new beginnings

today starts the beginning of many new things. i officially began my new job up in the student success center with promotions and introducing ourselves to the incoming students along with our first staff meeting. i will be a student assistant/tutor working around 10 hours a week in there. being with a brand new department is both exciting and difficult at the same time. we are starting from scratch and since i like structure so much, it's stretching for me. this week also starts classes, the end of my time at banana republic and i'm figuring out how i am going to balance my time with being married, working two jobs (i will also nanny three afternoons a week), taking correspondence classes and having a social life. it's a bit overwhelming at the moment, but i know that God will take care of me and help me get through it all one day at a time. but, the most exciting news of the day is that nick has the job at 3M! afer waiting forever to find out. this means a change in his schedule where he will be home for dinners finally (i'm really pumped about that) and double his current salary! we will also have to go car shopping in the next two weeks because we will both be driving to work now. there is just so much taking place it's a bit crazy right now, but soon enough it will settle down and life will be somewhat normal...i hope.

memories

over the past few days i've been reading my journals from middle school and high school that i brought back with me from my parent's house. they have been so funny to me. the middle school one was full of boy drama and my hundreds of crushes that were new every other day. and high school was a time of reflection, dreaming and planning, and building friendships. i also "learned" from reading them, i'm glad i've kept records of how i was feeling and what i was going through. hopefully i can look at them when my kids are that age and better understand what they may be feeling. even before then i may end up teaching middle school and could use it then! one of the things i repeated alot in them was that i just wanted someone to talk to, to confide in and trust completely. i had the Lord and i had my journal, but i needed a person to look up to, be a role model and teach me life lessons. i'm so glad mentoring is really pushed these days. i think that was what i was longing for. someone that wasn't my parent that i could learn from. i was always so intimidated by adults. it took me until this year to fully get over that. i hope i can be a role model/mentor for someone someday and that my kids are able to confide and share their thoughts with me too.

isn't she a sweetie? 

how could i forget?

after eating that amazing dinner last night, all the other events of the day slipped my mind. i wanted to write about the man on the street... i had worked a five hour shift at banana and then worked for todd in the tutoring center leaving for home at 6:00. i was carrying an armload of mail from my school mailbox, was exhausted, starving and really really had to pee. i was right in front of my door with my key out when a man approached me and said he had a question for me. i knew it was for money and i prepared myself to give the response that i didn't have any when he caught me off guard asking, "do you know where you're going to spend eternity?" i smiled and gave him an enthusiastic "yes". he wanted to know how i knew that and i explained to him i have a personal relationship with Christ. he continued with questions asking if i had ever witnessed to a complete stranger (yes) and if i had fellowship in my life (yes). he told me about a few services at local churches and i thought that's really all he "wanted from me". but no... he wanted my email address to give me info on the services. that was pretty safe i thought, until he asked if he could call me!! NO! what kind of person gives their number to a complete stranger? i mean he's a brother in Christ, but still...come on! while he's digging for paper and pen, he's looking to find something "wrong" with me. he keeps looking up to the sky searching for a new question each time. he tells me my magazines were trashy with "scantily clad women" (no lie, those were his words) and he had no desire to read them now that he was a believer. (i'm glad you don't read girly magazines mister!) he then asks me if i'm "having sex" woah! but i laughed and said, "i'm married, so yes". it doesn't stop there! he wanted to know about my husband, did he believe in fellowship and witnessing? (yes, his parents are missionaries) that answer wasn't good enough for him...he wanted to make sure nick believed, not just his parents! i think eventually he realized my life with Christ is ok, or maybe just gave up. i had started the conversation excited that someone was out witnessing and hoped to talk to him about it or share something about our faith. by the end i wanted to run away because he kept trying to find something wrong with me. and had never encouraged me. things like that frustrate me because they turn people away from wanting to follow Christ. yes, i believe in street witnessing, but trying to find imperfections in people while doing it isn't right. i love how we used to do it, saying we were just sharing the love of Christ with them, asked them if there was anything we could pray about etc. not trying to bring out their faults. accountability needs to happen once you have a relationship with that person and they can take it. not to mention having a guy approach me while i'm alone wasn't the smartest thing, if it was a woman, perhaps it wouldn't have creeped me out so much that he asked for my number. hmmm... so there it is, the "highlight" of my day yesterday (until that great food came along).

