first day!

today was my first day nannying and it went so well! megan (the mom) stayed home with me today so i could learn adele's schedule a little bit more, so basically i just hung out with her all day and got to know her a little bit more. and she is hilarious, i love her! i got to hold and feed baby adele today too and she is just the cutest little thing ever. she was all smiles and laughs the whole time. the only thing is that she projectile vomits. a lot...which is gross, but i'll take baby barf over a screaming baby any day. megan drove me around the mt lookout area where they live and over to hyde park which is a great area! i was able to write down numbers of different apartments that were listed on signs in front yards...so keep your fingers crossed, i'm hoping to find a nice place in that area so i can walk places!

i'm feeling so much better about being here and the decision to move. finally really feeling hopeful about things. this family i'm nannying for has a lot to do with it, they are such a blessing. i also met a nurse practitioner who works in a neurology department at children's-exactly where i want to be! not that i'm looking for a job yet, i really want to focus on nannying for the time being and committing to this family for a while before i look elsewhere for a job. i feel like this blog is boring...hopefully i'll have some more adventures now that i'm in a new city.

surprises.

well i made it to cincinnati, i guess kentucky to be more specific. i met with a few apartment complexes on friday with not much luck. one was so-so, they other was yucky. i spent a little bit of time with the family i am nannying with and they showed me the house, where everything was, etc. the mom is taking monday off to spend with me to learn adele's schedule which will be good. she also offered to drive me around to look for apartments. they are so great! still stressing out a bit about finding a decent place that i can afford...trying to be patient.

i went to church today with brent (jordan's roommate) and met his girlfriend, elizabeth, and her parents. i was talking to elizabeth's mom who happens to be a nurse practitioner at cincinnati children's hospital!! she was telling me she works with spinal tubular defects (i think?) and she works with dietitians who do the ketogenic diet...and i said, that's EXACTLY what i want to do!!! i was telling her about my experience in detroit and how i love working with the neurology population. i'm hoping to follow up with her and maybe something will come of this down the road! she was going to find out who does the hiring in the nutrition department so hopefully i can send my resume directly to someone. pray please!

so anyways, God has already managed to surprise me and i've only been her a few days. i don't know why i'm so surprised, or why i freak out so much because He really does provide in every way possible...even when you have absolutely NO clue when or where He is going to come through next. nannying tomorrow and j comes back tomorrow night too! yay! i'm excited to get into the swing of things here.

i'm back.

ok, going to give this thing another whirl. we'll see how it goes.

so i'm two days away from moving to cincinnati. for those of you who know me, i do not do well with change. and although i've been waiting for this (and praying) time, i'm sitting here in my sister's room amidst my failed attempts to pack, wishing i had another week at home. today i think it truly hit me that i am 98% most likely not going to be moving back home home. i'm moving to cincinnati for the next three years of my life. and after that, i will be married and moving somewhere else, with my own family and my own home. don't get me wrong, i am super excited about building my own family and getting married, but for right now, the thought of not ever living here in the only home i've ever known, is hard on this heart. and i'm really sad. i love the comforts of this place. even though i'd go crazy living here much longer, i enjoy being with my family. having tina and dave make me dinner and eating out back together with my puppies. i'm so blessed with the family and home i have. i'm going to miss it. a lot.

but...i'm ready for this new season that i'm stepping into. i really have felt for a while that i truly am stepping into something new and big. i think this is going to be an awesome time for jordan and i's relationship, being in the same place. it's time. and i know the Lord is in this and He is walking through this time with me. it's going to be exciting and new and an adventure with my best friend but it also feels like i'm closing a chapter in my life. obviously my family and home will always be there, but just not how i'm used to. i AM ready for this. and i can do it. it's just going to be an emotional next couple of days. surprise surprise! prayers are appreciated.

life.

lots of things have happened the past couple of weeks! this past weekend was tay's graduation party and it was SO fun! my family from michigan and chicago all came and we had a BLAST. granted it was miserably hot and humid during the party...but aside from that it was perfect. baby adeline was here and we got to spend some time with her, most of have not seen her since she was itty bitty. i loooove babies!!! KIND of makes me want one...but not quite there yet. gotta get something first before i can think about that ;)

i have decided to move to cincinnati this fall (early september) regardless of if i have a job or not. i have been going back and forth with this and it has been a major stressor in my life. but i decided that i just can't move back home and get stuck there. cincinnati is where i want to be and if i have to get a job at starbucks until i find a job as a dietitian, i'm going to do it. i was freaking out about making this decision and asked God after i decided to move that a teeny tiny affirmation that this is OK for me to do, that He is still behind me in this move, would be MUCH appreciated. and i got it!!! i wrote on my facebook wall i was looking for a roommate and literally THAT night a girl i knew from miami wrote back and said she was looking for someone too! i met her through crusades and she's really nice. she was freaking out too about finding a roommate. THEN last night, she got forwarded an email from a friend that was from my bible study leader who had emailed a bunch of people asking around for a roommate for me. how crazy is that?? so i said, ok God. not that i didn't trust Him before, it was just nice to know i'm doing ok.

so my dear friend colby sent me this book called practical theology for women: how knowing God makes a difference in our daily lives by wendy horger alsup. it is EXCELLENT. you should get it and read it. i found it for $10 online (shipping included) if you want to buy it, lemme know and i'll give you the website!

