Lots of Changes...

In the last month, there have been a lot of changes in the Riddle household.  {No, I'm not pregnant!}  First of all, on Friday, July 29 we officially moved into our new house!  :)  We are so happy to finally be living here & to be able to enjoy our home!  Please come visit... we love surprise (or planned) visitors!!

The second big change in our lives was that Aaron changed jobs... and careers.  On August 1, Aaron started working at Westover (our church) as the Middle School Director.  Pretty much his dream job.  :)  I am so happy for him & we're really excited to be able to serve together as a couple!  He'll still be working with the middle school population that he loves... but we know we have a lot to learn about ministry.  Aaron will be working with Marshall Johnson (the youth pastor when we were in middle school!), which will make his job very entertaining.  :)

Painting Aaron's new office

Marshall loves me.  :)

And I also just started a new job this week.  Well, I'm still a speech therapist in an elementary school, but I'm moving to Guilford County.  This is bittersweet for me because I looooved Grays Chapel Elementary.  The kids, the staff, my room... I loved everything about it, except the long drive to and from work!  I'm really going to miss GC but I'm excited about my new school.  Today was my first official day at Foust Elementary... and I'm excited to meet my kiddos next week.  :)

My classroom  

So that's it... a new house, a new career, and a new school.  :)

Bienvenidos a Nicaragua!

July 17-24, Aaron & I had the opportunity to go to Managua, Nicaragua with a group of high school students with Greensboro Youth for Christ.  The trip was really great and we are so thankful for having the opportunity to serve together.  We went down to Managua to work with a missionary named Henry Vargas, who runs a christian school (Managua Christian Academy).  This is the 7th year YFC has gone down to work with Henry and they have always helped Henry with the school.  However, in September 2010, a series of storms caused Lake Managua to rise and it flooded the school, leaving it condemned.  Now Henry is operating the school out of a shopping center they are renting.  Our team worked at the shopping center to help turn the rooms into functional classrooms, held an eye clinic for the locals, and we also got to love on the precious children.  It was really neat to see how easily we could share God's love with them, even though we didn't speak their language.  

Our team

My dad and Henry Vargas

One of the class rooms at the condemned school

One of the classrooms at the new school.

Dr. Odom in the eye clinic

A local home.

Praying for Henry

To look at a photo album of our pictures, click here!

Finishing touches!

Once we got all the big things in the house done & the rooms painted, all we had to do was some finishing touches before we could move in!  We spent 3 days painting trim & probably a day and a half finishing up the electrical work.  

There were no baseboards, window moldings, door moldings,
or crown moldings in a lot of the rooms.

Or shoe moldings.  So we had to add those.

But once they were added, they needed to all be painted white.

So my family came over and helped a lot with trim!

Mom & Isaac

Finished all the trim!

Then we had to hang shower curtains.

And Jake came over to finish the electrical work.

Then Aaron installed all the plantation blinds...

...and Eliza & I shortened them to the right lengths.

I heart plantation blinds.  :)

Pictures of the finished product coming soon!

I'm a slave driver.

Some people say I'm OCD.  I'm not, I just like for my house to be clean.  So this whole house renovation with dirt, sawdust, and paint everywhere has been a challenge for me.  But thankfully, we're done cutting boards & making messes so I enlisted my wonderful friend Jessica to come scrub my house with me.  She's also obsessively clean and I appreciate that about her.  :)  She helped me scrub my bathrooms, bedroom floor, and kitchen floor.  At one point, she was hugging my toilet to clean behind it.  I owe her.  Big.  Meanwhile, while she was hugging my toilet, I was cleaning out the tub in our guest bathroom.  It was a big mess when we bought the house.  Luckily my sweet friend Katherine and her husband Jay came to see the house and Jay suggested that we refinish it.  Best idea ever.  Thank you Jay!!  

Cleaning the tiles in the kitchen...

...with a toothbrush. Good friend right there.

Clean kitchen floor!  Yay!

Now...on to the guest bathroom.

Bought this little gem at Home Depot.  Worth every penny.

Yep.  This was the tub.  Yowzers.

True story:  No one would have visited us.  

This is what Aaron came home to on his lunch break.

First I had to scrub the tub with a heavy duty cleaner.  3 times.

And scrub the tub with steel wood.  3 times.

And it made the tub look like this.  Not much better.

Then I sprayed a light coat of the refinishing spray.

This was after coat #1.  

30 minutes later, I sprayed a heavier coat #2.  It's white again!

Done-zo!

Now hopefully more people will be willing to come visit us!

I love me a clean house.  :)