November 14, 2011
Dear Family and Friends,
I really hate goodbyes.
But you know what they say, the end of one thing is the beginning of another. And even though I don’t like to see this short term trip come to an end, it holds an excitement to see what God is going to do in the future.
A lady at church said, “God’s best just keeps getting better,” and that truth has been so evident in my life over the last 6 months. The Lord has done a work in my life and opened my eyes even more to the need of missions around the world. I am so thankful for the opportunities I have had and the ministries I have been a part of.
The last couple months have been very smooth here at the office. My roommate and I held the fort for a couple of weeks while our coworkers presented the mission at Clearwater Christian College and Bob Jones University. They were blessed with great missions conferences at both places and made some contacts for ministries on the field. We praise the Lord for these opportunities!
I am so thankful to those of you that supported me and made this opportunity possible. I would not have been able to do this if you had not been sensitive to the Lord’s direction. He has blessed, and I am thankful.
I would ask for your prayers as I fly to Maine this Thursday, the 17th. On Saturday my grandparents and I will take the ferry across to Nova Scotia. From there I will hit the ground running preparing for Christmas events at church, and waiting for my new sibling to arrive!!! I appreciate your prayers for each of these events.
Again, thank you for your love and support over these months. I look forward to what God will do in the future!
Because He Lives,
Nicole
Showing posts with label Florida. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Florida. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
Thursday, November 10, 2011
A Blinding Project
I tackled another project this week: cleaning the blinds in my bedroom. I have two big windows like this:
The picture (and horrible lighting) make it really hard to tell, but the windows are bi-ig. Which means the blinds are bi-ig. And dirty. Because the windows here in Florida are not airtight. Its the wierdest thing! I mean, what keeps the heat in?? Oh wait...
The point is, the non-air-tight windows let dirt in, especially when it rains. So the blinds were dirty. Here was my plan:
1. Take blinds down
2. Put them in the bathtub to soak, while I go out and blow leaves.
3. Drain the water and allow them to dry.
4. Hang them back up.
...
What really happened:
I got up on the bed to take the blinds down, and decided I needed to wash the curtains, too. Those came down and went in the washer, and I got to work taking the blinds down. These blinds had the most peculiar way of covering up the hardware that I've ever seen. It was just two slats, clipped in these little plastic clips. Easy enough!
I just unclipped those babies...
...and then I could get to the actual blind. The top part is held in these end brackets by the front cap.
Which is easy enough to just slide out.
Then I ran into the second thing I've never seen, these interesting clips that supported the top part of the blinds. I just slid the whole thing up and out (there was about 4 of these spaced across the top of the window frame).
Once I slid it out of those brackets, we had lift off! I immediately discovered two things:
1. I should have raised the blinds first
2. Now I understand why those brackets are there...this thing is h.e.a.v.y.
It would have been mucho easier if another person had been on the other end. Picture me, standing on the edge of the bed, leaning waaaay over to lift the blinds out of those brackets, and then having to suspend all 500 feet of these things in the air. Yeah, that is why two are better than one. But moving on...
I had read somewhere that putting blinds in the bathtub to soak is the easiest way to clean them. Then I could just use my shower head to spray them off. Sounds super easy, right? So I carried my blinds to the bathroom (surprisingly, without breaking anything on the way) only to discover...
...duh Nicole, that 500 feet of blinds aren't going to fit in there! On to plan two!
Lay them out on the porch and hose 'em off. In hindsight, I would have sprayed the porch off really good first, because I ended up carrying a little grass in with me when all was said and done, but on the whole, it worked well.
I grabbed this cleaner - it is multi-surface Windex with vinegar. And its on the greenlist, which sounds good. I sprayed the blinds down really good, trying to move the slats around so the cleaner could work everywhere.
It was here that I decided to let them "sit" for a few minutes. Really give that cleaner time to work, ya know? The honest truth is there was two old men at the neighbors that were creeping me out. They had been working, but now they were just standing in the street and I felt like they were watching me. Hate that feeling. So I went inside until they left. And if those two old men are reading this, yes, I am the neighbor that was taking pictures of her blinds on the front porch. And you were staring because.....????
They left a few minutes later, so I went out and sprayed...and sprayed...and sprayed.
