Joys!

When I was still attending a Methodist church we had this thing during the service called, "Joys and Concerns" which was a time for the congregation to raise the hand and share something good that has happened that needs praise (Joy) or something that needs prayer (Concern). Lately, I've been having a lot of joys so I wanted to quickly share them because I know I get awfully full of complaints!
First, this last Saturday my little sister celebrated her 11th birthday! This is so surreal for me because unlike my older sisters, I was there the day she was born and watched this little baby grow into an 11 year old! I think about this every birthday because I'm so fascinated by the miracle of life. This must be what it's like to be a parent watching your baby grow up... Scary! I wish the best for her in her 11th year of life and I hope she can also survive her first year of Middle School!
Second, the joy of being BUSY! I've been helping Adam's aunt, Tia Patty with her son the past few weeks. He had about a month of no full time camps to go to and he's still needs a little bit of supervision and chauffeuring to tutoring and football. All I have to say is Portland was not built for traffic so driving across town to football practice is like a part time job! However, another joy has come from this which is that I'm really getting to know how to get around town! For the longest time I only knew the most direct route from getting from our apartment to Tia Patty's house but now I'm finally figuring out which streets go through and which don't!
Third, making new friends and connecting with old! This month has been the most social month I've had since I moved here. I met a new girl at our House Church who is also a CA transplant and we've managed to meet up about once a week. She's a pretty cool chick. I also received an e-mail from a girl who lived in Tucson, AZ who was family friends with my Aunt Jan's family who lives in Tuscon. She's new to Portland so we're going to meet up at some point! Lastly, my good friend from high school moved up here to live with her Aunt and Uncle and we got to meet up for dinner and gelato which was fun!
Adam told me a couple weeks ago when I was having a really bad day that I needed to create a list of short term goals for myself. Just about all my joys were in some way my goals. Even better news is that he worked a ton of shifts last week and he ended up getting an overtime shift today and works his normal shift tomorrow. We were worried that I would be sitting at home depressed with nothing to do but I'm actually needing to stop blogging to get ready to go do my drug test for The Container Store and head up to Tia Patty's to check on Leo (Adam's cousin).
Once last thing, I spoke with Adam's Abuela (grandma) on the phone the other day and she was congratulating me on the job and she said, "See! Your patience has paid off!" Yes Abuela, my patience, prayers, and pleas to God have paid off/been answered! I love her tid bits of wisdom! All for now, have an outstanding week everyone!

Finally!!!

I got a job!!! Finally, all the months of searching and applying for jobs has paid off!!! I applied and had two interviews with The Container Store and they called me the other day and would like to continue on with me. I have to pass the background check and all that first but it's looking good! I'm still nervous because I haven't signed anything yet. After I go in and fill out all the paperwork and stuff I'll feel a lot more relief.
I was not looking forward to going back into retail but I learned a lot about the company and they're extremely reputable and put their employees first. They treat employees very good which I'm excited about this because I've always worked in retail stores where they pay badly and you get in trouble when you don't sell anything when it's completely out of your control. The Container Store is very career oriented and they give their employees a lot of training. I'm excited about the training because I'll get to learn some new stuff and feel like I have a real job. The employee turnover in the store is also very low which is proof to me that they take care of their employees and I should be happy there.
Other then that Adam and I are a few weeks from closing on our house! I can't wait!!! We've met some more neighbors who have convinced us that the carpet in the house HAS TO GO!!! We obviously knew it was dirty so we were going to save money and have it cleaned. But now we know that the previous tenants had animals pooping on the carpet, dirty diapers laying on the carpet, and worst of all edible underwear mashed into the carpet by a small child! Adam and I are going to bite the bullet and get rid of it! Since we decided that the carpet has to go this means that we have to replace the hardwood before the carpet goes in for everything to match up correctly. We're looking into a nice laminate hardwood. We also have to paint before all the flooring goes in. Not to mention window treatments and a washer and dryer. Needless to say, it's a good thing I finally got a job!!! I'm so excited even though it will be a lot of work, I'm ready to move into my house!
Adam and I also started going to a new church... Sort of. We found a church closer to our new house called Solid Rock. We showed up on our first Sunday on time but we didn't know that there were so many people who go to the church so we ended up leaving because there weren't any open seats. No hard feelings though! We decided to start smaller because we really need to meet people are create genuine friendships so we have been going to a House Church through Solid Rock. A house church is like a Community Group or Bible Study. We do a little discussion about the scripture and lesson from the previous Sunday and then break into small groups and pray and then take Communion. The House Church we chose is really close to our new house and has a good mixture of people close to our age and walk of life. They're pretty tight knit from what they've told us so we were really encouraged to join a group that seems to run together outside of House Church. We have yet to actually attend a service at Solid Rock but we're very encouraged by the sense of community thus far! Thank you God!

The Thrill of Victory!!!

Adam and I got to go home to California for a little vacation last week and we went on a camping trip to Lake San Antonio. This is an annual camping trip that a group from Alicia's (Adam's mom) church goes on every summer and this is my second time going. Everyone in Adam's family was able to make it at one time or another, it was really great spending time with them. It was really great getting to spend time with our nephews because now every time we see them they have changed a lot. A few of the people that come have boats so a lot of the kids do a lot of wake boarding, tubing, and "wake skating", among other water sports. We decided to go on a special young adult ride so Adam, Brandon (my bro-in-law), and I could do some wake boarding. A friend of ours, Jon, was driving us on his boat and he asked me if I had ever tried wake boarding, I told him I've tried many times and cannot get up to save my life. I'm hopeless! Jon asked for 5 tries to get me up so I said fine, but I doubt it will happen! I let Adam and Brandon go first since they're pretty skilled at the sport. We got a nice show of them jumping, catching air, and even a nice back flip from Adam! Then it was my turn... Now, I'm not afraid of eating it because I've been there and done that many times. But I was still nervous about trying and failing again! I jump in yell to hit it and BAM! I popped up!!!!!! So amazing!!! Of course, I didn't really know what to do once I got up so amidst shock and excitement, I let go! After a few tries I finally stayed up and decided that staying outside the wake was easiest. I was so ecstatic that I was laughing and screaming because I finally conquered my long term goal of getting up on a wake board! My legs were starting to get wobbly so I decided to call it a day. I was so soar the day after but it was so worth it! I just wish my family could have been there to see because they're the ones who have put in all the effort to my previous attempts! I also have to admit though, that I think there were a couple of factors that helped me get up. First, the boat is smaller and faster then the boat I'm used to trying on. Second, the rope was connected to a canopy at the top of the boat rather then in the back of the boat. My cousin pointed this out to me. No matter what, I'm glad I was able to hold on! This isn't the greatest pic, I'm still trying to figure out how to save the images from the photographers Facebook.
Other news on the Nunez Front, we had our home inspection after getting back from CA and we passed! Now we have a large stack of paper working to go through for our financing. I'm sure our loan coordinator will be getting to know us well by the end of that!