Stuff and Things

   What a week it has been! Let's just say it has been busy! It all started with some not so good news from one of my closest friends who is very sick. My heart broke into a million pieces. I wish I could be there with her in person to give her a hug while we sit and cry together but I can't.... so I sit here (hundreds of miles away) and pray instead. I know that God is in control and has a plan for everything that happens in our lives but sometimes that is hard to see in the midst of the pain.
    Anyways, This week was very slow at work but very busy in the "wedding world." Diane is in full swing planning her wedding so that means a lot of meetings with vendors/people who are helping make the big day perfect. I am really excited and privileged to be a part of this whole process. Plus, it's giving me something to do since most of the time while I'm not at work, I am bored out of my mind! It is still proving to be really hard having most of my friends living so far away (at least an hour drive), so that makes for some lonely days off. But I am getting by and staying in Clear Creek as much as possible. I think once I have my own place the loneliness won't necessarily go away but I will feel more willing to invite people over. Hopefully once I am in a better routine I can sleep again too. That is a very large hope!
   There is not much to report this week other than that. I really miss everyone at home. If I was a millionaire I would fly home every once in a while just to say hi. It is proving much harder to find joy in this journey as the time goes by so I am praying that God will fill this lonely void soon......

Insecurity

   Sometimes I wish insecurity wasn't a word in my vocabulary but somehow it always seems to find me. I don't understand why I can be so secure in Jesus but still feel insecure in this world! When I meet new people I wonder if they are judging me. When I am getting to know new friends I feel the need to be around them as much as possible to make sure that they love me and think only good things about me. Why? I HAVE NO IDEA! Don't get me wrong, I am WAY less insecure then I have ever been (it was bad in high school) but it still sneaks it's way in there. Do I show it? Hardly ever! But I can feel it and I catch myself doing it and it is irritating as heck!
   It is not usually a fun thing when someone comes up to me and says "you are one of the strongest people I've ever met" because it is normally when I am going through a time of "strengthening" and feel so insecure it's not funny. I don't want to be strong most of the time and I know I don't have to be because I have someone who can be strong for me and His name is Jesus. That does not mean that I don't feel the blows as they come at me but it does mean that I don't have to take them alone. I want to be so secure in Jesus that I NEVER doubt. For the most part this is true already but in the end it comes down to my sinners heart and I WILL fail. I am so glad my Jesus is there to pick me back up when I do.

If I were truly SUZI HOMEMAKER (AKA the Proverbs 31 woman)....

