Evacuation and other Excitement

At the Goodland museum Cop Exhibit

Eli the Cop

Evie the Cop

A couple weeks ago, my mom and I were working in the basement when we heard a lot of pounding.  I went outside and saw a backhoe hitting the pavement in the bank parking lot next to our house with its digger.  I got Eli and we sat and watched the backhoe for a while.  As it turns out, whacking the pavement with a digger isn't the proper way to remove a section of a parking lot.  Because we had to evacuate soon after.  It seems they broke a gas main right there.  My mom's house was in the evacuation zone also, so we all ended up out of the streets (for 5 whole hours).  We went to the local museum, then out to dinner and finally over to the Methodist church which was setting up for the "evacuation victims."  It was so surreal.  The pastor came over and asked us how we were doing, in such a nice and sympathetic tone.  He asked how the kids were holding up, too.  Our two crazy kids who had found another kid to play with and were having a ball, they probably thought this the best day ever.  Yeah, I think they were fine.  And we had only been out of the house a few hours, we weren't like those poor people on the east coast right now.  The Red Cross came and asked us to fill out paperwork with blanks like "Pre Disaster Address."  It was so silly.  These resources are meant for people in way worse situations than leaving their homes for an evening, I mean some people take longer shopping trips than our evacuation.While the Red Cross was explaining that they had set up hotel rooms for us, the gas company people gave the all clear, so that was it.  That was our entire harrowing evacuation story.

The children's section in the upcoming bookstore!

In more exciting news, we are making a lot of progress right now. Three weeks ago, I called everyone on the list of licensed contractors in Goodland for the fourth time.  And one actually came out!  He built the dividing wall between our living space and the store!  Now you can really see how the spaces will look.
And some students from Northwest Technical College are coming out and running all of our new wiring as well as bringing the old wiring up to code.  We only pay for materials and the students get real world experience, so it is really great.  Now if we could only think of a good bookstore name... Got any suggestions?
 

And we finished our penny floor finally, here is our bathroom floor. 

Jobs

Okay, I don't know how to break this to you, so I will just say it:
Jordan got a job.
Jordan starts next Monday as the Director of IT for the City of Goodland.  He is very excited.  Part of his new job will be to implement new technologies around town and he is psyched about it.
I feel a little torn because my vision of our moving here would be us working side by side.  Now he will be working at the city building and I will be running the household, homeschooling the kids and running a bookstore.  We will hire someone and can afford to pay them with Jordan working, so don't join in my pity party :)
There has been a major change in our focus with this job though.  Now we don't have to have this bookstore sustain us, we can focus on giving Goodland what it needs.  A community place to hang out and have a coffee and chit chat.  We don't have to create a bookstore that is jammed to the rafters with books, we want a relaxing cafe atmosphere (with books).
Here is what one area of the future store looks like now:

Just add books

Entry way

These are some old stained glass windows we found at thrift store that are cool:

3 stained glass windows

We got something completed!

Okay, that might not sound like much. We've been here for more than 2 months, but finally a project is complete!
This weekend we finished  building the window wells for two of the three egress windows we need in the basement.  Instead of doing two small wells, we decided to build one long well with stairs and a topper.
Yeah, before you ask, we are crazy.

We dug out the area right after we first moved in, but then have been waiting for the contractors to come and put in the windows.  When they came and put the first and biggest one in, they told us we didn't really have to wait.  So we started!

We build the wall out of cement blocks, then covered them with Quikwall,  it is a look I am sure every Arizonan is well acquainted with.

Our bedroom window, now code compliant

I think it looks pretty good, but for us it is more than that.  We have been working on each project only to a certain point and then stopping and waiting for this professional or that item to be shipped to us.  Now we feel like we really have turned a corner and are able to start completing what we start!! 

Sometimes all you need is that one thing to get motivated!  