I picked them up, turned them over, and just kept spraying until I felt like every inch of it had been sprayed down. I didn't know if they would dry out there (the porch was a big puddle by now) so I laid out towels on the floor and brought them in to dry that way.
It worked well! They dried very fast, which was a good thing, because Nicole does NOT sleep in a room with nothing over the windows...and at this point my windows looked liked this:
Yeah, I don't do that. At all. I have been known to put towels over windows when I am in other people's houses. Even when I stayed in a house on top of a mountain in the foothills of the Rockies when the only thing that would ever look through my window was bear or elk. Doesn't make a lick of difference.
Fast-forward a couple hours. The blinds were dry, the curtains were cleaned and dried, and the whole shebang went back up (I'll spare you the gory details...just scroll up and read it all backwards).
And would you just look at the uh-mazing difference??
Ok, ok, I know you can't tell ANY difference in the before and after. But seriously, in real life, you can. Just not in the picture. I left the blinds extended all the way over night to make sure they were completely dry. I also had to go over some of them and separate some of the slats that were stuck together. But I LOVE how they turned out! Just trust me that they look cleaner than when I started!
So would it have been easier to just buy new blinds? Yeah, totally. But I can only imagine how much blinds that are 500 feet long cost, and remember, 1) this isn't my house, and 2) I don't have an income. So cleaning them works for me (aka, it was free). And I'm a big fan of leaving things better than when I got here. So even though it didn't exactly go as planned, it was worth it. And I used my remaining daylight (which isn't much these days, in case you hadn't noticed) to blow leaves. Mission accomplished.
The picture (and horrible lighting) make it really hard to tell, but the windows are bi-ig. Which means the blinds are bi-ig. And dirty. Because the windows here in Florida are not airtight. Its the wierdest thing! I mean, what keeps the heat in?? Oh wait...
The point is, the non-air-tight windows let dirt in, especially when it rains. So the blinds were dirty. Here was my plan:
1. Take blinds down
2. Put them in the bathtub to soak, while I go out and blow leaves.
3. Drain the water and allow them to dry.
4. Hang them back up.
...
What really happened:
I got up on the bed to take the blinds down, and decided I needed to wash the curtains, too. Those came down and went in the washer, and I got to work taking the blinds down. These blinds had the most peculiar way of covering up the hardware that I've ever seen. It was just two slats, clipped in these little plastic clips. Easy enough!
I just unclipped those babies...
...and then I could get to the actual blind. The top part is held in these end brackets by the front cap.
Which is easy enough to just slide out.
Then I ran into the second thing I've never seen, these interesting clips that supported the top part of the blinds. I just slid the whole thing up and out (there was about 4 of these spaced across the top of the window frame).
Once I slid it out of those brackets, we had lift off! I immediately discovered two things:
1. I should have raised the blinds first
2. Now I understand why those brackets are there...this thing is h.e.a.v.y.
It would have been mucho easier if another person had been on the other end. Picture me, standing on the edge of the bed, leaning waaaay over to lift the blinds out of those brackets, and then having to suspend all 500 feet of these things in the air. Yeah, that is why two are better than one. But moving on...
I had read somewhere that putting blinds in the bathtub to soak is the easiest way to clean them. Then I could just use my shower head to spray them off. Sounds super easy, right? So I carried my blinds to the bathroom (surprisingly, without breaking anything on the way) only to discover...
...duh Nicole, that 500 feet of blinds aren't going to fit in there! On to plan two!
Lay them out on the porch and hose 'em off. In hindsight, I would have sprayed the porch off really good first, because I ended up carrying a little grass in with me when all was said and done, but on the whole, it worked well.
I grabbed this cleaner - it is multi-surface Windex with vinegar. And its on the greenlist, which sounds good. I sprayed the blinds down really good, trying to move the slats around so the cleaner could work everywhere.
It was here that I decided to let them "sit" for a few minutes. Really give that cleaner time to work, ya know? The honest truth is there was two old men at the neighbors that were creeping me out. They had been working, but now they were just standing in the street and I felt like they were watching me. Hate that feeling. So I went inside until they left. And if those two old men are reading this, yes, I am the neighbor that was taking pictures of her blinds on the front porch. And you were staring because.....????
