Busy Bee

Well I haven't been so good about posting lately because I've been Insanely busy with work, the move, and everything else in my life. Audie is still in Raleigh (sigh) but I'm going up there this weekend to pack up all our stuff into the moving truck and get all our stuff to GA!!!! I've been in GA for almost 2 months, so it will be nice to get all our stuff here with me!

We should have all our stuff in our new apartment by Saturday afternoon just in time for me to go to work on Sunday. Our new place is like less than a mile from the church that I work at so I'm excited to not have to get up in time for a long commute anymore. Not that my commute now is that bad, only 20 minutes, but still a one minute drive is better than 20!!

Audie is going to be in GA come August 31st when he's got to pack up all the stuff that we're leaving with him into his car, go to work and then drive to GA. Hopefully he'll be getting a job in GA soon, he's put out feelers and applications at several places, but hasn't had much luck in the job department. So be praying that he gets a job soon!!

Other than work being really busy, so much so that I haven't had time for much of anything else, Not much is going on. After We move in I'll post pictures of our new place, but I'm really excited about being in my own place this weekend, even though it will take us a while to get settled. We are moving into a three bedroom two bath place and i'm excited to have a whole extra bedroom for guests, You can come visit whenever you want, just say the word!!

ok, time to get back to work for the afternoon!

ttfn,

Julia

long but wonderful week

So i know it's been a week since my last post, sorry guys!! I've had a few things going on at work. I'm missing my hubby pretty bad, we've skyped some and that has helped but it still sucks being so far away from him for so long!! I've been working hard on getting stuff ready for work and trying to stay busy on my days off so I don't miss him too much.

This past weekend I went to LaGrange to see my BFF Amber and to go see Harry Potter, oh wow was it amazing!! We had such a good time hanging out all day long and just catching up. Saturday I went to a family reunion with my mom, stepdad, and grandparents. BIG fun!! well i mean i didn't know anyone there and there were lots of strange dishes on the buffet line, but over all it wasn't too bad.

Well I'm starting a new week at work today and got a lot on my plate to do! so hopefully i'll blog some this week, but i'm not counting to much on it.

Tomorrow I'm having dinner with my dad 'cause he's in athens for a training thing with his job so that should be nice and fun.

Other than that I don't have any big plans for this week. I'm hoping to get plenty of rest on my days off and get some stuff done with week at work. we shall see.

toodles,

Julia

two days off

The last few days have been really awesome. I have had them off of work and that's been great! Yesterday a friend of mine and I went apartment hunting. It was a really long day but really fun. I went and saw five different places, out of a list of 11. So 6 didn't make the cut at all. Of the five that i saw only 2 were real possibilities and one was way cheaper than the other one and was right down the street from where I work. So i think it was pretty much a no brainer.

Today I went and found the Target and bought a bag on sale! it's red so it'll match both brown and black outfits and it's big enough to carry my computer to work and back. I also stopped by the new apartment office to get our application in and got the lease agreement all settled. We'll officially move from NC on August 20th!! Audie will stay in NC for another week or two and then come down straight to our new apartment. I'm so excited!! it seems like such a long way away but it is really just around the corner.

Tomorrow I'm going to spend the day with my mom and stepdad! They are coming up here for a horseshoe tournament and my mom wants to see our new place and we'll hang out watching Marcus pitch horseshoes.

that's all for now!

Julia

What a week!

I love that my week is over now!! I only work 3/4 time at the church so I only work Sunday through Wednesday, which means my week is over!! I was super productive on my two day work week, getting everything done on my weeks to-do list and quite a few done on my monthly to-do list. Not bad for my first week. I'm not going to go into crazy detail of everything that I did 'cause that would be super boring, but one crazy thing did happen, i broke my filing cabinet!!!

So I was going through all the stuff that was left behind when my predecessor left and part of that was unlocking the filing cabinet and going through the files that she left. So I open up the bottom drawer, which was super hard to get open and then I couldn't close it!!! I'm not sure why except that it wouldn't close for anything! So i thought maybe i needed to unlock it again or something (not sure why) but I then locked the cabinet and now it won't unlock!!!!! SO now I have a filing cabinet that is unusable because the bottom drawer won't close and the other three won't open!! The facilities director is going to work on it tomorrow and hopefully get it all settled.

Well it definitely added some laughter to my day that's for sure.

Also tomorrow is going to be a super fun day because I'm going apartment hunting!! My good friend Jessica is going to come over and we're going to go look for apartments all over athens. We'll see if we find anything that is worth living in.

Hope you have had a good week too even though yours isn't over yet probably.

