Life Update

I never crafted an entire blog post to make the announcement, because I think it's miserable to find out major news from someone via Blogger or Facebook, but I think that most of my friends and family know by now that I moved from Indiana to New Hampshire at the beginning of September. (My apologies to those who did find out via Facebook! I tried to e-mail and call people where I could, but it all happened rather quickly.) I'm not aiming for literary genius or for wit and humor in this post, but here are few excerpts from my life since September 5!

Week One

• A bunch of kind people helped unload my boxes and furniture from the van . . . thanks  to my family, several Adamses, Diane, Bobby, Aaron, and more!
• After the van was unloaded, we went to Kimball Farms, the local good ice cream hangout. Chef Grose had given me money to treat my family, and that was a nice way to thank them for all of their help with the move.
• Spent most of the week settling in to my apartment in the "Main House" at Fairwood Bible Institute, where my parents live and work. The apartment is on the second floor of a big old farmhouse. It has a bedroom, living room, bathroom, half-bath that has been converted into a kitchenette, and a large screened in port with a gorgeous mountain view (and a hammock)!
• When I wasn't unpacking and settling in, I was writing thank you notes to people for notes and gifts they had given me before I left Indianapolis.
• Enjoyed catching up with Uncle Bob and Aunt Joy when they came over to my family's home for dinner.
• Went to Starbucks for the last "heart group" (small group) meeting of the summer, to celebrate Sarah A.'s 24th birthday.
• Had two job interviews--one with Court Appointed Special Advocates for Children (CASA) of NH and one with the Phoenix House Academy here in Dublin. Both went fine. I know that I didn't get the CASA job, and the Phoenix House Academy was looking for someone who could work regular Saturdays, which I wasn't keen on doing.
• Had a nice, quiet birthday at home with my family. Mom made a smashing Saturday breakfast and a scrumptious lasagna dinner (with lemon meringue pie for dessert--what else?), and Chad drove over to join us for dinner and for the evening.

Week Two

• Started staying in my "new" apartment on Sunday.
• Started my official job as Main House security person. :-) This simply means that I lock up the house and turn out the lights each evening, then unlock again each morning. Once the weather turns colder, I'll also be responsible for monitoring thermostats. Someone has to do it!
• Went grocery and household item shopping to set up "house" and fill my larder on Monday.
• Entered the strange world of cooking for one again.
• Kept hunting for jobs.
• Started singing with the temporary Fairwood choir in preparation for an upcoming church convention! We're singing "Send out Thy Light" to a new tune and a medley of two existing tunes to "O How I Love Jesus," with a third, new, tune thrown in for good measure. (New tunes all compliments of Craig.)
• Started training to work on publications for my church--specifically our small bi-monthly magazine. Rachel A. is training me.
• Went to my cousin Ryan S.'s soccer game at ConVal. That brought back memories of many other sports events at ConVal, and I think the players were bigger back then. :-)
• Helped Mom prepare to host the Fairwood students for an amazing Saturday brunch.
• Started trying to teach myself guitar chords on a guitar borrowed from Clyde.

Week Three

• Started Focus on the Family's "The Truth Project" at church on Sunday (for the prayer meeting/Sunday School hour). I loved the first session, am looking forward to the others!
  
• Continued dealing with odds and ends of moving--changing addresses, looking for a job, etc.
• Continued working on laying out the November/December edition of Times of Restoration, our church's magazine.
• Have been enjoying getting outside to exercise more--walking and jogging, so far! Kayla hasn't gotten me to bike or run to the lake with her yet, though she invited me to bike with her last week.
• Got to hang out with the Bible School girls last evening and watch part of a movie in honor of Katie S.'s birthday

And that brings us up to the present! A church convention starts this evening, so I'll be occupied with meetings for the next eight days. (Clyde will be home tonight for a few days, so our family will be together again for a short while!) In the cracks, I expect to continue layout and design work and looking for the right job. I have an interview at Antrim Girls Home on Monday, though they don't have any full-time openings currently. After the interview, I'll know whether doing relief work for the Girls Home is a good option. Then I have to decide whether to do that until something (at the Girls Home or elsewhere) full time opens up or whether to put my resume in at the local temp agencies. I'm good and ready to be working somewhere, but I am trusting the Lord for just the right thing!

As I was explaining to Lisa A. last evening, it's tricky to know, because accepting one job means saying no to all other possible options! I do take comfort in the fact that all of the jobs that aren't working out or don't work out are really God's mercy keeping me from doing the wrong thing. It's easy to look at closed doors as walls to bang my head against, but that's not the right perspective! I'm so glad that God has a will that we can know.

So there you have it! I'd love to post pictures, but I'm bouncing around from borrowed computer to borrowed computer, so I don't yet have a permanent home for my camera's software. I think I can download to my fam's computer, but their only internet access is dial-up, so uploading would be tedious there. So the whole picture-posting process will be a little more complex than it used to be. Bear with me as I figure it out. I really would like to show you where I live!