Greetings from Florence

Here I sit in my parents study after a long day of house hunting. I can truly say that I really hate this process. We have seen some absolute crap today! I don't say that to slight anyone who is helping with the looking process, there's just not that much out there in the price range that we're looking in. Which brings about another point, right now, we have no idea what we will be able to afford!

Until we sell our house we really don't know what we will be able to buy. Or even if we will be able to buy. We are moving sometime during the week of December 13th. That's definite. We may have to rent for a while, but we're not really sure about what's available out there to rent. We may need to live above my parent's garage for a while. We will not own two houses at the same time again!!!!! That was a stupid immature thing to do, and it is still causing us heart-ache and head aches two years later.

We had someone look at the house tonight while we were out of town. That caused Misty to have a bit of an anxiety attack. "What if they buy it? We have no where to go! I didn't like anything we saw today! Oh crap we're really moving, aren't we?" She is VERY stressed right now. That always makes me feel bad, because I'm able to brush stress aside and seem unaffected. She wears it on her sleeve. I'm afraid she thinks I don't care, when in reality, I care and worry about it a lot. I just try not to let it get me down. I've always been pretty laid back; I can't help it.

Back to the owning two houses thing... The more time that goes by, the more I really hate Birmingham and the fact that I ever lived there. The time we spent there was super stressful: physically, emotionally, spiritually, and financially! I'm not exaggerating when I say that we are still paying for living in Birmingham. I made VERY little while were there. We lived paycheck to paycheck. Any emergency that came up had to paid for with a credit card. (Cue dramatic music. *DUN-DUN-DUH*) Car repairs, medical bills (plenty of those), home repairs, Christmas presents, etc. We racked up some pretty good debt that we are well on our way to getting out from under. But still paying some 2-4 years later.

A quick word of advice to all you young people reading this: (*chirp, chirp*) CREDIT CARDS ARE A DIRECT LINE TO THE HEART OF SATAN!!!!!!! They are evil I tell you, EVIL!

Before I go climb (literally) back into bed, I have to say: I really cherish my time in Birmingham. I met so many great people there that I would not have met otherwise. I was able to get re-connected to Sumatanga (fat lot of good that does me now...) And I really love the kids I was able to minister to at BPUMC. Not to mention, I probably never would have sung publicly if not for my time there. Much less played guitar. All in all (great song) it was an over-all positive experience. Kind of like wading through a field of waist deep hose shit and finding $20 every few yards.

With that amazing mental image, I'll get out of here. I'm excited about listening to AU on the radio this weekend! Only problem is, it'll be on the UK Network. Oh well, horse shit & $20 bills!

War Eagle!