Been One Of Those Days

You know "Those Days". The ones where you work so hard all day, or at least you intend to, and everything around you seems to go wrong. I arrived to work with the delightful surprise that my computer had been shut down without saving any of my work. 2 days worth of work gone. I searched all over the computer, in all the nooks and crannys that I know, and some that I didn't, and it was not there.

That was the first surprise. The second was that my undergraduate unknowingly broke a $1500 ceramic vessel, I kid you not. I discovered that it was due to over tightening, and as a bonus, the studs we use to fasten the ceramic vessel to the attrition mill were bent so I had to remove and replace them. Ordinarily no big deal, except one of the new studs slipped out of my hands and fell down the crevasse of death. I spent the next hour fishing with what ever I could find to retrieve it. eventually I got it and the mill was back in order. By this point in time it was 11am and I needed to get cracking on rewriting my lost work.

I sat down at my desk and got called to help with someone's experiment. Then there was lunch, and then the contact angle goniometer packed it in. By the end of the day, I had managed to squeeze in a total of 30 minutes of work on my proposal. The one redeeming event of the day was I got to have Moe's with Jenee for Dinner!

Maybe tomorrow will be a little better.

Its The End of May

Well, its end of May and I noticed that I haven't really posted much this month. Sorry about that. Today is Memorial Day, the US version of ANZAC day. I love long weekends, I get to sleep in on at least one of the days and today was the day. I woke up snuggled up next to my delicious wife and there was something else. It was warm, fuzzy and purring. Marble had decided to invite herself onto the bed and use my legs as a pillow. She could learn a lesson from Sable in stealth as the moment you know she is on the bed becasue she starts purring like a chainsaw.

Well, this weekend we have been working hard at packing up our apartment because we have to move for renovations, as well as doing our best to enjoy the last weekend we have together before Jenee heads off to school for some of the summer. We will get to see each other fairly regularly, but it seems like its a big change as we are so accustomed to spending 24/7 together in every sense of the phrase.

Yesterday while packing we vented to each other for most of the afternoon. We talked about all sorts of things ranging from the unimportant (cameras) to the important (homes, investing, babies). I think we both feel like we have cleared out our hearts and feel somewhat enlightened about what the other is thinking.

We have also seen two movies in the last week. The Chronicles of Narnia and the latest Indiana Jones movie. I won't say much as I know that some of you haven't seen it, but they were fun movies, however I am starting to feel that "they don't make 'em like they used to".

Well, its actually time to start packing again...

Stevens Family Sweatshop

Well, quilt shop more likely. After I bought Jenee her fabulous Janome sewing machine for her birthday, she has taken a shining to quilting. In just a few short weeks, I have watched her go from an ok seamstress to being quite competent and taking on the big projects. Now I have been asked not to give too many details here, but I can tell you that I am definitely the better fabric cutter out of the two of us. I can cut the poop out of a piece of fabric.

I was going to show pictures, but apparently I can't show anything for the time being. Well, Jenee says that I have to get back to work now...

The Effect of 500mg of Caffeine on My Wife

Yesterday Jenee spent almost the entire day studying for her last exam of the semester. During this time, she consumed about 500mg of caffeine in the form of 3 "Spark" energy drinks and a coffee. This is the email that she sent at 2.49 am.

Please look at the time I sent this!!! I am not remotely tired. Not only
have I taken my final FINAL two days early, but I can run a marathon as well
and I am afraid if I don't I may have a heart attack! I had no idea our
neighbours where such night owls but I am going to go hang out with them
because Nate is an old man....or it could just be that he didn't have THREE
high powered energy drinks mixed with coffee!!
However this is an announcement that I am OFFICIALLY DONE!! WOOO HOO and I
don't think (think being the operative word here) that I did too bad.!
Anyways just wanted you to know. Now it is the Annual meeting for the next
three days then Jenee is going to hobby lobby so she can sew a quilt! Oh and
go to the beach and maybe North Carolina to see Brandon and Krista!!! I
could seriously sew like a spring line or something right now, I am so
wired!!
Love you all!
Jenee

I woke up at 4 am and she was sitting on the couch watching a movie, completely unaware of the time. LOL. When she woke up I asked her how she was and she replied, "I think I have a caffeine hangover." Poor thing, and she has a conference to run today having only 3 hours sleep.

Say It With Us: Hu-mid-it-y

Yup, it seems as though we have an early taste of summer this year. I guess there is a high pressure system that is stubbornly sitting over Florida, locking in copious amounts of humidity. The moment you walk outside it hits you. It's tremendous, it reminds me of when I went to Bali in the off season and I had to walk around in a singlet because it was so very hot and humid. According to the weather forecast there is a storm front moving in so hopefully that will bring some much needed rain and some cooler, less humid days.

I have spent much of the last couple days inside our apartment keeping cool and trying to recover from my "Man-Flu". I think I have finally kicked it in the rear however, all the Vitamin C I have been taking seems to have aggravated the arthritis in my left knee, a side effect from my arthroscopy a few years back.

Well, I have to go fetch the washing from the laundry. Hope everyone is doing well.

