I know I haven't updated this blog in FOREVER.  Not sure why...just haven't had the motivation to do it.  Here's our life to get you up to speed.

1. Well, right now we've been living in our new place since April and love it. No real problems so far.  Our "neighbor" a couple homes down gets a little loud sometimes but nothing to really complain about.

2. Hannah's still working at the library and school.  She had her library hours cut in half and was thinking that they might cut her job entirely.  Good news today was that there were no further cuts to her job!  Yay!

3. I'm teaching a class in the fall at the local community college, PSY 101.  Yes, I'm still working on my dissertation.  I didn't do too much this summer on it but still have august to go.  I decided to teach this class because I want to keep in practice for teaching and we weren't sure what would happen with Hannah's job.  Now that her job is fairly secure I'm doing it to keep in practice. =)

4. We are still going to church at Findlay first church of the Nazarene.  It's not perfect like Majestic was but it'll do.  Our Sunday school class isn't nearly as awesome =)  Right now we're regular attenders but are about to get more involved.  I'm thinking worship team or sound might be good.

5. I've been challenging myself to memorize more Scripture.  I realized the other day that I was "losing" some of the passages I memorized as a kid so I needed to refresh.  It's been fun and I'm getting Hannah involved in it as well.  She says she never liked memorizing passages as a kid.  She doesn't have much of a choice now either I guess. *smile*

6. Bandit our dog is the same.  Neurotic as ever.  He has a new "thing" where he doesn't like to eat unless we're in the same room as him or very close by.  We usually give him about 5 minutes then take his food up.  The next day he eats no matter where we are.  =)  Then the cycle begins again.

7. I shot in a 3 gun match the other day.  This is a shooting competition where you use pistol, rifle and shogun to score hits on a man sized target.  Ranges vary.  I did okay but have been out of practice for a while...it definitely shows.

8. I can't believe so many of our friends have kids!  Derek & Rachel (from CO), Dan & Jamie etc. etc.  The list goes on and on.  It's weird to think about how families change and progress.  I can't believe both of us are 26.  I feel ancient and a veteran at life.  Ha!  How life changes and time marches on.

I think I hit everything in this numbered list.  I'll update again soon.  Habits are easy to break but need a lot more work to create.

Happy Saturday to everyone!  Just wanted to update you on the recent exciting news: we have an apartment to move to!  Yesterday we signed a lease on a place about 10 minutes north of us.  We are thrilled to get this place; it really could not be more perfect for us.  It's a good location, lets us have pets, and is well-built and modern.  It's 2-bed, 2-bath with a garage and a deck out back.  It is so nice to have this headache over with and such a relief to have a decent place to move to.  We move in two weeks, and we haven't started packing at all!  Hopefully we can start making several trips a week to bring over some stuff so there will be less to do on moving day.

Here are some pictures of the new place-

The living room:





The dining room (with the deck out the back door):




And the kitchen:




In other news, I (Hannah) had my top two wisdom teeth out this week.  It went better than expected, and even though I'm still a bit sore it's starting to feel better.  We also have had a good time visiting with Tim's parents this week.  This is the first time they've been able to visit us here in the States since we got married.  Tim had a four-day weekend for Easter, so he's enjoying a brief vacation from work.

That's all the news from here!  We'll update again after all the moving craziness is over.

Well here's what's new with us.  I apologize again for the sparse blog posts; our minds have been elsewhere of late.

The biggest snafu in our lives right now has been with our current rental situation.  Here's an excerpt of an email I sent around:

"Most of you have been aware of the constant battle with our landlord over housing issues (hot water, heating problems etc. etc.) since we moved in July.  Things have taken a dramatic turn for the worse.  We came home yesterday and found an astronomical electric bill (I really mean astronomical).  Turns out the electric company has been estimating charges based on previous usage for the past 3 months and this bill involved an actual reading of the meter so we're paying for mis-estimations for the past three months in one bill.  ick.  I spoke to our landlady yesterday who told me the house has no insulation in the walls (which they did not tell us about before we moved in).  I won't repeat word for word what I said to her at that point...her summary is that we are responsible for the bill.  Among other things I stated that she misled us and took advantage of our cross country move."

After I sent this email I consulted with a lawyer and sent a letter to the landlady stating everything that was wrong and what we wanted fixed.  She had seven days to fix some issues and 30 days to fix others or we would file for rent escrow (in Ohio you're allowed to file for rent escrow and pay your rent to the Clerk of Courts until the issue is resolved).  Our hope at that point was to end the lease amicably (after 30 days notice) and just leave.  Earlier this week we were told that we could leave on April 1st but we would forfeit 1/2 our deposit. 

My initial reaction was "no way!" BUT I wanted to think, pray and talk to Hannah about it.  So that's what I told the landlady.  After talking with Hannah we had decided to stick out with the lease and not lose half our deposit BUT still file for rent escrow after the 30 days is up.  I was going to contact our landlady but hadn't gotten around to it when yesterday we got an email from the landlady saying they would let us out of the lease on May 1 and would refund our full deposit.  Hallelujah!  I don't know why the landlady and owner had a change of heart; maybe not contacting them for a week "psyched them out" or maybe God softened their hearts.  I have no idea but it sounds like we will be moving AGAIN in about 6 weeks.

In other major life changes...we are church hunting again.  I think both Hannah and I feel like we weren't being fed where we were....the HARDEST part about leaving this church will be/and is telling the friends we made there that we're leaving:

In other news Hannah is now working two part-time jobs.  It's amazing she was able to get two jobs she had no experience in this economy.  The downside is that she has to work Sunday afternoons (1-5) and till 8.30 on Mondays and Tuesdays.  Hannah seems to really enjoy it...she's always wanted to work in a library. 

I'm pretty busy at the schools and at home.  I'm still working on my dissertation proposal.  According to my prof I'm on track to defend the proposal in May.  Thanks be to God!  I'm on track.  I'm a little surprised because I don't think it's particularly good as yet BUT my committee chair seems to like it.  I guess that's what matters.  My job may change a bit next year...I'm trying to convince superintendents and principals to buy more of my time (through my ESC) to allow me more time in the schools I work in right now.  Most of them seem open to the idea which is nice...they like the work that I do.

Well, that's what's going on for right now...I'll try to update more often.  Keep praying for us.