30 Years!

This past weekend Joshua’s mom and dad came to visit us and became our first official Georgian visitors! It was the weekend before their 30th wedding anniversary (November 6th) and they chose to come and spend it with us! Joshua and I have both been blessed by his parents’ love and support and we were encouraged by the time they spent with us :) We spent the first part of our Saturday morning traveling to New Orleans because Baton Rouge was slam packed for the Bama game (sorry, not sorry LSU). We stopped by Mother’s restaurant so Tim could satisfy his Po-Boy craving and then headed to the river for a ferry ride! It was a beautiful day to see the city!

 

 

 

 

 

On the way home we stopped by an old plantation on the Mississippi called the Houmas House. We went on a walk around the garden which was absolutely beautiful. They have a number of live oaks which were hundreds of years old! Then we took a tour of the house. Oddly enough, the house's current owner actually lives in it. And we were allowed to touch and sit on anything throughout the tour- definitely unique.

 

 

 

That night Joshua cooked us some teriyaki chicken, baked potatoes, and vegetables served with my famous salad. It was such blast to hang out with Tim and Natalie and Joshua and I loved serving them together in our home.

 

One of the greatest things about being married is having a space that provides warmth, love, encouragement, and security to other people. I pray that no matter where we live in the world that we will always have a space that invites others in from the hardships of life and that we can provide a shelter from the world.

First Project

Over the last few months Erin and I have been collecting a number of "projects" that we want to do. Of course, we were quite busy getting married, and then honeymooning, and then moving, and then settling. And ideas always sound a lot better when you don't have to do it rightnow. But now that we ARE settled, we no longer had any excuses. Thus began our first project.

Erin's parents gave us a fantastic table along with a leaf and seven chairs.

 

But the green paint wasn't working for us, and Erin wanted a darker stain. So, on our very first free Saturday (my birthday) we took a trip to Home Depot. And after what seemed like many hours later, we returned home with all of our supplies. LOTS of them. Apparently it's a bit more complicated than we thought... Perhaps because we didn't really think it all the way through.

The steps:

1) Strip current stain from wood. This involves spraying/painting the wood with thick coats of nasty chemicals and then scraping it off, repeating until all traces of the former stain are gone.

2) Sand it. Simple, but anybody who's sanded by hand before knows this is long and tiring.

 

3) Sand it again. Yes, again. With a finer sandpaper.

 

4) Pre-treat the wood to be stained. Apparently this stuff is supposed to soak into the wood and then help the stain soak in more evenly. (You have to get the right kind that matches with your stain, and we accidentally picked the wrong one. By this point I was NOT in the mood to go shopping again... So we skipped this. Everything turned out okay, but I can definitely see how it would have been better to use this.)

5) Stain the wood. You have to rub the stain in and then wipe off the excess. Repeat until you're done- which was quite a few coats in our case, because we wanted it so dark. I definitely had a hard time getting it to go on even. And I found out how important wiping off the excess is... it starts covering up the grain, which is contrary to the whole point of staining in the first place.

 

 

6) Coat it with poly-somethingorother. So its all protected and shiny. A few coats of this stuff... It's really hard to put it on evenly.

 

7) Lastly, a few coats of paint. The real trick being the fact that you can't mess up everything you did in steps 1-6.

 

Erin optimistically imagined this would take a good afternoon. I was thinking a week. God bless us...
One thing that makes it tricky is how you practically have to do each thing a few times, waiting a few hours between repeating. That's obnoxious. Also, our space is kind of limited. We have a little balcony, but it's not enough room to put everything out on it at once. We moved indoors for the poly and painting. This meant we spent two weeks eating on our couch.

We STILL haven't actually finished everything... I've had to take some time off before I lose my mind. BUT we did finish the table and four chairs! They're not perfect, but we're quite fond of them. :)

 

Wish us luck finishing the rest... :)

Home Is Wherever I'm With You

Some of you may have been wondering where Joshua and I have been living and why it’s taken us so long to post anything about our residency. You may have hypothesized that we must live in a dump or are, in fact, homeless, but the truth is that our home has been in metamorphosis for the past few weeks and is now ready to spread it’s wings on the internet as a beautiful butterfly. We hope you enjoy a brief glimpse into the 795 square feet we call home.

The Adventures of Being a 'Real Person'

Today marks the end of my fourth week working at BASF and I will tell you, it has been an absolutely insane month. But as I tuck my first month of work experience under my belt I think it's a good time to relfect and share some of my experiences with somebody other than my loving husband.

