This is Why We Can't Have Nice Things

Life is moving full speed ahead at our house. Mom and Dad (mine) have decided to purchase a house to live in for retirement, or as I call it, the Grandparent Suite. Until they are ready to take up residence there, they are going to allow Hubby and myself to live there. Bonus!! So, we've spent the better part of this week researching properties. Can't wait!

In other news, I found out the hard way I have developed an allergic reaction to amoxycillin. Yes, I broke out in tiny bumps all over my body after recovering from whatever had my down and out in my last post. If you want to know what makes me look even more attractive than running a fever and having severe seasonal allergies, it's developing a massive amount of tiny bumps all over my chest, back, and neck. I will spare you the pictures. Suffice to say, I looked kind of like a child with tiny chicken pox. Or you can google "amoxycillin reaction" as my coworkers and I did. I do not recommend this. You probably won't be able to eat dinner. I looked like that. Yeah.

Hubby finished his last days at Kaldi's this week. I would say it ended bittersweetly, but really it was much further on the bitter side than it was sweet. You see, if being understaffed and overworked on the last day wasn't enough to make him glad to go, God decided to make sure he knew it was best to leave. About an hour before he was scheduled to finish his last shift, when the coffee house was packed to the brim, the water heater broke. The health inspector got tipped off, and the place was closed. And like that, Hubby's experience at his first job out of college was over. No happy goodbyes. No hugs from customers. The health inspector apologized for the timing of the issue, and we went to grab a beer. Adios!

I met with my new bosses this week. I am incredibly pumped to be working in their office come fall. We chatted, I got to see the office and then we headed to lunch. I was warned that we were going to do lunch in one of the most swankified places in our town, The University Club. This is where wealthy alums and townspeople go for great food and service. I, being a small-town, country bumpkin at heart was flooded with two contradictory feelings when I was invited to this lunch. One one hand, I had never been invited to eat at the lovely establishment. I was excited for the chance to try the food I had heard so much about and share in great conversations with my new bosses. On the other hand, I am the kind of person that says "friggin" and never orders the right thing and doesn't always claim to know a salad fork from a dinner fork. Thus, I was a teensy bit nervous at the formality of such a venue. I arrived without tripping up the stairs and breathed a sigh of relief.
Ordering was tricky; I was trying to find something simple to eat so as not to make a mess. I am traditionally messy no matter what I eat. I settled on a salmon club since salmon is my favorite and I figured a sandwich couldn't be too difficult. Boy, was I wrong!! The sandwich was a double decker held together with shiny-topped toothpicks. I could take only one bite of each section before it exploded into smitherines, leaving me, my fork, my knife, and sometimes my fingers, to try to put it all back together. I was sure by the second of four sections that everyone in the restaurant knew I was not supposed to be there. As if they didn't already know when they realized I was under 30.
Resigning to the fact that I needed to finish picking at my explosion, I agreed to dessert. I immediately dropped the brownie tongs onto the ground and tried to pick them up to give to a waiter. With no waiter in my line of vision, I just looked like an idiot holding dirty tongs that I had caused to fall to the ground. The older gentleman behind me was obviously perturbed and begged me to leave them on the ground. Awkward. I also managed to stab my lemon tart with the other set of tongs, leaving part of my tart on the tongs themselves. I was in such disarray, I forgot to pick up a spoon for my sherbet. I arrived at the table, picked up the wrong spoon, and proceeded to dig into my sherbet without putting my napkin in my lap. Sweet.
During this time, we were also talking shopping. One of the ladies asked me my favorite place to shop, and although we had been talking of Ann Taylor and White House, Black Market, I blurt out "Oh, I mostly shop at Target." Yeah, you can tell I was a little nervous. Turns out, she was asking my favorite mall. I went back to work and crawled under my desk and held my ear for a while. Just kidding. But I wanted to. I am sure in my head this is all a little more dramatic than it was. And actually, I had a lovely time. I am so excited to start working in the office with the lovely ladies.

Well, Pete's birthday is today. Happy Birthday to one of my favorite brothers. Between you and Mark, I couldn't ask for better siblings. I love you dearly and will miss living with you come winter.

Here's to Memorial Day!

