Success

Well, I think yesterday was a success. :)  Here's what I was up to...

Visited Super Cao Nguyen, a huge Asian grocery store
Bought paper for the Neumans' sign at Hobby Lobby
Visited Walmart ($0.25 cans of pumpkin for the win!)
Stopped by to say hi to Amos at work
Visited Crest
Started pho, Vietnamese noodle soup (which our Vietnamese brother-in-law actually doesn't like!  ?!?!)
Mixed bread dough
Washed the dishes
Started to rearrange the upstairs
Listened to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Ate pho for dinner (very good!)

Today?
Finish organizing the upstairs
Wash more dishes
Bake my bread (when it finishes rising)
Start the sign for the Neumans
Read a book (hmmmmm, which one?!)
Figure out what to make for dinner
Try not to freeze!  The wind chill is driving the temperature down into negative territory!
Ring in the new year with my sweetheart and best friend! :)

A week off

I have this week off!  Amos and I spent Wednesday through Sunday up in Nebraska, visiting family, watching movies, eating dinakoga (I think that's how you spell it), shopping at Goodwill, and watching a brother and brother-in-law fix up Amos' parents' new house! ;)

I don't have to work this week (YEAAAAAAAAA!), so I am going to try to get a lot of things done.  Today's projects?

Pay rent
Go to the library
Go to Sprouts
Go to ALDI
Go to Hobby Lobby for some candleholders for my Goodwill candle sconces
Do the dishes and clean the kitchen
Make a list for the rest of the week!
Unpack and rearrange the living room
Vacuum the downstairs
Pick Amos up from work
Make dinner

List
Make a sign for Danielle and baby Amelia
Bleach the bathtub caulk
Clean the bathroom
Write down all the stuff that our landlord has done so we have a record in case we need it :P
Paint this year's ornament (oops)
Add and delete books from our master book list
Reshelve books
Pour candles
Bake bread
Clean and sweep the backyard
Write more blog posts
Finish at least one book
Work on my annual book post
Rearrange the upstairs
Take pictures of our new place

Almost 2015

Five more days till Christmas! What?!?!  Where has the time gone?

Work
I've been working at the OSU-OKC Testing and Assessment Center for two months now, and it is going okay.  The work isn't that hard, but it is customer service, so you hope every person who comes in is going to be nice.  You hope they won't throw a fit when you tell them they can't take an expired test, they should leave their mechanical pencils in their lockers, and, worst of all, they can't wear hats into the testing room.
I like my coworkers.  One of them, the only guy in the office, is a retired Navy guy.  He tells me stories about narrow misses with aircraft carriers and almost starting World War III during the Cold War off the coast of Libya.  He and his wife are Christians, and his wife used to be a missionary in Morocco, before they married about twelve years ago.  They are in their 60s, but they have two young girls that they adopted from Guatemala.  He is a really nice guy.

Church
We've attended one small group party and one Christmas celebration.  We like our small group people, even though attendance fluctuates and we are never sure who we are going to see on Sunday morning (small group time).
Amos went to a men's Bible study, and I've been to one missions meeting. I will hopefully be able to go to more in 2015, though I can already tell that the Covenant missions committee and the Crossroads missions team are very different.

Housing
We moved to a new place about six weeks ago!  We really like the townhome's split-level set up. Our landlord, however, is not so great.  Between entering our apartment without notice, poking in our tool box, messing with our thermostat, not fixing our gas when the gas company turned it off, and neglecting to our answer or return our calls, we are not impressed, to put it lightly.  We will see what the new year brings...hopefully he will behave himself.

Books
I've read a lot of books this year, but I think I've only finished three in the last two months. :P  Oh dear. I'd better get on that; I only have eleven more days until 2015!
Recent reads
Girls Like Us: Fighting for a World Where Girls Are Not for Sale, an Activist Finds Her Calling and Heals Herself, Rachel Lloyd
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, J.K. Rowling, audiobook (almost done)

Neglectful

My poor blog.  The only post this month.