They left a few minutes later, so I went out and sprayed...and sprayed...and sprayed.
I picked them up, turned them over, and just kept spraying until I felt like every inch of it had been sprayed down. I didn't know if they would dry out there (the porch was a big puddle by now) so I laid out towels on the floor and brought them in to dry that way.
It worked well! They dried very fast, which was a good thing, because Nicole does NOT sleep in a room with nothing over the windows...and at this point my windows looked liked this:
Yeah, I don't do that. At all. I have been known to put towels over windows when I am in other people's houses. Even when I stayed in a house on top of a mountain in the foothills of the Rockies when the only thing that would ever look through my window was bear or elk. Doesn't make a lick of difference.
Fast-forward a couple hours. The blinds were dry, the curtains were cleaned and dried, and the whole shebang went back up (I'll spare you the gory details...just scroll up and read it all backwards).
And would you just look at the uh-mazing difference??
Ok, ok, I know you can't tell ANY difference in the before and after. But seriously, in real life, you can. Just not in the picture. I left the blinds extended all the way over night to make sure they were completely dry. I also had to go over some of them and separate some of the slats that were stuck together. But I LOVE how they turned out! Just trust me that they look cleaner than when I started!
So would it have been easier to just buy new blinds? Yeah, totally. But I can only imagine how much blinds that are 500 feet long cost, and remember, 1) this isn't my house, and 2) I don't have an income. So cleaning them works for me (aka, it was free). And I'm a big fan of leaving things better than when I got here. So even though it didn't exactly go as planned, it was worth it. And I used my remaining daylight (which isn't much these days, in case you hadn't noticed) to blow leaves. Mission accomplished.
Have you ever tackled a seemingly easy project that turned into something a little more complicated? How do you wash your blinds? Or, do you wash them at all? I don't know if I want to know about that. ;)
Monday, November 7, 2011
Girls Day Out
Saturday I had a great day out with some friends. Sort of a goodbye party, but we won't say the "g" word. Hate that word. It was a fun, fun day though. I already mentioned getting a mani/pedi...
I had never had a pedicure before, and can I just say, I'm in love. How relaxing! I felt like a princess.
Here is Angela waiting for her manicure. She had never had a manicure or a pedicure! Poor thing.
I don't usually paint my nails at all, but this was a nice treat. Here are Angela's and my beautiful fingers and toes.
We walked down to the water and saw this boat being pulled in by a tugboat. This thing almost took up the whole canal!
What a nice, relaxing night to a nice relaxing day. I will miss these peeps when I leave! I am so thankful for the experiences I've been able to have while I've been down here.
I had never had a pedicure before, and can I just say, I'm in love. How relaxing! I felt like a princess.
Here is Angela waiting for her manicure. She had never had a manicure or a pedicure! Poor thing.
Brook getting her manicure. Because of the blurry picture, doesn't it look like they are arm wrestling? Tee hee!
I don't usually paint my nails at all, but this was a nice treat. Here are Angela's and my beautiful fingers and toes.
Pictures can't show how relaxed and stress free we felt. :)
After the mani/pedis, we took Rylan to the park and had a picnic. It was another be-youtiful night, and we had a blast!
What a cutie!
This girl doesn't hold still for two seconds! I have about a zillion blurry pictures of her because she always moves and looks away at the last second. She was super cute, every few seconds she would grab our arm and say, "cheese!" Apparently she thought we had to have our arms linked to take a picture. Too cute.
We walked down to the water and saw this boat being pulled in by a tugboat. This thing almost took up the whole canal!
What a nice, relaxing night to a nice relaxing day. I will miss these peeps when I leave! I am so thankful for the experiences I've been able to have while I've been down here.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
The Project I Hope I Never Have To Repeat
The mission I work for owns a big red 15-passenger van. It was my main vehicle around here for a while. Let me tell ya, 15 passenger vans guzzle the gas. I'm pretty sure I could watch the needle drop as I drove down the road. I am SO thankful I don't have to drive that any more!
The van had been sitting out in back of our house, unused, for a couple weeks. During all that torrential rain I talked about. Without any one checking on it. See where I'm going with this?
I went out one day to move the van, and as soon as I opened the door, I knew something was wrong. My nose hairs caught on fire. Literally. Ok, not literally, but it felt like it. My eyes were next. The van was growing. Mold. Just-shy-of-mushrooms moldy. (And you people like to eat those things? Nasty.)
