I was humbled . . .

We have some neighbors who are, shall we say, a bit "odd."  That's putting it nicely.  They have some issues, so to speak, and there's a bunch in the family that are just not all there.  That causes problems in more ways than you can imagine.  Because the patriarch of the family passed away, they are now living on very little money, and things have become desperate.  They decided to auction off all their "stuff" and hopefully, auction their house, too.  I'm not sure what they're going to do after, but that's not the point of this entry. 

I had been to their place to look at their "stuff" well before they decided to have an auction.  I guess you could have called me a vulture.  I was there for me.  To see what I could find that I wanted, and to see what kind of deal I could get.  I like antiques and other "old" stuff, and knowing what I knew, figured I would have a lot to look through and would find some cool stuff.  I was not wrong! There was a LOT of "stuff" to look through, and of course I found a few things I had to have.   

When I showed them what I wanted, I was told "you can just have it.  You've always been nice to us."  Now, these are people that have had legal problems, and lots of other personal problems.  Like I said previously.  While I have always been nice "to" them, in the few encounters I've had with them, I haven't always been nice "about" them.  I've made my own comments to others about them, and I've wondered myself about all their issues.   In short, I was human, and believed myself to be "better" than them.   I could not have been more wrong!  

I was totally humbled by what they said to me!  I don't know if humbled is even the right word.  I know that I haven't stopped thinking about what they said to me and I know that this was a very important lesson that Jesus was teaching me!  Here I am, someone who's finally doing OK financially (I have a good job, can work as much overtime as I want to make extra money and can afford to pay my bills and even save some money to buy some new "stuff.") I can certainly afford to pay for the couple things I picked out from these people, and they, who have so little they are selling just about everything they have, are telling me that because I was "nice" to them I can just HAVE it.   How humbling is THAT?   

I don't know that I'm even writing this in such a way to show what a profound impact this has had on me.   If you've read my blog in the past or know me at all, you know I'm not usually at a loss for words!  Ha!  I'm just totally and completely awed by such a simple act of kindness.  All because someone thought I was "nice" to them, when in reality, I just was not "mean" to them the way most other folks are.  I saw Jesus in this poor, unsophisticated, uneducated, unstable family.  They may not know that Jesus is shining within them, but He is!  I will add this family to my prayers in a way I never did before, and I would ask that you do as well.  Their simple act of kindness toward me has completely floored me.  

This encounter makes me want to strive even harder to be more like Jesus.  He is my rock and my salvation, and the very least I can do is try to emulate Him, to the best of my ability, and remember this time in my life and how someone else was so Christ-like to me, when I absolutely, positively, without a doubt, did not deserve it!   

Like I said, I'm not sure that I'm actually conveying this the way I intended and the way this has impacted me, but right now, it's the best I can do.  I'd like to leave you with one of my FAVORITE new songs.  This is Matt Maher, Because He Lives:  

It is my most fervent wish that Jesus is able to touch you and speak to you the way He  did to me!  

Blessings to All!

Julie 

NEW Dishwasher!

I am SO happy!  Our dishwasher was pretty old . . . it was here for about a year before we moved in, which was 11 years ago this coming July!  That's a LONG time for a dishwasher . . . especially if you have hard water!   Yes, we have hard water, but it tastes AMAZING, and we don't even have a filter on it!  It just comes up from the ground and into our drinking glasses!  AMAZING is the only word I have for our water!    

Our old dishwasher had two cycles . . . ON or OFF.  Yes, that was it!  None of the other cycles worked.  LOL!  It was so bad that the dishes were pretty much CLEAN when they were loaded in the washer!  Greg had this "thing" about rinsing them before putting them in the dishwasher.   The soap dispenser no longer worked, so we just poured the dishwasher detergent in there.  The rinse aid thingy didn't work, either, so there was no chance of having "spot free" glasses.  None, nada, not happening, period.   Did I mention how LOUD it was?  And by LOUD, I mean, if I was sitting here at my laptop in the dining room, watching TV, I couldn't hear the TV over the sound of the dishwasher!  It was LOUD!  I'm pretty sure the people before us never actually had it attached to the cabinets!  The more time that went by, the louder it got!  Seeing as the "delay start" function didn't work any longer, the only way to run it without hearing it was hitting the start button when we went to bed . . . which, considering everything else, made you wonder if it was going to spring a leak and we'd wake up with water all over the kitchen floor!  NOT a very comforting thought at bedtime!   Here's the "old" dishwasher . . . 