The Geismar site is absolutely amazing! I wish I could post a lot of pictures of it but sadly, it is very illegal to do so. BUT I will post a picture of my desk area (I took care that nothing confidential is in the shot) and maybe I'll bring all my gear home one day and have Joshua take a picture of me all suited up. Anyways, the front third of the site after you pass the main Admin building up front and clear the security check point is a nature reserve. We have about 8-10 families of deer that live on our property and I love driving passed them into and out of the plant. When I started, the babies had just been born so there were adorable little fawns running around everywhere! Some of the males have begun to grow huge antlers and now I am afraid that I am going to pull a Rory Gilmore and get hit by a deer on the way to work. Unfortunately, you are not allowed to honk, take pictures, or sneak one of the baby deer home with you after work. Doing any of those things will get you swiftly escort off the premises. But if we ever have a full site evacuation I am totally grabbing one of the babies to save.

The second two thirds of the site house multiple plants that make various products. I am a process engineer for the KU unit. That means that I don't work at a particular plant but instead we service a number of plants. So when somebody wants to install a new piece of equipment and needs those calculations, they call us. When somebody is having trouble with a piece of equipment, they call us. When the site needs safety audits of various equipment, they call us. We service the following plants: TDI1 and TDI2 (TDI is a soft plastic used in mattresses and foam) MDI1 and MDI2 (MDI is a hard plastic used in cars) polyol, aniline, and DNT (I am less sure of what they are used for because I have mostly worked in TDI and MDI thus far). So we are all over the place.

Now when I say 'we' and 'us' I am referring to myself and the three other process engineers that I work with. The first is a guy named Win Wallace, my mentor. He has worked at BASF for over 30 years and is probably one of the best process engineers that you will ever meet. He actually went to Germany and desgined the TDI plant before they built it, so TDI is his baby. Win is also an incredibly nice and genuine guy who I really enjoy working with. Daniel Doody (yes, that is his real last name) has been at BASF for 5 years and worked a few other places before. He is also a really talented process engineer but is super chill and laid back. He's probably the process guy I spend the most time with because I have been helping out with a few projects he's on. The last process engineer is Fabian Mbagwu. He seems very nice and will eventually help me get started on validating an ASPEN simulation of the entire Aniline plant.

Those are the process guys, but my office is located around a bunch of project managers that I've had the extreme pleasure of getting to know. There are four project managers in my building: Henry, David, Suhail, and Mike. David is my next door neighbor and Henry is across the hall so we talk a good bit. David is a really sweet guy and Henry is just outrageous. He always has a story for everything and is super outgoing and helpful. These two guys have really gone a long way to making me feel at home and welcome.

Speaking of my office (which is located near the TDI plants), here is that promised picture:

 

I have a white board, a poster calendar, and couple of chairs for my visitors too that aren't in this picture. Oh, and a filing cabinet and a window (the window is behind me as I took this picture). But this is where I sit when I'm not in somebody else's office, a meeting, a training session, or out in the field. I am really grateful to have an office. It's not much, but it's so nice to be able to shut the door if I want to or open it and invite others into my space.

Like I said before, though, it's been a crazy month for me. I adjust slowly to change and leaving the safety of the 'student' title and entering corporate America is no exception. The whole month my work load swung back in forth between being virtually non-existent to super overwhelming. There were some days that I would come home and excitedly tell Joshua about all the things that happened and how much I love work and some days I would come home crying about how I could never be smart enough to be a process engineer and how much I miss home. I guess that's the life of a feeler.

Yesterday, though, I met with Win and my boss (Bruce Babb) and we put together my assignment goals, their deadlines, and how each goal would be weighted in my final review. I cannot even begin to tell you the peace that this list brings to my heart. I am a goal-oriented person to the max. It helps me to feel like I'm no longer floating around aimlessly but I have something I'm working towards. I know what I'm doing and where I'm going. As this month closes I finally feel like I'm finding my stride. It's funny, but I told Joshua that whenever we move again that I'll probably be crying to go back to Louisiana and that I would miss our church, Win, Bruce, Daniel, David, Henry and everything that I am struggling to adjust to right now. But I guess it's just the way I am. I am so grateful for Joshua though. He has been steady throughout our whole adjustment. Thank goodness out transition into marriage was wonderfully natural and simple because I dont know if I could have taken two tough adjustments at once!

