Wednesday Ramblings

We sorted through quite a bit of stuff in the garage today, packing 7 boxes to take with us. Since deciding to take a 20' container frees us to take a bit more than we would have otherwise, the hubby is happily packing up a lot more of his shop tools and materials. Once we'd cleared enough floor space, we measured to see just how much space an 8' x 8' x 20' container would give us. Wow! It's almost the whole garage so I guess we'll for sure be able to fit everything in :-)

We're pushing hard to get the packing done this week. Prayers much appreciated!

I've spent my "spare" time looking for things on the internet. Not a big fan of the shopping (although I've been doing plenty of that, too) and when at all possible, it's nice to just order online and have it sent right to my house. I like specific brands and styles of certain *ahem* intimate apparel items and I was able to get all of them on sale at one online store today that had a no shipping special for orders of a certain amount. Which amount I initially thought "No problem!" but because everything was on sale, I actually wasn't spending enough. Imagine! So I clicked on the clearance items and found something I could use that bumped me up to the right amount. I think I'm set now for this first three-year term. And a few weeks ago I found cotton blankets on sale online for 70% off! Now that's a deal! We haven't really used many blankets here because we had the mattress warming pads.

I've been checking ebay for MONTHS in an attempt to find a sewing machine. Research indicated a Pfaff of fairly recent vintage (last five years) would give me the two things I most desired: (1) dual voltage so I can use it here and in Argentina; and (2) IDT (integrated dual feed) which is a feature that quilters rave about. I've missed several auctions and others have just gone too high. I had about given up hope, but this week I finally got one! I'm so excited I can hardly stand it :-) It's actually a much nicer machine than I thought I'd be able to get (God is good all the time! All the time God is good!) with features that should be a lot of fun to try out.

So a lot of the things I needed (or wanted) to buy and take are checked off the list. Just a few more to go. I haven't done too well on the wish list of books my co-worker sent, though. Both our budgets mean looking for the used variety and my favorite used bookstores are failing me. I did find some by one of her favorite authors (Karen Kingsbury) at International Aid (a mission store in Michigan that, unfortunately, just closed its doors the end of last month). If anyone is getting rid of books of the Christian genre, give me a holler and we'll see if we can't make a deal :-)

I keep thinking of things I need to do. Like getting those automatic monthly withdrawals switched over to the new account we have through the mission before we close out the account here. And finding out how we'll be able to vote during the election in November (very helpful website by the Vote Overseas Foundation). I actually woke from a sound sleep once last week in a TOTAL PANIC about the move. Seriously, I was practically hyperventilating! Again, prayers much appreciated!