So, I saved up some money and sold some stuff and managed to get an  AWESOME deal on a new dishwasher!  I'm SO happy!  We thought about having Aaron install it for us, but after doing some research on-line, we decided to let a professional handle it.  After all, everything in this house appears to be jerry-rigged (as you will probably recall from my last post about the ceiling fan!).   We got a smoking-hot deal on the dishwasher, so I was actually able to afford to pay someone to install it for us, and it was much less expensive than what the store wanted for the install. 

We also decided that we'd pick it up ourselves, and save the delivery fees.   Because my truck has the cap on it, we were pretty sure it wouldn't fit in there.   We lucked out, in that our neighbor needed Abby to get her son's truck from Wausau and bring it home, so Abby met me at the store and we had it loaded into the truck she was driving. 

Here she is bringing it home for me!  

Of course, the ONE DAY it rains is the day we have to haul something!  Not a big deal, though, because we had them add some shrink wrap to it so it would stay nice and dry.  We were a little concerned about getting it out of the truck, but it turns out that this dishwasher is incredibly light!  Abby was able to take it out of the truck all by herself!  

We were able to get the dishwasher installed the very next day, so I was extremely happy!  It works out well that Greg is home during the day and can take care of this kind of stuff, so I don't have to take a day off work or worry about when we're going to get it done.   It ended up taking about three hours to install, but I only had to pay for two hours labor, which was great!   The guy who installed it said that it was really well built and the entire motor (or whatever you want to call it) was totally enclosed to help make it super quiet!  

I know it's hard to see a difference, as they're both black, but trust me, there is a HUGE difference!  The first time we ran it, it was soooooooooooo quiet that I forgot it was on, and went to open it to put something in, and water sprayed out all over!  LOL  I've now learned that you can just pull the door open a little bit, wait five seconds for the water to shut off, and THEN you can add more dirty dishes to it.  :-)   We're so used to rinsing stuff off before putting it in, that I've actually be putting stuff in REALLY dirty, just to see how it does!  And let me tell you, it does an AMAZING job of cleaning all our dishes!   

Yes, I am VERY happy with my new dishwasher!   

Blessings to all! 

Julie

Hello Again!

It's been a rough year, and I guess I just wasn't into blogging.  I was doing everything I could to just keep plodding ahead.  I've been thinking about my blog a lot, and I guess that meant it was time to get moving on it again!  I'm not going to make any promises, but it seems like the time is right to restart this blog!   

With that in mind, rather than going over everything that's been going on here in the middle of nowhere (that would be a LONG post!), I'll just start with something recent!   

If you've read my blog, or know me, you know that nothing is ever as it seems when it comes to any sort of home remodeling or even just updates in our home!   As I've been working on painting the master bedroom (the ONLY room I've never painted in the ten years we've lived here!), I knew we needed to update the ugly old ceiling fan.  I was going to wait until I was all done painting, but that's one job that seems to be taking a little longer than usual.  Not only was the old ceiling fan UGLY, it made a lot of noise when the fan was on.  It was a ticking sound . . . so you get this tick . . . tick . . . tick . . . tick, tick, tick, tick, tick . . . tick . . . tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick, tick  . . . ok, so you get the picture!  It was ANNOYING, to say the least!  Yes, it was something that we kind of got used to (like the sound of traffic when you live on a busy road), but when you're first trying to fall asleep it was awful!   Here's a picture of the old, nasty fan.

So, after work yesterday (yes, I work on Saturdays now, but only because I WANT to, not because I HAVE to!)  -- I guess you may not know, I got a new job last April!  I'm in the health insurance industry now, working for one of the largest health insurance companies in the world!  What that means is that when I go to work on Saturday, it's because I get time and a half for the overtime!  YAY for my budget!    OK, I'm getting off track here . . .  Sorry!

