Summer is supposed to be a time for me
to slow down and relax… I think I forgot to schedule in time to “Slow down”
this year. It has been a different pace and different activities but as crazy
as ever.
I’m not sure how many people I have
shared this with, but I opened up a business in the spring. We flipped our
first house last year, and even with all the complications that came up decided
that we wanted to continue to flip houses so I went through the process of
officially starting an LLC. With the help of our realtor, we were able to find
another house to flip. This time it was vacant, and we didn’t have to go
through the process of evicting anyone… of course, that came with its own
challenges. I have been lots of research on laws and changing over utilities
into my name after purchasing the house. Come to find out it is a lot more
complicated of a process if the power has been off for over a year. I was able
to get the LNI safety inspection scheduled quickly, and we passed the
inspection, so they approved the power to be restored. Also, the water company gave
us quite the scare when they told me they needed to add up our bill before they
would restart the water for us. After sweating it out for a couple nights, we
found out we owed a total of $19.31. Not bad considering the owners flooded the
house when they were evicted. I was able to get all utilities up and running in
less than a week. Our contractor has been busy working on the house and
hopefully it will be on the market and sold this summer. We always pray before
purchasing a house. Since this is not our main income, we have no reason to
rush into anything. We can wait for the one that God has for us and take time
to pray and be a little more picky… for the most part, all I have had to do is
make phone calls and sign some papers. The contractor and his team does all the
real work.
Although I didn’t participate in the
interviews for teachers this year, I have been involved in the ones for the
para-educators this summer. It has been nice being able to go to work sporadically
throughout the summer and touch base with staff, so we are prepared for the
upcoming year. We have 8 open positions for paras, so we are hoping to get most
of the filled, so we don’t have to rely on agency staff next year. Thankfully,
we’ve had some pretty good candidates apply.
The 4th of July is one of Matthew’s
favorite Holidays which is something he had in common with Jim. We knew this
year we could not miss the party at Mariah’s mom’s house… it was going to be a
special occasion to honor her father, Jim. Throughout the day there were little
things that reminded us about him and stories that were shared. I think there
were around 100 people that showed up for the occasion and what a party it was.
My parents even came with Cooper for a short period of time. There were too
many people for them, so they didn’t end up staying too long.
July is when the weather starts
getting nicer, so after the 4th, Matthew set up my Happy Spot outside
so I could start doing my Bible study outside. I have so missed this even
though I love my comfy spot on the couch. There is something about studying the
Word of God out in nature that always makes my happy. This is one thing that I have
added to my almost daily routine that makes me enjoy my summers off work. Extra
long quiet times with worship music and mate.
On July 5th, Matthew and I
headed over to the Denney’s for Alex’s wedding. He called us about a week
beforehand to find out if we received the invitation to his wedding since he
hadn’t RSVP’d. Matthew spent a lot of time with Alex, discipling him, since he
was in middle school. We are so glad he took the time to call and make sure we
knew about the wedding. It is one that we wouldn’t have missed. Since it was in
the backyard at his parents’ house, they did not invite a ton of people, so it
was an honor to be one of the few that made the list. It was a very special
wedding. Listening to the love they have for one another and how God started working
on their love story from the day they met. It was fun catching up with some of
the other guests that we had not seen in awhile also.
On July 8th, we celebrated
Cooper’s birthday. It was more of a relaxing day, as Matthew overdid it over the
weekend and Cooper doesn’t like big crowds. We bought him his favorite ice
cream, since he enjoys it more than cake. We gave him his gifts which he
absolutely loved and watched a movie together. I also made dinner for the three
of us, since my Mom went to a sister’s slumber party at my Aunt’s house for a couple
of nights. Cooper did get a “Birthday message” from Alyssa’s mom that included
a picture of the kids and some calls and messages from other friends that made
his day.
July 12th, Matthew and I
headed to Nolte State Park to celebrate the adoption of Mason and Lily. It was
an honor to be at the courthouse for the ceremony and now to celebrate with
them once again and see Mason before he heads off to Washington Youth Academy
for the next 5+ months. I am going to miss him, but I know that God has a great
plan for him and will use this experience to grow him in ways he never
imagined. It was a great time catching up with people throughout the evening.
Some of my youth even showed up for the occasion. Keep the Dellicker’s in your
prayers as God continues to build their family. Adoption is a beautiful thing…
we are adopted into the family of God… but it also comes with a string of
emotions as children grow and process what lead to needing to be adopted. Chris
is an amazing man of God and I know he will lead his family well.
After the party, we raced home to see
Seth before he headed back to Texas and off to Peru. God is at work in his life…
giving him a heart for missions which makes my heart full. I have loved the
extra time we have been able to spend with him this past month since he has
been coming over to the house more often to visit and will miss him while he is
gone. Only God knows what his next steps are… but I am praying that he has clear
guidance and will be faithful to follow the plan.
Another thing that I have started back
up this summer is walking. It has been years since I have been faithful in
walking. I have been wanting to get back into the habit but something always
seems to get in the way… between life, working on my National Boards, getting
injured, or whatnot. But, I decided I am going to just do it. Even if it is
just a mile or two a couple days a week… hopefully I can progress to more than
that with time. I even splurged and bought new shoes since my old ones were
worn out. I imagine I will be doing a lot of walking in Europe so I need to get
prepared as best as possible before hand.
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