....I would have the perfect blog that was so entertaining people would want to read it every time I post.
....I would make dinner every night and it would be so delicious it was devoured within minutes of being off the stove.
....My car, room and office would be spotless and adorably decorated at all times.
....I would always be in the middle of a craft, scrapbook, sewing project or baking session.
....I would always entertain.
....My hair, make-up and outfits would be perfect everyday.
....I would spend time with Jesus more then I spend time on the internet.
....I would have good books all over the place and be motivated to read them and soak up their knowledge. ....I would work out everyday not just because I want a perfect body but because I want to be healthy. BUT, alas, I am NOT SUZI HOMEMAKER (AKA the Proverbs 31 woman)! I am usually too busy, tired or, to be completely honest unmotivated to blog, cook, clean, read my Bible, entertain or anything else that I just mentioned. Hence, the reason why I've been living here for 6 weeks now and I have blogged once. If it weren't for the guilt factor I probably wouldn't blog at all. But, I know how much I like reading blogs from my friends that live far away, who I don't ever get to see. Then I think about all my friends and family who possibly feel the same way about me. So, here I sit...again at Starbucks (like last time)...blogging. It's raining outside and a BEAUTIFUL day so I am motivated to sit for a while and type.
Here goes nothin'......
     The last month+ has been another whirlwind. I LOVE my job and everyone I work with. Monday through Thursday are my favorite days of the week because I get to go to work. Soon, I will be going in Monday-Friday and it will be that much better! The Company and the product are something I have been influenced by for over 10 years now so it is SO FUN being able to promote the product to people who eat it up!
     It is a long drive into the office, but I wouldn't trade that drive time for anything. It's a nice time to sing, pray and ponder. Everyday as I am enduring that time behind the wheel I think to myself "Why don't I move closer?" Then, I bust up laughing because I can NOT imagine me and my little California self living in the MIDDLE OF NO WHERE!! It AIN'T (like that? I'm already starting to sound like an Okie!) gonna happen! I LOVE the city! As much as I am too busy to enjoy it half the time, I couldn't go without seeing the concrete jungle at least every other day!
    I have started staying with my lovely friend, Rebecca and her family one night a week to save on gas as well as enjoy their company. I have quickly become like family with the people in the Clear Creek community and I love it! The other day Diane and I went over to the Buscemi (Diane's family) household for dinner. Diane observed the kids behavior and made a comment about how it didn't take long for me to become a part of the family. The boys jumped right in and served themselves and left us girls to fend for ourselves. It was pretty funny but I loved it! I am just one of the gang now I guess (the gang consists of 8 kids). I felt like Sandra Bullock in "While You Were Sleeping" (FAVE) where she is sitting around the Christmas tree with the family who she accidentally became part of (watch it for the whole story...it's the best movie ever!) and observes. She is not used to being part of a family which leaves her overwhelmed by how loud and crazy it is, but you can tell by the look on her face that she is loving every minute of the "family feel." She can't help but sit and stare in aw of how the family acts with each other. Fortunately, I was raised in a loud, rowdy family myself (sorry mom but it's true). Even though there were only three kids we practically had 5 children because either my cousins, two "sisters" or friends were always over. I loved it!!! So that being said, I have no problem fitting right in and fending for myself in large families. I actually feel most at home with large families. This community of people is such a blessing! They have taken me under their wing and made me feel at home just when I was starting to think I would never have friends here.
   Anyways, about Diane, She is probably the one I relate the most with in this tight nit crowd. That's not to say I don't love and get along with all the other girls out here. Especially my Becky Becky Lou Lou head!! I had Diane at work but never really had the chance to get to know her until two weeks ago when we were sent to Arkansas together for the weekend to attend a convention for work. It was one of those things where the second we started talking we just knew that weekend was divine intervention and not happenstance. We got in the car after work and braced ourselves for a 6 hour drive. The thought was kinda sickening because it had already been a long day, BUT we were determined to make the best of it! We drove the brand new company car, so that made the drive a little more fun! (Let's be real, I LOVE road trips!) After stopping in the nearest town, Tahlequah, for dinner, we got back in the car and headed towards the great state of AR! *Side note: I accidentally said AK to someone over Skype and they so lovingly corrected me and basically told me I am dumb because AK is Alaska. HA! What can I say? I wanted to visit my Sewah who lived there!!*
   Before we knew it, we were in AR, because we didn't stop talking the ENTIRE drive! Checking in to the hotel was kinda nerve racking (that's another story for another time) but we got in and everything was fine. Once we were all settled in, we continued to talk until 2am like giggly little school girls, then, fell asleep. In all reality, I tend to talk a lot as most of you know (and you can witness by the length of this blog). Diane, was REALLY tired the next morning, since I had kept her up half the night, but we found this ADORABLE little coffee shop right next to the university where the convention was being held! SO, life was all good after that. ;) It took us a good three hours to get our booth set up but we made an awesome team so it went really smoothly. The minute the doors opened our booth was swarmed with people and we were SOOOO not prepared for it! We didn't have a fourth table for our "check out station", the credit card machine wasn't set up and people were EVERYWHERE!!! It was really fun though!! The weekend went really well and the next thing we knew it was time to go home. At 6:30pm, we had the booth shut down and the car packed up, so we hit the road once more. (We stopped for gas and dinner before actually getting on the road.) Diane then proceeded to fill out our Post Convention Report and I proceeded to have a dance party with singing, dancing and all that other fun stuff. This led to a few wrong turns (which I blamed on Diane and her lack of entertaining me in the first place :P) and an interesting time getting back on the right track! But that just makes for an adventure and really funny story, right?
   Anyways, that was just the beginning of an amazing friendship. We have been spending most waking moments together (along with our third musketeer, Becky) since then. Once she gets married (I am now officially her wedding planner BTW!) in less then 50 days (!) and moves to Tulsa we will start carpooling to work. She has already claimed that my car is half hers and her sandals are sitting in it right now...such a dork! All that to say, I am feeling very much at home here now and wouldn't trade my life for the world!
    In other news, Church is great! It is small but such a lovely little community of people! I have connected with several people there as well. :)
   Last Friday I became an official Okie when I got my Drivers license, License plate and toll road pass! *Side note: THERE ARE TOLLS EVERYWHERE HERE!!!!* It is really weird seeing my cute little white car with an Oklahoma license plate on the back of it (since they only have plates on the back of their cars here). It was totally serial walking right up to the counter at the "Tag Agency" and being handed a license plate off the top of the stack while my drivers license was being printed out in less then two minutes! After all the craziness I had getting the stinking things, it was refreshing to have it be so easy at the end!
   Last topic of interest is....I WAS APPROVED FOR AN APARTMENT (not that I thought I would have a hard time, but it is still exciting!) and I move in June 29th!! I couldn't be more excited! My Twister is coming to help me move in and bringing me some furniture from my Grandparent's house that just sold in TX.
   She is also the BESTEST sissy in the entire world and bought me a BEACH CRUISER for no reason other then she loves me! I am SOOOO Excited to ride it on the river where everyone rides their bikes around here!
   As usual this is really long but there ya have it. My life in a nutshell! Feel free to call, text, email or facebook me because I miss you all terribly! Much love! -Sarah