Julia

the fourth

So my first weekend in GA was pretty awesome. Saturday we went to the fourth of July festival in my temporary little small town with Audie's cousin and her kids. then we went to Audie's cousin's husband's mom's house (you follow?) for lunch and hanging out. We did peach icecream for desert and it was AWESOME!! then yesterday was my first sunday at my new church.

I went to all three services so that I could be introduced. I did the children's moments at the 11 service and besides my microphone going out i think it went fine. the volunteers were so nice and helpful to me on my first day. After church i went home, got a name after some lunch and then drove to Atlanta to see some of my best friends!! We had dinner together at one friend's house and then walked to the fireworks celebration that her community does. It was hot and sticky, but really fun to see them all again.

after the fireworks and stuff i went to my in-laws that live like just 9 miles away from her and spent the night. Today on the plan is to just hang out and grill a little bit. overall a great weekend plan in my book. Now I just have to figure out what to do this week at work in my two days that I have to go in.

Julia

Big day yesterday

So yesterday was an uber productive but lazy day, i love those!! I mean what is better than getting stuff done, but also not spending all day doing it. I got up yesterday and worked on all the information that I had gotten the day before at work. I was feeling a little overwhelmed by all of the information and I had pages and pages of scatterbrained notes. Not to knock the lady that trained me, but our brains just don't work on the same wavelength in organizational ways. So I took a lot of notes and paid close attention but it was pretty overwhelming to sit there and just get a crash course in the Children's Ministry in one day.

SO yesterday I took the three page long 'job description' which was really a long bulleted list of stuff that you do on a regular basis and I reorganized it so that it made more sense to my brain. I put headings and subheadings, made sure that the bullets matched (very important to me) and shifted things around to make sure that it was in some sense of order. I then went in and added the information I needed to from my notes and rememberings from the day before. It was good to get all that on paper while I was thinking about it.

Next I made a list of all the places that I still need volunteers for. There are still some slots open for Sunday School teachers and volunteer positions for so many other things. My plan was to have small job descriptions on what that person would need to do and the time commitment so that when I'm introduced to people on Sunday and they say, "Let me know if I can help!" I can say, "Wonderful, thanks so much for volunteering, what can I put you down for as a possibility right now!" Hopefully we'll fill those slots right up!

I also made myself a weekly and monthly to-do list. I'm hoping that this will keep me on-track to finish stuff up and get going on stuff. Basically I typed up all the stuff that I have to do every week/month and each week/month I will print it out and add to it what I need to do that week/month as well. Then as I do things I get the reward of crossing it off the list!! I love doing that.

Also done yesterday: Laundry and grocery shopping with my cousin. We went to Trader Joe's, my first time. I'm really excited to go back though! Then we spent the rest of the afternoon/evening hanging out with the cousin's two daughters one of whom is home for the fourth.

OK that was the longest post ever! sorry for the boring details, but i was really productive yesterday as you can see!

Julia

wow

So today is Audie's and My anniversary!! we aren't together so we celebrated Tuesday night by going to bonefish grill and then to see Cars 2. The food was great and the movie was really cute. We haven't been on an actual date in a really long time so it was nice to get to spend time together just the two of us, especially since we have to spend the next two months apart.

Today I also had my first day at my new job! WOW is all I have to say about it, because it was a crazy first day. Good but crazy. I got there around 9:30 and then my predecessor gave me the run through of the job until we broke for about a twenty minute lunch and then we hit the ground again and worked until 4:30. So i have had an exhaustingly full day. Basically she tried to show me everything that she does on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis so that I'm all caught up on what the dealio is when things come around. There was a lot of computer work that I had to learn and I'm still not totally confident that I have all that down, but I'm going to work hard at it. There was also just the schedule of things that has to get done on a regular basis that I'm not sure or not if I'll get it all straight very quickly. Hopefully it will all work out.

Staying with Audie's family has been going pretty well, much better than I anticipated. I hate to admit it now, but I was really worried that we would get on each others nerves and stuff like that, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Who knows they might be hating me, but I don't hate them so far (not that I think I will in the future, but you know what I mean.)

We had really good mexican food for lunch and I talked to both my mom and my grandma today, and i went to the exciting world of walmart to get hangers so i could hang up the rest of my clothes.

So I'm really on a streak about posting, mostly 'cause there isn't much else going on, but we'll see how long it lasts, though now that I've said something I just jinxed it.

TTFN,

Julia

i made it

I made it to GA, I no longer live in NC with my husband, but in GA with his cousin and her family. I made the long drive today and made it just fine. I got pretty much settled in but need some more hangers for my clothes(not that i brought too many or something!!) I probably did that is for sure. But i have everything that i need other than that for now.

