Cabin Fever

Unfortunately the title has nothing to do with a cabin. We neither own a cabin or have been to one in quite a while. It is referring to us being in the midst of a home search and being ready to move out of Wilder's parents' house. They've been so great to let us stay here while we look for jobs and then a house but it is now past time for us to have our own place finally. We are beginning to look seriously now, instead of just on the internet like I've been doing for the last two year. What an overwhelming process! We're in the middle of trying to find a realtor so we can then start looking at houses and not be restricted to open houses only. We are also praying that the right place will come along; by right I mean for the right price. We really only care about location and price (and a little bit about size). We are very willing to buy a place that needs some updating as long as it is nothing to big that needs to be done. Now I just need to be patient for the right one at the right time.

Hole in one!

One thing that we have been enjoying this summer is disc golf. Brent gave Robin some discs at the start of the summer, and so we decided that we would get a couple discs to play as well so we could play a round every now and then with Baby sister. We did not realize how much fun we would have! So we've been playing more and more, and learning about different discs and different courses. My favorite course, of course, is at Covenant Pines. What I like most about it, besides being at the ever amazing Pines, is that there are three sets of tees, so while there are only nine sets of chains, you can play twenty seven holes, and the courses range in difficulty.
So we were up at the Pines this past weekend, and I was playing the yellow course with some of the guys (yellow is the shortest set) and on the first hole, I threw a hole in one! I was really excited, because it was my first hole in one. I ended up seven under par for the yellows, and it really encouraged me to get better; it's funny how we tend to work harder at the things we're better at. Shouldn't we work more on the things we're worse at? Anyways, I love Disc Golf.

Tulsa, The Paris of the US

So last week I was in Tulsa, OK for work. We have to go down there to
transition the work to ourselves (long story that I won't go into). I
got my own room in the Radisson, equipped with a sleep number bed (I was
at a 55 I think). I also got all my meals paid for since I was on a
work trip. All this to say that if you have to go to Tulsa it helps to
have everything paid for. I actually had a pretty good time though.
There are quite a few people at my new job who are in their 20's. There
are also quite a few who have a twin. With myself included there are at
least 4 twins just in the accounting department. Crazy, I know.
One night we left Tulsa and headed to Bartlesville
to go to the Price Tower. This is a Frank
Lloyd Wright building that was made in the '50s. It was very
cool to see. He was very innovative. It was amazing to see all of the details he took the time to make sure were perfect.

BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD

If there's one thing I love, it's Covenant Pines Bible Camp. April and I just spent a week up there volunteering for Senior High 1. It was a really great experience, mostly because I had a great cabin of guys. They were really good about not excluding each other, and spent a large portion of their time playing ultimate frisbee.

April and I were a little nervous when we first arrived at camp, because we didn't know as many staff members as we had in years past. By the time we had to leave, however, we were sad to go, because we had made about thirty new friends. It was a great week of playing games and going on the blob, and it rekindled my sense of responsibility toward high schoolers. It seemed like a bunch of these guys were really yearning for some strong male role models, to show them how to be a strong Christian man and how to love others. So many of them seemed to go out of their way to meet me, hang out with me; it made me realize that some of them actually look up to me.
Sometimes I forget things like that in my daily life, while I wonder about what's next or how to pay the bills. There's more than just me. I grew up with these strong christian role models at camp, showing me how to love God, love others, and how to have fun, and that was a big factor in how I turned out. I think it's important to pass those lessons on to these kids by example. And I love it.

Buck Buck, Anyone?

I actually spent a whole day in the middle of my week at camp without speaking. I decided to listen instead. I talk all the time, so I took a day off. (My throat was also sore) It was funny how the people around me reacted. Some were intrigued, and ventured to understand not only what I was trying to communicate through gestures, but my reasons for remaining silent. Others were completely disoriented and uncomfortable in a world where Wilder doesn't speak. It was a fun game with my co-counselor Nate, who began interpreting my motions and translating my meaning to others.

