We are moving to Arkansas in 16 days.
PRAISE GOD.
I can't wait.
13 May, 2009
02 May, 2009
reflections
As I was driving home one day last week, I was thinking about what I've learned from this experience here in Colorado. The lessons are vast in number. Here is what I can think of.
1. Everyone should move 1,000 miles away from their family and friends at least once in their life. If you think you appreciate those people now, move away from them and you'll never take them for granted again.
2. Research, research, research before you blindly take a job in a place you've never seen before. :)
3. Planning your grocery shopping for an entire week (like can't forget one thing at all) is a difficult job.
4. Planning your grocery shopping for several weeks at a time is VERY difficult when you don't know the next time you'll be able to go into civilization because of snow blizzards.
5. Driving into snow drifts isn't a good idea. It's rather difficult to get out.
6. There is no point in doing your hair when you have 50 mile an hour wind everyday.
7. Being able to drive 5 minutes to Wal-Mart, or any sort of civilization is a wonderful, wonderful thing.
8. Being the only teacher that teaches your grade is very, very difficult and exhausting.
9. Thinking the best of people is always a good thing, but you will often be very, very disappointed.
10. I've learned that I wouldn't trade this year in Colorado for anything. It's possibly been the hardest year of my life (and I think I'll look back on this when I'm old and probably say the same thing) but I've learned more about life, love, teaching, family, friends than I could have ever imagined. I feel like I've gotten about 10 years of life experience in one small year. I'm glad that we moved, but I'm even more glad (you can't imagine!) that we are moving back home. There is no place like home... that's for sure.
1. Everyone should move 1,000 miles away from their family and friends at least once in their life. If you think you appreciate those people now, move away from them and you'll never take them for granted again.
2. Research, research, research before you blindly take a job in a place you've never seen before. :)
3. Planning your grocery shopping for an entire week (like can't forget one thing at all) is a difficult job.
4. Planning your grocery shopping for several weeks at a time is VERY difficult when you don't know the next time you'll be able to go into civilization because of snow blizzards.
5. Driving into snow drifts isn't a good idea. It's rather difficult to get out.
6. There is no point in doing your hair when you have 50 mile an hour wind everyday.
7. Being able to drive 5 minutes to Wal-Mart, or any sort of civilization is a wonderful, wonderful thing.
8. Being the only teacher that teaches your grade is very, very difficult and exhausting.
9. Thinking the best of people is always a good thing, but you will often be very, very disappointed.
10. I've learned that I wouldn't trade this year in Colorado for anything. It's possibly been the hardest year of my life (and I think I'll look back on this when I'm old and probably say the same thing) but I've learned more about life, love, teaching, family, friends than I could have ever imagined. I feel like I've gotten about 10 years of life experience in one small year. I'm glad that we moved, but I'm even more glad (you can't imagine!) that we are moving back home. There is no place like home... that's for sure.
26 April, 2009
Random assortment of thoughts
-So we're like 45 days from the wedding. Sarah's freaking out a bit.
-The upside to this is that I get to play a lot of video games.
-We have 16 days of school left, this couldn't come soon enough.
-I really want Sarah or I to get a job soon.
-I also really want to buy a house.
- My dog tried to eat through her color.
- We have a chance of snow tomorrow, its the end of April.
- Sarah has done a ton of stuff, thank you notes, invitations, etc.
- Does anybody else find it slightly ridiculous that we had to spend $80+ just for postage for the invitations?
-I started packing my house today. There's a lot of crap that we're moving.
- Abita Strawberry Lager is about as good as it gets.
- I really want enchiladas right now.
- I've also decided that I don't like having Monday's off as much as I thought I did.
- Let me explain this. Up till a few weeks ago I hadn't actually had a full three day weekend, I've now had two, and honestly, it makes the weekend kind of long and boring.
- I think the above is mostly because we live in Simla, an hour from civilization.
16 April, 2009
The hell that is Colorado
So dear friends for all of you that have ever thought about moving to Colorado, let me advise against it. It is now the middle of April. This weekend we are expecting somewhere between 12-30 inches of snow.
