Summer Plans

I can't help but get all giddy inside when I think about all of the fun events coming up this summer and fall. 

Some of my close friends have some big things going on and I can't explain how happy I am for them.  To explain in (chronological) order:

My old roommate and college friend, Paige, is finally tying the knot July 21st in Richmond.  She's been dating her fiance for over 4 years and she's been planning her wedding since high school (joking), so they are so ready to make the commitment!  I'm honored to be in their wedding and will be co-planning her bridal shower.  Her bridal shower and bachelorette party are both in June so I'll be keeping busy!  They are a cute couple, have so much genuine love for each other, and are truly one of the funniest couples I know.  Now if I can only get them to stop trying to steal my dog....

Paige, Roxie, and Jason

Secondly, another old roommate and college friend, Ashley, made it public that they're having a baby!  Ashley and Robbie started dating at RU and continued their lovebird relationship after Robbie switched majors and colleges and moved to the beach.  Ashley eventually moved to the beach with Robbie and they got married a month before Ryan and I did.  Ryan and I have SO much fun with them and tried to make it a tradition to go to Va Beach for 4th of July until we moved far away.  Robbie and Ryan have an unexplainable chemistry, which leaves us wondering after some time spent together who's spouses are who's.....

Anyway, Ashley is due August 30th and I am sooooo excited!  Ever since I've known Ashley, her biggest fear has been to not be able to have children.  So, knowing that this is something she's wanted and that it's finally coming true is so awesome.  They are going to be such loving and wonderful parents!

Ryan and Robbie...deep in conversation about who knows what

Robbie & Ashley

Finally, my good friend Kristin is getting married to her long time love, Mike (also known as Mikey).  They've known each other since kids, and when Kristin moved to NoVa they reconnected, fell in love, and the rest is history. They're getting married in September in Northern Virginia.  Kristin just left for a 6 month deployment overseas, so she'll literally be getting back a month before her wedding!  I call Kristin and Mikey the power couple because I see them as the couple of having a huge house that we all flock to in 20 years for vacations :)  Kristin is having her bachelorette party in August in NYC which will be so much fun!! 

Kristin & Mikey at Ryan and I's wedding

I'm so excited about all of these fun things to go to and I'm SO happy we're going to be back on the East Coast to do all of this.  Now, if Ryan and I can only find jobs to support all of this money I'm going to have to spend.........

How Companies Learn Your Secrets

I came across this article while job searching today and I thought it was SO interesting!  It'll make you think twice about your habits and who knows about them!

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/magazine/shopping-habits.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=magazine

I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did!

Love.

In the almost 5 years that Ryan and I have been together, I can't remember us ever really celebrating Valentine's Day.  If anything, we might of made a special dinner and get each other a card. 

However, this Valentine's Day is a bit different.  Since we're going through so many changes lately, I think it was important for Ryan and I to remind ourselves we love each other more than ever. 

I sent Ryan out a package last week and he got it a day early.  I consider that to be pretty good since you can't really rely on shipping a package halfway across the world and going through the military mail system successfully.  I included a cheesy card (necessary), lots of corny Valentine's Day candy (necessary), and made him a deck of cards that had 52 reasons why I loved him.  I think it made his day (probably because he told me it did).

Ryan told me a few weeks ago that he was planning on getting me something really good (and really expensive) for Vday.  After much debate, I told him not to spend the money on whatever he was planning on getting me and just get me some flowers.  I already knew I was getting flowers  about 2 weeks ago because a Hawaiian florist asked me if it was okay to deliver them on Friday instead of over the weekend.  Dumb.

My flowers came on Friday and they are so cool looking!  They make me want to go on a tropical Hawaiian getaway :) Since they came from so far away, I had to arrange them myself.  My favorite flower is the one in the center.  It's SO big and heavy it's as big as Rena's head!  Here's a pic:

Aloha. A hui hou kakou. (That's "Until we meet again" for all you non-Hawaiian speaking folk.)

It's way bigger than this picture gives it credit for!

Ryan also got me 2 hand painted pictures of a wiener doggie on the beach :)  They are so cute and I can't wait to have a place to hang them!

How do you feel about Valentine's Day?  Do you always celebrate or see it as a stupid commercial holiday?

Halfway Home.

Today marks that Ryan is halfway through his deployment.  Hallelujah!  This sounds bad, I couldn't wish these next 2 months away any sooner.

Ironically enough, the day after I posted about our working/living dilemma, I was video Skyping with Ryan as he got an email from the Program Director finally giving us an answer about the transfer.  Unfortunately, his response wasn't what we were hoping for.  They aren't approving the transfer to Charlottesville, but they're reevaluate in 12 months.  Too bad we don't have that long.

On the negative side, Ryan is now probably going to have to quit a job that he likes to appease his needy wife.  Also, this makes our life planning a lot more difficult than if they just gave Ryan a simple "yes". 

On the positive side, this opens up our area for searching for jobs.  We won't be confined to the Cville area and we could possibly find an area with a lower cost of living.  We're trying to keep the job search around the Virginia area, but we'll expand the search if we still haven't had any bites in another month.

Because we finally got an answer, I've been doing a lot of job searching and applying for jobs this past week.  I know that it's an employers market right now, but I'm hoping between my experience and my connections I'll be able to find something that I'm content with.  It's going to be a lot harder for Ryan since he has a specific skill set, but we're keeping our chins up and hopes high.

