*Content Sigh*

Now this is true relaxation. My dear husband and I are house/pet-sitting for a friend through Sunday, while she and her family are down in Texas house-hunting. We're away from my family, away from "the city" (at least seemingly), and I've got today off from work. Life is good.

This house is wonderful. It's old, and it needs a lot of work, but it's a bit of a sprawling rambler on several acres of land that still mostly wooded. It's not too far from a sizable city no matter which direction you go, but it's far enough off the main highway that even the roar of traffic is toned down to a subtle rumble. Also, there's a huge tub in the master bathroom that is simply perfect for a good, hot bubble bath. There's nothing like soaking in hot water and bubbles for a while just before curling up in bed next to your nice, warm husband and falling blissfully asleep. :~D I don't think I've slept that well in ages.

As for "life as we know it", it continues in much the same way that it's been...slowly, but steadily, improving. Mom's job is turning out to be even more awesome than we'd at first hoped. Already--after only a month--the management at her store is pushing for her to have more hours (she was started out part-time, since she didn't have prior sales experience), and more responsibility, with the aim of being trained into management as soon as possible. AND, their employee of the month program is set up so that everyone in the store comes together at some point during the month and votes for whomever they think deserves it. Well, mom got the first employee of the month award at her store--almost unanimously! She found out yesterday, and it's so exciting! God is really moving there, and I can hardly wait to see what'll happen next...

I'm still at my job with the Verizon yellow pages, though I'm starting to look for the next opportunity that God has for me. I'm so ready to be out of there. I've certainly been learning to be humble, though, and I've had ample opportunity to "rejoice in the Lord always"--which I am exceedingly thankful for! I'm hoping to get into the nonprofit sector, though I don't know how soon that'll happen...

In other news, before we arrived at this little wooded sanctuary last night, things were really, really weird. We'd stopped for dinner about fifteen minutes up the highway from here, and as we were heading from the restaurant to the house, going up a small incline, my car sputtered, refused to accelerate, and then started smelling strongly of gasoline. Not good. So, we pulled over and turned the flashers on, turned the car off, climbed out, and tried to see underneath the car as best we could. Mind you, I'd forgotten my flashlight and we were on the streatch of highway just before the street lights began, so we could only see when a car drove by in our direction and its headlights lit up the ground for a moment. And, of course, in the moment what should we see but a puddle of gas on the ground under my car? So, we called my dad (a.k.a. The Car Expert) and explained the situation to him, he came out with flashlight and tools, made sure it wasn't leaking anymore when it was running, and had us follow him in his car down to the gas station just up the road. However, I missed the part where he said "turn right at the light", and thought he'd said "it's on the right side of the road". He took off in my car and I couldn't follow right away, because of the string of cars that came next, and it was only about the time we were passing the light that we saw the gas station back off the main highway a little way, and had no way to turn around. It's a divided highway, and the earliest turn around point is more than a mile up the road. More like four or five miles up the road. So, I try to call my dad on his cell to let him know why it's going to take us an extra ten mintues to get to where he is, only to find that his cell phone is sitting safely in his car right in front of us. Great. This is where Stephen gets out of the car and walks back to the gas station, and I go on to turn the car around and come back. Well, as I'm coming back down the street where I'd turn around, getting into the left turn lane to get back onto the highway, this little old guy makes a turn onto the road I'm sitting on...and goes directly into the first of the two cars in front of me in the turn lane. Then, he corrects that only to hit the second one as well! I back up, lest he hit my dad's car too, and see him back his car out of the door of the car in front of me, and continue on his merry way up the road without even stopping! The two cars in front of me then turned and took off after him, and I failed to get license plate numbers or make/model of any of the cars! Blast!

I eventually made it back to the gas station, and dad found that my fule line had just come loose, so he tightened it up, when something else happened. Dad realized that my tabs were expired on my car. About a month ago. *rolls eyes* As if it hadn't been enough of an adventure so far! After that, dad followed us the rest of the way here, and, since mom's name is on my car too, he said she'd go get the tabs and then he'd bring them to us this evening. Until then, we are forbidden to go anywhere lest we get pulled over and ticketed.

So, there you have it. An update from myself, with all the odd ins and outs that I could remember thrown in.

God bless!