Okay, since February of 2006 we've rented three houses, had three great sets of landlords and had three flooded houses. What is up with that? In our previous 33 years we've never had a flooded house!!
Yep, the garage of our rental flooded today. I had a load of laundry in the washer and Ralph opened the door to the garage and found the floor covered with water. When I came to check it out I also noticed that the washer was full of dirty water and the utility sink was also full of of the same. So we called our landlords and they came out within a couple of hours along with a Roto-rooter guy.
Turned out the sewer line between the house and the street was partially blocked in a few places with tree roots which caused the line to back up to the lowest spot in the system, the garage. So the Roto-rooter guy went to work with a big snake thing, a camera and a blade to cut the roots out. It took about three hours to do the job, including treating the line with a root killing substance of some kind. Which meant I had to wait another three hours after that to use any water in the house. Finally, I was able to re-wash the laundry, twice more actually. Once with hot water and double soap and then a regular wash and dry.
We are hoping this is our last bit of water in a house for a while. Have to say our landlords were great! They reacted right away, stayed through the whole process and even brought me a bouquet of roses from their garden. We certainly have been blessed by them!!
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Time flies
A friend noted the other day that I haven't blogged in a long while and I thought yes I have, then I looked today and found it had indeed been a month. Doesn't seem that long...
We've been busy concentrating on finding jobs. It's interesting because the vast majority of the jobs offered now-a-days are offered online. No more schlepping around town banging on doors!! All city, county, state and federal jobs are advertised online as well tons of jobs from local companies. In fact, some don't even keep applications on hand in their businesses they just refer you to their web site. Even if they advertise in the local paper the ad often refers you to their web site to apply. That's a big change that we've never encountered before. Makes it kind of interesting. Still takes hours and hours, but at least we aren't out there wasting gasoline!
The state of Washington has a new E-recruiting system, and personally, I can't stand to use the thing and I consider myself a pretty technical person. It's just hard to use!! I'm on at least my fourth password and I've used their tech line for help a few times, so I try to avoid using it at all. Apparently a lot of state agencies are avoiding it too. More and more are posting jobs on their individual agency sites rather than using the new all-encompassing system. So rather than having a "one stop" job site it's all fragmented again. Oh well. Keeps things interesting. We continue to apply for anything that seems relevant and we still need your prayers to find the jobs we need. Thanks!
Also keep our health in your prayers as our medical coverage expires on September 30! We've both had checkups and are fine, although our doc is doing a little follow-up with Ralph this week and then we both should be done for a year or two.
We've been so blessed to have this house, the peace and quiet when we are home is fabulous and we have had lots of visits from friends and family. We've also done a fair piece of visiting others too. My old office even invited us to their monthly potluck lunch...it was a Mexican theme and they figured I might have a good new recipe or two. Good thinking. I made pollo en mole de cacahuate...one of Ralph's and my favorites. That's chicken in peanut sauce. There was a ton of really great food there. This group has always had a great crop of great cooks and it was wonderful to visit and catch up with everyone.
We've had some sad things happen too. Our friends and former neighbors, the Krumlands, lost their youngest son in a car crash at the end of August, just before his 46th birthday. We are friends not only with them, but with one of their daughters, MerrieLynn and her family, too. Please keep these families in prayer as they are still struggling with this great loss. The Krumlands spend a month in Mazatlan each year and are known in that community as well.
Our fellow worker in Mazatlan, Mary Ann, also lost her mom. She'd been diagnosed with cancer earlier this spring and thankfully the Jackson's were on furlough so Mary Ann was able to be with her mom for her last months. Please keep the Jacksons and their family in prayer.
My cousin Donna, who visited us this past spring in Mazatlan, fell while volunteering at church and broke her hip! She's had surgery and is now in rehab, hoping to get back home in a couple of weeks. It's been a struggle for her because she's one busy woman and likes her independence. She misses her camera club, book club, exercise classes at the Y every day, etc. She can't wait to get home!! We were kind of hoping and praying that she'd be home for her 75th birthday on October 2, but it doesn't look like that will happen. So, we'll be celebrating with her there!! Can't let that milestone go by without some sort of shindig!
