I Got a Job

I'm happy to announce that I am the new resident activity coordinator for Lost Spurs Ranch. What’s great about this is that I work for our apartment complex. That means no commuting! 

My main task will be to plan an event every week for the entire community. I’ll also be running an after-school tutoring program for the elementary students living in our apartment community.

The after-school program started Tuesday. I have 12 children involved ranging from kindergarten to fifth grade. Most of them are very good, and I’m grateful for that. The community events begin next week.

This job position has been vacant for a year, so the managers are very excited to have me.

I love that I can work from home and that I don’t have to work 40 hours a week. I’m not opposed to hard work, and this job is keeping me very busy, and since it’s the dollar amount that I need to bring in, how could I pass it up?!

Settling in to Roanoke

About a month ago now, we moved a little north to Roanoke, Texas for David’s job. The move wasn’t the hard part; it was the packing. 

I should have listened to my husband, but instead I rented a 20 foot U-Haul truck. It didn’t fit all of our stuff. Oops. But it all worked out because we had to go back down the next week so David could teach the adult class at Family Bible School in San Marcos at University Church of Christ.

Thank goodness the movers we hired in Austin were experienced, because they had the truck filled and packed so tightly that we literally couldn’t add a broom to it after they left. I’m so grateful we could afford to hire movers both in Austin and Roanoke. Especially in Roanoke since we live on the third floor.

We’re getting settled in up here in Roanoke. We don’t have quite enough room for all of our furniture in the living room. I’m still trying to figure out how to make it all fit without breaking our backs moving it around.

Preachers are typically known for having a lot of books, and David is definitely one of them! We need to buy at least one more full-sized bookshelf for him to be able to fit them all. Right now there’s still quite a few books packed in boxes. 

I don’t have room for a desk like I did in Austin, so I’m weeding out things as best as I can. It will probably take us a little bit to figure it all out, but we’ll manage for now. 

We’re really looking forward to having members of the church over! Everyone has been really helpful and friendly. Multiple people are even giving me lots of ideas for places to look for work. We are definitely blessed to have them as a church family.

Like I stated earlier, we hired movers, but we still had a few people from the church come and help us move in. And they bought us some groceries so we didn’t have to go grocery shopping right away. I was blown away by everyone’s generosity! 

Have I made it clear yet that we are really loving it up here? :) Even our dog is happy. He loves to follow us around the house all day, and any chance he gets, he jumps up into my lap. Here’s a picture of him sleeping on me.

Next Wednesday will be David’s first time to teach at Roanoke. He’ll also be preaching Sunday the 19^th and Wednesday the 22^nd. I’m excited for him! Please keep our preacher’s family, the Davis’s, in your prayers as they travel to Tennessee for Polishing the Pulpit this upcoming week. We’ll miss them while they’re gone.

That’s a good idea of what’s been going on so far. We’re staying plenty busy, in a good way.

David’s Graduation

It's been a while since I've had the time to blog, so that means there is a lot to write about. Something very important happened and I think it deserves special attention. That important event is that David graduated from the Southwest School of Bible Studies on Sunday, July 15th! I am SO proud of him!

Southwest is a two-year, intensive Bible study program located at the Southwest Church of Christ in Austin, Texas. The school goes year round, with a few weeks off for a summer break in July and August. It's basically four years of school crammed into two years. The students stay very busy!

David has learned so much about the Bible. We have been very blessed by multiple congregations around the United States who supported him financially through school. It was a great learning experience that not everybody is able to have. We are forever thankful for their generosity. 

Now that David has graduated, he's working as the associate minister intern for the Roanoke Church of Christ in Roanoke, Texas. If you'd like to know more about that, you can read my previous post filled with details here.

Congratulations and good job, David!

David receiving his diploma

We Found a Wiener Dog

Our last week of living in Austin and a lost dog shows up at our house on Saturday, July 7. She is an insanely skinny dachshund. I feel horrible not bringing her inside, but our landlord is allergic to dogs so we just can't. She seems like a pretty sweet dog.

I created a post on craigslist and have gotten lots of emails from people who are willing to take her in. Tomorrow I'm taking her to see if she's microchipped. If she isn't, I'll keep looking for her owner for a few more days. Unfortunately I'll have to give her to someone this weekend before we move. I'm screening the people as best as I can. I definitely want her to go to a loving and permanent home. She should never have to look so horrible again.

