick Thankmas 2007

We had the privilege of hosting the Liddick family Thanksgiving/Christmas celebration this year. Unfortunately due to the massive number of miles between Minnesota and Arizona we were short one branch of the family tree (missing older brother, Mike and family), but the six remaining members of the family had a great time together. Mom and Dad and Matt and Brianne all arrived (separately) on Wednesday just moments (literally) after David delivered and set up a king sized bed that had been given to us. (Mom and Dad were grateful because it meant no sofa-bed). Dad instantly took to the Nintendo Wii and was a bowling/golfing fool all weekend. Thursday morning Matt, Brianne, and David went to play in our church's anual "Turkey Bowl" while mom and I started cooking the feast. We had a slight problem with the digital timer telling us the turkey was done an hour early, but we just tied it back up, threw it back in the oven for a while, and it turned out absolutely delicious.

Hours of fun with the Wii was had by all.

Allie was pretty worn out from all the excitement. She sat still for an amazing amount of time while "Aunt Brianne" played with her new camera.

We did a little bit of shopping on Friday (no door busters) and went to see "August Rush" in the afternoon. It was a great movie, but definitely a tear-jerker. Saturday was spent packing, playing Wii, a tour of my school, and the Saturday service at church and then the family hit the road for their very long drives back to New York and Kentucky.

It was a great weekend together. Thanks Mom, Dad, Matt, and Brianne for making the trip!

Elementary graffiti

I found this written on one of my classroom walls when I was cleaning up the other day. I don't know whether to be flattered or offended that I then had to clean it up. David said I should be flatterfended. I'm just glad it was written in pencil and not something more permanent. I can think of a lot worse things to find written on my wall. I know this kind of behavior is nothing to encourage, but it did make me smile a little.