We were able to trade our truck for a nice newer Hyundai and we are so thankful! It is cheaper to drive (gas here has been hovering between $2.75 and $3.05) and cheaper to insure. Plus...I CAN DRIVE IT!!!! I've driven three times in the last two weeks!! Woohoo! It's nice to get behind the wheel again.
Our new telephone service allows us to make long distance calls to the US and Canada at no extra charge, so we have been taking advantage of that luxury! Even got to talk with my friend Brenda twice while she was on furlough in Canada. We can only e-mail usually when she's in Pakistan so it was nice to talk with her. We've talked with loads of other friends and family members too, so that's been nice.
Bottom line is we are happy to be home!! Thanks so much for your prayers for us and others! What a great blessing you are to us!
We've been busy concentrating on finding jobs. It's interesting because the vast majority of the jobs offered now-a-days are offered online. No more schlepping around town banging on doors!! All city, county, state and federal jobs are advertised online as well tons of jobs from local companies. In fact, some don't even keep applications on hand in their businesses they just refer you to their web site. Even if they advertise in the local paper the ad often refers you to their web site to apply. That's a big change that we've never encountered before. Makes it kind of interesting. Still takes hours and hours, but at least we aren't out there wasting gasoline!
The state of Washington has a new E-recruiting system, and personally, I can't stand to use the thing and I consider myself a pretty technical person. It's just hard to use!! I'm on at least my fourth password and I've used their tech line for help a few times, so I try to avoid using it at all. Apparently a lot of state agencies are avoiding it too. More and more are posting jobs on their individual agency sites rather than using the new all-encompassing system. So rather than having a "one stop" job site it's all fragmented again. Oh well. Keeps things interesting. We continue to apply for anything that seems relevant and we still need your prayers to find the jobs we need. Thanks!
Also keep our health in your prayers as our medical coverage expires on September 30! We've both had checkups and are fine, although our doc is doing a little follow-up with Ralph this week and then we both should be done for a year or two.
We've been so blessed to have this house, the peace and quiet when we are home is fabulous and we have had lots of visits from friends and family. We've also done a fair piece of visiting others too. My old office even invited us to their monthly potluck lunch...it was a Mexican theme and they figured I might have a good new recipe or two. Good thinking. I made pollo en mole de cacahuate...one of Ralph's and my favorites. That's chicken in peanut sauce. There was a ton of really great food there. This group has always had a great crop of great cooks and it was wonderful to visit and catch up with everyone.
We've had some sad things happen too. Our friends and former neighbors, the Krumlands, lost their youngest son in a car crash at the end of August, just before his 46th birthday. We are friends not only with them, but with one of their daughters, MerrieLynn and her family, too. Please keep these families in prayer as they are still struggling with this great loss. The Krumlands spend a month in Mazatlan each year and are known in that community as well.
Our fellow worker in Mazatlan, Mary Ann, also lost her mom. She'd been diagnosed with cancer earlier this spring and thankfully the Jackson's were on furlough so Mary Ann was able to be with her mom for her last months. Please keep the Jacksons and their family in prayer.
My cousin Donna, who visited us this past spring in Mazatlan, fell while volunteering at church and broke her hip! She's had surgery and is now in rehab, hoping to get back home in a couple of weeks. It's been a struggle for her because she's one busy woman and likes her independence. She misses her camera club, book club, exercise classes at the Y every day, etc. She can't wait to get home!! We were kind of hoping and praying that she'd be home for her 75th birthday on October 2, but it doesn't look like that will happen. So, we'll be celebrating with her there!! Can't let that milestone go by without some sort of shindig!
We were able to trade our truck for a nice newer Hyundai and we are so thankful! It is cheaper to drive (gas here has been hovering between $2.75 and $3.05) and cheaper to insure. Plus...I CAN DRIVE IT!!!! I've driven three times in the last two weeks!! Woohoo! It's nice to get behind the wheel again.
Our new telephone service allows us to make long distance calls to the US and Canada at no extra charge, so we have been taking advantage of that luxury! Even got to talk with my friend Brenda twice while she was on furlough in Canada. We can only e-mail usually when she's in Pakistan so it was nice to talk with her. We've talked with loads of other friends and family members too, so that's been nice.
Bottom line is we are happy to be home!! Thanks so much for your prayers for us and others! What a great blessing you are to us!
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