After work, I stopped at Menards (a big home improvement store in this part of the country), to pick out a new ceiling fan.  Erica was with me (she works with me at the new company and gets to make overtime, too! YAY for HER budget!).  Anyway . . . Erica picked one out that was really nice (a Hunter) and was on sale for $70 off!   We couldn't find one in a box, so she asked one of the sales reps if they had any.  The only one left was the floor model.  It was marked down to $109.99.  Seeing as it was the floor model, I did my best to get more of a discount, but they just weren't budging.  I was shooting for $99, but it just wasn't happening.  Oh well, at least I tried!  It was still a GREAT deal.  I figure they saved us about 85% of the work, because basically all we had to do was wire it up!   

It's a good thing that Erica's car allows you to lower the back seat to make the trunk bigger and accessible for putting bigger stuff in.  (We carpool to work and she wanted to drive.)  Oh, not to go off on another tangent here, but with Erica now having an awesome full-time job, she has been able to buy a new car for herself!  She got a great deal on a 2008 Dodge Avenger last month.  Yay for Erica!   So, we were only able to fit that HUGE ceiling fan into her trunk because of the ability to put that seat down.  Whew!  That was a relief!  

So Greg and I start taking the old fan down.  He's removing the screws from the cover plate, and as he's on the last screw, I ask him "it's not going to fall, is it?  Do you want me to hold it."  Just as he's saying "No, there's a bracket holding it up under this" the FAN COMES CRASHING DOWN!  Seriously!  The FAN CAME CRASHING DOWN and landed on the bed!   Can you say HOLY CRAP?!  Well, we sure did!  Ha !   We've found so many things jerry-rigged in this house, but who would have thought that someone would actually jerry-rig a CEILING FAN and NOT use the bracket to attach it to the ceiling!  Seriously, this thing was only hanging by those itty bitty screws that are used to attach the cover plate to the ceiling to hide the wires!   WHAT MORON DOES THAT?!   I'm almost afraid to sit here at my laptop underneath the ceiling fan in the dining room, because it's probably the same!   

We WERE going to give the fan to our friends, Nate and Jess, but when it fell, one of the blades landed between the mattress and the bedframe and snapped. 

Unfortunately, that means it's going to end up in the garbage.  Not much we can do about that!  

Not too much later, we had the new fan up and running!  

What's really cool is that the top light is a night light and leaves a soft glow in the room.  VERY nice!   It was so awesome to sleep last night without that awful ticking noise from the old fan!  It was also comforting to know that the fan was hung properly!  This thing was HEAVY!  It's on a LARGE bracket that is attached to the ceiling studs, so won't be going anywhere and is certainly not going to crash!  This one is also much bigger than the other one, so moves the air a LOT better than the old one.   

So, there you go!  Once again, nothing is ever at it seems at this house!   Oh, and just to leave you with something super cool . . . last Saturday, driving home from work, there were two Bald Eagles munching on a dead deer in the median of Highway 29!  I actually turned around to go back and take some pics!  

One of them flew into the trees on the side of the road. 

How awesome is THAT?!    And, in case you're wondering, all that snow in the picture has now melted!  

Blessings to all! 

Julie

It's a Brand New Year!

2014 started out AWESOME for me!  I woke up this morning to discover that my son and his girlfriend spent the night!  They had been at a party in town earlier in the night and decided to spend the night here!  I'm fairly certain that God knew this was going to happen.  Why?  you ask . . . well, let me backtrack a bit!

After work on New Year's Eve, I stopped at the grocery store for some small lobster tails ($6.99 each).  While I was wandering around the store, I spotted some maple breakfast sausage links that were on sale.  Hmmmmmmmmmmm.  We rarely make breakfast, but sausage and pancakes sounded good to me!  So, off I go to the baking aisle to pick up a box of Bisquick to go with the sausage.  What other reason could there be for me to decide to make breakfast on New Year's Day?  AND, to have a LOT of it available?  Yep!  He was telling me!

