The Oven Story

Okay so all married couples have funny stories that create memories right? Well, we have one we will be talking about for the rest of our lives, I call it, the oven story. It has a very good ending.

I was cooking dinner one night, homeade pot pie. It is one of Ginger's favorites, and we've tweaked it to satisfy our tastes. I like mine with potatoes, Ginger does not, so I got these cute little baking pans at Bed, Bath, and Beyond to cook four individual pies, two with potato and two without, yes, the things you will do for love...

For the most part they work perfectly, but if I put too much sauce in and the crust breaks, it bubbles over in the oven. This just happened to be one of those times. I got the pies out, smelling good and tasty, and decided to self clean the oven to clean the oven of the mess that spilled over. Set the timer, and everything was good. I had the trash to take out so I took the trash out and took the trash bin to the street, walking along in my flip flops and just enjoying a cool night.

Walking up the drive, I hear Ginger's voice. I can't quite understand so as I get closer Ginger yells, "The oven is on fire!" Well, you can imagine the thoughts blazing through my head as I begin sprinting, in flip flops, around the corner and up the stairs. I'm expecting to see smoke, hear the smoke alarm go off, you know as I'm trying to figure out how the self clean caught the oven on fire?

Well, I sprint through the door, going mach 12, spin around the corner and there is the kitchen, in tact. There is the oven, in tact. No smoke, no fire, no alarms. Then Ginger says, in the oven I saw flame. So I look in the oven. Remember the spilled over sauce? Well a lazy flame was over it, burning it up. In about 5 minutes it was gone, and the self clean began doing it's thing. Ginger's heart was going ninety to nothing, I was still full of adrenaline ready to save the day. Ginger asks if we have a fire extinguisher. I grin and point right by the oven. This is one of those times I'm glad that a) the oven locks when in self clean and b) Ginger didn't know where it was. Needless to say the oven didn't burn down, the pot pies were excellent, and we had a good laugh after the fact. I did end up turning the self clean off, Ginger was just a little freaked out about the whole situation.

Well, at work we actually clean ovens before people move in, of which I've done, so this weekend I got some cleaner and manually cleaned the oven. Looks great and I didn't have to worry about freaking my wife out! We've had more pot pies since then and other things, the oven works fantastic, and we have something to laugh about. Ahh, the memories.

Work has been going absolutely wonderful. The days fly and sometimes there is not enough time to finish all I want in a day. At least I'm not bored. I'm the painter, but I've done drywall, fixed bathroom tile, re leveled a toilet, fixed faucets, fixed doors, changed blinds, cleaned ovens, steam cleaned apartments, changed locks on doors, the list goes on. Ginger loves her handyman. I'm known as the quiet one. They put me in an apartment and they don't hear from me till lunch. And it get's done. I'm still on my 90 day probationary period but I've been told I'll do just fine. Another instance where you let the actions of what you do speak more than your words. I learn alot, many things I didn't know I just ask how to do, I'm shown and I do them. Makes me think of God and how there are times He just asks us to do things, and without grumbling and complaining we do them. Don't get me wrong there are other times I do grumble at God, but how much smoother is it when you don't? Things that make you go hmmmm.

My role at Celebrate Recovery has been changing too. Without really realizing it, I see I'm going into more of a teaching, encouraging role than a leading role. I'll be honest, I'm a lousy delegator, I tend to just pick up the reins and do it myself. Which can lead to burn out if your not careful. My strengths are, believe it or not, the manual labor side, doing things where help is needed. There are people to organize the help and there are people to do the help, I'm the latter. Don't get me wrong, I can organize, but if I had my choice I'd be in the trenches. And now that God has taught me the organizing part, He seems to be leading me back to my strength. Where ever God wants me is my heart. I'm willing to work in weakness, because He makes me strong.

Anyway, wanted to give everyone an update on our little ole life. Ginger and I are deeper in love now than before, and it just gets stronger. The other night she laid her head on my chest and was out in about 5 minutes (everytime). And I just began thanking God. For her, for our life, for our apartment, for Him, who without Him none of this would have been possible.....

Baaaaa