There were spots of mold on the vinyl, seats, carpets, straps....everything. Thankfully, it wasn't coming from inside the seats, it was all on the surface, so I knew it wouldn't be a *huge* problem. But I also knew it would require immediate removal. I rounded up some supplies:
a shop-vac....
A carpet cleaner...
and an array of cleaning products....
I put vinegar in my pail of water. Vinegar works as a disinfectant, but I didn't want to risk not killing the mold, so I also used 409 spray. That is also a disinfectant. I sprayed all the vinyl with the 409 spray and then wiped it down with the vinegar water. I used the carpet cleaner to (wait for it...) clean the carpets. Brilliant, I know. The bug spray was to protect myself from the zillions of little vampires flying around. It was about 70% successful. Boo. And for those of you worried about those chemicals, I did use gloves and a mask. Not only to ward against chemical fumes, but the mold as well.
(Although, total rabbit trail: I did a lot of kneeling on chemical-covered carpet while washing the inside, and my knees were bright pink for two days. Freaky. Guess I should have gotten knee pads. Total dork.)
And last, but not least, I used a TON of this:
Um, its elbow grease, in case you couldn't tell.
And this is why we wear gloves:
This was the rinse water. Its so dirty it gives you a lovely view of my gloved and masked self taking the picture. Did I mention, total dork?
Here are some in-progress pictures:
A 15-passenger van is loooooooong and has a toooooooon of carpet. Just sayin'.
But I finally finished!! This is what it looked like:
Um, yeah, I couldn't see anything either. Lets just say it took me a whole lot longer than I expected. I ended up moving the seats into the empty side of our house, because it was too dark to see them outside.
But it was DONE! And I never was so happy to see anything completed. And all your doors open is the new parking lot. You didn't know that?
The Lord blessed us with several days of cool, breezy weather to help dry the van out. And my coworkers had just gotten back from a trip, so they decided to air out their van too. Aren't we a classy bunch?
So now the van is clean and mold free, and I'm not afraid to breathe the same air any more. However, this last weekend we had another two days of torrential rains, and now we know how the moisture got in. Sad face...but now we know we need to keep it under cover, and know what needs to be fixed! At least the mold is gone and we're not going to die. I was concerned.
Have you ever had any experiences with mold? Or looked like a total dork while cleaning? Or taken pictures of nasty water? Oh wait, I'm the only one that does that? My bad.
The van had been sitting out in back of our house, unused, for a couple weeks. During all that torrential rain I talked about. Without any one checking on it. See where I'm going with this?
I went out one day to move the van, and as soon as I opened the door, I knew something was wrong. My nose hairs caught on fire. Literally. Ok, not literally, but it felt like it. My eyes were next. The van was growing. Mold. Just-shy-of-mushrooms moldy. (And you people like to eat those things? Nasty.)
There were spots of mold on the vinyl, seats, carpets, straps....everything. Thankfully, it wasn't coming from inside the seats, it was all on the surface, so I knew it wouldn't be a *huge* problem. But I also knew it would require immediate removal. I rounded up some supplies:
a shop-vac....
A carpet cleaner...
and an array of cleaning products....
I put vinegar in my pail of water. Vinegar works as a disinfectant, but I didn't want to risk not killing the mold, so I also used 409 spray. That is also a disinfectant. I sprayed all the vinyl with the 409 spray and then wiped it down with the vinegar water. I used the carpet cleaner to (wait for it...) clean the carpets. Brilliant, I know. The bug spray was to protect myself from the zillions of little vampires flying around. It was about 70% successful. Boo. And for those of you worried about those chemicals, I did use gloves and a mask. Not only to ward against chemical fumes, but the mold as well.
(Although, total rabbit trail: I did a lot of kneeling on chemical-covered carpet while washing the inside, and my knees were bright pink for two days. Freaky. Guess I should have gotten knee pads. Total dork.)
And last, but not least, I used a TON of this:
Um, its elbow grease, in case you couldn't tell.
And this is why we wear gloves:
This was the rinse water. Its so dirty it gives you a lovely view of my gloved and masked self taking the picture. Did I mention, total dork?