Nate

Rob and Sarah are off to Russia!

I don't know how many people who read this blog know about our friends Rob and Sarah here in Gainesville. I think I have posted about them before so please forgive me if I am repeating myself but we are really excited for them. Last night I drove them down to Orlando International Airport so that they could get on a plane to Russia and go to meet their (hopefully) new son.

Rob and Sarah have been waiting patiently through what seems like forever to get this far through the adoption process and their faith in the Lord has been a wonderful testimony to everyone who has been in contact with them through this...ordeal. Last night they were brimming with excitement and I felt privileged to share it with them, although I did pride myself on finding the one thing that they forgot to pack: Those neck travel pillow things. If you dont know, Sarah is a very thorough meticulous person (go the ISTJ's - personal joke).

Well, here is a link to their blog if you are interested to read what is happening and if they are reading this, we are all praying for you!

Sable's Home!

Well, she has only been home for a few hours and the change in her behavior is apparent. She is back to being naughty, case in point, with in 5 minutes we found her trying to sneak a drink from the bathroom sink. Bad kitten, then we found her doing her favorite - "I can bang the cupboard doors all night, so why dont you feed me and I'll stop?"

Its been a funny kind of day. I came home early and rested because I am not feeling very good. Brandon and Krista left Gainesville to start their new lives in North Carolina today and Rob and Sarah are heading over to Russia to meet their future baby. It's a very surreal kind of feeling today. Almost like the day isn't going to end but I know the sun is moving towards the horizon. Do you ever get days like that?

New Update on Sable

Well, we just heard from Dr. Greene and the outlook is good. She had a hairball in her lower intestine about the size of a peanut and by the time he got in there the intestine had relaxed and the obstruction started to move.

Everything is all clear now and apparently she is on some heavy narcotics, feeling pretty good. I think she deserves to feel good for a while :-)

Thanks for praying with us.

Update on Sable

Well, we just got a phone call from Dr. Greene about Sable. She has a partial blockage in her small intestine, which we are hoping is just a hairball, to go along with her inflammed mouth, throat and stomach. We have approved surgery for her and we are praying all goes well. Hopefully there is nothing else is wrong with her such as dead tissue in her intestines.

Jenee and I have been very worried about her over the weekend and have literally worried ourselves to exhaustion, so much so that I have had to stay home from work. Neither of us have really slept since Thursday and we have been praying and trusting all is in His hands. One comment I made to Jenee was "if this is what having kids is like then I don't want them." That lightened the mood until she gave me a dead arm.

It really hit home how much I love that cat, she was my only company for nearly a year while I was in Gainesville on my own. It also made me think about how she is grumpy, doesn't like to be cuddled and so on and perhaps this inflammation in her insides is the reason why. We hope this fixes her up and maybe she'll be much better from now on....

The First Post for May!

Taaa Daaaa!

And what a week its been. So much has happened and we are both quite pooped however I push on for your reading pleasure. Why don't I start of with some big news? Because I don't have any, so you'll have to settle for some medium size news. We have been working very hard this week as everyone at PERC has been involved with planning for our retreat in June along with our normal work load. Its been a good experience thus far. We have had to design questionnaires so that we can make the necessary designs for the next 10 years at PERC. It's all very exciting, said with some sarcasm and some enthusiasm.

Well, thats quite exciting, now what else. Well, our friends Rob and Sarah have booked their tickets to Russia. Why Russia? Well after more than two long, trialling years they have a child ready for them to adopt! We are so excited for them and thrilled in our hearts how the Lord has answered prayer. We are praying that the baby is healthy and that they will have a smooth trip. Good luck Rob and Sarah, we are praying for you on your travels.

Continuing on, Jenee has been working very hard at the end of her studies for this semester. Not without some drama of course. First she had a paper due last Sunday when she thought she had another week. She managed to write a pretty good paper in 2 days. Then there was the presentation, that was finished on time but the poor thing submitted it to the wrong Prof. Praise the Lord that she has such a great Prof, he overlooked the small mistake. And now she is passed out on the couch from exhaustion.

And then there was Sable. Wednesday night she was fine. Thursday morning I had a few special hairballs on the floor, no big deal. By the time I came home there was several more and she was still throwing up bile. Off to the vet on Friday for the day and we find out that her mouth was covered with ulcers. Poor thing, she had to put up with 4 injections, blood tests, pills, and strangers all day. Needless to say, by the time she came home she was in quite a bad mood and hissed at Jenee, Marble and myself before running into a hiding spot and growling for a while. Today we have been double teaming Sable to give her her medicine. Apart from several spit outs, fake outs and hissing fits I think its gone quite well and only have 1 scratch for my efforts. LOL.

So what else can I tell you? Him. Well I thought I would save the best till last. On Thursday Jenee and I made the decision to go visit everyone in Australia! At first we were both to tired to really be excited but now that I have had some time to let everything settle, I am feeling quite excited. I cant wait to see everyone and see how things have changed. I suppose I should tell you when we are coming? We will be arriving on August the 7th and we will be leaving two weeks and a day later. See ya soon!