Life Happenings Pt 1 – House Saga

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There is way to much going on for me to cram it into one post.  If you’re like me,  when I see a post that is over 3 paragraphs long, my brain cramps.  So I am going to break-down the following subjects.

  • House Saga
  • Office Space
  • Easter
  • Space issues

House Saga

Ok, this is going to be long, so just brace yourself for it.  Firstly – we bought a house!  Well, at least our offer was accepted.  Here are the details.  4 beds, 3 full baths, 2400 sq ft, 1 car garage, split level, fully finished basement, and pretty much move in ready.  Just need to paint a bit and replace the pink carpet.  What is up with us and pink carpet?  And the only bad thing is there isn’t a stitch of grass in the back yard.  I need to google, "How to grow grass in the shade."

Here is where the saga comes in.  Our limit was 210K.  That’s northern VA for you.  I sold my new house in TX for 93K then come up here and get sticker shock.  But I digress.  I have been oodling over a house since October.  Loved it.  Needed quite a bit of work, but it had great potential.  Basement rancher, 3 beds, 2 baths, 1 acre, backed up to a pond, nice neighborhood.  But the light fixtures were missing, needed paint, no finished basement, needed flooring in the kitchen, and some other miscleanous perrifials.  But it was like 289K.  But a foreclosure.  We looked at it 3 times and our realtor called the agent to see about low-balling it.  But they were a no go.  Even last month it was still at 249k. 

Now comes Saturday.  We find the other house, put a offer on it, and wait.  Saturday-nothing.  Sunday-nothing.  Monday I wake up and check out email and look at our daily posting of houses.  Guess which one was at the top of the list now at 214K.  You guessed it.  The one I was stalking.  So now we needed to decide whether to pull our offer and put an offer on pond house.  But we thought about it, prayed quickly, and decided to see what would happen with the offer we had out.  We honestly thought they would counter and we would walk and put an offer on the other one.  But they didn’t.  They accepted it as is.  But we’re ecstatic.   We’re getting an amazing house at a steal.  And it is 1 week until our financing fell through.  God is just in time!  Very excited!

Hope that story isn’t too confusing.

I live

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I live.  Sorry to all of my readers for leaving you hanging for so long.  I have been rightly chastised by my friends for not posting.

I Jeremy Pickwell, do solemnly swear to post at least once a day during the work week, unless I’m on vacation.

Spread the word.  I want this to be a quality blog.  But I need your help!

Pathetic

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Tennessee looked pathetic.  Truly embarrassing.  It was like they had never played in a big game before.  The really disappointing thing was the camera shot of the bench with 5 mins left and them down by 12.  They had the look of ‘we’re already beaten.  Let’s just go home.’  Somehow I knew this.  I picked Louisville over TN to go the elite eight.  I just know how TN is. 

Being a Pickwell

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I am a Pickwell.  And we Pickwell’s have certain quirks about us.  These are a few that let you know you have our blood:

  • You like sleep – a lot – like it’s your hobby.
  • You’ve been known to wipe out a bag of Oreos in one setting.
  • You have a 2-4" protrusion of a gut that juts out from your midsection – regardless of how little or much you eat, sit up, or work out.  It’s called the Pickwell belly and it plagues all of our men.
  • You have yelled at the TV during the following sports – basketball, football, baseball, soccer, golf, NASCAR, bob-sledding, and gymnastics.  ’98 Atlanta Olympics – Keri Strugg landing her vault on an injured ankle.  Who didn’t yell?  And notice hockey is missing.  Who really likes that stuff?
  • You probably have a butt-chin.
  • Way too completive.  Which is bad, because we’re not necessarily good at sports.
  • You want a pet – until you have it.  Then you want it dead.  So you give it away.  Then you want another pet…and cycle continues.  Anybody want my dog?
  • You like to stay up late…maybe that’s the reason for the first item.
  • You root for a school you didn’t attend – Tennessee.  My uncle is the only exception.  You bleed orange.  Seriously, my blood is orange.
  • You know how to make the best tacos in the world – Big Tacos.  All other tacos are referred to as ‘small tacos’, ‘easy tacos’, ‘fake tacos’, or ‘dog-food’.

