Schmoyer Family Blog

check out our weather! it is freezing here this weekend! our zip code is 55311 but it should just pop up if you click on this link.
talk to you all later!

dan

well, yesterday i met with my support raising supervisor and we put a date on the calender for when all my monthly support needs to be in by! its kinda scary yet good because hopefully it will be a motivator for people who have not sent their cards in because they are waiting to do it later.  its scary because if i am not able to reach my goal i will have to sit down and re-evaluate with the TreeHouse director's if this is really where i am supposed to be. i have (as of yesterday) $354 a month left to raise. i have verbal commitments from a few other people resulting in approx. $75 a month toward my goal so that puts me under the $300 mark. The date we set is Feb. 25th. I think the opportunity is still there for me to reach my target because there are still people on my list to call and contact as well as the church we are currently attending (on Wednesday they are voting to add a new line item into the budget for "local/community outreach" which is what my job would be considered). Pray that the line item is passed and the church is able to help me take a big chunk of my monthly target away! i am not nervous yet or concerned that i will fail because i still have 4 weeks left til the 25th and i know there are still others on my list that should hopefully be willing to give. pray that people are generous and willing to give! Thanks in advance for praying!

well, like Maggie said, we are moving this weekend! our apt looks really empty because nothing is on the walls, the shelves are empty, the computer and desk are gone, all our storage in the closets is gone, and our kitchen is in the process of being boxed up. i hope you all can come visit us in our new house soon! David, Adrienne, glory, Tim, and Dana have seen our new house so hopefully the "little family" will be able to see it soon too (as well as the halls!). maybe we'll have to do thanksgiving or Christmas here this upcoming year (we'll have the babies so we'll have to use that as our bait!).

talk to you all soon!

ps… If anyone knows of someone who would be willing to hear more about partnering with me and TreeHouse give me their phone number and tell them i'll give them a call! Thanks!

also, f you know of anyone who wants to buy a house and does not have a realtor let me know because i have this thing set up with Coldwell Banker. They will giive me a referral bonus check for TreeHouse support if i refer a home buyer or seller to them and that person uses their services!!!!! its not like its thousands of dollars but it would be very helpful in reaching my goal!

It looks like I’ll be going to Asia with David and Abigail Babu June 28 or 29.  David will be staying for 3 weeks for sure with an outside chance he can get off from work for 4.  Abigail will stay for 6 weeks.  I’d like to stay for 4.  Six is too long to be gone and 3 will be quite rushed.  Pray God’s will be done in this and it all work out as He would have it.  Pray for me as I plan for the pastor’s conferences.  As of now it looks like there will be at least 5  2-day conferences (8 sessions in each conference).  I will be doing children’s rallies as well where I will dress up in costume and use my ‘magic’ to teach them.  I’m sure there will be Sunday speaking opportunities, too.  We will be visiting lots of the local churches as well.  I’ll be going to places where i will need to fly or take a 24 hour train ride.  That is reportedly the darkest place on earth, the place most difficult to minister.  It’ll be a privilege to help and encourage the pastors there!  Pray for wisdom and guidance for these plans!  Pray also for funds for the trip and ministry opportunities there.  The pastors are very, very poor and have no resources to pay towards the expenses of the conferences and materials.  Thanks! 

Well if a picture is worth a thousand words than consider this the longest blog I've posted! For Christmas Adrienne got me the camera I wanted, the Canon Rebel XTi with a pretty versatile lens………I mean……its for the baby mostly. hehe. Anyway I've taken tons of picture over the past 30 days and so I thought Id put some of them on here for you all to see. There is a picture at the very end of Adrienne's tummy at 17 weeks (Yesterday), and TONS of super cute pictures of Ruby posing like a pro. Shes love to work the camera. The pictures are in order starting on Dec 25th 2006….. Enjoy!

LINK:  http://www.schmoyerfamily.com/wp-gallery2.php?g2_itemId=1351

Last night for our 6-month anniversary Dana and I went out to dinner at Cheddars, the first of our first date, and then saw the movie, Night at the Museum. If you haven’t seen it yet, Dana and I both highly recommend it. It’s rated PG, so there’s no language or even a hint of anything inappropriate, it’s got the chimney sweep guy from Mary Poppins, plus it’s really funny. I think Dad, Mark and Grace would especially like it for it’s comical use of historical characters. Check it out soon, though, because it’s about to leave theaters.

