So Many Thoughts

Well, here goes. It feels like I've been thinking I should blog about that for too long, so I'm going to try and get a few thoughts out. Brace yourselves.

1. Dahlia and I have made it official: we are going to Prince Edward Island in August!!!
   
   Woot! We are super excited because a) we got tickets at a GREAT price and b) we found an adorable little inn {Sherwood Inn and Motel-how perfectly quaint and Island-ish!} for a magnificent price AND that has a shuttle to and from the airport! Oh, and yeah, because we found an Anne of Green Gables itinerary. We are totes going. It's ok- you can be jealous. I would be, too!
   
2. Update on the job thingy: I interviewed for 2 Saturday positions, and one I knew wouldn't work out and the other didn't call me back, which was fine because I realized I don't want to be tied to a consistent weekend schedule. So God knew what He was doing {as per usual!}, and actually I interviewed with two different families to babysit and so that will be fabulous. One family will call me eventually {the dad is going to China for a month, so no date nights for a while!}, and I'll be babysitting for the other family for the second time tomorrow. Totes perfect. Thank You Jesus!
   
3. Grandma is getting settled. I think we're all getting more used to each other, and things have been working out pretty well these past few weeks. Again, thank You, Jesus.
   
4. I would really like to blog every day in May like Jen is doing, but May is like the craziest month for me! I leave Saturday to go to the Great Nation of Texas for 5 days, then I'm home for less than a week before I go to the Bluegrass State for work {and play!} for a week. Blogging is highly unlikely this month, let alone every day, so I will do my best to do something fun in June. :)
   
5. This week was my second time volunteering at Care Net. I'm really enjoying it. Technically, I'm still in training, so my 4 hours consist of watching videos that we show clients and reading the volunteer handbook. Still, it's been amazing. The clinic has such an atmosphere of peace and honor and service; I feel God's peace when I'm there. Oh, and crazy thing! The other volunteer who is there for the Thursday afternoon shift -Brandi- is a cousin of one of my friends from Berea! Small world.
   
6. Speaking of this afternoon, I almost passed out today. Yeah... So I don't do needles... or blood or guts or anything that is yucky...as in, I don't like to see them. And I really don't like to hear about any of that.

   

   These lovely Crate and Barrel sheets perfectly matched the color of my face.

   The first time I passed out was in the 4th grade when I found out that my wrist was broken. The pain didn't do it; it was looking at the x-ray {which looked pretty normal, bee tee dubs} and hearing the doctor say, "Here's where the fracture is..." Boom. Down I went.
   So today I was shadowing Brandi's parenting class client, and the video we watched was about the 3rd trimester of pregnancy and then it went into labor and delivery. Now, I've known about the birthing "activities" since I was probably in 2nd grade, but it has always been one of the aforementioned topics that give me the heebie jeebies. I was doing alright with this video, until the narrator started talking about this little surgery-like cut the doctor can make during labor...and so I went into the kitchen and put my head down and waited for blood to return to the upper half of my body. Yep. Second day volunteering, and I have to go lie down in the other counseling room. Awesome.
   
7. I'm excited to go down to Texas next week {technically this week} because I get to see my friend Laurie without having to visit the Frozen Tundra! :) And also because we are planning on watching Season 2 of "Call the Midwife," yet another BBC show that has captured my attention. If you have not seen it, finish what you're doing and go watch it. SO well done. Not like steak. Like a dozen roses...perfection.
   

Well, 7 seems like a good number to end on. I hope that this brings us up-to-date on most items of late... oh, and as for the last post, I think that writing things out and then going to Book Club {a group of us are reading and discussing Lady In Waiting} and talking with the bestie for a good hour afterwards helped me move forward in my thinking. I'm still thinking and praying about things with my parents, and I think God and I are getting closer and I'm comfortable thinking more openly about the future. So, thanks for listening. :) Happy May!

Sunday's Ponderings

First of all, sorry for the one post last week. Sometimes two posts feels overwhelming, which is bad, because it shouldn't be. But it was a busy week, and we're going for flexibility, and if you have a problem with that, then you should probably find a different blog to read.

Yep, it's going to be one of those nights.

As you know, I'm looking for a condo or townhouse to buy so my bestie and I can feel like real grown-ups. I went to two open houses this weekend, and while there are some great places out there, so much depends on my budget, which right now is limiting.

So I'm contemplating ways to make some extra dough, and I'm also considering what my dad told me: people who are really successful do things that other people don't consider doing or aren't willing to do. He gave the example that the garbage man is usually the richest man in town because he does what no one else wants to do. So he encouraged me to find something that I'm passionate about and make that into my job. Do something that others won't do or aren't willing to do so that I can live in a way that others can't.

