April 13, 2007. The Day We Moved In.

Eight years ago ...

Psalm 118:14-29                                                                          April 13
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Thou art my God, and I will praise thee: thou art my God, I will exalt thee.
O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. 28-29

Job 32 - Elihu, the youngest of the men assembled, is angry at Job because he justifies himself and not God; Elihu was hesitant to speak before because he was respectful of the others' age, but he knows now to not be flattering and "soften the blow"

At 9:00 this morning, we became homeowners. Most of the paperwork I signed because it's my credit score and insurance rating being evaluated for our loan approval. So far everyone's impressed with the new house, now we can get moved in!

[This was a Friday, so I've also got my Ensign devotional for that day pasted here, which was titled "Even We Samaritans Can Be Thankful".]

Over the weekend ...

That's right, today is the eighth anniversary of our being in our house! 8 down, and 22 to go on the mortgage ... at the time, Martha and Sarah and I lived in an apartment in southeastern Minot (which for all I know is more expensive monthly now than our mortgage payment, even when it's gone up!) and my wife was carrying Jeffrey ... the journal entry of mine from that day was pretty easy to find, for I keep them all in an upstairs closet that came within two steps of getting flooded four years ago.

Except for the one I'm currently writing in and maybe one or two I'm doing some research with (I have to remember what when?) I mostly use them these days to keep track of the books I read AND SHOULD BE WRITING, keep updated on what and who I pray for and realize where I can do better. This weekend was dominated by the small rejoicing Martha and I share that I put in our 28-day notice on the Minot Daily News paper route, so two days from this past Saturday we'll be done with it!

Saturday was my working at Marketplace and actually getting done early (I'll take that) after Breakfast with the Boys where the sixteen of us were served and six of them had made (I may get drafted to do it in a few years, think about it) hash brown stackers -- an IHOP recipe, it's fantastic -- with all the extras, and Sunday after church where we had a concert performed by Voices of Note before the service began and the kids had Sunday School, we then went to another breakfast!

Breakfast, brunch, whatever ... this one was at the Minot Rural Fire Department where I had never been and it was quite a crowd! My family and I sat across from two older women, and my conversation with them -- yeah, I do tend to start conversations more than I perhaps should, but I find common things easier -- took off when I said we'd just come from Bethany Lutheran to get there! Seems one of the sisters had been there years ago and remembered ME from seeing me up front ...  

... when I'd be reading the Scripture lessons. Small world. So we got home for the afternoon and about two hours later Martha's sister Mary calls and invites us to the movies to see Home, an animated feature where the human race is conquered by the alien Boov and relocated to Australia. One of the squat, color-changing sexupeds (they walk on six legs, and two-leggeds are bipeds) wants to invite friends to a party. The Boov named Oh ... is a bit of a misfit for wanting to do that.

After Oh sends out the invite (which is on the verge of being intercepted by the alien Gorg which has driven the Boov off the last several planets they've settled on, destroying them in the process) he gets caught in a convenience store by seventh-grader Tip and his pet cat Pig and they fix up ... what reminds me of a Geo Metro like I used to drive, seriously, with soda power and learn to trust each other while running from everybody!

Some of the most plausible aliens I've ever seen, but that's for another day.

David