So, I woke this morning to find Aaron and Rachel (and Rachel's room mate, Lauren) here, together with Erica (Abby spent the night at the neighbor's house).  Greg started the sausage and got the Bisquick together, when Aaron's former roommates (Robby and Pat) showed up to give him and the girls a ride back home (about an hour away).  They were THRILLED to have some sausage and pancakes before driving home!  So, because I decided on pancakes and sausage, rather than eggs or something else, I had PLENTY for everyone!  I stood at the counter and cooked the pancakes on the griddle I haven't used in YEARS, while the kids all chatted and enjoyed a hearty breakfast!  What a PERFECT WAY to start the new year!

A short time later, our friends called needing our help.  Their van needs a new alternator, but it was stuck about 40 miles away.   We had to find a U-Haul place that was open on New Year's Day so we could rent a trailer to tow the van home.  Finding one within a reasonable distance was NOT an easy task. (Remember, I live in the middle of nowhere!)   We ended up finding one that was about ten miles out of the way, and that I would have to return tomorrow morning before work.  This was NOT the ideal situation, because that would mean I had to park my truck outside, and being a diesel, it was already cold in the mornings.  My block heater is broken, so I can't plug it in, otherwise I wouldn't have cared.  But, oh well.  I'd manage.  Our neighbors need their van, so OK.  Let's go.  About a mile down the road is a place that rents U-Hauls, and as I'm driving past, I see that they have a car trailer sitting there!  YAHOO!   We pull in, even though they didn't answer the phone earlier in the day, and I knocked on their house door.  They were HOME and were quite willing to help us out!  YAHOO!  That meant that once we were done, I could return the trailer right away and park my truck in the garage overnight!  

We drove to where the van was, and only drove about five miles out of the way (I then decided to get exact directions, before we got too far).  We got to the bar where they left the van (long story on why it was there), and I pulled up in front of the van to give it a jump.  Nate figured we had about three minutes before the van would die again, so we had to move quickly.  We got about 3/4 of the way up onto the trailer, when the van died!  ARGH!!!!!   OK, now what.  Well, Greg and Nate went into the bar to ask if there were some guys in there who could help push it.  A guy and his older son came out to help push it up.   There's another VERY long story here, but suffice it to say that we needed yet one more person to help.  (Greg is not able to do anything so physical because of his heart and pacemaker.)  A gentleman in a pickup truck pulled into the parking lot, so we asked him to help.  Problem was, the tire of the van was too close to the edge of the trailer, so it had to be moved over.  We weren't able to get it moved with the steering wheel, so he ended up getting a tow rope out of his truck and tugging the van a bit sideways and then forward to get it on the trailer like we needed!  YAY!!!!!!   Mind you, this was all being done in balmy 5 degree weather!  Yea, it was kind of cold . . . 

So, we were able to take off!  Only problem was, the van was still in neutral, and we couldn't get the door open because of the fenders on the trailer.  ACK!   We had it tied down good and went about ten miles down the road.  Nate and I were both nervous about it being in neutral, so I stopped at a gas station, and using my scarf as a "hook" he was able to grab the gear shifter and get it into neutral.  Remember, we couldn't open the door all the way because of the fenders on the trailer. Once that was done, we had no problems driving it the rest of the way home.   Nate and Jess don't have the best driveway for trying to back a trailer into, but, I gotta tell ya . . . I'm good!  LOL!  I had the trailer/van backed into their yard, right in front of the garage door in about five minutes!   As we were trying to figure out how to get the van back into neutral, without the door opening all the way, Nate discovered that the fender on the driver's side of the trailer had some little doohickeys on it that allow the fender to fold out so you can open your door all the way!  SERIOUSLY?  WOW!  We laughed and joked about this and decided that when Nate saw it, it was like he got slapped upside the head by God and He was saying "look here, stupid!"!   Ha, ha!

Not only did I back up the trailer PERFECTLY, but it was SO perfect that when they pushed it off the trailer, it was able to go straight back into their (single door!) garage so Nate could work on it and change the alternator. 

