JOB!!!!

I HAVE A JOB! I'm am so excited to be writing this! Finally! I've written this in my head so many times! It seems like it's been FOREVER! It's been 8 months!

I will be moving to Knoxville sometime in the next two weeks. Seems crazy, I know. I'll be working for a small accounting firm in West Knoxville. I'll be starting work next wednesday but probably won't get officially moved for a week or more. So save those great muscles to help me move!! (Greenville will be the easy part!! It's all packed in a storage unit!). I'm so excited to be starting a new leg of my journey!

I cannot thank you all enough for your prayers, love, support, and encouragement.

Love!

Intense Anxiety

So, this afternoon visiting my lovely friend Jeanne...I MISSED A PHONE CALL FROM KNOXVILLE ABOUT MY INTERVIEW!! So, I'll be waiting until the morning to find out what happens!

Thankful List

So, It's been a weird week and I was not having the greatest day yesterday and thought of all the good things in my life that I have to be thankful for even amidst all this other crap. In random order:

-My family - this is a quick way of saying: parents, brothers and their families, my niece and nephew, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins...
-My friends - College, Grad school, Greenville, others - you have no idea how thankful I am for friends...
-Jesus
-Grace
-A place to live
-interviews
-Interviews that provide hope
-Downtown Pres and the people there
-cell phones
-text messaging
-overnights to Knoxville
-this past Wednesday night
-radio
-live music
-exercise - gym, zumba, workouts with holly, iRun
-Birthdays
-Orange fingernail polish
-The beach

Interview Part II

OK, so this is a different interview than the one I previously wrote about but this interview is in Knoxville! So, thanks to my friend Nick (who sent me an ad about this job out of the Knox News), I have an interview tomorrow morning at 10 in Knoxville! It's a different kind of job that I've done. It's still CPA work but it's auditing rather than tax. Should be interesting. Anyway - I'm excited about the possibility of options! We'll see what happens and I'll be sure to keep you posted!

Quick Trip to Knoxville

So Monday night I decided it'd be a good time to take a quick trip to Knoxville! I ran (not literally) over there Tuesday morning, spent the day with Ashley, the evening with the Reilly's and the night with Melissa! I had breakfast wednesday with Kathy and lunch with Nick and was home by dinner time. It was super fast and I enjoyed every second of it!

My main purpose was to see Ashley. It had been about a year since I had seen her. She and her husband, Timothy, are moving to Thomasville, Georgia today. It's a heck of a lot closer than South Hamilton, Massachusetts but still a good bit farther than Knoxville! We had lunch at Tea at the Gallery. It's a wonderful little tea room with finger sandwiches, weird pasta salad, and delicious scones! I spent the afternoon with her and went to dinner with her family. I stopped by Kevin and Kathy's for a few minutes and visited with them after a great dinner at The Chop House with the Greenes. It had been a long time since I had seen the Reilly's, so it was great to catch up with them! We sat out on the porch and had a beer - it was fantastic! I spent the night at Melissa's and got to see Anna. Melissa and I stayed up late (as usual) and caught up. It was good to see her before she leaves for China for 6 1/2 weeks on Tuesday. (Who am I going to talk to while she's gone?!)

Wednesday morning I went with Kathy to Cracker Barrel and met Nick for lunch in Market Square. We went to the Tomato Head. It was really good. I was glad to be able to go there. I've heard so much about it but never been able to go before. I made it home for dinner with my parents on Wednesday night. Pretty quick trip but a great one.

I apologize to the other Knoxvill-ians that I was unable to see! We'll catch up next time! I'll be there next week again for another quick trip. This time for an interview! :)

Update

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for your continued love, support, and encouragement always but especially over the past several months. You are all wonderful family and friends and I dont know what I would do without you. I have already told some of you about this but, if you didn't know, this is the biggest news lately, I had an interview today in Johnson City, TN at an accounting firm there. I sent my resume there through a reference that I used to work for in Johnson City when I lived there for graduate school. This firm has a lot of connections with ETSU and in Johnson City. I have a couple of friends who work there and hopefully have had good things to say about me. A friend here in Greenville who is from JC is getting his dad to put in a good word for me (Thanks Brian S.)! Also, I am going to call some professors who have relationships with people in the firm and get them to put in a good word for me too! :) It helps to have friends in high places!! The interview went well. Their timeline for hiring is about 6-8 weeks it seems. Which feels like an eternity to say it may be the end of July when I ear anything from them, but I am sure that it will go by fast! They are interviewing a couple other people too. In the mean time, please continue to pray that if this is the right thing it will work out in the right time. Also, that if it doesn't work out, that I'll be OK with it.

Other than the interview I had a GREAT time in JC visiting friends. I was surprised at how much fun it was to be able to hang out with those people again! I had a wonderful time at the Blue Plum Festival and really enjoyed catching up with "old" friends :) Thanks Carshonda, Philip, Andy, Jared, Erin, Joseph and Raven for a fantastic weekend!

Interview

So, the biggest news going on in my life right now is that I HAVE AN INTERVIEW!! I'm excited. It's Monday at 9 AM. I am hesitant to say too much about it but please be praying for direction in my life, the lives of the people I'm interviewing with and for God's will in my life.

Stuff Christians Like

Per Jon Acuff @ Stuff Christians Like:

I don't know what's going on in your life. Maybe things are great right now and you’re thinking “oh jeez Serious Wednesday.” That’s awesome that things are good right now, God certainly showers us with greatness. But maybe you just went from a great job to a no job kind of situation. Maybe you're crying out for novacaine right now. I don't know your specifics, but what I do know is that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

It's not in some things, or in most things or in the things that make sense in the moment. It's all things. And for the ones that hurt, for the moments that don't make any sense whatsoever, we're given a great reassurance in Romans 8:26.

"We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express."

I love that. I love that when we don’t have the right words or the perfect words, the Spirit groans for us. That's the prayer I pray during life’s root canal moments. I just ask the Spirit to “groan.” It's not the most elaborate prayer. It's not that fancy, and it would make perhaps the world's shortest book. But when I'm in a corner and don't know what to pray for because the pain doesn't seem to line up with my plans, that's all I say to the Holy Spirit. That's my simple prayer request.

Fun Weekend Ahead

I'm so pumped about this coming weekend, I am having to keep myself from packing my bag today! I'll probably end up doing it last minute and forgetting some important stuff. But I'm excited to be out of town and hanging out with some fun people!

Things I'm looking forward to this weekend:

1) Friends: I have a lot of friends still in the Johnson City area and I am so looking forward to being there and visiting with them!
2) Blue Plum: Outdoor music festival downtown! There's always great music and fun times to be had at the Blue Plum!
3)Wedding: My friend Holly from Carson-Newman is getting married Saturday. Should be a great time too!
4) Cootie Browns: My FAVORITE restuarant in Johnson City. It's one of those places that you probably wouldn't stop unless you knew what you were getting yourself into but it is so good.