|
ON-LINE AGAIN (June 19, 2001) I cannot believe this - I am finally able to get on line - yesterday they finally reconnected us, but the bad news is that the last three weeks of mail has been lost in some dark black whole called the Internet, and we have no way of getting the emails back that we could not download cos of not having telephones and lines up. (Johan says that is not such bad news as that would have meant about 400 emails to try and answer!!) But finally we are starting to get more normal. I still don't have curtains up - I went back for an xray and a checkup last Friday., and my toe has not healed well. So I have this cast on for two more weeks. Which is not nice as I am not allowed to drive, which means an awfully long time of being house-bound unless Johan has time to take me out. I am also way overdue for a haircut. And then last night Johan started to get sick and feverish with the flu, and is all chesty and unable to breathe this morning. I have our GP coming by at 2 o' clock to see him. So life at the moment consists of lots of trials etc. Then the owner of the house where we were renting also wanted to see us with the estate agent this morning, to complain about all the things that he wasn't happy about his house. The estate agent agrees with us that we left the house in an excellent condition, but he doesn't think so, and doesn't want to pay us back the extra month's rent that we paid in guarantee. I told them that I disagreed, and that we should actually charge them for the extra expenses we have had in having to move like we did, seeing as we had to move before the five years that we had originally agreed on, but now we need to pray that he will bend. Apart from that, the move went relatively easy. if you take into consideration the fact that I could hardly do much unpacking - at first I had a boot on that wasn't the same height as the cast, and so I kept having back pain. But once I unpacked all my winter things, I came across another shoe with a higher platform, and that had made my legs more equal in length, and so easier on my back. We have most of the stuff unpacked and in place, and have thrown away a lot of things that we had collected or not used in this past year, and so slowly I am getting to the stage of having order in the house. We still have pictures and valances and rails that have to be moved, and last week we went and bought all the light fittings we needed and paid someone to put them in - that took him just three hours, whereas Johan would have spent the whole weekend doing it. The house is very nice - in fact, we just went back to the other one this morning, and this house is a lot nicer. Although we were very happy in the other one - this one is Spanish colonial, with lots of bay windows, and a little more spacious. We have an enclosed laundry, which we didn't have here, which also means that we have some more storage space. This time, we do not have a pool, which is fine by me too - in fact by all of us, cos the summer is not that long that warrants all that work of maintaining it all year. If the kids were smaller, it would be different, but even Brendon only used it about 5 times last summer. Mind you, we were in South Africa last summer too, but even so. We are a lot higher than we were before and have some nice views from upstairs of the mountains and the city. We are grateful to be even more out of the smog than we were before, although on bad days, it gets here still. It's a very nice neighborhood, and once we get settled, I'm sure we will be happy here. It is just that it came all at a bad time - just when Johan got the new job with more responsibilities etc. But after three weeks of painters, and electricians, and TV people then telephone people in and out, I am tired of workers being underfoot, especially when I have to hobble around checking up on them all the time. Like someone said the other day - unlike TV, where the problems come one at a time and always have a happy ending, in real life the problems come in bunches, and we have to plough through them and not always have a short-term happy ending! How great to have the Lord walking though all with us. Brendon is doing fine, and enjoying school - too much I think - and has a little girlfriend called Amanda. Lycia and Lionel are enjoying their work - Lycia lent Lionel her car to go and visit Stephanie for the weekend, cos her car is in better condition than his, and then hers went and broke down, and she suddenly has a bill of $300 in car repairs. So they weren't too happy about that. But apart from that, they are learning lots, and grateful to have these jobs. Lycia arrives here on July 12th, and Lionel and Stephanie on July 19th. So we look forward to meeting her. We look forward to having the kids here with us - these long separations don't do me a lot of good, so I am very glad they can come. Love and hugs from all of us, Stephanie.
- August 15, 2001
|