The travel story

So...I changed my mind from a few hours ago when I said I didn't want to type out the travel story. I'm sitting in Starbucks while Julie does some work across from me because I wanted to be able to get this out while it's still fresh. I'll actually start from a few weeks back and tell the whole story of being in Washington too. Brace yourselves for a long story. So..here it goes. The Monday after I last posted (about going to the Angels game) I was "kidnapped" by my Amber. Yes I said MY Amber. :) She got to my house at like 8:30am with starbucks in hand and told me to get ready because she was about to take me all over the OC. The original plan was to go to DLand for a few hours. I quickly found out that was just a cover story. We got in the car and hopped on the 22 freeway. She took me towards Huntington Beach. I was clueless as to were we were going. We pulled in to a parking lot and stopped in front of a dollar tree. She wanted a picture to commemorate what we always did together when we were roomies. Next up was the beach. She parked the car down at 17th street and we walked all the way to the pier barefoot on the sand. She wanted me to be at MY ocean one last time before moving. We goofed around, took pictures, walked the pier, then walked back (on the sidewalk this time since our legs were pretty tired). She said the next stop didn't open until 11am which is why we had time to play around on the sand. Next up came.... Boomers where we went mini golfing! We have a silly rule about mini golf where if you can get down on your stomach and blow the ball in with one breath then it doesn't count as a stroke. Example:

After Mini golf we were pretty hungry so we went to Red Robin then stopped by my house and finally made it to DCA (California Adventure). We lucked out and kept running into people we know so were able to ride a lot of rides in a short period of time. Last but not least we went to Tutti Frutti and got frozen yogurt since that was another thing we always did together. Amber makes the best boy friend ever! I miss her so much! That night I went to dinner at my Aunt and Uncle's house then ran home to get in bed. Tuesday morning I got up and packed then left for the airport to get on my way to Tacoma Washington. This was a much anticipated trip because I was going to meet my newsest nephew, Kai! My brother was at the airport to pick me up. We went to lunch then met Karen and Leroy (friends whose house I was staying at) to get a tour of the historical mansion they work at. It was really neat! THEEEEN I got to meet my nephew, his mommy, grandma, aunt, uncle and two cousins. The whole week was spent hanging out with Jefri (the mama), Kai and the fam. It was a blast! I fit right in with their family and enjoyed every minute! Saturday my brother came to get me. We went to breakfast then to see The fam one last time before he dropped me at the airport. Saying goodbye was sad but I was soooo anxious to get home! My plane landed at 5:50. My mom was waiting at the curb so we could jet away and make it to storage before it closes at 7. We got there and had a little less then an hour to grab everything I was going to take with me on my cross country move! It was INSANE!!!! Having less then 48 hours to pack your life and say goodbye to your friends/family is no joke! We got out the gate of the unit right after 7pm and went home. Sunday morning we had to be at church early for a special read through service of the book of Mark. I was one of the readers. In Sunday school they prayed for me then we had my going away party after church was over. Next came many tears, hugs and sorrowful goodbyes and the party was over. I had a few more people stop by as I was packing but pretty much just packed packed packed and packed some more. I did a kick butt job of getting everything I grabbed from storage to fit into my car (forgot to take a picture though..bummer!)!! Monday morning my mom and I got up, prayed with my daddy while I sobbed my eyes out and drove off into the sunrise. our goal was to make it to the grand canyon by late afternoon. We took it easy. By the first pit stop an indicator light on my dash had come on. My mom looked it up and found out that it was the tire pressure indicator. We couldn't figure out why but we knew we needed to stop and check it somewhere where there was a pressure gauge and air. We found a little gas station (the gas was OVER 5 dollars!!!!!) and my mom noticed that my tires were REALLY bad. This news was odd to me because my mom had looked at them after the mechanic told me to have them changed a few months ago and she said they were fine! So...needless to say I was a little upset. I looked on my phone and found out the nearest tire shop was in Needles California, about an hour away. After driving really slow to get there and actually making it without incident we were told that the tires would cost over 100 dollars A PIECE!!!! SOOOO, We decided to risk it and keep driving to the next big town about 50 miles away to get to Wal Mart. God obviously had the whole thing in his hands because I had been given a gift card for wally world at my party. It helped pay for the tires. We wondered wal mart for 45 minutes then got the car back and hit the road again. We finally made it to the Grand Canyon National Park where my friend April lives, at 5:15pm. We parked the car then walked to the hotel on the ridge where we had dinner. Dinner was over right at sunset so we talked out to ridge and watched it! It was amazing!

