hired! and other news.

I just realized that I haven't written anything in a while, and that I'm not exactly sure where I left off. I spent the first part of last week preparing for my trip to Virginia, Thursday to Sunday in Virginia, and Monday and Tuesday being lazy and recuperating from Virginia. I'm tired of being lazy now, though, and I need to be productive. Speaking of which, I got the job at Cato! I spent four hours in training on Tuesday morning, and Monday will be my first work day. My manager scheduled me for eight hours - 12:30 to 9:30; we'll see how that goes! I only work five hours on Thursday, but I agreed to work at the Jacksonville store an extra three hours on the 4th of July. I need as many hours as I can get.

Kendra sent me a draft of her budget for the spring semester in France, and I honestly don't know where all of the money is going to come from. Even though I know that God's always taken care of the details in the past, I'm starting to stress about it now. I know I shouldn't. :P I just don't have $6000, or a definite plan for getting it. Anyway. I'm just going to put that aside for now and think about it tomorrow when I'm not tired and I've had time to sleep on it and pray about it.

In other news, the trip was ctrl-alt-awesome! I just wish that I'd been able to stay longer. I miss Lindsey. :( But seeing her for three and a half days was better than not seeing her at all. She'll be coming back for Bop on the Lake in September, so I'll have a chance to spend more time with her then. :) Anyway, the combination of Lindsey and me with Stephen, Nathan, Tiffany, and Ian was amazing. Except for the few hours we had to crash for at least a little sleep, we were filling the time with pedicures, hot tubs, impulsive Target trips, failed tequila runs, hair highlighting, dancing, Catch Phrase, Rock Band, metro hopping, conversation, spy missions, and other random craziness. I really enjoyed meeting Tiffany, Ian, and Nathan (it was about time!). ;) Hopefully, it won't be the last time that I see any of them, because they're all rather awesome in their own right. I would definitely invite them to come with me and T-Pain on a boat. ;)

After such an eventful weekend and a late flight home on Sunday, I crashed hard on Monday, physically and emotionally. I was so exhausted, and I actually felt kinda blue. Looking forward to the weekend for so long and realizing it was over was a bit of a let down, but that's just how things go. I never want good times to be over. On the bright side, though, at least I can make new good times! :) I've decided that I'm ready to spend my time more productively this summer, and I seem to have plenty to think about and plenty to do, too. I need to prepare things to move into my apartment, balance my bank accounts and figure out a budget for the next year (including France), get involved in some of the ministry opportunities coming up at church, schedule the repair for my car, and take care of some Mary Kay business. I suppose, if I have the time, I'd also like to do more reading, and maybe I'll finally finish the scrapbook of my trip to Québec. I bought a really cute scrapbook today that I'm going to use for France pictures - a random Tuesday Morning find. :) Probably the last thing I'm going to buy for the next six months, too. :/

Anyway.....despite all these things that have crept onto my mind, I'm still feeling much more at peace this week than I have been. God's helped me to surrender a few things to Him, and I think I'm finally allowing myself to just be still -- still enough to feel His strong, steady hands around me and to remember the peace and security of being His. There is such freedom in being owned by Christ; I don't understand why I think my way is better sometimes. :P *sigh* Once again, I find myself pushing every hindrance aside, out of my way. Such is life, I think.

Well, I'm going to go pick up my room and get ready for bed. I'm getting sleepy. I just caught myself typing, "It's been nice talking to you." Hehe. I guess I do feel like I'm talking to someone when I write, if only to myself. The conversation I have in my head really helps me to identify and organize my feelings and process problems. Anyway, I've enjoyed the chat. :) Later.

exhaustion, and new recipes.

I'm not sure what I'm going to write about, but it's been a few days...and I don't have the energy to do anything else at the moment. I've been on the verge of a headache all day, and I can't figure out why. Hopefully it won't linger. Mom is taking us to the lake tomorrow afternoon to swim since it's finally getting warm enough. Some of my best summer memories have been made at the lake on lazy afternoons with my family, a friend or two, some splash bombs, lots of snacks, the sand, and the water. Throw in a stop at Sonic or Pizza Hut on the way home, and I call it a great day. :)

I didn't realize until I collapsed on my bed a little while ago how crazy today was. I was describing it to Stephen, and it was just one thing after another. It even started oddly, because I woke myself up at 8:30 by falling out of bed. :P I caught myself on my hands and knees, so I didn't hurt myself, but it was such a strange experience, waking up and staring at the floor. My first thought was just, "What the heck? I haven't fallen off my bed since...I don't even remember when!" I hadn't been sleeping well, I suppose, and I was tossing and turning. Anyway, I made sure I looked extra-cute (well, at least I hope so), made a Mary Kay delivery at 12:30 and then interviewed with the manager at Cato. I think I'd have a great chance at the job if I was going to be available for a longer period of time. No one is looking for temporary employees. :P The manager who interviewed me did say that she'd consider me if she didn't find someone who could fill the position on a more permanent basis, though, so I suppose I have more of a chance than I would otherwise. She scheduled my interview before she knew I was only looking for work during the summer.

