A Long Overdue Update...

So I am waaaaaaaay overdue for an update on here!!!! I'm sorry! It was a combination of things but finally, here's a big update for those of you wondering what's going on in our lives!

Ok...Em and Sail!! Well, Emma was really sick for a long while. She had a bladder infection that we just couldn't kick. Finally, 3 urine samples, 4 rounds of antibiotics, putting her under for a sterile sample, and changing her to a special food, we FINALLY have it gone and she is a much happier kitten. Sail is doing good - nothing really new with him.

Things with Mark and I are going great! However, for those of you wondering if I'm pregnant - nope, not yet and no plans for that yet I'm afraid :) Right now we are just enjoying finally having time together without an upcoming deployment! I told Mark the other day - by the time we do have kids and I'm home with them and then he's out of school and get's a job, it's just going to be so strange for us...so conventional!! We're so used to both of us having these sporatic schedules that having the set Mon-Fri 9-5 (ish) kind of thing just seems very odd for us - we've never had that in the entire time we've known each other!!

Mark is doing great and everything with school is all going really well. He just had mid-terms this last week and did great. He has absolutely amazed me through all of this. The University he is attending is not an easy University and he is taking 15 credits as well as having chapel once a week and 3 hours of weekly community service. Then in the time that he does have left over, he is constantly busy with homework - the homework load has been crazy to me - and then of course he has to try to fit time in for the wife that is always wanting to hang out with him on top of it all!! :) He has done amazingly well with balancing everything though and in having endurance to get through it all. I'm very, very proud of him. I'm proud of him for being so adamant that he wants to put his degree to good use and make sure that it will be worthwhile and that he will be able to serve in the ministry with whatever he brings out of this.

I'm doing good too but I've had a lot of changes go on in the past few weeks. So, here's where the biggest update lies. I'm pretty sure I wrote awhile back about a job that I got at a salon and how it was a total God-thing and how things just fell right into place. Well, I still completely believe that it was a God-thing and that it served a purpose for these last few weeks, however, things at the salon were getting really hard for me. I had been there a little over 2 months and I hadn't done hardly any hair and I had basically become the cleaning lady - not what I went to school for. The salon was EXTREMELY slow and the very few hours that I was getting kept getting cut to convert me to commission which meant that I sat there and made 50% of what I did (nothing). The last straw was some feelings I kept bringing home towards the end. I was tired of coming home everynight feeling like what I did didn't matter. I felt like if I didn't go in that day, their hair or nails could look nice tomorrow. I felt like the greatest thing I did for the "greater good" was make someone's nails look pretty. It was a really lousy feeling. I began to look online for something totally different out of curiosity and I stumbled upon something that was TOTALLY different. I got an interview, went back for a second, and a third interview and got the job. I quit at the salon and she was very cold to me which just further confirmed that it was time to go. Ironically enough though, I still feel like I was meant to be at the salon for that time because if I hadn't been, I never would have come into this other position and even though I won't be using my license, I'll still use it at home and once we have kids it will definitely be great to have. I've just decided that cosmetology as a career is not for me. I need something more rewarding. So.....this new job is at a place called "The Fountains at Bronson Place". It is a Retirement Community and I am working in the assisted living portion as a Designated Care Manager. I am working first shift and manage a hall of about 8-10 residents. I am finished with on the floor training but not classroom training. By the end of all of it though, I will be CPR Certified, Med Certified and First Aid Certified. Basically, we are a very upscale "nursing home". They don't need quite as much help as they would in a nursing home, but along those lines. Here is the website if you're curious and want to see the place: http://www.sunriseseniorliving.com/community/CommunityHome.do?from_search=1&commid=2198. I am on my second week now and I am absolutely loving it. It's different than anything I would have EVER imagined myself doing but when I interviewed with HR, she had done the work before and she said the years working in this position were the most rewarding years of her life and I can tell already - I will be able to say that most definitely. I have formed bonds with these residents in less than 2 weeks and they are the sweetest people. It's amazing how me helping them with the smallest little thing makes their day because it was one thing they couldn't do for themselves. I have heard stories and gotten so many laughs from these people and am enjoying it so much. I came home the other day and said to Mark, "Oh no...I don't get to go to work tomorrow!" and I LOVE having that feeling again because I never had that excitement at the salon or at the school. I've waited to share anything just because I've been apprehensive of how people will react...whether I would receive support or not because it's not something even I would picture myself doing. There's definitely a lot that comes with the position that if you had told me 3 years ago that I'd be doing this I would have laughed. I can honestly say now though that at this point, I have no plans of leaving these residents and I'm loving every single minute of it.

That's about it that is going on with us. We leave in about 3 weeks for a trip to Tennessee over Thanksgiving so that will be fun. My parents home-week for their timeshare is there and growing up we used to always go Thanksgiving week and got out of the habit and this year we're going again and it will be Mark's first time there. Mom, dad, Mark and I are driving there and then grandma, her husband and my Uncle are driving up from Florida to meet us. It will be a great week!..pictures to come!

Thanks for reading and wondering what's new with us :)