Ready to Move!!

√ Storage Space
√ U-Haul
√ Friends to Help Move
√ A new place to stay (This deserves more √√√√√√√√√) hehe!
√ Change of address form
√ Boxes Packed

I am ready to move.

I am ready to no longer be sleeping on the couch!!

I can't wait for Thursday!!

Laminin

This was sent to me by Rachael. It is amazing!!

You will love it.

Bring on the Changes

I am moving!!!! My girlfriend Angela has been nice enough to let me rent her condo and I will be moving next week Thursday and Friday!! She has been spending a lot of time in Kentucky because that is where her family and boyfriend is, while she is job hunting (she recently lost her job) and has her condo on the market but it isn't selling.

Since I needed a place to stay and she is gone most of the time I will be moving into her place. She will leave the furniture, the condo will continue to stay on the market, she will visit me from time to time, and I will be paying a very reduced rate. Its a win-win.

I will be moving all of my furniture into storage on Thursday, May 29 and then moving my clothing to Angela's condo on Friday, May 30.

I am very excited about this opportunity. This way I can be without an apartment contract for a little while and can make some decisions about my life.

Also, I am in the middle of a few life changing options and just need some prayers as I let God direct my life. Please pray that he will show me what is the right option for now and pray that my heart will be open to whatever.

This is exciting and I am ready for all the changes!! But, this is also why I haven't blogged since Friday...

I think I have found a new place!!

I think I may have found a new place to live. Please pray with me that this is the correct place for me to be right now!!

I'll tell you more about it when its final!!

How can this happen?

My parents have two children. One lives here...


And the other lives here...



How do 2 people born and raised in the same family live in such different places??

Hilarious!!

Busy at Work

My 'Tiger' Pose

Just being adorable ol' me!

Busy at Buckhead Church.

Thanks to photographer Carlos!!

I'm Free!!

Not free and clear, but FREE!!! I had a slight show down this morning with the apartment complex and I am able to break my lease without early termination fees. I will be checking out new apartments and will (hopefully) be out within the week.

Pray for me! This is a busy week!!

My walk revisited

Last Sunday I told you about this nature walk that I found. This Sunday you can see it in picture. Unfortunately, I can't give you the sound of the birds chirping or the water falling but nonetheless its still beautiful!










Enjoy!

Urban Garden updated

Well, I found out that squirrel like to dig. Remember this is my first garden, and its on my apartment deck. I am new at this! In learning what was going on with my plants (i.e. why my plants were being dug up) I lost a couple. However what I wanted to show you was the hanging plant... my tomatoes!!


I almost lost these as well but they are surviving well now!! I started by watering them as much as I do my grapefruit trees... about once a week. However they need a LOT more water than than. I try to water these tomatoes about every other day... they are in a hanging basket.

I have been lucky enough to be able to eat a couple of the tomatoes and they are great!! I have a few on my salad today too!!

Yummy!!

I live in hell.

Or, if hell is worse than my apartment then I never want to live there. I am now dealing with leak NUMBER 2. This time its in my bedroom and leaked all over my bed. I think my email to everyone who works at the company sums up the newest complaint:

To Whom It May Concern:

I am in a dire situation. I am experiencing the second leak in my apartment since I moved in and the first leak I had took 6 months to get fixed. I can't wait that long again and from my experiences here, which have been horrible, the only way to get this fixed quickly is to email everyone of you.

Around 4:00pm this afternoon I found that there was a leak in my bedroom, it was coming through the ceiling fan and onto my bed. I live in the studio sized apartment so I moved my bed as quickly as possible to the side of the room and called the front desk. I tried to speak to Melissa, the property manager, but she had already left for the day. I filled out a maintenance request over the phone and a maintenance man came but provided me no assistance. He looked at the ceiling fan, verified there had been a leak, but told me it had barely leaked and since it was not currently leaking he would let someone know on Monday.

I tried to get him to help me at least move my bed, since part of it was still under the ceiling fan, he hadn't isolated the root of the leak, and the possibility of it leaking again was quite good. He refused to help me at all. Instead, he brought in a bucket, put it so that it was touching my bed under the ceiling fan and left. A few minutes later I could smell an awful stench and thought it was coming from my ceiling. I walked back into the bedroom, looked up and then down. I saw inside the bucket that the maintenance man chose to left and it was horrible. It was disgustingly dirty and smelled of rotten fish. Seriously, I can't understand why someone would leave something that gross inside someones house and leave it touching someones furniture. I moved it to my balcony, moved the bed myself, and put my own bucket in the middle of the bedroom. When I moved the bed it was so full of water that there were marks left from where the bed had touched the floor. It was soaked through.