After the interview, I made a run to the grocery store to pick up some produce and a few extra ingredients I needed to make risotto for dinner. Mom called when I was almost through, asking me to pick her up at the body shop, because they needed over an hour to look at the van. We stopped at a couple of furniture stores because she and Dad wanted my opinion on the couch and chair they're trying to find for the living room. By that time, I was pretty hungry, having not eaten in six hours, so I made myself a grilled cheese sandwich when we got back home. (For some reason, I've been craving grilled cheese this week.) I'd just sat down when the shop called to tell us the van was ready, so I had to finish my sandwich, wait for a bit of family drama to cool down, and then take Mom back to the shop to pick it up. By the time I got home again, it was time to start prepping dinner. Hehe.

I spent a couple hours working on Fennel and Onion Risotto (my first try at risotto) and Lemon-Garlic Chicken (my own experiment). The risotto took a while, since I'd never made it before, but it was super-delicious. Everyone said they liked it, but the proof was in the fact that they actually ate it, and Dad even went back for seconds. :) I'm excited about trying different risotto recipes now. :) Even though I was pretty tired after dinner was done, I decided to whip up a batch of Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies, a recipe that Lindsey shared with me. She said they're her favorites, so I figured I couldn't go wrong. Sure enough, they're fantastic! There isn't any plain sugar in the recipe - only rolled oats, bananas, oil, vanilla, cinnamon, salt, almond meal, shredded coconut, and chocolate chips. I substituted some extra oats for the coconut, since I didn't have any on hand, and I adjusted for the loss of sweetness by using cocoa-roasted almonds to make the almond meal and using very ripe bananas. It looks like an easy recipe to experiment with, so I may do that when I have some extra time after the trip.

Speaking of which, it's only two days 'til I fly to Virginia! :D I still need to do laundry and wrap up some last-minute tasks, but I should be more than ready to hop on the plane Thursday morning. I'm so excited!

I'm also very tired, so I'm going to finish this episode of Lie to Me and call it a night.
~Grace

new things.

So, it's one o'clock on a Thursday afternoon, and I'm still in bed, pondering the wonderfulness of summer days with nothing to do. :) I had a thoroughly enjoyable day yesterday with Stephen, wandering around at the mall and trying on weird outfits, hanging out with Justin and Britany, swing dancing at the Bop Club, and drinking milkshakes at Sonic. My car battery even died at Sonic, so that was a small adventure in itself. There was a very kind lady there who had a pair of jumper cables, though, and helped us out. I need to tell Dad about that tonight and get some cables for myself to keep in the car. It's not the first time this car has died.

Anyway, I wish that I had some extra spending money at the moment. If I did, I'm pretty sure I would have gotten one of the dresses I tried on at Dillard's. They were holding one of their after-prom clearance sales, so the dresses were actually affordable, and there were one or two that were absolutely stunning. :D Oh well, it won't be the last time I find a pretty dress. :) Stephen bought me some earrings that I can't wait to wear. The fleur de lis caught my eye. ;)

I'd been warming Stephen up to the idea of learning how to swing dance, so when Lindsey mentioned that we might go dancing next Friday night, I figured I should take him to the Bop Club at least once to give him a crash course. Last night, they were teaching the Basic II, which is close enough to the beginning to catch on. The instructors were extremely helpful and actually gave him private tutoring and practice after the lesson. I'm excited -- he caught on really quickly and wants to improve. :) In his words, I now have a dance partner that I like and who isn't a creepy old man. ;)

Oh, just finished watching the pilot episode of Mental on Hulu, and I genuinely liked it. For me, it was a perfect combination: intellectually interesting, emotionally touching, amusingly witty, and at times, laugh-out-loud funny. The cute and British Dr. Jack Gallagher factor is a plus, too. ;) Anyway, overall, it seemed real. Or maybe I just have too much interest in or experience with mental disorders. :P That aspect of the show is actually intriguing; in that sense, it reminds me a bit of Monk. At certain points, it flashes to what a particular patient in the psychiatric hospital is seeing, and it's interesting to guess what kind of disorder they have. I figured out a couple of them. Anyway, I'm looking forward to catching up on more episodes...there's only three so far. Yay - new show! :)

Well, I should probably get out of my pjs or something. :P Probably. Maybe I will, maybe I won't. lol

maybe too lazy?

The days seem to be getting lazier. I need to find something to do. :P I've accomplished some important things over the past couple of weeks, but my level of productivity is slowly waning. Maybe I should take a few hints from Lindsey, though, and learn that it's actually okay to relax! :)

I made some banana bread with Mom's new stand mixer last weekend, and it turned out to be rather tasty. Just using the stand mixer was a dream come true, since I've been patiently waiting for years while Mom and Dad talked about getting one but never did. :P Anyway, I was just lying on my bed staring at my shelves, and I realized that I haven't watched all of my Good Eats DVDs yet, much less tried all of the recipes. That sounds like a good summer project. I'm sure Mom won't object to my planning some meals over the next few weeks - the more time she has to sew, the better. Perhaps I'll finally get to wear those skirts she's been working on for months. ;) (just kidding, Mom)

I should probably make a packing list for my trip to Virginia so that I don't forget anything important. I'm so excited...I haven't seen Lindsey in nearly a year, and Stephen's flying out with me on the 18th for a four day visit. 9 days, 21 hrs, 05 mins! :D

I have a couple of job interviews coming up that I'm a little tiny bit nervous about. I don't know how they'll go, or what will come of them, but hopefully one of them will result in a job. Then maybe some of the financial pressure will be off. There are several large-ish expenses coming up that I really want to be able to take care of on my own. I guess this is one of those times when I have to trust God to work things out.

Anyway...I'm off to do...things.....

:)