The Segeberg Scoop - July 2004
This past month has passed far too quickly! Although it's not quite our two month mark, I figured it was time for the July edition of the Segeberg Scoop.
First of all, for those who know my brothers and sisters, I wanted to give a little update. Tommy and Kami moved to Korea at the end of June. They plan to be there for a year while Tommy teaches English. I'm glad that we have advanced technology and can e-mail, IM, and even webcam with them. Jesse is doing GREAT in the MTC. He is picking up on the language very quickly and is looking forward to getting out into the field. He'll be leaving for the Phillippines in a few weeks!
Now--for our update. On July 3, I picked Ryan up from work and he noticed that a clip on our window was bent out. We commented to each other that it looked like someone had tried to break in to our car, but didn't think much else about it...until a few hours later when Ryan asked me to get his sunglasses out of the console between the seats. We realized that his cheap sunglasses and all of the CDs we had in the car were gone. As we looked further, we noticed there were scratch marks around our stereo where someone had tried to remove it. (We were kind of hoping that someone HAD taken the stereo, since it wasn't working at the time.) Thank goodness for insurance.
I actually think that the break-in turned out to be a good thing, because it motivated us to fix a few things that weren't working right on our car. About a month after we bought our car, we discovered that it was hydrophobic. Every time it would rain, we'd drive through a puddle, go through the car wash, etc., the car would either shut itself off or govern the RPMs from going above 3--and the check engine light wouldn't go off. We thought it was weird, and sometimes frustrating, but we weren't quite sure what to do about it. Finally, while Ryan was in the fix-the-car-mode, we had the engine codes pulled and discovered that the problem was related to the timing belt replacement we had done the week we bought the car. Apparently, the maintenance work hadn't been done right and some wires had been chewed up. So, we took it back to the dealer and had all of that fixed. Also, our stereo hadn't worked since we got back from our honeymoon. (It had broken while we were gone.) So, the day we reported the break-in, Ryan went out to tinker with the car. A few hours later, he had figured out what was wrong and fixed it. We're really glad that, as Ryan would say, our car is way less ghetto now.
We're finally starting to feel like we are fitting into the ward now. A couple of weeks ago, we were called in for an interview with the bishop. I was literally praying that we wouldn't be called into the open Nursery calling for two reasons: 1) I want Ryan to still WANT children. 2) I wanted an opportunity for more interaction with adult ward members than the nursery provides. Imagine my relief, (and excitement), when we were called as members of the activities committee. Our first activity was last Saturday, the same day David and Elizabeth got married, so we couldn't attend. But, we did have the chance to spend several hours delivering "reminder" fliers to every family in our ward. It was great fun. :) We have also had the opportunity to spend time getting to know other couples in the ward. We spent one Sunday evening visiting a new couple down the hall from us--and they came over the next week. Ryan and I both are feeling much more included.
David and Elizabeth's wedding was wonderful! It was great to see both of them so incredibly happy. I kept telling Ryan that watching them made me want to re-live our wedding day all over again! In between the wedding, the luncheon, and the reception, Ryan and I decided to go look at refrigerators. Ever since we bought the place, we've been planning lots of renovations. We want to eventually update all of the kitchen appliances and completely re-do the bathroom. We've been watching the ads to see how things compare. Anyway--this past weekend, there was a sale at a local furniture store, so we decided to check it out. After running to a couple of stores to compare prices, we decided that the first fridge we found was a great deal. So, we went back and bought it. I'm really looking forward to having a fridge that has more than 2 wire shelves and will be MUCH more energy efficient than the 20 yr. old fridge we currently have.
Well--this e-mail is already far too long! (With WAY more detail than you actually wanted...) So, it's time to sign off. I hope you are all having a wonderful summer! Please write and let us know how you are doing.
Love,
Amanda