The Twisty Turns of Life

Wouldn't it be nice if life went on a straight path with no bumps or curves? Well, the good news is that heaven will be like that! The bad news is that we have a ways to go before we get there. However, all of us do have the Lord on our side and that can make those twisty turns bearable. Praise be to our Lord who keeps our lives in the palm of His hands!

It's Saturday morning and I am sitting in our new apartment writing a blog. :) It's SO nice to not be working as right now I would be in the middle of my work shift. It has been especially nice as I have had some problems in our new apartment and would have had to call in sick the last few days anyways. Praise the Lord that He orchestrated it so that I was able to quit last Friday.

The move itself went smoothly. Boy is it expensive to have someone move you, however fully worth it as Brian and I were exhausted from all the initial trips and cleaning we had already done. The first day/night in the apartment was pretty rough. We are having to deal with leftover paint fumes, the stuff they used to clean the carpets with and also a strong detergent smell leftover from the previous tenants. Obviously with my horrible chemical sensitivities all of those things have been a challenge. The last issue is probably the one that is causing the most problems. Like most apartments, our laundry room is off of our hallway and just has two folding doors to separate it off from our living quarters. Before we moved in, twice Brian scrubbed that entire area down with softscrub with bleach to get the smell out. Every square inch was cleaned. It smelled awesome for about 8 hours and then the fumes from the detergent came back with a vengeance. We don't know what to do at this point to get it to go away. Laundry detergents are always a struggle for me. In fact, we are in the middle of trying to find one that I can use without getting hives/rash and asthma. So, you can imagine having that stuff in the air throughout the whole house affects my system. Thankfully, I seem to do pretty good in our bedroom, so we have one safe room in the house. The living room and kitchen are tolerable, but our office/second bedroom is the worst. If anyone has any ideas on how to get rid of the smell cleaning-wise, let me know! We were going to try vinegar, but then I read on the internet that if you have previously used bleach on the surface to not combine the two or it will make a poisonous gas, lol. That is all we need. Ha!

I am also having trouble with the shower/bath water. It seems to have a very high chlorine level compared to what I was used to (we lived outside city limits before this place), so I am getting allergic reactions every time I use it. Brian is going to try to go to Home Depot today to get a shower filter and install that for me. Hopefully, it will make a difference and from what I read on the internet, it seems to really help those who have a lot of allergies. Oh the drama, lol. Life is definitely never boring for us.

So if you could be lifting us up in your prayers, we would really appreciate it. Please pray that my system will calm down and quit being so set-off. It always affects the food I am normally able to tolerate because my system is so "reved" up allergy-wise, so it can be quite frustrating to see the food choices dwindle down. Please also pray that we can air out the house enough or figure out how to clean the laundry area so it doesn't make me react. Please pray also that the shower filter will work so that can be one less thing setting me off during the day. Finally, please pray that my system will calm down enough in the next week so that I have a breather before we make the big trip to SC to see our LLMD (Lyme Literate Medical Doctor). That trip will be hard enough without going into it so sick and highly allergic.

The grad application process to the University of Colorado is coming along. I am in the process of waiting on all of my references to be returned to me. It is going to take awhile as I had to send them the forms and wait for a response. My goal is to have packet ready to go by July 10th (the day before we leave for SC), but at the latest when we return on July 17th. It just depends on how quick the references can get back to me. I did talk to the advisor and she said she would do her best to have it reviewed for fall submission. That is my desire to start then, however we do have a second plan in place if I have to wait until January to begin. I am SO excited about this program. It's a perfect fit!

I want to thank each one of you for the support and encouragement we have received. We could not make it through without you guys. We will keep you posted on this journey. Until then, may God reveal Himself to you in a new way this coming week.

Resting in God's Arms,

Dawn