Sing it Out

First, I love the Sing Off. A Capella groups are uh-mazing and I love the judges.  Ben Folds' awkward geniusness cracks me up.  But that's not the point of this post.  This is:

I LOVE SINGING TO THE RADIO! 

I know I got this trait from my mother although she doesn't even have to have a radio to sing.  Or a real song. I grew up to her singing loudly around the house whatever she felt like - good thing she has a beautiful voice!

(Love you, Mom!)  

I have had the most splendid drives home lately.  I roll down all the windows in the Jeep, crank the radio, zone off into my own world and just sing as loud as I want.  I know the people around me can see and even hear me but I don't even care anymore.  I also find myself humming to my headphones at work and I've almost started singing there, too.  I best be careful to prevent that awkward moment when I accidentally bust into "You and I" by Lady Gaga (which, by the way, is one of my current favorites) for all the office to hear.  

I'm coming home...

"I'm coming home,

I'm coming home,

Tell the world I'm coming home"

Okay, well, that's song's about death but that's what came to my head as I was writing this.

But we really are coming home to Nebraska (next weekend for a wedding) and....

for Ryan's second clinical! YAY! 

We'll be home for the holidays which is exactly what we wanted. 

To clarify, here is what our 2012 is looking like:

Mid July: Ryan finishes with his coursework at Duke 

End of July: We pack everything up and move it to Omaha where it will be stored.

End o' July - October: We fly to Alaska and live out of suitcases and rentals.

October - January: We return to Omaha for here's hoping a mild winter

January - April: Clinical #3 (California, AZ, or somewhere else out west)

April-May: Back to NC for a few wrap-up weeks

May: GRADUATION!!!

May and on... ???

Might as well make life an adventure while we're still young, right??

Twins!

No, I'm not pregnant with twins. But I wouldn't mind having twins if they were this adorable!

A Wonderful Weekend!

Ryan and I seriously had one of the best weekends we've had together.  Overall we've both just been really happy lately.  I think it's because I got my hair cut but it could also be the weight lifted of now having a job, or the beautiful weather we have been having.  Either way, it was splendid.

Thursday night we went out for Sushi with some couples from church as a going-away for a few of them who are leaving us.

Friday night we went to see the new movie Warrior.  I was surprised to hear a lot of people didn't know anything about this movie until I realized our TV lives on ESPN and we are definitely the targeted audience for this movie.  Ryan's a lucky man to have a wife as the one who chose to go see a sports move (and MMA at that).  It was so good! As Ryan puts it - he was emotionally drained when it was done.  You should definitely go check it out.

Saturday was packed full of goodness.  We were first able to sleep in which we both needed.  Then we used a groupon and went kayaking on the Eno River just 20 minutes away.  I'd never been and thank goodness it was all flat water.

The weather was perfect and North Carolina really is just so green and beautiful.  

There were tons of turtles and no snakes which is perfect for me.

I love him :)

Have any of you ever had New Orleans Shaved Ice?  There is a stand in town that says they are N.O. Style and I've never had the "authentic" straight from N.O. but all I know is that this stuff is AMAZING.  Yes, Brianna, it's almost as good as the stuff we had in Hawaii if not better!!

As we were driving away we saw this peaking from behind a building.  We did some spying and we still cannot figure out what it is!  The symbol (as seen on the gate) was on the flag and also the window of the one car parked in the lot.  That was the only indication of what it might be.  Does anyone recognize it?  There were no signs or anything telling us what it is! Well, there were signs saying it was under 24 hr. surveillance...

Our day was still far from over.  We went home, hopped on the motorcycle and went to the Duke vs. Stanford football game (or at least 3/4 of it).  We knew we wouldn't win but Ryan wanted to see Andrew Luck play.  Ryan then about had a nervous breakdown watching the Huskers battling to beat Fresno State.  Luckily we had the good company of our friend Ross and my buffalo chicken dip which always makes him happy. 

Sunday after church we were able to go to the Duke Chapel for a 9/11 memorial.  After a few brief words from local figures the choir sang the entire Mozart Requiem.  Ryan had no idea that was coming and while it's not his cup of tea, I really enjoyed it!  And I think he didn't mind what he stayed awake for.

And like, our hurricane weekend, our night ended with two games of Ticket to Ride with Mitch and Maile.  We are definitely going to miss them.

I hope all of you are enjoying the fall weather wherever you are!!

Hurricane Irene

So we survived the hurricane.

Like Ryan does best he slept through most of it.

Although there really wasn't much to sleep through.  We are about 3 hours inland and all we got was some rain and some wind.  Most of it occurred overnight and we never even saw it.  I wondered how the forest was going to fare but it actually created a little shelter from the wind.  When we were walking the trails we could barely feel any wind at all.  All it did was break off a few measly branches.

 To protect the pool furniture from blowing away they stacked it and dumped it in the pool! It worked, I guess.

Our power went off for about 2 hours and to pass the time we started playing Ticket To Ride with Mitch and Maile.  They got hooked and we played 4 games, ordered pizza, and spent a total of 7 hours on their porch.  I love having neighbors. :)

We actually had worse weather yesterday than we had with the hurricane.  There were two different times at work that I got the "Weather Emergency" text message and we were required to go to the basement for tornado warnings.  So far this year NC has had tornadoes (on multiple occasions), a hurricane and an earthquake! I don't see this state surviving the storms of the second coming...

A house divided

That's right.  

We're one-part UNC and one-part Duke.  