Here’s the trailer:

I am officially 17 weeks and 1 day today and this morning I felt baby Schmoyer MOVE!! It was so cool, felt like little twitches in my belly.

Since I'm not working right now, I have been house hunting by phone and internet. I started off with 10 homes to choose from and quickly narrowed the choices down to 3 on the first day. This morning we woke up to another person in Alexandria who has a house for rent that sounds really cute!

Here's our choices (so far):

1. Lighthouse: 4 stories, gorgeous house on a lake with 2 wrap around porches. The 3rd floor is the Master bedroom/bathroom, the 4th story is a glass room with a beautiful view of the lake. If we went with this it would be perfect to have everyone over for the holidays…for day to day living we would only use part of the house, it's huge, and I'm not sure if I would be lonely by myself starting off while Tim is at work and I'm looking for work. 4 car garage. (5 miles from the church)

2. Unfinished basement: Cute main level house with 2 bedrooms, one bath. Option to own later with the commitment to finish the basement. Good size home for us, perfect for kids after the basement is finished. 1284 sq/ft finished 2504 sq/ft when the basement is finished. 2 car garage. (10 miles from the church)

3. Union Lake: We haven't seen this house in person, but have seen pictures online and from Joyce Boyce who said it looks really cute. 2 story home, 2nd story has the masterbedroom, masterbath and a walk in closet. Main floor is kitchen, living room, 2 bedrooms and one bathroom. This house has the option of being furnished. 1872 sq/ft. 4 car garage. (5 miles from the church)

4. Victorian: This is the house I was called about this morning. It's a 1200 sq/ft duplex. The house is 120 year old historic Victorian home, but recently overhauled with brand new everything. New carpet, hardwood floors, French doors, new paint, new appliances. No garage, but plug-in. (3 miles from the church)

I am going to have pictures of another housing option emailed to me this weekend. So we may have 5 housing options to choose from.  Each home is in our pricing range. One is on the steep side (but doable), another is a little more than what we pay here in Texas. The others fall exactly in the middle of those. 

I'm really eager to get back up to Alexandria at the end of this month. I am wanting to finalize housing when we are up there. Pray for us as we settle on a home. All of these are for rent, so we're looking to rent for a year, and then buy a house after that. The house that is on the steep side, we thought might negotiate if we commit to 2 years (which is what the owner wants) and then bring down the rent for us maybe. We'll see. I'm excited to get to go and see some of these houses again, and some for the first time.

We had a great week with Glory here! Thanks for coming and hangen out Glory. Ruby misses her play mate! Come back soon!

I had some downtime today and was reading through my stack of travel magazines . One article gave this advice if you are "bumped" bec of over booking the flight. They are required to rebook you on the next fight- but BESURE they gurantee you a confirmed seat  or you may be bumped again. They are required to compensate you .They usuaully offer a voucher that ususually comes with restrictions and an expiration date of 1 yr. INSTEAD request the cash value. This IS an accetable lawful  option. If the gate agent is asking for volunteers the amount can go to  $1000 if they are in real need with no other volunteers. Most cash outs are for $$400. I was clueless about the cash option.  mom

Dana’s been out of town for a couple days in Texarkana with Katelin while their parents are in London, so I’ve had a couple days alone here. I haven’t even been married for 6 months yet and it already feels weird to be here at the apartment alone. I was hoping to get in some quality time with Guild Wars again since I hardly play it anymore as a married man, but unfortunately all this moving stuff keeps me busy instead (and Dana, too, as she’s pulling housing options together for us — she’s got a lot of great options for us!). Plus, I’m building Dana a new and better computer with a bunch of old computer parts I got from a CPA that just retired here in the Dallas area.

In building a new computer for Dana I decided to make her a special desktop background, too. So I whipped open Photoshop and had some fun for a while tonight. I thought of Grace while doing it. Does she still like to play in Photoshop, too?

Check out what I created for Dana on my Google photo album. As you can see, I progressively got better at it by the third picture.

Speaking of computers, there’s no computer for the student ministry in Alexandria, so yesterday I found out that my request for a MacBook Pro was approved, including a hard drive upgrade and all the software I need. Suh-weet! I can’t wait to get my hands on it.