This is the beginning of a two month stretch where Audie will still live in Raleigh but I'll live here while he's searching for a new job and I'm beginning my new one. It should suck pretty bad ( it always does when you are apart from your spouse for an extended length of time) but I think I have plenty to occupy my time for now.

K that's pretty much all for now. I have my first day of work with my new job tomorrow and that should be interesting for sure. Basically I'm going to meet my predecessor and go over the job description and all that entails for now.

Julia

back before i go

So we just spent a week in GA with my family! It was so fun to see my mom and aunts and grandparents and everyone else for a few days. I had a meeting with some folks in Macon on Thursday and we got back Friday night. We spent some time with some friends last night and today i'm resting and packing! I'm so ready to get my adventure in GA started this week. I leave for good on Wednesday and I have a lot of packing to do. I'm so excited to have a job and to get started on it. I think I'm going to like it a lot better than what I do at the hospital and I'm ready to live that much closer to my family. I'll only be an hour from my in-laws and 2 1/2 from my family. i'm so exctied!!! I think that i'll get to spend extra time with my family and stuff.

So what is audie doing while I'm going to be in GA?? He'll be in NC looking for a job in GA while i'm working there. For two months we'll be living apart, but it hopefully won't be too bad. He's going to stay in our apartment here while I stay with his cousin. After Sept. 1st he'll move down to GA too. We'll hopefully move most of our stuff down at the end of july and put it in storage for a month.

So that's what's been up with us, not too much but enough time with family to make me happy for a while.

Julia

changes

So in the last few days I've gotten some good news. A cousin of Audie's who lives in our new city is offering to let me stay with her family with very little rent, which is awesome!! I also spoke to my boss at the hospital and i now know what my last day is and when my first day with the new church will be. it will be a quick turn around, but i'm pretty excited about the changes that are happening. I also did my last on-call at the hospital which went really well, but left me drained today. That's really all that's happened really around here.

ttfn,

Julia

Moving Woes

So I'm still reeling from the excitement of my new job offer. I'm still trying to figure out where I'm going to live in my new town. I have to find either a place to sublet or someone to let me stay with them for two months while I work at the church and Audie continues to live in Raleigh. Trying to figure this out has led to quite a few headaches looking at our finances and how little we can spend on this sublet or place. I'll be getting a housing allowance at my new job, but it still won't be enough to pay for two places.

I have figured out that my in-laws would let me live with them for those two months, however they live an hour away from the church, long commute much?? It would be fine to live with them, but a horrible drive. Added pressure to this whole issue is the fact that I need to give two weeks notice to my old job at the hospital, but I'm not sure when I'll start my new job. So i'm working on trying to figure out when I'm going to start and then work on housing during my two weeks. We'll see as the new job wants me to start the first part of july, meaning i have to give my two weeks notice in the next week or so, but am hesitant to give my two weeks notice without having a place to live in Athens.

Added to all of this, I'm off of my job for a whole week the week of the 20th for a pre-planned vacation! Meaning I might wind up not actually working my full two weeks, which means i'm working hard not to be sad that i'm leaving a job that i've had mixed feelings about this whole time.

ok just needed to talk that out a little, and hopefully get some ideas about housing, if you know of anything let me know!!!

Julia

Commissioning and New Job

I got commissioned yesterday at 2 and got offered a job at 4, and I accepted both!!! So excited for this new stage in my journey and hopefully it will be a good one on both fronts. I don't have much to say on the internet about my job, but I interviewed on Saturday and then got offered the job yesterday. I'm going to be a Children's Minister in Athens GA and I'm very excited about it.

Now to figure out living situations and stuff like that. The problem is that Audie will be working in Raleigh still until Sept. 1st. Hopefully by then he'll have a job in the Athens area and can move down there to be with me. But my job starts somewhere in the neighborhood of July 1st. so I'm going to be searching frantically for a place to live in Athens for the next couple of months so that I can work and save some money hopefully for a place to live in Athens.

That's all for now, so excited about all the changes happening in my life, and kind of scared at the same time!!

Julia

slow day

So it's been a slow couple of days that's for sure. but i thought i'd update you all anyway.

This weekend we went and saw bridesmaids the movie. It was pretty funny though really inappropriate at times. We also watched easy a on netflix which was really funny too! Audie started a new job this past week and has enjoyed it but he's on his feet all day long and works odd days which is weird, but he likes it.

I'm still on the job hunt, had a phone interview a week ago and it went well, but i haven't heard anything back yet. Just waiting to hear good things from some church i've applied at soon.

