Quick Catchup

Well, a lot has happened since that last entry. For all you people know, I never made it out of Peru. You can rest easy, I am back in the USA. We had a great vacation time in Puno, and then all gratefully headed home. I came back home to Tennessee, so glad to be back to familiar foods and digestive normalcy.

I spent the fall semester fishing, doing Pilates/Yoga, traveling to Baylor and the beach, cooking, taking pictures of food, and, oh yeah, looking for a job. Finally a week before Thanksgiving, Larry Correll-Hughes (my old boss/hall director at Baylor) saw a post of mine on Facebook about looking for a job. He knew a former Baylor Residence Hall Director, Sharia Brock, who is now the Director of Residence Life at Mississippi College. She had an open position for a Residence Hall Director (RD). I turned in my application the week of Thanksgiving, did a phone interview the next week, and traveled down to Clinton, MS for an on-campus interview the week after that. The next week I traveled to Dallas for Cody's graduation from nursing school (YAY!). I came a week early so we could spend some time together before heading separate ways for an undetermined amount of time (Cody home to Alaska, me back home to Tennessee). That Tuesday Mississippi College called and offered me the position. I accepted it on Thursday. Friday Cody had his pinning ceremony and that night he proposed to me on Baylor's campus on the swing we sat on when we first talked about our feelings for each other! I accepted that offer too. I was completely surprised and very excited. The next day he graduated from Baylor with his BSN. Less than 2 hours after graduation, however, Cody's car was broken into while we were eating a celebratory lunch at Cheddar's. A plethora of actions were then required. I won't bore you with the details.

Monday we left Dallas - the Sherman's driving to Florida and me along for the ride until reaching Georgia where I took a shuttle to Chattanooga and then went home. Christmas was the next week. We had the usual catfish stew Christmas dinner with mom's family and wrapping paper fight with dad's in Columbia. Then New Year's Day I packed my Honda and moved to Mississippi. Among all that, Kim, my youngest sister, went to India on a mission trip for 2 weeks, including Christmas Eve and Day. So, we actually celebrated our immediate family Christmas at the beginning of December, before all of the Texas excitement. She had a great time and returned safely.

I have really enjoyed my job and life in Mississippi. I live in an apartment on the campus of Mississippi College. I am in charge of 7 RAs and a building full of upperclassmen girls. Mostly I meet people - RDs for weekly staff meetings, RAs for weekly staff meetings, RAs for bi-weekly one-on-ones, students when they lock themselves out of their rooms. I also get to be on call a few weeks of the semester. Mostly you just carry around a phone and hope it doesn't ring :) I work in the Counseling Center on campus as the other half of my job - planning outreach events, organizing files, and other general office work.

I found a really great church close to campus. It's called Morrison Heights Baptist Church and I love that they have lots of opportunities for people to serve. From the first Sunday, I felt like I was needed. I am also a part of a great singles Sunday school class there. I know I'm not exactly single, but I'm not married either, so I've settled in the singles class. And I'm so glad I have. The people are great, and everyone really has ownership of the group. Recently we've enacted a (frequency to be determined) game night. At our first meeting we had a great time playing Nertz, Taboo, Bananagrams, and Psychologist.

Probably a month ago Cody accepted a job at Mat-Su Regional Medical Center in Palmer (his hometown) as an RN. He then passed the NCLEX, officially becoming an RN! He completed training at the hospital almost 2 weeks ago and is currently on his 5th night shift since last Tuesday. Two and a half more weeks of night shift and then he will be working during the day, for a few weeks at least.

The excitement and stress overshadowing all of this is the not so happy counterpart to engagement - wedding planning. The first decision we made on the drive from Dallas to Georgia was that we were getting married in Tennessee. It is where my family is, a really pretty area, and in the middle of his family in Florida and Kentucky. Then we debated whether to get married in September and live in Mississippi, or wait until May 2012 and live in Alaska. September because I like fall and May because I would have stayed at my job for at least a year and a half.

Three months and not enough decisions later, we are getting married in September and moving to Alaska. And...that's about all the things we have confirmed. Between starting a new job and being 7 hours away, it has been difficult to plan a wedding. I have spent Spring Break this past week at home in Tennessee in hopes of nailing down a lot more details. Or at least a place and a date. Hopes were high for a church I stumbled upon last fall and loved. It has a beautiful prayer room and a creek running alongside the property. I was called back tonight and told that they no longer allow any non-church members to have weddings there :( So I kind of feel like it's back to the drawing board. I have looked at other places this week though and still have a few things to check out. It's just not going to be as easy as I'd hoped.

As for Cody and me, the night shift and a 3 hour time difference doesn't make for the easiest communication, but we've had a lot of practice being apart and I'm sure we will adapt to the added challenge. I'm excited he is finally getting to do what he has been studying for so long.

My feelings change daily about the decision to move to Alaska. On one hand it will be a great adventure and experience. On the other it will be cold and dark and far away from my family. Cody will be able to stay at his job after completing 3 months of a training/supervision stage. I will have to leave my job and church that I really enjoy after only 5 months. We get to be around his whole family. We will see my family at Christmas and my sister's graduation. Also, I will have to sell, or transport and store at my parents' house, the furniture I just bought for my apartment. Whichever location we had picked, one of us would have to give up a lot. This time it's my turn. I call dibs on picking the next location though :)

I was going to just start the blog back up once I moved to Alaska, but after some wedding location search adventures this week, I figured I could start now. Hopefully from now on posts won't be so long, or cover so much time. They should be more in depth, humorous, and serious as well. Happy following.