my plate runneth over

tonight i discovered a great little place to have dinner - in my apartment complex! i was considering eating a tortilla shell for dinner since we have nothing to eat and i had just gotten in from work at 6:15 completly starving. i went down to our corner store to either buy bread or see if they had a frozen dinner section and found they had two guys in the back making food! i was about to buy a hamburger when i noticed the specials. i got a gyro, hummus and tabuli for the same price! not to mention i was trying new things. i had fun talking to the guy and allowing him to pick out my sauces. and boy was it a ton of food! i was stuffed and barely touched my tabuli. i'm sure i'll be back to try out something else, maybe i'll tell him im greek and he'll cut me a deal :)

return to "minneanapolis"

such a short trip to winchester, don't know how much i like the quick weekend visit. however, it did give me just enough time there and i hadn't started to get bored or annoyed with the folks like usual. for some reason this visit opened my eyes to how "small town" winchester is, even though when i left it had 60,000 people in it, everyone is connected in some way. i can think of several examples of how people find out they're related to each other, or how we know so many people who own buisnesses in town. i definitly know i need to live in a city. you can go shopping without seeing anyone you know, there are a variety of places to go and you are constantly finding new areas to explore. i love it, i wouldn't trade it for the world. it was funny to listen to accents again too. each time i am amazed at how southern everyone sounds. when i was living there i never noticed, it was the people an hour south of me i thought sounded funny! (i love the twang, nick on the other hand...) we had quite a few folks ask us how "minneanapolis" was :) gotta love it! speaking of nick, he has a call back for the 3M inside sales position! he takes an assessment test and has another interview thursday! i'm so proud of him and we're really praying this works out. i loved having him home with me, i loved to watch him talk to the family friends i have known forever even when i know he hates meeting new people. i think everyone really liked him, and that thrills me! i wish some of the girls from high school would have stopped by, it was all adults - some of which i had never even met! it would have been nice to catch up with them face to face. oh well...christmas i suppose. well that's enough for today...i'm sure i have more to tell, but i like to keep the entries short so you're not overwhelmed reading them. please leave comments, i like to know that people are actually reading this!

leavin on a jet plane...

i'm headed home in a few days. it doesn't feel like i'm really going though. no holiday, special event etc. just to visit. well, there will be the open house on sunday, i guess that counts as a special event. :) i guess the fact that it's only for four days (two of which will be half days because of traveling) i know it wil go by so fast. it's the shortest visit i've ever made since my freshman year for thanksgiving - we drove for that one (never again for a quick stop). i wonder if things will "feel different" when i'm back as a married woman. for one thing i won't be sleeping in my old bed for the first time, i'll be in my brothers room - with my husband. i know that will be different. i can't belive i'm saying this, but i'm going to miss kioko when i'm gone. i feel bad that she'll be here all alone. she really is spoiled because she's hardly here by herself with me rarely working and nick and i having opposite schedules. but i know paolo and chrissy will take good care of her. it's nice having neighboors that are your friends.

that's my baby

Friday was an exciting day for nick and i...he had an interview with 3m (the post-it notes people) for an inside sales position. he has a friend who works there and has been waiting for this job to open forever. when he went in for the interview he said it was unlike any he had ever gone to. they didn't ask about his schooling, what his strengths and weaknesses were, what experience he had that would be beneficial etc. that he had been expecting. he said he felt like he was already working there and just getting to know the guys in a way. they talked about the position and the company, what the job would be like etc. we don't know if that's a good sign or not. we are both confused by it. wouldn't you be? he's interviewed there before for another job, and that was normal. hmmmm. anyway, we're really hoping he gets this job for several reasons. 1. he would be happy. nick likes the people he works with, but he's definitely done with the hotel business he's graduated and it's time to look forward to going to work in the mornings 2. it would be double what he makes right now! we could pay off our wedding debt and live with a few more luxuries. (like pictures on our wall and a new car to name a few). we don't want to get our hopes up too high, however, this interview did come when we had finally accepted the jobs we currently have and were just thankful to have a home with enough money and each other. we will know what happens in two weeks...until then we'll wait in suspense.

crazy cat lady

before nick and i bought a cat, i was warned by my friend cory that newly married couples talk about their pets like it's their child telling of the new and exciting things they were doing. i promised that would never happen. i believe my words were, "geez, it's just a cat". well...i may have to take that back especialy since i got teary eyed for the first time ever when a pet cat died in a book i'm reading. so, if you're with cory on this one, or you think people who talk to their animals are insane, you might want to skip this entry in the blog... kioko needed a few more shots since she's just a kitten and she also had a cold, so we searched for a vet to take her to. we ended up at banfield in petsmart which i was very impressed with. it's so clean compared to the creepy place we took my animals as a kid. anyway, long story short we put her on a "wellness plan" which is a bit like health insurance, we get "preventative care" at a discounted price. funny thing is, nick and i don't even have insurance and this little creature of ours does! i never thought i'd want to take such good care of an animal in my life! i even let her sleep in bed with us since her shoulder was sore from the shot and she was whining. geez, what is happening to me? although i suppose it could be good practice for when i have a kid all this taking care of her and stuff (we came home with ear cleaner, instructions to trim her nails, brush her teeth, demorming medicine and an antibodic) however, our children will never sleep in bed with us. so there you have it, i'm turning into a crazy cat lady. maybe. those types would have 47 cats living under one roof , the house would smell like urine and if you breathe in while visiting you'd get a hair ball. i promise i'll never go that far. and unlike my promise to cory, this one i can keep!