I am no electrician but the fact that the leak is coming through a ceiling fan makes me believe there is a potential for electrocution. There was absolutely no assistance from the man who came on site. And now I am going to have to wait until Monday for any real assistance and I will be sleeping on my couch because my bed is too wet for use and I am afraid of getting leaked on while I sleep. This isn't problem number one or problem number 100. I haven't had a month here without problems, mostly because it takes more than a month to get anything fixed.

I have attached pictures of the leak, of the bucket that was left in my room, and of the wet stains on my bed.

I have begged, I have pleaded, I have contacted the front desk over and over, I have written a letter like this before on my previous leak but nothing seems to work. And now I am down to one question... What would you do in my place? Please answer me honestly.

Hilarious I know, but I need this fixed this weekend.

Feel free to call me on my cell ***-***-****.

Tenant in apartment F207,

Kristie Poll

Once again I say, never-ever under any circumstance, chose to live at the Heights At Lenox.

Ever.

To All The Guys

I have to tell you a little story about my time spent at the gym today (or a here's what not to do). I would guess that 90% of the guys out there would not do this but if you ever wonder why us ladies are skeptical here is why.

I am working on my timed work out (which was discussed in a previous post), in what is normally the group fitness room but there wasn't a class going on, I was by myself, and I was wearing my earphones listening to something I hoped would keep me pumped as I try to lose weight. When this guy walks up and stands by me. At this point I am doing inclined push-ups and wonder why someone is standing over me so I stop, look up, don't recognize him but realize he is motioning for me to take off my earphones.

So I stop and take them off. Then he goes into a sales pitch about how he travels all over the world, he is very rich, and how I am the most elegant girl he has ever seen. He then asks me for a date. I tell him no thank you but he now wants an explanation of why not. Whaaaa? Seriously. If I say no thats all it should be. So now I lie and say I have a boyfriend and still no thank you.

He then goes on a rant about how he is going to call his mother tonight and find out why he can't get a girl. He has a "beemer," he travels, and he has over a million dollars in the bank but he can't get a date. He then wants to know why I will not go on a date. I said well I have a boyfriend and I don't see other guys when I am dating someone (ps I don't like lying but it felt easiest in this situation). He looks straight at me and tells me would be a better boyfriend than who I already date.

I could have said so many things at this point but in hopes of quickly getting back to my workout I just shrugged my shoulders, put my headphones in, and went back to my workout.

Oh how many places he went wrong...

1. Never stop a lady in the middle of a workout. If you want to talk to her in the gym wait until she is at a down time. If you stop me you are starting off on the wrong foot. Its like telling me what I am doing is not important. Not a good way to start off.

2. If you say travel a lot for your job but don't say for what it screams you are looking for a hooker. Of which, I am not. Ewwh.

3. If you have to tell me about your money to get me hooked you are looking for a hooker. Refer to #2.

4. Never, ever tell a lady she is elegant when she is working out. She is sweating. Seriously, just wrong.

5. If she tells you no, say thank you for your time and walk away. That would be classy. Don't get whiny and bitchy. That's just pathetic.

6. Don't bring your mother into the first conversation.

7. Don't ask her out again when she says she has a boyfriend... that's just wrong.

How slimy.

Newest Fitness Routine

So, I have found a new routing I will be doing for the next month. On my cardio/weight training days I will run 30 minutes on the elliptical/treadmill and then 20 minutes of this. Checking it out online it didn't seem too difficult. But, when I attempted to do all the exercises yesterday I couldn't. Its exhausting!

Love it.

Can't wait to do it again.

A few small tears...

I have to be honest, because of my work schedule I haven't been to a real church service in months. Like, we are getting close to 6 months or something. And its starting to cut thru me. I know being in a church doesn't make me closer to God, however being surrounded by a group of people worshiping Him brings this peace, love, and feeling of intense happiness. Its so hard to describe, but I have felt void of that for quite some time.

It's not that I don't have worship time, I just do it in front of a computer while watching messages online, or with my head in the Word, or when I spend Monday nights with my community group. However there is just something about meeting in a large room with 1,000+ people, with rockingly loud music then a great time of worship with the same group of people that I miss. It is weighing more and more on my heart and on my head.