Other than that i've just been working every day and having pretty slow days at work too.

Hope you've got exciting things going on in your neck of the woods, 'cause around here things are SLOW!

Julia

Sorry so long

Sorry it's been so long since my last post. almost a whole month, but what have i done? not much that's for sure. I've just been working and working and working some more. Audie and I went to GA to see some friends and to go to our niece's birthday party. I have made some clothes for both my nieces and have been having fun sewing up a storm.

other than that the biggest news this week is that we're getting rid of cable, sad day. We just can't really afford it right now because our rent just went up by quite a bit. which sucks bad but we'll get over it by using hulu and stuff like that.

Sorry so long since my last post and sorry my life is so boring,

Julia

Finally Friday!!

So what have i been up to in the last week and a half?? Not much except work, work and oh wait, more work. I'm about a 1/2 hour from going home for the weekend and it's driving me crazy that i'm stuck inside when it is so nice outside today.

Not much is going on around here and i'm sorry that i'm so boring! I did hear back from one of the jobs that I interviewed for and I didn't get it. i'm not too disappointed because it was the one of the two jobs that i didn't really want as badly, so hopefully i'll hear back something positive soon from the other job. or another one of the million that i have applied for (at least it seems like a million).

in other news we're doing a march madness bracket at work and i'm in 3rd place after a few games. but only one point separates me from first place so i am doing pretty well. I'm so excited about seeing my games each day and who wins so i can follow what's going on.

ok that's all for now, tgif!!

julia

i passed!!!

I went to GA for two job interviews and my ordination interview and i passed my ordination interview, which is awesome!!! I'm so glad that it is over and that i passed.

The job interviews went well, i'm hoping for good news from them. i liked both churches pretty well and hope for a job to be offered to me. they both were really nice and i appreciated the way that they gave me the opportunity to interview.

That's all i have for now but i wanted to give all you few people that read the good news!

julia

i'm outta here

i'm patiently waiting for noon to get here so that i can leave for my long weekend of fun. I'm interviewing at two chruches this weekend, one on saturday morning and the other sunday night. I'm meeting a friend for dinner on sunday night and getting to see my family a lot!! all of this before the big interview for ordination on Tuesday. I hope i get positive results from that interview for sure.

I gotta get out of here first though. then i gotta go home and pack, get the house cleaned up and ready for audie to stay at home for the weekend by himself. but again time seems to be standing still so that i can't go home!!! it will be ok though because it will happen and i'll get to head home soon enough!

until after this weekend, ttfn.

Julia

when it rains it pours

I got two job interviews in the last few days!! This weekend while I'm at home for my ordination interview i'll be interviewing at two different churches as well.

this makes me really excited and scared too! i'm scared because there is a lot of self doubt about being able to move back home and work full time at a church. i think i can do it and i'm hopeful that it will be fulfilling and something i enjoy, but i'm scared fo that too. But it's a good sign to get interviews at two different places!

Hopefully one will turn into a job for me!!

prayers would be greatly appreciated!!

Julia

thirty minutes

i'm trying to will time to go faster by posting, but i still have 30 minutes until i can go home. I'm still excited about spending the whole day at IKEA tomorrow and have been looking online all week to keep me motivated to stay at work. I'm ready to go and look around and we might even buy a few things, we'll see about that. it's a whole 3 hour trip from home to IKEA but it will be worth the time spent in the car, though i might need to bring a book to read or something.

Other than all that there's not much going on around here. i've been at work all week and so has audie. Next weekend i'll be in GA for my interview so that's exciting/ scary as all get out! Here's hoping that it goes ok though, i'm pretty sure it'll be fine, though i am nervous about the interview.

that's all for now, happy friday everyone!!

Julia

what's getting me through the week:

Audie promised to take me to IKEA this weekend, a whole day in disneyland for adults!!! I'm so excited that not even the most boring day/ week ever can ruin my mood!!

habit

As has become my habit, Friday afternoons are really boring around here at work, though i have a meeting at 3:30 that should help pass the time, and after that i get to go home so that's nice too. So what has been going on you ask? well i heard back from a few jobs that they weren't interested in me (or they hired someone else) and heard back from one that wants to interview me!

I'm about two weeks away from being in GA for my interview. I'm leaving on a Friday night and coming back Tuesday night after my interview. I'm so ready/excited to see my family for the weekend and not have to go to work for two days!!

What's on the plan for this weekend?? not much. I have to do laundry and we're planning a trip to go to BJ's for some fun. We probably won't buy anything or not much (hard to do in the fun store that is Bj's) but i haven't been in a while and want to go look and see what they have changed around recently.

thanks for listening to my boring life,

Julia

Got an interview!!