If you know of anyone who lost their dog in the Austin or Buda area please share this with them.

Housing in Roanoke

The weekend of June 22^nd we went up to Roanoke to look for houses. It was a long and hot experience, and not really that fun.

David got permission to miss school on Friday. It was very helpful to have all day Friday to look. We were in touch with a realtor before we left Austin, but she bailed on us. She had given us a few listings, so we had somewhere to start. After a while of looking around for houses on our own, we realized that the rent price for houses was out of our budget. On to apartment hunting we went.

I feel like it’s expensive to even rent an apartment. By the end of Friday we narrowed it down to two apartment complexes to choose between. We were looking at the floor plans and realized they had the same layout, except in the laundry room. The deciding factor came was the price. One complex had a special going on that made the rent more than $100 cheaper than the other one.

I’m a little sad to be back in an apartment, but I know it’s only temporary. Two and a half years at the longest and I can handle that. :)

 

I’m excited we can have our dog with us in this place! We’ve missed him, but I’m grateful my parents took care of him. 

Isn't Petey cute?

We move to Roanoke July 17^th. Our time in Central Texas is coming to a close so quickly.

David Got a Job

I’m proud to announce that David has accepted a job. He was offered multiple preaching positions, including one in Arkansas, but after a long time of praying and thinking we finally decided.

David is now the Associate Minister for the Roanoke Church of Christ in Roanoke, Texas. This is a two and a half year internship. He will get a lot of hands-on training that you can’t learn in a classroom. This really is a once in a lifetime opportunity for him. It’s going to make him an even better preacher.

David graduates from Southwest School of Bible Studies on Sunday, July 15. We will be moving up to Roanoke either Tuesday or Wednesday that week so we can be at Bible Study on Wednesday night.

The Dallas/Fort Worth area is completely new to both of us. We’ll be kind of far from our families, but we have each other and our church family. I’m just glad we’re still in Texas! 

I’ve already started job searching for myself. I’m hoping to use my public relations degree, but I’m staying open minded since job opportunities are still hard to find. 

Please keep us in your prayers as we travel and transition into this new area and new work.

Our First Wedding Anniversary

Wednesday, May 30 was our first wedding anniversary. I'd say that I've been pretty spoiled this year. David is always so sweet to me. He's really good about showing his appreciation of me. He definitely made me feel like a princess when we celebrated our anniversary!

We got up early the Saturday morning before our anniversary to celebrate the entire day. Our first stop was in Kyle at what David thought was a farmer’s market, but ended up being a flea market. Oops lol

After venturing around the flea market for a bit, we went to lunch in San Marcos at the restaurant where we had our first date. The food seemed extra good that day.

Next stop was the movie theater. We don’t see many movies in the theater anymore because it has gotten ridiculously expensive, so this was a treat for us. We watched “What to Expect When You’re Expecting.” Can you guess that I chose the movie?

Before the evening activities we went home to change. Everything was a secret until we arrived, but David did tell me dinner was business casual attire. We drove to downtown Austin and pulled up to The Driskill Grill. It’s a five star restaurant inside of an old hotel, and we got to sit in a corner booth that has been voted the most romantic seat in Austin for the past few years. The food was amazing! I had filet mignon and David had lamb.

For dessert we went and got coffee downstairs at the café. Coffee is definitely my weakness. Then we walked outside to a horse-drawn carriage. Talk about two of my favorite things happening at the same time. I grew up riding horses, but I’ve never ridden in a carriage. David had it planned ahead of time for our carriage to pass over Town Lake as the sun was setting.

 As if I needed anything else, David gave me a gift as we were passing over the lake. It was a beautiful silver necklace that is in the shape of an old skeleton key with diamonds in it. I love it! And a gift card to Starbucks. The first anniversary gift is paper so he had these cute purple paper flowers inside of my necklace box. I had to catch them before they flew away.

On our way home we stopped by Hey Cupcake to get a scrumptious cupcake. If you’re ever in Austin you should definitely get one. They’re worth the money.
 
I gave David two religious books and one non-religious book that he’s been wanting to read. His favorite gift was a silver shaving set. It’s an old timey one that has the brush to create the lather. He’s enjoyed shaving with it.

It was an amazing day with my sweet husband. He worked hard to plan everything and had me surprised the whole time. I’ll never forget all of the fun we had together celebrating our first year of marriage. I’m such a fortunate woman to have a husband who loves me as much as mine does.