Everything in my life has worked out so far, so I have no reason to second guess where we're going to end up and what we're going to do.  I'm so thankful I have a husband who's supporting me and giving up some of his wants so that I can be happy around friends and family.

If anybody reading this knows of any jobs or has any connections in the Virginia area in the sales/recruiting industry or forensic science/chemistry industry, please hook a brotha or sista up!

I know that I was going to post some pictures that I've taken lately, but it took forever to upload them on Facebook and I'm sure that all (6) of you have seen them already.  If you haven't, check out my new Facebook album if you want an overload of baby cuteness!

I LOVE ELLEN!

J-O-B

Update: Ryan is doing fine overseas.  He's working out every single day, which means I will have a very in shape, even more handsome & buff husband when he gets home.  Yesssss.

I, on the other hand, haven't been working out nearly as much as I planned.  I don't have a gym membership, so I bought some cold running gear online and used that to not give me an excuse to go running outside in 30 degree weather.  This hasn't worked as well as I was hoping.  I'm still running and I'm more in shape now than I was 2 months ago, butttt it's just. so. hard. to go running in freezing weather!!

Enough of that.  I'm getting distracted already and I just started the post.

My main purpose of updating my blog is to inform (all 6 of) you that Ryan is pretty much giving up on the hope that his work will allow him to transfer him to the Charlottesville, VA office.  I don't know if I really posted on here our plan of attack, so let me do that first.

Back in October of last year, Ryan and I were faced with lots of decisions.  I wasn't very happy in Kansas City.  Not because of the city itself, but because I didn't know what to do with myself being SO far away from friends and family.  I was hoping I could adjust,  but I knew and Ryan knew that this isn't where we (I) was supposed to be.  Sucks, but it is a nice city, great place to raise kids, and awesome cost of living.

So, Ryan found out in October that his work wanted him to deploy in December for 4 months.  This left us lots of decision.  We had to decide if a) he was going to deploy in December or wait b)what I was going to do if he did get deployed and c)what were we going to do when he got home from his deployment.

Just so I don't make this post a million pages long, we decided to a)have him deploy in December (duh) b)I come home and hopefully transition into a job in Cville once he gets the okay to transfer and c)Ryan transfers to Cville when he gets back, he has a job, I have a job, we buy a house and live happily ever after.

SO, with Ryan not hearing from work yet as to whether he can transfer has put a huge damper on his plans.  We knew that this could happen, but I think we were both thinking in our good hearts of ours that there wouldn't be a way for work to NOT transfer him.  I mean come on...if I do say so myself, Ryan is a genius.  He worked very hard to make straight A's through undergrad and grad school (gag, I know.).  Ryan contributes sooo much to his company as far as networking and knowledge is concerned.  Ryan can do that EXACT same work that he does in Kansas City in Charlottesville.  The Cville office should be happy to have Ryan at that office.

But noooo.  Everytime Ryan brings up the transfer with his bosses and others, he doesn't get a direct answer.  He gets lots of "I'm all for it" and "I'm definitely an advocate for this".  But no. real. answers.  We can't wait around for a yes or a no, so we're both looking for jobs anywhere in Virginia now.

Worst Case Scenario: Ryan finds out he can't transfer and he can't find a job anywhere else.  I search and search and search for jobs that I think I will love, and I find nothing.  Ryan comes back, we're both homeless and jobless.

Best Case Scenario:  Ryan hears like, today, that he can transfer.  I find a dream job in Cville and our dream house in Cville.  Ryan comes back to his beautiful new home and new life in beautiful, mountainous Virginia full of good friends and family and we're both happy.

As you can imagine, these are two very different scenarios.  We're wishing and hoping and praying that the dice falls on the Best Case Scenario, but we all know life isn't perfect.

This leads me to my frustrations with job searching.  I search and search and find a job I think I would love.  I eagerly click on the job posting to see what the requirements are, then slowly my dreams are crushed when I see "10+ years experience in something you have no clue about" or "Requires ABC certification that you don't have, so don't even think about wasting 30 minutes applying, only to receive a denial email (if you're lucky enough to even get one of those)".

I now have 6 years of experience outside of college and I feel like it's still not even close to being good enough.

I know that I have a lot to be thankful for, but sometimes a girl just needs to rant and complain and get it out of her system.  I promise to have a happy post full of the beautiful babies I'm lucky enough to have in my life very soon!!

Get Ready...

....to cry your eyes out!

While I was staying with my good friend Cindy this week, she let me know about a blog she heard of that I have to read.

She warned me I was going to cry my eyes out.

I've read the whole thing, and I cried my eyes out.  You will too if you read it.

It's a sad, sad story, but the blog is about the miracle that has come from tragedy.

It's about a young family...beautiful mom, loving dad, and 2 energetic boys.  The mom got very sick last year, came down with double pneumonia, then passed away leaving dad, Gabe, with their 2 little boys to raise by himself.

Gabe writes about every day little miracles that he's been able to find.  He lives through God and writes about his experiences.  So, so sad.

Life is short, people.  It's so easy to get caught up in the daily troubles.  If you need a reminder as to how short life is, check out this blog.  And bring tissues.

http://www.partofthemiracle.com