101.4

No, that is not my rating on the beauty scale.  That is my current temperature.  After having gone through this just a few months ago, I am back in bed fighting of sickness.  Luckily, I have a doctor's appointment for tomorrow.  Hopefully I can knock this out as quickly as it came.  The downside?  No work and no running while I am in this condition.

I didn't mention in my last post, but my darling baby brother is finally home.  He's currently residing at our place and we just LOVE having him around.  I think he is having that normal, difficult transition between living independently in a foreign country and coming home.  Still, having him around to hug, listening to him play video games with Hubby, it's just nice to have him around.  He'll be off to Pennsylvania for ballet before I know it. I just don't want him to grow up!

I have to say, even if I am still sick in bed tomorrow, I can't wait for Grey's Anatomy.  I took about six months off, but I am caught up and prepared for the waterworks tomorrow.  Of course, everything brings waterworks for me.  Scrubs finale? Tears.  Susan Boyle on YouTube?  Tears.  That's just me.  Sentimental and easily inspired.

Welp, my hubby just brought home 7-up, warm tea, and nail polish.  I think I will use the latter.

Here's to health!

Children of the Corn

Greetings from Omaha. I have to say, I kind of like Omaha. If you took out the Nebraska fas, this place might actually be an OK place to live. But, you could never take out the nU fans, so I think I'll pass. I am spending my second day here, and so far it's been lovely. I've eaten at Spaghetti Works, met a marathoner who gave me some tips, and spoken to 4 students who might come to Mizzou. I can't complain a lick.

When I am a resident of a hotel, I like to spend a good portion of my day streaming shows from my computer. I got to watch In the Motherhood and Samantha Who. Nothing like free comedy on demand to make me comfortable in a new city.

When I ran out of TV last night, I hit my Bible up. I have to say, I have read Ruth a dozen or so times but never has it touched my heart like it did last night. Ruth was truly a woman of God. She listened to God, sacrificed for the good of her family, and remained faithful during an incredible tragedy. It almost brought me to tears last night. I hope when I am faced with such challenges, I will have the foundation of faith to stand firm. What a mighty God we serve, that he would give his servants portraits of strong women for us to follow.

I have one more visit today and then I am headed to the hotel to get a run in. I will try to be more inspired in the future. Sorry for the recent delay in blogging.

Here's to God's faithfulness.

It's All Good!

Well, after taking a little hiatus, a lot has happened in the life of me. First, despite my fears and freak outs, interview day went just fine.  After six interviews, I was offered two positions.  I mulled quite a bit but ended up going with, what I am sure is the perfect choice for me.  I will be working for the Office of Parent Relations and Student Affairs Development.  I am completely thrilled to be working with two great ladies.  I know I will learn a lot from them and gain great experience.  I meet with them next week to make plans.  I also get to meet with my adviser this week.  I will start planning my classes and my goals for education.  Pretty excited about the whole thing, really.

I am headed off on the road tomorrow, so I will try to post again.  I am feeling a little uninspired right now.

Here's to answers to prayer, no matter how big or how small.

Aw... Freak Out!

Well, if you know me, you know I am a bit of a Type-A, first-born, perfectionistic, control freak. Just a little bit. So, it was a little more than a small hit to my Super Power (the ability to control all) when I got an email from my grad studies interview day organizer. You see, for the past month, I have been organizing data for my interviews. I had a list of position I wanted. I organized the list in the order of how badly I wanted the position. I then made lists of skills I had that would benefit the position and skills I wanted to acquire that I could learn in the position. I had scoured websites, read every bit of info I could, and hired a professional investigator to background check my potential boss at every position. Well, no investigator, but you get my point. The email came at about 4:30 yesterday and Dr. H told me that three of the five positions I had settled on were not, in fact, available.

And then I heard God chuckle.

I however, was not chuckling. No, I was looking more like a character from one of those old Disney cartoons right before Mickey makes Donald so mad that his head turns red and the top flies off. Yes, I was Donald. I texted and emailed with fury. I debated and wrung my hands. And then, I got in the car with my husband and we went to dinner with Momma and my best friend. Because, after all, nothing solves problems like time with your Momma. Even at 25.

