Month: October 2015

What if it is actually God’s will that we move to TN? How does He let us know? The truth is that it takes a lot for a person to pick up and leave perfectly good jobs (well, okay jobs…) to move to a place where they don’t know a soul or even have a job. The weather may be a huge calling card, but it doesn’t pay the bills!

Does He make us uncomfortable? Does he hold out a really enticing carrot? Could what is happening be God telling us to move?

Let me explain. This week there was a picture in the paper of the people who are holding fund raisers to support the Christmas lights – the city council had decided we didn’t have enough money to run the lights this year. But the people are the exact same people who are suing the city. Coincidence? I doubt it. I think they are purposely setting themselves up as pro-city, so the fact that they are suing is because they actually have a case. At any rate, the fact that their faces were all there when I opened the paper threw me into an emotional tailspin. Again. I just wanted to leave that day.

Then, I’m checking out homes in the area of TN we are looking at and I come upon one that is, as I put it, intriguing. It is one block from the middle school to the east and two blocks from the high school to the west. It is actually in Bristol, TN, not Johnson City, but essentially the same distance from the main highways. So I asked for a video. If there was a perfect house for us, this is it. I’d just decided that the safest (i.e. wisest) thing to do was rent for a year. Then God brings us this house that has three separate units – an upstairs and downstairs duplex in the main part (mind you, it wasn’t advertised as such, so I didn’t discover this until I asked for a video), and an apartment over a workshop in the back. Get this – we could bring in more in rent than the mortgage would cost, so we could essentially live payment free. No rent. No mortgage cost to us. We are talking $700 off the monthly budget here. We could actually make money if we put enough down. Rather than pay rent – live off someone else’s rent?

So, the question is – Is this God telling us to get on with it and move?  Is this how He does it?

Would you believe I have more boys than girls in lessons this year? I have 10 boys and 7 girls at this point. Amazing!

I can’t believe it is almost the middle of October already! It has been so warm that it seems like September still. But I guess we have some much colder temperatures on the way, so it will feel more like we would expect. We had to turn on the furnace today and the one in the back half, where we live, didn’t pump out any warm air – just cold. It felt like the temp was dropping rather than raising, so I just turned it off and waited for Dad to get home. Apparently that furnace still has a pilot light, and it had gone off somewhere in the course of the summer! So it is  nice and warm now, but has that funky smell of a furnace run for the first time of the season!

So, six weeks from tomorrow we head for Gary to see all of you! That is coming really soon! Are we doing the white elephant exchange again this year? Dad asked me that the other day, and I wasn’t exactly sure. I know I need to have all the Christmas shopping for the grandkids done by then – I’d better get going on that!

We were originally thinking that Dad would go south first and get a job, so I could keep working and we wouldn’t be without one of us with a job. But I ran the numbers, and we are actually better off if we both keep working here until May, then both quit at the same time and move, because then we will only have the living expenses in one house. Kind of obvious when I say it, but for some reason, our thinking was clouded on that issue. So right now the plan is to both move to TN the end of the second week of May. That is still around 7 months away, but we have a lot of organizing and getting rid of stuff to do before then. Still it is nice to be thinking that this is going to be our last winter in Wisconsin. Hope it is a mild one.

Day one we mostly drove, then stayed overnight just west of Gary, IN. After we checked in, about half of us got back on the bus and drove a few minutes to a Old Country Buffet for supper. Mine and the bus driver’s were free!

Day two we finished the trip to Goodlettsville, where our hotel was. It was a very long day. We stopped for supper about an hour before arriving at the hotel and enjoyed a very good buffet. Just about the time we arrived, Nathan, Amy and gang arrived at the hotel. We celebrated Audrey’s birthday together with huge, tasty cupcakes and the opening of a few presents.

Day three we went to the Belle Mead Mansion in Nashville. It had been a huge estate where race horses were bred back in the 1800’s. The horse that was the ancestor of most of the winners of the Kentucky Derby was born and raised there. It was very interesting. Nathan’s family met us and went through that tour with us, which I greatly enjoyed. I’ll include a picture of that at the end. It was raining, so we all got a bit damp!

From there we went on to shop a while, enjoyed supper at a RainForest Cafe, then went to a performance at The Grand Ol’ Opry.

Day four started with a backstage tour of the Grand Ol’ Opry, followed by some time shopping and sightseeing downtown. Then a tour guide took us all over Nashville, explaining the history, etc. She also took us to “The Upper Room,” where they publish a daily devotional by the same name. There are pictures included from there. We also visited The Parthenon as part of that tour. Supper that night was a dinner party with live entertainment, which was just superb!

The final day in Nashville started with some time at the Country Music Hall of Fame. We then went to the Opryland Hotel, which is about the biggest hotel anywhere.  We took the boat ride around the one section, then visited the other sections – there are three different gardens, all under a glass roof. We actually had a little time to go back to our hotel and rest, then we were off to a dinner theater, where we ate another buffet and enjoyed a show.

The first day on the trip home, we stopped at the Kentucky Derby museum, which is on the grounds of Churchill Downs where the race is run. We got to the hotel a little late, but about half of us decided to go to a Cracker Barrel for supper before bed. Then the final day, we just drove and got to Chetek around 4:00. Whew…

at Belle Mead Mansion

Grand Ol’ Opry house

Our group

Making turtles

Window at “Upper Room”

Parthenon

On the river in Opryland Hotel

We are home from our trip. It went great – it was so fun having Dad along. And he was super-helpful! I don’t know how I did it before without him!  Pictures and so forth tomorrow.