But, yesterday I was able to go to one sneak into one of the conferences during Drive for just a few minutes. I was able to stick my head in and listen to a bunch of church leaders sing and worship with a rocking band on stage, singing to and worshiping the God who loves me. It brought a few small tears to my eyes. I was only able to stay in the auditorium for a few minutes but it was exactly what I needed.

I want more.

Thank God!

High School Crush

In high school I was mega-shy. Like, ultra-shy. So, the crushes that I had in high school probably never new about it. Since high school I have been much more out-going an not afraid to tell someone I find them attractive. But, I would have to say that the relationships that I have had have been less-than-Christian. I decided a few months back (about 6-8) that I want to change the way I date. To 'date' the way of the Bible, whatever that means. I mean, I know a few of the rules, but I am slowly learning the rest.

In the meantime, feel so out of my element. I feel like a fish out of water. I feel like I am back in high school.

Since I have gone back to high school I now have a crush again. But this time its kinda fun. I don't know where to go from here... I am a female so from what I have been reading I should be pursued. And, maybe since I feel so outta place God is still working on me and I need to be patient.

Changing my focus from me to God is so not easy. But I am finding its more than worth it.

So, for now, I get to have a crush again. I will see how God direct it and me from here...

DRIVE

Today at NorthPoint Church I am helping to work Drive conference and its a blast!! Drive is a conference for church leaders and staff to learn how NPM (NorthPoint Ministries) does the different environments... from service, to volunteer staff, to foreign missions. Today am working shipping. The attendees can purchase resources from the church store and instead of having to carry the resources around we can ship them. Right now everyone is in a conference so its downtime for me! I love it when the churches (NorthPoint, Browns Bridge, and Buckhead) come together for an event like this. To see everyone put aside their normal tasks and to do whatever is asked. I don't see any egos involved. Its so wonderful! It just makes me want to praise God that I am lucky enough to work here a few days a week!

Rice Milk

Well, I am now joining those who no longer do milk. I (think) I finally figured out out what has been wrong with my stomach... it disagrees with the lactose. So, now I am making the switch. No milk, cheese, yogurt, rice pudding, ice cream... I feel like I am just one step away from vegetarian. Probably not, just that is what this feels like.

This is going to be tough!

Early Morning

On my quest to lose the weight I gained in April (almost 15 pounds if anyone is counting) I have been getting up early a few days a week to get the workout in. Today I was up at 5:30am and at the gym by 6am. Ran a little over 4 miles and shot a few hoops before cleaning up and heading into work.

I have been trying to work out 1-2 hours a day and eating healthy and I plan to do that until I get back to my pre-April weight. The eating healthy will stay but the workouts will change at that point.

Once again, for those who are counting I started May 1 at 148 pounds. I am currently at 146 and my goal is to be at 136 (pre-April weight).

Wish me luck... I am not a morning person.

Where is my coffee...

I want to go camping...

Who thought those words would come from me!?!? But, I just spent the last hour or so walking down a trail by Cbeyond (I so wish I would have had my camera) and it brought back sooooo many memories of childhood. I remembered Hager Park in Jenison, I remembered camping with my family, hiking, and all the fun stuff we used to do.


I haven't been hiking or camping in a long time. It would be nice to go again... only for a few days. I think more than that might ruin it. Hehe.

Next weekend I will do the walk again, this time with a camera in hand.

Love it, really I do...

So, I am loving my apartment. Don't believe me? Good, you shouldn't! The latest in the saga of the Heights... my car was towed last night!

What had happened was I got back from my friend Rachael's birthday party at Brick Store Pub last night. It was the most fun, I brought my friend Marcus and I met up with Rachael, Kyle, Trip and everyone else that came and we birthday partied it up! I don't have pictures but Rachael brought her camera so if I get pictures I will add them here.

After the party I dropped Marcus off at his house, we chatted for a minute, and I made it home around 1:00am, and found no parking anywhere. I circled and circled the lot but there was nothing at all. So, I decided to park next to someone else who parallel parked in a not-so-legal spot, figuring that I would be up and out in 6 and 1/2 hours anyway. Well, in that time the towing company stopped by and towed my car, but not any other car that was illegally parked!!