So i heard the unofficial word a few weeks ago, but I officially heard back from the Board of Ordained Ministry for my conference. And i got an interview!! YAY!! very excited about this, and scared because of how important it is. three 30 minute interviews to make sure that I'm worth being ordained in the conference. I'm hoping so.

Anyway just wanted to share the good news with those of you out there in blog land. Hope you have had a good week too, and have a great weekend!!

Julia

bored at work

so it's finally friday afternoon and it is dragging by!!! Why is it that time stands still when you want it to speed up and speeds up when you want to savor it?? So do we have big plans for this weekend? not really but two days without work is always nice. What have I been up to in the last week? well i've applied for more jobs, 15 in total, one of which i found out has been filled already today, not good. but there are still 14 jobs still out there that are in close proximity to my friends and family that I'm hoping to get one of.

We went and saw the king's speech last weekend, it was wonderful!!! so good that it totally deserved all the oscar nominations that it got! usually i hate oscar movies, because they are so over my head or whatever and this was so good, and funny too. We're hoping to get together with our friends for the superbowl this weekend, but it may not happen.

I've been working all week and it has been a pretty busy week, but not too busy which is nice, mostly just boring work!!

ok that's all i have for now, still another hour and 15 minutes until i can go home, boo!! but hopefully it will go by pretty fast, maybe if i say to myself over and over again how i don't want to go home it will speed up time, kind of reverse psychology on the clock you know. we'll see how well that works out.

Julia

job searching

SO i officially applied for 12 jobs in the last two days. All of them are in GA close to family and friends!!! I've heard back from some of them already, and most of it has been positive, we'll see what happens, but in the mean time, please think good thoughts about my job search!!

Julia

at work

so i'm at work now, not a very stressful day today. i'm hoping to work some on my resume so that soon i can start looking for jobs, eekk!! but i wanted to give ya'll a quick update. first off my glasses came in and they look great!! i was really pleased with how they came out and really really pleased that i only spent 20 bucks on them!!

not much else is going on, we're getting together with some friends of ours this weekend to go see the king's speech, we'll see if it's any good. i'm hoping that it will be.

Other than that there is not much going on around here!! sorry my blog is so boring all the time, maybe as i apply for jobs it will get better!

Julia

new contacts and glasses!

So about two weeks ago i went to the eye doctor for the first time in a long time! i wear contacts 99% of the time and NEVER wear my glasses (which are from about 3 or 4 prescriptions ago anyway) even though i like the way they look a lot. So when i went to the dr. I ordered 110 bucks worth of contacts (ouch!!) on top of the cost of the visit which was like 69 dollars. So i decided not to get glasses because they would add to my cost as well as never get used.

WELL that was before i found out about Zenni Optical. It's an online store with really cheap glasses. you just get your prescription from your dr. and then find some frames you like online and plug in your prescription when you check out. My grand total for normal glasses, though they have all kinds, was only 20 dollars!!! so exciting!!! I'm hoping that i like them a lot, but if i don't it's only 20 dollars down the drain, not too bad. Maybe I'll like them enough to wear my glasses at least sometimes. we'll see.

just passing along my deal finding skills, and a special thanks to Clark Howard for the tip, he's the real expert!!

Julia

thanks to my new faster internet!!

I can now blog at work!! I don't actually have much to say except for that i can now give small updates throughout the day if i could talk about work, which i can't. ANyway, hope you're having a great friday. I know i am!! I'm looking forward to this weekend, not because we're going or doing anything special, but it's the first weekend that i have had in a while to not worry about commissioning paperwork!

what are my plans for the weekend you ask? Not much, really just clean our whole house because next weekend my mom and stepdad are coming! they are going to bring us a new couch, well new to us.

well that's all for now,

have a great Friday!

Julia

yay!

So we've been having some IT issues at work, our computer crashed in our office and i've been on the phone with IT like three days in a row. but that's ok because usually we use our laptops for our work. BUT our internet connection at work is awful. well while i was on the phone with IT i mentioned our slow internet and the guy told me that there actually were two internet connections for the hospital and we were all using the wrong one!!! it is really nice having a quick internet connection at work!!!

that's the excitement for today, it doesn't take much to make my day exciting i guess.

julia

250!!

Two hundred and fifty posts! yay for me, also a celebration is in order because i sent off my commissioning papers!!!! audie and i are going out tonight to celebrate too, which is really exciting!!

that's all the update for now, but say a prayer of thanksgiving and hope for my papers please. Three months of work over and done with and now i just have to think and worry about interviews in March!

Julia