Little house on the .... hill

Seven months ago we purchased our house!  We had just driven cross country from California to Ohio and were itching to move along with the closing process.  We had put in an offer on the house over Halloween Weekend when I was in North Carolina for a visit and Adam was still in California.  The month of November was an exciting one as we awaited word as to whether or not our offer would be accepted.  It was and the closing arrangements proceeded.  At first, we were told we would acquire the house by Thanksgiving, then it got pushed back to early December, then for sure by Christmas.  As the days crept forward and the holidays approached then passed, with still no closing date in sight, we accepted the fact that the new house was not going to be acquired on our timeline but when the timing was truly right.  So, come early to mid-January, we found ourselves scrambling one Thursday to get the funds to come through for our mortgage prior to our early Friday morning closing date.  It turns out the closest bank for us was a FOUR HOUR DRIVE AWAY……eeek!  

Fortunately, our awesome mortgage consultant we had been working with in California suggested we find a financial advisor office instead of an actual bank.  A text to a colleague revealed that there was in fact a financial advisor office through our bank office 45 minutes away from us in West Virginia.  So off we drove to WV, the afternoon after our closing meeting, coordinating calls from the CA branch with the WV branch in spite of the three hour time difference.  When all was said and done, we spent four or five hours in the lobby waiting on calls and faxes to come through, met the mayor of Wheeling (go figure!), and appreciated the woman who was helping us by staying overtime for an hour after the branch had physically closed.  We had walked out of our closing meeting having signed the paperwork and had the keys to the house that morning but the money had not come through yet…..which is why the rest of the day was a frantic dash to get the money to go through all simply because our bank does not have a location less than four hours away from here……whew!

So, that was an exciting beginning to physically acquiring our house back in January in spite of hiccups and unexpected delays along the way.  This all happened the Friday before classes started for the spring semester the following week.  Gone were the plans I had of painting and replacing the carpet before school started back up for me.  No more could I plan to help Adam unpack and get settled in since I would be spending my days back on campus teaching again.  However, it all worked out in the end!  I reconnected and got to spend a lot of time with a family member through removing wallpaper together and painting that might not have happened had I had more time to do it by myself when not working.  Adam was able to put things where he wanted and get settled in his own way without my input which is probably what was needed at the time amidst dealing with so many life changes.  It’s amazing isn’t it how life works out in spite of what you thought were failed circumstances at the time!  

Along this journey back in November, our mortgage guy, Greg, had sent an email to us when he noticed the Jeremiah 29:11 signature in my email.  He said that was one of his favorite bible verses and appreciated seeing it in our various email communications. 

Megan,

I’m so excited!  I didn’t look at the bottom of your email yesterday, but I had printed it out, and I was happy to see what caught my eye!  Jer 29:11 is one of my fav verses! 

 God bless,

Then, later that day, he followed up with this message:

Ok, now this is wild… I have a Bible app on my phone.  You’ll never guess what the verse of the day is!  It’s in Jeremiah…Wow!

What a nice little Godicidence.  :)

Soooo, when the lady in WV asked if we needed to say anything else to Greg in CA as we were winding down this crazy busy closing day, I quickly blurted out, “Yes!  Ask him what the daily verse is and to email it to me!”  The lady gave me an incredulous look to which I said, “Please just do it.”  I could tell when she repeated the question into the phone that Greg understood my request.  That night, when Adam and I got back to the house I was renting at the time, I opened up his email to read these words:

Matt 5:14

“You are the light of the world.  A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.”  Good stuff!

Oh my!  Good stuff indeed!!!  What Greg did not know was that our little house sits on a hill and offers us a majestic view.  In fact all of our new town is upon a hill.  Campus is affectionately dubbed, “The Hill” and in the winter time as you cross the bridge from WV into Ohio, and see the lights twinkling atop the hill amidst the bare branches of the trees, you see that the campus, and the spirit, indeed cannot be hidden.  I hope that our little home, and our marriage, do act as a light to others and through hospitality and kindness, they feel welcome always, not only in our home but in our lives.  So, that, my friends is the story of how we acquired our little house seven months ago today (well, minus a day since this happened on January 8, 2015!).

There it is!  Our house officially after the closing meeting but before the money came through at the ninth hour that evening!!

This is the backyard view picture I took during one of the times I looked at the house last October.

Don't you just love our front yard view?!  I can't wait until the leaves change color in the fall and the trees on the hills are bursting with color!

Below are some videos I took last fall during some of my preliminary visits to the house.  This particular visit involved my cousin driving in from PA and meeting me to act as an informal "inspector" for Adam and me.  Billy buys houses and flips them so he knows what to look for and what to avoid in a house.  I took the two videos below while he was talking with the realtor elsewhere in the house.  One video shows the master bedroom and other bedroom while the other shows a quick glimpse of the living room, kitchen, and back yard.  These videos, and Billy's report via a Skype chat with Adam after this visit to the house, helped Adam to "see" the house from the opposite side of the country.

40 years' worth of history

This is so cool!!  My colleague, and coauthor of this piece, let me know tonight that our history project is currently featured on AG Bell's Twitter feed! 

Support over the miles!

Work resumes at school in less than three weeks….Ack!!!

