Maryland Drivers

Unfortunately, I don't really have anything new or exciting to report. I did get new shoes today, that I love! But I'm not sure if that's worthy enough for an entire post. I will say that it's raining right now!

Therefore: You now get to read some stories about the crazy MD drivers.

Today, on my way to work, I followed one of the worst drivers I have seen so far. The road I take is a curvy, narrow road, a back way to get me where I need to go. At a light, I pulled up behind a little white car, something that looked like an Altima. I didn't think anything of it until the first left-hand turn. As the car was pulling into the turn, it didn't turn until the front wheel was off the pavement. Then he slowly moved back over into the center of the lane as he pulled out of the turn. This happened for every single left-hand turn. There are about a dozen of those. Now, I can understand accidentally pulling a bit too far off on one turn because you don't realize how narrow the road is, but every single one? And on one turn he was so far off the road that he was flinging leaf litter and debris onto the road behind him. It was a bit scary driving behind him.

On Wednesday of last week, something insane happened at work. Wednesday was my day off, which I used to attend a meeting and go to Annapolis to get my notary commission. When I came to work on Thursday, one of the offices that is normally used was dark and a coworker said that I probably wouldn't be able to use it either. I asked my supervisor where I should sit and why I couldn't use that office. Lo and behold, he showed me where a truck had crashed into the wall the day before. The windowsill is coming off, the whole wall is slightly bowed in and cracked from the windowsill to the floor, a few bricks are missing from the outside, and the bushes outside the window are all scraped up and pushed over. (Thankfully no one was in the office when it was hit, otherwise it could have been very, very bad.) Apparently, an elderly and rather infirm man's gas pedal got stuck in the depressed position. He was parking in front of the building to come inside for some business, and his car kept moving. The truck was almost damage-free, but the wall was definitely not that lucky.

The majority of drivers in this state speed. By a lot. Normally on a road with a limit of 55, the average driver is moving at about 65 or 70. Sometimes you will also see someone traveling at an average speed of about 90 or so. Incredibly dangerous and equally stupid.

Those drivers who are not traveling way above the speed limit are usually traveling at least 15 below the limit. In the left hand lane.

There is one thing that the previous two categories of drivers have in common is that they do no use their turn signals. Ever. In a line of 15 or 20 cars, I will be the only one who has turned on my signal.

Here are a few facts I've learned from these stories:

1. No one in MD uses their turn signals.
2. Speed limits are a suggestion, not a law.
3. Walls are not an obstacle if your car is big enough.
4. Stop light bulbs that go out are never replaced.

There may be updates to this post later on, as people continue to be stupid. 

A few things I've learned today...

First: I was never gifted with the ability to be a barber/hairstylist.

Second: animals in Maryland are really stupid. Not just the robins that continually bang into our sliding glass door in the mornings, but also the groundhogs who run across the busy street and then hide between the tires of cars. Nat says the deer are also like that, especially on the golf course.

Third: if you buy several fish, it's really difficult to tell the different genders. Until they have babies. Currently, we have 4 adult fish (one died for no apparent reason) and at least 7 babies. They're hard to count because they hide in the big fuzzy plants. I know there are at least 7 because I counted that many staying still in the plant at one particular point in time. I'm planning on calling PetSmart and seeing if they will take/buy the babies back once they get bigger. It is rather exciting to have babies though. That means I've taken good enough care of them to not kill all the fish!

There are actually two fish in this picture, but the other one is really hard to find, especially since they're almost see through.

Fourth: I really don't like ticks. They are really bad here at the moment because we've had such a mild winter. We had a picnic for lunch today in a nearby park/preserve, and I saw a little one crawling on the back of Nat's leg. Gross! We left soon after that and have now thoroughly checks for ticks.

Fifth and finally: We have tissue paper trees! I missed the peak flowering, but the flowers look like those elementary school kids make with little tissue paper squares. :)

Stupid Robin of Spring

After the ladies did a wonderful job of cleaning our deck (see previous post), our sliding glass doors were spotless. A few days later, I started seeing streaks at about head height. They look very much like bug splatters on a car windshield.

