Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Long overdue update

It's been a few weeks since I last wrote in here. So much has gone on, and I've honestly just been lazy about writing everything down here.  

As you've probably caught onto, I've been participating in a job hunt... it's kind of like an Easter Egg hunt, but way harder.  I'm glad it's not really an egg hunt, because then I'd have no clue and no say in what job I got, but it would still be easier.  Any way, the past month has been filled with job interviews, phone calls, questions, emails, lots of traveling -which by the way, Petey (the car) went over 68,000 miles on Sunday... if you recall, it went over 65,000 on September 13 <-- just a little over two months ago!  [ check out the video by clicking here ] To celebrate Petey's victory, I recorded it!  Can anyone guess what musical soundtrack is playing in this one?

Anyway, back to the story... the past month has been filled with plenty of things to keep me busy.  And to keep me dependent on God.  A job is a big thing.  I mean, it's not just a job; we're talking about my career here.  It's not the job I get to just pay for gas in my car or for college, it's going to be supporting me for the rest of my life.  I know that this job may not be the one I stay at for life, but in all honesty I hope it is.  But even if it isn't, it is still setting the foundation for my career.
I feel like this describes my thoughts on the job hunt...
Not exactly something you want to go into without consulting Him first, right?  I prayed for guidance and direction on the job decision [quick input, I was given two job offers on the same day, with a 2 week deadline to decide].  I asked for discernment as to where I should go/be [one was in Ohio, the other in Colorado].  This prayer often leads to some kind of hint as to where He's trying to get me to lean.  At first I didn't quite figure anything out.  Meaning both offers were similar minus the location.  Not much to go on there.  But after consulting a ton of people, spending time in the word [funny story to tell you about that one when I'm done], researching, writing pros and cons list in the shower [loving my crayons by the way, haha], and just sitting still, I finally accepted an offer last Wednesday.

I.Q.
Wahoo!  (p.s I love the movie I.Q.)



What an exhilarating moment, saying that "I formally accept your offer" over the phone, running downstairs and telling everyone(because I was home home at that time, the day before Thanksgiving), and just feeling peace about it was so cool!

<--That's how I felt, like Einstein on a motorcycle yelling "Wahoo" (you should watch the movie I.Q. It's great!)

God is good, and I know He's up to some pretty cool stuff.  I just can't wait to see what it is.  But until then, I have quite a few recaps to tell you about:


1. Funny story I mentioned earlier. :

I had been praying for discernment when Brandy told me to read the Bible, because sometimes God speaks through his word.  So, not being one to turn down advice, I did.  I've been reading the Old Testament for most of the year and at the time, I was in Judges.

[[Little bit of background, Judges is a time where Israel kept turning from God.  After a while, they would realize their mistake (we're talking sometime 40 years before they'd realize) and then they would cry out to God and He'd send someone to save them all [kind of sounds familiar... hmm]. The time of the Judges was pretty brutal, violent, and gruesome.  The book starts out with an entire army losing their thumbs and big toes to keep them from fighting.  It's a gross book in all honesty, but definitely an interesting read]]

When I went to read that morning per Brandy's advice, I started in Judges 20. After finishing the book of Judges (chapters 20-21), I let Brandy know that I didn't think God had anything to say regarding my job hunt that morning. It is definitely one of the more gruesome passages, ending with someone being chopped up into pieces... which in the end puts the point across to Israel that they have some major issues going on and they need to wake up!

2. Henry - our dog

Sometime in the past two weeks, I have managed to take a few power naps on our really comfy couch in our living room.  They've been enjoyable, catching up on the tv shows I DVR (aka Grey's Anatomy or currently Once Upon a Time).  After one nap, I woke up to find Henry sleeping on my head.  I guess it was comfortable up there.  I thought I'd share a picture with you:
Henry-man decided sleeping on my head was the most comfortable place to be
3. Staff Ride - Helmets required :)

Two weeks ago, a friend of mine (Rachel) picked me up and we headed down to Marmon to trail guide for the day.  When we got there, we realized there were 2 others there from our summer staff, so Jane decided we should all go on a staff ride - meaning a ride where we actually go to interesting places that you can't take public riders to... It was so much fun!  I miss being down there.  It's so cool to be surrounded by fellow believers who get what's going on in your life.  I've been so blessed by the people I met and worked with, and I continue to be!

We ended up spending the night and having breakfast at the Farm (totally unintended, I blame the washing machines, haha). It was great catching up with friends!

We had a blast on our staff ride!  (no laughing at the helmets, we forgot ours and had to borrow some)

4. Baking

I love baking!  The month of November marked the month of me trying many different recipes to figure out what I wanted to make for Christmas.  These treats were definitely my favorite: [ check out the recipe here ]
Don't these look delicious!  Bite sized s'mores
5. Horse Show #2

Yep, we had another horse show, and I actually remember my camera this time!  It was my first canter show, so naturally, I was terrified <-- I don't think that's actually true. I was pretty okay with it.  After all, I had just spent the entire week focused on the job search, how much harder could riding a horse be?  Anyway, it was a good day. I got 6th out of 7 and 3rd out of 4, not too terribly bad for my first canter show.

It was a fun filled day where we got to see an old friend ride and Lauren pointed up to the next class too! 
Putting on chaps is way more complicated than one would think

Concentrating really hard

That's my "that could have gone better" face

We were "twins" - according to Lauren
6.  Hard Tack Candy

Every year (for the past 4 years) I have made candy with some wonderful people.  This year there were only 4 of us (technically 5 towards the end of the day) and we made a grand total of 64.5 lbs of hard tack.

It makes for a long day (we leave at 7:15, pots start boiling around 8:30, first batch goes on the slab at 9, we left at 5 = a lot of work).  It may be long, but it's so much fun, especially when you add in lots of candy, good food, an OSU vs. Michigan game (with fans from both sides in the house). All in all, I'd say it was a good day.  Check out some pics:
64.5 lbs of hardtack!
 We did have some issues though.  4 people + 4 pans of boiling sugar + 1 marble slab + 4 pairs of scissors + 3 marble slabs = disaster at some point.  We ended up throwing half of a batch away (it was cloves, so it wasn't that big of a loss), but man did it make a mess (not to mention the putrid color it was at first).


 The start of disaster for this batch of hardtack


It ended up in the sink... but it looks like a pretty vase
Not only did we mess up that batch, but the pans started to boil over when we were working on other things.  It made quite the mess on the stove...

We kinda made a mess...
All in all, it's been a great two weeks.  It felt like they went on forever, but at the same time, so quick!  It was nice to be home, spending time with family, spending time with friends, bowling, four wheeling, getting muddy, having lunch with the Hoovers <-- gotta love that!  I can't believe there are only 2 1/2 weeks left of this semester, and then I'm one away from graduating!

I hope that you all had a great two weeks, and I'm looking forward to updating you on Country Christmas later on [if you have a moment, check out Marmon's website: http://www.marmonvalley.org to learn more about Country Christmas, it's a great event to take your kids to!!!  I'll be working there this weekend!]

P.S. About the job thing, if you're curious, please feel free to email me about it, because I can't really say much about it here as far as details go. 

God Bless!!! 

No comments:

Post a Comment

I would love to hear your thoughts...

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...