Work has been going pretty well.  I enjoy my coworkers, two of whom are Christians.  The students have been nice, with a few exceptions (one refused to leave on Wednesday; my slightly scary boss convinced him).

Bob and Kristen Bruce, some friends from our OK church, invited us to spend Thanksgiving with their three little boys and extended family.  We had a great time, and the food was really good. :)

This weekend we are trying to get our house put together, mostly.  I unpacked several boxes of books last night, and it was like Christmas!  Books that we haven't seen for eight months, finally reappearing! :D

Cold front

The weather is about to turn cool cold, so I guess I'll get to experience fall.  I've never been one of those people to bemoan a lack of seasons.  Many of my friends and acquaintances in California complain that the state only sees two-three seasons: warm, hot, and, maybe, cool.

I never really felt the absence.  I love the orange, red, and gold leaves brought on by a cold snap, but my favorite season is late spring/early summer.  Bring on school breaks, summer camp, bright evenings outdoors, ice cream, and the Fourth of July!

It has been an unseasonably warm October here in OK, just like the summer was unseasonably cool.  It was 86 degrees on Monday and 75 today, but tomorrow we aren't going to break 60!

Oh dear...and I've already started wearing my leggings under my dress pants and jeans.

Odd, part 3

Continuing my series on weird Oklahoma, I have a few more observations to share with you.

Oil derricks. Oklahoma pumps a lot of oil, so oil derricks are everywhere.  I've seen derricks in grocery store parking lots, in the field surrounding our new church, and even at the State Capitol (the only state capitol with a functioning oil derrick; they are very proud of this).

Driving.  Oklahomans are very bad drivers.  People who say California has bad drivers have obviously never been to Oklahoma.

Tribal license plates.  Oklahoma is home to many different Indian tribes, each of which is actually a sovereign nation.  Each tribe has a unique license plate design.

Sidewalks.  Where are all the sidewalks?  Do they take them in during the day?!

Overalls.  Many men wear overalls here (though definitely not everyone).  When Amos and I go somewhere, I keep track of the overalled men I see; the highest score so far is three.  Amos says that we will be seeing more because the cool fall weather is coming.  (Amos and I went to the state fair back in September; I saw a grampa wearing overalls AND a fanny pack!)

Ma'am.  I work at a university now, so I get called ma'am several times a day.  It throws me off every time.

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Part 1
Part 2

Hi-ho, hi-ho

Time to dust off the Nalgene and the glass lunchware; I go back to work tomorrow!  It's been a nice seven months off.  Tomorrow I'll get up at 6:00 am, leave by 7:30, drop Amos off at 7:50, get to work by 8:05, start work at 9:00, get off work at 6:00, get Amos by 6:20, and get home by 6:30.  It is going to be a loooooong day.

This morning I made these pancakes (before church!).  For lunch I made quick enchilada bowls.  Tonight I'm making chicken piccata.

We have a few muffins and a box of waffles in our freezer, and leftover pancakes, some vanilla yogurt, and two dozen eggs in our fridge for breakfasts. We have windmill cookies, three kinds of pudding, and pumpkin pie for lunchtime desserts.  We have a few choices for snacks, and we have several dinner options ready be whipped up (hopefully quickly).

I think I'm ready as I'll ever be, at least in the food department, if the rice will just cook...

Cleaning

One thing I will not miss about this apartment is the cigarette smoke that wafts in periodically.  I also will not miss the "gargoyles," aka pigeons.  The little varmints can have our porch back in about three weeks, when we move to our new place!

Amos and I put down a deposit on a small townhouse only a few blocks away.  We would prefer to live in a little house in a small town to the west, but this will be fine for now. :)  The townhome has two stories and a little nook under the stairs; I'm hoping that we can get a papasan for the nook.  (I was going to get a papasan many months ago from Craigslist, but just as Amos and I were leaving to pick it up, the lady woman texted to say her husband wouldn't sell it to us after all!)