One half makes the money and the other half takes the money.

For any of you who may have been curious about my job situation - here's my story. The WHOLE story.

By this time last year I  graduated with a Master's Degree in Architectural Engineering, got married, moved to Durham NC, and played all summer long with Ryan until he began school in mid-August.  It was then that I began my hunt for a big-kid job.   There was one problem.  I had a degree in a field in which I really didn't want to work.  I discovered this just over halfway through my education but when school is free you graduate and figure it out afterwards.  I was told I could get any job I wanted with a Master's in engineering.  So here I was trying to figure out what to do.  I knew I didn't want to be an engineer - that's boring.  I thought a good compromise would be a project engineer/project manager at a construction firm.  They get to be in the field a lot and deal more with people than numbers.  So I started looking and there weren't many options.  I had to "cold call" companies.  I looked up every single company I could find but NO ONE was hiring.  I had two official interviews and a whole lot of unreturned calls.  That was the worst.  I then got angry at these companies and had even less of a desire to work for them if they wouldn't even call me back.

I WAS MISERABLE.

I spent my days crying as I looked through pages and pages of job listings online.  I started applying for anything I could find.  I wrote countless cover letters and revamped my resume tailoring it to each job.  But no one cared.  Still no one called and I was getting truly depressed.  Finally it was time to just work SOMEWHERE.  I was only going to get worse cooped up in the house all day.  I got in the car and drove to the retail areas near my house and started filling out applications.  I took the first job I was offered - at a craft store called A.C. Moore.  It paid squat but it was a job.  After the holidays, instead of cutting my hours like they did with most employees, they offered me a management position.  It still paid crap but it was more hours and we needed money.  So I took it.

I wasn't AS miserable anymore.

I was glad to be working, but retail hours suck.  I had to work nights and weekends (including Sundays which I have NEVER worked in my life).  I was missing out on time with Ryan and friends.  And I couldn't help but think about the money I could be making if I were working a "real job."  Once a month when my hormones were out of whack I would have my night where I would lay in bed and sob.  I felt worthless. But then all would be well the next morning! Aren't hormones AWESOME?  I didn't know what to do but I knew it was time to look for something else.  We were praying and fasting that something would come up - and it did!  

I received an email from a woman at church saying that she was looking for a part-time assistant.  Taunja, my savior, works in the Gift Planning department at UNC.  This is the department that deals with all the people that leave their estate or property to UNC or put UNC in their will.  When I read the email I knew that job was for me.  I felt it in my gut!!  It took about 6 weeks or so for everything to go through and the first week of June I got a call to see if I could come start.  FINALLY.

My work for the Gift Planning is a lot of computer and admin stuff. - creating reports for departments of who has given gifts, formatting excel and word documents, filing papers, etc.  But I don't care, I'm good at that!  I even get the opportunity to work on some marketing postcards, which I LOVE to do.  Two weeks ago I had the week off because work was slow and Ryan had a week off from school, too.  But I got an email from Taunja saying that another department will be contacting me to see if I want extra hours.  Allison called me that day offering me 10 hours that week that COULD potentially lead to full time.  Although, she wasn't so sure when I told her I'm leaving in a year.  Not wanting to pass up the chance, however, I showed up for work the next day only to find out she wanted me to work an extra 10 hours EVERY week.  What a blessing! And the blessings kept on coming.

I LOVE my new job.

So I'm actually working for two Elizabeth's now.  Elizabeth 1 or EA is my Gift Planning boss.  Elizabeth 2 or ED is EA's boss - the Senior Associate Vice Chancellor of University Development (whatever that means).  I just know she's a big deal.  She is having me do a lot of online research to prepare for some of her big upcoming projects.  The university is gearing up for a fundraising campaign which usually lasts 5-10 years and we will probably have a goal of $3 BILLION or more!  The numbers I deal with at this job are mind-blowing.  So remember how I said the blessing keep coming?  Well I found out this week that ED does have the funds to pay me full-time.  I was SO EXCITED!!

I know this job is still new, but I have really enjoyed it so far.  I am learning so much and I'm doing things that I'm good at!  I had no idea what the Lord was doing when he wasn't giving me a job and then put me at A.C. Moore but I really am happy here at UNC.  I've always been jealous of people who have passion for their job.  I definitely didn't feel it in engineering and I don't know if I'm feeling it yet, but I am HAPPY. 

I cannot thank Heavenly Father ENOUGH for finally giving my life some sort of order.  This trial was especially difficult for me because it was the first time in my life I didn't get what I wanted when I wanted it.  Up until now, if I set my mind to something and put in the effort, I got it.  

I guess it was time for me to learn patience. :)

The hardest part about this past year and looking at the next two years is that without a career or a family (aka a baby) I don't feel like I have a purpose.  I'm just living.  I was working at a job just to work but it wasn't benefiting me at all.  And it scared me that my life would be like this until we moved out of Durham next year.  And then it would continue that way as we moved around the country for Ryan's clinicals.  I would just exist.  At least now I feel like I am accomplishing something at work and I am growing from it, too.  I guess now that I have a job I can wait to have a baby!

So there you have it - how I've really felt the past year.  

And if you made it through all of this blabbing, you're a champ!!

Chop, Chop, Chop!

Ryan and I made a quick decision on Sunday that it was time to cut my hair.  So before either of us could back out - I did it! And I loooooooove it!!! It's just "me."  I feel like I have so much more personality when my hair is short and sassy.  Don't you? :)