View from inside our future bedroom

The Dreams of Children and the Careers of Adults

What is with kids these days?  Have you asked a teenager recently what they want to be when they grow up?
I know,  I know, it disgusts me too.  "Business man," they say; or "nurse," "truck driver" or "salesman." I mean goodness gracious.  What a bunch of wimpy dreams.  Where are the astronauts and artists?  The business owners or writers?
Ask a child want to be when they grow up?  I knew a genius boy once who graduated high school at 8.  He told me he wanted to be an astronaut, flutist and, also, compose specifically for the flute (I understand there is a lack of flute music in the world). 
My daughter said she wants to be a doctor then, when she's done with that, a ballerina.
And my teenage cousin wants a job that pays well.
When does this change?  As children we want the world, and we think we can get it.  At some age, we internalize the notion that we just need money.  The best we can hope for is a job that pays tons and we actually like.    I would literally weep if I asked my 6 year old what her dream was for the future and she said "Stability."

I've got big news for every parent out there.  Your child was made for more than to plug into the system and make some money in order to be self reliant via consumption.
What a waste of potential for us all to be held back by fear and practicality.   There is no greatness in stability- it is in the wilderness that we find God.

So I am going to take some time this week to listen and encourage those around me with the courage to tell their stupid, crazy, lovely dreams for life.  And I hope you do too.

On the other side, do you have something great and stupid you should be doing?  Does your child have a wonderfully idealistic, impossible future plan?

Found Things

There is a great thing about buying an old church that no one ever told me about...tons of weird stuff that was left behind. Here are some highlights:

Puppet Robot, it's mouth actually moves when you pull the block on the bottom

A sword

Termites, don't know why the church wanted those :)

Old costumes, thrones, fake pillars and tons of flower arrangements

My childhood.  This wasn't actually left at the church, but  I was wondering what happened to it, turns out my mom still has it in a box with taxes and travel.

The sword again because it is cool

and Professor Owl, of course

Our first month

It is July!  We are coming up on one month in this place.  It has gone by in the blink of an eye.  Most of what we have accomplished is demolition, so it probably actually looks worse now than when we started.  But sometimes life is like that.  You've gotta break some things down to start building again.

Before

Here was the stage.  This took us so long to pull up.  It turned out the top part of the stage was made of the hardwood floor, which we decided to keep.  It is awesome cedar wood, but to remove it without ruining the tongue and groove took 2 days.  The bottom part was simply particle board so we thought we would quickly cut though it and junk it all.  

Sadly there was a electrical cable running it that Jordan cut.
 After spending the  morning fixing that, we were able to disassemble the rest.

After

Our other big accomplishment was taking down the walls separating the bathrooms.

This was an adventure mainly because you have no idea how the people before you did anything.  So you see a wall that is not structural, that's 2x4s don't even make it up to the floor joist above and you think "that will be easy to take down". Little do you know that the drywall on the ceiling has been strangely nailed only to this floating wall.  And when you cut though a beam, the ceiling will start to fall down on you.

After the sagging ceiling debacle, Jordan used his step-father's reciprocal saw to remove the studs.And hits the copper pipe.  

After

Cut pipe next to board

So that is enough about our screw ups.  We also had a really cool moment.  As I was pulling down the sagging drywall in the bathroom, Jordan said "A book just fell out of there!"

I laughed and said "Yeah right."  But then looked down and saw this book there.  Opening it up we found it was a family bible that they put up there while remodeling.  Very cool. 

"This Bible placed in this church, January 4, 1969 while remodeling the bathrooms.  Bible given to me by children of Jacob Chauncey and Eva Beckner following their deaths.  Pastor Loren (Something)  The Wesleyan Church"

Homeschool lessons from home improvement projects

You can learn and teach in virtually any setting.  But from all this DIY construction we are doing, our kids have gotten to learn some very important lessons.
1. What is Tetanus.
2. What colorful language not to repeat.
3. That the Chinese consider the cricket good luck so mom does not need to chase down and remove every single one from the house.
4. What is cartilage and why Mom's knees creak so much.
5. There is a fast way to do things (Mom's) and a "right" way to do things (Dad's)
6. What is that weird thing we dug up? Cicadas, earth worms, coal...

