A month! A month has come and gone so quickly. The leader of the small group I joined commented on my last entry and it spurred me forward into the blogging world once again. Thanks for that Julie.
Well, after 5 interviews with Verizon and a number of calls and emails in between, I was hired. Quite a thorough process. Dave was also hired, and we start 7 or 9 weeks of classroom-style training on Feb 23. Got a few weeks more to burn, but for me at least, they'll go right by. I'm excited to start with Verizon, and am hopeful that I come to appreciate their company and be appreciated as well. It would be nice to stick with the same corporate family for a while. That just hasn't seemed to work out for me yet, and I'm not one to settle into a job that makes me unhappy or fails to challenge me. But one of these days, it WILL work out! And while I have no intentions of being in the customer service center for any longer than it takes to move up, I'll be fine for now. Being able to carpool with Dave will be great. I just hope our cubicles aren't next door to each other... we need SOME time away during our day. :)
So yes, I joined a small group through my church, and actually, it's a women's group. The idea of joining a women's group was truthfully daunting enough that I decided to go for it based on my discomfort. I need community up here, and I've generally felt myself a bit of an alien in all-female settings, so it's the perfect chance for God to give me some new friends and help me grow a bit. Wouldn't it be great for me to make one or two really close girlfriends through this? It's not that I'm opposed to the idea, and in fact, I would really like to find a kindred spirit (someone like Kearah or Ally, only hundreds/thousands of miles closer). It's just never the way it goes... Maggie and the guys. I love sports, playing around, being sarcastic and quick-on-my-feet witty. I like quoting The Office and Zoolander as often as the opportunity presents itself. I guess I'm just... not girly. Which is strange, because I enjoy some female-stereotyped things like cooking, baking, Pintrest, crafts, kitties... but ok, before I start getting too far into the inner workings of my mind (scary) I'll leave it at, "I digress". The group is studying prayer, and the homework each day is really helping me dig into the Word. I started a journal for it and found that it was a productive way for me to get my thoughts out. More to come..
Ahh, now Financial Peace University... that is what I'm REALLY high on these days. Dave and I are taking it together as it's being offered through the church we're going to and it has been so fantastic. Both he and I are in comfortable situations, which makes it even more fun as we're coming into it with a mindset of smartening up and preparing for the future, not so much a panic of needing to dig ourselves out financial holes that we've dug. I could talk about this course for a long time, and I'm only in week 2 of it. So far I've mapped out and put into partial motion 4 separate designations for my money (checking/expenses, student loans, retirement, emergency fund) and created a fairly accurate monthly budget for myself. My first and most immediate goal is to get rid of my debt... ugh, if I could only do college over again. I would have taken that full ride to UMO. Seriously, it's so silly to be paying off a degree that I'm not even using. AGH!!!!! And if I start soon with my retirement Roth IRA plan, and let it gain momentum, I will be in great shape come retirement. Just by adding $2k or $3k every year. I'm so pumped on the whole compound interest concept. Oh, and I am even MORESO excited about my monthly budget's allotment for giving. Compared to many people it's not much, I'm sure, but it sure feels great to me. I'm so psyched to feel empowered (all of a sudden- and all due to being able to see just how much money I really CAN devote to giving away) and to have this drive. To have Dave alongside me learning as well. To have a chance to participate i this program! And finally to pass it along to others.
What a time of blessing I'm in. I'm up here on a lake in the middle of the woods, sharing a home with someone I love and who loves me (by serving me and by respecting my boundaries! what a man), living in a house that has so much sentimental meaning to me for $50/month (Dave pays the other half of our "rent"), employed, near my Grandma... and it doesn't stop there. For whatever reason, I've been able to plug right in up here. I've moved around a lot in the last few years, and I've always attributed my struggle to find a small group or connect on a deep level with my friends to that fact. But it hasn't been all due to that. Now, though, I've got a church and a small group and another "extra curricular activity" all within one same community. I don't know what it is, but I'm thankful for it.
Movie time with the boy... before I leave I want to point you all in the direction of a fantastic recipe that we tried a week or two ago:
http://www.skinnytaste.com/2011/03/coconut-chicken-salad-with-warm-honey.html
I found this one on Pintrest (my Pintrest time per day has decreased lately... which is a good thing) and we loved it. MMMM. We made lots of small 3-bite-sized pieces and had leftovers for a couple days. Gonna do this again in the next week I'm thinking... also, yellow curry chicken and cashew stirfry again soon. I don't believe that it's one of his favorites but I sneak it in there every couple of weeks :)
Night!
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
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