First Sermon

Steve preached his first sermon today at Bethlehem Baptist Church. Our pastor took the weekend off to go and visit their married daughter in Atlanta. Steve preached on 1 Cor. 10:1-13. He did a very good job!

Body Scan

I had my body scan at 7:30 Am on Monday morning. Nothing too exciting. I laid on a table for 1 hour while this camera moved slowly down my whole body. It was as close to my forehead as it could get without touching me. Steve and the kids walked by once to see me. He said I was sleeping, actually I was praying, I figured it was as good as a time as any to be praying.

The results were: nothing anywhere else in my body - that is good and there was a significant amount of thyroid tissue left, but that was to be expected. The radio active iodine will kill it off.

I still don't feel up to par. I have been slowly trying to finish getting things together in this house and ready to start school next week. Awana started for us this past Sunday and I am the secretary. So I had a big order to place on Monday afternoon.

Home Again

I am back home with the family, but not feeling to great. I over did it cleaning on Thursday. I spent most of the week relaxing and reading books. I never did turn on the TV. On Wed. I tried to clean some but had no energy. Dad came over Thursday afternoon, brought a ladder and cleaned the lights and fans for me. I washed windows and blinds and then vacuumed.

Dad also did a lot of work over here at the house we are now living in this week. He washed all of my windows and put the storm windows back on the house. He also scrapped off all of the paint that was on the glass before he washed them. The front storm door now shuts properly. The side sliding glass door now opens with ease (this was worth his trip down). We were not sure what we were going to do with that door. It is the best door to go in and out to do the wash, especially when it is raining. He also installed a drip edge on the roof over the porch, hopefully this will help it not leak. It did rain and it did leak, but not what he fixed, somehow it is leaking behind the board. I think we need a heavy rain to see if it is an improvement or it there is more wrong up there.

Will post more after my body scan that I will receive on Monday. That will show what the radio active stuff did.

Rita

I have swollowed the medicine!

I went to the hospital out patience center at 10 AM this morning. Since I am a women I had to have a pregnancy test done first. That blood work took an hour and 15 minutes to be completed. Once Nuclear Medicine had the results (not pregnant) I was able to swallow the liquid medicine. It wasn't bigger than a sip. The vile it was in was flushed with water 3 or 4 times and I had to drink that water too. Then I was done. It took all of 5 minutes.

Now I am back in our old house, staying all by my self. One little sip of radio active stuff and you are in isolation for 5 days!!!!

Rita

Hard Wood Floors

Our new abode has wooden floors. The first picture is an example of what they look like, especially in the high traffic areas. The second picture is of the master bedroom closet. I painted and refinished that floor. You can tell where it was worn down to no finish. I sanded it, which lightened it up and thought that was good. The darker area is where the wood was bare: no finish. I painted the closet because I wanted to hang my clothes in and then feel like I could put them on my body. What am I going to do in Africa, maybe keep them zipped in my suitcase. :)

This morning while Steve was getting dress, he asked if I could just move into the closet. It is the nicest room in the house.

Rita

Out with the old - In with the new

Just this past Monday my washing machine of 14 years gave up the ghost. It went to that great place in the sky via way of the landfill. We thought no problem, in the storage shed at the mission house is another one. So we dug it out and hooked it up. I put in the laundry and started it. All was great until it came time to ring the water out. I came back to water dripping off of the clothes. So off to the store we went. We needed new ones anyways to go to Africa. The International Mission Board ships your appliances, for those who are wondering. The old machine used any where from 45 to 50 gallons of water a load. The new machine only uses around 10 to 15 gallons of water a load. The only problem I have found it that they highly recommend using high efficiency detergent. It says HE on the bottle. Do you think I will find that stuff in Africa?

We are moved in!!

Our goal yesterday was not to try and get everything moved, just the main big furniture pieces. I didn't even have the kitchen packed up, mainly because the kitchen cupboards at this house were not cleaned.

Steve was at the house with the truck by 9:15. The men that showed up from church had it loaded in 1 hour and 45 minutes. By noon it was empty and on the way back to where it came from. The music minister's wife packed up my whole kitchen and then spent the afternoon cleaning the new kitchen. I can't even say how much that helped me out. What also helped was someone staying we need that cleaner that commercial kitchens use to cut grease. They had it at the church and brought a bottle over along with gloves and masks. It is potent, but it did the job. He even suggested diluting it in water to do the floor. So maybe this next week I will have an easier time getting the rest of the kitchen cleaned.

In the last week we have been filling the van up when we came over. We figured to be doing the same this week. Thanks to all of our help, the other house is empty.

A House Rule

One of our rules for inside our house is No Running. Four children running in the house sounds like a herd of elephants coming. That is words my dad used and there was only 2 girls in our family. The house we are moving out of is built on a cement slab. So the children has gotten away with a lot of running because we can not hear it. At the new house, with it mostly sitting empty and wooden floors, it is very loud. We have some work to do on retraining our children.

R

Our New Abode

We are moving on Sat. into this little mission house our church has. They have been after us for a few months to move into it. We had a 9th month lease we didn't want to break. We haven't been missionaries yet. Steve has a good paying job. We are leaving soon. All reasons not to move. Since my medical clearance keeps getting pushed back, we decided to move. At the moment we will not be leaving for Richmond, VA and orientation until the end of March now.

The house has been lived in some and used as storage for the last 3 years. I have spent the last three weeks cleaning a little bit everyday. I am not up to par as I have been off of my thyroid medicine for 3 1/2 weeks now. This is to get ready for my radio active iodine therapy. Back to house. We also painted the living room and 2 bedrooms. More could be painted but we are moving in. We have taken this house on as one of our mission projects. The churches goal is for it to be ready for missionary families that have come home on fur low. They would only come home with clothes and would need it to completely furnished.

Rita for the Schwarz'