We then went to return the trailer and I was able to park my truck in the garage for the night!  YAY!    Although this was NOT what I had planned for my day off work, I was happy to be able to be a blessing to our friends.  That's the most important part about all this.  I was able to be a blessing to someone else.  Thank you, Lord, for allowing me to be able to help our friends in need. 

I hope everyone else's 2014 started out as AWESOME as mine did!  

Blessings to All,

Julie

PS, this is kind of funny -- when we brought the van back to Nate and Jess' house, I had to use their bathroom.  My shoes were wet from the snow and made a bit of a mess on the floor.  I apologized to her and she said to me "You brought my van home for me.  You could have peed all over the floor and I wouldn't have minded!"  HA!  

I HATE ice!

So, I have a bunch of stuff to update here, and will be backtracking, as there's been a few things happening around here.  But, I thought I'd start with something recent.  Wednesday, as a matter of fact.

Mind you, it's winter here in Wisconsin, and we have lots of snow on the ground.  Where I park at work is a gravel parking lot, so the snow is never completely cleared in the winter -- just like our driveway at home.  That's just the way it is when you have gravel, instead of cement and those of us that live in the country are used to it and just have to deal with it. 

Anyway, Erica was waiting in my truck for me to finish up at work.  I finally got done and grabbed my purse, my bag, my camera bag and my big water cup.  I had my camera bag in my left hand, but the rest was in my right.   I had just walked past the front door on my truck (I needed to put my stuff in the back seat).  Suddenly, I found myself falling . . . I landed on my knees, and my elbows and hands hit the ground, along with my bags.  I couldn't stop myself, and unbelievably, found myself sliding further, and finally ending up pretty much flat out on the ice on my stomach!  

I didn't scream or anything, as I was just trying, quite unsuccessfully (obviously) to keep my balance!  As I said, Erica was waiting for me in the truck, and I heard her door open and she ran around and asked me if I was OK, as I was trying to get up and at least onto my knees.  She took my bags and put them in the truck. Fortunately, I had my camera in it's padded bag, so it wasn't injured), and nothing else was damaged, either.  I didn't have anything broken, and it appeared that I was going to be OK, so I got up and got in the truck and drove home.  By the time I got home 40 minutes later, I was already sore.   

As we were driving home, I told her "you can laugh now."  She looked at me and said "no, I can't.  You'll get mad."  I told her I wouldn't get mad, and that she could laugh.  She did chuckle a bit, then.  When I asked her how she knew I fell, she said "you were there . . . and then you weren't."  I busted out laughing at that!  In fact, I was snickering the entire ride home!  I don't know about you, but I find that EXTREMELY funny!  "You were there . . . and then you weren't!"  Just too funny!

I was surprised to find the next morning that the most painful part of my body was my right hand.  Specifically, my pinkie, and ring finger.  It hurt even to reach the "enter" key on my computer with my right pinkie.  I was a little slow going up and down stairs, as my right knee was a bit sore, but otherwise I was fine.  Fortunately, most of the pain was short-lived, and by Friday all seemed to be OK.  Seeing as I'm a tad behind here, I should probably add that I did notice at church yesterday (03-10-2013), when I was clapping  along to a song, that my right hand still hurt, so there obviously was some soft tissue damage which is taking a little longer to heal.  I'm sure it will be fine, though. 

I don't know about you, but I'm sick of winter!  I want the snow gone and warmer weather! 

Julie

Headed to the ER with Abby!

So, on Friday, Abby went snowboarding with friends at Bruce Mound.  She went with Erica and a bunch of other people, and I wasn't really worried, even though she doesn't have much experience at snowboarding.   Around 10 p.m., she called to tell me that she fell and hurt her shoulder, but it "wasn't bad."  

OK, well, they got home about an hour later and Abby woke me up and was in a SLING!   OK, what exactly happened?  Well, she fell on her shoulder and heard a "crack."  She got up to try to continue snowboarding, and fell again!  UGH!  She then picked up her snowboard and walked to the emergency personnel.  Because of the size of this place, they always have paramedics on standby, which is probably a good thing!  The paramedics gave her a sling for her arm and called it "blunt force trauma to the shoulder" and advised her to visit the ER the next day.  I assume they said ER because it happened late on a Friday night, and the doctor's offices are not open on Saturdays.  