Anyway, I have started to clean our current apartment so that we will have less to do when we actually move.  So far I've bleached the bathtub and shower, wiped down the kitchen cabinets, cleaned the grease vent (might need to do that again later :P ), packed up our DVDs and books, scrubbed the oven, dusted the ceiling fan, and started on the refrigerator.  My latest audiobook, Rilla of Ingleside by L.M. Montgomery, just finished, so now I need to find another good one in order to keep up steam!

Pistol Pete

Pistol Pete; via wikipedia

Two and a half weeks ago, I interviewed for a job at Oklahoma State University at Oklahoma City. I dressed up in my professional clothes, drove over to the small campus, and did a good job answering all my interviewers' questions, in spite of a cold.  By five o'clock that same day, I had a new job!  No more substitute teaching! Yea yea yea!!!

I'll soon be working at the school's testing center as a clerk, proctoring exams, recording results, working the front desk, etc., but for now, I am waiting on my background check!  The dumb thing was hung up on Los Angeles County, last I heard.  Oh well.  I am thankful that I have this job and that my supervisor is as anxious for me to start as I am!

Soon I'll be working at an extension campus of one of the top schools in Oklahoma (the main campus is in Stillwater).  OSU's colors are orange and black, their team name is the Cowboys (or the Pokes), and their mascot is an ugly little guy called Pistol Pete.

I am very thankful for the way that God provided this job for me...and I hope I like it! :)

New!

I added a new blog photo.  What do you think?  I used Photoshop (yes, the real Photoshop) to merge a picture of one of my watercolors, a map, and some text.  I like it!  I might need to change the blog's color scheme to match, but I'll leave everything as is for now.

Time may be in short supply soon (I interviewed for a full-time job today), but if any of my many friends across the globe would like a prayer card designed, I'd be happy to do it for you!

Out with the old...

in with the new!

In the library

Setting: The local library on a warm Saturday afternoon.  Patrons are using computers, perusing the stacks, sitting uncomfortably in too-small chairs.

Indistinct voice from stage right, indignant: Mumble mum mumble my shoes! Mum mumble!!

[Jennica's ears prick; she moves down the stacks to get a clear yet discreet view of the offended party.  She passes Amos and catches his eye with a delighted grin.]

Indignant: He took my shoes!

Librarian hurries up

Librarian, amazed: What?! He took your shoes?!

Indignant, rising above a stage whisper: Yes, he took my sneakers and left these flip flops!  I told him to stop messing with them.  I just thought he was bopping to his music or something, but he took my shoes!!!

[Jennica secretly wonders why she removed her tennis shoes in the first place]

Librarian, amazed: . . .

Helpful patron: Yeah, she told him.  I heard her.

Third patron brings up pictures of the suspect on a laptop or phone

Indignant: No, that wasn't him.  He looked nice.  He was dressed in bright colors, with pink.

Librarian: Pink!

Indignant: And he took my athletic shoes!  And they were women's shoes!

Librarian: Those aren't yours? [gestures at flip flops]

Indignant: No!  I'm from Arkansas, so I can leave barefoot [smoker laugh], but he took my shoes!

Librarian: This happened before, just a week or so ago!


Amos and Jennica are done picking out materials, so they reluctantly exit stage left.


Moral of the store: Never remove your shoes at the local library!

Quite a bit

I have quite a bit of time, yet WHY haven't I written a blog post in two weeks?!  Oh well, at least I'm writing one today!

Last week I worked every day at the Christian school connected to our Oklahoma church.  The classes are tiny and, substitute experience speaking, the students are very, very well behaved.  I'm not getting paid much, but that's okay.

Our apartment lease is about to go month-to-month, which is great.  We haven't found a place to live yet, but we will hopefully find one soon.

Danielle gave me the code for a free Shutterfly book, so I'm making an Aptartment 29 photo book!  I worked on it a lot yesterday, and I hope to finish it today.

I'm not a big animal person.  Animals are fun, but they take a lot of work and it is really sad when they die.  However, Amos and I have talked about getting a little mouse (I will name him Speedy).  We went to PetSmart on Sunday to look at them, but we only saw gerbils, rats, and hamsters.  I went to ask a checker about this.

Me: Do you have any mice?
Checker: Frozen.

I guess we'll have to look at Petco!