The FAQs

There are a handful of questions that I have been asked many times over the last few weeks. So I’m gonna address them here.

Did you guys know?
No. We had our suspicions that something was wasn’t right but certainly nothing as serious as a meth lab. We couldnt believe that she was dumb enough to cook where she slept. There was some unusual traffic and the fact that they had a rowboat propped against the side of the house what a little weird but not anything we could call the cops over.

Did you smell anything?
Obviously not enough to raise any flags to us. We smelled a lot of cigarette smoke though which bugged us enough. The last day we were there however we discovered that we could smell it in our back storage hall (which makes sense in in lieu of it being one of the closest areas to where they were doing the cooking) It is a smell neither of us will ever forget. We threw out almost everything back there not wanting to risk it.


Did you guys get sick?
Not anything too serious. I know at least for me it was causing some minor issues but they are already clearing up being out of the environment. And like i said before, it affected Gabe worse (or at least more noticeably) than us.

What did the owner of the apartments say?
Not much. They were, of course, upset. It’s not likely they will be able to rent out either of the two units for a while.


Resources and further information:

http://methlabhomes.com/2011/07/how-meth-labs-can-effect-your-health/

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=former-meth-lab

http://www.cdphe.state.co.us/hm/methlabfaq.pdf

So we live in the same building as a former meth lab- What now?

That night was difficult. We were, of course, more than a little freaked out. The questions and worst case scenarios swirled in our heads.
Were we being affected physically? 
Just how toxic are the gases? 
How does it affect dogs? 
Does it have long term effects? 
Should we even sleep here tonight? 

What do we do now?

There was a little bit of crying, a bit of rage, and more than a little panic that night. But after a couple of hours of this we decided, as crazy as this might sound, that the best thing for us would be to just sleep on it. We needed to be clear headed and not panic stricken before making any decisions. So we did our best to unwind and fall asleep.

By Saturday we had made two major decisions. The first was that the move was definitely gonna be sooner than October.  We did enough research to know the general symptoms and what to watch out for but also that the sooner we got out the better. (tomorrow’s blog post will contain some of the info that I have gathered about all of that)

The second was that it would be best for Gabe (our dog) if we sent him somewhere we knew he would be safe. So we talked to Clint’s parent’s who agreed to take care of him until we got everything sorted out. Which we discovered the following week was for the best because the gases had been affecting him. He had been lacking energy, had a rash, some tummy issues, and issues with fluids draining from his ears and nose. They were all little symptoms that had built up over time that we had attributed to other things. The mucus/ fluid build up we attributed to allergies, the rash from some funny weeds in the backyard, tummy issues from just the fact that he gets into everything.  After he was out of the environment for even just a week he was doing drastically better.

After a few more days and many long discussions we decided we needed to be out of that apartment as soon as possible. So I made some calls and we made plans to move out on July 31st. We made a not so easy decision to go 2 seperate ways for a few weeks.  We put our stuff in storage in Fort Wayne. Clint is staying Upland to work an extra week at Ivanhoes after which he will head up to Fort Wayne to find and start a new job. I made the drive up to Clint’s parents house where I will do some job hunting and get started back at school. If everything goes according to plan we will be in the new apartment sometime by the end of the month.

The next 3 weeks or so will not be easy especially for Clint so prayers are appreciated.
The whole situation has made us examine ourselves, our life, our priorities. The past 2 years in Upland we knew there was just one reason we were there - so Clint could get his degree. We  didn't really focus on anything else. For me it was just a matter of dealing with it - grinning and bearing it. I did not enjoy living in Upland at all. I know it was something we had to do, but it just was not my kind of town. That’s not to say that it was all bad. I did have some great experiences and met some awesome people down there. But I also had some horrible ones and met some not so great people.

So to the people who made the bright moments in a town I hated shine as so very brightly they did - thank you! Despite all of that bad memories I wouldnt trade my time because than I would miss out on the good memories.
Kate, Pete, Victoria, Nathan, - You guys are awesome and have been such awesome friends.  To my fellow co-workers at the 3 places of employment in that 2 years- I wish you the best in your lives. 
To those of you who I dont have such fond memories of, those I need to forgive, that full forgiveness will come with time. The hurt you caused has helped shape me to be a stronger person, there are just a few of you that I am still working on the forgiveness part.

The more I look back on my time in Upland the more I know I will see the ways I have learned and grew (and I will have plenty of time for that over the next few weeks). At the moment though, I am just happy in the thought that it is behind me, that I will never live in that town again.  

Hello August 1st! Hello Change! - Why our move was so sudden

I have been waiting for this day for a little over 2 weeks now. It is the beginning of the next step in my life. It means that July is OVER! And thank God for that! July was one of the roughest months in a while for me. Oh wait you want to know why? What have you heard? Ok. I guess I can write about that :D.