Dinner proved to be productive. Meg and I then headed to the mall, where all the dresses were too big, which also proved productive. I settled into bed for my last night with my Esther study, and I talked to God a little. Sometimes, you don't have to talk too much. Sometimes, God does all the talking. And what he said to me was, "Um, Lady, I love how you think your plans are better than mine and all but really? Really?" And that's all he needed to say. I fell asleep and woke to a much better attitude.

As Bro and I came in to work this morning, he asked if I was doing better with the whole situation, and I told him my revelation. Being mad was basically me saying that my plans were better than Gods plans. This is not a position I am comfortable taking. I would rather not be mad than try to be God. And thus, a lesson was learned.

A reminder to myself and my friends in blogworld: I am still a Type-A crazy. That probably won't go away from one lesson. But thank God that he crushed my little head yesterday. I have no idea what position I will receive on Friday. Heck, I may not be going back to grad school after all. But I know it's not my decision. And for that, I am thankful.

Here's to the big decisions being taken care of by the Big Guy.

Beautiful, Scandalous Night

Easter is miraculous. Such a joy. I was over at Beth Moore's blog the other day and her daughter, Melissa, was sharing her favorite Easter memories (that happened to be Palm Sunday). I got to thinking about what exactly my favorite part of Holy week is. Hands down, no question, I LOVE good Friday.

My brother drives me to work on days when Hubby goes to work early. We were on our way Friday and he said, "What is so good about good Friday!? I mean, it's filled with torture and death." True story. There's no way to deny the death and torture part of Christ's death. But to me, remembering the horrendousness of the act only reminds me of its importance. I could have nothing could, could be nothing good, and couldn't share the joy of my God without this awful day. How do you thank someone who was beat with a steel-tipped whip and killed next to criminals, all for you? Only through reverence and love.

As we worshipped with the congregation on Good Friday services, the tears just flowed. My Christ, my Savior was killed. He did it all for me. It's easy for me to think about it in the corporate sense--he did it for the whole world. But for me? That's more difficult. He so loved me that even as I was still a sinner--which is today, tomorrow, and the rest of my earthly life--he died for me. What an amazing God. What an amazing love. I'll never get it right. And I'll never do enough to right my wrongs. But because of the good act on Good Friday, I don't have to get it right. He who knew no sin became sin for me. Wow.

I am thrilled to be able to share Easter with my family. I can't wait to say, "He is risen! Christ the Lord is risen today!" It doesn't get better than the joy of resurrection. Without the death and mourning of our Christ, though, we'd never get to the celebration. And so I sit in the middle, between death and life today, thankful for both.

I love the image of the Smalltown Poet's Song "Beautiful, Scandalous Night." I will be savoring these words until sunrise tomorrow.

At the wonderful, tragic, mysterious tree
On that beautiful, scandalous night you and me
Were atoned by His blood and forever washed white
On that beautiful, scandalous night

May the Lord bless you on this Holy Weekend, no matter where you are in your life.

Here's to forgiveness.

G.P. Are You With Me?

So life has just been moving too fast to blog right now. And really, when life is moving too fast to blog, sometimes things aren't blog-ready to post yet. Nonetheless, I will do better. Promise.

I have felt pretty overwhelmed lately with all of these potential changes in my life, and it's been hard for me to comprehend. I get a little difficult to be around. As much as I want to embrace change, it really freaks the heck out of me. So, you can imagine that I was more than ready to hit up Bible study on Tuesday when the time came. I needed a little refreshment. I got to my table, hugged all my lady friends, and sat down, ready to be engrossed in Beth Moore's latest morsels of God's words. And what do you know? The study this week (through Esther: It's Tough Being A Woman) was about feeling like you are in charge of your world. In fact, it was specfically about how you are NOT in charge of your world. God gets that great responsibility. Ha! It literally brought tears to my eyes. Jeremiah 29:11 sounds so trite when I am in the middle of trying to figure out job/school/living arrangements/ etc. But hearing Beth speak of God's providence and how we just can't weigh ourselves down refreshed me in a way I truly needed. God does have the plans for me. Not to harm me. To give me hope. A future. A-mazing.

Sweet, precious Stellan is fighting hard and doing better Head over to pray if you haven't. He's even been on the news lately!

This weekend should be a little less stressful than usual, so hopefully I will have time to post.

Here's to refreshment.