Our Wedding Teaser Trailer

Go check it out! Ben did a wonderful job putting it together!

http://3ringweddings.com/randalow-harkey

A Quarter Century

We had a blast celebrating Joshua's 25th birthday yesterday! He got a new Samsung Galaxy S III that he is loving! I gave him a new toolbox for him to begin building his collection. He's already proved how handy he is by hanging everything up in our apartment and now he's tackling a new project: refinishing our dining room table and chairs! I'll post some pictures of his endeavors soon (along with some pictures of our apartment). I also followed my usual tradition of delivering a birthday cake to him, complete with 25 candles (no hair was burnt this year!). I am incredibly proud of my groom and excited to celebrate another year of his life because he is the most special person that I know!

"Go...to the land I will show you."

After a blissful week of honeymooning, Erin and I returned to Gwinnett and moved into our temporary home: her family's houseboat. Yes. Another boat. We were only there for two days, but there was plenty to do. Aside from the crazy issues our home church was dealing with, we had to find time to see our families, move my things over to her house, tally up wedding presents, work on getting her name changed... At this point it's really all a blur! It felt like we never stopped to breathe. Quite different from the honeymoon!

Now, we had set aside the coming week to find a home. The journey out to Baton Rouge isn't short, we had more than enough on our plates before the wedding, and we weren't keen on paying for two hotel rooms. That gave us one week after the honeymoon to find a place (the movers were scheduled to come take our stuff that Friday) and then another week to move in and get settled before Erin started work.

But Erin and I like to live life on the edge. Remember how the weather was starting to get gloomy and rainy at the end of our cruise? That's because our ship was outrunning hurricane Isaac. I think maybe the hurricane was after us because the night before our planned trip to Baton Rouge, Isaac changed directions and headed straight for Louisiana. So after an early trip to the Social Security office (to get Erin a new card) we spent a few hours trying to decide if we were foolish, desperate, or making a big deal out of nothing. We thought. We prayed. We made some phone calls. Erin got us a hotel reservation (which was tricky, most hotels had switched to a first-come-first-served basis for the sake of people leaving New Orleans and the coast). And we decided to go for it.

 

 

 

On the way there I started compiling a list of apartment complexes and making phone calls. Half of the places we were interested in were going to be closed until Thursday at least and many of the rest planned to close early on Tuesday in order to make storm preparations. As far as we could tell, the storm was supposed to reach Baton Rouge on Tuesday afternoon then be really crazy all of Wednesday before hopefully calming down on Thursday. I made a few appointments for Tuesday and talked to a few people who said to come by on Thursday if the weather would allow it. We just figured we'd spend Wednesday staring at each other in our hotel room.

 

After a long drive (though not the longest we've ever made), including a Mississippi pit stop for groceries (just in case) and gasoline (apparently there was none left in Baton Rouge), we arrived at our hotel. Only thing on the schedule for that night was coffee with an old STP friend, Tyler. We had a great time catching up and learning a little about the area from him, and then went to bed early.
We made our first stop the next morning at 8. Unfortunately they ended up being closed for the day.

We looked around... nothing fancy... then decided to go to the next place early. The Park on Bluebonnet looked fantastic from the outside! Erin compared it to a college campus- pretty buildings and grounds you can actually see yourself using. When they opened up at 9 we got to hear all the details and see an empty unit. It was one level up from the one we were considering, but it gave us an idea of what the place would be like. We were both impressed, I think. It was definitely on the high end of our budget, but we got some sweet discounts because Erin worked for BASF and because our apartment would be on the 3rd floor. And rent included a lot of other things (like a washer and dryer) that many other places didn't. Erin actually had a friend who lived there as well, so we stopped by her place before leaving.

 

 

It was going to be hard to beat. In fact, for a brief second we were tempted to sign the paperwork then and there. But we decided to at least see the rest of the places we had appointments for... The next place was also very nice. But it didn't come out on top. Only notable thing there was that they forgot to give me back my drivers' license, and I forgot they took it, until we were halfway through Alabama on our way home! Oops. We saw one other place. It was cheaper, but not by much. And it wasn't half as nice.

 

 

So by this point it was about noon. The few prospects that we had left (including Thursday appointments that may or may not ever happen) didn't look super promising. We stopped at our hotel and prayed. Then packed up. I called The Park, which was apparently closing up early for the storm. They said they would email us whatever we needed. And that was that! We checked out of the hotel and aimed the car for Georgia, skies still blue.

After a very long drive we made it home. It's not SUCH a long drive. But 20 hours of traveling out of 36 is rough.