Like I said it all started a little over 2 weeks ago. Clint was finishing up his last class at Taylor and we were both working at the wonderful Ivanhoes' ( a local ice cream shop/ drive -in thing within walking distance of our apartment). I had taken a few weeks off of school because I had been going non stop with out a break for 2 years. At the time the plan was to take our time and move back to Fort Wayne easily. We had just started looking into apartments and made the decision to invite one of our friends, Jason to room with us once we moved back. We started looking for jobs and making tentative plans, but really didn't expect to move until September at the very earliest.

Lets just say God didn't like that time table. Our life seems to be the prime example of the saying "You want to make God laugh? Tell him your plans." Clint and I fully admit we are both very stubborn people. So when God doesnt like our plans he tends to do something drastic to get our attention. This time was no different. 

It was a thursday. Clint and I both had off so we decided to go into fort wayne to look at some apartments with Jason and to just have some fun. Fast forward to 10:30pm- we turn at the gas station and our little apartment comes into view. There are a TON of cars parked out front. We quickly realize that most of them are police cars. My stomach turned and I knew something big had happened and had a horrible feeling it was gonna impact us more than we could imagine. 

There are so many cars we pull up on the grass on our side of the unit. We are immediately approached by a man who identifies himself as Sheriff or state trooper someone or another. After verifying that we live there he informs us that our neighbor had been cooking meth. As he says this a person in a white hazmat suit walks out of the door behind him like some sort of cruel emphasis to the fact that on the other side of our wall there was a highly explosive and noxious gas lab. 

Needless to say we barely slept that night. We stayed up talking about what we should do. But we both knew that a knee jerk reaction would not be the right one in the long run. So eventually we went to bed. . . . 

2 post in one month? whaaaaat?

lol Life continues to be crazy. That not any ones fault really. I do tend to bite off more then I can chew. But I like keeping busy. I would rather be too busy then not have enough going on. Thats just how I am.

A couple of things I want to mention:

I am finally getting my handmade shop up and running. My GRAND OPENING is schedule for JULY 1! I am SO excited. I have been working on and off on RandomAnn designs since I was a teenager. But I finally made it a priority and made some measurable progress on it. You can learn more about it here :)

It had been crazy crazy. I went to go see my little sister graduate this past weekend which was great. It was awesome to see my crazy family and get to spend some time with them.

I was sick earlier this week which was not fun at all. I dont call off work for many things but thats just how down I was. I am better now. Still congested but better.

I have had a lot on my mind lately. Prayers are appreciated. Prayers for clarity and assurance. More about this later.

That's all for now family and friends.

LDJE

Crazy life - June Edition

I am happy to report that things have been going fairly well. As mentioned in my last post I have indeed proven my worth at the new job. This past week I even got over time working about 47 hours. They have realized that my strength is closing so I am predominantly on that shift. This is convenient for both them and me. It is convenient for me because I am a night owl, I would much rather stay up late then get up early. (I also like it cause I get to work with fewer customers and I have a set focused task to do) Most people complain about working closing shift because you are there late and it is a decent amount of work. But I like it because it is generally more relaxed. It is convenient for them because they have had 4 closers quit or get fired last week.

ANYWAY. . . Clint finished up school with all A's and B's and I am ever so proud of him. It was not easy for him working 5 nights a week in Fort Wayne and going to school full-time. But he managed to do it and I am just so proud of him. For the summer he is still working in fort wayne while seeking another job, ideally closer to home. Prayers appreciated for us both but particularly that he finds a job closer to home.

School for me continues to be hectic but worth it. I recently received two certificates for parts of the program I am in and it was encouraging to see my hard work start to pay off. Though the full diploma will be and even greater encouragement. I am still working thru the summer but I went down to 15 credits because one of the classes had some deadlines that I just could not work out with everything else. Still on pace though to graduate next year though :D

We were finally able to get internet so doing my homework has become so much easier. Considering I can even do it when I get home from work if i care to do so. We also got Netflix. Which leads me to the fun part of this post.

I have a To-See list a mile long. But thanks to Netflix I am able to finally start working away at it. This is my list of movies and tv shows that I want to see. I will be posting my thoughts on the things I watch so stay tuned for those fun posts. (Not really formal reviews just my thoughts)

And to start out with I watched Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.

In a sentence I LOVED it! I am a huge Firefly/ Joss Whedon fan. Nathan Fillion made a hysterical over the top character. Neil Patrick Harris was just plain hysterical as Dr. Horrible. And Felicia Day is just adorable and she is awesome in both this and The Guild though I had never heard of her before watching the latter. The movie in general was just funny, though the ending was a bit sad (no spoilers here). But yes I loved it and it has now moved to my "To- Own" list, which is probably just as long as my To-See list.