Needless to say I was angry. The reason there was no where to park is the gate to the complex is, and has been since I moved in, broken. Since its been broken people come into town, park there because its free, and then go out on the town. When they get back the pick up their car and leave, so even though there was no parking for me last night at 1am there was tons of parking at 7:30am when I was calling the towing company to find out where my car was. With all these 'great' changes they are doing to the complex and keeping me up all hours with their construction they have yet to fix the gate. Because of a broken gate I had to waste my time and money to get my car out of towing. Which made me about an hour late for work. Luckily my friend Marcus was nice enough to pick me up and take me to the towing company this morning to get the car!!

So, I finally broke down and wrote another letter to the apartment complex that went like this...

Please see the email below, which I sent in on April 2, 2008 with no response. I have also stopped into the office several times, spoken to the office staff, and they have taken the maintenance requests however, nothing has been fixed. I have to say that I have been a resident for almost a year and I have had more trouble than anything else. I haven't had one month go by without a maintenance or management issue and when I do have trouble I get just what I got here... no response.

Look back in my history and you will see I have been more than accommodating and helpful in trying to resolve the many issues from small appliance issues to mold, however I have never had a maintenance issue responded to in less than one week. And it has always taken a huge push from me with multiple letters, calls, and stops into the office to get trouble resolved. If you had to pay for my time in resolving issues you would be paying me to stay in your apartments! Any other apartment I have ever lived in has responded to all maintenance issues in less than 2 days after one quick email or call.

On top of this, the 'hot' water to my apartment has been lukewarm at best. When I take a shower I never actually use the cold water handle, and I am lucky if there is warm water or any water pressure. If I hope to get lucky enough to have hot water I must be up and in the shower at before everyone else and I must expect there to be no water pressure. When I wash my dishes I have been boiling my water first, just to have hot water.

Finally, I would like to discuss the broken gate. As on most weekend nights, last night I came home and there was absolutely no where to park. On the weekdays I am able to park without trouble however on the weekend the parking lot is full however I see no one having parties at their apartments. I work Saturday mornings and by the time I leave around 7:30am and as I am walking out the door I generally spot about 10 parking spaces available. The reasonable conclusion is people park in the complex because its free parking and by Marta, go out for the night, and then picking their cars back up after a night out. The problem for me, as well as other residents, is that when we want to park there is no where left. I came in at 1am and had to leave the this morning at 7:30am to go to work so I parked next to another car that parallel parked. By the time I walked out my car had been towed. Not only did I have to waste my time and resources getting my vehicle, I was late to work. Since my car was towed due a broken gate I conclude the fine for picking up my car should be paid by the complex.

I expect to be contacted Monday by Melissa, the property manager, on my cell at 404-323-1306.

What do you think? Not harsh enough? To harsh? If my life wasn't so up in the air right now I would be doing everything possible to get out of the place. But really, I am not sure if that is the prudent thing to be doing at the moment.

A Belly Full of BBQ is a Happy Belly!!

I am so lucky! I am so blessed! I say that a lot about working at Buckhead Church but it is so true!! Today, one of the families that attend the church decided to throw us a BBQ lunch and it was amazing!! Pulled pork, pork ribs, BBQ chicken, corn dip, coleslaw, potato salad, mushrooms, baked beans with pineapple... it was all there! I had a little bit of all of it and it was amazing! I was amazed by the pineapple baked beans. That is something I will attempt to repeat! I won't even attempt to do the pork, they just rocked it too well!

It was also so wonderful to get a lunch time to sit and chat with different people who work at the church. I get the opportunity to chat one-on-one quite often with a lot of the people here but generally not in a group situation. It was great!!

Thank you!!

Fortune Cookie

I love it when I find random objects in a jacket pocket, especially when the random object is money, however to day I found a fortune from an old fortune cookie. Not sure how long it has been in my pocket but it sure made me smile. It said:

Doing what you like is freedom.
Liking what you do is happiness.

Its a good reminder and its going back in my pocket. That way on another random day I will get another random smile.

Oh yea, thats right ... in bed.

Does 'in bed' really work on this fortune?

Fierce

Last night the SATC crew decided to watch a movie instead of Sex and the City, so we ordered pizza, had beer, ate brownies, and watched Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle.


It's been a long while since I have watched the movie but I loved it! It made me want to go kick some butt myself. It also made me realize I am way too out of shape. So, starting again in May I am back to my old diet. No eating after 8pm, no dessert, and working out! I started working out this morning by going to the gym and running on the elliptical for 1 hour. Since I want to 'jump start' this gym thing I am going to go back after work for pilates and boxing!!

I can't wait!! I need to own the movie. Its a great motivational tool! LOL!!