"we have God's precious promise that He's going to work the hard things in our lives for our good, and part of that good is that we will be changed more and more to reflect Christ's character and glory. the trials and struggles we experience are like the refiner's fire under a pot of gold. the heat brings the impurities to the top to be scraped off by the refiner, leaving the gold in a purer form." pg 36

this is what i hope He's doing with me during this season i am in....

good weekend.

this weekend was perrrfect. jordan came up friday and i made a delicious dinner (well, i thought so, i don't know about J & john!)... here's the link for the dinner i made http://www.bhg.com/recipe/pasta/spinach-tortellini-with-beans-and-feta/. i love beans and i love cheese, so it was perfect for me! we got up early-ish saturday and drove to the st joseph/benton harbor area where jordan's uncle ernie and aunt julie live. i was not expecting how beautiful it was on the lake! i felt almost like i was in one of the carolinas! i told jordan, is it bad that i didn't know a place like this existed in michigan? haha. most of what i know of MI is detroit, and i don't like detroit :) we ate some delicious food and gelato and walked along the beach. so pretty!

we went to church sunday morning and met one of the oldest female graduates of Miami randomly, class of 1936! how crazy is that?! she was an adorable little old lady. ernie and julie took us then to a little bakery/restaurant near the park we were camping at and i got the most incredible cake cakes i have EVER tasted in my entire life. they were amazing. J and i headed to warren dunes state park afterwards and set up camp! in our tent finally! it was blazing hot, but we hung out at the beach all day (used half a bottle of sunscreen!), ate hotdogs & marshmellows over the fire, climbed sand dunes, played bocce ball and walked on the beach to watch the sunset. it was perfect.

we headed home this morning and a shower never felt so good! i'm not a super foo-fooey girl, BUT i do like my showers. and it was hard to get used to the nasty hole-in-the-ground toilets. eek. but i do love camping. and hopefully will be able to do it for longer periods of time this fall! jordan just left...super ready for a little direction here and some clue as to when this long distance crap can end. glad that this is a four day work week and i get to go home this weekend.

wedding this weekend!

this weekend is nick and beth's wedding (nick is jordan's college roommate, beth is my good friend too!) in oxford and i couldn't be MORE excited!!! i'm so happy to be a part of this whole process for them and it's just going to be so amazing to see them get married on saturday. they are the first in our little miami group to get hitched. so weird, but so so good. i love them both! and they are just perfect together. colby and addy will be there too, it's about dang time we are reunited. i am taking off friday and J and i are driving down friday morning. can't WAIT! i love weddings! can't wait until its my turn :)

still sort of stressing out about the whole job/cincinnati thing. found out today my friend who i want to live with down there has to sign her renewed lease by june 1st or her rent goes up. and i just can't commit until i have a job since i have no money. so looks like i won't be living with her. which sucks. obviously i won't have a job lined up by june 1st. got some semi-good news from cinci though- the last job i applied for in feb there had a status of "route" for my online application forrrever, and apparently that means it i got passed the first round, and someone was looking at my application, i just didn't get picked for an interview. that's a start i suppose.

so please say a prayer something comes up. i know it will happen in His timing, but i hate this feeling like i'm never going to get out of this place that i've been stuck in since november. and that i'm never going to be in the same place as J.

michigan.

well i was informed by my oh so caring boyfriend that i never use the word "bandwagon" correctly haha apparently that is not how you use it in the last post i had. i'm just going to stop using it all together because i feel stupid when i use it and he corrects me (which is every time i try to say it!) oh bother....

i moved to michigan last weekend. our house is really nice but needed a lot of cleaning. so i spent allll day monday scrubbing blinds, washing windows and scrubbing kitchen cabinets. i felt very domestic. it's kind of weird to me that i am going to have a boy roommate for the first time and it's not my husband, but i suppose it will be very vague practice in having a male roommate before i get married haha. jordan stayed all weekend helping me unpack, run errands, grocery shop, and he deserves one thousand gold stars for putting up with me yet again during a move. i am not the most pleasant person when i don't know where i am, how to get places, etc. he left sunday night and it was one of the hardest byes thus far...i hate being somewhere i am so disoriented to. and i live in a fairly safe area...however it's no troy. we did get to babysit the fam i watch in birmingham...sophie has grown SO much and took to me right away! yay! makenna kept trying to put pink lip gloss on jordan...so cute :) it was cute to see J play with the girls too!

i'm looking forward to the weekend to see baby sister go to her LAST prom (weird!) in her beautiful dress and have a fam cookout for tay's birthday and mother's day. i miss charlie too!! i'm so glad i'm only moving to cincinnati in august...i am too much of a homebody to be so far away from home. ha. that's all for now!