This is my 255th post.

I'll try to briefly (as if that's even possible for me? :oD) recap the events of the last week.

Thursday, August 5
9:00 P.M.
My parents arrive at my apartment. Their first time to see my new apartment! They're here for the weekend. I've been looking forward to their visit. Tonight after they got in, they were hungry so we got to eat some of the 3-bean soup I had made for them. :o)

Tomorrow we're going to try to find me a new washer machine. Well, that's if my current one can't be fixed or is expensive to fix. Like my dryer, it was a gift to my roommates and I, maybe two years ago. A huge blessing. Now? Well, it may be on its last leg. My trips to the apartment laundry room are getting a little old. (But I'm still grateful for all the use we've gotten out of it --Praise the Lord for His provision!)

Friday, August 6
Mission accomplished.
The washer would have been expensive to fix, so we were able to find a washer on a good sale, rated well by Consumer Reports (used by my dad many a time :o)). When we went to the mall to purchase the washer, we also ate at Chick-fila. I had great coupons for all of us -- buy a drink, get a free southwest chargrilled chicken salad. Now you can't beat THAT. I also had coupons for free cookies (for each of us!) at the Great American Cookie Co. Fun!

We also went to the Ikea store. WOW. That place is HUGE! And quite popular. We didn't buy anything, basically just walked around for over two hours. It's a fun place to be. Much of the decor (although not all) is not particularly my style, but I think my good friend Heather from back home would really like some of it.

DEFINITELY a store I plan to go back to.

When we got back home, we finished eating our cookies, and ... I don't remember what all else we did. I think just stuff around the apartment, though. Tonight we went for a little bit of all-night prayer at the ministry and my parents were able to catch up with some people there. :o)

Saturday, August 7
We did things around the apartment and went to Wal-mart and Target looking for different household items. My parents got me a birthday present at Garden Ridge, a beautiful picture for my dining room! It is pretty big and has kind of muted pinks, blues, etc. And it's a picture of a vase with flowers. My other walls, um, also have flowers on them? What can I say, I'm just a flower person. :o)

Tonight we had a couple of gals from my S.S. class over. We looked at some of their pictures and showed them a couple of short GFA videos about our Bridge of Hope program. It was a wonderful time of laughter and fellowship! My parents enjoyed getting to meet them both. I knew they'd like them!

Sunday, August 8
To be finished tomorrow :o) Heading back to my apartment now.