Egg Drop Drama

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Last year we learned A LOT!  And I think that prepared us for this year.  However, this year we still didn’t expect the crowd we had.  But we need to know what an incredible job Josh did.  Our drop ran like a machine.  Sure there were a few people upset (maybe 2).  But if your one of them and are reading this – get over it!  Read what it could have been like!  You’ll pee your pants!

Read it here. 

It’s raining eggs….hallelujah…

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Sorry, couldn’t resist.

Next year at egg drop time we need estimate a crowd, then double the number.  Unbelievable!  Go through my blog roll to find out all the estimations on numbers.  I’m not even going to guess. 5K, 7K, 10K, 12K.  They all sound God-sized.  Which they are!  It was a God-day.  Weather was God-made to order.  Volunteers were God-infused.  Eggs were…seemingly falling from God’s hand.  It was a site to behold.  And I got to hunt with Wyatt!  Fun stuff.  Here are some great pics of the day.  Click the 2nd to the last one and you can see the eggs falling.
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Person of the week

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My first person of the week is….drum roll….wait you already see his picture.  Darn.
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The first person of the week is Phil Green.  Why?  I’m so glad you asked!

Phil is a machine.  Phil also bleeds Lifepoint.  He love the church and we love him.  He is always in a good mood and always encouraging.  Let me tell you a little about what he does.

Saturday Phil showed up at the fairgrounds…early.  I think like at least 9.  He donated all the orange construction fencing we had to frame out the hunting zone.  Phil not only donated it, he helped put it out.  Yards and yards of it.  Phil then helped work the event.  Phil then stayed and helped tear down the event – at 3:30.  Phil stayed until everything was done.  Phil then – get this – followed a back hoe filled with dirt, grabbed a hand full every few yards, and hand filled – HAND FILLED – every hole the stakes made from the orange construction fencing.  (Seems there is a dog show and they didn’t want Fido to break his leg).  Took him at least 45 minutes.  Grabbing dirt, bending over, filling the hole, and packing it in.  THEN Phil showed up at 6 AM Easter to help finish setup.  THEN Phil stayed behind after the 11:30 service let out to help with tear-down.  Told you he was a machine.  And he’s not the only one!  We have more just like him!  You’ll get them later.

Phil we are blessed to have you!  Thank you!

Person of the week

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I have decided to start highlighting a person of the week.  I have been hesitant to do so because I hate leaving people out.  I love our volunteers with all my heart.  They are the back-bone of the church.  They are the heart of the church.  They are an inspiration.  I hope they all know how much I care for them.  SO – in highlighting one, I just don’t want anybody else to think I think they are doing a bad job.  These will be people that just stuck out in my mind.  So here we go…

Sunday…is over

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For now at least.

Boy am I pooped.  3 services, tons of volunteers…I mean tons, and we were packed – each service.  It rocked!  The unofficial count is 674!  I say unofficial because sometimes I find addition errors.  And even more importantly, I would estimate at least 50 salvations!  Can you believe that!  We had at least 15-20 each service!  It was amazing.  Pastor Daniel preached like somebody had lit his pants on fire.

The hard thing is singing 3 services.  My voice is shot.  I could tell my voice was physically tired before the 3rd service.  And the set was demanding – "All Because of Jesus", "Mighty to Save", "Wonderful Cross", "Meant to Live", "Mighty is the Power of the Cross".  "Mighty to Save" seemed to tax me the most.  Each service I was praying I would get through "Meant to Live."  Towards the end of the song I just had to get ugly with it…get a little growl going to punch out the notes.  But everything went well.  Even remembered all my lyrics!

We had Lisa going solo as Production Manager for her first Sunday.  She did an amazing job.  Kristen had to go to Egypt or something. Seriously, they’re in Egypt!  The band was sick as usual.  Everybody just went above and beyond the call of duty.  And the Host team was kickn’ butt and takn’ names.  Way to go guys and gals!

And a nice extra is Elizabeth put together an nice spread for our first Volunteer Headquarters.  It seemed to be a huge hit.  It looked amazing and was a great way to take care of everybody who invested so much time into the day.

I’m just so proud of our volunteers.  They are so faithful and so much fun to work with.  Everybody has great attitudes and believe whole-heartedly the vision of Lifepoint.

I am so blessed to be part of this church.  Thank you God for your blessing!!