April didn't like it, and was visibly frustrated by not hearing my voice. But it was a great experience, because the huge expanse of silence I left was filled by voice that might otherwise be silent, or unnoticed. My campers came out of their shells and I heard them joke with each other, converse among themselves, and play blues piano. I got the chance to hear and observe those who might have been quiet if I had been talking. I learned a lot about the gift of silence, and how different people deal with it. After a week of fun in the sun up north, We came back to the Twin Cities refreshed, and ready for April's first day of work.

A JOB!

I got a job! After we had been back in Minnesota for about a week or so I e-mailed my friend Melissa that we were back so that we could get together for lunch sometime. She e-mailed back to inform me that Carlson Companies, where her husband works, was looking for accountants and wanted to know if I was interested. I let her know that of course I was interested and applied online and sent my resume. I had and interview within a few days and an offer two days after that. I took the weekend to "think" about it and let them know on Monday morning that I would accept. I'm very excited about it!

Mr. and Mrs. Awkward

So a day after we got back to the big TC, Team Freed hit the road again, this time for Denver CO, and our Friend Ben's wedding. Now one thing about Ben and Dana is that they live in a state of awkwardness.
Ben is an awkward kid who finds awkward things funny. It's great; atleast he doesn't take himself too seriously :) So we went to the wedding, which was a little bit awkward, but then, it was perfect. Speaking of awkward, we were going to get Ben a box with a hole cut in it for a wedding present, but ended up getting him a musical card instead. Yay for Mr. and Mrs. Ben "awkward" Ewing. We love you guys.

THE MOVE! pt. 2

Saturday was the day of the move. We set our alarms to go off at 3:30 Eastern time with the hopes of leaving by 4am. We were close to that time at least. We were on the road leaving Atlanta for for home at about 4:20am. An early morning to say the least. Remember that we were heading for the Midwest which meant we would be in the Central zone and that we actually woke up at 2:30 in that time zone. We were very excited at the beginning of the day. A new adventure lay in front of us and we had to drive to chase it down. The biggest disappointment of the morning was that we were hoping to have one last Chick-Fil-A breakfast along the way and did not see one on a highway sign as we drove.
Luckily we had walkie-talkies with us so we each came up with a call name (Wilder-Loud Mouth and April-Hurricane) so we could communicate throughout the trip. We also called a lot of people on our cell phones to help keep us awake since we were in different cars. It was a fun trip but a long trip; something I would not want to do again by myself.
About seventeen hours later and about six states we arrived in Des Moines for the night to stay with April's brother and his family. It was so fun to get to see family again and to know that we will be close to most of them now. We played with our nieces and nephew for a while and then had to go to bed for the night. It was great to go to bed in the Midwest again!

THE MOVE! pt. 1

What a long week! We've been preparing mentally to move back to Minnesota for months but it still seemed to sneek up on us. I think as we longed to be back home with our family and friends we slowly started to make friends in Atlanta and it began feeling a little bit like home (although it would never fully be home to us). We spent the few weeks prior to the move trying to fit in everything that we hadn't done in the year and a half that we had lived in ATL. Unfortunatally we put that off too much and missed out on a lot of things. I guess we'll just have to go back for a visit.
The pods that we were using to move were dropped off on Wednesday and we started loading them that night. Matt and Janey came over to help us, which was huge, and we got most of our furniture and a lot of boxes done before trivia night started at 8pm. Thursday was my last day of work! They let me leave early. That night Dan and Jen came to help us finish up packing the pods. We had pretty much everything loaded by about 8 again. It was so great to have the help so that the packing wasn't too prolonged. Thursday was also the day that the battery on the Accord died. Not really was we needed as were in the process of moving but at least it gave us Friday to get a new one. Friday was a long day. It felt like a summer day in Atlanta even though it was only the middle of May. Hot and Humid. We had to get a new battery for the Accord get the trailer from U-Haul and finish packing everything into the trailer that we would need for the next few months. It took pretty much the whole day to finish packing and then get the entire apartment cleaned and ready for us to leave the next day. We were so excited to be done with everything including having our air mattress set up for us so sleep on that night by about 5 or 6. Then we went out for dessert with TJ and Melissa our fellow midwesterners. After that it was tiem for an early night in bed so we could leave in the morning.
We are going to miss everyone so much.