Yay. Moving progress

Here is day too of the move! We are making progress! My family and joes parents have been so helpful with all the cleaning and unpacking. And the amazing Jessi was like cleaning super woman today and I am so grateful!!!!

Moving day

We are moving tomorrow! So excited! So much room to entertain and for Elsie to run around!

Below is the house and the cute little mural I sadly painted over... Sorry Luke Uran!

Our move is almost here!

Only 10.05 days until we move into this lovely abode and I cannot wait... if you couldn't tell by my countdown!  We have been living in limbo as I have been packing since we found out we moved and I think it is starting to take a toll on my health ha ha.  My sleeping is so out of wack, and I'm starting to believe that it is due to this "unsettled-ness" in our current apartment.  Our dog, Elsie, is confused by all of the boxes as well and isn't sleeping through the night... maybe I'm stressing her out!  I just have something built in me to have things organized and in its place...and currently things are far from that!  I have a baby gift for a friend, but just realized all of my wrapping paper is already at our new place in a box!! 

In my garage, I currently have lots and lots of boxes, 2 bikes, tools of various sorts, and our "new to us" washer and dryer.  I'm getting to the point where I can't pack much more until right before we move...but we're getting there!  I had to repaint all of our walls in the apartment white before we moved out, so I finally finished that this last weekend.  Joe commented he thinks our apartment might echo a little more than it used to with nothing on the walls.  Crazy.

We are feeling so blessed to have the opportunity to rent this cute little place from our friends this coming year!  It will be a perfect transition out of our apartment and give our little poochie, Elsie, a little more room to stretcher legs in her very own fenced in back yard to boot!!

One Thousand Gifts

I realize I have not blogged in quite a while, so I think I will take a swing at it again.  I want to share a book with everyone that I would highly recommend.  Jessi and I have been reading it, and I feel like it has been relatively life changing.  It is called One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp.  It is a wonderful read.  I love the way Ann writes the whole book.  It is about living a life of thanksgiving--she challenges the reader to start a journal as she did and start a list of "gifts" that God has given us that we may not see in our everyday life.  The goal is to start looking for the little things in life that we can be grateful for--from the smell of freshly cut grass, to a great conversation with a friend...things that may otherwise go on unnoticed.

She quotes John Piper and states that moving the ink across the page opens up the eyes, that he may not understand how it sheds light, focuses its lens, but he only knows, "There are eyes in pencils and pens. " There is something about writing down what we are truly grateful for that makes us appreciate it more--Ann states its like "unwrapping God's gifts" to us.

Jessi and I have been keeping little "gratitude journals" or journals of all of the things we have been given as gifts.  We were discussing how easy it is to find little gifts in days off work, or days that are beautiful out, but becomes a little more challenging at work, in the midst of stress of every day life.  That has been my challenge...to look for gifts in these times as well.

Yesterday I was able to go to Chicago with my hubby and meet up with Jessi and Luke Uran to go to the Need to Breathe concert and out for dinner.  It was so wonderful to spend time with great friends and enjoy wonderful music!!  Lots of gifts were received!!  I am so grateful...

Today I am leaving for Arizona with my parents and their foreign exchange student, Minsu, and am looking forward to a week of seeing God's little gifts in my life.  Its amazing when you start looking for the things we can be thankful for, it really does change your whole outlook on life!!

stresses of life

So life has taken a little crazy turn as of late!!

First of all, Joe has been having stomach issues since this past July, and has lost about 35 lbs due to it. The last couple weeks he has not really been able to eat at all, and finally got in to both a primary care doctor and a gastro doctor. The gastro doctor put him on a liquid only diet, so he has just been drinking ensure. He had a CT scan yesterday and will have an endoscopy on Tuesday in Rockford, with a follow up appointment with the gastro on Thursday. So we are very anxious to get some answers. Its been really hard having him not feel good and not being able to eat. we are very anxious to having him feel back to normal soon!! Prayers are appreciated!!

Second... Joe is being trasnfered to ATI in Rockford, which is very exciting for us because we'd love to be closer to my parents and I would also have to travel a little less for my job as well since I'm based out of Rochelle and see patients in Rockford. So now we're trying to figure out how we can get out of the apt we are currently in. Joe is to start in Rockford the beginning of December, but to break our lease it would cost $3000 or we can find someone to sub-let it. So that is what we are trying to do. We will see. It is sure hard to just be patient tho and trust that God will carry us through this. I hate not knowing what is going on. We don't want to find a place up there until we know that we have someone to live here...so if you know of anyone looking for an apt. in Aurora, let us know!!! Its such a nice apt, we really love it, I just wish I could move it to Rockford with us!!

Other than that I am loving my job and we are having lots of fun with Elsie. She has a little cone on now cause she had surgery and keeps trying to lick her stitches. I feel so bad for her ha ha. But she has been a great companion for us!! Good stress reliever when we are stressed out!! Thanks for keeping us in your prayers!

my new job so far :o)

So I am loving my new job at Unity Hospice. I feel like I"m still getting into the swing of things, but since I am working with my friend Brittany, its wonderful to work along side her and kinda pick up things as I go. I was working at both Unity and the Coach Outlet, but finally had to quit at Coach. It was just too much to do both. So my last day was Monday at Coach and I'm so relieved to just be working one job now.

Tomorrow Elsie is having surgery (she has to be spayed) so I'm hoping that goes well and this weekend we're going to Rockford for the weekend to be with mom and dad. Our friends Dan and Kristin just got married in Florida and are having their reception in Rockford this weekend as well so we will be going to that :o)

Joe has been not feeling so great lately, so we're hoping we can get him feeling better very soon. Why does it have to be so difficult to get into a doctor!? Right now we are both in limbo with primary care doctors, what a pain!!

new job!

I got a new job! I will be working at Unity Hospice which is based out of Rochelle, IL, as a full time social worker. I am so excited to start!! This kinda fell into my lap because I had applied to this place (Unity Hospice) back in June and they wanted to interview me the week I was on my honeymoon and I said I could after I was back. Well by the time I was back they had hired someone and it turned out to be a good friend of mine from Grad school!! So now there is someone part time retiring and they are replacing her with someone full time cause the caseload is so big, so my friend emailed me right away and asked if I'd be interested and the people already knew who I was because of calling me before. So I interviews and they hired me on the spot which was great. I will be starting on Oct 13th and will have half of the district as my case load and my friend Brittany will have the other half. I will be traveling a lot but be able to meet with families in their homes and at nursing homes. It will be great! I can't wait to start. God is good :o)