Here are some in-progress pictures:
A 15-passenger van is loooooooong and has a toooooooon of carpet. Just sayin'.
But I finally finished!! This is what it looked like:
Um, yeah, I couldn't see anything either. Lets just say it took me a whole lot longer than I expected. I ended up moving the seats into the empty side of our house, because it was too dark to see them outside.
But it was DONE! And I never was so happy to see anything completed. And all your doors open is the new parking lot. You didn't know that?
The Lord blessed us with several days of cool, breezy weather to help dry the van out. And my coworkers had just gotten back from a trip, so they decided to air out their van too. Aren't we a classy bunch?
So now the van is clean and mold free, and I'm not afraid to breathe the same air any more. However, this last weekend we had another two days of torrential rains, and now we know how the moisture got in. Sad face...but now we know we need to keep it under cover, and know what needs to be fixed! At least the mold is gone and we're not going to die. I was concerned.
Have you ever had any experiences with mold? Or looked like a total dork while cleaning? Or taken pictures of nasty water? Oh wait, I'm the only one that does that? My bad.
Monday, October 31, 2011
All Things Pumpkin
Last week was pumpkin week for me! Every year (apparently...not that I've ever been here before) my Sunday School class has a pumpkin carving party. This year I got to be a part of it! And boy oh boy, was it a fun time.
In order to have a pumpkin carving party, we had to have pumpkins. So Monday night some of us went to a pumpkin patch to pick 'em out.
They had tons of pumpkins, of all shapes and sizes....and colors. If I had gotten this one, I would have carved The Grinch into it, because it definitely takes away from the pumpkin spirit!!
And there were some white-ish ones, too. If I was getting several pumpkins for my porch or something, I think it would be neat to throw one of these in the mix.
And for memories sake, the obligatory "Getty pumpkin." :D
We had a lot of fun!
And after, we went to Panera Bread for supper. Oh my oh my oh my. I got french onion soup and an apple walnut salad. And I may or may not have eaten the entire thing. Can I just say I LOVE Panera!
So that was Monday. Friday night was our party!! I waved my wand and said "abra cadabra," and my pumkin turned into this!
Okay, so it may have been slightly more complicated then that. But it was fun, and I think he came out pretty good!
Becky made Kermit 'de frog! It took her a loooooong time....but it came out so nice!
And Heather's pumpkin just couldn't handle watching us gut out the other pumpkin...it made him a little queasy. ;)
Here's a bunch of them all lined up. It started raining shortly after this, so I didn't get a picture of them all completed.
Here is a better picture of my little man in the day time. (What? You've never heard of a pumpkin being called "my little man" before? Get with the program!)
We finished out the party with a *ton* of food, no exaggeration, and a few games of Sorry...even though none of us actually were. :) It was a super fun night!
In order to have a pumpkin carving party, we had to have pumpkins. So Monday night some of us went to a pumpkin patch to pick 'em out.
They had tons of pumpkins, of all shapes and sizes....and colors. If I had gotten this one, I would have carved The Grinch into it, because it definitely takes away from the pumpkin spirit!!
And there were some white-ish ones, too. If I was getting several pumpkins for my porch or something, I think it would be neat to throw one of these in the mix.
And for memories sake, the obligatory "Getty pumpkin." :D
We had a lot of fun!
And after, we went to Panera Bread for supper. Oh my oh my oh my. I got french onion soup and an apple walnut salad. And I may or may not have eaten the entire thing. Can I just say I LOVE Panera!
So that was Monday. Friday night was our party!! I waved my wand and said "abra cadabra," and my pumkin turned into this!
Okay, so it may have been slightly more complicated then that. But it was fun, and I think he came out pretty good!
Becky made Kermit 'de frog! It took her a loooooong time....but it came out so nice!
And Heather's pumpkin just couldn't handle watching us gut out the other pumpkin...it made him a little queasy. ;)
Here's a bunch of them all lined up. It started raining shortly after this, so I didn't get a picture of them all completed.
Here is a better picture of my little man in the day time. (What? You've never heard of a pumpkin being called "my little man" before? Get with the program!)
We finished out the party with a *ton* of food, no exaggeration, and a few games of Sorry...even though none of us actually were. :) It was a super fun night!
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