It makes sense. Dad bought a gas station when he was two years younger than I am. Dad is a risk-taker and a man of reason and faith, and he calls it like it is. He's very black and white. I am too, but probably not to the same degree. So I feel stuck, because I want to do something unusual and out there and something that I'm passionate about and that I can make a living off of and that I can pursue and all that, but I don't know what that something is.

I want to work more with people than with a computer.
I want to work with a purpose.
I want to use my gifts and talents that God has given me.
I want to do something that hopefully I could continue once I have kids.
I want to tangibly advance the Kingdom of God.

Any ideas?

Um, yeah…hi.

Ei yi yi. Sorry about the Funny Friday fail. Haha, I just continued my own alliteration. Ok sorry, moving on.
Ok, so like I said previously, lots of things have changed around here and life is busy and crazy and isn't all life? It’s just the adjustment period of getting used to living in a new place and working with other people’s schedules and things like that. Gotta add blogging into the ol’ routine.

So I interviewed for a job on Friday and then another one on Tuesday. They’re for Saturday receptionist positions, which I’m thinking will simply help expedite the buying-a-house-like-a-grown-up process. Woot. The one I interviewed for Tuesday is not going to work- I already emailed the gal and told her thanks but no thanks, so we’ll see if I hear from yonder Friday interviewer today.

Also, hello! Babysitting jobs galore! I signed up for a couple of websites and applied for less than 20 jobs, and BOOM! People email me back! Apparently babysitting for 10 kids at a time makes for pretty decent experience, right, AJ? ;) The answer is yes, for those who don’t know.

Moving on from my weekend habits…

My grandpa’s memorial is this Saturday. Mom helped Grandma narrow the oodles and oodles of pictures down to less than 200. I kid you not. Mom and I went to the store and scanned 173 pictures for the slideshow. So we put those pictures into PowerPoint last night, and today I've sized and cropped and labeled them. Tomorrow I’ll sit down with Grandma and have her identify the people that I can’t. We’ll add music and then we’ll be good to go on Saturday.

My sisters and I are going to share our memories of Grandpa together. We've written down quite a few memories, and then we organized them and determined who is going to share which one, and when J comes home from college on Friday, we’ll run through it and time ourselves. There are several other people speaking, so we need to be timely. I’m sure we’ll do fine, though, since we have so much public speaking experience.

So that’s basically been the extent of life right now: work, work, and the memorial. I will do my utmost to post Funny Friday’s tale this week, but just in case, here is something funny that I’m going to share on Saturday.

Grandpa and I were in the car while Grandma went into the store. A bald gentleman walked in front of the car.
Grandpa: Well, I bet his haircuts are cheap!

Enjoy your week!

Hey, I'm Alive

So, sorry for dropping off the grid there, folks! I ride two airplanes and suddenly can't put my thoughts in order. Sheesh.

Actually, the airplanes are not to blame. I got home safe and sound, and so did my luggage. That night I stayed up really late with my two at-home sisters, and we laughed A LOT and talked about boys and sister stuff like that, and then we finally went to bed and thank God that we were all on break!

Wednesday, I seriously rocked. I unpacked all four suitcases into my new room {as in, my room was moved to another room without my presence, and then my sis on Spring Break crashed in there, and it was chaos...actually, it still is; it's just shut-up-in-drawers chaos now.}. Like a boss.

Thursday, #bestierunion!!!!! Totes fun. We talked about Doctor Who and sexuality and passion and oh yeah our future place together. You know you're best friends when...you talk about all of that during a 30 minute lunch period. Yup.

Also, my grandma moved in with us. We had the MCs come and help us load things in the truck and drive the mile down the road and then unload. We got it all done in just a few hours, which was nice. Grandma's been getting settled pretty well, and I think it's all going to work out for us.

I started work this past Monday. It's been fun. I'm learning a lot, mainly that getting up before 6am is NOT my favorite thing, but oh wait, I already knew that. :-p But seriously, it's been great. I've also been getting my name out there for some tutoring and babysitting jobs, and I have an interview for a receptionist position tomorrow, so hopefully I can start making bank and get a place sooner. Apparently the old saying "Cash is king" applies to the housing market too. So if you think of it, please pray that I find the perfect position{s}.

In other news, I'm really looking forward to sharing tomorrow's Funny Friday, because it's a doozy. AJ, you know what I'm talking about. Heck to the yeah.

Alright, peeps, I hope that I've convinced you that my heart still beats. Peace out til tomorrow!