Today, as I was getting ready for work, I finally figured out what those spots were. It is very possible that they are bug splatters, put there by a very stupid robin. I had leaned over to put something in my work bag, and I heard a THUMP... THUMP...  Low and behold, when I looked at the window, there was a robin with a bit of nesting material in his mouth trying to fly through the glass.

I choose to believe that this same robin has tried to fly though our window with a tasty morsel in his mouth, only to find that it splatters on impact. It makes my day a bit better to try to imagine a very confused robin wondering why he can't fly into a particular space, and in addition to that, why his meal suddenly disappeared. That might make me mean, but it's funny!

Old Lady Leary Left a Lantern in the Shed... or a Cigaret.

BEEP.... BEEP.... BEEP.... BEEP.... BANG BANG BANG on the door.

Fire alarms and firemen knocking on the door is not something pleasant to wake up to. Scrambling to put on clothes and shoes, completely forgetting to grab the important papers and our computers and other valuables.

BEEP.... BEEP.... BEEP.... BEEP.... BEEP.... BEEP.... BEEP.... BEEP....

Ugh. It was freezing outside. There were 3 fire trucks and an ambulance. Tons of firemen, hoses running all over everywhere, people and dogs standing around.

BEEP.... BEEP.... BEEP.... BEEP.... They finally got the alarm turned off and we could go back inside. So much for a good night's sleep that night!

About a month and a half ago, we had an idiotic neighbor light his porch on fire. At 1:00 am. We only have a volunteer fire station, but the one fire truck they had staffed came, along with two from the nearby army base. An ambulance also showed up. The fire department set off the building alarm then knocked on our door, and all the other doors, to get us out. So everyone in the entire building evacuated: people, children, dogs, cats. At first, most everyone was waiting outside. Slowly, people started going to their cars because it was so cold out. There were no flames from the building, all the firemen were moseying about. Apparently they were trying to figure out how to turn the alarm back off.

The firemen finally turned off the alarm and let us all go back inside.

After a few weeks, I went into the complex office for something and asked what had caused the fire. The neighbor on the 3rd floor had decided to smoke on his deck. He didn't manage to get the cigaret out and his wooden deck had caught fire. Unable to get it under control with the fire extinguisher, he had called 911.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad he called, but it seems like that was a dumb thing to do in the first place. If you have a wooden deck, why would you not make sure that anything with fire is completely put out before you go to bed? I don't understand some people.

Anywho... later on a restoration company came and looked at our deck and the two above us. Over the last few days, the company has been repairing the decks. Two ladies came to clean our deck this afternoon. Now it's sparkly clean and doesn't have cob webs anymore. :) Unfortunately they had to deal with those too.

Glad nothing else happened!

The Church We Found

Finding the right church for us was difficult. It was really hard to leave Highland behind, everything and everyone I had known the church to be. Having grown up in the Bible belt, I thought that we would have to drive for hours to find a church that was a decent size and had similar beliefs. Fortunately, I was wrong.

About 10 minutes away from us, we found the Church at Severn Run. Of course, no worship center will be like Highland, I knew that from the start. But Severn Run has a lot of the aspects that I love about Highland: great small groups, loving people who are interested in your wellbeing, strong faith as a community, and many other things.

The thing that I love the most about this church is our Journey group. It's a Bible study group that meets each week (ours on Wednesdays) to study and pray together. Our group is large enough to have 2 smaller groups meeting in different places because no house has the space for all of us. That doesn't mean we're two groups though. I haven't met all the couples (we are the young married group), but those I have met were instant friends.

It's through the Journey groups that Severn Run really works. We spend a great deal of time in prayer and study, but we are also encouraged to serve the church and community. Last month, there was a banquet to kick of a capital campaign to pay off the building. A few of the leaders in our group were selected to plan and execute this banquet. Together, we pulled off a beautiful banquet for about 300 of the members. It was a great meal and time together where we were able to serve the church in a unique way. Soon, we will be starting a service project which will focus on reaching out to the community.