We walked back to April's place in the almost dark night sky. I was having serious allergy problems so I was sitting inside while my mom and April asked the IT guy from April's work to come help get the car top carry secured so it wouldn't slide from side to side. It wasn't going to fall off or anything but it wasn't locked into one place. Bed time came quickly. We got up, ate, said farewell to April then hit the road again. Tuesday was pretty uneventful but we made it out of Arizona into new mexico and then into Texas before we decided we were too tired to go on. Somewhere along the way we had to make the really sad decision not to go see my sister. It was too far out of the way and after the expense of the tires we had little gas money left to work with. We got a hotel room in Amarillo Texas for the night. Wednesday was a lazy morning but we got on the road and made it into Oklahoma by early afternoon. FINALLY, we got to Broken Arrow Oklahoma where The Walker family lives!!!! Whew. It was a whirlwind of a trip. We spent the next few days showing my mom around Tulsa and Locust Grove then took her to the airport on Friday. It was REAALLLLY hard to say goodbye to my mommy. It doesn't matter how old or independent I am, I will always want my mommy to be where I am! So there you have it. That is the crazy long story! Tomorrow is my first day at work and I am so ready!! I am gonna love my job! I'll leave you with one last picture. Goodnight from Oklahoma.

I'm here!

We made it to the good ol' state of OK on Wednesday afternoon. I just wanted to make sure you all knew but I am not feeling the gusto to tell the whole story yet. Please keep me in your prayers as I start my new job tomorrow! Thanks guys!

It's OK to be jealous.....

because I'm going to opening night for the Angels tomorrow!!!! I am so excited because I thought since I am moving at the beginning of the season I wouldn't make it to a single game! boo! BUT I managed to figure out a way to support my boys from home field one last time (for a while anyways)!!! WOOOOT! aaaaaaaaaaaand for the update on moving...Well...tomorrow is my last day at work! I CAN NOT believe it!! I am still in total shock about the whole thing! My kiddos and co workers keep talking about it and when i respond in kind it's as if i'm talking about an event in the very distant future when in reality it's TOMORROW!!!!!! AHHH! I am probably gonna cry and want to squeeze every child good bye but I will manage some how. This week has been full of many lasts.... 1. My last day with Caleb Park 2. My last auntie/piglet date (for a while) 3. My last day of work I could go on but I won't dwell on it because the future is so exciting too! I can't wait to get to OK and settle in! It's gonna be a while before it feels like home but I anticipate that day will come soon enough! Can't wait for many FIRSTS after so many lasts! Catch ya all on the flip side probably!!!

Sweet Chaos!

Whew!! Getting ready to move has been madness! I am trying to work, get stuff done, see people and tie loss ends. This weekend I went on my birthday adventure and saw a ton of friends along the way! It was the best whirlwind of a weekend I've had in a long time! Friday morning was off to an interesting start at 4:30am when my car was acting funny. Got it taken care of then headed to Amber's place. We jumped in the car and drove for 4 hours to get to Madera while stopping at Apple Annies for breakfast along the way. We hung out with Amy (Amber's sister) for a while. I then left Amber and headed to Reedley to see Virginia! We chatted for a few hours at her adorable home! After we bid adue (sp?) it came time for tea and dinner with Karl at this amazing tea house and then Meditterainian place in the tower district. We walked back to the cars so I could jet off to ground school at the Fresno Airport. When ground school ended it was to Karl's place I went. We sat and chatted for a few hours and then headed to bed to then get up at 6am for my 7am flight! I then FLEW AN AIRPLANE!!!! IT WAS AWESSSSSOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!! Then Mariah saw I was in Fresno (the wonders of facebook!) and called me. So we went to coffee and had a looovely chat! She took me back to Karl's where I grabbed my stuff and headed to Madera to get Amber. We called Amber's parent's who said we could come up and visit them, so we did! Her mom (Brenda) and dad graciously hosted us for a fun evening together and a lovely morning the next day. Amber showed me around beautiful Valley Springs this morning. Most of her Family came over after that. We hung out until about 2:30 then headed home. The drive was crazy rainy but we laughed and chatted the whole way home. I am now sitting in bed and reflecting on all the lovely people God has placed in my life who I love so much!!! I am one blessed girl!