Abby told me she was fine and I went back to sleep.  After all, I had to work at 6 a.m. the next morning, and at 15, I trust Abby to know when something's really wrong with her own body. 

So, off to work I went at 5:30, and at 8:00, Erica calls to tell me that Abby's been crying in her room for the last hour, complaining of how bad her shoulder hurts.  Oh, geeze!  OK.  Today's a relatively easy Saturday for me, and I should be done in another hour or so, so I told Erica I would call her when I was done and we could meet at the hospital.  She wanted to just take Abby herself, and I had to tell her that treatment has to be authorized by a parent, not a sibling -- at least when it's not an emergency. 

So, I finished work in about another hour and call the girls up to meet me at the hospital.  Fortunately, it was not busy at the emergency room and they were able to get her in right away.  We thought maybe she had broken her collar bone, and so did the doctors.  They took her for X-rays right away, and praise the Lord, her collar bone was NOT broken!  YEA!!!!!!   She DID sustain a very bad bruise to her collar bone, and they gave her a sling (hospital issue, instead of the triangle "sheet" the paramedics gave her) to use to help relieve the pressure and pain.  She's to take Tylenol for the pain, and they would have written her an excuse for gym class, but she doesn't have that this year.  

All in all, it could have been MUCH worse than it was.  Most times, there's not much doctors can do for a broken collar bone, as it simply needs time to heal.  If it had been broken, unless it was a really BAD break, they probably would have done the same thing, except maybe given her prescription pain killers.  

So, although I haven't updated in a while, as there's not much going on, it seems there's always some sort of excitement in the Mik household!   

Prayers for Abby to heal quickly would be appreciated! 

Peace and Love to all! 

Julie

Been Boring Around Here!

I really haven't been doing much to talk about lately.  I guess I've been in a bit of a funk, because I just haven't felt like blogging.  I guess I need to blog, even if I don't feel like it.

I last wrote about our new chickens, so I guess I won't start off with another chicken story.  So how about a quick cat story?  LOL  I'm not sure if I mentioned that we have a new cat or not.  She is the mother cat that has had a couple of litters in our old barn.  It's a LONG story about how she came to be in the house, so suffice it to say she's here.  Well, it turns out in the last day or so, she is apparently, in heat.  Do you have ANY IDEA how LOUD a female cat in heat can be?  HOLY CRAP!  It's amazingly ANNOYING!  She can't help it, so we can't yell at her.  We just have to deal with it.  Hopefully, it won't last long.  I know we should get her fixed, but it's just not in the budget right now.  There's no way I can afford to have her fixed, so we're just going to have to deal with it.

Work is going well, and I'm really enjoying my job.  It's a little frustrating in that I keep piling more work onto myself because I'm ramping up the marketing that we're doing.  That means more work for me, and no additional time to do it in.  It's my own fault, but it's also something I really want to do.  I LOVE the company I work for and I truly love my boss (the owner), and even better, SHE loves ME, too!  I've  never worked for someone who actually TELLS me how happy she is to have me working for her before!  I've never had someone tell me that they want me to HAVE FUN with my job and to ENJOY what I do!  Isn't that incredible?!  THAT'S the kind of company I'm working for, and that's why I don't mind putting the extra time in.  

To that end, I went to a seminar today on Social Media Marketing.  That's what I'm really working on at work, is getting the social media marketing up and running.  I've been working on their Facebook page, but I know there's a lot more I need to do.  I just need to learn what I should be doing.  This seminar had GREAT information for me, and I'm really glad I went.  I now have a lot MORE work to do!  Ha!  I'm thinking it's a good thing my kids are older and I have time when I get home from work to do some of this stuff, because I don't have time at the office.  When I'm at home and bored, it feels good to have work to do to keep me busy and not just sitting in front of the TV.  

I'll write some more in the next day or two, but just wanted to let you know I'm still here, and I plan on keeping the blog going.

Thanks for all the kind words about keeping it going.  It make my heart sing to know that there are those out there that really want to hear about what's going on up here in the middle of nowhere!

God's Blessings to all!

Julie