While this would normally be a good thing, i.e. snow day tomorrow, for Sarah and I this causes a fairly large problem. Sarah is supposed to fly to Arkansas tomorrow at 4 for a couple of wedding showers, and then on Monday she has a meeting with a principal (we are really hopeful about that!!) now when we booked this flight we booked it as late as possible to avoid snow. We being normal reasonable southern folk never considered that it could possibly snow the last half of April, let alone snow 2+ feet.
So here is our predicament, starting tomorrow morning about 2 it is supposed to begin snowing, and not stop till Saturday afternoon. Don't you love Colorado.
It looks like now that I just might be making an unscheduled and unfortunately brief trip to Arkansas.
Joy, Joy, Joy.
While this would normally be a good thing, i.e. snow day tomorrow, for Sarah and I this causes a fairly large problem. Sarah is supposed to fly to Arkansas tomorrow at 4 for a couple of wedding showers, and then on Monday she has a meeting with a principal (we are really hopeful about that!!) now when we booked this flight we booked it as late as possible to avoid snow. We being normal reasonable southern folk never considered that it could possibly snow the last half of April, let alone snow 2+ feet.
So here is our predicament, starting tomorrow morning about 2 it is supposed to begin snowing, and not stop till Saturday afternoon. Don't you love Colorado.
It looks like now that I just might be making an unscheduled and unfortunately brief trip to Arkansas.
Joy, Joy, Joy.
12 April, 2009
2 months
In two months I will officially be Mrs. Sarah Stallings. While I have tried not to jibber jabber too much about our wedding (I find it annoying when others do this). This post is dedicated to the wedding. So read on if you like.
1. Living 1,000 miles away from any bridesmaid makes life a little more difficult I think. While some brides have "invitation parties" where everyone comes to help address, stamp, lick envelopes of invitations- I, my friends, do not have that luxury. I have taken on the task of doing all invitations by myself. While this might not seem like that big of an undertaking, our "smallish" wedding of 150 has somehow grown to be well over 200. I'm guessing once it's all said and done we'll be at about 230ish. 230. 230 invitations. 230 invitations to stuff, stamp, lick. It's a lot.
2. I've started having these wedding day nightmares. For example, some how my wedding dress turned into a red/white seersucker wedding dress and my shoes were hot pink. In my dream, I was very concerned (not about the seersucker) but about the fact that my shoes and dress did not match. I also had a dream about people fainting during the ceremony, me BAWLING throughout the whole thing (we are talking SOBS, okay? not the sweet I'm in love and getting married crying, the I just lost my best friend SOBS).
3. Planning a wedding long distance is just not the easiest thing to do. And I'm really nervous that I'm forgetting something really important... like vital to the day important.
4. While we want our wedding to be elegant, we want it to be simple too. And fun. Hense why we decided to go with a BBQ/picnic type reception. I just hope that other people enjoy our "style" of wedding too.
5. Going back to the whole invitation thing- I decided not to hand address all the wedding invites (is that tacky?) Since I would be writing everything myself (too daunting of a task) and have heard horrible nightmare situations of printing directly on the envelopes, I decided to go with clear labels that our invitation designer designed herself (it ties in w/ the invite theme). Is this bad? I hope people don't think it's tacky. It's for my sanity people... just remember that.
6. One last thing- Right now, I am planning a wedding, looking for a new job, and getting ready to pack up and move within two months. How crazy am I?
1. Living 1,000 miles away from any bridesmaid makes life a little more difficult I think. While some brides have "invitation parties" where everyone comes to help address, stamp, lick envelopes of invitations- I, my friends, do not have that luxury. I have taken on the task of doing all invitations by myself. While this might not seem like that big of an undertaking, our "smallish" wedding of 150 has somehow grown to be well over 200. I'm guessing once it's all said and done we'll be at about 230ish. 230. 230 invitations. 230 invitations to stuff, stamp, lick. It's a lot.
2. I've started having these wedding day nightmares. For example, some how my wedding dress turned into a red/white seersucker wedding dress and my shoes were hot pink. In my dream, I was very concerned (not about the seersucker) but about the fact that my shoes and dress did not match. I also had a dream about people fainting during the ceremony, me BAWLING throughout the whole thing (we are talking SOBS, okay? not the sweet I'm in love and getting married crying, the I just lost my best friend SOBS).
3. Planning a wedding long distance is just not the easiest thing to do. And I'm really nervous that I'm forgetting something really important... like vital to the day important.
