Scraplog

Obscenely Overdue

It has been five months since my last blog post and I apologize. Kellie has been pretty busy posting in the scraplog but I have been negligent with the main part of the site. So, this post will be a big update and, hopefully, a return to more consistent blogging.

Travel Time

Since October, the last time I did any blogging, a lot has happened. Kellie and I had a wonderful time in Oregon for Christmas and this time we weren’t waylaid by a blizzard. Looking back on last year’s experience we decided that it wasn’t in our best interest to include a layover in Denver, a city that is a mile above sea level. When you think of a Colorado winter you probably think of snow but it took a blizzard for us to make that connection. This year our only layover was in Atlanta and the flight was right on time.

There is, however, one funny travel story that merits retelling here. While in the Atlanta airport Kellie and I were sitting next to a family with two college age girls. Across from us was this crazy lady with a cell phone. Evidently it was her first cell phone and we think she was making her first call right there in front of us. She talked a mile a minute and laughed so hard and wildly that all of us were struggling to keep a straight face. College mom, college dad, college girl 1, college girl 2, Kellie and I were all on the verge of side-splitting laughter.

Without a doubt we were certain this woman was the last person we wanted sitting next to us on the plane. Little did we know how wrong we were.

As it turned out, the college family sat two rows behind us. In the row between was a family with kids. Little kids. Little, wild kids. Little, wild, loud kids. Mom and dad weren’t much better. The kids banged on the seats while the parents loudly told them to quit. Neither seemed to stop for the duration of the flight.

When we finally landed in Portland we made eye contact with the college family and it was clear that we all wished we had been sitting next to the wild woman, her crazy laugh and the phone she didn’t know how to turn off. At least we didn’t get stuck in Denver.

Every Jot and Tittle

Every Jot and Tittle keeps trucking along. God has been so faithful to raise up this little business and to give it the shape He wants it to have. In February some of Kellie’s stuff actually made it onto the Martha Stewart show. Etsy was being featured and they wanted to showcase some of their top sellers. When Kellie and I read the email asking if we could send over some products for the show we were totally blown away. A second reading verified that it wasn’t some goofy joke so we gladly sent a package of tags off to New York, New York. When the show finally aired, Every Jot and Tittle got about fifteen seconds of air but it was still pretty cool.

Foreclosures

Recently a friend of ours asked me to help with some foreclosure sales. I was glad to help out so on Thursday afternoons you can find me on the steps of a county courthouse, crying out a foreclosure sale. I read, out loud, a long legal document that describes the property and once I’ve “cried” out this notice, I auction off the property. In most cases no one is interested in the property and the bank wins the auction by default but this last time (shown in the pictures) a little bidding war ensued and the property sold for quite a bit more than the opening bid.

I really enjoy crying the sales, especially since there is no pressure on me to make anything happen. My first experience with a foreclosure sale was much different. In March of 2004 Kellie and I became first-time home owners at a foreclosure auction. We could only afford the minimum bid and were praying like crazy that no one else would show up for the auction. It was all so new and mysterious to us at the time. Now I can go to auction, say my piece and then watch others do the bidding. It’s much easier to be on this side of the action.

Calvary Cleveland

In my last post I noted that the church had signed lease on a building. We’re still in the process of ironing out the wrinkles in our plans and have yet to move out of the Beech’s house. It’s been a learning process but I know that when it’s all finished the Lord will have used it for His glory. I’m excited for the day when we can start our little construction process and I’m even more excited for the day when we can start holding our church services there.

Whew!

Thanks for reading through this epic post. Hopefully these blog updates won’t be so few and far between. If you have something that you would like to hear about let me know in a comment below and I’ll see what I can do.