Yes, I know I am ridiculous. That's why you keep reading. Ha! Got ya there now dont I?

More movie and tv show thoughts to come!

Toodles

LDJE

new stuff exciting stuff .. can we all say yay?!?!?!

Hello all,

Sorry for the delay since my last post. Life continues to be crazy but I push on to live not just exist.

Happy #1 -

I got the job at mcdonalds. My favorite? no, but it will do for now. I am not having the issues I had at BK so in that I am very happy. I know that I have made a decent impression on my new managers as my hours have gone steadily up. From training week of 10 scheduled hours, to 18 hours and this week 32. Yay! So the money worry isnt as huge as it was for me. This eliminates a huge stressor for me which great.

I did however get a tip on a full-time job starting this fall that I am looking into and hoping for. More details when I have them

Happy #2 -

I did some figuring and looked at my classes and such and figured out that I am on track to graduate next spring which is almost an entire year sooner then I expected. I am working my tail off this summer, taking 18 credit hours with only a 2 day break between spring and summer classes but it will be worth it.

Happy#3 -

I got enough financial aid that I was able to get some things that I needed for school including a new laptop. We have needed a new computer for a while now so this is a real blessing. We just put in the order for a Toshiba A660 yesterday. We will finally have a web-capable computer with Microsoft Word on it that wont crash every time the power cord gets bumped.

Thats all the post I have time for right now. I have a crazy week ahead of me - finals week for spring term, preparing for summer term, 32 work hours, etc. I do have another silly confessions post planned for later this week so stay tuned :)

LDJE

Life update

Hello blog world!

A couple of updates as far as my random life goes.

Work

Most of you know that, on faith, I quit my job at Burger King a little over a month ago. This was for many reasons that I will not bore you with again.

Since then I have been furiously job hunting because quitting that job left clint and I with barely a third of our monthly income. (yeah big uh oh)

Thankfully we have made it thus far because we used our tax check to pay off everything that was due. I knew that wouldnt last long of course so my stress levels have been sky high in looking for this new job.

In the past few days (literally crunch time for us financially) things have been looking up.

I had an interview today at mcdonalds that I feel I did extremely well in. I should know by the end of the week if I have a job there.

I also have another application (at the mclure by 69) that I am waiting on a call for an interview. I spoke to the manager yesterday and she seemed interested and said she would let me know by the end of this week.

So by then end of the week I will probably have at least one job and an interview for a second one.

In all honesty I am really hoping for the Mcclure job for a couple reasons. I would love to get out of fast food and I know that my piercings wont be at all a problem there. But I will take what I can get. If I am offered Mcdonalds I will take it. I am considering the possibility of working two jobs at least for a month or two so that we can get caught up on our bills. But we shall see. It will all depend on many things including the specific hours I am offered at each place, the rate of pay and the amount of hours I will be offered.

I am not counting on anything though. I am still working hard at putting in apps at other places as well.

Clint is still for now working in Fort wayne at the most awesome Remedy. It is hard for him being as late as it is having 8am classes 3 days a week as well but he has pushed on and made it work.

Clint has also applied for a summer job on campus that we are hoping he will be offered.

School

I am doing well this subterm. Better then I thought I would considering that I have a philosophy class that I knew would not be my strong suit. I am still working on graduating sometime next year. I have made 2 decisions though:

a) While I had been contemplating turning my minor criminal justice into a second major I have decided that it is probably not the best option. It would push back my gradutation date back at least another semester if not two putting me at graduating in 2013. I would just rather not, and I dont feel like God is leading me to that.

b) However, I am looking into getting my masters in counseling, continuing the in the graduate program at LUO. This is not for sure yet and I have a lot of things to consider.

Clint is also doing wonderfully. I am so proud of him. He has so much going on this semester. His classes are not easy at all and working in fort wayne every week night makes things a lot harder. But he has pushed on and has kept his grades up. Did I mention that I am proud of him?

Random Other stuff

Life in general has been stressful to say the least. Clint and I are both concerned because we are not steady financially but we have confidence that God will get us thru this rough patch just as he has every other one.

Gabriel is just the same bratty lovable cuddle bug. He is not amused when clint and I both have to be gone all day for work or homework but he will learn to manage. When we are home we both try to spoil him with lots of love, cuddles and a healthy amount of treats. He has learned to behave himself enough that we can sometimes leave him out of his crate when we are not home.

We are working out plans for this summer including seasonal jobs, visits to family, and school. We are not all that focused on that right now though. Our focus is on our homework and remedying our financial situation so that we can finish strong this semester.

Prayers appreciated. Love to all our awesome friends and family.

LDJE