4. While we want our wedding to be elegant, we want it to be simple too. And fun. Hense why we decided to go with a BBQ/picnic type reception. I just hope that other people enjoy our "style" of wedding too.
5. Going back to the whole invitation thing- I decided not to hand address all the wedding invites (is that tacky?) Since I would be writing everything myself (too daunting of a task) and have heard horrible nightmare situations of printing directly on the envelopes, I decided to go with clear labels that our invitation designer designed herself (it ties in w/ the invite theme). Is this bad? I hope people don't think it's tacky. It's for my sanity people... just remember that.
6. One last thing- Right now, I am planning a wedding, looking for a new job, and getting ready to pack up and move within two months. How crazy am I?
10 April, 2009
Because He Lives
I woke up singing this song this morning. Perfect for Good Friday.
 | Words and music by William J. Gaither © 1971 Matthew 28:6
He came to love, heal and forgive; He lived and died to buy my pardon, An empty grave is there to prove my Savior lives!
Because He lives, I can face tomorrow, Because He lives, all fear is gone; Because I know He holds the future, And life is worth the living, Just because He lives! How sweet to hold a newborn baby,
Because He lives, I can face tomorrow, Because He lives, all fear is gone; Because I know He holds the future, And life is worth the living, Just because He lives! And then one day, I'll cross the river,
Because He lives, I can face tomorrow, Because He lives, all fear is gone; Because I know He holds the future, And life is worth the living, Just because He lives! |
07 April, 2009
We're Moving Again (to Arkansas this time!)
So, as you may have noticed from the new title of our blog... we are officially moving to Arkansas on May 30th! So, here's the story of how this came to be.
As you may or may not know, I hate Colorado. A lot. There are various reasons that I have for this hatred the number one reason being that we have no family here. Let me tell ya- family means a lot. It's hard not having close friends here, not having family, and living in towns that well, just plain suck. I can't really begin to express to you how out in the middle of no where we are. We are out there. WAAAAAAY out there.
Jamie and I have been toying with the idea of moving back to AR since December. It was really just an option, not a serious consideration yet at that point; however, the longer that time went on the more appealing the idea became. We eventually said "We'll move to AR if we get jobs there." And we started applying. What finalized it was Spring Break. When we came back from Spring Break we started saying things like "WHEN we move back to AR" instead of "IF we move back to AR".
Notice that I have made no mention of jobs thus far. That is because we don't have jobs right now. We are completely trusting in the Lord that He will provide for us in whatever way that may be. The funny thing is- we are very at peace about this whole thing (and if you know Jamie and I, that's very not us). We know God is merciful and will take care of us. We know that we have family and friends that will do whatever they can for us. And bottom line is, we know that we will be happier in AR. Maybe much poorer, but happier. And that's what matters to us in the long run. Who cares if we are poor the first few years of our marriage (who isn't?) we'll be with family and friends and be happy.
So that's our exciting news. Moving and getting married within 13 days of each other. Crazy? Sure, but it's just another great adventure!
As you may or may not know, I hate Colorado. A lot. There are various reasons that I have for this hatred the number one reason being that we have no family here. Let me tell ya- family means a lot. It's hard not having close friends here, not having family, and living in towns that well, just plain suck. I can't really begin to express to you how out in the middle of no where we are. We are out there. WAAAAAAY out there.
Jamie and I have been toying with the idea of moving back to AR since December. It was really just an option, not a serious consideration yet at that point; however, the longer that time went on the more appealing the idea became. We eventually said "We'll move to AR if we get jobs there." And we started applying. What finalized it was Spring Break. When we came back from Spring Break we started saying things like "WHEN we move back to AR" instead of "IF we move back to AR".
Notice that I have made no mention of jobs thus far. That is because we don't have jobs right now. We are completely trusting in the Lord that He will provide for us in whatever way that may be. The funny thing is- we are very at peace about this whole thing (and if you know Jamie and I, that's very not us). We know God is merciful and will take care of us. We know that we have family and friends that will do whatever they can for us. And bottom line is, we know that we will be happier in AR. Maybe much poorer, but happier. And that's what matters to us in the long run. Who cares if we are poor the first few years of our marriage (who isn't?) we'll be with family and friends and be happy.
So that's our exciting news. Moving and getting married within 13 days of each other. Crazy? Sure, but it's just another great adventure!
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