Maybe it’s the fact that summer is winding down or maybe it’s because we have no more trips planned until Thanksgiving (Adam is probably thanking God for that fact) or I could just plain miss these people but lately I’ve been thinking of my UNCG & NC buds!  We have all scattered and gone our separate ways in such a short time.  Two recently relocated and are settling down in the Midwest.  One is still in NC but is a few hours away from Greensboro now.  We’re all revving up for another school year in our respective new towns/at our new institutions that we’re trying to make more familiar and seem a little less new to us.  For some of us it is the start of a second year and we’re no longer the new faculty on the block.  However, we are still striving to improve and learn and become better professors/researchers than we were last year.

Even though we aren’t physically there for each other anymore we are able to still keep in touch through social media, texting, and of course Skype.  Last year, Sheresa and I were able to skype regularly with one another about once a month and I hope that this new semester is no different!  Looking through old photos recently, I came across this one and had to laugh.

I don’t know if I ever shared this picture or blogged about this on here but this is a picture I took in the parking garage at UNCG during my last year there.  The small white image you see at the bottom right hand side under the yellow square is something Sheresa dropped off there and “hid” for me.  On this particular day she was leaving campus before I arrived but I needed whatever that paper or pile of papers was.  For the life of me, I can’t remember what it was nor why she couldn’t put it in my mailbox.  My guess is that she was on campus and in another building and then on the way to her car, stuck it there?  Was it a manuscript I had to proofread?  Something I had to sign off and pass along to someone else?  I honestly can’t recall.  Maybe during our next Skype call I will find out what it was.  However, the picture strikes me to the core because it reminds me of the kind of friendship Sheresa and I had (and many others at UNCG)….helping one another in our time of need.  During our first year, when she was on bedrest during the semester when pregnant with her daughter, I took my notes from Stats class to her hospital room to try to “teach” her what we had learned.  It probably helped me more than her since I barely understood the concepts myself and was a good review for me.  She was there for me too many times to count when the tears fell and the frustrations boiled over and we shared in the surprise and sense of accomplishment as we won the first Graduate Research and Creativity Expo that was put on by our university.  We traveled to Minneapolis to present together (what a treat it was to do one of my first ever conference presentations with such a close colleague) and we committed to writing once a week in various locations (local libraries, my favorite place:  Panera, the basement of our building, the library) during the home stretch of dissertating.  

Now that we've come out on the other side, we're still supporting each other from across state lines as new professors and in striving to manage the work/life/balance thing.  I'm so grateful for not only Sheresa's friendship but of so many others from the folks I've met at UNCG and in NC in general.  It was amazing to see so many beloved friends made the trip north to attend the wedding earlier this summer and what a fun-loving bunch they are...At one point, it seemed that the dance floor was made up entirely of NC friends!  ; )

Meals as a Mrs. ~ Rum Chata French Toast

I’ve been craving all things breakfast as of late.  It started right before the wedding when Mom, Dad, Adam, and I went to Cracker Barrel for a late dinner.  Even though it was close to closing time, I ordered a breakfast meal (thank goodness for breakfast all day menus) that I split with Adam’s dinner of some kind of chicken platter.  It was an unusual pairing and as is always the case when you eat at Cracker Barrel we came home with all sorts of leftovers but the food was oh so good.  Then, continuing on the honeymoon, we feasted at a couple different pancake houses and over this past summer, I’ve been on this breakfast streak in ordering breakfast when I can no matter the time of day.  

It’s no surprise, then, that a couple weekends ago, when a good friend from college came to visit I couldn’t resist the urge to cook up a large breakfast of French toast, eggs, and bacon for Adam, Monika, and me to feast on that Saturday.  However, the French Toast was not just any ordinary kind of French Toast.  I added a special ingredient courtesy of our recent road trip to Chicago to the batter!  The week prior to Monika’s arrival, we had gone to see my closest friend from high school and her family.  Meredith and Joe gave us a bottle of Rum Chata to take back with us.  Upon her suggestion, I added 1/2 cup of the liquor to the batter as I prepared the French Toast.  This was the first time that I didn’t need to add cinnamon or sugar to the breakfast meal for the liquor took care of that!  (Here is the link to the recipe I used but I doubled the amount of liquor from 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup.)

Another secret ingredient I added to our breakfast was to put some mayonnaise into the eggs before I scrambled them.  This was something that my former roommate’s mom shared with us a long time ago.  I remember, at the time, thinking what…..you put mayo in the eggs?!  However, you can’t taste the mayo and it really does help to make them thick and fluffy!!  

So, once the French Toast was cooked and powdered sugar sprinkled on top of the slices, the eggs were scrambled and oozing with cheesy goodness, and the bacon was crisp and sizzling, it was time to sit down and enjoy our breakfast brunch!  I will definitely be keeping the Rum Chata on hand for future breakfasts….Adam even likes it mixed into his milk or just drinking it straight.  For now, I’ll take it in my French toast/in the cooked format but look forward to trying it in other ways as I find new recipes/uses for this tasty and delicious smelling concoction!

This prayer is an extension of the Hands Prayer from an earlier blog posting:

These are the hands that will enter the Sacrament of Matrimony.  These four hands will be your armor and shield against the evils and temptations of the world.

These are the hands that will reach out, first to each other, then united will spread your love and your sacrament to all they touch.

These are the hands that ease your parents' loneliness as you leave the nest, will first teach your children the marvels of married love, and will be a sign to friends and strangers alike as to just how wonderful married life can be. 

Through these four hands, God will renew His church.  These hands are the hope of a trouble humanity. 

These are the hands that will change the world!