And the lessons are just continuing!

Things I am going to miss- ONE Community Church

I've been thinking more and more about the way it used to be.  We used to worship with our small group of villagers/ family members/ tribespeople/ whatever  and we had to see these people all the time.  If someone made you angry, you just simply had to face them.  If they did something you disagreed with you couldn't just un-friend them.  You would still see them everyday. 

Two Sundays have past since we've moved here and we haven't visited a single church in Goodland.

Not that Goodland has none.  In fact I think they have 8 or 9.  3 are on the same intersection all staring each other down.   

But we've been visiting and out of town, so haven't been around to go.  And I guess I feel a little nervous about it.  

It is crazy how many denominations there are!  The fact that Jesus died for everyone seems pretty all inclusive.  He wasn't up there on the cross saying "Father, forgive them... but not that guy, he drinks a little much... and that lady gets too wild in worship... oh yeah and not her either, she believes in evolution...and that guy handles snakes, definitively not him..."

Isn't that kinda what we do though?  We all have reasons and arguments for choosing who we will and who we won't worship the creator of the universe with.  We aren't talking big questions here like, um, is Christ your personal saviour.  We are more worried about the song choice and how often they discuss tithing.

Bushmen community at Gope, Central Kalahari Game Reserve, Botswana

And worship was a natural part of that.  I think if you took a bushman of the Kalahari today and told him about how we have created hundreds of slightly different ways to worship God, he would laugh.  

Worshiping together doesn't mean you agree on everything, heck it doesn't even mean you like each other.  It just means you both acknowledge the Creator; you want to praise Him, and you know there is something special about worshiping with others.

ONE Community Church, 5th birthday

All that being said, ONE community church was the church where my husband came to God, it was the first church our children went to, and I loved it.  The worship was great, the messages pushed you to go out and be God's hands and feet.  How do you find another church "home?"

Really, any suggestions?

We're Here!

We made it to Kansas!
Actually we made it 2 days ago, but as you can imagine, we've been busy.

Our current "living room," chilling & watching a movie

We set up different areas upstairs where the store will be.  Since we won't be doing any renovations up here, all our stuff can stay like this for a while.

Now it feels okay, but there have been some hard moments.  Like when we looked at the 20 foot moving van and said "We can not fit everything in that!!"

Then, after we drove for two days and opened up said truck and said "We can not get all that out!"

When we finally got it all out, and piled in a lump in the middle of our new home, my thought was "We are crazy.  What made me think we could do this?  We should have just gotten a house and been normal!  How do we get ourselves into these things?"

But...  then there were other moments.  Walking to the park with the kids and playing.  Watching Evelyn look around the things the church left like an explorer to a new world.

And my exploring an old book I found with all the church business beginning with its founding meeting in 1920.  There are records of the church board meetings, tithing records (through the Great Depression), membership records and even a baptism list.

Sticky-noted was a page where the board decided to build a new church because their old one was burned down.  They got the land by trading their lot for 4 lots one of their member's owned.

 I intend to scan all the pages, and then see if the local genealogical society wants the book.  For me, the best part is that my grandfather's father was the same denomination this church was back in the day.

My grandpa would always say he was so glad when his dad became Christian because then he got Sundays off.  I miss his humor these days, and his strong back and broad shoulders.

This adventure is crazy so far.  Moments may be crazy or overwhelming.  But I am glad we are here.

Strangely, I keep thinking of a quote "Called to fight, asked to yield. Like any true warrior, under his general's orders."  (T. L. Higley).  I can not and am not supposed to do this under my own steam.  I have to step out in faith, but then fall back on God.  So my first lesson I get to really internalize from this is I CAN"T DO THIS,  AND THAT'S OK.

Of termites and time lines

So... the building inspection was this week.

