Townhouse Pictures

Rather than posting all 31 pictures, you can click on the link below to see some shots of our townhouse here in Kentucky. There is much decorating that still needs to be done... so keep that in mind as you view! :) I've attempted to put them in a "walk through" order to give you a feel for the layout.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=9456&l=c8b1f&id=795752515

Dairy Queen Debacle

So our friend, Rob, came to visit us last weekend with 2 of his daughters, Bri & Madi. We hung out at the house, took them around town, went to a movie, and ate a LOT. Somehow we always tend to do that with Rob :) Saturday evening we decided to run to Dairy Queen for a bedtime snack. The girls were so excited and to be honest, I wasn't too disappointed either! So we hop in the car to make the 6 minute drive and once we're on the road we encounter one of my least favorite things about living in Kentucky - the horrible drivers. Let me just point out that in the state of Kentucky, only 1 safety inspection is required... EVER!! So we have this idiot in front of us driving a car that I can only imagine is held together merely by rust. He is not going the speed limit, nor is he paying attention since he's talking on his cell phone. Unfortunately, Kentucky does not have any laws against cell phone use while operating a vehicle. Needless to say, we experience this garbage quite often, and being from NY I have very little patience for it.

We FINALLY arrive at Dairy Queen, just minutes before they close. And I approach the counter to order and am met by a cashier who appeared to be falling asleep. She asked me if the order was for "here" or "to go" though the words have never sounded more foreign to me. I could barely understand her, so I figured I should probably proceed slowly. I gave her the first order in my slowest speech possible, waited a couple seconds, then did the same with the other 3 things we were buying. When I finished she looked at me and said, "ok... so I have a PB cup blizzard made with chocolate ice cream, and... what was the rest??" I looked at Rob and he gave me this look like, "you gotta be kidding me!" I repeated the other things even SLOWER than before... though my lack of Kentucky accent might have thrown her off as well. It's hard to say.

After repeating it again, she still only added 1 item. So we gave her the order a THIRD time - and at this point I really figured we wouldn't be getting our ice cream at all since it had taken her almost 10 minutes JUST TO TAKE THE ORDER. We finally paid her for the order after she read it back to us... also painful... and stood at the end of the counter waiting for everything. My blizzard came out first, though it was being made by someone else. So I can only assume that our cashier was not allowed to operate any machinery, since the mere mention of it probably hurts her brain. Blizzard - done. Madi ordered a small dish of vanilla ice cream dipped in cherry. But rather than the dip, the girl put actual maraschino cherries on top. I was VERY clear when I said, "we'd like that dipped." So Rob was going to just eat it and give Madi his milkshake, but I wasn't about to have that. I looked at the girl and immediately she knew she had done it wrong. She said, "oh wait... was that supposed to be dipped??" I just smiled and nodded because any comments at that point might've cost us the rest of the order! So she threw out the original one, fixed the new one, and then started making another person's order. Another girl was making Rob's milkshake - everything was fine. We were still waiting on a Dilly Bar for Bri when we watched this same cashier throw out 3 more items... simply because she wasn't paying attention when making them. HOW HARD IS IT TO WORK AT DAIRY QUEEN?!?!?! After trying to get another person's attention to get the Dilly Bar, at last we had everything we ordered. An excruciating 23 minutes in DQ for something that should've taken 5. We left with our heads hung low... yes, folks, I live in Kentucky. :)

Cornish Game Hen

So I got a little ambitious this week with dinners... Shane & I were at the grocery store getting food for the week when I spotted a twin pack of cornish game hen. And to answer your question, no - I have never cooked one before. I figured it couldn't be all that difficult. Shane looked at me with a questioning glance and said, "You sure about this??" To which I obviously answered, "We can figure it out!" I admit, I cheated a bit by looking on the internet for a definition of "truss" since I had never heard of it before. Apparently to "truss" any type of poultry means to tie it up. Well, I didn't really think it was that important since I wasn't stuffing the birds. Turns out I was right in this instance! It wasn't that necessary in this case since we had only seasoned the birds rather than stuffing them.

While I was preparing the hen for roasting all I could think was, "Holy crap - this is gonna be so bad and then Shane will be right... AGAIN!" But I continued to season and followed the directions given on the package. And on a sidenote, always know how hot your oven actually is! Ours is apparently off by a long shot. How could one be calibrated so poorly??! I ended up having to cook the freakin birds almost 30 minutes longer than what I was supposed to. I'm a little nervous to eat them, so I'll give my hubby the privilege of the first taste! :) I'll let you know how it goes...

Crazy July

I spent almost the entire month of July in New York for work. The first weekend was Danielle's baby shower. She's giving birth to the first grandchild on the DeHaven side... so it's been pretty exciting! The following week was spent in Ellicottville for the Hunter's Hope Annual Family & Medical Symposium at Holiday Valley. What an unbelievable time! I had a chance to meet some of the strongest people I'll ever know- children (and families) living with leukodystrophies. I am continually amazed at how God has used these kids to work in the lives of the parents and siblings... and me! I feel privileged to know them, and even more blessed to have the opportunity to serve them through the Foundation. I can't help but wonder who will be back next year, and those who may not. Meeting the families of children who have passed away has shown me how short this life really can be, and how important it is to do something that MATTERS. The Lord has spoken to me about His plan and how I need to trust Him to take me wherever He would have me go... not where I would feel most comfortable.

After the Symposium we came back to Orchard Park to prepare for the 5th annual Rochester Candlelight Ball. This fundraiser has grown each year and the people who support the Foundation are extremely generous. I was also given the opportunity to sing again and it was such a blast. I'm always thankful for any chance to sing, but getting to share a song about the love of God in a place that's usually devoid of that topic is SO cool! The night was crazy and we were exhausted afterward, but it was worth it... we exceeded our fundraising goal :) I look forward to returning to Buffalo for the anniversary gala in November. In the meantime, I continue to seek out grant opportunities. Know anyone who'd like to donate $10,000+ to a good cause??

After more than 3 1/2 weeks of being away, I was definitely glad to be back home. It's been strange to be away... but in my hometown. Lots of emotions surfaced during that trip so, needless to say, I was wiped. The flight back began at 6:40am and delays in the air and on the ground left me in Cincinnati waiting for Shane to drive from Lexington (about an hour and a half away) to pick me up. Gotta love Delta airlines.

New Blog!

I've finally decided to join the world of blogging! A number of my friends have these and I figured... why not?! So here are the latest highlights from the DeHaven household:

-We moved to Nicholasville, KY in May
-We bought a townhouse
-I continue to work for the Hunter's Hope Foundation (sidenote: working from home is EXCELLENT!)
-Shane starts grad school in a couple weeks, but in the meantime he's working at Toyota of Nicholasville
-The dogs already act as if they own the place :)

We continue to search for a church that fits both our tastes, though having so many large churches around makes things a bit difficult. I'm just not too convinced of them yet :) God has brought some great people into our lives since the move. Our neighbors are awesome and we've already had lots of opportunities to get to know them. We recently had Shane's family down for a long weekend. It was such a blast! Mom & Dad D. came from Jamestown and Dorian & Kristen came from Michigan. We truly miss both of our families... it's been the first time in 4 years that we've been more than a short drive away. I think it's a bit tougher for Shane since he's never had to really move far away - though I must admit, even after 5 moves growing up, it doesn't get any easier.

I'm thankful for this time of change. It is stretching me in ways that I couldn't imagine and has brought many new adventures. It'll be interesting to see what comes of it all...