Yet we were so thankful. I don't think God could have proven himself more faithful. What kind of crazy person goes apartment hunting when a hurricane is on its way? When we left Gwinnett on Monday, Erin said she had Abram's calling from Genesis 12 in her mind. Turns out God had some promises and blessings for us as well! Surely there are things we would have liked to go differently. For example, it definitely may have been nice if the apartment was open for us to move in sooner than the very day Erin was supposed to start her new job!

But we have been so thankful to start off our marriage living in God's hands and not our own. When he calls, we will follow- into a new life, a new home, new friends, new jobs... and even towards a hurricane.

Freedom

For our honeymoon, Joshua and I decided to go a Caribbean cruise with carnival. We had an absolute blast! Being on a cruise was a wonderful way to unwind from all the stress of planning a wedding (which we thought was absolutely perfect) and to begin a marriage! There was plenty of sunshine and lots of time to rest by the pool and to eat really delicious food. One acronym that we adopted on our trip was YOHO, meaning 'You Only Honeymoon Once'. So every time we struggled to resist the chocolate melting cake that they served every night for dessert we would simply smile and declare YOHO.

 

On our ship, Carnival Freedom, there was always so much going on. We had delicious food every single night, went to a swing dancing show, had a couples' massage, attended an art show, ordered room service, sat and read together on the balcony of our room, watched the sunset, dressed up fancy for two elegant nights aboard the ship, danced a little bit, played mini golf, and lazed by the pool. It was such a blast and the views from our room where so spectacular!

 

 

Our first stop was Key West. They had lots of planned excursions that you could sign up for via the cruise line but my groom is so creative and savvy that he planned his own excursion for us to do! We walked to Ft. Zachary Taylor state park to lounge on the beautiful beach and snorkel together. I love to dive so it was really exciting to share my love of the ocean with Joshua in a small way. I hope tht we can plan a diving trip sometime soon! After a delicious lunch and shower Joshua surprised me with a trip to this beautiful butterfly conservatory. The butterflies were so beautiful but I think my favorite part was the little baby quails that were running around everywhere! I was chasing them around the conservatory while Joshua sat there shaking his head!

 

 

The second port we stopped at was Grand Cayman Island. Grand Cayman was probably my favorite place that we went on our honeymoon. Josh had arranged for us to take a boat out to a sandbar in the ocean that they had dubbed 'Stingray City'. It was so fun! We got to swim with stingrays and feed them little pieces of squid. It was so strange because you would stick the piece of skin under the stingray and it would suck it right out of your hand! I'm pretty sure that I screamed the first time it happened and Josh almost lost a finger when he tried. We got to hold a stingray and experience being 'kissed' by a stingray (which apparently brings good fortune) and swim around in the gorgeous, corona-commercial-esque ocean. On the way back from Stingray City we got dropped off on 7 mile beach where we spent the rest of the afternoon swimming and soaking up the sun!

 

 

Our final port was Ocho Rios, Jamaica. We taxied over to Dunn's River Falls to take on the death-defying climb to the top! Okay, so it wasn't that dangerous but it was slippery and cold. In fact, my mother broke her toe there a few years back so there have definitely casualties in the past. Joshua and I had a blast working as a team to climb the falls and felt so accomplished when we conquered the river and made it to the top! To celebrate our victory we decided to do a little bit of shopping. Now, if you have ever been to Jamaica, you know how chaotic this can be. The vendors and shop owners are ruthless in their sales tactics to tourists passing through. We were taught secret hand shakes, promised good prices, assured that we were practically Jamaican (they called it 'jamerican'), introduced to family members, anything they could possibly think of to get our money. But my brave husband protected me from most of the harassment with a polite but firm answer to anyone hounding me. Joshua told me that India had prepared him well to handle the Jamaican street vendors.

 

 

As we sailed away from Jamaica we knew that we were beginning our return back to the mainland and back to reality (not to mention outrunning hurricane Isaac). It was a bittersweet thought. On the one hand we were having the time of our lives on our vacation and never wanted it to end and on the other hand we were excited to come home and to find a home and to begin our lives together.
Our honeymoon had been everything it was supposed to be fun, sweet, relaxing, and a tone-setter for our marriage. A recurring theme that kept coming up in our conversations was the word 'freedom' (which is ironic because the name of our ship was Freedom). On our trip Joshua and I began to discover the freedom of marriage. So often when you are dating there are so many boundaries and constraints on your relationship. Physical boundaries, logistical limitations, topics of conversation to avoid, etc. But within the sacredness of marriage all of these things dissolve and all that's left is the joy experienced from total openness with another person. To be known by another to know him. My prayer is that we will always sail on Freedom in our marriage and and that we would continue to grow in joy as we discover even more of each other for the rest of our lives.