Basement floor

Jordan, my husband, drove all the way up to Goodland, Kansas for it.  The termite inspection was first, and it came back positive.  Positive, as in positive for termites, not positive as in good news.
But all is not lost!  Since this is before the property has changed hands, Four Square Church as agreed to pay for the repairs and termite barrier (?) around the building.

Nice lighting

Our big expenditure will be for egress windows in the basement.  We want to put our bedrooms down there, so all the windows have to open at least 5.7 square feet to allow firefighters to crawl in and save us.  Ours are not.  And they have to be closer to the floor.
This is just the first of many things we will have to pay for.

Typical a communal fridge!

The problem is I don't really like paying for things.  I often have the problem where I make my mind up to buy something to make my life substantially easier, and then see the price tag and say "Eh, I've been doing it the hard way all these years, what's the big deal?" and never buy it!!  Sometimes I am talking crazy stupid things I don't buy.  You know I make 4 loaves of bread every week for my family because they raised the price from $1 to $1.25.  That is a 25% increase!  Overnight!!  I looked at that and said "I am putting my foot down.  I'll just spend 3 hours in the kitchen every week and not pay that quarter!  You take that grocery store!"
I guess I am going to have to get over this and actually start paying money for things (ugg).  I take such pride from my stingy-ness.  Now I have to grow, and take risks, and put money on the line (ugg).
In other news, we've got our moving date!  So if you want to see us in sunny Arizona, I suggest you call in May.
And we are still asking for any book donations y'all have!  Thanks for the donations we've already got!

Things I am going to miss- The Hope Women's Center

Hope Women’s Center serves women and 

teen girls facing any difficult life situation. 

Whether faced with drug/alcohol 

addiction, domestic abuse, sexual abuse, 

unplanned pregnancy, unemployment, 

prostitution, homelessness or family 

conflict, trained mentors and teachers are 

available to provide assistance, 

encouragement and support.

... or so says their website.  But for me, it has helped me meet women, make friends and grow my faith.  

I started volunteering at the center in January of 2011, and my first day was daunting.  

After going through the training I was asked if I would like to work in the store, at the desk, teach classes or mentor women with their problems.  Teaching and mentoring seemed so scary.  

The women who already worked there had this amazing biblical knowledge.  Client A comes in and says "I have a problem with this random issue"  then the mentor says "Let's look in the Bible, here is the exact passage that deals with your random issue."  I know I don't have close to that level of knowledge.

Teaching says to me lesson plans, homework, classroom management,  and out of my league.  I was kinda interested in doing it, but I wouldn't have admitted it.

But after just a short time, Terry and Glenda were asking me what else I would like to do.  Soon I was teaching and loving it.  Normally, after High School, you don't get the chance to really discuss things with people.  You talk about day to day stuff, but discussions on morals, life principles, even hearing someone's story.

Think of your friends you've made as an adult. In how many cases do you know their history?  What were their turning points?  Why were they saved?  What brought them to the point where they knew, KNEW, they needed God?

At Hope Women's Center, I got the chance to hear stories and even to affect the way they would end sometimes.  I got to hear people's problems with Christianity.  Those church experiences that made them decide they would never go back.  That person who called themselves a Christian who victimized them so much.

These aren't the things you get going to Meetup events or on Facebook.

Would you like to get involved with this dynamic group of women?  To spend a bit of you week serving and getting filled?  

On June 1 at 6pm is the Women with Hope Gathering.

They'll show you around and even give you a light dinner! (The one I went to was delicious) You can see if you want to get behind this mission and see if it's where God is bringing you.

Click here to contact them and sign up!

The adventure begins...

So we've done it.  We got word that we are now under contract.  We are moving.
We are buying an old church in Goodland, Kansas.

 We are planning on converting it to some living space, and space for a used book store/art gallery.

Right now, we are at the start of the zoning process.  And seeing how zoning works here in San Tan Valley, Arizona, we hope it is faster in a small town.
We have never lived in a small town, but we are excited.  If everything goes smoothly, we should be moving at the beginning of June.