We also have 2 new additions to our group! We welcomed two new baby boys in the last week and a half. I love that each family has a meal train - group members who have volunteered to bring meals a week or two. We get to take dinner to one family tonight, and see their beautiful baby boy Noah. Looking forward to it!

Anyway, we're beginning to settle into life with our church, and enjoying the faithful!

Life in Maryland

Talk about culture shock. Moving from Texas was a huge adjustment for me. I think I've recovered enough to be able to give MD a fair viewing now, but in my heart I will always be a Texas girl.

I've been told that this winter has been an incredibly mild winter for the coast. For which I am really glad because I would not do well with lots of snow and having to drive around in it. A mild winter also means that the foliage will come out a lot faster in the spring. And was it ever beautiful! My sister would have really enjoyed seeing how all the trees were covered in flowers: pinks, purples, yellows, reds, whites. It was great. I was told that the cherry tree blossoms down in Washington, DC were worth the travel time, but this year they came too early so I would have had to miss work to see them. Maybe next year I can post pictures.

I did get a picture of an awesome flowering tree by my office. And this was after the blooms started falling off, so it was prettier a few days before this.

I guess I should mention my work. After about a month or so of being here, and applying at probably 50 different places, I got an interview with a credit union in the area. God seemed to have opened this door for me, I applied on a whim because I was so impressed when we set up our account with them, and I got an interview! It seems a bit strange to be working at a credit union (CU) when I just spent 4 years training to be a teacher. Teaching, at the moment, is out of the picture (more about that later).

Honestly, I was just glad to have a job lined up. I am really enjoying working at the CU, it's engaging work where you always have to be on your toes. Essentially, I'm one of the people who set up and maintain accounts and work with patrons to be sure their accounts are in good order. Our members make sure that no two things are exactly alike. Most of the time it's great and the members are really generous and kind. Fortunately, I haven't had any trouble yet. I'm actually getting a few more hours a week already, so I guess my managers are impressed. :)

Now I can explain why it seems like teaching is a closed door at the moment. While I was student teaching in Abilene last fall, I looked into changing my Texas certification to a Maryland certification. In looking, I figured out that I couldn't do anything until I had my actual Texas certification. So I waited. Once that came in January, I gathered everything I needed (or so I thought): my certification, my Texas test scores, transcript, and a cover letter with lots of personal information. Once I had sent all that in, I waited.
And waited.
And finally got an email saying that they wouldn't accept the test scores the way I sent them (which I had to ask for from my certification offer), which is the only way that Texas sends scores. Instead, I was required to get my scores sent on a TEA letterhead. The question I had to ask was why would TEA give me my scores on letterhead when they don't even mail your scores out to you? Oh well, I got in touch with a very nice lady who sent me 2 copies on letterhead (one for them and one for me).
So I sent that in, again.
In the original email, the Dept of Education said that once I sent that last piece of information they needed in, I would be assigned a representative to look at my case and they would respond in 14-16 weeks, saying whether or not I qualified for a Maryland certification. Therefore, it was fairly pointless to try to get a Maryland teaching job at the moment.

Anyway... things are going fairly well. I'll post later about our church and small group.

The Beginning

We're going to try this again. I started a blog a long time ago, and forgot what it was. So now I'm going to  try to keep up with this one so that I can keep in touch with friends a long way away.

I will try to post lots of pictures so that those who want to can see how things are going in Maryland and how we're doing now that we're here.

So: first things first. Lots of pictures of the various crafts I have done over the last few months so I can pin them to Pintrest (no, I don't have a problem... not at all...).

Our bathroom has absolutely NO storage. So I covered the shelves of this bookcase so we could have some more storage space. The buttons match our shower curtain and our towels. The next picture is also in the bathroom, which had a huge empty wall. So I filled it. :)

The top basket has washcloths rolled up, and the others hold towels for guests. Got the idea from Pintrest.

This started as Cream Soda bottles and turned into flower vases. It's just covered in textured paper (which can't really be seen in the picture). Easy, and spiced up a dull corner.

Ok, so I don't have a bunch of pictures, but this will work for now.